It was a shock for me too. I remember my first few group finder experiences on Harbinger after we merged from Dalborra. I was thinking "These people are horrible!". Thank goodness I still had an Australian guild.

Exactly this. I used to do a lot of solo heroic content. The increased difficulty level does not require me to think about fights strategically, or work out when I am going to pop my DCs so I don't die. No, it just means that the fights are going to take a really long time because the mobs take ages to die. It is so, so very boring. I am not doing as much of the solo content I used to enjoy, and if I need to do heroics for conquest I don't do them on my main, I switch to a stealth class because it's quicker.

I am missing those 3 companions as well due to the bug. I submitted a ticket, the response was that it is under investigation and to wait for future patches.

Heroic Star Fortresses should give a lot more CXP than they currently do. These are more challenging than story mode flashpoints or heroics, and require a reasonable investment of time, but at the moment the reward is so low they just aren't worth doing.

Using a VPN helped me get back on the West Coast servers, if that helps anyone else until it's fixed.

Same story here.

My main is a 224/220 geared merc with high presence and all datacrons so no real issues with soloing heroic content with companions on that toon, but this is to be expected. People who primarily play solo usually aren't ops geared. I have had more difficulty soloing heroics on other lower level and lesser geared toons and my observation is that the nerf didn't take into account the issues with companion AI. Companions just don't always do what they are meant to be doing, and this is when their reduced healing becomes a real issue. I notice that companions often stand there and do nothing, or DPS while I am taking damage. I always turn their CC ability off so that heals aren't interrupted by it, so the lack of heals definitely isn't caused by this. By the time they do decide to start healing again, it's hard for them to catch up on heals because their healing output has been significantly reduced since the nerf.

As an Aussie player, I experience around 210ms server lag under optimal conditions, and sometimes more in ops. Is there any point at all in gearing for alacrity under these conditions?

Two level 65 players with healer and tank companions make these tacticals ridiculously easy. It's a shame that going in through group finder is the hard way to do it.

And some of these posts explain perfectly why tanks don't want to pug, and people end up complaining about long queues for non-tactical flashpoints. Just let the tank do his or her job, and do yours, don't make it harder for everyone. It doesn't matter if you think the tank or healer should be able to make up for your mistakes, why turn what can be a smooth run into a complete pain in the backside for the other people you are playing with?

I'll dump either DK or Coruscant. I have all strongholds fully unlocked, so it's a shame to lose access to any of them I guess, but those 2 would be the cheapest to reactivate at some point in the future. Nar Shaddaa is my main stronghold, and after spending all those credits unlocking Tatooine it would really suck to deactivate it.

Couple more uses left on this http://www.swtor.com/user/ce/10jbfz

If your raid group is using parsers for competition in fights they don't know, they need to stop. People end up doing stupid things just so they can pull the biggest numbers. DPS expect to be healed through stupid because all they are worried about is the DPS race. Learn the fights first then worry about that stuff. The most useful info you will see in a parse during the learning phase is who is taking the most damage; if it's not a tank that person definitely isn't doing their job and they need to wake up and understand that they are part of a team, it's not all about their ego, and nobody cares about the size of their..... numbers when the group is wiping due to excessive damage. They can go parse on a dummy and boast about their numbers to everyone if it makes them feel more important, but those numbers are irrelevant if they don't understand that ops bosses are not practice dummies.

Nothing wrong with your gear. If you haven't done the HMs before, you could read some guides. But it's fair enough if you don't want spoilers before you go in; just ask the group if there is anything you need to know about the fights. Most can be summed up in a couple of sentences. It's always good when people speak up and say they need an explanation, saves wipes.

That would be awesome. I raid, but I also love soloing and casual content. GW2 offers a lot of this, as well as many opportunities to do stuff with a lot of other people without needing to find a group (eg. world boss events every 15 minutes or so). Rift also has this type of content. It's always great fun, the rewards are cool, and some of it is even challenging. All the regions in GW2 just feel really active and, with the level adjustment, lower level areas are always worth returning to. I'm not sure if this stuff is possible with SWTOR's engine but I'd love to see it.

Not sure how I missed this post, but this is an absolutely amazing idea and I would love to see it implemented in game.

