I do think that they went to the current system from the old because it is easier to balance as you don't have to worry about lower levels of non-main trees providing too much boost to such characters. Because the solution to that situation which would keep trees would be to nerf the lower level trees such that characters get very little benefit from that portion of the leveling curve (which would lead to more quitting at low levels without any noticeable increase in power) and thus damage player retention. The new way is easier to balance. That is not the same as saying that they have a lot of interest in tweaking class balance at this point, but the original intent is still valid.

Apparently you started MMOs with WoW or EQ and never looked at other games. Ultima Online and Star Wars Galaxies let you build your own path and mix and match skills as you liked, up to a certain skill cap (at least with swg). Not all current mmos have such limitations. Classes in ESO do limit you to certain class skills, but weapon and armor skills can be picked up by any class. DKs can heal, Nightblades can tank, Mages can tank or heal or dps. In TSW there are no classes, just skillsets you can pick from. In GW2 (at least when I played) there was no strict tank or healer class, but you could buff allies and debuff enemies.

That's pretty much it. I'm sure there is a guide in the pvp forum that discusses any details on making that 162 suit.

Do not wear your ops gear in pvp as any gear higher than 162 will cause you to lose expertise due to how bolster works. Check either the pvp forum or reddit to get the breakdown on how to do so (I believe you can do something like a 168 barrel/hilt and 148 mod/enh). If you pvp in your ops gear you will garner a bad name for yourself as you will be taking more damage from enemy players while healing for less/doing less damage to players who already have a damage reduction. Unfortunately it's not real obvious that you shouldn't queue for pvp in high end pve gear but at least you're reading about it here and will be able to decide if and how you will start your "pvp" set of pve gear (so you can start your pvp comm grind).

No worries dude. Like I said, the videos were very well done. Just your voice being so soft on the demo. Otherwise really good. And neat intro too. Good job, good content.

Good content. My only comments are relating to the second video vs. the first. The volume in the second listed video (how to bolster) was pretty much perfect. Move to the demonstration video (first linked) and your voice is super quiet requiring an increase in my pc's volume. Then you have the "round 1, fight" audio which is about 10x louder than your own voice. Since I'd maxed my laptop's volume my ears were blown out. Luckily I wasn't using headphones. That's really my only comment, work on regulating the voice over volume to match that of the "how to bolster" video. Otherwise the videos are very well done and I'll be on the look out for other videos from you.

+1 for revert Never would have occurred to me that the way it has been since launch was unintended. This is a QoL issue and should be reverted or made toggleable.

You needed 58/66's for act 3 finale? You're bad. This is not good evidence of anything except for not being good. It's meant for level 47-50 and I did it at 46. Took a bit with some misses and whatnots, but was quite doable.

It's kind of silly to press random name 25x and get "that name is unavailable" each and every time.

I'm pointing this out because people who have no idea how software development works often speak/post this sentiment. However, if you have ever worked in software development you know that when you add people to a team, you slow the existing team down as they try to help the new people get up to speed (and/or fixing the unintended consequences that new devs will typically cause with their first additions to the codebase). Anyone wanting to spout off about how adding devs doesn't impact things should at least look at the amazon page for "The Mythical Man Month" so they can not spout things that show they obviously don't know what they're talking about. I'm not saying in the long run that it wouldn't help. I'm speaking mainly to short term (6-9 months depending upon the complexity of a code base new folks are dropped into), but there are limits to what manpower can do. To quote a well known phrase, 9 women can't make a baby in one month. Yes, tor needs more frequent updates and at the very least they need to stop counting difficulty modes as separate raids. Content locusts will never be satisfied, but Bioware could approach things better with their communication (unlike additional staffing, that's relatively free, only costs time). It's one place where companies should really try to emulate blizz. That said, I sub to both tor and wow and have 15 toons on my main server in tor. Bioware is keeping me because of their 1-50 story, not because of their end game (I raided through sm tfb and hm ec pre-makeb and had fun, I just enjoy wow's raids more).

Actually, you remember wrong. Wow has dual spec, not dual class. Not sure where you came up with that fantasy, but you cannot be a hunter/warlock who switches between bm hunter and destro lock. Not possible, never even mentioned as a possibility. What game are you talking about? Rift?

