I ignore the adds most of the time and leave them for the derps to kill. If I see the derps not paying attention and killing the mobs I'll force pull the closest one, that usually gets their attention. When I'm derpsing as sent, I take care of the closest mobs and leave the far ones to the rdps.

I hate it when I am on my Deception Assassin and get paired with an rDPS, who instantly kills the closest people. I Spike a mook, hit Maul and just prepare to click Assassinate and the silly Merc or whatever shoots it instead of killing the people who now have their barrels aimed at the healer.

PUG commendations run on Dread Fortress. Leader encourages folks to join in group voice, so we comply. After greetings, fighting commences. I am calling out bomb droid entrances on first boss, but I am the only one talking, noting a decidedly chilly response. Laughing and cat-calls follow someone getting killed. Primary reason for voice, to compair DPS parses after fights. Tanks rarely get to start fights, and there is minimal teamwork, as the challenge is to do the most damage. Other DPS getting killed, knocked back, or having to heal, decreases their threat to the highest numbers. This became especially clear when we fought trash mob droids that have a red circle of death appear just before they explode/expire. Early DF runs developed a tactic of knocking the droids back before they explode. The new tactic is to knock the droids into the party, seeing how many group members you can kill. Again cat-calls and profanity follow with claims for the most party kills being boasted. On my first experience of this run method, I just thought it a fluke group, keep head down, grab comms, put leads on ignore. My second exposure to this was more frustrating, so I commented in voice. After being shouted down by the majority of the group, I dropped voice, I again put head down, got the mission completed, grabbed comms, and left (yeah, yeah, greed won over principle).

 

I have encountered this as tank and DPS, and both are in mostly 78s, so loot is all greed, which is to say these are comms only runs (way too much work to police the ninjas). After the run, I recieve a profanity laced private tell on my looting habits (I checked, no loot recieved) and several "old man" references about my desires for teamwork and mutual support. Easy enough, he was added to my growing /ignore list, but it realy struck me that I have a very different version of fun than these crowds I pugged with.

 

The recent posts about needing to challenge the group to find your limits is all well and good when all agree to do so. My guildies and I used to time ourselves on level 50 HM Flashpoints back when they were worth running. Stealth stunning, skipping, diving through things was fun when we all agreed, and cutting 30 seconds off meant something. The thing that ticks me the most about only seeing the back of a tank that won't self heal is the payouts the same guys! Saving 1 or two minutes of my life when it took 30 minutes to get everyone invited and in one place is nothing. If you have 11 level 55s you are cycling through every day or week it is NMFP. Getting 16 folks to agreed to run through trash mobs to Titan 6 is guarenteed to kill at least one and take Far More Time while they clone and try again. An all friends DPS parse-a-thon? Sounds fun. I am a PUG watching you fools try and get me killed? I want off this crazy ride.

Just one of the many stories I can share with you guys and fresh too

 

I did a sm mandolorian raiders today through groupfinder with 2 guildies, me being a scroundel healer and my guildies both being dps commandos. We got a shadow tank.

I checked out his gear, missing one implant, clearly geared for dps (that's ok for me, tank gear is hard to get at lvl 25)

but no tank stance or shield equiped(he had a focus)

Ok I think to myself, I've healed worse let's see how it goes. Meanwhile my guildies were having fun with me on ts that I had to heal him.

Well our tank did not disappoint, he started chainpulling everything he got, cc'ing stuff and then attack it

Worst that happend was that he was needing on every piece of gear that dropped, but every item, even green ones Worst part was that he won a piece that I actually needed (cunning gear)

When we asked about this, he did not respond and kept happily attacking everything he could put his lightsaber on....oh and needing too.

SInce he did not respond to our remarks or questions, I decided to stop healing him till we got his attention.

Well he didn't got the hint, he died, left group and we managed to finish it without him

Still it's a pity he didn't communicate with us, we could have given him some pointers how to improve.

Often times when I do group finder it's with two of my pals (I'm tanking, they are heal, dps) and we group finder a 4th dps. We're all in 78s, experienced raiders, etc. Just doing the weekly to get our CPU companions some more 78s and have fun.

