I remember a day when there was no self-heal on location! Gee! Don't ehh.. don't die that much?

Completely misunderstanding what I mean. "Auto-attack" is quicker than "Ability that costs no resources and does a basic default attack". Hence I also used the airquotes, as it obviously isn't an auto-attack. But most people should understand what I mean with that. Y'know, like Hammer shot. That one is funny though, as I do have that one on my first slot as it also does the same healing as diagnostic scan would. Last thing I want is an actual auto-attack. I'm glad SWTOR has no such thing. May want to read in advance.

I could do that, but I prefer keeping my healing abilities on the top bar. Just a habit. My attack abilities are all located on hotkeys such as shift+1-5, E, Q, X, I could go on for a while... I just don't see why it is bound to the first slot. I'd at least like an option to turn it into the default attack which I'm used it to it being in about every MMO I've ever played, many a times have I not interrupted a bomb planting because of this. (That is also pretty much the sole reason I use it, because trying to target through keybindings when there's about 5 enemies around you in Voidstar isn't all that practical when there's a second left on them disarming a bomb) I have yes, is there a problem here? Am I not allowed to bind this ability to number 1? I find it the most practical location. If you think that means I am spamming it or something, you're wrong. I find a lot of keybindings easier than '1'. And thus do not put any real core abilities there.

Or at least, I assume it is. Because everytime I right click an enemy I find myself spamming Diagnostic Scan on myself for no good reason which is located in slot 1 for me. Shouldn't it just default to the "auto-attack" ability? So you actually attack someone when you right click them?

Then you will slowly start dropping in alignment. Your alignment is based on a certain amount. For example, you need 4000 alignment for Light II (If I am not mistaken) so if you have 5000 Light and 1000 Dark you are still Light II. Now if you were to gain 10 dark points, so you have 5000 Light and 1010 Dark you'll end up with 3990 alignment. Dropping you back to Light I. If you max out Light (Light V) and start gaining a lot of Dark side points without gaining Light side points you will eventually drop into alignment and drop to Light IV, Light III, Light II, Light I and eventually Dark I etc.

I haven't respecced once. And I have/am leveling all my characters as healer. Commando, Scoundrel and Operative. I honestly do not see your issue.

They mentioned they are looking into it for the future. So probably.

I think it mostly comes down to the fact that other games in general start quicker and are done much faster. Within that time that console game is easily completely played through. An MMO on the other hand requires a hefty time investment and often starts out a bit slow.

It is on purpose. It's them blending in and dropping the "Empire accent", so in other words sounding more American. I can't say for the female voice actress, but I thought the male one was quite good. I think IA has pretty good voice acting overall.

Then you probably didn't quite read what I wrote. That wouldn't happen, at the end of the day it would simply be; for fun. For aesthetics. Chiss allows you to heal/regenerate with their social ability. This gives you a second option to your class specific heal/regenerate ability. Nothing more. Why not have this for all races? (On that note, does the Meditate ability Mirialan get heal as well?)

I remember that initially Chiss had "Salute" as their racial bonus, which did just that. Forced someone to salute, if I remember correctly. However, a few days ago I noticed they have a different ability when a friend of mine showed it to me. I think it's something like.. "Mission Log" or such, where they open up a map of sorts and start reading it. I then noticed he gained a buff when using it which actually allowed him to regenerate health and resources much like every class gets a unique out of combat heal (Recuperate, Recharge & Reload etc) I then started wondering.. are there plans or anything of the sort to slowly replace racials for something like this? They give no edge in any way, other than using an ability that is a bit more unique for recovery which I'd say is a good way to still make racials something more than just... well, pointless.

Well, that is good to hear. Because they sure don't make Rogun the Butcher come over as anyone special during.. well what I've played. He sent some Bounty Hunters after me, meh, I killed his personal Bounty Hunter special dude whatshisface.. Alright. Besides a few mentions he doesn't seem anything scary really. But it's good to know Skavak is just.. some minor character. Because he sure feels like a poor character.

