So I completed the final fight last night (can't believe how bad they nerfed it, was getting an asskicking before the patch and couldn't finish it, logged to try it last night and got it on the first try). Anyway - afterwards, T7 projected a holo of Lord Scourge so I could tell him about the victory. For some reason - Scourge showed up with just his longjohn pants on, no equipment/shirt etc. Have others seen this? Obviously a bug here that was showing his default rather than current view, but my initial reaction was...*** did I catch Scourge doing??

Thanks for the support! Hopefully it becomes useful to others. I will update it again after the next patch goes live (though observations about how the Guardian plays while leveling with the changes are not something I'll be able to do more than theorize about, obviously).

Contents Introduction Choosing a primary talent tree Vigilance | Vengeance Tree: Gameplay, stats, companions Focus | Rage Tree: Gameplay, stats, companions Defense | Immortal Tree: Gameplay, stats, companions Keybind thoughts Introduction Hello! I've noticed that, while there are a few guides about tanking / specific build specs, there aren't a lot of guides geared towards players new to the class. Such a guide would've been helpful to me when I started playing, so I thought I'd write one. As a RL Project Manager, I like to have clear expectations. So... What this guide IS: My opinion: There are virtually no metrics or instrumentation in this game, so any "guide" now is mostly about opinion A high level (altitude, not experience level) compare/contrast between the different trees A view on how to have a reasonably effective character as you progress through the storyline What this guide IS NOT: A leveling guide of what quests to take, what planets to go to, etc A PvP guide An endgame guide An expert guide on the class or on theory-crafting to optimize the class (again - no metrics; so these are my opinions on what felt fun and effective) Anyway - I hope players new to the class find it helpful. If there is interest, I may update the guide as I become more involved in end-game activities. Choosing a primary talent tree First, a bit about the class itself. If you check the forums, there are a lot of threads from really upset players about the effectiveness of the class. In my opinion, the Guardian | Juggernaut (I can't speak to Sentinel | Marauder as I have not played one to a significant level) is both fun and effective, with two significant caveats: The Guardian seems to "bloom" later than many of its counterparts, taking a greater investment of time & talent point expenditures to become comparably effective. While most of the ACs have many more abilities than your average MMO, Guardians seem to require frequent use of a more diverse set of abilities to be effective than the other ACs. To be blunt, my mid-30's hands couldn't handle the class with a standard keyboard and low-end gaming mouse - my knuckles and wrists were literally burning in pain after the first week after launch. I was forced to purchase accessories (specifically, a Razer Nostromo and a R.A.T.7). Since then things have improved significantly. Regardless, I have thoroughly enjoyed leveling my Guardian through the storyline and hope to continue playing him for some time to come. So, onwards. The Jedi Guardian | Sith Juggernaut has three talent trees available: Defense | Immportal Vigilance | Vengeance Focus | Rage There are a variety of opinions about which tree is more powerful, which tree works best for leveling, etc. I'm a chronic "experimenter", so as I leveled I did a LOT of re-specs trying to understand how the different trees worked. A few of my opinions on picking which talent tree to focus on: They do not play significantly differently until mid 20's - early 30's All three are effective - it's more about what play-style and role you are interested in For each tree, I will cover my opinions on the following topics: The "role-player's" point of view: What sort of combat playstyle the talent tree delivers The "game mechanics" point of view: For players who like to think more about the role from a mechanical standpoint of their character Key talents & abilities: I won't cover things like Force Kick or Riposte as these are key for all Guardian builds. This doesn't mean the talents I don't list are bad or should be skipped, I'm just calling out what I feel are MVPs Important stats: Certain primary or secondary states may be more or less important for a particular build Suggested companion: Some companions become more or less useful depending on the talent build Suggested ancillary talents: Talents in the other trees which tend to complement the current tree A note about my approach to experimentation. I basically spent a few play sessions at each 10-level range in each spec from ~20 on (yes, I'm poor now - oh well). Vigilance | Vengeance The "role-player's" point of view This tree is mostly about bodily control and enhancing your lightsaber with the force. Vigilance guardians excel at hitting a single target very hard and letting the force from their empowered