^~~ This, me & my guild mates are mostly all geared out in terms of what drops from Ops, so we either give it away to randos or trash it. CXP is just icing on the cake to our normal activities, & if it gives me something I can use that’s great. So long as I can get gear from normal predictable paths I don’t mind a little RNG on the side, & that’s where the pre-Osus system shined. It allowed you to play the game the way you wanted to play, whereas, Osus forces you into a pointless gear grind. With the little time I do have, I want to play the way I want to, not the way the devs do just to keep me subbed longer. That only incentives me to go spend my time doing other activities I actually enjoy outside of this game. Time is the most valuable commodity I have to offer & I don’t appreciate having it waisted. If another pointless gear grind is instituted, I would probably just stop PvPing altogether. Either that or knowingly throw matches so they end faster so I can acquire whatever rewards are offered — I.E. Conquest Points, Mats, or etc.

Eric, Both please! The old planets aren’t dead & I’d like to return to updated (story-wise) versions of these places. Thanks!!

Dev team, I would like to see some kind of tool implemented that allows me to make important story decisions for ALTs without having to play through the actual content required to do so. Similar tools were implemented for Mass Effect & Tell-Tell game’s The Walking Dead. This is more important than ever given that gear is being gated behind story content. I have ALTs that I used to raid on, but can no longer gear because they are stuck somewhere in KOTFE or KOTET. Beyond that, playing through that content gets kinda same-y because of the Omni-Story. Best regards, ~Lecto

Dev Team & Relevant Audiences, The gearing system prior to the Osus update was perfect & needs no alterations at all, moreover, it had appeal for both casual audiences & hardcore players. This game has become increasingly grindy over the last few months, likely in an effort to decrease the amount of real content that needs to be generated. The problem with this approach is that it alianates idividuals with limited play time. Since Osus I have had great difficulty keeping up with the gear grind, & as a result falling behind the pace of other members of my guild, which in turn may make me a liability at some point. Moreover, between having a career, family, maintaining my health, attending to family issues, & trying to manage some semblance of a healthy social life there just isn’t enough time to grind conquest & Osus to keep up with the Joneses. God forbid if you actually want to be play any other games at the same time. I just don’t have the time, care, or patience to play daily. With that being said, I sure in the heck don’t have time to grind another set of gear altogether. The grindy nature of this game has been demotivating to say the least. I’m not even going to touch on the asinine decision to gate a set of gear beind story content within loot-boxes. Food for thought from someone whose been around since beta, ~Lecto TL-DR: Your game is too grindy & acquiring gear needs to be easier. I don’t need another part time job outside of my normal full-time job. I come here for fun not work.

With regards to expertise potentially coming back, that is some of the worst news I've heard in a long time. As a working professional I don't have time to grind two sets of gear like I did back in college when this game first came out. Seriously, DO NOT DO THIS!

**Updated 3.18.18** *Added a specifier to indicate that our guild is Sex Positive & LGBTQ friendly, since that's the type of thing that has to be said now-a-days....... - *Updated available officer positions. - *Updated bio to more accurately reflect our guilds more open & casual attitudes. - PS: We are currently looking for more players to fill out our ever expanding progression efforts. We are currently progressing well as an 8man team through both HM-DF & HM-TFB. We would ultimately like to have a 16man team...... PSS: If you would like to join our raiding/progression efforts as a DPS please make sure you can hit numbers in parse. Healers & folks whom can play multiple roles are also welcome to apply.

This makes it sound like they're will be a whole new tier of crafting Matts.......

I have the Matts & the recipes, I just need to know what to craft is all. With the Matts being so expensive & so hard to get a hold of I don't want to get the wrong augments for my Class/Spec. My guild runs HM ops, so every last bit of power helps. Is anyone aware of a guide that tells you what you should have in terms of the new 236 gold augments?

To whom it may concern, I almost have all the matts I need to craft a set (after grinding forever), but I have no clue to get. All of the old gearing treads I used to follow have gone dead. Are there any gearing guides that tell you which augments to buy per class & discipline? Thank you for you time, ~Lecto-Sama

I know I asked this a while ago, but since no one replied I'm asking again. Is there a guide for gearing the new gold augments? I've almost ground the matts I need & I don't want to mess things up -- thanks.

Are there any threads keeping track of what you should have in terms of the new augments? This one doesn't seem to have been updated since last April.

