Use the focus/rage specced gap closer (if you're that desperate) - it ignores targets in cover.

No hostile mobs (though there is one yellow lv. 50 womp rat) in the area. HOWEVER, the outlaw's den is a Free For All pvp area: basically, unless you're grouped with or in a guild with someone else that is in the zone, you'll be red to each other (even if you're the same faction). Each chest contains ~1500-3800 credits, 20 WZ comms and OCCASIONALLY a random piece of recruit gear for your advanced class (note, the type of gear is random if your AC has multiple gear options - i.e. Assassins will randomly get stalker and survivor gear randomly).

As watchman, you'll want to use force leap + overload saber (overload saber is off GCD, and should complete its animation by the time you land) -> zealous strike (if necessary for focus) -> cauterize -> strike (as many times as necessary to build up focus for merciless slash) -> merciless slash (attempt to use merciless slash as often as possible while you wait on your overload saber cooldowns and to automatically reset your cauterize cooldown so that you can keep the bleed/slow going from it). Blade Storm is always nice to use, particularly if you're just beyond melee range and charge happens to be on cooldown (does solid damage too, if you have 5 stacks of juyo). Master Strike is powerful (particularly when you have 5 stacks of juyo), but save it until you have a perfect opportunity to nail someone with it (i.e. one of your teammates is stun-locking a target) - other than that, it's a filler for overload saber cooldown and a "shadow-cast" ability (meaning enemies will waste a knockback, stun, or defensive cooldown when you use master strike - which is good since that's one less method for them to keep you off of them for when you actually use overload saber).

Min/Max'd (mods/enchancemets swapped for maximum power and surge values, belt/bracers are oranges with the best craftable armoring for strength) Rage Juggs/Focus Guardians still have smash values of 5800-7200 against full WH geared opponents (requires that they stack power and surge). Highest smash damage my juggy guildmate has done to a WH geared opponent was 8147, but this was to a sorcerer without any bubble up and I had given him Bloodthirst. Fortunately, there are talents for quite a few classes that reduce AoE damage values by 30% (certainly seems to be far greater than that). Highest smash that the same juggernaut guildmate has smashed my BM geared Deception Assassin (undergeared -under 1200 expertise, and missing ~2% mitigation that WH armor would give me over BM- and easily the squishiest class in the game, mind you) was 3871 (this was done as a test from several duels - I didn't fight back, and all of his smashes occured after a charge or obliterate while he had full shockwave stacks) - his smash damage values were 3300-3700 typically, with 3871 being the highest out of ~ 15 smashes. Smash hits hard, regardless of expertise value (albeit he has gotten 10k+'s with my bloodthirst on him against those PvE heroes in unranked warzones) and all rage/focus specced classes have a flat 20% armor penetration while in shii-cho form (and +6% force damage with single-saber mastery talent) but... smash really isn't as overpowered as people think, since they can easily be countered by smart players (sorc/sages removing crush/exhaustion from their teammates, teammates interrupting force choke/stasis -this will deprive them of their stacks to empower it- and then there are some classes -marauder mostly, but a couple others CAN- get the AoE damage reduction talents which will make those smash-a-holics get frustrated).

I 1v1 all marauders/sents with ease -though it takes a while- (as madness sorc.) even if they're very good, I also easily 1v1 all rage/focus juggs/guardians, and all tank-specs (excluding assassin/shadow). Unfortunately, however, it's pretty tough to 1v1 any other class/spec in the hands of a good player with full gear but... I can at least put some big damage on some classes (PT/VG - due to my DoT's) before dying.

