If players have been asking for this for so long, I wonder why Bioware hasn't made it happen yet? It's another potential micro-transaction opportunity for them, and gives players more freedom and flexibility to customize their place. It's a win-win. And all we're really talking about here is some extra database space on their end. Not a lot of new coding would need to be done since all they'd be doing is expanding the allotment. And there's so much more they could do, like giving us the option to add a 10th room (rooftop access at the Dromund Kaas stronghold for a starship landing pad, for example).

350 just isn't enough. Granted, it's one of the smaller strongholds, but there's far more hooks available than you're able to actually use, and considering Nar Shadaa has 475, I don't think bumping up Dromund Kas to 375 would be unreasonable. The extra 25 allotment would do wonders for my place. I wouldn't even mind if Bioware offered expanded hook allotment as a SH upgrade that you have to purchase with credits or cartel coins. (Does Bioware even read these posts?)

They already have this coded in the game for some chairs, such as the captain's chair in your starship. So the coding is there, they just need to expand it to include all furniture. For a game that naturally lends itself to RP, this isn't something that should be considered a low or non-existent priority for Bioware, and it should have been in the game long, long ago.

I really have to agree with this. There's no such thing as affirmative action in video games, thankfully, and this isn't an FPS (although many FPS games have adopted a similar model to MMOs by rewarding players with ability or feature unlocks the longer and better you play). It's a gear-based MMO where you work toward improving your gear so that you can do bigger and better things. It's a bad precedent to start eliminating gear in one aspect of the game, because it's only a matter of time before those same players make similar demands to remove gear from all aspects of the game. Logically, the argument is the same, and would sound something like this, "Why do I have to be disadvantaged in PvE content just because I can't dedicate as much time to the game as other players who are in top tier PvE gear? I'm excluded from doing <insert tier #> Ops because my PvE gear isn't good enough yet. Please add a Bolster system to PvE like you did for PvP!!" And while that might sound appealing to casual players who feel the gear barrier for Ops is exclusionary and unfair, it will ultimately kill an MMO that's based on it because players will get bored really quickly when they don't have anything tangible to work toward on their characters. If you aren't able to improve your character, most players will find it difficult to remain vested in their character development, and after you've run the same FP/Op a few dozen times, the incentive to keep doing so is gone. In my opinion, this is mostly an entitlement issue of players who either don't have the time to invest into the game due to other obligations or responsibilities (e.g. work, family, school, etc.), or who simply don't want to make the effort to do so and want to do all the cool stuff right away instead of having to wait weeks or months later after grinding out the appropriate gear level. If you read through the dozens upon dozens of QQ threads on the PvP forums on the subject, nearly all of them are identical in that they didn't feel it was fair to have to grind out EWH to be competitive. I am of the belief that effort should be commensurate with reward. If you put in the time and effort, you should be rewarded better than someone who does not. For the lower bracket, not requiring PvP gear makes sense since it removes the entry barrier and promotes more participation, but it should be optional, and having it should still provide a slight advantage. That does not mean they shoud have factored out Expertise completely in the Bolster system and basically pissed off nearly every PvPer who spent the last year or more grinding top tier PvP gear only to have it become obsolete literally overnight. Yes, we all knew the gear would get phased out eventually as you levelled up in the new expansion and got better gear, but that's the way MMOs are supposed to work. The way BW handled this was extremely lazy, and of course it's not even working correctly. For the level cap bracket (55), you'll eventually start seeing the same complaints 6 months from now when players cry about how they are getting demolished in PvP because they aren't in top tier PvP gear yet. I think we can all be honest and acknowledge that gear progression inevitably results in a gear gap, especially in PvP, but there are far better ways BW could have addressed that (e.g. cross server queues which in turn could facilitate gear matched WZs) than by simply eliminating it.

Thanks, Melyn! Damn close game!

Where's the vids from tonight's games? Would love to see them.

Those are two separate issues. RNG was possibly the worst idea for PvP gear rewards ever introduced to an MMO, but it has nothing to do with the prior Valor requirements for gear or this discussion, and as I said, that is easily fixed. You obviously don't know about the other ways (i.e. other than switching out your gear) to circumvent the bolster system when it's based on gear. If you did, you wouldn't be supporting this new system. And before you ask, I'm not going to volunteer that information because I doubt BW is going to be able to fix it without throwing out the gear-based bolster system, which they won't likely do, and we don't need everyone knowing how to exploit it. If you're truly interested in researching this to make a more informed opinion about the topic, go to the PTS and experiment. It's not that hard to figure out.

Valor as it stands is meaningless now, yes, but they can easily change that and require you to have a specific Valor rank to wear certain gear. Then they could gear match queues. RIFT currently does this, and it's awesome. Also, the problem with basing bolster on gear isn't just isolated to gear.

