I agree with the OP on the whole. I'm from a guild that runs casually but regularly. Raiding is the main event of the week for us and its been this way for years in WOW. I want to add something that bugs me regarding raiding at current - group set up. I expect to run with the same group each week in the same roles. Tank numbers pee me off at the moment. Current content (even 16 man) needs 1 tank mainly - with some encounters requiring 2 and some none. Its ridiculous. How can I have a standard group with the encounters varying so much? I would like fights to be designed around a 2 tank, 3 healer, 3 DPS (or whatever) group every single time. Ok - the odd execption is allowed but most fights should have a mechanic in them to engage and challenge each role. This is especially bad atm where we do not have Dual Spec. A tank or healer can't just swap spec and be something else... you are asking them to run as a crap DPS with tank/heal talents. But Dual spec is certainly not the answer: tanks prefer to tank, healers prefer to heal. Taking tanking as an example (as I am one) i think BW really need to think about 2 tank roles in their encounters. If one tank is on the boss, they need to ask 'OK, what is the other tank doing?' They can be tanking an add(s), waiting to taunt off due to a debuff, taunting the boss for a big spike in damage or even running into things to suck up damage. It doesn't matter what they do -its that they need to be doing something. Other questions that need answering at design stage: 'What are the healers doing - what do they need to watch out for?' 'What stops the DPS from just standing still and mashing buttons all through the fight?'

My question is relating to the setup of ops groups. I believe most operation content can be completed with 1 tank, with an offtank being required on the odd boss fight or trash. This is for both 8 and 16 man encounters. I find this a terrible concept - especially as the 4 man flashpoints mean you need to have more than 2 tanks in your guild if you want to run more than a few groups each night. It creates very difficult circumstances as the excess tanks swap to DPS to get raid spots, which then leaves you short on tanks for flashpoints. I would expect to see at least 2 tanks required for 8 man operations, with a few encounters based on 1. So my question is: Do you design operations around a set group (example 2 tanks, 3 healers, 4 dps etc) or do different designers create boss encounters to their own ideals? If you do not use a set group, will you design future operations with this in mind?

Its simple LaVolpex, He uses the following system: >Log forum >Whinge >kthxbai Apparently it magics up content and resolves all known bugs!

Can you please confirm the exact mechanics behind Taunts? The tooltips purely state that it forces a mob to attack for X seconds, yet i've read reports that the skill appears to equalise threat like a traditional taunt. Can you clarify this?

Excellent changes - options given, and very customisable ones at that. I feared that 'options' would simply mean 2-3 different styles that we be given 'as is' The option to have timers, to flash or not, animation styles etc is great. Given the level of this change (which is a quickfix to the 1.1.2 UI change) i'm enthusiastic that the 1.2 UI changes will be fairly substantial. Keep it coming

I think you can safely assume a robust add-on community, given the number of WOW players who moved from there, and I agree that the default UI should be functionable and suitable to play out of the box - so improvements in 1.2 will be very much welcome. I certainly look forward to what features will be instore. On that topic do you have any juicy info you could leek as to what is in store? Don't be too surprised, however, if the resulting feedback from the UI changes is not a huge amount different from what you have now. The expectation of the players far outweighs what I think is realistically likely to be changed. I'm not trying to be overly negative, I just feel that any "default UI" in this day and age will be found wanting. Of course I would be very happy to be proved wrong on this

