Ok, I just have to point this out...the idea/animation for the ability Stockstrike is a bad idea. Why? Because if you're hitting someone with the butt of your rifle you're generally doing it wrong. First, most modern weapons (and this would include the high tech blaster rifles of SWTOR) are made to be as light weight as possible. The idea of butt stroking someone comes from the days when rifle stocks were solid wood with metal butt plates and had some heft to them. Take the M-1 Garand, it weighs about 10-11 lbs. The modern M-4 is about 7 lbs and has a composite stock. Now 4 lbs doesn't seem like much but it turns out to be a lot when you have to hump it around all the time in addition to all your other gear. Also the lighter heft make it less suitable as a blunt force weapon than the M-1. Anyway my point is you really don't want to butt stroke someone with your M-4, better to shoot them point blank or use that archaic device known as a bayonet. You're likely to break your rifle's stock thus using your wepon as a club is an act of desperation. I won't even get into the issues of trying to swing a weapon with the size and mass of an auto-cannon, not to mention impact damage to the weapon itself. I mean not everyone wears robes for armor... Stockstrike really should be something like Point Blank Blast, Gut Shot, or Bayonet. It is what is it for the momonet but I hope that future expansions they would talk to someone with knowledge on modern infantry combat techniques for ideas. As an aside perhaps future blaster rifle designs should/could include a vibro or energy bayonet. Edit: appently I've been miss calling this ability, probably because for my Vanguard it zaps them with electricty.

I've just hit 50 with my Vanguard this past weekend and came here to look for a PVP build that might be viable for PVE as well. For leveling (and currently since I have yet to respec) I was using 2/25/14 which apparently was similar to Taugrim's "Ironfist" build (not sure since the link is dated and doesn't display properly) and seemed to do well for both PVE and PVP. I was usually in the top 3 for damage & kills, and frequently over 10k protection (this is an area I need to work on IMO since aside from HoF and HoP there wasn't much to do with my Pally for defending other people) when PuGing solo in PVP. At 50 however I'm finding it difficult (read nigh impossible) to kill healers. Granted I'm sporting Recruit Gear at the moment and am not sure how much of a factor that is. Right now I have the Supercommando set, and I think that's part of the issue but I took it because I didn't want to get an assault cannon for my weapon. Basically its time for fine tuning of both spec and gear. I came here and saw Taurgrim's name and was a bit happy since I used his Prot Pally PVP build in WoW, but like that beloved spec it appears "Ironfist" isn't viable anymore either. All I'm seeing is Assault & Tactics everywhere and that doesn't let me tank PVE content, and with the lack of dual specs I'm trying to find some kind of workable alternative. I've tried looking at the build links people have but most of them are dated and don't work. As for Gear I need to go with the (I think its called) Eliminator set with some Supercommando stuff mixed in like the relics, off-hand and perhaps implants. I'm open to advice here.

What about the alts you left on the dead servers? Again Mergers move all characters and alts to a new server rather than requiring the player to move each one individually. Another thing I'd go with is that Active accounts get name precedence over accounts that have been inactive more than 1 week.

How do transfers allow you to keep your name? In my experience if you transfer somewhere and somebody already had Eragorn then you had to rename your character to Eragörn or something else. Granted you could scout it out by creating a placeholder character with your name to see but you can't really do that with Legacy names since it requires finishing act 1 with a charcter. You might luck out if you have a popular name but in all liklihood be it transfers or mergers you're going to lose it since once you've hit transfer its done. So I ask which is more important, the amount of people you have to play with or your character's name (or its spelling)? I know which gives me a better gaming experience.

Agreed. They should merge servers, and then create forums for the remaining servers.

A lot of people keep talking about transfers as being the solution to dead servers, but they really aren't and here is why. Mergers will combine the populations of two or more low population servers to bring it up to standard (i'd shoot for heavy but that's me) population levels. While some people will cry that it removes choice it concetrates the population in a way transfers cannot. The traditional method of Full/Heavy --> specific Light servers doesn't work for SWTOR, they really created a SNAFU and diluted the populations too far. Mergers control where the populations end up, transfers will only leave dying servers dead, standard servers dying, and have people scattered all over and break up what ever nascent communities are left on the low population servers. Mergers can guarentee a higher population server. Transfers will have individuals or even small groups (guilds) moving to another server, yet there is no guarentee that the server they are transferring to doesn't have people transferrign to an even higher population server. So their choice Standard pop server is no better than the light one they left. Another issue is that you will get one or two servers that end up with queues because everyone and their kid brother transferred there. Players really don't have enough information to make a good decision in this case, BioWare does have that information. Mergers will solve the issue, transfers will most liekly only make it worse. Leave transfers for after the merges so that if a player doesn't like where they ended up or wants to play with friends they can move. Giving the community transfers and then leaving them to try to balance server population with little to no information will not be a good thing.

