A lot of large businesses have terrible support, customer support is one of those areas that can end up under-invested, most customers will tend not have to experience bad customer service and even those who do, if they like the product that much, they'll brush it off as a bad experience and move along. DDOS is possible I guess. Is quite amusing to me, I am a returning player who quit around the time of the initial server merges, where our server was so unstable, we couldn't even beat Gharj in a raid group with full Rakata. I come back and the servers break. XD

Lottery spawns ; ; I am appreciative of the fact it's only a 2 hour timed spawn. Heck, even though Shikigami weapon was a 21 hour timed spawn, he was a bit of a PITA, because he's invisible. Less of a pain if you had widescan and easy when you've got his time of death too (how I managed to catch him), but still, I think we're lucky on SW:TOR in this respect. Heck, at least we don't have to do weapon trials either. Saying that, there's no real reason to do it for Nightmare Pilgrim. The point of it in FFXI was to make certain items a lot rarer, though it was one of the frustrations with the game, but still, getting that Yinyang Robe was something to boast about afterwards and there's many other items out there like that, some a lot more ridiculous. As far as I understood it, the timed spawns here were to stop groups of people spamming the world bosses and having the lockout stops that, so no need for the 2 hour gap, at least IMO, it just means another group could potentially just be sitting around doing bugger all until they can spawn.

A good team of Marauders/Sentinels can be a pain, but I think we have the tools to take them down. They output a high DPS and can defend themselves, I can see why the defenses are there, they're a Melee DPS and therefore take on damage from AoEs. I don't think it makes them OP in PvP, but should a person be effective, they are difficult to take down, but arguably, it's the same for every one. I've come up again Marauders and Sentinels who aren't that difficult to take down. E.G. I was doing lowbie PvP last night on my Dirty Fighting Gunslinger and had no trouble taking down some Marauders, I lacked defensive capabilities but made up for it in CCs and movement impairments. I can slow him down, make my distance, get damage when he can't, then kick them in the nuts, blaster whip him then move out of the way. As a Sharpshooter (as I was previously) I found them more annoying, but then I was less mobile. Bear in mind also, I am a Dirty Fighting noob, I only respecced it for PvP last night. On my Sage, I have CCs, defenses and heals to keep me alive, plus force speed and can take advantage of obstacles and like a Gunslinger, I can slow my foe down. If a Marauder comes after me, I can survive it. Not always, but some are more skilled and persistent than others. When it comes to groups, I think Marauders are annoying because they can output a high DPS and can really work well if you've got a well focused group. Sometimes this is what happens and if they spot my Sage, he might not live that long. But I wonder if it's possible for another group of DPS to use a similar tactic and get similar results? Maybe a team of Dirty Fighting gunslingers, throws flash grenade to prevent nearby people attacking, kick their specific target in the nuts and shoot the crap out of them? If I can get 3 of my guild's gunslingers together I might try it.

Works with my slick hair, type 1 body Miraluka male.

I can understand the concerns of the OP, but I think it's an issue for any MMORPG and PuGs when it comes to tougher content. The disadvantage here specificially is lock outs, because you can't just go grab another PuG, you gotta wait until your lock out is over, unless you compromise and grab a PuG for another Ops, but it is a wee bit of a set back regardless of what you do. However, I think this is a good reason to be a member of a guild. You can get a regular team or a regular selection of people to Ops with, you'll still get fail runs, especially when you get new 50s or people not used to that ops or playing that class for the ops, but they're more likely to stick around to the end. Our guild gets some pretty good HM runs and people don't have so much of a problem getting full Rakata (I'm just one item off). Just get in a guild that's good for doing Ops and you should have less of a problem doing them.

