42 year old fundraiser for a major international non-profit. First MMO, but enjoyed playing KOTOR 1 and 2 when we were running projects overseas. My wife (culinary trainer) and I play rock-paper-lightsaber to see who gets online once the kids are in bed. Oh and our older boy looooves his trooper (which he gets to play if he does all his homework well).

We play trooper and gunslinger with our 6-year old a bit in the evenings as a reward for all homework done well. The occasional game glitch doesn't come close as the cause of most grief. That honor goes to explaining why some neer-do-well just stole his smuggler's spaceshp. [Facepalm!] He was IN-CON-SOL-ABLE...for like 20 minutes. Edit: Commodore 64, games played on a cassette drive (no joke).

My initial reaction to this idea was "No thanks". If I want a more complicated rotation, I'll jump on my Watchman Sentinel. I kind of like the soothingly smooth and streamlined Gunnery rotation and I work in Sticky, Stock, heck even Blitz when the appropriate situation presents itself, so I'm not looking for complexity for its own sake. But then you mentioned the mobility issue. I play little to no PvP, so being a stationary PvE turret is less problematic than for Warzoners, but I could absolutely see the value of a 2nd viable "mobile rotation." When I want to stand there and burn down the target, I can do so normally, but when I need/want to be hustling my butt to or from somewhere, I could still be pumping out better dps than Sticky-Hammer. It's worth consideration.

If they kept purples as unlimited use, but instead of requiring a specific biochem rating to use them, tied the use of purples to the creator's genetic signature (i.e. their Legacy) people would have one bio-alt providing medpacks, stims and adrenals for the entire legacy, and it wouldn't matter so much what crew skill your main has.

I've done very little PvP, but my wife likes to do Warzones, so we're trying to wrap our heads around current and upcoming (2.0) gearing. I always thought it was odd that PvP'rs had to gimp their primary and other secondary stats to get gear with Expertise. I may be wrong, but my understanding is that Expertise is not an "insta-win" stat intended to give PvP grinders an overwhelming advantage over recruit PvP'rs or casuals in PvE gear, but instead that Expertise is a necessary mechanic to modify how damage, defense and healing normally scale/work in a PvE mob/boss environment over to how they need to scale/work in a PvP environment. Assuming that's correct, I've never understood why Expertise wasn't given its own point budget and placed on all gear . (The higher the tier fo gear, the better the Expertise bump, as is the case with gear improvement for any other stat.) IMO, whether you persue gear progression via end-game PvP or end-game PvE material shouldn't matter. Only the relative accomplishment level should matter (e.g. clearing a NiM boss or equivalent ranked warzone performance). Either way (or in some combination) you'd get progressively better gear, equally useful in either environment. That would allow primarily PvP gamers to hop into the occasional Op without being self-conscious about their stats, and vice-versa for PvE players engaging in occasional PvP. I hear that in 2.0 the amount of Expertise on gear (or individual mods) will no longer count against the total amount of primary/secondary stats, which seems to be a step in the right direction. But it seems like BW still wants folks to have two sets of gear from two distinct/separate tiers of gear, one for each environment. Maybe the intention behind separate gear sets is merely to require double the grind-time, but it just seems odd to me. Am I missing something? I read somewhere that PvE gear will get "bolstered" to compensate for lack of Expertise on our side, but is there something equivalent to help out the folks in PvP gear who might want to come raiding with us on occasion? Having Expertise no longer gimp other stats should help a lot, but I hear that level 72 gear is Ops-drop only.

I couldn't agree more. I wish they'd allow Synth, Amor and perhaps Arms to have something like the much-discussed "barber shop" for toon appearance, just oriented towards gear. Craftable color dyes would be a great first step, but imagine if a player could come to you with either an existing piece of armor, an existing piece of static gear, or just a desired appearance, and you could produce a appropriate custom orange mod-able shell for them. ("I'd like medium jedi armor, blue and grey tones, hood down, some streamlined armor reinforcing, but no giant shoulder pads, or racing spoiler arms, or glowing heart monitors please.")

I'm in a similar situation. I started a toon and decided to go Sorcerer, but I'm not sure which tree to level him up in. I've got a Seer on the Republic side, and am enjoying going heals there. Leveling is a bit slow (even with more points going into dps talents than I'll keep as a lvl 50 healer), but healing is fun. I've also enjoyed ranged dps (albeit as a Commando), so I'm still on the fence for this toon. Leaning towards Lightning, with the ability to respec to heals if needed, but I'd be curious to get other peoples thoughts, in general and vis-a-vis 2.0. (BTW, I'm all PvE, no PvP.)

