This would help a ton.

The only way for them to know what's going on is to play ranked. Yeah they might get globalled. Then the next game they adjust and know to use defensives quicker. You won't get that experience inside a regular war zone. I queued my first warzone since coming back yesterday and was 2nd in damage and only had one death with zero gear and a generic tactical. There's not much to learn from there. The basics and fundamentals come from leveling and gearing. The basic pvp fundamentals come from grinding to Valor 25. The experience to survive and operate in a coordinated environment only comes from said environment. Quit blaming others for losses and gate-keeping solo queue, your only hurting the community. People in a low pop game need to be inviting and give advice. Or just play team ranked when they don't want deal with random groups. But I guess it's just easier to put the blame on others and be toxic to try and keep people out.

It's not just pve players from swtor that's being pushed away. There's tons of pvpers from other games. Myself and a buddy just came back to swtor from wow where weve been playing arenas since TBC. Wow pvp is trash right now, there's bound to be refugees. We will be stepping into ranked soon, working on our set gear now.

If the ranked community gate-keeped less, their would be more players to sort by skill level. Yeah it sucks when your being held back and losing rating because of other players, I get it. But it would create a better ranked scene for those vets in the long run. Food for thought.

Are vanguard/pt's really that bad in ranked? I just came back to the game and was doing some war zones at level 65 and my vanguard seemed to be near the top of the charts on dmg. Of course there were some mercs above me, but I felt like I was viable. I had some decent protection from taunts and the aoe stun seems like it could be a playmaker.

I would say that the bonus damage is offset by the fact that you are now going to deal less damage to players because they have more expertise than you. And they are also going to deal more damage to you.

I'm the kind of person that played SWG for years and rarely ever touched space combat. But I found myself queuing for GSF all day yesterday. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it after I got into it and got used to the controls. I'm a big fan of support classes so the bomber sounds perfect for me. So will it be purchasable with fleet points or will it only be on the cartel market?

When I'm playing a healer, I hate seeing tactics vanguards. You can't escape them and its almost impossible to get a cast off with the short cd (talented) on their interrupt.

The regular queue needs to have checkboxes for warzones and arenas. You could choose one or the other or both. I really only want to play arenas on all of my characters but some of them still have some gearing to do. I dont want to be a hindrance in the ranked queue and possibly hurt someone's rating. So the best I can do is queue for regs and leave until an arena pops.

Yeah I was a few seconds off. But it only makes my original point stronger.

I've been playing my balance sage in solo arenas, and I don't find it to be bad at all. I'm around 30 wins and 15 losses. The dots can keep applying pressure on the target even while I'm being focused and have to line of sight or throw out some heals. When you do get some room to breathe, you can pop force potency and lay down some pretty good burst as well. The sever force root on a 12 second cd is amazing for blowing up those pesky operative healers that like to kite or pillar hug. And lets not forget about the balance talent that gives you 30% damage reduction while stunned, which is almost a must for dps sages because you will get focused every game. Playing a dps sage was frustrating at first, but its been getting better with a few adjustments. I started using the force humility talent in the healer tree just for arena purposes. I've also been putting in some fortitude augments. Its no longer about being able to do as much damage as possible.

I am pumped for Tuesday. I played a little bit on the PTS and watched a lot of streams, and I was very happy with how the arenas turned out. I've seen sorc comps beat smash comps. PT's were actually one of the favored tanks instead of juggs. Arenas are a completely new environment, theres no sense in a balancing patch until we see how each class plays out in small scale deathmatches. I have actually benched my operative healer and started gearing my sage healer. Operative's might still be the superior healer, but I think the sage's utility and cooldowns will start to shine more in arenas.

Tactics vanguards take 30% less aoe damage and 30% less damage while stunned.

I don't think teams will make it very far just training the enemy healer. I'm not a swtor arena expert but from past arena experiences, its usually a better strat to pressure a dps and cc the healer so your team doesnt take a ton of damage. Give it a while. Once it is released, you will see strategies start to surface. Forcing certain cooldowns and maybe splitting dps against certain healers or tanks, for example. Then people will start theorycrafting comps with ridiculous names and it will be fun.

I'm curious to see if any dot comps come out. I always enjoyed shadowplay or LSD 2.0 in wow, watching all of the dots slowly overwhelm the enemy healer. Maybe Madness sorc, lethality sniper/operative, tank, and heals. An operative or sorc healer could throw in some more dots.

