Both of the assassins should have been using force shroud on the rampage when it was up, that would reduce the damage they take (the tank can force shroud every other one). Other than that, it would certainly be easier if everyone had better gear, 30k+ hp makes it easy, but it is certainly doable without.

Always funny when this happens (not the kicked part, but the blame on taunting). Occasionally it is true, I've had shadow dps taunt off me because they thought they were helping. I've yet to be kicked from a group, but if I kick someone it tends to be for ignoring the group, refusing to change bad behavior they are called out on (ninja looting, purposely pulling mobs without reason), or an overall bad attitude. I've kicked both healers and tanks (I play a healer or a tank depending on who I'm on) and finished the run with a companion because they did something the group was not willing to tolerate.

Probably because rolling anything other than biochem at the moment really isn't worth anything? Biochem on your main and all the rest of the crewskills on alts is generally what people do. Still not going to make the other skills catch up to biochem, but it is a start I guess.

Complete opposite of our group. The majority of our drops are cunning, to the point where our gunslingers no longer need any of it. We're gearing out alts with the random cunning pieces that drop now. Our vanguard isn't quite as lucky, but we still get a fair amount of aim pieces.

So all we have to do is spend 2 hours so we can get the money to help people we don't know through content because we feel like being nice? Sounds perfectly reasonable.. this is the reason my guild has stopped pugging pretty much everything now. No reason to waste our credits due to group finder or some guild that is struggling to clear content. Excellent way to improve community among the servers.

When I've seen this before, it's usually because someone in your group opened the door and made it to the boss in a previous run, was unable to do it for whatever reason, and didn't reset their quest before joining a new group to do it with. If you don't complete the heroic, make sure to reset it before running with a new group. Otherwise only that person will be able to get the completion.

Nightmare Toth and Zorn drop two random hazmat earpieces. Nightmare Firebrand and Stormcaller drop two Dreadguard bracers Nightmare Vorgath drops two Dreadguard belts Nightmare Kephess drops two Dreadguard helmets

Not a bug. Defensive phases happen each time one of the bosses gets to the next 20% (so 80, 60, 40, 20), while double destruction is on a timer. So getting two double destructions means you aren't getting them killed fast enough to trigger defensive before the second one casts.

Mostly this. However, be willing to listen to EVERYTHING the group that brings you along with them tells you to do. While there are those of us willing to give fresh PvPers a chance at PvE, nothing is more irritating than being ignored when they're being carried for their first run (not trying to be mean here, but if you've never seen the fights before chances are you're going to be carried). Also, make sure you know your abilities. It doesn't inspire your group with confidence if a gunslinger doesn't know they have a droid CC or your cooldowns such as your group shield (may sound exaggerated, but I've seen it).

To be more specific, when he said "link the item in chat" all it does is make it so everyone sees what it is. You then have them do /roll (each player that wants it has to type it out), and you right click on the item in the loot window and hand it out to whoever you want (the player that wins the roll if you want to do it right). Master loot is an option if you right click your character portrait (being the group leader), and it makes it so that when you right click on a dropped item a list of classes show up and allow you to give it to someone under that list (so you'll see Shadow mouse over it and see all the shadows in the group).

In the seer tree, the talent Wisdom on the bottom tier offers 6% bonus to presence (or 3% with one point in it). My guess is that you will find your bonus presence coming from there.

I use noble sacrifice constantly and it really isn't an issue if you know when the damage is going to come. Throw bubbles up on the melee when he's about to go berserk, run away from the melee when the red circle phase happens so that you rarely get circles and can heal most of that time, and most importantly make sure your other healer (and you if it gets on your side) cleanses the mental anguish from Zorn. That will save a lot of healing if it isn't already being done.

I heal Toth and Zorn (HM) by standing with the melee. The only time you really need to worry about getting away is during the berserk jump, other than that it isn't that difficult to heal. You avoid the first jump by not running in until after he has done it, and then you get hurt by every one after that. I've healed it on both my sage and scoundrel, and someone above said they did it on a commando (merc) so it isn't class specific. No idea how to help you on the circles.

I've just quit using the group finder unless I already have part of the team made beforehand. Tired of putting up with tanks or dps not knowing their roles (and my friends are tired of the bad healers). Note: I'm not referring to a lack of experience. I mean BAD players. "Why didn't you keep me alive?" Why were you standing in the fire when we warned you mutliple times before the fight? I've had.. two good pug experiences since 1.3 came out. Everyone was geared, they communicated, and things went the way they were supposed to. Every other run there was at LEAST one person not pulling their weight. The only exception I have is for those players willing to listen to advice and pay attention to what is happening in the fights, which seems to be very few of the pugs I've run into.

Really depends on the person behind the class. We use both a vanguard and shadow tank, and they both do just fine in HM Denova. The only fight where tank preference for me comes into play would be nightmare Foreman Crusher that just DESTROYS shadow tanks. Then I like a guardian or vanguard tank because, as they put it, "he tickles".