Yep, the luck based system is bad. Is it worth quitting over? Doubtful. That decision, however, is up to the individual. Take solace in the fact that BM gear is not much better than Champ. Some pieces are actually downgrades, until you swap out enhancements. Just beat those 1-week-to-BM-gear players with your own lesser gear, and make them come to the forums and whine.

I'm fairly sure Tech Override doesn't respect the GCD. Might be mistaken on that, but even if I am, it is instant, so it can be activated on the run. The mezz is now similarly instant. Even if TO triggers a GCD, you can use that time to close the distance, which will allow you to use KBs as interrupts. Also, most heals have a cast time greater than 1.5 seconds. If you act quickly, you can get the mezz off before the heal finishes.

I hate those matches. I'm playing huttball 1 vs 8 while the rest of my team is playing deathmatch.

Of course, these things are on a server by server basis, and are subject to massive observer bias. That being said... The state of things as I see them on Po5: Both sides have a collection of both great and terrible players. On most days, the dominance goes in shifts. Reps do well during the day. Imps tear it up from around 3-5pm EST. Reps wreck shop from 5-7. Things even out from 7-11. Reps do well late night on weekdays, Imps do well at those times on Friday and Saturday. Weekend days are a tossup. That's all for the 50 bracket. In the sub-50... Reps seem to dominate more often than not. This has changed as the game has changed. Early on, Imps were dominant at most times. The general suspicion was that more of them had leveled faster, and rode that advantage to faster gear. Hard to confirm or deny. Personally, I suspect that poorly played Reps who blame gear, OP classes, faction imbalance, or any factor other than themselves for their failures, rerolled Imp early. Meanwhile, Imps who wanted more challenge hopped over to the less populated side. That's my conspiracy theory on why Rep does so well sub-50.

As Commando, I approach them one of two ways, depending on spec: Assault: I view it as a burst race. I like to whittle them down a bit slowly, hoping to lure them into a false feeling of comfort, then stack the damage and hope to knock a huge chunk out all at once. I'll hit incendiary round, follow with Assault Plastique, follow with Charged Bolts, followed immediately with High Impact Bolt. Three of those abilities will hit at nearly the same time with proper timing. With a little luck, that combo will net close to 10k damage when it all blows up. That usually puts them into panic mode, if it doesn't kill them outright. Depending on what they do next, I'll either use Full Auto and hope it resets HIB, or use Cryo Grenade to keep him in place if he tries to run away. Conversely, I'll use a rundown similar to what was mentioned in page 1. A few weak attacks to drop his bubble, Concussion Shot to make him burn his CC break, then burst and stun. Gunnery: I find healers to be a much tougher battle as gunnery. While my overall damage is higher and more efficient, I simply don't burst as hard as Assault. Most of the times when I fight a healer, it comes down to me pitting my efficiency against his. I go into boss fight mode, using a solid damage rotation while maintaining the highest ammo regen rate possible. Usually, this will either result in me eventually outlasting his resource bar, or him getting so focused on healing himself that he lets his allies die, and my teammates are freed up to help me kill the healer.

That's probably the only thing I'd change, though I do play around with different variants from time to time.

I'm not a fan of Nightvision Scope. It may just be a playstyle thing. I rarely go off alone, and don't seem to attract too many stealthers. When I am alone, I can usually flush them out with stealth scan. Adrenaline Fueled and Reflexive Shield are both good talents. I prefer AF since it is something I have more control over. Remember, it procs on all crits, even from your DOTs. Rapid Recharge is good as well, since Assault is less ammo friendly than Gunnery.

First off, get your PVE 4 piece bonus as quickly as possible. Do dailies, run HMs, whatever it takes. Both the 2 and 4 piece contribute to ammo stability. I won't claim to be perfect, but here is how I approach boss fights: Start off with Full Auto. It does good damage, and by the time the 3 second channel is done, you will have fully recharged the ammo used to activate it. Also, if you spec properly, grav rounds will reset the CD on Full Auto, and make the next Full Auto do 25% more damage. Follow with Grav x3. If you have your PVE 2 piece, you should have a crit rate of around 50% on Grav in raids (assuming smuggler buff.) You should get a cell charger proc or two as you cast these. Use Full Auto whenever curtain of fire procs. ** IF you have your PVE 4 piece, use HIB whenever possible. It is free, and should be used whenever it is off CD. Follow the third Grav with Demo round. Grav x2, followed by HIB. If you have your 4 piece, HIB may be on CD. After this point, look at your ammo: If you've gotten good crit luck, and cell charger has kept your ammo high, continue with the Grav rotation, using FA, HIB and Demo every time they are up. If you're ammo has gotten low, use Reserve Powercell to cast Mortar. The free 3 second cast will allow you to regen a couple ticks of ammo. In situations where you cannot Mortar, use Reserve Powercell to cast Full Auto. Feel free to hit Hammer Shots a few times to go from >>> to >>>> on your charge meter. For burn phases, I like to activate relics, use everything I have (Grav, HIB, Grav, Demo, Grav, FA) and activate recharge cells afterward to get me back into the fast recharge range. Remember: A few Hammer Shots early on are more effective than spamming hammer after depleting your ammo. Always try to stay in the fastest two recharge states.

