Do Free to Play or Preferred status players need a weekly operations pass to encounter the boss? Yes they do, therefore it's an operation. Short? Very. Still it's an operation. As a side note despite being "only" a single boss encounter there was quite a hype around Nightmare Pilgrim, Dread Tooth, Dreadful and Hateful Entity back in the time.

I beg to differ hard mode (pre nerf) flash points are fun, doing flash points under-geared is fun too, however tactical flashpoints are quite far from being fun for me. As I've already written it's instant pop for tank. And you do know that you can do plenty things while in the queue, don't you? By the way if you are so fond of the idea of damage dealers only group, than why haven't you participated in World Progression Thread: 8-Man Watchman Sentinel/Annihilation Marauder Team Ops ?

The more the developers touch an older content the more they break. See Raptus healing challenge for example, Bioware has managed to break a not that old operation. Imagine what would happen if they need to understand an older operation. It's quite possible that compared to these redone ones the two current level 60 would look like flawless products... Therefore it is better that the players are scaled down to old content (as an option) than the other way around.

Probably you are not alone however I really can't stand tactical flash points. No matter whether it's Kuat Drive Yards or the level 55 ones. I only have hard mode achievements from the Czerka ones. On average I did less than one time the new story arc's tactical flash points (and even than I immediately respecified from tanking/healing when I saw that the other members of the group are damage dealers). These instances could be fun if and only if there would be a real flash point (and a hard mode version at end game) version of it. I do avoid these content not just with my tank and healer toons but even with damage dealer ones. Back in the day of KDY commendation farming the only fun part was pulling everything possible in the room/area and heal it trough. Therefore I kindly ask not to ask the developers to create more dumb content. Regarding the queuing time: for tanks flash points are (usually) instant pop (just click queue and start the flash point even 1 minute waiting time is quite unusual). For healers the usual wait time is less than six minutes. The longest is damage dealers but there are only 2 (and their mirror) advanced classes that are damage dealer only (and even for them the queue time is usually much less than 45 minutes). Damage dealers have their revenge tough: in solo ranked war zones tanks and healers have to wait ages for pop. It's entirely possible to level up to end game just with flash points (not tactical ones) and war zones. I got a healer toon to end game well before reaching the middle of act I... I did not needed other than the first (tank) companion therefore it was quite fine for me. On the other hand it's quite possible rush trough class mission in a pace that one gets the companions 3 or more level before it was designed (like finishing act I at level 28 without any outside help).

Actually, I do. As we are paying customers rather than paid employees doing alpha testing. The state of the loot at 16 players story mode level 60 operations is a major quality assurance issue. It is definitely not a corner case. If in a 16 players story mode instance with only 10 players (with 2 players from the five continents) in the group would kill the boss 0:00 UTC on 29 February would qualify as a corner case if killing the boss 1 minute later would provide the normal amount of loot. The current state of the loot is like upon the introduction of a new model a British manufacturer would deliver RHD vehicles to LHD markets (and the automotive industry can't be accused of not being complex enough yet no one has ever seen such issue).

Thankfully when one born hasn't signed such a contract. As in that case fire would be forbidden for mankind still. What happened with the expansion is a fine example of gross negligence. It is really far from being an honest mistake. So asking for even handed resolution is actually the mature way. Or would you rather argue that next time when your new car or furniture shows complete lack of quality assurance the manufacturer dodge the issue for a prolonged period instead of a recall and refund?

I'm glad that you asked it. Considering the available data this part is really simple. The sad item is given to the second highest roller. Just like it would have been during the operation. Ps: before you ask: in case multiple players rolled the same number the situation would be resolved just like now (the last one get the loot).

