Something similar happened for my Jedi Sage with three troopers. All will items. I don't know if it's a correct assumption that each Stat has a 25% chance of coming out if one person using that stat is in the flashpoint/Operation. If it is, then statistically about one person in a hundred will have a run of sixteen drops without seeing one of theirs. About one person in a thousand will have a run of twenty-four drops without seeing their desired stat item drop. Simply put, some people are going to be statistical outliers in a system depending on chance. I imagine it would be possible to implement one where a group could select a reward from a set of options, though how that would work in terms of player expectations is harder to say.

Orange gear with up-to-date mods for it is better than most (though not all) of the gear that you'll get from random drops. It's also more reliable, in that you always rely on the right sort of gear dropping, but you can generally get the modifications you need by selecting them as quest rewards or spending planetary comms. Incidentally, some Purple gear also comes with mods, so it's not just Orange. You can certainly get Orange gear for your companion(s). Up to 25th level or so, you probably won't be significantly worse than a specialist in a healing tree. Past a certain point though the person specialised in healing will be doing it much better than you can. More abilities, cheaper cost on their existing abilities, faster and better healing from them - all those things will be true. I certainly find that to be the case with my two Commando troopers, one of whom is a specialist healer while the other is DPS. The second can do a little healing when it's essential, enough to keep one person alive. The first can keep the whole group from dying unless things go horribly wrong. For normal adventuring when it's you and your companion, a DPS character with a little healing (like a Sage, a Commando, an Operative) can get by well enough, but for a Heroic or Flashpoint a DPS with some incidental healing won't be good enough for somewhere like Cademimu or at higher levels. I've seen it in practice, and had to respec in the flashpoint to compensate for a "healer" who wasn't.

One alternative would be a cone. That would have similar advantages, and would actually use less material. Though it would also have some odd effects with the shape of decks internally. The most significant disadvantage, compared to the Republic classes with their hammerhead bow, is the significantly greater cross-section that the Imperial ships display in most profiles. How being able to bring more firepower to bear balances against being a larger target is difficult to judge. I wouldn't assume that the first is always an advantage, though.

Who are you calling scruffy? The Smuggler should be considered pretty powerful, what with the number of pirates, mercenaries and rogues at her/his command. And isn't entirely a slouch in personal combat themselves.

You were unlucky. It happens sometimes. I had a Mandalorian Raiders run where no Heavy Aim armour dropped a couple of days ago, so nothing for my Commando. And I've had a Cademimu run where the other players were good sports about three major items dropping with Light armour/Willpower when I was playing my Sage. It seems that each boss drops items randomly, without consideration for what other bosses have/had. The one thing I would say is that I've never seen a drop that wasn't suitable for at least one of the characters in the FP - no Heavy Strength armour when there's no Guardian/Juggernaught, for example. Though I've seen occasional posts where people say it has happened.

You can certainly use it. It's sometimes better in some ways than Tionese, but I'd advise putting a companion in it. It's a bonus that only applies in PvP, where it applies to almost everything. If you've got better gear, use it. Tionese does have the advantage of having bonuses for being part of a set, though. Glad you're enjoying it. Now start an alt of another class and level him/her.

You choose your advanced class on the Fleet. When you go there on the shuttle from Tython, there's a couple of quest givers near the elevator you get off at. One of those will tell you that you can select an advanced class, and then you'll need to go to the Jedi Consular trainer area to find the person who actually lets you pick one.

Vanguard and Scoundrel certainly. I've been the only Scoundrel around on planets with 50+ players on quite regularly, and Vanguards are probably rarer. On the other hand, there seem to be a lot of Gunslingers and Commandos. I think Jedi Shadows are probably rarer than either.

An alternative would be to drop Armstech and take Cybertech instead. It uses the materials you get from Scavenging and Underworld Trading. And it's got some nice things that Armormech won't give you.

Vanguard has the first, fourth, sixth and seventh, maybe the last. They've got aspects of the second and third. Faster combat speed is possible. The storyline is something you'd have to assess for yourself, it's not the best or worst in my opinion.

My preference as a healer would be to see the tank handle one or two of the mobs, one to be Cc'ed out of the fight, and the DPS to focus on dealing with the loose mobs as fast as possible - probably on the same one, if there's only one loose. It's a lot easier to focus on who needs healing when it's not you. I don't expect dps to start on the tank's mob(s) until everything else is cleared. On the other hand, in this case the healer was sure he could deal with the problem, so let him. If he drops regularly, he/she will change their mind.

As said, plus they're in the rooms nearest to the staircases. One side has the Jedi Knight and Consular trainers, the other has the Trooper and Smuggler ones.

