In a 1 v 1, you are most likely correct. In a match where he / she has two other healers, that bubble's sign now reads "fill me up". Any why would a sorc or sage ever use phasewalk before the bubble? The phasewalk takes them out of combat, usually gets them out of line of sight, and forces them to reposition themselves. The bubble gives them the opportunity to wait on heals while staying in the heart of the fight.

The issue isn't with heals in itself. The issue is far too many sorc healers with a multiple escapes. Have a team with two healers, and it is a tough fight. Add a third healer or have a tank who knows how to use guard and taunts and the match just turned impossible. Nobody is dying. My merc or mando can all but take a healer out of the match by themselves. Either that healer is going to die, or that healer is going to disengage from combat. In the case of merc healers, they have no effective escape. So they simply die in 1 v 1. In the case of op healers, they have to emergency stealth and run away. A stealthed op isn't healing anybody. In the case of the sorc healer, they bubble, heal up, then they use their speed run to get away when they fall into trouble again (assuming the bubble hasn't gone off of CD). You effectively have to kill them three times in order to get them to completely disengage from combat. And considering sorc / sage healers easily outnumber the other two by 3 to 1, that is the problem. No class should have complete immunity to anything in pvp. It is game breaking due to the level of exploits it can generate. Ever tried to steal a node from a bubble sage or sorc? They can hold that node for 20-30 seconds or more solo. Just because of an immunity bubble that gives them complete immunity to everything for several seconds. That bubble has no place in PVP in its current form. It has to go. The bubble should give immunity to cc or damage, but not both. It also should not give a residual immunity after the bubble is gone. And if the bubble gives immunity to damage, it should also prevent any outside healing.

All I can say is that as soon as you do something that requires server changes, you take you fate in your own hands. As bad as PoT5 is, I won't do a character transfer until BW does it when they decided to turn this low population server off.

What makes you think I was talking about you directly? I just responded to another poster's response on the subject of forum responses. So since you made a false assumption about the intent of my post, "...what (you) said is right" would be incorrect in this case. But if it makes you feel better, I don't really agree with you position on the subject. But does that make you a internet troll? Only if that is not how you truly feel about it. And in this case, no of us will ever truly know where you stand.

Yes, there are some players who have yet to learn the class or have the appropriate gear to do the level of dps that they should be able to generate. But facing a team with three healers and odds are you won't be able to fight long enough to get those numbers. Put an entire dps team (or a team with just one healer) in a round against a team with three healers and they get melted. I have seen it more than a few times myself. Group goes into the initial round of combat, melee get blown away, and then the healer heavy team takes out the range players one by one. By the time the range players are down, the melee players are returning, and the healer heavy team just picks the opposing team off one by one until the team without the healers just completely get demoralized. By the end of the match, the healer heaving team has healers showing 3k HPS, and their average DPS is showing, 2k each themselves. The opposing team on the other hand won't even break 800 dps.and their solo healer just gets focused as soon as he or she is back from rezing.

I think you have missed the point all together. The issue isn't with immunity bubble by itself. The issue is with immunity bubbled stacked with multiple healers. Plus it is a focus break on top of other existing focus breakers that the class has. Face a team with three healers (two of which will likely be sorc / sages) and you aren't killing anybody. As soon as you get close to dpsing a sorc / sage healer down, they bubble and get healed to full by themselves or by the other healers on the team. And with multiple incoming heals, the possibility of guard and taunts being aimed at the sorc / sage, giving them immunity is a game breaker. In order to take them down takes an ungodly amount of corrdination on the part of the opposing team which just isn't possible when they still have the opposing team's DPS to contend with. Or even worse, both teams have three healers and you end up with a stalemate and nobody completes any objectives. That is the issue here. The issue is the immunity bubble gives them two much defense. Other CC breakers force the player to leave the fight to heal up. Whether that is due to emergency stealth, phasewalk, or burst run away. But with the immunity bubble, the sorc / sage can stay right where they are at and still be in a position to receive all incoming heals while negating all incoming cc or damage.

I completely agree. A solo healer on the team can easily be soloed by many of the burst spec classes. But as soon as you throw in guard, taunts, and other healers it becomes an impossibility to do it solo. Especially if said target healer has the immunity bubble.

