First wz I get every day on the first character i log on to (and often every character i log on to) is a HB... Just once id like to start with a CW, just once...

Seems im more than likely wrong on this, so ill retract that comment until we know what its actually like. Even so, I just dont trust them anymore NOT to do this sort of thing. If they do allow resubbers to get back all there stuff than hey I might just come back one day to see what its like, say a year down the line. If I find out ive been auto downgraded and lost stuff when i eventually come back... I sure as hell wont resub. They really gotta give clearer indication on how this works... even so, being vague most likely is a way of making subbers hold off unsubing till it all comes into action. Unfortunately, ive unsubbed... what ever it is like, its to late for me. Meh

Well ive unsubbed (not just because of F2P but that was enough to finally make me do it)... Im baffled at how they are going to make you loose stuff if you downgrade to F2P (and from what I can see its lost lost, not once you resub you get them back but you have to go and require those items again the normal way... tell me im wrong please)... I mean thats basically using threats to keep a subber a subber. Any company who tries to psychologically threaten me over my virtual items that really have no value what so ever (apart from my time, money and improved ease of content earned through over coming challenges ingame invested in them) can go jump. I personally think its because there game engine simply cant be modified well enough to create a logical system for these new changes... I mean heck they cant even code the damn thing to que up mission drop missions, all it does now is overwrites the current one and destroys your mission schem (hell it used to NOT destroy it and give you a 'you already know this schematic" warning, so they broke it to boot ). Doesnt help the Aussie servers are so under populated we basically play each other every match over and over and over, and every ones got a few 50 alts so we can swap out roles when needed since there arent enough tanks/healers to get groups going alot of the time. And F2P isnt gonna help that problem, not for our servers, or thats my belief any way.

Well I laughed... And im a gunslinger, especially all the knockback moments... especially the push into the raging HB fire. Cant count how many times thats happened to me. Granted ive given as good as ive gotten.

That would help but i think the damage is already done. Given about 2 weeks back there was a total of around 3 unscheduled maintenance each week on prime time days (Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays I think). On Gav Daragon we used to actually have SOME pvp during the day NZ time but now its more or less gone, and fleet (sure 12 on fleet isnt much) is now half of what it used to be. Evenings where we'd have non stop WZ's popping after every match we now have waits of about 10-20 minutes between matchs. Our guild which as with most AP guilds do alot of their raiding on Thursday nights haven't really run a raid in a few weeks. We moved it to Sundays but that still isnt optimal for most member's so getting required classes in has become a chore (not to mention Group Finder was when it came out popping when needed... but after the large group of unscheduled maintenance its hardy pops at all, so either people aint using it or there just arent the people around now to fill the spots). We've definitely lost a good 1/4 of the people we used to have right around the time we had that slew of unscheduled maintenance patches a few weeks back, sure its all assumption, but it sure as hell feels like... and we didnt have all that many before that (compared to US servers). This issue has made many people simply give up id think. And its got a knock on effect in that (our guild as an example) some people simply cant play or do what they want to do due to the now reduced population and as such have simply quit. Sure they could reschedule maintenance for us on the AP servers, but why bother... the damage ha been done. even im gonna jump ship to GW2 when it arrives, at least I dont have to pay for time I cant access during the best time to play for my AP based server.

