Scoundrel and Sage fulfill both of their roles perfectly fine. Scoundrel DPS isn't very beloved for 2 reasons: it's difficult to play well and Bossmechanics make this very tough. And 2: In PvP they're kind of a 1-trick pony, that trick isn't even available in Arena's. Sages DPS on the other hand tend to push out slightly lower numbers, but besides being squishy and having their defensive abilities on a global cooldown, they're easy to bring to a good potentional. As healers they both have their pro's and cons. Though Scoundrels are currently equiped with the best tools to be amazing in PvP. In PvE they're both about equal, depending a lot on who you're teamed up with aswell. As for Companions allignment: Scoundrel: Companion 1 - Ranged Tank - Completely Lightside Companion 2 - Melee Tank - Lightside in almost every case Companion 3 - Ranged DPS - A bit a mix of both (profit makes her darkside, rest lightside) Companion 4 - Melee DPS - A mix of both (honour is her lightside thing) Companion 5 - Healer - Once again a mix, but he does like to do the right thing, he's a bit scared though. Sage: Companion 1 - Melee Tank - A mix of both, due to his culture he can be a bit dark-side, but he likes to do the right thing. Companion 2 - Healer - Lightside in almost every case, he's not a big fan of Jedi teachings though. Companion 3 - Ranged DPS - A bit a mix of both, he likes to do the right thing, but can take harsh ways to do so. Companion 4 - Ranged Tank - Lightside in almost, if not every, case. Companion 5 - Melee DPS - Full Lightside, if she by any chance accidentally likes a Darkside choice it's naïvety. Best team-ups in my opinion: Healer: Healer works best with either a Tank or a DPS companion. Though you likely already experienced healers tend to quest a bit slow, DPS companions will (ever so slightly) compensate for that, where-as Tanking companions tend to make you an unbreakable force, at the cost of a bit of speed. For Dark-side Qyzen is the only companion not being an absolute pain affection-wise, so if that's a big deal for you, count that in your descision. DPS: Both Sage and Scoundrel work best with a Tank companion when they're specced DPS if you ask me. This is because Sage's suffer a lot from ability pushback and it can be very annoying to be the one with threat, on top of being squishy. Scoundrel relies a being behind their foes, so once again having threat would harm your damage. Remember to send Tank Companions in first unless your presence is amazing or your damage low. Both having the possibility to off-heal in long fights gives me another reason to prefer Tanking companions. TL;DR: I personally would take Corso for a light-side Scoundel or Companion 3 (Ranged DPS) since they both enjoy to do the right thing. Corso at all times, where-as Companion 3 can sometimes prefer profit over doing the right thing. For a Darkside Sage I'd stick with Qyzen to not have my affection completely annihilated by the other 4 goodie-two-shoes, Qyzen is a goodie-two-shoes aswell, but his culture makes him like certain Dark-side choices.

There're quite a few options depending on how much you prioritize damage over survivability and the other way around and whether we're talking PvE or PvP. For PvE it's considered that you're either a tank or either a damager in any teamplay, logically since as damage-dealer you shouldn't much damage and as tank all you have to worry about damage-related is that you deal sufficient threat. Anyway: Classes to consider: Sentinel/Maurauder: Yes I'm recommending a melee DPS with medium armor, but hear me out. They sport a big amount of impressive defensive cooldowns (most don't require you to break dealing damage either) Rebuke/Cloak of Pain: 20% damage reduction that reapplies itself on damage (AoE and DoTs aswell) can last up to 30 seconds, with a 60 second cooldown. Saber Ward: 50% chance to block ranged/melee attack and 25% damage reduction on force/tech. Last 12 seconds, cooldown of 3 minutes. Force Camouflage: Puts you into stealth (without reduced speed) and you take 50% less damage for a short period of time, breaks on dealing damage. Guarded By the Force/Undying Rage: 99% damage reduction for 50% of your current health (aka you use it at 10% health) for 4 seconds. Making them an impressive combination of survivability and beast-like damage. Guardian/Juggernaut: Heavy armor melee. The Vigilance/Vengeance tree offers quite a bit of survivability where-as Defence/Immortal is a full out tank-spec. The damage from Vigilance/Vengeance is decently up par with other classes. Vanguard/Powertech: Heavy armor, melee. They sport quite a decent cooldown and extra protection from heavy armor, on top of that they're currently able to sport an amazing Tank/DPS Hybrid for PvP, your survivability raises enough to be able to guard and your DPS will be decent (not great, unless your DPS-teammates are horrible.) Others: Commando/Vanguard: For soloplay these have considerable survivability in the form of a good cooldown, a bit of selhealing, heavy armor, a 60 second stun and loads of abilities that make weak mobs useless. In teamplay situations they have less tools at their disposal though than some other classes when it comes down to being able to handle punishment. Shadow/Assassin: They likely deal one of the highest damage numbers of DPS as a Tank, but when they're full on damage rather than Tank they're quite squishy and need to watch themselves, they do have to tools to do so, but it's quite a bit about smart play than simply popping a cooldown (though they have good cooldowns aswell.) Gunslinger/Sniper: The cover mechanics makes them less squishy and though to reach. For PvP it's all about using your tools to not let melee reach you, for PvE you sport quite a few cooldowns to reduce incoming damage and ofcourse vs weaker mobs the same ability to keep them away from you. Once again quite a bit about smart play than simply popping a cooldown. Classes to look out for: Sages/Sorcerer: Extremely squishy class due to a combination of light armor and no defensive cooldowns. You have selfhealing abilities (and Force Barrier/Static Barrier which is preëmptive) but they all require a cooldown to give up DPS, whilst not being amazing. Scoundrel/Operative: As DPS this class is very squishy, melee, same medium armor as a Sentinel/Maurauder with without any cooldowns that are closely as effective. As healers they're close to impossible to kill though due to having a lot of energy to roll away from harm, go into stealth for defensive purposes and heal yourself whilst on the move. TL:DR: I'd recommend Sentinel/Maurauder if you want sheer force with the possibility of surviving without interrupting what you're doing (which as melee, you often don't have much of a choice.) Vanguard/Powertech if you in PvP want to sacrifice some damage for good survivability (imo the only class to pull of a tank/dps hybrid well.) or if you know you'll want Range a Gunslinger/Sniper (which gave me one of the easiest times leveling, to my surprise.) This is all how I perceive classes and a wellplayed class X would still beat a ****** played class Y.

