Edit: I'm a new doof and forgot that the set bonus is tied to the shell in older tiers. Removing the original content to avoid confusion.

- Buy cheap green Augment 22s of useful type (Might, Resolve, Overkill, etc.) - Crit craft the lowbie orange sabers as the mats costs for those are cheap. - Stick the augments in and sell 'em. Why put the augments in? So that in case you don't sell them now, when 1.3 rolls around and the fix the conversion, your sabers won't be stuck with low level Mk-2 slots but will have Mk-6 instead.

Could be a server difference. On mine the specialty mats actually aren't all that overpriced when compared to their mission costs and the fact that you need to crit them to get purples. For our server though, the common mats are either non-existent or ridiculously overpriced. 1k per piece of tier 6 components is simply bonkers (Zal Alloy I'm looking at you) when the blue for the tier is selling at 500 per (Ciridine). Mandalorian Iron holds pretty steady at 10k per. The situation is even worse with the Archaeology vs Treasure Hunting mats on my server... Upari and Primeval fragments are 1200-1400 a piece, with Lorrwhateveritscalled going for 600-800 per. Corusca Gems are roughly 10k (+- 1k).

Keep in mind that mats costs is due to many folks optimizing their crew skills along these lines: - Some crafter skill that needs mats - The mission only skill that supports their crafter with blue/purple mats (i.e. Underworld Trading) - Slicing as the only "gathering" skill that produces something that's very sellable on the GTN (when you can get something other than an Investigation mission... *grumble*) The commonality is that many crafters don't pick up their basic gathering skill and instead rely on the GTN for it. They don't have access to crew mission cost reduction for it and need to pay prevailing rates instead. This drives pure mats costs up beyond the average if you simply relied on gathering missions. On the flip side of this there are folks that specialize in gathering and selling those gathered mats because they've optimized in other areas (such as rolled Biochem to max to get their Rakata reusables, etc.) and make money off the resale of popular core materials. Given that, I would suspect that MK-6 augments on my server will likely go for 75k-100k each in the beginning and level off to between 60k-80k. If BioWare had designed the MK-X augment system differently so that there was more variety in the types of augments and making them craftable by all crafter skills, then it's be a much more robust and variable market. The way it is now, it's simply going to be dominated by the Synth, Armormechs, Armstech crafters... But that's a gripe for another day.

As the subject says... on Mask of Nihilus we're experiencing an almost immediate match close within seconds of the match starting. Both sides have reasonable numbers of players (6 to 7 in the last match) so it shouldn't be triggering any imbalance logic. And since it's a coin toss, each side ends with 0s across the board in all stats and the winner is randomly awarded. Please fix, sincerely concerned player.

@OP, you chose THIS as the biggest flaw in the game? Really? Reroll on a non-PvP server and move on, or just deal with the fact that PvP servers will ALWAYS breed ganker types when they get bored with other things in the game.

Well yes, the cross server pvp queues, server transfer/merge options are best... But even with that, an additional queuing option on top of all that fixing where there's specialized small group maps would be neat too. More options the better.

Interesting idea... but wouldn't the size of the existing WZs cause issues for 4 vs 4?

Just a small comment on #4. The expertise gap between Recruit vs Battlemaster/War Hero is really only a concern the longer you have to wear Recruit. Getting OUT of Recruit is currently the problem with the absolute dearth of PvP queue pops on a server that previously had login queues at launch and have now dropped to LIGHT/STANDARD. Above all else, and within a short timeframe, solving the queue issue is more critical than the quality of life aspect of the PvP game. Merge servers to improve population, and implement cross server PvP queues before focusing on balance. This really should be an all hands on deck type of thing (and yes I know content devs probably won't be involved in such a thing as this is really more of a server development type of issue). Once that's done, the next thing to focus on game-wide, which will have impact on the PvP game as well, is to fix the loading screens. It really shouldn't take me almost a full minute to load up a Warzone. And please give the option to disable the cut scene for Voidstar and Novare Coast. Those really suck when youre queue finally pops and you end up wasting a significant portion of the match waiting on a combination of load screen, cut scene, escape out of cut scene, then another load screen.

@DavidHunt I'd like to point out that in your post to another thread you specifically state the following answer to the question "Which items/slots will these augment kits work for ?" link to thread here: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=449346&page=14 Since you mention in that list implants (biochem), droid/earpiece (cybertech), sabers/offhands (artifice), then why would it logically follow that these professions not be allowed to make augment kits as well? Obviously augment kit mats should not come from RE'ing armorings/mods/enhancements/med kits/stims as they are not equipable items. But as these profession do make equipables, then they SHOULD in fact receive augment materials from the RE, and subsequently be allowed to craft augment kits.

