A lot of large businesses have terrible support, customer support is one of those areas that can end up under-invested, most customers will tend not have to experience bad customer service and even those who do, if they like the product that much, they'll brush it off as a bad experience and move along. DDOS is possible I guess. Is quite amusing to me, I am a returning player who quit around the time of the initial server merges, where our server was so unstable, we couldn't even beat Gharj in a raid group with full Rakata. I come back and the servers break. XD

Lottery spawns ; ; I am appreciative of the fact it's only a 2 hour timed spawn. Heck, even though Shikigami weapon was a 21 hour timed spawn, he was a bit of a PITA, because he's invisible. Less of a pain if you had widescan and easy when you've got his time of death too (how I managed to catch him), but still, I think we're lucky on SW:TOR in this respect. Heck, at least we don't have to do weapon trials either. Saying that, there's no real reason to do it for Nightmare Pilgrim. The point of it in FFXI was to make certain items a lot rarer, though it was one of the frustrations with the game, but still, getting that Yinyang Robe was something to boast about afterwards and there's many other items out there like that, some a lot more ridiculous. As far as I understood it, the timed spawns here were to stop groups of people spamming the world bosses and having the lockout stops that, so no need for the 2 hour gap, at least IMO, it just means another group could potentially just be sitting around doing bugger all until they can spawn.

A good team of Marauders/Sentinels can be a pain, but I think we have the tools to take them down. They output a high DPS and can defend themselves, I can see why the defenses are there, they're a Melee DPS and therefore take on damage from AoEs. I don't think it makes them OP in PvP, but should a person be effective, they are difficult to take down, but arguably, it's the same for every one. I've come up again Marauders and Sentinels who aren't that difficult to take down. E.G. I was doing lowbie PvP last night on my Dirty Fighting Gunslinger and had no trouble taking down some Marauders, I lacked defensive capabilities but made up for it in CCs and movement impairments. I can slow him down, make my distance, get damage when he can't, then kick them in the nuts, blaster whip him then move out of the way. As a Sharpshooter (as I was previously) I found them more annoying, but then I was less mobile. Bear in mind also, I am a Dirty Fighting noob, I only respecced it for PvP last night. On my Sage, I have CCs, defenses and heals to keep me alive, plus force speed and can take advantage of obstacles and like a Gunslinger, I can slow my foe down. If a Marauder comes after me, I can survive it. Not always, but some are more skilled and persistent than others. When it comes to groups, I think Marauders are annoying because they can output a high DPS and can really work well if you've got a well focused group. Sometimes this is what happens and if they spot my Sage, he might not live that long. But I wonder if it's possible for another group of DPS to use a similar tactic and get similar results? Maybe a team of Dirty Fighting gunslingers, throws flash grenade to prevent nearby people attacking, kick their specific target in the nuts and shoot the crap out of them? If I can get 3 of my guild's gunslingers together I might try it.

Works with my slick hair, type 1 body Miraluka male.

I can understand the concerns of the OP, but I think it's an issue for any MMORPG and PuGs when it comes to tougher content. The disadvantage here specificially is lock outs, because you can't just go grab another PuG, you gotta wait until your lock out is over, unless you compromise and grab a PuG for another Ops, but it is a wee bit of a set back regardless of what you do. However, I think this is a good reason to be a member of a guild. You can get a regular team or a regular selection of people to Ops with, you'll still get fail runs, especially when you get new 50s or people not used to that ops or playing that class for the ops, but they're more likely to stick around to the end. Our guild gets some pretty good HM runs and people don't have so much of a problem getting full Rakata (I'm just one item off). Just get in a guild that's good for doing Ops and you should have less of a problem doing them.

Whilst I don't have a 50 Assassin, but you've got people here who have successfully used their Assassin and got good results from playing it the way they do. In groups, it may not necessarily be the most wanted, but what people want depends on many factors. For example, I would rather PvE with a good Assassin/Shadow than a bad Marauder/Sentinel or even a moderate one. When it comes to a guild, it really depends on what your guild's attitude is. My guild's attitude is: play what you're comfortable with, you'll get help gearing up and people will offer any tips should you want them. If you're in a guild that's telling you what you should play, then you'll probably find that the guild takes the game way too seriously. My advice then? Find another guild. Any class is viable in the right hands. When people start complaining that their class is 'bad' when others manage just fine, it's a sign of a bad workman blaming his tools. Okay, the workman might not like the tools he's got, if that's the case, he can learn to like them or get a new set of tools. What it comes down to is enjoying the game. When I played FFXI I played the 3 most unpopular classes because I enjoyed them, I point blank refused to play a class I did like and in shout groups I did get, "have you got a [x] instead?". They were viable and did a great job in the right hands, but it's not what shout groups were after. However, my endgame team? They loved me and I filled my role very well. Okay I am talking about a different game, but the same principle applies, enjoy the class? Think you'll be able to play it? Then play it! There will be people that are more interested in what you are capable of and not your class choice and generally they're the people you'll want to play with. Heck, a good guild will offer advice on how to improve your skills in the game, but there's also the forums. There's no reason why if somebody wanted to be an Assassin and people are capable of playing the job well that other people aren't capable of doing the same. So my advice wouldn't be to shelve it. If they want to play a DPS Assassin, more power to them.