 

Immediately after the group forms and we're in the flashpoint I give the 4th guy the business (well call the 4th guy Poor Sod for the generic purposes of the following dialog). Usually I start by saying

 

"Listen up Poor SoB... er Poor Sod"

"Listen up and Listen good because I'm only going to say this once"

 

and then I don't say anything.

 

Usually at that point they'll say something like "?"

 

and one of my pals will then say

 

"Jesus Christ dude he already told you once why are you causing problems?"

 

and the other one will say

 

"oh man I can't believe you said that after he had already told you once... We may have to vote kick this guy"

 

and then I'll say

 

"yeah. I've already told you once Poor Sod DON'T make me tell you again"

 

At this point about a 1/3rd of the time the 4th person leaves. Sometimes he'll put us on ignore in which case we vote kick him.

 

Then a 5 or so minutes in Poor Sod will ask a question or one of us will pull a second mob/3rd mob for excitement and well say

 

"gosh darn it Poor Sod why the hell did you do that? Pay attention dude you don't want me to have to tell you twice."

 

 

one time there was a guy in body type 3 (the fat one) that we kept telling "try to tag along fattie" or "I'm not sure this guy can do it I think he is too fat" during a jumping skip. He ended up reporting us and CSR gave us an excessive role play violation.

 

anyway if they tough it out they are treated to a clean run which is more than any group que'ing solo dps deserves. And we tell them to foward any complements or complaints to our guild master. (who gets really mad about it)

 

Goes to show that anyone can get high gear these days.

 

Please tell us the name of your guild and the server you are on. Is this the sort of people that play RP ?

100k says it's an american server.

Went with Abe to Czerka labs earlier today. I queued together with a guildie sentinel. In the beginning all was normal. We greeted each other and started to kill trash.

Everything was well until we got to the 2nd hiddenkey location. Somehow my sentinel guildy pulled the next trashmob while I was searching in the room for the 2nd key. When I noticed the group was under attack allready some of us died. Luckely I could finish the mobs of on my own.

 

Somehow the healer decided to use the jump down tactic to skip some trashmobs. While this was perfectly normal he thought it was a good idea to activate the droidboss in the water before we jumped down.

My guildy and I jumped down, but somehow my guildy managed to jump a tad to far and came to close to the droid. This started the bossfight with both him and me (the tank) at 5% HP. The healer didnt managed to heal the sentinel up in time which lead to his death when the water got electrified. After the electrified water he got rezzed. However the next phase with electrified water started before he was healed up again, again he died.

 

While this was quite unfortunate and my guildy was clumpsy the healer felt it necessary to call my guildy names (in the lines of 'omg how can you be that bad'). Suffice to say that we votekicked him out. With the new healer we continued on our merry way.

 

I still don't know why he thought he could get away with it while grouped with 2 from the same guild.

I still don't know why he thought he could get away with it while grouped with 2 from the same guild.

 

Perhaps healer did not know that puggin with guildie increases skills somehow.

Went with Abe to Czerka labs earlier today. I queued together with a guildie sentinel. In the beginning all was normal. We greeted each other and started to kill trash.

Everything was well until we got to the 2nd hiddenkey location. Somehow my sentinel guildy pulled the next trashmob while I was searching in the room for the 2nd key. When I noticed the group was under attack allready some of us died. Luckely I could finish the mobs of on my own.

 

Somehow the healer decided to use the jump down tactic to skip some trashmobs. While this was perfectly normal he thought it was a good idea to activate the droidboss in the water before we jumped down.

My guildy and I jumped down, but somehow my guildy managed to jump a tad to far and came to close to the droid. This started the bossfight with both him and me (the tank) at 5% HP. The healer didnt managed to heal the sentinel up in time which lead to his death when the water got electrified. After the electrified water he got rezzed. However the next phase with electrified water started before he was healed up again, again he died.

 

While this was quite unfortunate and my guildy was clumpsy the healer felt it necessary to call my guildy names (in the lines of 'omg how can you be that bad'). Suffice to say that we votekicked him out. With the new healer we continued on our merry way.