If PvP is your main goal I wouldn't weight in your friends Juggernaut in your choices too much tbh. Unlike PvE you won't hinder eachother by fulfilling the same role, not in queue times and not (much) in effectiveness. Note: The following is how I perceive the classes with some good and some bad points, aka it's an opinion. I likely missed a bunch, but I'm only human. Powertech: + Quite difficult to shut down (meaning: not range dependant for survivability and has enough tools to stay on it's target and not prone to interrupts, stuns will be stuns though.) + Hybrid only: Quite high DPS whilst being bulky enough to Guard (mixes great with the Operative healer) + Good AoE in either DPS-spec (not quite Smash though ) + Taunts + AoE Stun (short but doesn't break on damage) - Prone to cleanse in Pyrotech - Long build-up / predictable in Advanced Prototype Maurauder: + Rage: High Burst Damage that's an AoE aswell + Good defensive cooldowns (and a lot of them) + Teambuffs / AoE-stun for some teamplay moments (Best as Carnage) + Rage: 2 leaps for great movement, one works on cover. Carnage movement is decent. - Annihilation: Cleanseable (for now) - Carnage: Countered pretty damn hard by a good stun - Rage: Being called a smashmoney and hitting great DPS-numbers without feeling you deserved them (this might just be me) - Squishy early on, due to Cloak of Pain and Saber Ward I personally disagree with this, but it's been a dealbreaker for quite a lot of people. Mercanary: + Range + Incredible Burst (likely highest from all rDPS) + Electronet is amazing - Can be very tough to play vs the right foes - More difficult to play the smaller the maps (read: Arena's) Operative (DPS) + Great 1 v 1 killing potential (if you're the one engaging the fight, you will most likely win it.) + Stealthcap that's almost fool-proof (Sleep Dart > Cap (enemy will use stunbreak or you cap) > Flashbang or Cloak > Sleep Dart > Cap. - Prone to slows due to little mobility (what you do have is expensive) - Tight on energy - Prone to cleanse - Needs stealth a lot more than any other class, in Arena's this is a huge problem - People will be sad you're not healing. I love playing Operative DPS, just for the fun of it, but I, in no way, think they're really a good class. They're squishy (for melee) and horribly easy to counter. They're possibly the best in a 1 v 1 situation of their liking, but that's it. Amazing healers though, but you want DPS, no? I'd recommend posting your question on the PvP forums for more and better opinions and insights. 75% of the posts will most likely be trolls, but there will be helpful posts. If I simply wanted a plain amazing DPS and I had all 8 classes to pick from and the users would be equally skilled, I'd pick the Maurauder (Rage) or if I want a bit of a DPS mixed with support (Guard mainly) I'd pick the Powertech (or as full tank, but once again, you want to DPS, no?)

