Wow. Thanks for this OP. I think there is not debate yet, because at least for me, I need some time to think about all of this. Nevertheless your thoughts are appreciated.

Ok... let me interject a few thoughts. First and foremost, this game was and is different from other MMOs. It is different because the target audience was not specific to MMO fans at launch. In fact, what BW tried to do is take the KOTOR single player fan base and combine it with MMO fans looking for a new experience. They wanted to provide the best of both worlds and in the process set a new standard for MMOs by expanding the market and generating new revenues. And initially it was a huge success and well received. The launch was phenomenal, players of all walks were happy and things were great for a few months. But... they couldn't maintain it. BW couldn't keep up with the demand. There are many reasons for this and BW's internal strife due to EA is not the least of them. Nevertheless, they couldn't keep up and the game began to lose players. Hardcore MMO fans began looking for the next shiny, the nuance was gone for them because the content updates weren't good enough or frequent enough. This was probably expected and somewhat planned attrition. But what really caught BW off guard must have been the flight of the casual/single player core. You see, many casual/single players did not become MMO fans like they planned. They got the experience they wanted for the most part and once they were satisfied, there was no compelling reason to stick around. Content updates are much more important to them because they want and need the content to keep the experience going. Story is the biggest part of the allure but so are new game mechanics and experiences and these were not occurring at a rate that would hold their interest. This had to be surprising to BW. The rate at which customers ate up content was accelerated because the story lines and voice overs were and are incredible. Thus TOR was a victim of its own success. Unfortunately, unlike other MMOs TOR lost many core players who in fact were not playing for the traditional MMO experience. They were not converted. They were happy to pay for what they got, but without any new experiences to be had, they moved on. And so... the ambitious combination of two gaming segments was not the success they hoped it would be. Had BW been able to support the game fully without the auspices of new ownership and less resources it could have revolutionized the MMO world. But alas, it was not to be. However, this is what makes this game very different than other MMOs. Bleeding subs were and are more than just losing MMO players, there are casual/single players out there who are now sitting on the sidelines again looking for the next chapter of the story. They will return, and from my perspective, there is still an opportunity to provide them with a serialized subscription based service that they will accept. But it seems this is not the plan any longer. And so yes... I think many judge the game too harshly. What they tried to do here is incredible and yet this game is not a failure. I know many players for whom this game is their first MMO experience. They are still around and enjoying the game immensely. But... this game could have been so much more... and it still has a chance to be.

Well.... I agree with the previous post. Having Defense and Absorption on the same enhancement (Endurance is a given) may be OP, just as having and enhancement that has Power and Crit. The groupings make sense to me. Besides the 30/50/50 rule applies so... to me the combinations don't matter significantly as long as you can get as close to that ratio as possible. I'm a shadow tank and I haven't stacked Alacrity. It could be used however... but I doesn't make much sense for me as my focus is avoidance and mitigation. I don't have any channeled skills that help me achieve that but I do have attacks that could benefit from the quicker aggro. Nevertheless... as I approach significant diminishing returns, I will certainly be keeping an eye on it.

Might be a bug. The BH weekly commendations is a bug. Ran my weekly today and got my BH commendations so it is not a nerf.

Luck of the draw I guess. It has been pretty much an instant pop for me the last couple of days. I'm not doing HMs but higher level fps. I think the level of the fp may have something to do with it as well as the fp itself. For example, I hate Collocoid so I don['t queue up for it. I know others that feel the same way about that one. Kaon is the same way. I like that fp, but I find peeps stay away from it. You need a good tank or it is a nightmare.

Well... they are known as Magenta Crystals in the game and you can buy them off of GTN if you have the creds. They are no longer as rare as they once were so the prices have come down a bit, but they are still expensive. The other way to go is to craft one for yourself if you have Artiface. However, it is not that easy. The schematics drop from World Bosses or HMs. The mats can be bought in GTN or there are mini quests you have to complete in order to get the rare mats. Good fun actually. Search the forms for crafting magenta crystals and you will find the "how to".

