Skip to the TL;DR if you already informed yourself about the classes and still can't make a choice. Guardian Playstyle: Melee DPS or Tank. As DPS Guardian pulls good numbers, for PvP it provides taunts which are great support, how-ever for PvE it mainly just provides DPS (like any other DPS that isn't a Sentinel with Inspiration or Gunslinger with AoE shield) as Tank they sport less mean mitigation that say a Vanguard, but have wonderful cooldowns. Story: This is likely the story KOTOR3 had if they hadn't made an MMO instead. It's your basic Jedi-Hero story, likely a must for SW fans, definitly for KOTOR fans. (Based on other people's posts, I'm not a SW fan myself.) You have a few of the most interesting companions in game in my opinion. Commando Playstyle: Ranged DPS or Healer. As most ranged DPS you won't be too mobile, but you get tools to keep people off you. The DPS is very good and the learning curve is quite forgiving. A lot of Commando's have an unpleasent experience in Arena's though, be sure to read into that if Arena's are big on your list. As healer you have to be careful with your resources (more than other healers) and you're quite stationary (unlike Scoundrel) Commando not played much as healer, but it's a lot of fun to play and not weaker than the other options (in PvE, in PvP Scoundrels > all, by a mile) I guess maybe people don't want to be throwing heals as a bad-*** big-gunwielding soldier. Story: You start as a rookie (in some elite team sadly..) and work your way up, in my opinion a bit too fast, but that's my opinion and spend the rest of the time protecting the Republic in your own way. Scoundrel Playstyle: Melee DPS or Healer. As DPS you will be in 4m range most of the time, it's tight on energy and overall not played a lot, but if played well it's amazing. Judge for yourself if you're up for that. As healer everyone will adore you and you will do amazing. Our resource management as healer is, unlike DPS, easy, way too easy, but it does make it a great class to chose if you want to start healing. Story: You start off fending for yourself and being a proper smuggler, eventually you will make a great asset to the Republic, depending on choices you make either like Han Solo because you grew a morale compass or simply 'for the right money.' The smuggler story-line is in my opinion the only Republic story that makes sense if you don't go full Light-side and has a few of the funniest remarks. TL;DR: Role-wise If you want to Tank: Guardian If you want to DPS: Commando If you want to Heal: Scoundrel Scoundrel can DPS and Commando can heal, but due to how rare they are in those roles, making me assume the majority doesn't like filling those roles. Story-wise (this is obviously 100% my opinion, there's no 'fact' in a story being enjoyable or not) Scoundrel/Guardian a shared number 1 spot, pick between your Han Solo or Skywalker experience. Commando on spot 2, not my least favourite story, but won't make my overall top 3 either.

Pre-level 55 there won't be that many people in the groupfinder (judging from getting instant queue's as DPS from time to time, I automaticly doubt it's because there's tons of people only queue'ing tank or healer) but this is quite obvious since only a small percentage of the server will be in your level-range, wanting to do the same thing. That being said, when I queue during leveling I do get a pop once in a while, often instant on healers for some reason rather than tanks. At level 55 it's not as popular as it used to be since the rewards are, so to say, crappy, but people still do it since it's fast'ish. A DPS not teamed up with either a heal or a tank can get a very long wait-time since somehow DPS seems to be the most popular role in MMO's. Healers and Tanks are about the same queue-wise from my experience. Sometimes I get an instant queue on my Tanks, sometimes on my Healers. I'd say Tanks have the best queue-times over-all though, not a lot of people like tanking. I tend to relog from my Tank to my Healer if I don't get an instant queue so I'm unsure what the actual wait-times are. TL;DR Yes people use the groupfinder. Depending on your server/faction;role/level range it can take a while though, so make sure you've got something solo to do aswell.

