I do, for gearing fresh 55's. I get them some gear from my main and then work through the Flashpoints. As a bonus, it gives me a firmer grip on the rotation and level 55 capabilities.

Ummm, eight million? Are you sure about this? I am rather certain Battlelord Kreshan has around 900k hitpoints. If I recall correctly, even Dread Master Brontes has under two million hitpoints in 8-man SM...

Likewise. It is a really peculiar feeling.

As said, it can be done really quickly. I have done it solo once just to see if I can do it, but unfortunately I can't recall how long it took. I was on my Verpine geared Assassin and used Talos for heals (he is mostly in Black Market gear). Skipped all I could of course, so it probably wasn't more than 15 minutes.

The third tree logic doesn't apply to all classes. For Sentinels and Guardians that is the lolsmash tree (Rage/Focus).

I have misunderstood the first post then. Yes, getting every single mob can be very frustrating. I don't mind it per se though. It's also worth noting that the Flashpoint XP Legacy perk actually states you get extra XP for the enemies you kill rather than completing the quest. At least I am 90% sure that is what it says. If you spend a load of dough for that alt you are leveling, it might actually pay off in the end. As said, I am ready to go the extra mile, but I can see where the frustration comes in. Got to say though, there is a part of me that enjoys the hilarity of skipping as much as possible. Taral V and the Battle of Ilum are notorious examples of getting quick experience by skipping entire sections. It is fun to see just how much you can actually skip without too much effort. I think the Battle of Ilum only requires two fights, the one at the console before the last boss and then the last boss fight itself. I ran it so my friend could get the speeder (Aratech Ice?) from that one quest. We had four level 55's, all geared up in Verpine and/or higher. Operative healer, Assassin DPS (me) and yet another Operative. I think the whole run took less than ten minutes.

Emphasis mine. Not sure about the strongest, because I haven't tried all the specs, but I must agree Madness Sorcs are pretty damn good there. Just got to level 30 myself, but the times before that were glorious!

1. This is actually a pretty sweet idea. I started PvPing relatively late, I had already leveled my first character to 50 before I started PvPing on my Assassin and I know I was hopelessly lost at first. The tooltips that come with the loading screen and the instructions at the beginning of each Warzone don't prepare newcomers adequately and especially in the 10-29 bracket that really shows. 2. No comments really. I am not on a PvP server and the queue times have always been perfectly fine for me. I now I would get murdered if I went against the folks from PvP servers. 3. Do you mean you could essentially determine the level of your character and get a feel of all the abilities, but you would then be unable to use the character outside the sandbox planet? If so, I think the idea itself is nice. Every time I level a new toon I feel a little frustrated when I wait for the new abilities, because I don't know how they go with the rest of my rotation. Granted, I also savour the anticipation, but I would be glad if I got the chance to try out some of the classes and combos I haven't given a go yet. 4. Not a bad idea at all. Not too high on the list of my concerns, because I solo queue virtually every single time I go to a WZ and I don't really care about the opposition. When I feel like PvPing, I will PvP. However, this could be a nice addition. One of the problems might be that at times the faction balance in Warzones might become even more outrageous. For example, if I wanted to queue for a Warzone, I'd check and see that one of the best PvP guilds from my faction is running a premade, I would jump in and hope to be on their side. Meanwhile the players from the other faction might get hopelessly farmed. Just speculation though. 5. I would personally like a more comprehensive set of statistics altogether. How many killing blows have I had altogether? How many Marauders have I killed? What is my overall protection score? Things like that. Maybe it could be an option that a player could enable from preferences and statistics would then be stored on his hard drive or something. I am interested in numbers like that, so I would give this kind of an improvement an immediate thumbs up. All in all, I enjoyed reading your ideas.

Personally I have never said no if someone asks for a full run. If I join an Operation or a Flashpoint, I always make sure I have time for the bonus quests, instructing people and even wipe a few times. Sure, most of the times everyone wants a fast run and I don't have anything against it, but I don't mind watching the cutscenes and taking the long road. This is particularly true with characters I am leveling, because there is a chance that some of the others are either new to their class or the Flashpoint in general. So if someone wants to do a full run, I am all for it. Even when I tank, I always ask what people think, even though the level 55 HM FP gear is no longer relevant to me.

