Struggling to kill Madness Sorcs is a L2P issue? Ahahaha, good one. Gotta love people that defend their pet classes.

I haven't PvP'd since 55, came back late on the 60s patch and just decided to wait until 65 to give it a go again. It's god awful. I understand that most posters here can only compare the PvP in this game to how it's been in SWTOR in the past to try and salvage some kind of positive opinion of it, but if you compare it to almost any other MMO it's become complete garbage. I've honestly been switching between Republic/Imp toons all day to try and fish out a few wins based on which side is queueing with the most Sorcs/Sages in midbies. Almost every game, I'm typically only left with one question: why am I PvPing on SWTOR?

Alright, so I downloaded the new expansion, played for hours without a problem until I reached Chapter IX and the new 'Alliance' mode or whatever it is. I was running around the base and randomly crashed. From there, every time I relogged into the launcher and hit Play, nothing would happen. The game simply would not launch, tried repeatedly. I rebooted and tried again. This time, the game launched BUT it says that I'm in Quick Play Mode where the game is still downloading in the background as if it isn't installed at all. It gets stuck on 0.0% and no progress occurs. I've tried to launch multiple times and I'm still stuck, unable to play any of my characters. EDIT: picture of the Quick Play bug for reference http://i.imgur.com/Bh5BjMq.jpg

With the change to PvP commendations coming and all, I'm supposing that it would be kind of pointless for me to dive into PvP right now with the pursuit of top-tier gear, right? I just returned to the game two weeks ago, finished leveling most of my characters back to 60 but since then, I've stalled. I can't get up the will to PvP knowing that it will become immensely easier to acquire gear in a month or so. Am I in the wrong here? Should I just dive in anyway and deal with the current system? I love PvP. It's really all that I do on this game, so I've just found myself leveling other characters in an attempt to bide my time. It's really hard to buck against the inefficiency of hopping into PvP without any gear whatsoever currently with such a large change hovering over our heads.

I'm pretty sure this is just an instance capacity issue rather than a 'latency issue that can't be predicted.' But, sure, keep white knighting EA. At least you get credit for originality.

Hey, On'mar. You guys should really take heed of his post -- the PvP community is going well on the Ebon Hawk right now. If you're worried about server population, then RP servers are always the way to go. People on RP servers will stick around to RP regardless of any flubs the devs make with the game itself. There'll always be PvP, even if it's filled with a lot of casuals and the like. At least they queue, though, and a lot of folks from PvP servers have migrated to RP servers which has given the PvP community a bit more of a serious tone than in years previous. Cinko here, btw. We're guildies. And I don't think WildStar is really that big of an issue. It'll have its boom and its decline just like any other new MMO. I think ArcheAge is much more of a threat to SWTOR than any other game simply by the fact that it's very much like SWG and a ton of SWTOR players pine for that kind of expansive freedom that SWG provided. Even so, when I go to play ArcheAge, I'm still going to play SWTOR because it's Star Wars and the closer we get to the new trilogy of films, more and more players will come back to SWTOR or even join again for the first time. I think BioWare is preparing itself for this and while the pace may not be sufficient for a lot of current players, it'll work out best for the game's future in the long run if they're looking past the immediate future. The hard truth is that they can afford to lose a few of us right now. The gains they'll pick up down the road will more than compensate. In business, sometimes you've got to make those kinds of impersonal calls for the good of your company's welfare and honestly, I can't blame them for it.

There was a timer for leaving Warzones originally. When I came back, I was really puzzled as to why they decided to remove it and let people get away with bailing. There was also a function to report people who AFK'd in warzones. It was a big problem at launch. Again, I don't know why they'd like to go backwards instead of progressing forward, but that's just the way BW seems to handle things these days.

If you think this is bad, you should know that at launch there was no resolve bar. At all. This has always been a stunlock game. It's been that way for over two years and considering they barely put any effort even into cosmetic items, it is EXTREMELY unlikely they'd ever make another big mechanical change like altering the resolve bar at this point in the game's life. Hard truth, but truth.

I wish that was true, but it just isn't. Concealment Ops are going to drop instantaneously in any arena without heals/tanks, and even with those, they'll often get hard-focused ahead of the healers. Commando/merc isn't the only class suffering through uselessness in arenas. Hell, when I'm on my Powertech, I like having a Commando/Merc on my team. Electro Net is very useful, anyway.

It's sad to say but Commando isn't to blame for its lack of use in ranked. It's not that the class is underpowered -- it isn't. It's that other classes like Vengeance Juggernaut are a bit out of control at the moment. I don't even try to play my Concealment Operative in ranked at the moment. There's just no point, really. It's a shame but that's the way BioWare has the game balanced at present. I came back after 2 years and was a bit surprised to find that Smash Jug was still the most overpowered thing in the game (at the time), anyway. How in god's name did it take them so long to properly get a handle on reigning that in? The answer is that BW reacts incredibly slow to pretty much everything PvP wise.