When are folks going to learn to buy a 2nd set of relics (and possibly gear) for when they notice that the enemy team is weapon-based attack (mara/sent/sniper/slinger) heavy? Seriously, if you stack defense chance, you'll evade more, causing you to suffer fewer roots (roots are becoming more and more prominent now, but you can swap to 2x defense relics and redoubt augmented gear for these situations, though this is done most effectively by inquis/consular classes and quite a few tanks) - also, many roots can be "disspelled", though there are some exceptions (charge, for example). Out of all the carnage marauder roots (and yes, 9s duration IS possible, though most don't take the talent for the extra 1s duration from charge), ONLY the root-talented ravage cannot be evaded (though its attacks can be). Fortunately for recipients of the root+ravage, the carnage marauder is in your face, so you can simply use ANY stun/knockback/mez/knockdown/etc. to stop it. Carnage Marauder is NOT the biggest DPS spec for marauders as someone stated earlier (easiest offensive windows to counter/shutdown, single-target short-term burst dps, majority of attacks are weapon-based - thus, easily countered with accuracy debuffs/defensive cooldowns with defense chance increases/defense chance stacking - though they do have one very effective force-based attack -force scream-). It's also difficult to play carnage marauder effectively (against good opponents that know how/when to counter them); you either play carnage marauder supportively (popping predation ~90% of the time you have a full stack of fury -which greatly improves your group's efficiency-, and you primarily focus on pressuring healers) or you can play it as a greedy stat-padder who tunnel-visions on enemies (popping berserk most of the time) - these players tend to let many objectives get capped despite being near the objective.

All I can say is that my deception assassin has full BM gear except main-hand and one relic (which are both war hero). In BM stalker gear (with force master's focus), my stats are a bit more like: Crit = 32.47% (without operative buff), Surge = 71.21%, Accuracy = 101.xx% - I can't remember how much power I have off the top of my head, but the only augments I have are lv. 48 purple resolve (willpower +18, endurance +12) and those are only on 3 pieces. The rest of my gear is unaugmented. My highest hit (not counting chain-shocks) was 6417 against and undergeared opponent, but my usual highest hits are ~4200 (against full WH geared opponents). I'll typically dish out the most damage in a warzone (though it's very common for me to have the most deaths, by far) - if I have a pocket healer (preferrably ops healer), I can usually stay alive for a surprisingly long duration even in the large # fights (defensive cooldowns let the healer reset me twice, easily). My usual shock crits on WH-geared foes are ~3400-3800 (x 1.5 if it's a chain shock), my usual discharge (with 5-stacks of surging charge) is ~3600-4200, mauls are ~ 3400-4400, and assassinates are ~3400-4800; hell, even my force slow has gotten crits nearing 2k. Voltaic slash damage is pretty poor with my build, unfortunately (highest I've seen are ~1800 total). Low slash has gotten some 1.5k+ crits. Now, I'm not sure what you're doing wrong, but I can't quite understand why youre crit and surge are so low compared to mine (unless it's coming from my WH weapon), but I think it should be higher if you're in full Stalker gear; or it's possible that you aren't using the BM crit/surge relic (which I am, for now, though I will swap it for a 2nd WH power relic later, after I've gotten the crit/surge from the rest of my WH gear). Also, your willpower seems quite low (might be due to my sin having the WH weapon + 3x resolve augments) - have you gotten all the datacrons?

+10 Points for the literary satire you just wrote. I commend you on your creativity. Not only is this one of the most warranted threads I've seen in a while, you used what I feel to be the ideal metaphores relative to the issues many of the gear-grind QQ'ers complain about. Seriously, folks, it only takes ~4 days (tops) for a casual player to go from being a fresh 50 to full battlemaster (assuming you had 2000 warzone comms saved up) - and if you also had 3500 RWZ comms, you would likely have 2-3 pieces of WH gear (or you could convert those back to WZ comms and be in full battlemaster within a day). Sure, the grind from BM -> WH gear can be arduous, but the only advantages WH gear tends to bring a player over BM gear isn't HUGE, if anything, I'd say it's only really noticable in 1v1's (assuming both players are DPS classes); and in all honesty, a good player in BM gear > bad player (or lazy) in WH gear in that situation. If you're DPS, the most significant improvements come from relics (which are EASY to obtain), weapon, and off-hand (or off-hand weapon) - if you have augmented BM gear, you're very close to being on par with fully augmented WH geared players (augments make a more noticable difference than the WH gear itself does, IMO).