Whilst I don't have a 50 Assassin, but you've got people here who have successfully used their Assassin and got good results from playing it the way they do. In groups, it may not necessarily be the most wanted, but what people want depends on many factors. For example, I would rather PvE with a good Assassin/Shadow than a bad Marauder/Sentinel or even a moderate one. When it comes to a guild, it really depends on what your guild's attitude is. My guild's attitude is: play what you're comfortable with, you'll get help gearing up and people will offer any tips should you want them. If you're in a guild that's telling you what you should play, then you'll probably find that the guild takes the game way too seriously. My advice then? Find another guild. Any class is viable in the right hands. When people start complaining that their class is 'bad' when others manage just fine, it's a sign of a bad workman blaming his tools. Okay, the workman might not like the tools he's got, if that's the case, he can learn to like them or get a new set of tools. What it comes down to is enjoying the game. When I played FFXI I played the 3 most unpopular classes because I enjoyed them, I point blank refused to play a class I did like and in shout groups I did get, "have you got a [x] instead?". They were viable and did a great job in the right hands, but it's not what shout groups were after. However, my endgame team? They loved me and I filled my role very well. Okay I am talking about a different game, but the same principle applies, enjoy the class? Think you'll be able to play it? Then play it! There will be people that are more interested in what you are capable of and not your class choice and generally they're the people you'll want to play with. Heck, a good guild will offer advice on how to improve your skills in the game, but there's also the forums. There's no reason why if somebody wanted to be an Assassin and people are capable of playing the job well that other people aren't capable of doing the same. So my advice wouldn't be to shelve it. If they want to play a DPS Assassin, more power to them.

Perhaps you could have tried Star'breeze, using an apostrophe can help, it's not perfect, but it's a work around. I only had to change one of my names, so I was fortunate. Shame you can't use some real world names, though I did get killed by a Peter Griffin in PvP and saw Tony Stark, however, I wasn't allowed to start a Cyborg Trooper called 'Robocop' or even 'Robo'cop', I went for Robocod instead after the video game. Shame, Robocop might have been lots of fun.

To be honest, I am getting bored of planet missions and would like to focus just on my class missions. I levelled my Sage on mostly planet missions and I've got my Juggernaut to 43 on mostly planet missions. I'd like to get those last 7 levels doing something else and would like my other alts to not go through the same missions again. So how fares exp in spamming Flashpoints in comparison to running through planet missions? My Juggernaut is a tank, so queue usually pops fairly quick. Cheers.

Add ons were useful in WoW and to be honest I liked using them. However, I would prefer to see SW:TOR not use them. Although there's many similarities between WoW and SW:TOR, I think there's enough about them that makes them different for me to not think I'm playing the same game and I would hate to see SW:TOR to pursue the direction of WoW any further, in fact, I'd like to see it move away. There's many things I see SW:TOR doing right that WoW didn't for me. I'd say one of my most important add-ons in WoW was actually the customisable UI and that add-on pretty much worked in the same way as the UI customisation does in SW:TOR. My 2 main classes are a healer and a tank, okay my tank isn't level 50, so he's really only done Flashpoints and PvP. Healing in an Ops isn't difficult when you know the fights and have suitable gear. For learning the fights, there's tutorials on YouTube and if you've got a guild running you through, I am sure they can offer some tips before you fight the bosses. When I hit level 50 one of the first things I did was join my guild for a EV HM and we got wiped. My Sage was in full recruit and I didn't know the fights, though my guild did explain them to me, it was just a bit difficult keeping them alive, it was a close fight though, so I didn't completely suck . But now, my Sage is nearly in full Rakata and it seems laughable that we'd get wiped on the first boss or any of the EV or KP ones. I just have my UI set out so people's health bars are nice and visible - I keep a look out for what's on the floor, I make sure I can see the distance between me and my target in my UI and I check if I've been targeted for any kind of special attack. I'd say healing in PvP is harder, but you're up against player skill and you might be up against some pretty skilled players. But addons won't change that. Tanking on the other hand. Tanking isn't so bad in SW:TOR because your DPS tend to be able to take a hit, generally you'll want to keep the tougher enemies away and generally they can handle trash mobs, especially if you've got your hands full. But in a fight, I occassionally rotate my camera to see if there's any enemies that aren't attacking me and I grab hate from them. It's not that difficult to spot and I don't need a tanking add-on to tell me who has hate. Tanking in PvP is easier than healing in PvP, you've just got to guard weaker players (preferable a healer), spam your taunts and take damage and of course help complete your objectives. As a tank, you're pretty good at taking a huttball beyond the goal line. It's fun being a Juggernaut, popping your defense cool downs, having a healer follow you and just charge your way through to the end, though without the healer or if your defenses are on CD, it's harder to do that. You might wish to DPS too to help on that front. I don't think add ons would help here either.

