I went with Matrix Cube. Far more stats, and from my poor math, better increases compared to expertise. Infact, outside of giving your healers more breathing room, PvE gear is far better than its equal-tier PvP gear. If you expect to have a healer on you, they'll be happier if you wear full PvP gear. But PvE stuff is better, and a negative to expertise is the diminishing returns around 500.

My PvE Tank Vanguard in full PvP Champ (Supercommando) hits for more than that. 1.4k Stockstrike and easily 900 Ion Pulse. Full Auto should hit around 600-700 depending on targets per tick (3 ticks if you aren't hit). Also, a Combat Sentinel ignores you armor thanks to one move (100% armor pen for 6 seconds, is more than enough time for them to activate zen, hit you with Blade Storm and spam blade rush 4 or 5 times). Don't use full auto unless you are rooted over 10 meters away from your target and all your other 10+m attacks are on cooldown. You should hit much harder, and so should the OP. It's your gear, easily.

I love my harpoon, and I do that all the time. But at the same time, I use it to stop fleeing Sages and Sorc, close the gap between myself and ranged classes, and relocate the ball carrier (AWAY FROM MY FREAKING LINE!). Sadly, I have seen people create sage alts on the rep side to grief and pull friendlies into the firepits. But between knockbacks sending you into the fire, Pulls for assassins/shadows and harpoon from Vanguards/Powertechs, it seems fair. (HINT: Get a Sage, you get pulled into the acid, he pulls you out. You have a lot of time for him to get there and help you)

Team Based Objective Games show how good a gamer really is. Regardless, Team Deathmatch games are not something this game needs. The game is not balanced for it, and a whole team of aware guildmates could easily and quickly down one person at a time, winning effectively and with little to no losses. Gear would matter much more than skill, awareness, or luck. That is not something this game needs. But I'm sure the devs might add it in at some point. You want a frag-fest with bio-balls running around, go play a TPS or FPS. I'd rather play a team game. I see more skill from players in objective-based matches than those in deathmatch games. Have fun. Most humans are mindless and a warzone that doesn't force tactics and thought to win would be crowded.

Cyborgs with robotic arms, legs, etc, sure. I can see that happening, and working well with droid parts in the normal items' places. But the problem is how hard it would be to make those parts make sense. You'd have to align them with other stuff. For example, you can't replace a trooper's chestpiece, leggings, or boots without issue. Maybe as another alien species (Trandos as example) no boots would no matter as they don't wear them often. But full scale droids? I doubt that would happen. Sure it would be easy to redo the voice acting (modify it like they do helmets) but the lack of facial animation would drive some role players mad, and the huge amount of redoing not just textures but animations (Think about those guard droids on Ilum, the bulky humanoid ones, not think of them trying to use an assault cannon. Easy in mind, not easy in code). Would I mind if they added droids? Not so much. But I'd perfer more aliens (I WANNA BE PLO KOON!!!) over any robots.

That part in red... If that guy is a tank, and the enemy is hitting him, he is doing 99% of his job reporting on the situation and tanking their attention. (NOTE: The other 1% is hitting a few keys and watching the DPS of a level 30 jump above their heads)

Very much true. Infact, a Sentinel with a good tank is a force to be reckoned with. Add a healer and anything else and you have a good start for a heavy hitting team. Personally, I don't care about the 1v1 balance. I'm a DPS Watchman Sentinel (Great anti-melee, poor anti-Sorc) and a Tank Vanguard (PvE specc'd but it works well in PvP for annoyance). As a tank I can stick on my target FOREVER if I really want to. As a sentinel, some matches are just hell as I'm thrown about like a ping-pong ball in a daycare room filled with ADD demons.

Force Charge has a 12 second cooldown AT BEST with a 3 second root AT BEST. That's talented on both. The one stun you get is a 3 second channel, which can be broken, interrupted by others or whatever. Commando's? 4 second stun, 30 meter range. Same cooldown. 4 second stealth with increased movement. Cool. You pop out, knockback, root. 5 second 99% damage reduction. Forget the 50% HP cost, you can pop a medpac. Awesome. Meet knockback. Hope you kept that stealth. Not combat spec? Awesome, a 50% slow that doesn't matter when you aren't in range long enough to do damage. 30% in cauterize for 6 seconds? Same problem. Hopefully you can pop valorous call (right name? 30 centering right?) Transendence, run and hope you catch them. A good Commando can stay away from you long enough to kill you. A bad one spams grav round and tries to tank your damage. An average skill Sage will not be touched outside of your Charge. A decent Gunslinger will stomp you with a smile. It's not about being a bad player. Sentinels just have it rough. Sure, a great player with a sent will wreck the field, but if they don't have a teammate to weaken, distract or slow their opponent they are literally going to do 50% worse.

