That's the biggest weakness of the spec is the ramp up time. The dps potential is quite high, but so often it's hard to do full rotations. Classes that can dot purge are annoying. The dot cleave damage though is super strong. If you can maintain your dot buffs and have them tick on everything, people melt all over. Healers really struggle to keep everyone up and if that healer is also being focused it's guaranteed easy to set up for a kill.

You know it's not the strongest class, but when you play one of those games where you live through anything it sure is fun!

This grind for gearing now is really bad. I was part of the 2% of PVPers who got full dark reaver back in the day, and I'm saying the grind we have now is WORSE.

They made this mistake of insane gear grinds in the past and learned from it. The problem right now with so many personnel changes on the dev team is it seems the wisdom gained was never transferred. We now have history repeating itself and I guess we will see if they can learn from their mistake. Back before patch 3.3 came out Bioware posted that the PVP gear grind was so bad that only 2% of PVP'ers had full BIS PVP gear. I was surprised to learn that because I had that full set and accomplished it without doing any ranked arenas (which gave you more comms at the time). I had it fully optimized too so I had to farm extra pieces just for the mods. Even back then, when I played the game enough to be part of that 2%, I can say with conviction the gear grind we have now is even worse.

I would seriously advise putting the brakes on the gearing ideas here dev team. I've played the game since beta and this gear grind is by far the worst I've seen in this game so far. I'm shaking my head and I have to now accept not a single one of my characters will obtain best in slot optimized gear since 5.0 changed everything. From patch 1.0 to everything pre-5.0 I had no problems making sure my main characters had best in slot optimized PvP gear. I never felt like I needed to do ranked PVP because I could do warzones and it would just take a little longer. Since 5.0 launched, playing the same amount of time I have in the past, I've managed to gear only one character in full 248s, but still haven't finished getting all the 240 augments. The mats to craft them just don't drop from the loot crates enough to even gear one character fully. Gearing up for someone who doesn't want to do ops or ranked pvp is slower than a snail with hemmeroids. This patch is going to add to a layer of complexity that just isn't fun. But I feel like if I want to be competitive in PVP I have to get the gear my opponents will have. I really wish we could go back to 4.0 where we had a very simple system of gearing. There's was two tiers of pve gear and a very easy grind for bis PvP gear. It wasn't necessary to create long explanations on how to get your gear and the time it took to get the gear felt reasonable. I think the dev team needs to pause and consider, is having a very complicated and long gearing process good for the game? I don't believe that it is.

They are a very strong class, but if you play to their weaknesses you'll find they can be killed. It's all about controlling the scoundrel at the right moment when they start to get low. The class has a very high skill ceiling and some players make it look effortless. It's why you don't see a lot of great ones in PvP. I put up a video on youtube that you may find interesting, it's me as ruffian spec engaging a lot of people and never dying. May give you some perspective on how the class can do it. Well, they do get me once at the very end, but it was almost over.

The burst damage is really good. Pop your crit cooldown with shoulder missles and whatever you target dies. The huge disadvantage of the class is the paper-thin defenses. They can't survive any sustained pressure and are easily outmuscled by other classes. They are not a competitive class for PVP in the current meta.

You should play a dps sorc in PVP to have fun. If being competitive is important to you then you have to play another class, like a merc or a sniper who can deal more damage and survive better.

Been PVP'ing today and wow the responsiveness of the server is a lot worse than what I was used to on the Harbinger. My main problem is my abilities are not always activating when they should and I now have to spam abilities just to make sure they go off. I used to be able to hit a key on the gcd and it would activate, but now it doesn't always happen because of the lag. I have players teleporting all over the place on me. It makes it incredibly hard to kill someone if what I'm attacking isn't actually there. A few occasions my character has also teleported short distances to random places on the map. As an example, in Quesh huttball I can be fighting on the 2nd floor and poof I'm somehow teleported to the bottom floor. Average about 100ms ping and playing on the west coast. In short, this is really an unacceptable amount of lag I'm experiencing, it really compromises my playing experience.

Ya, I was so disappointed with the changes. AP got nerfed and Pyro will still be a garbage spec for PVP. This class is in no way competitive with mercs and snipers.

I'm not sure what reality some people are playing in, but sorcs are pretty frail and the damage they put out isn't high enough to justify their squishiness. Even if you execute perfectly, you can still get rekt by someone on another class who isn't as good as you. It's a fun class to mess about in regs, but anyone who plays this class and others at a high level can tell it's nowhere near as competitive as it needs to be.

If being competitive is important then you will want to play a different class. In terms of time commitment, Bioware has done some balancing, but at their current glacial pace, the meta will remain unchanged for the foreseeable future. You can invest the time in another class and it will last you a long time.

The damage PTs can do in either spec is actually very good, it's enough to kill anybody no problem. The issue becomes when a PT has to start exchanging blows with another class they don't last as long.

