I disagree with number 6 so much. Because of the resolve system being what it is, unless you have a specific reason as to why you're using your stun/mezz DO NOT USE IT I can't tell you how many times my pull at the huttball goaline doesn't go through because someone mezzes the ball carrier (***?) and fills their resolve. If you don't have a reason to stun, to just stun for the sake of "it's off cooldown." Especially against Op healers and mauraders.

Oh definitely, no arguement from me.

My sin is only level 45, but i can tell you I'd be pretty impressed with a 3k discharge, let alone a 5k.

Tank spec, or deception? I'm just curious. Too bad you didn't get a chain-shock proc off that

I'm fine with merging servers, because the OP is right. Cross server ques won't fix everything so that's why we need server merges. However, it will lay the groundwork from never having to deal with crappy pvp ques ever again. Even if the game is on it's deathbed. If you only do server merges, then this cycle will continue every once in a while and there will be a month where the game bleeds subs even faster than it would normally because of **** ques. If Xserver ques are in place then you never have that problem, even if the server's main population is screwed. It's unrealistic to think that BW will be able to do merges with the speed neccessary to make sure this is not a reoccuring problem. They just can't move that fast. They've already shown that. To have to rely 100% on them to merge individual servers together whenever some servers have problems, and others don't? No thanks, just give me cross server ques so that way when they inevitably take forever to merge servers I can at least pvp.

Well, unfortunately, most of the people on my server this weekend rerolled for greener pastures. I only got 2 games to pop all weekend, and they weren't full, so it's not very easy to test this build in a real game. Oh well.

Yeah I've seen those come out of sins before. It was probably from a deception assassin though, I doubt he's tanksin to pull that kind of number.

This. If they make the same mistake (listening to these clowns) a second time I'm going to be very disappointed. I got a beta invite to a game this week, so at least I'll have something to do between my pvp ques until they fix the damned thing.

People with your attitude are the reason that we're in this ****-circle. Well, not you, but BW listening to you. For those of you who don't remember WoW getting cross server battlegrounds, that was actually one of the best things to happen in vanilla WoW. Across all servers people had hour long ques until that was implimented and it dropped down to 2 minute ques. That was easily one of the best days in WoW PVP for me. Also, the "just another face in the crowd" thing is one of the most stupid arguements I've heard in a videogame. The only reason I know who anyone is on my server is because I play the same 5 people over and over again. No one knows who you are, and if they do it's simply because they play you all the time. Playing the same 5 people is boring. It also leads to stupid things, like patterened behavior (like quitting when you see what the other team is) que dodging and win trading. There are so many reasons NOT to have artificially divided player pools like this, all of which I laid out the first time this arguement went down, that the fact that they sided with you guys is absolutely mindboggling. There is no PVP community, no one knows who you are, get over yourself and let them fix the game.

I would re-roll but the devs saw fit to discourage re-rolling through the legacy system they put in place. SO, I'm just going to play until GW2 comes out. Hopefully when GW2 comes out they'll have put in free server transfers or something and I'll have an excuse to stay here over GW2. BW I'm literally trying to find reasons to stay with SWTOR and I'm running out of them. I don't want to play another fantasy MMO, and I'm not really interested in GW2 but I literally can't play your game.

Would you mind linking norse? I've been kind of interested in messing with prototype flamethrower too. What do you run with? I suppose that would help with heat management, dropping IM, but then it seems like the spec wouldn't actually do much more damage than combustable parakeet (that's the unofficial name I'm giving that build because I love the idea of exploding parakeets). I'll give your advice a whirl and check it out. So far, I'm not having as much fun with maverick as I thought I might, but maybe if I get better heat management that'll change! *edit* Just noticed your sig, roffleskates, never mind!

This.

The only time I ever don't vote is when I think my team did so bad, and deserved the total ***-whooping so bad, that I don't give the MVP vote to anyone because no one on the team deserves the title "MVP" and out of spite. Petty, maybe but I'd hate to think I'd be encouraging people to play like dumb-@#$%s

We could start a new thread about how to survive snipers at range as a melee class if you like.

