So you want to be a Trooper! (pew pew pew)

Here's a quick overview of the class I am currently playing in SWTOR. I have been leveling Medic Commando, so this is mostly from that viewpoint.
Troopers are a hybrid class. Their storyline involves being part of the Havoc Squad, an elite trooper squad within the Republic. That's all I'm going to say for now. The storyline is the best part.

Power: Troopers use Ammo as their main resource. Ammo is an interesting power source. The more Ammo you have, the higher your regeneration. At full Ammo, your regeneration is about 0.6 per a second. Here's a full look at regen rates.
Betwen 8 and 12 ammo: 0.60 ammo per second
Betwen 3 and 7 ammo: 0.36 ammo per second
Betwen 0 and 2 ammo: 0.24 ammo per second

When you hit 10, you get to choose between two Advance Classes. While both AC's offer DPS specs, your choice affects whether you'll be able to heal or tank.
Vanguard: The Tank AC. I don't know much about this AC. I believe the dps spec in this tree focuses more on closer combat. The Tank spec relies on activating shields to fend off damage.
Commando: The Healing AC. This is also a full on range DPS class spec too. This is Leda's AC. Medic Commando's excel in single target healing, as well as longevity thanks to our unique system of Ammo and regen. We are limited as healers by two things-we do not have an in-combat rez (think Rebirth), and we do not have a powerful AOE. Our largest AOE is a 3 person one. Still. Commando's excel where they are strong. With proper Ammo management, Commando's are competent healers.

Weapons and Armor
A trooper uses Heavy Armor, with primary stats of Aim and Endurance. This does not change when you pick Commando or Vanguard, but the stat priority might change (tanks probably want Endurance more)
Troopers use big guns. Woot! GUNS!!!!
Okay. Vanguards use Blaster Rifles.
Commandos get to use Assault Cannons.

Hammer Shot
This is the ability you need to know. It is free of cost, and allows you to regen your ammo, but continually do damage or heal. It's important to work this into your rotation so you can be giving a constant dps or heal.
As a Commando, at level 14 you will get Combat Support Cell, that changes your Hammer Shot to heal if targeting a player. It's the green beam. :) You use Hammer Shot, and eventually Medical Probe, to charge your weapons. When you hit 30, you use Supercharge Cells, which increase heals and Ammo regen, as well as enhance your healing spells. It's like Tree Form, except a little less powerful but all the same awesome.

Strengths

•  Heavy Armor: allows you to take more hits then normal. Aim is our primary dps/healing stat increasing ranged damage. Endurance is Stamina and Health Regen.
• Strong AOE: I have found that I can easily, at level 25, take out a group of mobs with just two AOE moves. Simple, effective, easy and fast. I can't do that on my Consular. 
• Ammo: I love Ammo. I think it is a really neat power source. The regen mechanic works well, and if your manage it properly, you can never run out of Ammo.
• Companions: We share gear with the first two companions we get, allowing us to easily hand down our gear instead of having to worry about making sure to find or purchase different gear for them. I find this a positive.

Weakness

• Companions: Unless you're a tank, the companion choices in the beginning are kind of meh. As a Commando medic, I would've preferred a Tank right away, but instead got a range dps and a healer. It's not much of a problem, but I wish it was different. If you let your companion run in first to hold onto threat, you risk him being gunned down quickly, while if you end up getting aggro from all the mobs, especially Strong mobs, it feels like
• Lack of AOE Heals: We only have one AOE heal, Kolto Bomb, and it's not nearly that strong, nor does it cover a lot of players. It's also an area spell, so hope everyone is next to each other, or use it on Melee. If Commandos are more tank healers, then I think this won't be a big deal, since Kolto Bomb can be talented to help stave off damage, making it effective for Tank/Melee combos in Operations. But for Flashpoints, it can be a hit or miss. 
• Early Levels: In the beginning it feels like you gain abilities slowly, and you're basically just Explosive Round-ing your way through combat for a while. Hammer Shots, while effective in management,is a weak attack. Of course, once you get AOE dps and the like, you'll start bum rushing your way through mobs. 

Leveling Experience (1-25)
Leveling feels a tad slow because you don't have many attacks in the beginning. While Explosive Round is pretty neat- it knocks down weak mobs in a small radius around the target, it's kind of boring. The only other move you have is Hammer Shot, which is fairly weak.
Once you get your AOE moves-Pulse Cannon, Mortar Volley, and Hail of Bolts (Commando)-leveling becomes a bit easier. While longer fights require you maintain a steady amount of Ammo, you can blow through your Ammo in short fights because you have Recharge and Reload (basically free water and food) to recover quickly afterwards.
For Elite mobs, it's pretty easy to solo them with the right tactics. I mainly send Aric (DPS Companion) in and load the heals onto him. It might take a bit of time, but it's easily doable.