Anything in this game will give similar results so I'd recommend being as effective as possible in what you do; Flashpoints: The best XP-gain you get in a group within 3-level range of eachother, then Flashpoints are ridicilously good experience. Keep that in mind if you have friends/guildies available. Always (try to) get the highest level flashpoint available to you. Do bonusses (they are amazing XP and often not much of a detour.) Like this I often gain about a whole level per Flashpoint (I have the luxery of a friend running with me for the 3-level range and we let our companions tank/heal for quick runs with no queue-time or we queue as heal/tank for an instant pop, but I get not everyone has that luxery.) PvP Yes, a single warzone gives about as much XP as the quest reward of a Flashpoint, but don't underestimate how much the relatively fast to kill mobs in the Flashpoint gives you with rested XP. PvP is amazing for the daily and weekly (bit more XP) and if you run out of rested XP, but besides that not amazing unless you enjoy it. If you do enjoy it how-ever it's wonderful, I PvP tons whilst leveling just because it's fun, but I don't find it fast. Normal questing: Use quests as a filler in between Flashpoint/Warzones queue's, not much choice since spacemissions are timed and you will want to stay busy at all times. Always judge if the bonus is do-able in a quick time, if so do it. Same for staged, usually if you get to stage 2 it's worth finishing it completely and skip side-quests that are too much of a detour. I tend to skip Heroics unless I see a group asking for just 1 more, it's good XP, especially when rested, but also time-consuming with the wrong group or alone, feels like a gamble. Keep your gear up to date and try to stay in Orange quest-range (best XP, but more challanging, use blue gear of your level on yourself and companion to make the challange laughable.) To keep yourself geared use: Planetary Commendations (trade Warzones for Planetary if needed) or Flashpoints (only need for yourself!) Over-all DPS will give you the fastest leveling time, especially with low presence (and better dps/dps combination, as long as you have a speeder/rocket boost to heal your companion quickly and send them in first) but if you don't have field-respec it will also result in slow FP queue's and for Warzones possibly a less pleasent experience. Spacemissions: Do Orange, Yellow and maybe Green ones, skip the greys and as always, have the appropriate xp-boosts (or just the normal experience boost that works everywhere.) I generally don't do them because they bore me, but can't argue with the experience and easy if you keep your ship upgraded. TL;DR: Use an XP-boost at all times, join a guild (social guilds accept non-socials just to raise their numbers, just be honest) and stay in that green rested experience bar.

I'd recommend taking 1 crafting, 1 gathering and 1 mission crewskill. (Seeing slicing as a mission crewskill here, you can only 'gather' credits, not sliced tech parts. ) In mission crewskills there're often only a few mission worth running (Rich and Bountiful) since you need a Critical result to be profitable. I personally only run the rich missions since I calculated with my average critical results, I'm better off buying the purples of the GTN that investing in the missions, but others had different results. Where-as for I'd run about anything since critical results only increase the amount of materials returned, not the material quality. So in the crewskill slots you had doubts, cover all desired mission crewskills (check the GTN prices before going for investigation, on my server it's cheaper to buy almost all of the materials on the GTN) and fill the rest with Slicing. At level 55 you can't craft optimal gear for yourself (or others) except: Augments. The schematics are easy to obtain (GTN and critical results from Slicing, sliced tech parts) and the best available in the game, unlike PvE schematics where even the high-end ones are only second or third-best. PvP-gear is impossible to craft at all. And everyone will want Augments, leaving you needing a lot of slicing materials.

I actually love Skadges personality. "Temper Tantrums? I DON'T HAVE TEMPER TANTRUMS!" that being said I'm about as vain as it gets, I prefer my companions to look a bit better than Skadge. I rather look at Blizz than Skadge so he's still perma benched and I dislike anyone taking Skadge out instead of that adorable little Jawa. I dislike M1-4X, a pull instead of a leap /slap /slap /slap insteadly killing it's own efficiency and giving himself less time to taunt back, leaves him as worst in my book. But besides him all Tanks show similar efficiency to me and parse similar, sport similar stats, I just take who-ever I can put in the best Legacy gear. Except Treek, but for her costs, she deserves it.

Singularity sources: At level 30: Centering building At level 45: Force Exhaustion + Centering building At level 50: Valorous Call + Force Exhaustion + Centering building so it definitly gets easier. Until level 45 I'd not even get out of Combat (or Watchman) it's just not worth it yet. But once at level 50, both Guardian as Sentinels have quite a steady flow of Singularity, down-side for Sentinels is that in PvP they rely on Valorous Call (that recharge) to open with Force Sweep, not a biggy if you think about your survivability.

