So let me understand this. You are saying that a LvL 65 comp with maxed influece doing half the healing in 4.0.2 that a LvL 60 comp in the Yavin Alliance comp gear did in 3.x is "working as intended." Have you ever considered a career as a comedian? Because that is truly funny.

I can drink my own urine too. That doesn't mean that it would be fun or pleasant, which is ultimately why people play video games. The attitude that kills MMOs. Every subscriber that leaves is a blow to future development of the game, and said future development is what keeps players playing, draws new players to the game, and brings old players back. Oh by the way, what your video really proved: You can solo Star Fortress, so long as you have one of the few advanced classes with a combat rez and decent self healing abilities. Really put up a parse of said fight and look at the difference btwn how much your healing comp healed you, and how much you as a DPS healed your self... No DPS should ever be able to do more healing than a dedicated healer, but I promise if you look at a parse you will see that you did.

I agree totally with your premise, that companions were terribly over nerfed. I just don't think saying that your companion can no longer take the place of 2 other players, or one exceptional player is the strongest argument for your case. Personally my argument revolves around the numbers. In 3.X Treek or Mako(fillin generic healing comp) in the Yavin companion gear were doing 3k+ EHPS. Not great, not better than your average player, but enough to keep you on your feet through pretty much any encounter so long as you used your defensive cool downs and knew how to play your class well. 4.0- Well effective healing jumped up on most comps to around 9k EHPS on a rank 21 companion(my higher ranked comps were always doing more important things like crafting). You could do incredibly stupid things and your health wouldn't go below 90%, I know I tried. Even in the H2 Star Fortress so long as you had the buffs, you pretty much weren't dying, without the buffs the reactor phase required actual thinking and use of some defensive CDs. 4.0.2 At rank 21 EPHS 980(highest I have recored) At rank 31 EHPS 1120(Highest I have recorded). At rank 41 EHPS 1345(Highest I have recorded), at rank 50 1495 EHPS(Highets I have recorded). In short hard numbers show that in 4.0.2 a Rank 50 Lvl 65 comp is doing half the EHPS that a lvl 60 comp was doing in gear that frankly had a horrible stat spread. Never mind that we could dress our comps in 192 or 198 optimized gear back than and get better heals. The cure is frankly as bad as the disease. By the way I was able to clear the Heroic SF with my AP PT in a mix of 216-224 gear, with a rank 21 Lana. However you will notice in the logs that at times I was doing half as much self healing as Lana was. You can't convince me that this is working as intended.

Well, thank you for this. You have demonstrated most clearly the need for some sort of nerf to companion healing/power. Clearly if one person and his companion can do content that was intended for 4 actual players in decent entry level gear and of moderate skill level, something was certainly not working as intended, and needed to be addressed. Frankly what write goes more to proving that a nerf was needed and that game is now working as intended than that companions were over nerfed. A HM flashpoint isn't a tactical. You are supposed to need a Tank a Healer and 2 DPS. The jump from 190 greens to 224 optimized isn't significant enough to allow one player to fill 2 of those roles, though I will give it to you, that if you are riding at the top of the parse leaderboard, and thus are an exceptional player you may be able to put out twice the dps/HPS ect an average player. So essentially you are saying that comps were so overpowered that they were able to fill or at least negate the need for 2-3 actual players, whereas the devs intent was for them to be weaker than an average player. Clearly they weren't working as intended. I would argue that they have been way over nerfed, but there is no world in which comps working as intended will ever be able to supplant 2-3 actual players.

Do you have numbers to back that up? I do. In 3.x Treek or Mako(fillin generic healing comp) in the Yavin companion gear were doing 3k+ EHPS. Not great, not better than your average player, but enough to keep you on your feet through pretty much any encounter so long as you used your defensive cool downs and knew how to play your class well. 4.0- Well effective healing jumped up on most comps to around 9k EHPS on a rank 21 companion(my higher ranked comps were always doing more important things like crafting). You could do incredibly stupid things and your health wouldn't go below 90%, I know I tried. Even in the H2 Star Fortress so long as you had the buffs, you pretty much weren't dying, without the buffs the reactor phase required actual thinking and use of some defensive CDs. 4.0.2 At rank 21 EPHS 980(highest I have recored) At rank 31 EHPS 1120(Highest I have recorded). At rank 41 EHPS 1345(Highest I have recorded), at rank 50 1495 EHPS(Highets I have recorded). In short hard numbers show that in 4.0.2 a Rank 50 Lvl 65 comp is doing half the EHPS that a lvl 65 comp was doing in gear that frankly had a horrible stat spread. The cure is frankly as bad as the disease. By the way I was able to clear the Heroic SF with my AP PT in a mix of 216-224 gear, with a rank 21 Lana. However you will notice in the logs that at times I was doing half as much self healing as Lana was. You can't convince me that this is working as intended.

Please post the "Healing Recieved" tab so that we can see where your healing was coming from. You still only got just over 1k effective healing. That's not that great tbh.

