The game isn't dead but it is far worse off today then it was a year ago. Argue whether gc is good or bad now all you like but when it came out it combined with other factors, but it was clearly the final straw for many, drove enough people away that Ben was moved on and we got Keith. If those people are interested in returning I think it unlikely they will do so no matter how pretty they make gc look. My thoughts are GC remaining in any form will continue to damage the player base side as well as the rather poor content since 5.0. Keiths reign has not been smooth, his communication hot and cold, they've failed to address many long outstanding issues under him (from bugs, to returned companions, to lack of content, to class balance) and they seem determined not to bail on gc. He needs to make some real headway on a few topics and so far he honestly isn't. GC did tremendous damage to the game, not just for some but for all. Even if you liked it enough people left the game because of it ( either primarily or because it was one straw too many) to reduce the player base significantly. It is untrue to suggest it had and I think continues to have a non-negative effect on the game for everyone. And you might want to skip the guild stuff, we get it your guild walks on water, but it really doesn't make gc good or bad it's just bragging at this point.

No your wrong. It does not drop aggro. Aggro is a PvE concept not a PvP one first of all. Second responsive safeguards forces you to change tactics not stop attacking, switch to AoE or just stun them for the duration and they get little to no value from it. Stealth actually takes them out of combat and allows them to escape from the first for as long as they wish, totally different. Force barrier does take them out of the fight but they are still in sight and can be targeted and their timer watched so...safe, but nothing like what stealth does or even phase walk which would be closer in effect to stealth in my veiw. Your mixing terms, and throwing together powers that really don't work similarly.

I don't ... wow you know that do you? I play no stealth classes...none. Well we can see you are wrong once again. But that is to be expected from someone willing to say anything to protect their advantage. See two can be snarky, but only one of us is actually right...again.

I posted before it was for an 8 person ops group, now your just lying. I put up with one out right lie, assuming a mistake, but two, sorry pal your not being honest so any discussion is worthless.

That's ok. Seeing as your not in a position to change things and nor am I it really doesn't matter. But we both know that stealth in this game right now is in the hands of classes that don't need it because they are built as if they didn't have it.

In this game it pretty much is. The classes that have it don't need it to be competitive at all. If they did we would have a very different story but neither does need it, they just have it moving them from competitive to hands down stronger then others. The assassin is easy to pick on since as a class it without stealth can be shown to be stronger/as strong than other other tank possible class, either as a tank or dps. But honestly the same is true for the Op compared to the other healer possible classes. Clearly without stealth its dps builds are hands down better then the sage dps builds and even with the amazing defenses of the merc dps builds its only roll and avoid everything every 9 seconds is right up with them, and this is without ever using stealth. So why do the two classes who have full time stealth even have it? They don't need it so is it just a bonus crutch for them? Seems like it honestly. Putting stealth on a timer or having it degrade over time seems fine.

I suppose but sometimes when you do something so very wrong the very thing no matter how you clean it up becomes simply toxic and you need to dump it. That to me is GC. As long as it stays nothing can really improve the perception of the game to those who left over GC.

Server mergers are never a fix, they are a bandage so a game can die in peace is all. Maybe this game is at that stage maybe it isn't but they are never a fix. Nerfs are needed from time to time to rebalance. People get upset by them but without them we have well season 8 of ranked PvP were some classes dominated and others had little chance. That drive people away just as fast as nerfs. Right now the problem is they are reacting too slowly and it is driving people away because it seems balance will never come and because people get use to playing OP classes and now don't want to give it up. Changes to the classes should not have taken 8 or 9 months and still not be complete, this is crazy. The op is coming out too slowly, 'nuff said on that. The flash point was.....mediocre at best. GC/Rng they need to kill both asap and that alone might get people to take another look at the game, but they are really being obstinate about that and unwilling to get rid of a system that generates nothing but hate.

