7.0.1 patch was meant to bring back and make available all flashpoints again... Have you checked that since the patch was released? Considering the date of your post I would have assumed you did, but since I'm not quite eager to log back in game I cannot check that myself.

I have the feeling we're talking about a different mindset altogether or maybe a different "philosophy" of how combat is meant to work in SWTOR compared to, say, GuildWars 2. SWTOR does have a combat log since quite a while now, while GuildWars 2 doesn't (at least not officialy). In SWTOR you see exactly how much HP an enemy has and, based on your own abilities, can figure out how much it'll take to defeat them if at all, while in GuildWars 2 you don't. In SWTOR, being able to go back to your combat log and trying to figure out how to improve your... performance is a huge part of "raiding progression", even if only on hard/veteran mode. Many actually enjoy that because it gives you a direction and a purpose. In GuildWars 2 you can read your in game combat channel, but that's far from being as efficient as a parsing a combat log text file is. I do love being able to swing a hammer in GW2, and that feels like lots of fun, but then just jumping in combat while having little to no idea if I'll make it out alive is not that fun. Well, maybe once or twice, for the thrill of it, but not as a "play style". On the other hand, in SWTOR, being able to gauge the enemy's strength helps me ... plan my attacks in such a way to use my combat abilities "effectively". Being able to actually plan my attacks is what adds satisfaction on top of the fun, so for how much I loved GW2 I couldn't stick with it for too long because frustrated by its combat system. TL; DR: SWTOR has the parsing built into its combat system, while other games don't, therefore passing a "dps check" is a normal request here.

I emphasised the "you don't need..." part. Well, I could also reply that, once you cleared your NiM raid, what is the drop reward for? You can't have it if you don't clear the boss, so once you managed to clear the boss without it, what's the point of the "better" gear, anyway? Probably because you'd want to go for timed runs or even manage to carry someone for some extra cash (sell runs). In the same way, as a solo player, I may manage to clear The Eternal Championship and even get the Survival title, but there's also the "Sprint Champion" title for the same SOLO mode, and there's where you'd really need something much better than the current green/blue gear! Not to mention the need for more powerful companions that the champions of that time used to have and depend on without too much remorse. I would like to hear what one of the players that got the Sprint Champion title would think about getting it now, with crippled companions, gutted skills and no BiS gear! There are also plenty of Master Mode Chapters. Finally, when you say "you don't need" better gear, you probably assume that the said content is ... balanced in such a way to only require skill, which unfortunately is not the case. SWTOR content is far from being balanced and, with 7.0, that balance is even farther away than it used to be. Therefore most players looking to complete some even mildly challenging content would try to get the best affordable gear to make their runs as smooth as possible.

Well, I wonder what a new player would think about what we previously called "utility points"? We complain about this change as we now have to go with "... OR ..." when we had "... AND ...", but a brand new player might not find it an issue. On the same "resistance to change" argument, I would go even further back in time when we were not restricted to a single "advanced" class, but we could build our own "class" by allocating points in any of the "trees" available. Then the "advanced" class was made into a choice that excluded the others, but we could still play a bit with the "utility" points. Eventually, we got used to these advanced classes choices to the point we (i for one) almost forgot how we... used to play the game before that. So, yes, some changes seem too huge to handle at first, but eventually we get used to them and don't notice the difference any more. Is the 7.0 chore one of them?... For me the game has turned into a "gearing up" game, while the "end game" seems quite far round the corner. Others report that are already geared up although still not happy for the scaling issues, but at least seem out of the "chore" range.

You are restricted to only Lana, for story reasons - no other companions are available for summon. But with Lana only, the quest is quite hard to complete, at least in master mode, as waves of enemies will spawn one after another and if you fail any of them, you will have to restart it all over again. Senya does a good job handling the champion walker all by herself, otherwise that might one shot kill you after a stun.

It happened to me, too, but on master mode, so yes without Senya it's not possible to get through all the rounds! In practice if, unfortunately, you fail during your first attempt, when you respawn and go back Senya is not there anymore, so you are left with Lana alone. I tried going to stronghold or fleet, no success. In the end, I just reset the whole chapter and probably saved some time.

There's a whole list of Known issues at the top of the forum section. The "Desecration" quest issue has been mentioned, although only about Malgus not healing enough, but nothing about Malgus getting stuck in terrain.