Read the first paragraph of 2) Bad players don't hurt a game at all, and they certainly don't hinder it from being successful. The "rant" was me explaining why there is a perceived problem in population and the playerbase. Why it appears that there are "so many" scrubs when really it has a normal percentage as any other game. It's not the "scrubs" killing the pvp, it's the fractured playerbase. To answer your last question: There are less good players than bad/average players. Those good players tend to group together. If your server is smaller, but the ratio of goods to bads stays the same, and you are hanging out with the only "goods" in your faction, on your server, then you get the impression that everyone who plays the game is a moron because you never see other "goods" outside of your circle. The fracturing of the playerbase (because you never see other good people, aside from an equal handful in the opposite faction) creates an artificial perception that the rest of the gaming community is as bad as the people you play with in game. Which, is probably generally true, but not the whole story. There aren't actually more bad players (in ratio) in this game than any other but it gives the perception that there is because you're playing with the same 40 people all day and they all suck. Larger servers don't have this problem, so good for them

1) Yes 2) Sure. Games have always had bad players, and a lot of them. There is nothing wrong with being bad at a video game (although it's frustrating sometimes when they're on your team) and I don't believe it actually hinders the game at all. Just look at WoW. PVP was fine over there, and I've never seen so many bad people at PVP. The only problem with the PVP right now is the population is artificially fractured, and it's giving the game a much more dire state of PVP than it would otherwise have if they would just do cross server ques, like any sane developer with a working frontal lobe. The concept of not having X server ques doesn't even make sense. "You know what would be a good idea? Lets artificially split our playerbase so it gives the impression of less players than there actually is! That way, we get all the pitfalls of having a game with a small player pool with all of the fallout even though we don't actually have a small player pool!" The devs were morons for listening to the anti-cross server crowd and it's showing now.

23. Stun him when he uses UR, Stun him when he uses ravage, Stun him when he uses his reflect, don't fill his resolve though.

Yup, same here. Amplified by the fact that most of my guild just re-rolled on a new server. I'm not willing to do that :\ I already have sparse enough play time. By the time I hit 50 and got battlemaster gear season 1 would be well under way :\ Plus, there's no way I'm starting my legacy over. Someone explain the logic of that decision to me by the way. I've never seen a character creation system that actively discouraged re-rolling on a new server. Smart stuff.

I switched to maverick to give it a try last night. I'm going to give myself a full valor rank before I switch out to a new build so I make sure to fairly test it (Valor rank 68-69 should be enough testing imo). So far I'm having massive heat problems, but that might just because I'm adjusting to a new build. Opening with IM and blades though is really, really heat intensive. There are definitely perks to having HO, over jet charge. For instance, in voidstar when they are planting the bomb and the barages of knockbacks come out it's difficult to get over that with jet charge. You can, but there's a lot more thought involved (you have to charge someone standing in the back, that's over the knockbacks). Meanwhile, with HO, you just pop it and run. It's nice, in that regard. I still find it crippling on Huttball. There's no denying that charge is way more useful in huttball than HO. With charge you get easy interceptions, the hazard kills (as you mentioned earlier) , and you can't leap with the ball. Granted HO with the ball is nice, but at the end of the day it isn't leaping and it strips you of a lot of mobility. I'd still rather be maverick in huttball, though, than pyro. Damage wise... Maybe it's because I'm adjusting to the new build. I'm doing roughly equal damage to Parakeet. I have no doubt that against a test dummy this build would do more damage, but that dummy isn't a reality in pvp. There's a lot more going on, and I find myself not in ideal position frequently because of the lack of jet-charge. The rail crits are nice, but they don't hit any harder than Parakeet. I have to stress again though I'm still new to the build and that's probably a large contributing factor. Once I get more used to it and figure out new ways of optomizing my heat, I could definitely see this build being stronger. In a toe to toe fight, Maverick is good, and it's way easier to kite (because of ho) which is nice. I'd definitely rather have a maverick defending a node than parakeet. Then again, I'd rather have pyro defending a node than either of those 2. Anyway, first impressions are there are pros and cons to both builds (obviously). I miss the utility and mobility, but that's just the trade-off I think. As I get better with maverick hopefully I'll see a DPS increase and my heat won't be such a throttle. Those are my thoughts so far.

