There is a graphical display of the timer on the loot window fyi. I would recommend either using loot master, or checking the items on the boss before looting and decide who is going to roll on what.

Some advice - while being under leveled and under powered, you will be most helpful in war zones by playing defense. Being squishy, and not being able to do the best damage you will not be doing your group any good if you just keep rushing into the fight trying to backstab someone. Instead try guarding a cap while the better people on the team work on taking over another cap. Pay attention and be where you are needed. This may not result in many medals, but it will help your team get wins. Wins = more exp and commendations which will help you to be more effective later down the road. Once you start to notice that effectiveness then you can begin to switch things up.

Shadow tanks are very good right now, probably better than guardian tanks at the moment, but guardians are due some buffs. Their tanking style revolves around keeping a shield up on themselves every 12 seconds or sooner, and keeping a few debuffs up on the mob/s. They also get a couple self heal abilities that are very useful in long fights, but not as noticeable in short fights. Right now shadows hold threat much better than a guardian, and have more many more aoe options than a guardian does. Our ranged abilities are a bit lacking, but we do have force speed to close gaps and force pull to help with positioning the enemies. I was having the same debate after having gotten both classes to 25-30 in beta, but I am very glad that I ended up going with shadow. That said, I do feel guardians will be getting buffed soon, and that troopers are probably a little better than shadows due to the range tanking being OP.

Your game is going to be ruined anyway when no one will group with people they don't know/trust to pull their weight. Or when you spend all night wiping to a boss in a hard mode flashpoint because one of your dps doesn't belong there. Anyone doing any hard modes should have a way to evaluate themselves on the fairly rigorous fights. Perhaps they made the meters not work in normal mode where anyone can just bang their keyboard and make it through. Regardless, damage meters are coming, according to this post: http://massively.joystiq.com/2011/12/24/star-wars-the-old-republic-to-receive-combat-log-parsing-other/ Even if they don't add them, it is only a matter of time before people figure out how to parse the information through packet sniffers.

Unlike a great majority of you giving your level 10-30 opinions I have finished the whole story, and I can safely say that the consular story is the most lack luster of all the stories in the game. Especially when directly compared to the Jedi knight story, which I got to experience as I leveled up with one. At so many turns in the story I saw promise for it to get good, but it never ceased to disappoint. It's like they just threw the newest, most inexperienced writer at this story, and that individual didn't give a damn, or didn't have time to finish it. The only saving grace for the consular is that they get the master title a whole half of the game before the Jedi knight. You've been warned. ps. The consular class is a blast to play though, I like both advanced classes.

I have seen no such list, but it does seem like one will be coming soon. For instance I can say that hard mode Malgus always drops a columi chest token. Yes that is correct, however with how much the gear costs in commendations it seems like by time you are geared up you may only have to purchase one or two pieces with commendations. Also it is designed so that if you are gathering Columi gear, you will be gathering/spending commendations on Tionese gear. Simply put, commendations that you will be acquiring will be for one rank down from the gear that you are getting as drops. All set pieces can be acquired with both commendations or token trade ins, except for maybe Rakata. Non-set pieces like ear or implant may not always have both options. I don't know which is which at the moment, but you can always go check out the gear on your fleet station and see what is what.

PVE Tiers: 1. Tionese 2. Columi 3. Rakata Technically all of these are tier 1, as they all share the same set bonus, but the higher you go, the better the stats. Tionese comes from hard mode flashpoint bosses that aren't the last boss, and can be purchased with commendations and crystals that drop off bosses and dailies. Columi comes from the last boss of a hard mode flashpoint, and normal operations, and can be purchased with commendations that drop off bosses and dailies. Rakata comes from hard mode and nightmare mode operations. PVP Tiers: 1. Centurion 2. Champion 3. Battlemaster Again I feel that these are all just the same tier, as they all share the same set bonuses, but higher has better stats. Centurion can be purchased with commendations that are found in champion pvp bags. Champion tokens are obtained randomly from champion pvp bags, and can be purchased with champion commendations that drop from battlemaster pvp bags. Battlemaster gear is randomly obtained from tokens that drop from battlemaster bags, which come from dailies, and require valor rank 60 to open. When you compare the pvp and pve versions of the same rank of gear, they are very similar. The pvp gear has expertise, and the pve gear has a bit more of the primary stat and endurance. The secondary stats always seem to be the same. There are dailies on Ilum and Belsavis for daily commendations that can be used on epic level hilts, barrels, and armor mods, as well as very good implants and ear pieces. There is also a pvp daily and weekly on Ilum for pvp bags. For people who just hit level 50 I recommend finishing your class story missions, which will unlock the Ilum chain. Once that is unlocked I would do the dailies on Ilum and Belsavis to upgrade your hilts, barrels and armoring, and then begin to try out hard modes. PvPing is can also be a great way to gear up, if the tokens happen to drop from the bags for you. Hope this helps.

Any of you can prove this for yourself by going to your mission log and looking at the lockouts page. Normal and hard modes are on different lockouts, while 8 and 16 man versions share the same lockout. Yes gear in normal mode is auto assigned to people that can use it, and yes it works poorly. I was given many items that were equal to what I was already wearing when it would have been an upgrade for others.

On the mission deck of the Gav Daragon.

I know you can get a white version of that from the social vendor in Voss. Haven't seen the red one since beta.