First off, I don't know exactly what this "strategy" looks like, but I'm thinking that there are many "strategies" to avoid taking damage, like when dealing with this very Dash'roode and all except tanks are placing themselves against the wall to ... prevent themselves from being thrown outside the shield... Is that also an... exploit? Only because it's a newfound strategy doesn't necessarily mean it isn't a legitimate one!

Well, what's "new" here is just how they call now ("combat style") what we had since launch: advanced classes! There's absolutely nothing new in any of these "combat styles" that we didn't have already! Wait, actually, it's... less than what we had till now, as they went in heavily with their nerf axes! However, the "new" thing is to play - again - through what you already did, only to see your character displaying some other weapon than what you had before. And that is just during the cut-scenes. Once you're out of the cut scene, the "dream" is over and you go on with your quests playing the "combat style" you already knew. As for characters that you had already, for some of them an additional "combat style" might still fit in, but - for example - I don't see my sorcerer going assassin, juggernaut or marauder! Not in the slightest! I have already characters that look just like that! So, as far as the "new combat style" goes, if you're a new player you will really not notice the difference; if you're a veteran player you might not even take full advantage of it as you probably invested time and resources into making your characters fit their relative "origin stories"! Or maybe that's our limit, as we played too many times the "origin" stories to see it in any other way! I already mentioned my sorcerer for being deeply rooted into her story, but I cannot see my operative running around with an assault cannon either! For one combination of combat style that might work, there are at least two others that don't!

You might be wrong there, as the Empire doesn't rely so heavily on medics (healers) as the Republic does! At least that's what I could notice in regular PvP Warzones!

I'm going to bump this in the hope it will get added to known issues list. Otherwise, we might have to wait another... "extension" to get it fixed. Other classes are also in a bad place, but this seems to be a just a plain, straightforward bug.

I can confirm that Mercs AR are not welcome in raiding teams, at least from my own experience. I could join the usual Eternity Vault HM and Nefra NiM with a guild(!) group where, luckily, even if my "performance" was at the bottom-of-the-dps parse list, there were others that could compensate for that. Of course, in guild runs, low performance and gear is tolerated if, overall, the group can still complete to operation. However, when applying to join a (guild) progression team I was told right from the start that my merc has no place there and, if I really want a dps spot, I should learn another class. There was no option like "you'll need to prove you know your class", but simply "get another class". Full stop.

Don't give up, but maybe try and do something else till they fix it since it's a known issue! Hopefully, fix will come with the next patch, 7.0.1 in about a week from now!

The issue might come from the game not ... "recognizing" the combat style as just a "style". This new addition doesn't... "sink" deep enough into the main game and several areas still treat your combat style as a class on its own, imo. For example, I created a new scoundrel with Powertech combat style. The "class" buff is Endurance, Bounty Hunter symbol, instead of the Critical / Republic one. Since I wanted to unlock the Critical legacy buff, I deleted the character and created it again, this time with its "traditional" advanced class, just to be on the safe side. The "Combat Style" .... technology is maybe still in its early stages, so many things don't work as expected. Yet.

I also had difficulties at that point even after having looked up for guides and forums. See if you can get somebody else join you and get the aggro of the first group. You put companion on passive and move through without attacking and hopefully your other companions will follow without engaging. Once you're on the other side of the plaza, inside the first building, toggle the passive mode of your companion and you should be able to take down those droids, as they cross the plaza, in one line, instead of massive groups from all directions. Of course, not having an effective AoE ability is not helping. However, don't be shy and use Heroic moment and possibly some heroic AoE abilities, if you managed to unlock any.

I have already reported this issue a few days ago: Energy Burst (Powertech AP) unusable (inactive) Since I haven't been levelling an AP Powertech for a while now, I thought it was only a consequence of how they "redesigned" the progression, though I expected it would start working at some higher level. I wonder, does that also happen on its Republic mirror class?...

