Plus tankassin's have much better escapablity tools at there disposal.

I'm referring more the the industry thinking that an mmo isn't successful unless it's sub numbers are in the multiples of millions, not WoW the game itself. But I do agree with your point, pvp cannot sustain itself as an individual intity and needs to have engaging pve content to survive.

I'd make that any info, lawl. I fear it's probably to little to late at this point. Our 200+ member guild is all but gone from the game because of this very issue.

imo, that has a lot more to do with the WoW factor business model that most mmo game studios seem to be chasing.

Bioware vastly underestimated the level of interest in PvP in this game even more so the interest in large scale coordinated PvP. You can see it written all over this game from combat design, to profession/class/build design, to travel design, the modded hero engine, server caps, etc.

I can only speak to the Merc Pyro build. In short it is broken. Can it be made to work, yes, under very specific circumstances. As a Merc spec'd pyro you can expect: - NO utility from your build - little survivability - to be the ONLY class without an interrupt - a very unreliable method to kite enemies - gear that is horribly mis-stated for your build - inconsistant and underpowered DPS overall - very limited and unreliable Burst - No Escapability - limited to a single group role that can be filled much better by any other class - bringing almost NO benefit to your group - you will die A LOT

Brother business, profits, and specifically revenue are not that black and white. Obviously I wouldn't prefer that the game not shut down. CMN there bud. Shifting business models this early in the life cycle is always detrimental to the players. Content and all developement will shift from what best for the overall game to what most profitable. Atm there is so much fixing than needs to be done, in all phases of the game, the f2p would be nothing more than a revenue grab for a subpar product. Players aren't stupid and would see that scenerio for exactly what it would be.

f2p is one of the worst possible scenerios that could happen to this game. It's right up there with, if not worse than ignoring pvp, class balance, missing game tools, and lack of end game content.

It really does NOT need to be a stun adding to resolve. Root or a decently long snare I completely agree with as being a must have.

This may be slightly off topic but.... the problems with merc are not limited to just a lack of certain skills. Merc is the only AC in the game who's resource to output is designed to liimit our output. By that I mean our resource pool is frontloaded while our effictive dps is backloaded. This design fits better with a tank or high survivability class. To put it more simply, we have to stack heat signatures, target locks, and Incendiary missles to reach our maximum dps potential. This scenario negates our ability to immediately dump damage on a target. No interrupt, what can I say. I think anyone who plays a Merc can see how huge a deal it is to be missing this crucial skill. No other class in the game has to spec into obtaining a "semi-interrupt". No matter what explaination BW gives towards this line of reasoning it continues to baffle me given the importance placed on the interrupt mechanic in ToR. Lacking the primary tenate of a ranged class, a reliable snare or any way to keep enemies at range for any reasonable amount of time. Currently we are forced to spec into having one of the worst snares in the game. While classes with the highest survivability/escapablity are given much better snares from there base class, regardless of there advanced class choice. TL;DR version. The design choices for the mercenary class are fundamentally broken and in some cases actually work against themselves instead of boosting the build as a whole.

Sounds more like love for what swtor pvp should or could be not what it is atm, which is dull and repeative.

QFE and I'll add that (for Mercs) there is really no such thing as "ranged". Mercs completely lack the tools to truely be an effective ranged DPS class. Mercs are effectively a bad version of a Marksman Sniper minus the range and tools to maintain the range gap for any useful amount of time. The only plausable reason I can see is if you are a PVE only player dead set on being a Merc because most other dps classes can to the same job better while bringing more to the group than just DPS.

It's pretty sad how many hacks are out there for this game and how easy it is to get around being reported. Many of these hax were reported in beta. I personally reported the speed and teleport hax in squadron 238 or 147 can't remember exactly and I have several friends that reported the resource pool hax around the same time. Here we are almost 5 full months after launch and they're still very prevalent and wide spread. PvP wise these are game breakers. I'm absolutely dumbfounded that they are still so easily accessable.

The best pvp i've seen in this game so far has always occured in "the wild". A fight breaks out in the middle of no where or near a quest hub and everyone starts calling in back up. Bam, pvp running wild for hours. Yes at times we were outnumbered but we were always able to regroup and find an advantage that allowed us to hold off superior numbers. I've only seen 1 or 2 encounters of "tactical pvp" on ilum and in both cases the smaller organized group with a plan rolled the larger group unorganized group. That is why I voted for raw pvp, because that kind of fun pvp is the only reward I need. I've seen pvpve go horribly wrong in other games. I do think it could be successful if done right. Things like spawning npc's is a bad idea that just create more lag on an already taxed system. If you have static "underdog" bases (or whatever is implemented) nothing will change. That underdog system will just become the same old boring "hide in the base and pull" scenario we've seen for months.