I dislike the kind of PVP that SWTOR offers, but I do love PvP. My personal preference for PVP would be world PvP as opposed to the scripted, objective based warzones. My first MMO was Dark Age of Camelot which had an excellent Realm vs Realm system. It was a 3 way world pvp WAR, and that was honestly what got me hooked on PvP. No other game since DAoC has been able to field the same sort of commitment one felt towards your realm that drove you to protect the frontiers of your realm and attack the frontiers of your enemy. DAoC gave you something real and tangible to fight over and, in my opinion, the right kind of incentive for going out and fighting over them. SWTOR PvP is meh compared to that, in my opinion.

Damage is definitely lowered. I notice that it takes a little bit longer to kill mobs soloing the BH dailies. My impression on the AoE component of Guardian Slash is that it seems to have a small range. I noticed that unless the mobs were almost stacked together, they weren't going to get hit with it.