Anyone notice if this is a relatively new condition post like 1.2.1 or so? It seems to have gotten worse ever since the "crash to desktop" issues started occuring to folks.

1. Cross server LFG needs to be married with cross server whisper/chat so any socializing that DOES occur during the run can continue after the run. This encourages folks on different servers that play at common times to re-engage each other for further grouping. Basically this means adding cross server friends lists, etc. 2. Server merges could be handled initially as a free transfer for the lowest pop servers so that the people on those servers have a period of time (say 1 month) to pick a destination and transfer there. Once that time expires, auto-merge that now even lower pop server to a medium-high pop one. If the leftover people on that server haven't logged in within the month, they likely will never log in. But at least this way if they ever resub, they'll be on a busier server at login. 3. Instanced zones are unfortunately a necessary evil for the current game engine. I personally hate them, but I dislike lag even more, so I'll tolerate them. 4. Once of the worst things about the social aspect is that there is no social aspect except for people on your planet/location. You can't see what's happening in Fleet, etc. No one wants to sit around all day in Fleet not being able to accomplish anything else simply because they can't see Fleet chat. So the answer is simple. Make Fleet General be galaxy-wide. Planet-based General should be renamed to the planet chat. If I'm on Belsavis doing dailies, I should be able to see Fleet, Belsalvis general, Trade, PvP, Guild, etc.

Giving CTs the ability to make +expertise armorings/mods/barrels would be nice too... I don't meaning pure +expertise, but variations like it is now where you may have some varying mix of end + primary + exp. Enough to make it a viable alternative to Recruit gear, but not enough to replace War Hero. The more ways one can choose to get to a stat goal, the better. /derail +expertise crystals/hilts/enhancements/relics for Artificers too, kthx. /morederail and +expertise augments to all the current augment crafter professions.

Can someone answer these questions for me? 1. Are they only available in BoP form or is there a BoE form hiding somewhere that I'm not aware of? 2. Can be purchased from PvP vendor and nowhere else? 3. Can drop from PvP crafting box? 4. Can drop from fleet comms crafting box? Thanks!

Pretty much like the title says. Basically I'm interested in whether or not the distance between an item's or recipe's level as compared to your current crafting level have any bearing whatsoever on your crit chance. I believe that the RE case pretty much only shows the same static percentage no matter your level or difficulty. A 400 crafter has the same chance of crit'ing an RE as a 100 crafter on the same item. But for crit crafting any recipe to get an augment slot, does anyone have an idea how that works? Or is it just companion affection and their own crafting specialty that affects the crit chance? Thanks and I apologize ahead of time for the newbie question.

A lot of folks also just buy the green mods...

I believe the OP was talking about max/capped expertise levels. Your percentages clearly show they are not at max, but it does introduce something. Perhaps there's an issue with the DR curve that's in play. Has anyone had a chance to map that?

/disclaimer I'm a mixed PvE/PvP player so I don't know how "hard" it is to make cash by PvP only. So dumb question... Aren't there now some BoE items that you could spend WZ comms for to sell on the GTN/Trade to make cash? I'm pretty sure you could sell the +41 crystals for a pretty penny on the GTN if your focus is getting enough cash to rip mods out. Granted PvE definitely makes more cash, but in PvE you need to support your repair bill as well as keep your companion(s) geared up. For pure PvP folks, crew skills can help for making cash too (granted, once you've sunk a bunch in to level). I know that's not strictly PvP only, but since it doesn't really involve you doing much other than queuing up the companion, it should be a no-brainer. Folks spend enormous amounts of time in queue waiting for WZs to tick, why not make the best of that time and engage in GTN PvP? (BTW, playing the market is, IMHO, a form of PvP as well, just not combat oriented.)

My apologies for being ambiguous. And yes, I mean the new recipes you get from Treasure Hunting (Custom-built Light saber, etc.) not the ones from the trainer. When I go to try to RE them to get some mats back, I get red-text that basically indicates the item can't be reverse-engineered. Which seems odd since it was crafted in the first place. I can understand certain drop items being non-RE status, but something I made in the first place? Smells like a bug.

... can't be RE'ed? Is this working as intended?