blade eat away at their foes. In gameplay, the Vigilance guardian employs acrobatic saber attacks, broken up by frequent Master Strikes | Ravages and looks quite good. The tree also rewards judicious use of force-powered leaps, so by level 50 a proficient Vigilance guardian will tend to use their leaps as much as possible. The "game mechanics" point of view In my opinion, the Vigilance | Vengeance tree offers the best short-term single-target DPS of the guardian trees. I say "short term" as there is some speculation that over an extended fight, a Defense-spec guardian may actually pull ahead (more on that later). This tree also offers some hybrid opportunities, through talents like Unremitting | Unstoppable, Protector | Huddle and Commanding Awe | Deafening Defense. In terms of "squishiness" it ranks behind Defense | Immortal but ahead of Focus | Rage. One item of note: the DoTs in this tree might not appear significant, but if you look at them relative to the base ability damage they are a nice % improvement. Additional, the damage from the DoTs are Elemental | Internal, which gives you a better mix of damage types (especially nice in PvP). Key talents & abilities Unremitting | Unstoppable: I feel this is the best ability, point for point, in any guardian tree. Mobs and players both tend to try and toss CC near the start of an engagement - and you laugh at them. Additionally, it's 20% damage reduction in those 4 seconds. All damage types, including Internal/Elemental. Overhead Slash | Impale: It looks cool and it hits hard. With supporting talents it also is up so frequently with a DoT component (I like to say, "OH SLASH!" when I use it...OK, not really.) Plasma Brand | Shatter: Longer CD than OH Slash | Impale but significantly more damage, including a built-in Elemental | Internal DoT. Swelling Winds | Decimate: Another "AAA" talent, and one that almost every Guardian build should take. Foce Sweep | Smash is your key AOE for most of your Guardian career, and is still the preferred AOE ability to use when it's off CD once you get Cyclone Slash | Vicious Slash. Shien Form: A defining ability for the tree. If you are going to invest significantly in the tree, it's a clear "must take" as it improves your DPS efficiency in EVERY WAY - damage done per attack, focus expended per attack, and focus generation over time. You should find yourself using Blade Storm | Force Scream frequently - the tree optimizes both the uptime and damage of this already powerful attack. Master Strike: There are a lot of debates on this, but I have to say - once you have Zen Strike | Rampage talented out along with OH Slash and Plasma Brand - this is a great attack that significantly improves your efficiency. Don't disregard it just because it's channeled. Important stats Through most of your leveling career, you will want to focus on Strength and Power. Endurance if you intend to try some tanking in heroics or FPs (you can go Soresu and do it, but you won't be optimal at it). Stacking Crit may become interesting at end game but not for most of 1-50. Depending on your companion choices, frequency of grouping, etc, you may want to stack some defense | shield | absorb and decide to carry the shielding offhand instead of the DPS-focused offhand. This is more of a playstyle choice - I preferred taking a tanking or healing companion and optimizing for DPS when investing in this tree, but it makes even off-tanking in FPs significantly more difficult at higher levels. Suggested companions Suggested ancillary talents Dust Storm | Quake: As the tree optimizes Force Sweep | Smash to be up more frequently and execute as free. This talent can add some nice survivability. Victory Rush | Enraged Sunder: Makes it even more likely you can permanently eliminate Strike | Assault from your toolbar, a nice thing if for no other reason than quality of life. Momentum | Battle Cry: Lets you start off a fight with a free heavy hit + DoT. Focus | Rage The "role-player's" point of view As a Focus Guardian, you are using the Force more aggressively in battle. The key is to keep distance closed with your force-powered leaps and execute key abilities to let the Force flow through you and empower localized blasts of force through Force Sweep | Smash. The "game mechanics" point of view With the other two trees, you can make arguments about not going "all in" to get the 31 point talent. Focus | Rage is one of those trees where you are really neutering the effectiveness if you don't go all the way to the top. Essentially, I felt disappointed by the ability of this tree to perform effectively until I got all the way up to Force Exhaustion | Force Crush. My priority of execution for a Focus | Rage spec is basically: Force Leap | Force Charge or Zealous Charge | Obliterate to close to the target; this enables a Sweep/Smash Crit. Personal preference Force Stasis | Force Choke the hardest hitter (if not on CD), or Force Exhaust | Force Crush the hardest hitter; this boosts Sweep | Smash damage If you are waiting for Exhaust/Crush to tick to bump Sweep | Smash damage, then execute based on availability: