Thank you and not at all, feel free.

A PvP specific stat is completely unnecessary if you go by your breakdown of the issues with end game gear. The PvP stat directly affects how much damage only a player can do to YOU, while at the same time maximizing how much damage YOU can do to a player. The raid gear does not possess the same statistic, it lacks the former, and only provides the latter. This does nothing to even out the pvp gear and the pve gear, it simply creates a need to grid out "end game gear" for both your pve and pvp experience while at the same time creating a frustrating gaming experience from a pvp standpoint until such a time as you have acquired the top level pvp gear through said grinding. Although this method has become the industry standard since EQ, EQ2, WoW etc have established it, I can tell you it's an archaic and poor method. It is laziness on behalf of the developers to stick with what "is current" in terms of pvp rewards. What made this game's pvp fun sub level 50 (and I won't get into the disaster of the CC that exists, much like it was a disaster in warhammer) is that expertise did not exits on gear (well, nothing that everyone couldn't get by purchasing a weapon in the 40's). At level 50, however, the pvp experience goes from an arguable fun and challenging to a frustrating grind of getting rickrolled by top tier geared players that are rolling the OP class of the month ie: first it was operatives/smugglers (still is really), now it's snipers/gunslingers, sentinels/marauders, assassins/shadows. The divide is gone. Take away expertise and allow for pvp gear that is equal in stats to the raiding gear available and you have solved your issues between the pvpers and pve'ers. Neither can claim that each others gear is better than the others and gives an unfair advantage. Of course keep the stat and you will always have a lack of equality between those who have time to farm it and those who don't. And no, you will never have a situation where everyone at end game has the top tier of pvp gear. Because game updates will always introduce another tier as time passes, once again to keep the cycle going and to continue to hide all the problems with pvp. Make the gear look different and unique to encourage farming both and above all make all the gear equal and the pvp experiences then comes down to player skill and class balance. HOWEVER, the problem with this is the latter. Class balance. That takes effort and time on behalf of the developers. Years in fact. BUT, if you have a pvp stat that throws off the lack of class balance issues for you, then you can hide how broken both it and the CC issues are. Look to GW2 for an idea of how to ensure pvp is skill based over gear based. IMO a gear based statistical game is a dead end for anything that is MMO, proof in support of this is how popular UO, GW and GW2 were and are and why next generation games are all going toward the model of player skill over player gear. Some people have a need to feel elitist. Those will be the people who disagree with having gear be equal in stats. They believe player skill is determined by how much @ss you kick versus other non-geared players. in order to focus more on player skill with their given class/roll. However, imo, you will find a much larger group of people who are seeking a challenge of skill over a challenge of obtaining the best gear to ensure you have an advantage over everyone else. Give me skill over gear any day is what I will always be an advocate of. It's why FPS games, arcade fighting games and strategy games are literally the most popular games on the market. Aside from hacking programs, these games come down to player skill. Either you are better at the game than your opponent or you are not. And this skill comes in such a vast variety of ways - teamwork, flanking, out thinking, luring, ambushing, etc. ALL of this (at this stage of the MMO world) is lacking, but upcoming games such as GW2, archeage and terra are attempting to bring these aspects to life. So, is a pvp specific stat needed? No, it's not even wanted honestly, but it's what we are stuck with in SWTOR and many games like it. The format serves to hide the problems in the game and to make everyone's online egos feel great when they obtain the best gear and faceroll those without it. That is supposed to be the reward for our time and money? The loyal MMO community of yesterday is aging and expecting more. Our time is limited between family, work and when you can, gaming. The pvp experience should never be one of grinding and frustration or you will lose those who have matured beyond that. The newer generation is fickle and lacks loyalty of any sort, you see them game hopping constantly from the next new flavour. Eventually developers may come to the realization that there is a reason sports are so popular and celebrated in the real world and learn to incorporate what makes them so successful into their MMO games. Especially into the foundational concepts of MMO PvP. Sports are successful because they are founded on the principle of the equal playing field where a team/players skill determines the outcome of the game, not the clothing and equipment they wear.)When I say equal playing field I am referring to rules and equipment, the differences of player skill is deeply encouraged.) I am talking sports like football, soccer, hockey, basketball, baseball, volleyball, boxing, MMA, fencing, wrestling, figure skating, curling, sprints etc. Not motorsports, cycling and other sports where tweaking an engine and vehicles mechanics came make a huge impact on performance. These sports hold a universal set of rules and a standard of equipment that ensure the player excels not because of what he is wearing/using, but because of how good he actually is at the game and how talented he is in his own role vs others. THIS is what you developers need to incorporate into your future discussions of where to go with MMO's. Simple is better, with the added touch of what feels like a living and breathing world.

I agree that the bolster system is fine when not facing 50's with the pvp stat. That is not the heart of the matter here. The #1 concern is keeping the majority of your customers happy. If the majority feels better about not facing lvl 40's while in their teens, then the dev's should make that the case. It boils down to keeping your customers in game, happy and paying you money. So, whether a 10 can or can not kill a 49 while having bolster is not the the heart of the matter, nor is anyone's lack of skill. Making money is and keeping people happy is. Ultimately, brackets will do that when proper steps are taken to ensure population exists for it. That is simply a fact if the facts prove that the majority want them. End of story.

