Hello, Haven't played this game in a year, and in searching this forum I believe I've already found my answer, but just want to be certain... as I can't perform this test yet I don't like the look of the top end PvP gear, so are the set bonuses tied to the armoring mod? Looks like my old battemaster set bonuses are tied to the shell, and I'm hoping that's not the case with the new gear. Thanks in advance...

Hello all, So we obviously know that Illum is... broken; and has been since it's inception. There are already a few threads on ways to fix Illum in general, but I'd like to focus this thread on ways we can raise Bioware's awareness of these types of exploits, and shed some light on how they're affecting our community as a whole. First a bit of history, even if it's not really needed... Pre 1.1 Ilum daily/weekly quests involved "capturing" objectives. Both factions merely traded objectives until quests were completed. Impact: Marginal, completing quests provided access to random loot bags for PvP gear. Post 1.1 Illum daily/weekly quests changed to require killing enemy faction or collecting armaments. Bug/exploit exposed whereas high pop factions could camp spawn point. Impact: Marginal, increased valor gains for those individuals who participated in exploit. I know some would disagree that this was a marginal impact. This being a bug, I felt it was fixed in a somewhat timely manner. However, I do think there were quicker fixes that could have been implemented, and the people actually affected by the massacres should have been compensated. Post 1.1.0a Enemy factions on Illum, instead of fighting each other as intended, now trade kills in large numbers to gain significant gains in valor. Impact: Critical. My proposed fix: Remove all quests and valor gains on Illum. Make it a dead planet. This should have happened immediately after 1.1. As compensation, double up on the warzone daily/weekly quests and increase valor gains for both the winning and losing factions (I know the warzones are more painful than Illum for some, this isn't a perfect solution). Community impact: The kill-trading valor exploit is killing server communities. Our guild is against kill-trading, and has kicked a member for participating. We've also actively (and in some cases, successfully) worked to interrupt the actions of kill-traders on our server. Our reward for this: negative comments (to put it lightly) from both factions and disdain for anyone wearing our guild tag. We're a smaller guild who have always enjoyed PvP, but we're looking to recruite more for raiding; and now we're wary of allowing anyone in. Bioware response: There is no developer post stating their official stance on kill-trading (please don't mention some random, over-worked, CSRs response; lol). The fact that objective trading was removed from the game would indicate that kill trading would be frowned upon as well. However, the two weeks (and counting) that this exploit has been in game would lead some to believe that hey, maybe it is ok? What can we do? I'm open to suggestions. Here are a few things I'd like to see: 1. Bioware post a report on valor gains pre 1.1, post 1.1 and post 1.1.0a. Their dev blog stated that they have extensive in-game metric tools and are always monitoring the game and generating reports, so I'm sure this would be available. 2. Post on the forum. I've read through much of the Q&A thread for Feb 10th, and honestly, I was seeing more posts about same-sex relations with companions than I did for Illum. Make your voice heard, no matter how tired it's getting. 3. Submit an in-game ticket for exploiting every time you see it happening. When the CSR big-wigs generate their daily/weekly/monthly reports, make sure Illum is #1. This is your end-game PvP content people! Let's work together to make it better!

What are you going to do about the rampant, and obvious, kill-trading valor exploitation that is happening on Illum?

This is slightly correct. Mortar volley during beta didn't always have the "wind up" time, and worked like death from above. They mucked it up during the last few builds in beta (I would say for about the last three to four builds). I haven't read through this whole thread, so don't know if that was clearly stated. While I did participate in beta, it was later, so these statements are from friends who played beta for quite a bit longer than myself.