Thank you for the reply. That was really quick! It's not really anything Commando specific though. Take the high-ground, keep 30m range, set-up (casted) abilities whilst unnoticed, don't stay in 1 place and use instants whilst on the move, do as much damage in the least time possible, don't use a set rotation. Using the cooldowns on the instants (or how long they last in DoTs case) is one of the few ways to compare 'time to be on the move' between classes, it doesn't mean all I know what to do is stand still and press 1 button... I must admit I was stupid enough to not use Sticky Grenade for burst but leave it for victims that are balling up around an objective. (Will definitely weave this into burst-moments from now on, so thank you!) but the rest is how any class at range already needs to play to stay alive and I'm quite certain most people already figured that out, I know I have and I'm far from good. All ranged classes can and will (except Gunslinger, there's always a leaper) play like that. Gunslinger more than compensates though with Hightail it, whilst you spend 4 GCDs using instants and moving, they sacrifice a bit of damage to move 18m in 1 GCD. I'm still not convinced even with this that Commando has any more movement (though maybe I add up movement control and movement too much aswell as distance over time) than the other rDPS classes. Sages are squishy squish and vs more than 1 foe their defences crumble since it's (almost all) offensive defence, but 1 v 1 it's pretty impressive and Force Speed will provide a bigger distance over time to get away. Gunslingers, however, still astonish me at times (the good ones ofcourse) they take a nice position in cover, can't get leaped to, can Hunker Down for stun immunity, can stun at 30m range (and close-range) 1 or 2 pushbacks (depending on spec) and a root (breaks after 2 seconds on damage) and when the poor melee finally reaches them, they either roll by using the original cover if they're good or simply Hightail it. 18m, with slow immunity is just incredibly impressive (and annoying ) They are easier to LoS though (in my opinion) since they shouldn't want to leave cover with leapers around (which is almost always) but Cover is just, grr, like a small damage reduction from range and stun/push back immunty wasn't enough. All this whilst still maintaining enough damage to be a considerable threat. I simply don't see Commando's getting an advantage compared to them when it comes down to mobility even after you more elaborate explaination. But ye like I said, maybe I simply count Movement and Movement Control too much as one thing, in which case we could likely agree to disagree.

Dirty Fightning has the best damage aslong as your target lives for 21 seconds (atleast) so would over-all be the best PvE-spec, but more aimed towards raiding envoirments if you ask me. Scrapper offers more burst and doesn't really suffer from having to build up, which is why for Flashpoints I'd prefer that, it makes thrash-mobs a lot more comfortable. But ye, both have their strenght and weaknesses.

Welcome to SWTOR OP, hope you found the class you're looking for! Just out of curiosity to the people stating Mercanary is the run and gun class, is anyone actually willing to explain why because I'd really like to know. Kerensk only mentioned their instants, which like Gloomy pointed out are 2 every 15 seconds and some with longer cooldowns, not 'that' much better than Sorcerers have with Affliction/procced Chain Lightning or Afflicition/Creeping Terror/Death Field every 18 seconds. Or Snipers with their DoTs and Takedown, that's about 4 in 21 seconds, or Plasma Probe, Interrogation Probe, Corrosive Dart every 18 seconds (?) leaving only Marksmen (with nothing more than instant Snipe after re-entering cover and Corrosive Dart) to be worse of than Arsenal in the movement whilst casting department? Anyway I'd love to have answers rather than claims so maybe I can start feeling a bit less turrety on my own Mercanary.

What does your guild want to do and what ROLE (not class, but role) are they lacking: Tanks? Roll a Powertech or continue your Juggernaut (if you're enjoying the class.) All tanking classes have their pro's and con's, solid choice whichever you want to stick with. Both Powertech and Juggernaut currently seem to be stronger as Tank for PvP (Arena's.) Healers? Roll an Operative. Not a lot of people trust Operatives as DPS (though I've often enough outdps'd more favoured classes by simply knowing how to play Operative, I do see their issues. In arena's (if PvP is your guilds interest) you can safely bet on being stuck to healer due to how the Operative DPS works. Be aware of this! Very strong healers though. Since any class is capable of DPSing (some have an easier time pulling off higher numbers or have nice group buffs such as a Maurauder) I'd not focus on just that role (aka Maurauder or Sniper) unless you 1. Absolutely love it or 2. You're certain they need it the most. On top of that Maurauders are going to get a Bloodthirst change, resulting in 1 Maurauder being sufficient. And most importantly, you need to have fun doing what you're doing! Base your choices on that and goodluck.

Minus the insults. Exactly what he said. Getting killed in a 1 v 1 vs an Concealment Operative (likely in optimized gear and a crit here and there) is more or less what should happen if you don't have the proper cooldowns (Resilience or a way to cleanse Acid Blade asap) or a medpac or adrenal ready. It's also the only thing they are good at: Keep an Assassin out of stealth: Loses the element of surprise. Misses an autoprocced Maul Misses a stun Result: He pops Resilience/Deflection when under attack, maybe a blackout and still gets a lot of DPS off, whilst surviving. Force Speed also makes them capable of staying near their foe. Low Slash is a nice bonus aswell. Keep an Operative out of stealth: Loses the element of surprise. Misses 1 upperhand (meaning it will either take more than 6 seconds to get in the 2-upperhand zone or Stim Boost which has a hefty cooldown.) Misses 1 stun. Misses 1 full Acid Blade which is a big part of their damage. Get extremely vurnerable to slows (yes roll is amazing, but it's expensive and gets you less far when slowed.) Surely healers can use roll a lot, but they have a less limited resource pool compared to their DPS counterparts. Result: They really want to get the hell away from there or have some serious protection from teammates. Morale of the story: Pop a medpac and DoT/Slow that creeper and kite. That and Deflection > Defensive Probe, Resilience > Dodge. Now I'm not saying a more skilled and a better geared concealment operative won't do it's job, it's just a lot harder to do it. Just the easiest comparison, comparing it to a DPS like a Smashmonkey goes beyond me.

