I got my second, pay in mind I have an array of alts and it was on a DPS when I main healers in another class- one implant (tier IV) and one earpiece (tier III). I would kill to get a mainhand drop on a healer but I'm super critical of Bioware... the drop rate via the artifact boxes seems to be lower again still for main/offhands and set armour pieces from what I've gathered.

As long as someone has done the raid in HM and is in the basic 230s, I'll keep them in group for a HM, or if the group is balanced out as to not cause a complete early breakup, first timers- but there are people looking for carries. Me- the idea of a carry is alien, if I had more credits than what to do with- I'd pay for my own personal NiM progression team for the times I raid where I could be taught- the whole buying achievements/free mounts and titles doesn't make sense for me, since they wouldn't be real. I want the Wings as a 'I have cleared this in NiM and enough times on farm to have won them'. For groupfinder story mode, it's stupid. I've removed one person one time during APAC prime time when groups collapse at times when it takes too long for a role we needed with someone lower level than they were. I've had people go on about the gear and I've put my foot down and said it's SM and I've told people to pass on gear they don't need when we have people in group who still need basic set gear. It's all 'derp derp... but their gear!' but then 'derp derp, my alts/different spec'... the amount of people who will whine about the under 70s/undergeared but need on every piece at full 248 is ridiculous. Today, had someone whisper me asking to kick a sub 70 DPS when we got them as a replacement and my answer was no as it will always be. I've gotten so fed up that most of the time I refuse to do GF on my main healers unless it's a GF last boss run or something I want to do for crates or I really feel for the group (or someone was nice enough to switch roles in an earlier run and I want them to get to do their preferred character). I still will happily agree if a tank or healer feels uncomfortable with a solo tank to recruit another because it's GF and too many people are using the ability to cheese Ops with a fifth DPS to cover for the fact max level and gear can't get them to SM DPS numbers.

I understand why people think 'Bioware of old'- I really do but they would still have their signature 'blame the players for everything' and there would still be lootboxes. Hell- the game might have caved earlier and faster- there's always this fantasy card of how great this game could have been and can, and then there's the flipside. SWTOR is what it is and came out in the era when MMOs were huge and there was every chance Galaxies might have survived a couple more years but I doubt there would have been another Star Wars MMO. The storylines are highly regarded but the sheer resources required to sustain the independent class stories was not sustainable, imagine had Temple of Sacrifice and The Ravagers been sacrificed for class stories, we just have to look at what happened during KOTFE. Bioware gets to helm a Star Wars RPG with a multiplayer element- I'm all for it, but the pretty class stories, all done up with very little in the way of endgame, sandbox or any number of the issues it launched with was them as they were. Instead of splitting up the class stories, and putting extra resources on an endgame they released and quickly went F2P. I think SWTOR was always going to go that way but it might have ended up a B2P title with a lot more stability in population than an entrenched system which can't get changed now. I'm a Mass Effect fan, a KOTOR fan, there are things Bioware does that I do like- I'm not only an ops/PvP player but this game is an MMO and what Bioware was best at nearly killed the game at launch, sometimes I think EA should have assigned two studios- Bioware for the stories and another for the MMO elements because in 2012, multiplayer was not what they did well at all. SWTOR might have ended up a very expensive failure that killed Bioware as a lot of us were worried it could. Anthem could be a complete success and I think that scares people here because there's this want for SWTOR to be the shining star and get all the resources it could ever want. The problem is that ship's long gone and the best this game can be is sustainable. The first fix is a set fee, because as much as people like to complain, this game loses people who never come back so a set standard full AAA release price for continued play makes sense because at least you have that money, increasing sub perks (sub rent new content and so on), the second is one class story per F2P account- after that, they have to have subbed at least once to do the others. The main course is completely free, requires little engagement with endgame content so it's not like someone can't suck up the F2P negatives for a free game and that is worse for this game than anyone here who may drop their subscription. I actually have come to agree that people shouldn't be able to progress past the first chapter without having subbed once. But yes, if only Bioware could split from EA so I never have to hear 'EA made them do it' ever again.

