I quite liked that... It's just Obi again, but blunt and to the point with Anakin

You miss the point, and it's a pretty clear ethical divide which you could apply to a real life scenario. It's not the crushing or the exploding or the heart or the muscles which matters; it's the intention and the effect. If you make a person's heart explode, they are going to die almost instantaneously and you know it. Your intention has to be their utter destruction in a single powerful blow, the effect would be instant death. Neither of these things are compatible with Jedi philosophy; the intention to kill would be abhorrent unless it was a last resort in battle and even so the opportunity to spare an opponent would be sought - thus something as simplistically fatal as crushing a heart would be entirely contradictory. When a Jedi fights he does it in self-defence or the defence of others, and only when every other option is exhausted. By crushing someone's heart, not only would he be bypassing every combat alternative to resolve the issue without a fatality, but also would be using The Force in such an intentionally destructive way that his own integrity would have to be called into question. If you were to daze or confuse an enemy, or to apply a crushing effect to bones and muscles, this would be painful but disabling to a target. On its own, such an effect is unlikely to ever cause fatality and likely to be easily healed in future, but in battle it would effectively and non-fatally disable an opponent so he no longer posed a threat to one or anyone vulnerable that one is protecting, and can be effectively captured instead of killed. The intention in using such a technique is entirely logical for a Jedi; an application of The Force in combat that allows them to disable and put an enemy at their mercy, thereby resolving the conflict without having to kill the opponent, but effectively subduing him in case it is necessary in the end-game. Said opponent would not be permanently wounded and would be relatively simply treatable, but weakened sufficiently for the purposes of victory for the Jedi. Compared to real life - if a policeman were arresting a man for assaulting them or someone, he could decide to: 1. Shoot the man in the leg, thereby disabling him, preventing him from continuing to attack and making him easier to arrest... (or tazer, or hit him with a baton etc) or 2. Shoot the man in the head, instantly killing him without a trial. The latter option I'm sure we would say is a different moral situation entirely from the first. Both are using the same gun and the same bullet, but one takes measures to avoid fatality and disable and capture the offender with minimal damage for due process and trial; the latter callously executes him in cold blood. The same concept applies to both universes.

I imagine them as: Combat Breach (little damage, reduced accuracy) = some sort of mind-affecting or brain buffeting technique that upsets the balance and confuses and dazes the target as if stunned by a blow to the head... Little bit of damage but mainly loss of co-ordination thus reduced accuracy. Shadow Breach (internal damage?) = like a force push/punch directly to the internal organs, instead of just pushing the enemy out of the way. Force Breach (periodic damage?) = pretty much has to be a crushing effect; but a Jedi wouldn't use something that detonates a heart so we're probably looking at something that cripples the target's muscles or breaks bones and thus in itself is debilitating and not designed to simply kill.

Not exactly, no. Our abilities self-heal automatically for us (if we're tanks) and don't heal us per se, but reduce damage even further in effect. We don't have any user-activated healing abilities except for the healing side-effect of Force in Balance.

Generally I go for the KC tree first with the occasional point going towards getting the first 5 into Balance for the unlocks later. Whilst one will usually have a companion to output extra damage, one wants to ensure maximum survivability before investing too heavily in Balance; and ofc. KC offers a shedload of defence, shield and armour buffs as well as skill buffs to your Combat Technique and indeed extra DPS. I can't remember when I got what, but getting those three points of Upheaval comes in handy for the extra DPS (especially with all the extra Project damage from KC skills and ofc. Particle Acceleration), hence why I made sure the second tier of Balance was unlocked and ready instead of pumping only into KC, but the defensive skills of the shadow rock if used properly.

Wait until the story finishes. The game then feels so empty; the worlds have no re-visit value; one looks back and realises it was all on rails and one isn't in an open-world universe, but have now reached 'the end' and there isn't all that much content at the end yet. I hope SWTOR evolves so that it makes the locales actually have some value and unique features other than just their appearance and set of level-matched enemies to kill.

Idk; I'm actually a Shadow on my main. Force in Balance has some use and I know we share it, but it's not massively potent, I guess all the cool shizzles for hitting multiple enemies at range is a little higher than 24. So, you still have the problem... Go level anyway, come back and kick their asses. Means you'll be one level ahead of the curve for the next planet too.