 

I still don't know why he thought he could get away with it while grouped with 2 from the same guild.

 

While the jumping down didn't seem that bad, activating the boss before everyone was ready was a really stupid idea. I don't know how they thought it was a good idea and if they were smart, they would have realized that people would need to heal up after jumping down. In the end, calling people names would have been a vote kick in my book no matter what happened.

The way I have experienced that FP is, wait until everyone is in front of the forcefield and healed up again, THEN activate the droid.

And yeah, calling people names would lead to a votekick as well as a place on my igno list.

Perhaps healer did not know that puggin with guildie increases skills somehow.

 

Nah, usually when I pug with (certain) guildies my skill rapidly decreases as they like to troll around a lot

Goes to show that anyone can get high gear these days.

 

Duran'del here:

 

I can't. Then again I don't raid, but raids are really hard, and I main a tank, and I suck at tanking(If anyone's been in a group with me they know I am).

 

I use my DCDs, I hold threat well, I have a rotation, but I still die(Because I sux) and I'm in 162 rating gear with 168 rating boots, almost fully augmented with Obroan FR and RW relics. I Aldo don't stack endurance or defense(I'm going to replace a few Defense augs with Shield or absorb when I get a char with Armormech leveled up.

No matter what people think, gear doesn't prove how good a player is.

I Aldo don't stack endurance or defense(I'm going to replace a few Defense augs with Shield or absorb when I get a char with Armormech leveled up.

 

GTN price for prototype augments is around 10k, don't wait but just buy and make better stat distribution. Also skill tree matters (e.g. many VG making mistake selecting Soldier's Endurance and Blaster Augs).

 

No matter what people think, gear doesn't prove how good a player is.

 

Completely agree, I've stopped counting times when I see overgeared TK sages spamming disturbance without Tidal Wave proc, sentinels spamming AoE attacks, running out of rage and switching to basic attacks (no proccing, no rage management, just dumb hitting the buttons). Mostly when I see dps >35k HP, I inspect the gear immediately, became dissappointed (really, who cares about accuracy and crits, POWER ME, GIMME THE POWER or even ENDURANCE) and they prove my concerns by horribly playing the class later.

 

Just a small example, one day I've seen a gunnery commando dps in HM TC in full 180, he refused to attack adds ("because I do a lot of damage, I'll concentrate on the main big guy"), but it didn't stop him from using Mortar Volley (expensive aoe attack which would fit perfectly for attacking adds, however he used it on the main boss).

Had a pretty weird experience a couple of days ago in a lv. 50 HM flashpoint. 3 members of our group wanted to go rather slow, do the bonus objectives, and one of us apparently was a rusher and sky-rocketed forward faster than we could look. We asked him several times politely to slow down and help us with some of the mobs in front of the bonus objectives, but to no avail. At a later stage we arrived at the bonus boss - just we three, the fourth player waited already at the exit to the main and final encounter. Several times I asked to join us, but nothing. So we did all the bonus objectives without him - but when we finally caught up with him to continue the main objectives, he continued with us (so he definitely wasn´t afk or had connection problems). Now the weird thing was that he also didn´t say anything. He could have said something like "guys sorry, didn´t get much time, need to leave, can we make fast"? But nothing. So eventually we finished the flashpoint - not a second after finished he quit the group - no thanks, no bye. One of the other players hypothesized that maybe he was very new to the game, didn´t know the mechanics or didn´t know how to use the chat. But he was lv. 55 and when I inspected him he had quite advanced gear. I can´t possibly imagine that he didn´t know how to use chat. So, in a certain way, that was the weirdest experience I had so far in a flashpoint.

Duran'del here:

 

I can't. Then again I don't raid, but raids are really hard, and I main a tank, and I suck at tanking(If anyone's been in a group with me they know I am).

 

I use my DCDs, I hold threat well, I have a rotation, but I still die(Because I sux) and I'm in 162 rating gear with 168 rating boots, almost fully augmented with Obroan FR and RW relics. I Aldo don't stack endurance or defense(I'm going to replace a few Defense augs with Shield or absorb when I get a char with Armormech leveled up.

