Here's a few additional tips for those leveling as a Defense spec (or immortal if your a Jugg browsing) Just because your a tank doesn't mean you have to hold "all" the mobs. let your comp pull a weka mob or two, and you control the rest. this is great training for Flashpoints, btw....in most FP's you will only hold about 60-80% of the mobs. This is beneficial from a damage perspective as well as a control perspective. When you split the mobs up, then you have 2 toons getting hit...which means the damage is spread out. both of you will be regenerating health, so you tend to end up with less health lost overall. An easy way to do this is to send you comp in first. leap at your primary target, sunder another, bash a thirds....take a step back and sweep out of range of yoru comps targets. you'll prob have a few weaks down by that time, and solid threat on only the mobs you want. use your crow controls (when you get them) on silvers or elites while you finish off weaks fast. weaks come first....they will usually die in one or two hits...but many of them do as much damage as a silver. so the more weaks you have up, the more damage you take. kill order should be weak - normal - silver - elite.

I think it's a good idea. time frames should be shorter though, and actively paying subs should get preference (they are after all still paying for their sub...) 3 months is fine. doesn't need to be longer for f2p or preferred. and It's not like you "lose" the name...it just goes back in the pool and you get a tag for a rename. if the name isn't taken by the time you log in, you can get it back. should be account based though...individual characters is allot of micromanagement.

QFT. If your honest, you'd prob find people that agree with you (like me) but when you try to blame the minimalist changes on people leaving, you get mistrust instead. I'm not a big fan of "let's reward big guilds for inviting everyone and their brother" approaches like they are doing (which failed in WoW too.) I prefer motivations for people to play together as a guild...like exp bonus for playing with 3+ or more guild members, or getting 30% more token drops in a full guild run. stuff like that. those things reward guild overall for actually doing "guild" things, and not reward people for random invites to every non guilded peep on fleet. there are tons of great ideas they could use rather then just adding more experience for adding more people...not sure who they are paying to come up with these ideas. how about giving people a guild only side of the GMT with no auction fees? or a guild rewards vendor? special guild tokens for doing raids as a guild...so many ideas that would really stimulate guild involvement. Edit: thought of a few more. Guild achievements. unlocking exp bonuses for getting certain levels of guild achievements. getting us something that adverts our guild, like tabards. or guild colors...perhaps a design station to allow us to design a guild logo that could be planted on a shoulder piece, or a chestpiece. ...but no, we get a bonus for spamming invites in fleet. that's totally awesome. Feels just like it did in WoW....guild supermarkets FTL.

Bumping in support of the idea. I, like many others, am very particular about my characters looks. and while some of the older Rakata designs I did not like, some I did like. I was actually looking forward to the Operative's set for my Agent!. unfortunately, my agent was only 43 when 2.0 hit, so she is bereft her cool lookin zoot suit! I haz sadface. A Side note: although it may seem like this process would be easy, and much of the work has already been done, keep in mind that for these specific sets (tionese/columi/rakate) there were some design issues involving the set bonuses. when they switched over to the set bonuses on the armor, they specifically didn't do this with those sets. I believe the old design had some serious limitations, so to get those out as adaptable armor, or even just normal oranges with no set bonuses, could require a complete remaking of the skins/designs. just pointing out that it may be more work then we think it is...so my theory is that if it happens (Hope it does!) it will be on the market, to compensate for the extra dev time needed to remold those old skins. And I am in support of that idea, as many others are. we just want them available Bio !

I've head that Whole Wheat has the better stats, but I think overall is a matter of taste. Jif is defintiely the way to go, and anyone who disagrees is a fanboi. And Omelets are the shiz. definitely go omelet and either white or sourdough. sourdough is amazing with the right gear (butter, lightly toasted).

I've honestly seen mauraders and snipers put out crap DPS. there is no set rule, OP, here's what I do...if someone is pulling threat, put guard on them. if no one is pulling threat...is there a need for it? I've done randoms where I totally forgot it, and no one brought it up. If someone requests it, ill throw it on them unless someone else is pulling threat. healers usually want it not for threat but to help reduce damage. coming from a healers perspective (I heal as well as tank), i will usually pull aggro on at least one mob in every pull in most randoms. a good group that doesn't happen, but I don't always get good groups. My default is the healer unless someone pulls threat or requests. and if your in a guild run, you probably already know who will have high enough DPS to need guard. back in the old days, i put guard on our main DPS sorc every run.