It does make me wonder if SIS Agent would have been a nicer fit. They're everywhere, they can easily be involved in all sorts of interesting things and more to the point; a lot of them behave like your typical Smuggler. Jonas Balker is a good example, guy you run into as a Trooper A LOT, is practically the Smuggler stereotype. Only he doesn't do errands, he's actually doing some stuff that matters. But I digress, Anyone knows of Act II actually clears up a little - hopefully Skavak won't be involved for he's just a joke of a villain - or does that too just have you dig for grandma's reserve pair of socks stolen by some nameless pirates? ---------- Oh, this leads me to another thing. How are Smugglers in flashpoints? I mean, as a Trooper or Jedi you're a pretty big shot in there and have quite a bit of authority on the matter. Are Smugglers simply the 'companions' of the other classes when it comes to Flashpoints? I can't imagine Satele having the same amount of respect for them at least. That's not to say companions like.. Doc aren't awesome. But.. y'know.

I am not casting it aside, that's why I am hoping people here can prove me wrong. But if this is "Build-up" then they are doing it wrong. The game is supposedly written as a trilogy, every chapter should feel as it's own story. It does for other classes. So I will assume that with Smuggler it is entirely the same, then "Build-up" should not be going on when you're over halfway of the main storyline. And sure, I don't expect them to act like Jedi or Troopers or anything like that. But essentially so far they are literally errand boys doing trivial tasks collecting all kinds of trivial items (I do like the word trivial) for trivial people you will never meet again. Like I said, the main problem I have here is that so far the class quest has even less importance than 9/10 of the side quests I am doing. And I think there's something wrong there. I understand it's subjective, but compared to the other classes I know it just seems really drawn out which from an objective standpoint, is just bad writing.

No, I took my time to try and get into it. It just felt trivial and meaningless for the most part. The side quests I didn't do of course, I already did those numerous times before. Essentially I am just hoping you lose the errand boy status at the end of Chapter 1.

That is good to hear, yes Trooper was rather obvious but at least it felt like it was building up to something and did various pretty amazing things already. At this point I'm around halfway through Chapter 1 with my Smuggler and haven't noticed anything that actually seems to be more interesting than the side quests I am doing. I think that's the main issue here, I feel like the side quests I am doing have more relevance and are more interesting in general. Just feels to me that BioWare did a pretty bad job at trying to drag people into the Smuggler storyline, if you have to go through what? 30 levels? Before it gets remotely interesting. At least, I hope by then it gets interesting.

Semi on-topic, does Alacrity actually increase HoT ticks in SWTOR? I remember stacking Haste was quite essential back on my Druid in WoW, but is it useful here at all except for casting faster?

