Thanks guys! I'll take this advice to heart and probably switch over to a PvE server. It's gonna hurt starting all over again, but eh. It'll be worth it if I end up enjoying the server more. I've heard good things about both Harbinger and Jedi Covenant through the forums, so I guess I'll give one a shot.

Hi guys! I was just curious about a few things. I am a fairly new player to the game and thus far have mostly focused on DPS classes to get a feel for the game. Traditionally, I am either a tank or healer. I played WoW for a multitude of years alternating between Warrior, Paladin, and Priest mains. My favorite roll of all has always been tank though. It is difficult and a lot of stress, but I enjoy it. From what I've been reading online and around these forums though, the community as a whole are very judgmental of tanks and quite harsh in their grading of them and such reports have left me afraid of tanking at all. I have since tried a couple healing classes and have found success playing a Mercenary and a Sage and while I enjoy it, it simply is not as exciting as tanking and certainly does not feel as rewarding. So how is the community on new players when it comes to a tank? Are they normally forgiving and leave room for mistakes or is it a quick learning curve or quickly find yourself denied in groups? From what I understand, tanking in this game is a tough role and is likely one I will need a good bit of practice at, but it is where my passion in MMOs usually lays. It is mostly that I enjoy this game immensely and do not want to be turned off by bad community experiences considering the community seems rather small and exclusive to begin with. ^.^ Also, with that in mind I have a couple questions: RP servers vs PvE servers: Which tends to have a larger and more active community? I like the idea of being able to eventually RP as I max out my character, but I've been in an RP server thus far and I've seen the general chat go dead quiet for over an hour on some planets and up to 30 minutes on the fleet, sometime longer. It makes the game feel a bit dead for an mmo and as a social player, it drives me a bit crazy. I was just wondering if that is normal or just unique to my server. ^.^ Republic vs Empire: Which tends to be more active and more willing to group? I've noticed that as a republic player, finding open world groups for Heroics tends to be a pain and most of the time you simply get a "gain more levels so you can solo it" as a response. Beginning tanking: If I do decide to start tanking, which class tends to be the easiest to 'learn' in? I like to PvP a good bit while I play, so decent PvPing would be nice as well. I know each class has its advantages and disadvantages and if I get into tanking, I plan to own all of them, but I'd like to start with the 'easiest' to learn. Thanks ahead of time. I appreciate you taking the time to help a wee little noob. ^.^

Thanks a ton for that. I was quite confused there for a bit. ^.^

Is there one? In the beginning, i didn't think that there would be any difference between the Republic classes and the Imperial classes, but boy I was wrong. I raised a Bounty Hunter (Mercenary) to 30 and enjoyed it, so decided I would try a Smuggler (Scoundrel). It didn't take me long to notice that there were vast differences between the two classes and the way they played and the skills you get and how they are used. So, I was wondering if there was an in depth guide of the difference? For example, the difference between a Shadow and an Assassin? Does one have more AoE aggro? Does one tank better than another? Difference between a Juggernaut and a Guardian? I've heard that even the way they do their jumps have differences. Was just curious if there was such a guide somewhere, thanks!

I was curious if I should try playing on a European server rather than American. I live in CST as I am in Mississippi, but my work has me on a strange schedule. My normal active hours are as follows: (My Time) 11:00 PM CST - 2:00 PM CST (East Coast) 12:00 AM EST - 3:00 PM EST (West Coast) 09:00 PM PST - 12:00 PM PST (European) 05:00 AM GMT - 8:00 PM GMT This leaves me offline during most prime American times. 3:00 PM-Midnight on East Coast, Noon until 9:00 PM on the West coast, but from 8:00 PM till 5:00 AM in European time. This would have me off during the time all the Europeans are normally sleeping. So, should I join a European server to have more of a MMO experience where I am playing with other players more often, or are there enough players on the West and East coast servers to meet my needs? I'd prefer an American server as I'd have more in common with the players there, but I am an extremely social players and hate the feeling of being the only one online, which I've noticed happens a lot with my schedule on my current server. (One of the RP servers, can't remember which right now.)

Okay, so I like to mainly tank and heal. I enjoy utility classes the most as they seem to have the greatest payoff. The problem is, I am currently looking for a main and I don't want to be stuck leveling a character I won't enjoy. For this reason, I was looking for some clarification on some class comparisons that I can't quite figure out. Guardian vs Shadow Okay, so I've read that Shadow is best at damage mitigation. This basically means that the Shadow needs less healing or at least is easier to heal than the Guardian. At the same time though, the Guardian is supposed to be better at tanking raid bosses. This confuses me because wouldn't the tank with the better damage mitigation be better at tanking bosses? Also, I understand that the Guardian is the worst tank at picking up adds/multiple targets and Shadow is somewhere in the middle. Once more, wouldn't this make Shadow better at endgame raiding? I'm just a bit confused here. Sage vs Scoundrel From what I understand here, Scoundrel has more mobility than Sage due to Sage having long cast times. From what I understand, Scoundrel also has larger single heal than sage. Sage has a shield that Scoundrel doesn't have though, which I understand is pretty handy. So my question is if the Sage's shield is worth the lack of mobility and and less healing. I'd prefer to play a sage because it seems to have a more traditional healer feel, but I don't want to make it my main if a Scoundrel or Combat Medic has larger heals AND more mobility. I originally thought that Sage's lack of mobility was made up by larger heals, but I'm starting to understand that assumption was wrong.