Master Strike | Ravage >> Slash | Vicious Slash Force Sweep | Smash Repeat. If the fight lingers and you're in the cooldown to re-start the sequence, then mix Sunder/Slash/Master Strike/Strike until you can restart. If Combat Focus | Enrage is up, I almost always use it. Before you get up to Exhaust | Crush in the tree, Focus | Rage can feel a bit lackluster as you basically just get one cycle through the hard-hitting combo, and even then it doesn't start to get really spectacular until you get up to Focused Resonance | Dark Resonance. Once you've maxed out the tree though - it's a lot of fun, just significantly more squishy as a) It's not optimal to be in Soresu and b) You can't pick up Unremitting | Unstoppable from Vigilance | Vengeance. Key talents & abilities All of the Sweep | Smash optimization talents. Zephyr | Force Alacrity, Zealous Leap | Obliterate, Pulse | Strangle, Singularity | Shockwave, Felling Blow | Dominate, Focused Resonance | Dark Resonance. This is a case when a talent in another tree is a key one. Swelling Winds | Decimate is required. Swift Slash | Brutality and Saber Strength: Normally, Slash is a somewhat lackluster ability and for the other two spec's is more of a Focus | Rage dump. But these talents, in synergy with your ability priorities, make Slash a nice filler while waiting to restart your Sweep | Smash sequence. Important stats Through most of your leveling career, you will want to focus on Strength, Crit, and Surge. As with Vigilance, you can sprinkle some End in if you want to try tanking heroics and FPs, but trust me - you are doing something extremely inefficient if you go this route; you won't be as good of a tank as a real Defense | Immortal spec, and you're going to come complaining about how Focus is weak because you didn't play to it's strengths. In comparison with Vigilance - I wouldn't bother trying to invest in some shielding or defense optimization. Unremitting | Unstoppable makes a HUGE difference for Vigilance | Vengeance that you don't have. Better to optimize your damage to end the fight faster. Suggested companions Suggested ancillary talents As already mentioned, Swelling Winds | Decimate may be in another tree - but it's required. Dust Storm | Quake is a good option to help lessen the pain when you toss your huge Sweep | Smash out and piss everyone off. Single-Saber Mastery is highly recommended - an extra 6% to your saber attacks is nothing to sneeze at, even though you don't use them quite as often as the Vigilance | Vengeance guardian. Accuracy - When you start considering stacking some accuracy at 50, this becomes really appealing as getting over 100% starts eating into your opponent's ability to avoid your attacks. Perseverance | Dreadnought: A 6% bonus to your primary stat for 2 points is very nice and scales nicely with level. Defense | Immortal The "role-player's" point of view You are a Knight. REALLY a Knight. With the Force as your ally, you stay calm (or float in a sea of rage) as threats part around you, unable to penetrate the combined aegis of your blade, Force, and armor. The "game mechanics" point of view In Soresu stance, the Defense | Immortal spec is a hard nut to crack. As with any SWTOR tank spec, you have multiple mitigation layers (defense, shield+absorb, heavy armor). Your main weakness at lower levels is holding threat as a group - this is mitigated greatly with proper talent investment, though you are still going to have issues if your DPS insists on soloing elites instead of following kill order. Also, I mentioned earlier that I would comment on the differing opinions about damage output as many believe that Vigilance | Vengeance are not just the best short-term DPS but also extended. I would guide the interested reader here for a great discussion on this topic: http://sithwarrior.com/forums/Thread-Immortal-Defense-Compendium-A-Tank-s-Guide-To-The-Galaxy Key talents & abilities Effective Defense | Immortal builds are all about optimizing defense and more efficient Soresu form Focus | Rage usage to power attacks. Properly talented - you will find that threat building mostly takes care of itself given a few assumptions: DPS follows kill order You use Challenging Call | Threatening Scream and Hilt Strike | Back Hand judiciously By the time I was fully talented out in Defense I found myself rarely using single-target taunt often except in PvP. (Maybe it will be more used in Ops- not much experience there). Anyway... Key talents for optimizing Soresu form mitigation: Dust Storm | Quake: 18s duration means you can keep a significant accuracy nerf on key targets for an entire fight. Lunge | Lash Out: Cheaper Riposte | Retaliation means no worries about using it every single time it's up. This is important because... Blade Barricade: 6% ranged defense increase is A LOT. If I am using the formula correctly (http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=63362) it's the equivalent of about 215 points of Defense rating at level 50. Guard Stance: See above. Another 6%? Yes please. Shield Specialization: Again, assuming I didn't fail at math...this is the