Rules of Tanking: 1) Maximize your Effective Health by gearing properly. 2) Use your Cooldowns appropriately, and know your threat rotation/boss mechanics. 3) If the healer dies, chances are it's your fault. 4) If you die, chances are it's the healer's fault. 5) If a DPS dies, it's their own goddamn fault. 6) Tanks are usually considered leaders in most groups and have a lot of influence on things. So lead, but don't be a pain or insulting. Poor/stupid DPS are easily replaceable. Any good DPS should know these things: 1) Proper gearing for your spec and maximizing damage. 2) When to use CD's (burn phases, etc) without ripping threat. 3) Where their threat dump (if they have one) is. 4) Killing weakest to strongest. 5) CC'ing appropriate mobs and taking care not to break CC. 6) Avoiding as much damage taken as possible. Juggs aren't equipped with the range tools that Ptech or Sin tanks have. This does make it a bit more of a Jugg(le) than with those other tanks. Groups should understand this, and follow a kill order to make life easier on the tank. If someone persists, whisper your healer and tell them to let that moronic d-bag die. After a few deaths and a mounting repair bill, the one who doesn't learn will usually either leave or fall in line and do what they're supposed to do. Either way typically the problem is solved.

I like the way Lokin looks as a rakghoul. Would be nice if he didn't drop rakghoul stance every time I stealthed though, for the times I want to use him as a dps booster instead of heals. Doctor Lokin by far is the most useful companion to me. Being a newer toon (even as a cybertech giving my comps moddable gear updated with top of the line at the time armor/mods) my tank companions always wound up taking so much damage and there was always downtime. My DPS companions, to me, are pretty useless because they just get busted up about as fast, and dont have a useful CC like Lokin does. Typically in a 3 pack I sleep one, Lokin winds up freezing one and he and I both bust up one fast, swap to next, and next and done. I could AOE, yeah, but I kill just about as fast by single targeting them down without the huge energy drain. Our AOE moves are very energy hungry.

There are, I've noticed, 3-4 different sounds to the blaster rifles that I have found. One is the higher pitched Pew Pew sound as is the one most commonly found on the majority of rifles. One is lower-pitched, sounds almost like a semi-silenced real gun. Go the Boarding Party and get the Tral-Tec Searing Rifle to try it out. I've only found 2 or 3 that sound like that so far, but the Tral-Tec looks good too, if a bit big. One is actually almost silenced. I kept it but dont remember what the name of it is, but it sounds sorta like a suppressed MP5. It's actually TOO quiet sometimes I didn't even hear it over the music and other sounds lol. And the last sound type, the one I use, sounds like a ship's blaster. Found on a few rifles, such as the recruit PVP rifle. That type, to me, sounds pretty awesome when I unload with Cull and Carbine Burst.

I'm a new player, been playing about 6 weeks now. I have to agree with this assessment, unfortunately. I came from WoW (which admittely obviously has a large unskilled player base) from a PVP server, and also did ranked arenas. So basically, I'm a fresh 50 in pretty much recruit gear, and I'm doing more damage than most of my team (I'm playing an imp agent) and oftentimes I'm the only one trying to burn down a healer, or kill the one carrying the huttball. It's very frustrating, coming to a PVP server I was expecting that there would just be a little more skill. I see that skill, on the Pub side, but that's probably more so that they're premade grouping vs our uncoordinated monkey mess.