Throughout the SWTOR beta I played a Smuggler and leveled him up to 20 which meant that I was just done with Coruscant at the time. And back then, I was really disappointed with the story. So when the game launched I didn't think of starting a Smuggler right away, played a Trooper and was incredibly surprised by how good that was over the Smuggler that I played. But, yesterday, I decided I wanted to try out the Smuggler storyline again and rushed my way through multiple planets and just got to ask; Will Smuggler ever stop feeling like the galaxy's errand boy? My Smuggler now is level 17, which is really low I know, but the catch is that I rushed through Coruscant and had a friend help me straight away through Taris, Nar Shaddaa the mission you get before Tatooine and a little bit of the early bits of Tatooine.. before I just gave up. If I am not mistaken this is around level 26 or so that you should normally be at. I know with my Trooper at this point I was around level 28. And so far I just feel like.. the intergalactic repairman. Nothing that I have done so far feels at all like it matters or has any significance of any form. I can honestly say that I think this is the worse thing BioWare has ever written so far, I love BioWare writing and story but this just feels.. all kinds of bad. Taris especially felt like they were deliberately dragging the story out. "Hey, go make some deliveries! Hey, scavengers stole my stuff!" You went from one guy to another, all the while doing nothing more but helping them recover some items and delivering some items only to find out that the next guy has also lost his stuff and needs help getting it. And it's not like they were stolen by Imperials or people that matter in anyway. Just random "Pirates". To make some story comparisons with Jedi Knights and Troopers (I can't talk for Consulars) So then I saw a bit of Tatooine and.. I can already foresee a lot of trivial tasks in my Smuggler's future. I know this is supposed to lead up to something.. but even the major goal, , seems really small and insignificant in contrast to what you're doing on.. about every other class. If this is just for fame and credits.. well I made way, way more fame during all the other missions on my Trooper. I know story is a very subjective matter, but I just can't help but feeling this is really poorly written, drawn out and incredibly impersonal leaving me to think "Why?" most of the time as I see other classes do some amazing stuff with big consequences in the meanwhile. Lastly, I am not expecting major Sith stories to occur or giant epic battles to happen as I stop yet another superweapon on my Smuggler (Seriously, the Empire has these things lying around everywhere don't they? ) but I was at least expecting something other than "Run to the end of this map to get my pet" or "There's this group of pirates, I'd like four of my items hidden in chests there.. or else I won't help you, period" So do you ever stop being an unimportant, insignificant errand boy or does the story take a completely radical turn somewhere? (Perhaps after Chapter 1? Which means a really.. really dull Chapter 1 but that aside) Because at this point, even if you're a big Han Solo fan or like the idea of smuggling, I can't see how anyone can honestly want to play this over any other class quest. Which is a shame, as I do like the class a lot from a gameplay perspective. --------- I suppose it comes down to; if I hated this part so far and felt like it was absolutely meaningless. Will I find any enjoyment out of the Smuggler storyline what so ever?

They removed it for now, there is an article about it, because they felt it didn't properly allow for the feeling of progression with too many sets looking the same but just having different colors - which this system would remove making players feel they never got new gear. They're working on it. http://www.swtor.com/blog/why-unify-color-chest-piece-gone-and-whats-next

Not quite. I find as a Commando I am much more on the move, in fact, as I don't have to hide behind cover the whole time. Having heavy armor does not make you a tank and does not make you incredibly durable, on the contrary you will get you face melted off if you're not careful. You're a ranged DPS or healer, regardless. You can't take much damage. The different is just that gunslingers have to do most of their damage from a stationary position, behind cover while Commandos are a bit more mobile, though not very fast. Their actual gameplay is very different honestly, I suggest looking up some videos. Perhaps base it on story if you still can't decide.

Sage/Sorcerer are apparently most complete as of now. But again, that is as of now. They will all be better than others at one point, they will all have their moment of being the 'best' healer at some point in this game's lifespan but they will all be viable and capable healers. I don't regret a second of picking a Combat Medic (Trooper) and am doing more than fine. Just pick the healer you think you'd like best, not the healer that is best right now. They will all be viable healers.

No, it isn't. Ignore the naysayers. I've been playing a healer since beta (Smuggler Scoundrel back then, Trooper Combat Medic now) and am doing great in both solo content/questing, PvP and flashpoints. I think most people just are either doing it wrong or.. are doing it wrong. I have absolutely no issues keeping my party up in flashpoints, fending off and mostly defeating 1v1, or 1v2 situations in PvP and can be especially important in keeping people like the Huttball carriers alive and am cutting through mobs during questing as quickly as most DPS are (And I'm mostly even using a healer companion who doesn't do anything at all just for story purposes). ----- As for the "LF Healer" deal in chat. Get used to it, this will always happen in MMOs. Most of the time there's hardly any tanks and healers around (Admittedly tanks don't seem as rare from what I've seen so far) It's all about the deeepeeeeessssss

Just throwing this out here, but as a fully specialized Combat Medic I have zero problem doing questing and I do not level slower than DPS specced players. Especially when there's AoE involved.

Same here, Website's rather unstable as of late. To be expected.

It's something that bothered me a little in BioWare games in general. I believe Dragon Age was exactly the same here. I kept calling - and right now keep referring to General Garza as "Sir" which seems to be acceptable lore-wise but myself I also think Madam or Ma'am would have been a bit more appropriate. It doesn't bother me anymore though as I am getting used to it. Just think of it as a gender-neutral title, which they are in this specific universe.