Just as a side note, my main is a healer (or was until 1.2 when I switched to DPS). The point of healing or PvPing at all is to help your team win, not to get pats on the back from everyone.

...? Seriously? You could always just not heal and get no medals? Why do you care about MVP votes? Personally I only ever bother to vote when I am actually impressed with someone (typically for more than just playing their role).

My stance is just to heavy CC them and ignore them. Marauders you absolutely must kill or they will chew through your team, tanka-dpsa-magicescapa-stealtha-cca-gojira-ssins are more nuisance than anything else imo. Yes they can be painful to leave alive but they are equally painful to kill, essentially do your best to put them on a time out and move on to greener pastures.

Better yet don't, this change was proposed for 1.2 people got up in arms about it, BW backed off. Good job as far as I am concerned. Alderaan is one of the more dynamic WZs and the side speeders are a non-issue. Hard not to say L2P on this one.

SWTOR definitely has some issues, but all else aside I think it lucked out with its timing. I understand people are hailing GW2 as the most recent MMO-Mecca but I suspect that will last a month or two (at most) before people chase the next great white hope of MMOPvP. I'm sure that each of the games you listed (as well as TERA) will do well enough and have their own player base etc but I have serious doubts regarding the doom-n-gloomers around SWTOR. The game is different in several ways and I think that it speaks to a group somewhat outside the MMO standard (as a result of which we see some of the hardcore forum complaints). My expectations for TERA are incredibly low after past action MMOs and GW2 while awesome conceptually, I expect many people aren't quite as excited about "skill based" play as one might think.

One thing I wasn't worried too much about pre 1.2 was class balance. Some classes were better, some were worse, but it was all on the margins, basically what I expect from an MMO years down the road. Post 1.2 it seems we're back to the building blocks most games start with, dramatic changes in balance both between classes and overall in PvP. I unfortunately figure the next few patches will continue with the roller-coaster trend though I really hope I'm wrong. No one likes nerfs, that's not my point at all, my point is that having no certainty where your character is going to be from one patch to another is pretty unpleasant. Couple that with dramatic changes in distribution of damage, durability and healing (time to kill) and you're left with players having pretty much no clue from one patch to another how the game will play. Given the substantial changes to PvP in 1.2 it would definitely be great to get some communication from designers on what exactly their plans are for PvP in SWTOR.

Hehe, amusing title at least OP. I've learned to shrug it off to a degree, they're the current FOTM (with good reason). I definitely groan internally however when I head into a warzone and find myself up against another glow stick kill squad. Hooray balance.

On one hand I appreciate when anyone decides to write on what they care about, on the other I think there are some serious flaws in dude's article (not least of which is the trendy GW2 messiah syndrome). The reason for resilience in games like WoW and SWTOR has in my opinion less to do with wanting people to stick around for more $$ than it does with the games ultimately revolving around nothing but gear. I'd say this opinion is supported by the fact that not all subscription model games see it as necessary, contrary to the author's assertion. The only way to really avoid this multi-track gear situation (at least the only one we've seen in games so far) is to either ignore it (making pvp players PvE for the best gear) or to stop making games that are all about grinding the next set of gear (not conducive to fun for PvE players). Games in the past that have been really successful without this sort of system tended to be more sandbox type games where progression wasn't the end all be all of everything. Some of us like to think that games like Shadowbane or even SWG were god's gift to MMO play, but sandboxes are unpopular for a reason. I expect GW2 will take some hits among some of the converts once people start realizing that not everyone is actually God's gift to gaming and/or that balance issues exist even without gear. I definitely intended to pick up GW2 some months ago, but as the game has grown nearer to release and the sea of trolls have crawled out form under their rocks to claim this game to be the next MMO-Moses I decided I'd rather pass. I've always told my pals that it's best to avoid a MMO for the first 3-5 months after it comes out, typically I told them this for want to avoid bugs and have a more enjoyable experience. Games like AoC and SWTOR however highlighted a new reason to wait 3-5 months, hopefully the d00ds who flock from game to game praising it until they decide it's "dead" and shift to pooping on it anywhere someone will listen, will be gone in that time so one might be able to actually enjoy the game on its own merits. Note: I do not like expertise or similar systems I just don't see much option in games that are clearly gear focused. I definitely find the idea of having to swap gear to be effective in PvP or PvE totally obnoxious and stupid, but its unfortunately what we have at the moment. Until such time as stats have 0 impact on PvP or we see games where gear matters less in general, I think we're in for more of this trend.

