Wait...So <Anima> is <Catfish>??? Wow, <Catfish> was terrible. I was just returning to the game after a long hiatus, and we saw them in mids mouthing off while getting stomped. Several of them begged to join <Hex> once they hit 55, which gave us all a chuckle considering they were so abusive during WZ's. I think we even have some screenshots of them saying nasty things to friends and guildies. This is bloody hilarious if this is the case. Did they actually re-roll pubs when they hit 55 on their Imps?

Once upon a time there was a lowbie guild who mouthed off about how awesome they were at PeeVeePee. Then they hit 55s, lost game after game, and generally put up terrible numbers. Some of the members of this guild begged members of other guilds to group with them, but they burned so many bridges that established guilds would not form premades with them. Most of them quit in the end. The end. Moral of the story: Lowbie/midbie games are not representative of PVP in SWTOR, so it's best to **** and try not to piss off a community of PVPers that is small, and has a good collective memory.

It seems to me that some folks have grossly misunderstood Baarf's point, which was to praise the PVP community on the Ebon Hawk, while giving an account of the why's and wherefore's of PVP guilds' transfer patterns. There are some people running around with hair triggers. Let's just freaking relax and give the guy the benefit of the doubt. There seem to be some sour grapes here on the forums. The current state of PVP is just a tiny snapshot of the history of PVP in SWTOR. Anyone with a clue will realize that the removal of 8 man ranked killed team rated play in the game. Ranked PVP on TEH is currently not even a dim shadow of what it was. Those who are running around talking trash about rated would not even sit the bench on a decent team from when PVP was roaring. How do I know this? Because these mouthy players weren't even on their respective guild's B team roster. Hex was competing on Pot5 with some of the very best teams in the world. We are proud if our record, and I can assure you that if you think current arenas bear any resemblance to that time in the game's history you really have no idea what you're talking about. Almost every single team from those times disbanded and unsubbed with the dissolution of 8 man ranked. It is a fact that arenas are narrower in focus, more dependent on gear and comp, and strategically more shallow than a full 8v8 on objective-based maps. Arenas for many of us veterans hold zero interest. My time is very valuable to me. Arenas are like Galactic Starfighter: It's a boring minigame that holds no interest for me. Does this make me somehow less of a PVPer? I don't care, honestly. I'm back playing SWTOR casually with my favorite teammates. I'm enjoying seeing old friends and enemies. I'm having a ball. If/when 8 man ranked returns you can bet you'll see me back on the rated scene.

Hi Folks, Jerc here! Don't call me FeralPug or I'll be forced to mock you for not reading the second sentence of my post, which would be super embarrassing as it would display your utter incompetence for all the PT community to see. Just some quick notes about who I am: I've played Powertech since beta, and into pre-launch. I've been a subscriber since the game was released. My very first toon was my PT, Jerc Starr. I'm a founder and guildmaster of <Hex>, and the organizer of Jerc's Friday Fight Club, the only player-made game event that has been held on three separate servers (that I know about!). I played AP hybrid before it was cool, (like in 1.2) much to the chagrin of my guildies. I truly love the gameplay/role of the Powertech in SWTOR. I only want it to improve. My weakness as a player stems from my focus on PVP. My sig is 100% true: I have never achieved higher than Social I on any toon. I do not know the difference between a flashpoint and an operation, but I do recognize that PVE performance is as important as PVP performance of our class. Also, much of the game died for me when 8v8 ranked was dissolved. Arenas hold very little interest for me (I play them only as part of regular WZ rotations), so I'd love to hear from some arena lovers on what is going on there in terms of ranked play. That's where you guys come in. This thread is designed to kickstart discussion. I see my role here as facilitator, more than anything else. I'm just here to help focus and express the will of the larger PT community. After reading many of the dev responses to previous questions, I would advise the community to formulate questions in broad terms. For example, asking why a specific ability doesn't hit harder is too narrow a question. Think broadly, and in terms of the larger ways we fit into WZ's, operations and flashpoints. Presenting the devs with actual data will be particularly helpful. A quick example of this might be: "In 100 WZ's played this week, I've seen 1 player running full Shieldtech. What's up with that?" Looking forward to creating some class questions with you guys!

