You know... I should try that next week... Silly me never thought about dropping Flame Burst instead...

Well, easy way to test, which is what I did with my guilds patience, is to do EV NM/HM with you on a Marauder. Normal mode works too, but with your stats I'm quite sure you're on NM as well. Run a TUD(Time until death), 10 runs with each spec. Best I can honestly say since we've not combat logs or ways to get metrics. My fastest kills were as 4/6/31, my PvP spec. Rotating in a TD instead of a Rocket Punch when up to save on heat.

I know you think 3% Crit Tech damage isn't worth it, but take into account the only DPS abilities that are Ranged for you, and actually use, are Unload, Rapid Shots and Rail Shot, everything else is Tech. This means all your DoT's(Which can crit and are a lot of damage PvE wise), IM initial hit, Flame Burst, Rocket Punch, TD. The majority of your sustained damage. Just wanted to point that out.

They're the same with equal gear and skill. Now roll Marauder since that's what you obviously want.

The difference between an Orange and BM is a lot actually. But... the difference between Champ and BM, for weapons is not noticeable. BM weapons are mostly for looks with minor stat gains. The gear on the other hand, has higher stats. The bad side is, BM and Rakata gear have the worst freaking enhancements in the game. You have to do HM/NM Ops and pray Crit/Surge Enhancements drops. So, is it worth it? If you're sure you'll never see a Champ weapon, go for it. If you want to wait some more, start gathering the BM off pieces and Set pieces.

Crafting Decay would mean people would leave the game in droves. It was never fun in any MMO that had it, it never will be fun and it ruins the economy more then helps. It's not even possible to implement it even if BioWare wanted too. Loot is this game comes from RNG Bags and RNG Bosses. Add decay to those items, and the outrage would flow.

Woooooooooooooosh!

Surge > Crit > Power All my PvP gear has had the mods removed/changed in some form or another, even as 21/2/18 though currently I'm 31 Pyro. Mod: Aim End Crit Enhancement: End Crit Surge Puts me over 80% Crit bonus damage, over 40% crit with IA buff. Tack on the 15% crit for Eliminator 4 set bonus on Rail Shot and nomnomnom. Basically, Surge is king in PvP until your capped at 98%.

That's my point. A lot of little AoE damage over a full length Voidstar match, which is quite a long time. They just healed it up slowly since you weren't a threat. Look at their healing. 398,837 354,046 229,986 187,400 Long match, use AoE abilities and do little to no sustained damage or burst, they heal it up, you do it again. Some of my highest damage matches were because of a crap ton of healers on the other team, this being post 1.1 patch after the consumable stack change.

Looks legit to me, not hard to get damage in a Warzone as a low level Merc. They do come with a lot of AoE after all. Explosive Dart, Death from Above, Flamethrower. Problem is killing anyone with it, no real threat until at least 20.

I still hate the name for my build... Just saying.

I'm not Battlemaster yet since not much time to play, but I am rank 56 almost 57, 12% expertise with Full Champion with a Centurion Power Generator. But I do consistently get 400k+ damage and between 20-60k protection in a Warzone so can tell you how I do it. First off, do not Kamikaze run into the enemy. We do a lot of burst and sustained, yes... But we've got no escape mechanism what so ever as Pyro. To do a lot of damage means you have to live. To live means you rely on your team. Don't use IM unless it's on a healer or someone you know, a name you've seen regularly that will try and take you out(aka about 40% of the Repub population on my server try and burn me first grrrrr). Use your CGC snare wisely to keep distance for survival with Flame Burst and Rapid Shots. Use Line of Sight whenever possible to gain an advantage to keep you alive until support can come. Survival tips out of the way... To get a lot of damage in Warzones is dependent on your team. If you're like me and Solo Queue a lot, it's a crap shoot at times. Sometimes you have an awesome healer or two, maybe massive burst DPS classes to blow people up before they get blown up. Other times fresh level 50's or players who queue and AFK stealthed in the Warzone. But most importantly is how you play with your team, good or bad. Are you using Sonic Missile on a group of Enemies trying to slaughter your healer or ball carrier who's been keeping you alive or trying to score? Then running in and Carbonizing them to help them further? Are you picking your targets wisely, attacking the healer instead of the guarded ball carrier who's being healed by said healer? Do you use Grapple offensively to pull a healer or carrier to you to kill them? Or defensively to prevent a cap or save a team member? Are you using Stealth Scan at chokes and ramps to aid your team or using it to keep stealthers at bay near a cap point? Electro Darting a healer so you can burn someone, or using it to protect a friendly or maybe even as a back up interrupt? There's just so much that can lead to high damage in a match, so many questions that I could ask you. But what it really boils down to is awareness. Know who to attack and when, watch for reinforcements from the enemy and reinforce your allies. And most importantly, be a team player, even if it's one helluva crappy team, try and still be a team player. As for spec I run the 4/6/31 TD build: http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#301bMZMsZfhrbzGhrs.1 Very good sustained damage, and massive burst if you can time your combo of IM > TD > RP > RS. Rail Shot should go off(depending on latency) at the same time as Thermal Detonator resulting in some awesome burst right after your Rocket Punch, especially if the RNG gods say they all crit. Heat Management is simple, Stay around 28 heat unless you just proc'd a RS and the target is burning. Rail Shot, Rocket Punch and Flame Burst will be your main damage, IM being sustained damage and TD being your added burst. If the targets not burning, use FB over IM for heat reasons unless you need the sustained from IM. Watch your Vent Heat CD so you know if it's ok to Overheat to burst and still be able to keep going. Thermal Sensor Override is also a wonderful friend of yours. Screenshot of my first match this morning for my daily, Voidstar at that. No 500k+ damage... team was smart and kept me running like a scared cat as they tried to focus me down once they saw me, which they did... quiet a few times lol. http://i537.photobucket.com/albums/ff334/Aiko_Dekai/SWTOR/Screenshot_2012-01-28_10_13_33_756032.jpg Most importantly, just keep playing and trying things out to learn how to better yourself and learn about your opponents, and always remember to have fun as much as you can. Even though some matches you REALLY want to kick a kitten