I love you, buddy, but if you think WildStar PvP is great, take it from someone who's beta'd extensively when I say: see you in three months!

I can grab those in about 10 games though, Obroan anyway. Should I be running all power/surge and main stat/power relics?

Another quick question! I'm about to ding to 55, wondering what I should do with my comms! I've got max of ranked and regular. I was thinking about splurging 3500 ranked for knife/rifle first for the extra tech power. Suggestions as to how I should go about spending my ranked comms or my regs for that matter?

Again, coming back to the game after a long period of time (particularly with this character), and I'm having a bit of trouble finding consolidated, reliable info for Concealment Operative at 55. Should I run Cunning augs?

So, I've dusted off my old concealment operative. Transferred him over to a more active server, etc. I've looked up builds and the like, and I've been playing my old AP Powertech for the time being (which I mostly remember how to play), but I can't remember **** about my old Operative, so: Any good PvP guides for Concealment, post 2.7? Even pre 2.7, really. I honestly don't know what's changed (gear wise, rotation wise) etc, and could use a leg up. Don't want to saddle my teams with complete uselessness as I fumble around trying to remember what's what. Any links/referrals would be greatly appreciated, mentlegen.

I'd rather have an even playing field than another grind in progress, that's all. It's more fun and competitive that way.

I don't really mind having to grind another set of PvP gear, personally. I just came back to the game recently, so not only am I having to grind Obroan on all my characters right now, but I'll have to replace it all again with the new tier. But again, I don't think the issue is adding another tier of PvP gear: I think it's more about the timeframe. You should at least leave tiers alone for a good 8-12 months before adjusting them again. It's fine to add in more gear and make people get back to work, but there should be a sizable pause between the implementation of a new PvP tier. When was the last one? October or something? I mean, this is a bit soon for another grind for most people. I know BioWare's intention is to encourage the players who care about PvP to stay invested and have something to do other than mindlessly warzoning without much in the way of rewards, but it seems like everyone's patience is wearing a bit thin with employing the same tactic over and over again, particularly so soon after using it previously. Let your PvP tiers breathe a bit, BioWare. That's my advice.

Delayed question time. Where do I get Adept Enhancement 20? Can't seem to find them anywhere, not Voss or Corellia vendors.

These are items I should get on the way to 55, or at 55? I'm a bit confused, because all of the language of these items is new to me.

Thanks. I knew something felt wrong about it. So, what's your recommendation? Just PvE to 55 and then start grinding gear, just like the olden times? I think I have like 23million rested XP or something, so it shouldn't be too bad. I'll check out the guide, though if nothing has really changed much spec wise, I know how to play Pyro pretty damn well.

I played Pyro PT back in ye days of olde and really tore it up. Of course, when you could stack the Warzone adrenals with regular adrenals and the on-map buffs, Railshot used to be silly and crit for a whollllleeeeee lot. I tried a couple of games of PvP and my Railshot was just hitting like a wet noodle. Like 1500-2000 or so, and I'm honestly not sure if the spec has been nerfed into the ground or what. It's been so long since I've played that I honestly don't even remember much of how it used to be, except for the fact that I used to easily top damage/carry with a solid healer on my team. So, basically, what's changed for the PT in PvP? Should I be running a different build now, or am I just generally doing something wrong? Or, conversely, am I just bad now because I haven't played in forever? Constructive advice is greatly appreciated, gentlebeings. I'm not /really/ that interested in playing Shieldtech all of a sudden, because it'd basically be me relearning how to play the game all over again with different mechanics, so whatever help you guys can offer would be fantastic. Thanks.

I get all that and have little to no interest in how much it adds to our regular attacks. My only concern is what it adds to Merciless Slash, which is the cornerstone of the proper Watchman spec rotation. If the damage increase is sizable enough, I would think it well justified. Enough to drop 2 points from something else, at least (considering I already invest 1 in it to reach Combat tier 2.)

I used Kira as my main companion, finding the DPS increase more useful than T7's tanking. However... I should qualify that statement by saying that I SEVERELY decreased my downtime in fights by using the reusable Pure Shockfrozen Water to heal myself for like 7k on like a 5-6 second cooldown. A shame that made it consumable. It was a breeze for leveling and I made a point to go get it as soon as I had access to Tatooine.

Still, would it be worth it for a pure Watchman spec? I rarely even use Bladestorm/Sweep in my rotation -- so if there really is a sizable damage increase in Merciless Slash, it definitely seems worthwhile to me.

Just curious about this, have a friend that keeps asking me. As Watchman spec, mind you, isn't it worth taking the full 3 points in Dual Wield Mastery for the sake of our Merciless Strike? Since it says it attacks with both lightsabers and all, I'd imagine that it'd be a nice increase on Merciless' damage. Considering that's such a big part of the rotation, I don't understand why it's passed over so often. Any thoughts would be appreciated.