Mercenary - Bodyguard || Commando - Combat Medic 8 Targets: 17479+-764 HPS Operative - Medicine || Scoundrel - Sawbones 8 Targets: 31144+-596 HPS ((I did find numbers two places one were the first I posted these were the second....close enough though and the only one off by 10k is you...so please try and be honest.)) Not knowing the numbers before calling for a nerf just lacks any ground to stand on. I do admit lots of the heals are over heals, but when one class can simply out HPS another by so much there certainly is an issue. Honestly I think the classes need total reworkings to make this sloppy healing system work.

Well you could certainly do HM ops (most of them) in 224 armorings with 228/230 mods and enhancements....it was possible in theory.....but most guilds could not have been successful doing so. Sure some could but not most. So from a certain point of veiw he is being honest........ Now when it comes to having kept pace...well not so much so. You need to run NiM stuff to get 246 stuff which most aren't doing. Or do PvP. So limited group of people can craft those things. Overall GC/Rng in my veiw hurt the game, it drove many away warranted or not, they left and as long as its here I never see them returning. We have given Keith more than enough time to make changes and they have been very very slow to non-existent. He could even have made a huge difference just by making it clear GC/Rng was gone once 6.0 hits, letting us know they will go back to a more friendly system. But the fact he hasn't leads me to believe what we have we will have going forward. That really bums me out, I want SWTOR to be a good game, but right now I cannot say it is nor does it look like its being lead to greener pastures.

So you define new as something happening now. But that isn't how the word new is usually defined. Normally it us used to discribe something unseen before. Having a companion betray you that you could have as a LI isn't new, its same old stuff. Quinn did it already. At least he got to die for it much much later, but the thing is this breaks the companion now going forward because he can no longer be a main character because some of us will have killed him. So now we will end up with either the same for Theron or they will punk out and not let us kill him. Either way, the bad story writing continues and we still only have one orginal companion back this year....yeah Charles is doing well by us.

Maybe not killed but certainly kicked it in the Jimmies....hard......

Just look for Bants SWTOR numbers, he's really the authority on the numbers in this game. If you don't know them you really should, and you really should know the numbers before making nerf claims.

No....with an 8 person team scoundrels do 32786 hps....compared to commandos doing 18414..... Your talking ops, so eight or sixteen. And sixteen it would be way bigger gap.

Nerfs were needed....but what are you talking about? Do you have any clue of the actual numbers of this game? Commando heals have been so far behind the other two since 5.0 its crazy. They burst ok, but their HPS are about half of that of a Scoundrel. Sorry but you define superior very differently than I would.

For me I will answer this like this, most of it isn't fun. Iokath...not fun, never even interesting to me. I disliked the intro, disliked the copy and paste story where no matter which side you pick its the same story only in different outfits. I tried the dailies but I really hated them and so I stopped. Won't do them wont revisit the place except on raid night. Uprisings.....not fun. Waves of trash followed by maybe one or possibly two interesting bosses, maybe, usually not. I had enough with waves of sky troopers, more waves of trash just isnt fun for me. And they seem completely devoid of story or purpose, its just like kill lots of throw away troops and maybe someone important .... or semi important... or just loud. Machine Gods....I like it but its being released at a snail pace. This is coming out way way too slow. New Flashpoint....well its ok, the story is a rerun of past stories and I am frankly just tired of the same old same old, companion we had no choice in taking betrays us....woot never done that before....oh but maybe they didn't ....yup never done that either....whatever trash story semi ok flash point but so less dynamic then it could have been.

It doesn't really matter who the traitor is in a sense, its that this is a played out story. We've seen it before and frankly its getting really old and seems really lazy. It just serves to point out how much the story is just a railroad we have no control over.