I crashed into... "obstacles" plenty of times, especially from spinning too much while trying to escape from constant shooting. However, the times I did it on purpose was to actually... deny the adversaries a point in their favour! In regular "ground" warzones, especially Huttball, if I jump off a platform to my death, or in fire, I deny the enemy a killing blow, while still not necessarily affecting my team's score. Jumping straight into GSF with this mindset, self destruction seemed a... "smart" move to me. Then I hear it's not so good and I decide I'll watch the score before doing it, but when I get again under heavy fire and self destruction seems the only "solution" I forget about checking the score, so I couldn't figure just by myself if it was indeed a point against my team. As for the "map awareness", again, coming from regular warzones, I'm used to see the map from a different point of view, allies and adversaries within my range without necessarily having to "turn" around. I can see who hits me and, even if from range, it takes me a quick turn to spot the attacker. In GSF, I try to turn around to... "face" the attacker, but no matter how much I spin I cannot figure who that is! I try to move my mouse to the mini-map to identify the enemy, but it's my ship that starts moving instead. I press spacebar to get close to the center of the map, but I quickly end up consuming whatever ... "energy" fuels my ship and have to hang on helpless while it recharges. Oh, and what about firing at a "ship" which seems somehow close, only that it's actually on ... the other side of the rock or whatever obstacle stands between us. Why am I able to open fire at what is out of my "line of sight"? That doesn't happen when I try to shoot at an enemy that's hiding behind a corner, in "ground" warzones, and the game will warn me and my weapon will "refuse" to fire! So, yes, coming from the "main", "open world", "ground" area, GSF seems a whole different game. I would expect to "figure it out" as I play through it, as it happened with my ... "ground" characters, but it seems one has to go find some guide... only to get flooded with all that endless list of upgrading components and several different combat styles depending on the ship you pick, ship that still doesn't seem to make much of a difference since I get killed pretty soon anyway. Sometimes it seems like you need a ... degree to make a significant progress there, while many new "pilots" would go with "but I only need my PvP gear and then, I promise, I'll never come back!" I came here and managed to read the whole thread, and I'll try and learn the most I can so not to be a burden to my team, but it's going to take a while to get into this so different game-play and I'm afraid that many will still wonder what kind of "afk" am I with maybe not even within the "k" range damage!

I'm not necessarily asking for an easier Eternal Championship here, but I surely don't want it more difficult than 2016 edition, either! I think it's only fair to have the same conditions players had when Eternal Championship came out, or - since 2016 environment is past tense now - at least a properly scaled environment. And, yes, I watched videos and looked up for various tips from those that got the Sprint Champion, only that many of those suggestions don't apply anymore, like "keep companion on DPS except for Round 6" (Brawler and two Kintans). That's a "luxury" we... sorry, maybe others can, but I don't feel I can afford it anymore. I see two main "actors" here: the players (with their skill set including 50 rank companions, companions that were indeed an important part of their 2016 "toolbox") and the adversaries (EC bosses). Let's say they managed to perfectly balance our current player's skills and tools to match those of 2016 (which they didn't!)... Why did they then go on and increased the HP of adversaries (bosses) by approximately 20%? Did they, maybe, intend to award a ... "Super-Sprint Champion" title? If the 2016 player got their Sprint Champion title by dealing, let's say 14 mil damage, while also avoiding deathly traps and damage, in less than 15 minutes (commentaries included), then having to deal an extra 2,8 mil damage (20% of the initial damage target), while having less effective skills in their "toolbox" (less abilities, less survivability, weaker companion etc), in the same amount of time, then I think we're talking about some kind of Nightmare/Master Mode version here. Maybe that's what those that already got their "story mode" Sprint Champion title would go for next, but is this really what's going on with the 7.0 Eternal Championship right now?

Oh, my, please don't come with this justification again! It goes on the same line as the promised "play your own way" advertising line, but that turns into thin air once you log in and notice a whole list of "to do" things, much of which you might not like in the least! I get what you want to say, but you are defending an idea here, a theoretical view of what MMO games and players should be like, but then when we step into the reality of this "expansion", the experience is quite different. For example, your NiM content & NiM gear "axiom" suggests a game where the only NiM difficulty content is found in... NiM difficulty content. The NiM rating itself suggests a scale of difficulty that progresses from easy to progressively more difficult. Before sharing your NiM-league solutions - which are much appreciated, thank you!, try accepting for a minute that these players might actually experience difficulties! For some reason, the "normal" content now requires "less-than-normal" gear and, thus, extra-nonrequested activities before getting to the content you want to play and which, by the way, we could play without too many issues before 7.0! If these difficulties are insignificant for you, that might be a consequence of your own (probably, uncommon) experience within the game. Personally, I do feel that with 7.0 playing has become a chore, with the regular, "normal" content requiring a long gearing path, where you need to complete a pre-ordered list of activities in a relatively short, limited time (for some a week of game-play is not necessarily 3-5 hours per evening times 7, but maybe a lot less). If that's not your experience, then good for you, so simply ... "move along!"