Developers are great in destroying value. Despite having fairly good (in terms of story and mechanics wise interesting and fairly bug free and properly tuned) content available they are happy not just to throw them away but even break them (for example Explosive Conflict Nightmare mode Warlord Kephess' Siege Droids phase). Bioware has shown signs of myopia not just now (change of the cool down of interrupts and cleansing) but in the past too (eliminating 8 vs 8 ranked war zones resulted in the balancing problems (one such example: operatives/scoundrels became the healers for ranked)). The good news is that Bioware has the tool to keep the full PvE player base interested. The bad news is that Bioware's track record at execution is far from perfect. Therefore I think that the proper way is not that older content get buffed/reworked at each time the level cap is increased, rather using a reversed bolster[1] system. This way there is less chance of introducing new bug(s). Both at level 50 and 55 there were 5 tiers of gear and one could expect the same will be true for level 60. These were: tier 5 without set bonus: Xenotech (126) and Energized (126) / Black Market (162) / Massassi (192) tier 5 with set bonus: Tionese (126) / Arkanian (162) / Resurrected (192) tier 4 without set bonus: Exotech (136) / Verpine (168) / Deciver (198) tier 4 with set bonus: Columi (136) / Underworld (168) / Revanite (198) tier 3 without set bonus: NA / Shadowed (174) / TBA tier 3 with set bonus: Rakata (140) / Kell Dragon (174) / TBA tier 2 without set bonus: Black Hole (146) / Oriconian (180) / TBA tier 2 with set bonus: Campaign (146) / Dread Forged (180) / TBA tier 1 without set bonus: Hazmat (150) / Dread Touched (186) / TBA tier 1 with set bonus: Dread Guard (150) / Dread Master (186) / TBA With the reversed bolster system in place the loot would be: Tier 5: Story mode operations: Eternity Vault, Karagga's Palace, Terror from Beyond, Scum and Villainy, Golden Fury, Dread Fortress, Dread Palace, The Ravagers, Temple of Sacrifice Tier 4: Hard mode operations: Eternity Vault, Karagga's Palace, Terror from Beyond, Scum and Villainy, Golden Fury, The Ravagers, Temple of Sacrifice Tier 3: Story mode operation: Explosive Conflict, TBA Nightmare mode operation: Eternity Vault, Karagga's Palace, Terror from Beyond, Scum and Villainy, The Ravagers, Temple of Sacrifice Tier 2: Hard mode operations: Explosive Conflict, Dread Fortress, Dread Palace, TBA Tier 1: Nightmare mode operations: Explosive Conflict, Dread Fortress, Dread Palace, TBA Also to keep the progression groups' interest new limited time available "untainted" achievements would be introduced. The achievement would be obtainable as long as the highest currently available gear tier matches the highest available tier at the time of the introduction of a given ops. The reverse bolster system would also make it possible for everyone to enjoy each and every operations as they were originally intended. [1] Reversed bolster system: the accuracy, critical chance, critical multiplier, activation speed, damage reduction, defence chance, shield chance and shield absorption would be kept at current value, while bonus damage, bonus healing, health would be scaled down to be at the same percentage of the maximum attainable at the current level cap (in other words Revanite would scale down to Underworld for level 55 and Columi for level 50 operations and flash points). This way the grinding element of the game would remain intact but keep the players sane (so for example there would be no need to change out pieces with accuracy to reach the required 110% force/tech accuracy). Having older content with reverse bolster system shouldn't be mandatory. Rather it should be introduced as a new difficulty tier beside the existing (six for operations, two for flash points) ones. As many have already noted casual players keep the game alive: If one check out the world progression threads it's quite clear that the casual players cross finance the nightmare mode content: Dread Fortress (NiM) 8-Man World Progression Tracking Fifty-two participating groups (416 players). 16-man NiM Dread Fortress Progression Tracking Sixteen participating groups (256 players). Dread Palace (NiM) 8-Man World Progression Tracking Eighteen participating groups (144 players). 16-man NiM Dread Palace Progression Tracking Six participating groups (96 players). Therefore any comments suggesting that these players must get better instead of complaining for too tough content is rather short sighted as if this part of the population decides not to finance the game (with subscription and Cartel Coin purchasing) because it isn't fun for them any more the remaining revenue from progression players would not be enough to finance the game's existence. During the past eighteen months Bioware has managed to let down the overwhelming majority of it's customers (PvP players, casual PvE players, progression players and surprisingly even some role players). Regarding the change in commendation rewards: My personal experience was that most PUGs were muscling trough Scum and Villainy Hard Mode (to my great surprise the players suddenly learned not to mess with other team's opponents at Operations Chief - this was causing numerous wipes before 3.0 story mode runs) for easy Ultimate Commendations and only a few touched other operations. Considering the difficulty of each boss I think that the changes in rewards are not in line with the difficulty of the encounters for PUGs. Therefore I suggest the following changes: hard mode Operator IX still drops ultimate commendations hard mode The Terror from Beyond on 16 mode still drops ultimate commendations if Grasping Tentacles one shot level 60 players (as they do level 55 ones) hard mode Corruptor Zero drops one ultimate commendation (for being wiped by team members not caring about the Concussion Mine) hard mode Brontes still drops ultimate commendations nightmare mode Nefra does not drop ultimate commendation nightmare mode Terror from Beyond and Scum and Villainy still drop ultimate commendations I do know that hard mode Dread Fortress can be cleared with a good group (consisting of players having the Gate Crasher and/or Conquerer of the Dread Fortress title(s)) well under 30 minutes, however most PUGs are made of different players. In fact most PUGs wiped by Energy Spheres in phase 2. On the other hand hard mode Dread Council encounter is one of the easiest level 55 hard mode operation boss fight if the damage dealers are not overzealous in first and third phases. The fleets got much quieter since the patch (well some fleets were already dead silent while others just made large step in that direction). It isn't a good sign considering that this is an MMO after all.

First and foremost it was a commendable act from a marketing point of view achieving the changes introduced in 2.5. It was definitely not a Pareto Optimal solution yet you managed to pull it off. Hats off as the changes hurt so many user groups: ones who level an assassin/shadow tanks PvP focused players who were tanking with their assassin/shadow role players, and the ones who cared about the lore skilled PvE players who enjoyed the quite mobile tank that assassin/shadow was pre 2.5 The changes created a turret tank which remained RNG dependant. The example video does not alleviate this. Instead of showing how "Stress-Free" is the rotation in fights which were cited as the reason of the changes (any or all of the following nightmare difficulty bosses: Brontes, Tyrans, Calphayus or The Council) the example video features a level 38 opponent. This boss was soloable by end game players even pre 2.0 therefore it does not seem very credible for showing off just how "Stress-Free" the rotation is. A ranked match with a decent enemy team (and without healer in your group) would have been way more convincing.