Signed what someone else said earlier- if the Strike Commander is giving you issues, you may want to level a bit after you get the level 30-32 class quest before you try it. Bring Andronikos with decent gear, don't stand in the AoE. I don't think I popped Deflection. I'm full Darkness so I have a bit more survivability but overall I just had a stim and medpack ready and engaged him. I popped Channel at 50% and used Force Slow (I may be mistaken - he was way behind me but he could be immune to slow and just naturally slow) to kite and tossed out attacks and taunts to keep him off Nikos. Then the boss died, collect credits.

This whole thread has been re-hashed about a million times. The fact of the matter is such: the problem you have isn't with the meters, it's with the people. If you group with people that have ridiculous complexes and need to be the highest damage on everything- you'll be grouping with an ***. And an *** is an *** with or without the meters. With them- he links meters, without them- he chats about the insane crit he just got and how everyone else sucks. The difference is with meters he gives empirical, honest data. Stop grouping with bads and group with decent people instead of just 'whomever', and you'll no longer have these problems, and moreover you'll starve the annoying jerks of their power- they'll be forced to group up with one another. Stop railing against meters and combat logging. I'm a tank, I'm a healer- I've never played a DPS class. I can't stand it- I find DPSing boring. I love damage/healing/activity/death/dispel meters and combat parsing. As a raid lead they tell me who is performing up to par, and what can be done about it. As a tank they tell me when I'm taking too much damage and why, so I can avoid it. As a healer they tell me who IS taking too much damage and/or why they're dying and what from. Without these tools I'm left to guess, make assumptions, and bang my head against the wall. With them- I'm informed. I can make informed decisions: anyone can. The decisions made are based on information and logic, not opinions and guesses (a notoriously bad way to make decisions). The decision itself is up to the individual raid leader/group leader/player. If you have a problem with the decisions, blame the decision-maker, not the tools they use. I'm sorry those of you have been burned in the past by people with combat parsing tools- I really am. It's unfortunate that the world consists of a lot of jerks. In order to play at the high echelons of PVE competition this game will require at max level and still be challenging- parsing the numbers (and that's what competitive PVE is about- numbers. My numbers vs the boss's numbers) will analyze weak points and allow the raid to compensate. A non-challenging encounter will require no meters. If you don't like them- group with people that don't care if you win or lose the fight, and you guys can do whatever you like. But for people coming to this game seeking higher-end PVE competition, this will be of the utmost importance or they simply will move on. And you might not care, which is grand- maybe serious players only account for 15% of the game's revenue. That's 15% fewer tanks, healers, DPS- the people that follow them, the friends of theirs, the direct and indirect benefits they bring. That's fine. But please don't complain when you shoo these people away and then there's nothing to do at max level besides roll alts or PVP. Love and hugs.

Not sure what level you are but my Inquisitor had the option of snagging one on Tatooine- I'm only level 35.

Gonna agree here- haven't had any issues leveling in the 31/0/whatever I'm working on now. I'm level 35 currently. Granted, I'd like to go into Madness because it seems like fun, but I enjoy being nigh indestructible and dunno if I could get used to going deep madness this late.

Quoted for truth again. I'm playing early now- the privilege of pre-ordering gave me that time. Once the 20th hits and I pay $15 monthly to play, a 3 hour queue (hell- a 20 minute queue) isn't going to cut it. I realize it's 'expected' or 'typical' for a launch, but if the stress testing wasn't to find out how much rack space they needed for 'x' number of players at 'y' peak capacity, it served little point. This is 'acceptable' for 3 more days.

The only times Khem dies on me is when I'm taking on consecutive packs (or consecutive Elites) and forget to Seethe between groups and start a fight with him at 15% health. I've just landed on Alderaan, for a point of reference. I keep him just as well geared (if not better) than me. I tried Andronikos for a while but I don't like him, and the ship droid's healing is sub-par even after gearing him (I'm Cybertech). Khem provides some light heals, some massive damage soaking and some solid damage output. I keep him in DPS stance but leave his taunt on auto-cast now that I'm a formidable tank in my own right (Darkness spec). I Guard him, and we go to town and wreck things. Groups of Strong mobs get cut down. We savour elites like a fine wine, but they die like everything else. Heroic 2 quests are easymode, and if we pull things we shouldn't - Force Cloak to reset and try again. Khem is a beast and I wub him. I accidentally read a story spoiler about what happens to him later and I got miffed because his character is pretty awesome the way he is.

I'm a Darkness tank so stealth has extremely little use for me, and as for damage mitigation- sure, I've got tons of it. There's a baseline Assassin (or Inq) ability that functions as a shield wall, not sure what it's called; but my tree is full of mitigation and damage reduction; not so big on stealth mechanics and such.

Smells like a troll. OP posts a vague question and won't elabourate because whatever he wants to say is obviously negative and worthy of another warning. Move along, eh?