It's a garbage ability with almost zero function. It needs to be culled and have something else put in its place.

I implicitly said I want a progression path for gear. You've equated somehow what I said with wanting gear not to matter at all. There should be a higher tier available to those who put in the hours. The 242 bolster is not the most optimal rank, you still need to grind out best in slot gear. I don't mind a grind for gear, but currently, in 5.0 I think it takes too long. I used to play a lot of characters in PVP, but in 5.0 I just don't have the time to make every character competitive. If you're hardcore enough you can do it, but it's really more of a question of how competitive do you want PVP? I don't find any satisfaction being in a position of rolling my opponents just because I have better gear. When someone plays against me, they will know they died because I outplayed them. Personally, I'm a good enough PVP'er that I can bridge almost any gear gap, but to be able to compete at the highest levels the gear really starts to matter. This is coming from someone who had min/max gear in 3.0, at a time Bioware said only 2% of PVP'ers had best in slot gear.

Set bolster to 242. I play casually and I simply don't have the time it would take to grind out a high set of gear, even for just one character. I do want to be competitive in PVP and not be so disadvantaged playing against folks in mix/max gear. I really miss the time it took in 4.0 to gear up a character with optimal PVP gear. The pacing for me to gear up in 5.0 feels like a job so changing the level of gear disparity would be great for me. Also, not having to grind gear for one character would allow me the freedom to play multiple characters in PVP. I want to see gear remain competitive in PVP, but still keep a clear gear progression path. I see 242 bolster as the best compromise in most situations.

There is no point testing anything until every class has their dps, healing, AND utilities balanced. What's the point in testing a nerfed arsenal merc that still has godly DCDs and utilities? They are still going to be a broken class because they will still facetank in every situation and come out ahead. There are classes in this upcoming meta that desperately need balance changes but won't see anything for a long time.

The DPS bump was desperately needed. I could not justify playing a spec that had less survivability than AP while also doing less damage. Even after a DPS increase, the defences of the spec need help. Balance wise if a class is going to be this weak when it comes to survival, the damage needs to be even higher to compensate. I don't think you want to go there, but the glass cannon balance of the spec needs tweaking. Either with more cannon or less glass. Dot spread could use a quality of life change. It's pretty challenging to use the dot spread cooldown effectively to achieve maximum AOE effectiveness. Tab targeting scorch in AOE situations seems kind of wonky. Would be nice to see a spec mechanic that allows the spread of both dots.

The same damage potential was there in 4.0, but the class was so squishy you really had to play it a high level to apply it. In 5.0 the class became way too strong and now you can facetank anybody and kill them. I didn't ask for these godlike powers and it's not fun for me to faceroll off such a broken spec. I stopped playing my merc as my main.

Read this for the DPS rotation. In PVP you will sprinkle in stuns, snares, and taunts as needed but the dps priority remains the same. For utilities I run with this for warzones. There is wiggle room for talents based on your needs, but I prefer to build for mobility and control. My build would look a little different for doing ranked arenas.

Just returning back to the game to find the guild I was in died and now I have nobody to play with. I'm a skilled PVP'er who has PVP'd in this game since launch. In total, I have 13 years of MMO PVP experience playing different classes and always performing at a high level. I have comprehensive knowledge of the PVP meta as well as a thorough understanding of each class and their mechanics. I'm looking for a PVP guild (pub or imp) with active players that like to group up and have fun but are serious about their PVP performance. Thanks for taking the time to read this post, please let me know here in the comments if your guild might be a good fit.

I can't resist! Obviously, nerf operatives. The first step for me would be achieve a comprehensive overhaul to give operatives the nerf they need. For starters all damage abilities are removed. The class will be incapable of any damage, but I imagine the complaints about the damage not being good will stop. Also, being able to vanish and reset a fight is too overpowered against healing sorcs, so to balance this matchup out the game will uninstall if you try to vanish. I imagine the complaints about vanish being too useful will stop. I shouldn't give Bioware these kinds of ideas.

If the one team is getting farmed then there is no sportsmanship involved, especially if it is prolonged or divulges into taunting. I enjoy blowing people up but at some point I feel bad for the people on the other team. If I can see someone is clearly way in over their heads in PVP and I will just leave them alone if I can. However, I give them no chance at all to survive me if they want to take the first shot at me though

Sorcs are the only choice for PVP healing and this terrible class balance exists on every server. If you put all the players together it won't change anything because sorcs will still be your only choice. I agree though that cross-server is still necessary for this game to flourish as a competitive environment. As of now right now the ratings people get don't mean anything except for purchasing rewards.

Bioware has been pretty consistent here and the rewards are always a last minute scramble when the season is almost over. No forethought has ever been demonstrated and with the current status quo I don't see that changing.