Same reason why some DPS (Powertech/Juggernaut/Assassin and whatever their Republic counterparts are) can get tanking medals?

That's true. Someone needs to work out the raw math on expertise DR though, to actually tell if it's bad. If expertise were made linear, then it would be flat out overpowered. Example: 100 damage per second You have 1000 HP 0% DR = 10s to live (base line) 10% DR = 11.1s to live (+11%) 20% DR = 12.5s to live (+25%) 30% DR = 14.3s to live (+43%) 40% DR = 16.7s to live (+67%) 50% DR = 20.0s to live (+100%) 60% DR = 25.0s to live (+150%) 70% DR = 33.3s to live (+233%) 80% DR = 50.0s to live (+400%) 90% DR = 100.0s to live (+900%) 95% DR = 200.0s to live (+1900%) 98% DR = 500.0s to live (+4900%) 99% DR = 1000.0s to live (+9900%) Expertise SHOULD NOT BE LINEAR. Each % DR is worth more than the previous. The most exaggerate circumstance would be if you went from 98% DR to 99% DR. Even though you "only" gain 1% DR, you literally DOUBLE your effective HP. So if (fictionally) getting to 98% DR took 1000 expertise, than getting to 99% DR should take 2000 expertise, to be fair. This was a problem WoW Cataclysm had early on, where Resilience was linear. Each point of resilience was exponentially more valuable as you stacked it. This was also a problem with WoW TBC armor penetration, which had the same effect. So to the OP: No, expertise is not broken (in the sense that it should be linear). However, someone needs to do more math to figure out if it's worth it.

Do you have a forum link of other people doing this? DirectX 9 is a subset of DirectX 11 (the one Windows 7 uses). Any DX9 native calls should be handled as such.

The reason this happens because there is no loss for SWTOR PvP... there is only valor gain. Like I've always said. People will always find the the best items for the least amount of work. Right now the least amount of work (for PvP) is to kill trade.

Because there's no other decent MMO. If I quit, I'll just being playing League of Legends, Battlefield 3, and maybe try out FireFall.

Microsoft is in the ESA/BSA. Better uninstall Windows RIGHT NOW. ****.

Fail at reading comprehension? From my link: http://www.joystiq.com/2012/01/17/ea-explains-lack-of-sopa-stance/ "EA has not expressed a position on SOPA," Brown wrote in the letter, noting there was confusion over the holiday about the company's stance on the bill. "We never supported so, naturally, never withdrew. We tried to correct the record but there is still plenty of confusion."

EA is neutral: http://www.joystiq.com/2012/01/17/ea-explains-lack-of-sopa-stance/ However, they belong to the ESA (Entertainment Software Association), which do support SOPA. ESA includes pretty much every big game developer: Microsoft, Epic, Eidos, Capcom, Atari, Nintendo, Sony, THQ, Ubisoft, Konami, Take-Two, Square, Enix, Nvidia, Konami, Namco Bandai, Sega, etc.

Dev's couldn't have predicted? You mean the pre-release launch data showing Empire outnumbering Republic about 2-3:1 months before the release wasn't a hint? You're delusional.

The main problem with PvP gear is that you can be an afk-botter and still get it.

Are we honestly complaining about Juggernauts in PvP?

Really? I had the impression that with TOR, it would actually require DPS to stop being brainless and actually look at what the healer is casting before deciding if an interrupt was worth it. I remember leveling my mage to 80 in the middle of Season 8. I was with an alt 4 caster DPS team and starting with crap gear; we got to 2350 in 5v5 (top 5%, duelist title). I was totally clueless playing a mage, but when I locked out a healer (with the friendly focus target macro), it was a free kill about 80% of the times. Too bad I didn't continue into cataclysm, I heard they were even more overpowered and dumbed down (lol 2x polymorph -> ring of ice -> deep freeze -> counterspell, 30+ second lockout).

