Reposting since this immediately got relegated to the previous page... Status of the Bastion - July 10, 2017 My son and I took a 3 month break returning to the game early May. We returned to a ghost town. We also returned to the news that a well known player we had done PUG OPs with many times had passed away in April - his guild basically abandoned. No other guilds running operations was maintaining the GOPs channel. Warzones weren't popping beyond 4 v 4. Pickup Group SM OPs were not being advertised, formed or run. No pops at all were occurring for Galactic Starfighter. People were reporting waits of up to 4 hours for an FP queue pop. The frequency of people having apparently "fallen asleep" when an FP queue did pop was very high. My own guild Insane Force was down to 30 active accounts. One particular guild was declaring that they had the only members doing OPs, and that you had to be with them if YOU wanted to do operations. Since returning I've been religiously carrying out the following: Reminding veteran players that they should be in GOPs. Reminding veteran players that THEY should be putting new players interested in group content into GOPs. Advertising to new players of the availability of server-wide chat for group content efforts - GOPs. Advertising in Fleet Chat and GOPs and forming PUG SM OPs for which all are welcome to join Have run about 10-11 PUG SM OPs open to everyone - including a 16 man EV SM - on our July 3, 2017 OPs Marathon Day. Have done 3 PUG World Boss runs open to everyone - 3-4 bosses each. Advertising my guild and increasing membership. Popping the FP queue upwards of 30-40 times per day the past two weeks as a result of my guild activity. (Thanks guys!) Popping at least 3 8 v 8 Reg Warzones for 2 other guilds via my own guild activity (Thanks guys!). Popping at least 2 Galactic Starfighter matches via my guild activity (Thanks guys!) I've received a ton of criticism from other guilds, and trolls on fleet of territorial or vitriolic nature.. But I'm proud to say that my efforts, and the efforts of all those who have joined Insane Force AND the efforts of a few from other guilds has resulted in a rather nice pickup in group content activity @ The Bastion on the Empire side. So everyone else out there on a "SWTOR" vacation...hop on in. Stuff is happening @ The Bastion! =8-) GM - Insane Force

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Status of the Bastion - July 10, 2017 My son and I took a 3 month break returning to the game early May. We returned to a ghost town. We also returned to the news that a well known player we had done PUG OPs with many times had passed away in April - his guild basically abandoned. No other guilds running operations was maintaining the GOPs channel. Warzones weren't popping beyond 4 v 4. Pickup Group SM OPs were not being advertised, formed or run. No pops at all were occurring for Galactic Starfighter. People were reporting waits of up to 4 hours for an FP queue pop. The frequency of people having apparently "fallen asleep" when an FP queue did pop was very high. My own guild Insane Force was down to 30 active accounts. One particular guild was declaring that they had the only members doing OPs, and that you had to be with them if YOU wanted to do operations. Since returning I've been religiously carrying out the following: Reminding veteran players that they should be in GOPs. Reminding veteran players that THEY should be putting new players interested in group content into GOPs. Advertising to new players of the availability of server-wide chat for group content efforts - GOPs. Advertising in Fleet Chat and GOPs and forming PUG SM OPs for which all are welcome to join Have run about 10-11 PUG SM OPs open to everyone - including a 16 man EV SM - on our July 3, 2017 OPs Marathon Day. Have done 3 PUG World Boss runs open to everyone - 3-4 bosses each. Advertising my guild and increasing membership. Popping the FP queue upwards of 30-40 times per day the past two weeks as a result of my guild activity. (Thanks guys!) Popping at least 3 8 v 8 Reg Warzones for 2 other guilds via my own guild activity (Thanks guys!). Popping at least 2 Galactic Starfighter matches via my guild activity (Thanks guys!) I've received a ton of criticism from other guilds, and trolls on fleet of territorial or vitriolic nature.. But I'm proud to say that my efforts, and the efforts of all those who have joined Insane Force AND the efforts of a few from other guilds has resulted in a rather nice pickup in group content activity @ The Bastion on the Empire side. So everyone else out there on a "SWTOR" vacation...hop on in. Stuff is happening @ The Bastion! =8-) GM - Insane Force

