I have been back for whole two weeks, and I'm a 100% solo player. Also, after uninstalling Destiny 2 last month, grinding for gear is my last interest. I came back for story content and some relaxed game time, not to stress myself with gear level. This wouldn't be such a problem if the damn companion wouldn't be level 1. You don¨t even seem to realise that the companion is bugged and is INTENDED to be lvl 25. Also how can't you figure how someone has 270 gear when they go to this flashpoint? You are so in your head you can't step a second in other persons shoes. If I start from lvl70, I reach 75 some point at Mek-Sha. There is NOT plenty of content between that and the Spirit of Vengeance. Only reason why you think so is because for you there is one year between them, new player or returning player goes straight from one to other and will be at 270 when they start Spirit of Vengeance, you manage to get few renown levels and thats it. Some things never change, like you.

I just came back to game, and I'm at 270 gear with every character when I get to the point where this flashpoint is my quest. I have finished it with one character (Inquisitor), but damn it is rough. The problem is that the companion I'm given is always level 1. I didn't even try it with Jedi Knight, and now I need to do it with Operator and I'm sweating already. So I did some Google-fu and found out that the level 1 companion is a bug. OK, so why it is not fixed yet? (stupid me, like anything in this game would be an easy fix). I tried every trick from advices, and the companion stays at level 1. I honestly believed that was intended, and cursed Bioware at my first and only slog through this abysmal mob fest that you can't even stealth through. I'm sure this flashpoint is far less a problem for someone who is at 300 item level and can bring their own companion. For me, in 270 and with level 1 companion, it is such a torture. It is doable, but you shouldn't have to do it like this. if you keep forcing companions at me, make at least sure they are in a level where they are at least somewhat useful.

Learn to spell before you call others "kids" and insult their level of understanding. I guess asking you to learn to understand probability calculus would be too much to ask. Or just keep making a fool of yourself, it is at least entertaining to follow.

Comps are just like before: overpowered until you get to the end game. They are not downgraded, I can assure you. If you let the both beasts at your comp, they will annihilate him/her in five seconds. Have a melee comp so you don't even have to worry about ranged issue, but I have done this fight with Theron too. It really doesn't matter, because your companion must be ordered to attack one of the beasts, and at the same time heal you. He should't follow you. It is your job to have the Brawler and the other beast engaged with you, and keep the beasts separated. That means you either taunt, or you have enough dps to keep the aggro. My experience is that you will keep the aggro without problems if you just keep the beasts separated In the beginning of the fight their first reaction is to attack your comp. If you fail to take the aggro in the beginning, your comp will die and so will you, and very fast. It is up to you to find out how to take the aggro. After you have it, and you stay away from your companion and their target, Brawler and the other beast will keep attacking you. This fight isn't that hard after you figure out how it has to be done. I find the Nocturn and Drake to be much *******r.

Well that is a bummer. I play with an exellent 65 ping so there is a difference, and Force Speed might really do a difference for you.

I haven't used force speed on them even once, and those have never been a problem for me. You have plenty of time to destroy them. Game gives you warning before they appear, and first comes the thingy to the center so be ready, and then start from right (or so I do) when droids appear. You should be able to either one-or two-hit them (I can), just do it methodically and you have plenty of time left after last one. My tip for the whole fight is to have ranged comp (I use Theron), start the fight from the back side of the arena (opposite to the door where you come in) and have your comps back on the wall. Comp will stay there shoothing the droid and healing you. When the big laser comes, move away quickly. Kill all little droids (if I remember right this one had them). Kill pulse droids asap in orderly fashion. Profit. If I can do this, everyone can. You just need lvl50 comp and 242+ gear (given is pro players can do this with much less, but I'm not one of them). I had few augments, but only few because I'm too lazy to augment. I had some 252 gear pieces. But mostly it is about knowing what the enemy will do and how to avoid being killed.