Is there a thread for the newest set of augments? You know, the ones that just dropped with 5.6?

We've just migrated from the wasteland that was POT5 to Star Forge! Join us for some fun!

Fellow Spacers, We've all been apart of those Guilds where the power comes from the top down, where only your most L33T players have a say in policy & play times. Here at Tao Covenant we feel that every player has the right to have a say in their Guild, & as a result we offer a democratic system free of "teams" & "clicks". All important Guild decisions & officer promotions are handled via open Guild elections! http://www.taocovenant.enjin.com Tao Covenant is currently seeking laid back & non-drama prone members of any level to join our founding Guild for SM/HM ops, GSF, weekly Conquest, & Ranked/Regs PvP. We're a small Guild at the moment, but we're getting bigger all the time!! Furthermore, we do not expect you to live in game, moreover, most of us are working professional class adults & do understand that people have lives & interests outside of SWTOR. *Tao Covenant Information: *Raid Progression *Our Current Schedule *Officer Positions Currently Available: PS: Contact any of the following officers in game for more info: Lecto, Esslay, Dracoonis, Freem, Ivankens, or Ca'Meryn. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ **DISCLAIMER** We are not a mega guild, but we do play both sides & are fairly active-- IMP/PUB. If you aren't willing to use our web site & Discord your level of enjoyment may vary. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hey all, My guild is working towards progression raiding, but we seem to be struggling in the DPS department. Can anyone tell me what DPS should be parseing for HM (Vet) & NiM (Master) content in 5.0? PS: I know 4.0 was about M: 5500 // NiM: 6000+. Regards, ~Lecto

The whole story has lost in uniqueness, that's why most people on play through it once. It's not "your" story anymore, it's the story of the "out-lander". Which is a fine story in & of itself, but not worth more than one play through. I'd love to see branching story paths, companion stories, & maybe the return of class stories if possible. That is after server populations are addressed anyway.......

Like I said, I won't go out of my way to grief anyone, but I will play as I normally would on my PvP server back in it's prime. And, I will use the general chat to facilitate group formation as necessary in populated areas. IF Shadowlands & Jedi Covenant are not consolidated, Ebon Hawk is the obvious choice if it is what I understand it to be as the most populated East Cost NA server. Trust me, other guilds on my server will follow my logic & we will move as a unit when the time comes. Being such a small server, all the guilds are intimately aware of each other. You will get all of us if things play out as Keith has described. If you don't want us on your server, it's in your best interest to sign-off on what I'm calling the "3 server solution" for North America: 1 East Coast (PvP/PvE), 1 West Coast (PvP/RP), & 1 RP Server. Said solution leaves Ebon Hawk alone & untouched.

Unless you want all the "Toxic" players on Ebon Hawk griefing RPers I'd recommend signing-off on my solution. Because I promise you my guild will transfer to the biggest NA server once we can transfer without loosing assets, & I can also promise you we won't be the only ones. If Ebon Hawk is that server, that's were we will go regardless of the community. It's not my optimal choice, but we will do that. Now, I won't go out of my way to grief RPers, or anyone else for that matter, unless you're in a PvP insistence, then red is dead. But, I will fill up all your chats with LFG posts as needed & I don't care at all how that effects your immersion. My suggested solution is reasonable & caters to all parties minus the oceanic players. I simply don't understand the technical side of it enough to include them in this solution. The sooner we come to a conciseness (if possible) as a player base, the easier it will be for Bioware to act. The question is, can everyone sign off on a 3 server solution?

