For PvE and story, Rage is far from useless. It does huge AoE damage and the single-target damage isn't bad either, definitely good enough for story and leveling ffs. Any spec of any class works for that content, let's not kid ourselves here.

Could you show us the full picture there? At least show all your buffs because it's very hard to infer anything given the screenshot you've provided. What's your melee stats look like? Why did you choose to show us your Force stats?

I'd argue grouping with your friends is far more advantageous than being able to talk to them through VoIP. You sure this isn't about pre-mades in your WZs?

I believe it was shadow cascades. I've turned shadows completely off and still no fix. Like I said, I've turned this game down to the lowest it will go, no anti-aliasing, no shadows, no bloom, everything either off or at lowest setting possible. Game looks like utter ***, one step above Minecraft, and I still get the same performance. I've learned enough from my WoW days to know at this point to just wait it out and it will magically fix itself with no word from the devs about the problem or the fix they pushed through.

To be fair, he was recording the game. Without dropping some settings to compensate for it, this is typical unless the comp is so powerful that it easily handles max settings in the first place. I've turned my settings down so far that the game looks like a PS2 game and I still get terrible lag in WZs when people bunch up. Now if I was able to max out settings just a month or so ago with no hiccups whatsoever, but now I can't even get a smooth experience on lowest possible settings after making sure that nothing on my end has changed, what else can I conclude?

Yeah, I've noticed the same thing. I've gone to some lengths to fix things on my end to no avail. I ripped my comp up and down ensuring no loose cables or bent pins, blew it out with air, updated all my drivers, diagnostics returning no memory failures. Even after turning everything to the lowest settings possible I still get lag in WZs and my comp is not that bad. I'm running quad-core i7 @ 3 GHz, 6 GB DDR3, Radeon 6950. It's not top-of-the-line these days but it's not outdated by any means either. I was running this game on max settings just a month ago or so with no problems whatsoever.

I don't mind it so long as there aren't any tryhards on the team screaming and ************ about every little mistake people make. I see a lot of funny stuff go on in WZs, but in an arena it gets a bit ridiculous. Ran one yesterday with a PT on our team and the other team was dumb enough to go up on the ramp. I just leaped to the tank and pushed him off back to where they started while our PT grappled the healer. That match was decided before we even pushed a button, honestly.

I hate full Madness in Reg WZs. So force-starved. I usually run a 7/21/18 spec. Damage is average unless Voidstar, but Force is never an issue and the amount of control you have with that spec is pretty awesome.

I just farm as many medals as I can (while still attempting to focus on objectives) and accept that I'm probably going to lose, but at least I'll get some quick comms/credits for it. You can't win them all so at some point you have to be somewhat tolerant of losing.

I'm pretty sure this is exactly what this thread is attempting to discuss. No one has said anything about "full 180-geared" anythings, this is about full Expertise with the exception of a hilt. Bro.

You missed the parentheses mate. I was in a pure PvE guild at the time due to friends, so I made friends with good PvP'ers of other guilds and would create groups with them. It looked like a PUG to anyone else and we didn't use any VoIP programs. Pseudo-PUG, you know, Pick Up Group.

While true, I don't think TTL is that drastically reduced by a simple hilt change. Tone down the exaggeration just a bit, bro.

I dunno, I can a whole hell of a lot more on my Jugg in that scenario than I can on my Sorc. At least on my Jugg, I'm probably going to still kill someone given my DCDs, reliable burst, and plethora of CCs. On my Sorc, I can pretty much DF everyone and apply Affliction before bubbling and watching everyone stand around waiting to finish me off. Sure, in the end both of my characters will be dead, but my Jugg will leave a mark at least.

God, this. I used to "PUG" with people on my friends list and we didn't even use TS half the time and still stomped people. You don't need it when you are making up half the team. So long as the other half aren't literally drooling ******* and you're facing a PUG, you're going to win three out of four WZs and make it look easy. 4 people from the same guild and possibly the same arena team? They don't even need chat to **** you up.

If you play mostly unranked then go for the DPS gear with a focus on End and some Defense. Something like Guardian Armorings, Deft Mods and End/Defense enhancements. Most groups are just not good enough to warrant a full tank and nothing will piss you off more than guarding a whole team of idiots for all your worth just to lose badly, ask most dedicated healers and they can probably relate, which is one of the reasons you see so many healer hybrids. You might also want to consider dropping Intimidating Presence for Crushing Fist. Putting that armor reduction on people will boost your DPS as well as your team's. Ravager for 3/3 Accuracy or Decimate might be better as well.