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Star Wars: The Old Republic |OT| EA: "Let's blow this thing and go home!"
- Thread starter Emitan
- Start date
Castor Krieg
Banned
You enjoy min/maxing, kudos to you. Shame on Bioware for wanting to design professions to be fun for leveling, then it seemed they backed down a bit just before the release and decided that professions need to be viable at lvl 50. Seems like only Biochem made it though.
The goals of 2 out of the 3 battlegrounds--the Arathi Basin analogue is a partial exception--have a tangential relationship at best with damage output. While I try to stay focused on objectives when I play my main, I have a sith sorc alt that I go around having fun with, i.e. trying to maximize my damage numbers, generally by dotting the hell out of the opposing team. I do put up phenomenal damage when I do that, but it contributes pretty much nothing to the win if we're playing huttball or the Strand of the Ancients analogue (in the latter, it's somewhat useful on defense). This isn't to say that people who aren't putting out damage are dutifully pursuing the goals of the warzone, but damage--or healing, for that matter, although that consular 120k heals is sweet--isn't the be-all.
I do agree that the level of ability seems somewhat higher on Empire than Republic. It's pretty appalling, given how shallow the combat is; class balance issues aside, it doesn't take a lot to be competent.
BattleMonkey
Member
When a side has a smaller population, the suck players just make it easier to bring down that factions quality in pvp.
A KOTOR sequel was likely not going to happen, Lucasarts did not want one and they are the ones who say if such a game is made. Bioware was wanting to make a MMO, and LA wanted a new SW MMO, so it ended up becoming a KOTOR MMO. This likely is the only way we were going to see that series continue at this point sadly. Many of us would have wanted a single player game instead but alas it didn't happen. I'm just glad we are getting the franchise continued in some form.
The mmo elements are its most lacking feature wise, but also being a MMO the game has the advantage of constantly being worked on and lot of this can and will be improved on. They have a good framework and are showing they are working on improving various elements. I wouldn't say its a waste as many are enjoying it as a MMO, I love playing this with my GF and other buddies, getting ton of play out of it and it has lot of long term potential that would go for much longer in gameplay than any single player rpg.
A KOTOR sequel was likely not going to happen, Lucasarts did not want one and they are the ones who say if such a game is made. Bioware was wanting to make a MMO, and LA wanted a new SW MMO, so it ended up becoming a KOTOR MMO. This likely is the only way we were going to see that series continue at this point sadly. Many of us would have wanted a single player game instead but alas it didn't happen. I'm just glad we are getting the franchise continued in some form.
The mmo elements are its most lacking feature wise, but also being a MMO the game has the advantage of constantly being worked on and lot of this can and will be improved on. They have a good framework and are showing they are working on improving various elements. I wouldn't say its a waste as many are enjoying it as a MMO, I love playing this with my GF and other buddies, getting ton of play out of it and it has lot of long term potential that would go for much longer in gameplay than any single player rpg.
It was Voidstar, but I disagree. It's all about taking out the team so you can take a point or plant a bomb. If you don't output enough damage, the enemies don't die quick enough and you will never get a plant or cap off since they can either take a speeder to the point or wait for the door to re-open. PvP, for both tanks and dps is all about tunneling people as fast as you can. Huttball is another story.
I agree that AoE distorts the picture here, but it's not like the Vanguard is an amazing AoE class in this case. But even that, they can't do.
Freyjadour
Member
The objective from an offensive perspective is to plant the bombs and defend them until they blow, not to kill the opposing team.
The objective from a defense persective is to keep the opposing team from planting a bomb and defusing any planted bombs, not to kill the opposing team.
Are kills and damage helpful? Yes, but your perspective is what lends to a group of 6 at an enemy door just killing the opposing team until they're almost all back at the respawn point when the node/door could have been taken by a single person not doing any damage whatsoever minutes ago.
To simplify things even more, wins come from people working as a team doing various tasks required for the objectives, not the group all competing for number 1 on the damage charts.
My BH merc just turned 40 and I've got scavenging, underworld trading, and armor tech. I'm starting to think armor tech is going to useless. I'll use myself as an example. I've got like 4-5 pieces of prototype (purple) and custom (orange) gear. Im not replacing those with brand new pieces. I'm simply upgrading them with modifications. Same thing with my 2 blasters. I've got one artifact and one custom which I've had for many levels and all i am doing is upgrading them with mods. It seems to me that the only usefull professions at max level are going to be stim makers and people who can craft mods for armor and weapons. If all the best gear and weapons are customizable, nobody is going to be shopping for complete replacements.
