[...] ways, the effort has been remarkably effective. Forum members have been finding clues ranging from the solid to the nearly definitive. But what are some of the steps taken by these detectives in their never [...]

I wasn't planning on playing an Imperial, but even the Imperial Agent picture looks awesome. *drewl*

I’m rolling Sith warrior main, Trooper alt. Assuming the classes are mirrored on both sides, then the last two classes may very well be mirrors of each other (meaning classes that we do not currently have any clue about). The only thing that might change the class(es) I plan to play would be if the fourth class was a beast master of some kind.

My guess/ wish:
Trooper (tank)______________Bounty Hunter (dps)
Smuggler (stealth/buffs)______*imperial agent* (sneak/support)
*jedi knight* (dps)___________Sith Warrior (tank)
*droid engineer* (pets/support)_*sith alchemist* (pets/buff) ?

Now the backup.

It has been said that all eight classes will be recognizable from the movies. Consider this:

-ENGINEER: Chewy put Threepio back together and fixed the Falcon, and Anakin built Threepio from scratch. Here we have one example in each trilogy of an Engineer doing his thing.

-ALCHEMIST: Palpatine was an accomplished Alchemist, in fact he wrote a book on the subject. Vader's (LIFE SUPPORT SUIT) armor, was made not through understanding of mechanics, but of Sith Alchemy. Alchemists could raise force zombies, combine two different animals into one, and make cyborgs!!

Both classes would have pets, as well as the ability to buff and modify those pets. Some of those buffs (the non-permanent ones) could be applied to party members as well. They could also have ways of Slicing or using Mechu-deru to bypass controls, open doors, disable alarms, override droid programming, etc.

Now from this interview in September (http://darthhater.com/2009/09/04/day-1-developer-qa-session-full-audio/), it sounds like 2 force user per faction. My wish list, however, has 3 sith and only 1 republic. This may be remedied if the agent is not force sensitive but the smuggler is.

Alright, hear me out...

Have you ever wondered why Solo was brillant at everything he did? I like to suppose that he was strong in the force, he just couldn't feel it. Suppose that the force is like a hidden stat, a modifier to a luck roll, always running in the background.

I'm just sayin'...

Intresting...Sean did say on his twitter page yesterday "No info about the jedi class yet but stay tuned!", i just got two questiong why do this come out this early? And why is the agent class icons also revealed?

It'd be nice to finally have the Jedi official. Also, I'm eager to see if there's any gameplay distinction between them and the Warrior. The holonet might have that information.

No complains on the new class as an update. Just means they have completed the class to the point of showing it off (Or the animations they wish to show off, at least)

i was hoping for less obvious class.

I hope they give some details as to the role of this class. Lore-wise, there are a lot of ways you can take the character's background and mold it into in-game abilities. I'm curious as to whether the Jedi Knight's focus will be on tanking, damage or supporting.

The reveal of the Jedi Knight is quite logical when you think about it.
Some time ago, Bioware were accused of having a little to much involment regarding the Imperial side. When this accusation was heard, Sean responded with ''The Battle of Bothawui'' as a perfect example of the Republic 'love'.
Now, with this trailer out, it is among the first signs of how the Jedi had a very important role in the war. And their victory marked what they really were: a symbol of hope. Ergo, the trailer itself could be nothing more or less than an introduction to the class itself... to which we might possibly get a reveal the following week.
/hope

I'm always amazed at how people can dissect the SWTOR website and uncover these tidbits. Very exciting stuff.

Under the Jedi knight name it says: SAVIOR OF THE GALAXY.
http://www.starwars.com/media/kids/tcw/cwalphabet.pdf

we know what the next class is but we still dont know when it will be officially announced. could be this friday or 5 fridays from now. still a good job on internet sleuths for uncovering it though.

Men, you guys should have a place among Interpol and the FBI, you're awesome. Although I was expecting the next class reveal to be a little more "surprising"

Well, Smuggler came out at end of May. Sith Warrior at the end of July. Now the Jedi Knight at the end of October. That puts the next class at a Christmas release. That's assuming this class does indeed drop on Friday and they don't speed up their schedule as they have stated the would.

Although, I would bet the next class would be revealed the week before Christmas or week after New Years as both holidays fall on a Friday this year. I really don't expect any one at BioWare Austin to be in either of those days. Besides do you want them working on the game hung over on Egg Nog or Champagne?

Jedi Knight real had to be in the game so it's really no big surprise. The agent is very interesting though

BioWare did say like a month or two ago this is going to be light as we prep for updates in October and the coming months so this is their last week to salvage this month.

Hopefully we don't have to wait 3 months to a year before another class comes out.