Quoted for the semi-truth. I don't particularly want the tools, but I accept that many players do want them. I'm quite a competitive PvP player so I do value these things in principal but these tools create a cookie cutter approach to all things in the game. I guarantee that if this game lasts two years, players will look back at this period and say, 'it was fantastic and simpler that way', much like Vanilla wow. Anyway, despite all that I accept these changes and I will adjust and compete with the best of them. The reason I quoted it for the semi-truth is I don't want 3rd party add ons. I would much rather Bioware invest their own resources to create what the players want and make it all internal. 3rd parties give too much player choice IMHO and due to lack of information, players will have disadvantages conferred onto them by not employing all useful 3rd party add-ons. Grass-roots, back to basics pvp is the way to go in my opinion.

Seriously mate, you can't really complain about this... I say that because having healers comes at a cost. That cost is a loss of DPS and tanking classes. Once any DPS/Tanks they have are focused down, all that are left are healers which while they may stay alive, won't deal much damage to you. Moreover, there is no real reason why Republic should have more healers than Empire, so you may be very unfortunate in your queueing.

On a simplistic level you are right. Your gear was a deciding factor in that 1v1 encounter. But as I said in my original post, while you may lose (or win) a lot of 1v1s, statistically your teams gear should average out to be equal to the other teams gear, especially over time. His choice to keep attacking you displays a lack of experience and, had he gone to the other side with his team mates, he may have found much more success and hypothetically tipped the balance in their favour. Instead, he and perhaps a stealthed character could have chosen to both engage you and cc you for the door plant. My point is, while in a 1v1 encounter gear will play a large role, it is actually that players choice to engage you that cost him the fight and poor tactical choices/lack of experience. Like you said, the match was a draw and while it may be purely coincidental I could use that to illustrate the 'averaging' idea. Perhaps on your team, you had an undergeared player while one of your other opponents had similar gear to you. So between the four of you (you, your newb jedi opponent and our other two hypothetical players) your gear actually cancels out and it is now the way you communicate that will win. E.g. if they had vent, the jedi could have called for help and the other player with equal gear to you could have come across to help overcome you. Its long winded, but hopefully you see where I'm going with this. Summary: 3 variables. 1. Skill 2. Gear 3. Communication We want to strike a balance by controlling variables two and three (so as to make PvP more skill based) but also retain some sort of goal-orientated competitive experience. By removing premades and limiting both teams to typing in chat for tactics and strategy that puts No. 3 on an equal footing for both casuals and hardcore (who choose to play in premades against other premades). Future updates, which include intro PvP sets etc will also fix some of the issues with Gear without controlling the variable entirely. Balance is key (and I'm not saying they will do it perfectly, but they should at least try). Finally, the proportional advantage of a premade with vent is FAR greater (at least in my experience) than gear discrepancies between two teams.

Its an interesting question. 75 pages on this topic confirms that fact. I used to be of the opinion that gear should be made easily available so its a skill based game. Used to. Lately however I have changed my opinion because I have realised two things. 1) I like getting new gear and having a gear-based goal to work towards. I know many people feel similarly; and 2) Gear, or lack thereof is actually very rarely the thing that wins/loses. My new position on this issue is this: The BIGGEST variable that determines a teams win or loss is premades, communication and significantly, Ventrillo. Now, if you have got all or some of those things, you will no doubt win most of the time and LOVE them, fair enough, because they are fantastic. But I strongly believe that they should be in separate WZs to those who do not have that luxury. However, you can't control the use of Vent, nor stop communicating in chat (which I think is a good thing!), but you can control premades. I have played a few premades lately and have dominated WZs. As much as I love winning, it is clearly unfair. Before I go on, some people will say that its an individuals own fault for not using Vent, but there are many reasons why people can't or won't use Vent, and they should not be penalised for not using a 3rd party program. Off the top of my head: 1. They are in an environment where they can't speak and draw attention to themselves. 2. They are hiding the fact they are playing a game 3. They are embarrassed about something. 4. They do not wish to disclose any personal features or information about themselves. 5. They simply do not know about Vent or have never used it before. We also encounter another problem, which is that 'hardcore' players are more likely to use these extra means of teamwork and communication (Premade, Guildys, Vent, Overall communication). Casual players of SWTOR will be less likely to do this, so even with a 'gear-less' game the premades will still win. I don't have the statistics, but I can say with confidence that the number of solo-hardcore players would be tiny compared to the number of hardcore players in a guild that always PvP together and use Vent. Instead, if everyone is a PUG in the same WZ, but have various gear/valour/general-experience levels, it is far more even because technically, according to basic statistics, you will lose some 1v1s but overall your team should average out with the other team in terms of gear (assuming your server pop balance isn't entirely broken). So to summarise, to make PvP a better place: 1. Deny all pre made groups entrance to PUG WZs and make them play in pre-made specific WZs. 2. Keep the gear progression relatively similar to how it is now. Bioware are planning on doing something similar to this (8 man pre made WZs down the track etc and I think ranked WZ will be x-server premades [confirm?]) but; 3. I think they HAVE to go the extra step and block premeds from PUG WZs. Lastly, I am personally stuck somewhere in the middle between casual and hardcore and I think that puts me in a good position to judge this issue as I have seen the best and worst of both worlds. From my experience, I started off as a fresh-50 and got thumped. Then I worked at it, just queueing solo and eventually obtained close to a full set of champion gear. My current valour rank is ~55. When I enter any WZ I am always keen to communicate with the team, agree on strategies and help each other out (I'm a straight up DPS Sniper). This is quite often an effective and winning strategy even if the other team, out-gears us (especially true of Hutball where passing alone wins you games). Then I face a premade, and lose, simple as that. Hence that is the real problem with PvP.