equivalent of 65 points in shielding at level 50. Not quite as exciting as the Defense ratings, but still, nothing to sneeze at. Blade Barrier | Sonic Barrier: This one is controversial for many. I'll leave you to read threads on it for more details, but here's how I look at it. If you use Blade Storm | Force Scream every time it's up (and you should, given you can start the fight with a free one and Courage | Revenge will give you discounted ones) then it means you are negating a couple of attacks every 12s. Now - do I wish it only negated post-mitigation damage? Well, sure. But thematically that would be a bit strange. As it stands, I think it needs a slight increase in the amount of damage absorbed, but I don't believe it's as useless as some are portraying it. Key talents for optimizing Soresu form Focus | Rage generation: Momentum | Battle Cry: A free big hit to start the fight. Nice way to kick off the threat train. Plus it procs your Blade Barrier | Sonic Barrier. Lunge | Lash Out: Another synergy talent. You are going to be Reposting | Retaliating every time it's up. It's more efficient if it costs less. Courage | Revenge: Optimizes cost on two abilities you will be using almost every time they are up. Cyclonic Sweeps | Sweeping Fury: Right out of the box it is netting you +1 Focus | Rage every 3s. I feel the secondary effect (to reduce CD on Combat Focus | Enrage is useful but I wouldn't buy the talent if that was all it was. However, at this point in the tree I found I had to really focus on SPENDING rather than CONSERVING Focus | Rage as your efficiency is extremely high. Other key talents: Hilt Strike | Backhand: There are complaints about the 1m cooldown, but this isn't meant to be used every fight. It's meant to be snap threat generation when somebody screws up (somebody can be you, in fact). For that reason, and because you will want its prerequisite anyway, this one is a keeper. Important stats This is not as straightforward is you would think. A caveat: This view is based on minimal Ops experience. Maybe it's different there. (And as always - this is my opinion). By the time the build really gets rolling and you are invested in all of the talents to optimize Soresu for mitigation, I found that stacking significantly more Shield or Defense wasn't buying me much. When you reach this point, I recommend stacking: Strength: Hit harder = more DPS for solo and more threat for groups Endurance: More hit points = the final frontier of mitigation! Power: Hit harder = more DPS for solo and more threat for groups Absorption: Your shield rating looks good, but having a high shield with minimal absorption is silly. Would you rather mitigate 5% of all damage 20% of the time, or 15% of all damage 15% of the time? Accuracy: You have to hit to keep aggro. Stacking some accuracy leaves it less to the RNG to decide. Suggested companions Suggested ancillary talents Swelling Winds | Decimate: Should be obvious at this point. Improved Sundering: Helps with threat generation, AND goes nicely with Guardian Slash | Crushing Blow if you invest all the way up the Defense | Immortal Tree. Accuracy: Hard to keep threat up if you are missing. Keybind thoughts As I mentioned earlier in the guide, I was forced to purchase some new gear to save my knuckles and wrists. Some of you young folk may not have the issue and could be comfortable with significant metacarpal gymnastics - not me! Also, some of you more experienced folks may not be so interested in this, which is why it's at the end. However, I feel that thinking about keybinding is absolutely life-changing in importance to enjoying this class - to the point where I think a guide that doesn't at least introduce the concept for newer players is a lacking guide. I will discuss some high-level recommendations: Simple keybinding Keybinding with gaming accessories Use of recorded sequences 1. Simple keybinding First, go read this. In fact, you can probably ignore the rest if this guide if you go read it. It's that good. http://taugrim.com/2011/04/07/guide-to-strafing-movement-and-keybindings/ If you are back, I'll just say one more thing here. I highly recommend you trash the default bindings for your new Guardian | Juggernaut at level one and set up something that feels right to you. If the default bindings feel right to you, I will for one time in this guide say something that I feel is not my opinion: you are wrong. You only think the default bindings are OK because you haven't seen what is in store for you at later levels. So please, for the sake of your hands and sanity, implement a scalable keybinding scheme. 