Some more good advice folks. I figured the higher end numbers would be on a longer WZ, still, that's a pretty coo result, but if I could get a decent 500-600k I think I would be happy. I tend not to have my AoE on cool down and tend to pop it when I think I need it, but actually having it on CD makes plenty of sense, it's extra heals if I am able to get away with casting it. Sometimes I do find it hard going unnoticed and a good team once spotting me will group together, stun lock and kill me, it can be a hit or miss, my CC's help and force speed can help even more. Though Marauders can be the biggest PITA in this respect, but even then they're not guaranteed to kill me. I like that in good team people will get my back, (and this is where my heals improve) unfortunately, a good PuG team isn't so easy to find pub side. Though at least with premades guildies tend to stick together. It is a shame I need to rely on guard and taunts more and as my Juggernaut is a tank, I'll know to pick out the sorcerers and help them out. On Pub side I'll just have to convince a tank to come PvP with me. I know Bioware were trying to make it so we're not OP, but still, we are rather squishy compared to other classes. Cheers.

Yeah, I'm sure I'd get more heals if I wasn't thinking about helping win the match - you know, stopping healing to drop an AoE so somebody doesn't cap or in Huttball where I'm more interested in playing the sport and helping us win than actually focusing on my healing too much. Normally I try to set myself up in a spot where Rescue becomes most effective or stalk the ball carrier to make sure they're healed and the attackers are CC or slowed. Depends on where I am and the situation. I'm not so much worried about my healing in Huttball, it seems lately to be Pub's best WZ on our server and I am capable of aiding somebody in scoring or even scoring myself. (Lots of fun Rescuing a CC'd ball carrier over the goal line) Makes perfect sense. I love doing that on my Gunslinger. Anyway, cheers for the tips, I will take them all to heart and hopefully see my healings improve. I very rarely see people hit the higher numbers, which means I fairly frequently end up in the top 2 heals. Though, when my guild starts doing Rated Warzones, I know I'll need to step up my game. Cheers.

To be honest I've not been using any stims, though I will rectify that. I've got the 2 points on my AoE heals and I try to use Salvation as much as I can. But I probably forget my Force Potency, so I'll be more vigilant in that respect. I think they're useful things to consider. Having a tank on you I imagine is a big hand, unfortunately our pre-mades tend to be 3 DPS + 1 healer (when we do grab tanks, I'll be sure to have them cover me) and I don't think you can always rely on PuGs, particularly with Pubs on our server, there's some really good Pub PvPers to be fair, but often or not you get people who seem to be all over the place (granted they have to play to learn, but it's frustrating), whilst the Imps are focused and together. It's pretty ridiculous because my Imp character is getting wins all the time, but pub side it's actually a lot of effort. But no harm in trying to get a tank to cover me, who knows, there might be one who'll help. Cheers.

I've seen some posts here showing folks with pretty decent heals at the end of their WZs, even reach 1mill. Yet, I never seen anybody get that high in an actual Warzone, maybe ~500k on the rare occassion. For me, my top result is ~400k, but my average is probably 250k. Embarrassing that I post a defeat, but it's pretty normal for Pubs to lose on my server (at least in PuGs). But here's some results for a Voidstar Link I broke 400k, but the Imp healer above me was closer to 600k. In that particular match, I didn't struggle so much with getting people off of my back, which made it easier to hit 400k (as you'll see, I only had 2 deaths). However, take situations like Novare Coast last night, where I was constantly hit by the other side I found once my CCs were on CD I had to pretty much kite them for survivability, throw the odd heal/shield where I could, but my total heals in the end suffered. I also try to take advantage of obstacles, sometimes people stop attacking me, but when they don't, it at least gives me a little time to recover. The way I see it, if I'm kiting, I'm not keeping people alive. I am almost full Battlemaster gear and I think it would be nice to get consistently high heals or even break higher than 400k, so I am wondering if there's any tips on improving my heals?

