yeah, that's true. but I think I would prefer a less balanced game if the classes were funner and unique from each other. or, ideally, it could be like rock paper scissors - clear differences with clear rock beats scissors advantages with a little leeway for skill. I agree with your point about warzones. I hate playing voidstar for that reason. what kind of unique fighting styles are you talking about? I've looked over every class' skill set and talents and there are a lot of skills similar to each other across the board... the only main differences are things like stealth and cover, which don't amount to much. each class has a different amount of stuns, knockbacks, slows, and roots - and you could make strategies based on that - but those abilities aren't class defining. I don't even know... what... why would you think...

After playing a lot of warzones, I honestly can’t tell the difference between classes outside of obvious things - like if they're using glowy sticks or guns instead. If you divide SWTOR's class roles into categories of healers, melee, ranged, and tank (guard-bot really) is there anything that visibly and obviously sets the different ranged classes from each other? Or the melee? the skills and the game play style should define each class, not what they wear. I'd hate to bring up WoW, but for the sake of argument and comparison let's take two WoW casters - mages and warlocks. mages and warlocks play vastly different from each other, their spells look different, and the way that they interact with other players in PvP is different. getting killed by a mage feels and looks different from getting killed by a warlock due to their inherent class defining abilities (frost nova/shatter combos vs fear/dots). fighting a rogue instead of a warrior feels very different. Is there any difference between a mercenary/commando killing you from ranged compared to a gunslinger/sniper? I can't tell half the time. they both just use ranged abilities that do damage, and that's it. I don't think the difference is enough. I will grant you that there's really only one "caster" class in swtor - sages/sorcerers - and that sets them apart from every other class. but i'm saying that uniqueness is how it should be for EVERY ac. it honestly doesn't feel like it makes a difference if it's a sentinel/marauder, guardian/juggernaut, assassin/shadow, or scoundrel/operative beating on me(after they're out of stealth obviously). they're all in melee, and they all do melee damage with the occasional similar-to-each-other stun/slow/root. the way I fight against each of these doesn't change much at all, and the only difference that i can tell is that certain classes just do more damage than others. there's no strategies or counter strategies on how to fight each class in this game. "But if this is true, why are there claims of certain specific classes being OP?" It’s simply because of the damage that they do. I’ve never seen it claimed to be because of some unique ability or utility that a certain class has. even ranged classes rarely ever kite, or even have the tools to - they just use whatever knockback that they have and keep using their damage abilities without a care. I wanted swtor to be my WoW replacement. I haven't played wow in a while because it got old, but swtor is just not up to par aside from the storylines... I really wanted swtor to be enjoyable, I really did. it might be enjoyable if I had never played wow (and had lower standards) but that's not possible anymore. am I alone on this?

Last bump I guess, there doesn't seem to be any interest

Yeah, I see a lot of complaints about ability lag - but I wasn't sure if it was the same thing that I'm talking about. Anyway, bump

Copy and pasted. Sorry about issues already listed. Minor imbalances between factions and classes: These aren't game-breaking, but they're certainly there. -Server population between Reps and Imps are imbalanced (which isn't that big of an issue by itself), but there is an issue with zone instances not being balanced or having strange numbers which causes leveling in some areas to be a pain. -Mirror classes using dual wield vs single wield - causes different stat totals, different ability mechanics (chance to proc with 2 weapons vs 1), and a scaling difference. -Mirror classes having different activation times on mirror abilities -Mirror classes working smoother than their counterpart (dirty kick stopping scoundrel movement on use vs the operative's mirror ability) Game play responsiveness, smoothness: This is, IMO, the most important thing that should be changed. -There are delays on certain abilities that should not have one (Force Wave) – whether it’s damage or a CC, instant abilities and cast abilities should happen immediately or immediately after the cast is finished. This is different from the known issue of certain ability's animation interrupting or preventing other abilities from happening, and different from abilities like Full Auto and Mortar Volley taking a long time to do damage. I'm talking about things like Explosive Surge (instant AoE damage) taking ~.5 seconds to activate even without lag because my character has to show himself activating an explosion. Simply put: ability animations (almost every one coming from a trooper) should be severely sped up. If abilities like Force Wave is meant to have a long delay, there should be a non-interruptable channel bar associated with it, which at the end of the ability goes off instantly (think WoW warrior's Slam, or hunter's Steady Shot - both castable while moving). For those who have played WoW: imagine if there were animation delays on every ability, especially melee attacks. Sure you'd get the same amount of attacks over time because of the global cooldown, but it would feel slow and unresponsive and most of all - not fun. I hate bringing up WoW, but most abilities in WoW were done right. Other miscellaneous issues: -Quest rewards: my companion uses blaster pistols, and her main stat is aim. I keep getting blaster pistol quest rewards with cunning on them instead. -Speeder mount cast is interrupted if I move right after its cast finishes. -Monster AI - being able to abuse the NPC AI by running around to Line of Sight mobs. Because they have a targeting delay, I was able to 2man 4man heroic quests. -Tab target unreliability – it frequently targets enemies behind me, or simply not in front of me. Problems with cycling between targets as well. -Frequent resets of the camera zoom, and then other times it would take a long time to revert to my set zoom (zooming in due to an obstruction behind me). -"On use" relic bindings disappearing sometimes Quality of life changes: -Being able to move windows around like the inventory -Having more ability bars and being able to customize placement and size -The option to be able to turn the camera with left click while moving and not have it revert to the frontal view after letting it go -Mods (addons aka custom UIs and such) and macros -Target of target option -Mouse over healing option -Being able to bind ctrl, alt, or shift as a self target modifier (as well as a modifier for other things) -Combat logs -AoE circles actually reflecting the AoE range -Dual spec option Personal opinions (not nearly as important): -I main a Vanguard. Why is Stockstrike one of my most powerful abilities? I can understand if it were a stun or knockback, but as damage? I mean, why is hitting them with the stock of my rifle more damaging than my shots? Couldn’t it have been something cool like “close range blaster overload” with a better name? -Jumping is fun. Not being able to jump because it reduces movement speed is not fun. -Trooper’s Storm ability and Harpoon - slow slow slow. Being off the GCD would be nice, but not necessary. Harpoon makes the target land where I cast it, but since targets take some time to come over, I can be moving and they'll be out of range when they land... -Pulse cannon, my frontal AoE has a hard time hitting multiple melee enemies (only 2 usually - 3 if there are ranged enemies). -Auto-facing should be removed to make players have to control their facing when using abilities. -This is a pro. I definitely like the voice acting, quests/quest choices, and story lines in this game. Bioware, can we get a list of issues that you are aware of and is being worked on?

