Stop pulling numbers from the wind. Some people are lucky to even get one WZ in 2 hours. I am lucky to get 4. And recruit gear are for team players that don't want to feel like they're pulling down the team and are doing the best they can considering the circumstances. There are 5 variables to the result of a battle; player, class, spec, gear and cd availability. Some players are quick to judge based on an encounter when any one of the above variables can swing the battle against them.

I never turn down a battle of any sort. Comebacks are always good. Once I'm in a WZ the only thing that will make me leave are unexpected RL interruptions. If I'm offense I'll wish em good luck and leave, but if I'm defense I'll let my team know so they can get someone at my post before i bail.

Aim still contributes to power and crit which increases our damage output. I use dps gear with my shield spec w/Energy Blast but it still does no where near to the damage the AS VG's put out. It's the reason I did the tree evaluations. To open myself to other specs and to find out the pros and cons of the other specs against shield spec. The one definite thing that shield spec surpasses both dps specs on is survivability and mobility. The dps specs add damage, yes, but are at their peak at melee range, which when your on the enemy healer makes you a primary target for their ranged players. I solo queue and don't really have a pocket healer handy. Now for tactics last night, it was a breeze keeping on a single target but this spec isn't well suited for melee. One defensive 25% damage reduction for 12 secs on a 2 min CD isn't enough. Being full melee forces you to be at the mercy of their range and designated peelers when on their healers and we just don't have the defensive cd's to support that role. I think other melee are just better equipped than we are. A lot of times I am back at spawn before I get the stacks to 5. Tactics didn't go well last night for me but it I think it was slightly due to group makeup and lack of heals.

There is a player on rep side that loves bashing the team the moment it doesn't go right. But that is only one. I think it comes down to the maturity level of the players on your server. My chat log is time stamped so I always have the time from callout to time of plant handy. And most players on my server know the limitations of a class against 2 or more of another so they play on and try and pull it back at the next door or next round if possible. I always mentioned what happened whether it was a fault of mine or whether it was a stealth zerg and most players know my playstyle and push past that hurdle. It is an online game and although the behavior you mentioned is uncalled for and immature I think the reaction is over-exaggerated. How could you take what a stranger says to heart and act on that. If it was a family member it's a different story but this is someone that doesn't know you. Your friend has a soft heart which is a good thing and is nothing to be sad about but the problem with a soft heart is you're too sensitive to comments. On the other hand I am surprised that a temporary suspension for bad conduct isn't being enforced. The same way you shouldn't take what someone says seriously you should never be allowed to receive those insults without being punished.

OK, this is the spec I'm planning on trying out. Think you call it the max dps build for tactics. http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#801hMhZMsMMRrfkdsZb.1 Still a bit pessimistic about it due to the lack of ranged abilities like AS but I will let you know how it goes

As a tank spec you will do 1/2 to 1/3 the damage an equally geared player will do in the dps specs. I've run those tests and it's also normally pretty easy to see on the final damage page. Find out what role you want to fill. If you want mobility and survivability then the tank build. If you want damage, then try the trees out. There are a lot of builds out there, you need to figure out which one works for you.

When your spec is built around defensive cd's I think this is another vital one to have. 20% is not huge but I prefer it due to its duration. Rather than the others that have a higher miss chance and shorter application time.

It has to be bugged then as the huttball carrier shouldn't be able to be vote kicked. And are you sure they were vote kicked? I was booted out of the WZ's twice last week before the game even started. Ran through 2 loading screens and ended up back on the fleet.

What spec are you running?

Interesting idea but I am happy with the current titles for various ranks. You can choose whether or not to display them and which one you would like to use. In my case I just like displaying Major.

You did mention you're going dps so imho you're on the right track with your gear selections. If you're going tank endurance will top your priority list.

It's just the spec they're running.

In PvP, once you win the game the next thing to work towards is the gear. It gives the players a goal to work towards, better gear, and once they achieve that gear it adds to their superiority. In WoW they have the gear attainable through battlegrounds(WZ's) and then a higher tier through arenas and rated battlegrounds. Even with the rated currency they had a higher tier for high rankings (2200 and above if I recall correctly) so a basic player will not be able to attain the highest level of pvp gear. Even there they had balance issues and that is why they were trying to sway from 2v2 and 3v3 arenas and push more 5v5 and the new rated battlegrounds. There were certain combinations that had the tools that could destroy most other comps and they didn't need the skill set the other players needed to achieve the same rankings. Here the starter pvp gear is attainable via credits and reg wz comms. WH pvp gear is attainable by regular wz's at 3:1 conversion. Would of been a bit more tolerable with rateds but that is obviously not the case due to delay issues. Then you have a tier of gear that is attainable at rated ranks which allows you to freely mod the gear to how you want it. Finally there is gear attainable through crafters which stupidly are better than ranked gear as they can have an augmented slot on a critical success. Very close to top end gear is a lot easier to obtain compared to WoW imho. There were weekly limits on how much ranked currency you can get whereas here there is none.

Quote: TheOpf - Bug Note: 4/19/12 - Currently The Vanguard Pulse Generator ability is broken. The 70 percent slow is not working at all (for those of us who played AP pre-1.2 we know how frustrating this is) though their Pulse Generator does affect both Mortar Volley and Sticky Grenade. This is a noted bug, and I would recommend everyone post it in the Bugs both in-game and on the forum. As TheOpf is the contributor to the tactics guide sticky here and its equivalent in the BH forums I would trust their judgement. The only question I would have is whether this bug still applies on 5/17/12?

