Excellent, thanks.

Well, luckily enough, I have played long enough and hve enough class knowledge to recognize hyperbole when I see/read it. I understand the desire for anonimity in games, but I will accept any help you are willing to give. And thanks for the heads up on fhe seasoned voices here on the forums, I will keep an eye out.

@ Saikochoro, Thank you so much, for those detailed explanations. I read your post in the Sniper or Merc thread earlier this morning, I had a bit of an idea about that, but that certainly expanded my knowledge. Thank you for that. It would seem, then, that I have a bit of a conundrum. Almost all my toons are 65, and I really have no desire to delete them. I suppose I could re-roll, but I hate to loose characters that I have that much invested in. I have a couple of slots open still, and there are some pub toons I could delete to make some room as well. I may be in a 'bad position' if I do this, but could I level a toon or three thru pvp, then, after having a much better idea of what is happening, then swap some of my 65's into pvp gear? Or should I just start over completely from scratch? I kinda figured that rotations would be out the window, PvP is much more dynamic than PvE (one of the more refreshing aspects, I might add), and I definitely need to get better at seeing what animations indicate which DCD on other toons, so as not to waste a good ability on, something you eluded to in your example of the Merc using Blazing Bolts on an Op that just popped Evasion. Or a Jugg/Guardian that popped Saber Reflect about the time I nail them (and by result, myself) with a fully buffed Ambush from my Sniper - that effing hurt, btw - experience talking. I think I may have turned in a PvP quest on my lvl 60 token Operative, but in all honesty, I don't really care about that. I can just delete and re-roll him. Never really planned on using it anyway, it was just there, so I used it. Thought I knew enough about the 'scene' to be able to make it work, but I'm sure you guys have determined the opposite to be true - as have I. Looks like I have some work to do on some new toons. And I'll start browsing the Harb server forums for a PvP guild to get into. *Edit: Somthing I am also curious about - what gear should I use while leveling thru PvP? I'm guessing I should put the War Hero's crystals in my weapons/offhand, but will regular leveling gear be enough..?

Hello, This will probably be a long post, I'll TL;DR at the end, however, I do hope it is read by some so hopefully I can get the help I am looking for. I have been playing on & off since a couple of months after launch and have played many MMO's over the years. During all that time, I have been almost exclusively a PvE'er, rarely dabbling in PvP/WZ's for something 'different'. I've never been particularly good at it, so I never really stuck with it. I've done more in Swtor more than any other MMO, however, and after pretty much exhausting all the available PvE content - quite literally, ALL OF IT, on multiple toons - I am ready to move on and make PvP a focus, instead of something to do... on the side, if you will. I have one of almost every AC (in some cases, multiples), except PT, Sage and VG (tried the VG, eyes started bleeding from the boredom, mainly from the animations, they just seem so... sterile), and I mainly play Imp toons, as that's where I started. I started getting more into PvP recently, mainly because a good friend started leveling a 'sin tank a while back, and I had a sorc healer I hadn't done much with at the time, so we started playing together and leveling those toons. We got bored one night and just decided to run some WZ's, again, for something different. Maybe it was because I was playing w/ a friend, maybe it was just because we made a good team - I'm sure I don't have to tell you more experienced folks that a tank + healer guarding a node can be a tough nut to crack - but I had more fun that evening than I had in a long time. So I stuck with it. I still mainly PvE'd on my other toons, but when he was on, and sometimes even when he wasn't, I was PvP'ing w/ my sorc healer. I also had a deception 'sin I hadn't done anything with, so I started doing PvP w/ him as well. Again, this still wasn't my main focus and after a while it faded. Some of my guild came back, we even got some new folks, so I started running the group content again with them. Sadly, almost as quickly as that picked up, it died, so I was back to solo running, doing GF FP's, leveling other, neglected toons, etc. But now, I think I've reached the end of the rope for PvE stuff. I have a couple of pub toons I want to hit 65 with, just for the 'Legendary Player' title (yes, I know it means **** all, but I want it), but I want to focus on PvP now. Problem is - I'm HORRIBLE at it. I do pretty well with my Sorc healer, but I don't kid myself, I know that's mostly because of the class, more than me, but I did run mostly healers in PvE so it is a discipline I am pretty familiar with. I have a MM Sniper, my Deception 'sin, my Sorc and last night I used my lvl 60 token to create a Concealment Op for PvP (probably not the best idea, but w/e, as I said, I'm horrible anyway, lol). My sniper and sorc are 65 and in tier 1 endgame PvP gear (Sniper isn't aug'd yet, still farming mats for those), but my sorc is fully decked out with augs and all. I've watched some video's, read the available guides for the classes I'm PvP'ing with - though I have noticed there really isn't one for a 4.x Concealment Op on Dulfy, what little info is out there is on Reddit after I found it via Google searching. Video's are nice, but without being able to see the abilities they use, unless you're staring at their ability bar, it's hard to glean much info, other than that most of those people are straight-up bad-asses. The guides have been nice for ability point distributions and the what/why/how to use abilities, but they are hard to put into practical application. I guess what I'm looking for is a place, or a group of people to meet up with, maybe even a PVP focused guild, on The Harbinger server, where I can get some solid, in-game, help and training. I realize I'm still fairly new to this, and that with time I will better myself, but when you're constantly in solo queue, it's hard to 'push on' when I'm getting obliterated regularly and coming in middle of the pack (or lower) on the final results screen at the end of the match. I've never really been called out for being a 'bad', but I don't I also know that if everyone on the team isn't playing their best and -really- contributing, chances of a win are lower, unless you have folks that can carry the team - which is unfair to them. I'm not necessarily looking to become a PvP God (though who doesn't want to be the best?), but I would like to be in a place where I am a solid contributor. Possibly even getting into the ranked WZ's. TL;DR: Bored PvE'er looking to move into the PvP scene, and looking for patient, willing and helpful folks to train and show me the ropes, so I can stop looking like a newbie and dragging the team down. Thanks in advance for any assistance.

