As a sorc healer I'd rather bring a merc with than an operative. I think mercs are the most underrated healers out there. If you know your class you can work wonders with them, I just love it when i see that kolto missile hit my aoe heal and the numbers start racking up. If you say mercs can't compete with other classes in numbers consider the fact that mercs actually buff the healing numbers for the other classes as well. I'd say never do a 16 man raid without at least one merc, and bringing 1 for 8 man can never hurt either.

We don't know if we are server first, we haven't really been paying attention, but PvE competition seems to be hard to find, especially on 8 man.

Feel free to do so Leafy_Bug, if you find better ones we may steal some of yours ^^

Personally I think the DG boss is now more on par with the other NiM bosses. Yesterday we did our first real tries on the DG boss ever since the week it was released and we downed it. As a healer I completely agree with the fact that the fight has lost much of it's healing intensity. One time the only reason we died was because 5 people in a row (yes 5!!!! first 2, then 3 more) got a red circle which we as healers could no longer keep up with. Keeping both tanks alive and 2 people with red circles, of which one had wither too, at the same time was NO problem at all. NONE. To be fair it is still harder to us than the 3rd and 4th boss but I guess that's because we had a lot more practice on those than we had on the DG's.

Skill is: Strategic awareness. This is mostly an issue in pvp, knowing what strategy to go for in which warzone. What turrets will you cap or defend when certain events hit? Will you get orbs or defend the middle, these are strategic decisions that are vital. Tactical awareness. When a situation is unfolding in front of you knowing when to act and what to do. In pvp this translates into for example ccing someone rather than damaging them when they are trying to get to someone who is capping an objecting, things like that. In pve it is generally responding to mechanics in the correct way and reacting to random events. Knowing your abilities. Know which ability does what and in which cases which ability is best to use. This includes knowing your rotation and being good at getting high dps as much as mechanics allow. Response time Being able to respond quickly and put all three of the above mentioned to use in the shortest ammount of time possible.

I hope BW doesn't back down under all this pressure. The content so far has been a joke and it is nice to finally have something to work towards. Everyone is struggling, including us, and I'm loving it. If people get to the last phase and even get the boss health down a lot in last phase after just trying 1 day, that shows that it's not impossible. And if all the other bosses are push-overs the answer seems simple: BUFF ALL THE OTHER BOSSES UP!

After starting up my client i noticed there was an update. This update also provided me with a link pointing me towards a post. The system being used was actually being explained to the players and there was even an explaination as to how it would affect you when you when you performed certain actions. After all the flack that you have been receiving from the way you communicate with players I have to say this was one incredibly pleasant surprise. Reading the text I was actually feeling like our issues were being taken seriously and that the information that was given to me was incredibly helpful. It also explained why certain choices were made which makes it easier for us to understand why and means we are less likely to think a decision is stupid. Last but not least I would also like to commend the fact that the post was being linked to. As someone who is not that active on the forum I don't always know where to find information and this link in the client just pointed me straight to where I had to go. What I am suggesting is that you take a good look at this post and think about how you can incorporate all these very good things into future communication with the players. Just to be safe this is the link to the post: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=6144955#post6144955

It has nothing to do with your performance yet it gives you extra medals, commendations etc. To me that is what makes it unfair.

So if the team that attacks first gets through the first door in one minute and is then stopped, after that they keep the enemy at bay at the first door the entire time, you get all the medals for winning it in one minute? Because that's how it works for the team that attacks second.

I feel the system for the voidstar Warzone is very unfair. The faster you download the more medals you get, fair enough. But the team that attacks second gets these medals just for winning. In other words, the first team has to go all the way to the datacore to get these medals while the second team only has to go further than the first team to get them. This means the second team can get these medals with a lot less effort.

An in-game warning would be nice, I only found out after I had my schematics disappear. A little pop-up stating the schematics might disappear when you try to reverse engineer for the first time would be very welcome.