Or, I don't know, sending an ingame mail to Lynette.

Calling it now. "Tactical" Ops! :|

The orbs wouldn't spawn for me either. After a few tries, I actually got it done... by the fight bugging out completely, and not even triggering the 2nd phase. The NPCs kept on hitting him until he was down. Had no companion up, and stopped attacking the boss completely as he got close to where he threw the NPCs against the pillars the previous time. The NPCs took him down to about 10-15%. Then I had to finish him off when the NPCs started dying off one by one.

You could actually view that as an advantage. If an enemy gets behind you, there's a chance he'll go after the tag-along, which benefits you.

Something like a miniature nuclear device in our bracer?

http://www.swtor.com/legalnotices/rulesofconduct

EV hard mode. SOA at <150k HP.

I think Rocket Punch is considered a Tech skill, so that'd be Aim and Cunning.

Funny thing, I remember this armor, at least the chest piece, being available in the beta. Fully customizable, bought for creds on Nar Shaddaa.

EA might just be cheap and not want to pay the night-time extra on that teams salaries.

Actually that's probably the best thing you could've done. Getting kicked for rolling Need on items he can't use in the first FP(Possibly his first FP run), will likely make him not do it in subsequent flashpoints.