I am Finuc. I am the son of the Jedi Master Derec. When I was born, it was immediately obvious, that unlike my brother Radec, I had inherited the Force from my father and I was going to become a Jedi. My father took me to Tython and for years I was training to master the powers of the Force. It all came to an abrupt end when I was seventeen. Her name was Li'ana. A sweet twilek girl also in training. Fate had us paired together on some of the exercises. We quickly became friends, both being on the same page. We spent more and more time together, both on exercises as well as on our freetime. It is not really a surprise that after sometime we noticed that there was something more powerful than friendship between us - something even more powerful that the Force. We became lovers. Of course it is forbidden for a Jedi to fall in love. So we kept our love a secret. But I wanted the world to know my love for Li'ana and I spent hours, days and weeks trying to find out a way. I approached the older Masters and asked why love was forbidden for the Jedi. They told me that it was against the Jedi Code and specially the first and third verse. There is no emotion, there is peace. There is no ignorance, there is knowledge. There is no passion, there is serenity. There is no chaos, there is harmony. There is no death, there is the Force. I meditated and thought about this for many weeks. And to my horrifid realization I understood - the Jedi Code was wrong. We are taught to be compassionate for all lifeforms - but isn't compassion an emotion? And like all living beings Jedi can be sad or laugh. Those are very strong emotions. Yet without the ability to laugh, or feel sad, how could the Jedi distinquish right from wrong, good from evil - emotions are the very essense that gives all living creatures, Jedi included, the ability to understand the consequences of their actions and how people might react to different things. And what comes to passion - Jedi feel very passionate for peace. They are very passionate on their training, their beliefs and their way of life. The main passion for Jedi is to preserve life - it is the foundation of the whole Jedi Order. The more I meditated on these, the more I found holes on the code and all I've been taught. Jedi have emotions - without emotions they could not function, feel the Force or understand the life. They have passion - for peace, for life for good. The harmony is merely an illusion as no Jedi, not even the old ones, can create a perfect harmony upon themselves and things around them. And there is death. While Jedi say their main concern is to preserve life - they do an awfull lot of killing to do so. The Force that surrounds us all and The Fate that twistes it, can make a Nexu attack a lonely traveller. It is the will of Force and Fate that the Nexu will catch its pray - to feed it's cubs and to survive. And Jedi break this harmony of lifecycle by putting their lightsabre in the middle, killing the Nexu and also indirectly its cubs, to save the life of the stranger - who might, or might not be a good or important to the world. The elder Masters would call that the Jedi interference in this case was Fate and that the Jedi was directed by the Force. But I am convinced that the actions of the Jedi was controlled by his emotions - fear for the life of the stranger, and his passion - to protect all life. And that his actions betrayed him, with killing the Nexu he created death and by fighting the circle of life, he created chaos. And the worst of all - The Jedi are ignorant by denying the emotions and passions from themselves, and refusing the knowledge of Love from themselves. It is not wise to deny something completely, rather than study and learn from it - perhaps understand the reasons and consequences of it. Finally I approached my father and asked him about this all. First he outright denied everything, told me to meditate the code and follow it to the letter. We had a fierce fight over this - finally it ended when I asked my father: "Who is my mother? How was I born? Did you love her?" My father went silent and turned away - I saw a small tear in his eyes - and he walked away. It was the last time I spoke to my father. Soon after that my and Li'ana's love was revealed - we were separated and punished, our love brutally crushed. It was soul tormenting pain for me to bear - and too much for Li'ana. She took her life when she realized she couldn't be with me. Then the fighting with the Sith erupted and I was captured from Coruscant and taken as a slave. My captors soon learned my powers and I was approaced by an old Sith Lord Garun. We talked a lot about the Force, the difference of the Sith and the Jedi. Garun was a rare Sith in that sence that he did not hate the Jedi, nor the Republic. He did not love the Empire and many times he criticized the Empire and the Emperor with strong words. He continued my training with the Force - teaching me powers that Jedi would call "Dark Side". But he told me that Force was without a color or light. There is no Light or Dark side - there is just Force. And that those who wield the Force - they are the ones that make it Dark or Light. And