I would suggest the Imperial Pilot's set here for when they make social gear viable for others than light armor: http://tor.zamimg.com/torhead/uploads/images/12138.jpg It's not that bad to get, doing space missions, if you don't try to do it all in one week. (*cough*)

In vanilla WoW, you actually had hardly any choice as to where to level at game release. Now, because of the inflated XP while leveling, you can choose among many zones because of the crazy XP increase and people still just want to bypass it--even with the revisited Cataclysm old world content. I skipped 4 planets, besides the class missions, when leveling my last alt because I did space missions and flashpoints. (That actually hurt, I was down about a million credits by the time I dinged 50.)

Because it's constant while fighting. I have all 4 hotbars showing and they all have abilities on them that flash. It's not as if animations have the same flashing elements every GCD. There are other abilities that upset my eyes: Scoundrel/Operative stealth animation, it flashes when going into it. Orbital strike. Kaliyo's Storm animation with the flash. Heck, Flashbang Grenade isn't even as bad as those. However, the new hotbar flash is so much more annoying and I hate it very much.

I actually really like Skadge. He is a nice change of pace, even though he's a bully and the storyline was a bit hokey with him forcing his way into your group. Also, there were at least 2 companions that were killable in older beta. To kill them off, you had to basically keep choosing yes to kill them off for many conversation choices, and then in the end they died. However, BW decided this was ultimately a bad decision because it may limit your gameplay later (companion role, crafting, etc.). I indeed killed one off. I particularly despise Ensign Temple, the low self-esteem girl who shouts "I'm strong!" while fighting enemies as a self-affirmation, and Ashara with her "With the force, I can do anything!" stupidity. I'll take Skadge over those any day.

OP: You're nuts. Vector is one of the greatest companions in the game. His personality is fantastic, though he's subtle so some may miss the humor of it, including in the romantic scenes. You want a terrible IA romance? Ensign Temple. Seriously insecure chick right there.