The greatest irony here is that the more mainstream MMOs get, the more dumbed down they will get. Though, I believe we have already reached a saturation point in regards to "dumbing" down this genre. Think about this: 10 years ago, who was playing MMOs? White males between the ages of 12 and 30. And not many of them either, mostly the loners and computer geeks. Now, everyone plays MMOs, whether it's Farmville or SWTOR or WoW or whatever. The only way for game companies to reach everyone is to make everything easy and accessible. It's not like Call of Duty where you know your audience. I would wager there aren't as many housewives or grandpa's playing CoD as there are playing SWTOR. It has a more mass market appeal now which is great! But concurrently it also means to keep everyone happy, game companies have to create easy content that takes time rather than skill. edit: My point is, the "stagnation" as you call it is 100% intentional by the game developers. You can't make a super innovative game that breaks the mold because noone will play it. A small subset of players will love it sure, but it won't have massmarket appeal. EQ never had mass market appeal nor did UO. Both of which are still around in some form and have a dedicated fanbase. They never achieved massmarket success like WoW. That's why wow is the "grandfather." It make MMOs more M than ever before.

The range is dreadfully small. In my opinion it should be as longish as sweep, maybe a bit shorter. It's very difficult to use it effectively. I didn't play Defense before so I can't compare. I am having fun soloing and grouping with this.

I'm doing archeology, artifice and slicing. Slicing for cash, archeology and artifice for mods. Planning to drop slicing or archeology for treasure hunting once at 400 artifice. That way I can get the blue/purple cuts that I will use later.

I like your idea there. I was thinking of going back to defensive after getting effluence, but I like waiting for overhead slash.

I flirted with her a few times since they weren't darkside options. But she tries to kiss you and...whatnot later so I declined those. THOSE are darkside. Flirting isn't. I flirt with females when it's not darkside for funsies.

Now that I have Force Sweep being free, I can't go back! I may try it once I get to 32 (then I can get free sweep + cheap riposte), at that point I will have tasted overhead slash. We shall see. I am doing fine with this build currently. I actually never use strike anymore because of how much focus I get. I just cycle sweep, bladestorm and sunder. Use stasis and master strike if everything else is on cooldown then sunder will be up etc. Works well I think. I may try the defensive build though, I am pretty squishy.

I beat him at 24 what are you talking about?

I think what he's worried about is that you can basically AFK macro this if you get a third party click program (not sure these work and I assume they are against some rules). Imagine if you have 20 free inventory slots. If the mission takes 30 minutes you can then afk macro this for 10 hours and get 20 lockboxes. That is why he is worried about the economy and I think it's a valid concern. You can then ad a macro that makes you move around every so often which stops you from logging out.

Is Cyclone slash or whatever it's called any good? I know it's only those in front of you, but how often do you have attackers behind you? Just take a step back and it should hit them right? I dont have it yet so I dunno.

I'm using a level 12ish chest that I just keep upgrading because it's a hooded robe. Why don't you try that?

I really hope they buff the Defense tree so builds like this aren't the only option. I like hybrid builds and I think their viability is important for customization, but honestly when your 30 pt skill isn't worth getting, something is wrong. Hilt Strike is lame too. The whole tree needs a workup. I like Vigilance though so I may just try this. How is soloing with this setup? Doesn't seem like a great levelling build. Shien form is so beast for levelling.