Agreed. I think it just gives people leveling up some gear options--blue lockbox gear from heroic missions, or using Data Crystals for mods/enhancements, etc. from fleet vendors. It's all about the same power levels. I try to collect sets of the lockbox gear, though, for cosmetic reasons. There's some pretty cool looking stuff in those sets.

I couldn't find this information anywhere that was easily and quickly accessible, so I am compiling it here in case it helps other people. Below is a list of the gear you get from lockboxes after completing [HEROIC +2] missions on various planets. It lists the name of the gear and spec, and the level breaks for getting gear with higher armor rating and stats. Class Name and Spec for Gear Juggernaut/Guardian: Pummeler (dps); Bulwark (tank) Marauder/Sentinel: Pummeler (dps) Assassin/Shadow: Force-Lord (dps); Duelist (tank) Sorcerer/Sage: Force-Lord (dps, heal) Operative/Scoundrel: Targeter (dps); Mender (heal) Sniper/Gunslinger: Targeter (dps) Powertech/Vanguard: Boltblaster (dps); Demolisher (tank) Mercenary/Commando: Boltblaster (dps); Med-Tech (heal) Level Breaks for New Gear 06-16: Requisitioned, rating 46 gear 17-20: Tarnished, rating 54 gear 21-24: Aftermarket, rating 62 gear 25-28: Carbon-Scored, rating 72 gear 29-32: Decorated, rating 80 gear 33-36: Battle-Scarred, rating 88 gear 37-38: Toxic, rating 92 gear 39-41: Thermal, rating 98 gear 42-44: Unleashed, rating 104 gear 45-47: Visionary, rating 110 gear 48-49: Corellian, rating 124 gear 50-50: Crystalline, rating 132 gear 51-54: Fractured, rating 148 gear 55-60: Yavin, rating 178 gear 61-65: Ancient Artifacts and Data Crystals (currency for Knights of the Fallen Empire expansion) Useful website with gear reward lists: https://torcommunity.com/guides/heroic-missions/heroic-mission-rewards

I couldn't find this information anywhere that was easily and quickly accessible, so I am compiling it here in case it helps other people. Below is a list of the gear you get from lockboxes after completing [HEROIC +2] missions on various planets. It lists the name of the gear and spec, and the level breaks for getting gear with higher armor rating and stats. Class Name and Spec for Gear Juggernaut/Guardian: Pummeler (dps); Bulwark (tank) Marauder/Sentinel: Pummeler (dps) Assassin/Shadow: Force-Lord (dps); Duelist (tank) Sorcerer/Sage: Force-Lord (dps, heal) Operative/Scoundrel: Targeter (dps); Mender (heal) Sniper/Gunslinger: Targeter (dps) Powertech/Vanguard: Boltblaster (dps); Demolisher (tank) Mercenary/Commando: Boltblaster (dps); Med-Tech (heal) Level Breaks for New Gear 06-16: Requisitioned, rating 46 gear 17-20: Tarnished, rating 54 gear 21-24: Aftermarket, rating 62 gear 25-28: Carbon-Scored, rating 72 gear 29-32: Decorated, rating 80 gear 33-36: Battle-Scarred, rating 88 gear 37-38: Toxic, rating 92 gear 39-41: Thermal, rating 98 gear 42-44: Unleashed, rating 104 gear 45-47: Visionary, rating 110 gear 48-49: Corellian, rating 124 gear 50-50: Crystalline, rating 132 gear 51-54: Fractured, rating 148 gear 55-60: Yavin, rating 178 gear 61-65: Ancient Artifacts and Data Crystals (currency for Knights of the Fallen Empire expansion) Useful website with gear reward lists: https://torcommunity.com/guides/heroic-missions/heroic-mission-rewards

Playing a lower-level toon in pvp is so incredibly painful right now. My poor little Scoundrel gets no attention from me. Can't wait to get the geared 50s out of lower-level pvp. Hey Bioware...you guys don't want to hotfix that in, do ya? =)

Totally the same experience. I play and have an incredibly fun time...then see all these posts and think, "What game are they playing?" It's weird. But hey, each to their own. I guess when I don't like a game, I just chalk it up to my own preferences, rather than diabolical plots by the devs to ruin my life. General Forums tend to be full of just whiny posts. Try to avoid it when possible. But, like a car wreck...sometimes you just gotta stare.