Star Fortress[Heroic 2] Eric wrote: The word any there is pretty definitive and inclusive. So what you are seeing are those who can't do it lodging the requested complaint. Personally I think they should all put in tickets to customer service as well, and if they are too introverted even call customer service and make a formal complaint. There is an explicit promise there that many felt has not been upheld. I cleared the Star Fortress H2 last night, first thing I did when I came online to see how bad it was, using the criteria for the <One For All> achievement, and had a parser running. I welcome you to look through the logs. At no time did Lana's(Rank 21) Heals per second break 1000, while as a DPS spec Advanced Prototype Powertech I was hitting upward of 500 heals per second. I know they wanted the average player to be better than a comp. I get that. The average player easily puts out 5k HPS, and knows well enough not to stand in circles of impending doom and get toasted. I'm not a casual player by any stretch of the imagination, I openly admit that, I've run with some of best raiding guilds in the game, and I put out currently 7.2k DPS on a Dummy and 5.5-7.9k actual in Raid boss fights(depending on the boss). I'm running in 216-224 gear, all set bonus and optimized. I don't see how a casual player is really supposed to do this. Yeah I like a challenge but this is ridiculous.

This is simply not true. Star Fortress is a three part story arc. Part 1 is a solo mode Flash Point in which you attack a star fortress but for various reasons cannot destroy it. This leads to part 2 in which you get a bunch of companions to recruit which results in a heroic 2 with said new companion wherein you destroy the shied generators that were preventing you from destroying the star fortresses themselves. Yet, to fully acquire these new companions you then have to run part 3, which is the Heroic 2 that finally destroys said Star Fortresses and liberates the planets that now new comps cared so deeply about. There are in fact several specialty achievements that can be earned here, but 2 that I will mention, <One for All> doing it without the using the terminal buffs or the alliance equipment caches. Clearly this achievement is meant to be something worked toward. I was able to do it with an AP PT in 220-224 gear with a rank 21 Lana healing. For the record Lana was only putting out 980 EHPS, while my PT was getting 600(Guard Cannon Heroic Utility) and using Kolo Overload on cooldown. I may be mistaken but I don't think this is operating as intended. Second achieve is <All for One> which is having access to all four Alliance Equipment Caches. Again I don't think anyone first going through this is meant to be able to do this, and thus it is an achievement that should be worked toward. Which now brings us to the standard run, using the Terminal buffs. IMO, considering that this is an essential element to the story, and cosidering that Eric clearly stated on behalf of the devs: This heroic, using the terminal buffs should be no more difficult to complete than any other world [Heroic 2], considering level sync. Clearly that is not the case, so clearly it is not working as intended. Moving on. Let's adress specific numbers. Again in playing through the SF several times, both with the buffs and without them, Rank 21 Lana never got above 980 EHPS. For the record her EHPS before the nerf were hovering around 9k. Now even if they double between Rank 21 and rank 50(which given what a Rank 40 Lana is putting out they won't) that would only be 1960 EHPS. This cannot be working as intended. I get that they wanted the "average" player to be doing better than a comp, but an average player is, or should be hovering around 5-6k EHPS. I wouldn't take a healer that could only do 1960EHPS. Honestly I would expect, and not unreasonably that my healing comp could do at least twice the healing of my DPS specced Powertech. Or take treek for instace. 3.x in the Yavin 192 comp gear was doing 3kEHPS. In 4.0, shot up to about 6k, less than other healing comps, but whatever. Now in 4.0.2 down to around 1100EFPS. So Treek, at lvl 65 and Rank 20, is doing only 1/3 the healing that lvl 60 Treek at 10k affection was doing. Did companions need to be nerfed? Yes absolutely. Did they need to be nefted this much? No. This is overkill by far and away.

No. They didn't make a solo mode of Star Fortress. They are two separate things. One is a solo mode flash point, which yields a certain achieve(slicer and dicer) and is meant as a prelude to the Heroic 2. Now specifically the problem is that Eric said on behalf of the devs: That's not a matter of debate. That is what is said. Yes some people in really good gear can do it. I did it. That doesn't mean it was fun. There is challenge which is fun, and then their is punishing which is just tedious, which this is. Further, that H2 is incredibly punishing to MDPS, while RDPS have a much easier time. SOmething they promised wouldn't happen again, but there you have it. Eric said if you can't do a heroic with just your comp to let the devs know. I hope that everyone that fails puts in a ticket, so that the Devs know.

Yeah some of us cleared TOS HM before it was nerfed as well. Just because we could, didn't mean that's how it should be or that we wanted to do it again. I cleared SF H2 last night without buff ect. Doesn't mean I ever plan on doing that again. There is challenge which is fun, and then there is tedium. This is the latter, oh and did I mention it is totally over punishing to MDPS.

Link or it didn't happen. I got ppl in my guild in 190 gear(granted bolstered in ops) that are learning to heal that are putting out 2.5k HPS. Players are putting out 8.5k EHPS in SM ops(see parsely undger Gharj for example). I'm willing to accept that such a parse represents a good player, probably in good gear. My problem is the disparity btwn that and what comps are now doing.

