Considering the control scheme had to be compatible with mmo control inputs (I'd guess less than 10% of the player base owns a joystick), I find the system the devs devised incredibly elegant and intuitive. I don't understand the complaints of "clunky" at all. It's the opposite of clunky. The ships (especially scouts) feel responsive and I get a sense of both speed and inertia. Skimming a scout over the surface of an asteroid or satellite while dodging blaster fire is the most StarWars-like experience I've had with this game in 2 years of being subbed. Yeah turn fights tend to be meh and I think the satellite capture mechanics need some work but overall it's a great product.

As a former very-involved swtor pvper who's now on the fence about whether to continue with the game: if Season One had these improvements it would certainly pique my interest.

Lacerate is still a pretty meh skill considering it soaks up 7 ability points. Lowering the CD on backstab by 1 second per lacerate would be nice. A stacking buff that increases backstab crit chance on each use of lacerate would be a way to generate some on-demand burst in a longer fight. Adding a trauma debuff to acid blade is a great idea that will make operatives more desirable without causing people to scream for nerfs. Perhaps most importantly, it's an easy buff to pvp that will have absolutely no effect on pve balance. AoE damage reduction seems like a loooong overdue no-brainer. Yeah pretty much everything Scold said.

Yeah bolster makes expertise nearly irrelevant. Make sure you aren't mixing pve mods into pvp gear or vice versa and your expertise should almost always be capped unless your pve gear level is 65+

Really? What patch was that?

I assume you're not in ion cell?

One mod gives 99 combined power/mainstat. The other gives 108. Pretty clear choice.

Collection of obnoxious ITK mez-caps: At 1:01:20 http://www.twitch.tv/melynmeron/b/428303589 At 2:10:30 http://www.twitch.tv/melynmeron/b/440004269 At 2:00 http://www.twitch.tv/melynmeron/c/2555216 From 0:30 to 1:20 http://www.twitch.tv/syberduh/c/2603962 At 2:11:10 http://www.twitch.tv/melynmeron/b/438996533 There were a ton more but twitch seems to have eaten most of my clips.

If the other team is running 2 dps + healer + full tank, then there's very little incentive to run a full tank on your team. There isn't enough incoming damage to make the survivability difference between a full tank and a prototank important. Meanwhile prototank is doing 3x the damage of a full tank (and also way more than any other tank hybrid right now) Often players don't run with a shield since it's a big dps drop and damage you take from guarding the healer (likely most of your incoming damage) isn't mitigated at all by shield.

On PTS teams were running full AP powertechs in ion cell. Most of them ran full dps gear except for a shield generator. A few of them used a tankier blend of gear. iirc the full dps-geared ones were scarier.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njBPUXTUDXw

Let the mez-cap sound on the west turret One. Last. Time. #Youhavemyaxe #NoIamyourfather #FREEEEEEDOMMMMMMMMM #EightvEightisAight #Pussytactics #Classiclolsplit #Leftgoleftrightgorightexceptforthetoptwowhowentleftlasttimeyougorightonthenextroundeverybodygotthat?

Yeah does the operative set of questions need to reiterate the set bonus and dps survivability questions from scoundrels? Like, "no really bioware these issues are gimping the class." Maybe with some caps and colors for EMPHASIS? FFS Bioware. DPS ops are just comically bad in arenas. The two most prevalent dps specs are smash mara and AP powertech. Trying to play a melee dps without an AOE damage reduction buff in that environment is RIDICULOUS I can't slip and shade my way through an enormous elemental AOE damage cone that includes a 90% slow. I love that AP is finally getting some love but the state of dps ops is just pathetic. Several matches in a row against wakalord on his op here starting around 1:43: http://www.twitch.tv/melynmeron/b/457613272 (vs. the same group except Waka on his 'sin at 39 mins and at 1:11 for comparison) They're just screwing around with comp but you get the idea. In the first match we pretty much ignore wakasopperative and he does good damage. In the other matches we just train him mercilessly and there isn't much he can do. We aren't even running AP PTs that melt ops even harder than smash.

AP is really strong in arenas on the PTS right now. Be ready for the accusations that you rerolled fotm.

Yeah AP PTs are the current fotm on the PTS. AP flamethrower is NASTY. All that AOE elemental damage every 15 secs is murder on those small-scale maps. Probably better than smash in terms of raw output though PTs still have less survivability than maras. There are also few teams running full tanks at the moment. You see a lot of fake-tank AP PTs running ion cell and a few DPS juggs in soresu. But it's true that op healers are currently the only way to go. I've literally faced zero non-op healers in my last 30 matches. As I've said before, a good sorc can keep up for a while, but he or she will inevitably run out of energy well before the five-minute mark whereas a good op healer rarely will.

In a 5 minute match, A team of 3 warriors and an op goes from a potential of 20 big aoe ccs to 17. A team of PTs/Assasins/Mercs/Sorcs/ goes from 4 big aoe ccs to 1. The ratio of aoe cc drops from 5 to 1 to 17 to 1. The change does not simply affect all classes equally. For classes that already have aoe cc it's meh. For classes that have no aoe cc it's quite significant. Edit: because 20 - 3 is 17, not 19

Best way to make it climb the list is to include to it along side phrases such as "heal to full" and "just heal to full"

Against anything but top-level competition, sorcs are fine in 8v8. But even in 8v8 sorcs fall behind ops against the best teams. We're lucky to have one of the game's elite sorc healers in ITK but we were in the process of switching over to two op healers when Bioware decided to make the whole calculus irrelevant.* In arena sorcs are way behind ops. I haven't seen a single merc healer since the first day so I'll assume they are also well behind ops. Really good sorcs can sometimes keep up for a little while but even if they manage to not get shut down they're going to run out of force well before 5 minutes is up while a good op can just go on indefinitely. * Oh by the way, f*** you, Bioware.

Any interest in a 5-second cast for concealment ops that does nothing but drop combat when the cast completes?

In an epic battle of the invisible phantoms: backs were stabbed, tendons were severed, orbitals were struck, flashes were banged. Mostly flashes were banged. Basically there was a lot of banging.

Thread needs more RP

Nah that's pure PR. 8v8 rated is dead and gone. Whoever was working on it was laid off during the dark days. The remaining devs never supported it and clearly don't want it. I'd rate the chances of it coming back at less than 1% If anybody wants to put up 100 creds to my 10000 I'll book bets.

Surrender now, Scold. No one can beat the alacrity set.

We kind of are, though. The scoundrel was pretty far from optimum in getting to the node quickly (well more than .25 seconds late on the speeder, slow off the ledge, cloaking well more than 1 second early). I mean, should there be a large margin for error in high-level pvp? Personally I don't like it when the dps assist train makes a successful target swap and globals somebody before I switch guard. Should I get more time? The alacrity-roll tactic can be countered. Just because it isn't easy doesn't mean it isn't fair.

Yeah like the 15s cooldown on warrior leaps -- which go 30m instead of 12, generate energy instead of using it, root the target, and automatically interrupt cast abilities.