These threads always make me sad. Prior to launch, BoWare really thought that as the first story-driven, fully-voiced MMO, SWTOR would do to other MMOs what "talkies" did to silent film. Boy were they ever mistaken. As it turns out, all that time and money spent on voice acting just created another point of contention to bifurcate the community. Like hardcore vs. casual, pvp vs. carebear, now we have story vs. spacebar. How outstanding is that. Not that I'm surprised--BW was pretty naive. I've seen it a hundred times before: potentially great ideas go horribly wrong when exposed to the toxic environment of an internet gaming community.

While I think a "just for fun league" is an okay idea (I wouldn't be interested, but it takes all kinds), I don't see the second stipulation leveling the playing field and making it more casual-friendly. By eliminating Expertise, all you do is create a gear gap based on PvE progression; i.e. it will be Augmented Dread Guard/Campaign-geared premades rolling the fresh ungeared 50s rather than War Hero vs. Recruit. Instead, I think you'd be better off requiring players to equip Recruit in every slot, or just NORMALIZE all stats to reflect recruit in every slot (regardless of what the player is actually wearing... like bolster but in reverse). For me, this is all academic anyway since I'd likely not participate. But again, if what you are after is a nice, level, casual-friendly playing field, you need to do more than simply eliminate expertise.

Agreed. To anyone with martial arts training, that stance looks incredibly idiotic.

If this only applied to the bubble on the sorc/sage, it might have merit as an argument. But since the bubble is going on all the supposedly FOTM classes, the mechanic is more problematic than problem-solving.

If the issue were simply how to pop the bubble to get to the gooey candy center of your target, you'd be right. But that ins't the issue. The issiue is that the resolve gain doesn't match the effect, and that people are click-canceling the buff to use it as a proactive CC, so that everybody in a group, in addition to their normal CCs, also gets an on-demand PBAoE 3sec stun on a 17sec CD that adds only half the correct amount of resolve. So your argument to the effect of "L2P, it's all about how you pop the bubble," is just more insipid forum warrior nonsense. If the stun obeyed resolve rules, and only happened when you pop the bubble, this would be a non-issue anyway. Yes, thanks very much professor, we know how to avoid the stun when we are killing the bubbled guys. The problem is, it's being click-cancelled to carry Huttballs, rush nodes, and stunlock-kill players, and it's simply adding too much hard control and not enough resolve.

Nobody is being forced to do anything. HK-51 is an incentive. An important part of any game is players playing it. Do the content or don't, but I suggest those on the fence should give it a try. I've posted to try to be helpful, but at this point I can be of no further use.

Only Foundry/Maelstrom Prison must be completed in hard mode. That's because the story mode is level 37ish, whereas everything else pertaining to HK-51 is level 50 content. Thus the hardmode: it simply makes the flashpoint relevant to the players who will be running it. And frankly, it isn't very hard as hard modes go. Could be done in recruit gear by a PUG, if the players were methodical and determined. False Emperor can be done in story mode. But again, that wasn't my point. My point is that HK-51 is not being used as a way to browbeat solo players, story afficianados and KOTOR fans, but as a way to incentivize and showcase some of the best content in the game on behalf of those very players.

I already said this upthread, but it obviously bears repeating. Those of you who play the game 1-50 for the story and who want HK-51 because you are big KOTOR fans are ALREADY missing something really special by not playing Foundry (Malestrom Prison for Republic) and False Emperor. Let me be clear: HK-51 is nothing, compared to what you are already missing in terms of story and KOTOR lore. These are vital--let me underscore that--VITAL touchstones with the lore around which the game is based. If you aren't doing these flashpoints, don't come here crying about HK-51, about how you're only interested in story, how you're here playing SWTOR becasue they didn't make KOTOR3. You have no interest in the story. If you did--if you wanted to see your character take part in the greatest events of this epoch in Star Wars history--you'd play these two flashpoints. Note: not all flashpoints are this central to the story of SWTOR. But these two are huge. And that's why they are required for this event. The devs want you to expereince them even if you never experience any other group content in the game. Well, that and... they already have something to do with HK. Understand that I am not saying this to control anyone, to force anyone to play my way. I honestly don't care how anyone chooses to play. This isn't for my sake, it's for yours. Do yourself a favor. Bite the bullet, find some people, and run these flashpoints. Get your droid companion. What you will discover is that the companion is the least of the reasons why you'll be glad you did.

