Warhammer Online.

of course they are.... that's because it works.

remove expertise all together. rework bolster buff. bolster buff now ensures all players an even stat contribution spread about based on their advanced class. bolster buff will apply itself at the same time as the trauma debuff, so world pvp is affected by it as well. et voila! no more "your pvp got in my pve!" or "YOUR PVE GOT IN MAH PVP!", anyone who enters a warzone will have exactly the same stats as each other. no more ************ or moaning, no more gear gap, fun for everyone!

i think you may want to take another look at your tooltip matey. damage bonus and damage reduction show two different values for the same amount of expertise.

except the OLD pve raid gear... you know, columi/rakata, the stuff that actually looks half decent for jedi classes (except the sage helmets, i feel your pain...)

here i made this for you, very very basic... but just change the shield/absorb/crit chances etc. it'll show you how it affects damage output and how crit chance affects how well shield works as a stat. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AtF8ePuKC1fjdEZKbkI0SEk1VUg2S0QwcndmXzloS1E

the simplest way of expressing it mathematically is this: <damage> * <crit chance> * <surge rate> = <total crit damage> <damage> * (1 - <crit chance>) * <shield chance> * <absorbtion rate> = <total shielded non crit damage> <damage> * (1 - <crit chance>) * (1 - <shield chance>) = <total non shielded non crit damage> <total crit damage> + <total shielded non crit damage> + <total non shielded non crit damage> = average damage the problem is, in real terms it's not quite that simple, because each hit is RNG'd you could have a string of 10 non crits, followed by a string of 100 crits... but obviously the higher your crit rating the more likely you are to get that string of crits. but it still adds up to the basic principal of: the higher the crit chance, the lower the effectiveness of shield becomes. in pve this is fine, because mob crit rates are farely low, and sometimes even non-existant, so shield is pretty reliable. in pvp it's the complete opposite, because EVERYONE has high enough crit rates to reduce shield effectiveness. also, considder that only half the abilities in the game can be shielded in the first place, so really shield effectiveness in pvp is already roughly half what it is on your sheet to begin with.

shield is still a bad stat to use as a tank because the majority of players will have crit ratings HIGHER than your shield rating. and shield can never activate against a critical hit.

basically they've made it so: damage bonus from expertise went up a lot damage reduction from expertise didn't go up as much as damage bonus healing bonus from expertise is about half of damage reduction bonus dps classes deal faaaar more damage than they did before, and tanks mitigate quite a bit less, and healers are a lot less effective due to this change.

strange, it doesn't appear to have affected my account... says i only have 4 days left on my subscription. oh well!

i'm just glad my subscription ends in 5 days now... what a balls up. they failed to deliver on the pvp front, and they flat out lied about crafting. GG.

that's exactly the point... expertise gives more the higher you go. and you still think there's no gear gap? do you not think about WHY you're hitting for so much more? i'll give you a hint: the guy you're hitting has worse gear.

the gear gap DOES exist, commendations are harder to get now with the gear being far more expensive than before. players who were interested in a gear grind before this patch now have a VERY distinct advantage over those who either weren't interested in it, or rolled new chaacters, or have just hit 50. no gear gap... lol, so ignorant.

and what about all of the items which have neither message?

i am so disappoint...