I am one of those who is a believer that when a full team is facing a partial, the last man out of the gate is just SOL. If less than a full team leaves the gate on the opposing side, then only the same number of players should have been able to leave the gate. I realize this will never happen. Probably impossible to code all things considered. The only other option I think to even things up is give the smaller team a 10% healing and damage bonus for each player missing. Or at the end of a match award a medal to the lighter team for each player they were short. If the team was in a 6 v 8, that is two additional medals for staying in the match until the very end.

I have been in two arenas where I faced a 4 man team by myself. One match was on my commando. The opposing team didn't even give me the consideration to earn a single medal. It was stun, boom, dead. Complete waste of time for me on that one as I was awarded nothing since I didn't earn a single medal. The second time was on my OP healer. I stealthed and made the team search for me until the acid fell hoping I would give the match time to team me up with more players. (I ended up with one more in round two.) But at least with a stealthed healer, I was able to get a medal or two before being completely steam rolled in round two.

I have seen more matches won by a group of players with leap than anything with roll. I have also seen matches won by a single stealth player in the enemy's goal lline (original huttball not quesh) than I care to think about. Roll. I can't think of a single match I have played that was dominated by a team using this. I have seen teams do nothing but leave 5 players to control mid. Have a tank with healer carry the ball through the obsticles and then toss it to a player who just broke stealth at the goal line. Goal stealthier throws emergency stealth, and tank runs back towards mid, to get handed the ball all over again. Rinse repeat. Game over in 4 mins or less. As for Quesh ... You let the opposing team get the ball on the bottom level. Slaughter any hold outs at mid tier, take the ball from the ball handler, and then the whole team rushes up the final ramp and plows through any resistance with push backs and stuns. Game also over in 4 mins or less. This map actually doesn't even require special abilities to finish and win quickly. Just simple determination to follow up on a very simple strategy.

One of the things I actually miss with ESO is the forum option to give thumbs up and thumbs down on the comment boards. It gives you a chance to treat the trolls with the same impunity as Roman gladiators.

I disagree. I honestly don't think the metrics will show the issue. The only way to see it, is to see actual game play where multiple healer sorc / sages prevent zero or near zero deaths throughout the match. From a metrics point of view, all they see are the hard numbers. DPS did X amount of damage. Tank did Y amount of guarding. Healer did Z amount of healing. I seriously doubt that they measure number of kills / match. And even if they did, there are a number of variables that could explain a team not dying. For example ... Lopsided team (6 v 8) DPS not focusing. DPS under geared. And in node style matches, somebody is on guard duty so their numbers are practically non-existent anyway. I don't think PVP factors into their class decisions at all. In the past year and a half I seen them post that changes are coming and they all are either nerfs to off heals, changes to CC (that in the merc / mando case did more harm than good), or simply were tweaks to the damage / healing base. When the devs make a class more mobile, it is because of PVE boss fight dynamics. The only major change I see coming won't even be with healers and it won't be because of PVP. The change I'm talking about is to tanks wearing DPS gear instead of tanking gear making their endurance go up and their damage increase while losing little to none of the tank capabilities. That is something the metrics will show and probably do now show. How they will fix it, I have no idea. Other than possibly nerfing their base damage on their attacks. But even that will dramatically impact the performance of tanks who are in the appropriate tank gear.

Not that I will recommend this because of the conversion rate, but you can convert Warzone comms into green data crystals.

My take on this? Because I need to use the comms on something. And on my Imp toons I can earn comms a heck of a lot faster than I can on my Repub toons. While 3.0 was still active, it took me close to two months to get enough comms on my mando to get fully DR geared. Switching over to my OP, and I did the same feat in just a couple of weeks. Now on my Imp merc, I have earned enough comms to completely suit out 3 characters in tier 2 and was half way to working on a fourth. The comms just fall like candy on the Imp side. Playing Repub it is like pulling teeth.