I hope this helps for anyone starting out as a Trooper. I'll probably post some thing about Medic Commandos as I learn how to heal. It's been fun learning something different then the usual. I purposely avoided the HoT healing class (Sawbones Scoundrel Smuggler) so that I could do something different. My next class to post will be the Sith Inquisitor, which is basically a Jedi Consular. But with lightning. Thus cooler. Mwahahahahha.....

Holiday Update: SWTOR Edition

Happy Holidays everyone! I hope you are all having a good one.
I've been really busy, clocking in 40 hours of work this week, and spending that extra free time running around doing holiday things, as well as traveling to a galaxy far far away. That's right people,
SWTOR is FINALLY HERE!
I absolutely love this game. It's everything I want from a MMO: Great lore, quality single player experience and opportunities to do MMO stuff too. Call me a product of the WoW casual age. But it's a game worth checking out.
I can't believe the details in this game. Storylines, little tidbits that allude to KotR. Space Missions are epic and fun!
Class Selection
So I had played a couple beta weekends, and from reading, I had the sense I wanted to be a Sith Inquisitor. I still do. Zap! Anyways, but we're playing Republic, so I ended rolling the equivalent, Jedi Consular. It was fun, and I liked throwing rocks and pieces of buildings at people. For the length of the beta weekends, I focused on these two classes.
Then I was given Early Access on the first day, in the second batch of email waves. I was originally going to play a Jedi Consular, and that is who I stuck with until level 10. Then I saw some Trooper shooting green lazer beams at me, and discovered they could heal to, so off I went to roll a Trooper. There were a few reasons for my class switch. First, was the storyline. I wasn't really into the Consular storyline. It's an interesting story, but I found the Trooper storyline far more interesting. Second was the companion choices. I kind of wanted to romance someone, and I found Aric to be more interesting then the Consular choices. I kind of liked that he acted like a jerk in the beginning. Yeah go figure. I'm THAT girl at heart. Finally, I liked the prospect of shooting big guns far more appealing then throwing bits of rock at people. And thus, Leda was born. I will eventually return to my Consular. Despite my misgivings, nothing beats wielding a lighsaber. Flat out amazing.
Character Creation
So despite the vast amount of character customizations available for all classes, ALL my characters look the same. Yep. I don't really want to be an alien, so I opt for human. I like being thin. lol. And I love this one hairstyle. There are no long hair hairstyles, which is a disappointment. I love long hair. So I opt for this pretty up-do with curls on the side. I use the same head, because the other heads are kind funky looking. I tend to choose between two different eyebrow choices. The only real difference is the eye and hair color.
It's kind of depressing. I wish I was more inclined to add some spice to my life. But considering the role looking at your character plays-I mean they are present in every cutscene, I can't completely blame myself. I also, for the first time, prefer to roll female toons instead of males. I find flirting with girls weird as a male. Maybe when they offer same-sex relationships, I'll feel less odd about it.
Leveling 1-25
I've only been able to reach level 25 on my toon. Leveling has been an overall enjoyable experience, with some frustrations here or there. The number one problem for me has been queue times. Bioware put us on a server that is usually Full, so I spend at least 25 mins during high traffic times, the times I can usually play, in a queue. Lately, the queues have been better, but I'm not entirely sure what Bioware has done to alleviate the problem. Did they add more instances, or are people just changing servers.
Sometimes, I find myself overwhelmed by Strong mobs, and my companion isn't much help. The AI is kind of meh. If I hope to keep them alive the entire fight, I have to make sure they aren't standing in fire and have to keep a good heal on them. That being said, they do allow me to solo Elite mobs, and as a healer, I can just pour heals onto them while they tank. They do a decent amount of damage and tank pretty well. I haven't used a healer yet, so I'm not sure how well the heals are. I've read somewhere that companions are about half a real player. The half that is missing is the half that gets out of fire.
The leveling speed itself is sloooowwwwww. It's not a bad thing. There are so many areas and planets to discover, I am okay with this pace. However, it probably feels slower thanks to WoW's super leveling on crack.
Crew Skills
Crew skills are amazing. It seems kind of slow in the beginning, with a 1+ minutes to create items. But once you have more then one slave companion, you can send them out to do your crew skills while you continue doing your thing. It's an amazing system. No more standing in Org crafting for 20 mins. They do it for you.  Absolutely genius. Where has this been all my gaming life?
Flashpoints
Flashpoints are fun. The boss fights have just the right amount of challenge to them. I like that some of the flashpoints are heavy story-wise. Although groups once again rely on the trinity (tank/heal/dps) I still find the entire experience epic, not normalized. Again, lightsabers change everything.   
Bugs
There have been some weird bugs. My lazer on my ship is bugged out so I can't complete the first space mission. I think they fixed it, but I have not tried it since I failed like 5 times.
My companions do some really weird crap ie-lie on the floor, a lot. Guild chat will randomly stop working. But still, overall a very clean, smooth launch. Except for the long queue times. Those suck. :(
Blog-ee Stuff
So obviously, WoW has been put on hold. I was willing to raid, as long as I was informed of times and people showed up, but raiding never happened. Our SWTOR guild has slowly been growing. I think a majority of people will be getting the game sometime after Christmas, so I am looking forward to being reunited with everyone again. I've still been messing around with Transmog, so I'll probably keep adding outfits when i have time. But to be honest, every single free moment has been spent leveling in SWTOR.
Love this game. You should all go play it.