Actually no they were not "new & novel" WoW is one of the worst "borrowers" ever. Many features in WoW were/are features copied from various other games and it took time to get them in too. What most players seem to lack is a concept of money. BioWare had $X to spend developing SWTOR and for $X you only get so many man hours. Then you get investors and execs going "So guys when are we going to start seeing a return on our investment?" So BioWare then ahs to determine when the game is ready for launch so they can sell copies and start making some of the $X back (or hopefully making more than $X). The sales and subscriptions go to further development and maintenace (hardware, bug fixes, etc.), they then start adding all the "Wouldn't it be cool if..." stuff that didn't get added in the initial development. MY biggest gripe is the way they screwed up the servers at launch, things would vastly improve for many people if they'd just merge low population servers.

Incorrect. They took TWO actions when they should have only taken one, they increased server numbers AND upped the cap. They should have just upped the cap, and after a couple weeks it proved insufficient started adding servers one at a time only after the new one had a queue consistantly.

Incorrect two times. They over reacted on launch and went too far with rolling out too many servers. They should have just raised caps and left it at that for the North American servers. They've diluted the playerbase too much. They need to merge servers. Server transfers are all well and good but it is the wrong approach to fixing the population issues. Diluting thriving communities is the wrong approach, and giving free transfers to low population servers will only make them more dead. Take two or more Light/Low population servers and combine their entire populations until you have a servers with a solid population that is consistantly Standard or Heavy.

This.

With stealth classes in a game you should almost always assume that the one guy headed your way has friends you cannot see. Heck a good team will have a stealth class scout the node before the non-stealthies head there. So never assume that the one guy headed your way is solo, let people know anyway so that they can get there when you're suddenly in a 3 to1 situation when the 2 stealth classes de-stealth and are beating on you in addition to that one guy you saw coming.

Effectively player housing is in the game. Its the players ship. They could do more with it and they are through Legacy stuff but it serves the same function as "player housing". I'm not sure why people don't get this. Besides "houses" and "appartments" don't make sense for the SWTOR adventurer. You're never there anyway as you are off gallavanting across the galaxy in...wait for it....YOUR SHIP!

This is true however they really borked the launch and opened too many servers and increased the population caps too. Unfortuantely MMO servers initially are like Government programs they never go away no matter how unsuccessful they are. It is only in the later stages (aka game is nearly dead) that MMOs start shutting servers down. They really do need to do a server merge as the poor expereince of low population servers is costing them customers. BioWare should have just increased the caps and left it alone for a while to shake out, and then looked at where they stood 45 days after launch.

THIS sooooo this. There have been many a match lost because people did not come help when called, the were too busy chasing 1 or 2 guys for more kills while the rest of the enemy team stomped the life out of the 1-2 guys defending the node/door and then cap it. The response, "I was busy fighting."

Man this isn't recent...this has always been an issue and often they were doing the same thing in another MMO. However it is good advice. I'd add that with VS, CW, Nova when guarding a node there should almost always be 2 players guarding a node, the exception being when its 1 to 2 in the enemies favor. There have been quite a few times I've ninja'd the plant/cap with a stealthed character and CC. That or been left by myself and hit by 2 stealth and been dead in the duration of the knockdown/stunlock and the node capped before help could even get close. Two players would prevent that from happening and give more time for help to arrive. You mention using the map, I'd also point out that learning to actually read/undestand it and using the minimap is important. First, unless marked otherwise most maps are laid out with Up being North, Down being South, Left is West, and Right is East. Learn this, know this. This is not subjective like "right" and "left". Example, in playing Void Star if I'm attacking "Left" is the West Door, however if I'm defending "Left" is the East Door. Right and left are subjective on whther you are facing north or south, the actual compass points are not. There have been many times people have used Left and Right and it only caused confusion. Also look at the minimap, I don't know how many times in VS and CW that the entire group has gone to one door or node and left the others wide open. Finally use your brain. You don't need 6-7 people to kill 2 guys, and if there are only 2 enemy players (assuming 8 vs. 8) where are the other 6? At least 4-5 are probably on their way to attack or are attacking your other node. Start moving that way once the attack is broken and you have at least some health. Take the oppotunity to heal up when you can even if you have healers or you have to end it early. I can't count how mant times I've seen people run off with a sliver of health and out of combat. You're not much good if you get one shot, better you get a few seconds of Recuperate ticking and then get there. Another is for the love of Pete don't all try to cap at once. Let one, maybe 2 players cap the node the rest go and intercept the enemy. Use knockbacks, snares, and CC to buy time to get the node.