That bonus set gear from the 230 vendor will: Match the slots in my guide - so okay so far. Already for the most part be optimized for Power at 230 for dps and heals. Have multiple ear, implant and relic options needed for decent flexibility in stats balancing. Augmenting will simply be Accuracy/Alacrity/Crit for DPS, Alacrity and Crit for Heals, and Shield/Absorb for Tanks. Saddest thing is though - is how many people on Fleet at Level 70 are still unaware of the vendor - who are struggling to get gear. Still having to show people where it is . . . +8-| As-is, more than good enough for SM OPs and HM FPs....but you'll be making changes as you head into HM OPs with OPs leads who do HM Progression. =8-)

This is a perfect example of what I'm talking about - making generalized guides, tips and pointers as an expert - or critiquing them as an expert - not as a beginner. Thereby, losing sight of the tree in the forest - the Beginner: 1. Beginners leveling need something easy to get started on - minimal information. 2. SM OPs are for beginners. 3. Bolster doesn't fix everything. Furthermore, you made a strawman argument. You took a postion that I never took - that my guides would not result in a need for fixes. Quote: "You will not have to re-mod more than necessary at endgame to fix your slots - reducing the credit expenditure." You and I could argue all day about lettered mods, dps relics in tanks, whether to use power or crit crystals, whether alacrity stat points should be 1308 or 1299 for a certain healer, or whether critical stat points should be 1234 or 1198 for a certain dps ,etc . . . . . and we would BOTH be losing the audience. The beginner who wants a simple base or template to get started with. =8-)

First off I need to draw a line in the sand . . . This is not a thread for the "experts" who want to nitpick and bury people in their "12 flavors of mustard" about bolster, mastery, power, etc.. That is not the point of this thread!!! Having said that, here are the GENERALIZED templates: http://www.mrrabbit.net/swtorgeartemplates.php These are courtesy of Insane Force @ The Bastion Using these templates will have the following benefits: Your gear slots will be aligned with most endgame drops from mobs, vendors, command crates, operations and FP bosses. You will not have to re-mod more than necessary at endgame to fix your slots - reducing the credit expenditure. Your toon will be satisfactory enough for most SM OPs leads and you'll be invited in on a gear basis. These templates will help you gear a toon for which most SM OPs leads will consider to be decent stats wise and bring you on board. From that point onward, you'll need to "tailor" things using advice from the "experts". Rotation, mechanics . . . that's a whole other topic. Enjoy, and good luck! =8-) GM - Insane Force

STILL HAVE NOT RECEIVED MY EMAIL WITH THE CODE. BUMP!!!

Been a week since my last post on this. Still have not received my email. =8-(

I run my own email server in house. It's completely and 100% administered by me via shell and a GUI interface. (Qmail). No spam folders are allowed. All users must delete spam from the Inbox - it's how I prevent the "I must have missed it in my SPAM folder excuse." It is not blocked as an open relay or an untrusted host. My son received his email. Everything is fine on his end. I however, have not received mine. Twice I have been given the "In-Game Ticket > Closed with Referral to Phone" run around. =8-(

