It is precisely the above that a new class is needed to dispel such notions. Still many players don't see beyond the box on the significance of a new class and what it means to the game future. They simplistically just think implementing a new class is just implementing a new class for its own sake. It goes beyond that.

Having to agree on that. If you cannot shoot accurately or cannot strike your lightsaber accurately, you should still be at the training ground at the start of the storyline and not be allowed to graduate from the training school and out of the starting zone to continue leveling. If still insist on having accuracy as stat, I rather see that implemented as a penalty of sort which mean it will translate to friendly fire. If you are low on accuracy, some of your dmg (scaled according to your accuracy stat) will also hit friendly players instead of just mobs. This will make PvP matches very interesting indeed. Imagine the enemy healers also miss and heal the other faction players too instead of just their own players. Make accuracy stat something that truly have consequences whether in PvE or PvP matches.

Part of if not wholly reason for why some players are not too enthusiastic about so many companions, having no desire to recruit some of them (and hence wanting to remove the alliance recruitment mission and alert), not wanting to increase the other companion influence, feeling that it is a mess with so many of them and hence wanting some way to sort or arrange them (out of sight I suppose), not wanting to buy extra companion from cartel market etc etc is because there is no much use for so many companions at the moment because all of them are functioning the same way. There is no different in having one companion vs having 30 companions other than just cosmetic reason. This companion system is quite unique to SWTOR (other mmo has companion but only tied to specific class based) and it is a rich harvesting ground which BW can mine and exploit to develop more usage and play for so many companions (add more if needed). When the companion system is well developed for variety of play, players will be rushing to acquire as many companions as they do for gear set bonus (which supposedly will be implemented in 6.0). Having one gear set is not enough because different gear set give different bonus, so the principle goes the same that having one companion is not enough because different companion plays different role and bring to the table different useful benefits and rewards (this will truly bring to consequences the player's choice and action to kill their companions or not to recruit them.). I am looking forward to BW to further develop the companion system and increasing its play value. Implementing sorting and hiding of recruitment alert etc etc will only solve the surface issues, but developing the companion system more comprehensive will increase its usefulness and solve the issues at its root. Player will not find so many companion a burden but a desire to have and keep.

At this point of time, I just want to add to the discussion that we should not box ourselves within the confine and constraint of our assumption. For example, new class does not necessarily mean COMBAT class. It could be a Trader class, Salvaging Class, Crafter Class etc etc. What it will be, how it will be delivered, how much it cost to develop, will it be balanced (if it is combat class) etc etc are not the focus of the poll. The poll just want to ask do you want a new CLASS? Yes or No. Don't even need to give any reason for your answer.

Lol. I had a good laugh. Good one on that.

YES !! (5 char)

This is a poll question. Just type Yes or No will suffice in your post (further comment of what class and other issues are not necessary). This will show the customer demand for a new class in future SWTOR.

This thread evolves another question whether new class will become a reality or not. This question is very easy to answer from business point of view, i.e. whether it can make money (after deducting cost of production etc) for the game. And fundamental to the above is whether there is a customer demand for it. Do the customer want it?

Straight up, I already sense a wrong mentality in the above design. First up, whether a player feel they are taking damages or feel dangerous should be an attribute related to the strength of the mobs. If there is a need for player to feel endangered and actually feel taking damages, then make the mob stronger and not the reverse of making the healing comp performing less optimally so that player feel 'endangered'. In group content fight, we healer class always pump our healing ability constantly without a pause to keep our tank max up HP without regard to whether his HP drop or not. In some fight where the boss is weaker, the tank actually don't feel his HP bar move. We don't wait for tank HP to drop to below 70% before dishing out heal so that we want to make our tank feel he is taking damages and feel 'endangered'. It just make no sense. There are places that the tank will feel 'endangered' when we faced a stronger boss. His HP will drop regardless no matter how hard we heal. So make your mob stronger and not make our healing comp less 'efficient'. Don't reverse paddle. It is not progressive and is damaging to the game.

The real issue for you is above. It is not about healing companion in the game. You are making a BIG assumption that healing companion make ppl not learn their class ability and hence play 'badly'. Removing healing companion don't make people play better for example there are still char booster token that allow ppl to create char at level 60, 65 or 70 straight out of the box without any experience of the class ability through leveling. Char boost are worst culprit in that sense. I am surprise you don't petition for char boost to be removed from the game instead first.