2. Keybinding with gaming accessories The advantages of purchasing gaming mice/keyboards are open to debate. If you look at it solely from an effectiveness standpoint, it's really up in the air. So I won't talk about that. How I look at it is from an ergonomics standpoint. Simply put, a good gaming mouse or keyboard puts less strain on your hands. In my case, I mentioned I picked up a Razer Nostromo (http://tbreak.com/tech/files/IMG_06791.jpg) and a R.A.T.7 mouse (http://techreport.com/r.x/cyborg-rat7/top.jpg). Here is what I get out of it. Movement Relegated to D-Pad on the Nostromo Exception is facing, which I still control with mouse2 Common used abilities Mapped to the Nostromo keypad via keybinds My left hand fingers home to keys 1-4 with my thumb resting on the D-pad Most abilities are on 1-4, 6-9, 11-14. Especially key abilities are on keys 5 and 10 so they cannot be missed 1-4 and 6-9 also have alt+keybinds (Alt is bound to my house "back" key) Thumb spacebar is my combat initiator (Force leap). I've considered creating a sequence to map to it (force leap + opportune strike) but haven't yet (see section 3 - sequences) Thumb tapkey (above the D-Pad) is mapped to introspection. Simply because it's impossible to hit that key while moving in combat (especially PvP) and introspection is a common ability to use Interrupts/long cooldowns (mostly on the mouse) Force push is mapped to mouse button "navigate forward" Stasis is mouse3 RAT7 has a left/right scrollwheel. I've mapped these to physical keypresses and the keypresses are bound to Force Kick (scroll right) and (as I'm currently defense spec) hilt strike (scroll left) Exception for convenience: Alt is on mouse "navigate backwards" as mentioned earlier 3. Use of recorded sequences This is, for me at least, a bit controversial. As we all know - SWTOR has no macro support. And it's not entirely clear if SWTOR permits macroing through other means (e.g. - a macro program or accessories). However, we also know that SWTOR has partnered with Razer to sell branded products. And Razer products natively support macros ("sequences"). So...it's a bit muddy. For now, I am not using sequences as it's not clear to me if they are supported and how rapid Bioware is going to be about bans. But I could imagine significant quality of life possibilities, especially in PvE, for sequences. For example: Force leap + opportune strike Force sweep + pommel strike (obviously, will only trigger on week/standard enemies I'd leave it up to the individual to decide what to do here. Again - I'm not using sequences as I'm paranoid, and I only have minimal experience in their use. Hopefully Bioware will clarify the situation at some point. Closing Well, I hope this has been useful! If there are any comments I'd gladly incorporate them. Thanks!

It's been awhile since I played a new MMO. My most played MMO is CoH, which has a more stable/mature community at this point (i.e. - most people playing CoH know what to expect and have been there for awhile). So I guess I've become a bit naive because the number of unbiased rants has sort of amazed me. "I can't find groups or open world PvP at 50" "This game is the best ever! It's so revolutionary" "This game is awful, I'm gonna cancel" "Space combat sucks!" "Why didn't Bioware fix my bug over Christmas!" "It's a new MMO, let's be patient for Bioware to fix major issues for a few months" ...etc As is often the case, the truth is somewhere in the middle I think. But first some caveats on my viewpoint: - Played 2 beta weekends only; during that time I sampled every base class + opposite AC on the mirrors to ~10-15 - Since launch, I've focused on a single character - Jedi Guardian, now level 35 Anyway, since everyone else is happily posting their opinions, I thought I'd join the hubris and add mine. I even toss in some arbitrary and meaningless ratings in some places, and offer my own suggestions! Since it's long, I bet nobody reads it. But it was fun to write. 1. The measure of success: Fun I don't know how anyone else decides if a game they are playing is successful. For me, I don't own ERTS (EA) stock. Therefore, all I really care about for an MMO is one thing: Am I having fun and does it look like I will continue to have fun. Right now: The answer is a resounding YES. I'm thoroughly enjoying the Jedi Guardian gameplay and story. It all feels quite heroic and exciting and like a Star Wars story. I've enjoyed a few FP's and have no issue finding either a group of guild mates or even a PUG to do the heroic quests I run into as I continue on the story. I also love the gameplay. I love that there is no braindead autoattack. I love that I have to come up with a smart keybinding strategy because there are a lot of useful abilities and options I need to consider in running my Jedi effectively. That said, there are some blemishes. For example, I normally love to PvP in an MMO. I've basically shelved that since ~level 23 because personally, I hate Huttball. I know others who love it. But my opinion (and most of the statements in this forum, sorry to have to point it out, are opinions) is that Huttball is boring and obnoxious. If I could pick what PvP game I could queue for, I'd be PvPing a lot more and would give this a better fun score. As it is now the best PvP I've had was the few times I got lucky enough to not queue for Huttball (I must be cursed to have gotten it so often) and getting jumped by Sith Assassins in open world PvP and tearing off their faces. Additionally, I have some real love/hate over the crafting. I love the idea of the crew members handling most of the