Have people forgotten this? http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2011/04/together-we-work-alone-two-days-with-star-wars-the-old-republic/2/ "Still, Erickson stressed that none of the multiplayer game experiences are compulsory. " You never have to play PvP, you never have to play a heroic, you never have to play a flashpoint," he said. But since you lose none of the single-player experience by grouping up, and you get access to heroics and flashpoints you would otherwise have to miss, there isn't much reason not to try it." Or this... http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2011/12/forever-alone-stars-wars-the-old-republic-as-a-single-player-game/

This makes a lot of sense. You win today's Nostradamus award.

SO let me get this straight. In December 2011, my Sentinel Watchman began life in the canon universe of Dark Horse Comic' Tales of the Jedi and Knights of the Old Republic, and Bioware's Knights of the Old Republic continuous mythology that lasted a hundred years after A New Hope. Then in April 25, 2014 the Sith Emperor apparently hatched some arcane ritual that apparently destroyed that universe making him a legend. Now, he got frozen in carbonite somehow, and has reawakened in a new canon universe once again?

Yeah. You could probably say that my post really jumped the shark.

The adds are the responsibility of DPS. Your job is holding the boss. The fight has been nerfed. Just tonight we had a full on baddie DPS stand in red, die, and then promptly drop group leaving the rest of us to finish it 3-man. If you guys have any remote amount of resurrected pieces, it should be easy. But if the DPS have problems with the adds, then its a DPS problem, not yours.

You guys all missed the point. To the OP, your assessment of the Devastator Monolith was too limited. Let us assume for a moment, that there actually are a number of Monolith-related achievements. Let's focus on two kinds just for a moment. All one needs to do is review their planetary achievements, and there's a fairly common type: the simple kill achievement. That is "Kill N number of X." There's one for the Ziost planet achievements: kill 50 monoliths (of any variety). And to be sure, there are multiple variants that count. There's the initial one-time mission in Ziost prelude. He counts. There's Worldbreaker WB mono; he counts. There's Colossal mono; he counts. Then there's the two PVE mobs, a stronger and a weaker mono; they both count. Now, the easiest open world PVE mono to use to clear the achievement -- by far -- is the weaker mob version. If that were all, then you might have a point. But, let's presume there is another, different achievement that requires an open world mono to be _alive_. Well, then, that would indeed be a very difficult achievement to clear if everyone's out to kill it, and the mono to be killed is very easy soloable. TL, DR: Devastator's whole existence is owed to ensuring that a mono makes it to a certain place on Ziost at a precise moment while there's players that have a very small window of time who need a mono to be there. If all the mono's were Devastators, then the achievement might be deemed too easy. If all the monos were the weaker, then no mono might ever survive for people to clear the achievement. By making most mono's the weaker one, but mixing in a Devastator periodically, balance between multiple mono-related achievements is reached. It's time for you to go now to Ziost and engage in much mono-related shenanigans. You suggest you know the mono's spawn locations. That's part of it. You might want to trace the routes from those spawn points and notice any special features on the route... anything leap out at you? Or is the chasm between thinking the Devastator has no point and that he might serve a useful purpose too great a jump to make?

Shadow of Revan is an expansion. If you have it, click on the terminal on your ship and you can begin it immediately at Rishi.

Exactly; this is a mechanic that responsible Watchmen/Annihilators have been dealing with since the first operation; most notably TFB Dread Council Kel'Sara fight. But let's be honest. I think you've hit on the correct root problem, but are identifying the incorrect symptom. The Curse, which goes out every 60s and lasts 10s does multiple things: 1) immediate damage to cursed player (enough to toss a sideeye towards the magnitude); 2) reduces healing received on cursed player by -50%; 3) damages cursed player on healing received; 4) heals the boss; 5) damages vicinity other players. I'm not sure of the magnitude of the returned damage from healing yet, but I suspect it's probably not enough on its own to kill a cursed player outright (as say the Kel'sara debuff was). Of course being mdps, it's most likely that the annihilator did not run away from boss/group, but being melee, stayed close to the boss while they were cursed, healing it and damaging everyone in the vicinity including likely the tank. The key to Curse is that cursed players must: 1) run away from boss and group and 2) not get healed for the duration of debuff. You can deal with the OP's main point in several ways. The Cursed player goes out in big red raid-wide text; responsible Watchmen/Annihilation won't use Zen/Berserk for the next 10 or so seconds. Likewise you're biggest worry to cursed player is heals not watching debuff but just the raidscreen health bars and goes to heal the cursed, again, likely killing him in the process. The other time-honored tactic for dealing with such a healing debuff mechanic, is to move Watchman/Annihilation to his own raid group. Any of them are viable; the off-heals from Zen do help; you can get upwards of 800 hps for the fight. (Helpful, but really, for HM Colossal, your main heals should be enough on their own.) My $0.02... http://assets.enjin.com/wall_embed_images/1432615549_Colossal-Monolith-HM.jpg