I like it, will have to try it when I get home today.

I actually had someone scold me for using East/West, insisting that I use Right/Left... It has been said dozens of times: East/West are absolute, right/left are subjective. Use the absolutes.

So, they're adding in a system that rewards time and effort, and offers a guaranteed payout rather than a random chance at payout? While also giving people incentive to stay in losing warzones rather than leaving? Fantastic, I say. They've given us exactly what we asked for. Of course, people will still complain. Here are some words for the complainers: If you're in champ gear, and complain about getting rolled by BMs, it's not the gear. It's you. That same player would kill you with equal gear. Stop blaming outside sources. Take a look in the mirror, accept that you are looking at your problem, and work to fix it. BM gear is a small upgrade at best over Champ. Many of the pieces are sidegrades. Some are actually downgrades, and have to have their enhancements swapped out to be useful. Why make things cost WZ and Merc commendations, instead of just raising the WZ commendation cap? Perhaps they are going to introduce more ways to get merc comms. Having multiple commendations allows them more flexibility. It gives them the opportunity to cater to different styles of PVP. Of course, I'm speaking of things that make sense here. No guarantee that BW will follow through.

Some get the good luck, some get the bad. I've kept precise track of my bags, and am sitting at 9/50. And 5 of those bags came from a 5/7 stretch from the mid 30's to the early 40s. On a 0/9 streak now. Take some solace in the fact that BM gear is a very slight upgrade at best, and an honest DOWNgrade at times. Most of the pieces I have not yet bought will require me to swap out an enhancement in order to make them upgrades. You aren't missing much.

In the new system? Basically impossible. In the old system, however... Completely random. Many people hit BM without full Champ sets. Personally, I never had Champ legs, but was lucky enough to get all other pieces. I did Ilum enough to finish dailies and weeklies, but most of my pre-BM Ilum time was in the era of objectives. As for now, I really don't see how anyone can go from valor 50-60 without gaining a full Champ set, unless they're rolling with the Ilum zerg.

Not sure which I hate more, the people who don't even understand the concept of a pass, or the people who love to sit at the edge of the endzone, shooting the ball carrier who is down in the pit, and providing a PERFECT force leap target, which leads to a score. Easy solution to the score = medal issue: Make an additional medal for an Assist. If the person you pass to scores within 10 seconds, you get as much credit for the score as them.

Signed. Nothing I more than being a quarter of the way through a bomb plant, and seeing a teammate run up and start planting, rather than stunning, slowing, rooting, etc. the enemy. I'll add one more: 4 people defending 1 node when we're down 2:1 in Civil War. There's no point in holding 1 when we need 2 to win. Keep 1, 2 max there to prevent the ninja, and go attack another turret. Oh, and attack that turret in force, not one by one. Also, attack the same turret that your team is focusing on.

I'm not sure if anyone who isn't involved in the development knows for certain. There haven't been many details shared thus far. I would assume it is done by Valor rank, as that seems to be the most simple solution. Time will tell, though. I also assume your battlemaster friends will be able to play non-ranked warzones with you.

I disagree. I had a match just last night. Epically fought 0-0 tie. My team won, though we defended first. Doubt it made any difference, but my team was the only one that managed to plant, but it was disarmed. I'm inclined to believe it is completely random. I've lost ties where my team had significantly more kills, damage, haling and objectives.

I'm in the below average BM bag luck group as well, though a good run last week has me closer to average. Keep a few things in mind: Random is random. Some will good luck, some bad. It's a poor system, but it is on its way out, and a new system is supposed to be implemented in 1.2. BM isn't much of an increase over Champ. Some of the items are honestly downgrades. My helmet drops surge in favor of... Accuracy? Not having BM gear is not the end of the world. A well played Champ will still beat a poorly played full BM.