I don't expect tanks to be able to get all the aggro on them, though some are worse at it than others. In general it's fine if they take the 'heavies' and let DPS run through the trash as fast as they can. What I dislike are tanks who pay no attention to the health bars, and only realise something is off when the two mobs targeting the healer force me to start healing myself instead of them or the DPS. Believe me, that last is more common than I'd like. I've got very little sympathy for a tank that lets that happen. Of course I may be biased because my normal group role is healer

There seems to be a trend forming here.

Technically you do have an ability that removes some effects from your character; I think it's Unleash for a Sith Warrior. It won't clear all the things a Healer can, but it can remove stuns and roots and a few other things.

Corso is also a "Rush" type ranged tank nowadays, although he had a pull when I started the game. I think 4X is the only tank to retain a pull. The list of abilities for all Ranged tanks are similar, though not identical. They should perform pretty much the same.

The Commando equivalent is this.

Mine usually arrive around the middle of the month. My most recent set was February 16th, so I expect some next week. I don't know if that's the same for everyone, though. It might be based on the date you first subscribed, and every month after that. And I believe new subscribers get their first set after one month.

Synthweaving is mostly about making armour for force users. An Operative is not a force user, and I don't think any of your companions are either. Armormech might have enabled you to make equipment for your group, Armstech might have created/upgraded their weapons, Cybertech would have been a source of mods. Synthweaving or Artifice are a lot less useful for an Operative.

Your first companion, though you've probably found out who it is by now, is another dps gunnery type. You get a healer at the end of Taris. And a tank on Nar Shadaa. Be aware, Gunnery Commando is rather static, even compared to other Commandos let alone a Vanguard. DPS is enough, I'm not experienced with the tree, since my Commando is a Combat Medic, but the main toy seems to be Grav Round for the armour debuff along with AP Cell. Then shoot things a lot and put some High Impact Bolts into them. Be aware, heavy armour isn't great for survival, or at least I don't find it so as a Combat Medic. Don't forget that even with nothing else in the tree, you've still got some ability to heal.

I levelled up all the way to 50 as a Sawbones. The only things I didn't take from the Sawbones tree were Anatomy Lessons, Sedatives and Scramble. Add three points in Survivor's Scars from Scrapper and the other three in No Holds Barred from Dirty Fighting. The critical thing in your rotation is to keep a couple of stacks of Upper Hand around, so you can burn one for faster energy regeneration or for an Emergency Medpac once you've got that. Emergency Medpac btw is awesome because you can keep casting it indefinitely on targets under 30% of health; since while it costs one stack of UH it also grants you one back - at least after you take Emergent Emergencies. My normal approach at mid-levels would be to drop SRMP on your companion at the start of the fight. Drop a second on them when that runs down, and you'll restart the timer on them. If you aren't getting Upper Hand out of it, you'll probably have to drop UWM, although I've been known to do a Blaster Whip on an enemy or two. Keep dropping a SRMP on when it is close to running out, and use Diagnostic Scan if your energy is low or UWM when it isn't. Emergency Medpac adds a twist, as using it when you've only one UH will hurt your healing badly. On the other hand with three stacks it's almost spammable, especially if the target(s) for your healing have SRMP up and you're getting UH back from that. Give priority to keeping SRMP up, and save UWM for big heals. For companions, once you have them I prefer Bowdaar to Corso and Akaavi to anyone. While Risha burns targets down really fast, she also doesn't seem to survive as well as Akaavi or draw as much fire from me. Though if you sit in cover a lot of the time and pop out mostly to heal, it does mean that having enemies targeting you isn't necessarily a bad thing.

The GTN does have armour for sale on it, though it's not always cheap. You can preview how it looks on your character, by selecting the item and using Ctrl+left click. As for crafting, you'd need to be an Armormech or at least be friends with an Armormech. You can start doing that at 10th level. Though the low-level crafted armours aren't particularly good looking, imo.

I don't think there's any that look identical. Some of the high level BH armours come close, like the Ultrachrome Warset from Belsavis.

To add to what others have said, some armour has very limited basic stats. Instead it has slots into which you can put mods. If you have a piece of armour with slots, and you like the appearance a lot, then you can keep using it all game by removing the lower level mods and replacing them with newer ones. One of the Crafting options is for Cybertech, which enables you to make mods yourself. Mods can also be bought at some vendors with credits or planetary commendations. Also, equipment grades are worth mentioning. Green is basic equipment, armour, weapons, mods, etc. Blue is more advanced, Purple is the highest quality. If the items are the same level, then you're usually better going with the highest quality gear that suits your class. Modable equipment is instead Orange, being outside the normal pattern.

Personally I thought the Smuggler worked best as a female character. The main enemy in the first chapter seems to take it so personally that you don't fall for him, and there's such a lovely moment you can indulge in when you finally confront him. I also think a male Trooper is best. There's a particular NPC where the relationship you establish makes more sense with a male character, and she's around at more than one point in the story. Otherwise, while there are individual moments where I think there's a difference, I don't really see any particular gender bias in the stories I've played so far.