Hehe I got a good morning laugh over this one, sad because it's true. Unless you count "roflstomp the opposition" as an advanced strategy. This sort of behavior is what makes MMO PvP in general fun imo. Build strategies against your opponents rather than the "one strategy to rule them all" approach often taken (ie 2 left rest mid in Alderaan). At times I think people's desire to mash buttons for mad DPS somehow prevents them from paying any attention to what's going on in the WZ. @OP it's always nice to see something constructive on the SWTOR forums.

I'd be cool with either this or a late joiner medal. Both ideas have their merits imo. Either way it's not the end of the world, I mean I definitely get annoyed when joining a match with a 1-2 minutes left where my team is being dominated but it happens rarely enough that I don't complain.

I've enjoyed the trooper story even if it can be a little shallow at times overall I've been thoroughly impressed and suggested it to friends. In general I've found that it's been really helpful on all the class storylines to ignore the LS/DS points and just go with the choices you want to play. I know some refuse to do that due to a want to max LS/DS but I've found the game much more enjoyable without them.

I'm glad that I have them for my main PvP character. They're a neat little bit of support (about what I'd expect from a craft) and round out cybertech as a generally semi-useful trade. I still think all of the crafting skills border on worthless but lowering the cooldown on the cybertech grenades was a step in the right direction imo.

The game's approach to CC in general is pretty hamfisted imo. I don't have a problem with how much of it there is, I do have a problem with how difficult it is to navigate around. Stuns, Mezzes, Pushes, Pulls etc are fine where they are atm (Push/Pull can be a bit annoying but that's the nature of CC) but the root/snare issue could probably do with being looked into. None of this is gamebreaking by any means (OP certainly could have done things to remain useful to his team) but it doesn't seem quite right. The reason OP noticed this issue (most likely) is because he was chain-rooted by Warriors/Knights it's unpleasant, its crap design but it's always been this way. Basically it is just getting highlighted because everyone and their mom is flocking toward the current OP ez-mode classes.

Alderaan is probably my #1 or #2 favorite PvP map at the moment. Please if some random dev is searching for the holy grail solution to SWTOR's PvP problems, ignore this thread. The side speeders are fine, undergeared and all I've managed to ninja all sorts of caps in Alderaan. Work with your team.

Everyone likes to convince themselves that they're super-elite and that all of their victories are due purely to skill but DPS is cake in MMOs and it always has been. There's limited necessity to pay attention to anything but yourself and your target (an issue that regularly leads to people complaining about DPS players in raids and in PvP). More importantly though your assertion is easily testable. Anyone playing a healing AC can instead spec DPS and test it out for themselves, and I'd be terribly surprised if they didn't find it much easier than trying to bother healing atm. If you've got a competent group you're running with healing is still fine, but if you're running solo it's likely not worth the frustration. The problem before was that people got destroyed by competent and balanced pre-mades as they do in every MMO ever. Playing my Commando as a Combat Medic (heals) post 1.2 was far from pleasant, so I respecced into Gunnery (splosions) and it is cake. The only thing easier has been my Vigilance Guardian (aka Master Strike facemelter) I only wish I'd rolled a Sentinel instead for.... added survivability... because that makes sense in a DPS class.