1) Do you main a Watchman Sent / Anni Mara and if so, since when? Yes. Since early access, December 2011. 2) What time was the best state of WM / Anni and why? Generally at release. The vision of every class, advanced class, and advanced class specialties were clear and undiluted. The executive summary, as still listed on SWTOR Databank has this to say. On our class: "Through years of disciplined training and meditation, the Jedi Knight hones body and mind into perfect harmony. Combining the foresight of the Force with unrivaled reflexes and practiced physical precision, the Knight turns combat into an art form..." Our Advanced Class has this to say: "Through years of training the Sentinel learns the art of using two lightsabers simultaneously to create an intricate web of damage that is almost impossible to evade..." The WM spec. has this to say: "Provides greater skill in single-blade offense and the ability to take enemies down quickly." I read "perfect harmony," "unrivaled reflexed," "turns combat into an art form," "intricate web of damage," "almost impossible to evade," and "ability to take enemies down quickly," and the launch version of our spec., extending through about 2.4 captured all of this perfectly. Unfortunately, ability misfire bugs plagued the whole game up through Patch 1.1.2, and were unduly harsh on WM/Anni, making WM/Anni sometimes maddening to play. So more precisely, after Patch 1.1.2 which went a long way to fixing ability misfires and double-fires which had particularly vexed WM / Anni since launch; this brought them to the point where they were always intended to be, unfettered by the games' broken whims. This was the best time where it felt that a well-played WM / Anni turned combat into an art form. The feeling you got when an unbroken chain of 3-4 RNG proc'ced ability refreshes came in a row was amazing. In short, it was transcendent. Launch through about 2.4 achieved a state of perfect Zen for our spec. I jest, but I say the first signs of trouble appeared when they took away our ability to Force Leap to Portable Holo Dancers. But if I had to pick any specific point in time, I would say Patch 1.2 through 1.4 was it. This period benefitted from the ability misfire correction of Patch 1.1.2, and its quality of life improvements added to realizing our spec. vision. 1.3 further corrected timing of Riposte. 1.4 further corrected firing problems with Force Sweep. Along with our abilities, the game also provided us the cool named Rakata gear like named lightsabers Hatred, etc. 3) What's your favorite ability and what's your least favorite ability? I'll say it's a tie between WM/Anni 6-second Force Kick and Riposte (noting both abilities are no longer in the game) for essentially the same reason. WM/Anni's 6-second Force Kick offered something unique to the spec. that was not game-breaking, gave tremendous utility in the right circumstances for both PVE and PVP and played to the spec.'s vision of "unrivaled reflexes." It contributed to our historical role as heal-killer, and made us a desirable choice in cases where interrupts were a necessary mechanic. For many reasons, the design of Riposte -- nevermind it's generally poor damage -- was excellent and spot-on for our vision: a context-dependent reactive ability that never missed (there is great benefit to this), did not respect the GCD, and had a very tight window it was available after the triggering event contributed to our frenetic nature that we were known for and defined by. My least favorite ability is a CD-less Cauterize which lacks the RNG CD-refresh proc'ced by other abilities. Removing CD on Cauterize helped contributed to sucking the soul out of our spec., furthered by the sister mechanic of RNG-ability refresh on other ability proc -- losing the CD meant the RNG element of its refresh was pointless and also removed. 4) How much do you enjoy the spec after 3.0 in comparison to 2.X? Well, definitely less. But, then 2.X also wasn't my favorite period for the spec. either. If I could rephrase the question to be "how much do you enjoy the spec after 3.0 in comparison to your Question (2) response?" My answer is I greatly dislike the current state of my favorite class/AC/spec. in the entire game to when I most enjoyed it. The soul has been sucked out. The flame of the Watchman's burning heart has been extinguished. It feels boring. It is boring. I yearn for the time when a string of abilities refreshed randomly, some at the same time, and were competing for abilities that were triggered on event like Riposte. I yearn for the time when I had to assess 2-3, or even sometimes 4 competing abilities on the fly, as compared to what I gambled might come next. I yearn for the times when I took a chance counting on a random refresh that happened sending my DPS to the pinnacle of performance. The uniqueness is gone. We are now a lot like each other. And a lot more like other specs of much different classes. It is easier to play, more conforming to a standard norm, and less interesting. 