My vote goes to the Imperial Agent's storyline as well. It is a relatively serious one and the companion stories reflect that pretty nicely too. The diplomatic endeavours of Vector, Kaliyo's hidden past and so, they are all well-built and for once I actually enjoyed grinding my way through discussions and companion gifts just to see how the companions develop. The Smuggler and, to a lesser extent, the Bounty Hunter story were both really fun. The former in particular gave me instant Han Solo vibes as I played. One liners, fist fights, flirting and dashing around the galaxy in a Corellian ship! On the other hand, the BH was immediately portrayed as a hardcore fighter and the personal vendetta around which the story revolves was excellent and it just showed how far a Bounty Hunter can go if he is relentless enough.

Doesn't really respond to the gearing question though.

Emphasis mine. In any case, what is the problem with that? I am by no means an excellent player, but I broke 1 million heals on my Operative plenty of times betweeen levels 50 and 54. At 55 that is more or less the norm.

Never hurts to get the most optimal boosts for the heals though. If I am to sustain myself with the bitter tears of my enemies, I need to get some decent upgrades.

60 or 70, I think. I really haven't paid a whole lot of attention for a while, since all of my level 55's I PvP with are already above the Valor rank 70 mark. I only have the old, original WH stuff, I haven't bought any crafted pieces yet. My current operation is to replace the remaining seven or eight Resolve Augment 28's with Advanced version for my PvP set. Maintaining a PvE and PvP set with full purple augments is an excruciatingly expensive enterprise.

Usually the people who ragequit either before the match starts or, even worse, during the match are the sort of folks I would rather not play with in the first place.

Months ago I still kept all my War Hero/Elite War Hero pieces as my regular PvP set. I just tossed Partisan and, later on, Conqueror stuff inside. When it came time to augment my PvP set, I moved away from the old shells... Something about the Stalker WH/EWH set always made me get lost in nostalgia! I still use them for RP purposes every now and then though. No point throwing collectibles like that away. Edit: I believe the word you were looking for is Obroan.

The costume itself does not matter, it's the armourings, mods, enhancements and augments.

Hello all, I hit 55 some time ago, but only now have I started properly gearing my Operative. So I've managed to acquire both implants, earpiece, both relics and main and offhand. The problem is that I am not too familiar with how Bolster works, so I am not sure which items I should start replacing. From the various clothes my Operative has, a couple (bracers, belt and boots) are Black Market, while the rest are artifact level. I do use the two-piece Campaign set bonus for cheaper Recuperative Nanotech and the armourings are in the boots and the gloves. At the moment my regular WZ comms are nearly capped, so I should be able to get two items. Which ones do you think I should go with? Edit: In case it matters at all, my Operative is a healer. Trying to hold on to the Campaign gear set bonus, because the PvP set bonus is so bad it makes my brain hurt.

I have seen an artifact/Black Market geared Marksmanship Sniper and her Lokin (using her old gear) solo the Heroic. It might take while, but with enough skill and perhaps some consumables it can be done. I can't comment on the exact gear level though, since when I solo'd it my Assassin was already in full Verpine with purple 28 augments and my Talos was almost fully Black Market geared... So it was pretty easy, especially with a presence score that's about to break 800.

It's a strategy where a Sabotage Gunslinger/Engineering Sniper uses the level 51 escape roll to drop a number of explosives that deal decent damage. If your enemy is againt a wall and you do the roll, all the bombs drop in one place and can pretty much one-shot the fellow.

Not to mention that in most cases killing, say, two people from a team of eight would already show you how the match will end. Quite often things would probably just degenerate to two or more stealthers exiting combat and strolling around the map. So all the super funny sides of arenas, but with more time wasted.

That was beautiful. Almost spat my coffee on the screen laughing! Well done, sir, well done.

Just to clarify, once the encounter starts, I move on to healing whoever needs the heals and let the HoTs run their course until I get a good chance to refresh them. When the fight is over, I slap them on again to save time as everyone can heal on the run. Maintaining the HoTs with four players is easy, but with eight there is very little time for anything else and therefore it won't be a good strategy.

Far as I could tell, he was totally okay with during combat though, but the probes became a nuisance the moment we were not fighting. Guess he needed his line of sight outside combat, but could handle the pulls even with my floating spray cans annoying him...

Warzones too. Always nice to send out a team with HoTs. In FPs, even if the mobs are scattered, but I trust the tank and the DPS players will get them under control quickly, I know I can eat the few hits I might get from other healing abilities. As for stealth... I hardly use it in FPs apart from CCing.