There is a huge difference between single player games and MMOs, larger, more persistent world, the auction house, and the option to team with others should you so choose. I just think it's a bait and switch to allow players to solo the entire game and then require them to group up at the end. There's no MMO law that says that every one of them has to have endgame raiding as the only possible method of PvE endgame progression. In a game like this one, that has companions, that is doubly true.

Ignore the haters. I have been asking for this for years. Nothing wrong with having raiding as a possible method of endgame character progression, just don't have it be the only PvE method.

Except that if players rolled NEED for something they couldn't use, they could not try to excuse it with 'I need it for my companion', when there's a separate button for that.

I play every day, and I've not capped a single toon yet. I skip nothing, take my time, and currently have 6 characters between 20 and 50. Once I have completed ALL 8 class stories, have every profession maxed out on at least one character, and then completed the endgame content, then I will think about quitting. I don't understand people who quit the game without having seen so much content.

Another solution would be to simply let us use multiple companions at a time.

I'd rather they didn't add the pets. However, if they must, confine them to either the player's ship or their screen only. Yeah, some bada@@ Sith running around (engaging in combat!) while a cute pet follows along. /barf

The OP's post confused me as well. Are you hoping they'll completely redesign it? I'm not clear what your proposal is. What you call 'combat levels' , do you mean character levels?

I see a lot of people blaming the game, but I think most of that blame belongs on the players. Myself included. Let's look at the advantages of playing solo in ANY MMO: - I play at exactly the pace I'm most comfortable with. - I get all the drops. - I take breaks when I feel like it. - I never have to wait for another person to be ready, come back from afk, get to the instance, etc. - I do the quests I want to do, in the order I want to do them. - For NPC conversations, I get to skip what I want to and not skip what I don't want to. - etc. Some people might call this selfish, but so what? Am I expected to pay my 15 bucks a month to sacrifice what I enjoy for some vague 'greater good' of the game? Note that nothing I've listed has anything to do with the particulars of this MMO. Those that want to group will find ways to do so. Heck, even I will, when I feel like it, but I won't feel guilty if I turn down some stranger's random offer to group.

Another issue is that many of the group quests offer little to no social points at all. IMO, EVERY group quest should have at least 3 or 4 parts where you can gain social points.

Keep in mind I'm suggesting that there be a soloing path to acquire this gear, not that it be the only way, and it absolutely should NOT be the fastest way. Secondly, does EVERY MMO have to switch to 'group up or give up' for character progression at endgame? Would it be so wrong if a few of them didn't make this mandatory?

I have played many and enjoy them very much. No single player games have the breadth, scope and life that MMOs have. I like seeing people running around, I like using the auction house, and I like the OPTION to group up when I feel like doing so. I simply don't like that to be the ONLY option for endgame progression.

And yet, sadly, Bioware went the same route as every other damn MMO on the planet and did make it necessary for endgame character progression. I swear, once some developers figure out that if they create an MMO that has a long but very possible method for people to acquire BIS endgame gear without forcing them to group to do so, they'll have found a goldmine.

/shrug I do half and half. I won't argue that not clicking can be faster, but I will argue that if you're not pvp'ing, 99% of the time that little bit of difference doesn't matter. So, I use the keyboard more when it's necessary (boss fights), but it rarely is needed.

^This. Pure wisdom.

Not at all. I'm saying that the information you want makes it too easy. You should have to think and figure it out for yourself, and not have a display meter figure it out for you.

Long corpse runs are not something I would consider fun. Grinding 500 whatevers is not something I would consider fun. Forced grouping is not what I consider fun.

If I'm DPS'ing, and I'm watching a meter on every attack and trying to stay juuuust below what the meter tells me, that's MUCH easier (and teaches nothing) than having to judge how often I can spam my high damage strikes, and need to offset them with lower ones intentionally. All I have to do with a threat meter is make sure I stay below the tank number displayed on my list, requiring no thinking at all. Without that threat meter, I have to watch more carefully, make judgement calls, etc. MUCH more interesting (and more difficult) IMO.

- combat logs: I vote NO. - DPS meters: HUGE NO - threat meters and the like: HUGE NO NO and NO This sentence you added solely for the purpose of being able to tell anyone who disagrees with you how wrong they are for their opinion. My reasons: this bit about combat logs only being usable by that player is an ideal but unrealistic dream. Someone WILL figure out how to get someone else's information or simply demand they display it in chat so they can pass their oh-so-holy judgement on it. DPS meters because too many do not use interrupts and cc powers as they are more concerned with getting to the top of a pointless list instead of using the abilities they should. Threat meters because they dumb down the game. Threat information, displayed on screen in real time is really the epitome of making the game for dummies. If you need a threat meter, L2P.

I have 6 alts and I would've done nothing differently. Since races do not get bonuses, they are no more than costume options to me.

Without character progression, through improved gear, increased power/abilities, or advancing the story, it's no longer an RPG. If you are proposing removing progression, then you are talking about a completely different genre.

It's an RPG. RPG's require character progression. I care little for titles or badges or fluff items. But gear = increased power, and increased power is a big part of progression. So are things like advancing the story. But once you are at endgame, the story has run out, and gear is the only real meaningful progression.

And this is the heart of what I am talking about. It SHOULD be unpredictable. This is why I don't like things like gear checks; it sucks all the fun of the encounter out. If everyone knows in advance that they will be successful, then the act of actually playing out the encounter is reduced to executing pre-memorized plans and steps, with no chance of some random element forcing those players to think and react on the spot.

I have been a programmer for my entire adult life. You can code random enough that the programmer will not know when the variations will occur, or at what values, just the upper and lower limits.

I hope my intent for this post is clear. First of all, props to the OP for all the work done to come up with these numbers, I'm sure it took quite some time of recording data, trial and error, verification, etc. I mean this, in no way, to denigrate the considerable effort he has put in. However, and I can't quite put my finger on why, but when I see reports of such specific numbers, it bugs me that it is even possible for a player of the game to learn this information. It just seems to turn the game into less of a group of Imperials storming an enemy base and more of a game of spreadsheets. I feel similar to the way I do when I learn how a magician's trick works; all sense of magic and immersion is gone, and we're left with boring math. I can appreciate how this might appeal to min/maxer's, and to each his own. But for me, I'd rather there was just enough intentional randomness, from slight variations in such numbers to the odd, unpredictable spike, to make this kind of thing impossible. To make it uncertain and unknowable, even to those who wrote the code. I don't know, but I suspect that few gamers today would agree with my sentiment.

I just started another alt and this one's a sith juggernaut taking armortech. Why do all the non-orange recipes focus on aim and cunning? Why aren't their versions for str/end? Seems kind of odd to me.