I don't think it's the right direction (clueless). But it's certainly better than the WoW BG solution. They actually made Horde zone in as Alliance (and vice-versa) to fix the imbalanced queue times. That's when I was like... Yea, I'm going to quit. I'm not a huge lore geek, but that was just a little over the top. At least BioWare (for now) cares about the story enough that Empire players don't suddenly zone in as Republic.

As for Open World PvP (I'm talking about large FFA zones, not ilum), there's a very simple fix. Like it or not, there is a very small minority of the population that like to PvP for no reason. I'm not going spend 10 minutes to fly to Tatooine and travel to that small FFA zone in the middle of nowhere. If you want to get spontaneous open-world PvP going, you need to have economic incentive, like Eve: 1) Large FFA zone about the same size as Ilum. 2) World boss that's easy to kill, but has a lot of HP (plenty good to allow for interference). Make him drop unique stuff (be it some stupid pet or a special mount) that is otherwise unobtainable. Have him spawn on a set timer, so people will know when to show up. 3) Have dynamically spawning gathering (scavenging, slicing, bio, arch) nodes dependent on the number of hostile players in the area. 4) Have dynamically spawning (but on a longer timer) "rare" resource nodes (the stuff you get from artifact missions) spawn that's also dependent on the number of hostile players in the area. 5) One big reason people hang out in Ilum is the valor buff (+200) when you finish a warzone. Offer a similar type of reward in this FFA zone. Something like +100 base (caps at 200). For every hostile you kill, you get +10 more bonus. If you die, you go back to +100. 6) Make a tech table where you get +5% critical chance on the following conditions: You're there when you send a companion off and you're there when the companion comes back.

I'm not going to whine on some forums or make a lengthy good-bye post on why this game sucks. I will offer what I think (and people can disagree all they want) should be done. I subscribed for 3 months and took a wait and see approach. Obviously they've got their hands full with an AAA MMO release. They're heading in the right steps for some issues, being clueless on others, but I don't think they've done anything that I think is a55-backwards (unlike Blizzard in WoTLK/Cata). Ultimately people vote with their wallets, one subscription at a time. I'm just hopeful that BioWare realizes the severity of the faction imbalance problem and will take the necessary steps to resolve the situation. The first step is to acknowledge it. And they aren't there yet.

Why don't you think before commenting? I said give that bonus until the Republic is only outnumbered about 3:2. Then take the bonus away. I'm Empire side and if it wasn't for my friends, I'd be Republic side. It will take a LOT of incentives to make us reroll and stay Republic. The problem with all the whiny Empire folks claiming to fix faction imbalance is that they try to make band-aid solutions for the Republic to try and convince the other Empire guys to reroll instead of thinking "I'm a reasonable person; what kind of incentives would it take for my friends and I to reroll?" Now lets think of the possibilities: 1) Make Republic "cooler". Everyone says that. No one has any concrete ideas of what to do. Will Wookies solve the problem (no wait, PANDAS!)? What does it take to make Jedi "cool"? Revamping the storyline or adding new races isn't a fix that'll take less than a few months. 2) Increased EXP for Republic side. Yea cool. I can level to 50 faster... and then what? If you want a cohesive guild to stick around you have to make incentives go into end-game. 3) Currently there are 2 viable end-games: (eg the stuff we do at 50 besides running around in a circle at Fleet) Operations and PvP. Operations are not a real issue due to them being entirely face-rollable (at normal and hard settings). The real issue is PvP and the need to create incentives for Warzones. But then again you're probably an ADD Modern Warfare playing kiddie who thinks you're so b4d455 for killing opponents 10v1, so you'd never understand this. Like it or not, if BioWare doesn't fix the faction imbalance, the game will die. Republic players will quit (or reroll Empire), leaving the whole other faction vacant. On the Empire side, we'll just be bored to death and quit. So let me ask you this: As outrageous as double (or even +50%) valor/commendations seem, does it make you stop and think... ***? I'm going reroll and get my friends to reroll because it's stupid OP. If it does, then undoubtedly, that's the solution.

Ion Gas Cylinder has a 100% application with Rocket Punch. It has a 9s cd. Jet Charge is on a 15s cd and it immobilizes your target for 3s. Grapple has 45s cd, but if you are being kited as a Shield Powertech, you're doing something terribly wrong.

