Overall the patch was great, this arena however is irredeemable for competitive group ranked. There are so many things wrong with it I’m not going to bother with suggestions. It’s the Odessen of arenas, only I can’t leave it and it has an increased pop rate for the near future.

Eric, Overall well done on cleaning up the leaderboards. I think you got some of the right ones, still are missing a few, and a couple I’m surprised at that are probably incorrect. I’m hoping you’re open to reversing the decision for a couple players that seem to have been caught in friendly fire. However, I think you’re setting the right tone ahead of season 10. Players have egregiously abused the system in s-9, primarily through backfill and queue denial. I’m hoping s-10 will shape up to be a competitive and minimal exploit season, and the shorter duration of the season / cross faction should dissuade non-rule breaking shnaningans like dodging and sync Qing. If you want to get top 3, you should be getting it by playing with and against the best both in solo queue and group ranked. I think the changes are a positive step in that direction.

This reminds me of the scene in Kotor where Malak orders the destruction of Taris. “The search for Wintraders is taking too long. We cannot risk them escaping into season 10. Destroy the entire planet”. Bioware took out some of the right ones, some of the wrong ones, and missed others completely. I’m sure there will be more to come in the next few days. Hopefully Musco is transparent around what metrics they are using here because clearly they need to be improved.

This is an issue most impactful to solo ranked and one that has been exasperated by recent (needed) survivability improvements to guardian. I think we should absolutely compare off-healing to guarding as a dps. Off-healing drains mana and directly decreases dps through heavy GCD usage. Guard requires 1 GCD to put on a teammate and has no real drawback other than redistributing damage to you if you are lacking in cooldowns. Guarding by a DPS should have an intrinsic drawback - whether that be a flat damage reduction or something else. Taunts should continue to be a free added bonus to classes with a tank spec. Personally I thought Guard worked best when tied to stances. If you wanted to guard someone you had to dump most of your mana to do so as well as cast a stance shift. We're obviously not going back to stances, so either add a drawback or just remove it entirely. To address the end of your post: Give PT DPS a better DCD, sins a dps boost and/or small survability boost, mercs an increased CD on reactive shield or kolto adjustment, and we're in a good spot for ranked balance for most specs. I' not referencing the letahlitys/IOs/Lightnings of the world since they need more than just 1 or 2 changes to make them competitive in the top tier. Merc heals obviously need help too. Carnage dps got the biggest nerf that I can remember to a class in recent patches, RA was correctly nerfed, and sniper ballistic shield heal was correctly nerfed from 3% to 1% along with engi getting toned down. I don't see nerfs needed to either mara or sniper. Nerf 1 aspect of merc dps DCDs and give the classes that need it some buffs.

Lightning dps needs a rework, fundamentally. It's a spec that doesn't really know what it wants to be. It's supposed to be a ranged burst spec but it's concentrated around AoE damage which is done better by pressure specs. Its single target burst through TB is barely noticeable. It lacks the survivability to be competitive in group ranked unless you are playing some sort of bridge or run around the hut "strat". in solos, you better buy some nice running shoes because you'll be doing figure 8s around the arena hoping your team can kill someone on the other side before they get you. 1.) Single target burst increase, flat single target dps increase, lower focus on AoE damage 2.) Passive DR increase - something to compete with mara cloak of pain 20% flat DR or sniper 20% defense in cover - Possibly make bubble stronger, up less frequently, and less force cost when cast on yourself as opposed to other players 3.) To compensate, I'd want to see the spammy offheals be brought in line with merc offheals - up less often but still useful I think you'd have a less gimmicky class and something you could take into competitive group ranked with those changes.

I’ve seen some terrible ideas over the years on this pvp forum but this is probably in my top 10. A gear penalty for every 100 ELO above 1500? By that logic at 3.5k you’d have me run into arenas naked, slapping dudes with my Champion and leaving my other rifle on my ship. You’d probably still lose.

Thank you for the quick clarification on Top 96 Titles, I appreciate it and am glad we are aligned there. I still push back on any inclusion of prior season rewards for the reasons I stated, but the titles were my main concern.