I thought double XP also affected quest rewards where-as rested doesn't? I'm curious now about Rested vs Double XP weekend. And thank you OP, I didn't see another one was coming! Yay. No-one celebrates Thanksgiving in my family, so I didn't even know it would be Thanksgiving. No clue what I'd level, I might just get all my desired toons to ~level 40 before the weekend and then PvP, PvP, PvP. Level ~38 is always a bit of a leveling-depression for me. The flashpoint is Colocoid, by far the worst one in my book (first bit gives no XP what-so-ever and turrets, zzz, second bit hardly gives any since you kill a mobs that are very low in numbers but take long to kill and the 'puzzle' bits can really confuse people and get them killed, damn pushbacks.) The planet is Belsavis *shiver* it feels like so much traveling. I somehow never ended up doing planets after chapter 2 was done, felt so complete. (Note: I've done all classquests already, so ye, that's not good for the questing motivation) On top of that it's the moment I get a bit bored of playing the same toon for so long. PS: Any tips and tricks on overcoming my level 38-47 depression are welcome!

I'd say cross Sith Warrior of your list and prepare yourself for 7 more stories! I find it can get a bit boring leveling the same side twice. It has it's social pro's, but over-all I enjoy seeing a few new planets (or in a different time-line) aswell as 2 new flashpoints. Just to get a more complete view of SWTOR. So my vote goes to Trooper! But like mentioned above, difficult to tell what you'd like. I loved the Inquisitor story though, that's how Sith should be! (Said the person that's absolutely clueless about Star Wars lore.) But a bit similar to the Warrior.

You hate to hear this, but it's more important he's enjoying his class than him complimenting yours. That being said, it never hurts. When I roll an alt to help friends level I usually try to take a character that's strong at the things his is weak at; If we'd mainly PvE: Is he a mDPS or Tank? I make sure I'm at range and with the possibility to respec heal to allow fast Flashpoint queue's. Is he a rDPS or Healer? I make sure I take a class with the possibility to spec to tank to allow fast Flashpoint queue's. Bonus points for having 1 60 second CC for heroics/Flashpoints in our duo and more bonus points for being the same non-advanced class so we're always on the same page class-questwise (assuming you split up and do them alone to speed up the progress. On planets not a big problem, filler quest between planets, oh my days. Downside is how-ever you'll also need the same gear (though it hasn't given me issues so far.) The range difference I really enjoy since it gives me more ways of keeping eachother safe. Sorcerer/Mercanary in the form of off-heals (or full on healing) and Sniper in ways of taking threat, making the opponent walk 25-30m, 6 seconds damage free, yay! Obviously for mDPS/Tank and him/her as Ranged/Healer the other way around. In any case I highly recommend that either of you is able to respec heal or tank to make queues bareable (2x DPS queues are the only thing worse than a solo DPS queue.) PS: Respec is free (for Subs) and there's the Legacy perk for 200k to do it where-ever. ^^ Make sure you don't make a healer/tank combination whilst questing together, it will go so slow. Examples: Assassin/Sorcerer (you'd be amazed how much you can skip with Mind Trap) Powertech/Mercanary For PvP mainly I'd focus on being able to fulfill different roles. For example if you queue as 2 healers, there's a big chance your team will end up with 3 or 4 healers or something like that. Same if you're both Tank, since optimally they'd only make 25% of the team each. DPS have this problem less since they make 50% of the teams, but mixing it up is highly recommend since DPS seems the most popular. Other aspects could be that one of you has a capable class for defending (though most of it comes from calling the incs early, so in case of emergency any class can do it. My personal favourite is a capable DPS, any class can do that but best I've seen so far is a Maurauder (might be the player though) combined with a capable healer. Another one of my favourites is the Powertech Tank/DPS Hybrid with a healer, you'll be an unbreakable team. Or anything with taunts and a healer. Lastly, if it's his first MMO make sure you can help him with any questions he has. Though due to your MMO-experience I doubt he needs to play a class you know in order for you to give him tips, but I'd still like to point it out.

Endurance makes bad people think someone's a good Tank. This game has more bad people than good people. Add this up and you'll have a lot of people going for Endurance since it's sexy. Stop dreaming healers! On top of that the game more or less forces people to go Endurance heavy. All commendation gear is Endurance heavy, as long as people don't Augment Endurance, I guess we can't complain. In all seriousness, I've never been so happy when we swapped our 43k HP tank out for a 33k HP tank, given she was more skilled, her gear choices also made her an absolute breeze to heal. Was fun seeing our main-tank having the lowest HP of the whole group. Though it was only Scum HM. But due to how easily people judge Tanks (any role for that matter) by HP-numbers, I almost feel stupid for min-maxing my gear. I can't be the only one that had teammates piss their pants over someone having XXk-HP, he must be such a good DPS/Healer/Tank! Where-as in reality, so much of that Endurance could have been Power/Mitigation.

