Most people quitting these days are sick of grinding- we put up with the content drought and the constant bugs and all they seem content to do is try and stop us doing the content we like. I could be quite happy with 248 and this is from an APAC player who lives with a permanent lag issue in PvP. PvP should never have been put in this gearing system- it should've just been expertise and we would have so many more people still playing. It's actively ruining a skill based playing field and has been all expansion since they removed the bolster... you know, the bolster from back when they said they wouldn't be releasing a new gear tier and now we have this. The issue with PvE is people will be happy to do content and live with weaker gear so when enough players hit a metric, out will come the 'justified' nerf bat across the classes. We saw this happen with Tier IV gear and we can see it coming again. Bioware, you're reading this and I know you are. The players you have left are the diehards who will literally play the same content on repeat without the gear carrots and sticks and every lost sub is a diehard who has hit their limit. And from my own personal experiences, no most people do not gear, unsub and then use a subscriber to queue for unranked. They usually stop playing- I normally don't touch anything but story and flashpoints when preferred. You didn't get me back because of 5.10- you got me back because internet issues cleared and I needed the distraction for health reasons, but the more disconnected I get from what I like to do in game- distraction stops working.

Can you address the fact that players are having issues with several Ops becoming stuck and unable to complete? I think Dread Palace in on rotation next so I'll have to see personally about it but apparently SnV and the City Infiltration is completely bugged across difficulty modes and other issues. Anyone with personal experience please chime in so we can get this heard and quickly since their Christmas siesta is about time.

Probably has been though some of it feels like derp companion AI- I don't mind a difficulty spike, I do mind when my companion bugs- I main healers in group content and this is just more disincentive to ever put them through these story arcs. If the companions had decent AI, I wouldn't have an issue but as someone who has run KOTFE as a tank before this went down- not all of us run through characters as DPS and we shouldn't have to respec just to cut through grind. That said, trash was the pain running the traitor arc for me as a DPS, the bosses were mostly cakewalk, simple/stupid, sans my companion being a derp.

Which is a 'should I still play this game' check for me point. I have vocalized this repeatedly- there's no need for major re-balance until 6.0 or broad scale nerfs and the solution is don't put in a new gear tier mid expansion- period. I don't care what the devs think- there was no need to make GftM NiM/MM require/drop that. The endgame raiders doing that content weren't going to be grinding it for gear but to clear, conquer new content and difficulty. I have had it with no real expansion for two years but new gear tiers for no reason except to punish subscribers for making the best of a content drought. What they pulled with Satele Shan/ Harbinger going EC and putting us in the situation where a server is hemorrhaging when we could have just had one EC server with everybody does my head in.

I usually use my DCDs...my stim boost and curative agent are also DCDs by utility, my cloaking screen has a reduced cooldown and I'm popping my shield probe on cooldown, you also want to traverse and spec into using your probes as a defence increase on yourself. I'm not arguing we need better crowd management but I'm generally fairly good at keeping myself up unless the group is completely inept. The only time I'm drawing all the aggro is mostly FPs but I PvP so I'm used to being tunnelled and you learn quickly it's not a reflection of you as a healer but of your DPS- my favourite thing was running veterans with DPS on a progression team I was on because they were good at picking up the trash- or with a tank who knew what they were doing. PuGs are a good way to practice healing under duress which is how you grow as a healer, when things go south in content even the best tank or DPS can't always protect you from trash or a boss so knowing how to survive can be a great help. But, never, ever use tanking stats like defense on a healer or DPS- it does not work and I've seen multiple players go squish trying it in addition to self nerfing themselves...squishy!

This has been troubling me for a while- I know that it's hard to get a straight answer on Satele Shan, from what I've heard (from my server) is that while there are more PvP players on Star Forge, there is less of an endgame raiding community. I would take this at face value except I I have no endgame characters over on Star Forge and with a CXP event coming up- I would rather create tide me over characters till the next server transfer sale and use my time efficiently if it's not the case. I don't care if an increase in raiding potential (From group finder to HM and progression content) means I have to deal with a greater volume of RP players- I simply want to know whether or not I've got it as good as it gets on Satele Shan and need to make a serious choice between the loves of my endgame experience. And whether Star Forge is suffering the same entropy, albeit slower. This is nothing against my server however I would rather deal with the consequences of where Satele Shan is now than justify staying put on a 'time and credits spent' philosophy.

Well, this Mass Effect fan doesn't really care about Anthem and the Mass Effect fanbase as a majority has an axe to grind against Anthem so it wouldn't be the best game plan.

So, talked a player into continuing getting the group finder group together on Satele Shan for the daily Operation (which took the same amount of time to complete as form) despite some of the smart aleck remarks on Fleet over trying to form a group at 'the wrong time' or simply, using gen chat to advertise for people instead of snark. Nobody is making you join in the group finder Ops and being annoying and spamming up chat only makes the process longer if advertising a group finder Op is so painful for you to read, you need to be a troll. It's not the first time it's happened- the time around reset was and is APAC prime time which has enough issues without frustrating players enough to logout of game because they can't advertise in Fleet without getting told off for doing it at a time that's not considered playtime. Thank you.

Lana's a writer's pet and they were cost cutting. What they should've done was have a generic backup character whose not a companion fill in.

I think it might have to do with the routes to the servers- a few APAC players are having issues on US servers with lag spikes...

Sad APAC player who had a trainwreck of a day which poked her issues and her therapy relief is lagging with red all over the place. 'Goes to cry hysterically on Quinn's shoulder, only to find an invisible wall.'