Eric, Shorter seasons? Yes, everyone wants that. You’ve made a similar post in the past that never materialized so we’ll see if the devs execute on their intention this time. One currency? Yes, easy QoL improvement, and the credit conversion rate is so meager that unused tokens are essentially worthless right now. Releasing old rewards? I am strongly opposed to this. You’ll get support from newer players who weren’t around 5 years ago to earn the rewards, that’s obvious and predictable. I’ll give you a different perspective. Ranked rewards are a time stamp on a player’s accomplishments at a specific period in the history of the game.. Someone who has Girrada’s rancor, furious gear, or any of the early season top 3 titles earned them during the golden period of competition for Swtor ranked, particularly in regards to solo ranked. No amount of a premium on token cost preserves the rightful exclusivity of these rewards. A player receiving s-1-4 rewards in season 10+ is an anachronism. You’ll take the rewards out of context, out of their time period of competition while ironically making them near- worthless. When everyone has a Ferrari, no one cares that you have a Ferrari. My biggest concern is that you haven’t been clear on whether top 3 titles will be re-released. I have every top 3 sniper and/or gunslinger title in the game, every ranked reward including Warzone Annihlator titles from 8v8 ranked. The title most special to me is All-Galaxy. I got that title on two characters when ranked was highly competitive and it’s a title most acknowledge as the best of the bunch. All-Galaxy means that I’ve been around competitive ranked for half a decade, and I fought with/against a specific set of talented players during a vastly different meta. None of those are true if you rerelease the title in a season so far removed from its history. It would be like winning the World Cup in 2018 and receiving a trophy that says 2006. Different players, different time. People often forget that aside from having the best top 3 title, season 2 had by far the worst rewards. A stronghold deco, some color crystals, and a helmet that looks like a squid is attached to your face. The dev team is going to feel pressure to acknowledge season 2 rewards by themselves aren’t something to chase. They’ll look at what these they could offer, and remember that All-Galaxy is S-2 and it could be a great reward to increase activity while removing the reason people lust after it in the first place. I hope they resist that detrimental compulsion.

Character flairs, mount, and weapons look good. You should really consider having non-cartel market armor become a regular reward for tier 1 though. Season 1 and 3 had great armor sets (although they are no longer exclusive to pvp) and they are a great reward to chase. As each season comes along I do get nervous that you will release old top 3 titles, making them completely worthless, so I'm glad to see we survived another season without giving into that impulse. I can already see all top 3 titles being available as a season 10 reward as a "celebration" of 10 seasons of ranked pvp and I really hope you don't go down that road. The Top 3 title is pretty lackluster but a lot of the good possibilities are already taken and this season didn't have a theme like s-4 did to inspire interesting titles.

I can’t speak for DM since I play NA but I know you’re active over there so you’ll have a better idea than I on the ranked environment. NA isn’t without shenanigans but certainly none as overt or impactful as what you’ve outlined.

When I say new players I mean someone that joined the game in Season 8/9. 4 years is plenty of time to become a good player if you go about it the right way.

This thread is mostly a meme but this is a good post. Someone actually evaluating their own relative skill/experience and correlating it to a rating outcome. Most bronze/silver players tend to think there’s a conspiracy against them, that all the top players operate as a cabal and if only their teammates weren’t always so bad they’d be top 3. In solos if you can win 1v2s, herd the cats on your team into a basic strat, q frequently and in general carry harder than the best player on the other team, you’ll be gold tier +, legitimately. If not, then you won’t. If you engage in shenanigans to boost your rating past your skill level (particularly 2k+) you are food for the legit players and it all works out. At least before queue dropping was a thing. A lot of people game the group ranked system so rating isn’t as good of an indicator there, but the 8-12 top players know who each other are and know who their main competition is. People have to be realistic about the fact that top players have years of experience playing competitively when this game was at its peak. There’s really no way the vast majority of newer players will catch up at this point, especially in group ranked. That’s just the way it is when a games been out for this long. Play games, try to improve, don’t blame others for your shortcomings and you’ll more or less earn a rating that reflects your skill and activity level. Ultimately, it’s just a game and fun/competitive matches should be prioritized over rating but that’s another issue with this community entirely and unlikely to ever change.

Most guilds that know what they're doing aren't going to pug someone from fleet. If they don't have a sub, they're going to tap players that they know from other guilds with comparable progression. If you join as a fleet pug, you are joining an inexperienced group that hasn't integrated into the broader raiding community and should expect very little in terms of prior knowledge of fights.

You are correct, and q dodging is not what I was referring to. “Playing against the q” would’ve probably been a better description by me though. Meaning the losses you pick up along the way from factors outside your control (typically the seasons where I was around the 3k range, I tend to win ~85% of my games, but it would be more around 90% if you take out the other factors). Anyone who is 3k+ has to win at about this percentage to compensate for the usual 3-4 win:1 loss ratio required to gain rating. My point to the OP was these losses are part of the format. If not having control over your team bothers you, it’s time to queue 4s. Otherwise enjoy the format for what it is- a mix of Russian roulette, carrying, and general shenanigans.