It's only one you can actually control. The other one (depending on faction) joins only temporarily as part of the story.

Thanks for the update! That gear was my next step before going back to EC, but 30 minutes - even if played with caution, is still too much. Let's say you would try that for real, going for your best time, how much faster do you think you would be able to get? 5 minutes less? 10 minutes, maybe? It's not about skill anymore, nor is it about gear since that will not make that much of a difference - the increased HP added to bosses coupled with a reduced damage output and survivability we got from 7.0, makes it a simple mathematical operation: total bosses HP divided by your max (hypothetical) damage output has to be less than 15 minutes! (for the Sprint Champion title). It's not a realistic estimation since we're not talking about static training droid target here, but if even this basic "setup" doesn't get a total timing below 15 minutes then the current EC is clearly out of balance! From my estimation, current PTS Eternal Championship bosses have about 20% more HP compared to original, 2016 edition, while players have less abilities, defences, utility points available and gear than 2016 players. I don't mind having some "extra" fun, but within a reasonable limit. What worries me here is that current PTS settings reflect what we will get with 7.0.1 patch. If they didn't fix that on this iteration, then it's going to take a lot more time - I don't know, maybe even 7.1 release? - to have it fixed! Well, it was nothing to be fixed before 7.0, so yeah I'm pretty sad for this change! Same here! My goal and also my reason to go through all this grind for gear: I just started to get some blue 322 flashpoint gear, so still way to go to full 324, let alone 326, but the "performance" this gear can offer us is still not up to the task!

I am your "average" player as I'm nowhere close to getting a "full 330 Rakata" in... one week!!! since I'm not in a raiding team and, for SOLO content I shouldn't even be supposed to. Yet, the only (solo) challenge I looked forward to complete, the "Sprint Champion" from The Eternal Championship is well out of my reach now! The closest I could get was 16 minutes the day before 7.0 came out and when I finished installing 7.0 the very first thing I did was, of course, jumping right into the Eternal Championship arena... Only to get beaten up so badly I couldn't even sleep that night! You can't imagine the frustration! Still, I levelled up, got blue and some purple 320 gear and went back again. No difference whatsoever! (Not to mention companions being nerfed, too!) I can't get below 30 minutes and too many deaths between! I don't think the 324-326 gear will make all that much more of a difference! Then I hear "you don't need" best available gear! Wrong! GW2 makes it so you can get top gear rather easily! Games should be about the skill and not gear. But then, of course, those like you and your "pro" team will not be able to sell runs and "wings" to ... "average" players, so I see why this will go against your interest! "Top gear locked behind the hardest content"... Guess you're one happy player there! Great! That makes ... one of you!

I noticed a huge loss of all stats with BiS 306 gear on my level 75 character the day the expansion was released. If it's going to be a synchronisation then level 75 BiS gear should equate to level 65 BiS gear. I wouldn't ask a level 75 character to level up again and get BiS gear again (what's BiS in 7.0 anyway?), only to be competitive on level 65 content? What kind of logic is that? Am I supposed to have to equip 330 purple gear? It's SOLO content, after all. Why would they tune this (assuming that they did) according to NiM quality gear when they said that will only ever be needed for NiM raiders? On the other hand, they also said so many other things only to quietly ignore them. Oh, and if it wasn't clear from my previous lines, I have no sympathy for this so called expansion! They created themselves plenty of problems and now need time to "fix" them: the numbers above prove that! There was nothing wrong with plenty of previous content, Eternal Championship included!

There is some logic and it's all part of a larger... vision!... We may fail to see it, but then, hey, it's not our game so what would you expect?

Like what? If companions in SOLO content are useless in spite of their "maximum efficiency" at rank 50, what other option do I have left? Uh, not playing the game? That's a "brilliant" idea! Guess that was the point where the development team is hoping to get anyone that thinks about this issue the same way I do.