^^^^^ What he said. It is so painful doing pvp with people who just have no idea and make no attempt to get a clue.

I would choose a class based on what you want to play not what the current strengths are in the game. The nurf bat is something that swings wildly round the universe and this months FOTM will be next months trash build. I dropped my assassin because the slowness of play got boring for me. Powertech i found suited me alot better.

As i mentioned i tried out pyro again after having a decent break from it and falling in love with the ST spec. What i wasn't expecting was difference i felt when i went back to ST spec. The damage and burst difference was very significant. I was loving having my mobility back, but wow i did feel the lack of damage output as ST spec. I am playing on the weekend however, which is the worst time to test a spec for pvp because its when all the kids are playing and no offense to the younger players, but they just don't play as a team like the older people do late at night. So there was little or no point in guarding or trying to support your team in random queues during the weekend days. I am going to run ST till the reset on tuesday, but i think i am sold on the conversion to Pyro. Not because i think Pyro is better for my team, but because i really bloody enjoyed blowing people up. When rated matches finally start and we start running serious groups i will most likely run as ST for the guild team, but Pyro definately has a fun factor. Its good to see for the most part intelligent opinions and discussions without it resorting to name calling. Credit to the Powertech community!

i respec'd to pyro so i could comment on it better. I spent the night topping the damage in every single WZ bar one which had a marauder with a pocket healer. I was doing 50 to 100% more damage than any other player in every match bar that one. In a whole night (solo queue) i got 1 MVP vote. As ST i would normally get between 1-3 votes per game. That is the people saying what they think is most valuable. I blew up countless people. It was easier to kite people and yes pyro is very strong. But every time more than 1 person targeted me i dropped like a sack of crap. Shield up or not, it doesn't matter. Pyro definitely has better survivability than AP which i tested last week. I found pyro great for LOS fighting with the dots and TD, then once lured away from their team a quick rocket punch, RS and flame burst spam was easy mode slaughter. I definitely could not kill people as quickly or easily as ST. As far as being a team player. I was just another number. Just another guy standing in a safe place and nuking away until there was an opening to run in and finish people off. I still used my hook which sux with no stun on it TBH. I still taunted. I tried to be as disruptive as i could to the other team while still pump out damage. The moment people noticed me actively disrupting combat they focused me back to the GY. I'm sorry but being able to zerg down enemies as a method of saving people just doesn't work. Someone stuns you, they heal and your back to square one. Playing HB. 0-0 and 6 min to go. Neither team seems to be making any headway. I switch to guard stance, guard disrupt, taunt as much as i can. I forget about senselessly blowing people up because that wasn't changing the flow of the game. We then score 3 times and i get the only MVP vote of the night. Summary As Pyro the damage is insane The kiting is superior to ST the ability to kill people fast is awesome i felt like a glass canon compared to ST i lacked mobility i lacked controls and interupts Played correctly ST ability to stay alive is simply superior to pyro. Saying because you can kill people quick means you stay alive is silly. How much damage can you output while stunned but the other team? I'm sorry it just is and you should go get a set of gear and try it out properly. There is definitely a place for ST in PVP and the people who place the votes say so. They say it over and over and over that they love having a tank disputing flow of the game and taking the hits for them. The votes say that the team players don't value the damage someone does as much as they value a tank or a healer. Saying flat out that pyro is superior to ST is not true. Each spec has its positive aspects. What it comes down to is what you like playing

i level as ST with Mako. Means i don't really have to stop or worry about my health. Yeh kills are slower, but less downtime

i said this in another pvp related thread. Till rated combat is introduced you will come up against complete muppets in every WZ. And beating 2 at a time is not hard. As ST last night i attacked a node in NC. 3 Vs 1. I killed the Jugg, then 1/3 health left smashed a Sorc then set to work on a sniper which i took half health off. I burned all my CD's, used medpac + stim but really the only thing that can account for that situation is that either ST is super OP. Which everyone says it isn't. I'm super awesome, which i'm not, i would say i would be in the top 25% but most likely 24% ahead of me. The most reasonable answer is the other players really suck and have bad gear. I don't suck and have really good gear. Till rated combat comes out there is no real measure cause any skilled play will pwn noobs into oblivion.