It actually makes perfect sense. You may think only a few hundred would swap servers, which would be a rather large sudden load, but in actuality it would be thousands upon thousands. Yes, people are like that and just want to play, as shown by the plethora of whine posts in this thread. You would have to Region Lock the server to prevent this sudden load, since it would affect the natural player base of that region degrading their game play. Just look at any MMO where the majority of the servers go down, the others that are still up suddenly are flooded with people making alts leading to possible and eventual instability of the server. It's happened in Aion, Rift, even the "King" WoW. Even FTP MMO's and similar genre's had this happen, resulting in them making separate clients to region lock their customer base.

Well, I think I know the solution then. Time to Region Lock servers. Yes people will dislike it, but it's the only way they can shut US servers down and people not flood to EU servers and vice versa which would cause a lot of network and server strain. It's the real reason why all servers go down at the same time after all, this is the only solution. Sorry for those who want to play with friends in the EU or America, buy another copy for that region and play that way.

The real world. Though it's horribly cold and damp this day. Hopefully the winds don't pick up, would make a nasty gloomy morning more morbid. Wish someone would tell the rest of the world that Saturday is Prime Time all day, to me it's a work day, or catch up on doing everything I didn't have time to do due to work day and my God why does it only last a few hours when you need more I mean hell I still need to finish laundry and go shopping and it's only the morning and noon will be here in a few hours! Entitlement leads to nothing.

Other then proving my point? They kept to their word, morning to early afternoon isn't considered Prime Time after all, people asked for this. I'm not the one whining about it, I am the one getting much amusement from the whiners though. Nothing starts a morning like laughter, well that and coffee. It's going to be a good day, and my friend Woody in Canterbury agrees.

Oh no, the world is ending since you cannot play a Video Game for a few hours! OH MY GOD! It's true! 2012 is the coming of the end! Game came back online around 1330-1730(though 1730 is really stretching it since not many Subs that far out there) on a Saturday. That's 1:30 to 5:30 PM for us in America. You mean to tell me, that the people complaining sat on their asses all morning and into the afternoon screaming at their monitors to play a game that they could not due maintenance? This ladies and gentlemen, is a true sign of how the world will end. The entitlement, gimme attitude etc is very... disturbing.

I stand corrected! I was 2219 and got Challenger. I sadly cannot view my armory since I guess no active account. My friend still had the screenshots, and showed me on IM. He ofc then stated I was a dumb ***. Either way... Still annoyed you got Glad below 2400 rating.... And I guess it's just me who can't kill a 12% Expertise Sorc then. We both have equal gear, but he can Run away, root me, LoS and heal up while the DoT's just tick away. I get... Kolto Overload for my heal, 15% health over 10 seconds every 3 minutes.

Needed 2700+ on Vindication Battlegroup for Glad. I'm not lying, you were just in a lucky BG that's for sure... Glad below 2400 rating... Wish I had that luck...

Well, you didn't earn your 2400 Achievement until 2010. Explain that? I can. PMR 3v3. Or 2v2 DK/Pally, Warrior/Druid, Druid or Priest/Rogue. And yes, all I got was challenger. 2419 Dk/Pally. Again you do not grasp that titles were given out based on Battlegroup, you must have been in one crappy BG...

Glad title, along with every other arena title. 4/21/2009. Gained in 3v3 or 2v2 Highest 3v3 Personal rating 2,483. 2009. This was season 5, which if I recall correctly had the most Gladiators ever from 2v2, 3v3, and 5v5, especially Rogues and Death Knights. I know, I played a DK Dead Glad season was also why they started to inflate things since it was the most gladiators then all Arenas during BC combined. Does not impress me, since playing casually I hit 2419 and all I got was Challenger, since it's based on Battlegroup. Again, during Deadly Season, Season 5. Now, also to point out and prove it was BG based, look at when you earned your 3v3 2400, 11/23/2010. More then a year after your Glad Title. I also see a 2200 2v2 rating. Know what this says to me? Priest Rogue, got your title before they removed earning it in 2v2 due to how simple it was.

No one can kill a Sorc/Sage equally geared. Talking 12%+ expertise vs 12% expertise here, 600+. Not happening, especially since Expertise for some stupid reason boosts healing as well, why?! Expertise is supposed to even out the damage you do and take, yet people who can heal get a bonus to healing as well? Why again?

Wait, graphics would be better how? Consoles are running on 7+ year old hardware. They have been at their limit for a few years now. Developers have been having to use tricks to make the games look good compared to the PC counterparts.

This is because Rail Shot is based off Weapon Damage(Ranged). You can check your ability type just by opening your skills window, right hand side of each one.

I did this whilst leveling, was quite humorous especially since I'm on a PvP server. Not sure if intended or not, but twinks will always appear no matter the game.