This post is on point, could not have said it better myself.

This! Also I would like to add another reason: 5) Learning the FP: Sometimes I will do one solo to get a idea of the layout and boss tactics, so later on doing it with the usual group means silky smooth gameplay as I can take the lead with that knowledge and direct others on what to do.

This, pretty much

Indeed, up until now the game is working fine without a glitch since I made the change to Win 7 compatibility. You might be on to something with WDDM. Hopefully my workaround helps some people enjoy SWTOR again.

It is as many have pointed out here: 1. Make sure your companion is a tank. Make your COMPANION attack the droid and pull agro for the time being, not yourself. 2. Stay constantly on the side of the droid while not pulling agro (heal and shield your comp, for example). If you are in front or in the back, when the droid generates the insta-death laser you won't be fast enough to avoid, as you are slowed down when it does that. The laser does not affect your companions so don't worry about it killing them- and as a tank, they'll be able to take a lot of damage without dying. 3. After surviving the first laser blast, switch to DPS, power up your toon with DPS boosting abilities and beat the life out of it before it can get off the second laser blast while avoiding its AOE attacks (all the while staying on the side of the droid) Using this method I beat it quite easily after dying the first two times. POSITIONING is the most important aspect to this battle, not how strong you are or what abilities you have. P.S. The imperial version is much harder, as it has ads and shields in addition to all of this.

It is my belief that SWTOR is not fully compatible with Win 10. I have played from the beginning on Win 7, 8 and 10 and never had any issues until 10. The funny thing is, when I ran SWTOR on Win 10 after changing the properties to enable compatibility mode for Win 7, all the issues magically disappeared .