I think that it is fair to say that BW has been playing this whole ballgame not to win but simply not to lose. In the end though it is tough to find a whole lot of win in that philosophy. They concentrate on how to make things better on ghost town servers that are heavy to one faction by amusing the heavy side with same faction pvp and not fixing the ghost town side. Fear of exodus from Ghost Town servers, for example, has led to the server transfer policy of targeted transfers which of course will allow people from servers that can get groups and pvp matches to spend some cash to hopefully make the ghost towns better. I am sure that the idea, which I think is fundamentally flawed, sounded a lot better in a meeting where someone pretty high up the chain of command thought it rocked. Play to win please BW. Not just not to lose. --m.

Short of a major revision, which I have done at least once already, what's done is done here. Even though there is a new map what is here can cover it and probably any other conceivable map BW can come up with. 1. Hit 'em where they ain't. 2. Bring a buddy and outnumber some people to win. 3. Give your opponent the opportunity to choose between two bad decisions. 4. Profit. --m.

I welcome quitters. If it only takes one fast touchdown or objective capture to make you quit please queue more; I could really use the free gear. --m.

QFE: I have recently revisited my healers after leveling my BH to 50. There is a concept in SWTOR that is not normally thought of in most games. Mobility vs Immobility. As far as mobility goes the Operative/Smuggler is the only healer who can be purely mobile. With the right spec after 30 there is no reason to stand still as an Operative/Smuggler healer. Comparisons: Merc/Commando Healer: Mobile talents: The "free" heal. Their insta-cast shield that is limited to one target. Stationary talents: Everything else is both stationary and interruptable. Energy recovery: Long cool down; same as any other heavy type. Force User Healer: Mobile talents: Shield Bubble on a two second cool down and 20 second lockout. Instant heal + HOT on six second cool down Stationary talents: Everything else is both stationary and interruptable. Energy recovery: Based on their health which soloing is fine but in PvP is madness with the slow cycling of their HOT. Operative/Smuggler Healer: Mobile talents: Spammable HOT. No target # limit. No Cool Down. Stationary talents: Reliable energy regeneration prior to 30 requires one stationary cast every 45 seconds. Their "free" heal is stationary but only needed when out of gas. Should never be out of gas. Energy recovery: After level 30 the condition to trigger has a chance to trigger automatically from the spammable HOT. Oh ... and they have a second energy recovery heal on a cool down. Separation from the target, my friends, is the best armor in any game of this sort. Operative/Smuggler healers after level 30 have no need to ever stop moving; never need to stop and set up for what they can do better in a PvP grand melee environment than any other AC which is keep an entire skirmish up on its feet. When needed they can stop and use their stationary abilities to discourage focus fire as well. When they are focused upon they can separate and block line of sight while still healing or just plain vanish. --m.

