Just cancelled. Will try TESO, despite knowing that its story telling is a far cry from SWTOR. Not sure what comes after that, will probably depend on my guildies.

Think they already did. Point in case: Latest patch.

The latest patch is an insult. I ain't gonna spend any money on CM anymore.

I'm kinda speechless. I thought they were gonna fix conquest a bit with this patch, but all they did was dangle a carrot and then pull it real quick and replace it with a banana peel filled with kathhound poodoo. What the actual f are you guys doing? Do you want to tell us something? Why not just shut the damn game down right away? (inner voice) Ok. Deep breath. Relax. Calm down, Kaldron. You said flashpoints were supposed to be part of conquest, so I thought they would be viable, as they used to be. But look at this mess you made! I have 150% stronghold bonus and I get what? 325 points???? AND I CAN ONLY DO IT ONCE PER DAY? Have you completely lost it? If you honestly think you can wait until 5.9 to fix this cockup, then you got another thing coming.

Oh also you seem to be entirely ignorant of how really big guilds select their invasion targets. These guilds are mostly conquest guilds (like Wardens of the Republic on Malgus) and they select the planets that their members need for titles. Rewards have nothing to do with that at all, nor point goals. They will go for small, medium and large yield all the time, depending on their rotation, not your idea of interesting rewards (hint: they're not).

It's good the point goals are coming down, but without any repeatable activities that my folks and me actually want to do, it's still pointless. Filling our personal goals was mostly achieved by doing flashpoints, crafting and ops, and our invasion targets have always been chosen accordingly. Of these, only ops are feasable at this time. If that remains this way, conquest is dead to most of us. Also I think you are completely ignoring the impact of removing planetary goal multipliers, which were also an important consideration.

STAHP! You're killing me

The good: CXP for goals, for those that still care about CXP (I don't. I really don't) Can now get guild rewards (read: encryptions) without being in the top 10. Excellent! No longer have to stuff my SH with basic chairs, that's a big improvement. The bad: Too much stuff isn't repeatable. What is repeatable has terribly low yield, even with full SH bonus. That makes it tough for a small guild even to fill the goal for small planets I probably will only care about small (semi-achievable) worlds, but really, why even bother with the "large" ones? The difference in rewards is a joke. You can blow mats worth several millions to be rewarded with some small amount of jawa junk and a few mats you won't need anyway? Way off course there. The ugly: Kill 25 champion mobs for 1250 points (with full SH bonus) -- are you kidding me? Who'd bother with that? Same with the Rampage goals. Nice that it is now repeatable, but it yields so little it is a total waste of time. RIP Crafting for conquest. The material costs for crafting war supplies is nothing short of IDIOTIC. The stuff that is repeatable on several toons vs. the stuff that is repeatable once every day over all tunes. ***. Even if Relics of the Gree missions were repeatable over all toons every day, it would still be hard to fill the goal for small planets with a smaller guild. This way? F... that. No more points for flashpoints? Have you completely lost your minds? Did someone get their head stuck in a microwave? What are you guys thinking? Do you want us to flee your game in droves? WHY???? I was thinking of unsubbing because I'm bored out of my skull with this game. Along comes the new conquest system, and at first glance I thought that hey, this might be something cool to spend time on. But the more I look at it the more I realize you've once again f'ed it up instead of improving it. Sure, reaching the goal was easy on the first toon. For one, the free 10k points for killing the two Ilum event WBs that everyone seems to get for free helped. Then the crafting of 10 invasion forces (which I wont be able to do again, considering the new ludicrious costs of war supplies) helped, as well as the op I did. But then I looked at what I could do to reach the goal and I realized.... basically, nothing. I 'm back at thinking of unsubbing now, after sticking with this game since 2012. Gratulations for that, Bioware. Great work.

I think there are better ways to troll people than to queue for content as base class, so I'm not sure that should be a big concern. But as Rose said, it's about playing solo stuff more than anything anyway. So if the condition was such a restriction, sure, I'd be okay with that! I've recently discovered a forgotten toon on another server that I had created years ago to check GTN prices over there. It never had reached level 10, so it was still base class, an Imperial Agent. I've moved it over to my home server and am currently playing it. What is quite fascinating is that this toon has far fewer abilities than my sith warrior. I found myself putting my rifle in my inventory and using those PvP hand-to-hand abilities because I do more damage that way (you know, punch / uppercut / jab / bash). When not using a main hand weapon, sadly the only agent ability I can use is fragmentation grenade, but that makes for a nice addition for the rotation. Most of all, it gives me an ability I can still use when jab leaves me winded (25% chance), unable to use the hand-to-hand abilities for 4 seconds... Edit: Monumenta, check your PMs