Deception does well - better than many give it credit for. And Deception Assassin can bring quite a bit to the table that ops/scound hybrid doesn't: 6s cooldown, 12s duration 50% slow (underrated and one of the most annoying things in the game); the lowest resolve-filling 4s duration mez (low slash) - which can be used every cooldown on an enemy (sorry, healers) without ever resolve-capping them (assuming it's the only ability that affects resolve which is being used) - this is one of the best CC tactics in the game (4s duration makes it difficult for players to opt to use their stun-break, since they could just find themselves sapped or whirlwinded if they do); they bring great (and consistant) burst AND sustained DPS (sorry to any deception assassin that is crying about resource management, but you're doing something wrong - I don't even have the +10 max force talent); and the majority of its damage is internal/elemental or heavily penetrates armor. That said, I DO agree that they put most of the "goodies" for assassins/shadows in the tank trees and I also feel that they went about nerfing the tanks in the wrong way (yes, their survivability was incredibly high, but in pvp, much of that comes from the fact that their DPS is SIGNIFICANTLY higher than that of other tanks). It's their offensive aspect (and maybe some utility) that needed a nerf, not their armor value (yes, self-healing was a bit high, so that nerf was actually warranted).

The issues with Sorc come end-game, really. DoT damage is horrible when everyone has ~19k HP (the ability modifiers for them are AWFUL). MANY sorc dps abilities have bad modifiers as well (thus, their most consistantly damaging abilities in lowbie pvp -which work great then- get outshined by other DPS classes late-game). And then... well, yeah, the whole squishiness issue - also becomes far and away more and more apparent late-game. Basically, in end-game pvp as a DPS sorc, you have to be VERY SKILLED at kiting and timing your utility (seriously, if you let some classes get more than 1 consecutively powerful hit off on you, you'll be going down soon after). No class has a bigger level/gear gap discrepancy compared to a DPS sorc, and even when you're fully geared end-game, it's really quite disappointing to see its lackluster performance compared to other classes for the time invested to acquire that gear. Not saying it's USELESS altogether (in fact, it can be one of the most annoying classes to face in the proper hands), but you really don't stand a chance against quite a few classes (no matter what you do, it'll only prolong the inevitable) if they're in the hands of a good player. That said, I find that madness sorc. DOES counter all maras/sents with ease - very popular class, so odds are if you're on a server that has crazy numbers of these, you might do quite well - if you know how/when to handle/counter them.

1.) Force camo and Force Cloak are two VERY different abilities, you're comparing apples to oranges. 2.) It's not better, it's different - force camo (which has a shorter cooldown and a 50% damage reduction attached to it) might make it APPEAR better than force cloak, but force cloak takes you (and your enemies that have aggro on you) OUT OF COMBAT, which permits FAR more significant tactical opportunities (i.e. you can use a medpack again, assuming it's off cooldown; you can change equipment; you can use your out-of-combat regen ability; you can use your stealth-based/ooc-based abilities such as mind trap or spike, you can regain stealth-based bonuses such as increased force regen rate if talented, etc.) - see what I mean about comparing apples to oranges? I would NOT trade my Deception Assassin's force cloak for my marauder's force camo ever. 3.) Yes, the proper application of force cloak makes it difficult to use if rooted/slowed/DoT'd, but that's what force shroud is for (though this won't remove ALL root sources, it still removes almost anything that can be used to pop you back out - excluding stealth probes - and if you're tank-specced, your force speed will break all existing slow/root sources - a combination of shroud + force cloak + force sprint will almost GUARANTEE that you escape). Also, Force Camo suffers from the majority of the same things in the same exact way as force cloak: DoT's, though their damage doesn't break force camo's cloak, still persist; roots/slows remain -unless you're talented into the carnage tree so that it will remove slows/roots-; attacks/debuffs that occur after using force camo still occur just as they do with force cloak (oh, and if you're carnage and talented for camo to remove slows/roots, you'll still get rooted/slowed by any abilities that land in this manner - you also don't have the 50% damage reduction when this occurs) and if anything, there's a longer delay between when force camo applies its stealth effect than there is with force cloak. 4.) Marauders have a stealth so that they can drop aggro (they die easily, despite having some of the best defensive cooldowns in the game), close gaps (charge alone doesn't cut it when marauders can't do ANYTHING unless they're in melee range and charge has a cooldown - without camo, marauders wouldn't be able to do much due to slow + kiting/knockbacks/roots - even with camo + gap closers, it's still easy enough to kite them), etc. 5.) UR/GBtF certainly isn't enough - it cannot be used early on in a fight due to the health-cost to use it (it's a last-minute "oh crapola" button) - and since it DOES have the health cost, it gets used at moments that are easily predictable making it very easy for players to bypass completely if someone stuns a marauder at ~30% HP and finishes them before the stun expires - also, even if they DO pop it, they can simply be stunned or rooted after using it and then finished off once it does expire.