As a trooper (Vanguard) I can add some information. 1. Vanguards have the ability to keep their prey in the fight until one or the other dies. This means more damage over longer time. 2. Commandos have range, and can apply their damage over distance, from 1 meter to 30. Distances mean nothing in this range, and unless you stun them they can go on and on and on and on and on... Now take for example Sentinels. 1. They can't keep ALL prey in their range (5meters) and easily get knocked back (Vanguards have harpoon and if specc'd, Storm. Add a few stuns, and a slow and you keep on target. Sents do not. 1 charge, not much else). 2. Limited range. Not 30 meters. Not even 11. 10 max and with only certain attacks (weak and with cooldowns)... Now take for example actual damage. Sentinels win. Infact, in a full on brawl, a Combat Sentinel can wreck a Vanguard, if that Vanguard doesn't kite him. Even a watchman has a fun time. Against a commando? Knockback, root, stun, death. If you are good, you can get close a few times, but not much changes. Same against Sages and most Gunslingers. So what am I saying? Vanguards only have good damage due to sticking on target much longer than similar damage dealers. Heavy Armor helps, but isn't the key here, Harpoon, non-channelled stuns and even Storm is. Simple.

Adrenaline Rush. No not the ability, the stuff flooding most Rep's brains. When you are outnumbered, outgunned and outgeared, and you know it, you have two conclusion stacked in your face. 1. You are beaten, give up. 2. Fight to the bitter end. Those still on the Rep side have, for the most part, chosen number 2. They fight and fight and fight, showing not just skill, but determination. They prevail against the odds and do some time and time again. And let's not lie, even a bad player can learn more losing countless battles that he can fight, than running with the pack and watching the prey get torn apart. In simpler terms, a lack of quantity breeds quality. The weak either hug their guildies and never go to Ilum, or they flip and join the zerg force. It's a mindset, not a skillset.

I once hated how you could only get Biometric Crystal Alloys from PvE. Then I started PvEing. Rank 56 Vanguard, now PvE Tank for my guild (awaiting a replacement professional tank, so I can PvE with my alt). Easy as heck to get those alloys. Here's a strange idea, PLAY THE GAME. You want alloys? Get the alloys. Get 3 other people (hard I know, socialization in a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game. Absurd) and run are Hardmode Flashpoint. Full champion gear is 'good enough'. Have fun.

126 rated, less than 14k health. Are you wearing nearly full pvp cent with some lower level blues and greens thrown in? Or low level relics? 14k is fine for normal operations as a DPS, or even just about right for some (not all) hard mode flashpoints, but for any serious groups that just isn't enough. Seriously, a player (such as yourself) can easily get full orange, fit it with mostly epic 50/51 mods, armoring, and have more damage/health over Tionese or Centurion. You'll be missing out on set bonus, of course. If anything, have some friends run you through certain hardmodes for columi: Mainhand Chest Legs Helmet And those should provide the biggest boost for your stats. After that, you can easily run Normal Ops and most hardmodes flashpoints.

I don't even know what to say to this. Tooltip before point is spent- 210 Damage. Tooltip after point is spent- 240 damage. Increase in 30% direct damage? I think not. That isn't the bleed, that isn't hitting a target. That is directly from my toolbar, ability tab, etc, at that time (I've leveled a few times now, so the damage has changed). So my question to you, does the tooltip take armor into account? I don't think so.

Okay, so I'm leveling my Sentinel alt and I finally get up to 'Repelling Blows' in the Watchman talent tree. "Increase Direct Damage dealt by Cauterize by 30%." It reads. "Excellent" I think to myself, "I use that ALL the time and 30% damage would help out killing the enemy." So I look at my toolbar to do the math, 210 Damage. Awesome. That'll be 63 damage easy, and that's doing the math in my head. So I grab the talent, commit and recheck the ability. 240... Wait, what? Yeah. Cauterize went up 30 damage, not 30%. Not even close. I can't check reliably without a combat log, but it really seems to have not moved 30%, but just 30 damage. Is this for real? Is the talent bugged and reading 30% when it should be 30 damage? Is the tooltip bugged and not showing the 30% increase but instead 30 raw damage? This makes me angry. I need to know.