Going to post two stories...one which is a repeat...one which stands out on its own. [The Highlight Story - HM Assault on Tython] About 6 weeks ago myself and a guildie queued for 60 HMFP. I'm on my all 198 and augmented Jugg Tank. He's on his all 192 and augmented Powertech. My Jugg is properly geared for Defense > Shield > Absorb and the split tank relics. He, a dps, has the correct 100-101 ranged and 110-111 accuracy rating and decent crit and surge. The queue pops for the obvious reason: I'm a tank and tanks pop the queue. So we arrive in the open grass of Assault on Tython. So we're thinking: "Cool! This we can do without breaking a sweat!" Who arrives next, another dps and a healer. Both are well under 50k. But I'm thinking, "I've run this with worse, some people really are good at this game." I inspect their gear and then realize, "Uh oh!" Me: "Um guys, not only are both of you slightly undergeared, but the healer has no alacrity whatsoever and the dps has no accuracy rating whatsoever." They acknowledge, but then proceed to go straight into outright trash talk mode. They basically demanded we just shut up and get on with it basically while trying to find every reason under the sun to demean us by implying that we get carried in HM fps and SM OPs., don't know mechanics, etc.....all they while they're running ahead unaware myself and my guildie haven't even moved. So of course, we catch up to them, and discover they completely missed the first target. So we spend the first 10 minutes running in a circle. As a group we looked pretty darnn lost and stupid. It was embarrassing really...we looked like noobs. Anyhow, we arrived at the first boss. First attempt was a wipe. Fault went both ways: Heals not there and my guildie got confused on which corner he was to cover. Meanwhile, the other guys continue to trash talk. Second run went very rough - but we go it done - barely. Keyword = Barely The other two guys continued their trash talking no sooner the fight had ended: They: "We had to take care of YOUR adds" Me: "Really? Then how is it that myself and my guildie were in your corner helping YOU take down YOUR add still with a shield and 100% HP?" Silence.... Total unadulterated silence with a pregnant pause to boot. My question was never answered. We get to the second boss - and boy did the table get turned. At 3/4's of the way into the fight, heals misses a heal on me while I'm aggroing the adds properly for a burn. I had to pop a CD to recover.... ...both the heals and his buddy dps turned out to have died. That left me and my guildie as the only two standing...no heals. Boss has a 1/4 of his health left...and 45 seconds later we burn him down without breaking a sweat. I have cleanse in my Enraged Defense - my guildie Powertech has Kolto Overload. Doesn't require rocket science to figure out how easy this was. The dps makes a request: "Can I get a rez?" My guildie walks over to his dead body and does the Emote: "SLAP!" ...and refuses to rez him. From this point onward, we actually finished in a very civil fashion. No further trash talking from them. No commentary was necessary from me as we had already gotten past the first boss. We even exchanged the usual courtesies when the flashpoint was done. There's a lesson here: When I point out that you're slightly undergeared for something or have a stat shortcoming, it doesn't mean that I'm trash talking you or don't want to do the the HMFP. I'm just giving you an honest assessment. For every one player who really knows how to play the game - there 9 other pickup players who going to have a difficult time and burn an awful lot of credits. When I hand YOU a dps with no accuracy rating free pyro grenades as I do in Korriban Incursion - I'm not trying to one up you - I'm trying to help you make up for the stats shortfall on the AoE side of the equation. I'm simply doing my job as tank. That is all... [Korriban Incursion - HM - PUG after PUG] Of all the 60 HMFPs, Korriban Incursion is probably the easiest one to do - it's a cakewalk really.... ....except.... The droid fight. Korriban Incursion is where I see the highest rate of undergeared players zoning in or players zoning in with horrible stats distribution for their class or spec. Healers with 0 alacrity rating, dps with 94 and 104 accuracy rating, tanks with DPS gear. You name it, I've seen it all including empty gear slots. So as I tank, I immediately hand out free pyro grenades to the two dps BUT not the healer. Healer: "Why don't I get any?" Me: "Your job is to focus on heals and nothing else." It's often after the first wipe where the healer and dps are running around with adds on their behinds that they finally cooperate with me: 1. Run the adds through me and continue running on by.. 2. I'll CC the adds with SMASH and then AoE them with Sweeping Slash and Pryo Grenade #1. 3. Repeat #1, and I'll CC them with SMASH and AoE them with Sweeping Slash and Pyro from DPS1. 4. Repeat #2, and I'll CC them with SMASH and AoE them with Sweeping Slash and Pyro from DPS2. It's fun actually...more often than not I'm the only one left standing with really poorly geared PUGS. But after it's done, you can sense the big sigh of relief, and the big boost of morale that gets carried into slaughtering the poor helpless pubs the rest of the way to the finish. In some cases we'll even turn around and go back for the bonus - because after all someone really needs the gear. =8-)

UPDATE: Folks, this may be worse than you think. Not only did INSANE FORCE on the BASTION not get its guild rewards... ...but now members are reporting they are not getting the correct stronghold bonus markups for this weeks conquest. A guildie with a 51% percent stronghold bonus is only getting 17%. I with 38% stronghold bonus am only getting about 10%. Everyone reporting here should ask their guild to track their stronghold bonus. =8-(

Same thing has happened for INSANE FORCE on THE BASTION Placed 3rd behind Spouse Aggro and Evolution. At least 16, as many as 21 toons in the guild met the goal. No rewards at all this morning on any toon after patch update and login. =8-(

