I experienced this with a few players way back when the game first came out but haven't see it since, same with speed hacks, early on pre-server merges.

Shadowlands queues have got significantly worse in the last month, they were way worse before the cxp event, I fear a major drop off will happen once it ends.

Like most other Bioware decisions it seemed to be done to frustrate the player, this is their substitute for challenge or content. We had a system that we all liked so they went and broke it.

I leveled my Jugg from rank 0 till 22 and have all set pieces except 1 relic and 1 implant, most of it was acquired in 1 day of pvping, my lvl 77 rank Assassin Tank has all of 3 tier 1 set pieces after months of play. I hate RNG as well.

I PVP with 3 Mara one each spec, and 2 tank, 1 "skank" and 2 Vengeance Juggs so I can say with some credibility and with 100% certainty that as far as DPS goes they are just about equal in damage output and utility, each shines in different warzones, some better at huttball maps, other better at taking or defending nodes.

Funny, I was just thinking about this today, how many stupid loading screens and clicks it takes just to start this game, its reminiscent of games a decade ago. It does fit with the frustrate the player model that they seem to employ from day one of this game.

Operative is fun in Huttball and good at guarding nodes, the rest of the time you spend behind people stabbing them, praying that they don't notice you and if they do roll away, rinse and repeat.

I dunno, mine feel fine in PVP, both Pyro and AP, other than the fact that Pyro relies too much on dots, I find their damage aqueduct, they just need a reflect and heal like the Merc skill "Responsive Safeguards", that would basically fix the class, in fact they should just remove that skill from Mercs and give it to PTs and it would fix and bring both classes in line.

This game, and all games should have 1 set a stats for PVP and one for PVE, most balance problems seem to come from that,

The new system is going nowhere, now that the other shoe has dropped (cartel market 100% boost), its like when a store has a sale on a item, a month or so prior they jack up the price first. First Bioware puts in place a system that makes no sense, bad for all, way too long a grind, then they add in a system to basically "buy" better gear, or at least buy better gear faster, most people will be compelled to purchase these and boom, new revenue stream.

That's exactly the feeling I get when I play my Powertech or Vanguard DPSers, both specs, in arenas, with nowhere to escape you #1 hope is there is a healer, so at least you won't be the 1st to be focused and #2, if you are focused, there's little you can do to stop it, you can delay with freeze, shield and the weak koloto heal, but only for a few seconds, it's by far the most helpless class atm.

You can't ignore CXP, its the core of gear progression in SWTOR now and gear progression is the entire engine that drives all MMOs.

It sounds better on paper, after a dozen or so hrs of grinding PVP and spending a few bucks on a 5 pack of boosts, Ive opened many crates and got very little that I need, very demoralizing, this whole stupid cxp system has literally ground me down, to where it feels like you are playing for nothing more than a fake increase in a number that has no real effect on your play experience, for the love of god, just scrap the whole system and go back to comms, at least for pvp.

Honestly, thats the real fix, give some options for the UI, same with curser color and size, how many times that thing gets lost on my screen.

The minimap icons are absolutely terrible, another solution looking for a problem.

Cross faction and match maker, nearly every pvp balance issue solved, give each player and class a rating based on spec and valor and assign even number of healers per team and this could go from a terrible pvp game to a excellent one. No one that pvps cares about factions anymore anyway.

I would focus 1st on cheap easy changes, proper gear progression system, I would also design some new pvp maps, the easiest would be to take existing pvp map mechanics and simpily change the map environment that they are in to a different planet with different surroundings with the same mechanics, not always reinventing the pvp wheel, that adds tons of content with tons of replayability at little development cost, I would also include 1 new operation, flash point and heroic based off the same map with each update and allow solo players to have a mode for each operation or flashpoint that allows them to use 7 or 4 of their companions with simplified boss mechanics and reduced rewards.

I've done this stupid mission 27 times over the last 2 months leveling characters from 60 or 65 to 70, it drives me crazy.

I've never encountered a single healer in a match that even 1v1 I couldn't at least keep from healing his team and force them to focus on themselves, 2 dps should be able to take down just about any healer, however, it becomes broken when you have 2 or even 3 healers in a WZ, that's broken, that's miserable and that should be prevented.

True, my first 20 cmd boxes that I opened, I got both 2 legs, one after the other around box 6 and 7 and that is it, others I have 4 pieces by that time, its way too random and unintelligent, token or commendations were a way better idea, please consider getting rid of the current system.

Definitely need a server merger again, at least on Shadowlands, population is the lifeblood of a MMO and this game is in a continual decline, I know that they are always reluctant, especially the 1st time, I spent the better part of a year on Darth Bandon Server where many nights I was the only single player on all of fleet, it seems this Dev team has a inherent fear that merges equal failure and that somehow their next patch will turn things around, when in fact most patches just give a temporary bump and then rapid decline, More population is s simple and cheap solution that everyone can win, PVPers get more queues, PVEer have more groups going and solo players have a more vibrant GTN and have little to no effect on their playstyle.

From a PVP perspective, Mercs have 3 lives PTs barely have 1, in arena PVP, if you're a PT you will always be the 1st targeted and there's very little you can do about it, Mercs feel godly when playing them, you can outtank most tanks tanks and out DPS most DPS and self or off heal. The only saving grace a PT has is if you love fire (Pyro) grapple is a lot of fun as is your aoe freeze, but thats about it. I have 2 Mercs,1 Commando a Vanguard, Pyrotech and Powertech Tank at 70 and play most regularly.

Yeah, this is a very alt unfriendly game, its better than it was for the first few years but still pretty bad, it makes no business sense to not encourage everyone to make as many alts as possible, I think its still rooted in the original design teams (dumb IMO) idea that everyone would make 1 character and invest heavily in the story or RP that character, and focus on the leveling experience. This showed through in early decisions on outfits not having color match, apparently to discourage mixing and matching against the designers wishes or forcing us on long speeder rides around the planet or refusing to have group finder so that we can appreciate all the work the artist have done, forcing us on to fleet for the GTN and going from planet to space station to ship to dock to fleet to get there with fun loading screens in between. All weird decisions that gained nothing and probably collectively cost a ton of subscribers.

I agree, the large health pool and healers are killing PVP, I would limit the number of healers per match, like PVE group finder, you queue as either a Tank, DPS or Healer and only 1 heals slot per 8 man.

Follow the main "blob", don't go off alone and always learn the objective and focus on that, no matter how good you are at fighting if you can do those 2 things you will be better than about 1/3 to 1/2 of current pvpers.