As Arsenal, I admit I can't imagine living without it. However, when you're not in certain Huttball situations or on the bridge in Voidstar, it's of limited use. It's not like it slows your enemy; they're right back in your face if they're melee. Slows casting, though, and it helps to throw people off your healer or ball carrier and turn their ire to you. It's just little enough that people might not go around shouting, "OP!" if it were to happen. It's an interesting idea. Of course, they'd have to give us Arsenals another talent to spend our points on.

Hehe, that would be fun, and it wouldn't feel much different than now in PVP. XD

I have no idea what you're trying to say, dude.

I have never seen anyone hit 500k on my server, and I'm Valor 56. I don't recall a 400k, either, but I guess I can't be sure. I only break 300k on Voidstar, and when I do, I'm either top damage or second place. I have no idea what's going on on you guys' servers.

And if there's no downside to min-maxing like that, then there's basically no choice anyway. You just min-max. It's not like ignoring Cunning will make my character act stupider or be unable to use certain technologies, nor will ignoring Strength limit how large my backpack can be. And for just stacking Aim vs. Endurance... I don't think it's worth it, considering how stat-heavy gear is. But if you disagree, fair enough.

I play enough pen and paper RPGs that I would be comfortable doing this in just about any game... but I don't see a point to it in swtor. There's basically no decision to be made, other than, "Do I stack Endurance or my main stat more?" As a BH, for instance, Cunning increases my tech power, but it's always better to get Aim, and Strength does jack diddly. So, I'd just stack Aim and Endurance. And any difference I make between them can be outdone by a given piece of gear. That's just extra clicks at each level for not much benefit. It's not like making a Tech Specialist in the D20 rpg but stacking her Dex along with Int so she can shoot when she's not fixing things... then taking a few levels in Soldier to increase certain bonuses without sacrificing skill points per level. Or making a DnD monk with gimped Charisma so she can make certain enemies flatfooted by taking the cowl off her horribly burned face. Or giving a half-orc a certain Int score to justify talking like, "Hirk mad!" There's just no comparable benefit in this game. My Cybertech doesn't rely in my Cunning, and there's no Charisma score to alter what speech options I get.

I hate to break this to you, but my Juggernaut just found an orange, HEAVY ARMOR chestpiece that looks like a lavender, cloth, bare-midriff top with a butt cape. It was prototype quality.

I feel this way about Cybertech. It was great for leveling, and it's good for supporting my alts, but endgame, about all I can do is make purple Advanced __ Armoring 22 to sell to new 50s - the ones that bother to pay the credits for it before doing hardmodes for Tionese stuff. I guess sometimes they buy blue level 49 armor/mods for their companions, too.

Funnily enough, I've been beating my head against the wall trying to kill my server's Juggs, while the Marauders have been falling to me. That's probably just because they're flavor of the month, though, so there are a bunch of new 50s in low gear, without a lot of practice just yet. Meanwhile, one of the biggest PVP ******es on my server (full Warhero, of course) is a Jugg. When I'm on his team, I just use target-of-target to help him burn down his enemy, and it's obscene. But yeah, I generally agree with the quoted post. Even when a Shadow/Assassin attacks me out of stealth, it sucks a bit, but I have more trouble with operatives/scoundrels doing the same thing.

I don't think they've said, but I sure hope so. I want to move my Republic toon from a PVE server with a dead guild to my Empire main's PVP server, so she can join my Legacy. I mean, why keep leveling her without the presence and gear advantages if I don't have to, right?

I find this very obnoxious, but at least with the valor and commendation difference between winning and losing, it's still well worth it to try. I'm going to start working on War Hero once I get three more BM items... I'll want every extra comm I can get.

That quote worries me. I HOPE they don't judge each DPS spec by damage dealt alone. Not all DPS specs are meant to be equal in that, because there are other factors, like damage mitigation and utility. I don't mind being a squishy, stationary turret, but there should be good things that make up for that. My Jet Boost and Rocket Punch are awesome at Huttball, yes, but it's nothing compared to a Powertech harpooning me into fire or a Sorceror hauling butt past everyone and force pulling the ball carrier out of the Pit. And is there anything more depressing than seeing a Consular absorb your entire Heatseeker Missile? Kind of like how I expect Marauders to have more mitigation than me because they have to be in the thick of everything, at melee range, whereas I can at least try to stay on the outskirts.

Exactly. I heal myself and others between fights - to get the 2.5k healing medal. Or when we just have a short bit of time to regroup. But then I usually want to R&R to dump heat anyway! If I'm healing during a fight, I am probably about to die. In the vast majority of situations, that last bit of life is better utilized burning down my opponent further. Which reminds me - I need to buy more Warzone medpacks.

Are you trolling? Or are you really asking why someone would use a bounty hunter - a class heavily influenced by Boba Fett - in the AC described as "mobile heavy weapons platform," to do damage. The class description also says something like, "There's no problem firepower can't solve, and no one with any sense gets between a mercenary and his target." Yeah, that's clearly meant just for healing. I'm a dps merc because I wanted to try ranged fighting in an MMO, partially because this game lets me do that without being a clothy mage or some kind of bow-wielder. Missiles, man, missiles.