I disagree. The immunity bubble is an issue. It gives the class an unfair advantage in PVP. With it, they can become the kings of node defense. They can drag out a node capture by an opposing team for a ridiculous amount of time. It also makes killing them a virtual impossibility when multiple healers are on the same team. They can pop the bubble and wait for the incoming heals with no fear of death. Trying to bust down a group of healers is bad enough. Giving a heavily used class a free pass on all incoming CC and damage is game breaking. Just think about it. If you focus down one sorc healer, he bubbles. He is getting heals from at least one other healer. So you switch targets go after a second sorc healer. The first one is completely healed back up Assuming you still have the resources to burst the second one down (or haven't been killed off), that one bubbles. It is like a crazy, game of duck, duck, goose where no matter who you tag goose they simply can't be taken down.

I wouldn't even begin to suggest to you which class is best for you for your play style. I can just offer to you what to avoid. The class to avoid is merc / mando for arena play. Healing wise, they are the weaker of the three classes. Burst dps, they are hands down one of the best. But they have been cursed with a critical flaw. That being they have practically no survivability when focused. Other classes have abilities they can use to disengage out of fight. And some have abilities that can delay death in the hopes that a team mate can either heal them or peel the pressure off. But the merc / mando has a complete lack of an "oh $%$#" ability. The closest thing they have is a leap back ability. It only travels at most 20 meters and it can be prevented with CC and it can be stopped by even the littlest of items. Anything the merc / mando bump into prematurely ends the effect. It is also unnecessarily awkward to use as you have to look behind you to angle your escape which take time you simply don't have to execute. Most players simply either ignore the skill or use it and hope for the best - and more often than not regret the results. The class can be mobile. It can also reap havoc if left to free cast. But it has an inherent weakness to stealth and once melee players are on it, it generally means game over. And with the weak defenses, it is usually the first target of the opposing team in every arena match. I have had quite a bit of enjoyment playing the class in 8 v 8. I can put pressure on a healer like you wouldn't believe. But it simply is a short life in 4 v 4 arenas. At least in solo queue.

PVP isn't dead. But it is in decline. And it has been in decline for quite some time. I just don't think the devs care. They treat PVP as a niche part of the game and not a banner to wave to gain additional subscriptions. I honestly think that all class designs are based on PVE performance. With the focus being on solo PVE play. And PVP isn't even a consideration on those choices. We see it in the decline in rank. We see it in the lack of dev presence on the pvp forum. We see it in continued FOTM makeups in queue. We see it in long term demands for class tweaks that simply never materialize. I think the bean counters long ago made the decsions to focus on story content, solo play, and micro transaction on the cartel market. Everything else is being left to suffer. And PVP isn't the only thing rotting on the tree. Hard mode group content is also wilting. Players are complaining about the lack of new content and the group finder changes that are allowing players who are ill prepared to complete content being able to queue for it. This game has gotten to the point that if you don't run with an active guild, you can forget enjoying any group content in game. Queuing solo just brings too many frustrations with it.

I have been in two matches too where a three healer team was beat by either a dps or 3 dps + one healer team. And in both cases, the losing team only had just one sorc healer. The other two were either OP or Merc. Both Matches were also on Mekab. But arenas maps are different than the 8 v 8 maps. More obsticles and more debris leads to higher cases of line of sight issues. All the opposing team has to do is get to the bridge, split the opposing team with knockbacks, and they are likely to be able to focus down one of the players (if that focused player isn't a sorc or sage) before the other team mates can respond. Because here is the secret to that situation. Healers aren't thinking about playing aggressively. They tend to focus on staying together and overhealing. Each one is thinking that the other players will do the dps. Whereas the dps team is thinking the complete opposite - scatter the enemy and pick them off one by one. And if there isn't sorc or sages, this approach can work. But in most of the 8 v 8 maps, line of sight is rarely an issue. Divide and conquer is simply not an approach that can work because separating players only puts distance between them. It rarely creates line of sight issues where the healer has to take crucial time to realign themselves with their other team mates. If a healer is knocked out of range, at most it takes a second or two to get back in range and start healing again. On the arena maps, it can take several seconds for a healer who has lost line of sight to be in a position to heal team mates and that makes for all the difference in the world. It is a catch 22. 8 v 8 maps are larger and more open preventing the loss of line of sight and larger teams opens the door to more healers per team. No 8 v 8 match should ever have more than two healers per team. At least not without some sort of diminishing returns on the healing that the team mates are receiving.