Three to four months and as far as content goes (no expansion for two years), as said- more irked they have wasted resources on gear tiers and the command system at large which is content we did not need nor ask for. SWTOR is an MMO, raids are raids and no matter how much people stamp their feet, they cater to the crowd who need to pay their subs to do content as last I checked, you can do all story with a dropped subscription. And I like some of the story stuff but MMO content brings people to the games and functional multiplayer activities. I'd cancel my subscription outright if they turned 6.0 into screwing over the endgame community.

You would think then operative healers wouldn't have lost the HoT as a default of infusion and the mirror for scoundrels since any of us who wanted the burst already had it with our utility spec in. Also seems slightly stupid since I can't see a large progression guild being happy at the way gearing is. I mean a raiding focus yes but this seems a little too paranoid for my tastes.

So, wanted to do Eyeless in HM but too early so we went story mode. Good thing, since a few things plus an operative roll later- I was immobilized and couldn't move. This bug has been in the game since I can remember and it's an absolute pain whenever I'm spamming anything to move again... now while I know certain things trigger it- it's insane how many bugs we're still navigating that get left in the game causing repeated issues, sometimes minor and sometimes so severe- and you spent time and resources on a new gear tier and reputation system for it. The sheer resources you dumped into creating the Command system could have fixed many pre-existing issues. And I can't help but think what old and new bugs are just going to fester away in SWTOR for whatever comes next to try and make us keeping paying our subscriptions. I'm not talking content- I'm talking eldritch gear grind and nerfs designed purely to try and slow things down to hide the lack of content, or I don't know, NiM Gods being balanced around 252 over 248- hell, even 230-236-242 as SM/HM/NiM. All I want is work put into the bugs and issues this game has and a commitment to putting that effort into fixing the mess would certainly be enough to keep my subscription running. It'd be one thing if it was just pure content being released without a new grind between expansions but instead it's ten thousand bug hunts on Ossus- and FYI, when your playerbase scrabbles to stay ahead of nerfs, PvP inequalities and to get to the first new NiM Operation since Dread Palace- it's not them enjoying the Ossus Grind Wars and 'give the players more of this'. It's them desperately trying to keep what keeps them paying their subscription and then there's those who finally drop their subscriptions and if those people didn't matter- we'd still have West Coast servers.

Please, give anyone who wants this the grinch title so I can pelt them with more snowballs.

My theory is they have issues understanding the maximum potential of DPS/Heals/Tank classes and rather than live with a small section of the playerbase that eek out the absolute best numbers with content they think should be done with their baseline, they think by stripping that ability away- the content will last longer. I think they've gone for a blunt force solution for a problem that doesn't need to be fixed.

I'll take a free 258 main/offhand if we're giving out presents.

You know the smart thing now would be to push server maintenance up rather than mess around and still take them down later?

Their log in service is broken... all I want to do is get a weekly finished and burn a HM lockout so not happy as of right now.

One piece from a tier 4 crate after thousands of crates and all the people who have gotten drops, it's been one as far as I know, the odds are terrible.

It took me thousands to get my drop on my alt healer tonight. I can use the implant, oh I can use it but the RNG is atrocious and I wish nothing but ill on whoever thought up this new 'thrill of the hunt'.

Which was why I suggested a cross faction instance where we could do what we normally do in one faction and with a shared channel for that ship/planetary instance to deploy in a group chosen and wanted there. SM Ops are fast CXP or points but you are right about it being an interesting dice roll...at the moment with various voice chats and in game channels, the ops community does more for keeping the game active than Bioware. I'm interested in increasing the pool by way of an artificial instance for above SM where groups are formed. Hell, being able to forge a group the way you can game GF to meet up is the tool I mean, as for random HM/NiM groups- maybe prerequisite clears to queue and them fixing GF and SM in general. I think two tank checks should be unforgiving to a fake tank and group because it doesn't help new tanks starting out to get their feet wet by learning or getting told they aren't needed so another DPS can be recruited to fudge DPS checks. The funniest thing I hear in PUGs at Fleet is suggesting to replace people for an SM because of gear...I've gotten more out of rotation tweaks and keybinds than a new gear piece.