So please OP, please go away... wonder what the OP is, might be interesting to find out... think its just some attempt at deflection from Mara nerf threads, thing is there are more slinger/sniper in the WZ's as of late and I bet its people jumping onto em thinking there the new FotM... thing is we've been one of the most static unchanging classes since launch so we've more or less always been like we are now, people are only now starting to appreciating or fearing what we can do. Heck in void star yesterday I had a scoundrel healing me non stop hiding in a corner and I was murdering people left right and center for over 5 minutes at the left door even when i had 2-3 people on me... was fun, rare occurrence, but fun. And to the OP , I play a Merc also... and yes you guys need a boost, really really stinky class but please dont cry nerf on us simply because your under powered.... isnt our fault. Ive seen sage/sorc DPS thats off the chart so to me their perfectly fine. Buff Mercs, leave us slingers alone! Umm Cover in open ground you get the 20% bonus to range defense, but not COVER benefits. Cover benefits ie being behind an actual object is different. While in cover behind an object near a cover point you can as long as your not attacking completely negate alot of ranged attacks. I might have this wrong, but often if your behind an object and visually bent over with your head down and a ranged attacker shoots you it can result in a 'cover' pop over your head indicating cover negated that attack. Being out in the open ground but behind your blue little screen doesnt give you this... melee can still tear you a new one no matter where you take cover. So cover placement is something we consider DO consider during a battle. But often since it only works against a few specific classes and the battle changes quickly its often easier to forgo cover benefits and just plonk down where we can get to work faster. If there where alot less melee saber wielding drongos in WZ's taking cover behind an object for its other bonus might actually be worth it, and fun. Id love to see a purely ranged (non force) fight.

But it can be coerced, i was running around for an hour or so in Outlaws Den on my 44 Vangaurd and thinking to myself what a missed opportunity the place was as a tumble weed slowly blew past. Then it struck me why was I in Outlaws Den?... to farm the recruit gear, only got 2 pieces and both wherent what i was after stat wise. GREED, the perfect bait to lure people in, people PvP for fun and challenge but also just as much for the gear (just as with raiding). But unfortunately with a single chest on a 15 minute or more timer with some cash and 20 coms in it just isnt enough to lure people to the place for some OWPvP compared to just buying the recruit gear and jumping into WZ's. Throw in an extra 3 chests, halve the respawn timer on them and make em spawn not just on the outer edges but everywhere in OLDen. Throw in a cumulative buff that every time you kill some one, you and or your group get a 0.5% cumulative (capped at 5%) chance of getting a BM piece to spawn in a chest rather than a recruit piece (you have to get the recruit chance of spawning first (say 10% chance) so it wont be raining BM but theres still that 'greed' factor of free BM to draw people there). This buff lasts only 5 minutes at most so you have to keep killing or start again. If you kill some one well under your level (say your 50 and you kill a lvl 40) you only get the 0.5% buff once from them every 10 minutes or so but someone of your level -4 or higher can give you the buff every time you kill them. Drop the Comms dropped from chests to say 10 or 15 so that even solo its still far better to run a WZ than farm chests OR make it that every time you kill a viable player you get special coms you can trade in for 10:3 for normal WZ coms on fleet, say 2 coms per player... this means you can farm coms from kills but its not anywhere as efficient as a WZ time wise But those that miss out on chests at least can get something out of it for their time. Also id make it so Chests take 8 secs to Slice open, this means groups can fight over chests and interrupt an opening and take the chest for themselves, a chest spawn should be announced with a visual effect that makes everyone able to see it and dive on it, bringing everyone into the chests area to get there hands on it. Greed, its an effective tool... just look at some of the fights that start in shopping malls between women when there desperate to get there hands on some limited sale or another. Sure my ideas got exploits that would have to be ironed out, but at least it would get some OWPvP going through manipulating every humans instinct of greed. Heck you could even do it so that there are 3 nodes in OLDen that if captured grant the faction who captures them a +5% boost buff to WZ coms gained in normal WZ's for 3 hours (kinda like those world wide Onyxia kill buffs in WoW?), after which everyone looses the buff and the nodes go neutral (these nodes like NC nodes take longer to capture but the capture speed can be speed up with more players) if the opposing faction takes the nodes the buff is removed and applied to them instead (somewhat like the old Realm Bonuses from DaoC). Only way OWPvP will work is if theres a benefit to the players to do it... sure dont make it as good as a normal WZ reward but at least make it worth it at least.

In other words... "Because your Bad"? I just dont quite have much faith in most of humanity to think you posted that as a joke, rather than a serious rebuttal.