We've been subs from launch, and share time (my wife and I) running our respective mains and alts. It would be interesting, were we to get an additional computer at some point, to have both my wife and I playing at the same time. If there are plans to allow us to both log onto our current account simultaneously, that would obviously be the most desirable option (as we could each play our mains). An alternative would be to create a second F2P account, level up another character each (ugh) and play together that way. If we had to go that route, it would be nice if we could link the new secondary F2P account to our subscriber account's Legacy somehow, and derive some of the Legacy benefits (gear sharing, etc.) and standard sub perks, based on that primary account.

I also notice that the walking back and forth action makes it harder to pivot my view around while healing. On my other toons, they are stationary, so I am able to freely rotate in a circle to check things out. With this one I've got to do the mouse-click drag rotation, which is a bit annoying (or at least not what I'm accusomed to on my other toons).

I'd be for something of the sort, though perhaps a overall bump to Legacy-wide exp based on current Legacy level might work better than an insta-50 button. You would still have to go through the class story, make LS/DS choices, etc., but you could skip over a lot of the redundant planetary missions, and round out exp for leveling with FPs for learning the new AC and spec. Other things besides Legacy level might also factor in on a character-specific basis (e.g. how many 50s do you already have in Legacy, how many are from the same faction, how many of those are from the same class?).

We've all been there. You've got something you reeeaally wish you could pass off to an alt, but yout can't stuff it in a bind-to-legacy item (e.g. implants, earpieces) or it won't work given the target's crew skills (even low-level re-usable bio-tech now requires bio-tech rank). There's also the upcoming 2.0 changes to how set-bonuses work (now exclusively attached to armoring mods instead of shells or armoring mods). That's nice for appearance customization, but lots of the new lvl 51-55 gear will come with armoring mods that don't carry the set-bonus, forcing you to choose between a stat bump - but loss of set bonus - or gimping your stats to retain the set bonus. One intersting way to deal with all these situations would be to allow the crafting of kits (like augment kits) that allow you to impart those characteristics to an item. Given the hit Crew Skills are taking in 2.0, it might also soothe some tempers in the crafting community. Thoughts?

I like the idea of the overall Legacy-wide bump to exp tied to current Legacy level. It would be nice to focus primarily on the class quest story-line when on that umpteenth alt, rather than going through all the various side-quests you've already played out on the various planets.

Personally I find "Defeat # Schmucks and # Tough-schmucks" bonus quests boring, annoying and often out of character. I actually like the idea of avoiding as many unnecessary fights as possible, focusing in on just those mobs/champs/bosses you need to take out in order to accomplishing the overall mission. (Recently stole all the Imperial relay data without aggro'ing a single mob on Voss with my Commando (delighted) only to find the mission turn-in conversation still assumed death and mayhem on my part (sigh). That said, for those alts I'm leveling, I generally want to capture every drop of mission EXP (not necessarily kill exp)that I can get, so I try to wax every bad guy I find to complete the bonus quest ASAP and THEN try to avoid any further unnecesary mobs. One guy showed me a ledge you can use onthe Tyrant 4+ heroic on Belsavis that'll allow you to skip all but the first mob and the boss fights. As there was no "Kill #" bonus mission for that one, we gleefully snuck past all the trash. Nice!

