What if Riposte was remade as an entirely passive ability, i.e. on a percentage basis (which increases with the number of talent points you put into it) any incoming attack that's blocked generates an automatic counter-attack? Having said that, those of us spec'd DPS are still not going to invest points in it. I grant you that Riposte IS a quintessentially Jedi sort of move, but then tanking rather than dps is more the Jedi way. Don't get me wrong, I love my flurry-of-death Watchman Sentinel. I'm just not sure how Yoda'd feel about his approach to life. I also really miss the ability we used to have in KOTOR 1 and 2 to block and even re-direct blaster fire. I used to love taking down opponents at a distance by swatting their own blaster bolts back at them. Frankly, the only thing about Riposte that ever tempted me was the idea that I might be able to use Recompense (2) plus Jedi Crusader (2) to make Rebuke into an almost always up shield + focus generator. But 4 talent points is a lot to spend when the trigger attack was so out of my wheel-house. ...Now if it was tied to Cauterize...

My wife's a clicker. I'm a key binder. We each watch the other, shake our heads and say, "I don't know how you can play like that." I won't go over stuff that's already been said above other than to: a) Say it ultimately depends on what you're most comfortable with (except that I'm right...sorry honey); b) Agree that most of us are at least marginally hybrid, (I use a key for Force Camo for threat dump vs. clicking if I'm timing it for mob avoidance. My wife clicks everything, but has her interrupt key bound.); and c) Agree that even we key binders have to keep an eye on those quick bar icons to see if something critical is off cool down (come on Merciless and Dispatch!). I'd also like to add one thing I didn't see discussed above. If you're going to work key binds into your game play, try to assign things with a similar function to the same key across alts. I hit the same key for my Sentinel's stun droid, my Sage's force lift and my boy's Trooper's concussive round. That way there's no confusion; if I want to drop a CC on something, I know what key to hit. Similarly I've got my Sentinel's Awe, the Trooper's Diversion, and my Sage's Cloud Mind on the same key. There won't always be direct equivalents, but looking for and using similarities helps (e.g. I use C, V, F, R for my core rotation and X for my top tier ability on all of them).

Nice! I'll have to try that when there's a nice tight pack of folks as it would drop 1 before going into the whole ZS, CtZ, MxS opener. I tend to use Opportune a little later, esp. when the mob is spread out. Typically I'll clear the core of it with FL-ZS-CtZ, MxS and Master Strike, then rush one corner (Blade Storm en route) and apply pommel then do Force Leap to opposite corner and apply Leg Slash and Opportune. With your suggestion (and Opportune's short cooldown) I could probably do both and skip the leg slash (as there's Force Leap involved in each). Thanks!

This would be nice. More than once I've had to go back and re-run the intro planet on an alt just because I started having serious buyer's remorse on some aspect of them. It is easy-pleasy to change their appearance at the outset, and the same is true vis-a-vis all the gear changing we do. It would seem to me that jumping back into appearance adjustment mode wouldn't be too hard to allow. ...and while we're on the subject, how about more than 4 body types. My preference would be to de-couple height from heft, e.g. I'd love to have a character at type 3 height but type 2 build. More head types and hair types would be nice (or at least swap some of the more awful ones for something useful).

I would like to see story sequences available to people who max out a given crew skill. Perhaps the head of your order (Jedi or Sith) needs a master artificer to develop a new variety of light saber emitter that will counter a new technological innovation the other faction has recently deployed, which temporarily disrupts the opponents light saber blade (i.e. after a number of key encounters that resulting in the quick and messy death of several senior members of your faction). Said master artificer would need to investigate the new technology, secure samples of the new enemy weapon to RE, go on missions to other planets to research a possible counter-tech, design an entirely new schematic, gather exotic materials for it, craft and test it, then bring it to the head of your faction so it can be broadly put into use (restoring previous equilibrium), and then (surprise) use it on a mission to take out the enemy genius that started this mess before they can cook up any more nasty surprises. My main is a synthweaver and I could see a similar story thread being created for that route. Ditto for biomed (e.g. curing or creating a horrible plague). You might even require heroics involving folks with different crew skills to allow you to move your own story forward. For example, drawing on the idea above, artificers generally have archaeology and treasure hunting as their non-crafting skills. Clearly those would be used, but you might need to the help of a master investigator, slicer or diplomat to help you along the path to the creation of the new emitter.

I don't know gang; I'm not throwing tons of stuff up on the GTN, but I do see people all the time in general chat offering to craft Adv 27 this, that, and the other for mats and tips. If you add up the cost of the mats (pretending you have to buy them all instead of getting them from Ops) they're often not asking much more for the crafted item on the GTN anyway. (Okay there's always somebody asking 4 million, but who buys from them?) As a crafter, I'd gladly pay some creds or coins to have to make fewer trips around the tree to RE a blue or purple schematic for an alt I'm leveling. I'd also be interested in a way to channel the RE research for gear with multiple RE options, e.g. by disallowing one option for an RE result. For example, if I was REing a bunch of green synthgear seeking the a blue schematic for a non-tank alt, it'd be nice if I could choose for "Redoubt" to NOT be the result if the RE roll yields a blue schematic.

