I guess I need to dust off Hammer Shot now... Of course that means I'm going to be waving the big neon "KILL ME" sign around. Damn this looks rough on us CMs. I really don't know if I'm going to be able to manage ammo while maintaining decent healing throughput.

The black-yellow crystal is a pre-order crystal. If you pre-ordered any version, collector's edition or not, you get it. If you didn't pre-order you can't get it.

/signed Strangely enough, I play SWTOR because I have fun when I play. That is far more than I can say for many of those "other" games.

I've had very few problems as a Combat Medic using 4X as my companion. I had some problems around lvl 30 myself, but that was because I hadn't upgraded 4X at all. Once I gave him some fresh gear he's a bad ***. Also, make sure to CC on pulls with at least 1 strong/2 weak mobs. With better gear and proper CC you should have a lot less trouble in PvE. As for PvP, I have seen a few people suggest using a blaster rifle rather than an assault cannon. You lose a few abilities (I'm not sure on specifics, but I don't believe any of your heals are affected), but you look like a Vanguard at first glance rather than a Commando. Also like a previous poster mentioned, try opening up with a couple of damaging abilities to appear less like a healer.

You still planning to make that video? I'm curious to see it.

There is a thread in the General Discussion forum regarding one character having both black-red and black-blue sabers simultaneously (http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=296152). Included in the OP of the thread is a picture of the character in question. At the end of page 7 (http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=2805435#post2805435 in specific) a poster suggests a (possible) method for acquiring black-red on a Republic toon. I have no idea if this is accurate information, just thought I would reference the thread for those of you interested.

Never underestimate the level of stupid you will find on the internet.

Did I go into a coma or is it still February? Right. I understand there's some frustration, but if you're giving up trying to make the game and community better then why are you still here?

I have noticed I have a much harder time being a Sith because the NPCs talk and behave relatively realistically. Maybe I just need to go back to my Republic Trooper medic because I'm obviously not evil enough to hack it in the Empire.

To begin, I would like to say I appreciate you having a constructive discussion with us and not being a troll or douchebag. That's much too rare these days. But on to the topic at hand. I understand the desire to be able to skip content you deem superfluous, and I'm not against that. I have sat here for a couple minutes trying to determine how to communicate my desire to leave VOs in, but it occurred to me that I want them left untouched because I enjoy them. If you don't enjoy them then I see no reason why you should be forced to sit through them. If Bioware finds an effective way to implement some sort of auto-accept system I wouldn't be opposed to it. I still think the emphasis on story separates SWTOR from other MMOs, but I'm not the only one paying to play this game.

It seems by your statements that you want to get rid of VO in favor of quest/mob grinding in a race to get to end game. That's fine; however, that is not what Bioware has stated this game will be like. The point of VO is to try and engender a greater level of immersion in the game world. Instead of "kill 10 rats" purely for XP or a quest reward, it's "kill 10 womprats" because this NPC makes a special leather out of their hides. Oh and if you bring him the hides he will make you a Womprat Belt with +10 Endurance as a bonus! I realize that's not revolutionary, but to gamers who appreciate Bioware's reputation for excellent story-telling it is enjoyable to be drawn into the world and given some justification for your in-game actions.

Indeed, different strokes for different folks. I love the emphasis on story. Bioware advertised this game from the start as being a "story-based MMO," and they said it would emphasize the "4th pillar" of story to give the narrative a greater amount of focus than mechanics and grind.

Yes I was trying to emphasize your point, apologies if that wasn't well communicated.

^ Most MMOs are heavily text based. I personally enjoy the dialogue, though. I doubt BW would give players a "skip all cut scenes" button, though, because a large part of the game's length comes from the cut scenes. The Space Bar Warriors proved that when you dispense with the dialogue and cut scenes, leveling to 50 doesn't take all that long.

I thought this was a good Q&A session. I was especially happy about /roll and the discussion of healer imbalances. Thanks to the staff for clearing things up for us!

The reviewer brought up a few interesting points, but what matters to me is that I'm having fun while I play. As long as the game is fun then I will gladly continue to sub. I'm quite sure there are those of you who will be amazed that anyone could have fun with this game, but *NEWS FLASH* it's happening! There are plenty of people enjoying ourselves in the world of TOR. There are plenty of problems with the game. There are lots of quality of life improvements and bug fixes that need to be implemented. Regardless, the game is fun to me so I will continue to play.

Obi-wan is a Guardian, using one saber and heavy armor. Anakin is a Sentinel, using 2 sabers and leather armor.

relevant or not, I found the link (and some associated browsing of the site) to be highly entertaining. thanks

The new patch is a content update in the form of a patch, not an expansion pack. If they were charging money then I would consider that you might, and I would like to stress that word, have a point. However, they aren't expecting you to have to buy both so there isn't any significant competition between games.

I really don't think this is a good idea. Eliminating the primary difference between scoundrel/combat medic and sages would lead to a homogenization of the healing classes that I don't think would be the best option. I like the added complexity of resource management when I heal. Sure, it can be frustrating at times. But I think completely eliminating that will take a lot of the fun out of healing as a CM. As it is, once you hit your mid-20s you can heal practically forever without running out of ammo. The primary scoundrel/op concern of energy cost/regen needs to be addressed somehow, but I don't think a flat energy increase is the best way to go. Altering the energy cost of certain skills or changing some of the talents to increase energy regen or decrease energy consumed seems like it would be better.

It matters to my bottom line. If someone chooses to buy my stack of 99 mats then price them higher, that is perfectly ok with me because I got my big pay day. I'll change my point slightly and say that I also think it would be bad for the market overall to implement that kind of change. I believe that allowing people to buy out individual items from a stack alters the market forces in a negative way. The market will become a race to be bottom. The only driving factor will be who has the lowest price per item, which creates an unhealthy market.

Your attempt to come off as smug and superior is undermined by the fact that you didn't understand the point he was making. It is common practice when selling in bulk to offer a lower price per item. If buyers can choose to purchase as many or as few from your stack as they please, they could buy 5 of your stack and repost them immediately as singles at a higher price. With the current system they have to commit to buying the entire stack in order to profit off of your lower-priced mats. L2Read next time before being an ***.

Excellent post! I like many of the suggestions you have made. I would like to comment on one in specific: I love the idea to increase the usefulness of Kolto Bomb. I also agree that a damage increase would be more valuable than a DoT for the exact reason you mentioned. However, I do believe that a non-stackable debuff would be better than making it stackable. Calling Kolto Bomb "spammable" is being pretty generous. Throwing 5 KB's to get the full 10% debuff would end up putting you practically out of ammo. Maybe a 5% debuff with the ability to stack once to get 10%, but any more stacks than that and it quickly becomes impossible to achieve the stacks needed without sacrificing an excessive amount of ammo. Other than that, though, I think you did a good job of organizing and presenting some interesting ideas. Hopefully some more people in the community can hop in here and give some feedback as well!

I'm not a huge fan of this idea unless, as a previous poster mentioned, the seller can choose if they want their stack to be breakable by buyers. Personally I follow a rule that I will offer a better price/item if I'm selling a larger quantity. I don't want someone to see the price/item I'm charging then only buy a few of that item. If I want to sell 10 of the item I will likely charge more than if I'm selling 99.

Part of the problem is likely that healing is nerfed in WZs. I don't fully understand the thought process their either. They nerf Operatives because they are killing people "faster than intended" but they keep a 30% healing debuff, which would keep people from dying "faster than intended" right?