I'm more worried about the godlike energy regen than the 0.1-0.2 on my casts. ^^ I run with about 70% Surge currently, rest Alacrity. I'm quite enjoying it, but wouldn't know what's optimal. More Alacrity would speed up my casttimes a tiny bit and more importantly give me even more energy, but due to all the moments I'm forced to not waste energy (stunlock, interrupt spam etc and our instants are cheap) I hardly run out. Might try a bit more Alacrity, not sure how much the Surge does without Crit.

Crewskills all the way, no matter what level. I basicly do the same as above, I take a few gathering skills (Slicing, Scavenging and I tend to take Bioanalysis over Underworld Trading though there're both a good option) and sell what I pick off the ground. Scavenging and Bioanalysis also allow you to gather the monsters you killed into materials, hence it's easy to keep up with them without sending a single companion out. If something is rare (happens a lot with Bioanalysis lower level items on my server) on the GTN I send some companions out for just those and it's big money. Slicing is just nice a simple since you gather credits, saves the journey to the GTN, at level 55 the grade 9 materials (purples) will be worthwhile since everyone needs them for augments. Scavenging (on my server) is a guaranteed win at level 55 aswell, the materials always sell for a proper profit (though I turn them into augment-kits, tons of time to make, but 15k in materials each and they sell for about 70k.) As for Bioanalysis, the profit stays in the lower level materials. Though if it's important to you to have your craftingcrewskill from the beginning on (or you already leveled it quite a bit, swapping will make you lose all the progress!) just make sure you pick up as much as you can with your gathering skill and sell left-overs on the GTN. Don't spend ANY money on the GTN before level 55, or ever, keep your gear updated with blues from flashpoints or planetary commendations or even questgreens, it's more than sufficient and will save you a lot of money. Every credit not spend is a credit earned. Don't worry too much about credits though. At 55 it basicly gets thrown at you (unless you PvP, bioware doesn't reward PvP enough) in raids (unless you wipe, a lot) flashpoints and dailies. PS: Take the don't spend ANY money too seriously. You will want a 90%-110% speeder if you don't already and if it's affordable you likely want an orange armour set of your liking, but since you replace non-moddable gear really quick be careful to not buy blue or green armour for you and your companion, it's so much cheaper to gear yourself through Flashpoints and your Companion through a mixture of quest-items and planetary/warzone commendation gear. Do sell your unbound blue and purple (or even green) drops for those who do.

Like the poster above said, it's just bad fluff. My Smuggler in the tree is a greatgrandparent and she still claims she'll never have kids. (I use my tree to group up all mirror classes and such to see which ones I want to level next.) The romance companion option might be something for you though. Each class/gender gets at least 1 companion they can Romance and often it results in marriage and plans for children though not always and ofcourse you can turn them down. Crossgender is currently impossible and it won't quite affect your gameplay, but is sometimes implented. Most romance-able companions lose affection to you if you cheat on them and some of their give quite jealous remarks (the smuggler's companion Corso rings a big bell here) when you start hitting on someone. Just like the Legacy it will only show to you, but atleast there's a story to it! Companion stories (non-romanceables have stories aswell explaining their background and such) get unlocked as you gain affection with them and progress in the game (to avoid spoilers.) Your first (or second in the Jedi Knights case) also send you off on a quest or three. Legacy is mainly a nice moneysink for people who want nice bonusses like increased experience gain (boosters are better but it stacks) or things like free respec at any time (except in warzones/warzone queue's) and some of those perks are really amazing (though I'd safe up a bit of money first.) Welcome to the game and have fun!