While in cover we are immune to all basic Interrupt abilities (not to knockbacks unless we have Hunker Down active) People havent said the one reason XS has no minimum range... it isnt US, the slinger thats doing the attack its our Ship that is dropping the bomb we simply supply a location for it to hit. For the Trooper and Bounty Hunter its them that are doing the attack and as such they'd have to fire straight up or straight down to hit the area around them which would look a little odd (more for the trooper than bounty hunter). Personally I have no issue with removing their minimum range. As to XS having a minimum range, the question still remains 'why?'. Also we have a wookie, a wookie that could drop a nuke on a pile of Imps laying over a pile of Orphans and hes so skilled he'd kill all the imps with out even so much as scratch on the kids... and the crater would look like a big old smiley face. XS is also a 3sec cast with talents we get it down to 2. Also lets see Smash/Sweep also effect there own side along with Pulse Cannon/Flamethrower... hey dont forget Kolto Bombs! they'd effect the enemy also logically... dense fights would become complete nightmares. Also lets make it so that gun/ranged attacks can effect everything between us and the target with attacks like lightning or railshot, Aimshot, Charged Bursts etc... that change I wouldnt mind so much.

Ok im a Gunslinger in 90% WH (just missing my chest, and helm) and when I go Cover>insta CB 2kish>trickshot 3+kish>1.5sec aimshot 2.5-3kish>Sab 2kish>flurry of bolts 800ish I do about 8k damage (with 40% crit and 75% surge) in less than 3 seconds or so... and do about the same amount of damage as your Pyros. So dont say they cant or shouldnt be able to do that since we and you can also. I play a Vangaurd Assault Spec... yes its a damn strong spec (even though technically they have less survivability than a gunslinger in terms of defensive CD's and abilities and there armor DR is hardly much higher) and yes fighting two at once WILL kill you... and there basic dmg is mostly DR avoiding. As for a Slinger soloing a node... ive done it. Sure its often down to luck or bad players but we have the tools to do it and its quite satisfying to pull it off. If anything you'll take 1 of em with you so the Shadow whos probably following you or sitting stealthed scouting the node to begin with can finish the job.

Gunslinger/Sniper Well in the way I play that is, and im hardly skilled. We have multipal CC's, longest ranged attacks, AoE Denials and AoE defences all as standard. We have to basically be watching the entire fight simultaneously to be truly effective. Low health target pops up, get out of cover, drop again insta CB followed by Quick Draw (or a 1.5 Aim Shot if SS talents allow) to finnish em off quickly or before they get healed. Enemy healer on the far left starts to cast heal on a low health target, target healer and hit distraction. One of ours is low on health and being harassed by a melee and back peddling, target their attacker, hit Leg Shot and hope they keep running away. Bunch of people on a/ the healer, lob a Flash Bang or run over and hit our AoE KB. Teams health starts to all go south, get up and get into a central position and hit our AoE defence shield to cover as many as possible and hope it buys everyone time. Throwing grenades to disrupt cappers. Every ones on a tank or target being mob healed, hit em with flourish shot to speed up there death. Enemy DPS causing issues (or sniper/gunslinger causing trouble) target em and throw our SS talent Smoke Grenade to cripple em for a short while. Or you could just player your Gunslinger/Sniper as a single target dps... but then your ignoring everything else we can bring to the table.

The fire pits and acid are obstacles to slow down play... still baffles me how a small number of classes can just circumvent these obstacles. Its like saying only X Y and Z cars in a race can take this shortcut that would otherwise get you disqualified if you took it. Fire and Acid have to instantly remove speed and or bubbles (of any type) the moment you enter, otherwise why have them as obstacles in the arena in the first place if they only hinder 90% of a team. Hell id be happy with speed buffs simply not working on the ball carrier, makes things a little more equal in the game since all ball carriers would be more or less alike... which they should be, then it would be more about team defense than just who you use as the ball carrier..

