This may be obvious to you, but it did foil my first few attempts to see anything on the GTN. In order to return search results from the GTN you need all of the following: 1) A main search category (eg "Armor") 2) A secondary search filter for most of the above categories (eg "Light Armor") 3) At least 3 (or is it 4?) characters of any word you enter in the search box. I think leaving it totally blank also works -- as long as the above 2 options are filled in. Worth double checking.

Again, this is very helpful, and makes a lot of sense to me. One of more unique things about TOR are these companions, so I think it is interesting to see how much we can push that mechanic. For fun. What is the best (or a good) why to build up affection? Once I decided I wanted to "unlock" a few of my unused companions I did this (eg, for Theran Cedrax) 1) Go to the companion gift vendor on Coruscant / Dromund Kass and figure out which gift type he likes best. (Luxury, apparently.) 2) Buy a bunch (40+) of the type 1 gift of their choice, and give him these until the affection gain drops to 19 (from 96 -> 48 -> 19). 3) Run Underworld Trading missions (or any other companion gift mission), using the Luxury gifts while selling / saving the rest. (Un-needed companion gifts sell for enough to make this a credit neutral venture overall, at least on my server). Running missions takes time, obviously. Does that seem effective?

That is very helpful, thanks. I did notice the presence bonus attached to the human legacy. Since I have no desire to level a human, I used my first month of "free" cartel coins unlocking the human race... Perhaps an odd choice, but it works for me. I think I need to get the companion presence bonus the hard way, correct? (Not that I am complaining!)

I'm a new player and found the same thing. I do run each FP 1-3 times, but don't PvP. What I've found works for me is to do the minimal questing on every other planet (just the class quests). I figure that if I roll an alt for the same faction I can catch up on the planets I skipped. This way I can keep level appropriate while "completing" the quest chains on the planets that I choose to focus on. Seems to be working.

I guess I was thinking of augments. I think command augs (Endurance / Presence) and resolve augs (End / Willpower) are options. Admittedly, augmenting while leveling might not be the most sensible thing to do.

I’ve been playing this game for a couple weeks, and have a few questions about companions. For reference, I’ve been sampling several of the healing classes and am mostly interested in the companion management in H2+ areas, as a player healer (46 Sage, 23 Operative, etc). Companion Resource System? As for as I can tell, companions don’t have a resource system, meaning that turning auto-cast on/off on abilities only affects other abilities activation through prioritization. Is that correct? Cooldown Locking If I turn off one or two abilities (generally AOE so that CC’d targets remain untouched) my companions end up “cooldown locked” and so use their default attack. I don’t really have a problem with this, but I think it does mean that Alacrity is not that useful a stat on gear I hand over to my companions, right? Defensive Stats As a healer both DPS and Tankish companions seem to be effective in H2+ areas. If I bring a DPS companion I end up spending more time healing and managing aggro. Bringing a tank means that I need to spend more time DPSing to kill stuff effectively. This leads to the following questions: Does adding defensive stats to a DPS companion improve their survivability, or do these defensive stats require Tank companions? What defensive stats do you prioritize on your companions for killing “boss” mobs? Is there a crossover point where a defensively geared DPS companion is similar in survivability and damage potential to an offensively geared tank companion? Direct Ability Management I am impressed by the number of useful abilities my PCs have. For a healer I am looking at 6-10 valuable abilities in each of these categories: healing, damage, utility, cooldowns. That is a lot of keybinds! I bind the “companion attack” to an accessibly key as well since I want her/him to charge in first, but so far I don’t directly manage much else. I guess I don’t really have a question here, but the skill cap is high since I could be managing my companions directly as well. Impressive! Presence I like the idea of this stat, but do I really have to trade off my primary stat to pick up more presence? Ahhh, choices! I guess gimping myself while buffing my DPS companions is one way to transfer aggro, right?