I think as far as PvE goes, the glass cannon doesn't apply so much because generally you've got somebody tanking and somebody healing and in theory you shouldn't be at a massive risk and I don't think BW would want to make Sage OP in this respect. In PvP, we die fairly easily and whilst you can do things to increase your survivability, people do like to pounce on you, throw in a load of stuns/interrupts and zerg you, because you're an easier target and still plenty a threat. It's nice when other players are distracted and you can zerg them yourself, but I can kinda agree with the sentiments here. My suggestion would be to increase the effectiveness of the Expertise rating. Give Sages more deadliness before the Imps gang up and tear them down. I don't want Sage to be OP though, I think that would take the challenge out of PvP.

I've not really taken my Inquisitor very far, as I can't really comment far. I think Qyzen vs Khem, as a tank, I think Qyzen wins, the jump is an advantage and as a seer I pretty much used him throughout the game, sometimes replacing him with Zenith, then Nadia as DPS. But I do find Khem to be more interesting as a character. But I don't have anything against Qyzen, he's a good companion and I like being regarded as a Herald. But on the note of Nadia, I personally compare her to Jaesa Wilsaam, but then that's because I have play my Warrior enough to unlock her and in a way I think they're each other's opposites (at least with dark side Jaesa). If we were comparing those two, I think Jaesa wins for me, Nadia is sweet and caring, a bit clingy and her emotions kind of weaken her, as she constantly as conflict with her emotions (and as her master, you're kind of there to help her guide her emotions) and II think it helps make her and overall three-dimensional character, but I like Jaesa (I turned her Dark Side) because she's quite strong willed, and she's a lot more impulsive. However, I think storywise and in terms of their personality and the people acting as their 'master', each make perfect sense, one's got to find peace and harmony because it's the Jedi way, whilst the other has got to use her pain and anger to fuel her rage and use her suffering to her strength because that's the Sith way. In both situations you are showing them the way of your order. I guess, being evil is more interesting to me. So the fact I'm a level 50 lightsided Jedi Sage is probably baffling.

Good advice, I'll look up those posts to hopefully improve my Juggernaut effectiveness too. Also, I should add to my post that I'm used to PvPing as a Sage, so the fact I'm not so squishy on a Juggernaut makes me feel like I'm effective in terms of damage reduction, but there's probably some truth in that we might not be so effective in lower levels. I know in higher levels Juggernauts I've taken on have been fairly tough, tougher than my guy at least.

On the HM I did do as a healer (I do them as DPS at the moment). I was kept pretty busy and I didn't try to DPS it, that could partly be down to my gear. On NM, I did do some DPS on Soa next to my healing, especially on the last stage, but people stayed alive enough and we kinda needed him to go down before he berserks. Generally I think it's better to keep focused on heals, but if you think you can land extra damage in a fight, I say, "why not?" I generally did it when levelling and have done it on hybrid classes on other MMOs. I think if you're trying to get the hang of healing, I think it's a good idea to play it safe and find where you're comfortable, which I am still kinda doing myself - hence I'm in DPS mode at the moment (our guild has enough healers for me to get away with it).

