While leveling a Sage in the Balance tree, I looked at the description for Mind Warp (which "increases the duration of Mind Crush by 1 or 2 seconds") and was slightly confused as to whether this was a positive skill or not, especially since I remember WoW forum arguments over a similar issue with warlocks and whether increased DoT length automatically implied extra ticks and therefore extra damage. So I checked, my Mind Crush tooltip said that it did around 560 damage over 6 seconds, I took a point in Mind Warp, and the Mind Crush tooltip updated... to 560 damage over 7 seconds, which would make it a DPS loss. What I am unsure of is whether this is a tooltip problem (as in, the damage itself is applied correctly and there is an extra tick of Mind Crush) or an actual damage problem (Mind Crush ticks the same number of times, but over an extended period). I didn't notice much of a difference with only one point in the skill. Either way, it bears some investigation. I don't have a Sorc, but I imagine that they would suffer a similar issue with Lingering Nightmares affecting the Crushing Darkness tooltip.

First of all, I just have to say I really liked the BH story. I've played through the Jedi Knight story and I was sort of disappointed because it felt as if it was the "main" story or the class story that would relate the most to the KOTOR series; but it's not just that it wasn't what it was billed up to be, but rather the structure of the story was an issue, I didn't like that for what was ostensibly a hero story, every mission ended up being "stop the latest planet destroying doomsday weapon from being unleashed". I also felt like 2 of the Knight's companions, Doc and Rusk, were pretty much shoehorned in because of the structure of the game and the need for characters to fit certain roles. The Bounty Hunter story, perhaps just by pure concept, fits better with the game's structure. Unlike superweapons, which are generally fewer in number but take a lot longer to disassemble (I suppose Act 1 of the JK story would have been better if it was just one or two superweapons, and the individual planet stories were acquisitions of parts to stop those weapons or something), having at least one bounty per planet makes complete sense. I wish that the bounties weren't entirely single targets for a change - I think they really could have mixed it up with having bounties assigned to beasts, entire organizations, or even physical objects - but it wasn't a deal breaker, and we end up causing a lot of collateral damage anyway. Anyway, here is my take on some bits of the BH story, with some questions thrown in as well. If you just want the big question, see the Skadge section. Dromund Kaas: Balmorra: Act 1 ending: Taris and Hoth: Belsavis and Skadge: Voss: Act 3 ending:

Yes, pointing out the type of argument that the creator intended it to be counts as snotty. God forbid we show some intelligence here. Since you felt the need to comment on that, why not comment on my whole post? The one that says this whole "snotty" thing is pointless, since AC respec is absurd to begin with? The one that explains why it is absurd, pointless, and destructive for the game? So who's on the high horse here? The one who took the time to create an actual argument, or the one who felt the need to pick at a small piece of my post (completely unrelated to the rest of it) just to make themselves feel better? You know, the piece that I never even agreed with in the first place, and was arguing for its pointlessness anyway? Though really, this whole thread is pointless to begin with, and I know I'll just get flamed out anyway. All this rage does feed me, though...

But it's not a slippery slope argument OR a false analogy argument. It's called reductio ad absurdum, or "reduction to the absurd", and it is a very common form of argument. It's also very effective - it's the entire basis behind Stephen Colbert's brand of comedy, or The Onion's brand of comedy (or at least, it used to be). Look it up sometime. But it shouldn't even apply here because the mere notion of switching ACs is horribly absurd in itself. Say you wanted to switch from a Guardian to a Sentinel. Your character would literally become stark naked in the middle of the Republic Fleet, as all your heavy armor is now useless on you. Now say you wanted to switch from a Sniper to an Operative for the heals. On top of reconfiguring, ooh, essentially your entire interface to adjust from cover-based ranged combat to melee combat, stealth and healing, you realize that you have absolutely no useful measure of alacrity, something that an operative/scoundrel needs to heal remotely effectively (not even healing, just energy management at that point with the increased speed of Diagnostic Scan). Oh, and your main weapon is now junk, since Ops use Blaster Rifles and not Sniper Rifles. That's just gear limitations. Never mind that you haven't had the countless hours of preparation that made you slightly more effective than the guy across from you, who also had countless hours of preparation on him. You're asking to be turned to a baby in a man's body, because you're switching from one set of tools to another. It's the difference between driving a drag racer and a rally car. The sad part is, every class has a shared skill tree with their other Advanced Class, not a perfect match because of core mechanics, but really close enough, to ensure that people can still experience that hybrid of sorts. It's also quite useful for PvP. If Mercs are terrible at PvP at the moment, well, that's the problem Bioware needs to solve, and I would wholeheartedly get behind that. But switching ACs is simply absurd. I had trouble switching between specs on my Sent (Combat to Watchman, and I really do enjoy both trees, but I did need a bit of time to get used to using the other half of my Sentinel skills), I couldn't imagine switching from a Sentinel to a Guardian. Odds are, by the time you learn your new class (which, by the way, have their own problems too), your original class will have been buffed. And you will be stuck holding the pieces. Oh, and you'll have to pick up all the new scoundrels/guardians/ops/jugs who switched from their pure damage classes just to get into Group Finder queues faster.