Hey Guys, I'm your class rep [nominated a long time ago, in a galaxy far far away]. Most folks in game know me as Jerc. I'm still here, still playing, and still reading the forums (but rarely posting). I'm going to make a new post in our class forums requesting questions. We can have a nice little discussion, and based on that discussion I'll draft 3 questions for the PT community's review. We'll generate a final draft together, and see what kind of answers we get. Feel free to PM me, or contact me through Enjin: http://tehhex.com/profile/2727532 . Once I've been contacted by a BW rep, I wouldn't be opposed to having a meet'n'greet/discussion in TeamSpeak. Yours,

. . .

Guild: <Hex> Faction: Imperial Purpose: PVP Guild website: http://tehhex.com/

Banksy, Thanks for your efforts as Vanguard rep. I can't blame you for resigning. I'm surprised more haven't already done so. After waiting so long for PVP content to finally be added, only to have a major portion of end-game PVP to be removed, is a slap in the face to all of us who have been striving, since the inception of ranked, to assemble a competitive 8 man team. Add to that the lack of incremental class balance updates, and you have a very bleak picture of the future of PVP in SWTOR. It does make the work we do as representatives feel futile. I hope that your resignation servers as a protest, and a reminder to the developers, that they are squandering the strengths of SWTOR. Thanks again for your work for the Vanguard/PT community. If I could tack on a question for the developers: "Your own class reps are abandoning the game due to poor communication, infrequent class adjustments and sweeping changes to PVP. Why are you guys shooting yourselves in the foot?" Best, Jerc Starr

Hey guys, This is Jerc Starr, the PT rep. I would urge you guys to revamp your third question. Asking why we don't have an execute talent is not going to get us anything. I've seen this question asked several times since launch, and not only has it been met with indifference by the devs, but I think it is pointing us in the wrong direction. I personally don't want another talent like other classes out there. We need something different, unique and fun. Plus, having an execute ability doesn't necessarily translate to being a viable endgame spec (I'm looking at you Watchman and Deception). Instead of framing questions like this: "Class X has ability Y. PT's should have it too", we need to be asking things like "PT's ability X is not working in your endgame. Here's why it's not working. Here are our suggestions on how to make it work. Whaddya think?" Guys, we are the most underrepresented class in endgame for both PVP and PVE. We are by all accounts the "worst class in the game". We can't softball these questions. We need to attack with data, and with specific examples. As it is, in the current answers to both Snipers and Sents, even though the devs provided detailed answers to the questions, they also stated that class balance is a long way off! Frankly, I'm pissed about this. From our class's perspective, this game is broken. We are forced to play other classes if we want to enjoy endgame, and it shouldn't be like that. Our questions need to put some serious pressure on the developers to come up with near term solutions. Here's a question: Why are we waiting so long for class balance passes? Can't you guys do incremental passes between larger patches? Why can't they take October and make it "Powertech Month". Here's how it would work: The class community is polled for questions and changes. Week 1: Incremental changes to all three PT trees are introduced to live servers. Week 2: Data and feedback is collected. Week 3: Corrective/additional incremental changes made to class. The following month, it's Operatives' turn, etc. ------------ Asking for an execute is a waste of time. We need to do more and go deeper if we have any chance in reviving our dead class.

Reminder: TODAY at 4:30 pm EST on Nar Shaddah we will be ushering in the weekend with a Friday Fight Club. My merc is finally reasonably geared, so look for me on Jercenary.

Tomorrow, 8/9, 4:30 EST! FIGHT CLUUUUUUUBBB! Nar Shaddah, or "Nar Nar" as we affectionately call it. Meet in front of the Hutt statue!

Awesome post, Sef. Excellent feedback. Anyone else curious as to how the sent and sniper questions will be answered? Also, it looks like we're slated to wait until Oct 16th to submit questions. Check the Vanguard sub-form if you want input on our first round of questions. Best, Jerc

Hey guys, Jerc Starr from the PT community. I got a couple PM's alerting me to the fact that your rep is MIA. I'm the rep for the PT's, and we've already gotten the ball rolling on our forums and are generating questions. It's looking like the mirrors of each class will each get the opportunity to ask questions. It's imperative that we work together so that we can get 6 distinct questions answered by the developers. Has anyone PM'd your rep? The Vanguard questions are scheduled to be submitted on the 16th, so there's not much time. I had someone from the vanguard community PM me asking if I'd do it. I'm already doing it for the PT forum, so I'm happy to throw my name in the hat if you don't have anyone else to fill the gap. Also thinking of holding a mini Vanguard/PT summit via voice comm in the near future so we can hash out some ideas. Will let you know when this happens. Best, Jerc