Gunslinger and Scoundrel have quite a different playstyle, I recommend you base your choices on that. A Gunslinger is a ranged DPS with quite some tools to keep an enemy at distance at the cost of having mediocre moveability; (over-all, especially in PvP) you do not want to leave cover, ever, since your survivability and damage depends on it. This is off-set by a 20 second cooldown roll that puts you 12 (if I recall correctly) meters away from your locations and puts you into cover upon landing. Downside of the Gunslinger is that all you can do is DPS. A Scoundrel is a melee DPS or healer. As healer they rely mainly on healing over-time, have energy aswell as Upperhand as resource but have plenty of tools to maintain them. Currently they're the best PvP-healer due to a mix of easy resourcemanagement aswell as instants, not to mention Stealth (and being able to go in cover is a bonus aswell, imo) as DPS they're melee, anyone who wants to argue should look at Blasterwhip, it's your main source of Upperhand and has a 4m range. In PvP they're not in the best position due to a mixture of squishyness, relying on stealth and poor movement since there's hardly any energy left for their gapcloser (Exfiltrate, 25 energy) Gunslinger is currently one of the most beloved DPS to bring to an operation. It has 3 (and a hybrid) viable specs and thus it can perform in an optimal spec for any situation, it has decent survivability, an AoE-shield and over-all high damage. Scoundrels are mainly popular as Healer, easy energy/upperhand management, good heals, loads of HoTs and is slightly less beloved as DPS, they're (in my opinion and they parse quite high) fine in Operations as DPS, but definitly less popular since melee over-all receives some hate and it's not played a lot (people fear what they don't know.) TL;DR If you want to swap between mDPS and healer, go Scoundrel. If you want a rDPS, that has 3 (and a hybrid) viable specs to change between, go gunslinger. My opinion: It might be nice to try Scoundrel if you already had a Gunslinger? I have both classes and enjoy them just as much. Mainly play Scoundrel though since I enjoy instant queue's and I'm the worst PvP-Gunslinger ever.

In PvP, mainly rated Arena's there're definitly some weaknesses from DPS-Operatives. Operatives are melee and don't have a lot of defensive cooldowns to compensate for that. On top of that the energy is often too tight to use your gap-closer (Exfiltrate) and a well-placed stun/cleanse can make your burst laughable. Lastly you depend on stealth quite a bit, rated arena's sport alot of AoE to get you out before hidden strike. In short, not many people will be happy to see a DPS-Operative in Arena's (or even Warzones, but there they can pull their weight easier.) As healer everyone will love having you though. For PvE, your DPS and Healing will both be good. Operatives (mainly Lethality, though Concealment has it's fights) can pull good sustained DPS. They don't bring that much to the table besides numbers, but let's face it, no melee DPS does except Maurauder (Bloodthirst and Predatation) and atleast we sport Stealth-rez (it's something.) Operative DPS are rarely played and difficult to play well, but if played well they're great. Similar as in PvP they can be quite vurnerable to melee-hate, but in PvE it's atleast predictable. Assassins are more the other way around. They're wonderful in PvP, off-set their squishiness with better cooldowns, have some taunts (off-global cooldown damage reduction > cooldown using off-heals, imo) and amazing burst. Less reliant on stealth aswell. In PvE they're currently a bit low on the DPS-ladders, but 2.5 is suppose to fix that, maybe someone who's played in the public test server can clarify? My 2-cents. TL;DR: I'd roll Assassin if PvP DPS is your main-goal, but Operative DPS is viable enough everywhere except Arena's (people even make hate-post asking for prevention of DPS-Operatives entering solo-queue.)

Almost everything cartel coins can buy, credits can buy aswell. On top of 80% of the Cartel Market being skin-only and another 19% F2P unlocks, you'll be fine. Any class is good to play to get back into the swing of things. Overall most classes are easy to play, difficult to master. PvE content and early-group content is easy enough to do even when you're struggling to understand your class. Pick a class you think you'll enjoy, important things to consider: Do you want to heal or tank? Only certain classes can fulfill this role. Any class can DPS though. Do you want melee or ranged (all tanks are best at melee range and all healers can stay at range. Scoundrel/Operative goes from ranged to melee when they go from heal to DPS) Do you want a certain mechanic such as Cover (Gunslinger/Sniper) or Stealth (Shadow/Assassin, Scoundrel/Operative) or Leap (Jedi Knight/Sith Warrior and Vanguard/Powertech in Tank-spec) Which story do you want to see the most? Overall I find Commando's/Mercanaries the easiest if you really think you'll need any edge you can get. Heavy armor makes a difference in the beginning, they have a 60 second CC and they both get a healer companion early on. I'd how-ever not base a class-choice on 'easy' you'll get the mechanics in no time. Any Stealthclass is quite easy aswell since you can stealth past challanging mobs and both come with atleast one 60 second CC. Not saying any of these classes are easy to master.

