Happened a lot after the move from Dalborra to Harbringer ... found lowering the ability queue window to .25 seconds helped eliminate most of the occurances

Good Lordy no, Operatives have endured enough nerfs as it is.

The least they could do is front up and admit this merger was more about cutting costs than improving the playing experience of APAC players.

I would actually say charging RL cash for haircuts is the norm in ftp MMOs . Either that or they are free but require the 'unlocking' (i.e. payment for) all but the most basic of hairstyles / colours. Heck charging RL cash to completely recustomise a character is the norm in ptp (subbed) MMOs. Anyways this feature is still a long way off and they might still decide to spin the 'barber-shop' aspect of it off to a separate service which is free to subbers (nickle n diming everyone else)

I'd say how your character appears is perhaps the most important thing in the game. If you don't like the way your character looks, and you can't find a new look that you like as much as your old one, then you're going to have a hard time finding the motivation to play that character. Inspection and Mail bugs are irrelevant when you don't log on. I'd finally got a look on my shadow that I liked, and as a result her playtime was increasing. Now she's stuck with your stereotypical sith robe the likes of which has been done to death already in the game.

If he wants to play it safe there's always Revan's armor set. It's more or less identical. There are other adaptive sets that share the appearance as well, baring color. The OP should be grateful he wasn't after something like the original look of Phantom armor, because then he'd more or less be screwed.

Unless your disappointed purchase took place in the days immediately following the release of the cartel packs I would say shame on you for not taking 15 seconds to check what the armor looked like on the GTN before dropping your 'tangible funds'. But I guess that explains why cartel packs keep popping up on the GTN. People obviously purchased them and then discovered the armor they were hoping for didn't look quite as they expected it would. Certainly nobody would be so crass as to try and use them to convert 'tangible funds' into credits that aren't even real. Oh wait.. The true victims here are the people who held onto the armor waiting for the change. If they had been truly prescient they would have sold them on the GTN prior to the change then bought them back in a few days time. I predict that would have made them a tidy profit. Ah well, it is only credits after all.

Do a search for posts and threads prior to the 'fix'. You'll find maybe one or two. Thats posts, not threads. Even prior to the 'fix' most of the posts in threads that brought up the discrepancy were "Don't change it!" posts. All these posts from people defending the change are likely from people who were unaffected by the change. They didn't have their look changed from something relatively unique into something mundane and common.

I was hopeful that equipping a circlet and then showing helm would get rid of the stupid hood, but no go. Unfortunately the only way to get rid of the awful hood is to wear an even uglier helm. Why Bioware why?

To me it seems more likely that someone in advertising got it wrong than having the people responsible for the appearance of the armor AND the people responsible for the icon BOTH being wrong (while still agreeing with each other). There are too many armors that already share the same look, why do we need another? Meanwhile there are very few 'no frills' armor options for those of us who don't like cumbersome shoulderpads and generic hoods. That's why the outcry has been far far greater due to the change than there ever was (was there ever? i couldn't find one) back when it didn't match the advertisement.

The Phantom Chestguard when equipped looks nothing like its icon in my chest slot or when it rests in my inventory. The icon shows nothing of the hood and shoulderpads I now get when equipped. In comparison, the icon for Revan's Chest Plate (which the Phantom Chestguard now looks like, barring the colors) shows quite plainly the hood and shoulderpads. Please change the appearance of the Phantom Chestguard on my character so that it looks more like it's icon.

The old phantom looked unique. The new phantom just looks like a rehash of already existing armor. If I wanted to look like a generic Sith Sorcerer why would I have bought phantom armor when Revan's was sooooo much cheaper? The real sad thing about all this is a quick search of the forums revealed only one measly thread complaining about how the phantom armor didn't look as advertised.. and that thread only had 9 posts, most of which were "NO! DON"T CHANGE IT!".

Words cannot express my disappointment with the changes to phantom armor. You can hide the stupid hood by electing to show helm but nothing will get rid of those fugly shoulderpads.

Each companion has armor that can be chosen as rewards from quests. Unfortunately this armor is usually obsolete the moment you get it and I'd wager the majority of the playerbase just take the commendation reward. This is a shame as the companion armor frequently features a unified look that cannot be found elsewhere. Tis a sad thing to see Lord Scourge following JKs around the fleet looking like a jedi If the companion armor was customisable, like many of the weapons are, we could upgrade the mods within it and preserve the unique look of the companion. Or at least keep Lord Scourge looking like the Sith he is.

I ran BOI about half a dozen times in a row today, one after the other, with the same group. Was literally the same drops each and every time. I have to wonder if there's some undocumented feature designed to prevent the farming of HM flashpoints now that they no longer have a lockdown.