My favorite role to run is heals. And, I should have prefaced that story with the fact that I hadn't run any HM's since the 4.0 expac. I've mainly been doing KotFE stuff on my Mara here and there. So I may not have been completely aware of the changes to HM's since the 're-tune'. However, I will also point out, that during the boss fights, when mechanics were followed, there were no issues. We wiped more on trash pulls than anything else. And, sadly, as this thread is evidence of, DerPS is pretty much a known constant and one, up until recently, I generally had no issues working around. Operatives have always been weak on burst heals, and it is quite obvious that since 4.0 there is more of that to watch out for. I could gear up my Sorc and Merc heals, but my Medicine Op has always been my favorite healer. I'll chock it up as a learning experience and keep going.

HM False Emperor. Me on my Op healer, Sin tank, Jug and Sniper dps. All 65. Zone in, say our 'Hi's' and begin. First couple of trash pulls are... hectic. Tank holds decent threat, but anything he doesn't have locked down, turns their attention to me. Neither dps bothers to peel and I spend more time healing myself and popping Countermeasures, Evasion and Shield Probe on cd. After third trash pull, and subsequently, my third almost-death, Jug pipes up with a statement that his gear is **** and in dire need of replacement. A quick inspection reveals nothing horrible, full 208's, aug'd and the only thing not on level are his relics, they're Russan relics - just like mine, I might add. Moving along, we're almost to Jindo Krey, and we wipe on a trash pull. I died first, almost immediately after the pull as all the standard enemies tunnel me because they're not picked up by the dps. We're running back and this convo happens: Tank - <my name> you gotta keep heals up, they were light that time. Me - thats because I died about 4 seconds into that pull because I was focused by everything other than the gold & silver the rest of you tunneled. Jugg dps - Seriously guys, my gear is so ****! Tank - Fine, I GUESS I'll aoe taunt those other mobs too. /sigh Me - Or, you know, the dps could do their job and peel. Sniper - What's peel? Me - Taking aggro off the healer on ths mobs the tank dossn't have locked down. Basically following kill order. Sniper - **** THAT! I'm not getting hit! Thats the tanks job! I sigh internally, I figured it wouldn't do any good to point out that if I'M not getting hit I can keep everyone healed easier w/o spam healing myself, but considering they didn't know what 'peeling' was, I would just be wasting time typing it out. Tank throws guard on me and we start the pull. To the Jug's credit, he picked up the standards this time and his health drops like a rock. No dcd's at all, just pure face tanking. I go into 'Oh ****' mode, and thankfully the Tank and Jug are close enough I can spam my aoe heals between applying kolto/surgical probes/injections. Finally make it to Krey, we wipe. After the first missile barrage I notice neither of the dps makes an attempt to activate the console, so I attempt to move to it. Get stunned, don't make it, causing the wipe. Tank chides me for not healing. I mention that no one was activating fhe console and I can't - and wont - heal through that mechanic. Sniper asks what console. So tank explains the fight. Smoother run this time, but Jugg and Sniper die to Krey's aoe flame attack. Tank moves the boss away, I brez the Jug and he jumps immediately back into the fight, w/o healing, or waiting for my HoT's to top him off. He dies agin, immediately. So tank and I 2-man the boss until brez comes off cd, I revive Sniper and we finish the fight. Loot and move on. Tank continues complaining about my 'aggro management' issues on trash, even through guard. I tell him I'm popping Countermeasures on cd and that even with 25% leass aggro gen, if NO ONE else has hit the mobs, I'm still highest on threat table. This continues throughout the fp. HK and bonus boss are one shotted, the latter dropping a 216 Op healing headpiece (Outlander Med-Tech). I need, Sniper says, "I'm taking that crap headpiece' and needs as well. He wins. We wipe one more time on the way to Malgus, AGAIN, because I am focused by the standard mobs in the pull. Again, my healing and threat management is called into question. I explain - ONCE AGAIN - that I will be highest on threat table if no one else has engaged the mobs. No one ever seems to have a response for this and practically every pull it happens. No one ever seems to correlate the fact that if I'm taking damage, and consequently spam healing myself, I can't effectively heal the party. Get to Malgus, fight is going well until he casts Unlimited Power. Cast is about 1/2 complete when I realize that no one is going to interrupt, I start moving into range, but don't get there in time and we wipe. Tank asks why no one interrputed, I say I was moving in to do it but didn't get there in time. Tank rephrases to ask why the Jugg didn't do it since he was right there. No answer. Down Malgus the 2nd time w/o issue. He drops Outlander med-techs legs, I need, Sniper needs - he wins. So, for putting up with my healing being called into question multiple times, dps not following kill order and not knowing fights, my only reward is - a 50k repair bill. I gusss I see why no one runs HM's anymore.

Hey there! Recently returning to the game myself and am looking for a guild that actually runs content -together-. I am currently in a guild that is far more interested in doing conquest than anything else and I miss running guild group content. I will hit one of the folks mentioned in your post this evening and chat with them.

Well, this topic is chock full of people doing exactly that - berating ppl because they messed up because they're new. Granted, most of those stories involve said new person keeping quiet, then causing a wipe or two before they admit they're new, but in most cases, someone in the group immediately begins a profanity laden rant about 'n00bs causing wipes & <new person> should go back to WoW or whatever MMO they came from', etc. I suppose in my story, I think we may have -all- been weird. Me for assuming too much & purposefully pulling threat from the tank, the male sorc as his rotation consisted of Lightning Storm and a few heals, and various other missteps. Have a couple of stories about two Foundry TFP's from last night I'll post when I get off work this evening.