One, experienced players help teach in the lowbie/midbie bracket and secondly whether it's to learn a new class in PvP or to enjoy fighting other people while levelling- it's my sub and I love PvP matches while running class story on characters the second they hit level ten but when I'm levelling, it's time away from my max level characters who can earn things that help me out so I can't justify taking my time. Giving unassembled components for PvP matches is a tiny thing but increases population so the new players have people to play with- and new players are a lot smarter than you give them credit for to forget that lowbies and mids are inherently unequal by level.

What do you think happens when people can bring NiM gear into warzones and know their class on a numbers game? I can cause Kolto Injection on an autocrit to heal for over 40k on occasion. DPS are bad in warzones, and we know how to rotate through our defensives to mitigate them. The bottom line is it wouldn't matter what bolster does or Expertise does, or what gear if you have stupid DPS... DoT specs including Madness in the right hands are devastating to healers but don't worry. They'll find some excuse to nerf healers after dropping the new gear (as they couldn't just, you know, not release another tier) but you will still be screwed because then they'll rebalance DPS again.

So because people will transfer to where they can do content and stay 'subbed' to do said content is why it shouldn't be cheap? The more you tighten your grip, the more players that'll slip from this game.

You made me get excited. That would allow me to transfer my entire legacy to the Star Forge from Satele Shan- I love the name but I think long term the population decline won't be kinder as time goes on.

Wow... well, the guarding part is as a healer- the frustrating part if the DPS are doing their job and the guard is wasted on me when they're the ones getting all the aggro every single pull. The whole, tank is automatically the leader- I don't care who is the leader as long as we're coordinated and working together but I do care when someone decides they're the leader and won't take any decisions other than their own... based purely on their role and that they've decided they are a messiah to tanking. I've lost track of the bad tanks I've met during FPs but when I've tanked, it's been for the fun of coordination and keeping the group together as the tank role- leadership is also something I've taken on quite often as a healer. Tank does not make you team captain. Please do let every group you end up in know your feelings. I imagine it'll go down well.

No, there was a new one laid down they switched on in September to replace an older one.

I aim to please and aww. I might get critical of the game but there's so much I like and everything invested, it's when I simply don't care, I don't want things to be better. I have this thing about the teeny astromechs they keep giving us- they're adorable. I have a soft spot for them and the akk dog pets- I want them to drop Firestalker pets in EV.

My bad and I hadn't even thought about the new cable they laid down for internet traffic for Australia, I was originally going to referral click in September but I was more ill than I am now then so I held off. Funny, I happily switched to calling my server Satele Shan... a sign of how much I hated the name Harbinger.

I find Ashara a twit, don't want to but since they gave into the haters with Quinn- I want one on her and Lana, especially. Can I just say I love your thread and when I realized and did resub this time (knew there was a high chance), I used your link. You're always so positive and your threads and posts are interesting and kept me engaged when I simply wasn't playing.

So hopped in a PvP match to hit a weekly for box of grade ten materials and the game was running smoothly in the hypergate match and I've noticed similar in some GF Ops where lag was an issue last I hit a referral link, I've resubbed at the moment. I mean there are still some atrocious (platforms in Eternity Vault are invisible for much longer) pains but it feels more responsive, and was wondering if Satele Shan's reduced population is why. If so, I will hold off setting up a transfer to Ebon Hawk- more people doesn't trump actually getting to enjoy the things I love in game the most. Thanks!

I need to run my story main through the last few FPs so I'll have to check that out.

Fair would be blocking any taken names across servers due to be merged from being used by new characters from now until United Forces. F2P 'resubs' would be Preferred former subs and if their level and play time exceeds yours and they've resubbed, there's no reason they shouldn't have that name because they would be a subscriber as well and have full rights to their name. I'm happy just to rename all my characters so I'll probably not bother adding time when my sub runs out late October for health reasons just to ensure keeping them... let's just say I got really ticked when I learned they're adding a new augment grind after nerfing every single healing class and the majority of DPS specs because it comes off as in part to justify the new stats. New expansion, new gear grind- no new expansion, new gear grind is unjustified... especially one grinding new FPs instead of all content, or at least Ops and PvP. But I will say this- for a game that has been hemorrhaging players- spiting people who have higher play times and levels with a lapsed sub for a level one character sub is asking for them not to come back. I don't think you'll have to worry about people re-subbing to protect their names en masse, because for most who've left this game- it's just another ultimatum to enjoy the devs' visions for the game or leave. That just brings SWTOR closer to closing down so you should be happy if any of them are so motivated as to pay fifteen dollars to preserve a name.

He probably is one of those that won't jump to break a channel and instead of bouncing heals off a tank- he probably focus targets Eric while he stands in stupid and goes 'look at my EHPS... aren't I awesome'- no, you have a frellwit for a DPS while his tank dies. And doesn't know how the TA nerf will hurt because he's hardly ever got any up because who needs procs when you can spam Kolto Waves/Underworld Medicine... oops out of energy and his tank died, again! Note: I've had a pain of a week, this and the Marauders healing better than us made me laugh although your observation is probably true. Numbers can mean very little, a high EHPS can just mean you had some very, very stupid DPS with high DTPS numbers than healing you are required to do to clear content.

Which is why I'm not playing at the moment- it was affecting me as well as triggering extras via some of the lag/server issues that aren't quite human eye perceivable but mess with my head... didn't ask for it to be easier though because you can literally give me a heal-to-full button and I can mess it up during one- I can mess up logging into the damn game and turning on my PC which is why there is no full rant or ask for things to be more migraine friendly. The server/lag issues they need to fix for everybody- not just those of us with wonky head wiring easily tripped up. I just want my class to still work when I come back because I love endgame raiding- not so worried about PvP, as long as your class has utility, it's fine.