I recently crafted a purple chest piece for my Sage alt and I really like the look of it. Soon he'll out-level it though. It would be great if I could create an empty orange shell for that look, so I could keep it as/after he levels. I'm just not sure if /how that's possible. I've got the lvl 50 Voss gear, as a fall back, but I don't like it as well. Anybody out there have the low down on this?

Hey there. Which of the 3 skill trees are you putting most of your points into? I went Watchman, though I've heard that Combat is now quite good for PVE as well. I hear that the Focus build really shines in PVP. If you're Watchman spec'd the fairly standard opener is: Force Leap (to close and build focus...it also interrupts) > Overload Saber (in the air so next 3 attacks will apply a 6s burn) > Zealous Strike (builds focus) > Cauterize (applies its own 6s burn in addition to OS burn) > Merciless Slash (your top-of-tree attack). I tend to follow that with Master Strike (3 second channel attack) and picked up Master Focus (2) in Focus tree to up its damage and reduce its cool-down. The 2 main (and trickiest) things to manage as a Watchman Sentinel are the timing for your burns and the variable cool-down time for Merciless Slash and Cauterize. Every time you hit with Merciless Slash, you reduce the cool-down of the next Merciless Slash by 1.5s. This effect stacks up to three times, but only if you're applying the next Merciless Slash before the reduced cool-down effect expires. This can be a bit tricky as the initial window between end of cool-down and expiration is small and Merciless Slash takes 5 focus to use. So you've got to keep busy dps'ing but also keeping an eye on cool-down and amount of focus available so you can drop the next Merciless Strike on someone as soon as it is available. If you can keep that rolling, and maintain 3 stacks, you're looking at a 7.5s cool-down on your most potent attack. Cauterize is tricky as well. It applies a 6s burn and has a 15s cool-down, but Merciless Slash has a 66% chance, and regular Slash has a 33% chance, to immediately end its cooldown. The trick there is a) keeping an eye when it's variably available and b) timing the application of new 6s burns to keep it up as much as possible, without "writing over" an existing Cauterize burn with a new one. (fFor example, in the opener above you do Merciless right after Cauterize, which often makes Cauterize available, but you're still just a couple of seconds into the 6s burn of the first Cauterize and would want to hold off and attack or two and THEN reapply Cauterize. Other tid-bits: - Whenever your target has 30% health or lower hit it with Dispatch. - Whenever Overload Saber is available, use it. - Spec 2 pts in Valor (Watchman) and 2 pts in Defensive Forms (Combat) to maximize Centering generation. Every 30 pts of Centering you can pop Zen which means your burns auto-crit and give you and your group a trickle heal. - If you're knocked back and force leap's not up yet, hit'em with Crippling Throw as you close. Also, a couple of combos I like for clearing trash are a) Blade Storm (stuns as you're running to close) followed by Pommel Strike (lots of damage, but only to stunned target); and b) Leg Slash (applies a slow) followed by Opportune Strike (like previous, but works on slowed or stunned). Leg Slash only costs 2 focus; and while Blade Storm costs 4, neither of the follow up attacks cost any focus. Moreover, neither combo puts an attack you need for bosses on cool-down.

As a synthweaver I would also like to see something of the sort. How about a 3 tiered Legacy Character Perk (bought with either credits or cartel coins) with each tier offering you a 10% increase in your RE success rate (or perhaps 10% for green to blue and 6% for blue to purple). Add to that having the text for the RE attempt show your roll score and you've got two major steps to improving functionality and reducing frustration. It would also be nice if they would allow you to influence the results of a successful RE. My Sentinel has no use for Alacrity, but my Seer does. I'd like to be able to either push for a particular stat emphasis, or at least take an unwanted one off the table. Research after all is not random or directionless, even if chance is still a factor.

That is a bit weird. Leveling other classes there's inevitably some levels where your options are like getting socks for Christmas, "...oooh...gee...thanks...", but I don't recall a level totally devoid of something to train. That said, I'm not as far along as that on Consular.

So how about wrapping up the Emperor and Revan as a new Op? Sort of makes sense, requiring a full raid to take down the Emperor for real, following the JK's realizing that they only took down a vessel at the end of Ch3.