This wouldn't make it so you couldn't run an Op all in one faction but Operations are content you have to be subbed for, period- even SM... and in fiction, two sides often cooperate against a greater evil/opposing force. The Dread Masters, Gods, Ravagers, Revan (which was a cross faction alliance) would all qualify as must be taken down- even if that means working with your regular enemy. It happened in the meta as well.

I had that thought when I started that made it hard for a while to play a DS Knight and it's fun now but it kills the RPG immersion off the bat so why immersion matters when the RP is self contained and superficial to anyone but you... operations have zero return value apart from story quests that should have auto complete cutscenes for people who don't want to raid or a heroic version. They don't want to raid because it's raiding and not RPG, which kind of breaks the whole needing immersion argument.

Some of the flashpoints are also story heavy by comparison and LS/DS choice.

I don't play ranked but as part of the endgame community I know people who do. It does happen, the windows are far narrower and it's common for word to spread in order to try and keep it going. Operations are becoming problematic as the skill gap widens and it's to the point I'm waiting for the server transfer sale- the stronghold consequences/legacy cargo hold, I will sacrifice those to be able to keep going. By the time the last server merge happened, you had mostly dead servers, half dead servers- Harbinger and Ebon Hawk and they've killed what was the former WC server population which has been hemorrhaging. It's not a question of personal choice- a lot of people will transfer on a sale or quit the game outright when they can't run what they want in game anymore which means I have to. If it's left like last time, there's no more ground before the cliff edge and the server costs outweigh the player base. Episode IX is December 2019, and while it's being done with all the right people and ingredients to remedy the Last Jedi debacle and will because Star Wars- this game can't lean on it to stay alive. Star Wars as a saving grace applies to successful Star Wars spinoffs these days and SWTOR has never been a rousing success. They merge now and there's a chance the decline will stop. 5.10 didn't help matters.

I swear, I've had some of the funniest runs on healers... I DPS in the op of the day in SM GF frequently for practising purposes or because the DPS is that bad. I've never had anyone thumb their nose at my max level healers though did have some lowbie group irked I literally killed all the turrets slowly in the False Emperor after they refused to LoS and wiped themselves in sub ten seconds. They wanted me to stuck it, could have stealthed out but saw much more advantage in clearing that area- the lowbie healer there was better at DPS. Normally, I get the same response as I do on a tank- I'm a much loved contributor who tries to be understanding at high level health kolto station hits... lowbie healers though, people tend to think should be just as capable as a max level healer. I got kicked out of a group once on my Commando healer levelling because I couldn't outheal stupid at level twenty... lowbie tank literally pulled everything and then stood in its melting glory. Oh, had a flashpoint the other day in Red Reaper- a DPS was re-speccing healer because I was on my tank between bosses, to help I think but I could actually take the hits, no deaths and we had far more close calls because of lower DPS and bad mechanics- first time I ever saw the last boss get to absorb his red balls of power because the DPS were far too busy enjoying themselves. I was just glad I had the lightning every time to interrupt his chosen- tanking perk.

