I agree with Bioware releasing RofHC for free to subscribers that don't have it is a good move. What I don't like is that they don't give anything to those that have supported the game from the beginning. No real customer appreciation rewards, no bonuses if you have been supporting the game with being a long term subscriber, purchasing the digital expansion, or buying a lot of CC (if you do). A few fireworks, 500cc and a title over the life of this game is not really appreciation. Other games have long term rewards, or rewards for purchasing or even if they don't hae rewards, they give tons of content. I believe that is the main reason why long term subscribers are mad. It's the term "Customer Appreciation" and just giving us a title that doesn't mean anything. But yes, I do agree that giving the expansion to subscribers minimizes the fragmentation of the playerbase.

Thanks for updating this. Made a scoundrel as my first republic side character (and just started an Operative as well) and was trying to look into healing as something new to try.

I think you are slightly missing the point of this spec. He states in his first post that this won't do as much damage as deep pyro. The point of this is to have heavy damage and utility without being deep in AP. There are some people that do not like to rely heavily on PFT to be their big damage dealer, so this may work for them. If you are going for all out damage and burst, then you want to stay deep pyro. But if you want utility with your damage, then go AP or use this hybrid spec. Since there are a lot of big damage dealers in my premades, then I'm going either AP (Norse) or Maverick because with objectives being important in WZs (looking at you Huttball) then that is where I will shine with these builds. I played this spec for the last few days, and I'm enjoying it. I'm going back and forth between this build and Norse to be my future build. Having those railshots is a lot of fun.

Are you talking about War Hero, or Battlemaster gear? The War Hero costume is the same for Bounty Hunters no matter what spec you are. They just have different costumes: http://www.oldrepublic.net/content/attachments/1719d1332244686-bounty-hunter-wt1.jpg/ The Battlemaster gear is different for Supercommando/Combat Tech and Eliminator/Combat Medic. For some reason, someone at Bioware said "Hey Bug-eyes looks cool! This should be the best gear you can get (at the time)!" http://torwars.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/SWTOR_Bounty_Hunters_Battlemaster_Gear.jpg Thankfully, the War Hero is much better looking. Not quite Star Warsy, but much better looking. I just end up hiding my head gear until I find something better. Also, you can find another head piece to replace it with.

Check this thread out to find our more of why Shielding/Armor doesn't really work in PvP. http://taugrim.com/2012/01/19/understanding-swtors-avoidance-and-mitigation-mechanics-for-tanks-in-pvp/