tl;dr / executive summary at bottom A bit of ancient history In the olden days before game update 5.0, character creation made you pick a base class (such as Sith Warrior, Trooper, Jedi Councilor etc) and you were only able to select an advanced class (such as Marauder/Juggernaut, Vanguard/Commando, Sage/Shadow) when you reached level 10. Some people didn't know that picking an advanced class actually made a huge difference in the amount of abilities and skills you get, not to mention utility points. These people were having a very hard time surviving even in story missions and became frustrated with the game quickly. There was also the fact that many abilities were shared between the two advanced classes, that really only made sense for one class. Bioware thus decided to let players pick an advanced class right from the beginning. All those already playing that had not yet picked an advanced class, were presented with a modal (un-removable) window on log-in, prompting them to pick one. Also, abilties were shifted around, some were removed and some were added to make the distinction more clear between the two advanced classes. Maybe the best example is the removal of Take Cover from the scoundrel: taking cover makes no sense when you're a melee class, because from cover, pretty much the only ability you could use was rifle shot, the weakest of all attacks. To me, the removal of base classes from character creation makes sense. But there is a different point to all of this which sadly has not gotten any attention: Some people played base class toons by choice. Before 4.0, this was especially challenging. Try surviving some of the harder fights when you have very few abilities and your companion is a DPS one and there is no way to change their role! So yeah, me and others, we did it as a bit of a challenge, to see how far we could go, and it was a lot of fun. Basic life in the days of 5.0 When 5.0 hit and made us select an advanced class by force, I didn't. I decided I'd rather not play that toon anymore than to take away his reason for existing. So it sat there, sad and lonely, at the bottom of the character list, somewhere on page 17. Some time ago, I loaded him up just to see him again, and as expected, the modal window popped up, trying to force me where I didn't want to go. I was a bit bored and so I walked around a bit. While you cannot click anything outside the window (all grayed out) you can still move about with the keyboard. Since you can't click anything you can't go anywhere. I became curious and wanted to find out what exactly would work and what wouldn't, and by sheer luck found out the modal window isn't so modal after all. First I was able to click again, but the window was still in my few. I'd move it to the right and levelled my toon to level 70 with that window willing the right half of my screen. Then eventually, by sheer luck, I found you can actually get rid of it altogether. That made me really happy! I got ambitious now: I wanted to be the first (only?) to get a base class toon to command rank 300. So I did what you usually do: weeklies, dailies, veteran flashpoints and a few ops and before I knew it, I was there, at rank 300. My "Fruitcake" may not parse top damage, but he does about as much as a mediocre advanced class toon. Then I thought "I should do KOTFE on this, see how it goes". On veteran, naturally, because story would be boring, right? I'm now at chapter 13 ("Profit and Plunder") and so far didn't need any help. Makes you wonder just how bad a base class toon really can be, doesn't it? What's stopping you, then? So I got thinking, what if you could try this with other base classes, as well? Might be interesting to see how you fare with those! Of course, this was my only base class toon, so I had to explore other ways. I decided my best shot would be to ask customer support for help, ask them to change the class of one of my lowbies to its base class (in this case Bounty Hunter). I had only to wait a day for the reply. A friendly rep informed me that after checking extensively, they found out they do not have the resources or tools to do what I asked them for, and went on to suggest I post in the suggestion box forum. The funny thing is this: I have met a lot of people who checked out my toon, noticed that its base class and contacted me. The conversations usually went something like that: That keeps happening, and apparently there is a great longing amongst the more experienced populace to go back to something simple, far way from all the command rank and gear grinding, back to a challenge based on pure skill, not augmentation level or the likes. I have also talked to quite a few who never had a baseclass toon but always wanted to make one, to see what it's like. As of right now, there is no way to do that, and that is sad. Now what? Well, two things would be very nice: while the advanced class selection window can be closed without selecting one, it is still annoying as it keeps popping up. Finish a conversation? *pop* Travel somewhere? *pop* relog? *pop* So if we could get rid of that, that would be super. Let's be realistic here: if someone still has one of those toons, and they haven't selected an advanced class yet, they're not very likely to do so in the future. Might as well get rid of that "feature". It served its purpose, now it can go away. Then there's the main issue: getting the chance to try this experience in the first place. I will be the first to say that it doesn't make sense to re-integrate that into the normal character creation process. It would be confusing and possibly frustrating to new players at this point. But there should be *some* way to make it happen. I can think of two ways: Give customer support the means of switching a (level 1?) toon to its base class. That way, you have to explicitly request it, and they seem to be fine with that, judging from the response I got from them. -or- Add a sort of hidden feature during character creation. Maybe pressing a special key, or selecting an advanced class while pressing a modifier key (shift, ctrl, alt, ...) would select the base class instead. I do think this would make it easy to integrate from a programming perspective. And hey, I don't give a hoot that I don't get any gear in my command crates! I just want to have fun! Add this, and with very little efford, you would make more people happy than you'd imagine! tl;dr: - playing base class toons is possible even now, if you still have one - it is also a lot of fun, due to being challenging - makes you a better player as you have to use everything you have to survive (at least when doing veteran mode chapters) - you don't get gear in your command crates at the moment (except at 300 when you will get some relics), but I can live with that - the nag screen should go - there should be a way to make new base class toons, but probably not via normal character creation I'd be very interested in your opinions and ideas, my fellow forumites!