Solo q is as much about playing the q as it is playing the game. Everyone gets these types of games (same as throwing, hacking, people who die in 4 seconds, etc.). If you want to climb the ladder you will increase your ELO despite these weighing factors. Or you could ascend to godhood and backfill into games like the losekids do these days. Solo ranked is both a fun and maddening format, you have to roll with the punches. it only gets worse the higher you go because you get skipped 3 times, wait 15-20 mins for a glorious +4 or -18. Personally, my patience for solo ranked has long since passed.

I said 10-12% in 2016, alacrity works differently here in 2018. Your channel time will be t he same with 7.2% or 10.2%, hence why you want 7.2% or 15.5% (15.5% or above will give you an additional .1 second GCD reduction as compared to 7.2%-15.4%)

7.2% or 15.5%, anything in between does not affect your GCD. I would recommend 7.2% for a sniper in pvp, that's what I run.

Well without a dodge on roll to save you unlike Concealment (which has a lot of its own problems in TR by the way) you are unfortunately toast to any damage paired with a hard stun chain that comes your way. The utility that you bring (flashbang, middling DCDs, offheals that take from dps uptime) aren't conducive to a pressure strategy. Especially compared to the AP PTs, AnnI/Smash Maras and Engi snipers of the world.

I think there was some misinterpretation here though looking back at it I wasn't actually clear and it does read like a mortal combat script. Let's just put aside the competition idea -but what I meant was have my team play exhibition matches against any other collection of top players and have a separate group including you representing different game experiences from regs to SR & TR host commentary and balance discussions with the participants and observers after games. Throw in a charity component attached to make it more compelling- but like I said, not really even a thought out idea and phrased poorly. That aside, I've helped a lot of players over the years get into TR and go on to form their own successful teams. The key ingredients for improving are having a group of 4 consistent players who are running a defined strategy and are willing to learn and queue through losses over the course of a season or two. Tune into the average 4s stream and listen to the complete lack of self-criticism or leadership after a couple losses paired with a perpetual blame game of what "they" did and not what "we" can do better. It becomes clear why a lot of people who want to compete stagnate and why continuous incremental improvements made by some teams quickly become insurmountable gaps. It's not so much treating a star wars video game as more serious than it is but rather a desire to be the best while you are doing it, like anything else. Being able to put out good numbers with an understanding of DCDs is a prereq but most players stop there and anyone who doesn't will pass them fairly quickly. Going in with a basic strategy comprised of appropriate kill targets, correct positioning, mez/hardstun orders & focus target interrupts and being able to execute on that will put most people who keep at it into Tier I in 4s. Qing up for a few games with someone, however, doesn't actually have that big of an impact. I will however give anyone targeted advice that asks for it it regarding TR, always have - especially around strategy and building teams. More competitive 4s players = more fun games for me.

You're likely being facetious but I'll bite anyway. I play on both SS and SF most nights a week when there are 4s games to be had. If you wanted it to be competitive we could have one team of top players vs my team in a Bo7 running any trinity 2 dps-1 healer-1 tank setup with the winner donating to a reputable charity of the opposition's choice. If they're EU players half the games SF and half on DM. Have other players across different skill levels from regs to SR to TR who aren't participating available to give good commentary and feedback on the action. Now that would be something to stream. Not for ego purposes but rather a demonstration of top players using specs at their skill ceiling, implications on balance and forcing the pvp community to do something positive for once. This isn't throwing down a gauntlet or something, I'm on these servers playing anyways so up to you. I also doubt any balance changes would come out of it since for the most part the developer team prefers to forget team ranked exists but it would at least be entertaining.

Of course, my main point was the playerpool they primarily draw from is correct- the teams that clear the most challenging content. For whatever reason they took a different approach with pvp. I have heard some pretty cool stories though from friends that are operation playtesters with the operation PvE dev (his name is escaping me) and his personal interactions with them in-game.