/signed It really does cheat the outnumbered team out of medals/VP and is just annoying and frustrating. ITs bad enough to get rolled in a bad group, its even worse to get rolled becasue there are only 3-4 of you on a team and no matter how good you are you just cannot win.

I'm kind of confused...if you're geared and skilled shouldn't you have no issues taking out the unskilled people regardless of gear? Perhaps you're afraid that now you cannot 2 shot the new 50s it will come out that your aren't as skilled as you think you are?

Personally I'd go with this: 1) Active account & inactive account at time of merger, active account wins name conflict inactive account has to pick a new one on reactivation. 2) Two active accounts, existing character gets the name just as with a transfer and the merged character has to rename.

That actually is "community", since Bob can be a jerk without reprecussion he and other like him can behave in whatver manner they like which has a negative impact on the community. Additionally how many of those people you meet that are on another server do you actually bother to get to know? You can't arrange to run with them again, and its doubtful you'll ever get thrown together in a random group again. Essentially they become "Warm body #5674" and you never worry about building a friends list or even your own rep since you can just fill your groups with random warm bodies until you've beat the FP or Op. This degrades the social aspect of the community as surely as the rampant Bobs.

I'm ok with them at the edges of the map, but using them as "blocks" or "funnels" it don't care for. Tatooine has some very good examples, you can't go straight from Anchorhead/Mos Eisly to some quest areas/objectives but have to take the speeder. There shouldn't be some "invisible line of death" between you and a point that you can safely reach by running 60m to the right, forward 10m, and then 60m to the left.

I absolutely disagree. There need to be both server merges and transfers. There need to be server merges because people have multiple characters at 50, why because of something BioWare did (diluting the server poupluation too mcuh during the first month) should they have to pay to move all of the characters they have put time into? Additionally many people don't really care what the name of the server they play on is, they care about rule set (PVE, PVE, etc), time zone, and population. Merges address the need for this and keep players guilds and alts all on the same server. Additionally if everyone transfers off a server why keep it open and running? That just costs BioWare money. They need to merge servers until they hit the minimum of Standard level of population during peak hours. If people want to transfer at thet point then more power to them. There aren't enough Full/Heavy servers to use transfers to low population servers solve the issue. Additionally, mergers in regard to Legacy are much more simple. You don't have to deal with someone's only post chapter 1 character moving to another server. All characters get moved lock, stock, and both smoking barrels to the new server. If that Legacy name already exists with an active account (note I said active) then the person that got moved has to change their legacy name, if not they keep it and the inactive player has to change it if they resub. That is fair.

Dear BioWare, You really need to merge the low population servers. The difference in the "game experience" between a standard population server and low population server is vast. Take The Ebon Hawke(standard) and Hanharr(light) for example. Republic Fleet on Ebon Hawke normally has around 100 players during peak play times, Hanharr has around < 10. That makes it near impossible to make a group for Flash Points, let alone Ops on the low population server. This also impacts the Galatic Market, the difference in the amount of items available is tremendous. For example, search for Scavenging materials for crafting, Hanharr maybe has one page while Ebon Hawke has a minimum of 5 pages of materials to choose from. Augments? Non existant on Hanharr where there are pages of them on EH. Next is PVP, the low population server constantly starts games with 3-4 vs. 8 and with the removal of the match shutdown due to lack of players this leads to a poor PVP experience for players. Getting rolled/farmed is not fun, when its due to the fact that you're outnumbered 2 to 1 it really is annoying. This also handicapps you as a player in the long run because you cannot earn medals when you're constantly in the respawn area because the low number of players on your side makes focused fire easy. Even if you eventually get up to 8 vs. 8 your team is usually at such a disadvantage by that time that you cannot win. Can people re-roll? Sure. Transfer once you add that feature? Yes. It still doesn't change the fact that you have "dead" servers. Servers that cost money to run, servers that are costing you players due to poor game experience because of low population. I know that server consolidation is genrally seen as a "bad thing" in the MMO world but you really grapped up the roll out and ended up adding too many servers in addition to raising the population caps. When the initial "surge" ended it left you with a smaller player/customer base and some "ghost town" servers. Really, I thought I saw a tumbleweed blowing through the Republic Fleet the other day on Hanharr. You guys diluted the populations too much, and then when people began to unsub/quit/got to the end of thier 30 days it only exacerbated the problem. So please, start merging the low population servers. Don't make people pay to transfer off them, that will only further piss people off and cost you more customers. I never see any server as heavy population, so bleeding off some of them with free transfers to low population servers which is the norm is not an option. You have far more light population servers than you do heavy that is for sure, so start merging them. I know people will run around crying "the sky is falling", that "SWTOR is dying", etc. but you guys need to cowboy up and admit you grapped up and then fix the problem. Sincerely, A Paying Customer (They closed my tread on this so I'm reposting here.)