No matter what people think, gear doesn't prove how good a player is.

If nothing else you could run 55HMs to get the daily and weekly bonuses. That would put you in 72 and 78 pieces all around, if slowly. You can also get a full set of 69 gearing from completing Oricon and doing one weekly, plus the relics for completing DF and DP the first time.

 

If you do really want to improve your tactics there are good videos out there on how to tank. You're the main tank as you said, so take yourself to that next level.

If nothing else you could run 55HMs to get the daily and weekly bonuses. That would put you in 72 and 78 pieces all around, if slowly. You can also get a full set of 69 gearing from completing Oricon and doing one weekly, plus the relics for completing DF and DP the first time.

 

If you do really want to improve your tactics there are good videos out there on how to tank. You're the main tank as you said, so take yourself to that next level.

 

What I meant by "I main a tank" is that my tank is my main Character. I say that because I'm kinda an altaholic

If nothing else you could run 55HMs to get the daily and weekly bonuses. That would put you in 72 and 78 pieces all around, if slowly. You can also get a full set of 69 gearing from completing Oricon and doing one weekly, plus the relics for completing DF and DP the first time.

 

If you do really want to improve your tactics there are good videos out there on how to tank. You're the main tank as you said, so take yourself to that next level.

 

He's got Obroan Relics, he doesn't want Arkanian from DF/DP... The only upgrade is Dread Forged.

Just a small example, one day I've seen a gunnery commando dps in HM TC in full 180, he refused to attack adds ("because I do a lot of damage, I'll concentrate on the main big guy"), but it didn't stop him from using Mortar Volley (expensive aoe attack which would fit perfectly for attacking adds, however he used it on the main boss).

 

To be fair, Mortar Volley should increase a Commandos dps even in Single target situations. Its damage:ammo ratio is very similar to the damage:energy ratio of Orbital Strike for Snipers and they use OS on single target quite successfully. But Snipers can do so without messing up their Energy management, Commandos probably can't, I never tried it.

And of course Mortar Volley would be far more effective on the adds.

 

 

Weird people story: I did a Cademimu HM run on my Powertech tank. The damage dealers of my group were a Advanced Prototype Powertech and an Assassin (don't remember the healer). The assassin had the very inconvenient habit to use his knockback on cooldown. He would kick the enemies:

 

- away from me just before I was using Flame Sweep

- out of my Oil Slick

- out of AP PTs flamethrower

- never over a cliff.

 

After the second trash pull the AP PT asked the Assassin if he could stop using his knockback, since it made it difficult to fight. The Assassin responded (paraphrased):

"Yeah, but it deals good damage."

Now, I didn't check on my Shadow, but I thought the knockback requires a GCD and since it doesn't synergize with any dps tree at all, there should always be a better option than using the knockback (dps-wise).

 

So he continued kicking and then we reached the second boss. Those 'cute' little Ugnaughts are not immune to knockbacks. When the first group of them came down flying I could hear the familiar sound of a certain Assassin skill and the Ugnaughts were spread apart before the even reached the ground. Since everybody was rather close to the boss, I could use my Oil Slick and aoe taunt to get them a bit under control, but it was annoying.

Of course the adds had to get killed first and after a while I could hear the second group of Ugnaughts flying down...

BAM!

Again they were flying in all directions and away from my Flame Sweep. Sadly the Ugnaughts didn't even go for the Assassin, but for the AP PT and the healer, so I felt obliged to get them under control.

 

Yeah, I didn't understand what he was hoping to gain from his constant kicking.

To be fair, Mortar Volley should increase a Commandos dps even in Single target situations. Its damage:ammo ratio is very similar to the damage:energy ratio of Orbital Strike for Snipers and they use OS on single target quite successfully. But Snipers can do so without messing up their Energy management, Commandos probably can't, I never tried it.

And of course Mortar Volley would be far more effective on the adds.