My observations after playing both sides in Prophesy of the Five: Imperials: Rarely leave a solo defender at a point. If they do, that solo defender is usually a potent stealther who never got the memo about the Op nerf. Usually have good situational awareness. I have had rare cases where I walk through a busy fight and plant a bomb amongst 4 enemies. Usually, however, the Imps are good about hitting towers/doors before you can cap. More easily lured into meaningless fights. On countless occasions, I've lured 2-3 imperials into fighting me in an already cleared room of Voidstar, or the roads of Civil War, while my team has moved on to hit an objective. The Imps seem to be far more kill driven. Which leads me to... Focus on kills more than objectives. When given the choice between finishing a player off, or interrupting a bomb plant that is at 7.8, most imps that I've seen will choose the kill. I've had several games where the Imperials had a 2:1 kill advantage, but still lost. More premades and better gear. I rarely see an 11k hp Imp at 50. I rarely see a group without at least 3 people from the same guild at 50. My lower level alts see more randoms, however. Much better at Huttball. Sure, I've had some pro teams that win 6-0 within 5 minutes, but I've seen far more Rep teams that don't even know how to pass. Hell, some don't even realize what to do with the ball. Imperials by and large are better at Huttball, and only rarely will I see one do something foolish, like hold the ball with low health, while a high health ally is nearby. Republic: More prone to foolish losses. I've had many times when I got out of a match, and though "We just lost to a worse team." Everyone leaves the East turret when mid calls for help. Mid gets capped while 3 people are around it. And my personal favorite, some Commando will ALWAYS stand at the edge of our endzone in Huttball, trying to shoot the carrier, and just begging that Sith to force leap out of the pit for a quick score. Less focus fire. I'm often the op leader in WZs. I try to mark healers when I see them. Still, I rarely see them get focused down, as each Rep in the area is fighting his own little 1v1. Lack of map awareness. 6 people will be fighting on East door, and nobody will notice that there is nothing on West door until the bomb is planted. I suppose their mini-maps don't work? Silence. Silence is an absolute killer, and I see it far too often. One guy will defend a point, and say nothing when he dies. Rambo complex. Too many one man armies. When down 1:2 in CW, 5 people will try to hit right, and instead of following along, Mr. ****** decides to hit mid solo. He dies, we come within one stun of taking right, but ultimately fail. The good comes in phases. It seems that we do quite well midday. Around 3-5 eastern (perhaps when the kids are getting home from school) the Imps start to dominate. Things even out again around 5-7 pm. After 11 on weekday nights, the Reps start to gain an edge again, at least at high level. More under-geared fresh 50s. I have seriously seen matches where my 18k was top, we had a 15k, and the rest were 13.3k and lower. I've even seen people under 11k. I've seen several people playing at 50 with a valor rank under 20. Though I believe I am great with tactics, I feel I am average at best skill wise. I simply cannot carry clueless PVE levelers with 0 expertise through a WZ, and it gets frustrating. We're better sub 50. There really is a remarkable difference in the win rates of pre and post 50 Rep groups. My mid thirties characters win well over 60%, and can often run up impressive win streaks. My 50 can get stuck in one of the previously mentioned bad time frames, and will be lucky to finish his daily in under 3 hours. Conspiracy theory: All the bad Reps who couldn't hack it early rerolled Imp, and now get rolled in sub-50 pvp. Pro Imps who were tired of a 5:1 advantage decided to switch sides for a greater challenge, and now rock sub-50.

I've seen this twice, both times in huttball, both times marauders. Most recent time, we were fighting at the middle-south ramp, near the air vents. The carrier started to break away from the group, and I started to chase. Suddenly, he started moving faster. I'm talking out of combat sprint speed at least, whilst carrying the ball and being in combat. Not sure if it was truly a hack, or just a clever misuse of game mechanics as others have suggested. I just know there was no way to catch the player, and no further reason for me to be in that warzone.