Any positive changes to companions and/or personal ship is most welcome. Thank you BW. GIVE US MORE. We want to play more with companions and personal ship.

Titles don't motivate me. I turned off all titles on my toons. What I suggest is maybe give us a choice of title or unique looking armor set or mount which we can wear/ride and parade (aka show-off) to other players. Nobody take a second look at your title but everyone will be admiring with desire if you are wearing/riding a unique armor/mount especially when they are awesomely stunningly and amazingly good looking and unique (no re-skin or re-color please) and are more importantly not attainable elsewhere in the game by other means. Just suggesting. How about awarding a second personal ship (which you can choose the design from your various faction ship design) which you can decorate and summon companion (like the guild flagship) which will complement and bypass the limitation of the primary personal ship which is tied to the storyline and cannot be customized. You will be sure every tom, dick and harry will be grinding day and night to get that achievement to obtain such ship. But if solely just to get title, nay.

I should not have included the phrase "close hand-to-hand fight". This lead to misinterpretation. I should have just state "DPS classes don't necessarily do their main damage directly" instead. My bad. What I meant is DPS support class dealt their damage via a proxy (turrets, mine, booby trap etc). Their MAIN damage don't come out of a pistol, lightsaber or hand (lightning for e.g.). Those proxy are 'passive' damage dealer that strike enemies on proximity (even when the players are not near the enemy). The value of such mechanism is also to offer a balance sort-of in PvP. In PvP, no matter how balance you are in terms of class ability damages, it is HUGELY mitigated by the varying lag between different players. Players who are on high lag due to geographical distance (E.g. 300 ms) vs players with low lag (e.g 30 ms) is already a huge imbalance no matter what. By offering such damage via proxy mechanism it will mitigate the imbalance between player with varying lag. This is one of the important value and purpose for such suggesting such mechanism. Someone in BW is already well aware of such consideration and you see the same philosophy being implemented already in GSF. Why not export the SAME DESIGN IDEA out of GSF into PvP/PvE.

There are totally 2 separate issues here: One is idea, the other is feasibility of idea and whether there is a will or resource to implement it. Let keep it separate. This thread if I may assume is talking about idea. Just because it may be infeasible and not implemented does not mean it cannot be discussed. SWTOR has so far in recent past only introduce NEW CONTENT. I see few to none NEW PLAY. New play to me is not just another new FP, new Operation, New storyline, New PvP match etc. Those are new content to me rather than new play. A new class will be a new play. GSF when first introduced is a new play. Subsequent new addition of new map is just new content and not new play. We need new play. And if you really think hard about it and trace it to the root, we really need surprises (pleasant surprises from BW). Pleasant SURPRISES is what is needed in this game at this stage and not just NEW CONTENT. i would luv to be surprised pleasantly by what BW may deliver in future even if the doomsayer say nay. HOPE is the word. HOPE is what keep the fire burning. When there is no HOPE, this game is finished. It is the concluding chapter of the whole storyline.

My EXACT sentiment with regard to what happen in WoW. They remove and simplify so many abilities that it becomes bored to play (warrior class came to mind). Variety of ability is not an issue. It may make things complicated but it make things not 'routine' and there are things to try. Complaining about variety of ability is like complaining about variety of content. Just because you have no time and effort to try and manage so many content does not mean you have to remove and simplify the content. I don't play Operation, do I ask for Operation to be removed? No. I don't use many of the ability (I have alts of ALL the classes) and some of them I don't even put on hotbar, do I ask for ability to be simplified and removed? No. I don't play Operation, other players play. I don't use certain class ability, other players use. So lets have more variety of ability instead of less. Leave to complexity to our creative play. Don't simplify things. (similarly, I was disappointed when they remove comp gears effect which I thought would bring in a huge variety of play (aka grind) in order to get 'right' gear for each of our comp. They remove a HUGE arena of playground through that move. I don't even think that till now, BW dev knew that. Everyday they are cracking their mind how to improve and add content to the game but unknowingly, remove a huge play through the simplification of comp. We need more 'complexity' and variety in comp play and not less. Playing with comp (dressing them up, gearing them up, deploying them in various role etc etc) is a huge play thing though may not appeal to all as it involves micro-management.)