As one of those 4 people id like to tell the OP to go leap into a lake... If your gunning for the Sniper/slinger all it gives us is another 3 seconds or so to pull of 2 attacks at most before your on us anyway in open ground, if where on a ramp or higher elevation then yeah we have the advantage, so we should, we spent a good 4+ seconds or so getting into the position and not dpsing. If a melee like a mara gets on me I pop my shield probe, and keep at it, once thats droped I pop dodge, then I might flash bang him and go back to my old targets... ultimately unless he gets bored and goes after some one else that melee WILL kill me, and im resigned to that fact. If you could leap to me my positioning wouldnt mean diddly, and id be like the poor healer im shooting, dead in seconds and respawning most of the match. If i dont dodge through master strike even in mostly WH gear im down to 1/3rd health... so yeah, Ill keep my un-mobile immunity to leaps, I need it, other wise it would be an even more melee dominated game than it already is. whats next?, demand they turn us back to pre 1.2 and make it so any knockback would throw us out of cover forcing us to get back into cover again to use most of our abilitys... no thanks, bad enough things like force choke still effect us in cover.

And no one mentions DaoC... for shame. Apart from a few poor design flaws (Vampyres, Atlantis, New Frontiers) its still a damn solid game that did alot of things before the others did and somethings none of the others have even tried since. 3 Factions, PvP that effects the game world, Crafted gear that is best gear, Interesting classes that aren't overly pigeon holed into rigid group roles.

Its fiunny, i had a small verbal poo fling with someone on Fleet last night after a frustrating Huttball against a specific guild team (this wasnt ranked, but it still counts since this group run the same more or less in ranked), I was complaining about Firepits and Acid basically being null and void to a small minority of classes meaning if you dont have those classes or arent one of them your selves your effectively pointless in Huttball (Im a Gunslinger). This Imp player slumming it on Rep told me its skill to pull off what this Imp team does and i told him its not skill or talent but nothing but maximizing game mechanics and a few specific abilities that give you an OP edge in that arena. Others agreed with me and he told us to stop 'QQ' and that we can do the same thing as the Imp... that comment of his technically validates my whole 'it aint skill just arranging optimal game mechanics' if we can do it simply by copying their team make up then that is 100% proof it isnt skill. That being said we beat em the previous day in ranked and marred any hope of a perfect starting rate for them... so there are small pleasures to be had. Unfortunately our server isnt that huge population wise, so its gonna be basically us vs them 90% of the time in Ranked... and I hope and wish our guild team doesnt come to the decision to just go with the 'optimal composition' stratergy.... since that would mean some out members would have to miss out.. and wheres the fun in that for them? So yes I agree with the OP. True skill is winning with the unconventional, or if you win in a match where we all have the same gear and the same abilities. Unfortunately that doesn't or will never happen in an MMO's PvP, so really most of those who think themselves skilled in PvP really arent when looked at in a team vs team (1 v 1 can and usually is however, unless one player is just running a fotm OP spec or hybrid spec).

Not sure if anyones mentioned it yet, only read the first few pages of replies... OP get a clue, the stun is only 4 seconds (for me as a smuggler its Dirty Kick) Operatives is Diblitate... its simple DONT use your CC breaker on the stun (Dirty kick has a sparkly sound and you double over, Dibiliate well your giggling like a spastic and you have a giant knife out your chest) there easy to recognise. Waiting 4 seconds for it to break gives you 4 seconds to interrupt a cap. If he then Flash bangs you, you now have your CC breaker to use and the Operative/Smuggler has no other mez/stuns to work with after that, and while the combat stealth and traq might be next after a Stun and Flash your resolve WILL be full, flash bang fills it about 4/5th's of the way, so they cant use their Traq on you)... problem solved. Prime rule in these situations, know there abilities, know your resolve and dont panic and pop your CC breaker right away... pure and simple. This is one reason i like to throw flash bang at respawners dropping down near mid that go left, it usually forces em to use their CC breaker (most use it in a panic) meaning as they attack Left they now have no CC breaker and their resolve isnt full by the time they get there. Also while you wait for the 4 sec stun to wear off, use that time to call for help... Hell im a gunslinger and ive solo capped nodes doors before doing stun/flashbang like this against a single defender, takes perfect timing and placement usually.... it needs no nerf, just smarts to counter.

