Still looking for advice here.

Further advice for Bioware: Redesign the Ilum PVP area so there are multiple (perhaps two or three) central control points at which the items spawn. By doing this, the game will self-balance by virtue of the attacker's advantage and the defender's dilemma: The dominant faction cannot protect multiple nodes equally so they must choose to protect one more than the other, and the underdog faction has the advantage of choosing to attack the node that is less defended.

I'm still looking for advice on this. Yesterday it took me four hours to get about 20 kills, as I as outnumbered 3:1, even when I was in a group of five people to help. This screenshot is representative of the experience I had during that time: http://i.imgur.com/JUvZA.jpg

I don't know about your server, but I don't see windows of opportunity like that except during crazy hours around 6am. During those times, I'm basically the only 50 in Ilum, and the crate farmers fight back. If I engage one, I'll die when another one comes by looking for crates and comes in with the assist.

The method I have been using is as follows (though it is unacceptable slow.) There exists a large chunk of ice protruding from the south side of the central node. With a little jumping, you can reach a ledge that goes around the entire protrusion, allowing you to LOS players who are actually at the central node. It should be noted that the southernmost area on that ledge is technically not part of the central node, so motion about that protrusion will result in "Jedi Sage Poniesvista spotted near Central Assault" spam. On this ledge, there exists a small notch in the protrusion where you can position yourself such that no knockback will knock you off the ledge. In fact, that position seems to be bugged because when you reach it you appear to sink into the ground a little bit. In this position, the number of Imps that can reach you is limited by the rate at which they can traverse the ledge, because of the peculiar line of site at that position, and by the Imps' concern that you may knock them off. The trick is to get them to come for you, get to that safe spot without dying, then knock off whoever is dumb enough to come for you. The fall will almost always kill them (though there is one place where if they're super lucky they'll land at 1% hp). My initial success rate with this strategy is very high, but they wise up very quickly. I pose no direct threat to them when doing this, I'm not able to loot items with this strategy because I need to maintain close proximity to that protrusion, and what I am trying to do become abundantly clear the first time I do it. As such, they just ignore me, leaving my kill/hour rate around one per 5 minutes. It should be noted that when you first approach Central Assault to try to get to that protrusion, you are at great risk of dying. If you get overrun and end up dying while up on the protrusion, my observation has been that the Imps have actively attempted to prohibit me from reaching it again. This limitation can be overcome using stealth, but I don't have that.

Thank you for noting those tactics Hidus, I have used them but without sufficient success. The fundamental problem is that the zerg doesn't leave the center node. Even when we capture other nodes, to encourage them to leave, they do not attempt to recapture them often enough to make that a viable method to complete this quest. Typically, they don't start trying to recap nodes until we've got four of the five, at which point they start trying to recapture them, but usually its just one or two guys doing that. While this does (eventually) lead to a kill, the rate is probably around 1 kill per 5 minutes, at best.

I was advised by a GM to look to the community for suggestions on how to complete the "Smashing The Front" daily in Ilum on an imbalanced server in a reasonable amount of time. Please post your Republic strategies for the Smashing The Front daily in this thread. The strategies should assume the following: The Imperial to Republic imbalance in the Ilum PVP zone averages 4:1. The average number of Republic 50's in the zone is 5 during normal play hours. The strategy should permit the daily quest to be completed in less than 1.5 hours, so about 1 kill or item looted every 3 minutes. (If your completion rate is slower than this please note how long it takes you to complete.) The strategy should be viable during most parts of the day (so no farming at 5am). Stealth should not be required to complete the strategy. Spamming for an Ilum group on the Republic Fleet typically results in one person added every 15 minutes, and roughly matches group attrition. Arranging with an Imperial player or group of players to swap kills is inadmissible. I do not believe a viable strategy exists that meets these qualifications, but I am hopeful someone else has come up with one. If one viable strategy is not presented, I implore Bioware to make the following changes: Discontinue suggesting the use of forums to learn how to complete this daily. Modify the quest to improve viability for the underdog faction, perhaps by making the looted objects spawn in more places so the dominant faction cannot concentrate their forces so easily. Please only post strategies and if necessary replies debunking strategies that are not viable. General Ilum QQ belongs elsewhere.

So you're saying I have to face a bunch of Imps who have valor 60+ from a single day? Cancelled.

What is your definition of "shortly"?