It's awesome. our capstone talent is finally worth taking (it's even better then it was back in 1.2). we have a group wide bubble that is unique to our class (a.k.a. something that would be wanted in a group), we have more DPS, with some of it through a Proc that turns riposte into a fun skill to use...more defense...more mobility (with the talent you are leaping around like a crazy man).... Were in the best shape we've been in since I started tanking back in Jan of last year. I think that right now all 3 tanks are in great shape, barring smaller adjustments that are needed...no class is perfect.

Plus the pressure of tanking makes your more open to criticism (which in MMO's is not always positive....mot often not). the phrase I've heard and repeated ad naseum since I started tanking years ago is "better have a thick skin to tank". It's rare that a DPS is pointed out in a group run when they forget to hit a skill or two ("Hey, I didn't see you trip that missle proc you just got! ***!). but if a tank misses a taunt, or forgets the stray ranged Mob that is picking on a healer, you can be assured that they will hear about it. there is positive interaction as well. a good group has it's foundation in communication, and as a tank, I love it when DPS and healers point out strays I may have missed...or mark their CC targets...or just say "IM CC'ing silver on the right" but tanks will always invariably get the troll comments too...and when you really actually care about holding threat and protecting the group, it hits you a bit harder when you get those sarcastic comments from a DPS who is probably bored, and dropping the ball himself...but you get the point. And there's also a hidden attraction to those who are tanks who DPS....you're so used to being more aware of the environment, that being DPS is a breeze. as a matter of fact, I find that the best DPS are also Tankers. they know what mob your pulling (because they are paying attention), they know when the healer gets aggro, and pull that mob back to you...etc. it's almost MORE fun being DPS when you've been a tank....it can make it tough at times to want to go back to tanking... Oh yeah...and the lack of tanks is not this game only. In every MMO I've played, tanks are rare. it's not a game specific thing, its the job requirements that push most people away.

I wasn't in the beta (i waited specifically for early release), but I rember some beta players mentioning that early on the sage/sorc actually did have some melee focus. later in the beta, they removed it. They seemed to want to specifically make the Sorc/Sage a ranged class only. I only brought that up to point out that it was a purposeful design decision...even after they tested the mixed product. So I don't see them changing it in the near future. lots of work to make just one skill or so viable for the purpose of allowing people to "use their saber". think about it. it may seem like they only have to put in an "extra skill", but if it's melee skill, then you have to deal with a class that was designed from the ground up to be ranged. they don't have the defenses and shielding abilities that a melee class has. Making a ranged saber throw could work...that wouldn't be a bad idea. we have that DoT ability....that would be a cool animation for the DoT...throw the saber, punctures the victim for X damage over Y seconds. just a thought. But I think if they do anything it will need to be a ranged attack with a visual saber action. melee attacks are too much of a fundamental change to the class (speaking of mechanics there).

Op has already stated it in a few different ways, but it bears repeating: We ahve yet to actually get patch notes. the blog was a blog about the patch, nothing more. It highlighted what the Dev's though would attract and excite people about the incoming patch. It wasn't meant to be an itinerary of what is in the patch. Until the PTR is open and we see that actual PATCH notes, we won't know for sure. but on the flip side, there's nothign wrong with making sure were holding them to things, and reminding them of issues that are glaringly frustrating for players and need to be fixed. Like the skill delay issue. I want to punch a kitten everytime it happens now. it really bugs me. I realize that it has got to be a much deeper issue then a few database additions, but it still ranks top on my list of "really really need to fix). Love the cather coming in, and totally jazzed about being able to re-configure my character. Cmon, lets get those bug fixes goin too!