Perhaps you could have tried Star'breeze, using an apostrophe can help, it's not perfect, but it's a work around. I only had to change one of my names, so I was fortunate. Shame you can't use some real world names, though I did get killed by a Peter Griffin in PvP and saw Tony Stark, however, I wasn't allowed to start a Cyborg Trooper called 'Robocop' or even 'Robo'cop', I went for Robocod instead after the video game. Shame, Robocop might have been lots of fun.

To be honest, I am getting bored of planet missions and would like to focus just on my class missions. I levelled my Sage on mostly planet missions and I've got my Juggernaut to 43 on mostly planet missions. I'd like to get those last 7 levels doing something else and would like my other alts to not go through the same missions again. So how fares exp in spamming Flashpoints in comparison to running through planet missions? My Juggernaut is a tank, so queue usually pops fairly quick. Cheers.

Add ons were useful in WoW and to be honest I liked using them. However, I would prefer to see SW:TOR not use them. Although there's many similarities between WoW and SW:TOR, I think there's enough about them that makes them different for me to not think I'm playing the same game and I would hate to see SW:TOR to pursue the direction of WoW any further, in fact, I'd like to see it move away. There's many things I see SW:TOR doing right that WoW didn't for me. I'd say one of my most important add-ons in WoW was actually the customisable UI and that add-on pretty much worked in the same way as the UI customisation does in SW:TOR. My 2 main classes are a healer and a tank, okay my tank isn't level 50, so he's really only done Flashpoints and PvP. Healing in an Ops isn't difficult when you know the fights and have suitable gear. For learning the fights, there's tutorials on YouTube and if you've got a guild running you through, I am sure they can offer some tips before you fight the bosses. When I hit level 50 one of the first things I did was join my guild for a EV HM and we got wiped. My Sage was in full recruit and I didn't know the fights, though my guild did explain them to me, it was just a bit difficult keeping them alive, it was a close fight though, so I didn't completely suck . But now, my Sage is nearly in full Rakata and it seems laughable that we'd get wiped on the first boss or any of the EV or KP ones. I just have my UI set out so people's health bars are nice and visible - I keep a look out for what's on the floor, I make sure I can see the distance between me and my target in my UI and I check if I've been targeted for any kind of special attack. I'd say healing in PvP is harder, but you're up against player skill and you might be up against some pretty skilled players. But addons won't change that. Tanking on the other hand. Tanking isn't so bad in SW:TOR because your DPS tend to be able to take a hit, generally you'll want to keep the tougher enemies away and generally they can handle trash mobs, especially if you've got your hands full. But in a fight, I occassionally rotate my camera to see if there's any enemies that aren't attacking me and I grab hate from them. It's not that difficult to spot and I don't need a tanking add-on to tell me who has hate. Tanking in PvP is easier than healing in PvP, you've just got to guard weaker players (preferable a healer), spam your taunts and take damage and of course help complete your objectives. As a tank, you're pretty good at taking a huttball beyond the goal line. It's fun being a Juggernaut, popping your defense cool downs, having a healer follow you and just charge your way through to the end, though without the healer or if your defenses are on CD, it's harder to do that. You might wish to DPS too to help on that front. I don't think add ons would help here either.

Some more good advice folks. I figured the higher end numbers would be on a longer WZ, still, that's a pretty coo result, but if I could get a decent 500-600k I think I would be happy. I tend not to have my AoE on cool down and tend to pop it when I think I need it, but actually having it on CD makes plenty of sense, it's extra heals if I am able to get away with casting it. Sometimes I do find it hard going unnoticed and a good team once spotting me will group together, stun lock and kill me, it can be a hit or miss, my CC's help and force speed can help even more. Though Marauders can be the biggest PITA in this respect, but even then they're not guaranteed to kill me. I like that in good team people will get my back, (and this is where my heals improve) unfortunately, a good PuG team isn't so easy to find pub side. Though at least with premades guildies tend to stick together. It is a shame I need to rely on guard and taunts more and as my Juggernaut is a tank, I'll know to pick out the sorcerers and help them out. On Pub side I'll just have to convince a tank to come PvP with me. I know Bioware were trying to make it so we're not OP, but still, we are rather squishy compared to other classes. Cheers.