For the record, while I believed that comps were a bit OP before, I didn't complain about it, quite the opposite I defended it, because I knew BW would over correct, which they did.

So decided to parse a Star Fortress run through. The best a rank 21 Lana did was 969 HPS.. Maybe I'm remembering things wrong, but that was good, you know, back when level cap was 50. I think we can safely say that BW overshot the mark.

Agreed to part the first. No comp should be better than the average player. From looking at parses both from my own guild raids and those on parsely I can safely say that the average healer does btwn 5-6k HPS with 2-3k EHPS. A rank 21 Lana is now doing at the upper limit 600 EHPS, which is really sad, considering that my AP Powertech with the right utilities selected managed 500EHPS in the same fights. That's not an average player. That's not even a crap player. That is a passed out drunk, at sleep at the keyboard player. You cannot possibly tell me that this is intended anymore than the massively OP comps were intended.

Yeah comps will stand in the AOE. In fairness I do roughly 7k DPS on a dummy and 5-5.5k(on average) actual in boss fights with my current spec and kit, which I know is a little higher than average. Nor I am saying that I did this easily tonight. There was a lot of waiting for stuff to come off cooldown before moving on ect. There were also some points where, if I had been sitting on a lump of coal, I would now have diamonds. PS. I agree 100% that comps were way over nerfed.

That was the first thing I did when I logged on tonight. Took rank 21 Lana and my AP Powertech in a mix of 216-220 gear. Third reactor room gave me problems, but that was more because of other bugs(adds being immune to AOEs and Lana freezing). Though for the record that was the only place I had problems, and I killed both Paladins as well. So it is doable, its just hard.

The "Solo Mode" is a flash point that gives a different achieve and has a different final boss. The H2 is in my opinion still soloable, its just a lot more challenging. You are going to need 204-208 gear to do it with the terminal buffs and 216 or better to do the <One and Only> achieve. That said I still think they nerfed comps too much. Yes I agree that the nerf was needed, and we could see it coming, but now its too much. What is worse is the scaling that goes with leve sync got even worse. Depending on rank of influence some of my comps struggle to keep me alive on Yavin doing straight dailes, but then can heal me well enough to solo Starfortress H2 without the terminal buffs ect. That is a serious problem IMO.

Just did it tonight. It was hard, but not impossible.

Well... I didn't use the terminal buffs as I said. Which change things a lot. I also didn't use the alliance abilities which change things alot. Maybe its must me but I look at the <One and Only> achieve and title, like doing it in HM. Its meant to be hard, hence its an achieve. Also I ran it with my weakest comp in game. I could have taken a rank 40-50 comp in, but I didn't. But yes, I think they over nerfed. I'm putting out around 7k DPS on the dummy and 5-5.5k actual in boss fights, which I dare say is a bit higher than most casual players will reach.

Well I did the H2 Starfortress tonight without the terminal buffs or the alliance abilities you pick up, with a rank 21 Lana, had no problems until the bit where you go from platform to plaftorm shutting down the reactor core and fighting oodles of adds while breaking the Exarch's shield. There I ran into 2 problems. First the adds were sometimes immune to my AOE attacks, and sometimes Lana would freeze in middle of room. Took me five tries but got past that. Final fight was a challenge but I killed the boss on my first go. I was running a Powertech Advanced Prototype spec in a mix of 216-224 gear.

AP Powertech: 220MH 216OH 216 Helmet, Chest, Gloves, boots and both implants. 220 Greaves 224 Belt and Earpiece. 1 208 relic 1 216 relic. All augmented with 208 Overkill augments. Did not use terminal buffs or alliance aids, basically as if I were trying for <One for All> achieve. Resutls: Killed both Paladins and cleared the Heroic. Lana healed for between 938(lowest)-5280(highest). Noted problems: 1) Adds in final phase were at times immune to AOE attacks. 2) Lana in final phase would freeze and do nothing. Result of said problems is that I died 5 times on that phase before advancing to the final fight. Final fight wasn't overly a problem. My conclusion is that I think they nerfed the healing comps a little too hard, and there are definitely some new bugs that need to be fixed.

Once again I want to point out that this is why there is a PTS, so that game breaking patches don't go live. If BW had utilized PTS two thins would not have happened. 1) There would not have been a game breaking patch released to live servers. 2) Eric(and the rest of us) would not be guessing about the future effectiveness of comps. To quote said Dev guess:

I would like to thank you for this very astute observation. I would also like to point out that if BW had put this patch on PTS first for players to try out then a couple of things wouldn't have happened. 1) Eric would not be guessing that you will be able to solo H2s as intended: 2) They wouldn't be spending, what is going on 5hrs, trying to figure out why their patch broke the game on live servers.

Since the servers are completed segregated between the US and EU why can't they have separate maintenance times?

Its not about which guild wins. Its about having sufficient time to complete individual conquest goals. I can already tell you which guilds will win on my server, its the same 5 guilds that have won every conquest since they launched conquest a year ago. What many of us on European servers are concerned about are getting the individual achievement and completing our own conquest goals, which this puts a major dent in.