Never buy a guide for leveling in swtor. Just do every quest you come across and you'll be fine. If you're a subscriber, get rest xp when able. Use xp boosts from the cartel market if you have the money or see if you can pick some up on the GTN. If the quests you're doing are green to you, maybe just do your class quests until you get to a point that quests are yellow again. There's absolutely no reason to use a guide to level in swtor. I say this as someone who uses the wow-pro guide when leveling in wow. The difference is that swtor has no variety in leveling content. You'll never be wondering "where do I go next?" if you're leveling via quests. You're always going to be hitting planets in a certain order. The other options running a lot of pvp or flashpoints, or....that's about it. Until GSF launches and you can level that way. Similar thread: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=5436147

Lowbie fp queue takes 2 hours to pop. Get in to Cademimu and the tank, after 8 minutes, d/c's, then reconnects, then chooses to drop group. Healer says "my comp can tank this." Other dps and I say ok. Healer did 80% dps, 20% healing, but it's going ok, if slow. Then the healer runs ahead at a part we can shortcut through with crafting and 45 seconds later the other dps goes down after healer pulls a group without us (we caught up after crafting the shortcut). "Gimme a minute, I'll stealth and rez you." Sounds good right? We get that trash mob down and other dps accidentally clicks rez at med droid instead of accept rez. I think "No biggie, he'll be back soon." Little did I know that the healer, after seeing the convo about "doh, clicked the wrong button," decided to pull the next room alone. I was about 100 virtual yards away waiting for our teammate. Healer/comp dies, the mobs find and kill me, and then healer says, "sorry guys, I don't have time for this" before leaving. Thanks mr "my comp can tank this," for reminding me why I don't run leveling fp's unless I'm with a guildie and one of us is the healer.

Yes, but you said per the RotHC press release, which doesn't mention them. Since including new hm fps would be a good bullet point to have, I'd think they'd be mentioned if they were explicitly part of RotHC. They didn't even make a vague statement of "at least 1 previously unavailable hm fp." I'm more inclined to believe they're part of 2.0. Either way, we should be as clear as we're able when throwing out comments. At this time, RotHC does not include the new hm fps, per the information they've given us. They might require RotHC if you can't level beyond 50 without it, but the earlier statement you made is incorrect. Not trying to be trolly, just trying to make sure I hadn't missed a bullet point that would justify my pre-ordering RotHC.

Where are you getting the FP's being mentioned on the page for RotHC? Cause I'm at http://www.swtor.com/rothc and I'm not seeing those fps mentioned at all. Not saying they aren't part of rothc, but if they had been mentioned originally, I would have preordered.

I'm fine with not pre-ordering. Are people confused as to the intent of the OP? To say he's not preordering until there's more info. I'm agreeing. Most mmos tend to give more than a vague "more levels" "one geographic area" list when they announce an "expansion." Bioware has chosen not to. That's fine if they don't want to over promise, but they won't see my money until I get some actually useful information. But thanks for telling me not to preorder. That was insightful.

The principle of not just throwing down money because I can and because it's vaguely Star Warsy. The principle of wanting information about what I'm getting and not just being eager to give Bioware money. It's not hard to grasp. I'm happy to give them more money if I have to pay the full price, but I won't give them money for making vague statements. That shouldn't be the behavior we incentivize. If you don't get that, that's fine. I'm not alone in my sentiments (see OP).

Find a different instance of the planet. The boss is probably up there or at least on a different respawn timer.

Agree with OP. Makeb could make me stay subbed or it could be the reason I unsub. If there are not new flashpoints (if not ops) then I'm not paying $10 or $20 for a Saturday worth of quests. I would do so if they seemed poised to shift into DCUO mode where there are $10 content packs every 4-6 months, but they've given no indications of having that kind of long term plan. Something else to consider, preorder price is less than the lifeday speeder. It's even less than an outfit from the cc. Do they really consider the content in Makeb to be equivalent to less than 2 outfits on the cc (full price)? To any that say, "It's just $10 you cheap dude," I respond that price isn't the point. How they treat their customers is. I doubt that anyone who is holding on ordering is doing so with the money playing any part. We're adults, we're employed, it's not the money. It's the principle.

