Most of the hard modes are actually real bosses interspersed with "minibosses" that only drop a crystal, so yea, basically yea on normal mode. Should've been a few that dropped real gear, unless you didn't finish the place I guess. I don't know why the triple assassin bots don't drop something real, it's pretty *********** stupid, considering the minibosses before and after them don't drop crap either.

Are you talking about Kaon only, or what? The only time this is really an issue there is the mini-event, for which the gun emplacement exists. Yea, it's definitely a more AE-intensive fight, but you also don't NEED to pick up all the weak-level mobs. My job as a tank has always been to ensure that the strong-elite-champion level mobs are on me - the dps eliminate weak targets first because if they pull aggro on those, they don't get hurt much. What does any of this have to do with powertechs specifically though? You know things have enrage timers, right? Are you sure you are not confusing this with that? Are you sure your healer just didn't have a wtfderp moment? Yeah, incoming damage can hurt and it can stack up quick. I died in a HM D7 run the other day on trash, just got overconfident or maybe my healer buddy zonked out for a bit, it happens. I've been tanking hardmodes since I was in blue quest leveling gear and it was a helluva lot rougher then compared to now. The only unbeatable (technically, I suppose it could be beaten, so let's say just plain broken) flashpoint was Foundry, which is now supposedly (haven't done it yet) fixed. So what flashpoint are YOU talking about here and in 4? I've personally beaten all the others and rarely do we die anymore. Maybe you should examine why you are dying instead of blaming the instance. This is either trolling or just plain bull****. I have never exploited any of the hardmode bosses in any fashion even remotely approaching what you just said. I can actually agree here. The entire Tion/Energized itemset is basically pointless and redundant, especially if you pvp and get champion gear, which beats out both. Bosses drop crystals, tier 1, and tier 2? Two types of currency for a single tier? None of it really makes any sense. The only worthwhile thing in each instance is basically the last boss. Also sort of agree. I think they should have created an "expanding" system where if there aren't enough 50's in the queue, the game would start looking for level 49's to put in the match, then 48's, etc... until a game can start. I really don't know. I would feel a lot better about the game if devs actually had some serious communication. Blog posts full of PR bull**** that don't really explain what the hell they are doing to clean up this disaster just doesn't relieve my concerns. I've gone from a 6-mo plan to seriously considering just not subbing at all - I'll give them a 1mo sub though and see if they can really shape things up. But it's looking grim. Still, don't agree with much of the rest of your post. So, which ones? There are plenty of non-exploitive strats for all the hardmodes. I spent time wiping 5-6 times learning/just trying to power through some of the tougher ones (like Ilum pig-guy with the adds) but we've gotten loads better. I'll throw in my favorite powertech tip for Battle of Ilum - on the 2nd Gamorrean boss, he has 2 strong-level mobs near him - Have your group stand at the doorway to the room you came from, use grapple on the add standing furthest from the boss, and immediately, WITHOUT ATTACKING, run back towards your group and around the corner to LOS pull them. You can do this without aggroing the boss AS LONG AS YOU AND EVERYBODY ELSE DOES NOT SHOOT THEM until they are far away from the boss. Saves you an iffy fight or a wipe from needing to dps both those guys as well during the fight.

Don't agree with you whatsoever. If you like the pvp, it's tempting to just level through pvp'ing. If you do that even for one level you're going to have more than enough commendations to buy stuff. There's a 20 level gap between the pvp sets. What else are you gonna spend things on?

Mystified.

No idea, wish I knew myself...is it possibly inside the instance or something?

Why would anyone care you did it "first" on your server? First is in quotes, by the way, because how would you know someone else didn't already do it but didn't feel the need to pointlessly post about it?

If there is one thing that is going to end up causing me to leave this game, it is the absolute lack of clear information about what Devs are working on, fixing, planning to implement, taking a look at, etc. etc. etc. The only 'interaction' I see is random letter/number droids responding to my bug reports with cut and paste replies that say nothing, forum mods posting about removed posts and consolidation of threads, and generic-quality 'blog' posts. Without an absolutely clear set of posts from an actual developer or someone who actually *understands* the game I am quickly losing faith that serious action is being taken regarding the myriad of issues the game faces. I'm particularly awestruck by the fact that this HASN'T yet occurred given that a pivotal moment - end of first month time - is approaching. Where is the big "plans for the future" post that is going to let us potential subbers know the game is worth sticking around for? I already previously changed from a 6mo plan to a 3mo plan because of this lack of info. In light of the complete disaster that is Ilum and PvP as of today, I've further scaled it back from 3mo to 1mo, after debating internally whether I was going to bother at all. Right now, from the perspective of a single-player KOTOR RPG followup, the game is relatively decent. As a MMORPG, I think it is in quite dire straits. COMMUNICATION. Where is it?

Right. Because there's a pamphlet telling you everything you need to know about anyone you might invite to any group at any level. Get real.

Lost a need roll on a level 25 cunning helm as my operative against a level 34 assassin who wanted it for his companion. At least if this @#$# option existed, dum-dums that like might at least see the "Companion" option and actually pause to think about what they're pressing Don't forget this goes hand-in-hand with NO TRADING OF LOOT. No grace period allowing you to trade a bop item to someone who was present for the kill that provided it. So no going "Hey, I could actually use that" and politely asking for it, or doing anything but just raging at someone who made a mistake/stupid error.

Um, no, it doesn't affect your targeting whatsoever. If you taunt someone and they shoot someone not-you for 100 dmg, only 70 of it hits the target and 30 is added to your protection score

There are plenty of attacks which ignore shielding and armor. Tanks themselves can go down real fast when focused.

Considering all the fights have been designed and tuned for those numbers, no they're not going to change As to why - why not?

You don't need to code in doors and walls if you disable the option to release until the boss is reset - and if you do that, there's no need to send us out of the damn zone, we should be able to respawn directly at the last checkpoint, hell even call in medical probes where we are. And *** are you talking about, avoid zerging encounters? A number of them already ARE zergable by zoning back in. I have awful loading times, especially after a few hours play, especially on the big planets, and sending me outside to something like Ilum is highly aggravating.

heh, good idea. never gonna happen :|

Then you just disable the "release" option until all players and bosses are out of combat. I don't know what ******* thought it was a good idea to make us zone out and back in every time, given the awful planet-loading system they have. Agree with OP