even then the Dark or Light of the Force is matter of opinion. It is the point of view that dictates this. When a Jedi strikes down a Sith - there is no Light in it. When a Jedi kills an Imperial soldier, in the view of that soldiers children the act is very dark. When a two Siths fall in love - there is nothing Dark in it. There is just the Force. And how you use it and who observes it - dictates the the "goodness" or "evilness" of the Force or the user. Garun also admitted that it is true, that Empire has lot of Evil people, and that many sith use Force in ways that could be seen as Dark - but not all. And it can also be assumed, that many Jedi are not so Good and that their reasons to use force might not bring "light". As a final lesson he told me about the balance. There can't be just "light" or just "dark". There can't be just the Jedi or the Sith. Empires come and go, Republics born and die - but the universe and the Force are eternal. And in the universe there is balance. Where there is the darkest darkness, there is the idea of light - and even the brightest light can blind you to darkness. The unverse needs both - good and evil, dark and light - because without one there can't be the other. How would you explain good when you can't compare it to bad? How would you distinguish light if there is no darkness? Without Death, there is no living. I learned a lot from Garun - my Master. But he was old and his time was nearing to end. He arranged me to be sent to Korriban where I would be told the ways of the Sith. But the night before I was due to depart, he called me to his room. He was lying in his bed and we both knew that he would no longer see the morning. As a last advice he told me to go to Korriban, learn as much as I can, but to remember, that like Jedi, the Sith and their way of life is just half of the whole truth - and that I should do anything that is necessary to complete my training, but not to forget myself and my heart and what Garun had taught to me. "Live in balance and true to yourself" - he whispered to me with his last breath. The next morning I left to Korriban, from my shuttle I could see the great funeral pyre that was being prepared for Garun, my Master was gone, but I swore that his teachings would not die with him. I trained vigorously and completed my training and became the Apprentice of Lord Zahn. I travelled to Dromund Kaas where I saw the life of the Empire - and while there were lot of powerhungry Sith and Imperials, there were even more of those who we're just trying to live and who were no different from the average person carrying the Republic symbol. Even among the Sith I saw person that were trying to work for the "good" of the universe - not just empire - and by good I really mean good, with same kind of universal objectives that so many in the Jedi Order claim to have. My new "Master" Lord Zahn however was not one of these - she was an old hag trying to benefit from me and others - to gain power and influence. I served her as I had to - with my aid she became Darth Zahn. I would rise to the rank of Lord and after some events that left so many dead, both Imperials and Republics - innocent and not so innocent, I became Darth Finuc. A feared Sith Master. I have people fear me, I have people serve me - willingly and out of fear or respect. I've become one of the most powerful force user in the universe. But I don't serve the Empire. I don't serve the Republic. I was born as a Jedi, and became the Master of the Sith - taught by both, but in my heart I am not a Sith nor am I a Jedi. I don't follow the Sith Code nor do I follow the Jedi Code. I serve the Force. I serve the Universe. Quietly I am teaching the words of Garun and founded a new Order. A order of Balance. And I follow the code of Balance. There is Peace and there is Emotion - for without Emotion ther can be no Peace. There is Knowledge and Power - for with knowledge you learn to control Power. There is Passion and Strength - for without Passion there can be no Love. Without Love we are weak. There is Force and there is Death - for without Death there is no Life. Force is Life. There is no Chaos nor Harmony - there is the Balance. I claim not to be a new messiah, nor that the teachings are mine. I claim not that I am the master of my Order. I am merely trying to learn my way to Balance. I am willing to teach those who listen, share the knowledge I've accumulated. I am opening the Order to anyone who sees that there is no evil, nor good. There is no Jedi nor Sith. There is just the Force and the Balance. There is You. - Finuc - In the evenings, when I meditate and seek the Balance I find it painfully amusing that the one true meaning in my small personal life, the one true thing that would give me Balance - I have not achieved. With all the knowledge of the Jedi, with all the teachings of the Sith and with all the power of the Force from both sides - I am still incomplete - I am without Love. Every day I wake up and head out to the universe, hoping to find the one that would complete me, the one that would give me love and take mine in return - the one that would bring me Balance. Every night I dream of Love...