This was an odd, buggy and ultimately unsatisfying fight. On my first try the game auto reset my camera angle to overhead and fully zoomed in (hardly ideal), which got me a nice one-shot from the Emperor while adjusting (sweet!). Second try went much better, but I missed a one-shot channel while pillar dancing (they really should just add the Benny Hill theme song directly into the game's sound files for this fight). Third time, I force leaped from the pillars onto him, as he sat on his throne, to kick off the fight and boom - instant dead Emperor. After my buggy one-shot it went into the post fight video clip. Bummer.

I really enjoy Watchman for PVE play. At level 27, I'd put 13 points in Watchman and 5 in Combat. The combat points would go to Dual Wield Mastery (3) and Defensive Forms (2). Ironically the Defensive forms is more important than the dual wield as it helps you build Centering faster. In the Watchman tree, skip Recompense (tier 1) and Inflammation (tier 2). Everything on the next tier is important, but I'd grab Overload Saber and Searing Saber with your existing points, and then get Blurred Speed when you next level up. Moving further up, I found my only choice really was between Force Fade and Focused Leap. I found that Force Fade came in handy on several occasions while leveling, but probably not often enough to merit the points. Focused Leap's benefit is pretty meager for 2 points, but it's pretty much essential to your lvl 50 rotation, so you might as well. I also put 2 points in Master Focus in the Focus tree (Master Strike does come in handy); 2 points in Defensive Rolls (to make me less squishy), and 1 point in Jedi Crusader (because that translates into a lot of free focus off your already useful Rebuke). I hope that helps.

Sentinel would be your direct equivalent DPS class with Watchman spec for burns (mirrors Annihilation), Combat for burst (Carnage) and Focus for AOE (Rage). All are 100% DPS. If you're looking for something different I'd go tanking as a Guardian. I'll leave it to others more familiar with that AC's specs to flesh those options out for you.

I'm Watchman spec'd so I grabbed the one that conveys a 30% chance of adding 210 elemental on all attacks (max once per 4.5s). The other benefits are to add Endurance and Power, so I'll have to jigger things around to add more Crit and Surge elsewhere, but from what I've read, this is the new best in slot. If others feel differently, please chime in as I'll have like an hour tonight to undo the purchase.

I'm having this problem now as well. I was able to log on and play yesterday afternoon like normal. I went to log on and play last night, was brought to the server selection page and got the Error 1003 message when I went to log onto my server. I thought that perhaps it was due to very high traffic on the server, but I tried it again this morning (when it was back down to light traffic) and still got the Error 1003 message. Nothing has changed on my end since I was successfully logging in and running Section X yesterday afternoon. Anybody know what's going on, and how to fix it? It would seem that this is something on Bioware's end. Is it an intermittent issue and are they getting it sorted out?

Well, I assume they'd charge something for it, either an additional amount per month for a second log-in on an ongoing basis, or an amount of cartel coins to allow it on a shorter-term basis. So it would cost you more if you wanted to run together frequently, or less if you just wanted to do so every now and then. I'm sure they''d be able to figure out something reasonable for both Bioware and game subscribers.

Currently my wife and I are each sharing time (rock-paper-scissors) playing SWTOR off a single account and our single laptop. We also occasionally help our older boy play his Trooper. (He nearly lost his mind when he saw the battle for Alderaan video prior to game launch.) At some point we'll wind up getting another laptop, and when we do, it would be fantastic if we could each boot up our main characters and finally run something together. Given that our mains are both under the same account, would Bioware consider an option for us to each be able to log-on to our account at the same time to play together?

I may well be wrong (and will have to check in real time tonight), but I thought that a burn tick of cauterize and a burn tick of applied via overload were roughly the same damage. For short-hand I'll use the Torhead damage estimates which show Cauterize doing 1398 in elemental damage over 6 seconds (i.e. 233 per second), while they list Overload Saber as applying a burn of 235 (also elemental) over 6 seconds to each attack charged. Would that not mean that, so long as you're not wasting a Zen charge, it wouldn't much matter what DoT ticks it applies to? On a related topic I am also curious about the wording that while OS stacks 3 times, that the burn effect only happens once per 1.5s. Is that one time per 1.5s per stack, or one time per 1.5s max regardless of how many staks are burning on a given tick. It reads more like the 2nd option, but that would argue for spreading out use of your OS charges to maximize the number of 1.5s ticks you get burn damage on. That runs counter to how I thought it works and to most of the advice I've read (which is to lay all those OS burns down with Cauterize and the Zen away).

