Companions are just pets: I was really happy when I would read/hear about how the developers really wanted us to care about our companions. It worked great in other BW games so I was really looking forward to it in a SW online game. But that didn't happen. They aren't designed to be used in PVP, End game, Flash Points and really anything that is group based. If you do pull them out for this content it is only for personal amusement or dire need. Yes we can 2-man HM FPs using our companions but that was player ingenuity not design. Their is little to no customization, no respecs, their stories are un-involved, the gift system is silly (buy affection...seriously?) In KOTOR1 your companions were seriously powerful, in ME2 especially the last mission there was a great team dynamic, neither of those qualities made it to SWTOR. Space combat: I don't know what meeting could have possibly went like this: "Let's do an on the rails shooter akin to a flash game, they'll love it" "Brilliant!" *board room applauds* Seriously, other than Star Fox 64, when was there an acclaimed on the rails shooter? Maybe Rage for the iPhone? It's hard to comprehend how you couldn't grasp how irritating this would be considering that Star Wars has had multiple excellent free flight games (X-Wing, Tie-Fighter and multiple memorable flights from adventure games). A story based MMO, where your story doesn't matter: When I first started playing this game it was great! WOW fully voiced story! The voice work remained superb and enjoyable. The stories though, ugh...completely devoid of life. I saved the galaxy...no one knows, nothing changed. Do you see the problem, how did you expect me to respond? "Oh the story that I did he is dead but I am in a time warp where that hasn't happened yet so I'll just play along for now..." Speaking of story, what decision did I make when I was level 10 when a moral choice came up, I don't remember and there is no way to find out. Don't worry we don't need to have a story replay because your story doesn't matter and that choice just affects your LS/DS points and has no lasting meaning. Hell I can't even go into the GTN and record that, "this is my favorite shop" because again, my story doesn't matter and no one cares what I've done. Performance and Features: I won't say much here, this game's performance to graphics ratio blows. I'm not talking the art direction, I'm talking load times, number of characters on screen, FPS spikes, lag spikes, bad textures, etc. This is a AAA game, I expected it to perform like one. The features when this game started were abysmal. No group finder, no UI customization, still no "barbershop" type feature to change my looks. Weak race selection...horrible looking cyborgs. Uninspired mirror classes. Fantasy trope trinity based game play. No macros. No in game voice service. There are a lot of MMOs out there and these are no-brainer at-launch-features especially if you actually wanted to be "The Best". You knew this would catch you some flack and you didn't take action for whatever reason. Poor form. PVP and combat: I think it was evident from the initial Blur trailer that this game was about combat. Sith vs Jedi, the Republic vs the Empire and it was going to be EPIC! The choreographed combat from KOTOR was a key point that was mentioned multiple times about how heroic we would feel. The execution of this was quite different. Combat became a game of whack-a-mole while I stared at cool downs rather than the action. Skill was measured by how many hot-keys I could setup and work in conjunction. Abilities were sold to me because I collected enough rat tails from some boring mission to level up. Open world PVP or at least meaningful warzones should have been an obvious addition. There are no class specific goals (Smugglers don't smuggle, Operatives don't spy, Jedi aren't diplomats, everyone just fights). The scope of the warzones is small and for most the performance is poor. There are no territories being held or lost. Open world PVP was killed before most even got to experience it. Do you recall in your own trailers where temples were sacked, space stations were destroyed, epic battles were fought and Alderaan was freed? No? Well I guess that's a more satisfying answer than something along the lines of "we never intended for that" or "that's outside of our abilities". I dunno I've had some pretty big gaming disappointments, Too Human, The Force Unleashed but I think SWTOR, you're number one there.

Based on this chart http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Graphics-Cards-Benchmark-List.844.0.html that's a pretty low end laptop. I see that is is 469lbs which is about $700us. Based on newegg, you could do better.

Anti-joke chicken: "Scream defined; A long, loud, piercing cry expressing extreme emotion or pain."

I'd recommend reading this before you purchase from Sager directly, you may find one of their resellers to be a better fit for you. http://forum.notebookreview.com/sager-clevo/592609-clevo-guide-v3-0-faq-reseller-info-read-before-posting.html

Switching the power profiles to performance is a good suggestion. Here's where you can download the drivers. http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us

If it isn't letting you in, you may need to dismiss the quest from your quest log.

So are you having network lag (high latency, characters jumping around in fast forward motions after a delay) or video lag (choppiness, mini-freezes on open areas or congested places)? If it's network lag, ya you need to consider your connection or router. If it is video lag then you'll want to work on your computer. First thing, check if you have any unnecessary processes running. See if your display is doing Full Screen (not windowed). Turn off Bloom and Shadows. Defrag your computer. Make sure you don't have junk programs (bloatware) installed from Best Buy. Finally update your graphics card drivers. Lastly, did you hear from someone who actually owns a computer like yours that it will run SWTOR or did you just trust the Best Buy employee?

That's a pretty good laptop (though is it a Gen 3 i7?). Try messing with your settings, maybe try turning bloom and/or shadows off. They are both performance killers and add little to the visuals (imo). If that doesn't fix it or it isn't up to your standard I'd start looking at your drivers, downloading the newest drivers for your graphics card should help since the 660m is a pretty good card for that price point.

I have both a Tankassin and a Juggy, both handle group tanking just fine. I do agree the DPS should be picking up the regular mobs though (that's DPS 101) however in the meantime they are almost always on me. For my Juggy, using smash along with one of your other AE abilities will typically hold aggro. Depending on how you're spec'd Smash maybe be free and should be used regularly. As an operative healer, I almost never get aggro. We do have an ability to drop aggro (I never use it but I mgiht if I start running into these kinds of tanks) also we have some skill points to drop healing aggro. Maybe a combination of the two will help.

I always queue for it, I haven't had it pop yet but on the "bright side" I've done battle for Illum 500 times.

Hammer will be a breeze. Cadimamu might be annoying due to bugs but the content isn't challenging. Kill the last boss slowly so you don't get "quad-burner'd".

Anything level 41 and below with ease. After that well, it'll depend on you. Now running these might be a moot point, I kind of think they removed the SM before HM requirement (I might be wrong about this).

Since your alt is an operative, yes it will be nerfed, however it has nothing to do with you being able to solo any content.

Pets are pointless and no fun (YMMV).

No CD backstab...that seems unfair.