 

 

Weird people story: I did a Cademimu HM run on my Powertech tank. The damage dealers of my group were a Advanced Prototype Powertech and an Assassin (don't remember the healer). The assassin had the very inconvenient habit to use his knockback on cooldown. He would kick the enemies:

 

- away from me just before I was using Flame Sweep

- out of my Oil Slick

- out of AP PTs flamethrower

- never over a cliff.

 

After the second trash pull the AP PT asked the Assassin if he could stop using his knockback, since it made it difficult to fight. The Assassin responded (paraphrased):

"Yeah, but it deals good damage."

Now, I didn't check on my Shadow, but I thought the knockback requires a GCD and since it doesn't synergize with any dps tree at all, there should always be a better option than using the knockback (dps-wise).

 

So he continued kicking and then we reached the second boss. Those 'cute' little Ugnaughts are not immune to knockbacks. When the first group of them came down flying I could hear the familiar sound of a certain Assassin skill and the Ugnaughts were spread apart before the even reached the ground. Since everybody was rather close to the boss, I could use my Oil Slick and aoe taunt to get them a bit under control, but it was annoying.

Of course the adds had to get killed first and after a while I could hear the second group of Ugnaughts flying down...

BAM!

Again they were flying in all directions and away from my Flame Sweep. Sadly the Ugnaughts didn't even go for the Assassin, but for the AP PT and the healer, so I felt obliged to get them under control.

 

Yeah, I didn't understand what he was hoping to gain from his constant kicking.

 

I would say that is a very very fail Assassin, The spinning saber move does more damage then overload. If he does that in ops constantly like he does in FP he is never gonna be able to be in a group.

 

Plus, I don't know any rotation that NEEDS overload. I only use it for knocking stuff off a cliff..

 

"Does good damage ....." <---Makes me want to punch babies!

Yeah, I had one of those in Black Talon HM yesterday. It was a DPS Madness Sorcerer, I was healing on my Sorc but using Lightning Storm on groups of adds as there was no danger at all... Her kicking enemies out of my aoe was quite annoying.

On a sidenote: tank almost died during the Boss with the Plasma Probes because he didn't move at all. I considered using Extraction on him, but the fight was almost over anyway...

It just reminded me of why I prefer not to use GF.

Those tanks will almost always guard the healer because "that's what's it for" and "DO U EVEN TANK BRAH".

 

I believe in this cause, as tank your main goal is to protect the healer and a DPS would never take aggro off a tank if they would attack the same target as him (which is their responsibility). As long as I (tank) and the healer doesn't die, we'll be fine so

 

Anyway, what a lot of whining in here! Not many fun stories! I only have fun flashpoints!

 

Especially Black Talon social runs, talking about who you'd rather do, Sylas or that red-haired girl (I guess you know who I'd pick now).

 

Had a funny Athiss yesterday with me as tank and a new healer who spent more focus on DPS-ing than on healing. I told him several times to also look at other people's health bars apart from mine. However he didn't and the fight with Prophet of Vodal was hilarious and ended with 9 people dieing (in a 4-man group), but we did kill him!

 

I pulled and the first Crushing Darkness (CD) put a party member to 20% health, but as suspected no healing, so the next CD kills him, he starts walking back, healers get CD, doesn't watch his own health, dies, walks back, last party member tries to heal his CD, but also ends up dieing. Meanwhile the first guy came back with ~40% health, gets hit by CD, dies and walks back again. Now I was still tanking since he doesn't CD the tank, but I'm still losing health, so the healers come in for like... 5 seconds? Heals me twice and dies. The 3rd guy dies while still walking back. After all that time they finally arrive back with all three players, one of them dies but we did kill the boss.

 

It was soooo funny.

Edited December 26, 2013 by Cannonas

Yeah, I had one of those in Black Talon HM yesterday. It was a DPS Madness Sorcerer, I was healing on my Sorc but using Lightning Storm on groups of adds as there was no danger at all... Her kicking enemies out of my aoe was quite annoying.

On a sidenote: tank almost died during the Boss with the Plasma Probes because he didn't move at all. I considered using Extraction on him, but the fight was almost over anyway...

It just reminded me of why I prefer not to use GF.

