Hate to break it to you, but uh.. Space Vampires? Kind of already a thing.

I'm on Ebon Hawk, I'll take your stuff. And put it to good use slaughter-I mean, hugging pubs. Yay friendship.

I don't really mess with hypercrates, but I can say that if you buy packs (for credits) in multiple, you're likely to break even at the least. Generally I'll buy 4-5 packs at a time, which depending on currrent prices on my server will be 1.5-2M. That number of packs seems to be the sweet spot for me, as I consistently wind up with a few items that will net me a small (usually ~500k) profit, or items that will make good long-term investments. Obviously, YMMV, and you're better off getting an idea of what your server likes first, and trying to pick those specific packs.

Kolto overload followed by shoulder cannon heal and topped off with a WZ medpack is pretty potent.

That's not "different" rewards, that's just solo NOT getting a reward. Instead of giving solo LESS rewards, how about giving them actual different rewards, like having different tiered titles for solo and group? Again, not LESS. Don't give solo LESS rewards, give it different rewards but the same amount.

They did a holiday special once already...

There is a vote to kick, but (un?)fortunately it's invisible - there's no popped up dialog for everyone else. No one else will know you voted unless you tell them to go vote. Even then, the person being voted for can easily nullify this by getting into combat, which registers them as contributing and not being a waste of space that should be kicked.

Hi guys, Operative here (specifically). I'm looking for general advice, but of course, tips pertaining specifically to this class is always appreciated. As the title says, question 1, when does one start ranked? Currently sitting in full Exhumed, I have augmented everything except Earpiece/implants/relics. (Skill augs.) Biochem, so stims are obviously going to be in play. Spec-wise, I am a healer, and I've seen so many differing opinions that I'm not entirely sure. Clearly I haven't tried to PVP at that serious level before, I've contented myself with being a "regstar" since launch. Question 2, is it still appropriate to run concealment with healer gear? Doing this in the time of Obroan gear I seemed to get the best concealment results that way, am I a bad PVPer if I queue concealment with my healer gear while getting a feel for ranked? Question 3, where do we stand on matrix cubes? AFAIK, it was considered BIS last expansion for one of your relics, is the matrix cube's cunning boost still worth that 109 expertise loss? Currently using Serendipitous and whichever is the main-stat proc relic. Question 4, operative-specific - For concealment, specifically, is it more valuable in terms of DPS to upgrade the vibroknife before the rifle? Seeing as we mainly use the vibroknife in this spec. Question 5, also operative specific - being as I am mainly a healer and "off-spec" DPS, I am currently planning to first upgrade my earpieces, implants, and relics to DR, being as those are the pieces I am waiting to augment, since exhumed will not be my "keepers". Should I do that or am I going to be better served upgrading something else first, for whatever reason? In order of priority, I am planning to just go down - Earpiece first and relics last, then weapons, and then the rest of the gear. Any other tips for someone looking to get into ranked of course are appreciated!

There's a few steps you can take to make your journey a lot easier. The first is learning to quickly prioritize your outgoing heals. Obviously the highest priority should be yourself and the people who will peel for you, but even in that you need to establish an internal priority. The second is learning the maps, so that you can know at any given time, you can quickly hide here, or you're likely to have incoming attacks from this direction, etc. This ties into the third tip: Stay on the move. As Vergere once told Luke Skywalker - "A master of defense is one who is never in the place that is attacked." This helps keep them from getting a bead on you, gets you in the habit of moving to cover on instinct, etc. Finally, get used to your defensives and the timing in which you use them; try to conserve them and plan ahead. You have a 4 second stun, an 8 second mez, a slow, Evasion, and your shield probe. It might be a good idea to take the utility point in the first tier that lowers the cooldown on your stun to 30 seconds. Really, it all boils down to 'learn these things, learn the maps, read up on what you can'. The more you know ahead of time, the less you'll have to try to figure out amidst the chaos, and the more you can focus on learning how to filter through that chaos. But above all, learn how to play defensively. I personally recommend, even if you have a friend willing to tank, queueing solo while you're getting started, because that helps you learn what's most essential to a healer in PVP - how to survive. Don't get comfortable having people peel for you, learn how to take care of yourself. That's the secret.