Hey guys! I'm a new player from the CST time zone. I bought a subscription earlier today from wal-mart without even realizing the game had gone F2P. I regret nothing as from what I've read and seen, the subscription is fully worth it. I hail from other MMOs like WoW, GW, GW2, DDO, LOTRO, RoM, and Star Trek Online. I am a healer at heart and always main heals and side as a tank in every MMO I play. I have not yet chosen a Server or a class yet to main with as I'm waiting for the game to finish downloading, but I figured I'd stop by and give a hello anyways. Always fun to meet a few people and get some advise before heading into a game anyways!

Hey guys! I'm a new player who just started playing on Sunday. I have spent the last two days experimenting with classes and learning about the game which was enough to convince me to subscribe as I quickly fell in love with the game. Now that I have subscribed and am ready to buckle down, get a main character, and really get into the game, I wanted to ask some questions to put me in position to really succeed in the game. I thank you all for your help ahead of time and I hope my questions do not annoy you too much because they really are typical noobie questions. Question 1: Server? So, here is my first question. In your opinions, which server is the best for a social and active player? I enjoy playing skill classes like healers and tanks and because of that, I absolutely love the MMO part of a MMORPG. I love being in groups helping people, I love chatting, and I love leveling with others. I know one of my favorite times in a MMO was when I started a new character with a friend in WoW and we leveled from 1-80 as partners and followed the story line together. It made questing more fun, made it quicker, made it easier to get into groups, and much more. I hate leveling solo and from my limited experience in the game so far, I know that I will be spending most of my play time either in Flash Points or PvP, which means that I will require an active community to play with. I am central time zone, so East or West coast servers are fine. I just know that I joined one of the RP servers and 70% of the time, even general chat was dead. As a healer, I had to wait nearly 90 minutes to get into a low level FP (Athiss) and I think that is a bit insane. I enjoy the PvP aspects of the game and really got into healing and defending points on the maps, but I think being on a PvP server is something different all together. My highest level is a level 30, so I didn't really see many zones where Republic and Empire players crossed paths, much less open world PvP. What is open world PvP like? Is it enjoyable or harsh for a new player? If so, is it likely I should start on a PvE or RP server? I am new at RP, but enjoyed the bit I have done so far, so I'm really open to the type of server to join. I just want a server that feels like a MMO instead of feeling like I'm the only one online a lot of the time. I even joined a guild with a little over 200 people in it and yesterday, I was the only one online for nearly 7 hours. As I said, I am a social player and playing alone gets boring quickly. If I wanted to play alone, I'd boot up the PS3 and go buy some star war single player games. Question 2: Classes? No, this is not your typical 'which class is better' question. As I understand it, the classes are pretty well balanced in this game. That said, I am a healer main and a tank secondary. I love healing and it is where I have the most fun. I know that the Consular/Sorcerer, the Scoundrel/Bounty Hunter, and the Trooper/Agent all have a healing class. I understand that Consular/Sorcerers tend to be less mobile where as Scoundrel/Bounty Hunters tend to be more mobile with their healing. Each has their own strength and weakness, but what I want to know is which is the easiest to learn healing on? I will likely have one of each before it is all over, but I would prefer to start with the easiest to learn so that I have a steady main that I can really learn the game on. Also, the same question goes for tanking if I decide to go that role. Which is the easiest to learn to tank on? I will likely be going the Consular/Sorcerer path because I've heard their Shield is pretty handy in tight spots, but I haven't quite decided yet. Question 3: Professions and Making Money? I once asked someone what the best way to make money way in this game. They told me to get three gathering professions and at the time, it seemed like a great idea. It wasn't until after I got all 3 professions to around level 300 that I realized most of my money was actually coming from Scavenging and the other two really weren't helping much. It came to me that it was more profitable to send all of my companions to do Scavenging rather than splitting them between Scavenging, Bio analysis, and Slicing. This made it feel like I had wasted a ton of time raising the other two. Because of this, I made an alt with Scavenging, Armormech, and Underworld Trading. I didn't seem to make as much money this way due to me using all of my gathered resources raising Armormech, but it seemed more useful because I could actually make my own armor and easily keep my companions well geared. In the end, I really wasn't sure which worked better for me. From your experience, what path is better to go? Also, on that note if you are focused on just making money, is it better to do a lot of lower level gathering missions or just a few higher level gathering missions? I know that level 5 metals sell for more than level 2 metals, but I can get 5-10 level 2 metals in the time it takes to get one level 5 metal. Which makes credits faster? Bulk materials or higher level materials? Also, is it normal for your professions to out level your character? On my armormech alt, I was a level 30 with level 362 armormech. I was making level 40+ armor and it just felt odd to me. Wasn't sure if this was normal or not. I'm sure I'll come up with some more questions before I gather all my resources and make my main, but for now these are the big ones. Thanks ahead of time for the help and answers!