For the OP: When doing HM 60 fps as a tank, I'm going to point out bad gear when I see the following: 1. A fully geared DPS with an accuracy rating of 90 melee/ranged and 100 force/tech. All the guides available AND the tool tip for accuracy rating make it crystal clear what happens a percentage of the time to an attack should an elite or boss resist it. Some attacks hit 100%, some get reduced and then again some get reduced to ZERO. There's no way to make up for a 13k ambush that gets reduced to ZERO in a HM 60 fp. /sarcism I don't like watching dps unleash everything they have in a HM 60 fp while I watch "LOL" captioned all over the boss's HP bar. /sarcasm I'm looking for 99.9-101.0 melee/ranged and 109.9-111.0 in my dps. 2. A fully geared healer with no alacrity rating whatsoever. Healing your companion as a single target with a slow channeled CHANCE at a big heal is one thing. Healing 3 targets in a HM 60 fp is another. Same goes for ops. As tank, I don't want a slow channeled CHANCE at one big heal... ...I want quick, fast, repetitive small heals for the entire group. I'm looking for 7% - 11% alacrity rating in my healers. I'm also looking for a lot of primary stat and power. 3. Level 60 players who show up with missing gear. There is absolutely no excuse for a player to show up at end game with an empty gear slot whatsoever. This is especially true of 12x XP. with the class mission having an option of 12 basic commendations as an award. Just doing a few fps via group finder each week alone gets you over a hundred basic comms. And of course, when you progress through Rishi and Yavin you are practically give free gear along the way. And most people who finish Shadow of Revan end up with 600-700 basic commendations. I.e., you already have the comms you need to get 3-4 pieces of 186 gear. 178 relics, implants and earpieces on GTN are cheap. I know, cause I sell them for 70k, 19k and 19k. Also note that on Dromund Kaas, a player who is PVP oriented can buy a complete set of PVP gear that can be upgraded as PVE gear on the side. In the trainer rooms are vendors by doorway....complete sets of fully equipped adaptive gear at Level 20 and 40. That includes the related implants and earpieces. This way a PVPer who doesn't care how he looks in PVE can take care of the adaptive gear need using warzone comms - and not have to spend credits on GTN or cc's in the Cartel Market. Upgrade the armorings every 3-4 levels. Alternate the mods and enhancements the same - a viable set of PVE gear is maintained all along to Level 60. And the PVPer will still have plenty of basic comms leftover at Level 60. =8-)

Insane Force is a no demands, no pressure do your own thing guild: 10% XP Bonus Multi-Vault Guild Bank Guild Stronghold Flagship A Personal Stronghold Operating as a Materials Farm Generous Field Repair Allowances Via Guild Bank Groups activities do occur, but they're ad-hoc and voluntary. Guild-wide council efforts do occur, but once again, they're ad-hoc and voluntary. You can hop on board, or continue quietly going about doing your own thing. There are a handful of members that do operations, and again another handful that are continuously doing the warzone dailies and weeklies. Most members are simple leveling a character. Somewhere in that mix, we're confident you'll find someone to buddy up with for one quest or another. If interested, simply use the search capabilities built into the planet and fleet population windows to search for "Insane Force". Right-click and send a "whisper" to anyone present to request an invite. All of us at Insane Force look forward to welcoming you to our guild. In the meantime: "Do what you will..."

My Sith Juggernaut Tanking Story and History: For almost two years of SWTOR, I was an Agent Sniper Marksmanship only. Nothing else. However, I did find myself often ending up in the same queue pop as a Powertech tank for Level 50 HMFPs. Now this tank, the Powertech, who name was H___s was a damn good tank. A boss at tanking really. Knew exactly what to do in all engagements - and also was quite familiar with the role of dps and heals. I really enjoyed running with this tank FP after FP. But I also paid attention to something else about this tank: If someone other than herself pulled - she'd call 'em out on it. She would do so in a matter of fact manner. If someone repeatedly did not use interrupts, or drop aggro - she would point it out - and identify the ability by name necessary to make it happen. If heals did not prioritize - same as above - and would even give the heals tips on how to make it happen. If anyone noted above - copped an attitude or flat out ignored the suggestions - she would say to me: "**rab**, time to bail." She would then find a couple replacements - and put us back in the queue. Having learned a lot from the above noted tank, I decided on three rules I would strictly adhere to when I started rolling a Jugg Tank. 1. I'm in the FP queue or an Operation to tank. PERIOD!!! 2. If DPS goes rambo or screws around, BAIL!!! 3. If heals doesn't prioritize, BAIL!!! I'm not in the queue just to pop it for DPS who then proceed to ignore me and take off running. I'm not in an FP or Operation to entertain the messes created by other players. My Jugg Tank is now 192/198 geared with full 186 augments. He's been in quite a few Level 60 HMPS and Operations. He's has also BAILED on about 60% of the Level 60 HMPFs for the reasons noted above. He's has also WIPED 13 times in an FP - because the other players were serious enough to be determined to figure it out and get it done. (Battle of Rishi HM - Before the latest patch.) It has gone both ways - you fool around - I bail. You're serious or semi-serious - I'll stick around. Now I've made a lot of enemies - who've put me on ignore - or have told their guilds not to invite me to anything. I'm okay with that....I could care less really. It's their loss. I have nothing to gain. But I've also ended up on the lists of quite a few people who've decided: "**rab** is worth the trouble to get in touch with for FPs and Operatons." I have even had people offer to pay me to tank for them. I decline. Why? If they're that desperate - they're probably pretty serious about getting it done. Which is exactly what I want. Off we go into the HMFP queue - and it has worked out every single time I've had these kinds of offers. Bottom Line OP? When myself and other tanks are in the group finder queue - we are in it to tank. When DPS treats us as nothing more than "Queue Poppers" - we stay out. That's why DPS and Heals often spend hours waiting for the queue to pop. =8-)

