Hello,
I am a level 50 Jedi Shadow - Valor rank 57 - on NA East Server Helm of Graush.
I have "full" champion gear (minus the damn main hand)
This is what Ilum is looking like on our server - click here
The Number Imbalance
Before servers even went up and went Live.. Everyone knew that there was going to be an imbalance of Imp vs Rep, with Imps gaining majority.
When servers went live, what was theory became fact. Imperial numbers were indeed larger than Republic. With this, just by numbers alone, its easy to say that Imps not only have more 50s - but got to 50 faster and continue to gain numbers as more and more hit 50.
Once hitting 50, the "grind" to valor 60 battlemaster starts. Continuing with what I said above about numbers.. clearly the imps will have more battlemasters at a faster pace.
Why it's not THAT bad
Okay, yes it sucks getting your *** handed to you by a zerg.
But look after someone hits 60 Valor. There isn't a reason at the moment to go beyond that point unless you want the 65 speeder and if that's going to be an argument then say fine valor 65.. either way there is a point at which gaining valor isn't necessary much like XP so you spend your time on other things in game.
Now for gear, they still have to finish the daily/weekly quests which take about 5-10 mins in Ilum and then go grind out warzones for comms.
The Daily and Weekly Quests
Just as easy if not easier to complete these on Republic as it is on Imperial.
The reason why is simple, If Imperials are zerging your base and you are by a turret, and they get killed, it counts as a kill for you - and you only need 30 kills, if there are a bunch of imps at the base 30 kills happens extremely fast. In which case you are done in Ilum for the day.. even faster (yes faster) than the old blow up 3 tanks daily.
Basically what this says is that we obtain gear at the same rate as an imperial zerg - they just will hit valor 60 faster.
Long Run - It will even out (Gear wise)
As long as BW doesn't add another Tier of PVP armor/weapon - everything will even out with regards to Republic players gaining battlemaster status and obtaining gear.
If we just continue like we have been doing with level up valor in warzones - this issue on Ilum doesn't really matter. In the short run it sucks just cause we are getting owned by massive numbers.
Summary
In summary, Once an Imperial hits battlemaster 60 - farming valor (unless they go to 65 for speeder) does nothing for them so they will ultimately get bored and stop and go back to warzones because thats the only place they can farm pvp gear once their Daily/weekly quests are done.
With that said - The way of pvp gearing in this game is completely even - The Imperial will indeed win the race to battlemaster, but they can't zerg gearing up at a faster pace. They can only gear up as fast as we do, which is why in the long run, as long as BW doesn't add another Tier of PVP gear, everything WILL balance out.
Eventually, by doing warzones and some pvp ilum groups, the Republic will also gain battlemaster status more and more and begin closing the gear gap every day. Fair or Unfair, it'll just take the Republic players longer to get there.
The only thing that won't change is just the pure numbers imbalance between the 2 factions.
But with that, I'm assuming if you chose the Republic for PVP server, it's because you are talented in PVP and wanted a challenge with an organize group rather than zerging around everywhere smashing buttons.
-Selyk
50 Shadow
<Fatal Effect> Guild Leader
