My apologies. I thought that the purpose of this thread was to obtain an answer to your question. Which, despite your not phrasing it, would be: "when will there be (or why isn't there) a fix for the Ilum bug yet?" I thought that by answering your question in a constructive manner by logical deduction and encouraging you to do the same would be quite effective. I suppose that I was wrong, wasnt I? Again, my apologies. Good luck with your crusade to have questions answered twice. All the best. *Edited to correct wrong term usage.

No matter how large, bold, or underlined your text -- BioWare/EA owes you nothing. Try and remember that. Also, I somehow doubt that your life, such as it is, will grind to halt or be irreparably damaged by a temporary issue in SWTOR PvP. That said, do you honestly think that they don't already know about it? Let's think rationally for a moment. There are really only two possible scenarios. The first being that BioWare/EA are aware of the issue you've mentioned and are working publishing a fix (which seems to be the case if you've read the patch notes). The second would be that BioWare/EA is -- again -- aware of the issue that you've raised and, although it's not an ideal situation, they are willing to accept it as clever use of game mechanics for the time being. Please, original poster and the rest of the SWTOR community, I implore you: take a moment to think critically before deciding to post. The answers to questions are much easier to find if you look for them before demanding that someone else give them to you.

I would like to start by commending you for creating such a good post. But, as much as I like the tone, content, and approach of your post, I'm going to have to disagree with you on its main point. I played through early access, hit 50 two days after proper launch, and did a lot of start-and-stop PvP thereafter. After a couple of breaks, I noticed that the opposing faction had been grinding non-stop and had better gear that I did. I wanted to be competitive, so I endured the harsh and sometimes infuriating beatings and losses to get my commendations and complete daily missions. Now I've got my PvP gear (expertise), and when I go PvP, I tear other player's faces off. If I see a fresh level 50, I drop them in a matter of a few GCD cycles. The result of faceoffs with equally geared players depends largely on controller ability, cooldowns, class matchups, etc. And, in my opinion, that's the way that it should be. If a fresh level 50 wants to run in stride with the face-melters, they've got to put in the effort and take their hacks to get there. It's not an elitist thing, it's a work thing. I am good at PvP and I am geared because I worked at it. If someone isn't good and isn't geared, they should get slaughtered in a warzone. This negative reinforcement encourages the player to get better. And, if the player really wants to be better, they will work at it and slowly start to find success. Then the gear comes and augments the skill that the player has developed. That's how it works in PvP and everything else in life. Bioware should take a lesson from the United States in this instance. If you give anything to people whom are too lazy or untalented to earn it, you end up with an overly-entitled population that will abuse their "entitlement" at every opportunity and continually ask for more. This devalues the earnings of those whom are properly motivated and/or talented and discourages them. The result is a net loss in utility, because the earnings have been effectively redistributed. So, for the layman, those who worked for more end up with less and those who haven't worked for as much (if anything) have more.

Interestingly enough, Astral, we have the same legacy surname. lol. To the post: I'd be happy to help you with the sticky if you'd accept it. Specifically concerning theorycraft work for gearing, builds, etc. I also have a fair bit of knowledge of PvP, but lack in PvE. At any rate, if you want help, shoot me a message with what you'd like to see updated and I'll see what I can do.

As much as I would like to support you in your crusade for trousers, I just can't forsake the joy of a cool breeze on my undercarriage.

You could try properly punctuating things.

I'm assuming that you've got a degree in liberal arts, so I'll only be reminding you of one of the caveats of economics instead of telling you. "Economics doesn't make friends."

You're in a tough situation here, mate. I would always say that you should interrupt the heal. But, you've really got to pay attention to what they're casting. A lot of times when I need to heal, I'll use my 3s heal first to bait an interrupt out of my opponent. If they bite and blow their interrupt, I'll get some distance and start using my 1.5s heal. I hope this helped.

If (and this is a big if) a Sage is DPS specced and isn't a glass cannon, it's because of the controller's ability to survive and properly prioritise self-sustainment and damage abilities. That said, there is nothing "wrong" with the class. There are only controllers who understand the game mechanics and how to optimise them. They are mortal and they can die. But, if they save their consumables and protective/restorative abilities (which any good PvP player should), they are very hard to kill. Not because they're playing an overpowered class, but because they're better at PvP than you are. This is not an insult, it's (hopefully) an insight for the original poster and anyone that shares his view.

Sorcerer/Sage about to die... Static Field/Force Armor... Starts to cast Dark Heal/Benevolence.... -->INTERRUPT Sorcerer/Sage will still die whilst trying to cast less effective heals. http://www.problem.com/solved

To the OP: While I don't agree with all of your points, I want to take a moment and thank you. For what, you ask? For being an educated and reasonable person. I often come to these forums looking for information, and -- more often than not -- I spend more time sifting through posts fueled by hair-brained delusions of grandeur and riddled with logical pitfalls than I do absorbing the information I'm after. So, thank you, Mr. Goldman Sachs analyst. Thank you (and your Liberal Arts degree) for posting the first thread I've seen that makes sense and maintains tone from start to finish, and, perhaps most importantly, lacks obvious logical fallacy. Well done, sir. If nothing less, you have the respect of a fellow professional.

Great guide, mate! Truly top work. I've been wondering how people are only coming away with 3 or 4 medals as well. But, I didn't take the time to create a guide, so good on you. I'm curious as to what spec you are, though. Did you go with a hybrid or straight balance?

Yeah, it's harsh. You have to put in time and effort to get something you want. That's brutal. Sorry kiddo, but in the game of life you've got to work for what you get and -- unfortunately for you -- video games are a biproduct of life. In the words of one of my more brilliant economics professors: "Output is a function of input. This is true of all cases in economics as well as life."

No. Just no. Bolster is fine the way it is. At the moment, a level 20 player doesn't stand a chance against me (level 50 champ/cent gear) -- and that's the way it should be. But, if several of them gang up on me, or they hide behind another level 50, I've got to seriously consider running away -- which is the way it should be. There is a massive difference between what is fair and what is equal, and this is what I think you're missing. Bolster isn't fair to lowbies, and rightfully so. Bolster is, however, equal. I would assert that your problem with bolster (and perhaps PvP as a whole) lies in your expectations. Sorry, but you're not going to dominate someone who has put substantially more time into their character than you have. Actually, I'm not sorry. Deal with it. Also, expertise is fine. A cap of 10% increased damage/healing combined with 10% damage reduction results in a net 20% increase to survivability. Which is more than adequate.

I haven't really figured this one out, either. I just go by the assertion that the most costly mission should have the best yield.

Ordered: 07/24/2011 Pestered Origin for code and redeemed on: 10/04/2011 leSigh. Oh well. Here's to hoping that the early October pre-orders find their way in today. Good luck, mates!