I agree...Sawbones so far in 2.0 is a fun spec to heal with, and I love running solo with a hybrid. even healing with a hybrid can be done quite easily up through level cap. By the way, I also have the other 2 healers and have levled and raided with them in game, so have plenty of background in all 3 (all 3 are fun classes to play BTW...so personal preference makes a big difference in selection). Right now, scoundrel is my favorite healing class. the other two are fun as heck, but the scoundrel has just enough different heals and mobility and additional flavor that I prefer it. the problem with running as Off-DPS I've found is energy. the commando has similar issue, but not as extreme. when your fully heal specced, damage simply eats up yoru energy like it was a dozen doghnuts in a sugarholics anonymous meeting. So DPS comes in only when you have the extra energy (which isn't hard as full healing, but it is a big choice when your doing the healing). but i've always put in a bit of damage on my Sawbones in every group. whether its just keeping my DoT up on a few targets, or sitting behind the mob and going to town....there's no reason you can't add some. In light damage pulls this is pretty easy actually. you throw Slow release medpack on the tank and a few DPS, and DoT things up, then do a quick check of your energy and the tanks health. if he's getting hit hard, drop an emergency medpack and start an Underworld medicine. if he's fine and DPS aren't dropping like flies, hit the mob with a backblast and a pistol whip. reapply DoT's and SRM's and keep it up. if your a Hybrid spec like mine, cycle in suckerpunches when you have free Upper Hand charge available (which happens more then I thought it would). Sp can put out a ton of burst damage if you have the right talents and Flying fists procs. the only other issue with doing off-DPS as a Sawbones is that the scoundrel is "mostly" a melee toon. yeah, they have a gun, but 85% of their damage skills are close range (4m-10m). So if you want to do off-DPS, you'll be up front with the other DPS behind the boss/mob, which means you are also getting hit with Aoe's, you're avoiding cleaves, and your having to run when the Boss does "X" kill-everything-in-10m-skills. On the flip side, our HoT's are pretty potent...so our mobility is much better then the other healers, and having to move isn't as big of a deal with us as it is with the other two. Final note on hybrids. I love playing Hybrid solo. I have just enough talents in the sawbones tree to get the energy return off of my Diagnostic Scan (our free channeled heal). then I work up the Scrapper tree to sucker punch (and it's associated buff talents). between my heals and my DPS and Akaavi's mad DPS, mobs go down pretty fast (almost scarily so). So Hybrid is very viable for solo work and all content up to level cap hard modes... Though at level cap your looking at a high gear level requirement, and at this point it's important to be able to maximize your throughput in the role you are filling in the group (a.k.a healing). so at that point I'd recommend full sawbones. but prior to that, have fun with hybrids. I only recommend that you spec far enough in Sawbones to get to tier 5 and fill it up, with teh exception of Psych Meds. the rest are amazing skills and definitely worth getting.

Overall: Juggernaut is my favorite. but on the flip side, this is from a guy who has 2 different asassins (they're actually shadows on repub side), and 3 juggernauts. so I play both, So I can tell you that either class is a fun class to play. Here's why i like jugg's. Assassin : sneaks up, stabs the guy. hits him. cast some near invisible force thingy. hits him again. zaps a bit of lighting. another invisible force thingy. Jugg: leaps at opponent. spins around and smack bad guy with saber. leaps up and spears bad guy in head, then doe a flying spin an hits him again. lifts bad guy in air, chokes him to death, flings him against the wall with a casual flick of the hand, leaps at him again...and then howls at him so strongly that it knocks him down. baboom. However, there's something to be said about being able to vanish...and sneak around the battle ground...and stun someone...and stab them in the back...and then run away at light speed (or magically vanish as you teleport to a spot you chose halfway across the field). I think the bottom line is...so much of each class is based upon personal factors that willbe different for you then everyone else, it will be best if you try and experience the classes for yourself to see. There's nothing wrong with starting one of each, and trying the story up through Dromund Kaas. although each class won't really have much time to grow, you'll get a feel for what the class plays like, what their skills will look like moving forward, etc. and if you end up liking one over the other, then the other one is a great storage character! EDIT: I love Baras too. One of the few VO's that made my skin crawl on occasion. whoever that was did a great job making sound very cold and calculating, exactly what you would expect of a dark sith lord. Far too many of the other sith you meet were just kilkillkill....baras was very calculated. He knew when to reward someone, when to use them...and when to kill them. muahahahahaha.....

they did it to balance out a few other changes. Your shields affects now impact almost all damage types, instead of just one or two. invincible has an additional CD reduction higher in the tree, so it's useable more often EDIT: Removed comment about elemental DR. I was going off of swtor-spy calc, it apparently is wrong. elemental DR remains at 4% (guards have 5%, so their may be a big involved here). we Have Saber Reflect, which is increased by 2 seconds from it's baseline with talents, and we not only reflect damage back to the attacker (and don't take it ourselves), but its threat is boosted. Overall, were probably better off, or at the least it averages out. you may just not see it in your calculated stats due to how the newer talents work.