Wow. Thanks for that compliment, Luckey. I do really appreciate that! PT is in a really tough place right now, though there are some of us who are sticking with it, and running it in rateds. I know three on POT5: myself as AP, Sef as Shield and Pyromanen as Pyro. All three of us have huge complaints, and I think they could be summed up as: 1. AP's top tier talent should hit harder, Prototype Cylinder for HEGC is a very weak talent, FT is dodgy. 2. Shield lacks the utility, control and strong cooldowns of a Juggy. 3. Pyro relies too much on DoTs, has a weak 31 point talent and lacks strong defensive CD. In all three cases, a better ranked composition would be to take a Juggy over a Shield PT, and maras over AP and Pyro for melee. Everytime I run as AP in ranked, I can't help but feel that I'm gimping my team. No top ranked teams are running PTs in any role as far as I know. If you guys can find an example of a tier 1 ranked team successfully running one, I'd love to hear about it. Actually, I know that Sef just hit 55 with his Juggy tanked and prefers it significantly over PT for rateds. He's on <Hex>'s rated team, and if any of you know him he's an extremely talented player. His word is gold to me. Most of the PTs I know have completely abandoned the class. I wonder if BW's metrics reflect this?? To be completely honest, I've finally geared my Arsenal merc and the difference in terms of burst is just night and day. It actually feels similar to the old 30m TD Pyro to me. After spending lots of time in specs like smash and arsenal, PT dps feels impotent at best. So you're not alone in feeling like this class needs some tuning. We need to point the devs in the right direction with our questions. Let's use the next couple of weeks to really lock down our questions.

Hey guys, Just a quick update on what's going on. I received this PM from Eric Musco. In an effort to be totally transparent to the community, I'm going to relay any direct developer PMs that I get to you guys verbatim: Based on the schedule BW has supplied, it's looking like the mirror classes will get to ask separate questions! This is incredibly good news as we can work with the Vanguards to pose 6 distinct questions to the developers about our class. The bad news is that the Vanguard rep is MIA and their date is coming up. I would recommend we hit the Vanguard forum hard and request a new rep be picked ASAP. I would love to work with the new rep via the <Hex> TS server so we can generate 6 great questions. Also, I'm getting PMs requesting meetings over voice comm. I'm more than happy to do this. Maybe there's a night this week where all of the Vanguards and PTs can have a voice comm meet'n'greet and get some work done on our questions. Keep the questions coming. I'm reading this thread multiple times a day (even if I'm not posting). Great questions!!

Hi folks, My name is Jerc, and I'm your new class rep. I've played since beta, and have played a PT since pre-launch. My focus is PVP, but I fully recognize the importance of making sure the class fills a vital and fun role in PVE encounters. I do not think PVE folks are wimpy carebears. That is a total lie. Anywho! I see the class representative more as a facilitator than anything else. Although I have my own opinions on what the class needs, I'm going to try (as best as I can!) to have you guys speak through me. We are being asked to formulate 3 questions to the developers. Unfortunately, the mirrors of each class are going to have to coordinate questions as the devs are not recognizing each mirror as a separate community. We will have to collaborate with them, and I'll be contacting their rep this week. So I see two options on how to proceed: 1. We do the obvious thing and formulate a question for each tree: Shield, AP and Pyro. The one thing to be aware of is that the devs aren't actually asking for "feedback". They're asking for questions. I think if we spin our wheels and simply make suggestions for each spec, we'll be disappointed in the outcome. For example, I'm concerned that if our "question" for the AP tree is "Flame Thrower is dodgy and unusable in endgame PVP. What are you doing to fix it?", they will respond by saying, "No, it's not. Working as intended. Thanks for the question." 2. We ask meta-questions that force the devs to look at the data they collect for each class, and address how our class is fitting within the larger game, and whether this is on-target or not. For example: we could use the raw data from a thread like the cross-server PVP records thread that is collating numbers from all servers and ask why PT dps highs are in the 1400's while other classes are enjoying mid 2k's. Another question I would ask is: "what are the compositions of the top rated ranked teams, and why are PT's so underrepresented? What are you plans to address the viability of PT's in the elder game?" Or we could do a mix of 1 and 2. A lot will depend on the Vanguard community, and their rep. It will also depend on you guys. I'm here just to represent you, and will bend to the will of the larger PT community on whatever we decide. So let's start this whole process with the following request from me: You are king for a day. What are your three questions for the devs? Remember, these aren't suggestions! These are questions. What do you want to know from the developers about the Powertech class? Please keep the questions short, and to the point!