RoninChaos
Member
I really hope Bioware takes some time and looks at these skill trees and decides to optimize them. I really feel like there are waaaaaaaaaay too many abilities that overlap and some that should be tied into others.
And they need to look at the way some classes level. If I hit level 10 and decide to be a sith juggernaut, a taunt is one of the first things I should get. Not at level 16 or 17. That's ridiculous.
The progression for the Warrior class in general is fucked up. Were people just not giving feedback?
And they need to look at the way some classes level. If I hit level 10 and decide to be a sith juggernaut, a taunt is one of the first things I should get. Not at level 16 or 17. That's ridiculous.
The progression for the Warrior class in general is fucked up. Were people just not giving feedback?
BattleMonkey
Member
Until they add more stuff for the crafters to make. The mod system was taken out at one point in beta in large part because of this issue as it in part made crafting weak, but no one really wanted the mod system removed as it's a great system. Right now they need to make stuff for crafters to make that is more desirable, or at least give them more of a purpose while not also killing the mod systems usefulness
Tanks don't really need taunt at lvl 10 because the group content at that point doesn't really require the holy trinity to work. Not having a taunt tll 16-17 was not an issue as you get it when you actually start needing it.
The issue with the warrior/guadian class has been more functionality based than actually being able to do their role. As tanks they are probably the best of all of them in the game really, but people find them bland and in need of more
Definitely this. It gets rather tiring seeing people go for the damage charts, when that certainly isn't what wins a game. I'd rather a person go for the objective and not get much damage on the scoreboard than someone who just sits around farming medals.
From what I've heard, they didn't listen.
In general I think the class needs a bit of optimisation. There's far too many skills, some of which are completely useless outside of certain circumstances(ie Savage Kick and Pommel Strike) and I don't think the talent trees themselves are that spectacular. Also AoE taunt needs to be gotten earlier, level 30 is far too late when PT(Can't speak for Assassin) can viably tank via AoE way earlier.
Interfectum
Member
The mod system is brilliant. I'd rather them kill crafting than the mod system (if I had to choose).
There was feedback, but instead of fixing the problem, they added....Centering. Ugh. I have no faith that these guys can get anything done that's worth a damn. There were many threads talking about this sort of thing, but at the same time there were people on the forums talking about how the naysayers were wrong and they just didn't know how to play and that the system is fine. I always say that kind of blind confidence doesn't help anyone.
The other thing that bugged me in beta was the fact that people keep saying they get better with levels and at low level everyone is a damage dealer. Which is why tanks didn't get a taunt or any tanky abilities. Messed up if you ask me. They should have taken a page from the Blizz handbook and given everyone the abilities they needed to do their job in the beginning. Right now the ability bloat is crazy and some moves don't make any sense. A redesign is in order.
The problem is that no one ever really changes their gear. Already seeing posts on the forums about how someone has been using the same chestpiece since level 11 and they want an upgrade. I kind of agree with people about this. One of the interesting things about gear is actually changing while leveling up and looking different.
My first thought reading this was that they were healing but except for the one player those numbers are also low. Playing both sides on my server I've noticed like you that Republic seems to have a worse time of it. Perhaps the mentality of a 'serious' PVP player tends to make them roll Empire?
It also seems to me like a majority of Empire players are DPS specced, were on the Republic side you tend to see more support/healing for PVE. At least I see a lot more begging for healers(from classes that can heal no doubt) on the Empire side.
Interfectum
Member
You can change gear though... or you can mod your existing gear. I'm using a combination of both while leveling.
Posts on the forums mean nothing as people will complain about anything.
CYBERTECH. CYBERTECH. CYBERTECH.
Do NOT go Armortech. You will only be able to make one type of mod for armor using Armortech, and orange armor will ALWAYS be better than the stuff you craft with Armortech.
I went Armstech, and I've been regretting it ever since.
BattleMonkey
Member
Calling for a redesign at this stage is a bit premature. Tuning up what they have is more sensible. Course when you are making a game and you have hundreds of people giving conflicting reports and feedback, who do you listen too? At the same time lot of things are not going to be known till more players got to higher levels and properly played the class. Same with actually seeing how pvp turns out once players are leveled and geared up.