AP has somewhat less burst than Pyro (no crazy DoT, no damage bonus to flaming targets, no extra 30% -11% actual- armor penetration for rail shot, less significant crit damage multipliers... to an extent). But... it gains quite a bit compared to Pyro: more diversity (HO causes AP to have a more adaptive playstyle - I.E. not as vulnerable to root + burst damage classes or slow + kite classes). Unfortunately, Retractable Blade is AWFUL - DoT damage is usually lower than CGC DoT damage (before factoring in talents to improve it) with a significantly longer duration (less burst damage), has a weaker (albeit, longer duration) slow effect, but... it's melee range and costs a GCD of its own to apply (CGC procs are procs, so it's more like an added bonus to normal ability usage instead of a hotkey dedicated for an ability to slow). Saying that AP isn't a high burst spec is both true and false: when you have everything off cooldown and happen to be fully prepped (Immolate/Rail Shot/Rocket Punch/full PFT stacks ready), you can drop many classes as effectively as a Pyro - yo also bring an ability that has a HUGE edge for when enemies cluster: PFT - the 70% slow almost guarantees that you'll get all of your flamethrower ticks on enemies before they escape (while also dealing more than 2x their FT damage). As for not noticing HO - pretty sure someone has already mentioned it, but: speed boosting effects do not stack - the game takes the most significantly boosting buff (in most cases, though there are some exceptions) that is present and uses that. I.E. If you have HO active at the same time as say two marauder teammates (one of them annihilation, one carnage) have given you predation, you will only be getting the carnage marauder's predation speed-boost for its duration (if it expires and another speed boost is present, it will switch to that one, etc.). Also, when it comes to the passive 15% speed boost, this talent is also a non-stacking speed boost (thus, it is only noticable when you are in-combat without having a slow effect on yourself). Unfortunately, most classes have access to 50% slow abilities from range, wheras AP only has a 30% on-demand slow restricted to melee range; thus, even if an AP with the 15% passive speed boost is slowed by 50% and his target is slowed by 30%, the target is moving faster (slightly) and can eventually kite (albeit this is where Hydraulic Overrides comes into play) - basically, they need to increase the overall damage (significantly) on all long-duration non-stackable DoT's such as Retractable Blade, make them stackable (let retractible blade's DoT be able to stack like deadly saber with an internal cooldown of say 4.5s), or rework some of the short-duration DoT's damage (CGC, mostly, and give it an internal cooldown for reapplication, even if it's 1.5s -one GCD-).

Honestly, I haven't bothered with doing that, but I'd imagine there would have to be some sort of internal timer (albeit long - since we have had many ranked matches last quite long due to neither team being able to cap mid at all).

Your focus/vigilance spec is partially misleading - you're missing out on 6% force damage bonus from being in Shii-Cho (due to single-saber mastery) and 20% armor penetration (from focus tree talents - also requires shii-cho form) - basically, your smashes hit for less, but you do a good bit more melee damage and pick up a lot more survivability (following leaps). Also, in Shien form, you lose the passive (3%) damage reduction from shii-cho. It's a respectable trade-off, but not one that I'd advise overall (fully specced in either of the DPS gives significantly improved performance with their role - not that the hybrid should be overlooked completely, since it brings a broader array of possibilities, at the cost of performing them less effectively).

This will happen when: 1.) Target is at full resolve. 2.) Target has some form of CC immunity up (i.e. shroud for assassins, unstoppable for vengeance juggs for 4s after every time they charge). 3.) Target uses a stun-break. It's working as intended. Rage Marauder comes up to my sorc, applies force crush, I purge (NO SHOCKWAVE STACKS FOR YOU). I dish out damage, marauder decides "hey, it's ok, he screwed me over from one of my big nukes, but he's a squishy sorc!" so he tries to use force choke to generate those shockwaves. I use my stun break, then I interrupt his force choke. He obliterates and smashes me without breaking my bubble, then stand there looking stupid until he dies while he triest to figure out what's going on - then come the "hacker!" hate-tells.

