http://www.swtor.com/user/ce/2arwt

•Players are no longer able to remove the "Disoriented" debuff during the encounter with the Sandstorm Juggernaut in Nightmare Mode. Is this a typo or is Nightmare Mode being released tomorrow?

Welcome to every modern MMO these days . Math will always be king. People will always find the best way to play the game and others expect you to play that way, even the developers.

After playing all three tanks multiple times in Hard Mode Scum and Villiany, they are all great and each has their own special qualities that they can bring to the group. Also, it is not nescessary to bring "X" tank in the operation for certain mechanics. Every tank is viable is every situation. Some mechanics may be harder to deal with than others, but it is fully possible. Personally, I would rank the tanks from easiest to hardest to play: Jugg/Guard > PT/Vang > Sin/Shadow. Jugg/Guard got simpler and easier to play with an OP cooldown (Saber Reflect), reduced cooldown on big cooldowns(Invincible and Endure Pain), reduced rage cost on main abilities, and tons of utility in the tank tree. You do not have to do as much anymore to keep threat and are rewarded with a larger damage output. It is a really nice tank to play now if you have been playing this tank for a while and know the struggles we have been through. PT/Vang got an ungrade on their cooldowns, an extra ability that heals them (Shoulder Cannon), Heat Blast has been improved, and a better use for Flamethrower. Outside of that, their rotation, main abilities, and playstyle are the same. Dps and threat are still very good. They are indeed simpler to play than Jugg/Guard, but I believe the changes to Jugg/Guard have made it so you do not have to worry about resource management and watching for buffs. Sin/Shadow got a little more complex with another buff and ability to to weave into your rotation, but, overall, is the same concept. Dark Ward is on a longer cooldown, but has more charges and gives a buff for every charge used. Shock cost got cut in half. Maul is now a part of your rotation. Overcharge Saber got redone and is now a better cooldown for tanking. You pull crazy dps and threat generation. You can throw down a puddle that helps healers. Overall, I am pleased with the changes to tanks. Some are definitely needed while others only make great tanks better. As stated before, you can run any tank combination and it should be fine.

I would not use Sundering Assault after Smash. You need to hit the target with Crushing Blow ASAP. Opening should be: Saber Throw > Charge > Smash > Crushing Blow > Sundering Assault You do not need to stack Smash and Sundering Assault anymore for armor debuff. You should have enough rage to do this opening rotation. If you do it right, you rarely, if ever, need to use Enrage. Retaliation should be used whenever it is up. It should not be part of your rotation. If you are using Taunt in your rotation, then you are doing something wrong. I have had zero threat problems in Hard Mode Scum and Villiany with PT dps pulling close to 3k. Same goes with Backhand. It is a great threat ability off cooldown, but it is not nescessary anymore. People forget that Force Scream is a mini cooldown and should not nescessarily be used off cooldown. Force Choke, Ravage, Force Push, Vicious Slash, Vicious Throw, and Backhand are all filler abilities that are used based on your rage pool. As for AoE pulls that are not melee or AoE damage based: Threatening Scream > Saber Reflect > AFK The 12 sec rotation, rage reduction on our main abilities, and increased damage/threat output have completely changed the Jugg/Guard tank to be viable over other tanks in various situations.

Currently, my raid is not allowing certain roles into the group with the current state of the PTS. Those are Assassin dps, Merc dps, and Op dps. Assassin dps is still quite low compared to everyone else and Assassin tanks are really not too far behind on their damage output. Merc dps are currently having heat issues, although one of my raid members has found a crazy rotation that works, but still pulls below everyone else. Last, but not least, is Op dps. I have personally ran both Concealment and Lethality in Hard Mode Scum and Villiany and both perform below average. Similar to numbers stated previously in this thread, the most you can pull is about 2400, if you get lucky, while other dps are pulling 2600+ no problem. Jugg dps got quite a large boost and they are now the bottem end, or last ditch spec, of dps that you would bring to an operation. They can pull reasonable numbers, not anything a Powertech, Sorc, Mara, or Sniper are pulling, but they are better than Op dps. With my current experiences with dps on the PTS, I would rate the following from best to worst to bring to an operation: Powertech, Sorcerer, Marauder, Sniper, (gap), Juggernaut, (bigger gap), Mercenary, Assassin, Operative I would suggest finding another class for PvE dps. If you like PvP, Concealment is not too bad.

Yes, I forgot to include that.

It is a bug. The damage number being reflected is displaying incorrectly. If you notice the health change of the Sniper, you will see the damage cap take effect. His first hit is 3607 which takes him from 24783 to 21177, which is a change of 3606, 1 point off from the total damage, for some reason. The next hit is 8376, which takes him from 21177 to 16408, which is a change of 4769 damage, not 8376. The Sniper's health should have been 12801 if the full damage took effect. To conclude, the cap does not seem to be a set number, such as 4769 damage, but it is around that number, hence why I stated a ~5000 damage cap per hit. It seems that it ranges about + or - 100 damage from 4769. I do not know if a set number is intended or if it is a bug that a set number is not in place, but I am not suprised that there is a damage cap on the ability, most likely for PvP balance. I am pleased with this ability from my PvE standpoint. It became clear when full abilities in the new operation were not being fully reflected. My group went out to test it in a PvP standpoint to see the damage cap. We tried a Sniper, similar to the video, and Powertech Rail Shot.