The question isn't what is the best tactic, because as we can see from all the feedback both can be effective. For me, the real question is what is the best tactic to go for at the beginning of the game. Even with an average team, you can coordinate defences adequately to hold two turrets (I'm more of a side/side fan, but either way), but only once you've got them. It is getting them that can make or break a match. And your tactics for getting them really depend on the other team/composition of both teams. For instance, one enemy team might try to get both sides in which case the 1-2 teammates you generally send to the side turret closest to your team won't be enough. However, if they go straight to mid, your side turret will be an easy cap, but if you try to take the opposite side turret as well, and face even 1-2 enemies, the enemy team will easily cap mid unobstructed and have enough time to run across to the side turret your competing over and stop you. Its complicated, basically. At this point I would say that a 2/2/4 strategy works very well (hard to coordinate in public games). Two (at least 1 sorcerer with speed boost) takes your teams closer side turret. Then you want two to go to mid. Their role is actually more of a distraction role to hold any enemies at mid, and stop them from capping it for as long as possible. Ideally you'd want a tank and a healer combo to draw the fight out. Best case scenario is you get mid (unlikely with just two), but more likely you will buy your four teammates enough time to grab the other side turret (who will need to overcome a few defenders). The reality is that it depends a lot on what the other team do. For instance, they might send 5 to the side turret closest to your team, in which case your two allocated defenders will need backup from 1-3 teammates at the other two nodes. If and when you capture at least two of these nodes, you can then resume normal defence tactics and should be able to win.

Buddy it sucks, I know what it is like, but you can overcome it. I hit 50 on my first character last week. So far I have a full centurion set plus 3-4 pieces of champ gear. I am a Sniper on the Swiftsure. WZing is an absolute nightmare most of the times for me. The worst time I had was when I didn't win a single warzone for 19 matches. I get bags from the weekly and daily quests but also from losing and just accumulating WZ comms. A few reasons for why I think Imperials lose so frequently on my server: 1. Alliance players are often outnumbered by Imps, resulting in them a) being more likely to work together and be team orientated and b) be older/smarter players (gross generalization I know, but a lot of new, younger players will be intimated by the population imbalance and re-roll empire) 2. Empire dominates Illum, so all the talented PvPers for the Republic realise this and focus on WZs where it will always be a more balanced contest in terms of numbers. When I premade WZ with my guild I often did a bit better but it was by no means a guaranteed win. Some may say I lack skill and that is why my team loses but I disagree. I'm not the best PvPer by any means but given my gear I generally rank in the top 1-4 damage dealers for a WZ (unless I end up defending in Alderaan) and average somewhere between 150k-350k damage. My valor rank is ~45. Anyway, since getting my full cent gear I have around 11% Expertise and I have noticed I can hold my own a lot better now. I still crit less than I did when I was level 49 in the Under 50 bracket, but its generally speaking a lot better than it was when I started. Somewhat dreading making a new character though, so I will keep with my Sniper until they update the PvP gear accumulation systems in the upcoming patches.