Most of us who run Ops don't care if the wrong line about our faction is said and while we're at it with GF and SM Ops- some of of system where there's a planetary instance (i.e. some sort of Alliance ship) which allows us to group as cross faction into HM and NiM content. It's one thing to put it as unneeded with a higher population but we aren't there any more. I got irked at the entire thing tonight when I had to choose between what has been handling the grind I have, and adding to the load before I was ready to finish up a mirror class. Adding new operations is great and I'm all for that but it was always an issue in PvP pops for a reason that we needed cross faction to improve them and it was with Odessen Proving Grounds. This would be a great way to support and sustain the raiding population. I know the technical hurdles might require some finesse but if it's technically possible, I can't see a downside- people would still be able to do all Republic/Imperial operations for their story headspace but the raiding community would have access to any character unlimited by faction. And before I get hell about this being Republic versus Empire- that's story content, what I'm talking about is raids which are identical in mechanics and nature except for throwaway lines.

I'm doing everything I can to get into Guild Wars 2, because at this point, I intend on dropping my subscription until they fix the mess they made- I'm not re-subscribing and when it lapses, or playing while I wait for basic fixes for issues they've dumped at this time of year into the game. PvE tanks have to min/max and all these issues dumped on our heads right before they go on their holidays? Here's a clue, if your raiding/PvP playerbase has stayed subbed this long- they're clearly not going to leave you because they don't have to gear grind. Stop being petty little children throwing your toys out. I hear people blaming EA but you know what, they know how to apologize and rectify to get what they want- I've never seen as I said, such childish antics because anyone with a modicum of maturity would realize this isn't the way you keep a dwindling playerbase. It's not a case of Disney taking Star Wars off EA at this point. It's a case of EA taking SWTOR's multiplayer/grouping elements off Bioware- leaving Bioware doing whatever with story and have one of their other studios handle everything else. You clearly can't run this game properly. I'm blunt because I got sent a CS response this morning that outright lied about how many extra people were playing that they couldn't get back to me and a problem fixed still needed to be. I've told people I play with- I'm not spending my Christmas period grinding a broken and deliberately painful system designed to keep people subbed without the devs having to do their jobs, enough is enough. Either leave gear as it is and release new content or don't but stop being surprised and punishing whoever is still here when you pull these stunts and are surprised people leave this game. By the way, I'm not grinding rep or gear and I encourage everybody to do the same for this new tier and ignore what they're pulling here.

3.0. also had no level sync- being able to get five levels above content so I don't see farming time runs or wings as possible in the same way. PvP is where people are worried about which is an issue without expertise- for those of us playing with bad lag because of what region we're playing from, we have to have quicker reaction times and give ourselves some grace to be on somewhat even footing. Let's just say if I were to take a vacation in the US, I'd play SWTOR in the evenings and probably enter an instant bliss zone and my lag is worse than when I left. But outside of regions, there was a reason expertise existed and it was gear should never be what makes the player in PvP. What affects everybody is that the devs have shown they can and will bring in class wide nerfs to either justify a new tier or force people to grind. I'm looking at my numbers as I replace my augments to 236 after my break and I think I had some real rage filled moments when I realized the nerf had essentially been to force people into grinding the new augments when the numbers resembled that of old. Gearing this expansion has been running to stay in the exact same place and we can see where this is headed, again.

The issue with Koth was people didn't like someone who questioned them and had their own agenda- the hatred for him was worse than for Quinn. It's pure laziness when there are tiny things you can do, a cutscene snippet with the player character standing out looking at the horizon and their love interest comes up by their side, letters- silent support and using recycled lines.

The theory is a stealth nerf to hurt and slow people down- which is insane, there's also my theory, they've created a horror grind fest with the express purpose of dialling back/fixing parts so they can change things and be seen as reasonable.

Are you kidding me- you've broken SnV on HM and above because of the automatic city fail, Dread Palace is buggy with closed doors, weird boss health and apparently impossible to do timed runs but you aren't addressing that the issues have even been acknowledged. They are key issues, major blocking issues and with your little siesta over the holiday periods, others and I are seriously concerned you intend to leave endgame content broken and a HM/NiM raid impossible to complete. And the only fixes you intend are to do with the new 5.10 content? You put in all this grind to try and force us to stay but sometimes, you don't consider that we leave because you break content and leave it a buggy mess and frustrate playing what there is to play.