While this is great for you, this is also why your entire post should be not considered as typical of the average SM experience. Let's bring in some data: Ruffian/Lethality is currently the top parsing on IPCPT. Per your group with 19-34k DPS, we can presume an average of somewhere around 26.5k DPS from a given DPS in your group. If constrained to the typical 2/4/2 setup, similar total DPS would require an average of 33.1k DPS from a given DPS in the group. As the top parsing DPS on average, Ruffian/Lethality averages a median of 13.6k DPS, or about half of what your average group member put out, or about 2/3 of what your WORST group member put out. Again, that's the median for the best spec in the game for that boss on SM (per Parsely). Interesting side fact, the highest 99th percentile parse for that boss on Parsely is around 22k. You said your group had an high of 34k on that boss. On Watchdog, the highest parsing spec is Watchman/Annihilation, at a median of 25.2k DPS. At least that almost matches the average for your group, but still falls short of the required DPS overall to match your group. The highest 99th percentile parse went to Serenity/Hatred, at 42.7k. On Kanoth, the highest parsing spec is again Watchman/Annihilation, at a median of 18.4k DPS. The highest 99th percentile parse went to Vigilance/Vengeance, at 27.8k. Lastly, on Dom, the highest parsing spec was Saboteur/Engineering, at a median of 27.2k DPS. The highest 99th percentile parse went to Vigilance/Vengeance, at 39.6k. All of these have the same common factor: the median parse among the TOP PERFORMING SPEC for each boss was typically LOWER than the average dps among your "pug group" that STILL needed to go 1/5/2 instead of the 2/4/2 the fight was supposedly designed around (and had your group gone 2/4/2, to have the same total DPS, you would have needed to increase even your group's average DPS by about 25% to have the same results). The op is definitely clearable, nobody's saying it's not, but it is mis-tuned. Quite frankly, the DPS requirements in R-4 SM are higher than HM SNV's last boss (which is usually a sign of the first 'true' HM). Mechanics are equally unforgiving. Doable, yes, but current R4 SM is a HM raid pretending to be a SM (and I'd presume that HM R4 is probably a NiM pretending to be a HM).

Basically. SWTOR has basically taken something they were originally doing right and made it worse when they had the perfect opportunity to make it slightly better.

Suggestion is exactly what the title would imply: a bag where gear goes. Specifically, I'm referring to gear sets that are tied to loadouts (think like the armory chest that FFXIV uses along with their class swapping mechanism that loadouts and combat styles were a fantastic copy of, btw). Reasoning: If you play multiple roles on a character, it's reasonable to need multiple gear sets to do such. A tank needs certain gear. A healer needs other stats. DPS needs something else entirely. PVP might call for another set as well so one can min-max accordingly for that content. Meanwhile, bag space gets eaten up fairly quickly (ex: I carry a heals/DPS [DPS focused] and tank set on my Agent (Operative/Vanguard), and that second set of gear easily eats up several slots, plus a couple extra for differing legendary implants, plus a couple extra for tacticals, and that's without even considering different stat priorities by spec/role. With that gear sitting in my bag, it allows the possibility that, if I were not paying attention (especially given how gear moves to the beginning like fresh dropped gear if you change combat style) could easily lead to accidentally selling or deconstructing gear that I actually use. A 'gear bag' solves this. Potential Limitation: could be limited to subscribers, giving us another reason to give you our money, similar to how ESO does with a craft bag.

Couldn't say for sure...that was guildies that did it, and they're way more knowledgable about parkour than I am in this game. Only real trick I know is the logout one.

It's probably a specific parkour. I have a couple guildmates who are CONSTANTLY trying to find new ways to parkour around the game, get way beyond the bounds of the map, etc. I've seen them get to off-map locations on Coruscant, get to the other factions starting area on Corellia, and I believe they mentioned something specific about Nar Shaddaa as well, although I haven't seen that one. If not parkour, then it's probably something against ToS and can be reported.

It's still a credit sink even if you're not sinking credits buying them on the GTN, b/c most likely the people selling them got them by buying chips and THEY sunk the credits to get them on the GTN (even if they're profiting). Example: I personally played for cartel certs and the companion for my Agent, spent about 500million credits. Got all the cartel certs I wanted, and enough golden certs for the companion...and a few high roller weapons, which I ended up selling for somewhere around 700-800million credits (this was on the first couple days of the event). *Personally,* I made money, and ended up about 200-300million credits richer, but that doesn't change the fact that 500 million credits were still removed from the game.

R4 Anomaly is fun. Lots of fun. I really enjoy the mechanics. However, as OP noted, at least on SM, it's really not properly tuned. Does it make sense for it to be harder than prior SM ops? Sure. I especially don't want to sleep through the op like KP, EV, DF, or DP SM. As noted earlier, the DPS checks are a bit too high. For example, to get through IP-CPT (granted, this is with some players newer to ops) we had to go 1T, 2H, 5D, and then have the tank basically skank tank in DPS gear+shield. (Could probalby get the same result with a DwT with a shield to hold the droids until they're destroyed.) With all that, it's still extremely close. Best answer is probably to add another 5-10s to the enrage cast. Nothing too forgiving, just something that makes it workable for PUGs, etc. For those saying "it's the current tier, it should be harder"...I'm presuming you're thinking like other games, such as WoW or FFXIV. In WoW, it's correct: the current tier IS harder than the previous tier. It also drops better gear without needing to jump into HM. As is, the R4 SM drops the same (or worse) gear as easier content, so the challenge should be the same (or easier). Note that I'm not talking about R4 HM. It's perfectly fine for that to be harder content: it truly is the current tier, drops the best gear in the game, and has every right to be a challenge. (It may potentially also be overtuned, I couldn't say, but I'm not saying that difficulty is. I'm saying SM is.) A better comparison for SM, based on the fact that it IS thrown in group finder, is that it should be more like normal raids in XIV or LFR in WoW. XIV has pretty easy normal raids, and puts the challenge in their Savage raids (the equivalent of HM or NiM, depending). WoW gives LFR players a stacking buff (5% bonus damage, healing, and HP every wipe) that eventually makes it so even the most casual of casuals can clear the content. I think the mechanics on the add phase for IP-CPT are a bit too unforgiving, but not severely so. I'd recommend slightly adjusting spawn times (have the droids in the 2nd add phase spawn after the first set of bombs, like they do in the first add phase, or maybe one droid each set if they want to preserve the urgency of killing faster). That said, overall, as I noted at the beginning: the new Op is fun. Just a bit overtuned is all.