Worst WZ's for anyone to post huge number values are Civil War and Novare Coast (if coordinated, both teams can purposely refuse to cap until everyone has throughly padded their stats). Touchee'

Could be a combination of many things: if only one person has used a root that breaks on damage after 2s (maximum duration is 5s) and you're not able to move when you have taken damage after 2s, it could be a result of server-side lag - i.e. your flytext damage visuals appeared later than the attacks actually occured (you can take damage in the first 2s of these roots and the root will still last full duration-5s- if you aren't attacked after that 2s window). ... or, it's always possible that you are getting chain-rooted - sniper/gunslinger aoe KB + root is the only method that doesn't actually deal damage, all others DO. For instance, say you're got cover-pulsed by a sniper, then the sniper auto-attacked you (still within 2s, so root will still last until 5s, mind you) - sniper then throws explosive probe (doesn't deal damage on you, so you're still rooted), then uses snipe (1.5s activated) immediately followed by legshot (activated ability -> instant ability causes both abilities' damage/effects to register at the same time) - now, the damage you would take from that snipe + explosive probe would've broken the root effect, unfortunately, leg shot (which does damage as well) would cause you to be rooted... again (hense the term "chain-rooted")

Melee DPS's (marauder/sentinel, primarily) usually have issues as cybertech since they can't often afford to lose a GCD so that they can maintain rage/focus and inflict maximum damage during their offensive windows. Not saying that they're bad as cybertech, only that they have far fewer "free" windows in which they can spend the GCD for the grenade - sure, the grenades are still great as openers, however. To me, BH/Troopers tend to function best as cybertech. Much of this is due to the fact that they can afford those GCD opportunities mid-combat since it also helps them maintain their resources (same can be true for tankassin/shadowtank) if they are overheated/out of ammo. In general, I find that cybertech grenades are easiest to use mid-combat as classes with good survivability and don't rely on brief offensive burst windows - if you happen to be a burst-window class, the grenades are nice, yes, but you'll find that you typically can only afford to use them as openers and other rare situational occasions.

Pretty sure it's the only root effect in the game that cannot be dispelled (it can be broken with your stun-break or when damaged after 2s) via ops/scound/sorc/sage/merc/commando dispelling abilities - all other roots can - only exception might be the root attached to ravage for a carnage marauder. Also, bubble-mez is the "ghetto-mez" for countering melees. AoE knockback + root is something... extra; not only is it effective defensively (combine this with force speed and you have a great exit strategy), but it's also good for strategic application (i.e. tank guarding healer - use this to split them apart, potentially beyond guard range and many tanks can't do much to "peel" attackers off his healer while rooted).

Sorc/Sage purge/cleanse remove many root effects - only ones it won't remove (if heal-specced with the talent) are tech-based roots (i.e. sniper's cover pulse, DPS operative's root) and then... sorc/sage knockback + root (bugged, I think, since I cannot dispel it on any of my toons).

Not sure if the ravage root can be "cleansed", but I know the charge root and the deadly throw roots can be. Yes, he was a smart carnage marauder. Smart carnage marauders will watch for targets to use every possible counter before doing a gore-procced ravage or wait to use it until they've been resolve-capped.

cover pulse, man, cover pulse!. AoE knockback + 5s root (breaks on damage after 2s) - think close-range aoe knockback that causes everyone to get hit by leg shot! Learn 2... level up? Sigh... I forget how soon you learn cover pulse, but it's pretty dang early on.