You can't bolster based on gear because as players already discovered on the PTS, you can just queue with no gear, then put it all back on after the WZ starts and be God. BW should have separated the brackets more, and utilize Valor to gear match queues (which of course would require cross-server queues). Once again, they demonstrate that they have absolutely no idea what they are doing when it comes to PvP.

Or, just kill said sniper who's idly standing in line daydreaming about their plans for world domination before the pylon is off cooldown. Then when they take their "dump in the grass" out of sheer spite to prolong their inevitable but well deserved death, it won't be available when the pylon is open for business and you can happily take their vacant place in line, confident in the knowledge that the pylon was used by someone far less annoying.

You can synch queue with another group of 4 and most times you'll all get into the same WZ together. There's also those times when a good group of 4 will get paired with another good group of 4. For PUGs, that's usually a disadvantage they can't overcome.

We have a 220 page thread on this topic here: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=544543 It's even on the first page of the forum. Did we really need to make another one?

220 pages and the answer still eludes most of the posters. That's right. With that one simple feature, BW could segregate solo and group queues (solo queues would never see a premade ever again and premades would play against premades), they could could gear match solo queues (by tying Valor to gear level in a meaningful way), and they could have a ladder system in Ranked that actually works. You'd also dramatically reduce the number of players quitting WZs (I'd estimate conservatively by at least half). So if you want to complain about something or blame someone for ruining your WZ experience, point the finger at Bioware for their shortsighted design and their inability/unwillingness to fix it. Demand change from Bioware, but hating on your fellow players for trying to make the best of a craptastic queue system isn't going to change anything.

To compare this game (or any recent MMOs) to "old school" is rather insulting, and at the very least, misinformed. In EQ PvP, not only did you lose XP when you died, if you died in PvP, you could have a random piece of BoE gear looted from your corpse. THAT is old school. So you have to grind some gear in a gear-based MMO to compete in PvP. Big deal. You have to do the same in PvE in order to raid end-game content. I rather like the separation of the two. I really don't want more PvE heroes in PvP because most of them are horrible at it. What this sounds like to me is another self-entitled whine about only wanting one set of gear to grind for both PvE or PvP because you got bored with your 100th Denova run and wanted to step into a little PvP to spice things up but got your face pushed in.

In the wise but barely discernible words of Leitly, "You're all going to die."

I can't tell you how many times this was done to me where I would get CC'd (not including Sorc stun bubble) or knocked back before I could get Smash off. Why do you think some players have macro'd Smash to Leap/Oblit on their Razer keyboard/mouse? It's so that they can get Smash off before they can get knocked back. For most players who don't macro, if you're too slow to react to accomplish the same results yourself, that's on you. And if you're wasting your knockback on something else, say some PT who can then just grapple you to him, again, maybe you should re-evaluate how and when you're using that KB.

Neither can most Rage spec'd Maras/Sents. 7k+ damage is usually only seen versus low Expertise targets, and that's assuming the Rage Mara doing that kind of damage is min/maxed for Power/Surge, EWH, and wearing 4pc Vindicator. Against full Expertise targets, around 1300 or so, I typically only saw 5k-ish Smashes. So either you're grossly exaggerating to substantiate your position, or you're running around with low Expertise. Regardless, let's suppose for the sake of argument that BW nerfs Smash, or some other component of the mechanic such as how Shockwave can be stacked. The spec would be neutered, no one would play it, and then you and those like you will be right back here crying about Carnage Maras. There's lots of informative posts (one of mine included) that give some very good tips on how to beat Rage specs. If you can't adapt and improve your level of play to utilize those tips, that's your problem, not the game design. The spec is easily controlled and beat by players who have taken the time to learn how.

Here's my alt, Mourne, who happens to be my coolest looking toon (imo).

Quoting this because it seemed to get lost in all the pointless posturing, memes, and trolling. This is probably the most objective, accurate assessment of the issue with tanksins I've read yet. Too bad BW won't see it, and even if they did, their development team is simply too incompetent to figure out a solution.

On my server, we have a Jedi Shadow (tanksin) who's doing 600k+ damage in WZs on average and is nearly impossible to kill. While I do think the class is slightly overtuned for him to be able to get this kind of performance out of it, he's an exceptional player and I don't think the entire class needs to be nerfed based on the performance of 1% of players who play the class. For the average player, while the class is strong (and arguably capable of too much DPS for the amount of damage mitigation they get), it's not imbalanced.