Stephen, No matter what you do, or how well you do it, it will not suit everybody. One of the greatest things about other MMO's was the ability to define almost any aspect of the UI to your own personal preference via community addons. - Look at wow. Default UI - basic and unimaginative, But with Addons it can be absolutely whatever you want it to be. Raid frames, logs, meters, chat boxes, maps, action bars, visual aura indicators, cursors, HUDs, Timers, Bags, panels, nameplates, etc. The list goes on. There are thousands of addons available offering millions of options for the unique UI which can be set up entirely as the player wishes. Anything short of this will not keep the masses happy. The only solution to this is to open up the game to the community and let them pour their creative experiance into it. Capture their expertise, capitalise on it. I feel that attempting to create the a default UI (even with some options for scaling etc) is a waste of your resources as I firmly believe you will end up opening the game to addons sooner or later anyway. Lets look at this way: Action bars: Needs to be fully configurable - You need to make bars that can be moved anywhere, split, hidden, scaled individually etc etc. A fantastic example of this utility is Dominoes/Bongos or Bartender. Bags: I do like the 'all in one bag' you have done on the default UI, especially with the quest items and currency seperated out, but addons like Arcinventory allow you to separate out junk items, crafting matts, gear (even tagging them as tank gear or healer etc), miscellanious items, consumables etc. All in one bag is no better than split bags if it is not sorted. Raidframes: A huge aspect of the UI that you will NEVER get 'right'. its soooo subjective to people's needs. Some people like it small and indiscrete, some big and easily clickable. We want to create it to our role and playstyle. We need to know what our targets are targetting, what our focus is doing, and who they are targeting. Hell sometimes we want to know what our target's target's target is targetting. We want to colour code to class for easy recognition, to show resources (or not), to change color on health loss (or not), to be able to show numerical info like health left, health lost, percentages. We want to move the frames around in groups, we want to scale them separately, to group by class, by role etc. The list of player desires in this field alone is literally endless. Meters/logs: Damage meters - ok maybe or maybe not, thats another arguement. But threat meters, especially when threat is hard to keep in SWTOR are essential IMO. As a tank I have noooo idea how far ahead I am of the DPS. I can't risk stopping my rotation to grab a mob, or follow a boss mechanic as keenly as i would like. Coupled with a damage log which would let me things like what type of damage and where the spikes are it means I cannot improve. I dont have the tools to work out how to streamline. Meters - Omen threat meter is crucial, and battle text logs with all their customisible features would be very welcome here. Chat boxes: Not something i'm fussed on changing, but others certainly are. I do find that my chat box is often not for chat in SWTOR - its too busy telling me what xp or cash i've gained. The ability to create extra chatboxes (one for guild one for trade etc) would be handy. Visual Auras: Look at powerauras: you can trigger on screen effects to tell you when a certain situation has happened. Key ability off of CD, a spell effect starting/ending, dots, low health, low resource. These are all things we look out for anyway, we can just see them how we wish to see them. Nameplates: Have a look at tidy plates threat plates or Aloft. These are fully customisable nameplates that can change colour on aggro. They are amazing for AOE tanking and tell you immediately something breaks away from you. Like wise they can show debuffs on that mob, scale on mob type, and all sorts of other funky features. All of these things make people play the way the want to play. Until all of the above and more is an option in the default UI people will not be satisfied. So I ask you, whats quicker - making all this happen or opening up the UI to the addon community?

But locking servers is even worse! I have guildmembers incoming that want to play with us!

I've tried so hard to be positive about the queues, but this post has knocked my confidence substantially. I have a guild which was assigned by the pre-launch system to Frostclaw. My guildmates and I are understandably up in arms over the queue times. I now have new players (who didnt pre-order) not wanting to queue and going to play on another server for a while whilst queues die down. I also have players in Frostclaw who are at various levels and are not keen on re-rolling, even though we hate the queues. I was holding out for character transfer but today I find out that the system has not even been built yet. To make matters worse there is not even a mention of guild transfer. What the hell am i supposed to do? We dont want to re-roll, but we want to play with our friends as we are all from the same guild from another game. Its seriously bad planning to put all the guilds on so few servers. What the hell were you thinking? I really would love to know where the logic was as i just cannot see it. Please get a guild transfer system out soon - or raise caps to alleviate the queues before the players that are playing elsewhere end up wandering off and joining other guilds. From one stressed GM trying to hold a guild together.