He mentions Rift because he's genuinely excited by what's happening in Rift. The Storm Legion expansion adds 3x the current area to the game, adds player housing, it's a pretty big addition to a mmo. There's nothing wrong with comparing a game who has frequent updates (Rift) to a game that has infrequent updates (tor) and being honest about the difference between them. They compare to wow, to swg, and to lotro as well. Anyone upset about that should probably just stick to the fan boy podcasts out there and avoid any honest discussion about the status of tor. Such a person also probably thinks that the Life Day speeder is sweet and that "you'll be excited by it" is an accurate statement.

Mooftak here. Got some SF/Kettemoor folks on Jedi Covenant. We're doing ok. Casual raid progression, not much pvp with my guild, but there are some folks I do pvp with when I'm in the mood. How many folks do you guys have on your servers (in guild, from swg, etc)? Any lowbie pvp going on? I probably have some lowbie alts that got transferred to diff servers.

You should probably stop reposting the same idea multiple times (and I'll stop replying). See the link below for why "smart" aoe heals probably aren't going to happen. Essentially they want the healer to be smarter than the heal. So re-read what I posted originally and start targetting better/having your wounded dps position themselves in a manner that doesn't prevent you from healing them efficiently. If you are unclear what I mean by that, send me a pm, I'd be happy to work through it with you. http://www.swtor.com/blog/community-qa-june-15th-2012 That being said, I do recommend you hit the commando forums for threads that are helpful for new healers, possibly the classes->roles->healers forum, and maybe http://mmo-mechanics.com/.

I believe Kolto bomb heals based on where you place it, so if you heal the wrong folks, it's because you didn't toss it to the area closest to the 2 who took damage and instead lobbed it to where it landed closest to the 4 you didn't want to heal. I'm assuming that they would have been on one side and thus it'd be relatively easy to throw it nearer to them than some of the other 4 who were at full health-ish. Also, FWIW, you probably shouldn't be using Kolto bomb on 2 folks who took damage unless 1) it's supercharged and you want the armor effect on them, 2) they're very isolated from others (which helps prevent your original problem), 3) took significant damage. I personally only throw area heals if 3 or more folks need healing, like platform dropping in EV (where you're guaranteed to hit someone who needs heals), or on Toth (tank + 2 melee) in EC. If 2 people need minor heals, they get minor heals when appropriate, based on priority. Been awhile since I've mando healed, so I may be thinking of the wrong heal. Probably a good idea to hit the commando forum and check the sticky for better info on tips and tricks with mando / merc healing, and/or search it for kolto (with a k) bomb threads. As an FYI, devs posted that they made it work the way it does as a conscious decision. They want healers to be targetting / placing heals with thought.

Will the info or the slots be available before or after we get information about the super secret space project?

I think (but could be wrong) that it's pretty obvious that I meant in combat cc, which IMO is more useful more often. There are some things I can cc as a scoundrel that help runs go faster due to skipping trash, but not many. Additionally, there seems to be a bug lately where a cc'd enemy that you're now 500m from reaches the end of his cc and then decides he's aggro'd, though again, you're far away and never threw threat his way. That's not fun, so we stopped skipping some mobs who seem to have that tendency. Anyways, I can't (as a scoundrel or sent) re cc anything non-droid if it gets broken. You can, depending on circumstances. As far as interrupts go, other classes don't have knock backs, so there are tradeoffs (and I am in favor of mando/mercs getting a true interrupt). I've never actually run with a group that didn't use JG push, Consular push, or Mando kb (or their emp equivalents) to knock Malgus off the edge in FE HM. I've also never been helpful as a scoundrel, sent, or powertech, in that situation (the knock off). FWIW my guild runs w/ dps mandos and mercs all the time and don't have any significant "I wish we had x so we could do y" issues. FWIW, we'd never ask a mando to offheal. Actually, I've counseled a guildie who would do so that we needed his dps more than his heals and that he was wasting my heals. We do let mandos do in combat revives since IMO it is better for one dps to cast that and let the healer keep healing what is likely a precarious situation where 2 heals make the difference between another toon living/dying. I've also seen well geared and played mandos can off tank in truly dire situations (it was a very well geared mando and circumstances played out such that his dps kept him on top of the threat table w/o taunts). Unique, but shows what is possible. I guess I'll agree to disagree on whether or not the different classes different abilties provide equivalent tradeoffs. In the end, if you're frustrated with your classes abilities, try another class, another game, take a break, or change focus for a little bit. I don't mean that as "go back to wow" or anything like that, just that sometimes we all need a break. I'm reading this subforum because my "change focus" break has me on my mando. Good luck out there.