Bowdaar works better for Gunslingers since he is an AOE tank. He grabs aggro on multiple mobs and as a result tends to take more damage and die quicker. Corso used to be ideal for scoundrels since they could stealth up to a group, tranquilize one then use Corso's harpoon shot to pull the mob toward the scoundrel and put them in perfect position for backblast. Gunslingers kept whining that he pulled them out of cover so they took harpoon shot away from Corso and largely broke his utility as a tank for scoundrels. Bottom line is Bowdaar is a better tank, he holds aggro far better than Corso but as a result tends to die faster. However, Bowdaar will almost always die before the smuggler... that isn't true with Corso.

Bowdaar used to be the better tank for Gunslinger's since he is not CC-friendly. He tends to die faster because he aggros a lot more. Corso was the better tank for scoundrels but the Gunslingers insisted on using him instead of Bowdaar and gunslingers evidently could not figure out how to turn off his harpoon shot or use Bowdaar and whined so much they took his harpoon shot away and broke his utility for scoundrels. Corso used to be a single-target ranged tank he is now another melee tank that just happens to use a ranged weapon. So now, Smugglers have 2 identical tanks with no significant difference between them.

Well said, I got tired of playing with an entire planet to myself and my guild could no longer raid due to people leaving. Bioware could fix this and should have long ago. Someone brought up legacy as an issue for transfer, that is a specious argument. The simple fix is refund any money spent on legacy, break the legacy, and let the player reform the legacy on the new server.... simple. as. that. It doesn't really matter to me though, I've already unsubscribed. Came back to check the forums and still doesn't appear to be any official response to the complaints about server population or any official release of information on plans to fix it or any official release on a timeline.

Bioware is evidently laboring under the false assumption that it is 2004 and that there are no other American MMOs out there. Newsflash, World of Warcraft has been out for nearly 10years. Skyrim, Rift, Startrek, Guildwars, and dozens of other MMOs have been out in the intervening years. WoW was able to put out a product that wasn't completely ready and didn't have enough content... because it was the only U.S. MMO on the market at that time. Bioware needed to put out a product that was ready for market with very few bugs... they failed. Bioware needed to have endgame content ready to roll and new content in developement... they failed. Bioware needed to realize that SWTOR, like every other MMO on the market in the past 10 years would have a surge of interest and then that interest would die back...they wrongly thought they initial interest would continue and had no plans what so ever to deal with the die back in interest after rollout. In my opinion, Bioware had stupidly unrealistic expectations for SWTOR. They had absolutely no excuse for not realizing there would be a die back in interest for the game. They failed to plan for that eventuality which is inexcusible hubris and stupidity on their part. Since there are many other MMOs out on the market so the standard that a new MMO must meet is now a nearly bug free product. Why? because there are plenty of other MMO products on the market that are pretty much bug free. That's the standard you have to meet, if you can't deal with that get out of the market. I suspect that putting out a buggy product was driven by EA when the bought out Bioware.

Player killing is a two-edged sword. On the good side it would allow you to kill the @#$@# who travelled to starter planets to infect lowbies for whom the 2k Vaccine was very expensive. On the other hand open player killing would allow same the bored @#$@#$ who has been level 50 for a while to go to a relatively low planet or even a starter planet and kill lowbies directly. No number of lowbies are going to be successful taking out a level 50 in full PVP gear. The lowbies will have to hope that some carebear will rescue them and guard the lowbie questing areas. Such a person would have to be a real carebear with the patience of Job and the soul of a saint to do that for very long.

I like it. Especially the solo concept, Krayiss Obelisk is pretty much a solo only server at the moment. As for the name, Circus Maximus is good traditional one

Six of one, half dozen of the other. Call it what you want its effectively the same thing in the end. The characters on the low population servers are now on a higher population server that actual has a viable number of players to fit the definition of 'Multiplayer' in MMO. However, we are not hearing that from Bioware. We had a post that reached the limit with no response from Bioware. Just an automated message closing the thread and opening a new one. In point of fact they have not posted anything about transfers on their official forum, only on their Blog. It was posted on the forum by a player. I feel like I'm playing a single player game. What the heck am I paying a subscription for?