My main is a Watchman Sentinel, but I also have a Gunnery Commando (my little boy's trooper). I enjoy playing them both, but some differences do stand out. Rotation - Each of these DPS classes has the edge on the other from a particular perspective. Watchman gives you soooo many tools to work with, depending on the situation. If you can handle the complexity factor, it's pretty sweet. That said, it's much trickier to get cooldowns and focus generation to match up into a seemless flow of constant dps. Keeping your stacks of Merciless up can be tricky. Of course, you're typically in the thick of it, screaming through mobs and/or burning down a boss, so there are other things besides CDs and resource concerns to make things a bit messy. (I know less about Combat, which I hear is also great in PvE with more burst-i-ness and less utility/survivability than Watchman. Focus, as I understand it, is PvP.) With Gunnery, I find my cooldowns flow pretty smoothly into a much simpler rotation (Sticky, Grav, Grav, Grav, HiB, Full Auto/CoFire, Demo, Charged B, re-apply Grav, HiB, FAuto/CoF, Demo...). Some people gripe about it being too simple, but I find it to be a nice change from the other extreme. Interupts - Sentinels, and Watchman in particular, are the kings of interrupts, which is incredibly handy an a whole range of you more sticky situations. You've got Force Leap (0m range, 12s, if spec'd for it), Force Kick every 6s. On many targets (but not Bosses) you also have Stasis (ties them up with damage for 3s) and Pacify (doesn't interupt, but ensures they missfire). My Commando has Disabling Shot (12s cd) at range, Cryo-Grenade (10m, 4s stun, 60s cd) plus Stock Strike (if spec'd for it, 9s cd) and in most cases Concussive Charge (25s spec'd) for up-close targets. So CCs - Sentinels can only CC droids, but there's no cooldown on that, which is handy if someone breaks your CC. I can't tell you how many times we've had several large droids to burn down, someone pops my CC, so I take a second to reapply it to another big droid not taking damage. Troopers can CC anything, which is certainly handy, but it has a pretty long cooldown. If someone pops it, you're pretty much done for that fight. Defensives - My Commando has one active (Reactive Shield) and one passive (Charged Barrier) defense, vs. Sentinel which has 3: Rebuke, Saber Ward and Guarded by the Force. My commando's RS is 25% off all dam, lasts a static 12s and has a cooldown of 120s. His CB is up any time I'm laying down Grav Rounds and Charged Bolts, and lasts for 15s, but only amounts to 1% per stack up to 5 stacks. Rebuke, has only a 60s CD and can last as long as 30s (if you're taking damage), so I'm using that all the time. With 1pt in Jedi Crusader (leveling) it even generates focus. Saber Ward, is 50% off melee/ranged an 25% off force/tech, lasts 12s. That's sweet, but it has a loooong 180s CD. GbtF is one I don't use that often, but if you need 100% immunity to all damage for 4s (costing you 50% of current health) to burn that boss' last bits of health, then it's incredibly sweet. Just keep a health pack handy if you don't have a healer nearby. On th ewhole, Sentinel definitely has the edge here. AOE damage - Commando has a number of potent options. Sentinel almost none (just force sweep and cyclone slash). Heals - Commando has 1 self heal, 2 single target heals, a cleanse, and a field revive even on DPS specs. Sentinel has passive heals to self from burn criticals, which also heal the group when Zen is up. Group Buffs - Sentinel brings Inspiration (+15% raid-wide damage for 15s, 4m cd) and Transcendence (raid-wide super speed and defense buff), which can be extremely helpful (or essential) in HM FPs and Ops. Both are well worth leveling and end-game play.

Yeah, I'm gutted by this. I still hope BW rethinks this call. I spent a fair amount of time on the PTS forum making the case against cutting all the on-stunned trash attacks from the game. I don't know if we did any good on that front, but I hope so. The primary thread on that has dissappeared from the PTS list, so maybe they're reconsidering. I aggressively use both Opportune (on leap and leg slash) and Pommel (after Blade Storm) when running dailies on my Sentinel. Typically I drop 2 Opportunes and maybe a Pommel PER mob. Tumult and Blitz are handy too for my Seer and Commando. They are such a satisfying way of dealing with that one vibrosword wielding knucklehead that manages to reach me. Heheh. There were also a number of tanks who pointed out that these are handy moves for grabbing aggro from trashmobs in the area, while they focus their taunts on larger opponents. In short, lots of reasons to keep'em; no real good reasons to kill'em off. (For those who don't use'em, just leave them off your quick bar, banished to the same ability page limbo as your level 1 speeder and forgotten pets.) We also brainstormed how these attacks could be made a bit more broadly useful, and thus more broadly used. (After we all got done venting our spleens and sniping back and forth with folks who don't use them and wanted them removed. - I still don't understand why they cared enough to post.) Nobody was arguing that the deliciously high damage these attacks do to trash targets should be applicable to Champ/Boss or live PvP targets. Such tougher opponents are not so easily overwhelmed by our character's inherent awesomeness. Instead, I think folks were leaning towards them functioning as a low-damage interupt+short stun on Champ targets and a simple low-damage interupt for Boss/PvP targets. Darth Maul macking a guard on Naboo in the face may well kill him on the spot. Doing the same to Qui-gon just takes him off guard...but provides the opening for a coup de gras with the glowy end of his saber. Fingers crossed.

It's good to know that it's not just me. My 6-year old LOVED that helmet for his Trooper, and he was not amused (when we pinged 50 this weekend) to have to shift gears into that lamprey-faced Tionese helmet (which makes your head look rather inappropriate like other parts of your anatomy if you ask me). I've not seen him that put out since some neer-do-well stole his Smuggler's ship on Ord Mantell!!! (Try explaining that to a little tyke. lol)

Cool. Thanks for that. I had always wondered because you launch the attack before OS, but you don't connect with the target until after the OS. Thanks!