Seeing as how my server is 70% Imperial (seriously, there are more imps on Ilum than there are Reps online...) this would be a great way to help balance populations. Faction Transfers (like Server transfers) would take time, and thus, cost real life money. But a faction switching quest wouldn't take as long to code compared to thousands of people changing from one side to another, from one class (and line of quests, gear, companions, etc) to another. I can understand why they wouldn't want to have one (Faction Transfers) but not an easier alternative (Faction-switching quest). But I'm obviously biased in my opinion.

I think cent comms should be needed along side Champ Comms to buy Champion gear (just a small amount, look at PvE Tionese gear for the example). Since we now get 15 cent comms per bag, this isn't unreasonable. Before the new system, I almost had one companion geared in full cent. Now all but one is geared out. I have no use for cent comms. Most people don't, especially when they get Champ comms at the same time.

Okay, so me and some members of my guild were discussing allowing faction transfers and the like. But I had an idea. Allow people, through a quest chain, to switch sides. Not only that, allow them to keep their class. That's right, Bounty Hunters on Republic Side, Smugglers on Imperial, etc. You could allow the mirror classes to switch and it would keep a form of balance (as for example, Troopers are the Bounty Hunter mirror). Of course, this quest-chain would be a monthly, or bi-monthly, allowing people to only switch once every once and a while. It wouldn't be permenant, and since people can role Imps and Reps on PvP servers it isn't going to allow spying that isn't allowed already. In a RP perspective, troopers can go traitor (some did, actually), Smugglers and Bounty Hunters go for their highest bidders (and thus, have no real side) and Jedi/Sith can be 'Flipped' to another side (To be corrupted or uncorrupted, as it were). The only issue would be voice acting. You'd have to re-write and voice some dialogue for end-game quests. But the faction-switching could be at the end of your class quest line (and even give you the option to switch, incase you wanted to just finish the quest and not actually change sides). Sure, this wouldn't balance out the factions much, but it is better than nothing. It's easier to switch a person's faction than transfer a level 50 Sorc into a level 50 Sage, right? Just an idea. Constructive arguements are welcome. I hope the Devs see this.

I sent in a bug report on it. Had a few funny whispers when other people seen me with "A companion in warzones". Had a guy call me a hacker. Had another tell me he was going to get me kicked from my guild (laughable, as I created it). Still use the holo dancer to mess with people

When (or if) they add larger ships it will make sense to have these stations. Also, if the devs ever get around to making true World PvP (which I doubt) these would be the only real safe-havens outside of the fleet and your own ship.

Something like this would make sense, actually. Plus, it would add more reason to be something other than Biochem.

Tanks die to Elemental and Internal like everyone else (Fast!). Also, Shields are worthless in PvP against most (say 80%) of classes. As it is now, most 'tanks' use DPS armor or changes out the enhancements with crit-surge-power so they do more damage. I for one have stubornly stayed a shield-touting Vanguard, but that's so I can off-tank in Operations or Main-tank in Normal Mode. Works just as well for me in PvP, although those talents points could have been put to better use (No Dual-Spec yet, but I will have a PvP Tank spec when they release it)

I have a friend just like Gabe. Creepy really. Anyhow. He believes something, and so it must be fact. He could be totally wrong, but his assumption is now fact to him and you can't prove him wrong without a mountain of evidence. Sadly, Gabe seems just like this. How he THINKS something will work is not how it would or DOES work in reality. Even now his thinking shows he is disconnected from the playerbase, sitting in his own world and planning the next phase of his World PvP Ruination. Now I'm not saying Gabe should be fired, but someone needs to find SOMEONE on his staff or his team that has his ear to the playerbase and his head on right (with LOGIC!) and make them Team-Lead for a while.

Bring good healers. Seriously. Also, Cent sucks for anything but PvP (and even then, my money is on orange gear with 51 mods and armoring winning out, unless outskilled).

I hate having to click the enemy to target him. /Agreed.

OP will never be invited to any of my, my guildmates, or my friend's Operations, Flashpoints, or our parties. Thanks for joining the list, OP. You better the community by putting your name out there.