Ability bloat has more to do with a waste of abilities that could be removed and not really class design in itself or talent trees. Course they also listened to the wrong people during beta as so many complaints were tossed at the game because players felt like they didn't have enough abilities and that they kept using the same abilities over and over. They then went and added a bunch of abilities to the game and most of those added ones have turned into useless filler abilities.
The JK and Warrior seem to have the most complaints so far, the other classes seem much better received so far, so hopefully they can tweak them to be more favorable.
Ponti
Member
I play a Shadow and consider stealth capping/planting to be far more important than attempting to brute force you're way to an objective. There are ofcourse exceptions like at the beginning of a Civil War game or for running distraction in Voidstar. I've turned around so many Civil War games by capping a point from straight under the noses of the defender. In a game mode where every second counts, going in for a stealth cap then mopping up is much better than bumping heads for 5 mins then capping. Then theres Hutball, that game mode was made for Shadows.
More often than not the people in it for the damage peen are usually the ones that don't really try for the objectives or don't know how to throw the bloody ball or ignore the bloody doors in Voidstar by running off and chasing down some guy they almost killed.
Don't want to sound whiney or anything but there is serious class imbalance just now in favour of the Empire. Been PvPing since day 1 on the Republic and it is blindingly obvious how much easier the Empire has it. It's got to a point now where the vast majority of warzones will be populated with Sorcs and BH's. I can go a whole day of constant PvPing and only see one or two IA's. It's ridiculous. And if the Empire have a zerging team of Sorcs and BH's in Voidstar there is really nothing the Republic can do, and I know for a fact it has nothing to do with the Republic players being 'n00bs' or whatever.
Interfectum
Member
Aside from a bit of a slowdown when leveling (between 25-30) I've been having a blast with my Jugg Warrior. I'm now 37 and I'm destroying everything in PvE, PvP, etc. I kept my veng spec and just went to the AH and bought Quinn the most expensive shit I could to boost his cunning. Now he heals like a boss.
And I tell you what there is nothing more satisfying than force chocking a player over fire or force pushing someone off a bridge. haha
I've been wearing the same gear chest and legs for 30 levels. No reason to change it. Looks great.
Mr. Luchador
Member
Holy shit at all customer service being US based btw...
DangerousDave
Member
Best is cybertech. It will allow to do mods and armor, so you'll have 2/3 of the item modification for armours.
If you have alters, get artifice with a force user. It will allow to make laser swords but, more important, enhancements, that is the third armour item modification element.
And if you have another one, get armstech and you will be able to do barrels (the 4th element in mod weapons).
With that 3 professions you get all your equipment (even ship upgrades, ear elements or implants) covered.
Yes fuck force push in pvp. I would say 50% of my deaths are force push related.
Mr. Luchador
Member
Only US phone numbers to call on the website. :\ Oh wait. Nevermind. Blind.
00800 number... great... going to cost £10 to call them. yaoming.gif
razgriz417
Member
This, seems like there are alot of dark side jedi in the republic. Can't wait for Act 3
And I got the same companion bug as you too, wonder if it has been addressed on the main forums?Funny thing is, this is one of the things people praised about the game throughout its development. If you get a look you like, you get to keep it AND improve it? Sounds great.
Now people just want to throw that away? Forget that. People will just end up bitching about that too. "Oh, I have rainbow gear, blah blah blah."
Fine Ham Abounds
Member
Goofing off on Rep last night, I have to admit to actually being fairly impressed initially with Coruscant.
One thing that's becoming apparent and that I didn't expect is how it seems both Sith and Jedi are essentially dogmatic monsters in different ways, at least in my thus far pre-20 experiences.
One thing that's becoming apparent and that I didn't expect is how it seems both Sith and Jedi are essentially dogmatic monsters in different ways, at least in my thus far pre-20 experiences.
FieryBalrog
Member
Different people want different things, it ain't hard to understand. Can't make everyone happy though.
I don't know what the problem is?
If you have good looking gear you want to keep, then keep modding.
If you don't want to have the same looking gear for many levels then... don't?
It's not ever forced. You can do fine wearing quest blues and greens instead of the moddable oranges. Plus you get quite a few oranges anyway. I have like 8 different looking orange chests in my bank. Stop trying to take away my orange!
If you have good looking gear you want to keep, then keep modding.
If you don't want to have the same looking gear for many levels then... don't?
It's not ever forced. You can do fine wearing quest blues and greens instead of the moddable oranges. Plus you get quite a few oranges anyway. I have like 8 different looking orange chests in my bank. Stop trying to take away my orange!
