Umm, the only reason they can't make BIS exclusive to NiM raiders is the change to PvP gear, otherwise if they are good enough to earn it, I don't see why their skill shouldn't be rewarded. Of course you don't say why you don't want it to be exclusive to NiM raiders, because I'm struggling to find the difference between any gear when you run anything that isn't a NiM (or couple of HM) raids. I used to enjoy having BiS gear that I earnt, and my companion decked out similarly. Well now I've got more companions I can shake a stick at, and raising influence with them is ... oh yes ... another grind I don't need due to the moronic change to Teir 6 gifts but I digress. 4.0 made a couple of huge mistakes, making KP and EV HM drop 224 gear when NiM ops didn't. This CXP system is just as bad, and any enthusiasm I had to take up raiding again was killed with this insane system. From tossing 224 gear away like candy they have no made it an insane proposition to get BiS gear. Even today, my merc only levelling to 70 during OP, got 2 230 earpieces (one crit, one alacrity) like seriously and my sorc got a completely wasted 230 accuracy one. You know, earpiece and implants would never get ones with accuracy on because it's pointless for repseccing heals. I can fulfil the accuracy side of things easily via enhancements and augs And this is the nub of the problem with the system - no control over what I get, the sense of the enormity of the treadmill I'm on, and the complete smack in the face when I get an item I have to disintegrate. I'm nowhere near some people, but I can well believe the anecdotal evidence that RNG isn't fun, I've lived through the battlemaster bag fiasco and I've no desire to repeat it. And before crafting comes in, there is no point trying to RE blue 230 and green 228 drops, you can't. green 228 shouldn't be there because it's the same specs as purple craftable 228, and the mk-4 schematics that drop are junk.

Yes, I paid for 2 months which runs out soon to evaluate whether I wanted to try finding another raid group. I don't. Bioware made a big mistake with gearing in 4.0 with priority ops; especially KP & EV when NiM didn't even drop 224 gear and they've swung the pendulum right the other way. Then gating cxp behind the sub just makes me think I can't be bothered anymore. I take breaks from the game, and being able to log on as preferred and still progress made it worthwhile having bought all the unlocks. Now it's just a slap in the face, so yeah unsubbing. Done vet mode story and honestly I'm not sure Nightmare version will tempt me back without new raids

Amrstech barrels (200 rating) have no number to them, just says resistive/versatile barrel. Same with artifice hilts

It's on pub side just not imp for some reason. But yeah can use Jugg one.

I'm kinda confused how it is my armormech and armstech can both fuse the same stuff, vanadium, molytex and farium and come out with something that only they can use. They couldn't even use the same component since they use the same raw mats??? I mean really, this is just so annoying, I'm giving up at the first hurdle to even bother to make augments over this nonsense.

Why not? I've just unsubbed, with 7 days left, and my overriding thoughts were: why? Companions changed beyond all recognition for nothing. All uniqueness gone. Could have just kept comps as dual-role and added a second role for the dps only ones. Gearing gone, so no reward for taking time to gear them up properly either. Level-sync, good or bad was just unnecessary. It seems like it's still face-roll going back to a lower planet, just takes a bit longer... so again why? If you're 65 not like you need the xp rewards for doing lower level stuff. Crafting changes... yeah, seriously? and lastly KOTFE, whatever story with Valkorion appearing oddly black on my system (glitch or not, undecided) was fine, but it was so easy to steam roll through it felt like was just going from cut-scene to cut-scene, so really why not just make it an interactive video? I didn't encounter any bugs as of yet myself but still.

So basically, what was the problem going back as a 60 doing a lowbie heroic? Chances are you weren't doing it for the XP, and it wouldn't be a "time investment" issue since a) you can roflstomp if you so desire, and b) you planned to do it anyway - which means they've put in this system, with associated dev costs, for nothing. Yes, nothing. It's not about trouble other than aggro, things taking longer to kill when maybe I just want to get mats, do a cron without worrying about mobs etc, help a friend; all for no good reason, since the reaons presented here are straw-men. But, here's a thing which ought to fill anyone with dread when they saw this system: Bolster. They suck at it, it's manadatory, and chances are it will still be some broken code with unsatisfactory results. If I have my elite augmented end-game gear and I get the same stats as someone wearing level 10 greens, I would to say the very least, be unamused. More than likely it will have some horrible exploitable stuff, and you have to wonder why they even did it to begin with. Yay. So yea, this and other asinine choices such as comp gearing going do to me, sound the death knell of SW:TOR.