My current order of use (at least on opening) is F. Leap > OS in air > ZS > Cautz > Merciless > Zen. Initially I assumed that OS would apply to ZS, CZ and Merc. That would have 4 burns up (OSx3 + CZ); then I pop Zen to get them all going crit. In addition to the overall "optimal timing" issue for Zen that we're discussing here, I also have a couple of questions on the mechanics of it.. First, although the leaping part of Force Leap happens before OS, the actual strike happens after the in-air OS. Does that mean that the first stack of OS is actually applied to FL, making ZS and CZ charges 2 and 3 for OS? I'm also curious about how exactly the 6 charges of Zen are applied. Is one charge spent per tick in which burns take place, applying the Zen bonus to each DoT active that tick, or is one charge spent on a per DoT per tick basis? Option 1 would see more DoT ticks going critical and have the overall effect last longer. Option 2 would see all 6 charges used up in 2 ticks if you had 3 burns active at the time. I am pretty sure that it is the second of those mechanics as Zen charges tend to evaporate quite quickly for me if I'm using my standard opening rotation above.

One of the nice things about Centering is that, so long as you go back into combat before a stack of 30 points expires, you can keep that full stack in your back pocket. I generally hold it for one of the bigger/tougher individuals in an area rather than just popping it on the first available mob. That said, if you've got Valor (2) and Defensive forms (2) you're going to build Centering again quite quickly, so there's no need to be too stingy with Zen. One question I have is whether the 6 charges of Zen apply their 100% crit bump and heals bump on a per attack basis (i.e. to all DoT ticks for 6 attacks separate melee attacks benefit until all damage is applied), or on a per DoT tick basis (i.e. 1 charge per tick for 6 ticks, applying the crit and heal bonus to all DoTs on the target each tick), or on a per DoT per tick basis (i.e if you have 3 DoT attacks burning on target, you expend all 6 charges in 2 ticks)? Knowing which of those is the case would be useful in getting the most out of each Zen pop. Reading the languge on Torhead makes it seem like the first option is the case, but if I hit OS, then lay ZS-CZ-MS on target, then pop Zen the charges seem to evaporate in a heartbeat, which makes me think it may be the third option above. Insights anybody?

Yeah, I love my Sent (Watchman spec in Juyo). The ranged DPS of a Commando has its charms as well, but there are sooooo many things to love about Watchman. It's not just the joy of the big ticket Leap-Overload Saber-Sow Death and Destruction train. There's the 0m leap, the various interrupts, the auto-crits with self-heal, the Inspiration buff for your whole raiding party, etc. Oh, and the first time you go cutting through a mob, leaving standing targets to die from your burns while you leap onto the next target, is delicious...uhhhhmm...we are light side though, right?

Overall I'm quite pleased with my Watchmen's breadth of attacks and utility abilities. Force Leap to close or Blade Storm at 10m while charging in (followed by a sweet Pommel Strike whenever possible) works fine for "range" issues. What I COULD see is a Force Pull. It might be gratuitous, but I'd LOVE to be able to yank back that guy who's just jumped away from me and onto my healer buddy. Also, it just seems that every Jedi should have SOME telekinetic ability. Alternatively, they could go in a more KOTOR'esque direction; perhaps allowing post-lvl 50 development of some form of / limited access to abilities from the other advanced class or even class. A Consular will never stand up to a Knight in a saber duel, but might have 1 or 2 saber tricks up the old robe sleeves. Conversely a Knight will never be mass healing others or creating TK storms, but might pick up some of the earlier TK or healing powers. It fits with cannon. (Yoda was said to top Mace with a light saber and Anakin/Vader used TK powers all the time.) The trick would be not muddying the waters in-game , as an earlier poster pointed out, with anyone being able to do anything, thus eroding class differentiation.

I actually find Jedi Crusader (1) quite useful as an alternative in PVE to Focused Leap (2). To get through my typical opening rotation (Force Leap>Overload Saber>Zealous Strike>Cauterize>Merciless Strike) I need to make sure I'm generating at least 1 more point of Focus. Two talent points in FL gets you that, but Rebuke plus just one point in JC will reliably get you that and more. Rebuke’s cool down is a lot longer than Force Leap, but the payout is higher and it can be up third of the time (30 sec ability with a 60 sec cool down). Side benefits include being able to take both Force Fade (2) and Defensive Roll (2).

Good news! (...perhaps.) I jumped on to do a bit of crafting and (after running the repair function to get the game to launch post 1.4) I discovered that the hood on my robes was gone. Previous night hood; last night no hood. I checked and it appears that when you have something in the head slot, and select to hide that slot it now takes the hood off instead of the head gear (i.e. I could still see my doofy headband, but hey let's not split hairs). It seems to toggle back and forth now, so I'm hoping it wasn't just a fluke. It didn't work on my Sage's Esseles robes, but he's still pretty low level and doesn't have anything in the head slot yet. Sooooo, perhaps BW fixed it in 1.4 afterall. Kudos if that's the case! My wife in particular will be happy that her Jedi's head is no longer perpetually stuffed in a burlap sack! (Oh and i have to ask, why on earth are the folks posting here about this being a pointless, vain, time-wasting, non-issue, bothering to spend their time reading and posting to a thread titled "Hood On/Off Toggle?")