Been watching this thread for a long time, and I must say, there are some real gems. I think by this point, we have all encountered the bads lurking in our collective midst's, regardless of server. BobFredJohn, though... man. Life hates you, mate. I've had a few here and there, but nothing really worth mentioning, as really, the basics of those groups have been covered, multiple times, throughout the life of this thread. However, I am recently returning (again) after only playing the beginning of 4.0 last year, then getting laid off and having to severely tighten the purse strings (and lets be honest, swtor has some of the WORST F2P restrictions of any MMO I've played, so I just didn't bother logging in as Preferred). I see the old SM FP's have all been converted to TFP's now, and the HM's have had their recommended gear upped. As such, I'm afraid to jump in on my toons (most of my main played toons were decked in 192's, my Op healer has a few 208's and a 216, mixed between Comms gear and the 216 is a SM ToS drop) on the HM's, both of risk of meeting some of these folks, and even more - of BEING one of these folks. So, fine, TFP's it is then. Lets do it! Start off yesterday on my Op healer, nothing groundbreaking, pretty good groups for the most part, though the last one was Blood Hunt where the two Marauders, both from the same guild and both sub-25, would randomly afk, not say anything, and me and the DPS sorc (he and I are both 65) suddenly realize we're fighting on our own. Get to Jos and Vaulk and wipe about 3x, both Mara's afk again, Sorc whispers to me to check their gear. No surprise, all leveling gear, several pieces missing, one in particular had no implants, no earpiece, and empty shells in his head, legs and boot slots. Sorc and I 'LoL' at this and peace out. We form a group, queue & get... Blood Hunt. Thankfully, it's not with the Window-Licking Mara's (and I must say, my Carnage Marauder is one of my favorite DPS toons, and I CRY in SHAME when I see folks like this, and read about them in this thread, that give my fav class a bad name) and we clear it with our new group in short order. Realizing gearing has changed significantly, I jump over to my Lightning Sorc to start crafting some Augments. She's lvl 60, and not wanting to loose my crafters, I decide to forego the KotFE story and just queue up for some TFP's while I craft, gather and start running the Yavin dailies for comms and cash. Get a pop and it's Czerka Corp Labs. See it's myself on my Sorc, a female lvl 24 heal Sorc, a male lvl 24 heal Sorc (I note their avatar's gender simply to aid in keeping them seperate for the purposes of this post) and an 18 Jugg Tank. Say my hello's, the female avatar heal Sorc says hello, everyone else is silent, until after the first pull and the other two say their hello's. We clear trash, I'm pulling threat like crazy, but no big deal, I've actually solo'd this FP on this toon, so I know I'm good. Female Sorc throws me some heals on occasion, and we proceed down the ramps. So far, nothing is really sticking out, these guys very obviously act new, no guild tags (tho I currently don't have one either as my previous one died while I was away), they follow me into the rooms while I look for the key cards, but just stand on the inside of the doorway and during fights, the male heal sorc spams Lightning Storm and shock, occasionally bubbling himself. Threat is generally directed at me, Jugg is in Soresu, but at lvl 18, he simply doesn't have the required tools to deal w/ a 192 geared Lightning Sorc. He apologizes profusely, and I assure him I don't mind and am fully aware that I will likely be pulling threat throughout the FP and am prepared to deal with it. They all 'lol' at me as we find the final card and jump down to the droid boss. The female sorc, insead of using her out of combat heal, spams Dark Heal and Dark Infusion on herself to heal the fall damage. I ask if all know it, the tank says no, the other two remain silent. I explain the mechanics and he pulls. We make it to the first alarm and the water electrifies and the two healers can't keep him up, he dies. The adds kill the male healsorc before I can burn them down and then it's me and the other healsorc. We (well, lets be honest, -I-) get the boss to ~50% before the adds kill the other sorc and I can't handle all the adds, and the