I love Hutball. It is the best warzone by far. For some reason (probably server pop) I rarely get any Hutball. I wish I had more. Alderaan is terrible. Voidstar is better, but not as good as Hutball

OP unless I missed something, you failed to consider an important aspect in your original Voidstar 4v4 scenario. You assumed both Lethality and MM were both going to win the fight. What I mean by that is, you are under-appreciating the usefullness of a MM's burst damage. (That said I think your point about rejoining the fight at the same time, versus rejoining 1 by 1, is valid) The speed in which the 1st enemy dies is directly related to the damage dealt by the opposition over time, (i.e. quick kill by a MM, versus slower kill by a Lethality Sniper). But, it is also related to the damage received from the enemy being attacked. In other words, if you can kill an enemy faster he or she can no longer do damage to you or your team. Lets assume that over an infinite period of time all of our 8 fighters in your 4v4 scenario deal the same damage. If a MM can burst 1 of the 4 enemies down in the opening moments of the fight, then the oppositions output damage is decreased by 25%. That is huge in the scheme of the fight as you and your team will most likely come out on top. There are other things to consider such as the composition of your and their teams (i.e. MMs burn enemy healers while lethality struggles, and how if you have a healer with you, a lethality will do better over a sustained fight/versus tanks). The fact of the matter is, each spec is better in different situations and the real question is what type of situations do you face more often/want to face more often. Answer that, play your character with skill and you will succeed irrespective of your spec.

My sniper's name is Gym Class

I haven't read all of the previous posts so this may have been mentioned but: The flaw in the TS's logic is that he seems to assume the PvP progression is Linear (like the PvE one). It is not. I'm not strongly complaining about the current system, I think hardwork is necessary and I respect those who do it, but it is not quite as simple as you said it is. In PvE: Assuming you have good character control and sound strategy (i.e. isolating the variable of gear) you may fail on a tough raid, or part thereof. When you fail and realise that it is your gear that is your weakness, you work hard to obtain better gear and hopefully succeed not long after. The linear part of this is, while your gear slowly (or steadily) improves, your opposition remains the same. Your opposition doesn't get harder as you upgrade each piece of gear. NB: The only differences are the modes of the FPs, but there are really only two. In PvP: Assuming you have good character control and sound strategy (i.e. isolating the variable of gear) you can get defeated by someone with better gear. After realising its your gear that is letting you down, you struggle and work hard and eventually obtain better PvP gear. Sound sort of similar? Of course, its the similar progression that PvErs face. However the next part is where it differs. While you (lets say with a low amount of expertise gear) chip away, getting WZ Coms etc, your better-equipped opponents (who statistically you will continue to face) will also be chipping away but, because of their better gear, assuming they have similar skills, they will gain their PvP gear at a faster rate. I.e. the relationship between your own improvement and the opposition you face (i.e. the challengers you must overcome to get your Coms) is not linear. Overtime this gap widens more and more as the % dmg boost/dmg reduction increases faster and faster for the people who originally had more expertise. Now one could argue that over time a player would face an equal number of players with greater and lesser levels of expertise, but that would leave a few players at the top, who will always be at the top (assuming there will continue to be new PvP gear.

Yes it was Bioware's own fault for creating the opportunity for players to pile on the valor, but it was your choice to abuse an advantage that BioWare can be quoted saying was unintentional and imbalanced the game. You obviously know you abused the system to confer an unfair advantage onto yourself and by arguing that you were just 'playing the game', you are merely using a flawed logic.

I disagree, strongly. UI Customization is all that is needed. No 3rd party add ons. No Damage Meters. Just my opinion of course While there is plenty of room for improvement in terms of customer service and official statements clarifying these issues, Bioware are heading in the right direction.

2/10 Class balance is satisfactory. Don't mind the random PvP games, but there sure is a lot of Hutball (which I suspect I will grow tired of down the track). I'm content with the Champ bag Lotto Haven't tried Illum. Great map layouts/concepts Wouldn't mind bigger matches (i.e. 10-20 v 10-20, not 8v8) 50 bracket is necessary but we all know its coming so I'm pretty relaxed. Overall, quite good... BUT The FPS issues and the ability delay issues are simply game breaking for me. Fix those two things and I would rate PvP, all things considered a 9/10. And that is pretty high for a game that has just launched. Get onto it BioWare, Please

Thank god. So happy there will not be add-ons. Add-ons make the game easier/more efficient/less complex (call it what you want) and I don't want that. Keep it complex, I personally don't feel the need for any extra assistance/leg-ups and I am prepared to put in the time and effort to master my own raw gameplay. Whether it is working out how to individually control the myriad abilities (and therefore keybinds) we all posses, discovering which rotations work the best, how I'm holding agro if I'm tanking, or having to click between party members as quick as I can as a healer, I'm prepared to do it and I don't want any more advantages conferred onto myself or others. Just my opinion Having said that, BioWare still needs to make the UI far more customizable, at the moment your options are atrocious.