I'm not that obnoxious. When playing Fruitcake, I only group up with people I know, and only if they're fine with it.

TBH I didn't intend to fool anyone, it was more for ***** & giggles. What I expected was "Ohh.. hey that guy played a base class to 300, that's crazy!" not so much "He's probably a liar and he forged that video" I thought the tone of that post would give away I wasn't at all serious with the pitty thing, but perhaps it was too subtle? And yeah, I pretty much expected not getting any gear when I started playing him again. It was still weird opening that first pack and only getting cosmetic stuff and mats and so on. Why did I keep playing? Didn't have anything better to do, what with lack of new content......

casirabit already explained how and why this happens, but your theory sounds way cooler. I only wish I knew how to do that! Got all the creativity to spice up those vacation videos, and sadly none of the talents

Ill be on Darth Malgus' imp side fleet for the next half hour or so, if you want to inspect and/or probe me

Edit: you are actually right: I was so used to not getting anything, I guess I didn't even check. Lol. Yeah, seem to get relics now. Nice change of pace, at least I can get a few UCs now every now and then

Nm that, wasn't paying too much attention after not getting anything for ages. Guess I at least get relics now \o/

This isn't a matter of bad rolls. This is a matter of no no rolls. Something like Fruitcake? In their book, a Fruitcake shouldn't happen. They didn't expect a Fruitcake. They made no preparations for my people still existing. But we do. We are here. We matter.

I don't think you understand: I'm not saying I didn't get good gear. I did get no gear.

I was thinking of creating a ticket for this, but I thought the underlying ethical questions require a broad societal debate, so I am sharing my troubles in this thread, in the hopes that something can and will be done. I have had this wonderful toon, called Fruitcake Tam (used to be just Fruitcake on Progenitor) and I have played him since around the 3.0 days. Fruitcake and me, we have not always had an easy relationship: many quests became chores, things that should be easy, weren't. But we have always had so much fun together. All through the class missions, the Makeb story line and part of the SoR one, we've managed to survive and overcome all adversity. Then 5.0 hit, and things became complicated and much much harder (some might say impossible, but where there is a will...), so we picked up where we left, we got to level 70 just fine and then, something strange happened. There was no gear for Fruitcake Tam in the command boxes at all. Nothing. All the rest was there: cosmetic gear, companion gifts, reputation items, materials, mods, hilts etc, but no gear in the form of armor pieces or left-side items (ear piece / implant / relic etc). Nothing! We've fought on, raging through many battles, be it in operations, flashpoints or even PvP, and in the end, we've made it to rank 300 together. I thought that perhaps, at that rank, something would change, and there would be something. I was wrong. But see for yourselves: No gear at rank 300 at all, no gear for poor Fruitcake Edit: yes, appears that screenshot is a poor example! Apparently starting at rank 300, you do get the occasional random relic dropped, because apparently that is sub-class unspecific. Sorry for the confusion! All the gear I am wearing, I crafted myself. At item level 246, it's the best you can craft. But obviously it is missing something: upgradability to 248, and for the armor pieces, set bonus. Now granted, I could not profit from anything more than four pieces of DPS juggernaut set bonus armor, but still, it pains me to know there is almost no way for me to get that (short of ranking a DPS juggernaut I do not have to tier 3 ). Now I'm not a complainer, I try to cope as best I can, and so far I have survived. But I have to wonder, what of others? What of all those that have trouble playing - and surviving - because of this grave inequality? Something must be done! Bring justice and equality to my people! In the name of Fruitcake Tam, basic hero from a simpler age

1. Groupfinder story mode ops with weekly mission 2. Weeklies for daily planets (Cz-198, Black Hole, Section X, Ziost, Oricon, Iokath, Yavin 4) 3. Weeklies for veteran and HM FPs Those are the must-dos if you want to rank up fast with PvE, imho.

What Turin said, and this: - Don't really need super gear, story mode (SM) ops have bolster, which should be more than enough for beginner ops - Start with Eternity Vault or even better with Karagga's Palace. These are very accessible for those that have never done an op before, and you can get a feel if it's something you wanna do again

We had to try a few different ways too before we found one that worked for us: Once she's going back down at < 30% just focus her. Ignore the adds completely. RDPS and healer can stand up on the gallery so they can focus her without trouble.

A cure? Like for Kuat? Seriously though, I don't see a problem. I did it with a guildie the other day, and we had two pugs. They *mostly* knew what to do but were a little undergeared. We didn't have any problems whatsoever (no, not on Joss and Valk, not on first boss either) until the last boss. The puggies both died and me and my guildies (merc dps and ops healer) finished the boss fight alone. Just the two of us. And we're not elite raiders or something. Just saying.

Yeah I know how they feel. I've burnt down my house on rumors that property taxes might increase...