I've got Qyzen and Nadia geared. Qyzen is recruit gear and Nadia is a mix of recruit and battle master. I can go through Ilum dailies fine with both of them, it's slower than when doing them as a DPS. Qyzen is obviously useful because he keeps threat and dies less quickly and you can combine DPS and healing. If you're wanting to practice healing, I think Qyzen gives more room to breathe. Nadia will kill quicker than Qyzen and whilst she doesn't match my DPS spec, she's got good DPS for a companion. In general I tend to use Nadia more just because she gets through mobs quicker and I can keep us healed. Also, if you're looking to practice, try going into PvP as a healer, it doesn't matter if you're not scoring high for healers to begin with (you've got to start somewhere), other players will make it challenging, as a Sage you're not very mobile and you'll have to learn to compensate in PvP and PvE. Also, watching Sages on YouTube might help as you'll see what people do in practice. Force Quake can knock people off of their feet too - I sometimes go straight in with it if there's a group. But I've only ever focused on interrupts where it matters most - on the most damaging attacks. Instead of an interrupt you can put force armour up to give you or an ally some extra resistance whilst you're casting your heals. I don't think the rotations have to be complicated. I tend to Force Armour -> Rejuvenate -> Healing Trance If on cool down: I throw in Deliverance if they're not losing health too quickly. I spam Benevolence if somebody is losing health quickly (and add Force armour), but it can be costly in terms of Force, which is where Noble Sacrifice helps (and using Rejuvenate on yourself), but I tend to try and avoid spamming Benevolence. With a group, using Salvation (your AoE heal) can be very useful, it can save you spending force and keeps people alive. Useful in HM bosses. If your group keeps tights, you can keep them safe and helps that little bit more to keep some of your DPS guys alive and you can focus on healing those most at risk (like tanks or anybody who has got hate). Additional Notes: I think gear is pretty important, which I think kinda goes without saying, but I think it's easier to get away with a DPS who's still building their gear than a healer, it may be even harder if you're still unfamiliar. When I hit 50 I went straight into a hard mode EV with my guild, it was challenging and we kinda went Normal mode to build my gear up a bit better instead (as we got wiped by the first boss), though I have beaten that boss on HM, but I've decided to go DPS whilst my gear builds to something more acceptable. I don't know what your gear is like, you may already have got enough to not worry about this. Force Armour I think is pretty important, if there's a sudden, "oh sh-! They're gonna die!" moment, Force Armour comes first, then Trance or Benevolence (quick cast time). At least this is coming from my play style. Others may have different suggestions, or heck more efficient suggestions. I've been level 50 for just over a week, so I can't claim to be an expert, but just relate what I've found works.

If it was a DPS Sage, they get some nice DPS tools in the higher levels and obviously it's more effective the more well geared they are. Whilst they are squishy and not very mobile, Sages can be good DPS. Telekinetic Sages get Telekinetic Wave, which under the right spec can sometimes proc twice and can sometimes insta-cast. These are the two talents: Telekinetic Momentum and Tidal Force. As a Juggernaut you get some interrupts and stuns, I think for something like a Sage, they're more useful - particularly the interrupt that knocks them back a few metres. In terms of taking damage, I've not struggled that much in PvP with my Juggernaut Tank. I tend to pop damage reduction stuff when I'm ganged up on or I'm against somebody who is pretty tough. I'm not the best Juggernaut in the world either.

It gets better as you level. Noble Sacrifice is useful if you're mixing DPS & Healing, you'll get some more useful healing spells as your progress your Seer spec (like an insta-cast one), which should make up for lost health from Noble Sacrifice. I'd say later on, particularly for Ops, you're going to just be healing focused as generally there will be somebody who needs healing. Also try not to waste too much force in your rotations, put up force armour on people and you'll heal them less, once you get your AoE heal, that can be a big force saver when it comes to healing multiple people. If you take a Telekinetics spec for DPS, you do get some more tools for keeping your force up. It's rare for me to use Noble Sacrifice and I can just spam attack after attack with the obvious draw back of not being very mobile.

Qyzen vs Captain Iresso as tanks, I found myself (as a Sage healer) using Qyzen the most. Other than the weapon, my Qyzen and Captain Iresso share their gear set as both benefit from the same stats. There are a couple of annoyances with Qyzen, but I actually prefer him as a tank as he seems to keep hate better than my Iresso and I can just send Qyzen out, attack and not worry so much about being within AoE range as Qyzen is a melee tank.