Nope, it's pretty accurate. No reputable 8s team, no 4s team, no leading in solo ranked. That about fits the bill. We can definitely agree that you are not the most qualified person to give feedback on balance. And without pointing to specific changes you've brought about, this seems more like a humblebrag and not all that interesting. Especially because so many of the "changes" made are so poorly thought out. Maybe you can also start a collaborative effort to become a good ranked player so you can have your own informed thoughts and opinions and not siphon ideas from your mates without any context of what's good from what's hot garbage. When 8v8 ranked was a thing I played it almost exclusively. I didn't "avoid" anything. 8v8s were a blast at level 50 cap, I have three Warzone Annihilator titles but aside from Huttball, the format was broken and 4s is what we have now. At level 55 warzones were no longer able to support competitive team play, TTK and mobility had broken most maps except huttball. Setting up perfect hardswaps or overloading your enemy with pure pressure damage is a far better show of skill than hoping your combat sentinel popped transcendence fast enough to cap the off node in civil war, right before a 30 minute snooze fest. That's what competitive 8v8 ranked was at level 55, I was there. Let's be real: you don't enjoy team-based play. You enjoy a casual experience fighting a disorganized mob where it's safe to make rookie mistakes and the shockingly low skill level in regs makes you look half decent at the game. The vast majority of regs not called Huttball devolve into death match around a node - objectives are an illusion and if you haven't figured that out in 7 years I don't know what to tell you. I'm done talking about dueling. I could not be any less interested in offering feedback to an irrelevant distraction but I hope you and your mates have a good time. I mean if you don't play group ranked or solo ranked at above the 1500 level you won't be seeing me. It's kind of hard to miss one of the two players in swtor that has every top 3 title on a class in a combination of solo ranked and group ranked + WZA unless you simply aren't involved with that part of the game. Even if you don't care about titles (win trading q syncing etc etc etc) I've played thousands of group and solo ranked matches. You can't be exposed to what you don't experience. And qing from time to time at the 1500 rr level is not what I'm talking about. I prefer using my time in swtor to build top ranked teams & strategies, play with/against the best players and setting up perfectly synergized hardswaps, not tooling around on some guy's regular warzone stream. A few minutes was quite enough. You can keep your boring jokes and like dueling, I'm also done talking about your stream. I wouldn't hang the warzone that everyone leaves, Odessen, on your hat as an accomplishment. Though that buff under Yavin Ruins probably helps you land more stealth caps so that time wasted giving token feedback wasn't completely for naught. It's taken you three massive posts to get to anything resembling a suggestion. I guess that's progress. The class rep system was a complete joke (Shinrika for shadow rep lmao) held out as a "community engagement" activity without any substance or integrity behind it whatsoever. The community devs seem like nice guys but they have no track record of listening to the right people in pvp You know what's funny though? The PvE developers are better at interacting with the the top PvE teams and implementing changes based on that. The teams that are invited to test are those that have cleared all of the most challenging content. They, like top ranked players, are the "implementors" , the doers, the people that know what they're talking about and don't need to form a quorum of their buddies to know whether or not a mechanic or cooldown is broken or unbalanced. And as that brings us full-circle, my part in this exchange has concluded.

Your opinion on class balance is about as valuable as the average pvp forum goer. I don't care how many people tune into your stream, you haven't accomplished anything in competitive pvp. Not in 8s, not in 4s, not in solos.... and you've been around forever. This isn't some set-up to the inevitable getalifebruh, game's been out for what.... 7 years? That's a long time to do a whole lot of nothing. If you want to keep it casual that's completely fine, but you lose the ability to have informed and meaningful opinions on class balance. You can't have both. This is an internet forum, where people discuss things. Not a new concept, iterations lead to debate and maybe understanding. I don't know how much clearer I can be about this, but team-based play is what interests me. The "great boycotting of '17"? I didn't play for the majority of 2017 (4s was dead, why bother?) but I do know the N/A players skipped your "illustrious" tournament without giving you a heads up so I can see why'd you still be salty about that. I tuned into your stream for a few minutes one time and you talked about Americans living in the "school shooting timezone'. Doesn't even bother me but showed me the quality of the streamer, nothing all that interesting but I'm sure the lowest common denominator probably liked the joke.jpg or w/e you called it. Bizarre comment. Rule Britannia!.... I guess?

No, I didn't. Acid stratz aren't a counter to anything except developing as a player. They may prolong games but I haven't lost in seasons against double tank, double tank/double healer, 4 stealth minesweeper comps, etc. Post whatever reading comprehension fail you want next. Beyond this point, I'm not wasting my time.

You just pivoted from your random acid strats comment to this? 4 players operating as a synergized unit can execute strategies far beyond the predictable nature of 1v1 duels. 1v1s involve knowing your DCDs, knowing your opponents DCDs, knowing when to time your stuns, and depending on the format, cheesing LOS mechanics. Add in a bit of luck because TTK is so low where your crits fall and relics proc matter more. These are a pre-req for group ranked, and the best teams do far more ontop of this. Dueling requires skill, sure, just as boxing does. But there's a reason the most popular competitive sports are team-based. Football, baseball, soccer, hockey, basketball, etc. etc. offer far more strategic variety and possibilities than boxing because a high-performing team has far more capability than a single high-performing individual.