Abandon the quest and get it again, or reset it if it doesn't allow.

It is usable on strongs so it still has a purpose in flashpoints and other group content. Getting a weak(er) mob down fast is always useful in this game because there is so much damage going out all the time.

It is great for leveling though, because of incoming damage. Often, strongs or even weaks in large numbers will put out more damage than your average elite, which means you spend a longer amount of time healing up after a fight. This is especially true at higher levels. If you do a pull, CC one mob, then tumult another, that means two mobs have already been taken out of the fight fairly quickly, with no chance to do damage. This is a significant and welcome damage reduction. I use tumult on every pull if I can.

Line. Of. Sight. Around the boxes, specifically. Get a bunch of aggro on the guy, then start running around. Perhaps that's harder to do as a Sage than as a Shadow, but at the very worst, he will kill Nadia and then you will (eventually) kill him.

I've had some trouble on Voss, sometimes in the most unexpected places, I'm kinetic shadow, using 31/0/10. I use Nadia for a companion, and I do a lot of LOS and cooldown management. I keep the gear as updated as possible. Voss has been tough. There's been several fights where I've only just barely survived. It may be doable but it just isn't fun to sit there and think "I won but I really just got my butt handed to me and I only barely made it out alive." We play to feel like heroes not like throw toys. Quests I had no problem with: Attis station, Stark (LOS kicks his butt big time). Quests I have had problems with: The mature cyberbeast elite (with KW up, even level, up to date gear, he was hitting me for north of 4k on a normal swing - oh and did I mention he has a gap closer too?). Also the Double trooper-type strongs on one of the bonus quests. It is kind of odd to have to kite as a tank while soloing. Force cloak hasn't worked for fight resetting for me in quite awhile; they keep aggroing Nadia and then I'm screwed. They need to make story mobs not aggro until you attack them, or make them spawn across the room - it really messes up classes who depend on that setup from stealth to do their best work.

Abilities in this game definitely feel sluggish and even post-patch it still feels like typing through molasses and half the time an ability just decides not to go off when you really need it. Combined with the limited nature of the UI in general this is definitely a big negative for SWTOR.

Force for Shadows works like Energy - you don't have much, but it regenerates very quickly. Force for Sages works like Mana - you start out with a whole bunch, but once its gone its harder to get it back.

I didn't have any problem with this as a Kinetic Shadow using Zenith. I don't even hardly remember doing it, just reading this thread and being scared before I started. Stark was also pretty easy: line of sight makes him run around doing no damage while letting Nadia wreck his face all day long. I don't remember exactly what level I was at, but I've been struggling to keep up with the level of quest mobs and 38 I remember being particularly annoying - I was probably 36 or 37. I'd say there's definitely things that are harder to do as a Sage or a Shadow and vice versa. Perhaps Attis is for whatever reason much easier as a Shadow. But you Sagey types still have some pretty amazing tools. You guys can Force Lift for a minute *in combat* and heal! Gotta CC the sorcerers and kite the warriors for all your worth. FWIW, Kinetic Shadows have to do the same thing. Quest/story mobs do entirely too much damage in this game. Voss. A bonus mission that spawns two trooper mobs before you can stealth (and apparently force cloak doesn't work on them after several attempts, they keep re-aggroing the companion from 40 yards away o.O). You can't CC them at all since you're in combat, except for your short ones, and even one shot from these guys can end you really fast, even as a tank. As a Shadow, you are really good at CCing *from stealth before combat* and interrupting/bursting down one target at a time before they get much damage in. Whenever you are prevented from entering stealth before starting (see: every story boss that starts combat right out of a cutscene and also comes with adds right out of the box), or prevented from CCing (Droids suck!), it can be really tough if your Force Cloak refuses to work. Of course, the level 46 Cyberbeast at Voss just shows how bad tanking really can be in this game. Stand in front of him with Kinetic Ward/tank debuffs but without CDs and watch your health disappear! Story mobs do entirely too much damage that's uninterruptable in this game.