All these people talking about abuse... What about the system other games use? You know, like That Other Game, wherein you gain a small amount of PVP currency for an "honorable" kill (read: Someone within an appropriate level range), and the person killed receives a debuff that prevents anyone from gaining currency via killing them until the debuff runs out. It's worked for That Other Game for what, 10 years? No reason a similar system couldn't work here. Losing comms for a kill is just a terrible idea and still wouldn't prevent ganking lowbies. Better to just incentivise the killing of appropriate targets and stop there.

Are the makeb mods decent for 60? What I'm curious about is how low you can go (again, at 60). Is 162 just going to get you the best results period, or can you go with all 148s, or even lower?

How about you stream yourselves actually working on the game for a change? Just pick a random ten issues from the bug reports and have at, Emperor knows you have plenty to choose from. Alternatively, stream the meetings of whoever's in charge of class balance. New top comedy stream.

Okay, so - for clarification - I should be using the green 162 to start?

I'm not entirely sure how I should proceed into PVP at 60. I've seen a multitude of opinions, but I"m looking for something concrete about what to wear. What I keep hearing is I should stick with the 162 greens from the SOR intro FPs and I should keep that until I can acquire ranked gear. Is that true? If not, what's the best way to go into it?

/not signed Ranked pops still aren't frequent enough for me to think this is okay. Make PVP cross-server and then I'll be fine with it, when I don't have to wait 45 minutes for a match that half the team quits after the first round.

Op healer + HK = happiness and bliss. I also leveled a sniper with HK - stopping to heal? What's that? I can't hear you over the sound of HK and I blazing through heroics. His sound bites, his look, the visuals of his abilities - I love all of it. Now if only we had more customizations, if only...or the ability to dye him. I've got a pink and purple dye I've been sitting on, looking for a reason to use...it's perfect. No one will take him seriously, and while they're busy giggling, he'll fill them full of knives, blaster bolts, and mini-rockets. Bioware: Let us dye HK and I will give you all my cartel coins forever. (I'd still sacrifice HK for a romance arc with Khem Val, though.) Edit: Also, the questline for HK was wonderful. I especially loved puttering around on the creepy ship with no markers to show me where to go and having to puzzle things out. I'm -still- missing one of those bonus logs, though... I will find you, one day. One day. I actually have one character that I stopped that questline on right at that ship. I'll never have HK on that character, just so I can go back to that ship anytime I want. I love it.

I can answer all of these with one word: Artifice. The cartel market has made an absolute joke of the market for selling leveling crystals. It's taken quite a lot away from Artifice. Cybertech: Can sell armoring, mods, etc, along with end-game variations. These are something that are always in need, because as long as the game exists, there will be a need for people to search for better gear. Biochem: There will, similarly, always be a need for players to get better implants and replace the various stims they use. Armormech and Synthweaving have large selections of orange gear to sell, along with augment things. Not replaced as often, but still something with a continued, viable market. Armstech: Same as cybertech, but with barrels and hilts. Artifice: Well, they can make end-game color crystals - which if we're honest, aren't a big deal for stats anymore, only for color. The market on these is very low, because once you have a crystal, you don't have to replace it. You can take it out of your weapon, store it, ship it off to another character with legacy items, and it's not going to get "upgraded" stat-wise. They can make enhancements, true, and that's a good market, but...uh... There's some augments IIRC, and....well, that's really the only useful stuff they can make a profit on. Isn't much, compared to other crafting markets that will have much more need. Leveling crystals? Cartel crystals wiped that out. Offhands? Go run the very first flashpoint and get an orange offhand. Orange weapons? Well, there's...a very scant few. Leveling weapons? Nope. If you're leveling in any way other than GSF, getting the planetary comms to upgrade orange gear won't be a problem. If you're leveling in GSF, you didn't need to upgrade that gear anyway. So, in summary: The cartel market completely shattered 1/2 (1/3rd if you -must- count end-game crystals) of Artifice's viable, renewable markets. No other crafting skill has been hit like that. The orange armor from other crafting skills isn't buyable through the cartel market - you'll need crafters to get that look. Augments, stims, etc - not purchasable through the cartel market. Armoring and mods are, for two levels: 15 and 30, but the CC cost is high enough that you'd have to have more money than sense to take advantage of that.