Well duh, but I would rather them take this approach. They need to do this with PVP equipment as well so I can see the rumblings in the guild die down a bit because of stupid looking PVP equipment. lol
Is this because you like the look of your old gear? I'm level 32 and mine changes regularly, except my blaster rifle because I haven't found anything better (and haven't modded it).
You can, if you didn't know, move mods between gear.
I keep all my orange gear in my bank, in case I like the look of certain pieces, I can just switch out the mods.
EDIT: Actually, becaue of how cheap I am, I look like a human Skittle.
RoninChaos
Member
Glad you feel that way. I don't. Taunting is THE basic tanking ability. I played my first flashpoint with three friends and when you're in the hanger with 4 elites, taunting would have been monumentally helpful considering the minute I started getting healed, despite me tagging every character, the other 3 took off towards my healer.
If you're going to have people choose their class, them give them some basic abilities that are important to how that class functions, right out of the gate.
Since getting taunt I'm having no problems whatsoever. Instead, it goes back to what's wrong with the class, since most people think they aren't fun.
That guard ability is cool as shit though. I haven't gotten into any pvp yet, but I could see an ability like that really changing how PVP could work. At least in theory.
Nobody is asking to throw it away. The mod system is brilliant.
What people are complaining about is how it renders certain crafting professions to be completely useless. Unfortunately for me, I didn't find this out until I'd already played for quite some time and dumped a whole lot of money into my crafting profession (armortech).
Who the hell is going to buy any new armor when they can simply upgrade what they already have? At least let armortech make an 'armoring' mod. Throw us a bone that allow us to make ANY kind of money because once you get to a certain point late in the game, everyone's wearing orange and purple moddable gear and there's no use for the stuff you can make.
I went cybertech on my Merc.. it has been very handy. Capped at 400 and have sold a number of ship pieces for a LOT of money as well which is nice. The lvl 50ish ship items usually sell for about 50k. I've sold at least 3. Sold lots and lots of mods for 5-10k and I can always upgrade my 5 or 6 orange items once I level up.
Oh, and yes it's really fucking weird that Taunt comes so late for Warriors/Juggernauts.
Oh, and yes it's really fucking weird that Taunt comes so late for Warriors/Juggernauts.
1.1 fixes one companion, which isn't Mako. Hopefully they add the rest of the bugged companions in. There's a huge thread on the forum about it.
I totally understand what you mean and agree to some degree. I guess after playing the class, I don't think it's simply about numbers. For example, you hit the button to do a move, there's a little delay there, then a long animation of fluff before the move actually goes off. It creates a disconnect between the button press and the action. Then there are things like your weak move that you're constantly spamming to build up focus is just a faster version of Slash and the two of those moves could have been rolled into each other.
It just seems to me that the design of the class as a whole got lost somewhere and they need to pair it down a bit and add a bit of flow to it. Kinda like the original death knights in WoW Wrath alpha testing. All classes should have some kind of flow to them even if the player is only using a few moves at a time.
Jedi may not be weak, but they "feel" weak and that's a problem and something they need to address, and it's not simply a case of having move x do more damage.
Of course, this is just my opinion. I intend on playing my Sent all the way to 50 and beyond, but that doesn't mean I think the class is in good shape. Doing just about anything with it can be a chore and that's not really good for the game, in my opinion.
BattleMonkey
Member
You felt that way, but it was also short lived as you got your taunt. Those flashpoints and group content you do before then don't even need proper tanking yet as they are designed around being easy and can be done without having the dps/tank/heal trinity. You can easily dps completely through that content. It's not till around 20 that you get into actual content that require proper group configurations.
Your Soresu form basically creates your early "taunt" as with a group of same level as you, you will be able to hold aggro perfectly well, you just have to be much more active. You need to pull and actively alternate targets much more and keep that aggro on you. But again this only applies for a handful of levels before you move on.
What exactly do you find boring about the class? It's a dedicated tank and its best in the game at being that. I can see issues with the other builds of the Warrior/JK though as they don't seem anywhere as good.
Or perhaps its just because you are not high level enough? They do get their cool abilities closer to 30 so that could be a gap many are struggling with and finding "boring"?
RoninChaos
Member
So I originally went with Synth weaving on my assassin, but I'm thinking of switching to cybertech. It seems like cyber would be a better craft to have for my main and my alts considering I could provide things for each character.
So I'm thinking now cybertech, scavenging, and underworld trading.
So I'm thinking now cybertech, scavenging, and underworld trading.