I'm coming from the Jedi Shadow point of view (level 43) but it should be pretty similar. If you are really, really having a hard time simply leveling up and killing story bosses, here's a list of helpful tips. 1. Gear up. Have gear/mods 1-2 levels below yours, especially your weapon if you're DPS spec. 2. Companion's gear. All that stuff goes for companion too, he needs gear. 3. Make sure your level is about equal (or above) the mob's level. Even 1 level below makes a huge difference in the mob's favor. 4. The theme for the Sith Assassin/Jedi Shadow is "if you are taking damage, you are doing it wrong". We can't stand up to ALL the damage from the later story bosses, even as tank spec. Use all your CDs to avoid damage - at your stage you should have all the interrupts and stuns at least. 5. Kite. This helps so much on story mobs. We have this spec called Balance/Madness that imo is a terrible spec (but some people do like it so to each his own), but they build these story bosses with all 6 possible specs of the class in mind. You have to kite like you are a caster sometimes, you can't just stand toe to toe with these guys. It is especially nice to do this if you have a big time DPS companion, they will burn through the mob FAST while it is running around doing no damage trying to catch you. Also, do the pillar hump (WOW Arenas) to reduce damage from casters. 6. Use the 20 min "heroic moment" cooldown early. 7. Use stims - willpower if you're DPS, endurance or even presence if you're tank specced. 8. If you simply cannot complete the quest, go tank specced with a healer companion. With that combo and following the other tips you will pretty much never lose!

I'm finishing up leveling my Jedi Shadow, and looking for a character on the Imperial side. I've settled on the Imperial Agent, but I'm having a hard time choosing the advanced class. I like healing, but I play SWTOR mostly for solo/story gameplay, I'm not really into the endgame here (the UI just doesn't seem like it would hold up to heavy endgame play, among other things) and it is hard to get groups for flashpoints and heroics. I don't find healing my companion while he does all the actual heroics very compelling solo play. It is nice to have the option for flashpoints and such. I've leveled as a squishy melee stealth class already, perhaps time to choose something different. The ability to self-heal is attractive, though. I'm not the biggest fan of cover, although its a lot of fun if you can get set up. Just when you get ambushed by mobs spawning behind you, that's not a lot of fun... I like playing ranged classes in MMOs, although not always when leveling - basically the annoyance level of having a mob in melee range. Companions should really help with that I'd think, just as pets help in other MMOs. I'd like to not have to be stuck using only one companion. My Shadow feels like he is almost forced to use his healer companion (theran) although that seems to change at higher levels. I didn't like Balance on my Shadow at all. I don't think the melee/ranged hybrid mix really worked out very well, at least for me. I don't mind doing a little kiting now and then, but it is nice to be able to stand toe to toe (or have your companion stand toe to toe) and just DPS. Thoughts?

For soloing, by the time you've built up to 3 stacks, the pull is generally over. Maybe for elites, but even there it hasn't been a resounding success for me.

Check your level. Level seems to have the biggest effect on this feeling. My problem is that unless you do EVERY heroic mission an run flashpoints MULTIPLE times, you tend to run out of missions to do after awhile, but your level hasn't quite caught up. Exploring merely for the XP is boring and not particularly productive, and the Bonus series can be buggy or unbalanced (Balmorra side quest to the balance quest has a CHAMPION mob, and the normal quest bugs out). Its hard to scrounge up enough XP to stay ahead of the mobs, but character level is important if you don't want to be crushed by mobs on the next planet, even more important than gear I think (which is the other thing you should check, both you and your companion).

The only thing I'm worried about with Nadia is that she will have problems on caster Elites and standing in fire. I'm not a big fan of mashing the passive button on my companion's bar to get them to move how I want.

So I forced myself to go with Zenith for Queesh, as soon as I got him I was using him, basically. I'm specced for Kinetic tanking, but I still seem to take incredible amounts of damage, especially from caster elites. Zenith has two stances, an AOE stance basically, and a sniper/single target DPS. He does some crazy DPS with that sniper stance. I haven't been too impressed with his AE abilities, though. Mostly I just turn off the AOE and leave the sniper on, and turn off the shield. For elites, Zenith can be pretty nice. I'm sure you're thinking "but Theran is the only way to go!!" Well, healing is nice, but Zenith takes these elites down so fast you don't really need healing. You still take a TON of damage with these guys, so I just quit standing toe to toe with them, and started kiting. I can build up enough threat to keep them off of Zenith, and proceed to kite those mean ol' Sith Warriors with Force Wave, Force Stun (spec Nerve Wracking and watch the fireworks, btw) and Force Slow. Zenith will burn through their health before you run out of kiting abilities, and of course you're a tank so you can still stand toe to toe with these guys while Deflect is up. My gear and Zenith's really wasn't that great. Zenith had an up-to-date rifle from the Balmorra commendation vendor (and I had the commendation lightsaber) and the rest of Zenith's gear was random greens. Attis station was a breeze at level 37 (well, except for when I accidentally aggroed two sets of the Sith in the final bosses room at once and messed up Force Cloak).

Is there a way to actually use Theran's CC on command without pulling the companion bar out and using it as the bottom bar, or setting a keybind to it? I want that bottom bar for my cooldowns because its too hard to watch them on the side bars. This UI is so frustratingly rigid sometimes.