Using the standard Watchman opener: Force Leap/Overload Saber sets you up to apply 3 stacks. Then you hit with Zealous Strike, Cauterize, Merciless Strike and follow with let's say Master Strike. I think your OS burn ticks would apply like. ZLS >> X X X X X X CTZ >>> X X X X X X MXS >>>> X X X X X X So by the time Master Strike is hitting, you've got all three Overload burns going simulaneously. That's why, if you've also popped Zen, you see those 6 Zen charges drop off so quickly (also fun to do while target is stunned with Force Stasis). One thing I'm NOT certain of is whether it is actually the melee attack part of Force Leap (instead of Zealous Strike) that applies the first OS burn. You leap before OS, but you OS in mid-air before leap's attack connects with the target. Little thing, but one I'm curous about.

I wish they'd let Synthweavers RE any static piece of wearable gear to an empty orange modable schematic. That would give us one more useful thing to do for other players. Really like that lvl 23 look, but you really need to upgrade your gear, get the piece RE'd and plop in the latest mods! Thanks game-relevant Synthweaver!

I for one find the way the extended the tree to be rather odd. It isn't the new powers that disappoint. Rather it is that they didn't put the new abilities on top of a tweaked version of the tree we're currently using. Instead, they wedged all the new things in between Mind Sear and Merciless Slash. That means, as a lvl 50 reworking your tree to begin the new lvl 51-55 content, you either lose access to Merciless, our old pinnacle attack, or you have to narrow-band into Watchman, dumping all but 5 points of things we already had in other trees, just to keep Merciless. So instead of getting to play around with each and every new power in turn as you level, you get them all in one whack, and spend your leveling time reacquiring the low-level stuff you used to have in other trees. Really? Now they've cut Master Focus (shifting the damage bonus to the 2pc set bonus - though without CD reduction), which frees up 2 "optional" points, but by shifting Steadfast to Tier One, in place of Dual Wield () you are left to choose between keeping your pinnacle attack or having so much as a single point in Dual Wield. In what universe does that make sense? Personally I'm a bit disappointing that the new super-cool top of tree is just that we regain /retain access to the top-of-tree power we already had at 50. Oh and BioWare, what did Pommel Strike and Opportune Strike ever do to you?! They never bothered your precious PvP () and didn't even intrude on Ops or boss fights. All they did was make wading through trash on endless dailies at least a teensy-weensy bit entertaining. (Force Leap > Opportune = 1 down; Blade Storm (running) > Pommel =2 down. Satisfying, no?). If anything you should make them more broadly usable vs. stronger/player targets under the trigger incapacitate/slow effects, and just dial down the ridiculously sweet damage in those cases . Oh and yes, I realize you're giving us the new dual throw at 51 (albeit without any Dual Mastery yet:p), but there should be something besides Merciless spam and nerfs in 5 new levels of Sentinel, no? Maybe you can make Dispatch a 2-focus attack normally, since you've changed the 2pc set bonus.

People have been asking for exactly this sort of thing for months and months ... and months. Do a quick search for "Hood Toggle" and you'll see (and I'm afraid the news isn't good - yet). "Young fool...only now, at the end, do you understand."

How about splitting "Need" into 2 options? One would be "Need (companion), which would have a lower chance to win the roll, but better than "Greed". The other would be "Need (self)" which gives you the best chance to win the drop, but is only available to click if the gear in question is of the right type for you (i.e. armor - lt/md/hv, saber - single/double/offhand, gun - pistol/blaster/assault, etc.) and/or matches your primary stat. That would be handy in Ops situations, where there's a bit more social pressure to behave in a civilized manner, but for FPs and PUGs, I suppose that people would just cheat and click "Need (companion)" when they're really just greeding on things, which brings you back to applying a standard for being able to click "Need" vs. anybody being able to click "Greed".

Crafters need something to make with all those extra components; players need something to spend all those credits on; and with 14 slots to fill (not to mention the components and augments for each) there's always something in our gear that could do with a little bit of tweaking. It's all good.

I'd like to have a force pull that doesn't aggro the rest of the mob. Every jedi should have SOME sort of TK ability.

BH Pummeler is guardian dps. If you're a sent you'll want the Foestopper items (although you can use either set of implants if you're looking to up one thing more than another for stat balance).