I know there are some who wish to consolidate this into the WoW vs. TOR thread but this is an important point in the subject matter of animation. It's very true that, while refined, the animations for all the races are the same in TOR. For that, I can give a point to WoW for not only crafting animations for each class, but also each gender. Perhaps this can change eventually in TOR. As far as the Pandaren animations, yeah they're pretty good. Same as most of the new races. But they still lack that sense of impact on your target. I won't disagree that the player character animations are sweet. But they lack any feedback on the enemy's part. That's not a fault of Blizzard so much as my own preferential gripe. I'm silly like that. To me, the big damage is more exciting than the animation itself in WoW. And it'll continue to be like that if I go back.

WoW's attack animations are cookie-cutter at best. My opinion of course. Everyone's entitled to their own. But I found it came down to... spinning, spinning, and more spinning. An earlier post mentioned how egregious it is if you happen to be a Warrior. I have to agree. Now I mentioned they are cookie-cutter. It doesn't make them bad however. With a game engine old as WoW's, it's hard to take certain liberties. The animations are snappy and allow the game to highlight the damage dealt more than the animation itself. Sure Blizzard's priorities are a little miffed. They need to fix the old race animations. Might as well change them with a new class hitting the game. I know plenty of people aren't a fan, but I really dig the special kill animations in TOR. Sometimes it makes me want to finish off my fights with a default attack just to see it.

I loved TOR while it lasted for me. And I cannot wait to start an alt on the Republic side when Patch 1.2 hits. To me, the story really carried the game to its conclusion. Do I feel like I got the money I spent on the Collector's Edition back plus a month? Definitely. And I cannot wait to return. As for people saying they'll leave... I can't say I blame them. BioWare titles always have this... "not for everyone" twang to them. And that holds true here. I'm not about to go off the handle and say, "HURR GO BACK TO WOW!" I can get that this game isn't everyone's cup of tea. The most glaring problem that I can see is that there are VERY few armor textures. Many recolors, but not much texture diversity. I call it the Dragon Age: Origins problem with gear permutations.

I'm also seeing a lot of people targeting their 'most damaging abilities' to boost threat. Now I haven't really been playing Juggernaut that long. But do we not get abilities that increase threat? Kind of like WoW's Sunder Armor before you turned it into Devastate. But I was under the impression that certain abilities that say "generates threat" are the kind you wanna be popping as soon as their cooldowns are off in lieu of whatever's your highest damaging skill. I mean I always figured it worked like this: If 1-2 Elite with non-Elite trash: Tank holds Elite, works up some aggro, DPS burns non-Elite (which they never do for some reason; communication may be required) If 1-2 Gold with 1-2 Silver: CC Gold {A}, Tank goes in and builds aggro on Silvers and Gold {B}. Silvers get burned down, if Gold {A} breaks CC, Tank taunts it. At least that's how my guild does it. If you're in a pug, well, more people need to know how a good, efficient way to progress. It doesn't even have to be my guild's way! I promise you, Juggernauts aren't the only Tanks with this problem. I've come into it while grouping with random people on my 42 Vanguard.

That's a bug? And here I just thought it was me lagging.

This is a little off-topic-ish, but I'd like to drop in my two credits: Tanking as a Warrior in WoW was definitely the short end of the stick for the classes that could tank. And I had no trouble unless the DPSers had ridiculously farmed gear. That says many novels about how fresh it is for me to experience the difficulty of tanking again. I also tanked as a Ninja in FFXI when it was possible. Good times. As far as this game goes, I only have a problem tanking if there are like 4 gold mobs. Sometimes the two pub DPSers do what I call the "Shotgun Effect" and scatter their damage on every individual mob. I fix this by getting with one of the pub DPSers and tell them (in whispers, otherwise they won't listen) to stick somewhat close to me with Guard on. I can't rely on the healer to do the same since they'll be everywhere keeping people up. Also, starting with Athiss and / or Hammer Station, DPSers really should get in the habit of burning down non-elite adds. I start to feel true to my role when, as a tank, I can't burn them down myself.

I understand that people wanna be jerked around by Sith and such. You get plenty of opportunities as an Imperial Agent. You even get to backtalk the Sith with the expected consequence. At the same time, I'm seeing a lot of people who want this game to be Star Wars Galaxies: Old Republic Mod. Unfortunately that's not going to happen despite many fans (myself included) thinking it'd be cool. I'm also seeing a lot of people who are saying that the player character Troopers are *not* Special Forces. I'm gonna go on a limb and say those people have not even played a Trooper past the opening story crawl. In the OPENING conversation of the Trooper's story you're recognized as a member of Havoc Squad. Look into WHY people your adversaries are making a possible claim before you disagree based on the name of the class. Here, I'll even make it easy for you. http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Havoc_Squadron_%28Republic_Army%29 That said, they should really call Troopers something less mundane, but I have a feeling they settled on the name in the very early stages of development. Remember when Jedi Sages used to be Jedi Wizards?

Juggernauts and Powertechs and don't have stealth and backstabs.

We don't know enough about saberstaves to make the assertion that they use two different crystals. In every other game that has them, we only equip a single crystal. Maybe architecture has changed over 3 millenniums, but I'd rather not make stuff up to justify the presence of two crystals.

Why do schematics go away when we read them? Do we just read them and BAMF?

I agree that's kinda odd. Jerkasses practice medicine a LOT! Look at House.

As a tank, I'll never have to feel bad about not getting the oranges in a flashpoint with Armormech.

Si, signor

And... well honestly, I think that's the problem I see here. It's not so much the quest pacing that's really mucking the leveling process so much as Space Missions and Warzones doing the same.

I duel a lot. I stay a bit away from Warzones, though. I heard if anything makes leveling too fast, it's that.