Their problems are many right now. PvP is a mess of poorly balanced classes and while everyone but the devs is pointing to the problem with defensive cool down the devs in their wisdom are attacking dps/hps first, and very very slowly. They let nearly all of one season of rank go without making changes. PVE the new FP was ok but far less than it could have been. The story was same old same old, companion you didn't recruite and can't not bring along betrays you....yeah so new and orginal...now done three times.... The new OP bosses are coming out so slowly its crazy. Although to be fair it has been an enjoyable op so far. The new daily area is really one of the worst things I have seen them throw together yet. Its not fun to do, its not interesting and frankly it seems mostly empty when I do go there. Uprising are just not fun for me, I know some like them and great but not I. I just feel they are like lazy flash points and nothing more. The companion mess continues with only one returned all year...yeah great job with that. And populations are dropping, I rarely want to guess at how many players are still active but over this last year and espically the last six months my friends list has gone dry and the numbers on at night seem way down. I don't know if its just me or something else but I don't get good feelings about the numbers in game right now. I fully admit I can't know if the numbers are really down but it just seems they are and substantially enough I feel ok saying so. Anyway Keith has been in charge for a while and we aren't seeing any of the improvements I had hoped would come. GC and RNG still exist, and they need to both go away in my veiw. I personally thing its time to start fresh and move away from that which damage this game.

New Twist? Really so we haven't been betrayed by a companion we had no choice in picking up before.....oh wait we have.....at least two times and possibly three depending on choices. Lets see Scorpio was forced on us, we all knew she was not trustworthy but we couldn't do a damn thing about it, we were forced to recruite her, forced to keep her around and even forced to bring her on a mission we should never have.....and she betrayed us....shocking. Senya was forced on us, we had no choice in her recruitement and we took her on a mission we never should have...and she betrayed us.... Now Theron was forced on us, we had no choice to recruite him or bring him on any of the previous missions...and he betrayed us.... So yeah new twist, never anything like this has happened in game before. We have never had a companion we didn't recruite be force on us to bring to a mission and end up having them betray us before. Totally new twist. So bold of BW to totally take a new path and write a new twist into the game.... Thanks for your opinion on what is new and orginal maybe next time you will actually have a point, but clearly not this time. Bonus round, Koth is forced on us. If we don't make depictions he agrees with he will betray us too....this wild new twist its like I've seen it before but clearly since its a new twist I could not have....

Whatever point you have is lost by your misuse of the term aggro dump. That is not what it is. And no merc don't have one nor do snipers. Its an escape. A way to get out of combat and/or avoid being focused. It is not a threat dump or aggro dump. Please stop using the wrong term. Yes classes with these escapes have a big edge, 'nuff said.

Story aside, which I felt was lame and come on yet another traitor we never had a choice about taking on and can't do anything about when they reveal themselves....anyway stupid story aside I was hoping for a more dynamic mission like the Shroud one was. What we got was something well much more linear and well less interesting honestly. The boss fights are ok better than some worse than others. Over all ok, not great but playable and new so there is that. I guess the biggest positive I can say is the return of reusable stims. I am sure for some the new train stronghold will be a plus as well.

Are you suggesting it might be what passes for a story that is making those noises? Say it isn't so.

Sorry then I misread your post. I would love to face a new Darth, hidden apprentice of the old Emperor or some new Star Wars type threat. Maybe a renegade Jedi who has taken control of the Hutt Cartel or something.....but the endless and pointless Alliance just wears me out.

How exactly did he betray the Alliance? I mean unless your saying they saw the scene where he shot at us and then shot out the widow and walked away while we watched....which means they really have to question why did we seem to take said "betrayal" so nonchalantly and not even try and stop his escape? Why did he provide us a clear escape? Why did he basically allow us to get the crystals back? Sure he betrayed us...sort of...maybe....but seriously why are they trusting him again? Just form a story point of veiw nothing he did really seems like a reason to trust him from their veiw. The damage caused on Iokath seemed more impressive, this....seems like well I tried see, so surely you can trust me....

Maybe call it fatigue with the same old same old. Fatigue with being railroaded again and again. Fatigue with them taking away companions. Just fatigue with bad writing. Replace the lead story guy and lets do something that resembles Star Wars again.