If we are still counting the prior 5.1 nerf. Do we also still want to count post 5.1 nerf w/ DVL exploit?

I've got 2 tickets for tonight at 7 PM CST if anyone wants to come!!

Yea, I guess I was poorly spoken in this considering the more I hear about these changes... they seem to have taken the cries for change as a cry for reversion and taken us back to a like-launch system, which is the absolute opposite I think anyone wanted. I truly do hope that in the further details they explain the system will work better then speculated because as it stands now... I'm doubtful. So as kind of like you said, This is just like asking someone for a pair of shoes and they give you a pair of clownshoes.

Mainly, I think it's meant to entice people to want to know more though it always seems to have more of the effect of frustrating everyone as you said. I they just do this dribble of information because of the retaliation against them when they used to release information in-mass because their ideas were "dumb" so I think they do these overviews so they can get ideas to base the details around. I do also agree that I feel like Bioware gets a good idea then the fact they're on a schedule messes it up. Much in the case of Bolster. Bolster I believe was meant to be the way it is currently in midbie PvP and hopefully will be in 5.0 but unfortunately, it has been broken since launch realistically so I don't know how well that'll work. However, they do have some bad ideas that don't need to be implemented. Such as being unable to stop people from capping with AoEs or this recent change to Assassin's by removing phasewalk or even these new RNG-based gear boxes. All terrible ideas that shouldn't be implemented.

Yea, but as said most people don't know what the ratio is yet since obviously Bioware hasn't announced it yet. I'd say after the stream on Thursday, there'll be more information given about this possibly but I personally don't think they'll give out specific ratios for anything until closer to release date so I would say not to expect information about exact ratios of RWZ to regs, and conversion ratios of WZ comms and crystals. Obviously, there'll be speculation as to what they'll be and maybe someone will datamine some info from the PTS build but once again, I doubt it.

Credits wouldn't be so bad since you could buy on-tier gear from crafters or vendors supposedly.. so at least we could have non set piece armor sets until we unlock them from GC so we're not complete losers in lvl 70 PvP...

Yea, I agree with most people in that I really feel like PvP'ers got the shaft with this update but I guess I can see why since such a small percentage of the actual playerbase is pure PvP since most I believe are in it for conquest and the companion quest.. Oh well, I like the idea behind GC but I'm not so much a fan of these RNG boxes especially as I mentioned in a previous post about the potential of getting DPS or tank gear on my healer... or DPS/healing gear on my tank. I don't think that'll be fun especially considering that wastes an entire level of GC and I can't transfer said pieces to other toons since as Bioware said already... it'll be all BoP instead of BoL or BoE. Oh well, at least crafting will be making a come back to relevance.

Will I be able to use my pirate ship in duels because I feel like that'd be the most important part as a person who likes to roleplay as a pirate.

Sorry, linked you to a Musco post that just said ranked arenas would rate higher than regs which isn't what you asked. So yes, Bioware hasn't said anything about the points for GC being different between Group ranked and Solo ranked. Sorry, once again.

Most likely since the stuff from GC is supposed to be BiS... that'd be so dumb to have a full armory of "set pieces" for healing gear on my tank.. I'd be a bit more understanding if the items were BoL so I could transfer the healing armor to my healer and my DPS armor to my DPS but instead it feels like Bioware is like "SURE HOPE YOU SPEND A LOT OF TIME ON GALACTIC CONQUEST CAUSE YOURE GONNA NEED IT TO GET THE RIGHT GEAR LOL ."

So while yes, Bioware is making expertise go away and still making people who care at all require two gear sets (for DPS, one with accuracy and one without and for tanks, one with tank stats and one without since you don't need tanking gear in PvP to use guard or taunt). I think it was make it more easy for people to have the ability to swap between PvP and PvE easier because while yes, having 110% accuracy won't be helpful to you in a WZ. It's not a huge determent as not having 2018 expertise is in the current build. So while yes, it's frustrating for those who min/max their gear to have to still do two sets of gear for PvP and PvE. It'll obviously not a matter of concern to the PvE carebear casual because their gear will still be max stats and they would still be doing "OK" compared to the current build, where they would be getting slaughtered. And as proven numerous times during the course of this game, it's that player group who Bioware has proven is what they cater to.

Well, to be perfectly honest, most of what they have announced so far for the most part is preliminary overviews of changes to come. They've not yet gotten into the details of it but yet people are already screaming they're unsubbing because they don't like just the overviews. Which is OK with me because while I may not like some of these changes in the game. We've begged and asked them for a change to the system for years so I'm just glad to see that something is being done and talked about and the people who hate change in general are leaving the game so that's also OK with me.

To answers people's concerns for mods and such, I believe that Bioware will try to make crafting relevant again by allowing people to craft at tier gear or close enough so that you can buy your gear from crafters. Because I personally believe that they'll sell not-at-max-tier gear for credits from vendors so that the only way to get set gear will be from the Galactic Command boxes while you can get non-set gear pieces from crafters/vendors. Or at least... I'm hoping that's how it'll work.