I was just reading a few other similar type of suggestions in another post a bit earlier. Forgot which one, sorry, but it was very much like this. I'm a new player, been playing a bit over a month now and now have my Operative at lvl 50. I've been lethality all the way while leveling up, aside from trying a bit of concealment here and there. My big issues that I have with the way I have to play this is TA: 1) TA is too bloody short. Cull does VERY subpar damage without dots, and there have been quite a few occasions where I was trying to refresh dots before using a Cull, then couldn't, because TA only lasts for 10 seconds. Unless you spend 8 points in medicine tree... 2) Getting TA requires melee range. Period. Hidden strike and Shiv, as far as I'm aware, are our only two sources of said TA's. This is especially painful in PVP, as I find I just cannot stay anywhere near toe to toe with most classes for very long at all. And without getting into melee range, I deal pretty piss poor damage. 3) The only other alternative option is to waste 2 talent points in medicine tree to get a TA from using Kolto Injection. Fine and dandy I guess, except for a few things: a) This completely negates any stealth advantage, while giving me little in the process. b) If I'm a dps spec, I'm ok with having an off-heal (which I already do), but the 10 second duration on TA makes it so that Stim Boosting from a TA from Kolto Injection use is the only practical application of this use of 2 talent points (as a DPS operative). I would much rather have some other method of getting TA's than from (primarily) Shiv. While I like knifing a beeoch as well as the next guy....it's the main thing that just doesn't seem to fit with Operative DPS (at least not for Lethality, it does with Concealment). For Lethality's purposes, I'd be willing to argue the only thing we should even NEED a TA for at all would be to Stim Boost. Cull is already 25 energy, doesn't hit that hard at all without setup (and not even that hard then), and it's only 25 energy if you spend a few extra talent points to get it there. Seems costly enough to me. Unchaining Cull from TA altogether is probably the easiest solution to this problem. This solution for Lethality is nice because it's an easy fix. Cull already has several tie-in factors in terms of energy, setup for real damage (Corrosive Dart/Grenade), and with our regen isn't exactly spammable.

I've been leveling as a Lethality Operative, and a new player to this game. I'm a cybertech, so early on I outfitted myself and Kaliyo with all custom gear and updated it every few levels or so. Kaliyo got the job done, but there were many fights where I was trying to slap out several heals on her and was left energy starved. I like her, and there's nothing really wrong with her I guess, but I haven't used her now since I got Doctor Lokin. When I first got Vector, I did the same thing. Geared him out in custom gear, updated mods etc. He seemed (to me) to do even LESS damage than Kaliyo. And he did not hold ANY agro over me unless I sent him attacking a target and didn't attack it myself, in which case he was always busted up and/or dead. When I first got Doctor Lokin, even in his crappy green stuff, no helmet, no gun, no knife....his heals were more than adequate for me to dance around and slice stuff up fairly fast with. Only thing I miss out on is some backstabbing, but as lethality that's not as much of an issue. Honestly, kinda pissed me off I had to wait so long to get a healer companion. Kaliyo's probably pretty ok if you're heal-spec ops, but only meh-useful for dps operative and sniper as well. Vector, to me, just seemed plain useless. Maybe I'll outfit him and try him again since I read some of your glowing stuff but even if I CC'ed a mob or two he just seemed to get torn up like tissue paper.

I just ran across another great one while on Nar Shaddaa's bonus mission. When you turn in the bonus mission and have destroyed the Republic's transport.... Zarashe: Who gave you authorization to strike at the Republic transports? Me: Watch your mouth, or you'll be shopping for a cybernetic jaw replacement. ))

I'm playing a Lethality Ops right now, and I have a lot of fun generally in the WZ's. I'm a new player, but not new to competetive PVP. I seem to be reasonably effective in the WZ's, but the biggest issue I'm having is not having a gap closer or at least something more effective I can use at range without cover to take down runners. EDIT: The use of poisons is one of the main reasons for this, as if I get knocked off a ledge or somesuch, I'm in combat for quite a while longer, and thus running slower. A sprint or a gap closer would be superb. As an example, I'm fairly good at kiting so I have managed fairly well to take down a lot of the marauders and juggs and what not that I've run across with strafe circling and sever tendon and poisons, etc...but a lot of times people seem to be able to start getting away and I can't finish them off. Bear in mind this is 1-49 PVP so I have no idea how it's going to be come rated WZ's and organized teams. I played a sniper at first, then decided to try Operative and have loved it. Feels more visceral, certainly has a higher skill curve, and can be effective enough it seems as long as you make good use of your skills. I can't survive any kind of focus for very long at all, but it was a lot like rogue/feral druid in WoW. Can be a powerhouse but fairly squishy.

I play a female Imperial Agent and while talking to Kaliyo I ran noticed an interesting exchange while talking to her on my ship. Went something like this: Agent: "I can't help it that men just fall down at my feet." Kaliyo: "Yeah, they do that to me too. Except I usually have to push them there. It all works out in the end anyway." LOL