hey guys, i support you, subscribe and have spent more money on cartel coins since free to play came out, one $20 pack and one $40, out of support. I still have the coins, don't know what to use them on. it's one of my favorite games ever. now for my feedback: why is this now another feature that i am sure we have asked for, just not too extremely, and nothing for transfers or legacy consolidation so we can play with who we want to play with?

understand the true issue. I have enough. I have no issue regardless because I have some saved AND I have Hard op equipment. IF I wanted something more costly on an alt, it's way out of reach. I'm talking about the horizontal design of the event here. Players who do not equip for hard operations should not ideally end up at such a deficit for these kind of fun/cosmetic only items and the currency to acquire it. This isn't black hole / elite comms.

The max helix you can gain without the very hard to to access HM 16 player xeno clear is 1 per day on the main heroic mission and the handful for the Xeno story clear, which i believe is 6 for 16 player, with the exception of the few that you get from the relays mission or the initial xenoanalyst referral mission (i believe that gave a few, maybe it was just a purple rep comm). I did the 16 player hard mode the 2nd week during the first run, I believe only 8 player the first week in addition to story mode, and ended up with 31 helix, without diligently clearing the heroic every single day. From a start point of 9, I determined that I can in fact hit 48 by the end of the 2nd week here this time but only by getting the hard mode 16 player and story mode, and 11 clears of the daily heroic. So it kind of feels like there absolutely must be an alternative for players or their alts that just aren't viable to approach the hard mode op for this event. My suggestions to address the problem are as follows: Option 1- create a new vendor, Only available at champion tier, roughly let 1000 rep points exchange to 1 helix via the trophies. Option 2- if not a trade for just rep items, let some type of material or currency item that simply drops for you while killing any enemies or players in the event, better chance to drop off of the bosses/stronger enemies at the end of each mission, which can then be exchanged up for helix currency or more rep trophies. that item could then be bought and sold as well via GTN. think of it like a gree commendation and cost varying amounts for different rep values or helix comms. Solutions such as these will create an option for non HM operation ready players to fill in that gap of the 12-16 helix currency they can't get from the HM xeno in the 2 week span. It would bring the currency in line with the rest of the relatively horizontal design ideals of the event, that none of the rewards are related to your character's power/progression. This helix currency in fact IS gating directly by your progression and I see that as a glaring flaw in the event design

I don't think that's a good idea. Why not just create a new vendor to buy more helix currency with? Only available at champion tier, roughly let 1000 rep points exchange to 1 helix. The ONLY reason I feel this is reasonable is that the max helix you can gain without the very hard to to access HM 16 player xeno clear is 1 per day on the main heroic mission and the handful for the Xeno story clear, which i believe is 6 for 16 player, with the exception of the few that you get from the relays mission or the initial xenoanalyst referral mission (i believe that gave a few, maybe it was just a purple rep comm). I did the 16 player hard mode the 2nd week, I believe only 8 the first week in addition to story mode, and ended up with 31 helix, without diligently clearing the heroic every single day. From a start point of 9, I determined that I can in fact hit 48 by the end of the 2nd week here this time but only by getting the hard mode 16 player and story mode, and 11 clears of the daily heroic. So it kind of feels like there absolutely must be an alternative for players or their alts that just aren't viable to approach the hard mode op for this event. One other idea I had if not a trade for just rep items, let some type of material or currency item that simply drops for you while killing any enemies or players in the event, better chance to drop off of the bosses/stronger enemies at the end of each mission, which can then be exchanged up for helix currency or more rep trophies. that item could then be bought and sold as well via GTN. this will create an option for non operation ready players to fill in that gap of the 12-16 helix currency they can't get from the HM xeno in the 2 week span

super combuster version might using 8 points pyro and no points into high energy

X. you don't use ion for a 2.0 Pyro Parakeet build & the build uses free flame sweep to close timing gaps more efficiently during the internal cooldown of the rail shot accelerator

it's possible your higher pyro mix has more overall potency than the strange pyro parakeet, but there is just enough synergy to the flame sweep with buffed damage and effective heat vent off paired with the improved movement utility that I think it will be brilliant for the initial push out into makeb and certainly more useful in some scenarios of pve flashpoint and op where that huge burst of mobility will aid your role tremendously and allow you to be super effective

thanks for the info on your testing. for some reason I'm still completely unconvinced by anything more than 22-25 in pyro with these trees. split out with both shield and ap options for your other 23ish so much utility or extra efficiency to be gained example the pyro parakeet with 23 shield and major flame sweep synergy, or the terminal velocity setup with ap and pyro. these builds look insane.