To get the weekly completed properly that is what you have to do. You have to turn it in at the Voss terminal to receive credit. Considering the amount of travel involved to do this, I'm not sure the weekly is even worth it.

In ESO they had a resource hack going on for a while. Players figured out how to travel below ground in order to bypass mobs and get a direct line to a resource node. The only way you knew they were there is for a split second their head would pop up during the animation to harvest the node. As for Yavin farming, it is one of the best places I know to farm resources. But other than lock boxes, I don't see the point in going there. On my server, you can't even give those resources away. They are just too plentiful on the GTN. The only time I go there is to gather resources for crafting. And then I go at odd playing times when the planet is practically deserted.

I gave up on Repub PVP on PoT5 months ago. Before 4.0 released I struggled to get even one Repub toon in full augmented tier 2 pvp gear. It took me about 2 months. Switch to one of my Imp characters, and I had my tier 2 set in less than 2 weeks. Why the difference? One, Repubs just couldn't pull full teams in max bracket outside of prime time. Two, Repubs had longer queue times. (Much longer.) Three, too many PVE players in the wrong gear looking to do dailies and nothing else. Four, no aggressive players. Five, add 1 - 4 together = constant losses. Number four was critical. Even when they stood a chance, people just got so darn used to losing they simply stopped trying. I was making more comms with quest turn ins than I was in the matches. You couldn't get a win even if you drugged the entire Imp team you were facing. I had no choice but to switch sides. PVP on Repub just had zero fun factor with it. If it weren't for warzone comm swaping between characters, I doubt any of my Repub toons would have a single piece of pvp gear.

Here is how I do it. Once I know what a specific companion's favorite level 1 gift is, I just buy 195 of them to get them to level 15. (Must have the legacy bonus unlocked.) I also do this for the new companions we get with the expansion. Before I start the expansion on a new character, I just buy a couple of stacks of their favorite gift and use them when I unlock each of them as a companion. Time consuming? Yes. But on a PVP server, it can be a life saver. People don't expect you to have a level 15 companion in the pvp enabled swamp. They also don't expect you to have a full set of tier 2 augmented pvp gear either. That is why I always got a character to level 65 before I would do the expansion. Costume designer can be a fun feature at times. But I digress ... After 15 though, I stop using the level 1 gifts. Heck, I don't even use level 2 or 3 after 15 unless they are blues or better. Simply not enough storage space available for all of these lower level trinkets.

Wait? People actually have Repub vs. Repub matches on their servers? That is indeed a rare bird on PoT5. It might be right up there with unicorns and true blue light saber crystals.

Having have returned to the game now for about a year and a half, I scratch my head with this question. Because in all that time, I really haven't seen much change outside of offheals nerfs and the creation of new class builds with the 4.0 release. To be honest, the changes that need to occur are not necessarily class changes. Do I think the sorc / sage immunity bubble has no place in PVP? Yes I do. Do I think the merc / mando leap back is about as poorly designed as a skill comes? Absolutely. Do I think some of the classes need to have their resource management tweaked? Yes. But at the same time, I think part of the problem is also with team matching. No team (even in rank) should be made up of all the same classes. You should never see 3 healers, two tanks, and three DPS on a single team. Especially when they face a group of 8 DPS with nothing but a couple of off healers. That is not a match. That is a slaughter. Although classes do need to be tweaked, the first change that needs to be made is either in class makeup or in match design. One of the MMOs I played years ago actually gave a 10% bonus to healing and damage to a team for each person they were short. And I fully believe that a team playing against another team 6 v 8, should get some sort of bonus effect to compensate for the team imbalance. I'm also a full believer in diminishing returns. A player shouldn't become a God on the battlefield simply because he has multiple healers keeping him / her alive. After a certain amount of healing you should get a debuff that stacks. The more healing you receive the less effective it becomes. But getting this to work in a PVP environment only might prove difficult. Especially in OWPVP.

At this point, I think they took the lock and door knob off the door and put in saloon door hinges. That way they don't have to worry about closing the door as people leave.