Let's add this to one of the more useless combat changes... Like, maybe it's good for the person who used a legacy set between their mara and sentinel, and they forgot to grab their lightsaber as well, and are too lazy to leave the current wz they're in so they'll have at least one move to use... But I mean...

I was under the impression that you couldn't see a dusted stealther, to begin with? I think the only thing that I recall, from open world that a non stealth can see of a stealther, is when they have their pet out. Which of course, you can't even take out a pet in WZs, so... With that being said, then, it's certainly a bit silly that they would make it non-removable now. I assume they're doing it to slow snowball package farming? Pretty lame. You need only find a ton of NPCs, anyway... And I should be allowed to click that **** off, it's annoying anyway...

What I dislike, was the lazy fix to combat/carnage maras for DPS, by giving them a bleed on ravage... This is especially terrible when you need them mezzed... I'd say maras need a very very slight buff, but I think once juggs and sorcs are brought more in line with everyone else, maras will do a bit better in pvp. I think what I've found funny about jugg tanks is that when sin tanks got changed from more mitigation and no self heals in 2.5 their desirability in pvp was basically at 0. Now, they still don't have self heals, and yet jugg tanks are the craziest non-healer, healing class there is. It's especially crazy when they're the class with the most active DCDs in damage mitigate... I'd say improving 'overcharge saber' might help, but I think this might just make sins a bit OP again...

I've got false hope that they've been 6 months silent in the PvP forums, because they're working on cross server queues. But I think that's giving them way too much credit. I've been using SWTOR more as a glorified chat lately. :/

No ranked, no conquest, no event, and no need to do PvE or PvP, should I even log on this week...?

A bit of a cheesy video in and of itself, but nice to see a full sniper troll group. Nice stark change from the usual jugg tanks and sorc healers so prevalent...

I think people forget that SWTOR started out with PvE bis being the better choice for endgame pvp at the time (back when you could also use adrenals in WZs too). They had expertise back then too, except you only got it from some gear, and it may only a very small difference towards damage. I'd also be quitting, if they removed PvP gear. I mean they already killed owpvp, among other things... so...

Those people complaining about solo ranked queue are a good laugh. It's only a slightly elevated version of reg arenas, nothing special, no actual prowess to speak of really. The same can't really be said about group ranked. Not because it requires more skill (because it does), but because if two teams are of equal footing, the game will always go to acid, and that's just not as fun. And it's not really about skill any more, like when sorcs can escape incoming player damage, as the acid comes in, essentially giving them a head start. Remember the ones who consider pvp "serious business" and will rage hard, are the ones that should be trolled and laughed at. (I love pulling ragers as my sorc into acid or fire in huttball matches) or taking them over the ledge in voidstar. If I know a game is going south fast, it's fun to watch the ragers, rage harder.

The last time they posted in these forums was in August of last year... (I'm surprised they didn't even make a sticky about the Odessen WZ). I feel like if they do go forward with season 7, that will push back the oh so anticipated episodic content, since they probably never anticipated having to do anything with ranked... (or indeed allocate the resources for it). I mean in my heart of hearts, I'd hope the reason why they were so silent about anything pvp (aside from the WZ) was because they were bringing in cross server queues, but I think that's too optimistic...

I'd be okay with spread out :3 I've actually been encouraging people to leave pot5 (my home server) so that it's population will become horrible forcing BW's hand sooner. Though I highly doubt that will happen.

Well there hasn't been an update on many pvp things since August of last year (unless if you count an oft announcement of a new War Zone). I highly doubt there will be a new set of gear for a long time (considering their focus on episodic stories). And even if they did, there'd have to be a new set tier of PvE armour first, because priorities, and also can't have pvp gear get too close to 224 cause then people would cry foul, on their hard earned gear. The only reason they did that in 55s was because they had 2 operations to start with, and introduced 2 more later on, giving new incentives (ie. gear). BW has made it clear they're not working on an op right now, so I doubt we'll see new PvP gear for at least a year. Plus, it doesn't take very long to get a full set of pvp (ranked or regular) gear, anyway.

Honestly, all I'm waiting for now is ranked, not even sure why I log in/pay for a sub while waiting... but oh well... My assumption is that they'd do a quick balance patch before the beginning of 7, but I think that's also being way too optimistic. And if there isn't going to be cross server queues, I hope they make it so that servers like Jung ma and Pot5 have ranked rewards cost less ranked comms due to the lower population/less likeliness of getting a pop. Plus the reduced ranked comms reward cost could help to send people over to those servers. And BW could even re-increase the cost of server transfer tokens to trap them on the server!

I think it was because of "Norm of the North" people don't want to be associated with polar bears so they switch to the imp side.

It's not so much, utility as it is a necessity... Concealment in particular basically needs all the off heals and rolls it can get, to do well. If BW managed to shift the reliance of needing to use various CDs at all times, and gave them a bit more DPS as an off-set, I think that will work best. That is, unless if people like the play style of Ops currently.

Yeah, my characters are mostly on Pot5 (sadly) but I have some on Harbinger and Shadowlands that some day could get to 65 (they're 55 currently).