crafting. But I still feel like it's too boring/repetitive. I'd prefer they expand the focus on "mini games" to crafting and give the player the option to run a crafting assignment with their main character for a more significant yield. Sort of like radio missions in City of Heroes. This would be sweet. Fun rating: 80/100 2. Evolution vs. revolution It shouldn't be a big shock to anyone, but there isn't a lot of revolution in this game. Most of the game systems expand/evolve from previos MMOs/games (and before the "WowClone" catcalls start - guys, let's get serious. WoW didn't innovate either - it attempted to perfect key features/functions in the MMO world that they thought would attract the most players. They ripped from every other MMO out there...and those MMOs ripped from CRPGs and P&P RPGs. Anyway, few points. * Story-based focus Basically, this has evolved from CRPGs and they've tried to deliver it into the MMO space. The results are mixed. The stories, alone, are quite good. Mostly well-written, great VO, etc. I rarely feel the drag of the typically "go here kill this loot that" MMO paradigm - not because it's absent, but because the story (for me) overrides it. On the other hand...I don't actually feel the impact of the story on the game world. It's been awhile since I played Guild Wars, but part of me wishes BW had some how mixed in the story progression changes to the game world that you would see in the past in GW. Granted - this can lead to player base fragmentation so it's clearly easier said than done. * Crafting As mentioned above - the crew-focused crafting is a great idea. But from my point of view, it's window dressing only right now. The crafted items still fall to the same drawbacks of crafted items in virtually every other MMO I've played, and the crafting system by itself is not "fun". So I see crafting as a few nice ideas that need to be preserved in an overhaul somewhere down the line. * Space combat / ships I know a lot of people have rage over how this works, but to be honest, I find it on the fun side of tolerable. Having "housing" (even though you can't do any customization of it) right at launch is quite nice. And the space combat is a fun diversion/mini-game that is a nice break for me. Now - if I was given a choice between this and fully customizable ships and free-form space combat, would I pick this? Well, no, of course not. But in my opinion people need to do a reality check as the current system is not so bad and I can see it being "fun" for a couple of more months, with a downgrade to "acceptable" for up to a year. Beyond that and I will join the complainers. I also see potential for some real innovation in whatever "Space 2.0" looks like - if BW has the courage for it. For now, I don't find any revolution or much evolution here, just a decently fun subsystem that I don't think they could have launched without. * Graphics I have a custom built system. Most of the components are 3 years old, with some upgrades I've done in the interim (graphics card is 1 yr old, upgraded RAM 1.5 years back). I can run most of the settings on high. The graphics look pretty nice and thematic to me. Only thing I don't like is the "green walls of light" that randomly appear near friendly camp areas, that many of us are familiar with - it's a jarring glitch. Nothing evolutionary or revolutionary here. I feel that what they have done is quite predictable for a mass market MMO (i.e., one intended to run on a wide variety of systems) and shouldn't really surprise anyone. * Companions For me - this is the most evolutionary thing BW has done. It's a natural thing to take NPC companions as they've had in their other CRPGs and evolve them into a sort of "pet". My one fear is whether companions will be nerfed. Right now I find them really enjoyable and useful. And I love the story lines that develop as affection increases. * VO As I mentioned earlier, the VO certainly enhances the power and polish of the stories. It's fantastically done, well-written, thorough, etc. However, this isn't revolutionary either. Everyone has expected VO to become more and more common in MMOs. BW just has the most thorough and polished implementation of it. Very well done. * Roles This is one thing I love. BW is mostly stuck to the mantra that class != role. Instead, you pick a class, and your spec determines your role. And most AC's have playstyle choices to fill the same role. Personally, this gives me a preference for the ACs which have 2 potential roles to spec into (Heal||Tank vs. DPS) over the ACs which just have an additional DPS playstyle choice, but regardless, I'm a fan of this idea. Now, I have to say - I prefer much more free-form character generation. But it is what it is, and I can't expect BW to completely toss out what they have for something different so I'll just give them a nod for not pigeonholing every AC into a specific role. Revolution, Evolution, and Polish Basically, BW has some nice evolutionary features, and the game is quite polished. In my opinion, though, BW has taken very little risk to do anything revolutionary. I am partially