I thought it was fun, and the details really made it shine. The first time I tried to get into my spaceship and Containment Troopers JETPACKED in from nowhere, I cracked up. Also, seeing people explode in PVP (or PVE, if it didn't wipe the group) was hilarious. Who knew pandemics could be so much fun? For the future, remember those tribble-like things that could infest your starship in KotOR? Wouldn't it be funny if that could happen again?

Woah, leave my missile blast alone. It doesn't need any 9second cooldown! As arsenal, it's my go-to mop-up skill. You don't want to be pulling that out mid-fight, due to the bad heat:damage ratio, but it sure beats a rapid-shots when everything's on cooldown and your enemy just has a little chunk of health left. 1-2 of those is often my pvp finisher. When you have no instants up, and someone's booking it for the goal line/health potion, it's invaluable.

I don't know that I agree with that idea. Getting interrupted is obnoxious, sure, but that's not what really hurts in PVP. Having all my instants on cooldown when someone decides to play pillar tag is far more frustrating, for example. Stop my tracer, and I'll just powershot or use one of the many other abilities we have. If they were to buff us, I think something that helps with heat management would be nice... I'm very good and measured about it in pve, but trying to burst down a bubble-using pebble-thrower can cause me to get overzealous.

I can understand that sentiment. It's just... I haven't noticed a huuuge difference. The biggest thing is heat buildup. I guess it depends on what rotation or strategy a given merc was using prior to 1.2. I only had to make minor adjustments, it felt like. Still, such is MMO life. A nerf here, a buff there - if you don't catch it this time, you'll catch it the next go-'round.

What? I use railshot constantly in PVP and PVE, and rarely is the target stunned. Arsenal, HVGC.

Really, guys? It's not that bad. I'm still in the top three of my WZ team's damage every time, and I'm still half in Centurion. Alderaan is the worst for us, since we're always assaulting uphill with insufficient cover, but our knockbacks are killer in Huttball, and a reasonably good Voidstar match is an opportunity for heinous amounts of nuking. And I'm not even that good. Adjust your rotation to include more unloads and varieties of missile, and play like the glass cannons we are. Stand back; let someone else get in the enemy's face and earn their ire while you help that person burn their enemy down. Focus fire. Stay on the scaffolding in Huttball, and knock off anyone that comes to play with you or the ball carrier. (Please don't be the ball carrier.) Use your vantage point to find the healer and put pressure on them. Put up your shield and heal-over-time as soon as someone starts focusing you. I admit I'm having a little more trouble with heat than I used to, but everyone's class was jiggered somewhat, not just ours. It all shakes out to being pretty okay. You're going to get steamrolled sometimes, with gear and organizational discrepancies, but that happens to everyone. In a relatively even team match, you can shine.

The crap? I'm DPS. I'm not responding to anything in your comment beyond that, because clearly you couldn't be bothered to read my post before mouthing off about it.

I actually love Huttball and don't feel a huge class bias as a merc. It's challenging, but that's fun. I really feel like I can contribute to a team win by playing the objective and knowing my role, and the only truly unfair death I feel like I suffer is when I get harpooned into fire and stunned. It's just, my role is not the independent ball carrier. That's my only point here. But then, I'm probably preaching to the choir. The bad that kept putting me on the spot yesterday probably isn't the type to read the forums and hear these things, but if my rant makes even one player realize that turret dps isn't so hot a ball carrier, it'll be worth the snark I'm getting from some of you.

Hey, show some respect! And people who are saying I'm unwilling to use teamwork: Way to not read and comprehend my original post.

Yeah, even I won't throw it to an IA unless something horrible is happening to me. That's just mean.

Yeah, I guess I'm just getting frustrated. Yesterday in particular, I'd run up to the scaffolding around the middle as a teammate would grab the ball, and I'd be happily blowing up the two people on him, and he'd just throw the blasted thing to me while he had plenty health left. So, if I chuck it back to him, with two people on top of him, I'm half-likely going to get unlucky and give it to one of them. Running ahead by myself would have been straight suicide. A few seconds later, as I'm looking for some other teammate, every other player on the field swamps me until I can't even see anymore. -_- I could have just thrown it away as soon as I saw red, but I had a dim hope... maybe I should just stop being an optimist in that situation.

Rofl, sort of. Except only noobs spam tracer, especially in the 50 bracket.

Because half the time it comes to me when I'm somehow completely alone, and literally no one is in sight but red and the person who just passed it to me. If I have ANY ability to do so, I throw that ball to someone better suited. I am not willfully a bad. Maybe my teams on those days are just slow to position, but it sucks being a lone island of low-survivability with a giant target beacon shooting out of your head. I'm away from the action center for a reason, guys. I'm trying to do max damage to your attackers while not dying.

