I'm a lv. 35 BH Arsenal Merc (the mirror to Trooper Commando Gunnery) and I've been PvPing as one since Beta. Here's a few tips to deal with a melee on you as a M-BH/C-Trooper: 1) Spec Tenacious Defense so your Concussive Charge has a 20 second CD and spec Concussive Force to make your Stormstrike a knockback and your Concussive Charge stronger. Concussive Charge is your first line of defense. This knocks back all melee on you and slows them, and if you plan it correctly, you can knock back someone off the high ground and gain a huge advantage. Despite wearing heavy armor, don't be out there waiting to get snagged by an assassin/shadow. Gain the height advantage in almost every scenario that it is available. 2) Utilize your 4-second stun spell intelligently. Use it to set up a Grav-Round/Tracer Missile combo and deal a high health deficit. If a player is low on health and you aren't, they are going to retreat to start using non-offensive abilities to survive. This is your time to strike. You want to start the fight in your favor. 3) Use Concussive Round! It doesn't have to only be a CC for the healer. You can use it to open the door to getting some distance or setting a combo. In fact, you can juke someone into blowing their CC-breaker and then make them pay with a stun that really matters. 4) Use energy shield BEFORE you are below 20%. It's not going to do you much good to block 25% damage when you have 200 health left. If an assassin opens on you and your other escapes are on cooldown, use energy shield. 5) Lastly, but definitely not least, DON'T RAMBO. You aren't a lone killing machine capable of destroying entire armies of players. Help your team, assist in heals if you have to and focus on objectives. If you sit there spamming tracer/grav rounds and are totally unaware of your surroundings, you are a FAILTROOPER/BOUNTY HUNTARD. Don't be one. Hope that helps.

You do realize that the 1-20 planets are completely oriented to your faction and the 20-25 planet is mostly oriented to your faction. Once you hit Tatoonie, you start seeing a lot of enemy faction players. I've had some pretty big battles today alone. Also, most of the world PvP stuff occurs at 50 on Ilium. Get to end-game before you complain about it.

Uh, Rift is definitely not dead. They have quite a large, vibrant player base. And I'm kiting just fine from melee. It would be nice if the camera didn't swivel to the direction you are running (wink wink Devs), but it's by no means broken.

What? Unload/Rail Shot and Rapid Shots are a huge part of the rotation. If you expect to just spam tracer missiles 100%, enjoy being heat locked.

1. Arsenal/Gunnery has some pretty intense burst damage. However, it's almost entirely reliant on chain cast tracer missiles/grav rounds. It is a mistake to leave a Trooper/BH casting out in the open without any interrupts. 2. Not so. Just because we have heavy armor, doesn't mean we fit to tank. Powertech/Vanguard have those toys - in PvP, once my Jet Boost/Electro-dart/Energy Shield is exhausted, I am usually dead meat until they come up. We're not as squishy as Sorcerers without Static Shield, but we are definitely not that tanky. 3. Yep. 4. Again, depends. If you sub-spec or hybrid into Bodyguard/Combat Medic, then the heals are quite decent (although you won't be out-healing main spec healers). The cost of that is damage. If you don't spec into the healing trees at all, you might as well have no heals because the base heals for only about 5% of a person's max health. Hope that helps give a better image of the class.

I agree with the sentiments that PvP needs to be bracketed. You can keep the bolster system within sub-50 brackets, but I honestly don't see a point in PvPing at 50 when I fight level 14s all day. How am I suppose to become a better player that way? Bracket it off. Let the 50s fight.

If you sit there and let a Merc BH chain cast Tracer Missiles and Rail Shot/Heatseeker combos, then you deserved to die. Sit on the BH and watch his DPS plummet. Remember to save your gap closers and break-free for Electrocute (1 minute CD) and Jet Boost (20 second CD). As their class name implies, they are too dangerous to keep alive. We're raw offensive power, but not much defensive unless you hybrid into Bodyguard.

Chiming in to help support this. It's just tedious and should only require a few lines of code to fix.

Well, I can at least sleep soundly knowing I'll be getting in probably during the first wave tomorrow (Dec. 7 pre-order). Don't worry fellow Decemberists - our time is near!

That was sick. Skyrim theme cover? That alone warrants a subscribe.

Inc "omg BioWare sux QQ worst launch ever WoW 100x better" crowd.

Decemberists in the house tonight. Everybody just have a good time.

Decemberists, unite!

Stephen Reid posting an update regarding tomorrow's waves - they should be getting up to the last week of November or so. Thus, unless you pre-ordered a week or two ago, you should be getting in. If you are a December pre-order, then you will be getting in Friday. Considering the facts, that's pretty awesome. 5 days early access for November/4 for December. Remember, originally we all thought we were getting only 5 for July pre-orderers. IMO, as a Decemberist, I think they are doing a great job.

+1. One of the best shows ever to air.

Thank you for the update, Stephen. I appreciate the professional and efficient manner that you and your team have displayed on this crazy first day. Having participated in multiple MMO launches, I must say that you guys are doing a great job keeping up with all the chaos. Here's hoping for a smooth month with little server stability issues and years of SW:TOR to come. (and, because I know it will get brought up - no, I haven't gotten into EGA. There's no reason to be bitter about waiting a few more days)