You're not. I noticed it too but honestly i didn't really care about it. As long as the blaster fired and my opposing targets died I'm happy. You're paying too much attention to detail. Sometimes it's a good thing. But if everyone at BW payed that much attention to detail we would probably be still waiting for the game to launch and BW would of probably crashed their budget.

Anyone that has played a consular knows that we as VG's are very lucky. I stopped playing my infil shadow at 42 as that whole melee thing didn't appeal to me. My mouse allows me to switch between 2 pages and side taps of the mouse wheel activates my interrupt and dps boost. I'll never force anyone to change the play style that is comfortable to them. But I would say from past experience that the reaction time for a keybinder to a clicker is normally faster but not much difference. But the split second difference to activate the cc break to get out of the fire in the pit is a good example and could be the difference of still being alive or a quick trip back to the start point. Every split second in PvP matters so I always recommend keybinding for it. It's difficult at the start but within a week or 2 it becomes second nature.

Although getting into a premature fail WZ due to numerical disadvantage is frustrating but sometimes, just sometimes, it's welcome after waiting 30 mins or more for the queue to pop. It's not too different that going to a WZ with no healers and the opposition got 3 good ones. Then again, starting at a disadvantage and then swinging it around to get a win is even more satisfying. I like being able to leave the WZ whenever I like. Should I be forced to just stand there in a WZ doing nothing if I get a phone call or if someone shows up at my home? You do know that's what will happen right? If forced to stay in there people will do just that, nothing, let them win faster will be their message. There are certain scenarios this would work and some that it doesn't. I think they have this feature already, dueling. I don't think it's feasible for a 1v1 arena. 1v1's on the rare occasion are required in WZ's. Holding up an enemy healer so the ball carrier group gets out of range, stalling a player so the other player can cap and plain killing a player so that your ball carrier has someone to leap to at their spawn for a score. All your points got 2 sides to the situation.

Oh, didn't know that PG buffed Mortar Volley and Sticky Grenade too. Definitely didn't say that in the talent. Using the other abilities reset the 5 stacks or does only PC do it? 5K in a channel is pretty decent imo, That is true, even without the slow it's still can't be interrupted and maybe smack em with a gut slow prior to casting. Appreciate the input on Tactics spec. I'm convinced to give it another try but this time will spec into PG and probably should play more than 2 days this time.

I actually played it with HEC and not Ion Cell. Probably not as long as I would of needed to in order to perfect some techniques and rotation. I did not take PG as I can't understand any PvP spec that requires you to be stationary as a good one. The only talent I see that benefits from HEC being active is Battlefield Training. Is the 5% increase in elemental damage from HEC that much of a bonus? Is PG 20% increase in damage to only Pulse Cannon without the 70% slow really worth it? I will test it further later on but right now I'm testing out the Ion 31/8/2 build.

Was running IF with frontline defense and Gut. I am now trying for the elemental damage rather than kinetic from gut. 31/8/2. The only deciding factor that will make me switch back to IF is the 2 secs in Frontline Defense for Riot Strike. We'll see. On the switch-side I ran 8/2/31 as AS. Like I mentioned above I was really trying to test out the various trees.

There ya go if you had a problem finding what I was referring to on my previous post.

Some people do. But some, when you feed them some info they want you to feed them more... and more.

I don't think Huttball should be the reason to not like the spec. It's just that your role changes. Find the role that suits your spec and class. As IF I am accustomed to charging into the heat of the action. Just can't do that anymore.

Yea, I wouldn't worry about it. Just move on. I'm sure the other players on that team understand that it bugged too. played 3-4 games last night in a row where we started at a disadvantage as far as player numbers were concerned. Just played it through. Frustrating but what can you do? Make the issue known and hope for the best.

So I decided to run all the specs the last week and these are my thoughts. I used to run IF build. Assault Specialist: This is a very good spec and my favorite between the 2 dps trees. You can do decent damage at range while running in for mid-range and melee abilities. Free HiB normally procs within the first few Ion pulses and stock strike. The root break attached with Reactive Shield is nice and the short cd's on quite a few of our emergency abilities is great. It is easy to kite with this spec by spamming Ion pulses and filling other abilities between them. The main beef with this spec is survivability. Tactics: This will definitely take a bit more practice to master. Need to be proactive with Hold the Line. I don't like this spec as it's slow is attached to a melee attack which isn't where you want to be against some classes. The pro of this tree is it isn't tied to HEC. The only thing you lose out is a 15% extra speed but only if you specced into it if you choose to go Ion Cell. Tactics could really use an extra root along with the 1 effective stun. The gamestyle flow just didn't appeal to me. Maybe in time. Shield Specialist: This is the frontline spec. The roots attached with storm, stealth scan and harpoon makes sure no one gets away on your watch most of the times. You have slightly better survivability but the drawback is you don't do nearly as much damage as an equally geared player in the other trees, especially AS specced. I also noticed that Static Shield damage debuff doesn't add to your protection values. Only taunts and guard. Not sure if it's intended. I feel like this the weaker of the tank classes though and sometimes I do question whether this is a tank class when I face certain classes but it's all about the role. This isn't about you, this is about the team. The WZ that brought the specs to their limits I would say is Huttball as mobility suffered with the dps specs and tactics suffered the most. Players that run tactics got to be quick on the draw with Hold the Line on the ramps. If knocked off the ramps tactics suffered the most as the abilities are mainly close range. Even with Shield Specialist you always have a way of getting to the action or bringing the action to you. Tactics is strong on mid control though. AS is not fully compromised when knocked off as you can still use 5 abilities at max range. My final verdict. I hate being deprived of mobility so I'm staying SS. I understand my role is not damage but to control the flow and protect others. If I ever want to go offensive I think I would prefer AS to Tactics.