Correct me if I'm wrong in my thought process here, but this is how I feel: Unless a mercenary/commando is a healer, please do not pass him or her the huttball except in an emergency. About to die? Pass it! Am I by the goal line, while you've been knocked into the Pit or are being pummeled behind the fire? I'll take that ball! I've positioned myself only slightly ahead of you, alone, no healer nearby? What are you, nuts? Do you have any idea how fast a dps merc folds when fire is focused on her? I will melt the face off anyone attacking you. I will run into the hoard that surrounds you and Jet Boost them off the scaffolding. I will run ahead and above you, finding good emergency positioning should you get focused too hard. But please don't just chuck the ball at just any dps merc as a matter of course. We have one stun break, one damage reduction - not straight-absorbtion, but reduction - bubble, and no utility skills that move us about the field. Don't get me wrong; I've scored a fair number of goals, but there are typically other factors involved, like a healer or luck with positioning. On a non-class-related note, don't get mad at me when I chuck the ball to a teammate as my screen is filled with fire and glowbats, doing a heroic, dying throw, and said teammate flees from the center of the catching circle. I mean, maybe lag has something to do with that, or maybe something's up lately, but I've noticed a LOT of failed throws and interceptions in Huttball these past few weeks, not even most of which have anything to do with me. I think a lot of people on my server would do well to pay better attention to where they're standing when a ball is thrown. I may not like holding the Huttball, but I friggin' catch it if it comes to me, just as I grab it if I'm the only person near the spawn point when it pops. Better to get it and have to throw it away as you die than to let the other team grab it while yours has their pants down elsewhere on the field.

Does anybody really want to listen to their character go, "GWAARRGHGBB," all day? Or have every NPC be like, "What? You, [companion], translate for your pet."

Well, Jet Boost and Rocket Punch don't interrupt, they just delay through a mechanic called "pushback." (You may have specced into something that reduced the pushback you receive while casting Unload and TM.) This is useful, sure, but it's nothing like the interrupts that not only stop my current cast of Tracer Missile but also keep me from casting it at all for the next five seconds. The two stuns are, well, stuns. Many other classes have interrupts on top of those. More importantly, when a boss or resolved player is immune to CC and/or knockbacks, you have no interrupt options, even if all your cooldowns are up. I don't necessarily feel like we need interrupts; I'm just explaining why people want them.

I'm also on Davik's Estate and am glad you said that. Because our server is unbalanced but not catastrophically so, it seems like the Repubs can practice their Voidstar and ACW skills as often as they want, while we play endless Huttball. So, I don't know about you, but my thoughts can often go from, "Oh boy, not-Huttball!" to "Uggh!" over the course of half a match. The Repubs that happen to PVP also seem to have a higher average gear level than us. They certainly never spawn short of 8 players; I see that MUCH more often in same-faction Huttball. So really, a little imbalance isn't that bad for a faction, and Davik's Estate is the case study that supports that idea. It's only when imbalance gets outrageous, or faction PVP interest is too disparate, that it becomes a problem. My point being, maybe a few nudges or fixes really are all that's necessary to make things more livable for people like the OP, not a major overhaul.

Wow, angry/defensive much? This whole thread has been telling the OP that NO mercs let their pair of pistols go to waste, what with Unload and Rapid Shots and Sweeping Blasters. There's no call for randomly insulting a spec you don't like while adding absolutely nothing to the conversation.

I go back and forth between "The Relentless" and "Republic's Most Wanted." The first describes my BH really well, and the second is just awesome. I do switch to a PVP title when I get a new one, though, hence I'm currently, "Gladiator Fiora Maydar."

Davik's Estate, Empire side, always seems to have 80-100 people on the fleet, more during some peak hours. I will admit I play a lot of Huttball, though. Not EVERY game, but like 70% of them.

I disagree with you there. Chaff Flare is useful in group PVE content, namely flashpoints. It doesn't hurt for us to help the tank by being proactive with our aggro-reducer, especially since we can put out so much damage, ESPECIALLY since we can also heal ourselves in a pinch. And for Bodyguards, switch those two things around to arrive at much the same point. Aggro management isn't just the tank's concern.

It does sound like you need to reexamine your tactics, or at least your view of them. Knockbacks are awesome in Huttball, as altitude-based as it is. Try hanging out on the scaffolding above the fight as often as possible. Hell, you may even catch the ball when your team's carrier is about to die, since you're positioned away from the fray. It's valuable for you to be there to catch the ball, hold it until your team arrives, or even to score with it if things go well. And even if you have to throw it away, at least the enemy doesn't get it, right? As the above poster said, we're not the center-stage stars. However, you should never feel useless in Huttball. Knocking a ball carrier into the pit or helping your team nuke the center in anticipation of a ball respawn is very conducive to winning. And Alderaan can be rough, since you're always assaulting uphill, but Voidstar? So much damage to deal! That game's a meat grinder.

If all else fails, either get a friend or bribe someone to help you. I was stupid happy one day on Balmorra when a random Inquisitor whispered me, offering credits to help him kill some things on his class quest. Made me feel like a real bounty hunter.

I completely agree with Kindara. I love having oranges that let me craft my own look. Even though this makes mods a more general loot grind - I don't have to be mad the right boots aren't available if something with equivalent mods drops - the system still gives me way more overall slots to worry about. And to customize! Having three slots per item that I can tweak to my heart's content and move, for a price, to any prettier piece of gear I find, is fantastic. Besides, I don't think I bought green items often in any mmo I've played. If I'm going to blow credits on it, it might as well be at least blue. And there are lots of blue items that sell just fine in swtor, from mods to earpieces to belts and bracers. Also vibroknives and other companion weapons. And won't someone put a blue techstaff on my server's GTN already? I'm tired of Torian having a green.

I enjoy the fact that most companion you get comment about what a hole it is. Still, I like the layout (practical, visible quarters for everyone), and the outside doesn't bother me. If I could paint the inside some, so it's not just yellow and rust, I'd be really happy.