I'm going to need to see statistical evidence to support your claims for "most PVPers hate bolster", and the part about min-maxers as well, because it sounds like crap you made up to support your theory with your own exaggeration. Plus, you know, it's hard to take any anecdotal evidence that certain biodrones support seriously. Protip: The PVP forums do not count as statistical evidence, unless you can show me evidence that "most" PVPers actually utilize the forums. Hard numbers, please, not more generalizations, exaggerations, and other useless crap that makes your post seem like the substance-less burst of hot air it is.

I can confirm that Bolster does not work properly dynamically. I've tested this over the course of weeks, using a very simple test, even across computers to be 100% sure. I enter a warzone, check my stats, then remove one non-PVP relic. I take note of my stats at that point, then re-equip the relic and once again take note of my stats - which have changed. What confuses me most is that if I enter a warzone with Relic A and have XXXX expertise, removing and re-equipping the relic leaves me at XXXY expertise. That surely can't be right... Removing and re-equipping the EXACT SAME PIECE should leave me with the same stats. It doesn't.

I want bug fixes in a reasonable amount of time. The only thing we can do is compare this MMO to other MMOs, and look at the average length of time bugs go unfixed. I think you'll find that yes, compared to the vast majority of its competitors, this behavior is very unprofessional.

1 year is not 'due time'. Please show me where, for example, they've ever mentioned anything regarding the exfiltrate bug.

I love this game. Really, I do, but it's hard to justify loving it when Bioware is so unprofessional. 1. Known bugs have been on the list for over a year (I.E. the valor 100 not properly awarding Ops Leader) and not been addressed. 2. Broken abilities are left broken. (i.E., the fact that being knocked back or pulled during Exfiltrate causes you to be rooted) These are not addressed. 3. Multiple exploits are left open for people to exploit. For example, referring subscribed players and the exploit that allows F2P to get past the 5 warzone a week a limit. These have been reported. I've done my part in reporting exploits, but they're left open. In summary, Bioware allows known bugs, gamebreaking bugs, and exploits to remain in their game. Am I the only person who feels this is incredibly unprofessional?

Partisan doesn't exist in-game anymore. For PVP: You'll spend regular WZ comms on Conqueror gear. After you have a full set (and valor level 40) you convert regular comms to ranked comms at a cost of 30 warzone comms gets you 10 ranked (so 3 WZ comms = 1 ranked.) You'll then purchase Obroan gear by paying ranked comms and turning in the appropriate conqueror piece. (I.E., to purchase tank assassin gear (called "Survivor") you would first buy the Conqueror Survivor chest piece, then pay ranked comms and turn in that chest piece to get a Obroan chest piece. (You only need to turn in the SHELL, you may keep the conqueror mods.) For PVE: Spend your planetary comms on Fleet at the Makeb vendor to purchase armorings, mods, and enhancements. These will be good enough to start doing level 50 HM FPs to get Black Hole and Campaign gear. Once you're outfitted in Black Hole/Campaign (and are at least level 53) find a group to do the Oricon questline with. This will get you started with a few pieces of 66 gear, and be suitable to begin doing 55 HM FPs. Once you have a set of Arkanian gear from that, you can begin doing Operations. Note: Conqueror PVP gear is more than enough to do SM 55 operations with. You'll also want to augment your gear. This is done by procuring an augment kit from a crafter or the GTN and paying a small fee to add an augment slot to a piece of gear. Augments provide small stat boosts - the top tier ones currently being, IIRC, 20 main stat and 32 endurance per piece of gear.

Drwcroaker, that was the main thing I was looking for - whether I was doing it right. As far as specific situations: 1. I understand that scouts should get out there and cap. What should I do at the beginning as a strike fighter or gunship? Currently, as a strike fighter, I try to annoy enemies moving to a point to get them to chase me. As a gunship, I move to just behind the point and get ready to snipe incoming. 2. As scout and strike fighter, what targets should I prioritize?

Can we get some help for new players? Like guides as to tactics, etc? For example, I have no idea what the heck to do when the guy I'm after flips over and goes throttling past me. Should I brake and turn around, continue forward for a ways, then loop around and continue pursuit, break off to a new target... Any general tips for new players would be great, especially in regards to dogfighting.