XiaNaphryz
LATIN, MATRIPEDICABUS, DO YOU SPEAK IT
Do skills like Armormech or Synthweaving eventually get to craft orange items? I noticed certain pieces are harder to find than others for those trying to get an all-orange set of gear (i.e. belts, bracers). I can see those skills becoming useful if they let you craft orange versions of otherwise harder to find gear.
Again. up to this point, I don't know of another way to get augment slots on armor except crafting. They come from HQ equipment. In most MMOs I've played, the money truly comes from HQ armor.
I don't know about other people here, but I kept a lot of augments from my time slicing and I want to load up my hear with those Advanced Might Augment 25s (+34 STR) or the Critical Augment and so on.
Just me though. If you don't make them, I'll find and pay someone who will. =P
Possibly. I know that if you keep reverse engineering you go up the scale of items (green->blue->purple->?). Purple was the highest I've gotten.
BattleMonkey
Member
Are you finding a particular build lacking more than the others? I find Warrior Juggernaught tank build to be quite excellent, but can clearly see how maurades and sentinels would feel poorly about their characters as they do seem very lacking. Course I think Juggernaught/Guardians not following pure tank builds to also be at a disadvantage and not that fun.
There's two ranks of purples for many of the craftable items. One is [Advanced] the other is [Mastercraft]. You just don't see many people wasting the money/time making mastercraft versions of lower level items; it could be prohibitively expensive due to the random nature of reverse engineering.
RoninChaos
Member
I was a raiding tank in Wow during Vanilla and up through Wrath. I didn't tank in Cata because I got bored to the point where I didn't even want to hit 85. I did enjoy leveling my warrior, however, and enjoyed the end game content until Blizzard made it brain dead. In TOR it's not that I find it boring so far, actually far from it, but I do feel like a lot of the progression you get with this class thus far feels either stunted or backwards.
Tanking can be fun or tedious depending on what you're doing, what encounter you're dealing with, the group you're playing with, etc. I am a firm believer if you want to get people interested in doing it and staying a tank, the need to have options that make sense, and actions that aren't there to just clutter up the bar. Each skill should have a specific use in a NUMBER of encounters, not just random one-offs. So far it seems like my bar is entirely situational rather than having a focus on abilities that are neccesary for being a tank.
My first 6 or so levels on my jugg were no different than the first 10. It was just upgrading the new skills, getting one that I'd use every once in a while and that's it. I feel like your class choice is, and should be, a huge deal. Especially when you have to play 10 levels just to get to it. So when you make that decision there should be a bunch of things you get out of the gate that are things you'll use the ENTIRE time you're playing that class, such as something like taunt. Then you take those basic skills and build upon them, and have those skills reflect the kind of character you're making in conjunction with the talent trees. I don't really feel the game has done this so far. Now, granted, I am still early, but from what I've been told it's the same pretty much all the way up to 50.
I really think that as a whole the class should work better to not only get people into the mindset of their class, but give them the tools that sets them apart from others early on. To me, not having taunt out of the gate would be like a rogue not getting stealth until level 20, or a healer not getting a healing spell till level 18. It works against what the class actually is, what the class role is, and how to get people in the groove of how to play their role throughout the rest of the game. It seems like such a simple and easy thing to do-- give people their main abilities first, then start adding the situational stuff and the one-offs. Instead it's the exact opposite. I feel like I got a lot of situational stuff before I got some core abilities like a defensive stance or a taunt. That seems really, really backwards.
That's the thing - you can't just "tag" mobs because the aggro mod is 150% (compare that to the absolutely HILARIOUS 500% in WoW... 300% was fine, but 500% is just ridiculous).
What I've found out through talking to people here and also tanking a FP or two is that you only ever have to tank elites (gold star or up). It's simple - normal and silver enemies will die so horribly quickly and output pitiful damage that it's just not worth it to spend time trying to tank them.
What I do now is mark the elites for kill order, instruct my group to ALWAYS kill normals, then silver, THEN switch to elites, in the specific marked kill order. With proper players and teamwork, this works wonderfully. Also, obviously, *always* Guard the healer - healing aggro is at 50% of amount healed (although I don't know if overhealing causes aggro) and with guard it drops down to pitiful levels.