First I'd try to figure out why you don't enjoy Vanguard and go from there. Or pick depending on which role or looks you prefer. I added a summary of all 4 Jedi Classes and obviously the game will tell you more about them aswell in creation. In short: Jedi Consular: Shadow (Tank or mDPS) or Sage (rDPS or Healer) Jedi Knight: Sentinel (mDPS) or Guardian (Tank or mDPS) My opinion is that all classes are fun, I personally enjoyed the Jedi Knight story a bit more and it's often considered what KOTR 3 would be if they'd have made that instead of an MMO. If that makes any difference to you. Jedi Consular: Storywise you're the diplomat ensuring the Republics safety and victory in times of need. You rely more on force powers than lightsaber combat. Your mainstat will be willpower and your armour will be light armour. You will start with a mTank companion, then a healer, then a rDPS, then a rTank and finally a mDPS. Jedi Consular goes into the 2 advanced classes: Jedi Shadow: Can fulfill the role of melee DPS or Tank. This character wields a double bladed lightsaber with either a focus (dps) or shield generator (tank) and utilizes stealth. Combat is mainly close range (4m) with some abilities and 10m range. Kinetic combat is the tanking tree, sacrificing DPS for more survivability and high threat to keep your team safe. The middle tree utilizes a lot of burst damage and relies quite a bit on stealth, Balance is a mixture of Damage over Time and hardhitting moves, but will only shine in fights longer than 18 seconds due to the DoT aspect, less reliant on Stealth, but it's still nice to have. Jedi Sage: Can fulfill the role of ranged DPS or Healer. This character wields but rarely (not ever) a single bladed lightsaber with a focus (dps or heal alike.) It mainly focusses on Telekinetic abilities such as Telekinetic Throw or Project. Their DPS in either spec has a bit of Damage over time, however, Telenikisis has a bit more burst, but does have quite a bit of casttimes, but sports amazing AoE. Balance is more focusses around damage over time. The healing is a mixture of small healing over time, big strong heals with a casttime, their AoE heal is quite amazing aswell. Their forcemanagement in DPS-trees generally means either not casting or not something to worry about. As a healer you actively use Noble Sacrifice to trade health for force. Both have a 60 second Crowd Control ability to make your solo-plat even easier. Jedi Knight: Jedi Knights are the protectors of the republic more through their actions than just negotiation. They take on the most difficult tasks in order to keep the Republic safe. Your mainstat will be Strenght. You will quickly receive two companions a rTank and a mDPS, quite a bit later you'll receive your healer, followed by a mTank and a rDPS. Jedi Knights go into 2 advanced classes: Jedi Guardian: The Guardian can fulfill the role of mDPS or Tank. You will wield a single bladed lightsaber together with a shield (tank) or power (dps) generator. Your armour will be heavy armour. Defence is your tanking tree, once again focussing on less DPS but more survivability and threat to keep your team safe. Guardian Tanks are wellknown for their vast variety of cooldowns to handle any situation. Vigilance is a single target damage spec with a damage over time aspect, it also sports quite a bit of survivability (for a dps) and lastly; Focus, the wellknown Smash-spec (great AoE burst damage.) Jedi Sentinel: Sentinels are all about damage and it's the only role they can fulfill. They wield 2 lightsabers and wear medium armour. Don't be discouraged, they do have great survivability due to abilities such as: Rebuke, Force Camouflage and Guarded By the Force. Watchman is a Damage Over Time spec mainly focusses on single target damage. Combat is a more burst-damage spec and once again mainly focusses on single target damage and a bit more team-support in the form of Transendence (speeds up your teammates even more) and easier access to Inspiration (15% damage buff to your group) though they're available in any spec. Lastly there's Focus, burst AoE damage, currently the king of PvP.

Not that I agree with Bolster, you judged your friend on HP only. That's an extremely poor way to judge people, no matter what situation. If anything HP can be quite a negative thing, the more you optimize your gear, the more HP you drop in order to get more useful stats (PvP-tanks are an exception.) You failed to miss he has either less expertise or less offensive/healing capabilities than your toon, because that's simply how Bolster works. In my PvE gear I'd sport 36k HP, quite a bit of main-stat and power, but I'd also have about 1400 expertise opposed to 2018 and that makes me hit like a wet towel and die like an insect compared to my full PvP-set. That and PvP should be about skill.

This post above me is very complete and amazing, you rock! I'd like to go in a bit deeper on Biochem and Cybertech assuming you didn't realise they're useful for every class, not tech/force user bound, if that's not the case, please stop reading. Cybertech is my favourite crewskill in keeping my companions and myself geared up. It offers every mainstat (wonderful if you'd like someone else than Scourge or Kira at your side) in Armorings, Mods and Earpieces. Which make up a big chunk of your equipment. Enhancements can easily be filled with planetary commendation stuff (only 2 commendations each!) On top of that I found the Synthweaving reverse engineering of armor very bothersome, sometimes I got defence or critical when I wanted Power and such. Biochem is just an endgame money-saver if you do a lot of raiding. Most fights you pop an adrenal almost on cooldown, saves a buck if you can use the reuseable versions, same for Stims and Medpacs. Implants are a nice bonus for leveling, but not much.