Cheap orange shells were always there; Social I armor. Ugly as hell, but for 10 social points? Ye all my toons and companions were in them before the Cartel Market. It's more than some of the best armors (looks-wise) are Cartel Armor (or you want an Inquisitor look on your Jedi and vice versa) but favourable skins unavailable in the Cartel Market still sell. That and like mentioned above, Augments and Kits are amazing.

I'd recommend getting your one of your 3-4 50s (or all of them) to level 55 and go view some of the new content. They added a new planet (Makeb) and loads of new daily area's (Oricon, CZ-198, Seeker droid etc, I'm not a daily-fan so I don't know most of them) and new Operations (Scum and Villainy, Dread Palace, Dread Fortress) and new Flashpoints (Czerka Labs and Meltdown) for PvP Ranked Warzones turned into Ranked Arena's, normal Warzone queue is still there. In leveling nothing has changed except: Arena's and Hypergate in the queue for Warzones and it's easier since they introduced XP-boosts. But that's it, skilltree overhauls mainly affected level 40+ and if you got bored due to lack of content, I doubt you now would enjoy the content that was already available. This being said, their storylines are likely still de crème de la crème of this game. My 2 cents.

I fear you're misinformed (assuming you mean either medpac, adrenal or stim by 'potions') there is a clear difference between blue quality and purple quality in medpacs, adrenals and stims, the purple ones are equal to their green counterpart, except they're reuseable. The difference isn't quite as minor as it may sound, for PvP-gear 15 Main-stat and 7 Power is the difference between 1-2 Obroan/Conqueror pieces. But having access to the reuseable versions will mean you'll always use them and never have to worry about their cost. As for the OP. the combination of Armstech (could have been Armormech or Synthweaving) and Cybertech wield me quite a nice amount of money from making Augmentation Kits (Cybertech can reverse droid-parts, which are the cheapest for MK-9 compenents that I know off, whilst Armstech is able to make the kits.) To give you some actual numbers: But it requires quite a bit of relogging. On all the toons I actively raid with I took Biochem. In anything that isn't hardmode/nightmare mode I use the Reuseable Stims/Medpacs/Adrenal and it saves me a lot of money whilst using them makes me a lot more effective at my role. I can produce the blues, (which I do use for HM/NiM) but on my server they're so cheap I might aswell buy them. So I definitly find both options a great one, depending on your playstyle. If you're more into PvP than PvE Biochem gets less useful due to PvP having their PvP-only Adrenals (other ones don't work) and superior PvP-medpac. In short, you can't go wrong, I'd decide based on the following: Biochem if: You're an active raider (or plan to be) Somehow Stim/Adrenal prices on your server are ridicilous (on mine they're dirt-cheap) You rather have a crewskill saving you money than actually making it (same result) that require litte to no crafting. You're happy earning an extra penny selling materials Armstech if: You plan on being an active crafter either with time (safe options like kits) or research (finding a nice profit in the market) Plan to keep your companions out for crewskills a lot Want a crewskills simply to make money Aren't interested in reuseable goodies This is all how experience the usefulness of crewskills and even though I've maxed every crewskill and have multiple Biochemist, you might prioritize other pro's vs cons and find better ways of making money.