I PvP on my Sage a lot, I'm always a healer and whilst you don't have a lot of survivability when the other team spots you, particularly when they spam you with interrupts, but I think it's actually a lot of fun to play in PvP. Whilst I am not the most impressive Sage in the world as I'm a relatively new level 50 and am building up my gear, but I'm frequently in the top 2 for healing and was often first or second in pre-50 war zones for healing. http://i1220.photobucket.com/albums/dd451/BrynP/pvpwin.png I think the important thing can be positioning. Often or not Imps will head directly for you, so I tend to stick out of the way and generally they tend not to bother with you. When you do get spotted, you got your crowd control skillls to hold them off, but generally your team should be helping defend you as you won't exactly be able to tank them for too long and whilst you're taking damage, you're probably not healing many people. For healing, your best friends are: Force Armour, Rejuvenate, Healing Trance and Salvation. Benevolence and Deliverance can come in handy, but the others I think are the most used. Benevolence is what I spam when somebody's covered in enemies for quick healing bursts, sometimes that person might be a fellow healer. If you're out of an enemy's line of sight, you've got a better chance, I don't think you can expect to take on too many folk head on. If 1 v 1 you can try kiting, but again, you're not healing as much and if the person has decent interrupts and a good DPS, you may still struggle, though force armour and rejuvenate can be used whilst mobile, maybe use a stun to quickly land a different skill. Generally people won't break out of a stun, if they are that foolish, then drop them a force lift and if nobody attacks them, you've gained 60 seconds. [edit]I should mention that 'Rescue' is pretty useful for Huttball, if you can position yourself close to the goal then you can pull up the ball carrier to your position. Or if you happen to be on the goal and your ball carrier is CC'd and close to dying, pull him over the goal line, that's fun. A DPS Sage? I've never queued as one. Shadow on the other hand, I can imagine PvPing on that can be a lot of fun, I've done some on a low level Sith Assassin and being able to stealth can put you in a good position in a PvP match I think.

I think in terms of 'coolness', I think getting Jaesa as a DPS is pretty cool, though we do get her around level 30. We get to choose DS or LS for one of our companions and doing it can be kind of fun and I don't think any other classes get that choice. I thought the mission progression and acquiring her was interesting.Though I can see beyond that, there's nothing all that exciting in terms of companions. Still I prefer Jaesa over Nadia Grell (on my Sage) already, so I'm not going to complain about the companions we do get on Sith Warrior. Sure we may have reason envy the Jedi Knight on this, but let that envy fuel your rage, so that you may gain strength from the force and use it to crush any Jedi Knights in a WZ (as long as they're not Jedi Knights I'm healing on my Sage )

I think it takes some practice and working out the best way for you to move about in PvP. I find with my Sage your positioning can be pretty important and is a part of the skill. It's a pain having loads of people piling on top of you and as soon as the other side figures out you're one of the healers they'll try everything they can to kill you and stop you from healing. If you're out of the way, maybe even using obstacles to help, you can find people are less likely to attack you. Normally I find myself in the top two for healing in Warzone as a Jedi Sage and I wouldn't say I'm an elite player, I know I've been a healer in other MMOs, but this is the only one where I've really healed in PvP (on WoW I was always a tank). Generally I find what you do is situational, when somebody is ganging up on you, it does ultimately become harder, but there's CCs to help with some survivability, but you do kind of rely on other players a bit, so if they're not helping, you'll struggle. But then other players rely on you and if they know what's good for them, they'll defend their healers. So yes, it seems after 1.2 playing a Sage/Sorceror is harder, but I don't think it makes it ridiculously hard. Though, to be fair I could probably do with a lot more practice myself.

Or just don't give them money until it improves and let us who are enjoying the game pay them money? If you're not currently enjoying it, you can cancel your subscription and come back later. This is pretty common for an MMO, SW:TOR has a lot of potential, Bioware just needs to work on the content and bug fixes. People are gonna quit and the numbers are gonna drop because people get bored or they decide they didn't like it and for some servers that number may be greater than others. Server merges (like FFXI:Online occassionally does when numbers drop - even though their population is low, the servers still have a strong population) should mean servers have a stronger population. SWTOR does have a lot of servers. If Bioware does an expansion, no doubt that'll boost the numbers again. It takes a while for all that end game content to build up, there was once a time where WoW's endgame was small. WoW has the advantage because it's got years of development behind it. But I actually find WoW quite boring to play. SW:TOR on the other hand, I don't. Obviously, there's a case of it being "to each his own", I mean people may have tried this and gone back to the MMORPG they prefer playing (like WoW) or break away from the curse and venture the MMORPG outdoors called real life, where the graphics are a LOT better.