In contrast I'm the other way around: http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#601rurokrskbZZf0cRd.1 Mostly kinetic - I'm a tank - but I got what I needed from Kinetic combat and then threw in complementary bits from Balance, so I'm 27/0/14. Naturally using combat technique; I really need to get my guy geared properly but I get 36%+ damage reduction, 24-25% defence chance (before in-battle buffs from relics and deflection) and generally high shielding stats with kinetic ward in battle. As I see it, I've got all the defensive perks from KC (bar slow time's damage reduction), and naturally my damage output relies on: Double strike (Particle Acceleration trigger); Project (always critical and cooled down from particle acc) and Telekinetic Throw (always harnessed shadows from Project, and usually three stacks therefore plenty of damage AND self-healing). Thus Upheaval - even MORE Project damage added onto the critical Projects - being maxed is great, Psychokinesis makes both this and Double Strike (primary trigger for Particle Acceleration) cheaper force-wise. Force Synergy gives me +9% chance of a melee critical after every Project (since they're invariably always crits) and Adjudication means that the crit damage for Double Strike is 100% instead of the base 50%, so it all fits together beautifully; Double Strike powers Project which powers Double Strike which powers Project which supercharges Telekinetic Throw + healing. Throw in there Jedi Resistance from the balance tree (2% reduction of all damage in addition to all the tanking) and Force in Balance for a long range AoE/little heal because it took my fancy. Still a tank build, but with a little extra punch, or?

You're a sage... You have almost as much range as a rifleman with your attacks, how is that a problem? xD But I digress. Usually when I found any problems dealing with AIs it's because I've been below the curve re: my level, usually from skipping quests out of CBA-ness and eagerness to get onto the next planet. Perhaps doing a few space missions and any bonus series you've missed would help; an extra level often makes a lot of difference. Always kill the weakling followers first, btw, always. The 'boss' enemies in the game may do 50% more damage than an individua weak or standard guys, buy when there are 5 standard guys around with only 8% of the health of the boss, their DPS stacks it's far better for your survival to whizz round the weak enemies and kill them off and then face the boss one-on-one - you can effectively remove much more DPS by killing the minions immediately than trying to rush the boss and escape.

Hutt class - eat your enemies.

I don't think there are credits in game in such a way; since thye're just generated and removed when one kills mobs and spends in AI shops, the only circulating wealth is that moving between players in trades and on the galactic market, which will be both very hard to track to a specific amount of credits and isolate them to the player circulation. Tbh the crafting skills are for the most part useless (inb4 'oh but you can make a few cool things at lvl 400 - that's not a crafting system is it, it's a few things at the end) and the supply and demand chains for raw resources are really short - usually one can get everything one needs from one's set of 3 crew skills, so there's little need to buy in anything and thus little incentive invest time into resource gathering for profit and supply/demand. So tbh, there is very little in the way of an economy anyway.

No, just buff everything but biochem and lets have a player economy.

Bit disappointed that my particle acceleration is 30% now since it is basically the core of all my damage, but I guess if it applies to individual blows of double strike that should technically be 60% therefore... more chance, right? :/

What about spinning blow (the high damage under 30% health one)? Tempted to see if I can use a single sabre. Blue. Obi-style :E

Holy crap, no wonder my companion keeps dying :@

I agree - I found it fun; especially later on with the leading your own little army of elite troops around Corellia like some uber Jedi General. The sad thing for me was the troops are largely inconsequential and you don't actually get to lead them against enemy armies in combat; but then there is virtually no such gameplay in SWTOR (yet?) sadly, which seems to devalue the effort one puts in to building an army through diplomacy and cunning. I agree doubly with the Obi comment - you really are the quintessential Kenobi Jedi from the films; keeping your head low (especially as a Shadow), negotiating, manipulating enemies into surrender or bringing them to the Light, and only fighting when all this fails. Result is you get to make witty and caustic remarks (and even the occasional 'Hello there' to some uber Sith Lord and at least one 'I have a baaad feeling about this'), but when the enemy won't yield, you suddenly throw off your cloak and kick major *ss. Played as a tank/balance Shadow all the way through; great fun being proficient with both sabre and Force and the dialogue really matched the Obi paradigm... Plus (not got any epic gear yet) have 24% defence chance (deflection and parrying) before battle buffs and deflection ability, so one can parry blaster bolts like a Boss, whilst Sith Warriors and Marauders pretty much just bounce off me harmlessly in battle feelsgoodman.jpg.