Ok. Well, I have many favorite stories. But... I would suggest the following to start with. Start with the Imp Agent. Great story line, a Star Wars spy yarn. Love it. I would go light side just to vary it up a bit and amp up the moral dilemmas. I'm not a fan of the Chiss as an Agent tbh. Just doesn't look right since they stand out in a crowd. Human seems best for this class to me. Then go to the flip side and do the Smuggler for comparison. Great one liners but the story gets a bit confusing at the end. Nevertheless, the humor and Romance story make up for it. And yes, choose Risha as our love interest. I suggest that from there go with the Warrior/Jedi tandem. Go light side warrior and dark side Jedi for comparison. Maybe choose races that aren't usually in that class. A Chiss Jedi for example would be interesting. From there, if you still have hard drive space, I suggest BH/Trooper. You see a pattern? Doing the mirror classes while ambitious I think it is interesting because the game play is the same but the stories are very different. The only story I would shy away from is the Consular. I capped a Shadow and I love that toon, but Chapter 1 bored me to tears. Your audience my not appreciate slogging through that to get the good parts. Another suggestion. Certain stories have links to each other. In order to be a bit different you might focus on that. That would be awesome. There are other story lines that cross over too. That is my 2 cents. Look forward to what you come up with.

Don't worry to much about declining subs. The doomsayers are exaggerating a common problem facing all major MMOs and that is fluctuating player populations. There are transitional players that will come and go based on the latest new and shiny, but the core fans, people like you, will be around for a long time. So... the story lines are great and there are plenty of them. Combat is great. It is varied and with a learning curve. End game is great plenty of it if you take your time to enjoy it. And the progression through it all a great deal of fun especially if you are doing it with friends and guildies. So have fun and play until you just can't play anymore. After that, take a break... and then play some more.

Hmm... I'd give this game an 8.0 over all. Some aspects are a 10, some aspects are a 5. But overall I'm more than satisfied and looking for improvements.

I understand your frustration. Yea, I've gaming for a looooong time as well. But let's get it straight, the game is not unplayable. You can change your settings and play, but you don't feel you should have too. I've seen worse btw... much much worse.

Indeed! Seriously, I'm enjoying myself to no end. And with additional character slots... it seem like there is no end in sight. lol Thanks BW! I'm ready for more though... keep it going BW. More of everything except bugs please.

Well, I guess I'm just an old somewhat jaded gamer, but as long as I've been around games their have been video issues; all sorts of issues related to drivers, hardware, and the game itself. There have been patches that break games and I'm not talking about performance. BSODs were and still are a common occurrence after updates to any of the afore mentioned items. ATI or nVidia... it doesn't matter. It will happen to one flavor or the other eventually. To be honest, its part of the deal if you are a PC gamer, so I rarely get upset about it because fixes do come in time. What is important is a viable work around. In this case we have one, Windowed fullscreen mode. Yea... it's not crossfire and yea it is not using your swanky rig setup to its fullest, but it allows you to enjoy the game while they fix the problem. Typically, issues like this Crossfire problem are fixed, but it takes time. You just have to chalk it up to one of those things that can happen if you are PC gamer. If you can't accept this... well sure, move on to something else. But guess what... it will happen again elsewhere. The only way to avoid it is to play on a closed, canned, console, and even then there can be issues. lol So... do what you will, but I recommend relaxing, enjoying the game in Windowed fullscreen. It's not that bad. Unless you are looking for reasons not to play, it will take your mind off the crossfire issue and make waiting for a fix much more enjoyable. Ok... you can try and run me out of here now. But again, I'm simply pointing out that the game is playable, more than that actually. It all comes down to what you are willing to accept. For me, I'd rather play this game.

Check out the following. The best round up available for meters/parsers in general. http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=402152

Lol. Liked how you worked your feelings about F2P in there. But it is totally irrelevant to the subject at hand. Look, you have your opinion which is fine. But you seem to be thinking you speak for a multitude and you are not. Now that the AOE change has been implemented, for many that continue to play, it is not a problem. If you refuse to play because of the change it is your loss. I have an Assassin dps and a Shadow tank both at 50 and play has never been better IMO. Instead of waiting for a response that may or may not come, take the blinders off and play. You may find it is not ruined. However, if it is that black and white for you, c'est la vie. But don't presume you know what others think or find appealing about classes, nerfs, and or tuning. You don't.

Hmm... don't know if this will help as I have the same type of mouse but from a competitor (the Naga), however the mouse I uses has a switch on the mouse that toggles number row or number pad. It sounds like this is getting switched on you. So... how do you toggle between Numpad and Number row?