A really well played operative will always win against an assassin because of the off heals, however a sin can win if they keep on the target and use their burst asap. I'd say sins are about in the middle in terms of skill ceiling, they're not difficult to play, but people often gear them wrong, or generally just do abysmal damage. They're a fun class to play, however, and are quite viable in ranked.

There is a gap in the middle of that area where you can jump to teammates or enemies (depending on the closing gap skill). Operatives, for example, can close the gap to an enemy, with stealth active and go to a door and start capping when the enemy team isn't paying attention. This isn't an exploit, it's a team's failure of standing too close to the edge for an enemy to use their gap closer ability on them, and to subsequently cap the door while the team isn't paying attention.

A lot of the skank sin tanks I've faced I can tell have noticeably less burst. Not to say that they don't do good damage (cause they do), but I find that deception gets the job done quicker. Of course they don't have the benefit of guarding but at that point it becomes a playstyle choice. My issue with juggs in general though, is their time to kill. I understand in group ranked it's another story, but in regs, with unfocused DPS, and whatnot, if the enemy team has a few juggs, and a stealth, and a healer, you manage to kill them all except the jugg, but he's got all his CDs, so by the time you do kill him the team has already come back because it just takes too long to kill them. Add more than 1 jugg into the mix, and it just takes forever. I think one of the easiest fixes would be to cap the tick heals from enraged defense to 3k a heal, and maybe have it go on a rate limit. The really well played juggs out there can do 23k single hits and have 3 lives. I'm not even sure why people still defend their supposed lack of decent CDs... (trolling aside).

The times when I've queued on my sniper, I do notice of course that I get focused, but I think a few well timed DCDs can make the biggest differences. That is to say, even if you're going to die anyway, you might be able to do some decent damage. Not the most favourable thing in the long run, but at least it's possible. Of course all's fair in group ranked pvp, as it's not so much the class that you're worried about, but more of the team synergy and being able to cc the tank to blow up the heals or dps left unguarded.

this has to be like Nutroll kind of level, right? Also, if I'm aware, BW capped out on the number of game bans they can hand out this month. Because money.

I find that playing all other classes also helps to know how best to counter them. It's time consuming but worth it. As for watching the buff/debuff bar I don't do that too much, unless if it's important to the rotation. I think operatives would have to constantly look at the enemy buff bar (to know when to roll) but I think most other classes slog it out. That is to say you can look at the actual character to watch for animations on when to counter them etc. Like if you see a jugg using saber reflect, it's a good time to use a stun or aoe move on them. I think the one I hate the most though, is the unremitting animation for guardians (especially the vigilance specced one) where a barely blue hue animation is used to show that they are immune to knockbacks etc, but the empire's unstoppable is super obvious. There's also the time when a frogdog shadow that is carrying the huttball using resilience. But you can't tell they're using it, because of the golden hue they're already getting from the ball itself...

My unofficial kill order is generally: merc > sniper > PT > mara > sorc > Op > sin > jugg. It's not something to live by and there are plenty of factors that change this (as also mentioned above), but it gives a nice basis. Because the TTK on juggs is forever and a day, it's best to leave them last. As, if you decide to focus them first, the rest of the enemy team's damage output will be much higher because it took you longer to kill the jugg. Like the above poster mentioned, if any class has too little or too much health (usually under 66k or over 72k if not a tank) then they should be focused first as they might still be in only some pvp gear, or might be pve geared still. It also helps to have a bit of a plan with your kill order and back up kill order. If a sorc bubbles (sins can't bubble) or a stealther stealths out, you have to have your team focus on someone else. I've seen it too many times that when people focus on one character and that character uses a DCD, everyone just forgets what they're doing and then 3 different targets are taking damage. At the end of a round it gets to be pretty apparent what went right or wrong. Like if DPS were too spread out, that means there was no focus on one enemy, etc. When you're against a team like say 2 juggs and 2 sorcs, the best way to combat that is by staying on the ground (not on a bridge as the knock backs can really cost your team; that is, unless if you're confident with your team that you can knock them back before they can to you) and just focus one right after the other. Hard switching when necessary. Sometimes if there isn't much choice on who to attack first, I just have everyone go top down on the list. It's easy and often works. And it often sets up who to attack first in the next round (like: oh that guy was squishy or that guy had no idea what he was doing etc) Also a great indication on who to attack first, is seeing their playstyle. Say your team had unfocused DPS in the first round and lost it, but you still did good damage to 3 enemies and noticed certain quirks, you can use that to your advantage. Like maybe the sorc bubbles way too early, or a stealther stealths out to heal up in the corner, the dps jugg goes to tank stance to guard an ally. etc.

I'm sure that the 2-3 days it takes to get a full set of reg pvp gear is just too overwhelming for some of the casual pve players on that server.

Hmm well the trauma debuff is 30%, I believe, but the buff to healing with expertise is 35%. However these might be two different numbers in terms of how much your heals end up being. I've always noticed a reduction in heals anyway (such as with overcharge saber and its subsequent tiny heals for the next 15 seconds). I'm sure there's an explanation. This threat might be helpful though: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=843004

This thread will help: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=847112 It mentions all 3 specs. Also you'll want as close to 700 accuracy as possible.