But, this happens in WoW as well.... I'm not understanding people's complaints about swtor being a closed world. WoW is a closed world too. Exhaustion hits you in the water, and you're restricted at the edges of every zone.

But game design isn't as simple as: WoW has it, let's do the exact same thing. Plus, guild banks took something like 4 years to finally implement in WoW. Just saying...the game has officially been out for only 9 days. Besides, the WoW formula is just incredibly stale. I simply cannot bring myself to log in and play. It was, and still is, a great game. But, it's no longer fun for me. SWTOR though, is heaps of fun...even with the bugs and shortcomings.

I agree with this. OP has some fine points/criticisms. But, I firmly believe almost everything on that list will get addressed in time. None of those things are game-breaking to me though, and I'm having too much fun to quit. This is a great game overall.

How can you tell this? Are these stats somewhere available to us?

You know, no one on the dark side ever talks about it...but it is tiring being this evil. Honestly, the number of people I have to kill on a regular basis is staggering. Everyone thinks "Oh, it would be so much easier to just kill this guy." But it's getting to the point where I almost can't even be bothered to raise my lightsaber anymore. Anyone else experiencing Post-Traumatic Darkside Disorder (PTDD) symptoms? =)

Oh, I believe you. Credit farming out in the world is profitable, no doubt. My post was only to say that running missions is still a profit. That being, profit in the literal sense of the term, meaning not a "net loss" as so many people are claiming. Now. If people want to make a claim that Slicing is not worth the time per credits in comparison to other gathering/crafting/mission skills, they may do so. But, Slicing is not a credit loss.

It's not a net loss. Just run some missions and keep track of the ones that regularly return profits (hint: usually Rich missions, but not all...). Then, you'll know what missions to run. Run those. Profit. I'm at 400 Slicing. In two days of running Rich missions at all levels with 2 characters, I'm up by 31,500 credits or so. I'm keeping track via a spreadsheet and quickly abandoned the missions that had negative returns. That is...a PROFIT of 31K credits for just logging in and pushing a button. p.s. That figure above also does not include lockboxes out in the world, only missions.

Problem: I think they need to spice up the animation for Shock a bit. Currently, it is indistinguishable from any other attack. Also, it is hard to tell when your second attack (if specced) happens. To compare, the Jedi ability "Project" grabs a piece of debris and hurls it at the target. If specced for it, it will sometimes launch a second piece of debris at the target too. When this procs, you throw one piece from your left side, and another from your right side. It looks amazing to be throwing these big pieces of earth/driod/metal at people, and you can always tell when your second attack procs. -------- Suggestions: a. Make the Shock animation travel along the ground toward the target, originating on your left side. b. Make the animation arc wide to the left toward the target. So, it arcs out like doing a roundhouse punch (i.e. doesn't go in a direct line to the target). c. Make the lightning come down on top of someone's head, animated by you pulling your left fist down simultaneously. If you proc a second attack, the same animation happens, but slightly to the right side instead. ------ This would provide two important fixes: 1. Travel time between Project and Shock could finally be equalized. 2. Shock animation now becomes distinguishable from the other attacks.

Oh, I agree. It would be incredibly easy. But, if no one is buying the credits that credit farmers are producing, then there would be no incentive for them to keep doing that. In other words, Slicing could run credit farmers out of business. Now, I think the inflation will still happen regardless of credit farmers. But, from a cost-benefit point of view, I can't see hacking people's accounts (or running Slicing missions non-stop) being worthwhile for credit sellers. With that said, I wouldn't be surprised to see a Slicing nerf at some point soon.

I think that amidst the discussion of if Slicing is good or bad, one thing needs to be considered: gold sellers/gold farmers (or in SWTOR, credit selling websites). Perhaps BioWare understood the credit-producing potential of Slicing, precisely because it makes buying credits online almost pointless. As we all know by now, most gold/credits are gained through account hacking. So in a way, Slicing could be said to be improving account security? Now, I'm not on any side in this slicing debate, but I wanted to think on a more "meta" level about Slicing's place in the game.