I did something I never thought I would, I actually got Eternal Champion-title. I had always ignored it, but now when my main (deception assassin) had lvl 50 comps to use and relatively good gear (but not bis), I decided to try it. I play SWTOR very casually and I'm far from a good player, but I've been a good player in some other games. What it requieres is to change your attitude from what you have learned earlier (aka nothing). Game is so mind numbingly easy for a solo player, casual players probably have learned to not even try to full any potential they might have. Especially if you haven't done any group content, or just went through all flashpoints with pure luck. This is the first time you might have to learn what tactics the bosses use, and how to counter them. Also, I believe the fights are little harder now after new level cap. Nevertheless, you also have better gear, or at least should have. After getting my *** handed me I got angry and decided I can't be that bad. I Googled every fight to see what tactics the bosses use, there is no need to be stubborn and not to do it. Other people have figured them out, take advantage of the information available. First one giving me real headache is, like for most, the Breakdown Brawler. I had lvl50 Theron, lvl50 Lana and lvl45 Arcann to choose from. I had used Theron before this fight, but realised a melee is now needed. Dulfy has the best break down of this fight, and about next ones too so I don't indulge in them, all you need to know is here: http://dulfy.net/2016/04/02/swtor-eternal-championship-guide/ My tip is to put your comp to heal, and use melee for Breakdown Brawler. Others just see what works for you. I mainly used Theron and Arcann. The last hurdle was the last fight, and there I just had to use Arcann with me and realise to put him to passive to make him to follow me to the middle of the arena in phase three (contrary to Dulfys guide). I also killed all the fire support droids. Remember you need a defensive ability at phase 2, whatever you have, I used Unity. And then I suddenly stood looking at Zotars dead body and I had finished the whole shabang. But the most important in every fight is: DON'T STAND IN STUPID. If you have managed to eat every hit this far because your comp can overheal you, it is not possible now. You have to move away from AOE. You have to figure out what they do, and how to get out of the harms way. I want more content like this. I honestly wish there would be a solo option for Uprisings. I'm surprised that a first reaction some people have when they are bad at something, is to demand a nerf for the content. World doesn't work that way, and it shouldn't. If you can't do something, you learn to do it or you accept that you don't want to see the trouble and let it be.

I have no problems to differentiate gameplay and actual story related, RP-heavy content from each other. You actually have no problems with it either, you don't like it but you get why it might have to be done for the benefit of the game. I find RP-gamers often being ridiculously selfish. I never call myself a role player because of what I've witnessed among role players. I know what I said is very controversial, but that is my conclusion after 15 years among other gamers. I don't PVP, I'm a solo player, and yet I can fully understand that there are two aspects in MMORPG: time when you can RP, and time when you can't. You can't have everyhting. SWTOR has players who never role play, never. They play games for entirely different reasons. Yet, role players seem to demand that their precious immersion always comes first (if you have to worry about your immersion, how little imagination you actually have anyway? I mean, nothing breaks MY immersion, not even horrible writing). I just can't stand it. You must have an ability to give space and room for what other people want and need too. If PVP needed this to be viable, then it had to be done and it was the right thing to do and to hell with someones immersion and lore. There is time for that and then there is time when it has to be overlooked for the better of the game and people playing it.

You are overanalyzing and might want to rethink your priorities. This game has some real problems and those are none of the ones you mention. It is like you were playing with a pen and paper on the side, thinking "lets see what I can find to be critical about so I can make a post about it because I regret paying 60 days sub", but because you haven't been obviously playing the game since it was launched, you see only the trees, not the forest and not even that, you concentrate on sticks. For example, you rant about visuals, and how the engine hasn't been upgraded when it comes to visuals. It has been. When we got 4.0, engine was updated too, and few times after that. Game looks much better now than four yeas ago when I started. But you don't see that because you haven't been playing since who knows when, and you have nothing to compare at. You don't remember how it looked at launch, you have just some vague imaginary of it and now you think that what you remember is truth, when it is far from it. Play through Kofte and Kotet and come back tell us how bad the game looks like. Poster before me said everything there is to say about models, so I don't go there. I never experienced skill trees so I don't miss them. To my understanding developers felt they were too hard to balance, and changed the system. This is a real problem in most MMO's with PVP-elements. One class can't over power others, yet players constantly find ways to do it. I don't know if any MMO nowadays have real skill trees if they also have PVP, I at least can't remember even one. In ESO you can expand your skills to two direction, but you can use so limited amount ot skills and you can choose only from two upgareds it isn't even worth mentioning, but I did anyway. Logic behind moving trinity in flashpoints is to make queues pop faster, of course. Other games have done that too (TERA is one where I experienced the same). You might not find any logic in that, but people also have no interest in waiting in a queue for an hour. From developers side it is then very logical to remove the trinity so lack of tanks isn't bottle necking the whole system. There are healers, there are DPS's, but there is never enough tanks. Everyone is free to make their own parties with trinity.