There is an intelligent response. Yes they do have cross server - this game should as well, every PvP game should really, creates a much larger multiplayer PvP community. I would agree with your concerns. As I stated in my second response, two more brackets would be great, but are not needed at this time. Add in mutliserver WZ's and then add in those brackets and I'm 100% certain the PvP experience would be top notch for everyone all they way through the game. No one can feel disadvantaged with a bolster and only a max of 19 lvl difference. But a 39 lvl difference obviously makes people upset. No need to have customers upset, however, I would agree with you that more measures to ensure a steady population for brackets is more important first. I hope it comes about in the future for my alts. Again, I want the game to succeed and to be fun for everyone all the way through. In PvE and PvP. Constructive feedback will lead to that if the Dev's listen and take it to heart.

What server are you on? 50's WZ's pop literally every second on mine. U're funny.

Bud, every single MMO that has PvP that has been successful has tiered battle grounds. What you describe above is just not the case. EQ2 had nearly 9 tiers of BG's starting at 10-19, 20-29 etc etc all the way to 90 and it has waaaaaay less population than this game and guess what, hardly had a wait time in any tier at all. Stop being melodramatic and yelling with caps like a child.

Your above little description of why the higher level is always stronger than a lower level defeats your rude comment about "skilled". You clearly just argued that level and gear + knowing your class even in the slightest (I assume having fingers and pressing the skill buttons) makes a lower level doomed...... You sir are a derp derp troll. No low level should be facing max level people, period. Never seen another game do that (aside from open world zones that you just don't go in as low levels.) Again, bolster doesn't make up for number of skills and advancement points and much better gear. it just doesn't. It's not any low leveler's fault. It's clear to absolutely anyone that has been in a WZ that low levels have no reason to be against high levels, but the game puts them there and as a result everyone complains about lowbies being in their WZ. It's not hard....make a bracket for lowbies that they can be part of. Who cares, it shuts the whole argument up. Stop comparing the size of your D's over who is right and who is wrong, the game designed messed up putting in fresh teens vs higher levels and move on. Thankfully it doesn't take long to level up. Two more brackets would be great. 30 and under and 30 to 49. Plenty of population for it and plenty of alts to fill it. It's not absolutely needed - I beat people on my lvl 11 powertech that are in their 40's, however, the WZ's got a crapload better once the 50's were gone, it would be even more fun with two more brackets. Not absolutely needed, but would be a great addition.

Far from the truth. WZ's pop frequently sub 50 I mean literally I have one pop before I have even loaded out of the WZ. So stop that.

Fully support a change up in design - firing though...little much. It's simply astonishing the lack of long term thought they put into this games PvP. It's a very hard thing to get right, however, there is not much they haven't gotten wrong Sorry to say that really. The PvP can be fun on small scale and in a limited fashion, but the decisions going into it's systems are very short sighted.

That is at least encouraging. I have been doing it wrong so far then. As I said before to the other person, thank you for the reply I will be doing it this way here on out.

Not a bad idea - appreciate the reply from you at least. I will start doing that.

?? What? I'm not saying let you collect endless com's. Simply increase the amount you currently can. 1000 is far to few.

It is a problem in that you end up wasting your time doing WZ's once you have 1000 com's. Aside from building your valor which can't go beyond your level at lower level anyway. So, makes doing it past 1000 pointless.

Ok, so the price of gear across the board has nearly doubled in com's cost and you can still only collect a max of 1000? Who's designing the PvP in this game? They should be fired and never rehired again. You obviously don't play MMO's nor your product. The state of PvP in this game is completely backwards to promoting enjoyment for the player. Not sure why all the restrictions, hold backs, inconveniences, imbalances (not simply class wise - I get those), and plain lack of thought out decisions and creativity. I really wish people just stopped playing en-mass so they fired these archaic and clearly bad developers and revamped their company with people that have a sense of what PvP is supposed to be about. FUN. Fun for the user, with an environment that doesn't punish it's players with the implementation of poor decisions and ideas. The above example is just one of the many, many subtle things wrong with PvP system. Shaking my head at what I am seeing in this game. You made the PvE very enjoyable, although extremely linear, but still great stories etc. However, your PvP component is extremely underdeveloped, not thought out, repetitive and mostly just frustrating unless you are certain classes that it seems to cater to. Will you ever manage to rebuild this games PvP to a degree that proves successful? I really doubt it at this point, your customers are picky, judgemental, rude, mean, childish, impatient, and knowledgeable in what they want. Beware, GW2 is not far off and you really are going to lose a huge portion of your incoming cash flow if you don't really rethink what you have done with PvP. Cheers.

I vomited in my mouth a little bit when I read this. More Huttball.....like a f'ing nightmare.