Please, Don't Roll on Items for Another Class in Your Team

I think you'll find it is you who is "not getting it".

tell all you "(gr)needers" what, go form a guild together and see how long it lasts with everyone rolling need on everything.

Because you WANT something doesn't mean you NEED it. Your companion sucks - can't heal as well as a player, tank as well as a player, dps as well as a player.

You all prove yourselves to be greedy greedy children who want as many shinies as possible.

If an awesome tank something dropped and a sorc needed for his companion, just about every single person I know and have ever known in an MMO would kick you from group and never go near you again.

Your companion means nothing, deal with it, and come to terms with the fact you are just a greedy prat.

If you want companion gear, organise a run as such, but don't penalise other playable characters for your douchebaggery.

Characters in the flashpoints are played by people. Living beings. There is no need to argue over semantics.

Companion IS an NPC. You don't play him/her. You play your character. (In Role Playing term of course). And companions ARE dumber than players and thus are less effective than any living person can be.

If you truly "need" something, then you should have bought it on the GTN before coming to the flashpoint underequipped. Perhaps your companion can't heal or tank very well -- perhaps it is because you refuse to give him up-to-date gear? Put some good gear on your DPS companion, and you might find that he actually does some good DPS.

In any event, it is actually true that companions can't heal/tank/dps as well as players -- because players can't heal/dps/tank. Even if you actually mean that they can't tank as well as main characters, then it would depend on the main character. I wear medium armor, my companion wears heavy armor. She tanks better than me. That's why I let her tank for me. Perhaps you tank better than she does, but you aren't with me most of the time. EDIT: it actually isn't important whether my companion tanks better than me. If she is taking the hits, I am not getting interrupted and can heal her or DPS the mob from behind as appropriate.

Similarly, I am pretty sure there are some character classes that don't heal as well as their healing companions do.

I have a number of action bars on my screen. If I click this button, my main character attacks the mob. If I click this button, my companion attacks the mobs. If I click this button, I do an AOE to hurt all the mobs. If I click this other button, my companion does an AOE to hurt all the mobs. If the mob starts doing AOEs, I have to tell both characters to get out of the way.

The living being is clicking buttons, the characters on the screen respond by attacking the mobs.

This statement shows that you're not familiar enough with the game to be able to render a sensible opinion. I get it now.

I'd be happy to simply find a group at 50.

Everyone left. There's like 5 people in the fleet and my guild has shrunk to non viable levels.

Mere childish insults. But I'll carry on, I don't need to flag things I don't agree with. I'm a bit above that.

If I want something I have every right to need it. None of your business.

More insults and opinion.

*shrug* nothing constructive there.

More insults and baseless fact posted as opinion.

You do not get to tell me what to do. This is not the school playground where you can attempt to bully and dictate things me. Sorry, you need to try harder. But feel free to carry on slinging childish insults.

I'm not sure how you arrived at this.

The only difference is that one is a master and the other a slave. I play both of them. Neither does anything without my input.

In the run to 50, each companion, controlled by the player, geared by the player, aid the player's main toon to achieve a given goal selected by the controller.

If I don't gear my main toon it's going to die repeatedly. If I don't gear the companion, it too is going to die repeatedly.

I know someone here has claimed to not solo at all and get to 50 entirely with groups, and that's fine. But, the vast majority of players, level to 50 with their toon and their chosen companion. Without the companion, it'd be an entirely different game.

So, your stated as fact, analysis, is completely untrue.

No but 90% of the server will most likely not group with you if you do so. Have fun searching for groups for hours cause nobody likes you.

Do what you want mate, all it does is make you look greedy and selfish.