Wow, I didn't even realise this was the EdgeKing. Guy should go somewhere and grow up for starters. I never have any sympathy for "I quit"-posts. I have quit, twice, and without any hassle and fanfares. I also came back. I also have only 10 days left of my current sub, and then I have a list of SP-games I want to play before resubbing. I haven't even looked at the games I bought from Steam-sale yet, because SWTOR. There is no need to be so damn dramatic about everything. Also, some people (like this OP) seem to value themselves very high. No one notices if you leave, and no one cares. Even if you were a regular and well-loved by everyone, next week no one even remembers you.

I'm sure everyone in EA/BioWare is now crying their eyes out, just because your post. Not. Also, can I have your stuff?

I created my first Sith Warrior about four years ago. He is still faithful to Quinn. Not even once flirted with anyone. In my head they are in relationship, and that's it. Agents have unrequited love for Vector until they get to Theron or Koth. Then they give up on bugman who never loves them back, and move on. Head canon drama is the best drama. I had tons of internal soap opera-fun when my last SI got tired of Theron being fickle and dumping him for the second time. Instead of taking Theron back, he fell for Arcann. Now they are happy, I assume. Save Theron, but that Theron doesn't have to be happy, he was stupid. My main SI married him anyway, I assume they are happy too.

4 gb RAM is too little. Getting a new video card will not help you, and honestly, sounds pretty silly idea when you are bottle necked by that amount of RAM. When I upgraded from 8 gb to 16 gb, even then the difference was noticeable with every game I played. YOu say you cannot add more RAM, why not? YOu have a pair there, right? Get new one.

Haven't romanced a single female, and all my characters are males. I just really like men. I have three to choose from, and they are all pretty decent (save never hearing anything from Koth after Kotet but that was expected). And Theron is so good I never get tired of him. I'm a loyal person!

That's your opinion. Many people left because they didn't get anything from it. I took my first long break, which wasn't that bad because after Command Crate fiasco I rage quitted and was sure I won't spit into general direction of this game anymore. Luckily we got rid of Irving and I could play again. Though I learned my lesson and only buy 60 days sub now and then take a break and play other games. There was nothing in 4.0 I liked, nothing. Well, I do somewhat like Kofte/Kotet as a story content, I must because I still can play through them. I hated what they did to companions, I hated level scaling, I hated stat changes. I hate casualised story content and btw, I don't do base stories anymore. Tells something that I can tolerate Kofte and Kotet for leveling, but class stories I just can't. I can even do Makeb and Rishi+Yavin, but not base stories. 4.0 was also as buggy as anything after that. For some time even base class stories were broken on some classes. My hate for 4.0 is not rare in any way, but people who hated it as much as I do have mostly stopped playing for good. I adapted and found a way to still do my own thing. We had a massive exodus of progression raiders. We had a massive exodus of people who couldn't take the casualised direction of the game. I almost couldn't take it.

We deal with a ridicilous amount of bugs. I'm not even counting in that all those various minor clitches that you just learn to ignore. "New" ideas like yours are dime in a dozen and we get them every day, one more delusional than other. I have nothing against new content, I have everything against people being delusional. Also people asking for things without thinking longer than their nose. Your suggestion isn't even "new content". If you people would use even half of the energy you use in coming up with these "ideas" that will never be implemented, into asking for actual fixes in this broken mess of a game that I, just like many others, still happen to love, we might've got them sorted out, or at least 10% of them.