Nice idea, how-ever: Corrosive Dart > Corrosive Grenade > Exfiltrate > Shiv > Deblitate > Exfiltrate > Weakening Blast > Cull > Cull > Cull That's 101 + 19 per Cull in less than 15 seconds, I'm not sure about your resource pool, but no matter how much alacrity you'd take, that's a hell of a lot of energy. And Adrenaline Probe aswell as Stimboost can't be used on such a regular basic to counter this. Operative DPS have two main issues. 1. You'll want to start from melee range, stealth or not, to start building your Tactical Advantage. 2. You have very little energy to spare, meaning you can hardly use your gabcloser. Sadly our healer counterpart drowns in energy and TA so it's difficult to fix this without making the healer even more durable. 3. Cooldowns are slightly mediocre for a melee (especially in medium armor) but once again, let's not risk buffing Medic too much for the sake of DPS'ers. How-ever, given you're left to do your thing, you're absolutely devastating (similar to other currently less favoured classes such as a Mercanary.) As for Lethality (Sniper or Operative) the downside is fluff and cleance. Cleanse isn't the biggest deal since you can re-apply, have your weaker versions and 80% of the healers seem to have thrown their cleanse of their bar. As for fluff, surely there's some fluff, but unless you tab and DoT everyone, the fluff will be minor and a lot of the damage on your scoreboard will have been damage for the kill and thus achieve your objectives in many cases. PS: I have tons of fun as DPS Scoundrel and Operative in normal warzones, but I understand they're not in the best position for PvP. The people complaining in PvE (especially Lethality Operative in raids) need to stop crying. Our DPS is great and it's not like other mDPS except Maurauders (can't beat Bloodthirst) bring something special to the table.

Buffs like guard fall of companions the second they disappear, intended or not, it's annoying. I don't even bother guarding them anymore due to it. ^^"

Tanking is a drag during leveling for me, maybe the same goes for you. (I've not had the issue of survivability, but it's slooooow once presence doesn't carry Kira anymore.) I'd respec DPS for leveling, especially if you don't do a lot of Flashpoints, and give tanking another go when team-play comes in. If Tanking is still something you'd like to experience. That being said, I really don't enjoy DPS on my Guardian compared to my Sentinel, the DPS-numbers are similar, but my Sentinel comes with a lot more cooldowns (medium armor though) and Inspiration (and in some fights Transcendance) are too good to miss for me. But that's just me, I see enough people that do enjoy their Guardian-DPS.

You're most likely using a power-generator/focus instead of a shield genetator. A shield generator is required to be able to shield and absorb damage, without it, the game most likely sees your stats as 0% since that's what they effectively are at that time. I recommend checking your off-hand out. If you don't happen to have a Shield laying around, they're quite cheap at the Nar Shaddaa Planetary Vendor and use the same mods as a powergenerator.

It all depends what you're good at and no class really outshines the other (though I must say, no easier time for me than with my stealthers (Scoundrel/Operative, Shadow/Assassin.) My 2 cents per class: Sith Warrior (/Jedi Knight) Either class will do great. Maurauder has great survivability abilities to make up for the medium armor which they receive early on (especially Cloak of Pain is quite awesome) where-as a Juggernaut has heavy armor. Nothing really sets either of them appart fom solo-play in my book, though I must say Maurauder and Sentinel were extremely easy to level for some reason. For Juggernaut/Guardian I'd recommend Vengeance/Viligance combined with Quinn for the safest experience and for Maurauder/Sentinel I'd recommend Annihilation/Watchman until level 30, from there on any spec performs quite well. Sith Inquisitor (/Jedi Consular) Both are amazing classes at solo-play. They both have a 60-second CC (Assassin/Shadows only on fleshy targets) the Assassin/Shadow definitly provides more survivability whilst plowing through mobs with high single target damage (I recommend Deception) where-as a Sorcerer/Sage will be quite squishy but atleast have off-heals, especially Static Barrier/Force Barrier is amazing. For Sorcerer/Sage I highly recommend Lightning/Telekinis, it has high burst and amazing AoE. For both of them I'd recommend a tanking-companion. For Assassin/Shadows so they can easily use Maul/Shadow Strike and for Sorcerers/Sages because they're squishy and suffer a lot from ability-pushback. Trooper: I'd say Commando is your safest bet, though both classes do great alone, the Commando wins extra points since it has a 60-second CC. Those things are plain amazing! I'd say either a Tank (again ability pushback, though less over-all) or Healer companion. If you go Commando I'd recommend Assault Specialist until level 45, Gunnery builds up quite slowly and doesn't really get into it until Demolition round is finally acquired, how-ever both specs will do fine. For Vanguard more of the same. Assault Specialist builds up a bit quicker, but Tactics already starts to shine a bit around level 35. Shield Specialist offers the best survivability, but slow kills, meh. Smuggler: You already have an Operative, so maybe try Gunslinger? Gunslingers gave me a very good and fast leveling experience, really enjoyed it. But nothing beats Scoundrel double CC (Droid and Fleshy) and stealth in terms of lowering the risk. Still, no class really has a huge advantage over another. Make sure you play something you'll enjoy. Since all classes are mirrored it might be fun to give all of them a go! (You sound like you do it all for the story, 8 stories, 8 different playstyles = win.)