Just a question, which 'Sith Happens' are you from?... sure theres millions of em, probably 1 per server, but you wouldnt happen to be from the AP RP server Gav Daragon would you?. If so... is this the reason so many of you Imps have 'vanished' from PvP the last 3 weeks, your all rage quitting from Ques because of all the new 'baddie' Imps queing up for 50's PvP for the first time... is that why where mostly playing Rep v Rep now. No wonder Imps fleets dropped so much if the average players got your attitude towards others (then again All Imp players tend to be a certain 'type' usually, the same as Reps have a certain 'personality ' from what ive seen). A player is a player and regardless of what the have gear wise if they do what they should to help why shouldnt they be in the same match as you?... they've paid there cash. Yeah ripping into a new player and 3 shotting em isnt that fun for both sides (id like a challenge and having been on the recieveing end of the Over Geared Imps for weeks a couple of months back I know what it feels like for the person being 3 shot). Whats next, 'I demand all WH players are segregated from the BM baddies'... please , no. Recruit to BM is a grind, and they have very right to be there, just as you did and I did. And if your from Gav Daragon, please try and foster a damn faction spirit so the new Imp 50's stick around so we can fight you rather than ourselves all the time.

To begin with I thought meh, pretty stereotypical butch female warrior character... Now im Married to her and shes interested in settling down somewhere and having lots of kids... Odd how things work out. The whole hey I can marry a princess thing with Risha sort of turned me off once i found that out about her, given its kinda... boring (not to mention the whole Han and Leia thing). Akaavi's conversations during the journey from starting out as a passanger to spouse (or what ever it is the Mandos call it) is an interesting one. And if i remember right, it sort of goes from you having to ask questions, to her eventually freely giving answers simply because she wants to tell you. And if you ever decide to romance her make sure you have some romance set up with Risha... the pivotal conversation for this triangle had me poopin bricks. Id say she has the most drastic character personality development of the Smugglers companions. I mean Risha int eh end is still Risha, the same cant really be said of Akaavi.

Im looking forward to this change personally. I dont have Biochem (Cybertech for Life... even though its useless for me, hoping one day we get something), and the Biochem alt I have is sitting around the 180 mark for skill. I used to pop warzone exp adrenals and meds alot in the 10-49's but since the BM/WH grind I havent bothered to get any. I usually forget to use my Relics most warzones so I wont miss it, although I do use it regularly in PvE. I think I do pretty well in the 50's bracket despite this and im fairly or used to be fairly ignorant of Biochem, so for me, im gonna be really interested how this changes the overall make up of PvP on my server, there are a few players ive gone up against that literally make me rage. Im talking players who wipe 1/3rd to half my health off in 3-4 seconds (im in Full BM and a few WH pieces). One in particular is a Mara who still uses old Champ sabers which are far inferior dmg rating to current BM, I just cant kill him solo 95% of the time but he wipes the floor with me so quick it isnt funny even with every stop gap i have being used (Literally loose half my health in the opening 3 seconds fairly often, not to mention Force Camo followed by Reusable Med pac back to about just under half health). Ive always wonder just how they do the damage they do (usually double the next highest on the list most games), the Mara I mentioned above also plays a Sorc and they too are usually double the dmg of the next on the list. I can only assume from what ive learned of Biochem that it must be him jacked up on Biochem reusable Adrenals. I look forward to seeing how Uber such players are come 1.3 compared to those of us that dont use (for what ever reason) Adrenals/stims/medpacs in warzones. Might bring there 'hot skills' into line with the rest of us, decently skilled players. If they still are so uber come 1.3, then i tip my hat to em and apologize. Cant wait to hear the whines...

"Wheeeeee" Nuff said. I seem to have no issues with any of the companions I currently run with alts and the like. Although i tend to stick with a single companion through out a characters life, for my Smuggler I only ever used Corso till i got Guss and thats about it. Everyone else stayed in my ship 99% of the time, never even used Risha or Bowdaar apart from as a cloths horse.