I would like to see a DPS support class. Currently we have DPS, heal and tank. Technically speaking, heal and tank are support class. Heal provide support (to DPS) by providing heal. Tank provide support (to DPS) by providing protection (taunting mob and absorbing damage). The missing link is the support class to provide DPS. Such DPS support class is not new in MMO. You can see them in other MMO. DPS support class don't necessarily do their main damage directly in a close hand-to-hand fight. They provide various means to deal damage and support the DPS. For example, DPS support class can deploy Turrets (which can be heal, tank or DPS turrets) or Signal Amplifier (for want of a better word) (which can provide boost to DPS spec for example +500 to mastery, crit etc etc). Turrets and signal amplifiers are AOE-based which means they are only effective within a radius. For non-AOE ability, DPS support class can lay mines (various kind of mines which you can see implemented in GSF) and booby-trap (which may not deal direct dmg like mines but stun, slow or freeze-in-place enemy for extended period of time or indefinitely till their friend come to disarm the trap). To make DPS support class viable and needed as a necessary member besides healer and tank, those turrets/signal amplifier/booby trap deployed by enemy must have a very high HP similar to operation boss that make it very difficult for heal/tank/dps player to take down. ONLY other DPS support class can easily disarm/dismantle such turrets/signal amplifier/booby trap with ease without needing to damage such infra in order to eliminate them. This alone make DPS support class a much needed member of every team. DPS support class can have stealth in order to make them deploy their infra more effectively. Outside of PvP, to help DPS support class in PvE and leveling. DPS support class can have 2 companions active at the same time (which each can be independently spec to heal/tank/dps) so you can have a Support (plus heal and dps comp) for a well rounded play. To balance off, each of the 2 companions will only be half effective so in total, the effect will be only 1 companions but playing dual role. What do you think?

How did you arrived at the conclusion that that specific conquest objective contribute to what you termed as player playing worse PVP? How many matches you played that you witnessed such behaviour? Did you have any indisputable evidence such as written confession (screenshot of chat messages) from other players of such behaviour? From time to time, in certain period, I do witnessed some noobish players in PvP (what you termed as playing badly) doing the 'unthinkable' such as dropping the red booster on your own faction node and killing it. Running the ball to your own score line. A group of players chasing after a single "un-killable" tank and ignoring the rest of the matches (a tactics that I do used to distract and pull the enemies away from the main play so that our own team mates can score with lesser resistance). Many of these so-called "bad play" I realized is because many of these players are NEW PLAYERS. They do not know much about the match and they make mistakes (when you whisper them about their mistake some of them will let you know that they are new players). I see a lot of new players or returning players (rusty) in game ahead of the expansion launch. This may explains some of the bad play that you claimed which may or may not be attributed to the conquest objective. If you think going for conquest objective is a major play, then that is a big assumption. Many players do not even know what is conquest and how it works into their play.

The heart of the TECHNICAL matter is lag. The issue is not where the server is located geographically. The server geographical location is directly proportional to the lag time and that is why the server location is discussed but that is not the issue. The issue is differing lag among different players depending on your geographical location to the server. The heart of the matter is NOT one of TECHNICAL. It is one of leveling the playing field. Differing lag among different players does not contribute to a level playing field. The heart of the matter is one of LEVEL PLAYING FIELD. We need to frame the problem correctly before we can even talk about solution. If it is a problem of LEVELING THE PLAYING FIELD, there are a lot of things which the dev can do without the need to relocate server geographical location. Look at how EVEONLINE deal with differing lag among players when engaging in MASSIVE field battle without even touching on server geographical relocation. Even with my small tiny brain, I can think of MANY MANY FEASIBLE things which the dev can do to level the playing field. Extending even further, the REAL PROBLEM, I repeat "THE REAL PROBLEM", is whether there is on the part of Bioware a will and/or recognition of the importance and the subsequent commitment of resources to implement and to achieve a LEVEL PLAYING FIELD within the game. At present, this game is still skewed towards PVE game play and lesser PVP game play. In PVE game play, lag does not CRITICALLY affect the game play experience because if you fight certain bosses a few time, you will know what to expect next and to predict your next move with ease. This mitigate the lag handicap. However, in PVP play, every moves from the opponent is UNPREDICTABLE and therefore lag CRITICALLY affect the quality of game play. So until PVP game play carries the same or even exceed the weightage of PVE game play, the resource commitment will not be forecoming to implement a level playing field (unlike EVEONLINE which is heavily PVP oriented and lesser PVE oriented).

