I am pretty certain it was Vector, but I might've been mistaken. Over the course of about two months I levelled 4 imps from 1 to 55 one after the other so I may have remembered wrongly but it is possible. Especially for companions who are chatty. Like your main story companions(i.e. First companion, Khem/Kaliyo/Vette/Mako) or certain love interests. Granted I was about 15% into the level, but I got the next level and was about 10% into it when the convos capped out for the tier. Don't think it was during 2x exp either since I wouldn't be talking to characters during 2x exp anyway. Might have residual 25% exp boost, but really don't remember.

That was what I was doing, using gloves/boots with the PvP armouring, if anything to maintain the highest possible armour rating since gloves/boots give lower amounts compared to helm/chest/pants. But again, the guild said I ought to keep it so I did, had to replace the armoring on my chest to maintain the PvP set bonus. If anything this was just a rant, simply because one would expect the top tier of set bonus gear to have all the stats you'd want and then some. Like Marauders get very nice power/surge gloves. While we get what I mentioned.

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=573213 Old thread that I found a couple of months back. It works, it's what I used on all my newer characters. And it's how I have the 'Imperial Squad Leader' title. Yes you ought to have some blue/purple rank 4-5 gifts, but the trick is using them the right way at the right tier as opposed to blowing them at tier 1 for example. Also the tip about not talking to them til after 6000 affection is gold. Fun fact #1: I have gotten a full level's worth of exp(46-47) by just going on a conversation marathon with Vector once he hit 6000 affection from gifts. Fun fact #2: The highest jump in affection from conversations at 6000 was approximately 1700, bringing it to 7700 affection that I had to use a couple of gifts to hit the next tier. Another tip is to buy the legacy perks for gifts/conversation affection. Might seem silly, but if you're either chasing; a) the title or b) the crafting/stat/presence bonus or c) both of the above It's really nothing, even using CC brings the total for each character to 150. I usually buy the first 2 levels of both with creds and use 50 coins(25 ea) to unlock the last 2 that cost 50k creds I think.

Can be done, but not ideal. Ideally you'd want everyone in the 8-man group in half 69/72 with their proper set bonuses, or missing one piece, stuff like that. As for augments, people have done it with worse but at this stage in the game, it seems almost ludicrous that people wouldn't be completely augmented with purple 28(66s) on their MAIN NiM raiding characters. It also depends which boss. WH is easy, you need something like 10k raid DPS(about 2k DPS per DPS, assuming tanks can do more than 1k DPS each for the fight). Kephess takes some effort. DG is reputed to be the hardest NiM fight in the game. I haven't tried Op9 or TfB yet. But more importantly, your teams needs to have competent players especially if sub-optimally geared. Geared players can sometimes ignore mechanics and fight on, under-geared players need to be on top of mechanics and their classes.

Crit/alac...... Power/alac... No power/surge, out of 4 possible choices, not one of them is itemized for a Sniper. Not one. I won a roll for KD gloves today, and felt guilty taking it after looking at the gear choices but my guild advised me to keep it since the armoring/mods are upgrades. But the power/alac enh. Le sigh, I either keep it for use sometime in the distant future or throw an optimal 75 enh on Lokin.

That is win. Please post in the suggestion box. There should also be a pop-up for the people that don't click it to add the clicker to ignore list.

Take cover in place = Middle mouse button The standard roll into cover, banished since Hutta. OT, I've never figured out what cover fire does. Anyone know?

I've been waiting for a more definitive reply in this thread but I don't see it, or perhaps don't want to. Anyway, to re-iterate the OPs question. Does anyone know what the Surge cap is? At least to the point of DR taking effect? I ask because my character is finally min-maxed in complete 72s, with some 75s. And I have about 402 surge rating, giving me about 71% surge. I wonder whether or not to just keep with my current itemization, or eventually remove one surge enh for an alacrity one if surge cap is around 400ish.

