I'm torn because I love the instant whirlwind so much and the overall practicality & simplicity of this hybrid spec, but at the same time I really love the PITA aspect of being a tank who is hard to kill as well as enjoy protecting others. Is 23/1/17 really best with dps gear only? is tank gear still fun with this? or should I respect to pure tank build if I like the tank gameplay? (I do have a lowbie Jugg alt though). Advice appreciated.

Other MMO's have had the /anon feature that allows you to be anonymous - basically so that others can't see you log on and off. Is there no such feature here? Only thing people can do is make a name with foreign characters and hope that nobody clicks on you? What's happening is that someone is permanently undercutting my stuff on the GTN and they've befriended me, so as soon as I log on they go to fleet and reset their items (or list them then). Because the GTN is a "free market" I guess this isn't harassment. They do this on their alts too because the person in question isn't on, but then with regularity this other person logs on within 1-2 mins of when I log on my merchant character. His wares aren't there at first. Then I post mine, log off... and log on 5 mins later and his are there (undercutting mine). I'm being stalked, sort of.

I wanted to add someone as a friend, but I got the message saying "that name does not exist". There's absolutely no reason I would be on his ignore list. So it must be one of those special characters for one of the vowels? Is my only hope that I see this person and manually click on him in order to do this. How do you figure it out?

No no, I ALREADY HAVE the +Expertise enhancements. I got them at level 45. Do I use them now, at 47, or use the level 47 purple gear that I have?

I saved comms and when I hit 45 I was able to have enough of the enhancement pieces from weapons so that my entire armor set had one of the +Expertise enhancements in them. I noticed a good difference right when I did this at 45. However, now I'm 47 and I have a lot of nice purple items in my bank. If I transfer the +Expertise enhancements then I'm going to lose about 25-30 points worth of stats per enhancement piece. In one case, for example, the +20 defense alters my defense chance upwards of 1%.... yet I'm not sure the +25 expertise is going to provide a similar benefit overall. Multiply this uncertainty by six pieces and you see my dilemma. I don't want to gimp myself for these golden levels of 10-49 WZ. Which is better at 47-49, transfering the +Expertise enhancements (with much lower total stats), or going with my really good purple items?

Whatever mechanic is used for lower level players in 1-49 WZ, does it largely wipeout any equipment advantage that a player has over another? I'm just amazed at how good a level 12 Assassin or Sentinel can be vs. my 20 something Juggernaut who is in nearly all purple gear, with implants, relics, and four pieces of augmented gear. Even if that level 12 had purple stuff, which is unlikely at that level, the augmented stuff plus the relics, implants, and earpiece are giving me more than nearly 100 points of increased stats over the level 12, not to mention additional abilities. I know, you'll cry "Learn to play" but I'm a rage spec and it's really, really simple. Or is there a class balance issue? How much equalizing goes into play for lower level players, and how important is gear anyway? (excluding the +Expertise slots).

Premades should only queue against other premades. Simple solution. But you see, premade folks don't want this because they'll lose their default advantage over pugs and they'd have to play on an even playing field.

Is there a clear best class & spec now for healing + survivability? I'm thinking defensive abilities and such to pair with the healing (I'd sacrifice some healing ability for better defense, for example). Thanks for your opinions.

Greatly appreciate suggestions from fellow Mercs on fighting Juggs in WZ. Maybe my spec is at fault (Arsenal), but I have very poor results against Juggernats in their 40's. Even with my cooldowns up I just can't keep them off long enough, but more importantly do enough damage to kill them before they kill me. If they have biochem or WZ heal stim available then I'm really screwed. Now that I think about it, it just seems like their defense is just so much better than my ability to damage, even when they're not right on top of me. Suggestions appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Ok thank you. What about gear spec? +defense? + shield? should I equip shield, or is it not worth it?

I've read that a pure tank spec with everything into tanky/defensive skills & gear isn't worthwhile for PvP. I have other classes that are pure DPS but more fragile, and what appealed to me about Jugg was the idea that I could have a lot of survivability & utility. On my other chars I've encountered Juggs in PvP that were very tough to kill, so I know there's a least some good ways to spec defensively and be harder to kill. I'd like to run the ball in Huttball. I'd like to just be an overall PITA to kill, and be able to guard & defend my friends in WZ without being too squishy myself. I don't care about my total dmg numbers in WZ. I want to be effective in other ways. 1. Is there a clear best spec for what I'm asking - maximizing the defensive abilities that actually work in PvP along with utility, and then dmg? 2. Specifically which defensive talent specs do NOT work in PvP, are broken, etc.? 3. How far should I go into the Immortal tree? 4. Gearing with my goals in mind - should I still seek out +defense, + shield, and +absorb items when available? or should I just gear for dmg? Thanks in advance for your input. I'm only level 11 and I don't plan to PvP much until 30's. I don't care how painful the PvE grind is.

EXACT same for me in my Merc. He's 42 with great armor and I can't believe how quickly I get mowed down now compared to before. Whether it is a change for just us or everyone I'm not sure, but there certainly was a change. It really rubs the wrong way, too, when it's a level 11 that is taking you down quickly like a Sentinel did to me that wouldn't happen before. My CC's normally give enough time/space to get my shots off, but instead the damage he did to me was so great that I was hitting medpack and feeling like in panic mode.

Hoping to not sidetrack thread here, so a personal message is fine. 1. Do all of the above critiques of defensive specced & geared Vanguards still apply the same in 1.2 onwards? 2. Is there a widely regarded "best" spec for being as tanky as possible in pvp, and using the rest into various utilities? 3. What is the best tank/meat shield class & spec in Pvp in the game? Thanks

Not at all. What's odd is changing what benefits the player receives by having chosen a given race after the fact. If one race would grant something they should have told us up front, or else give the option to switch.

Well, I guess we'll see once final details are ironed out. If your character was too tall or too short, I think you'd be upset if you found out that tall characters get xyz benefit now.