Though I won't deny that there's a lot of Melee-hate in the game, a bit part also comes from learning how to deal with situations. Most classes are presented with their 1 stun-break and resolve to counter the many stuns in the game, sentinel is not alone in this. It's all about learning how to use your class and PvP Mechanics to the fullest: 1a. Smartly use your environment and outsmart the opponent. Make sure the opponent is not in a place he can knock you far into the nowhere, make his knockback (if used) bring you to another enemy, hit you in a wall or possibly negate it if it's a cone by dancing around your target. 1b. If your opponent is in an amazing position, try to pick of a different target. Like a DPS in a poor position to drag out your original target in a less safe position or a DPS to keep some fire of your healer. 2. If that fails use Force Camouflage offensively to get back in range (or swap it around to keep force charge on cooldown.) A dead target can be a better defence than leaving Force Camouflage as a panic button. 3a. Don't stunbreak before your resolve is full unless a special opportunity presents itself 3b. Make full use of your god-like seconds of full resolve. PS: It's our (Defensive) Cooldowns, combined with our damage, combined with Transendance/Inspiration that make us strong (or OP) not 1 channel stun and an AoE stun. To counter feeling squishy (I mean sure Medium Armor, but come-on guys, use those cooldowns!) 1. Rebuke: Though never the cry for a nerf, this cooldown is amazing, it's brilliant, it's awesome, it's fantastic. 20% Damage Reduction for 6 seconds is mediocre, but it refreshes itself a lot in PvP unless poorly used (or an extremely intelligent opponent with a lot of stuns or other stalling abilities.) 2. Force Camouflage: Great both Offensive as Defensively, you won't be taking much damage once you've used this and gives you time to reposition (and a healer to top you up.) 3. Saber Ward: Speaks for itself, proper cooldown when you need it. 4. Guarded By the Force: Possibly the only cooldown that's actually worth to be used 'last second' due to how it works. Spend some health (50% of your total health, 10% to 5%? Sounds good) to become more or less invincible for 4 seconds. If you complain about stun, you know 4 seconds is worth it. Special Mention: Pacify, awesome if you know how to use it. 5a. Warzone Medpac: 35% of your maximum health every 1.5 minutes, amazingly helpful if you got into a sticky situation. 5b. Warzone Adrenal: 15% Damage Reduction for 12 seconds every 3 minutes, not quite Rebuke, but still amazing. And use those cooldowns (minus Guarded by the Force) BEFORE you're at 10% since then you're dead anyway. Use it to steadily reduce the damage when you're in danger. If you don't tunnel and overextend for kills, usually there's a healer than can keep you up aslong as you work for it aswell, if there isn't, you really think other classes have it better? To give you a bit of history on myself, I've leveled every advanced class minus 1 mirror (Sage) and at least half of my characters are between valor 55-75 and I still have a lot to learn in this game. Goodluck and be the best you can! ~Kitty

I usually split my abilities in groups and arrange them from usefulness. I play a lot of alts so I more or less need a universal keybinding (atleast in my head) so I can easily swap between them. It's really all about what works for you. 1. Figure out the abilities you use a lot and when. 2. Figure out the abilities you don't use a lot but need to access ASAP when you do. 3. Play with it a bit, move around abilities if you feel that might be more comfortable for you. Add more and more keybindings as you feel comfortable with both the key as the ability. Start small. For example if you play tank (I'm sorry I only play Tank on my Juggernaut so other examples would be impossible for me.) You only need a few key abilities: My basic rotation: Smash > (Sundering Assault/Enrage) > Crushing Blow (> Riposite) > Force Scream > (Sundering Assault) > Filler > Filler > Filler > Filler, repeat. That's 6 abilities and 4 fillers (generally a choice of: Ravage, Backhand, Slash, Vicious Slash, Force Choke, Dispatch.) Those 6 abilities are important and used every 12 seconds (they share the same cooldown) and thus need to be keybound, the fillers are a 'luxery' keybind option, adding up to 12 Abilities. Now that's 1 Action-bar that I'd want to start having fully bound. Once I'm used to that I'd move on to get everything: How and where you bind everything is up to you. I usually have everything all over the place if you'd look at it, it might confuse you, but that works for me and it works well. Find what fits you and be amazing. I managed to fit everything on 4 full quick bars on every single class (minor exception to Scoundrel/Operative) including out-of-combat regen, class buff and throw huttbal. I use a 5th and a 6th for things such as: Legacy Abilities (bound) Forms (bound) Speeder (Bound) 60-second CC (Bound, no worries, Jug doesn't have them) Quicktravels and Repair/Maildroid. When I say I bind everything, I'm quite serious, got a health-issue that causes me to shiver a lot, combined with a preference for small interfaces I'd be unable to click those abilities at all sometimes.

To counter the 'sluggish' feeling of Maurauder I highly recommend using Cloak of Pain more than just a panic button, it's plain amazing. 20% extra damage reduction with an almost 50% uptime is incredible (better than heavy armour or anything requiring a global cooldown other classes rely on.) On my Sentinel (Maurauder mirror-class) I quickly learned that using it as much as possible (obviously timing it well to get it to that 30 second duration) makes you fly through content like it's nothing and rarely leaves you in need of healing. Oh and ye it does a bit of damage. ^^ Sorry I just had to put it out there, so many people say Maurauder/Sentinels are so squishy/weak especially early on really need to hotkey Cloak of Pain/Rebuke. Hope you made your choice OP!