@SinnedWill So then aside from a purely gear-based scenario, is there a way you can see clear that would afford the substat stacking/customization needed to individualize players, while maintaining balance across all players/levels? I think this is the hardest part of all the balancing arguments. How do you allow folks to customize their substats' focus while preventing gear disparity caused by time investment based schemes? Would the idea of a warzone only reusable stim buff that lets you specialize into a (sub)stat(s) be the ticket? If everyone is normalized to the same base, then you can easily provide the same set of stims to all players and have them inter-balanced by stat budgets. Of course there would need to be enough variety to allow for maximum customization. Some purely made up examples might be: +25% crit, +25% surge +25% crit, +25% alacrity +25% def, +25% absorb +25% crit, +25% def +50% alacrity +20% crit, +20% surge, + 10% alacrity +25% endurance + 25% primary stat +10% endurance, +10% primary stat, +10% crit, +10% surge, +10% alacrity ... etc. These numbers are completely made up without even beginning to think about their relative merits/strengths/etc. Since everyone is the "same" base set of stats, the %-ages would be predictable and easily tuneable. In this scenario, every stim *should* be immediately available to everyone, without level restrictions, simply for credits. It's not a carrot, just a means to tweak your warzone PvP build. And if they're responsibly priced, then one could buy many different ones and even try them all out to see which works best for their playstyle. Doesn't address the need for a carrot of some type, just hoping to address the concern about "lack of customization."

The current mechanism with the level/ability/gear disparity doesn't help folks learn either which is what led me to the naked idea in the first place. I do get that there's flaws, but until the crutch (whine/excuse/whatever) of level/ability/gear disparity is removed, people will just keep complaining.

I agree that stat-less warzone-based PvP would mean there may need to be a non-gear based carrot for those that need such things. But for any activity outside of warzone PvP, the current system could still apply as that gear has usefulness outside of warzones. And adding additional carrots that don't inherently have any balance issues would probably make the community happy (I would hope). Cosmetic carrots, titles, etc. A newbie that has access to all skills and even equal gear to a pro should always lose to the pro, always. Because with all external things being equal, skill should be the only deciding factor in PvP, right?

/disclaimer I'm a mediocre PvPer, sub-50, so no end-game experience. So while reading all these various and sundry threads on the forums with folks discussing (sometimes quite vocally) topics like... ... they release 4k wz comm for 1 Bm token Why remove expertise? +healing by expertise overpowers healers All good Pvp'ers are ###ed. Thought on Why Ranked Warhero Gear is Flawed Is the majority really AGAINST the pvp gear grind? ... it seems, much of the angst around PvP progression is gear (and thus stats) related. So then why are we pvp'ing with additional stats at all? Why aren't we all allowed to pvp in warzones immediately at lvl 50, but naked with no stats beyond our base? There's already a buff that is meant to level set base health and stats to 50, why not just strip off any benefit from gear? Wouldn't that remove the gear disparity in our PvP matches? I know that the skill abilities won't be there for a level 10 versus a level 50, but isn't that also kind of artificial? If the warzone buff that normalizes everyone to level 50 base stats could "unlock" the level 50 skills then anyone could get in and be useful at pretty much any point in their character's development. BW would need a way to implement automatic switching to an alternate PvP only quickslot/keybind combo for these situations. What we do get from this? Well this means anyone that's PvP-capable (i.e. above level 10) could engage in warzones without having to first gear up, as gear would have no relevance. The expertise complaint no longer matters as stats from worn PvE/PvP gear have no bearing in the warzone. Expertise as a stat for outside of warzones can be revisited separately. All that remains is pure skill and class ability. For premades this means you don't have to wait for an awesome fellow PvP'er to hit 50 just to join your team, they'd be effective right away. For casual PvP'ers, the gear grind no longer matters, they too get instant access to PvP without having to deal with the time investment just to be competitive. For everyone in between they can mix it up as much as they like without fear of losing out in PvE raiding due to time spent grinding PvP gear, and vice versa. One could enjoy both aspects of the game with whatever play time they have. What about the existing gear? The naked pvp is meant for warzones only, as that's a controlled environment. Once outside a warzone, your normal stats/level kick back in. That already happens now when you exit a warzone and you're not already level 50. This is simply a modification of that process. Your normal gameplay/progression outside of warzone pvp will still continue however you were doing it before. If that was strictly via PvP and grinding commendations, so be it. If you were mostly PvE and only PvP to gear up your companions, so be it. Or whatever mix in between. The point being, that external gear progression wouldn't affect your warzone matches. As I said, I'm a newb so I'm sure there's lots of holes in my idea, but if you've got feedback, please lay it on me. Thanks

Would it upset people if augment slots simply didn't work in PvP?