I kill them on my madness sorc. all the time, don't think I've lost a 1v1 against a marauder since before 1.1. Even fully min/maxed marauders can't do squat if you know how/when to counter them and every class has enough to do that. I kill them on my PT (EASILY if I'm AP), I kill them on my deception Assassin, I kill them on my MM Sniper. I don't get it... how are they OP when I can beat best them so consistantly as 1 of the weakest classes (sorc) and one of the worst possible specs (deception - though I have to disagree with that popular opinion)? I'd say I'm ~ 11-6 wins/losses against full WH-geared marauders in 1v1's as my Deception Assassin (who has been 50 for 3 days now - only has WH weapon, BM helm/chest/gloves/boots/legs/focus, and recruit ear/implants/relics/belt/bracer) - and, well... seriously... what is causing this? It should be impossible if they were as OP as people have been claiming. Do marauders decimate you if you have no idea how to stop their HUGE damage windows? Mmm-hmm. Do marauders survive longer than most tanks normally do in focus-fire situation if you don't know how/when to counter their defensives? Yes. (Though I'd say tankassin wins this one). Can marauders rock you when they're at full resolve? Yep, if they aren't rooted/slowed. Can marauders rock you when you don't have your knockbacks/stuns/roots/slows/etc. due to cooldown? Sure. Does it matter what class you're facing in any of the previous situational questions I asked result in any different outcome? No. You will get destroyed by any class you haven't learned to counter. Sniper/Gunslinger isn't OP - you're saying they're OP because they beat marauder. The most OP class right now is actually Pyro PT/Assault VG: mostly due to broken mechanics pertaining to its cylinder + the cylinder's DoT damage being very high with short duration - making it deal huge burst damage. If they fix the cylinder by introducing an internal proc-rate timer of even 0.1s, reduce its damage and/or increase its duration -both of which will result in it causing less significant burst- then Pyro/Assault PT/VG will become far more balanced without actually gimping the class/spec (Pyro/Assault's burst cycles will still be just as good... but they'll lose those 2k+ potential crit ticks from the cylinder's DoT, which tick 3 times per application).

It has its boons and its banes. When you're in it, you can't usually be pulled or grappled (including friendly pulls) due to LoS. You CAN pass it out (or charge/intercede, - and I know to whom you're referring to, but it's usually only one member being silly; it's not all of physics, mind you) only if you jump (which would also let enemies have LoS to hostile pull you into the fire) so best advice is to simply save your pull/grapple until they're either jumping to pass/charge/intercede or to use it on any potential passing/intercede-to targets he might be waiting for. Hell, you CAN even pull/grapple someone out of it if you actually bothered to try a better angle without any possible LoS obstructions (I remember when said person said "oh, don't worry, I'm in the dumpster, they can't pu-" and next thing ya know, " 'Insert player's name here' has been defeated" after watching him get grappled into fire). Ranged (long) can still attack people in there so long as they can manage LoS; AoE's (ground-targeted) almost always hit them if you target the top of the outside rim, but yeah... healers have a fairly easy time healing someone who's in there. Melees (including sins/shadows and PT's/VG's) are at a disadvantage, and only way for them to damage someone in there (well, bulk of their damage, that is) is for them to get in it as well. Should it be removed? Maybe. If not, there should be one on both sides.

Is this or is this not a PvP event? Oh, wait it's players dualing other players - thus, the event would normally appeal to PvP players more significantly. All I'm saying is that in the environment you have chosen for the staging grounds permits ONLY non-pvp adrenals, heavily in favor for non-pvp relics (which are activated, and give significantly more burst potential if you have the ones from raids), non-pvp medpacks, etc... thus, it seems like this event is actually heavily in favor of PvE'ers and the PvP players that DO do PvE... and, of course, Biochem/Cybertech crafting professions. Hell, you're taking away quite the majority of what normal PvP'ers who aren't biochem actually use just by doing this (they can't use their warzone medpac, nor their warzone adrenal). Also, I attempted to point out a potential advantage that stealth classes would have over everyone else since they can pop PvE relic and immediately swap to a pvp relic (effectively they could pop campaign relic of boundless age for +315 power, and equip the war hero relic of boundless age for its passive +113 power) - that's an issue associated with PvE trinketing getting compounded by swapping it out for a PvP gear that is most advantageous for stealthies (sure, non-stealthies can do this too, but only before they actually instigate combat, but assassins -and operatives- have a combat-cloak that takes them out of combat - thus, they can employ it more effectively). Just saying it's something you should be aware of (not sure if you even want something like this to occur - if you do, then hey, go assassins! No excuse for any of you to lose!).