I understand why many of the shield guys want to keep flame engine. My issue is that AP's central ability is flame thrower, and in PVP situations it is all but unusable due to several issues. I can only compare it to smash, as I see the abilities as having similar purposes: they are designed to put up AOE pressure damage on clumps of targets. Flame thrower falls far short of having the same impact as smash does in a given WZ match. Why? 1. It's an AOE cone as opposed to a 360 degree circle. 2. It's channeled as opposed to instant. 3. Critical hits are not guaranteed like they are with smash. On a geared mara, smash hits for ~8k+ (often topping 9, and even hitting 10 occasionally). Flame thrower on a geared PT (full min/maxed conq) is 2.8k-3k a tick for 4 ticks if you crit. On my well geared PT, with all pertinent datacrons, my chance to crit with flame thower is in the mid 20's%. This is one crit for every four ticks (without explosive fuel activated). Now, the last thing I'd want is to make AP another smash spec. It's good to have diversity in the way classes perform in the WZ's. That said, if you're going to build a spec around a channeled AOE cone, you have to make flame thrower more workable. Flame engine is a perfect match for AP, and I like the idea of building channel speed as you build stacks of PFT. Now, I agree that snagging an ability from another spec is cheap. I wouldn't suggest it if AP didn't center around Flame Thrower. But if Shieldtechs like Flame Engine simply for generating AOE threat in PVE encounters, there are tons of other ways to do this. Having more synergy with Flame Sweep in the Shield build would make perfect sense to me. Build in a wider radius. Build in higher threat levels. A Flame Sweep buff would be more synergistic with Shield than Flame Engine, which in turn is more synergistic with the AP tree. While they're at it, prototype cylinders needs a tweak for HEGC. Anyway, let's keep the discussion going.

I still love playing my PT. It's my favorite toon in spite of its many flaws. Thanks guys and gals in the PT community! I will do my very best to represent you. Let's hope this is a step in the right direction in balancing our class. Best, Jerc Starr

Totally agree. A DPS spec, regardless where the overall advanced class falls in the trilogy (tank, dps, heals), deserves to be able to stand alone as DPS. This is necessary for the overall health of endgame PVP and PVE. Comps shouldn't be so narrow in end game. This is what we need to get across to BW as a community.

!!!!!

Also, I'd just like to quickly say: I've played many, many games with Asami. He's a very fine player. There are some seriously sensitive folks on this server who seem preoccupied with their reputation. The reputation of POT5 veterans means nothing to those who have transferred, just as our rep means nothing to you. The server is starting at 0. There are some incredibly uptight tryhards in the WZ's on POT5. Relax people. Take a breath.

Why don't ya'll come to the Fight Club today on Voss at 4:30pm EST?

Reminder: We will be holding Jerc's Friday Fight Club today at 4:30pm EST on Voss at the Tower of Prophecy in Voss-Ka. TS3 server info will be given at the event. Please join us for some goodle' fashioned fisticuffs! Be there, or be carebear!

The Jerk of the Week has chosen the location of our next Fight Club. Let's make it so...

Hey All, First let me say something really cheesy: I love this server! Great duels, great turnout, great people! Wow! We had so many duels going at once, it was hard to pick one to watch. Thanks to Cilas for streaming the matches! The first official Jerk of the Week is awarded to Pyromanen (I hope I've gotten your name right!). I'm awarding this great honor due to his incredible win ratio. I only saw him lose once. He's a pyro dps, so those of you who lost to him (me included, several times) should just /unsub for losing to a spec that has been nerfed into the ground. My ego is a little bruised this evening. Pyromanen has the grave responsibility of picking the location of next week's JFFC. Would also like to quickly mention Hawks. Really nice 1v1s! Thanks for a great turnout, folks! Looking forward to next Friday! Your Favorite Jerc in the Galaxy, Jerc Starr