Not to be a pain, but Sniper have 4 amazing specs (each full tree and a Hybrid) depending on situation / playstyle and all parse quite well. Pick on that you think you'll enjoy! Though I'd stick with Marksman for leveling (30+ especially) and solo-play due to the burst. I'm not sure what level you are, but for most skilltrees the general rule for PvE is: Anything that increased damage/resource management? Assign points Anything that increases survivability? Assign left-over points Anything that affects enemy movement? Ignore Great guides: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=657177 (Marksman) http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=609256 (Engineering) http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=584434 (Lethality and such) Few Basics: Heavily simplified Marksman Rotation: Ambush > Followthrough > Series of Shots > Followthrough > Snipe > Snipe > Followthrough How-ever for optimal DPS you'll weave in Corrosive Dart and Orbital Strike and Explosive Probe, for that just read the guide. as for Lethality: Corrosive Grande > Corrosive Dart > Weakening Blast > Take Down > Series of Shots > Cull > Take Down > Repeat Once again, heavily simplified. Read the guides for way more elaborated advise. Paowee is amazing.

All 3 specs can perform well depending on the fight and which spec will fit your playstyle more. How-ever for PvE I'd mainly focus on Carnage or Annihilation (not saying Rage can't perform in PvE, but it does have a few downsides.) Annihilation gets punished quite a bit if the fight gets interrupted, where-as Carnage works around burst-windows based on procs, leaving more room for breaks, but very little room for error. Both can parse quite high. Carnage is likely the most popular spec. If played well it does amazing numbers, aswell as being able to deal with fights requiring a break (e.g. Toborro's Courtyard) Sadly the only up to date guide I know is: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=659058 Which is anything but a quick read, amazing guide though. It focusses a lot around the Gore and Slaughter windows, leaving very little room for error since procs are waiting. I'm having a lot of difficulty getting used to this spec myself. (All the effort is well worth it though!) Annihilation is a bit easier to play, but difficult to master. It's more or less: Dual Saber Throw > Force Charge + Deadly Saber > Rupture > Battering Assault > Annihilate > Cauterise (with proc) / Vicious Slash (without proc) From there on: Annihilate, Force Charge and Deadly Saber on cooldown. Fill with: Vicious Slash (to proc Pulverise) and Rupture once procced. Berserk whenever available (before overload saber) Once you start to master it you'll be watching for 3GCD on Rupture, following your DoTs, never losing Annihilation, etc. Lastly there's Rage. For PvP no-one will argue, this spec is beast, how-ever for PvE it's slightly less popular. First of all it suffers a lot from having to use Bloodthirst, a skill Maurauders are famous for and secondly it focusses around AoE-burst damage, not something often needed in raid-situations. How-ever if played well, any spec does great. Rotation-wise it's all about reducing the cooldown on Obliterate aswell as building stacks for Smash, kind of like: (Frenzy) > Force Charge > Beserk + Smash > Ravage > Force Scream > Force Crush > Obliterate > Vicious Slash > Battering Assault > Rupture > Smash > Dual Saber Throw > Vicious Slash > Force Scream > Obliterate > Vicious Slash > Beserk + Smash > repeat. TL;DR: I'd recommend Carnage if you plan on spending a lot of time mastering your class, where-as I'd recommend Annihilation if you want to start of a bit easier (though this doesn't mean it's an easy spec to master!) Optimally you swap depending on the fight.