The changes in 1.2 made the game a super-speedy DPS focused derpfest. Playing a healer is now an utter waste of time unless you're running pre-mades (which is also relatively pointless as there's no rated warzones). My favorite though is definitely the trend in people thinking they're zomgskilled now that pretty much any class (save conspicuously the two with "take no damage bubbles") can be cooked down in seconds, facerolling DPS sure is fun. If you can't beat them though, you can always join them, my Commando is doing fine now that he's gunnery spec rather than medic. Seeing people rage out when they get hit with Demo round for clown-shoes amounts of damage makes me feel a little better good job on the balance adjustments BW.

Seriously even on my PvE server I've had open world conflicts throughout the world event, I sometimes wonder at the unfortunate PvP servers without conflict that people mention on the forums.

I LOLed thank you. That being said, yeah the sloppy half-implementation of the rated system is definitely not cute. Why bother adding War Hero gear or things with rating prerequisites without adding the whole system. I'd definitely hope to see more PvP earned rewards/cosmetics in the future that remain unavailable through PvE and vice versa.

Oh how I loathe the concept of "pure" classes. The moment the phrase comes out people immediately start talking about one way or another they're being cheated. No "Pure DPS" classes should not do more damage than "Hybrid DPS" classes. No "Pure DPS" classes are not hindered by dual spec, or dungeon finder or whatever else. Perhaps if Pure DPS classes only had one talent tree this would be a valid argument.

The faint off-topic nature of this post aside, it's pretty well said and potentially a good point for people to consider in playing SWTOR. There is a ton to do in this game (honestly too much for me) but early on it did not compare along some lines (extreme difficulty for instance) with other games currently on the market aiming to feed the ravenous raider crowd. These guys are historically crazy loud and obnoxious about demanding a sea of "end game content" in one game after another only to quit and move on to the next big over-hyped "MMO Moses" to come out (currently GW2?). When I hear the amount of time people consider casual in MMOs lately I can't help but be struck with disbelief. What other hobby would anyone consider 4-10hrs a week casual rather than border-line obsessed (let alone 6-8hrs a day, that's a job not a hobby)? One of the things I appreciate about more recent MMOs is that I can make progress and enjoy time online with my friends without having to devote a huge chunk of my life to this one form of entertainment.

I've always loved PvP first and foremost, it's always been one of my favorite activities in an MMO but really the SWTOR forums make me doubt myself on the issue. OP in what way does it hurt you or your PvP gameplay that "bads" are able to gear up? Newsflash, commendations are utterly meaningless aside from gearing up, so why is this a problem? There are few things sadder than the PvPer who takes joy out of camping n00b island and really folks who cry over anything impacting their gear advantage hit me as the same sort. Imo if SWTOR aims to make their PvP worth anything in the long term they'll add things worth working toward besides gear. WoW-style loot grind focused PvP 4tl imo. TLDR: If they're bad you're going to presumably roflstomp them in their BM gear just as well as you are atm in their Recruit or PvE gear.

@OP: Basically I learned just to keep my opinions to myself on the subject or develop a tough skin. Not sure what makes people so crazy about loving (or hating) on MMOs, I've currently got subs to 3 different games (15$ a month is half the price of a movie with the g/f where I live) and enjoy each of them for a different reason. Seeing people on any game just railing on how another sucks has always puzzled me, the only thing worse is seeing people complain about the game they're currently playing and how X game is so much better (the forums here are a disaster on that issue).

Legacy gear was in no way a big deal for me, but I have to admit I was honestly puzzled at the design choice made in SWTOR. Legacy items that don't level are... worthless. The leveling process in SWTOR is exceptionally fast and there is really no reason to have these items in game if they don't level with you... bare minimum they should have been moddable so that at least the skins would get some use.

At times I wonder where people find game developers... bravo to you for this suggestion. 1.2 is a mess, it would be great to generally get some answer from BW regarding "um.... *** PvP?" sure there were some complaints about balance pre 1.2 (there will always be balance complaints in an MMO) but were people demanding faster paced faceroll combat? Not that I saw.

A) Clever/amusing post B) As a Commando player, I actually don't feel nearly as bad now that I specced out of healing, I mean turret PvP is dumb but at least it's functional. 1.2 is definitely all about the DPS faceroll.