Quick Updates

Finals
It's finals time, which means I'm not around. My free time is usually spent not studying, and raiding. 
Anyways...
Transmog
Since 4.3 hit I have been OBSESSED with transmogrification. I'm still desperately trying to figure out an outfit I really like for my Cursed Vision of Sargeras, which has ended up with me and headaches for many nights. I really should just pick some dumb rogue look-alike set and go for it. I did do an Ulduar 25 run the other night and was lucky enough to win The Lifebinder. Speaking of getting phat loots...
Dragon Soul
I got a bunch of gear raiding last night. My t13 hands dropped from the new BH boss and I won the roll for the One-handed mace, Vagaries of Time from the first boss of DS. The one who looks like Stonecore's boss...Ozruk...yeah...
It's a neat looking mace, with gears turning. Yeah. I've noticed a theme with the weapons, in particular. They either, look like we ripped a piece off of Deathwing and decided we'd use it as a weapon. Or, they have a Bronze Dragonflight flare to it. So I'm hoping to make with a Bronze Dragonflight theme to go along with it.
Early Access
I am SUPER EXCITED because early access for SWTOR starts next week. And guess who pre-ordered hers the first day and put in the code ASAP. ME! :D So hopefully I get a super early. 12/20/11 12/13/11!

Oh yeah! the whole reason for this post.
I updated my transmog page to include resources and separate pages for my outfits. I will be adding more soon! I hope you enjoy it!

Make it work!

So sadly, as I logged in to do my transmog (which was one of the very few things I was looking forward to), I discovered that in my excitement for finally gaining my tier 12 shoulders, I de'd my Passive Resistor ones. That means no more shiny blue falling feathers for me. I probably won't be raiding anytime soon, especially the lower instances, so I just had to improvise. My set was a mixture of the tier 5 set i wanted to use, and the extra pieces from tier 9 that I liked. The overall outcome was actually pleasant, and I like the way I look.

 The coolest part about transmog is that your enchants on your current weapon show on your transmog weapon. So that beautiful staff is glowing with Power Torrent. :)
Feral by Night
My feral outfit is horrendous. Like depressing. It's such a bad mixture of rogue tier, druid tier, and heroic dungeon sets that it makes no coherent sense. Well that's okay because I have transmog to fix it :D
In case your curious, this is what I look like currently. The helm looked so stupid that I just transmog'd my Ruthless Gladiator helm over it just to have a better look. I still don't match at all though.

I decided to stick with the main idea of using the tier 9 chestpiece which I love. I think it looks...well hot, which my boyfriend points out is because my boobs are showing. <.<
In general, I think of robes, skirts, kilts, dresses as a caster thing, so I choose the T9 legs to match the bluer chest, the crafted Knightbane Carapace. I added some tougher looking boots, and a shady looking helm, that is simply a high collar. Finally, to add that druid touch, I added the green version of the Thunderheart shoulders. I think they add just the right amount of druidism to the outfit without making it overwhelming.
The perfect staff ended up being an old PvP staff, the Brutal Gladiator's Staff, which is a recolour of similar staff in Mt. Hyjal. I like that the blues create unity between the staff and the outfit.

I'm a rogue druid!...and here's a better look at the staff.

Who do you wanna be?
My current WoW Transmog project will be putting together prominent druid NPC outfits together. I tried Broll Bearmantle at first, but there are some odd discolorations between the chest that is perfect and the legs. However, I was able to successfully create a Hamuul Runetotem,-post Leyara attack/Molten Front. This is an exclusive Alliance only outfit because some pieces are are the t9. It's kind of weird considering Hamuul Runetotem is wearing them. But hey! He's cool like that.

I forgot to take a pick of the side with the staff. I will put all the details of each outfit in my transmog page. I hope you liked them. I'll get Broll fixed up and do a few others; maybe Malfurion pre-man/bird/chicken form, and some other NPCs, like the Molten Front guards.