Except, Mercenary keeps their rocket punch and sniper keeps their shiv. There is literally no reason why willpower shouldn't affect the damage of the two sabre moves, and even more annoying why there is no 30m default zero cost white damage ranged attack for sorcs/sages. This has been brought up countless times before and ignored without any good answer by the devs. That and the hatchet job they are doing to sorcs in 3.0 is why the x-pac has not been ordered by myself and it's time to bid adieu to the game.

Yeah, because sorc heals couldn't compete with operative heals (until the most recent changes, and even then) and only masochists play lightning. Madness has been the only viable dps spec in pvp anyways for going back as far as bubblestun lol.

Nothing changes - sorcs still remain the most skill, sorry utility-taxed class in the game. Defensive Cooldown? - 25% DR - Spend a utility point - not even baseline. Where is shroud/resilience? That should have been given to sorcs ages ago. No "free" auto-attack. Oh wait, we are still the only AC that gets two base abilities nerfed to oblivion once you pick the AC, because you know Willpower to saber strike and thrash would make us so overpowered. As a ranged dps, we ought to have had some basic white damage free auto-attack. So, we aren't left without anything worth a damn that can go through shroud. It really boils my blood that a defensive we ought to have completely shuts us down as far as offence goes. Overall, this really is giving with one hand, taking with the other with a small bone like force mobility (utility taxed of course) to make us think we are getting cool stuff. Not fooled. Disappointed really, I haven't pre-ordered and am unlikely to.

Cotton-bunny - Sorceror - Madness 3/7/36 - 3408.86 dps - 4m 53.135s http://www.torparse.com/a/664647 Some reason torparse thinks I'm an assassin :/

What buff? No change to survivability, no defensive, just a rather pitiful increase in damage to set against the fact that ravage, maul, rail shot etc are all hitting way harder now from bolster. No one is going to stop focusing the sorc as #1 target are they, because they drop like flies under focus.

Well, what do you ask for at this point? The issues with sages and sorcs have been pointed out numerous times to no avail and by enlarge ignored. The infamous H2F and L2P answers still ring in the ears of every sorc and sage. Bioware's utter disdain for the class coupled with downright ignorance on class balancing over many patches has brought us to the point where I'm just "meh" about it all. They never gave sorcs a chance outside of bubble stun, which was obviously broken, but it's clear they absolutely loathe this class and never want to see it as anything other than a pve healer. Got to ask for something I suppose. Again the fact they insist on making maras and snipers are the g oto dps classes for raids is disappointing, but when there is so literally zero incentive to bring sorc dps it's hardly surprising. The over-estimation of how much off-healing is worth in Bioware's eyes, is a direct pointer to their ignorance on class balancing has once again brought this about. In fact the off-healing is worth so little, it actually feels like a dps tax, and a tax without anything to show for it. Sniper shields and bloodthirst have always been WAY more useful than a bubble or an off-heal, and not only that the classes get the best dps to boot, but I suppose worse is that the dps delta between a sniper and a sorc is so large now it's just beyond disappointing and into sad and ridiculous territory. As a tangent don't you feel that bloodthirst from a class perspective really fits with a sorc rather than some meathead warrior with two glowsticks? So we really to my mind have to be the best dps class bar none - to compensate for out pitiful raid utility and the fact we cannot cheese, or otherwise come out of other raid mechanics without losing GCDs to our self-heal and our bubble (cf things like dodge, sniper roll, shroud or even things like cloak of pain/energy shield). The problem is our dps doesn't come close if we don't do these things, stressing healers more, and if we do the dps delta gets wider between us and other classes. It's truly moronic design, but unsurprising at this point. There is some merit to this point, and I kind of agree, but by the same token, saber strike and thrash should never have had their willpower bonus damage taken away. It would be nice to have SOMETHING to use when a shadow pops resilience in your face and can easily point to snipers retaining shiv and mercs retaining their damage on rocket punch. This has been asked for and ignored, so I guess, I wouldn't recommend advocating this one. So ask for a defensive CD then? I still don't get how sorcs don't have shroud. Mercs get their energy shield shared with powertechs, snipers get their dodge and sorcs get another one where the sun don't shine, all the while buffing melee to the point where they literally have an answer for ANYTHING a sorc can do (heck maras have for ages), and we have nothing to retaliate with. Yay for Bioware. I guess I'm at the point where I don't even really care what's asked, I full expect us to be ****** over again. Years of pointing out problems or explaining why changes have hurt us have gone unheeded, why is this going to be any different? Not to take away from the effort Master-Nala has put into this, and kudos to him, but there is a reason my sub is expiring, and I fully expect whatever asinine changes the team makes to backup the decision. One hopes there might be an unexpected surprise, but yeah, let's get real.