No Worries I'm going to try maverick out just to shake thigns up, but I have a feeling I'm going to miss jetcharge too much. You're right, I was misunderstanding your position and I have no doubt that spec will out damage Combustable Parakeet by a good 100-200 DPS, but as I say I believe the utility you give up for it (while, better utility than pyro) is still quite a bit. I feel like you're massively underestimating the usefulness of charge and pull on a DPS class . Grip is really an important move for team play, and I hate having to use it as a gap closer. I think the mobility is more than worth the DPS decrease since the meta game revolves so much around fast responses and huttball. I am looking forward to Maverick though. I've literally been running this spec since day one (I really didn't like pyro the brief time I switched to it to try it out) and I'm looking forward to giving Maverick a try. I've been meaning to for a while but I've been too busy lately. I just really think it's important to remember the extremely important factor that positioning and mobility plays in PVP victory My original point, to the OP, is that if you are interested in a DPS spec that has jet charge, going for PPA is what I'd recommend. If you play to it's strengths it can be an extremely nimble, and strong spec on the battlefield.

I'm not the OP I was simply suggesting he try my build over his, because his build lacks for all the reasons you mentioned. Namely, it doesn't have PPA. Here: http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#301GMhrkMboZ0MZfhMrzh.1 Slight changes, the most important one is dropping talents in AP, to pick up PPA which I agree with: extremely, extremely important. The build wouldn't be functionable without it.

Are you sure you're looking at the right spec? I just checked my link to make sure. I have PPA. Let me say first of all: I've never tried maverick. I've only fought a few powertechs that were maverick and maybe they were bad. But the damage from maverick seems steady, and not bursty and I find gets out performed in pvp by Pyro, and Combustable Parakeet. I've read the parses and it peaked my interest in maverick,though. It actually made me want to respec to try it, I'm not going to lie, so maybe your thread will convert me when I give it a try but largely I've been unimpressed by any I've come across. The damage of the spec is not low by anymeans, and it's certainly more than going ST (by a significant amount). PPA alone would push it over ST. The point is to try to give pyro some much needed mobility and survivability, which jet charge does both. Plus, it gives you some nice utility. You can't "test" that on a test dummy, but what I do know is that powertechs are always complaining about their lack of utility in huttball (and Warzones in general) and complaining that they're inferior to force uses in Huttball. This spec changes all that, at the expensive of some damage off of TD (3.5-4k crits, instead of the 2-2.5k crits) and shaving some damage off railshot (3.7k instead of ~5k). The utility provides it's pros and cons. I can't tell you the number of times Jet charge has saved my life / gotten me an interception / prevented a score / gotten me a kill on a runner. The flip side of that coin is in stand up fights you're not performing at the peak damage capacity of pyro for a solid chunk of the fight (it's variable, because you can kite pyros but you can't kite this build, so I couldn't begin to guess how far behind it falls, I just know it does). As I say, the numbers that I get are respectable and I think it's worth examining the trade-off depending on your role in your group. You don't have to, that's fine, but there's more to PVP than test dummies. If all you're interested in is maximum damage output then obviously Pyrotech is the build for you and I heavily recommend you don't try this spec. If you like pyro, and PPA, but wish you had more mobility you should take a look at this spec (Given that jetcharge provides more mobility than HO which I strongly believe, especially in terrain heavy maps like Huttball). *edit* Also, the procs do happen. I know that the game says you can't proc shields without ION being active. That's why I switched out the generator for as long as I did. You still get the procs though, even if you're not in Ion. I know the game says you don't, but you do. I tested it quite a bit and you just don't get as many. Lets face it, it wouldn't be the first time a tooltip was wrong in thsi game.