Most of the time (not always), players calling for nerfs have little understanding of how the class works and therefore how to counter it because they simply haven't taken the time to find out, or are making uninformed assumptions, or they simply aren't capable of learning how. Rage Marauders are definitely in this category. While this spec is certainly the most resilient and the easiest to play of the three specs, it is also the most susceptible to Sorc stun bubbles, knockbacks, and snares/roots. Here's why: Contrary to popular misconception, Rage Marauders only have 1 leap effectively. Force Charge and Obliterate (both are leaps) operate on different ranges, the former requiring the target to be farther than 10m and the latter requiring the target to be less than 10m. The two of them together essentially perform the same function as the Close Quarters talent in the Annhiliation tree. For most end-game PvP Marauders, they will be using the Vindicator set for the 4pc set bonus that grants +10% to damage for 5 seconds following a Force Charge. A Mara with 4 stacks of Shockwave wearing Vindicator who Force Charges is the one who's going to Smash for 7k+ on low Expertise targets, and around 5k+ on high Expertise targets. The problem with that is with Sorc stun bubbles so prevalent in PvP now, Force Charge against someone who's bubbled will pop the bubble and stun the Mara before he can get off his Smash. Knockbacks have the same effect and will prevent the Mara from getting Smash off, or it will go off after he's out of range of the target. The other major weakness of this spec is snares/roots. Against competent players, they can simply keep you snared or rooted and stay out of range of Smash. With no way to break snares/roots without wasting Break Free, the Rage Mara has to wait for Charge or Obliterate, depending on range, to come off cooldown (15 seconds). Then he can leap to the target again but may be stunned or knocked back as soon as he does and be snared/rooted again. Even if he can get off Smash each time his leap is off cooldown, that typically won't be sufficient DPS to kill anyone if they are getting healed or are a healer themselves. With Obliterate, the Rage Mara can reduce its cooldown by 1 second for every assault ability he uses, but the only assault ability that is ranged is Force Scream (I don't believe Deadly Throw counts as an assault ability, but I could be wrong). What that means is that he might be able to reduce the cooldown of his leap under 10m, but if you're staying more than 10m from him while keeping him snared/rooted, he'll be forced to wait on Force Charge (15 secs) each time. Rage Maras shine in WZs like Voidstar where fights are often clustered around the doors, and they have great synergy with other Rage specs because of the amount of combined damage pressure they can put on the opposition. That said, most serious Rated teams will not take a Rage Mara. They'll take a Carnage Mara instead for the increased Predation, but will take other DPS classes over a second Marauder if available. Basically, if you can keep a Rage Mara snared/rooted, have Sorc bubbles and/or knockbacks, they are fairly impotent. If there is more than one Rage spec on the opposing team (Juggs and Maras), avoid clustering up and you'll significantly limit their potential effectiveness. Keep those things in mind that I've mentioned, and you'll find them to be very manageable and far less of a problem. Hope that helps!

I was merely correcting some grossly inaccurate information. I'm not sure how you can possibly interpret that as grandstanding, but whatever. We didn't do Ranked consistently back then. We couldn't always get the right class mix to do Ranked, and as we all know, class composition can make the difference in Ranked. Now we do Ranked usually every Monday night. I know for a fact we've beaten ASB because I've been in one or two of those matches. Granted, they win more often, but we have beaten them, and we will again. As far as telling a Pub team who to bring or not to bring, I've never heard of that happening. But cool story, bro.

Save the bandwidth. You're going to post screenshots of the matches where you've won, but what about all the ones you've lost? I don't suppose you kept any of those, did you? Of course not. Just to give you some insight, I've personally been in many of those you've lost against us, and the running joke is "I don't think Neo will be screenshotting this one."

That's patently false, so please stop spreading this misinformation like it's the gospel. We have beat yours (Wait, which guild are you in now? I can't keep track of them all.) and ASB's and several other Pub guild teams in Ranked before. ASB beat us in the last few Ranked matches we've had against them, but you weren't there. If you had been, we probably would have won those. As for regular WZs, we only lose those with a single 4-man group (partial premade) when the other half of our team consists of people like Darkoakleaf who actively sabotages the match (he's pulled his own teammates into fire and acid in HB, pulled our DPS off enemy healers, pulled our ball carrier out of the opposing endzone, etc.), or Recruit-geared players who aren't even using a lightsaber form, or with players who believe Predation is an ability their Marauder doesn't possess, and so on. Those are just some recent examples - with some exceptions, most of the Imp PUGs are truly that awful. In any of the numerous times I've been in an 8-man Grim team (two partial premades) in regular WZs, we've never lost to a Republic PUG. The very few times we/ve lost with two 4-man groups in the same WZ is typically when we've faced a similar team, such as ASB or Infamous, or the combination of two such guilds, in which case it's more like a Ranked match at that point and usually comes down to class composition. And for the record, we don't group up for regular WZs just to stomp PUGs. We do it because we enjoy playing together. We do it to reduce the number of terribad Imp players that invariably end up in the match with us. And we do it because we're often seeing Republic partial premades from one or more of the many Pub guilds that are decent at PvP. The latter are the matches we look forward to because win or lose, they're always a good, close fight.

If they did gear matching in WZs using Valor the way Rift does with their equivalent (Prestige), there would be no gear gap. Recruit geared players would be queued against other Recruit geared players. BM vs BM. WH vs WH. EWH vs EWH. Problem solved. Though I'm sure some of you would still find something about PvP gear to complain about. And for those who do, maybe you should consider an FPS instead of an MMO?