I will say, though, that Guardians, while being very hard to kill in PvP and in FPs, have absolutely horrible AOE abilities (Sweep is good but the CD is WAAAAAAY too long, not to mention it's the only way to apply that specific debuff, so if adds come into the fight, well, too bad, AoE taunt comes in way late and the AoE slash is weird because it targets 5 random enemies if there are more than 5 mobs) so it makes tanking trash a bit more annoying. As an aside, with my Vanguard, at 25 now I have 3 AoE abilities (2 of which are absolutely insane) - Sticky Grenade which does very high damage (very useful when there's 2-3 elites as it builds aggro on multiple mobs very quickly and is also very high single-target dps), Pulse Cannon that does an absurd amount of damage (but can be interrupted) and Explosive Surge, which applies the damage debuff while doing AoE with NO COOLDOWN. Add to that a much simpler priority rotation (High Impact Bolt > StockStrike > Sticky Grenade > Ion Pulse = Explosive Surge > Hammer Shot = Energy Blast if low on Ammo) and it makes tanking much easier. Sure, their survivability might be a tiny bit lower, but in general it's offset by making tanking much easier.
I liked my Guardian, but god my Trooper is so much more fun to play with.
The thing is, nobody needs augment mods because they'll be running with all orange armor, which does not have augment slots. The ONE thing I don't know right now is if you can crit orange craftable gear. I know there are schematics for orange Armormech pieces, but I don't know if you can crit them - if you can, what does it do? Does it add an Augment slot to your orange piece of gear? If it does, then yes, Augments are viable and crafting could be profitable solely because of that (and I don't know if you can get masterwork special orange gear) but otherwise Armormech is only good while leveling (because if you don't have all orange, the pieces you craft are typically better than what you get at that level, which is very good, imo). But once you reach 50, Armormech becomes completely useless, because there is NO reason everyone and their dog aren't all filled up with orange gear and only need mods. At that point, the only way to get better gear is to either only make mods drop off bosses or purple gear that actually has better stats than what you can mod.
RaySpencer
Member
You can get schematics for orange armour with both Armourmech and Synthweaving yeah.
I have a few pieces of orange gear (mostly just chest and legs, but a couple head slot too) on my Armourmech, I should probably craft a few, and see if they well sell, im fucking broke ALL the time, haha.
RoninChaos
Member
That's the thing - you can't just "tag" mobs because the aggro mod is 150% (compare that to the absolutely HILARIOUS 500% in WoW... 300% was fine, but 500% is just ridiculous).
What I've found out through talking to people here and also tanking a FP or two is that you only ever have to tank elites (gold star or up). It's simple - normal and silver enemies will die so horribly quickly and output pitiful damage that it's just not worth it to spend time trying to tank them.
What I do now is mark the elites for kill order, instruct my group to ALWAYS kill normals, then silver, THEN switch to elites, in the specific marked kill order. With proper players and teamwork, this works wonderfully. Also, obviously, *always* Guard the healer - healing aggro is at 50% of amount healed (although I don't know if overhealing causes aggro) and with guard it drops down to pitiful levels.
I will say, though, that Guardians, while being very hard to kill in PvP and in FPs, have absolutely horrible AOE abilities (Sweep is good but the CD is WAAAAAAY too long, not to mention it's the only way to apply that specific debuff, so if adds come into the fight, well, too bad, AoE taunt comes in way late and the AoE slash is weird because it targets 5 random enemies if there are more than 5 mobs) so it makes tanking trash a bit more annoying. As an aside, with my Vanguard, at 25 now I have 3 AoE abilities (2 of which are absolutely insane) - Sticky Grenade which does very high damage (very useful when there's 2-3 elites as it builds aggro on multiple mobs very quickly and is also very high single-target dps), Pulse Cannon that does an absurd amount of damage (but can be interrupted) and Explosive Surge, which applies the damage debuff while doing AoE with NO COOLDOWN. Add to that a much simpler priority rotation (High Impact Bolt > StockStrike > Sticky Grenade > Ion Pulse = Explosive Surge > Hammer Shot = Energy Blast if low on Ammo) and it makes tanking much easier. Sure, their survivability might be a tiny bit lower, but in general it's offset by making tanking much easier.
I liked my Guardian, but god my Trooper is so much more fun to play with.
Sounds like your character has more options out of the gate for CC and things like that than my Jugg has so far. Hrm.
I don't know about "no one." I changed my entire gearset a good 6-7 times (more for slots like belt, implant, earpiece, and lightsaber) while leveling up. If people don't change their gear or attempt heroics/flashpoints--that's their problem. However, the system in place allows you to get upgrades and (in general) the higher level armors look cooler.