This. They need to be fixed, not given more options that would break them even more. We've actually dealt with comps not following properly since 4.x. (It wasn't 4.0 that broke them, but a patch after that, same that broke Star Fortress Veteran modes loot tables). Yep, it was then when they started lagging behind you, and you have to stop waiting for them to catch up. 5.0 just made it worse. Now they are so frieking annoying. They have to be babysat constantly to see a) if they follow b) if they actually do anything or just stand there admiring view.

This is one of my biggest annoyances. So big that people would be dead scared if they heard how much I scream at them when they do that. Some bloke is just traipsing around, see me beating a random mob and decides to attack it too. Why? WHY? Did I ask your help? Did it look like I can't beat this silver mob with my full-geared Assassin and needed your intervention? Couldn't you really just wait two seconds so I finish this daily boss that you have to wait to respawn anyway, or do you have a cancer and only two weeks left to get everything done before you will be cremated (if so, then this isn't about you, but also you probably have bigger worries than doing dailies in SWTOR too). Maybe this maddens me so much becauses I come from a country where you learn politely to wait for your turn, and not to put your nose in other peoples business. That's also how I behave in games. I let people finish their job in peace and then do my thing...which means I often never get it done. Then I just have to hope there is an instance to swithc to. I don't PVP, but PVP-instance has been a saviour many times. But those people who just randomly decide to meddle with my fight, for no reason? Ok, if you are 10 years old, I understand. Everything is exiting and you want to participate. If you are older...just think about me screaming profanities at you. It is not pretty. Then there have been situations where someone just follows me around for a moment, without meddling my gameplay. You know my character, right? It is ok, I'm sorry I have chat off. But I don't mind if you just want to look.

We had a name purge last time we had a server merge.

With people like you around, why would I have to go there?

Unfortunate truth. I have thought this from the start when I subbed first time ages ago. Things have gotten better, as we have gotten tons of quality of life-changes after Keith became boss, but still...the damage was done and it has been a spiral down. When Irving was still in lead, I had to ask out loud once why developers of this game hate the players so much. The decisions made were so idiotic I was sure they were making them out of spite. How long we had to wait for simple things like shared bank for characters, something that every miserable Korean f2p had? Too many years, that's how long. Now we have it, so in the end it was far from impossible to make. Management just didn't think stuff like that was necessary before. I just this week (LOL) realised I can travel now just from galaxy map! Awesome! Why couldn't I do it before? Because someone in management didn't care about stuff like that. Many decisioins made (good or bad) aren't about money or recourses. They are about individuals making those decisions, and if those individuals aren't interested in actually giving players a pleasant experience, or don't even understand what players want or need, more money and resources will be just wasted.

Ooh, we have an EdgeLord here, or is this a real EdgeKing? Careful now, you could hurt yourself if you stumble. I suppose getting bedded is not something you know much about.

Never had a problem. Even "Radocan" went through. Also, use rare letters and those doodots over letters if you lack imagination to come up with original name.

Thank you! It was a faschinating article. I always like to hear stories about developement from people who are in the industry, because the truth is always so much different than what the gamers believe it is. Especially the part about Kofte/Kotet was really interesting.

I said this right after Iokath was released. Drinking game: take a shot every time someone mentions "superweapon" and see if you are still up when story is finished. I doubt, on the other hand, I can't hold my liquor so what do I know. I had to pinch myself at times. Like, really? Who wrote this masterpiece? 100 monkeys on typewriters? I don't know, the quality of the writing has been so abysmal after KOTET I don't know how anyone can take it seriously. I really don't. I don't try to make sense of it, because there is no sense to make. It is nonsense. I just play through them trying to not think too much about what I have to hear and read. Every time people say "it doesn't make sense to do this or that" I'm like, well yes, what actually does make sense when every story is pure nonsense? Rationalising bad writing is like trying to put an egg back to chickens butt: chicken cries and it doesn't go back no matter how much you try. Lol, every time I hear Acina saying "It has been too long since I spilled Republic blood" I have to laugh out loud. It is too funny, but not in a good way. Also, I still don't know how they suddenly found this super-super weapon. I should know, I've played through Iokath that many times. I just zone out when they talk about it. Troy Baker is my favorite VO, and totally one reason why I like Theron so much. That man can voice act like no ones business. I never get tired of listening to him.