 

This reminds me of when I first started playing swtor. My first toon was a shadow I had no idea what I was doing so my first fp (essels) I ran through using my knock back ability on everything! I thought it was one my cooler abilities at the time so I used on every opening! I remember one of my group members asking me very kindly to "please knock that **** off!" At the time I couldn't understand why he was so mad, I mean I was killing stuff although I did stop it wasn't till later I realized why.

On the last double XP weekend, me and my buddy were powerlevelling our snipers together. We queued for a FP, and got Cademimu. Our tank, a shadow, upon reaching the bottom of the slanted elevator, sprints all the way through to the end where the boss fight happens with general ortol.

 

We're like "where's this guy going?" and we type in chat "heloooooo tanky wanky. you gonna help us out with this?"

 

He responds "No noobs, sprint through."

 

Really? So now we're speedrunning? OK...so we just run in that direction (never mind that up to that point we had been killing all mobs for the XP bonus). Reach the end, mobs evade.

 

Tank says "How do you not know this?"

 

Our response "We weren't doing a speed run, you just straight up abandoned us...we were fighting the mobs, you force cloaked, and left."

 

We click the terminal, do the little cutscene, and the tank then sprints into the rocket room, with the sorc healer. My buddy manages to follow them, but the door literally closed in my face. So now I'm standing outside the door while those three are in there alone.

 

My buddy says, "well that wasn't smart" in chat.

 

Tanks says "You should have kept up. I'm not waiting for scrubs. I got stuff to do"

 

We both say "Good luck with less DPS."

 

So my buddy decides to make the tank's day. He basically takes enough damage from the fire to blow the sorc's force in healing him, and then dies to the fire. He says in chat "Now all that time you saved will be wasted, if you can even kill the boss. Good luck with your tanky dps. We would be done by now if you weren't being a jerk" The tank proceeds to call us scrubs, noobs, and other unpleasantries throughout the boss fight. We both kept saying "Thanks for doing all this work for us good buddy. I know you won't mind putting yourself out for such good online friends as us"

 

It took him around 10 minutes, maybe longer. Afterwards, the door opens, I enter and get the completion, rez my friend, and me and my buddy rolled need on the willpower loot and gave it to the sorc healer. Promptly ignored that tank.

An Interesting run of False Emperor (normal mode) a couple days ago.

 

So I was in party as my damager Commando (he was specced as Gunnery at that moment, although I'd been ************* out between Assault and Gunny on him for the last week, every time I hit Fleet --they're both so fun, I just can't decide!), and we had a heal-Mando, a Sent. as second DPS, and the tank was a Shadow.

 

We go on through, light-phalluses swinging, BFGs roaring, green heal-beams-of-love...errrm...well, green-beaming, everything's going smooth as silk, when, at the last of those weapon-console thingies that you have to short-out for the bonus, we pause for a bit --nothing major, just one of those like 20/30-second pauses you sometimes get in FP runs...

 

...

 

And the healer starts running off to the next mob, which happens to include one of those patrolling Elite Artillery droids in its range, in addition to the one that's already a static part of those mobs in that area.

 

I thought, "OK, this could get messy." And sure enough it kinda did, but not in the most obvious way: The healer stops running a bit short of the mob, waits, and then...

 

"(Healer's character name) has quit the group."

 

Ummmm....Lolwut?

 

Not so much as a word, just run ---> stop ---> gone.

 

So I'm like, OK whatev's, "Lead, could you re-queue us for a new healer," that done, and we wait.

 

And wait.

 

And wait.

 

And wait some more.

 

Finally the tank asks, "(My commando's character-name) can/would you re-spec and heal us?" I hemmed and hawed a little, as I am quite the nub at healing --R/DPS is mainly what I do, and it's what I love to do; I don't mind healing, but I lack experience at it-- but it looked like we weren't going to get a replacement green-beam shooter anytime soon, so I said OK, lemme leave phase and hit the re-spec vendor (again. See above ), and then set up my UI with the new abilities.

 

Re-specced, phase back in, re-queued for a second DPS which as filled almost immediately (another Sent. FFS, is there anything more depressingly generic in this game :/)

 

And hey, whaddaya know.

