This helps, thanks.

A lot of things aren't needed. Doesn't mean people want them any less.

Yes, but it's not fair to compare a 2004 MMO to a 2011 one.

Too lazy to quote many of the awesome posts above...but yeah, my guild has always had too many tanks...sucks to always have to ask one person to sit out when they're all cool people. I really hope when people mention dual-specs, stuff like gear switching is automatic. Why do something half-assed?

Well, I'll be a devil's advocate against my own thread. It will make people stick to a smaller group of people more since they can more efficiently fill roles, instead of venturing out meeting a larger pool of individuals (my current method).

I also want to mention that I'm sure the LFG tool will add value. While I have nothing against it, it's just not a feature whose lack has impacted me in a great way. I DID see that. And I've not tested this, so maybe you're right. But to me it reads like being able to reset in the field, not respec. There is a difference. What I want is to be able to swap like going from dark charge to lightning charge. Other games have it, and it's great. It's more of a UI convenience. I don't care if it's not free. Yes, I can truthfully say that is the case. On my assassin main, I met a good number of people who also like to group, by always doing planet heroics. And those same people usually go with me to lowbie flashpoints. And now we do end-game stuff.

I hear ya bro. To add to this, since when I started playing at the end of January: # of times I've felt this game didn't have enough content: 0 (only now have my first alt lvl 28) # of times bugs have prevented me from really doing some type of end-game group content: 1 (called the raid on bugged Fabricator) # of times bugs have prevented me from really doing some type of leveling group content/heroics: 1-2 # of times I've missed doing some group stuff due to wrong class mix: 2-4 per week

Yes, I don't have consistent issues with any of those things. And I play on a low population server and my guild does hard mode operations. But the main thing that stops me from doing stuff is having too many tanks, healers, or dps online and either not enough tanks, healers, or dps online, but having enough people. Or said another way, the only time I'm prevented from doing group content is because of an incorrect class mix, NOT the lack of individuals to do it. I'm not saying it happens daily, so don't even try to tell me to recruit more of have people reroll, because we've already filled this void by sometimes having people's alts fill gaps, but it happens in multiples more than any of those other things. So the reason I want this is because it single-handedly prevents me from doing group stuff on a consistent basis. Get it? Yes, exactly this. And this.

I'd rather have this than the LFG tool. Then again, I have no issue finding people to group with. Maybe people have just adjusted and gotten used to creating new alts to fill different roles?

I was told the patch messed up heat issues so badly that they're not viable in hard mode operations. Is it true or is it L2P?

Is there currently any advanced class (NOT SKILL TREE) damage dealer that is not viable for hard mode operations? For example, when speaking about assassins, I don't care if deception is not viable but madness is. That means assassin damage is viable. Our guild does not have a powertech or operative damage dealer, so I'm curious about stuff like that. Are any so bad that the raid will be significantly disadvantaged if they have them? Or are all 8 advanced classes viable for damage right now? For those ex-WoW people out there, think elemental shaman at certain times. They were literally broken until high gear levels in WotLK. I'm curious if SWTOR has any similar issues.

Just to give an update, as my damage has increased and our guild has gotten more geared and has now switched to hard mode ops, I have stopped pulling aggro on single-target fights as much (the same applies to single-target boss fights in hard mode flashpoints). I'm not sure what changed. I still don't really use force cloak to drop threat actively. I use it as more of an oh crap button to prevent a death in case I mess up or unavoidable AoE damage on me overwhelms the healers. Maybe the original issue was just tank gear? This issue before ocurred with all of our tanks, assassin, juggernaut, and powertech.

Interesting. So it is just a filler for when you have low force. That's how I've been using it. Cool.

And this is really all I was looking for. I'd like to give it a try.

Interesting.

That's the thread where I got the bold text in my original post. This is exactly what I was looking for, thanks. And that makes sense...the podcast is where people are getting info from. I had never read anything about 1.3 info from BioWare.

I'm afraid of gimping my guild. Currently I'm the same spec I used for leveling since my first skill point (madness), so I'm very used to it, enjoy it, and do good damage per dpsmeters.com and mox (within my guild). Will deception gimp our guild raids? This is for HM EV (cleared for the first time last lockout) and HM KP (first time this weekend).

For the next Q&A, we will be focusing on questions regarding Game Update 1.3, so please keep your questions limited to that topic. How am I supposed to do this when I can't find any 1.3 post from them?

What's the reason that some of the dps items available have more endurance than our primary stat? Armorings and mods that have more of the primary stat than endurance do exist, since some of our gear has that. Yet others have more endurance. Very weird. Example: armoring/mod 1: 53 endurance / 50 willpower armoring/mod 2: 41 endurance / 57 willpower I made those numbers up, but you get the point.

For PvE DPS assassins (Madness or Deception), when and how often do you use your saber strike ability on Operations bosses? What % of your damage is it? For those that don't recognize the name, it's the instant melee ability you have since level 1 that has no force cost. The reason I ask is because after looking at parses for about a month, I'm pretty happy with my damage (Madness), but I've noticed that I utilize saber strike very little. It's not an active part of my rotation (but maybe it should be?), and it's more just an ability I use when I'm out of force and can't use anything else. It's a really small % of my damage output when I look at my attack breakdown. And that's even with the 2 piece set bonus. Should I be using it more? How's your usage of the ability? Thanks!

The patch notes state shield absorption. How about shield chance?

The ship droid is fine. I leveled a big chunk of my assassin (madness dps) with him.

I thought Armstech made that stuff?

Well, thanks for the help gents. You saved me from having to Google this and encountering possible spoilers.

Thanks! And I don't think it sucks, but I've posted long enough on MMO forums to know that asking a question results in "Why would you want to do that? It sucks! You're a newb! Go Biochem!"