Every character gets a modable Orange weapon as part of their class specilization quest or in quests on the starter planets. So the non-upgradable weapon is at best a temporary replacement.

I mentioned the server transfers in a OPS group I was in on Krayiss Obelisk (one of the ghostliest ghost town severs). The immediate response to 'some time in early summer' was "Did they say what year?" It really is unconscionable that Bioware didn't realize they would have a falloff in subscriptions after the first month or so. Every other MMO in the past 5 years has had that problem. It was the height of arrogance or unbelievable stupidity to think they would not have the same problem. The term 'early summer' is distressingly vague and Bioware's track record has not been good so far on getting things right.

Smuggler has a flash grenade which is an aoe stun to 5 targets for 8-seconds. However, I wouldn't call a short term stun even one that lasts 8-seconds a crowd-control.

Bioware, you need to take groups of 4, 5, 10 or 20 of the absolute graveyard servers and merge them. Take every player from 1 to 50 on all of those servers and place them on one sever. Krayiss Obelisk is a ghost town. Trying to do the heroic dailies is near impossible. There are never more than 10 people on Ilum, Belsavis or Corellia. Often is 3 or less and its not unusual at all to be the ONLY player on an entire planet! FIX THIS! I have two level 50 character and 2 others that are around lvl 30. I don't want to reroll on a higher population server.

Some of them are pretty intuitive but what the heck is the Vanguard one supposed to be? The Commando one looks like an artillery shell which sorta makes sense but what is the Vanguard. A stylized V? Back-to-back periscopes? A big letter-Y (for You gotta tank because the DPS spec doesn't DPS well)?

/facepalm. Admittely I don't use Corso much lately on my scoundrel but if I want a tank that goes TO the target I'll get out Bowdaar. Corso was nice for crowd control because he'd pull a target to me away from the one I'd hit with tranquilizer. Corso also nicely pulls the target to him and typically into a perfect position so I can backblast them. As the OP stated, Corso is the CC-friendly tank. Bowdaar is a good tank but short on subtlety. If I wanted to use Corso as a AOE melee tank all I'd have to do is turn off his harpoon ability but if I wanted a melee range tank I already have Bowdaar. It makes no sense to make both companion tanks the same. Troopers have a 2 tank companions also. One is a ranged tank with a harpoon ability(tow cable) and the other is a melee tank with no harpoon ability. Why remove the capability but only from the smuggler class who can really make use of it. I really hope they do NOT implement this.

As I read it, backblast does 5% more damage but has a 25% longer cooldown so a -20% DPS loss over the course of a fight. The nerf to the DOT crits means that dirty-fighting, which was only okay DPS for PVE, becomes useless. I can't speak to scrapper, I've never been that spec but my only lvl 50 was dirty fighting DPS spec from about 35 to 50. My DPS wasn't great but it was acceptable. The only justification I can imagine for it is that dirty-fighting was over-powered in PVP. I don't PVP so I don't know for certain but talking with PVPers, scoundrels in general are not overpowered. Bioware, please do not make the mistake of Blizzard and break classes for PVE to 'fix' them for PVP.

My only current lvl 50 is a scoundrel and I was dirty fighting specced until recently when I respecced to heals to provide the guild a 2nd healer. My DPS when I was dirty-fighting specced was okay but not great. If the proposed changes for 1.2 go through, the scoundrel will only be viable for healing. DPS will not be viable at least not dirty fighting. The backblast (shoot in the back with a shotgun) is getting a 5% damage increase but a 25% cooldown increase for a net -20% damage over time. The crit bonus for backblast and the bleeds is getting nerfed so backblast is getting its dps hammered even more. The bleeds from dirty fighting will crit far less often and that is where most of the damage comes from. I would definitely hold off on making a scoundrel until 1.2. Scoundrel Dirty fighting DPS was not great before but it is getting nerf-hammered. It certainly can't be due to PVE so it would appear that Scoundrels are being broken on the wheel for PVP... again.