SWTOR Huttball Fast Break in Soccer Terms: I have been thinking about how to do better description of how to run a fast break offense in Huttball and I think I have found my paradigm. A good fast break offense does three things. It penetrates down field and has players who set up passes for scoring. It controls the middle to grab the ball after a touchdown to start another fast break. It defends its own goal to stop other fast breaks. In my thinking this makes for three types of positions on the team. Forwards: They position themselves down field on the catwalks, behind fire traps or acid traps or even in the end zone to receive the ball to score. Stealthers, Cloth wearing Jedi or Sith, and Trooper/Bounty Hunters who have Storm/Jet Charge or Hold the Line/Hydraulic Overrides make great forwards. Jedi and Sith with their leaps do as well. Stealthers can set up past the traps in relative safety and wait for the ball. They can even set up in the end zone and make pit strategy pay off. Pit strategy is where the ball carrier runs to the pit on purpose to either toss the ball to a waiting team mate in the end zone or to leap to a looky-lou opponent. The former being a more reliable method than the latter. Clothy force users have speed boost abilities and shield or speed boost ability and stealth. Both great combinations in a forward. Heavy types with mobility granting powers like troopers and bounty hunters who are specced deep enough to get these powers also make great forwards. Jedi and Sith cheat. They get this powers through normal level progression. The most important things a forward can remember is to penetrate down the field and to be alert for outlet passes to other forwards for the score. Carrying the ball all the way can rack up objective points for you personally if you make it but net you zero if you are a ball hog who keeps your team from scoring by being greedy with the ball. Halfbacks: Two or three good forwards can give the opposing team fits when running in a fast break in Huttball. Two or three good halfbacks who stay at the ball spawn area and protect the middle from opponent and pass to the forwards can destroy another team. They are key elements to successful fastbreak offenses in Huttball. They can also support the forwards with their crowd control abilities and dps at least until the forwards are clear of the center of the field. Healer support of the middle is more important than protecting the forwards. Smart forwards can move the ball faster than even concentrated fire can kill them by passing the ball past environmental traps. Good forwards can demoralize opposing teams. Good forwards with good halfbacks can destroy the other team both in scoring and in morale. I have seen teams who were coordinated but outnumbered totally destroy overwhelming forces just by using forwards and fullbacks in an intelligent fashion. Nothing makes for an easier score than passing the ball down field immediately after a touchdown is scored. Usually the entire opposing team is either out of position or waiting to get out of the gates from respawn. This is the job of the halfback. Secure the ball, support the forwards when they can and start a new fast break as soon as possible. Fullbacks: Two good fullbacks can stop the opponent's penetration and negate their ability to get their own fast break going. Ranged dps are the best at being fullbacks. Sniper/Gunslingers are the best at being fullbacks. Two of them acting together and focusing down targets can both support midfield and deny enemy penetration into your side of the field. There is a fourth position actually. Those who are not playing one of the first three. Those who don't play as a team can benefit your team somewhat by keeping the opponents from reacting properly to your offense. A tanker or tanker hybrid who drags opponents into duels and distracts them from reacting to the fast break is almost helping you. Sort of. When I am out of position and trying to get back to where I need to be and find that two or three or even four opponents are trying to focus me down for a kill I smile. I know our next score is coming right up. --m.

For the brave readers and the TLDR kids alike () I am now doing a web toon of this guide. It is posted on the Plus Ten To Awesome G+ page. Updates daily. https://plus.google.com/u/0/b/109412384422348753761/109412384422348753761/posts Thanks, --m.

There was a time where I would almost agree with the OP when I first hit 50. I would hands down disagree in the 10 to 49 bracket. I entered 50 PvP as a pure tanker spec. It was awful for me to play I then swapped around as a dps specced in the middle tree and was awesome in Huttball but of little value in anything else. I then changed to the 'classic' hybrid tank/fire spec and do fine in all matches. Especially in Huttball and the new map as well. Even better in the new map. Even after this spec was specifically nerfed in 1.2 it still fits my playstyle well. You can still vent some good heat and be tough to take down especially with healing support. Still do some awesome damage up close and you get a nice ranged element that a full tanker just can't have and still get your rocket charge. If we had one more spec point I would swap to a hybrid of the first two trees with rocket jump and the speed boost/snare clearing talent that will probably be forever one point past my reach at 19 into the middle tree. Sitting on the south point of the new map and eating up wave after wave of Republic players because I have guard on a Merc and because I limit LOS by guarding the tent by sitting inside it is the most use I can possibly be in this spec and we have won several games because of it. Of course I had to have a 750+ Expertise rating to do so but can hold my own and keep a healer up both, get good damage and kills and great objective points as well as MVP votes as well; currently I am at just a hair over 1k expertise. Any class, any build, any gear set on any toon can be one person's 'useless'. Not all builds and classes are everyone's cup of tea. I could never play a healing agent/smuggler for example with much glee. Nor do I much enjoy being a seer/sorceror. The one true difference that I have seen in 50 PvP is that teams give up quicker if they think they are at a disadvantage in score and are more likely to die over and over again on an objective they should skip because it is too well defended rather than shift to a weaker objective with fewer defenders. On my Empire server at least, Ven Zallow, usually about half the team are Bounty Hunters (mostly merc's) with myself usually as the lone BH Tank, and then the rest of the team split in about half Sith Assassins and Sith Sorcerors. You might not have had a pleasant experience with Bounty Hunters, playing one or being on their team, but for some people the Bounty Hunter is a good fit both personally and on a team. --m.

