The best gear in the game would be coming from a mix of high end raiding ( for materials and modifications ) and crafting ( for augment slots ). So.... I'm not seeing the problem (Except maybe that this still leaves Cybertech a bit shafted as written), especially since even in your OP you claim you want Crafting to "supplement" raiding, which is exactly what this change is accomplishing.

Too bad I didn't catch this sooner. But yeah, leveling groups are really fun, makes the questing process a lot smoother too ( since if you balance it you don't have to screw around trying to find heroic and flashpoint groups either! )

Marking is a convenient way for teams that don't have vent/skype/teamspeak/whatever to coordinate with each other. As the game has no built in voice chat and it's impractical to have a bunch of PuGs join your vent server on short notice... I can't see why removing it would be helpful.

Between the three servers I play on: Sorcerer Mercenary Marauder Juggernaut Assassin Sniper Powertech Operative Bottom three are really interchangeable with one another though

If that's the standard Bioware set forward, then I think they're really, really underestimating the internet here. As far as races. I could see them releasing races who already have fully functioning models in the game ( like togruta ) and some of the other chiss/mirialan type races ( that is, human, but with an odd skin/hair/eye color.. there's a few more of those in SW) relatively quickly ( first xpac maybe? Or perhaps, perhaps, a major content patch ) anything more than that would be way down the line.

Which part of that is supposed to be the bad part?

I admit I'm a bit confused, out of all the servers I've tried EH has been one of the better ones. Though there's a lot more activity empire than republic.

I never ran into a single RPer when I played on this server. Good luck though.

sanctum, adraas, and ebon hawk have had the best communities from my experience ( haven't played empire on sanctum or republic on hawk though )

color restrictions always seemed silly and backwards to me. It doesn't fit with the lore and it restricts customization while providing no actual benefit. Other than making red/blue marauder/sentinel/gunslinger/mercenaries special snowflakes.

What cries are you talking about? I haven't actually heard anyone complain directly about this issue. As for the "plan" ... that should be pretty obvious. The change is aimed at making it easier to cap control points because, as it stands, Bioware thinks it's too easy to defend ( notice how they're also slowing down the side speeders on alderaan too?) If you typically play against teams ( or on a team... ) that cannot properly defend the doors on voidstar or turrets on Alderaan, well good ( or bad ) for you, but that's besides the point.

My operative is cyber/scav/slicing. It works pretty well, even on my server where UWT mats are insanely expensive.

Looting mobs is noteworthy. Nodes are a bit questionable though, since oftentimes it's possible ( and optimal ) to avoid actual PvE content while collecting nodes. Arguable. Crafting can be done completely independent of every other aspect of the game though, which makes it fairly autonomous. There's certainly nothing in the game that indicates crafting "should" be PvE or **** though, other than the biometric alloy flaw of course. This has absolutely nothing to do with my point. I'm not sure if you're intentionally dodging the topic or just didn't get it though. I shouldn't have to explain why "We shouldn't cater to PvP players because I personally don't like PvP" is inane. The use of the word 'cancer' is rather curious though, given the destructive nature of the mentality you're pushing.

Entirely offtopic. But I really wish they'd done something more with saber construction. Yeah, Jedi get a nice little cutscene on Tython.. but to me it just feels sort of... dirty that with how much emphasis other SW media place on an individual jedi's lightsaber that there's a good chance people will just toss it away in a few levels in favor of some other lightsaber they found in a box in a gangster's hideout ( or something )... Also the fact that there's no aesthetic customization for your weapon, outside of digging around for cool looking drops.

The part that's reaching is where you see something implicit ( the color of crystal that most sith and jedi in the films use ) and derive an explicit rule from it based on that observation alone ( even going so far as to outright ignore or dismiss counter-examples. ).

You're reaching. There's a significant difference between presenting hard evidence and drawing conclusions from observations (especially when examples of exceptions have been presented). This argument does provide some interesting speculation into how righteous the rebel alliance really was ( especially since you couldn't be an imperial gunner if you weren't at least light 1! )

Except, PvP does support crew skills, in the same fashion that PvE does ( by giving you credits for missions. ). A player who never steps foot off the fleet once they hit 10 and only plays through Warzones can fully commit to crafting in every way, except for the alloys. This is a problem. Except the given playstyle is crafting... So under your own logic, the fact that you have to step outside of the crafting game and run instances in order to get top tier crafting materials is bad design. Where did anyone say that? Nevermind that there's a massive difference between being "carebear" and simply not wanting to be forced into a style of play you aren't interested in. I suspect if the situation were reversed ( and Rakata set pieces suddenly cost a significant number of mercenary commendations ) people like you would be whimpering rather noisily on the forums about it, even if such an approach would be far less "carebear" than what we have right now.

Uhh... I'm not sure how you reach the conclusion that, between the two, Consular was the one that "reeks of laziness" when the sorcerer has the exact same animation on half of her attacks. You're right though, it would be neat if they made some of the effects match the terrain. If you want a lore explanation, there's a pretty simple one: Using what you're comfortable with. The jedi consular is trained extensively in the use of telekinetic powers, while the inquisitor is trained in the use of lightning. Arbitrarily saying "because I kicked a puppy a few minutes ago, I'm going to give up all of my telekinetic ability and spend time learning how to manipulate force lightning instead" is the less logical decision here. Except not. At all. You're the first person I've ever seen refer to telekinesis as a "signature skill" of the Sith. No canon source has ever referred to it as such either.

Popularity and strength aren't necessarily correlated, unless you really want to tell me that Powertechs are the worst class in the game . Certainly there's a degree of "X sucks, I'm rerolling/not making one" going around (on my server Ops went from third least to least played AC post acid blade nerf. Granted that wasn't as big of a swing as it sounds), but snipers weren't that common even before balance was established. I'd argue a general lack of overt flashiness (from an animation standpoint, it's hard for a new player to even differentiate a sniper's attacks. Same for the Operative, to the point where people have accused players on the forums for hacking by spamming Backstab on an Op) and that the Agent draws no overt inspiration from the films like the BH and force users do(there's also no Imperial Agent in any of the pre-release trailers..) is the main driving reason behind a lack of Agents, or at least, more significant than balance, especially when you add on top how easy it is to fail as a sniper despite superficially looking easy

Objective medals can be just as destructive as other medals though. I mean, do you really want a sniper trying to score in huttball rather than passing it to a juggernaut/powertech/assassin so she can get her medal? I think the medal change for 1.1.5 will be very helpful thouh.

At the very least our color crystals should actually change the color of our attacks. Your idea is cool too though.

If simcraft (and more importantly, draxyl's sniper sim) is to be believed, Snipers destroy everything except stacked mercenaries.

Arsenal Mercs are currently bugged in that multiple mercs can stack their debuffs, which is inflating their DPS ( unless that's been fixed. Haven't been keeping up on the news as much as I should ) Other than that, I'm not sure, as there's no damage meters out and I haven't seen very much good SimCraft for Mercenaries ( though snipers tend to sim fairly high IIRC ). Not if the merc is arsenal. Though even so, PvE damage should be compensating for armor disparities if Bioware has any idea how to balance things.

No one should have to explain why linking that doesn't help at all.

The second most powerful sith in the Empire gets jobbed in his own sanctuary fully prepared by a non-force user ( a level 30 too! )... So the dark side can't be that special.