The current standard WZ system doesn't really lend any credit to someones achievements in a WZ. You could be facing off against the biggest group of noobs ever, or a bunch of pve people who are just doing the daily. Until rated WZ's come in then there will be no way to tell if someones figures are impressive. Camping a bunch of people at spawn suggests your team as a whole was far better than the other team, not that pyro is super awesome or something. Pyro definately has its place, none of the ST players are denying that. We do need pure dps spec's in WZ's because being able to kill people is important. But the Pyro players shouldn't be so quick to dismiss the usefulness of ST in any WZ map. It shows a very narrow view of someone who either just loves pyro, love to dps or just loves the play style of pyro. I fully accept i will never put out as much damage as pyro, but i will be far more mobile, have far more control and better survivability. Anyone who thinks pyro can survive as good as ST is kidding themselves, even just the difference in stance is significant, not to mention talents that make things different. Each spec has its place. Each is valuable to a team. Which is more valuable..... THE ONE THE TEAM DOESN'T HAVE.

Firstly its not your damage that wins a game. Its achieving objectives, keeping team members alive and being a real pain in the a55 to your opposing team. Getting top damage in a WZ doesn't mean anything if you smashed away on a guy who was being healed the whole time and your effective damage was really low. The damage stat is miss leading, it includes aoe damage etc. Second The heading is "is shield tech help a team more than pyro" (phrasing aside). Pyro can guard, at a massive cost of damage changing gas cylinders. ST can seemless guard and output damage (even though its less), ST Jet Pack is great for getting in peoples faces peeling them off your healer. Stun on Grapple is super handy. Being able to survive longer means you can tie up more players from their team for longer which gives your team the advantage. As a Pyro you do lots of damage and perhaps you can peel by using flame burst to slow people (do people do that or just go for personal glory.) The thing that makes ST good as a team member is that you are not going to pull massive numbers, so you focus on being as helpful as possible to your team. As Pyro it tends to be more kill kill kill ZOMG crit, kill kill. Good damage is helpful when applied well, but if you don't have tanks sacrificing themselves for the good of the team then no one does it.

you are missing the point. Its not all about damage or even how many protection points you get. Playing shield tech, (which i do) is about making it so the team can achieve its goals and you make life really hard for the enemy. Its about guarding the ball carrier in huttball, guarding the healer keeping people alive at a node or door. Its about taunting constantly to reduce enemy dmg output. Its about interupting the flow of combat for the enemy every chance you can. You should be Jet Packing onto people and peeling them off your team mates. Look in combat for an ally getting smashed and peel the enemy off with grappling hook. I don't ever top damage, i average between 100 and 150k with 30-60k protection. But i regularly get 10-13 medals and usually at least 1 MVP vote. I'm playing at lvl 38 currently so my experience with the spec is pretty close to yours. I did play pyrotech for a long time, but since i moved to Shield Tech i just can't go back. The mobility is awesome. Strong survivability and the ability to provide a real value to your team. People don't respect spamming damage, they respect the difference you make in the game.

Re the actual video production, not your play. That music is super bad. Just the game play sound is much nicer to listen too, at least then you feel involved with what you are watching. Re you play. You don't do much to make life hard for the enemy team. No use of stuns, grappling hook or taunting from what i could see. But then i did stop the video early because the music turned me off and i hate watching with no sound. I play shield tech which i know is a different play style, but i am always looking for the best way to disrupt the enemy as well as pumping out dmg and defending my team. I would suggest if you want to improve your pvp in a WZ senario that you CC more and make your enemies lives harder rather than just pew pew.

i wondered about which companion to use to level the fastest. I was still using mako at level 35.

mandalore the no-populationable AU night time i have not seen a single person on a planet i have quested on for the past 6 levels. There is NEVER more than 2 people on a planet at any time and a max of 14-20 on the fleet. Transfers need to happen NOW!!!! I'm a hard working husband and father, i get limited time to play, i can't re-level, but i can't play an MMO that is really a SMO (single man online)

They fixed the chatterbug

like darth malgus did to his mistress if you want to achieve true power you will kill her and remove the weekness that she creates in you as a sith

put simply its far easier leveling as darkness spec. No point in wasting your time with deception. As darkness you don't even need to bother with stealth, cc etc, just run in and destroy everything in front of you. Then when you hit 50 and your done with quests and your ready for end game spec to what you want and gear properly then comment on the state of a spec.