5) Which was the best version put on PTS for 3.2.1? Hah! A trick question! The correct answer is there were no good versions put on PTS for 3.2.1. It would even be difficult to choose the least worst option since they were all so horrifyingly bad. 6) Will the planned build for 3.2.1 be an improvement to what we have live atm? Not really. But what we have live atm sucks so much bad kephii as well. 7) How do you think class balance should be achieved and how should different specs of an AC get their own identity. Let's go to the most basic foundational level of game balance. You ideally balance classes based on the best standard gear in game (ex. full standard set {not modified bis components} of Revanite w/ 204 mainhand atm with 14 spec-appropriate augments) presuming equivalently skilled experienced players who know their spec enough to obtain the excellent possible maximum performance. However, you must practically balance as based on gamewide across-all-server average performance of the spec. vs. specs. of the same role. The target needs to be a 5% band between the highest spec's performance average to the lowest spec's performance average; but also measured against the baseline mean of all spec's of the given role. Let's for sake of discussion talk about DPS role and presume that WM does the highest average DPS and Assault Specialist does the least average DPS; all other DPS specs fall within this band. Balance will be achieved when WM is then 2.5% above the arithmetic mean of all DPS specs, Assult Specialist is 2.5% below the arithmetic mean of all DPS specs and there is a 5% separation between the WM average DPS and Assault Specialist average DPS. Same goes for HPS for all heal specs. Same goes for Tanking Damage Mitigation (and/or threat for all tank specs. The next question is why aren't they all the same? This plays to the abilities unique to each spec. Melee sustained specs should reign supreme. Ranged burst specs should not. Modifying parameters should include any/all of the following factors. Sustained (more) vs. Burst (less). Difficulty (more possibility) vs. ease (less possibility but better conforming to average), armor type (Heavy less vs. light more). High time on target (less) vs. less time on target (more). And of course also modified by utility and hybridized- abilities: Ability to exit combat (less) vs. not (more). Ability to "h2f/mtp" (less) vs. not (more). Ability to invis / pick start of combat (less) vs. not (more). Ability to heal on command (less) vs. not (more). Ability to taunt (less) vs. not (more). So, for example, let's say there is a game which has a medium-armor wearing mDPS sustained spec. who cannot taunt, turn invis to exist combat, or heal-to-full-on-command, can't teleport away or anything, then it should reign at the top of the heap; dare we say it should have the highest DPS of all. Ranged should do less. A heavy-armor wearing mdps who can also taunt should do less. A bursting variant of the same AC should do less. A light-armor DOT mdps, if such a thing existed that could not invis, heal-to-full-on-command, teleport away, should be the only possible thing which could arguably do more. You start with giving each spec. their own vision. Then give them primary performance abilities to support that vision. Then give them unique utility abilities generally in line with the vision and to help define a clear identity for the spec. relative to other specs. and those of its same AC. Sentinel is a good example. WM/Anni is built around DOT, whereas Combat is built around burst. The exact DOT mechanic of WM is burns, and so everything visionary about WM should relate to burns. The exact burst mechanic of Combat is speed, and so everything visionary about Combat is the way it sets up to drop massive discrete alpha strikes within its burst windows. 8) Do you feel you have the opportunity to contribute to the improvement of the spec with your feedback? Yes. Actually, dare I say I am the reason why the devs told you WM performs well in its game metrics (*) and you all need to l2p. (* well, at least I tell myself that there's this one WM on Jedi Covenant who has busted the curve for everyone else). But, seriously. Yes. I feel no butthurt in the way others feel our voice is being or not being heard by the devs. I've tweeted to Musco. I post on the boards. I know they've read my posts in the past, as my signature can attest to. 9) If there's just one thing you could change about the spec, what would it be? (please do stick to the "one thing" bit here, this is important!) I would reintroduce ability refreshes and triggers based on situational and RNG triggers that were related to Riposte activation on direct attack and Cauterize CD refresh on random proc of Merciless. 10) What does it take to make you continue playing Watchman / Anni? Restore Inspiration to its at-launch mechanics. Restore self-heals on Zen back to 2%. Restore our ability to choose a 6s interrupt as a supplement to one of the existing first-tier utilities. Restore Riposte, with higher damage than it did last time it was in-game. Restore CD to Cauterize with RNG ability refresh of Cauterize CD on use of Merciless. Buff crits on burns and Merciless. Make our 2- and 4- piece set bonuses on PVE gear match the 2- and 4-piece set bonuses that were in-game prior to 3.0 (make Revanite and Resurrected 2- and 4- piece set bonuses match verbatim the Dread Forged / Dread Master 2- and 4- piece set bonuses). That is, give us back higher damage for slightly longer during Zen, and our increased damage to Master Strike.

