I also had the same issue in HM. Phase 3 Soa only follows me for the 12 seconds I keep him hard taunted then picks a new target and even if the dps used their threat drops he does not come off till another taunt. This just means we will have to teach everyone else in the raid how to kite SOA to the pylons until the tank can taunt him again. Just one more thing to keep track of in phase 3. I prefered the pre patch SOA encounter it was more about control than a stupid threat drop RNG.

I find that the most nerve racking part of that fight is waiting for the pylons to spawn and spotting them. Once they are up its no problem for me. I find that using maxed camera distance at a low angle (spinning around slightly) until the pylon appears is makes it easier to spot. We also have the first person to notice the pylon spawn say something in voice chat so its never missed (just a simple "Pylon up"). As missing one means playing with the RNG that the last pylon will hit before he enrages and becomes pylon immune. Once it does appear I run for it and shift my camera angle to be max distance looking strait down. The pylon's tip will appear in your view and give you a short amount of time to make a small adjustment if he is not directly under it. This also allows you to position yourself so the knock back does not knock you off the stage if its close to an edge. I always eat the pylon for 6-8k and never have a problem with it on HM. (We have not attempted nightmare Soa yet.) It's just not worth the large chance of it missing him if you try to time it so he runs under as it lands since he will sometimes stop to cast or sidestep or other strange movements.

Our guild has found that we never want to run normal OP runs anymore primary due to the horrid loot system. The system could be great if it was intelligent and gave loot to people that needed or could actually use it but it is not even close. I am the Shadow tank for my guild and we always run with the same 8 people. Due to the destined loot system my Jedi companion had the full 5 piece Columi set bonus while we still have other Consulars that are missing pieces to their sets and the same can be said for our smugglers. I would have gladly passed on all of that companion loot to other guild-mates but alas the choice is not mine. We even had one smuggler that got no loot at all of any worth (they did get the odd piece of terrible energized loot) until we started clearing hard mode and proceeded to funnel almost every smuggler drop to him to catch him up. If the system worked that would never need to happen. It may be a wonderful system for pick up groups since everyone gets an equal chance of getting something that they may or may not need. Its equally as wonderful if you don't trust the group leader not to ninja stuff but that is no way to go about playing any game. We would just prefer to have a choice on who to give something to or which loot system to use. I for one am really sick of vendoring set pieces that others need because it was destined for me and look forward to a day when we can choose not to use this system. Even /roll 100 or a /random 100 system is better than this and that is sorely missing to be able to nicely master loot items to people who tie in need.

The balance Between crafting then becomes each craft gets 2 Augment slots worth of Top Tier gear or a reusable version of a single use item. This should make people think about what they want as a profession and puts reusable professions back in line with the rest as you sacrifice 2 augment slots for your money savings and earning in the single use and reusable items.