All classes can hold their own in end-game and there will be very few guilds declining a good player based on class. I'd focus more on which role you'll want to fulfill (Healer, Tank, rDPS, mDPS) and look at the kind of utility you'd enjoy in PvP (such as off-heals, stealth, taunts) and go from there. Each class is quite unique and there must be one that fits your playstyle the most! Besides, slow as it might be, meta's shift and classes fall in and out of favour. As for popularity, I get around Sentinel/Maurauder DPS the most in PvP aslong with their Guardian/Juggernaut sister-class in Focus/Rage spec and who can blame them, bursty AoE damage plus good survivability? Yes-please. The Scoundrel/Operative healer is also seen a lot, once again for good reason. They sport a lot of instants, have an easy resource system aswell as good healing in their HoTs. Currently by far the strongest PvP-healer. Tanks... ye Hybrid Vanguard/Powertech I think; decent DPS with enough survivability for Guard, even as full tank they sport nice abilities to help the group. But this doesn't mean these classes are played exclusively and others can't perform. For PvE I mainly see Guardian/Juggernaut Tanks, though all Tanks have their ups and downs. Healer-wise I see anything on regular basis, except Commando/Mercanary, they seem to be quite rare on my server, I do see tons of Commando/Mercanary DPS, still figuring out why they're so immensly popular. but all classes seem to be played quite a bit. Except Scoundrel/Operative DPS, I've only seem two in seven months in PvE (not including myself, I quite love my Scoundrel/Operative's DPS.) Role-wise Tank is most likely the rarest, followed by Healer and lastly Damage, for PvE atleast. TL;DR: Hardly any guild will decline a good player based on class, meta's shift, all classes are played quite a bit.

There're tons and tons of dailies now-a-days, but if you add the list you have to the ones in here: http://dulfy.net/2013/02/12/swtor-galactic-reputation-guide/ you're pretty damn close. It might focus on Reputation it also mentions the amount of credits, as for commendations; http://dulfy.net/2013/04/14/swtor-level-55-endgame-gearing-guide/ (Navigation --> Daily/Weekly)

I think your intentions are good, but I doubt your sollution is optimal. I find respresenting an account rather than a character often a good thing in PvP. How-ever SWTOR wants to focus more on the character and class, likely to avoid people feeling uncomfortable when their class falls out of FoTM, so be it. I personally wouldn't care if rating is account-wide or character-only, I would how-ever be sad if I'm only allowed to enter arena's with 1 toon, I spend the time grinding their gear, leveling them to 55, I deserve to play them aswell. Your examples aren't exactly a sole problem of alts in the first place; Leavers are likely just as much grievers as people trying to 'help' friends. Partisan geared alts, hmm how are you so sure it are alts? Anyone can enter in any gear, Partisan is the least of your worries. Total noob, generally less experienced players rather than people playing alts don't you think? The only sollution I can see is a dishonour system that puts a debuff on those who leave repeatedly and that debuff providing a X-minutes lock-out from entering a warzone or arena (or just arena's, since it's much more gamebreaking there.) If it won't simply discourage people from leaving, atleast that will give them less oppurtunities to do so. Not really any sollution for gear or skill, though the skill-part is more or less covered by the rating-system in the first place.

It's the best! As for the OP. Whilst healing, especially if you pre-HoT a lot of people, there might be some aggro issues in the beginning, but nothing a Tank or you can't handle. Just use Dodge/Shield Probe and if all else fails, stealth out. For a healer it's usually the case of mobs not getting hit (yet) so it won't make much of a difference wether you aggro drop or not. Surrender isn't 'great' but it's off global cooldown and every bit of help it provides is nice, I'd like to think. ^^ Decent Tanks will handle it better than what you've been with so far. My fellow healer often pre-HoTs 8 people with no issues.

Doubt the population could handle it. Although I wouldn't mind the option. I just wish the maps were a bit more random at times. Surely it's just me, but today I got 70% Huttbal, 25% Tatooine Arena, 5% Voidstar/Arena's and not a single Novara or Civil War. It was a sad day for me, Novara is my favourite.

Hi, I fear I'm clueless about the armour you're talking about, how-ever maybe you can go to: Inventory > Collections > Armor to preview sets that you might have seen? If it was a Cartel Set that is. Sorry I can't be more helpful. Best of luck, Gloomy