Kashyyyk, easily. (But also Ziost.)

You don't have to stunlock entire teams by walking up to them. Just being able to stunlock-kill a couple people here and there is enough in objective-based play. And this stun is completely out of proportion to other hard controls. The fact that the bubble can alternatively be used to absorb 3-4k damage and THEN stun someone doesn't make other stuns better by comparison. Nice try though. Honestly I don't think you people comprehend how much hard control this ability is providing to teams who know how to abuse it.

Sure, the solution is clearly never be within 10m of another teammate. (5m is a radius AROUND the caster.) So putting aside the fact that it's an AoE, let's look at the bubblle stun compared to the other hard stuns (i.e. Electrocute, Dirty Kick, Cryo Grenade and mirrored abilities). bubble stun 3 sec: 300 resolve, 17sec CD other hard stuns: 4 sec, 800 resolve, 60sec CD It's out of whack. Even against just one target. (But yeah, it's AoE. And can be granted to everybody.) Enjoy clinging to this crutch while you can.

There are a couple of premades on my server running with 2 sorcs who keep everyone bubbled. You get near them, they cancel the buff, stunning you and any nearby teammates. Since it's a hard stun and it only adds half the normal amount of resolve, they're having a lot of success chain-stunning multiple people and focusing them down one at a time. It's an old-school stunlock gibfest, but far more effective than ever before because it's AoE and resolve isn't an issue. Resolve gain should be commensurate with a hard stun and canceling the buff shouldn't trigger it.

Gary and Ed haven't played SWTOR in months. I seriously doubt Gary even has a lvl 50. Everything he says about SWTOR is hearsay and ignorance. Ed the "pvp expert" has to my knowledge never played a rated match. His website muses about how much higher the "skill cap" is in GW2, even though he was nowhere near it in SWTOR. He streamed vanguard pvp for months and finished most matches with zero protection. Yeah. At one point I expected more of Justin and Larry, but not anymore. GBTV has been all about yellow journalism and the blatant trolling of SWTOR since they started giving away beta keys to GW2. Which BTW is something that only fansites or promotional partners of ArenaNet were able to do.

The F2P players should be made to wear sandwich boards around, and BioWare can rent out this ad space to Pepsi, KFC, Tampax, etc. That way, they're generating revenue, and all the bitter wingnuts can stop having aneurisms. /sarcasm Seriously, people need to understand that under the F2P/Subscription hybrid model, every bit of revenue, from one-time $5 puchases of cartel coins, to subscription fees, to $100 purchases, is desired by the publisher, and that many non-subscribers will be contributing revenue through MTX. Many of them will in fact be contributing more revenue than subscribers who don't pay extra for coins. That's the nature of impulse selling, nickel-and-diming, and the "beauty," if you can call it that, of the F2P business model. This notion that everybody falls under the rubric of either subscribers or freeloaders is just ignorant. I came to play SWTOR because I had high hopes that it would carry the tradition of AAA subscription MMOs into the next decade, that it would CRUSH all the sleazy F2P games, take a big chunk out of WoW, and that BioWare would go the extra mile and give customers an undeniably superior game experience in exchange for their $15 monthly fee (and hell, I was willing to pay more for that). I had hoped that BioWare and LucasArts would open up new markets for SWTOR merchandise sales, SWTOR books, movies, animated series, etc, and that these revenue streams coming from outside the game would drive top-notch content development inside the game. But sadly, BioWare has squandered that opportunity. And having failed to carry the AAA western subscripton model into the next decade, they're stuck following the current industry standard, which, in addition to encouraging sleazy marketing toward "F2P" players, also diminishes the value of subscriptions, since much of the development from this point forward will go toward driving revenue through MTX. I don't like it any better than anybody else. This is the third MMO that's gone F2P while I was a subscriber. So far it's two for two: I unsubbed from those other games--largely because the money-grubbing mindset offended my old-school entrepreneurial sensibilities while failing to produce an uptick in the quantity or quality of content development. I am 99% certain that it is going to happen here, too. But what's done is done, and since we're left to make the most of it, let us not be dillweeds to the "freeloaders." Many of them will be paying for access to content. Some may even subscribe. In either case, they represent the future, such as it is, of this game.