This is my opinion, but no one that I know of who argues against me ever actually tried this build. So outside of theorycrafting, which I pretty feel like I was pretty even handed on the build with criticism, no one has experience with it. You guys are misunderstanding me. This build would be OK at running the ball at best. It's still pretty squishy and only functions sort of like a Tight end in football. Short passes for a little bit of burst in yardage (with charge) but nothing more. When I said it's best, I meant on defense. Pyrotech functions well at controling mid, which is great but that's all it brings to the table. This build still brings out heavy damage (but still less than pyro), so he can move to mid if he needs to, but functions better at stopping break throughs that the other team gets because of it's high mobility and pulls. Maverick would be good at running the ball, but you're sacraficing a a lot of damage, and that just doesn't seem worth it. There are PTs I've run into on my server with your maverick hybrid build and it just seems inferior. Especially in a toe to toe fight, talk about lacking damage. PTs aren't good ball runners, that's all there is to it. Even if you're maverick. Juggernauts hands down better, and then it's assassins after that. No one would take a PT into a huttball game with the intent of them carrying the ball for more than a 10-15 seconds at a time. The problem about ST with AP is just that you're giving up too much damage. At that point, you stop functioning as a DPSer and have transferred completely into utility. I feel that would be a mistake, but I've never tried it so who knows. It could be that would be a boss ball carrier with predation, but honestly I don't ever see it beating out the double leap of Jugg. Especially in terms of survivability. Full pyro is great when it comes down to holding down a location (like center, or a hard-core defense of a point like mid at Civil war). Parakeet is lacking compared to pyro in it's toe to toe long term damage. That said, It still pulls very respectable damage and gives yourself extra survivability and utility for the team. I pull around 400-500k damage in games where we're stuck at a choke point. Not exactly something to write home about, but certainly respectable. Jet charge is an extremely under-rated ability, especially when combined with the ability to pull. It's a dynamic build that I recommend people at least try before writing it off without giving it a try. *edit* Also, I run this with a shield gen over just the standard offhand. Because rocket punch hits slightly harder with this build, the extra procs you occasionally get (albiet not often) offsets the tech power loss (since railshot is not tech) and the little bit of extra survivability seems valuable. You could run this without a generator though, I've done it before but ended up switching back.

Parakeet is no longer viable in it's older, more popular, iteration of running ION Cannister. It is, very much so, viable running in combustable. Parakeet (in combustable) in my opinion is hands down the best spec for a pyro in Huttball, and the mobility and utility you're provided compensates for the damage you lose by not going all the way up pyro. There are two major downsides to this build. The first downside, obviously, is that you don't have guard. This is, in my opinion, is a non factor if you're going as a DPS and not a tank. There are no heavy damaging tank specs for Powertech, however there are very heavy damaging specs for Juggernauts and Assassins. The only reason to bring a powertech tank right now is to get it's utility and you get that utility in this build. The big downside of this build is obvious: less burst. Instead of 5k railshots you will be letting out 3.7k railshots. 1.3k on rails can be kind of a big deal in crunch times, and you're losing thermal detonator (replacing it with sticky dart which doesn't do as high single target burst, even if it is AOE). The situations where this build becomes lackluster is usually in situations where you are defending a point for a long time, and not mobile (like in voidstar, and Civil war). This build makes a very poor solo defender and has a large disadvantage against many classes who will try to ninja (operatives, Mauraders, and Tanksins). This build does make an excellent roamer, however, because of it's high damage and great mobility and utility. And, as I said, I strongly believe this build is easily the best huttball defender in the game. Pulls to force ball carrier into hazards, and then a charge to intercept the ball when they try to pass it out. This build is extremely viable, but very unconventional, so you're going to get a lot of people telling you it doesn't work. I recommend you try it out when you hit 50 and see if it fits your play style, because this build does a lot better in group fights than regular pyro powertechs (imo). *edit* Oh yeah, almost forgot. In this build you are literally unkitable, which is huge. Pull/charge/constantly applying snare is ridiculous. Just remember, you can't go toe to toe with melee classes because you don't have the damage of full pyro, so you MUST kite any melee class. Also, remember you can use charge as an escape mechanism (use charge on out of position enemies to get back into friendlies, or just put distance between you and a melee. Possibly the strongest advantage of this build, also, is that people never see the jet charge coming when you're using combustable and fighting like a pyro. Here's my build: http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#301GMhrkMboZ0MZfhMrzh.1

What are you talking about? No it doesn't.