I'm not sure this is the right forum for this but here I go. Let me start by saying i just finished reading through the PTS 1.1.2 profession changes and they made me cringe a bit. This may be a Long post but I will explain my view on the current and 1.1.2 changes as a baseline before explaining my idea. The current state of end game crafting (pre-1.1.2 patch notes) is as follows. 1. Pick up your class specific armoring profession (armortech or synthweaving) until you have crit both your bracers and belt. (vendor bought Rakata pattern that requires blue Biometric Crystal Alloys dropped in normal mode ops and hard mode flashpoints) 2. pick up Artifice until you have crafted 2 crit Rakata Relics (same bio-alloy blue as above) 3. (optional Cybertech for ear - the daily is just as good and its only one slot if crit) 4. Biochem forever (crit implants are about equal to Rakata daily implants depending on stats and AC build) but the reusable adrenals, stims and med-packs that require 400 biochem make it so you cannot drop biochem and still find it useful. Issues I see with the 1.1.2 patch notes. Adding crit-able orange patterns will make it so that all serious end game raiders will be forced to wear orange crit gear. Good by Rakata and any other PVE or PVP end game set appearances. The biochem changes while reducing how overpowered it is in comparison to other professions still does not fix the issue. With the amount of adrenals, stims, and medpacs used in end game the reusable factor will never go away unless something drastic is done to how the required blue and purple mats changes and even if it does this will still be the best money making profession by selling the new single use items to others who do not have the profession. Now that that is over with here is my idea on how to fix it so that ALL proffesions are useful in the end game. Let me start by saying that each profession needs something useful you cannot get without having the profession. This means locking items to 400 synthweaving, armormech, and other professions. Currently Biochem and cybertech are the only professions that have this with the reusable adreanals, stims, medpacs, and pvp grenades. All of the recent patches have been reducing their usefulness instead of spreading the wealth to the other professions. Granted some of the reduction in usefulness has been to balance pvp. Here is how i would balance each profession against each other. Each profession would have 3 aspects. A money maker (for end game and during leveling) and a self only use. Reusable Crafters: These 2 professions gain end game value through reusable situational items. Biochem - Self only (requires 400 Biochem to use): Reusable adreanals, stims, medpacs. Money makers: Single use adreanals, sims, medpacs (useful during leveling) High level Implants (should not be as good as top tier even with crit, but can be close) Cybertech - Self only (requires 400 Cybertech to use): Reusable Grenades Money makers: Single use Grenades Mods and armorings (useful during leveling) Earpieces (should not be as good as top tier even with crit, but can be close) Armor Crafters: These 2 professions gain end game value through self only added augment slots. Armormech - Self only (requires 400 Armormech to have equipped): Top tier level belt and bracers that have an augment slot directly from the trainer. Money makers: Custom (orange) gear with many different and better looking patterns that are superior in looks to common world and flash-point drops. (usable end game with the new system to remove top tier armoring and keep set bonuses) Crafted gear (useful during leveling) Synthweaving - Self only Top tier level belt and bracers that have an augment slot directly from the trainer. Money makers: Custom (orange) gear with many different and better looking patterns that are superior in looks to common world and flash-point drops. (usable end game with the new system to remove top tier armoring and keep set bonuses) Crafted gear (useful during leveling) Weapon Crafters: These 2 professions gain end game value through self only added augment slots. Armstech - Self only (requires 400 Armstech to equip) Top tier Offhand and unique Relic that have an augment slot directly from the trainer. Money makers: Barrels, Enhancements, all non lightsaber weapon types (useful during leveling) Craft-able Augments should be added to Armstech and use the same Reverse Engineering process as other items. (usable end game) Augments should be removed from Slicing. Slicing is a gathering profession and already a huge money maker from lock-boxes and crafting missions and will not miss it. Artifice - Self only Top tier Offhand and unique Relic that have an augment slot directly from the trainer. Money makers: Hilts, Enhancements and color crystals (useful during leveling) Top Tier Color Crystals (usable for end game) Each profession should also have item type and mat cost as follows Self only patterns: Tionese - requires (blue) Tionese crystals to craft Columi - requires (blue) Biometric Crystal Alloy to craft Rakata - requires (blue) Alien Data Cube to craft BOE patterns: Energized - requires (blue) tionese crystals and (purple) Self-Perpetuating Power Cell to craft Exotech - Requires (blue) Alien Data Cube and (purple) Rakata Energy Node to craft. My reasoning behind the change in crafting mats is to limit the usefulness of patterns to the current tier of progression a character is in. This leaves a reason to continue PvE progression in order to continue crafting progression. As i feel that its a little silly that someone can acquire Rakata items from running hard mode flash-points through crafting currently when the tier set for them is Columi. While this may not fix all of the issues I feel that this would go a long way in helping the problems. Let me know what you think.

Excellent work!!

I got mine right away. Check to make sure you input it correctly. If still no then I would look at contacting customer support.

I expected this to be trolled quite heavily. If you don't have an opinion on the CE store digital items your not adding anything to the discussion. So far I have seen at least 1 person happy with the CE store and a ton of people that feel slighted. This is akin to buying a car advertised as having a red paint job and receiving a car with a red rear fender and no paint on the rest of the body. Just because the radio works does not mean you wont still be upset with the car missing the rest of the paint job. Items in the CE store are not equal to the expectations of the purchaser. The CE store is totally unfinished for something that was sold as a major bullet point of the CE product. For those of you pointing to a mysterious deleted thread, you are not helping matters. If they bring back that thread or post officially about this issue it would go a long way to soothe those like me who feel slighted. I'm happy to see people reporting that the Empire CE store is a bit more fleshed out than the Republic one. While a post from the community manager would be nice I don't see that happening anytime soon they have much bigger problems with overfull servers and guild issues at the moment. I love this game I just hope that the CE store issues will be fixed eventually and my extra money did not go to waste. Even if they are planning to do something about it a month or 2 down the line ill be happy to wait for it but, as there has been no official post stating anything of the sort I will remain upset until such time