one on hand... if I wanted missiles... I would make a mercenary... but on the other hand, this augments my favorite (aesthetically) playstyle the super combuster 31 tactics 8 plasma assault and makes it the only pure spec that compels me for the class at L55. consider me skeptical yet pleased

This is my favorite pure build for our class at level 55. the reason I like it is the sustain damage potential. while heat management require more vigilance than the high energy built in option, you skip the high energ skill points and have 8 pyro for combustible, which pays off way more damage when you know how to pace and manage the heat. in my experience no matter how hard you spam with high energy & the extra heat vent, you can not outpace the damage that combustible burn brings. I don't have any math or gear min/max cases that prove or disprove. I just find this setup less bursty/dry spell prone than the particle accelerator/rail shot builds, it sustains well and has always felt superior for me in every way to high energy, which even often feels like I can't even use the heat venting it comes with to max potential. perhaps it could have been the forgotten alacrity build for pre 2.0. super-combuster for me is nothing but improved in 2.0 with the +aim points.

I haven't had the chanc to click your build as I'm on mobile, but I will say y test with 23/23/0 was very promising as an ion stance build with more damage at the cost of durability/threat burst skill points further up the shield tree. I'm referring to it quite fondly as Flaming Fist in wake of the defunct original iron fist

Grim, had you ever compared your experience with 31 tactic/AP and 8 in assault/pyro? I am looking at 2/36/8 in 2.0, and it seems like the OVERALL efficiency works out a bit better with the maxed version over the hybrid, but then does the rail shot damage with accelerator resets surpass that as long as you are smart enough with resources to pull it off? I don't really care of the fine details in the math. All I saw was 3k+ crit on fire pulse/immolate, 3500 usually, as well as the higher damage with my rocket punch and flame burst too, which appeared to me to be a net gain given the efficiency available with the guaranteed free punch/stock following the cheap fire pulse

The problem here is: grapple sucks! To solve this problem you would need to let grapple function more like it logically would vs targets that cannot be uprooted. Zip YOU to the target like blizz's grappling line. Then comes the problem of many cases we still would want to do that rather than pull something. There is utility gained with the skill and it is simply at fairly large odds with the role many of us will take. I shouldn't have to explain that grapple is only extremely useful under PVE for tank and offtank duty. You can still contribute to that duty within your group regarding positioning enemies with your assistive grapple... but this is something ideally you would CHOOSE to have in your build if you like that option and have a team makeup that complements it. This is not the only example case of the missed opportunity within advanced class system the game launched with to provide player choice at multiple levels of role, ability/utility set, and skill customization in the point trees. More choices, rather than just one tiered path of cookie cutter combos, would empower the player to create the playstyle they prefer with their favorite class and make each player more able to be unique. My suggestion thread- http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=5894913#post5894913

ok, so it was fun to play. at times heat got up there but it indeed proved that the free flame sweep allowed charge up to the 3 stack while clearing heat to be at a nice level for the use of the triple stack unload. the most prohibitive thing being the maneuvering to grab a new charge during the longer bosses we faced on hard hammer station. it's inconclusive yet, although it did feel like a distinctly powerhouse-damage approach to the tank in exchange for the new mitigation style stuff at the top of the adjusted shield tree. definitely like it would be great as an offtank laying all kinds of threat and pain while mopping up multi targets. similar applicability for warzone role i'd imagine

i almost immediately thought of that while entertaining the split use of points with this, but then too hastily dismissed it, thinking that the new flame engine now in the shield tree made more sense. i thought it may trump the value i think of the slow prototype flame thrower style, PRIMARILY because you can have heat problem in ion and burn stances with the pft (doesn't mean it can't be worked it just means it requires very attentive choice/priority and practice with a good proactive sequence to use your procs at the right time and not too late). flame engine doesnt have the heat problem, and I can see it's designed to let you pop the cooldown at the beginning of a combat, sort of to blitz and establish good threat. i am a bit confused with the skill point description, it's as if it used to be 3 or 4 ranks. the cooldown with both points to proc a flame engine is equal to the cooldown of flame thrower. the cool thing for the full shield spec though is it mitigates heat since it will be free, but partly I feel like they did that as a balance against the removal of the heat dump from the top tree ability that now takes more wind up and will not be there every cooldown perfectly like clockwork like the old version. now you kind of have these 2 procs in addition to your rocket punch reset and heat vent. in fact when flame engine goes off the audio is the same sound we used to hear all the time the yell for the rocket punch reset. The one thing that could let it work is focused around the free sweeps on jet leap though. I am seeing some huge synergy there, because sweeps build your flame thrower stack, so you could always charge up the 3rd stack in time and spend your focus on managing the heat. certainly warrants some trial use. i will put that on my tanky geared test guy and see what happens