Really? I must be seeing things. Neural Overload Passive Ion Gas Cylinder damage now lowers the movement speed of the target by 50% for 2.0 seconds.

You use the Ion Gas Cylinder. You lose about 20% damage and trade it for literally double the survivability and the ability to guard. With bio-chem, it's an easy 12-13 medals every game. Your damage (assuming it's a full game and not a steam-roll) should be 300-400K with 20-30K guard. I know 300K damage isn't considered "uber-leet" but it is still very high for someone that is nearly impossible to kill 1v1.

I wear shield as a PT. Some people don't understand the concept that if you're dead, you do 0 damage. You will do less damage with a shield against "full dps" spec as a PT. However, you trade off slightly less damage (I use the 21 / 3 / 15) for a ton more survivability. In the end, you will get more medals because you do more damage per game (as well as more protection).

Sorc: 2.5-3K Absorb. If you're DPS spec'ed, all your heals are on a cast timer. If you don't know how to use an off-GCD interrupt, then you're bad. PT: You wear heavy armor and you have a shield generator. Your passive mitigation is much higher than sorcs. And also, the best passive tanking talents are very shallow in the PT tree, so you can get most if not ALL of those, for even more passive damage mitigation. Winner: PT Are you seriously comparing ww, which breaks on damage (and HEALS your opponent) with a 1 minute cool-down to Carbonize, 45s cd that stuns 5 ppl for 2.5 seconds? PT has guard. If you don't think that's useful then you need to reroll. You also have a single taunt on a 15s cd and an AoE taunt on a 45s cd. Since you seem clueless about tanking skills, that's 30% damage reduction on your enemy (unless they target you). BH's also have the only viable anti-stealth in the game. Also depending on what PT skill tree you go down, you also have a plethora of interesting skills. 21pt Tank has a Charge ability. 21 pt AP is the "You can't do crap to me" ability. 11 pt Pyro has the "My shield frees me from snares". There's also a 15 pt AP that makes your interrupt have a 6s cd. Winner: PT

You create incentives for people to roll/reroll Republic and STAY there. You have to ask yourselves, as Empire people, what would it take for you and your friends to reroll Republic? For a minority of RP'ers, they would never go Republic. For the majority of players, if you create PvP and PvE strong enough (even if it is temporary - like 2 to 3 months), they will start switching over. The flaw with the OP's incentive was that increased exp gain doesn't create incentive for people to stay Republic nor does it do anything to help end-game.

You're right about faction imbalance. However, you're totally wrong about the incentives. Who cares about how much time you spent leveling? That time is a pittance compared to the time you actually spend at 50. If you want to make incentives, you need to make incentives that count at end-game. Give all republic players on imbalanced servers double valor / warzone and mercenary commendation gains until the ratio is about 3:2. That will get people to hop over ASAP.

Don't lie. We knew this would be coming some day. Currently PvP Warzones are a massive grind. Regardless of whether or not you win or lose, you will rank up and get more gear (obviously winning makes it faster, but then again if you're afk botting, who cares?). On my server (usually Heavy - Very Heavy), there are about 10 people that are botting. I see them in games at various times of the day. The stupid ones just get out of the anti-afk zone and run around mindlessly and die. The more sophisticated ones run around with some kind of set pathing (you know this because they take the same path everytime), cast their instant attacks, and die. So BioWare: What are you going to do to address the afk situation? Hopefully you don't go the Blizzard route. In non-rated Battlegrounds, on average there's 1-3 afk'ers per team per game for the 10/15 man zones. In the 40 man zones, it's just a bot fest.

I will also say that World PvP will not work unless the factions are balanced. BioWare needs to address this by offering incentives for players to roll and stay Republic side. For the time being, they can open up FFA PvP zones (like the one in Tatooine). However, most people won't just go there for no good reason. Have rare resources that spawn there, have a world boss, all based on how many people are in the zone. When there's stuff worth fighting for, then you will see some action (ala Eve).