I have a level 12 or above of each basic class on the republic side. I received the pet, Speeder and all the other goodies on each character and they all have access to the VIP area and store.

This is the reason why I compare the CE store to the Security Key store. The CE store was something that was "Packaged" with the CE way back when they first announced the CE. People used this feature of the CE to decide on their purchases. The Security Key vendor was a late comer and the item/ability needed to access it was not created until just before release and yet it is full of items, as I would have expected the CE vendor to be. So apparently they had the extra time to do that but not the time to do the CE store? Yes I understand that the Security Key vendor comes with the CE but it was not something mentioned ever in a publication or advertisement (that I ever saw) and it is not exclusive like the CE vendor was promised to be and is.

Any CE owners that went Sith Empire have any thoughts on their CE Vendor? I'm curious to see if they got the same treatment on their side and if so which class companions are missing customizations in the CE store.

I think they did fine by the VIP and Security Key vendor. I just wish the CE vendor was up to par with them. Currently I want stuff from both VIP and Security Key vendors but CE is just bleh.

Notice the title where I point to the CE Digital items. As I said above I do love my statue. I'm just disappointed in the after-thought treatment that the CE vendor was given and the other CE digital items. I would of expected them to at least give all 4 starting classes the same amount of attention in the CE vendor. This is something that can still be changed in the early life of the game and I believe it will make the CE owners much more happy with their purchases. I was totally excited un-boxing and looking at my physical items then felt deflated when I saw the in-game treatment of the CE. I Hope they remedy this issue by making the CE vendor at least cater to all 4 of the main Republic classes which it currently does not. (Not to mention the fact that the appearances of the current CE items seem to be a bit lacking but that's my personal opinion.) While I Love my statue, a big part of my reason for wanting the CE was the exclusive in game items.

The below is my personal opinion and I'm wondering if other CE owners feel the same or I'm off base on this one. I got me CE today and was excited for all of the visual perks I expected to to find in the CE only store. After looking at the 3 vendors that I now have access too, I must say that I am hugely disappointed in the CE Vendor. (Note: my experience is only with the Republic side.) For my huge extra expense I got a cool statue that is really very nice, but I expected the CE Vendor to have a large selection of more visually pleasing or rare items. As of right now this is not the case. To me it looks like the CE items where the stuff pulled out of the reject bin of costumes and companion customizations. Did they mess up and swap the CE Vendor with the Security Key Vendor??? This is something that they may remedy in time but I hope it comes sooner than later. At the moment I feel slighted. I will now give my thoughts on the 3 vendors. Security Key Vendor: Buy a Security Key key-chain and/or the free phone app once its out (Free with CE and eventually Free to all who protect their account) VIP Vendor: Access granted with VIP Band (Buy VIP band with in game credits. comes free with CE or Digital Deluxe) CE Vendor: Boxed collectors edition (Buy the boxed CE for a lot of money) Here's to hoping they see their error and give those who spent all that extra money to support them the cosmetic perks that they expected. Personally if the CE and Security Key vendor items had been swapped i would have had no issue here at all. People buy the CE to feel unique and add source of pride for their characters and account. Currently I do not find this to be the case. Wondering if any of you other CE purchased players feel the same way or dissagree with me. EDIT: Please refrain from making "it's your fault for buying it" or "I didn't care so I didn't buy it replies." I'm looking for other CE and DDE owner's opinions on the Republic and Imperial Special Access Vendors. (Mainly the CE vendor but the Security Key and VIP vendors are necessary for comparison.)

I for one am hoping that since there is a 8 character limit that the legacy system ranks/levels are based off of the total amount of exp shared across all characters on a server per account. I would really love if they would post more info Officially about the legacy system.