So, post it on fanfiction.net, Archive of Our Own, or a LIveJournal community with the other fanfic. I'm sure they'll love it. Unless you're going to link to it, though, I'm not sure what talking about it on the Gen forum is going to accomplish.

Lies! He's perfect for a dps merc. Have him attack first, then aoe the mobs that swarm him. And when DFA's on cooldown, well, the two of you burn down enemies so fast, it's still awesome. You need him geared, though, just like every other companion. Also, Exsanguination stance. At 50, I use him or Gault unless I'm sleepy and zoned out... then I'll take Mako. ...Torian's not a tank. Are you sure you played a merc? Lol, I agree with all of this.

Er, do you mean Expertise? Presence has absolutely nothing to do with instanced PVP; it only affects your companion. Also, holy crap, guys, you're being melodramatic. If there are problems, by all means, discuss them, but don't talk about getting 2-shotted by every class and being behind everyone in damage every warzone. I frankly don't believe it, and it hurts your point. I did 319k in a Voidstar yesterday, and I'm USUALLY in the top three of any given PVP team's damage. I've just hit the point of being mostly-Battlemaster, and I obviously have no War Hero gear. And I'm honestly not fantastic at games. Good, now, but not great. If I can do this, so can you. We just have to think a little more, which will help us in the long run whether we get buffed/fixed or not. Time that Electro Dart just right to let you take out the last of the healer's HP. Become best friends with pillars. Don't pick out a target to DPS alone; help your teammate burn a guy. Sacrifice yourself to kite idiot players away from nodes while a stealthed teammate ninjas. And remember that Jet Boost is king on Huttball scaffolding and Voidstar bridges. And when a particular IA/Smuggler or Jugg/Guard figures out he can kill you every time.... well, actually, that sucks, and there's not much to be done for it. But the rest of PVP life is manageable!

This is the best laugh I've had all day. When server transfers are up, and I can play my Consular with Legacy benefits, I intend to go back to leveling her and get her some pants. Shadows shouldn't be in dresses if they don't want to be, Bioware. Not even us girls.

I think I might be playing wrong. I feel MOST useful in Huttball! Hanging out on the scaffolding, melting people, jumping into the crowd around our ball carrier and Jet Boosting all/most of them into the Pit... good times. Though my favorite is stunning the enemy ball carrier in fire, or Rocket Punching him into it. Meanwhile, forever assaulting uphill in Civil War blows. Novarre is better, since there are buildings to run around, and Death from Above is more useful. Maybe it's just all the Huttball practice I got before they made more same-faction WZs available?

This little smugrant disqualified anything intelligent you said in the first two thirds of your post. Calling Arsenal "loltracerspam faceroll" is extremely old. Firstly, if an Arsenal is doing nothing but spamming tracer, he or she is very bad and is also overheating like woah. I really hope no one is extensively doing that at 50. Secondly, players shouldn't have to learn two specs and pay to respec between every piece of their endgame PVE and PVP. Arsenal WAS fine and is now less so with the recent tweaks and breakage. Acknowledging that does not make someone a 123-spammer. Unless the OP was saying that we were always utterly gimped, in which case I kind of disagree with him. The problems are definitely recent. I mean, part of this is the introduction of yet another tier of gear to be stomped by. I was doing alright in half-Cent, half-Champ, but while I've been getting half-BM, War Heroes have been popping up and rolling everyone. Anyone like me who is slightly behind the gear curve will be tearing some hair out. But that's not the ENTIRE reason.

That is the idea, yes. Specifically, Mercenary is analog to Commando, and Powertech is the analog to Vanguard.

My poor Mako is bald. I have the Infiltrator's Headgear on her, the one that looks like night vision goggles. When I put her in an epic hoodie... she looks like a crazy cyborg. If I take the headgear off, the hood goes up, and all is well. But hoodie + headgear = bald head and night vision goggles.

Are you saying, "When **** rolls downhill, it spreads thin, so you shouldn't care when you get hit by the ****?" I'm just checking. I'm not sure I've ever heard the, "Well, it's not THAT bad that you unfairly compensate for/suffer because of X people who are committing Y crime-that-isn't-drug-use," argument before.

If people are constantly shoplifting, prices will go up, and employees will get fired. If people cheat on university exams, the curve gets screwed up, and what would have been your honest B becomes a C. If people cheat on their taxes, either the difference will be made up by increasing taxes on others (like you), or services that you may utilize will be diminished. Like maintaining the roads everyone drives on, or giving students financial aid. If people exploit and get gajillions of credits, they can ruin what GTN economy there is. Good luck buying the mats or mods you need. The head-in-the-sand philosophy is not good for society or the individual.

So, if you're not trying to bash or cause drama... why the public flounce?