From your description of his behaviour, it sounds like he was the one who is used to being carried! And what he was doing is very much the stereotypical KDY playstyle, so it isn't hard to work out where he got his "training". It's a very silly DPS who alienates both the tank and healer in a flashpoint, but it sounds like he is more used to the role neutral content than the trinity. If he keeps that kind of behaviour up in groups he'll be on a lot of tanks and healers ignore lists, and tacticals are all he will be doing.

You're not in a guild? Grouping up with guildies is the best way to start doing ops and flashpoints, as they are usually happy to teach you all the fights. Other than that, I would suggest that you keep joining groups that are forming on fleet for the level 55 story mode ops (and level 50 HMs). Do this as a DPS. Tanks are expected to know the mechanics of each fight, so you really don't want to be going into ops with a pug group as a tank until you are very familiar with all the fights. Most pug groups, particularly for 16 man, are pretty easy going and can easily "carry" someone who is there for the first time. But you can't expect pug groups to teach you and it's unlikely that people will bother to clearly explain the fights to you even if you ask, so it might pay to do a bit of research first. There are a few fights where you can make things hard for the whole group if you don't know what to do. If you have a bad experience in a pug group, don't worry about it, it happens. If you make a mistake, don't worry about it, just learn from it so it doesn't happen next time. Oh, and if you die during a boss fight in a raid, don't hit return to med centre, just lie there dead until either someone rezzes you, or the fight is over. Sometimes new people get caught out with that one.

What server are you on OP? My friends and I sometimes under-man the old ops just for fun (Harbinger, AEST time zone). And yes, it would be awesome if we could take companions in.

I swear some people don't read the tool tips and just press the key when they see that one of their abilities has come off cooldown, regardless of what that ability does. I was in ops last night with someone who was using Supercharged Celerity on weak groups of adds, preventing it from being used at the appropriate time during boss fights. They had no idea.

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Yep, only one operation is available for everyone in your level range, the 1 day 23 hours indicates how long until a different operation will be in group finder. You can pick up all the daily and weekly quests from a mission terminal in the Supplies area on fleet.

Yes, you can definitely solo those tacticals. However, unlike the level 50 HMs the mobs still hurt you. If you aren't in a group you don't get access to the kolto stations. If you find that you can't get through the boss fights without them, ask someone to group with you - they don't have to come into the instance and they can be any level.

After reading this, I two manned a flashpoint last night with a friend, both on our sorcs. The ONLY ability we used was force storm. It worked. Now for some force storm ops.

The great thing about PVE content is that the mechanics of fights never change, so once you've learnt the fight things are easier and you'll be much more aware of what is going on around you, because you know what's going to happen next. Some fights may be a bit more random, with circles going out on the ground etc. But once you've learnt the main mechanics of the fight you'll know when you need to watch out for this and it will be much easier to avoid standing in stuff. If you're running with a regular group you should have no serious difficulties once you get past this learning stage, and it's important to remember that everyone else in the group has to learn the fights too and everyone learns at a different pace. Some people are able to go into a new fight and work out exactly what is going on, but a lot of people can't so don't be hard on yourself if you go in the first few times and can't work out what is happening around you. Pug groups are a different story, because while you can predict the fight, you can't predict what the other players are going to do. This could be a problem if you are tanking or healing. Sometimes you just get a bad group though, and this can be a challenge for lots of people. Pug groups can also be quick to point the finger when things go wrong, and tanks and heals are the biggest targets for this even if it was actually the DPS who was doing the wrong thing. I have epilepsy and my medication makes me tired and a bit dopey so my reaction times are probably slower than some people. When I go into new fights I really struggle to work out what is going on. My raid team knows this, and I've told them it might take me longer to learn things. They are OK with this because they're nice guys and we work as a team. Once I know a fight, I don't tend to stuff things up because I know what is going to happen next and I am prepared for what I have to do. If I stuff up, I own it, and I am definitely not the only person in my team who makes mistakes. We do nightmare content and seriously, I never thought this is something I would be able to do. Really, it's just a learning process. Find a good group of people to run with, be up front about the fact that you might have difficulties at first, and don't try to learn fights with pug groups. Couple of others things - it is much easier to learn fights as a DPS, and it's a lot easier to work out what's going on around you if you're a ranged DPS. Good luck and have fun!