Bioware during the live stream mentioned that during the release of KOTFE and a couple months following, they saw on their metrics that servers were near reaching capacity so if they had done server merges in the way they have "planned". There would've been queues for people to wait in in order to play the game so their current game-plan seems to be to see if they get the same thing when KOTET releases because if so then they most likely will continue with the current server setup and if they do not see the same new player/old player surge then they might look into server mergers towards the beginning of 2017. So I think that's more or less admitting they realize that some servers are dead pretty much but they don't want to kill off a bunch of "dead" servers and merge them and then release a big x-pac like KOTET and then find out that they just caused a bunch of possible subs or current subs even to leave the game because they're sick of waiting to get into a server because Bioware tried to cater to the people left on dead servers and merged them into megaservers. So I'd just say pray that not enough people come back to the game so Bioware will finally merge servers.

To be honest, I've been a fan of group ranked ever since 8v8s were removed but if more groups were to get involved besides the current 2-4 groups who queue sporadically on the Harbinger. I might actually be interested.

So far, it looks like it'll be like previously where you can only level up your valor to your level so until 70, you can't get above 70 valor and you can only start the Galactic Command system until you are level 70. There's been no official statement as to whether the valor part is fact or not but that's how they've done it in the past so I doubt they'd change it now and they have said officially that the Galactic Command will only be available and progress able at Level 70

I think the system as it stands will work like this: Bolster will immediately boost everyone to 2018 expertise so you'll still need two sets of gear in that you'll need one without any stats that are useless in PvP and one that has stats useful in PvE. So within PvP, that'll work that so a "poorly geared but highly skilled" player can still beat a "high geared but poorly skilled" player but obviously, everyone will be slaughtered by the high-end geared and skilled player. I realistically don't see the difference except the fact that the high-end geared players will no longer just be the PvP'ers, it'll also be the PvE'ers. So let's say Billy and his raid group decide to do some PvP instead of having to grind out another set of PVP gear with expertise stats, they'll just need their DPS to swap out of gear with accuracy since obviously, accuracy will still be worthless within PvP. So in other words, Bioware once again catering to the casuals and PvE carebears.

To start off, sorry to quote your entire post since I'm only replying to a portion of it. Just being lazy is my only excuse. All I'm going to address (for the most part) is your issue with how ranked season will start right off the bat, but for me, I like that. Since I believe most people who do play/attempt ranked do via solo ranked. I'd say only a good 1% if even that plays group ranked. Now you may say "well, people would play more group ranked if they let people practice more with pre-season, made it more enticing, and etc." but to be honest, we've been saying that since launch and it hasn't changed. Group ranked has always been something only certain groups do the entirety of the season. I mean sure, every season we get a couple new groups that join for a bit then leave or play sporadically but to be honest, I don't think a pre-season would help that at all. Adding on to that, a pre-season is great for groups like yours and others such groups/guilds who do group ranked every season but I believe most of us "filthy casuals" don't care. Those of us who care for anything ranked, We just play solo ranked to register for rewards then never queue again so I know for myself at least that I'm not really that interested in wasting my time with a "pre-season" just so we get to listen to the same people who told us to "go play ranked" tell us that we are bad and should "go back to being regstars" or for the 8th season in a row, trying to "improve my ranked skills so I'll be good enough to be in a group" or "getting a group together" So once again, you can say that a season start without a pre-season would be hurtful to the ranked community. I say most people won't care either way and the percentage of people who do is so small that it would barely effect the game at all if they left the game or unsubbed. I have more concerns myself about the effects on regs by the removal of expertise. Does this mean PvE scrubs will become the new overlords of PvP because they will have top-tier gear because they spend 20-40 hours a week in game grinding out Galactic Command? or will Bolster actually finally work and level the playing field? On another note, I can see advantages to the new Galactic Command system since as far as the new system being a bit unfair to those of us who only do PvP, I believe the system was meant to encourage people to do more. Like if you're a pure PvP'er, maybe trying out some heroics or FPs or maybe if you're a PvE carebear, doing some warzones or GSF. But as said before, the system is always changing and things are obviously still in flux for 5.0 but I just feel like group ranked or ranked in general is something Bioware shouldn't truly concern themselves with since the ranked system has sucked since Day 1 so unless Bioware is willing to do a complete rehaul. I say let the horse die instead of trying to beat it back to life every blue moon.