 

Maybe because it was normal mode (I've had some bad experiences in the [HARD] version of that instance. Tip for Merc/Mando healers in that one: You absolutely cannot panic when those turrets around Arkus Wode decide they want to alpha someone to death --hit your aggro-dump, shield up, and remember you've got an in-combat rezz for a reason!), but it again went smooth as silk. The only exception was during the HK-47 fight, when a couple of us died, but my aforementioned E-Rezz helped save the day!

 

The Malgus fight, I don't think anyone went below 75-80% health (maybe tune that up a bit, EAWare? Just fix that glitch that randomly wipes everybody out of the blue first, though).

 

I might just keep that Mando as heals for a bit --Tanno Vik is great for solo-questing once you gear him-- but we'll have to see what comes.

 

I still wonder what that first healer thought her angle was, but I can't ask her, as I /ignored her.

 

Seriously people:

 

You're not playing in a vacuum, it takes just seconds to type "RL aggro guys, gotta drop, sorry." Do this, and you won't be added to my, and no-doubt many others' /ignore lists, as we all understand: RL aggro sucks, and it cannot be taunted off you.

 

(Just as an aside: Is it me, or are Shadow/Assassin tanks much more vulnerable to sudden spike-damage than the other two tanks? I be cruising along, Kolto-Bomb for the buff, AMP ---> MP to keep their buffs rolling, then all of a sudden --HUGE HIT! 50% HEALTH GONE!!1111oneone-- and I'm like "Ooooooooh (f-word)" and scrambling for Tech Override ---> Medical Probe ---> Bacta Infusion and praying that it would be quick enough with Trauma Probe's reactive-heal filling the time-gap....Yeah: Remember, no panicking!)

Well I've had some pretty good groups, but terrible ones last few days. Sunday daily 55 hm, cz meltdown pops. Seems like a good group, till we get to sandstorm boss. As soon as I taunt boss to field generator that is glowing green, b4 he can rampage and destroy it, the dps assassin taunts off. We wipe and I politely ask in chat if he knows the mechanics. " yes. You were taking lot of damage so I figured I would taunt off to give u a break and u obviously don't know how to keep him in middle." Merc dps goes *** and leaves. Healer and I explain fight to assassin and a sniper joins. We pull again and again the shadow consistently taunts off b4 boss rampages and destroys generator. We go *** and his reply, "I know wht I'm doing, it's dps job to tank when main tank goes below 75%". He then promptly dc-ed and we 3 manned the boss no issue. He reconnects at jungle boss and tries same antic, so we vote kick. Got a Mara who knew his stuff and we finished no prob.

 

Monday daily 55, hm cad. Dps get adds in right order but I'm having to pop cool downs and medpacks on trash mobs, and I even die on a few. I inspect healers gear, seems fine. Little too much accuracy for a healer, but hey fps can be healed in dps gear these days. Then I notice that we don't have a sorc dps in group and so I shouldn't be seeing lighting storm and force lightning on so many occasions. I typed in chat, "healer pls don't dps". No reply, no change. I watch his rotation and see him cast one heal on me at beginning of a pull then frantically shoot lightning everywhere. After death number 8 b4 first boss a dps calls him out for not healing. Silence. Then " tank pulls too fast and my heal doesn't last. You dps need to kill the mobs b4 my heal finishes so I won't have to dps. ". The dps promptly vote kick, and we get an op healer. No issues till ortol. The dps say that they have never done him b4 so healer explains. Then she tells them that they all need to stack on me as if we all stack no one gets shackled. Well after wipe 5 on him, due to 4 of us shackled at once, and healer screaming at dps to stack tighter so it won't happen again and screaming at me to stop running around (breaking shackled), I'd had enough and left group. Repair bill over 100k and I swore I was off pugs for good.