Free to Play is a misnomer. It always has been. You will pay to play, one way or another. Either you pay the sub and not worry about restrictions, or pay to play those areas that are restricted. lol, It is a marketing ploy. BTW, I'm not saying it is misdirection or a scam, just pointing out that Free to Play is really Pay to Play even though you may feel better about the name.

Not sure what you are looking at exactly but my light side and dark side options are working just fine. You might want to check your preferences. There is an option that show light and dark side options differently and you can customize to your preference. One I believe is a setting that allows you to see light and darks with a mouse over, the other shows you light and dark with a persistent symbol.

Yup. It's all good. You may have cornered the market temporarily but it is all on the up and up. Kudos for making the system work for you. I wouldn't worry about it at all btw. GTN is a free market. If you were gauging as many do, others will eventually come and undercut you until the price arrives at some form of equilibrium. This happened with the aug slots. Prices were outrageous at first then dropped to acceptable levels.

Ok.. back to the original post. First and foremost, nothing was taken away from Inqs. AOE has actually been improved for PVE. That's right improved. I ran into this today. Blow back is now directional (not removed). This is a bonus because it allows for the use of AOE with out breaking CC. Ran a few HMs and had great runs because of it: CC elites, blew mobs off ledges and finished the elites. Easy peasy. So... before you start talking about what they took away, maybe you should look at what was left behind. Change is not always a bad thing.

I have been playing this game.. almost daily since December. And... yup. Still having fun. Lots of it. I have toons all over the place at several different levels. I'm in three different guilds. I have squeezed every bit of fun out of this game and there is still more fun to be had. I'm here until they turn out the lights... and the reason is because it is great fun.

One thing that is very important... Make sure you talk to NPCs in the space station. If you don't, you will not kick off the planet side quests. You will have your class quests and a few side quests and that is all.

Lol. Well, inexperienced peeps have to start somewhere. I have no issues with inexperinced players as long as they listen to directions, which most are eager to do. Pugs for me haven't been too bad. I did have a healer once who thought he was a dps and I mean really thought he was a dps. He was a sage as and a self proclaimed "great" healer. Yet, he would start the pulls and run into the fray healing himself as he went. He also would speed ahead to scout areas, sound familiar? lol. Now, this wouldn't have been so bad at lower levels, but we were running False Emperor.... yea... we wiped a few times at least. However, after a little instruction, all went well and we managed it. On the flip side, I used group finder last night to run my alt through Maelstrom Prison. Not sure if it was a bug or what, but only 2 others actually appeared at the starting area. After some debate we decided to give it a try. I was a shadow tank, we had a sage healer, and a commando dps all at level or just a little below. And wow... I mean wow... we ran through every bit of it including the bonus without any wipes and in standard time. Seriously, I'm not a bad player, but I'm just learning how to tank. But the results were better than a standard 4 man run. Anyway... just thought I'd share that because pugs can be great experiences too. It's all in the luck of the draw.

Almost any one you talk to? Who are you talking to? You are not only generalizing but are pretty far off the mark. The peeps I play with, including tanks from 2 separate guilds certainly don't feel this way. There is pretty good balance between the tanks and so it all comes down to personal preference. It's not about class its about the skill of the player. As for EVERYTHING that is said in the game? We quite obviously you must have selective hearing because EVERYTHING said does not include your assertion that Juggs are the least desired in OPs. OP, Take the replies for what they are worth. Juggs and Guardians are a hard class to master. You may feel you are missing something, but really, if you look at the replies, you will see that with a few tweaks and a better understanding of the mechanics of a Jugg/Guardian you may have what you are looking for with a few adjustments. If nothing else, this thread contains some great info on tanking in general. But... it really comes down to playing style. I have two tanks, a Shadow and a Guardian. I prefer the Shadow for HMs and the Guardian for OPs. Those cool skills like stealth and CC the Shadow uses don't mean much in Ops, IMO. It doesn't make one tank better than the other though. It just means my focus is a bit different in Ops.

Well... I am in like Flynn! I'll pass on the space missions. Not my thing, but that World Boss sounds wicked. Looking forward to it and more as it were but HK51 is going to be the carrot for me. lol

lol! I understand as well. I'm in Austin and have to drive to Dallas quite frequently, a nice change IMO.