As someone else said, that's an assumption. I came here (about 2 years or so ago, shortly after it went F2P... yup, I'm cheap. Or poor. Take your pick) because SW, and because I did love KOTOR. But not because I absolutely wanted to play SP. I like MMOs. I like knowing that that Jedi running past me is another human being. I do love playing more than just Jedi or Sith. I'd prefer more story, but have no interest in KotFE because it does not continue the different class stories, but has only one story. Meh. Generally, I love choice. The choice to solo *or* team up is something I completely heart. I wish it were more...starwarsy. More like Jedi Knight, in fact, than KOTOR. Or a happy mix of both. RPG + FPS. For example, why can't a Force user Force Jump just so. Why only as an attack move? (And that's just one of a long list of annoyances) Force TK on any object. You get to use it on Tython. Once. And that's... it. Ah, I'm ranting again. Time for my Dried Frog Pills.

Yeah, right... they don't give a rodent's posterior about Level Sync. I'm doing Corso's "In A Pickle" right now... too busy doing class missions, and with 12x XP, I'm high now. 10 levels too high. But then, I'm on Tatooine, shifted down to 30. The quest is 34. So, naively you'd think that the quest give appropriate XP for a 30, right? Nope. 6 XP. Great job, Bioware, great job! I have to wade through all these by now low mobs, but get funnel cake all for a reward. Whee. Ah, and, as those of you who have done this know (or maybe it's changed), no item(s). None.

The mythical "average" player. "good gear and really knew how to play well" isn't average. Average is, by definition, mediocre. Not too bad, but not "good gear and play *well*". Expected gear? That's average. Oh, but you didn't say if it was supposed to be challenging for an average player *solo* or in a group. So... which is it? I'm assuming, obviously, from my assessment, you meant "challenging for an average player to do solo". And casual players (less than average... and I'll resist the temptation to use stronger, insulting wording, that has nonetheless been seen on this very forum at times) are supposed to team up to player H2s. Casuals. Those who are much less willing/able to group up. Are supposed to team up for H2s. Do you see the problem? I do. Being sort-of casual and all.

Now please think about just what you wrote, and then realize that *this* is why this community (and pretty much the 'net) has such a bad reputation, socially.

You can still get 6 XP for finishing quests (not story quests I guess, but bonus quests for sure (*not* bonus series quests)). And you can run into gray mobs. Go to Hutta. Go to the starting zone in and around Nem'ro's place. You're shifted down to 12. Level 7 mobs and lower are gray. Gray mobs as far as the eye can see (which, in this game, isn't very far)

You obviously understand nothing. Because there's not just these two black-and-white possibilities, there's a whole spectrum of opinions. And playstyles. And abilities. Me? I want more than an interactive movie, but I also don't want a frustrating faceplant-fest. In the past, if some content was a bit to hard (for *ME*, and if you say *anything* to that, then yes, you're an elitist. In other words, you are one) I could outlevel it and come back a bit later. With non-optional Level Sync that option has been taken from me. MMOs generally have the problem that they need (yes, need) to cater to a wide variety of players and player skill. Without (usually) having a difficulty setting. Well... here we had this: overlevel, gear better, gear your companions better. Two of these were taken, the third needs time, grind, and also a bit of raiding. That's not good. And as others have already said, if you think companions are OP... disable their abilities. Or play without one! Simple, really. But your "I'm fine with the way it is, it's not too hard" is really textbook elitist.

I haven't played through the (which?) story yet. Because I'm a casual due to severe altoholism.

You, -Sir- my Lord, win the forums for today! I needed that LOL.

I have neither the patience nor the time to slog through 160+ pages... but I really wonder how many posts listed sub-60 charas. The first four pages had *one* sub-60. The rest look similar, I suspect. Which means, Eric, that hardly anyone here can give info on the levelling aspect. Me? 4.0.2 feels harder than per-4.0 Of course in 4.0 the comps were OP, I completely agree. First time I dug in (and with all the changes I really didn't for a few days, I dislike KotFE quite a bit, but still have subbed time left (not active anymore, guess why)) I thought to myself: I can let my comps run everything alone. Even platinum (gold/white, not sure that's the right term) mobs, almost. But gold mobs? Pretty easy. Anything else, groups even, send Mako in heal mode(!) and she wipes the floor with them. But 4.0.2 went too far on the other side. In earlier times (might have been before 3.0 even, I wasn't on much between mid-2013 and this September)... I had quite a bit of trouble with some story bosses. I recall M1-4X being quite a bastard of a fight, for example. Mind you, I'm an above-casual player who, OTOH, is an incurable altoholic, so my experience is rather casual-y. Am I in some target audience? You tell me. I suspect I'm not.

Companions were OP after 4.0 This from a pretty casual player (mostly above-casual altoholic, so way casual from a single- or few-characters player). Lots of alts, highest at 44 now. Still companions were OP. But after 4.0.2... well, companions had, pretty much across the board, 2.5x to 3x the health of the char. Now, they, in tank setting, have 2x the health tops. Healing and DPS reduced likewise. Tank mode also doesn't keep aggro as well as with 4.0 (or before that even). They fiddled with the numbers something bad in 4.0.2: they reduced all stats and DPS, and, as the patch notes say, raised threat generation a bit. But obviously not enough to compensate for the DPS/stats reduction.

Why don't I group? No pressure to be on for a certain time, I can leave whenever *I* want. No insults at all, and no urge to get annoyed by others being stupid. But mostly no risk of being insulted for maybe not being up to your ("I'm a great tank") standards. Again with the time: I can take all the time in the world, and won't have to rush through cutscenes I haven't see for a while or haven't seen at all (for example). No rushing, period. I played a Doctor (healer) somewhat seriously in Anarchy Online, and had my share of asses expecting the doc to keep them alive even if they rushed from mob to mob... read Zanthyna's legendary Guide to teaming with Docs. In my pretty short career on AO I've seen *most* of these things happen. If you're a healer here, have a chuckle, I'm sure you've experienced all of this too (some is AO-specific, but can be translated).

On Tatooine... I finished this with my 33 (shifted down to 30, of course) Jedi. Got a whopping 6 xp. What was this about all the old quest being viable again? Getting XP for them again? Ah, yes, 6... which we got pre-Level Sync too, when we had outlevelled the quest. "Oh, but the mobs are not grey". There *are* grey mobs on pretty much every planet. Even now. Because this Level Sync was just not that well thought out. As in: not thought out at all. Anything better (like: area-dependent, for example... or optional! Wow, what a concept, to put choice in the hands of the players!) would have been "too complicated" (especially considering there are surely, by now, parts of the game code that no-one actually fully understands anymore... due to age of the code and the devs who wrote it having left the project/company. Which is not something particular to BW/SWTOR... it happens all the time, everywhere).

Nope, if anything, it's an intro to the new *public* philosophy of "we don't give a flying monkey's posterior about this game anymore".

Daezihang and AshenK are two examples of the bad of this "community". I'm sure there are more of the sort in this thread, but after just two of their missives, I can't stomach the rest.

Actually, amateurism is very much what I associate with SWTOR, and by extension, Bioware, at this point.