I did Battle of Ilum solo a week or so ago. I had started off doing it the way a group would normally do it: Once off the speeder, jump on your mount, go up the wall to the right, bypass the first groups of mobs until you couldn't skip them any more. Then I started looking around and I realized that there was SO MUCH of this instance that I had never seen, even though I've run it enough times to do it in my sleep. I know where every group is, which ones you can safely skip, what needs to be done on the boss fights, etc. But then I started slowing down and looking around. I did the bonus missions since why not? They give you some credits if you complete them and it takes no extra time to do them. Then I get to the area right before the bridge before you destroy the anti-air cannons... and I saw a cave. Curious, I went in, killed a few packs of mobs and found an area that was obviously for a boss fight (had the health consoles spaced around it). Did a quick search and realized that there is a bonus boss in there that is only available if you do the bonus missions (which I had not since I skipped the first part of the instance). I never knew there was a bonus boss in Battle of Ilum. I found out because I was playing through solo, and was taking my time, looking around. This is one of the main reasons I like to play solo.

Most of the reasons I prefer not to group up have already been listed, so I won't reiterate those. The main reason, though, is that I also have sat internet. It's the only option for where I live. On a good day (usually in the early morning around 5am EST), I can get a ping of around 700ms. Late at night, it bounces between that and 3000ms. Constantly. I have over a second of lag after I hit my abilities until my character responds. I freeze. I get disconnected. For me, though, it doesn't matter. I log back in and go my merry way. It gets frustrating but I can deal with it. I also have limited play time. I play from early to mid-morning and do not play when my husband is home, which means no nights and most weekends. Why do I continue to play with such a crappy connection? Because I like the game. I enjoy the story that's being told, that my characters are an intrinsic part of. I have characters that I care about and feel connected to. Because this is the game I want to play. I like Skyrim, and I've played other games, but SWTOR is the game I LIKE TO PLAY. It also has lightsabers. It's rewarding to me to be able to play with a companion that actually means something to my character. At least it was until this past Tuesday... I had gotten 3.5 characters through to the Alliance stage and had even rolled a few new ones to level. (Just to clarify, I am a Founder and have been playing (not continuously) since launch. I had a better internet connection back then, but we had to go to sat a couple years ago because no one will run high speed internet out where we live. When I played then I was in a guild, I did daily FPs, HMs, Ops, everything. So I know what I'm doing and have grouped. I have people that I played with regularly, too. I enjoyed doing OPs and was a damn good healer.) Still someone would say why don't you find a single player game so you don't have to deal with the crappy connection. My answer is that I do, but as stated above, I like to play this one. I like to play solo, and most of the time I have chat off, but sometimes I turn it on and read what others are saying. One day recently, while I was on Balmorra, someone started talking about the Elder Scrolls games, and it was a nice conversation. I did that and went through my heroics and had a good time. See that there? I HAD A GOOD TIME. It was fun. I did what I wanted, talked to people, and they did what they wanted. I didn't have to listen to someone complain that I was lagging in something, or demand that I space bar through cutscenes (which I mostly do, but will deliberately NOT do if someone demands it), or have to roll on decos that dropped (even though I haven't visited my SH in ages). The number one thing about people not wanting to group or wanting solo content in an MMO is that everyone is entitled to do as/play how they want. I'm the one that pays for my sub, not someone else. I don't pay for someone else so it's not my place to tell them what to do. As it is, I have unsubbed right now, and it's not just because I don't want to group up for H2 SF. I could probably do that, though I'd explain up front that I have a bad connection and may lag out or DC. The reason I have unsubbed is because the planetary heroic content has become too much of a chore for one lousy crate, a few glowing crystals (that all go towards buying companion gifts now anyway). I waste too much time killing packs and packs of mobs before getting to the objective. Hell, I had even written down a list of weeklies and what rewards they gave so that I knew what I had to do each week to get the better crystals to get better gear. But now, I'm not going to bother. Were the companions OP before the patch? Yes. They needed to be adjusted, not broken. They need some fixing so they don't try to DPS when they're supposed to be healing or just suddenly stop dpsing, or are unable to keep themselves alive if they draw threat. Is that why I'm unsubbing? No, I'm unsubbing because the Alliance grind became boring and tedious in addition to what they did with comps. I'm sure they will do something to make them work again. The Devs have already posted something to that effect (or that they intend to announce something concerning the situation on Monday), and if they do fix things so that I can at least do the planetary heroics in a timely manner, then I will resub. If nothing else, I will return for the new chapters (because I want my dratted companions back). But until then, I'll go find something else to do.