disappointed given the budget they had for this game, but also partially unsurprised for the same reason. Revolution: 5/100 Evolution: 60/100 Polish: 80/100 Overall I'm enjoying the game tremendously, and I expect to be playing for some time as I cycle through the different stories. I'm hoping that as more of us reach 50 (yes - the leveling curve isn't bad, but yes - you are a power gamer if you are already 50) open world PvP on Ilum will be revamped to be more meaningful than it seems to be now (though to be fair - this is based on secondhand opinion and perhaps it's more interesting than it's been made out to be). Suggestions to developers I understand the aversion to risk given the budget of the game. So I won't recommend anything stunning. But I think you can continue to look at some other games to find high-value features, liked by specific communities, and retool them for SWTOR. Some examples I would look at: DAOC - RvR system. I played DAOC prior to TOA and loved the RvR. I'm sure others remember it fondly as well. I think more robust and meaningful RvR would be great for endgame here. Anarchy Online - I enjoyed Notum Wars. Basically, I think the key for endgame open world PvP: Make ownable, interesting, meaningful objectives. Valor buffs are not going to cut it. City of Heroes - Radio/Newspaper missions. I think you have an opportunity to marry the crafting system with something like radio missions and allow players to (optionally) run the crafting assignments directly for greater reward. You could integrate other minigames with this (for example: for slicing missions, there would be a mix of combat, patrol avoidance, and then a slicing minigame like in Mass Effect). - Going Rogue. This seems like a "gimme" and I would be stunned if you don't have this planned already for some point down the road, even if it's only available for level cap. There should be story arcs that let you transition Republic<->Empire. In terms of game/PvP balance it seems like there is no issue here since the ACs all mirror each other. Mainly the issue seems like it would be tracking storylines when people go cross faction. - Respec trials. Instead of marrying re-spec'ing to just an annoyance credit cost...why not have a level-adjusted FP or Heroic-2 to earn a free re-spec? - Character appearance/customization. Frankly, the character creation options in SWTOR are just embarrassing when you look at what some existing MMOs have. To date, COH has my favorite appearance customization system, and it was already top-tier vs. several newer MMOs when it launched. I realize there are some notions that aren't compatible given a good part of a SWTOR character's appearance is based on gear, but the options are still painfully limited. Asheron's Call - Incredibly frequent content updates with new quests/stories/etc. I played AC for several years and for me, it's still the gold standard on frequent content updates. You guys want to earn my monthly sub, you had better dev staff to do the following in parallel: * Maintenance: Investigate/fix/RCA on bugs. Up to weekly builds pushed * Live content team: Run world events, frequent new quest/storyline pushes (like, monthly) * Major content team: Working behind the scenes on major game systems (new ones or overhauling existing ones) for ~quarterly pushes In closing, BW, I'm enjoying the game. Good job on evolving MMO features + CRPG features into one package in the Star Wars universe. You've got my attention for the next 2-3 months and I look forward to seeing your product roadmap to keep me engaged beyond that. If you have somehow read this entire vanity post, here's a cookie!

Three points: 1. There are no DPS meters. So technically, anyone who claims significantly better DPS for one AC vs. another are smoking. 2. If I were smoking, I would say my guardian (26 currently) competes just fine in DPS. I am spec'd Vigilance right now for leveling purposes (near end-game, I may either dual-spec into Defense or re-spec into Defense if dual-spec isn't released yet). In Shien form, I frequently either hold or take aggro from other DPS if we don't have a tank working to hold aggro. 3. People are morons. The talent trees are CLEARLY built to allow each class three different play-styles. For Guardian, the playstyles are: - Tank - DPS, focused on Saber-based Guardian powers - DPS, focused on Force-based Guardian powers This isn't WOW, where class = role, and the talent trees are simply ways to perform your role. The majority of classes have 2 roles available to them. For Sentinel, the difference is simply - all three play-styles available are DPS. Find people to group with who actually "get it". Personally - I will play a Marauder eventually so I can experience the other Knight/Warrior AC (Sentinel mirror) and to experience the Sith Warrior storyline. But in terms of play-style, options, aesthetics - I tried both classes to ~20 in beta and there's a reason I have only rolled a single class since early access...my Guardian.

When you roll out a new wave, could you indicate what date range it covered? Would quiet some folks & make progress clear.