Unless the servers in question reside in one small geographical region and data centers in the same... ...ain't gonna happen unless PVPer's actually enjoy 2-3 times more lag. =8-)

I understand exactly what the OP is going through in more ways than one. I'm about 60% deaf and color blind like the OP. For me, it's a double whammy. Not only does it piss me off that both DEVs AND OPs leaders throw up unnecessary blocks in the game - but it also pisses me off that people try to defend the indefensible. For some weird *ss reason, the devs keep choosing to use the following: Light Blues with Light Purples Yellows with Light Orange Faint Whites I literally have to stop at each ball in Revan, determine the color before I grab it, then stand between two targets in order to compare the two to be able to distinguish enough to make a good guess as to where to go. Have to do the same in TfB / Xeno, and when entering I literally have to ask: "Is blue left and purple right? Even worse, the white circles in Ziost are next to invisible. Now you might be able to get away with the above in SM - but not in HM. I will be the cause of a wipe - a wipe that ISN"T MY FAULT!!! The fault lies squarely in the laps of the devs. All the devs have to do is use solid base blues and purples, solid base yellows and oranges and solid whites - just like that 99% of the color blind people will shut up and quit whining. But it gets worse... Mumble and Teamspeak are conveniences, NOT REQUIREMENTS for the game. And I'll be completely honest, they are very nice conveniences to have. I can understand why so many people use it. And don't get me wrong: I'M PERFECTLY OKAY WITH THE USE OF Teamspeak and Mumble. What I'm not okay with is: [imperial Fleet][General] LF2M ToS 8m SM - TS Required / Must Know Fights What did you just say? I'm not invited? Not welcome? Did you just declare yourself to be a Machiavellian Darwinistic Egotistical Self-Centered Eugenisist Jerk? Why not be honest next time? Tell us what you're really thinking.... [sarcasm] [imperial Fleet][General] LF2M ToS 8m SM - Deaf/Color Blind/Mute Not Welcome! Seriously, why hold back? Don't hold yourself down... [/sarcasm] If someone doesn't know the fights or isn't picking it up well after instructions are given, it'll be obvious within a couple wipes. Boot 'em. How hard is that? i know I won't make any friends when I say this, but I don't care either - I'm too old to be making friends A lot of that above in my opinion is driven by laziness. Too many people just don't want to be bothered and prefer to take the easy way out - and throw down the TS/Mumble block. Those who know me on the Bastion know that I am always willing to share what I know about a fight in a a numbered itemized fashion in chat. Only takes a few minutes - it's not that hard. =8-)

^ This...it's pretty clear that most people advocating cross server queue don't understand the location, distance and technical difficulties - BEFORE - even addressing the servers themselves. If you are talking about cross-queue between servers in the same data center - doable. Between East Coast and West Coast servers? People already complain about the 12ms-39ms network latency as a single node user. People already complain about lag that ensues from rendering, RAM to Disk swap, and Disk to RAM load...especially in PVP. Now they want to add another 120-260ms network latency to that? ...of course, they could put all the servers into one central data center. But WE would have to pick up the 10-30 million dollar tab for that. Any volunteers? <chirp> <chirp> <chirp> Didn't think so... =8-)