In terms of pops? I would call healthy not having to wait more than 5min at any time for any kind of pop -- including off hours. I would assume that ops would take a little longer, but that content is a little different in run time from PvP/GSF & Uprisings/Flashpoints. Although, I'd be curious to hear what Keith calls "healthy". PS: I really like Keith so far, & I'll give him all the props in the world for actually going on the "Bad Feeling" Podcast. I'd like to hear this subject addressed in larger detail. Nothing else they do matters to me until server populations are properly addressed somehow. There's no thriving PvP sever because they stopped producing new PvP content for about 2.5 years. Given that information, it's easy to see why the PvP servers died -- expected even. Back when they were producing new PvP content at least once a year there were TONS of active PvP guilds on POT5. Notice I didn't say producing PvP content at a decent rate, because they've never produced any content at a decent clip aside from story content. That's not even giving any credence to how they killed of raked 8-man WZ & never did anything about it. I'm still in favor of one big East Coast Server & one big West coast Sever, however, I don't want anything to do with Ebon Hawk. As much as all these RPers seem to fear "toxic" players, they themselves seem rather "toxic" if this thread is an accurate example of their player-base & community. Seriously, anytime anyone says anything in this thread they all jump on them & ignore the concerns of the larger player base. I don't need a "safe-space", I just want to PvP, GSF, & play Ops when I choose to log-in. I'm a grown adult & I can ignore "toxic" people in game just as easy as in real life -- easier even. Leave the Snowflakes & RPers alone on Ebon Hawk so they can do their own thing, & then merge the rest of us -- 3 NA servers. I sure people will defect from both Harb & EH once a new East Coast mega server is available. PS: Yes I'm aware that Keith said they wouldn't force anyone to move, but that still leaves a huge issue on the East Coast. At that point, players still have to decided between Shadowlands & Jedi Covenant. Their populations need to be combined so to rival Harbinger & surpass the RP server.

I'm not reposting my original statement. If you're truly interested, back-track & read the rest of the thread. It's not my problem I can't fix, it's my guilds problem. I don't know who those guilds were. I've been a GM since beta & we were made whole again the day after mergers. Customer Service got back to me very rapidly.

It makes a difference because this entire game is in decline &/or dieing. I've been trapped on a dead server that I didn't pick for 2.5 years now, because that's about how long ago things started to go sour on POT5. They've ignored us ever since & not provided the server maintenance we pay them to. If the ship is sinking, I want to be on the TIP of the boat so I can PvP till the lights go out. How long have you been playing pal? Most of those things didn't even exist during the ONLY round of server mergers in North America. The only things they had to worry about back then was guild banks & guilds, & even then they refunded us GMs with the necessary credits to rebuild. They could do the same thing with decos & matts.

If that's the direction we're going, I'd like to see the old Vanguard "Motor Volly" animation return. Although I prefer the mechanics of the new "air strike" move, it just looks awful...especially when it bugs. Kinda looks like a rave went horribly wrong, or like I went to a color run or something. PS: Would also like PvP & GSF pops on my server (POT5), you know...just the ability to play the game I'm paying a monthly subscription for.......

Isn't that the RP server? Yes we are aware of it, but does it even come close to the population size of Harb?

I would take x-server any day of the week over nothing, however, that does not address PUG raiding -- HM/NiM especially. Unless of course Qs are created for those as well.

While I respect your position, my sub is going to be out for door at some point if they don't resolve the population issues on my server. I raid log at this point, & I wouldn't be doing that if it wasn't for my guild. Heck, there are nights when we can't even raid because we can't find Pugs if people in guild have IRL things going on. I vacillate a great deal about this game because I can't PvP/GSF without transferring & loosing assets that I've earned in-game. I have several friends who used to play back at launch, & they do on occasion ask me if they should come back to SWTOR. I always say no primarily due to how EA has handled SWTOR & my server (POT5) over the years. I'm sure I'm not the only one spreading bad word of mouth, & I believe it would be in Bioware & EAs best interest to address this problem. I used to give them the benefit of the doubt, but that ended with "story, story, story". PS: I won't even pre-order Anthem or Mass Effect 3 because of my distrust of EA as a whole based on my experience with SWTOR. I always advise people to wait for reviews with any EA game, & generally speaking I'm proven right in doing so most times. It doesn't matter how cool there games look...it's their approach towards players, quality, & maintenance that scare me. That was your experience, mine was different obviously. We landed on our new server (POT5 from Bondar Crystal), submitted a ticket & were refunded all necessary credits. Granted we had to reform & buy everything back, but I wouldn't mind that if it meant being able to play the whole game again. I'm fine with doing a little bit of work if it means being able to actually play the game. I'm still in favor of three servers: 1 East (mega), 1 West (mega), & 1 RP. Anything Bioware can to do make this process less painful would be even better....... PS: To the "you should just transfer crowd". We loose all guild assets, likely loose guild members, loose all command tokens, & we would have to transfer to Harbinger. At current, there is no realistic East Cost option given that both Shadowlands & Jedi Covenant are in decline. Both need to be merged with the lesser East coast servers. I shouldn't be forced to play with poor latency because EA/Bioware won't provide proper server/population maintenance.