ETA on Advanced Class change?

Well Bran, you're right. However, since you aren't the only one who plays this game, I do need to worry about it because while you might be innocuous, I can think of a few thousand other monkeys who aren't, and rational self-interest dictates that I continue object to this until my interests (and others who share those interests) are entertained.

Until then, may your alts be plentiful

You don't need to worry about anything re: this game. If a game worries you, probably best to not play it.

why should it reset affection, crew skills, valor and social ranks? none of those things have ANYTHING to do with what AC you are playing. this is one of those "I basically don't want this to happen, so the only way I'll allow this to happen if its completely and fully not worth it"

as for gear rolling. due to legacy armor and companions, people are already rolling on all possible specs as well as gear that doesn't even have stats their current character can use.
in my guild we actually have loot rules that account for it. your current spec that you are in a raid with - takes precedence over everything else, but there are still offspec rolls, and alt rolls and companion rolls allowed.
ability to change AC will not change that.

as for "I'll just relog and switch characters" it may work for some (heck, it works for me currently, because I'm a person with strong case of altatis).. people who actually have characters to switch to. but not everyone has alts or wants alts.

see, it doesn't matter what other games do. in THIS game, you have 4 classes per faction, 4 stories per faction, 4 sets of companions per faction. how your story goes is independant from your AC, your companion interactions are influenced by gender of your character, not their AC, your main stat is shared over 2 AC's, some of the abilities are shared, in most cases even armor rating is shared (only exception being Sith warrior/jedi knight). even talent trees are shared to a degree.

AC is a mechanical choice. nothing more nothing less. and if you can learn 3 different play styles tied to 3 different talent trees... if you can learn to play a variety of characters? then you can learn new AC with no issues.

honestly? I don't personally care too much if it gets implemented or not. I already have alts for every AC in a game. in some cases, one per AC mirror for both factions (inquisitor/consular and agent/smuggler). even if AC change gets implemented, I don't see myself using it. I just don't think its nearly as gamebreaking as some of you claim it is, and it could be a nice addition and quality of life improvement to the game.

P.S. on pressure from pugs. I see plenty of sorcs who dps, and a few who dps with madness. in pugs. I see operatives who only dps, dps assassins, dps juggs and powertechs (I've been mostly playing empire lately, but my experiences on pubside were similar), I've done that myself, pugged as dps, even though my healing gear/spec were better and more familiar to me - simply because I didn't feel like healing at the time and was willing to wait for a group.

not once was I told to change. not once have I seen people demand someone else to respec. so... why would it be ANY different with AC change?

Considering that this game is my hobby, and I spend a fair amount of time in it, I will worry about stuff due to the time spent. Which segues nicely into the fact that if I spend a few hours in a PuG operation, and some A/C swapper comes in and rolls need on all of the tanking gear on their marauder because they A/C swap a lot into juggernaut, then that is a problem.

It doesn't have to, I was giving examples on how to make an A/C swap a rare and impacting choice.

Perfectly said Bran!!! And we seldom agree

There's NO valid reason anyone has put forth as to why this would be a bad thing in ANY form. This would be GOOD for the game. "I" wouldn't use it, but I see no reason not to allow it to encourage player retention.

Roll need yourself - problem averted.

I don't know.. sounded more like "how to make it completely undesirable" choice.

limiting it to once a month (or to say 2 times per character - and then never again) would make it an impactful choice. even charging a lot of cartel coins would make it an impactful choice. resetting character development that has NOTHING to do with your AC is just passive aggressive.

Your time, your worry, your choice. In the end, irrelevant to everyone but you. Thus your opposition boils down to "I don't it because I don't like it," which is fair enough as far as it goes.

Agreed. I'm 100% in favor of Cartel Coins being associated with this swap. I don't want it being used daily like I swap AC trees, but I see no reason NOT to allow it (for a price).