Yeah, I'm sure I'd get more heals if I wasn't thinking about helping win the match - you know, stopping healing to drop an AoE so somebody doesn't cap or in Huttball where I'm more interested in playing the sport and helping us win than actually focusing on my healing too much. Normally I try to set myself up in a spot where Rescue becomes most effective or stalk the ball carrier to make sure they're healed and the attackers are CC or slowed. Depends on where I am and the situation. I'm not so much worried about my healing in Huttball, it seems lately to be Pub's best WZ on our server and I am capable of aiding somebody in scoring or even scoring myself. (Lots of fun Rescuing a CC'd ball carrier over the goal line) Makes perfect sense. I love doing that on my Gunslinger. Anyway, cheers for the tips, I will take them all to heart and hopefully see my healings improve. I very rarely see people hit the higher numbers, which means I fairly frequently end up in the top 2 heals. Though, when my guild starts doing Rated Warzones, I know I'll need to step up my game. Cheers.

To be honest I've not been using any stims, though I will rectify that. I've got the 2 points on my AoE heals and I try to use Salvation as much as I can. But I probably forget my Force Potency, so I'll be more vigilant in that respect. I think they're useful things to consider. Having a tank on you I imagine is a big hand, unfortunately our pre-mades tend to be 3 DPS + 1 healer (when we do grab tanks, I'll be sure to have them cover me) and I don't think you can always rely on PuGs, particularly with Pubs on our server, there's some really good Pub PvPers to be fair, but often or not you get people who seem to be all over the place (granted they have to play to learn, but it's frustrating), whilst the Imps are focused and together. It's pretty ridiculous because my Imp character is getting wins all the time, but pub side it's actually a lot of effort. But no harm in trying to get a tank to cover me, who knows, there might be one who'll help. Cheers.

I've seen some posts here showing folks with pretty decent heals at the end of their WZs, even reach 1mill. Yet, I never seen anybody get that high in an actual Warzone, maybe ~500k on the rare occassion. For me, my top result is ~400k, but my average is probably 250k. Embarrassing that I post a defeat, but it's pretty normal for Pubs to lose on my server (at least in PuGs). But here's some results for a Voidstar Link I broke 400k, but the Imp healer above me was closer to 600k. In that particular match, I didn't struggle so much with getting people off of my back, which made it easier to hit 400k (as you'll see, I only had 2 deaths). However, take situations like Novare Coast last night, where I was constantly hit by the other side I found once my CCs were on CD I had to pretty much kite them for survivability, throw the odd heal/shield where I could, but my total heals in the end suffered. I also try to take advantage of obstacles, sometimes people stop attacking me, but when they don't, it at least gives me a little time to recover. The way I see it, if I'm kiting, I'm not keeping people alive. I am almost full Battlemaster gear and I think it would be nice to get consistently high heals or even break higher than 400k, so I am wondering if there's any tips on improving my heals?

I think as far as PvE goes, the glass cannon doesn't apply so much because generally you've got somebody tanking and somebody healing and in theory you shouldn't be at a massive risk and I don't think BW would want to make Sage OP in this respect. In PvP, we die fairly easily and whilst you can do things to increase your survivability, people do like to pounce on you, throw in a load of stuns/interrupts and zerg you, because you're an easier target and still plenty a threat. It's nice when other players are distracted and you can zerg them yourself, but I can kinda agree with the sentiments here. My suggestion would be to increase the effectiveness of the Expertise rating. Give Sages more deadliness before the Imps gang up and tear them down. I don't want Sage to be OP though, I think that would take the challenge out of PvP.

I've not really taken my Inquisitor very far, as I can't really comment far. I think Qyzen vs Khem, as a tank, I think Qyzen wins, the jump is an advantage and as a seer I pretty much used him throughout the game, sometimes replacing him with Zenith, then Nadia as DPS. But I do find Khem to be more interesting as a character. But I don't have anything against Qyzen, he's a good companion and I like being regarded as a Herald. But on the note of Nadia, I personally compare her to Jaesa Wilsaam, but then that's because I have play my Warrior enough to unlock her and in a way I think they're each other's opposites (at least with dark side Jaesa). If we were comparing those two, I think Jaesa wins for me, Nadia is sweet and caring, a bit clingy and her emotions kind of weaken her, as she constantly as conflict with her emotions (and as her master, you're kind of there to help her guide her emotions) and II think it helps make her and overall three-dimensional character, but I like Jaesa (I turned her Dark Side) because she's quite strong willed, and she's a lot more impulsive. However, I think storywise and in terms of their personality and the people acting as their 'master', each make perfect sense, one's got to find peace and harmony because it's the Jedi way, whilst the other has got to use her pain and anger to fuel her rage and use her suffering to her strength because that's the Sith way. In both situations you are showing them the way of your order. I guess, being evil is more interesting to me. So the fact I'm a level 50 lightsided Jedi Sage is probably baffling.