 

Next day i had cooled off so decided to tank another 55 while waiting for guildies to be done their pvping daily. Czerka meltdown again. Healer in partisan gear with lev 30 relics and implants. We down sandstorm boss with sorc dps off healing. With only 2 wipes. Then onto jungle boss. Sniper dps is lagging or something. Sits still for moments on end then does a few snipes and maybe am ambush or a series of shots. Our healer can't keep up so sorc is off healing, trying to dps boss and adds all at same time. Wipe 3 timed with boss around 75%. I type on chat. "Sorry guys, don't think this is happening today. Sorc agrees and healer whispers me apologizing and saying he would get better gear. Also asked for advice on healing fps as he was a pvper to that point, he was so polite I invited him to my guild and recommended him to a couple good merc healers we have for advice. (He's doing way better now with level appropriate gear and a couple hours learning his healing rotation). Meanwhile sorc wishes us a merry Christmas and leaves. I type in chat that I'm sorry but I'm leaving too, ( don't need another 150k repair on something that is sposed ro be a fast run for comms and credits). Sniper LOSES it in chat. " you f-ing newbs are the reason this game sucks. You quit after a few wipes. Why you so scared of a fp boss, how u think plp beat operation bosses.?" And on and on. So I explained that a fp was diff than an op. A fp is not the same as a hm progression raid. That it is a quick run for profit, and to gear lesser geared players, and if it doesn't happen you don't lose sleep over it. "Look at my achievements and see I'm a good player, I've cleared all content" he boasts. I look. Fps yes, operations no. Ev sm, yes. Kp any mode, no. Ec sm 2 bosses. Tfb one boss, and nothing else. Meanwhile he goes on and on. Finally I lose it, and tell him I know what dedication is, I wiped more times than I can count when hm tfb came out. Etc etcetera. He goes " well you can't prove you've cleared anything." I say look at my achievements. He doesn't know how. I walk him through it and all of a sudden he goes real quiet , followed by, " so you can see mine too?" Yes siree I say. Silence. He then logs off.

 

So yesterday I try one more pug. HM cad again. With guild healer. He's tad under geared, so we took it slow. Los for 3 pulls. This really ticked our dps off. One was a geared to the nines sorc with dread slayer title. Other was a jugg dps in tank gear and tank stance. After 3rd Los pull jugg says " don't got time for this." That's all. Then procedes to pull every mob ahead of me. We let her die every time then I taunt and healer starts healing. Sorc starts getting mad at healer, literally cussing him out repeatedly for not healing the face puller. Get to first boss. Promptly type /stuck after jugg dps traps herself in 2 traps. Meanwhile sorc is losing it on me and healer. Healer cause plp were dying, me cause I wasn't tanking the droid. I explain u can't tank the droid, and it's easier to trap it. Then show jugg how to. Next try I trap droid and we get a decent burn. He reactivates and me and sorc and healer run behind the new trap. Jugg goes right through it. Then loses it in chat. Tells healer to cleanse the trap off her. Sorc is again pissed cause the droid is freezing and killing plp. Healer types in chat," good luck finding heals and a tank" and we leave to a string if expletives. No more pugs for me lol. Got 3 good guild heals and lots a good dps. We hop in team speak and have a blast. No one dies, we clear the fps in good time and it is wht it is supposed to be, a fast run for profit.

 

Plp wonder why tanks and healers stop doing pugs. It's just not worth it. I was last tank in guild to run pugs. Other 4 won't. Now there's only one healer in guild who will pug fps. Rest of us would rather just run with each other.

(Just as an aside: Is it me, or are Shadow/Assassin tanks much more vulnerable to sudden spike-damage than the other two tanks? I be cruising along, Kolto-Bomb for the buff, AMP ---> MP to keep their buffs rolling, then all of a sudden --HUGE HIT! 50% HEALTH GONE!!1111oneone-- and I'm like "Ooooooooh (f-word)" and scrambling for Tech Override ---> Medical Probe ---> Bacta Infusion and praying that it would be quick enough with Trauma Probe's reactive-heal filling the time-gap....Yeah: Remember, no panicking!)

 

Yup.

 

Fixed with 2.5, a bit (though I liked 2.4 Shadows more) but it's still doable, anything they shield gets massive amounts shrugged off. I've healed an Assassin through HM DF, that never once used his stacks to build up the Defense Increase like they should now that 2.5 hit, and I still healed him through it.