ETA on Advanced Class change?

It's relevant because every class has its own story, which means AC is not the same as "Class". AC's are minor specializations within a Class...you know, kinda like healing or tanking are different from DPS.

But you're right...switching from a melee Shadow to a Sage is probably far too difficult for any player to figure out. With only half of their skills being shared, they'd be bumbling around, unable to do whatever they wanted to do.

In fact, by that logic, maybe there should be like a 2 month lockout on swapping to an alt, because the thought that someone could swap from their melee Shadow to their ranged Sage has got to terrify you!!! Thank God you only have one toon so you never need to worry about the confusion you'd face with 2 right?

Swapping to different classes entirely is done with ease by most players daily. You can't pretend it's some monumentally difficult task when it's not.

In wow druids can go from healers to melee stealth dps using dual spec. They have a choice of actually doing anything with a spec change: ranged dps and melee tank are also on their menus (each requiring completely different gear even which is far more than shadows and sages would).
There is the worst case scenario. In what way has the Wow game suffered compared to this one? I would argue that there are no significant gameplay repercussions arising because of the existence of druids or their dramatic dual specs: people still role lots of alts on Wow and the average skill level in pve and pvp is the same or even a little better than it is here. (and the best in Wow would probably trounce the best here). I personally prefer swtor to wow but that's only because i burned out on wow after many years, not because the game has more "class integrity" (this game has less, actually, but that's another topic)

I would love to see an AC swap, but I perfectly understand that it would frustrate some players to see people take an Advanced Class at 55 that they have no experience with at all.

So I've suggested this before and I'll suggest it again - the ability to swap AC should be a Legacy ability, and in order to unlock this you should have both versions of the AC to level 50.. So if you have a Sith Sorcerer, for example, then to unlock the AC class swap you need either a Sith Assassin or a Jedi Shadow to 50. I like this option as it gives incentive to level another character and it ensures you know how to play both AC's fairly decently. You get what you want - an AC swap ability - and other players can be at least assured that you have at least played that class to level 50.

i don't agree that it should need to be an unlock but wouldn't argue anymore on this topic it that compromise/option made it into the game. But there's never a guarantee that the person controlling a character you're grouped with took any significant actions in the leveling process.

I think the feature is a good idea, but it needs to be handled very carefully.

Sith Warriors and Jedi Knights will have a few issues with armor types if they aren't already wearing adaptive armor. And all of the main classes will have issue with the secondary stats.

These issues aren't insurmountable, but if they aren't planned for accordingly it could create a huge QQ storm from people who didn't think the change through completely and have very poorly itemized gear as a result. I wouldn't be surprised to see Immortal Juggs in the GF queues wearing mostly medium armor because they were a Mara a few days ago. In cases where players don't have any adaptive armor and they change from a Jugg to a Mara they could end up without any equippable armor at all.

I would love to be able to change my Jugg to a Mara though! In my opinion the only thing better than a six foot tall Sith wielding a pink lightsaber is a six foot tall Sith wielding two pink lightsabers. :P

Exactly, it's as if they think switching from tank to heal (or vice versa) is a task of mind numbing complexity.

So...........so true

Heh, that's what I have, and I might have changed her into a DPS Jugg. Luckily, Warrior's story has an advantage of being the most replayable in the game, since both LS and DS is an interesting diversion.

All the time. I'd say 90% of the people I meet are perfectly reasonable adequate players.

As before the necro the anti's can't form a coherent argument.

Curious. My mage on RIFT has 16 different builds - a variety of dps and support for myriad occasions, three variations of chloro hybridding for heals and two different tank builds, one full 61, one a harb hybrid.

Somehow, even with over 130 unique macros across these builds and radically different playstyles between even most of the dps load outs, I manage to not feel much challenged in the figuring - it - out department.

Then there's my cleric with 14 different dps, tank, support and heal builds. And my baby rogue with tank, heal and dps roles well situated.

But switching AC's in SWTOR would be too confusing, huh?

My poor brain might melt, trying to fathom the sheer alien complexities of oh... flipping from Marauder to Juggernaut?

'Kay. Guess we don't really need to wonder why laundry detergent bottles need 'do not eat' labels anymore.