Some of these are already well known, some are not - I've kept them here for those that don't know about them so they don't have to go through multiple threads to read about them. Please contribute if I've missed anything major, and your own experiences/opinions. Minor imbalances between factions and classes: These aren't game-breaking, but they're certainly there. -Server population between Reps and Imps are imbalanced (which isn't that big of an issue by itself), but there is an issue with zone instances not being balanced or having strange numbers which causes leveling in some areas to be a pain. -Mirror classes using dual wield vs single wield - causes different stat totals, different ability mechanics (chance to proc with 2 weapons vs 1), and a scaling difference. -Mirror classes having different activation times on mirror abilities -Mirror classes working smoother than their counterpart (dirty kick stopping scoundrel movement on use vs the operative's mirror ability) Game play responsiveness, smoothness: This is, IMO, the most important thing that should be changed. -There are delays on certain abilities that should not have one (Force Wave) – whether it’s damage or a CC, instant abilities and cast abilities should happen immediately or immediately after the cast is finished. This is different from the known issue of certain ability's animation interrupting or preventing other abilities from happening, and different from abilities like Full Auto and Mortar Volley taking a long time to do damage. I'm talking about things like Explosive Surge (instant AoE damage) taking ~.5 seconds to activate even without lag because my character has to show himself activating an explosion. Simply put: ability animations (almost every one coming from a trooper) should be severely sped up. If abilities like Force Wave is meant to have a long delay, there should be a non-interruptable channel bar associated with it, which at the end of the ability goes off instantly (think WoW warrior's Slam, or hunter's Steady Shot - both castable while moving). For those who have played WoW: imagine if there were animation delays on every ability, especially melee attacks. Sure you'd get the same amount of attacks over time because of the global cooldown, but it would feel slow and unresponsive and most of all - not fun. I hate bringing up WoW, but most abilities in WoW were done right. Other miscellaneous issues: -Quest rewards: my companion uses blaster pistols, and her main stat is aim. I keep getting blaster pistol quest rewards with cunning on them instead. -Speeder mount cast is interrupted if I move right after its cast finishes. -Monster AI - being able to abuse the NPC AI by running around to Line of Sight mobs. Because they have a targeting delay, I was able to 2man 4man heroic quests. -Tab target unreliability – it frequently targets enemies behind me, or simply not in front of me. Problems with cycling between targets as well. -Frequent resets of the camera zoom, and then other times it would take a long time to revert to my set zoom (zooming in due to an obstruction behind me). -"On use" relic bindings on hotbar disappearing sometimes Quality of life changes: -Being able to move windows around like the inventory -Having more ability bars and being able to customize placement and size -The option to be able to turn the camera with left click while moving and not have it revert to the frontal view after letting it go -Mods (addons aka custom UIs and such) and macros -Target of target option -Mouse over healing option -Being able to bind ctrl, alt, or shift as a self target modifier (as well as a modifier for other things) -Combat logs -AoE circles actually reflecting the AoE range -Dual spec option Personal opinions (not nearly as important): -I main a Vanguard. Why is Stockstrike one of my most powerful abilities? I can understand if it were a stun or knockback, but as damage? I mean, why is hitting them with the stock of my rifle more damaging than my shots? Couldn’t it have been something cool like “close range blaster overload” with a better name? -Jumping is fun. Not being able to jump because it reduces movement speed is not fun. -Trooper’s Storm ability and Harpoon - slow slow slow. Being off the GCD would be nice, but not necessary. Harpoon makes the target land where I cast it, but since targets take some time to come over, I can be moving and they'll be out of range when they land... -Pulse cannon, my frontal AoE has a hard time hitting multiple melee enemies (only 2 usually - 3 if there are ranged enemies). -Auto-facing should be removed to make players have to control their facing when using abilities. -This is a pro. I definitely like the voice acting, quests/quest choices, and story lines in this game. Bioware, can we get a list of issues that you are aware of and is being worked on?

@shammus and chris I don't know about full auto vs unload, but death from above is clearly faster than mortar volley. using these two vids: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtwktbU0nSg and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhLjqgC_fH8 DFA starts showing damage at a little over half the channel bar, where as MV shows damage at around 2/3s the channel bar through. both end at the 3 second mark (end of the channel), but MV's last tick of damage is way after. the last tick of MV is even shot AFTER the channel is done. enough to make a difference? who knows, but you guys have been proven wrong at least on these two mirror abilities.