Yup. switched over one of my low level alts to play rage, and it is smoother. Not as much available Rage as Vengeance...but you get an extra attack about 10 levels earlier, which is fun. Slash hits pretty hard when talented, and even if you can't get your uber smash on every fight, it's still a guaranteed crit most the time, which does quite well. Rage still has its primary challenges...less rage, and full power smash is still clunky to use until you get crush at 45. I almost with they would have put that lower in the tree...the spec is so dependent on it and now they pushed it 5 levels higer, so its 5 more levels that you only get a lolsmash very 45seconds. But overall it is smoother then before, rage is better, and you feel less gimped waiting till 45 for your big smashes on a regular basis.

that one made me chuckle . I'm dissapointed, but I can understand the reasoning. I was actually thinking about it myself the other day, trying to figure out who they would go back and redo companion storylines. even if they gave us a quick out with the old marriage partners...there are 1-2 other comps with new relationship options that pending how much affection you have, may not be available. Just too many complexities. Oh well, guess im rerolling my jugg anyways. was hoping I could do the old sex change op, but i guess this gives me another reason to play another jugg

that matches about what I get when i time them too. The only variable (that Is simply hard to count as its different every day) is the heroics. a well organized gorup that wastes no time getting in and doing the heroic doesn't add much mroe...but if your in a group where your waiting 5-10m to get enough peeps, and you have your average group (some geared OK, some not, some good experience, some bad) that time can increase exponentially. But outside of the heroics i find my times very similar. even with a few heroics in there its not too much more.

Graal is spot on. Defense spec is great, but it is a late bloomer. if you want something with a bit smoother focus Generation, try Vigilance. lots of focus savings there, and you get some nice heavy attacks later on (30 and 45). Rage gets a new attack at 20 and can be fun as well, but vigilance has the best focus gen prior to 40 or so when the defense tree gets a talent to boost its rage gen when hit. you can also tank in vigilance if needed. wont have the tools of defense, but its pretty easy to do when leveling. just switch to soresu and slap a shield on. Or stick with defense. great tree, just doesn't have much of a feeling of continuity until later levels.

Actually, griping about no patch for 3 weeks is pretty petty. they were just calling the OP on it. liek this game has never been without bugs...ohnoes! but the bugs affect something I like this time! I remember when the Sorc and merc class quests were bugged...you literally couldn't progress your sorc past dromund Kaas, and it took them 3-4 weeks to fix that, and it was serious. nothing in the game atm is unplayable...whining about 3 weeks is simply silly.

Akaavi rocks. she kills stuff almost as fast as I do (sniff) so proud of her....yeah i sleep with her, whats your point? You get used to the horns...

Queen: Bicycle Race.

except that many of those skills you list aren't obtained until much later on. and Rage has issues generating rage (even now) moreso then Vengeance until much later in the tree...and until you get to it's capstone your lolsmashes are coming in once every 45 seconds. so the advice for leveling vengeance up to 40 or so before switching to rage stil works. And I almost never get knocked back on the last tick of ravage. could be a difference in timing or lag, or it could be you play far more PvP then I do, so you get different results (I never PvP). I find that in PvE most mobs either trip their KB immediately, or long enough after the initial timeframe that it doesn't' matter. that and Ravage isn't always the first thing to hit after leap now, depending on your bleeds and available skills to use. either way, unstoppable is still a great skill. the big issue with rage is its tree development. On a side note, if you have to run into melee range for your impale, your doing something wrong. I never leave melee range once I charge. perhaps this is your issue? your not as familiar with vengeance as you are Rage? my first jugg was vengeance, and my second was rage, and it took a it to get used to rage when i was used to how vengeance played. this can make a big difference in how you view a spec. Of course...if you play PvP mostly, then it may be different. but this thread is about leveling PvE. Rage is a much better tree then it was before, but it still suffers from the same issues it had prior to 2.0 = early level rage gen and early level shockwave procs. this hasn't changed. also when it comes to tanking FP's immortal is an amazing spec now, and id prefer that for tanking then Rage in a heartbeat. Is rage doable? sure it is. I tanked stuff in vengeance too, and never had complaints. all 3 trees can tank a leveling FP just fine. although I'm highly interested in switching one of my juggs to Rage now, with the 2.0 changes it is really a solid tree at higher levels. I haven't leveled a rag jugg since 2.0, but I too have done extensive testing, over the course of 3 different juggs leveled in 3 different specs to level cap. and nothing about Rage's biggest limitations has been addressed. single target damage has gone up, AoE dropped a bit...and you still can't regularly generate shockwave procs until 45. and rage gen is still spotty, and overall results in a roller coaster effect on pulls. one amazingly powerful pull...1-2 mediocre ones where you spam basic attacks...one very powerful pull...whereas vengeance is very stable and smooth. they're both doable, but I'd hesitate to say Rage is superior to Vengeance for leveling.

