I have to agree, I miss the Rapid Shots healing. I thought that was one of the cool things about the Merc, being able to heal with 2 pistols. Now he shoots an imaginary dart and holds his hands up with his guns still on his hip. It feels clunky and inanimate to me...and boring. I'd like to see it brought back as well. I've never had a problem with healing myself or anyone else with it and tbh other than what I've read in this post I never new there was a problem with it.

The Hero of the Republic! http://i.imgur.com/apbuUzi.jpg

Noooooo!!! I need my antenna!! I just found the best spots for reception and can finally watch The Clone Wars on my new flat screen I just installed in my helmet...

I respecced today and took Energy Blast and Blaster Augs. When I did my tank spec I took into account the added ammo from Energy Blast but for some reason skipped over the added stack of Power Screen. You are all correct, it is much more beneficial than Brutal Impact. I had a lot more fun tanking SM EV today (new tank) as well and used less Hammer Shot, which is always better. I was able to get 4 stacks of Power Screen and had all my attacks on cooldown before I even had to use Hammer Shot. Thanks for the wake up call I'm not sure where you get the 3% from Justcae. There are 2 points in Brutal Impact +6%...but it's gone now, regardless

Personally I wouldn't use that rotation. It doesn't start your cooldown on Stockstrike soon enough and using Energy Blast after using only a few ammo is a waste. Sticky Bomb -> Storm -> Stockstrike -> Explosive Surge (1) -> Ion Pulse -> HiB -> Stockstrike (if it reset due to shielding, if not, Ion Pulse) -> Explosive Surge (2) -> Energy Blast By the time you throw your SB and Storm you'll have gained at least 1 ammo from regen and 1 from shielding and attack, then during your ES or it's GCD you'll have gained another ammo back. You're trying to gain AOE threat and keep threat on your priority target. If dps start in too early and don't take out the trash first you'll lose aggro fast. Always SB and Storm your highest priority target: You also want to spread your Surges out, 1 at the beginning and 1 at the end to maximize the damage debuff on your targets. Your GCD is 1.5 secs so you'll have expended 3 seconds before using the first ES and the last one will be after 9-10 seconds. That will also give you about 20s of 5% less damage from the group. I don't have Energy Blast talented because I never go low on ammo and the damage from the attack isn't a great threat builder. I took Brutal Impact instead for the added 6% damage to HiB since it gets a 60% talented armor penetration. This is my spec

I'd say you are right. In good groups I've always seen the tank go first, get aggro for 2-3 seconds then dps jumps in. This game is crazy how many dps go first. Honestly, I hate Sentinels, they think they own the FP and I haven't seen one yet that thinks otherwise. I usually just tell the healer to let the dps die if they jump in first. They'll either learn their lesson or leave and you can reque for another dps.

or maybe I can't tank... I've always run as a healer but decided to try the other end of the spectrum for once, and it's more challenging than I thought. I'm a recent 50 Vanguard tank in full orange gear and have done about 2 days worth of dailies. I had enough daily comms to buy all the item lvl 51 Commando armorings from the vendor and a friend was nice enough to give me item lvl 50-51 shield/absorb Enhancements, enough of both for every piece of gear). I have a few purple "Mods" but most of them are still lvl 48ish blues. They add about +4 absorb where the purples from dailies add +8 and abit more endurance. I have lvl49 purple redoubt>Veractiy impants, MK-1(Supercommando?) BH earpiece, and 2 recruit relics (+97 shield/defense) and have about 16k hp. My shield is a crafted lvl 49 purple (forgot which). My shield chance is roughly 48% and absorb is roughly 40%. I'm also running the cookie cutter PvE shield spec. I ran HM FE the other night and did fine (full rakata dps and good heals) but tried to run HM Kaon (group finder) and died on the first droid mob. I have no problem holding aggro but my health drops to about 1/2 almost instantly and the healer couldn't keep me up. The healer was in columi/rakata gear. She checked my gear and saw the blue "Mod"s and left the group, taking the rest with her. My question is what am I doing wrong? Should I not be in Kaon until I get some Columi gear? Do I need to pop my defense CD on 1 mob? The healer from my FE run said I take a ton of damage as well. A week of dailies will get me about +24 absorb through the purple "Mod"s but I can't see that as being between life and death. Any help is appreciated.

Not that it's not a good guide. It's outdated and hasn't been kept up.

Not that it's not a good guide. It's outdated and hasn't been kept up.

I liked the Trooper story, though it seemed to drag through the end of Act 1. Act 2 was the best though. I got bored with the Consular story during Act 1 and didn't know much of what was going on through the ending. The best stories I've played so far were Inquisitor and BH.

As a Shield spec VG I just stayed back and used hammer shot, ion pulse, and mortar volley. I would use storm off cd and then explosive surge before I got knocked back. Throw your sticky grenade and use HiB on cd's. I had Elara In her dps stance and killed them quickly. Same for Rakton.

I'm approaching the end of Act 3 and I can say that the dark side has been tons of fun. If you choose every dark side choice be prepared to dish out tons of gifts to your companions though.

I want my Vanguard to use a techstaff, they are melee range

Where can you take a pic of the full squad?

There are countless threads on this, just scroll down a bit, or google it, tons of websites as well... Just a quickie though. Scoundrels are in your face, or behind you more like it, with a shotgun as an OH. Cloaky is nice. Gunslingers are ranged and having a lvl 20 GS I can say I am having a blast in PvP. They are cover dependent but have some good roots and stuns. I can burn most classes down if they are lvl 35ish and below but 40's I have trouble with. They just have too many more abilities unlocked than I do. Also remember that a GS is ONLY dps, Scoundrel is dps or heals.