I humbly request that BW would give more clear info on when they are fixing Arena PvP in general. I know there are lot things to fix (as new games usually do), but I didn't manage to find any responses on things that are currently breaking Arena pvp. Here's some things I'm interested to hear. About class balances. 1. Do you even acknowledge, that Troopers, Sages, Sorcerers (some extent IO and Scounderls) are OP and need fixing? 2. If you do, is there any kind of ETA (even a vague - I'm not holding you to your word) when these will get balanced a bit. About Match balance 3. Do you even acknowledge, that the matches on L50 are not in balance, when coming to gear or teamsetup. Is a 5x Sage + 2x Trooper teams what you seriously intented to be seeing in PvP - that's pretty much what I see now, since they are OP and most of Rebs have rolled now on them and are just using those classes... 4. If you do, could you give any kind of ETA when and how you plan to fix this Some ideas: * Bracket L50 by gear (rating) so "basic" geared wont have to get frustrated trying to kill a full Battlemaster gear. * Limit same class, or at least same skilltree in matches - 2 healers / 8man team is enough - 5x is way too much... 8x is just stupid. * There's 3 skilltrees / class - make them truly different. Healing skilltree = an awesome healer (but lot less damage, dots, CC), "CC"-skilltree = CC + Dots, no healing, medium damage and finally Damage-tree = no CC, but more than 1 interrupt (with short CD) and huge damage. Also - most effective CC/DAMAGE/HEALING should have a lot longer CD - at least in PvP - spamming CC/HEAL/DAMAGE that do a LOT is really not working (well - it works for those OP classes - but not the rest of us). And don't say that it would cause longer queues in matches - since it's now hard to find matches anyway since a mass of players have stopped L50 pvp (all of my guild except me for example). Making L50 matches "fun" again could easy fix this. About daily Arena PvP quests 5. Any chance the daily quest could have a "either of" requirements - like "DAILY: win 3 matches OR finish 9 matches / WEEKLY: Win 9 matches OR finish 27 matches) - First of all, this would keep players in game and I don't end up in matches that are already half lost - which then is just "waste of time" since there is no way I can get my "daily win" out of them. Currently it takes me 4-6 hours to get my daily 3 wins. Because a) half the time I end up in matches that are midway and desperately lost (like Huttball with 9minutes left and 5-0 for the enemy, and they just keep the ball without any intention to do 6th and just farm valor), and if I get in a match there is severe balance issues, when enemy has heavy healer based teams (like sages and troopers) that can alone already beat anyone or even 2-3 players solo, but also dish major heal making it impossible to even remotely win. And if - for same strange reason - we win, the quest doesn't update (this I know is in your fix-list). 6. How are you punishing exploiters - a friend has reported a person (with screenshot) that has used exploit (hiding in door in Voidstar), but there's been no response and we see the same dude playing and doing same stuff... there's even been a talk about this person in forums, so it's widely know that he does stuff like this... you ban from silliest little things, but this can be tolerated???? 7. Do you take PvP seriously at all? If not - would it be possible to move a whole guild out of PvP server, as there's no point staying in there since PvP is broken and it seems that BW don't really care about it (if this is not BW's intention - I ask nicely they will give detailed answers to these questions in this post). I'm serious, and not joking. I'm conserned as a guild-leader as two of our guild has cancelled subs, 2 has left server (and joined reb btw) and rest of us are on the verge of doing either of those... And finally. Do you guys hate Europe? Honestly? Can you give ANY, VALID reason for having europe always take the shaft with patching times, and other DT... or actual attention from you guys anyway? If it's matter of staff shortage - I'm more than happy to quit my work (in IT) and offer my services to your usasge. PLEASE - Give answer (and not just general blahblah, detailed please. I can wait for change, even if takes a long time - as long as there is something done - but general blahblah that doesn't really answer anything or complete silence is not helping) - Finuc - XIV Legion Basilisk Droid, Empire, PvP For recruitment - contact Finuc, Garack, Amith, Incoming or any other XIV Legion member

You are absolutely correct. It was my mistake - I noticed it after I made my original post. And since I can't move it myself, I've been hoping that a moderator would do that for me, but so far no... Sorry about the "wrong area" post... - Finuc -

Adding: 3. Role (or class) limit on same side - at least healer classes. Lately there's been lot of teams consisting mainly single class/role (usually Sage/Trooper/Scoundrel or Sorcerer/operative) as these classes are overpowered and since there's been no fix on them, people have started to roll these classes and now you get teams like 5 sages, 2x Scoundrels + 1 trooper or 4x troopers 4x sages or (huttball) 6 sorcerers and 2 operatives. It is impossible to play matches against such teams as there is no possible way to break their tank - with the CC and healing on the field you can't do anything. I've been in a match where after the match, all enemy players had golden medals (5-10x) and 30-50kills... while ourside had TOTAL of 14 kills and best was 4x silver medal... and this was in FULL LENGHT (tho short) voidstar match. This has also increased the deserter numbers in matches - previously desertions started after at least 2-5 minutes in match, but now deserting starts as soon as people get a view of enemy team build up. This isn't fun, even when you are in the winning team (not many times), since I wanted to enjoy pvp - not play 2 minutes of match and then get forfeit win / lose. - Finuc -