Fine by me. Post away. If you'd like point it back here. Thanks, --m. Psychic P.S.: Thanks Vedano!! http://www.plustentoawesome.com

If you can't be bothered to count all the way up to 8, that is fail. A single defender, even if they call out inc on ops, is far more likely to get outnumbered and curb stomped. One stealther can /mez a single defender long enough to catch a door. If they /trinket out of it the /mez again and get it for sure. With two on each door and four floating in response to attacker pressure you minimize your chance of being outnumbered significantly. 2 greatly outnumber 1. With 2 on the door it takes a rush of at least 4 to greatly outnumber them. That is half the team. Also with calling out inc to each assault on a door you have no idea how many will drop the 'strong side' and go to the 'weak side'. On my stealthers I regularly go versus one defender on the weak side and force an over shift to my side. I will play Voidstar all day long with a 4 v 1 fight on one side and a 7 v 4 fight on the other. If there are two on each door and 4 floating there is enough to shut down solo stealther strategies and over shifts both. Even if it is a day of 2 v 0 and 6 v 8 I will take those odds all day long too on defense. --m.

The Reverse Triage Method of Target Priority in SWTOR PVP When I first started playing MMO's I played healers pretty much exclusively. It made sense I was a fire brigade captain and a medic first aid trainer. Medic first aid practitioners, at the time, could do every procedure a California EMT could except for one. When I first played a DPS class, after playing a healer for years, the first thing that I noticed that doing dps was pretty much like healing; just in reverse. You have probably heard the word triage. It is a ranking and prioritization technique used in emergency medicine when there are more who are sick and injured than there are care givers. It is kind of ruthless method, but necessarily so, for ranking who you can save and who you can't with limited resources. For example you don't do CPR during a triage situation. You don't have the resources to put one or two care givers for an indefinite period of time on one person who is technically dead in the first place. If you can clear an airway and get someone breathing you do that but the prognosis for CPR is someone who is not breathing and doesn't have a heart beat. Triage is about who can wait, who needs immediate care and who cannot be helped. I got to thinking about triage last night. I cross indexed it with my thought that dps was reverse healing. If that is so then what is reverse triage? It would be battle field prioritization of targets. Here is what I came up with. Your first priority are those opponents who are hanging on to a sliver of health. Even with a sliver or health; even with one hit point, an opponent is still 'alive' and can do full damage and take objectives. There is a nice piece of video coming on my stealther highlight videos of me at about 5% health killing a bounty hunter at full health and then taking a door on the Voidstar and then grabbing a health power up and defending the door. Take out the guys with a sliver of health first. This is what I mean when I say "cull the weak". Your second priority are the opponents you can insta-jib with a one button kill. For example a knock back off of a bridge on the Voidstar or a pull or a push into a fire or acid trap in Huttball. There is no faster kill in SWTOR than an environmental death. Your third priority is a wounded person who has someone else attacking. A person who is wounded can win a duel. A person who is wounded will be at a great disadvantage when there are two or more people who are attacking them. This is what I mean when I say "curb stomp". Your fourth priority is to kill a wounded survivor of a duel by yourself. This is technically a duel but one where you have an advantage of time because the other person has lower health. If you play collectable card games you may have heard of "time advantage". This means you have a "life" advantage over your opponent. Wouldn't you jump at the chance to play Magic, for example, versus an opponent who has 5 or 10 life if your life is at 20? This is time advantage and you should exploit it during the game for good use. Your fifth priority is to attack those who have full health by yourself. This is the true definition of a duel. This is also why I admonish dueling during a match. These is the least desirable situation you can be in in a pvp match. You at whole or less hp versus a fresh opponent solo. The only thing that is worse is you versus many opponents at full health. Your sixth priority is to attack multiple opponents. You shouldn't do this at all frivolously. You should only do this in defense of an objective and not with thought to kill as much as to delay and to sell your life for as much as you can. Use your crowd control. Use your target priority within this fight to cull the weak and insta-jib. Curb stomp as you can; if you can. This is mainly undesirable because you would be voluntarily making yourself a third priority target; an easy kill. Use this when you have to but die with a purpose. Sell your life for as much as you can. This is what I came up with for the "reverse triage" target priority method. I invite your comment. --m. from the Plus Ten to Awesome 'blog at http://plustentoawesome.blogspot.com/

qfe --m.