You are misinformed. I have tested this is both PvE and PvP with multiple people in multiple situations. The exact damage cap is ~4834 damage per hit, which is nice coming for a tank point of view. It does indeed reflect dot damage, but the dot is still applied. It does not, however, reflect the debuff of a said ability. If an Assassin tank used Discharge on you, the damage will be reflected back, but the accuracy debuff will be placed on you. Same goes with stuns. If a Sorcerer stuns you, the damage will get reflected back, but you will still be stunned.

I found there are more options than just that one extra point you have left over. I see many Jugg tanks putting points into 6% strength for more damage + threat which may be considered the best, but there are more options than more damage + threat. The first thing to note is that you have two points in the Immortal tree that can go into one of four places, depending on the situation. These talents are 30% movement speed when your guard target is hit, decreased cooldown on Force Push/free Chilling Scream, decreased cooldown on Retaliation when Saber Ward is up, and increased damage on Ravage. Personally, I believe I will be running either one of the first two mentioned the majority, if not all the time. They seem to be the most useful. The other two are talents increase our DPS output, which is not bad, but usually not preferred. Our threat and damage output are fine with the changes. The skeleton spec is 36/5/2. Five points in Vengence include 3% defences/30% threat on Smash and Sweeping Slash. Two points in Rage include 20% damage increase to Smash and Sweeping Slash/reduced cooldown on Smash by three seconds. The remaining three point will be put into a combination of 6% strength, 3% accuracy, or one of the remaining talents in the Immortal tree that you did not choose. Most likely, most, if not all, of these three points will boost our damage output. It really comes down to personal preference. Do you want to do more damage? 6% strength. Do you want more of your attacks to hit? 3% accuracy. Do you want more defensive utility? Pick something else in the Immortal tree. I am going to conclude that I am currently switching between 3% accuracy, 6% strength/1% accuracy, and 6% strength/15% movement speed with guarded target. They all work and are perfectly fine options. As stated before, I expect players to pick at least 6% strength and go wherever they feel they get the most use of the last point.

You also missed the fact that it does not reflect melee damage and that it has a damage cap per hit of a little less than 5000. It is a nice cooldown to have, but do not expect it to be a gamechanger or overpowered in PvP when it is all said and done. Quite honestly, I believe the developers wanted it to be more of a tank cooldown than a PvP or DPS utility. I think they sited this from Star Wars lore where Saber Refection is a key part of the defensive lightsaber form (Soresu), hence, why it is buffed in the tank tree.

Well, the good news is that both of your requests are in the progress of being fixed on the PTS. Kolto Infusion is still 25 energy, uses TA, and heals for a decent amount still, but it now leaves a HoT on the target after use. My testing on the PTS makes it seem viable for single target healing. The HoT heals for a large amount. I also have tested both dps specs and I have to say they are both very good, nothing close to what Sorcs, PTs, and Mara are pulling, but they can hold their own.

I got my rotation from one of the most experienced Full Immortal Jugg tanks in the game. Opener: Saber Throw -> Charge -> Smash -> Sunder -> Crushing Blow This builds 5 stacks of Sunder Armor and allows you to benefit from Crushing Blow's AoE effect, if it is needed. Keep Smash on cooldown to keep accuracy debuff on target. Keep Crushing Blow on cooldown because it does give you some threat. I also would try to keep Sunder on cooldown for rage regeneration and Sunder Armor stacks. Use Force Scream when you know you are going to take damage, preferably high damage. Retaliation off cooldown to get increase defense and that little extra damage for threat generation. Ravage should be used when the raid needs you to produce more damage on a target to burn/beat a timer. Otherwise, he really does not use it. Vicious Slash should be used when you have high rage and other abilities are on cooldown. Sub-30%, you can use Vicious Throw for damage/threat generation, if you have enough rage to dump. Force Choke and Enrage, if Rage is needed. Use Taunts and Backhand if threat is heavily needed. He use Backhand as a mini taunt, but it does not replace taunt. Intercede to a high dps, if needed, to help dps aggro issues. Would only use if the boss is not on you or if a player, aka Powertech dps, goes crazy at the beginning of a fight or threat drop. If you want a spec, I currently run 31/8/2 which gives me a lower cooldown and more damage on Smash and more time, if nescessary, to apply the accuracy debuff. He runs 31/10/0 with points in Unyielding. I guess he gets stunned more. Either one works fine.

I was suprised more to learn that there are more snipers than operatives. Just makes my op healer more awesome now

I am most likely going to wait for news this week about 1.2 and if they have anything special planned. I have about a week left on my sub, if I don't like what I see, I am going to buy Tera. This game was great in the beginning, like most MMOs. High population, people want to do stuff. Now even the higher population servers feel empty. This game is turning out to be what Aion was. The first few months were great, then everyone left, and there was nothing for me to do. I would like to see this game get better in the future, but I can also see this game free to play and server merged by the end of the year. Like I stated before, if 1.2 doesn't have a lot in it, good luck keeping a good chunk of the population around.

I would have to go with your list exactly.

We 2 operative healed most of the raiding content. Some fights on nightmare are just not meant for 2 of them and we edged out a lot of fights but it's do-able. Just have to have uber operatives like my group.

My group runs 2 op healers for nightmare mode, no problems whatsoever.

I was wondering what is the largest amount that you have healed for in a warzone. My highest is 655k and I have not seen anyone else above 500k. Operative heals.