boss, and the electrified water, so I finally fall. We do this a couple more times, then I suggest a strat change. I tell the male healsorc to keep the tank up, keep him bubbled, etc. and to stand on the right side of the pool (when looking at the boss from where you drop in) next to the kolto station. I tell the female healsorc to do the same for me, but we will stay at the drop in point. Tank will initiate fight, I'll pull aggro, but he needs to keep is 'rotation' up so he can get used to it. When the adds spawn, I'll extricate him (yes, I know, not something generally accepted, but the reality is I already have boss threat anyway, so a threat drop on him is irrelevant) and he can start gathering the adds and we'll aoe them down so they're not beating on the healers. In the mean time, I tell the other two sorcs to keep their dots on the boss for all the dps we can get. Takes us a couple more tries, but we finally down it, with a resounding cheer from the other three of the group. I ask if any of them had done any of the group content before and they said that BT was their only collective intro to group content. Normally, by this point, I would have left, but I realized that all these guys were sub-25 and very obviously new and were actually receptive to instruction and willing to learn. I remember the first time I ran group content and was nervous and so scared I would make the slightest mistake and be insta-kicked, or whatever, so I decided to take an opportunity to -teach- instead of -berate-. We clear trash to next boss, still keeping our roles I requested on the 1st boss - female heal sorc on me, male heal sorc on tank and for the most part me just melting everything with proc'd chain lightnings and the occasional force storm. Tank is doing an admirable job keeping threat off the other sorcs, which is really all that mattered. Get to 2nd boss, I explain mechanics, and the tank starts the fight while myself and the female heal sorc aren't far enough in and we get locked out. Tank melts pretty much instantly along with the male sorc and the female and I /stuck it. I take ownership of that wipe as I didn't move in far enough before typing strat. We run back and I plop a repair droid and offer to pay for their repairs. They politely decline and we start the fight again. Things are going well until the droid adds show up and make a bee-line for the male sorc, he panics and starts running around (naturally away from the tank), the female sorc is trying to heal the male and the tank and I can't get to a kolto station in time before the tank and male sorc die. When they do, all threat comes to me (fine), I melt the adds and return to the boss. I explain the next phase is starting and to stay out of blue circles that freeze and the red circles from the rocket launcher. Everything goes well until the adds spawn and I can't get them on me before they mob the healer just in time for her to get splatted by a rocket. I manage the adds, and get the boss to 19% before he kills me as all my DCD's are down and the kolto stations are on CD as well. We try again, congratulating the group on getting that far the first time and telling the everyone to run to the tank when/if they get aggro from the droids and he can pick them up & we'll AOE them. 2nd try we clear him. When we get to the Blue and Red experiment guys, they are in awe and I explain how they work, and that the final boss will be a room full of them. Clear to boss, I give the strat, and say I'll take care of opening the pods and the adds will essentially take care of themselves. Pass it on first try. They're ecstatic. Thanking me, apologizing for n00b-ness, etc. I tell them that I didn't mind at all, and would rather do what I can to teach, so they get better, or risk seeing bads in my 65 HM queue's, lol. In fact, I kind of enjoyed it, it was like watching your children see something new for the first time, and you got to help them see/experience it. FP ended up taking about 3hrs between the wipes and the long boss fights, but I actually had a good time. I told them they were free to add me to their friends lists and I had multiple toons of all classes/specs and that if they needed anything, they could /whisper me or whatever. They congratulated everyone on a fun experience and ended the run. Possibly one of my most rewarding FP runs I've done in years.