It's a good observation. I would wholeheartedly support such an addition.

"But you just don't understand," they say. "I found the perfect 'gotcha' to show them. See there's an area in the game currently that's not quite so easy to get to. And somehow. Ummm. It's the same." Let me also give you this other pearl of wisdom. You can get kicked up to the lower sandcrawler datacron... and not be banned! Whoa! Stop the presses!

Any connection between Grim Tooth and Monolith is stupid. Oh, oh, we know that there's no reference to Monolith in the OP; goto this first sentence. That aside, if you're needing to get someone else to push you to kill Grim Tooth, then you're doing it wrong. Maybe wrong is too harsh. You're doing it more complicated than you need to make it. Rest assured -- with all the assurance a non-dev fellow forum poster can assure you -- that you should feel free to kill Grim Tooth however you choose to. All of that said, to answer the original question more (most?) directly: no, using teamwork to get an achievement in this game is not an exploit.

We've come full circle. Just return us to game launch. 2% self-heals on Zen. GbtF no health loss or at very least health cost on immediate use, reduce from 50%. And for something completely different: Add to rebuke duration immunity to all stuns and roots from front 60 degree cone for 10m length: an advancing sentinel is a painful sentinel. Give us rng chance to break stuns and roots on burns (each dot tick carries 5%? chance to break)

Well, know that Watchman can destroy the current 16m SM Ravagers. A Sent. Watchman is #2 on Bulo: http://torparse.com/leaderboards.php?boss=bulo&mode=sm16 A Sent. Watchman is #1 on Torque: http://torparse.com/leaderboards.php?boss=torque&mode=sm16 (a fight they say is supposedly bad on mdps ? ) A Sent. Watchman is #1 on Master Blaster: http://torparse.com/leaderboards.php?boss=blaster&mode=sm16

Kissakias, thx for continuing to stay on top of this. Interesting epiphany about the environmental/mechanics' kills of the Makrin. I would suggest that may be correct, __IF BUT FOR__ the fact that Bioware confirmed on multiple times in formal developer bug reports/updates that the "Kill it With Fire" achievement was in fact, unobtainable, because it was bugged. One of those times was in the December 2, 2013 report: http://www.swtor.com/de/community/showthread.php?t=641546&highlight=makrin We're not the only ones who want this put to bed. Our German friends were also interested: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=673940 I can't read what it says, but could only imagine -- or at least I want to read it in that way -- that Hitler has just found out for the first time that the "Kill it with Fire" achievement is bugged, and his ministers had been keeping it from him.