No, it's distinctly a disadvantage - apart from the fact that there's almost no perceivable advantage, the animation delay only serves to give the opposing faction a distinct advantage in PvP... Don't even get me started on the Force Wave animation which takes so long to kick in that a sith player can see you doing the jump, and then activate their quicker equivalent to interrupt it! Why you feel the need to so desperately defend BW's mistakes as well as anything else I do not know. There is no advantage to having to wait to apply your damage - it may even mean the enemy getting an extra attack in that in a close PvP situation could mean your death, whereas if it were instant as intended you may survive.

Actually, I don't think they do... The worlds are empty, on-rails 'levels' which one just steams through to level and complete the class quest with extra killing quests along the way - the actual environment seems lacklustre - no unique shops, no real economy to speak of, no actually meaningful NPCs other than mobs... I just reached level 50 and whilst I enjoyed the class quest on the way there, the worlds were just like desktop themes for the same hack-slash to the end all the way through - it just seems like the locations in the game don't have any purpose except for running around killing everything in it then leaving. I have no reason to revisit anywhere anymore, it's sad - and now I'm stuck between doing seemingly pointless daily quests on Ilum, and the occasional enjoyable hard flashpoints (and I need to try my hand at some ops) but the majority of the galaxy seems wasted. There's nothing happening in it, no reason for it to exist once you've 'cleared' the zone

Many of the dialogue options need a note explaining their repercussions - especially with regards to companions, where what the caption says is different to what you say 'in character' and thus has a different spin than what you intended; whether that's a Consular saying something over-the-top Jedi Code-ish when the caption was just 'We have a duty to stop them' and losing affection with a force-averse companion, or especially romance which can suddenly and irreversibly go a different way with no indication because what you come out with is entirely different to what you're trying to achieve when you select the option. Also 'fool, I have been trained in your Jedi arts by Count Dooku' - General Grievous, 19 BBY, moments before being entirely outperformed in lightsabre combat and subsequently killed by High General Kenobi

I agree completely with this - it feels as if I'm just in another 'level' of a linear game with every world I go to, and every zone. There is no reason to explore, there are no optional worlds, they all have an order and they are all just scenery for the sake of it - the wildlife levels up with you and to be honest I just feel as if every new world I visit is just a desktop theme for doing the same thing - travel round the full thing killing enemies and go to the next place. There are no novel quests, no unique shops (we just have the same set of generic light medium heavy armour etc. vendors on every world) - the civilisation and the scenery have no function other than to be looked it. If they put some time into making the world environment itself more immersive and believable, and actually had some unique NPCs, shops et cetera using all of the buildings that are lying around it'd feel much less like an on-rails game. As it stands, I just go from area to area killing and completing quests without any reason to linger and with nothing more advanced to do on each world, which is a shame.... It's not like the game's even well made for end-game once one has gone through all these linear class quest worlds, tbh. Not going to ragequit and un-sub, but would really like some work to go into making the galaxy a re-visitable place with value other than just soaking up all the xp from each planet. Huge empty worlds that nothing really happens in... Where the environment serves no function except for looking at, where there are no unique features and the same level mobs everywhere... You can never win, but swtor would be a much better game if some time went into making worlds have a purpose other than just smashing through to get to the next step of the quest and level up.

Most of the major challenges are long-term issues that need time to work on - this one is a very small but significant issue. In terms of releasing and patching a game, getting these easily fixed but quite large issues with the core gameplay should always be the priority; it's a basic feature that isn't functioning correctly; it would be unwise to leave it until after fixing the more wide-ranging long-term issues because they are going to take a protracted period to solve.

There's no need to under-do the Shadow's telekinetic abilities; they are a consular first before specialising, which doesn't reduce the connection to the force at all.. The massive rock pulling is a neat reminder that shadows aren't all blade; they're perhaps the nicest balanced Jedi class there is. Tbf I think the Imp shock animation should just be made to have some sort of hand charge gesture that lasts the same duration before applying the effect - normally I don't think nerfs are the answer to problems but it would even the playing field without having to wreck the theme of the ability.

It takes the piss when they keep doing 'critical' server updates with less than 24h notice right in the middle of (European time) prime play time - usually to fix some tiny issue with a flashpoint or warzone, but something as big as this is just left to fester. BW needs to get their priorities right.

If dressing like that is what it takes to become a great master, I don't want to be one.

/signed Whilst the Knights have armoured robe sets, why can't we have the plain fabric robes and pants that we see Jedi in the films using? The Guardian for example has a shedload of armour bolted onto his main garment; why can't the Consular have the plain unarmoured Jedi garments? So infuriating, having to dress like some colour-addicted idiot all the time.