I agree there should be something here but frankly all they could add here is FLUFF and you should know by now that kind of content is only for the CM. They already got your money, they could give you something for credits OR they could charge you CCs for it; no brainer; your cash is spent and frankly they don't care about you past your wallet; its not about satisfied customers it is about paying customers. Milkin us for every penny

While I agree with you; have often made the same mistake, and was often clutch at changing the loot status with only 5% to go; I actually think the solution is slightly different Have a PUG Mode; once the leader sets it to PUG Mode; all settings are saved and cannot be changed without reforming the group; this allows people to know what they are getting into. I fully agree; for a guild run, you need to be able to change it mid-fight, because frankly setting the loot up right is pretty low on the list of priorities;

For sure; I have the other side of the coin; playing as a tank and first telling the healer, Hey you are marked as a healer are you going to heal??? (After dieing twice and noticing this dudes DPSing) and then having to explain to the Mercenary about using his healing stance and how he can auto attack me, etc, and other mechanics... Soo bad. Fact is; bad people are bad

Yeah I agree; they should have some protection against it. Either have a game where its Full Loot PVP so you can track down the guy and get your stuff back or make it so you can't steal stuff like this. I wonder what would happen if you opened a ticket about this; probably nothing but it wouldn't hurt;

I think maybe there should be a "Pug Mode" which locks down the loot rules during combat but in general it actually saved me a few times on guild runs. Typically I was the Raid Leader for my group and I would OFTEN forget to change the loot rules to Master Looter and only remember with like 5-10% left on the first boss. This feature saved me a few times; especially those times when you had 1 pug in the group who could have made off with a lot of loot. That being said; I should fail less as a Raid Leader and just change the loot system before combat; what happened to you was no fault of your own and really is a shame;

Why would it be boring and repetitive? Skill is the determining factor; different groups of people with varying levels of skill make it so that every match is different. In terms of Progression; why wouldn't progression up a ladder system be satisfying? Likely because w/o the gear grind edge you'll be stuck at the bottom.

I disagree on only having 2; 2 sucks. I need atleast 3; PVE DPS, PVE Tank/Heal (depending on the class) PVP I would love 4, PVE DPS, PVE Tank/Heak, PVP DPS PVP Tank/Heal THAT Being said! I rarely do more than 2 in this game because changing the ui is a big pain; I am just saying it doesn't have to be Dual spec; howabout Field Respec with the option of having N saved configurations with buttons and talents already setup. N is arbitrary but must be >2

Exactly; they are the Semi-core player who can't beat the skilled PVPers unless they get an advantage

It has nothing to do with leveling or time commitment to level; Using that comparison it actually sounds like you want to play in the low-level bracket at whatever level you are not bolstered to 55. PVP is Player vs Player not Player vs Gear; The advantage you get from playing more PVP is being better AT IT, knowing the RIGHT thing to do at the RIGHT time. Not just being able to smash people but smashing your face on the keyboard because you had the time to get the gear. Skill and experience beats Gear

Agreed with this; give us like 3-4 saved sets of buttons; quickly respecing isnt the issue its the UI setup

I actually think that the Bolster system hits the absolute largest population. I think there are 3 populations Hardcore PvP - Skill Matters SemiCore PvP - Gear Matters Casual PvP - Prefers Bolster because frankly has no time to farm gear. Bolster makes Hardcores and Casuals happy at the expense of the Semicore. Casual is the biggest portion of the pie and hardcore/semicore are likely both meaningless beside them in numbers.

I agree with you that we eliminate a huge segment of the population by making gear meaningless; but really they aren't playing PvP they are playing PGear vs PGear; hell maybe they should add that as a type of gameplay! Or they could strive to be better; strive to win on the merits of their skill!

See you are still stuck giving an advantage to people; "Expertise from Valor" Why? Who cares? Don't create a divide! 100% Skill based means someone new; just hit 55, should be in equal footing. Think about it like this, super star Tennis player; just freaking amazing, came out of nowhere. He can win Wimbledon; there is no barrier to entry, there is no Super Tennis Racket he has to earn from playing matches somewhere else? I mean; wouldn't that be ludicrous? I also disagree about hardcore people not being happy; the people who won't be happy are the gear farmers. Hardcore PvPers only care about skill. Semicore PvPers that don't have the skill care about Gear so that they have a chance to win

Why bother make them happy? Actually correction; you can make them happy but I would do it by giving them awesome skins for their armor. If you reach certain points in the ladder you get access to different skins to show off how awesome you are; sort of like WoW's Challenge Mode armor they released last expansion. It shouldn't affect PvP however. PvP is PLAYER vs PLAYER, take gear out of the picture, SKILL vs SKILL not Gear VS Gear

Why bother? Why not just have the world wide ranking list and end it at that? Why do you need gear progression why not just have like a ladder system where teams fight for the top spot. An individual ladder for healing, and dpsing. The progression should be based on being awesome not wasting time.