Personally, I feel that they have narrowed their differences post 2.0. prior to that, I would have said that my jugg has a rotation that feels much smoother. But now with sunder on a CD similar to Zealous Strike, they both have a pretty similar feel in approach to skills. leap in, use rage/focus generating skill to generate rage, jump into rotation. Both focus on building bleeds for damage, or in executing high damage Aoe skills via building proc based charges (different skill trees). the difference is sentinel has an additional tree that emphasizes direct damage over bleeds, but other then that they are similar in general philosophy. the biggest difference is the Guardian has a tanking tree, while the Sent has the second more direct damage tree. they also share the focus tree (which is the heavy AoE tree). Guard uses one saber, and hits feel heavy and powerful. Sentinel uses two, and hits feel flashy and fast. the Sentinel has an additional global proc to maintain called Zen. it basically stacks whenever you hit stuff, and once it reaches 30 you have a few skills that you can trigger that will use the zen procs to do either defensive or offensive buffs. It's an additional proc that the guard does not have to worry about. guards have a few other things that are spec specific, such as Keening (chance to reset your dispatch and make it useable outside the 30% health window), but nothing as global as Zen. Personal preference? I like both. I actually prefer the juggernaut over the gaurdian mainly due to skill animations. which one do I play the most? the guard/jugg. I like the single saber look, and I've always played a tank class at some point in my MMO's. I find that the biggest differences that make most people choose are: one or two sabers tanking viable option or no skill animations thats about it. Im sure i missed a ton of details on each class, but when I play both, they realy feel similar in allot of ways except what I pointed out above. both are viable DPS specs, and wanted for their respective roles in FP's and Ops. Pick your poison.

Been playing and tanking the class since early release. i was raiding in January last year before 1.2 came out. and I never had any problems keeping 2 sets of gear, one for tanking, and one for damage. You tank, and gear comes fast. I'd rather pay the price for long queue times as DPS and build my tank set. i did it back in the EV and Kp days, and starting to do it here. In my opinion it's the price you pay to build a decent tank set and be a good tank. with the ability to switch specs in the field, it's even easier now. I feel no need at this time to bybridize my gear set or mix and match my tanking and DPS builds/gearsets. personal preference...but from a a healers perspective (I do that too), I prefer tanks who are full tanks. hard enough to manage a bad DPS group, but it's worse when i have to continually feed the tank. and half the time I won't speak up and say anything, as i just want to get through the run. TLDR: not fair to put the burden on your healers just so you can tank when you aren't geared/specced right. and half the time the healers wont say anything...they'll just mark you down on the "avoid healing this guy" list, and move on.

Grats Uri this just goes to show that gear is only half the battle, and skill/experience goes a long way towards making your output better. keep up the good work.

Current design makes it so that hybrids are viable, but not optimum. What you give up high in the tree isn't worth it anymore. Prior to 2.0 this wasn't the case. high defense tree plain sucked...once you hit backhand(hilt strike) and your scream bubble, the rest was worthless. Add into that the borderline OP skill low in the vigilance tree, and hybrid was very attractive. now both tree cap talents are far better then any benefit you get from hybridization....especially with the form requirements they have on most spec defining skills low in the trees. Doesn't make hybrid undoable, just not optimum.