I am not sure if you are talking to me or not, but I did not mention taking anything away.

I think this is a big misconception and communication issue for some people, not all. I am not speaking for all "elitist". I don't care anything about what has been done with leveling or story. The story is the cool thing that can set this game apart. End game is what matters in an MMO, and I am hoping they wake up and se if they want to have the size of customer base they originally desired (tons of now non-existent servers) they have to build each expansion aimed at end game. Doesn't matter if it is PVP or PVE, game mechanics should be balanced on end game and the game has to be geared at player being max level. There should be plenty of NEW end game OPS with new releases, tiered OPS to encourage skill development. If the game has no competitive foundation then it will never be what it could be. As I said in my post, a good game has to have fun content for all players, good and bad, but all content does not need to be available to all players. So when I or some, I emphasize some, other supposed "elitist" recommend difficulty I mean end game. Allow for progression raiding, where it actually means something to progress and with every release there is new progression content. (Including some for all players)

I agree with several comments here. I was just having a conversation with a friend who was/is a world class WoW player (where I came from). We discussed how all MMOs have had a decline in players. There seem to be two trends around that as well. The rise of games like League of Legends and a certain % of gamers constantly asking for the MMOs to be "non-elitist"... or easier in my opinion, watered down to the common denominator. I believe these trends are connected. High end gamers inspire mid-tier gamers (over 1 million people watched the LoL world championships), and mid-tier gamers inspire low-tier gamers. When they watered it down, high end gamers started leaving MMOs and were followed by a percentage of mid-tier gamers. In my opinion what developers need to do in this game and others is get back to providing a game that provides fun and challenging content for all gamers. A game must have content for all gamers, but NOT ALL content is for all gamers. WoW was at it's height when it possessed some content that less than 2% of players ever accessed. When you had to min max classes for raids. I wasn't one of them(well a single trash pull lol), but when those guys started leaving it wasn't long before guys like me (good players in strong guilds, just not ultra server first/world first/min max type guilds) started leaving. Obviously it wasn't a max exodus, they are still going strong, but things have dwindled over time as the games get easier and easier.... and less "serious". Just my two cents.

Every guild I stumble across is just a leveling/social guild with no organized or even slightly serious players. Any guilds who have a scheduled OPS night and need a member? I will play any role. I have a 60 Jugg tank, and I am currently leveling an Operative Healer. I would be willing to go back to a DPS character if needed. Not looking for a min/max or server first type guild. Just a guild with more purpose and not JUST a bunch of nice people to chat with.

This thread is way too long to read it all.... But a forced "Level Sync" is a terrible idea, the worst idea I have ever heard of in an MMO. One of the core tenants of an MMO, the most addicting thing for people, is the growth of your characters power. Now someone will spend a ton of time leveling to 65 only to find that they are no more powerful on Dromund Kass than they were at the beginning of the game? How can anyone feel like this is a good idea? Why bother having levels at all? Just have a story line to play through. If you like a gaming experience where you never grow more powerful than your surroundings there are a ton of games on consoles for you. This is an MMO, don't try to be different for the sake of being different, use the story platform you have to create the amazing experience the Star Wars Universe can be. You want to do cool and innovative stuff there? Awesome! When it comes to gameplay and combat mechanics, STOP TRYING TO REINVENT THE WHEEL. Don't dumb things down. Don't make content easier. Streamline some of the "klunkyiness" in the abilites. If your not going to allow add-ons then look at the most popular OPS/PVP oriented add-ons in that other game and put a version into yours. Allow macro creations (will help with the "klunkiness").... If you are going to have "level sync" then make it something to toggle.

I can't speak to end game content on this MMO yet. So I could be wrong if the threat output from tanks has been scaled in a way to prevent DPS from pushing that hard. But I have raided end game content in high quality guilds in "that other game" for years. I left gaming for several years so maybe it has changed. But it was absolutely possible to over threat tanks regardless of taunts, even with threat dumps. (I raided in all three roles over the years, but preferred tanking). Maybe the dps numbers are not out scaling tank damage/threat in this game. I don't know yet, BUT if possible it is absolutely on the DPS to control themselves.

Something that hasn't been said, but I feel should be... Threat management is not entirely on you, in fact most of it is not. As long as you are maximizing your threat, and know when to taunt. Your only responsibility is damage mitigation for you (defensive cds timed properly) and your team (positioning). Any and all other threat management is on your dps; again this is given you are trying to put out max threat. If you are putting out threat properly, you won't have to worry about healers. Just because a dps can do a billion damage does not mean they should, their responsibility is to maximize damage while staying under the threat ceiling. It is not your fault if they significantly out gear you. In regards to similarly geared players, if they can't wait 2-4 globals to start their dps rotation then regardless of how high their dps is, they are a bad player. They are typically the same guys that want to brag about how high their dps was until they died, in which they complain about the lack of heals despite the fact they were standing in fire.

I am currently at level 51 Immortal and it is Vette all the way for me. I have a lot of time tanking on that "other game" and maybe I am making a bad assumption, but if you are having survivability issues without a healbot then it is pilot error/inexperience. All of your CC is defensive CDs as well. If you are using all of your cc and standard defensive cds you should not be taking much damage. If you have blown everything in a pull (that must have been one hell of a pull) you shouldn't have but 1 minute until almost everything is off of CD. Any pull that isn't a boss or a gold mob (sorry I am not familiar with the lingo on this game yet) shouldn't require more than a CC. I don't have to heal up much, I rarely drop below 75% health (typically no more than 95%) and if I do it is because I played poorly. Not that I haven't died, but it is always my fault or because I accidently summoned a world boss. (So I guess that wasn't a lore object). Vette is the better dps because she is ranged so she inherently takes less damage. BUT, you have to front load your threat or you will be chasing/mob hopping. Just my two cents.