This in a nutshell. I came back to playing regularly with 4.0 and was having fun. I've got 3 characters through KOTFE, and another about halfway through it. I could do the things I wanted solo and go my merry way. I've logged more hours since 4.0 dropped than I have in the past three years. However, now it's not that it's *hard* per se, it's just... ugh. UGH. Plain and simple. Previous to 4.0, I could get my comps gear and they'd do fine. I never had a problem that wasn't my own fault for either pulling too many mobs, doing something stupid, or a result of a crappy connection. Healers could keep me healed; dps would down things while I healed them. (I do not play tanks nor do I like to use tanky comps). To provide the info that was requested for this thread, here we go: 65 Corruption Sorc, 216 gear, 1 piece of radiant / 65 Vengence Jugg, mostly 208, one or two 216 Comps: Koth influence 25 or so, DPS, Pierce as tank / Koth, Lana, T-7... Just couldn't find one that healed well enough, heals Sorc: regular SF is fine. I had to use Pierce as a tank, though; DPS just gets smashed and with my connection, I can't heal fast enough. This is using CCs and such. Using a tank comp was slow because they do almost no damage and I had to heal and DPS to keep the fights from becoming too long. Which happened anyway. Tried Heroic SF, got to the final stage and couldn't get past the second room (i'm on satellite and I have a serious lag, and spent the whole fight getting yanked around (damn mobs won't *move*)). Tank doesn't generate enough agro to keep them off of me, and with everything that's going on... I probably could have done it, but then I still had another room and the exarch to fight. And I decided it wasn't worth it. I went and got Qyzen on my Sorc yesterday by farming the champs. Those posed no problem with a DPS companion (Koth, DPS, 24). My jugg on the other hand... I have been forced to learn a few things on her. But, it's the same thing as above. It's just gotten tedious. What once used to be fun is now just a chore. A couple of the heroics on Belsavis are brutal; in fact after I died, I did the corpse run past the mobs to the final stage and fought and killed the jedi that way. I wasn't breezing through these things before, but at least I had a chance. Healer comps just stop healing. I think part of this is that they're trying to dps as well. I hate Lana because she seems to spend more time trying to hit the mobs than she does healing me. Koth probably does the same when I have him heal... As mentioned in the quoted post, previously I could do something about my companions. I could get them better gear. At one time, on my sorc, Andronikos had better gear than I did. He'd kill 'em and I'd keep him alive. It worked. It was fun. I enjoyed that system. This is probably the end for me. I've canceled my sub.

Juggernaut. No, was not in the chapter prior to maintenance.

Trying to get this datacron on Ebon Hawk server. I click the blast pack and there's an explosion, but the rocks are not removed and the item in my bag is not consumed. Tried logging and it still didn't work. Also, there are only 30 people on Alderaan right now so switching instances is not an option.

There, I fixed that for you.

However... the request could apply to deleting things like pets, medpacs, legacy abilities, stims, etc, that get deleted every time there's a major patch. *That* is annoying. I can understand abilities being removed from hotbars, but really... do you have to remove my medpacs, adrenals and my legacy abilities, too? Leave my darn bars, alone.

Oh geez.... not more stupid looking gear for Inquisitors...

It would appear that there are no pockets in clothing in the Star Wars universe and therefore people cart things around on their belts. Thus we have belts with various pockets, containers, fanny packs, ammo containers, etc, etc, and our characters look like construction workers with loaded utility belts. Or, if you happen to be a Sith Inquisitor in certain gear you look like a walking life support system and the belt just reinforces that look. The look of most of them ruin the lines of most outfits, look ridiculous, and just inappropriate as some of them clip through things like robes and coats. In the cast of the Dancer/Loungewear outfits, the belt actually hides the pretty chain belt that is built into the outfit, not to mention the fact that a heavy belt looks completely inappropriate for that type of outfit. A simple, elegant solution would be to introduce a similar item to the Covert chest piece in that the belt would be "invisible" and yet you would still have the stats available to an equipped belt. The same could be done for bracers and gloves.

No. No. No.

/bumpity bump

/signed I want a shirtless Vector.

In case you haven't figured it out, the last character you played is at the top, and the rest are listed alphabetically. It's not random.

/signed

/signed