1. Arathi Basin - WoW. The objectives were nothing special, but the way the map was designed (kinda downhill) with multiple tiers made it fun. Nothing like a surprise attack from a team slow falling down on top of your node. 2. Nagrand Arena - WoW. Arenas have been the most competitive pvp I have ever played in any game, and Nagrand was the simplest, most balanced map there was. I am pumped to hear about arenas coming to swtor! 3.Huttball - SWTOR. I really enjoyed huttball when the game first came out. It was an awesome idea and I think they could build on it.

I for one am excited to hear about the 4v4 arenas. A little variety in pvp will be good for the game. I always enjoyed smaller scale pvp, where individual skill (and mistakes) are more noticeable. Plus its easier to get people together when your short on time.

I dont know about dps mercs but I think that well played merc healers will probably be the best choice for a TDM arena. The excel at throwing big heals at a single target being focused and they have a lot of cooldowns that WoW healers rely on in arenas. They have NS, aura mastery, an immunity to knockbacks and pulls, and a decent cd in super charged cells. We will just have to see what kind of arenas are being implemented. 4v4 might be better for an op or sorc who are better at healing multiple targets, but I think a merc could be good in 3v3 or less.

1. Neither was WoW. 2. I dont really know what you mean, unless you are talking about diminishing returns. I actually like the resolve system in swtor better. It was a pain to try and keep track of enemies and what kind of cc had been used on them recently. 3.The whole balance argument is kind of silly in my opinion. They can balance around whatever aspect of the game they choose. WoW only said arenas made it a nightmare to balance because wow had no competitive pvp before arenas, and it was primarily a pve game. It made it hard to balance pvp with pve. In swtor, we already have competitive pvp that they are balancing with pve. 4. Can't argue with that. Unfortunately that comes with the competitive nature. This is just my opinion. I really love small scale, competitive pvp. Its fast paced and easy to organize a team. I honestly think this game engine is more suited for arenas than large scale pvp, but I understand that a lot of people like large scale. Large scale has that Star Wars feel to it.

I've been playing lethality in pugs, and I think it is a very underrated spec. Most people see lethality operatives as multi-dotters that do fluff damage, but in reality, it can be a very bursty spec. I've had more success bursting people down as lethality than concealment. Cull is one of the harder hitting abilities in the game, and it can be fired back to back. My operative just hit 50 so I'm still in the gearing process. I only have like 16k hp, so people tend to target me. I love kiting them to the side and setting up on them, then debilitate and go to town. Double culls or explosive probe + cull can really take players by surprise. The only downfall with the spec is the setup required. With the amount of setup and the limited window to use your precious TA's, bubblestuns can be the bane of my existence. It definitely takes some finesse to play and I'm not quite there yet, but hopefully things will get better with experience and gear. I really do enjoy the playstyle, and thank you for the guide. I wasn't quite sure how i wanted to gear yet, so this helped.

I solo queued 5-6 games when I got off work and won 4 of them. Later that night, I started queuing with a premade and we got obliterated every match by some really good teams. Its weird how it works out sometimes. We also couldnt get a ranked queue pop.

I can see how field respeccing could create a little bit of a problem, but I dont think it's a major issue. My personal opinion is to only allow respecs before the match starts. That way if you join a pug and you need heals, you can switch in the starting area before the match starts. I can also live with the way it is now. It would be a bigger issue if we had talents, keybinds, and gear saved to a template, and people could swap on the fly.

I would just vote kick them if they are standing in a corner and not playing the objective. If it's sorc that's doing it while guarding a node, I usually just start healing them up too lol. They get ticked and start running away or throwing out insults. But if they get to pad their stats and get extra medals, why shouldn't I be able to as well.

I've been playing 18/0/23 lethality spec on my operative here lately because I got bored healing. I know I sacrifice a lot of dmg not going 31 points into lethality, but it increases my survivability and really cuts down my ramp up time. I keep at least one stack of the hot on me at all times and I go into most fights already having two tactical advantages. I feel like cullX2 + shiv + cull is huge burst in 4 gcd's. I dont spread dots and top the charts but i put up decent numbers. I also make a pretty good off healer when its needed. Its probably not viable for ranked games but it's fun to try when you get bored.

Yeah I've seen this bug twice recently. The first time it was a marauder so combined with his charge it made him appear to be teleporting across the map. I actually called him out in general chat and people told me it was just a bug. I saw it happening to a sorc while he was healing and staying in the same general area. If he was doing it on purpose then it really wasn't giving him much of an advantage. Thats why I think it's probably just a bug. They lay down like they've been hit by hidden strike or spike before they port, so I wonder if that's what causes it.