I actually like the Voidstar best of any of the three WZ's going. It rewards good tactics and good play more than any other WZ in my opinion for any toon choice. The only things that I don't like about it are cheesing the doors by planting or defusing the bomb when in the door if that is still possible and doing an Evel Knievel over the chasm to cheat the second doors. This doesn't happen so much so I am pretty thrilled with this map. Huttball is way too team dependent. If you draw the hot team you win, if you are on a stinker there is not much an individual can do to turn the tide. Alderaan is more about where you don't go than where you do go. It is easy to have a good win or a bad loss doing the tactically smart thing by playing defense and not seeing hardly any combat sometimes. Voidstar is the only one that funnels both teams into direct conflict, draws a line in the dirt and says I dare you to cross it. I have the most fun on that map as melee, ranged, or heals; class makes no difference to me and I play most of them. Furthermore I think the Voidstar map is the best indicator of which team has better coordination and tactics as you take turns doing the exact same thing and get to see who is better at both defense and assault to get a clear win most of the time. --m.

A 14 14 13 Jedi Guardian build in Soresu form using medium or light armor and open hand on attacks could easily be the worst thing going in end game pvp. Better yet get a fresh respec at the skill mentor, spend no points, party nekked and use no weapon. Pick any class. Buy a goldfish and have it play for you. That should be pretty awful. --m

There are three ways to play Huttball. One is much like a pack of 6 year olds playing soccer. One is control and one is the fast break, much like basketball. The pack method is the simplest. Do what feels good. Don't care about winning. Hope for oranges and diet energy drink after the game. Pay no real attention to where the ball is. Satisfy your own personal agenda. Spend your time dueling. Spend your time running away. Do whatever floats your boat. I see this as a legitimate play style. The developers made a space for you to play in but really give you no instructions or expectations on how to play. There is no penalty for losing. You can grab your four medals and usually quite easily. Do your own thing. As for control set up at choke points and behind barriers such as fire traps. Make sure people do not come past you. Make them pay with their in game lives if they try or at the very least pay with yours to slow them down. Systematically support your ball carrier and destroy your opponent's ball carrier. This will win you and your team a lot of huttball especially if you are playing versus a team who is playing like a pack of 6 year olds playing soccer. The most glorious manifestation of the game is the fast break. Make passes to team mates. Move down field to receive passes. Leap over barriers and up to platforms. Use your abilities to push and pull foes away from the ball carrier. Use guard and heal the ball carrier but most importantly move the ball towards the goal using the pass ball command and the blinding speed and athleticism of force using advanced classes. This team will annihilate the youth soccer opponents and both destroy and vex the control playing teams. They literally cannot control all approaches to the goal line. They literally cannot kill fast enough to stop the ball carrier when you pass three or four times in a row. After reading this what is my suggestion to you? You can play huttball however you like. Nothing has changed. But if you are after winning the game observe control players and fast break players. Emulate their tricks and tactics if it would please you to do so. Use them in conjunction with others who you will be lucky enough to play with from time to time. If winning the game means a lot to you find some like minded people group with them in PvP for the eventual huttball match and wreck people. It only takes two to four people working in concert and coordination as either a fast break or a control team to have a lot of fun ruining other peoples' days in huttball. --m. from the Plus Ten to Awesome 'blog at http://plustentoawesome.blogspot.com/

If I am able to take that droid out for a long walk through a short airlock in the mini-game I will quite pleased. I can think of no single installation in the game more useless and annoying than the ship's droid companion regardless of what the current date is. --m.