Why not we have a compromise? Say if you are a sub, then you have a choice either to pay the unlock cost with (1) full CC (like it is now) or (2) 50% CC and 50% in-game credit (whether it is 50-50 or 80-20 ratio can be adjusted to meet business requirements). This way, you are effectively giving 50% CC discount sort-of to subscriber which then will serve as incentive for more ppl to pay sub. When ppl pay sub, they tend to spend more time in the game because the money are paid upfront. This will grab market share and provide "stickiness" to encourage ppl to spend time in this game. At the same time, player who are on sub are normally loaded with a lot of in-game credit by virtue of their more extensive game play and this will also provide credit sink and incentive for them to play more to earn more in-game credit because there are good stuff which they can spend in-game credit on. Win-win.

https://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=956584 Try to disable BOTH firewall and antivirus and see if it works.

I would like to add a new spin to the suggestion of profession. There are a lot of argument against profession because we already have crew skill. But how about introducing crew profession. Crew skill is specific to our character. But crew profession is specific to our companion. Some idea of a crew profession would be "Looter" for want of a better name. "Looter" crew profession if assigned to a companion has 60 levels of skills. Level 1 allow our companion to AUTO-LOOT drops from dead mob for us ONCE in 60 sec. Level 2 allow our companion to AUTO-LOOT for us ONCE in 59 sec. Higher level will cut off the CD by 1 sec per level until at highest level, our companion can auto-loot without CD. This will bring specialization to our entire companion squadron so that it will not be just "another" companion like the rest without distinction. With a wide array of crew professions to choose, it will motivate us to acquire more companions so that we can partake in grinding those professions which can only be assigned one per companion (or certain profession can only be taken up by certain companion(s)). Some of these crew profession like auto-loot profession can also be monetarized. Companion is a strong feature of SWTOR and I would like to see more usage and development on it outside of combat scenario which has limited scope for creativity and usage.

We need ship (outside of class story personal ship which is tied to the storyline) which we can decorate. Just give us any future stronghold in the form of spaceship. If there is complication involved in the spaceship traveling, just anchor it to the fleet (i.e. it always follows the fleet and cannot travel away from fleet to other planets). Not everyone can and want to be guild leader in order to have a ship which they can decorate. This is a space theme MMO. I rather spend time within a spaceship rather than in a stronghold on a planet.

This is another way of saying someone need to design and built a BRAND NEW star war MMO on a new engine. It will be called SWTNR - Star War The NEW republic.

I played GW2 long long ago but decide to leave (even if I pay no sub). I enjoy the PvP in the game especially WvWvW (large scale PvP which unfortunately and sadly is missing in SWTOR). The only SINGLE reason I decided to leave GW2 is that it required you to PAY FOR GEAR REPAIR in the event of death in WvWvW. I cannot take this nonsense and decided that I will want to have no linkage to that individual in GW2 who decided that paying for GEAR REPAIR in PvP (large scale PvP) is a good idea. SWTOR will always win GW2 in my own opinion because you don't have to pay for gear repair for PvP death. That in itself is enough for me to pay monthly sub for SWTOR against playing for free in GW2. I will pay for sub but I WILL NOT PAY FOR GEAR REPAIR in GW2 WvWvW.

The answer is a definite big YES. I play with a permanent lag above 205 ms. In PvP, 50% of my button press will 'miss'. When I said 'miss', it does not mean it failed to hit the target. What I meant by 'miss' is when my button is pressed, it triggered a GCD and often I thought the ability is executed but in reality it is not. So you eat one full GCD only to find that your ability is not executed (because it has not go into CD). And you have to press a second time to execute the ability. If this ability is a stun or slow ability, it will not have effect on the target even if it is executed (I suspect due to lag). My stun / slow ability typically failed to effect the target for 50% of the time. What I am saying above is for PvP where the action is fast pace and dynamic. For PvE, the 'miss' rate is not that bad as often you know where the enemies are and you would have positioned yourself correctly.