Dear BioWare, You really need to merge the low population servers. The difference in the "game experience" between a standard population server and low population server is vast. Take The Ebon Hawke(standard) and Hanharr(light) for example. Republic Fleet on Ebon Hawke normally has around 100 players during peak play times, Hanharr has around < 10. That makes it near impossible to make a group for Flash Points, let alone Ops on the low population server. This also impacts the Galatic Market, the difference in the amount of items available is tremendous. For example, search for Scavenging materials for crafting, Hanharr maybe has one page while Ebon Hawke has a minimum of 5 pages of materials to choose from. Augments? Non existant on Hanharr where there are pages of them on EH. Next is PVP, the low population server constantly starts games with 3-4 vs. 8 and with the removal of the match shutdown due to lack of players this leads to a poor PVP experience for players. Getting rolled/farmed is not fun, when its due to the fact that you're outnumbered 2 to 1 it really is annoying. This also handicapps you as a player in the long run because you cannot earn medals when you're constantly in the respawn area because the low number of players on your side makes focused fire easy. Even if you eventually get up to 8 vs. 8 your team is usually at such a disadvantage by that time that you cannot win. Can people re-roll? Sure. Transfer once you add that feature? Yes. It still doesn't change the fact that you have "dead" servers. Servers that cost money to run, servers that are costing you players due to poor game experience because of low population. I know that server consolidation is genrally seen as a "bad thing" in the MMO world but you really grapped up the roll out and ended up adding too many servers in addition to raising the population caps. When the initial "surge" ended it left you with a smaller player/customer base and some "ghost town" servers. Really, I thought I saw a tumbleweed blowing through the Republic Fleet the other day on Hanharr. You guys diluted the populations too much, and then when people began to unsub/quit/got to the end of thier 30 days it only exacerbated the problem. So please, start merging the low population servers. Don't make people pay to transfer off them, that will only further piss people off and cost you more customers. I never see any server as heavy population, so bleeding off some of them with free transfers to low population servers which is the norm is not an option. You have far more light population servers than you do heavy that is for sure, so start merging them. I know people will run around crying "the sky is falling", that "SWTOR is dying", etc. but you guys need to cowboy up and admit you grapped up and then fix the problem. Sincerely, A Paying Customer (They closed my tread on this so I'm reposting here.)

Dear BioWare, You really need to merge the low population servers. The difference in the "game experience" between a standard population server and low population server is vast. Take The Ebon Hawke(standard) and Hanharr(light) for example. Republic Fleet on Ebon Hawke normally has around 100 players during peak play times, Hanharr has around < 10. That makes it near impossible to make a group for Flash Points, let alone Ops on the low population server. This also impacts the Galatic Market, the difference in the amount of items available is tremendous. For example, search for Scavenging materials for crafting, Hanharr maybe has one page while Ebon Hawke has a minimum of 5 pages of materials to choose from. Augments? Non existant on Hanharr where there are pages of them on EH. Next is PVP, the low population server constantly starts games with 3-4 vs. 8 and with the removal of the match shutdown due to lack of players this leads to a poor PVP experience for players. Getting rolled/farmed is not fun, when its due to the fact that you're outnumbered 2 to 1 it really is annoying. This also handicapps you as a player in the long run because you cannot earn medals when you're constantly in the respawn area because the low number of players on your side makes focused fire easy. Even if you eventually get up to 8 vs. 8 your team is usually at such a disadvantage by that time that you cannot win. Can people re-roll? Sure. Transfer once you add that feature? Yes. It still doesn't change the fact that you have "dead" servers. Servers that cost money to run, servers that are costing you players due to poor game experience because of low population. I know that server consolidation is genrally seen as a "bad thing" in the MMO world but you really grapped up the roll out and ended up adding too many servers in addition to raising the population caps. When the initial "surge" ended it left you with a smaller player/customer base and some "ghost town" servers. Really, I thought I saw a tumbleweed blowing through the Republic Fleet the other day on Hanharr. You guys diluted the populations too much, and then when people began to unsub/quit/got to the end of thier 30 days it only exacerbated the problem. So please, start merging the low population servers. Don't make people pay to transfer off them, that will only further piss people off and cost you more customers. I never see any server as heavy population, so bleeding off some of them with free transfers to low population servers which is the norm is not an option. You have far more light population servers than you do heavy that is for sure, so start merging them. I know people will run around crying "the sky is falling", that "SWTOR is dying", etc. but you guys need to cowboy up and admit you grapped up and then fix the problem. Sincerely, A Paying Customer

Nah, its all those Hot Pockets and Monster Energy Drinks you've been guzzling.