Dailies is likely the highest XP/time ratio since they take no time to form, have big amounts of quickly dispatchable mobs on top of quest-rewards (being level 55 results in way higher experience than an alt for atleast 50 levels) and sometimes a weekly as bonus. or Operations assuming there's some thrash to clear (don't underestimate thrash XP) and you don't wipe (e.g. a simply story-mode instead of tackling hard content for the first time.) Spacemissions (everyone dislikes those or something, but the XP is quite decent) and Flashpoints (level 55 ones no-one is able to skip that much thrash) are most likely a close second as long as you don't outlevel them. But I'd honestly focus on what you enjoy doing. Almost everything gives a decent amount of Legacy Experience but farming it can be a tough and troublesome task. PvP sadly gives rather little, about the same as a quest-reward per match, but no mobs are killed in between and they really add up a lot more than I ever suspected (until alt number 14 or so.)

How do I get medals as a pure DPS? I don't tunnel and play for objectives. I don't fight outside of the Node-Area (ever heard of stealthers and stuns?) so medals more or less keep flowing no matter what class. Surely sometimes it's easier to go for a certain desired target by overextending, but if that's the case I'll simply focus on peeling something of my healer or rDPS, either saving them or forcing the more desired target within range. Objective medals are such a safe bet, unless you get absolutely hammered. Quick win means medals for finishing under X minutes and long matches means the Defender and Attacker points just keep piling up. That and I'm happy with 8 medals aslong as I did my job. To be fair as healer sometimes the enemy team manages to put so much pressure on mine (or my DPS is good at focussing) I never even get to pull out a DPS ability for a 3k hit and fairly honest I hardly get last hits unless something has 1-5k HP left and suddently gets ignored. Is it fair that Tank classes easily get 4 medals with a few well-placed Taunts and Healer classes by (hopefully) helping their DPS out? Yes it is, because rewards are capped at 8 medals. Now is medals had any value beyond 8, you might have a reason to cry.

I think most people here refer to Raid-envoirment or PvE, upon which Harpoon will either not be able to pull or you will pull 1 foe and 2 others are still far away, or worst case annoys your team if done incorrectly. Though I personally don't find that Powertech feels too slow, Hydrolic Overrides is a nice ability if you ask me. As for the OPs problem, I don't think it lies with the class or the spec at all. You likely either need to get more used to using Force Leap (make sure you leap towards groups and not a loner if it dies before the cooldown is done) and Obliterate is part of your damage-rotation (the immobilize and movement is just an amazing bonus) and you should always leave enough rage for it to use once between Smashes (unless Force Leap is used.) It gets easier once you get used to the class and Rotation. Don't forget to more or less dance around your foe to get nearer to your next target when your current is about to fall.

Hey, if you want to run a hybrid you need to consider what you're doing and which role you want to be fulfilling. For example in any place where you need a specific role (think about Arena's, HM Flashpoint pugging or Operations) it's often extremely difficult to run a hybrid efficiently or even risky towards your teams succes. Likely a lot more difficult than making a full swap from healer to DPS. The biggest difficulty is the Cell: The Assault Tree has a lot of talents that require Plasma Cell to trigger (to their full effect) Ionic Accelerator, High Friction Bolts (more or less) Superheated Plasma and Sweltering Heat for example. The Gunnery Tree has most of it's energy management tied to Armour-piercing Cell such as: Special Munitions and Cell Charger. Lastly the Medic Tree depends a lot on not only Combat Support Cell (Supercharged Cells, a vital aspect of Commando healing in both Effect aswell as Cell-management) but aswell on using Hammer Shot, which will be difficult to fit in if you want to both DPS and Heal. Another problem that occurs is that Bioware doesn't quite promote Hybrid builds, a lot of the vital and most impressive abilities are in the top of the trees, such as Demolition Round or even Probe Medic shouldn't be underestimated. Bacta infusion looks very mediocre, but it's instant and free, great help on cells. And lastly Healing and DPS doesn't use the same abilities in most cases. A DPS such as Guardian/Vanguard/Shadow could decide to drop some damage for more tanky talents, but essentially they're still using similar if not the same abilities, where-as a healer and DPS use completely different abilities and they all cost Global Cooldowns (and generally cells) I've yet to find a Hybrid that works well, but in situations I feel I want a bit of healing but also a bit of DPS (think about helping friends in PvE or Level 50 Flashpoints) I sometimes run: http://swtor.askmrrobot.com/skills/commando#3000211022322-31110212212032322-0 With Armor Piercing cell. Some reasoning: I can't find the time to heal, do damage AND build up Supercharged Cells. Though Grav Round is expensive, Full Auto more or less returns it's energy, making it a desireable 'rotation' and as bonus I can get an instant heal at the cost of a powerful Rail Shot. Another one I played with was: http://swtor.askmrrobot.com/skills/commando#10003010211122322-300-22120122203023 With Plasma Cell. This one I couldn't make work. I wanted to try something with Trauma Probe, an epic ability in my opinion, but I lacked energy and it was more difficult than imagined to time the healings between Ionic Accelerator trigger lock-out. I'd say depending on what you want to do play around with it a little. If you simply want an easier transition between healing and damage, I wouldn't. Commando healing is very unique and fun, but for the full effect you will need to be in Combat Support Cell and building Supercharged cells as much as possible, something Hybrids currently do not allow since they're so Cell dependant. Goodluck and have fun!