Personally it doesnt effect me as a SS spec gunslinger. My spec is 28/8/3, and I still have 2 freed up talent points left over from the changes they did in 1.2 (couldnt make up my mind what to stick em in) so i'll happily stick those into the new Rapid Fire for some reduced CD aimshot/speedshot. It'll also mean I can remove the one wasted point of coverscreen I had to take to unlock the teir 5 row of talents. So yeah Im happy with the changes I should respec and get Rapid Fire just to give it a whorl before it goes away, never used it might realise ive gimped myself this whole time.

"Huh!" **Lifts his arms up in surprise and out comes a deluge of coins and creds...**

OP really needs to indicate Gunslinger or Scoundrel as others mention, while the same base class there completely different in the same way a Shadow and Sage are. Gunslingers (my main and first character is a Gunslinger) always pull top DPS in a game if there ignored or healed and dont die much at all in a match... 240k is easy for any Gunslinger over lvl 30 and in a match where im left alone at lvl 50 I can easily break 380-400k (I get focus fired by opposing teams alot now since they've learned im a problem if ignored). We aint OP'd and if you get on us we fold REAL quick, although we can throw you off quite alot but once we've used your knockback, flash grenade and Kick your more or less immune to any CC after that (including aimshot knock back talents) and all of our CC is more or less on CD then. Something ive found great (and I dont know why I never thought of it before although usually and in the past I was the only Gunslinger in a Warzone) is basically going into a double team pact with another Gunslinger in any Warzone im in. Basically I target what ever they target in order to double team opponents... lets just say little can survive two Gunslingers opening up on em at once. So in that regard we could be called OP... but any DPS class two manning targets is more or less the same. And thinking about it someone that didnt realize two slingers where targeting em at the same time might think the one slinger was a OP DPS god. No we aint the new OP class nor Scoundrels, but we might be the new FotM not for being OP but just because people have chosen them as a counter to Adv Class they perceive as OP. If anything I hope more Gunslingers get played, its a strong and viable class... or at least i find it to be.

Tank Assassins/shadows Thats about it for me... if I with a Shadow at level 15 in Combat Stance can regularly 1v2 two people (kill one and get another down to bellow 20% health before dieing myself... or using force speed to run off to safety) in partially (badly) modded orange social gear (heck two of my pieces have no mods at all) with a broken keyboard and poor melee skills (running around in circles and spamming my backstab and Project ability keys with regular attacks thrown in between) then something is wrong with the class. I shudder to think what i can do with the class if I tried, and got off my lazy butt and mailed it some proper mods and a purple hilt. We have a Warhero Assassin on our server in the lvl 50 pvp matchs... he's more or less invulnerable, insta charge burst, trick shot, sab charge, Aimshot rotation results in about 10-15% loose of health for him... he gets on my slinger and I melt in seconds. He's stronger in defence than the best juggs ive faced. Heck ive seen him more or less 4v1 us sometimes AND get away to come back only seconds latter to finnish the job. Just not right, not right at all. Second id say would be Juggs... some of the lvl 50's on our server can melt opponents in seconds... but at least there killable unlike the Assassin.

More or less this from my experience... and when half the team is double lightsaber wielding it becomes a true nightmare. As a SS Gunslinger (50) main I have no problem with Mara's and usually it ends up in a close fight if its a 1v1, i usually come out on top since I can keep em at a distance long enough to tip the balance. So to me its pretty balanced given equal armor types and equal role, High Melee dps vs High ranged dps I also have a Sentinel and Ive found it no stronger or weaker pre or post 1.2. Tanksins and sins/shadows in general are just way way way to strong both in dps, survivability and utility. And yes I have a Shadow myself and even as a fresh level 11 I was a complete murder machine using only 2-4 abilities against players 30+ levels higher... first Warzone i played in as one I topped the damage chart at over 200k... which was surprising, very surprising. And those times I do get a Sin to almost dead... they vanish and come back 10 seconds latter to kill me off. Truly a ridiculously OP class. Id say the lowest are Sorcs/Sages and Mercs, although Mercs id put above sorcs simply because of their Heavy armor gives em a little more protection from my weapon damage. Id deffinetly put Pyrotechs just under Sins... its like a brick wall that can punch you back.