Actually most modern PVP Centric MMOs don't use gear as a discriminator. The disconnect here is that there are 2 types of PvP enthusiast. The PvP Pro; More skilled; can play any class, will beat you; favors an even playing field because guess what, he still wins. The MMO Pro: Likes to grind, likes to win; isn't as skilled as PvP Pro but he can sure waste a lot of hours dieing so that he can feel like he achieved something and then WATCH OUT because hes got the gear to farm you! Real PVP Games: Guild Wars 2 (Itemization matters here but you have access to all the gear; you gotta build the right set but you dont need to farm gear) Bloodline Champions (Just a pure arena bloodbath) League of Legends (not 100% sure on this one; haven't played it myself but I have heard) Real PVPers don't need gear as a crutch to OWN nubs! I like bolster because frankly I don't have the time to farm gear; being skilled is what should determine victory not the fact that you had hours to spend farming gear. A Fresh 55 who is more skilled than someone in the best possible PVP gear should Win every time; why give an advantage to the gear farmer? Because hes got more time on his hands? Is this PvP or PlayersGear vs PlayersGear?

And here I thought the point of playing a game was to have fun

MTs aren't good for anyone except the company. Look at a typical example; back in the EQ days it took FOREVER to get anywhere; probably had to get teleported or spend literally forever. (Hardcore player pretends to love this) Newer Freemium games take not as long as EQ to get places but pretty long unless ... You buy the MT for the mount (Pro MT people like this? Hardcore people object because it should be HARD you should EARN it) My stance? Give everyone the mount; whats fun about running around staring at my Sith Pureblood's rear end all day? I am on the side of fun; I am on the side of not being nickle and dime'd to have fun.

But if there was such a game; which existed; which didn't require micro-transactions; wouldn't this be your preferred game? My question just comes back to what is best for the player; Sure you can connect the fact that Companies need to make money to continue to produce the game therefore they need a mechanism to make money and in todays fiercely competitive market with most games not charging a subscription it is the only way for this niche game to make that money. Sure; you can make those connections But my question was simply; IF the game existed, IF it didn't need those micro transactions; wouldn't it be better, for the player?

How are "Micro transactions required" and "Micro transactions not required" Not mutually exclusive?

I notice you didn't actually answer my question however; do you prefer a game that requires micro-transactions to be fun to one that is simply fun?

lol I just linked you the FAQ because that was the design intent of this game. You can't dispute that it was the intent; you also can't dispute that this advertisement was what brought many to this game. You ALSO can't dispute that the concept revolutionized MMOs. (ESO is supposed to be story driven; WoW's latest xpac was much more story driven) Also If it weren't meeting my needs/wants I wouldn't be here; I am still playing through Class quests; but there is a limited timeframe there The direction they are moving in doesn't change the original intent. This game was designed for that niche market. What they re-direct it to is another matter entirely

LOL; So you would prefer this model to a model based off simply good game design? Just be honest; 2 options (subscription ISNT one of them) (A) Micro-transactions required to have fun (B) Game is fun regardless Which do you pick? Who here is actually the elitist if you picked (A)? Seems like anyone picking (A) just wants to be able to flex their disposable income (a term from the western world that I despise by the way...) Money I spend in Childrens Aid in Africa Each Month: 60$ (not much I know I am not as rich as some of you who can drop 250 a month on this game) Money I spend on SWTORs CM : 0$ There are better places to drop your cash

This game was built for my niche requirement From the swtor faq "What makes Star Wars: The Old Republic unique? Traditionally, MMOs are built on three pillars: exploration, combat, and progression. At BioWare and LucasArts, we believe most MMOs ignore an important fourth pillar: story. Our mission is to create the best story-driven games in the world, and we believe that the compelling, interactive storylines in The Old Republic are a significant innovation in the MMO genre." http://www.swtor.com/info/faq

But who benefits from this model? Do you actually think it is the player? The old model was, Build a Good Enough Game that everyone will want to play it and keep playing it (Maybe design it to be addictive? This is where evil companies step in) The new model is, build a game that requires you to spend your money on micro-transactions; ideally without realizing how much you are spending (This is why there aren't dollar amounts on purchases rather they use the in-game currency; detachment from the cost; and smaller cost things are better, lots of small things add up but most people don't bother counting them) I am not one of the veterans you loath who wants you to have UO style death penalties (tho it sure was fun robbing someones house in UO back in the day... lol) I just prefer a model where the emphasis was on good game design; where the game is fun regardless of how much cash you had in your wallet (or time you had available). A game designed for players not for taking the money of people.