Two questions 1. Is there any possibility to join or follow it via stream over internet? Coming from Europe to America isn't cheap. I would be very interested in joining, giving ideas / feedback or at least listen to it - so it would be very nice, if BW would create a stream broadcast with chat option for guild-leaders to join remotely to the summit. 2. Would it be too much to ask, if BW could organize similar event in europe for EU-guildleaders? I don't mean to complain, but it has been a bit like EU is the 2nd rate citizen when talking about SWTOR things (downtimes f.ex). - Finuc - Guildmaster of XIV Legion Basilisk Droid (EU), PvP, Empire Recruiting

I'm gonna take a long shot and write some ideas and hope some Dev will see and get inspiration from it before the trolls start eating this thread to pieces (after surfing the forums for few hours - I estimate this to happen in about 8 seconds after I submit this)... Anyway... After Patch 1.1. the L50s ended on their own warzones and L10-49 fight together. This was a good change. As now PvP is fun... when playing under L50 toon... yeahyeah... Sorcs and Sages are still op and so on- I'm not gonna touch that thing... other whiners on about that. The L10-L49 matches are fun, since they have even some kind of balance. You could argue, that L49 character has more skills on use that L10 and you would be correct. But it is still not impossible for a L10 character to actually count on the battlefield (when previously they could do little more than be a quick snack for a full PvP geared L50) You might try dividing them to smaller prackets (like L10-24, L25 - L49) but that can lead at some point to situations that you find it hard to get a team up for pvp for lower levels. But the main issue is L50s PvP. With a LOT of LUCK you get two teams that are even and the matches are fun. But most of the times the teams are not even. By even I mean gear. PvP gear makes so big of a difference that it actually is risking breaking the game. Now - I'm not gonna say "nerf PvP gear" since there's no reason for that. But there should be a way to put more "geared" people on their own matches. Why? Here's what I've seen in matches I've played in the last week. People start the match... within first few minutes it comes obvious which side is better geared as they walk over the other team. Then people start leaving the match. Making it not fun for either side to play the round to the end. This keeps up and PvP is going to die completely. I'm not sure for exact number but I would assume that in the last week I've played 100+ matches. And of those I could say that were even and where people stayed to the glorious or bitter end without a mass exodus (on either side) is less than 20. After that I've pretty much focused on fighting with under L50 character. No, it's not tactics... it's the gear. Two man team wiped out a four man group without even getting half hit-points. None of the four man group had pvp gear, but they know how to pvp and did their best - the two enemy had full pvp-gear. Resulting in a massacre where the two could kill a player with 3-4 strikes and while the four could only take a little off either one of them. Another example of this - my L50 Powertech (tank) vs L50 Sith Marauder. Me, no PvP gear (well, I have a belt). The Marauder - full PvP gear. We meet and start fighting without outside influence. We both had 100% health at start. But even with my damage mitigation and all the tricks I end up dead. Which wouldn't been a bad thing, since the match seemed quite even.. .except for the fact that I hit for 100-200p damage while the enemy was taking 15-20% of my health each hit. In the end, I was dead, Marauder had 88% health - and he didn't use any healing during the fight. And no - I don't suck that bad... What makes things worse, is that it's really hard to get the PvP gear now... you either end up constantly losing (= no quest reward and little valor) or if you win, you still won't get much valor as most of the enemy team left mid-match. So the gap widens. So... there needs to be some balance to this. But it's not an easy thing to do. You don't want to nerf or take away the hard earned pvp gear from the lifeless grinders who already have full set (ok - I'm a bit jealous ). And finally - after all this wall of text I come to my suggestions: 1. One way to try to balance the matches is by pracketing the L50's by Valor... Valor level 1-24 / 25-49 / 50+ 2. Adding daily quests with condition. You need 3 wins OR 9 played matches (to the bitter end) to recieve the quest reward ( 9 / 27 respectively for the weekly quest). This would increase the willingness to play through the match and would also help get the pvp gear even if you end up in a losing streak (which I seem to have been a lot, with the record being about 30-40 matches to get 3 wins). I'm hoping that someone from BW actually would read and see this - and if not do these changes perhaps at least get some inspiration for other ideas to make the arena-pvp fun for L50s... It's kinda important really, since at least for now there's still only so much end game content in SWTOR, pvp being perhaps the most important of it. - Finuc - XIV Legion, Empire Basilisk Droid (EU-PVP)