I may actually go back and check them out. I enjoyed WS, I just didn't have any friends that played.

Thats been an issue since long before any 12x xp was introduced. There is an almost 700 page thread in the FP/Operations section of the forums that deals exactly with that topic, that started back in early 2013. The reality is those people exist regardless of 2x xp, 12x xp, 50x xp or any other multiplier. I'm not averse to having to opt in via some setting in my preferences or a stack of 12x xp boosts mailed to me at character creation, but I for one would love for this to be a permanent fixture. My patience for side/planet quests is at an end, I've experienced them all multiple times Imp side and once Pub side when I leveled a Gunslinger a year or two ago. Now I can see the rest of the stories Pub side without burning out due to the eye gougeing monotony of running those quests.

^^ This KDY's are little more than a group free-for-all causing more frustration and headache than anything else. 12x xp is here, whether you want/need it or don't want/need it and has been given a way to cancel it for those who wish to. There really isn't anything more to say about it.

Yes, actually, they did. The OP claimed that in their diatribe/whine that getting HK is too difficult. In fact, I quoted it in my original response, which you then quoted. So, apparently, you didn't read my full response but had to jump in here and express how awesome you think Xalek is, in a thread that isn't really about him at all. Also, hearsay of hearsay information does not a compelling argument make. I'm honestly not sure you can even parse companions, anyway. I've idley played with it on StarParse when running dailies for grins, but have never seen any numbers in my log. Maybe I don't have it set up right, I don't know.

I'm playing the game where Xalek has on level 'sin tanking gear and melts like a stick of butter in an oven. Look, if you like using him, fine, use him. But the OP stating that Xalek is better DPS & easier to gear than HK - universally accepted to be the best single target DPS comp in game AND comes with 100% moddable gear - is patently false.

Yes you will. Easily. My Sorc was 52 by the time she finished Corellia doing nothing class quests and making sure to have an xp boost on at all times. OP, did you do any of the otyer quests on Corellia? If not, I would suggest doing all if the planet and side quests there, and make sure to always have an xp boost on. If you're still not 50 by the time you're done, you can probably still do the final quest (not gonna give spoilers on what it is), just make sure you and your companion are geared for your current level and you should be able to do it.