4/34 in the new system. By my math, there's a whole 3.2% chance of that happening with a 25% success rate system. Impossible? Certainly not. Unlikely? Certainly. And therein lies the problem of the system. As others have said, random is random. It is not biased, nor is it fair. It cares not for the amount of work you put in. It cares not who is more deserving. This is why the system is terrible. Nobody will ever open enough bags to defeat Standard Deviation. StDev is massive in the small sample sizes that we're dealing with here. That means we're going to see wide variance across the board, resulting in some people scoring well above the 25% success rate, and others scoring well below. This should be obvious to anyone with a high school education, but apparently BioWare just can't see it. The BM system should be exactly the same as the Centurion and Champion systems. X# of commendations per bag, Y# of commendations to buy each piece of gear. That way, it takes a uniform amount of time to earn pieces. The guy who does his quests every day is guaranteed to get his gear twice as fast as the guy who does his quest every other day. Oh, and while we're at it, why do BM offhands cost as many comms as BM mainhands? Offhands are cheaper than almost everything else at the other two tiers.

Good on ya, Cerb. I'm still going to shoot you any time I see you, but glad to see you have some principles. I was pretty disappointed when Virb got on his rep alt and started /t bombing anyone in fleet, begging for people to fill out his little kill trade group. Glad to see how poor the turnout was, rep side. As for Virb's justification: Some of your points do have merit. I, however, would rather work for my rewards rather than being given a handout. Yes, I'll always be at a numeric disadvantage. But that is part of the challenge for me. Can I get 30 kills before dying 5 times, despite 5v1 odds? Perhaps, perhaps not, but either way, I find that preferable to shooting an enemy that isn't even going to fight. If we're stuck in the base, I'm going to work with a small group and go after your stragglers. If we have a decent turnout, but are still hopelessly outnumbered, I'll fight at the SW bridge, or any of a dozen other choke points that lessen the effect of your numeric advantage. I'll find a fight any way I can, even if it is a hopeless fight. To me, that will always be more enjoyable than "AOE that pre-formed clump of willing targets."

I've seen this fairly often as well. We have a few Rep players on Prophesy who will quit the moment we have a disadvantage. When the baggage leaves, the rest of us aren't slowed down trying to carry them. We get a few replacements, regroup, and push on for the win. It doesn't always happen that way, of course. Some games are lost from the beginning. Sometimes, you have Huttball with 5 smuggler classes fighting a Jugg/Sorc BM premade. Sometimes you get stuck with the fresh 50's, still rocking 4 pieces of the level 40 pvp set. Still, I try to stay in if the team is anywhere close to competitive. There are times when I'm in WZs simply for the fun of it, but there are also times when I have a very small playtime window, and I just want wins for my daily bag. If my team is completely uncompetitive, and I have limited time, I may leave a match. If I've lost several games with the same people, I may leave just to rotate in with better talent. I have no illusions of PVP greatness. I am not good enough to carry multiple bad players, and I gain nothing from fighting with a terrible team.

You can pick up armaments at the central point. There are 5 or so boxes that are most likely being camped by your fellow Imperials. Other than that... Nope, not really any other way to do it. Be thankful you're not on the other side. Only way for Reps to get it done is to hope that there are enough people around with a mind to fight, who want to join an ops group. Then, you can pick off Imp stragglers, until the Imps get their numbers together and out zerg you.

Note for future reference: Starting an argument off with a logical fallacy (generalization, in this case) is a poor way to convince people of the validity of your point or your claims of intelligent conversation. Two things: One, you specifically cite an 8v8 balance design. Let's remember that for later. Two, LoS is a valid option in the majority of situations, unless you've improperly positioned yourself. ANY of the turret controls in Civil War are suitable LoS breakers. Even if you're fighting in the fields, away from the control points (a basic mistake common to those unfamiliar with objective based PVP), there is a good deal of wreckage/structure/terrain effects to hide behind. Huttball has the previously mentioned platforms. Voidstar has columns in the first room that I use every single match to LoS enemy ranged. The second room is a bit trickier once you pass the bridges, but there are still alcoves on either side of each door. The final room features shipping crates by the East door, and ramps by the North door. All serve as viable concealment objects. I thought this was 8v8, not you vs. a Merc and a Sorc? Why aren't any of the 7 others on your team CCing or otherwise occupying the Sorc, allowing you to get to the Merc? And why is the Merc using his knockback? I though he had a single ability only? Apparently, we have over two dozen skills to use when Tracer/Grav is on cooldown. I though the argument here was that all classes besides Commando/Merc needed multiple bars worth of abilities? You're doing a splendid job of assassinating your own case. Every example you've listed revolves around either you vs a Merc 1v1, or you vs a combination of multiple opponents. Where is the team play you speak of? Nobody here needs to call you bad. You've done an admirable job of that yourself.