This FP is pretty close to making me unsub.

I've gone through all of it up to the end twice but got the same bug at the very last part both times. (Companion stops moving or using skills, just stands there and dies, and I can't solo everything in the room without him.)

The flashpoint was tedious and not fun, just pounding on enemies with no real mechanics other than high HP pools, and it takes sooo long. I'm dreading trying again and have just been putting it off because it's a chore rather than something entertaining.

At this point I would be happy to just skip it. I don't want to waste another evening on this.

I wish I could just play with a friend to advance the story rather than having to solo it.

It's making me avoid the whole game and I just want to get past it. This is the only thing in the game that I've attempted and had serious trouble completing. Making my sub seem kind of pointless if I can't progress...

I have to admit I've given up on trying to do Spirit of Vengeance as well. I can't count how many times someone has told me "it's playable if you want to run it solo" but I hate to say it, it is still not playable, despite the protestations that it's been fixed. The regular NPCs are still way too overpowered and they hit like mini-bosses, the jumping across the firepit on the ship is insane and it's impossible to do it without a team. Not to mention the fact that you can't run Secrets of the Enclave without completing Spirit of Vengeance. The FPs before SoV were challenging but they are playable if you're sufficiently geared. But, even the storymode for Spirit of Vengeance feels like it's jacked up to Veteran Mode.

I did it without a team (except that useless weenie Rass) on the day it released (technically the next day because I got one of the "can't click the thing to continue" bugs, but definitely the same week it released). I was on an Infiltration Shadow, with 306ish gear with no useful set bonus. I got stomped in the first big room full of trash because I advanced too quickly and aggroed half the room, but apart from that, it wasn't a problem.

The fire pit thing left me very confused about people calling it a jumping puzzle afterwards, because I just walked along that one beam on the right where you hop up onto a panel halfway, then hop down then hop onto the repaired floor after. Compared to e.g. Pig Iron Mine or Spelunker's Delve(1) in GW2, it's nothing.

Noteworthy: I use stealth as a positioning mechanism, to get in a good position for a fight, rather than an avoidance mechanism.

(1) Or, worst of all, Goemm's Lab...

The first actually mandatory FPs were part of Shadow of Revan. It's been a while since I played them and honestly can't remember if there really ever was an option to choose the difficulty as you write, but ever since the chapters of KOTET and KOTFE that option wasn't given anywhere.

The Prelude to Revan (Tython, Korriban, Manaan and Rakata Prime) and Shadow of Revan (Blood Hunt and Battle of Rishi) FPs all advance the story in whatever mode you play them. (And they only have Story, Vet, Master.)

Doing Chiss or Nathema in Veteran or Master mode simply won't progress the arc. Everyone is required to play the main story in the solo story version, so a change in difficulty there does affect everyone.

The Traitor arc ones (Umbara, Copero, Nathema) and Onslaught+ ones (Meridian, Oblivion, Vengeance and Enclave) all have a fourth mode specifically for advancing the story. Confusingly, when this change was first made, the fourth (story-advancing) mode was called Solo, while the solo-play mode that doesn't advance the story was called Story.

Why is someone's complaint Onslaught is on easy mode more valid than my complaint Spirit of Vengeance is on hard mode?

It isn't more valid, but it isn"t *less* valid, either.

You can choose your difficulty mode to play Fallen Empire when you start it. On your character load screen where you have the icons in the bottom left for game options, see cinematics, etc. hovering the cursor over one of them will show your default difficulty mode. I set it up when I first started play and haven't touched it since, so I don't know offhand how to change it.

In-game, right-click your character's portrait that's attached to your primary quickbar. You'll find the stuff in those menus.

It's likely in the game options gear icon. Default mode I'm guessing is for non-flashpoint play since flashpoints are where the difficulty options are given.

That difficulty selector affects *only* instanced areas of the KotFE and KotET chapters (and possibly Shroud of Memory as well). (Open-world areas like the Zak swamp, most of the Old World, Breaktown, and the open areas on Darvannis (KotFE Chapter XIV) are not affected by the difficulty setting as anyone could be around.)