This bug is popping up today after I completed a vet FP. Can't reset phases, FP was complete, can't even log out and back in to fix it.

Only one boss into the new raid (only dabbled with it a bit), but it seems pretty fun. New story: haven't tried yet, will judge later. I heard there's only about 15m of it, so I'll save it for when I'm done with other stuff. Manaan dailies...I'm a little irritated that they ONLY drop reputation tokens and NOTHING else. Not even the aquatic...er, daily fragments. It's literally better for progression to go to starter planets than it is the new content. That's...sad. Nar Shadaa nightlife is a decent credit sink, although we'll see how well it holds up for doing that.

Says the player that joined less than a year ago, lol. Tell me, please, how you ensure getting the right Rakata relic to upgrade to 330 on a DPS Juggernaut. I mean, since RNG "isn't a thing." Or, for the player that doesn't have every class leveled up, tell me how you get the appropriate accuracy pieces if you only have say Marauder and Jugg as combat specializations? Oh, wait, I know the answer to both of those questions already! "You can't."

"At the end of the month." Note that I'm not specifying which month. Could be this month, could be July, could be 2047.

Appreciate the information. Now we just need to get EA/BioWare to, y'know, properly staff y'all and make it so you can do things.

That's not entirely true. Drops are never iRating upgrades, sure, but OP was talking about Rakata gear (which can be upgraded to 330, unlike all other non-legendary gear in the game). Bosses in NiM ops drop Rakata gear equal to your iRating, and HM occasionally drops Rakata accessories. I've gotten some good drops that way...I've also had friends get Rakata implants (which are completely useless b/c you'll always use the legendary). While OP could do better here, why should people need to game the system to be able to get a chance at drops they need? I get that it can be done (that's how I did it), but that doesn't make it not ridiculous. OP has some fault here, for sure, but this is mainly on BioWare for bad design, full stop.

While this is absolutely true, I think OP was making the point that there's a huge disconnect between obtaining and using gear. First, let's start with conquest/daily gear, which is actually probably one of the few areas where gear drops are just fine. Conquest gives you up to 326 greens, no better. That's fine: it's (mostly) easy content (some buggy areas aside if solo). Using that as a baseline, we move to flashpoints. First, you have SM flashpoints, which don't drop gear at all. I get that it's easy content (it really is), but it's also on par (roughly) with conquest, so a reasonable approach would be for it to give the same ger as conquest...instead: nothing. Vet flashpoints become the baseline for group content, giving up to 324 greens. In a vacuum (i.e. ignoring the rest of the game), this would be fine. However, by and large this is still roughly on par with SM flashpoints and conquest in difficulty, and as such should reasonably give the same gear. If Conquest gives 326 greens, so should vet FPs. Next, you get to MM FPs: they give up to 326 blues. Step up in difficulty, step up in gear: check. Problem here is erratic tuning. Queue for a MM, and you could get Hammer Station, which shouldn't get any more than 326 blues for the difficulty (and arguably might not deserve better than 326 greens b/c it's not really any more difficult than vet FPs)...or you could get something like Nathema Conspiracy or Battle of Rishi where the content appears to be designed around a group in 326 purples...or you could get something like Assault on Korriban or Ruins of Nul where tuning issues and/or bugs make the content literally impossible to complete without a group in full 330 NiM gear. Those latter two are an issue when the 'reward' is only 326 blues, at best. Next, let's look at Ops. First off, SM ops are about on par with (perhaps slightly more involved then) vet FPs or some MM FPs, yet they only give 322 green gear. That's a problem. Next, HM ops are tuned a step higher than that, easily more involved than any base-game MM FP, yet give 324 blue gear as their upper end. Again, a problem. NiM ops give gear, but are currently tuned in such a way that there are likely less than 50 players on the entirety of the Satele Shan server actually completing the content. Instead, it's borked in such a way that most groups do the first boss of ONE operation (NiM Nefra), or two when one had a workaround to avoid mechanics (NiM Dashrode). That's an obvious over-tuning issue. Lastly, let's get to PvP. If all things are equal, then perhaps the goal was just to make gearing harder, right? Except in GSF, I can go in and lose my way to 326 purples (and since the latest patch, and do so in warzones as well, albeit at a slower pace than GSF). Basically, as things are, there is one viable path to gear in this game: PvP to 326, then NiM Nefra to 330. Add to that the RNG and lack of modifiable gear (which didn't stop optimization, it just changed it so you choose which class you farm a gear drop as to get the stats optimized), and it's a massive step in the wrong direction. I hope this gets fixed in 7.1....if Bioware ever gets around to releasing 7.1.

Technically, they didn't say *WHICH* month they'd have this up by. I know you, me, and everybody else reasonable took "the end of the month" to mean May 2022, but they could have meant June, or July, or even sometime in 2027...