Sam, Operative, Overall damage, Arenas I think #1 http://i.imgur.com/Gzz8UOm.jpg

So the other night, we had about 16 guildies online and we were trying to all get against each other but we'd always end up 4v8 or 4v4 against guildies so I was thinking to myself; "What if Bioware implemented something like group warzones?" Now, the phrasing I've used may set some people off but allow me to explain more before you jump to your guns. I want something like Destiny's recently released custom games or really, any other type of game that allows a group to play against each other so they don't have to go through a matchmaking system. I think actually we currently have something of the like among the small group ranked community called "kickball" except for the obvious flaw in that it's through the matchmaking system. I'd like to see something like that but privatized obviously so as to where only those within the group setup can queue for it so as to disallow random guilds (We all know those people who want nothing more than to troll so they hop on their A-team list toons and hop into the queue so they can ROFLOLSMASH everyone into the ground). I want something like this for numerous reasons and I believe some of them everyone can at least agree with: A.) Some days, I'm just frustrated with que'ing. I don't want to play with pugs and I just want to play with guildies and especially against other guildies in some WZs and have some laughs instead of constantly carrying pugs or watching our team lose cause pugs can't call or hold a node, etc. B.) You have a group of 16+ people and friends and you're really wanting to play against each other but just can't seem to get a queue going. The custom games option would allow you and your friends to queue against each other and do a "kickball" style of old type deal. It gets really fun especially when you start making your own dumb objectives up. C.) Practice for 4v4 arenas. Now some of you will probably say "well, why not just queue up during the pre-season" or "Why not just take your knocks like everyone else did?" and I'm sure that's all good and well but as you can tell by how small our current 4v4 group ranked community is that ideology isn't working. People in this game have some of the most fragile egos (because they're regstars) and they don't like having them smashed to pieces because the group they do well with in regs doesn't exactly do as well in 4v4 group ranked. This'd give them a place to train a bit against fellow guildies or even allow guildies to determine who works better with who in a 4v4 team without the pain of knowing that everyone on the server knows your guild is filled with terribad regstars. D.) Possible map selection? I personally hate the new map and so do most of the people I run with so I personally wouldn't mind running some custom games with friends just to avoid ever having to waste 5-10 minutes getting that pop then leaving then waiting on everyone to load back into re-que. What do the people think? Love it or hate it with a fiery passion that Hell hath no equal? or let me know if you have any changes you think can be made to make the idea better. Thanks for sticking through the post. I make posts at 9 AM then realize I shouldn't be writing things at 9 AM.

I most likely should've explained my "name and shame" idea better in that I'd prefer Bioware to establish a list of users whom they've banned for x hack. So let's say Joe got banned for using a mod in PvP that gave him a specific advantage then they'd know that playing with or against Joe means they're going to be playing against someone who most likely will cheat in order to beat them so they leave immediately. I mean to be honest, how is it any different than what people do now? Take J-E for instance. Bioware obviously has taken no action against said person considering the fact he's been sighted numerous times around The Harbinger but yet people continue to say he's a hacker and everyone should leave matches that he's in. I'd prefer a publicized list of people Bioware has banned for that sort of thing so as to weed out those who actually are hacking and those who are just being accused because they're better than x person. As for exploits in general, I believe I once again didn't explain myself well at all as to what I had in my head and what I had in my head was more a long the lines of having a policy where it is all or none. I believe all exploits should be punishable by bans if any at all should be punishable. If you're going to ban for credit exploits than you should ban those who abuse bolster exploits. There's no difference really besides one effects the GTN and one effects PvP but this just once again goes to show Bioware couldn't care less about their PvP.

My opinions of Bioware so far: A.) Bioware, in the beginning, was much more proactive in their ban policy and investigated reports within a day and the user was banned usually it felt like before the end of the week while now it takes weeks if not months just to see any action being taken. B.) Bioware has shown they are much more proactive in banning people for using in-game bugs (Credit exploit bans, anyone?) than they are at banning people for using a third-party program to cheat in PvP. I mean aren't macros to pick up the Huttball faster against someone standing next to it supposedly a banworthy offense? but yet you see them still running around months later. That's not something I can exactly get evidence of but once again, I'd prefer a company be more proactive in looking for hackers instead of relying on player evidence solely. C.) Bioware's lack of name and shame. I mean it's been brought up before that it'd be great if there was a name and shame thread because people I believe would and deserve to know if they're playing with a potential hacker, wouldn't you? I mean I don't enjoy playing with them/against them. D.) Bans for in-game bug useage. I think this is a bit obvious from the original sentence but I'll expand a bit, I believe Bioware shouldn't ban people for using bugs that are at the fault of Bioware. (Credit exploit mainly) I mean if we're going to start banning people for doing "in-game exploits" than we can just start banning people in PvP who used the augment exploit, naked better than gear exploit, and whatnot. I mean why not? if we're going to start banning people that are only doing bugs because they're available cause of your own poor testing of patches, They should do so at all levels of the game.

I'd like to bring to your attention today that we have lost our fellow comrades Lhancelot and Floplag as they have not been on in over 3 months.. They both brought enjoyment to these forums with their fight for class balance and Bioware interaction with the PvP community but unfortunately, their torch has burnt out and they shall pass on to another game. If any others would like to share a kind word about these two brave forum warriors then please do so. Or if you have some "constructive criticisms" about them or their fight against our overlords EAware then please feel free to share. I really just made this thread to make a change of pace from the rage over the stupid S7 rewards

Here's a link to the soundtrack on Youtube:

When Birdguano is considered the best player of your faction, you should probably reconsider your choice of playing pub side or you can just join the Birdguano cult followers and "praise Birdguano".