The difficulty factor is for play you do yourself, when you pass through the green screen into a building, cave, or doorway. If your Class story is too easy for you perhaps change your default. However, especially with those double XP events, people have said you level too quickly gaining the corresponding gear too quickly. You could be a level 40 character on a level 30 planet, so you breeze through everything. The difference is, I don't tell those people who complain they're playing the game wrong.

Their complaint takes nothing away from my complaint and vice versa. If Bioware ever wants to have a patch where players can choose to slow down their leveling to remain character level equals planet level for the challenge they miss, by all means let Bioware do it. By the same token I would like a patch so I can play Spirit Of Vengeance at the same lower difficulty all previous mandatory story flashpoints have been so I can enjoy the story and casual play as I've been doing since I started. It takes absolutely nothing away from those who like the current difficulty level because they will still have that option. Bioware could do the same for any and all content after Eternal Throne where you don't choose your difficulty level, if your default difficulty level is not doing what it's supposed to be doing. Maybe it's just a matter of fixing the default difficulty level function if that's where the bug is.

As for common area play, it's an MMO. It has to be accessible to the least experienced player possible at the relevant location. There's no cause, in my opinion, to declare foul those areas are too easy besides leveling too fast. For those who want harder stuff in common area play, that's what the Heroic areas are for. Inexperienced and/or not properly geared players just die in those areas trying those missions. I have no complaint they exist.

There is a major different between passing through a green field to fight in an area. But the Spirit of Vengeance is simply way too overpowered for a solo player, unless you have 300+ augs on your weapons and armor and you have high end weapons to take them down. Most players don't have that.

I'm able to do flashpoints through objective meridian, with some difficulty, but they're able to be completed. The SoV just feels like it's stuck on Master Mode, from the regular NPCs to the bosses themselves.

But the Spirit of Vengeance is simply way too overpowered for a solo player, unless you have 300+ augs on your weapons and armor and you have high end weapons to take them down. Most players don't have that..

300+ augs?!

This FP can be done in unaugmented, unamplified, non-set-bonus 268 gear without a tactical. I have done it, others have done it.

Post details of your character and the challenges you’re experiencing and you’ll surely receive tips and tactics.

It will take too much to post all of that but my alt is Level 75, Item Rating 306 across the board, augmented and the flashpoint is a complete disaster. I've given up on trying to complete it because BioWare won't fix the flashpoint. I'm convinced they are taking a cue from Rockstar Games and want to do away with solo content. Judging by the other responses here, others have expressed the same concern.

If someone who is Level 75, Item Rating 306, can run and complete every Flashpoint previously, and they still can't complete Spirits of Vengeance then it's a problem with the Flashpoint and NOT the players. To make matters worse, you can't run Secrets of the Enclave until you complete SoV and I suspect that you won't be able to run future flashpoints either until you complete these two.

Also making the enemies not detect stealth might help. I can stand there at a fair distance not in stealth and not get attacked, but when I am in stealth I am detected and attacked. That is especially true on the second ship.

The animals have stealth detection; so do the mobs with “pilgrim” in their category name.

It will take too much to post all of that but my alt is Level 75, Item Rating 306 across the board, augmented and the flashpoint is a complete disaster.

It's you. I've run it on Vengeance Jugg, Gunnery Commando and Infiltration Shadow, all with no meaningful set bonuses and all with no augments. It's tediously laborious, and laboriously tedious, but the only things that stopped me were a "can't click the clicky to continue" bug on release day and when I messed up and advanced too far in the room after the kitchen and got stomped.

If someone who is Level 75, Item Rating 306, can run and complete every Flashpoint previously, and they still can't complete Spirits of Vengeance then it's a problem with the Flashpoint and NOT the players.

And yet there are folks like me who run it on plain 306 without set-bonus and merely find it laborious (not difficult, just a lot of work), and there are folks like Mike (see above) who have done it in exactly that stuff you insist on wanting to be able to use (mission-reward green 268s).

Conclusion: there might be problems with the FP, but there are *definitely* problems with how some players play.