I see a lot of talk about "Power Bases" among Sith lore discussion. building them, having them, destroying other people's. what does a Power Base consist of, exactly? and is this exclusive to Sith Lords? for example, do Jedi, or Agents or other non-force classes also build/maintain this sort of thing? is it limited to the Inquisitor? does the Warrior have any kind of Power Base of his own?

you guys are overthinking this. it is fairly simple. there are, always, in every MMO, far more DPS Options than healing/tank options. thus, more DPS. and this is pretty universal to all MMOs, it is a basic MMO design mechanic. healing and tanking are very limited in their gameplay options, whereas there are always a vast plethora of different interesting ways to DPS. let's take this game for example. per side, there are 8 classes. each class has 3 spec trees. in total, per side, there are 3 heal spec trees. 3 tank spec trees. if you want to heal you are stuck with those three choices. if you want to tank, you are stuck with those three choices. there are 18 DPS spec trees. you have far more options for how you do DPS.

I want a Lord Scourge book. seriously. just finished Revan about 5 minutes ago. Scourge is far and away the shining star of that book. I want a book starring him, taking place in the three thousand(or however many) years between Revan and TOR, when he was serving as the Emperor's Wrath.

so I am about 100 pages into Revan. the thing that sticks out drastically to me, is just how...well...HUMAN, the Sith Lord characters are. It's awesome. they seem to be actual people in this book, rather than the generic evil "rawr evil darkside kill everything god power force lightning heartless monster douchebag" that they are portrayed as a lot of time in the games. Especially Scourge. it's very refreshing, and it actually makes me want to try playing a Sith force user character, where I avoided them before. granted, I don't read a lot of star wars novels, and the only reason I am reading this one is because i am playing TOR, so my whole SW experience is the movies and KOTOR.

so I am about 100 pages into Revan. the thing that sticks out drastically to me, is just how...well...HUMAN, the Sith Lord characters are. It's awesome. they seem to be actual people in this book, rather than the generic evil "rawr evil darkside kill everything god power force lightning heartless monster" that they are portrayed as a lot of time in the games. Especially Scourge. it's very refreshing, and it actually makes me want to try playing a Sith force user character, where I avoided them before. granted, I don't read a lot of star wars novels, and the only reason I am reading this one is because i am playing TOR, so my whole SW experience is the movies and KOTOR.

take it with a grain of salt, but I read in Gen Chat (ok, just disregard it then) that the voice actor had some sort of jaw surgery shortly before having to come back in to record new dialogue or something.

Overall, without massively spoiling.. which PLANET has the best storyline? ignoring the class story sections that take place on each planet. just talking the overarching storylines unique to each planet.

is each book standalone, or are they meant to be read in a specific order?

should I hold off on reading them until after i've played through all the flashpoints and my class story?

thanks, both of these help a lot. guess I'll map all of my heals to the 2nd half of my first hotbar, (q,e,r,t,f,g) that is what I was trying to figure out. whether i had enough space to fit all of my heals in one place. and I can move Frag Grenade to my cover bar, since i really only use it crouched. save z,x,c,v for hidden strike, toxin screen, debilitate, sleep dart. save a spot on my main attacks section(1-6) for sever tendon. thanks guys for the links.

just to clarify, I am talking not just helmet pieces in general. i started getting those on Balmorra. but FULL helmets, that distort your voice. not just masks and hats and goggles and such. i mean full, cover-your-entire-head-and-face helmets.

me personally, from similar discussions in other MMOs, I have become perfectly content to simply stand by and watch and do absolutely nothing. even if you DO happen to ask for help. i used to be the helpful sort, always willing to take some time off of my gameplay to help others. I've been berated and insulted for wanting to be helpful before, and i've seen and had this discussion many times over in other MMOs. so now, I just don't. even if you need the help. unless it furthers my own mission completion. then i might consider it, but still probably won't help you. i'll just wait till you die, and do it myself. and I will stand by and watch. and say nothing. and if you die, I'm going to start fighting the mob that killed you, if I need it for a mission and I feel that I can solo it.

grouping is not the topic of discussion here. nobody is talking about forced grouping here. the topic of discussion is how people in this thread hate associating with other players so much that getting a random heal from another player just trying to be helpful upsets their enjoyment of the game. because they don't need no help, and helping is obviously the path to the dark side. and this mentality is brought on, imo, by the fairly recent trend of incorporating single-player gaming mechanics into what is supposed to be a Massively Multiplayer genre. whether this is a good thing, is dependant on the player.

things like this are why TOR has the reputation of being a single-player game pretending to be a MMO. but this mentality is not exclusive to TOR, it seems like the whole MMO genre is just becoming a sea of MMOs built only for the anti-social who despises everyone else who plays the game.

I'm talking about through regular gameplay, not the Cartel Market. at what level, just about, do full helmets start dropping for medium armor wearers (agents in particular)?

when I google, I come up with a bunch of how to play guides and how to spec guides and how to gear guides and endgame guides. I don't need that right this second, I'm just starting out. what I need, is a simple list of every skill that heal Operatives get, separated by type. heal, buff, debuff, CC, attack, requires-cover, requires stealth, etc. I'm trying to figure out how I want to lay out my hotbars, and this information will help with that.

so far (I've only played to Nar Shadaa), i'd have to say.. 1. Male BH 2. Kaliyo Djannis i'd say Darth Jadus, but I think that it is mostly the helmet filter that makes him sound cool.

so is there any real indication of just how much time elapses during the course of a class/planet story? does it differ greatly per class/planet/faction, or is it about the same?

if I like the Mercenary heal spec, would I also like the Operative one? which is more fun, overall, in your opinions? what are the major differences, and why would you take one over the other, if at all?

Imperial Trooper and SIS Agent would be nice to see.

Nevermind, I shoulda searched first. my bad.

Asking for philosophy on this, as I am fairly new to the game (I tried it once before a long time ago, but didn't get past 15). is the idea of a Hybrid playstyle, feasible, as a Mercenary? NOTE: I am *NOT* looking for a "Hybrid Build". my spec, as of now, will be a full Bodyguard heal spec. in my MMO experience, Hybrid specs just don't work. You are below average-to-average at everything, and it leads to more frustration than it is worth. What I am talking about, is how we use our other, non-healing skills in non-solo situations. Staring at health bars and playing whackamole is pretty boring. it always is, in any MMO. I'm looking for some variety. Basically I want some PewPewPew to go along with my Healing. I don't need to build for it. but i don't want to have to totally ignore all the other non-healing abilities I receive, just cause I am healing spec and "**** just heal noob". I *DO NOT* expect to be anywhere near the top of any charts, dps-wise. and my #1 priority *WILL ALWAYS* be making sure my team does not die. If the situation dictates that I need to choose between a dps ability and a heal, the heal will always be cast. However, I'm wondering if it is feasible/ok/won't get me kicked from groups, to be able to mix in a little Blaster work alongside my healing, rather than doing *absolutely nothing* but spamming heals. do the encounters in this game permit such a thing? (woulda been awesome if this game had some sort of leech heal mechanic. just sayin')

I am playing on a 14-inch Laptop, resolution 1366x768. is there a custom UI layout available that works well for smaller screens?

just give it time.

huh. my internet was off for a few days. surprised this thread is still going. still think the Trooper should get some sort of Official Nickname like the rest of the classes get. but i supposed Havoc Squad Commander (without the "Unidentified" )would do.