offhand damage is quite relevant for combat spec. Not as much for the other two beyond stats. Although, it should be noted force power is directly tied to weapon damage and hilt rating. And that scales evenly. so for watchman, and focus, you still need to keep your offhand weapon damage up to date.

I wonder if they can use the already in game mechanic of companions to help with world pvp population imbalance. If for Ilum warzone area, companion check is not op based, but area or zone based. If rep op groups could keep all their companions out when out numbered, I think that would go a long way in evening things out.

arena with companions would go a long way. I stated in the last thread, the main problem with arena's in diku mmos, is you are locked to one class. And arenas are ALL about class composition. Look at any moba (lol, dota), 90% of the game takes place at champ select. Same applies to fps arenas like TF2. Allowing companions in arena would go a very long way in smoothing out the compositions. 1 tank, 3 dps players, 4 healer companions? 3 dps players, 1 healer, 4 dps companions? Something would need to be done about surge and expertise still though. horrible horrible competitive pvp stats. I would expect having companions to CC/heal would also prevent the 3 op/assassin death train from stealth.

I would like someone to test something for me. Trauma healing debuff is 30%. Sentinels healing debuff is 20% Expertise +healing, does not increase healing power. it instead counters trauma. So a healer with 10% expertise, cuts through 10% of trauma, thus healing is only debuffed 20% for them. Expertise capping at 20%. I am curious to see if expertise is double dipping on heals, and reducing the sentinel debuff as well.

Just an fyi. Expertise has diminishing returns. And you can totally afford to drop out the chest, once you have a good amount on your other pieces without much penalty. Arguably, possibly be stronger for it.

focus runs out. and needs to be in melee range to regen. Pacing yourself properly means no down time for other specs. They don't need to spam builders to regen. And melee out, melee out. We have WAY WAY more down time then other dps.

absolutely correct. Expertise is a stupid stat. I've said this as well. "pvp" gear should have things like +run speed, shield procs, etc. things that will let you create variation in your power in ways that are more obtuse then direct +damage x10. Remember vanilla wow? the green emerald armor? put people to sleep when they attacked you? We could say, that items like this are still an advantage. But really it would just add another layer of building an item build, that works into your strategy.

because you can not swap your class in an mmo. Imagine you picked a class in team fortress. and that was the only class you can ever play in the game. It would be awful. Arena's are like 90% class makeup. So being forced into a viable comp, kills good player interaction. Granted, this is largely an issue with these mmo class designs. something more freeform, like a Diablo 2 class structure, or even Rift one, where soul swapping lets more player create more diverse builds potentially.(not saying rift nailed, as they kindof didnt..) A mmo would have had to been built from the ground up, with arena in mind, for it to be viable. Battlegrounds have more diverse objectives, tend to not be so rigid in class balance. More varied compositions are possible, as you can change your tactics based on that comp easier. Here in Tor. Crit and RNG is a huge issue. This is compounded greatly by the presence of SURGE. Crit is already a RNG that really kills competitive play, where Luck should not be a factor. Surge making crits 90-120% damage(lol) means here in ToR, luck will always trump skill. A few lucky crits is game changing.

well it is both. the melee attack is melee, the burn is force.

No they can't. A sents sweep will top out at like 5k vs a 0 expertise target.

yeap.

or you can test it by actually getting the +30% damage to force crits in the focus tree, and seeing cauterize totally DOES get the damage.

no down time on dps... what?

one last testing. Focus talent Gravity does not effect cauterize with the slow talent.

yeah. testing this now. level 50, vs level 25 distressed rills on tatooine My with no talents cauterize, and no form SAYS 460-539 and 658 over 6s. 460-539+ 165x6 or 990. (noncrit) 293 ticks on crit. (correct 78% multiplier) so first of all, the burn is doing WAY more damage then its supposed to. 5 stacks juyo 812/6 list 182x6 actual =1092/6 with 30% damage talent, 5 stack juyo 1034/6 list 230x6 1380 actaul 410 crits (untalented 78% multiplier) Overload sabre 692/6s 3 ticks-230 410 crit x2 820 x3 1231 crit