The point is you are still using 4 of the highest parsing dps classes. If you were using a vanguard instead of a sentinel and a shadow instead of a slinger still think you'd be clearing it so easy? I doubt it. Slingers and sents have trivialized many a fight due to Bioware's insistence on giving them top dps and the best raid utility. Nightmare mode is more about choosing the best dps class than anything else, because Bioware don't have a clue about dps classes. This has been proven time and time again, and commented on them that they knew people stacked these classes for a reason. Yet even knowing this, the refuse to do anything about it.

Perhaps, but then not everyone uses the cheap-*** mara, 3 sniper composition either. Which to my mind using dot-smash or engi roll-bang, could be considered equally dirty. http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=711350 Funny how dot-smashers and engi snipers are dominating, and the single dps that isn't on that list for Draxus, the rage jug is 700dps behind the dot-smasher. Even the rage mara is 300 dps behind. That sort of dps delta is why some people can get away with 4 and others 5 dps, and as per usual shows that Bioware don't have a clue about balancing dps output between the classes. I wonder if people would be clearing so easily without roll-bang or dot-smashers..... or advocating that 5dps aren't needed.

Yeah I guess, except I only had aggro on one, and there were no other ones near so I don't know. It's still BS, the explosion is always 12,641 kinetic damage in the log. 12,641+200% damage is 37,900 or so which you live through at full health. It shouldn't be 44k+ in any case.

Similar thing happened again, relevant bit from Parsec log: 03:15:24.611 You gain Susceptible from Subteroth 03:15:24.612 Subteroth hits you with Energy Discharge for 12,641 kinetic damage 03:15:27.144 You lose Subteroth's Susceptible effect 03:15:27.158 Subteroth hits you with Energy Discharge for 44,474 kinetic damage 03:15:27.158 Subteroth kills you Notice how previous susceptible effect is LOST before Energy Discharge, and it still hits for 44k. The combat log shows Subteroth Explosion as 44k as the thing that killed us, and it was definitely only one.

Not really - any other dps class + static bubble, due to their inherent mitigation makes it. Sorcs don't.

Well from PvE, doing nightmare fortress Draxus, I stole aggro on a near-dead subteroth, was full health (38.7k or so in Dread forged min-max) and hit a very small lag spike and was one-shot for 46k by the explosion. And before you say anything, no I didn't have the debuff from other subteroths giving me increased damage. Point is I probably don't survive that even with a static bubble. It's this sort of BS I'm getting fed up of dealing with when other classes would survive this nonsense, or at least have a much better chance of surviving if they were caught out this way. So... just where is our defensive cooldown? *sigh*

Yeah except, we had too many 3-button derp specs for too long, pyro powertechs (pre-nerf), smashtards, even deception. Bad players can put out ridiculously large damage by just button mashing. So...

I won't shed tears for maras that have been roflstomping through wzs since pretty much the game began - and the unbelievable number of months that rage/focus was left in it's overpowered state. And no, it wasn't so much one smashtard, so much as when they grouped up. Or the fact that maras are tanking SM ops like Dread Fortress. Says to me they are bit too much on the "tanky" side if you ask me. Pretty sure there's no other dps class that can do that. What's it like to have a proper defensive cooldown? So, you think sorcs have or have had more than one pvp tree? Heal, no because we've had the utter dominance of soundrel/operative heals, and now they buffed mercs, sorcs are with some justification the worst healer. Lightning/Telekentics - hasn't been viable, and still isn't. Madness/Balance - has seen nerfs, such as loss of whirlwind. The cost of egress exacerbates the horrendous force issues it has. Hybrid - probably the way to go now. And yes, rage is still viable, you just don't get to lol at everyone being hit by a near unavoidable instant uber-buffed (free 15% surge and 30% armour pen) instant aoe crit. It still has the same, very strong single target dps. So what exactly was your point again?

If you take egress as madness sorc now, you lose 100 extra force, and you run into force starvation that much quicker. it's a case of give with one hand, take with the other, and as I said the skill tax for egress was raised and ignored. For whatever reason Bioware absolutely loathes sorcs.

your response is rendered entirely moot by the fact that skilled players play other classes too, and there comes a point where that heap of rust becomes uncompetitive even squeezing every drop of performance out of it.

Well yes, but seeing as the CC keeps getting taken away and there is no sign of this trend reversing, then where do you go? All I see is how much easier they keep making it for other classes to stick on sorcs.

Well it was OP, but not for sorcs mind, but madness sins or the umpteen hybrids they have enjoyed at one point or another. And now they have proven they are willing to change abilities on AC/spec, it is about time us madness sorcs got our instant mez back and left the sin one alone.