Had a Gunslinger early on that I found clunky using. Decided to roll a Sniper a couple of months back. Have gotten used to it and actually find it wonderful. Not in the sense that I couldn't do without it, but it adds something different to ranged DPS classes. At times it's an excuse; "Of course my DPS parse looks like crap! I had to move all the damn time and I kept getting the 'Huge Grenade'!" "Don't complain about my DPS when you can't position the boss and I constantly have to move in range of him!" Things most other DPS classes complain about, but I feel it's twofold on the Sniper since you're severely limited to what you can cast out of cover. Especially if you're specced for MM. But as Svii mentioned, there are benefits to it. Never being interrupted(unless stunned/cc-ed by bosses), can't be leapt to, etc. Also, with MM(I'm an MM Sniper for the most part, unless doing dailies with Engi), Entrench offers a fantastic 60% AoE damage reduction along with the usual immunity to knockback and a host of other nasties. And all of that is only possible while in cover. All in all, once you get used to it. I think you'll agree that it's a nice mechanic. I always feel really comfy crouching with my lil' shield up. Regardless of where I am, be it in front of a huge disgusting creature, or the desert or even a swamp with muck under my boots.

Biochem is only good up to 55 HM ops. When you're progressing through 55 NiM ops, you need every little advantage you can get. And that means, no reusable stims, medpacks, adrenals. Unless you're on a raid team that clears NiM content consistently, you ought to be using the blue nano-infused consumables. Simply because they give more stats, power, and the medpack has a little heal over time that can save you when you're in the thick of it. Also, to be honest. Aside from Cybertech's reusable grenades, if you're a PvP junkie. No other crew skill is remotely useful now. Everything can be purchased or crafted for little toil by other people. The only reason to pick a crew skill is to either; a) have an easier time leveling up OR b) craft your own augments/aug kits I wouldn't bother trying to craft my own 72 BiS gear and have to go RE tons of them. Unless you were one of the first that was able to do it, then you're sitting on a fat load of credits and don't really care either way.

Although pointless by way of gear, is extremely helpful if not downright valuable to have when you're at end-game and min-maxing. Every little bit helps. Also, one ought to thankful, since unlike.... hmm what was that class? Sorcs? That only benefit from their primary stat(and endurance duh).

A rather simplified way of putting it. Although there are more numbers to it, which I have conveniently forgotten. It also depends on range. And taunt multiplies the threat already generated by the tank, if you start the fight with taunt, mobs will attack the tank for 6 seconds and then immediately shift focus over to healer/dps simply because 0 damage x taunt multiplier(I think it.s 1.3) = 0 threat generated. But back to topic, it's basically what everyone's saying. It's an aggro dump, that's next to useless while levelling to 55(except maybe in FPs). However, once you get into 55 ops, it becomes an ability you use a few GCDs into your opening rotation and every time it's off cool down after that. Not doing so will result in tanks hating you, and healers yelling at you.

In my opinion at least, if you're a healer, you should be going with a DPS companion(Temple/ranged or Vector/melee) I leveled my Scoundrel with HK-51. Heck I even leveled my PT tank with Torian Cadera. But if you really prefer a tank, then I'd say Treek. Since she's unique in her ability to tank and heal, and heal while tanking(even if it's just 1 ability). Although it is somewhat wasted since she gains next to no affection from regular quest convos, unlike the rest of your regular crew.

Why? They lose nothing. What you do in any given FP/Heroic doesn't change and they/you don't get penalised either way. If you have 4 in your group, just selecting a different dialogue option nets you 4 points, 8 points if you win the roll. And if anything, after levelling 4 characters to 55 in quick succession. No one I've met has ever said anything or left the group because of my choices(light/dark). Only one person dropped a comment on some quest when I spared someone, "You have to be kidding, you must have a heart of gold or something!".

You are correct, if a Mara/Sent goes Carnage/Combat, they have access to a staggering +7% base accuracy(including the companion buffs, and to be honest, when talking about min-max, everyone should have those companion buffs) and needing only a mere 2.xx~3% accuracy to top them off. For Annihilation/Watchman, or Rage/Focus though, they're on the same playing field as the rest of us. Also interestingly enough, most Marauders I meet are built for Annihilation and as a result, have a lot more accuracy than they need when speccing Carnage. You are spot on again. For 72 tier, it's either (79x5)+32=427(99.8X%) accuracy rating OR 79x6=474(100.X%) accuracy rating. For 75 tier, it'd be 86x5=430(99.9X%) accuracy rating. For the 75 tier, I assume that's what it gives. In all honesty I prefer using the accuracy augment over the extra enhancement if only because the 32 cunning loss is less than a 79 surge loss. Granted, cunning does give some crit, but the loss at that amount is nearly negligible. My numbers may be a bit off but I think they're quite accurate, unless BW rounds it off differently.