I have all Champ gear (except Main Hand Blaster). I see some saying Champ gear is useless. Its the best I have, and I'm at 59.5 Valor, so I might have some BM before 1.2 goes live. But why are people sayin Champ is useless - its not as good, but useless?

Does it make sense the Battlemaster gear is better than Tionesse and Columi but in 1.2 it will be noob gear?

You were responding to me. Don't get me wrong. I have principals and ethics. I don't "go along to get along". But I admit to weighing my options and choosing which I can use to my best advantage. Life seldom gives us the opportunity to choose what we are totally happy with. My main is a "Light" Bounty Hunter. He has no love for the Empire and realizes the Republic isn't much better. I think of him as what it must have been like to be someone like Rommel or Schindler in Germany during WWII. Good people in tough situations. Even today, I don't always agree with US policy. There is corruption and evil in every nation. There are mistakes, and just plain bad decisions. All any of us can do it hope that the majority of "us" are not the bad people.

First off, you overestimate the control any of us have over events that happen in our real lives. It did not strike me as odd that the twists and turns in the story were happening without my being able to control them. Most of the time, the responses I gave to options were close to what I would have done "in that position". Working for corporations my hold life trains you to react with 'the right" answer and not some emotional kneejerk, so it felt "real" to me.

People take the route of least resistance. Doing what you say takes getting up a group of people at the same time that are good at there classes. I can do that once every 2 weeks. My Guild raids once a week, and I have life issues for half of them. Now, do I support daillies for endgame gear? Not really. But you can only play the game that is given you. So I will run them.

Fine... So in 1.2 it will take 25% longer to cast and do 10% less damage. Might as well take it off your bar now. Oh, but wait, all your other attacks are useless without the TM buffs/Debuffs. Be ready to be left out of Raid Groups and on the bottom of PvP rankings.

Have you noticed the Expert stat on gear? Have you noticed that in 1.2 the difference between PvP and PvE gear is intentionily designed to separate the two even more. Its as if they want the game to be split in two. PvPers over here, PvE'ers over there. Please do not mingle.

All endgame gear in 1.2 will be "effectively" useless other than Battlemaster, War Hero and Rakata. There will be no purpose to waste resourses on PvP Centurion or Champion, because Battlemaster requires no ranking or valor. And there will be no purpose to PvE Tionese or Columi as Battlemaster is better, and can be obtained much faster. True or False?

So what did they do to Merc Tracer Missile? Just reduced its damage and that was it? Put it on a longer timer? What? And did they move any of the TM buffs/Debuffs to other skills?

Another one who wants to split the playerbase in half. PvP gear already is not as good for PvE for PvE (Tier vs Tier). But it did help get me geared enough to be able to go on a raid without felling like I was being carried. So I guess I am saying, the way it is now is okay by me. I am worried what the 1.2 changes will make it.

I thought the whole point was to encourage players to participate in all portions of the game, and here you seem delighted by the division. And if you are right, the PvPers are going to stay in PvP only and PvE'er are going to raid, and never the twain shall cross. I guess I will give up raiding, as I am too undergeared. I hate to be carried. And while I'm at it, since there are no rewards PvP other than cosmetic, I can give that up. And Cybertech is useless at lvl 50, so no reason to craft. I admit it, I love sticking new shinies on my paper doll. And show them off. And I love helping my guildies to do the same. A little stat bonus here and there, felt good. I will stick around hoping you sir, are wrong. I hope worthwhile achievements are still attainable by all the portions of the game. And whatever we do, it advances our characters incrementally across all play styles to some extent.

Original poster here. Why create barriers between PvP and PvE. Would you not welcome a PvE'er that comes over to PvP, or a PvPer who wants to raid? I both PvP and PvE. How it works for me, I have lots more time to PvP (as I can hop on anytime) than I have to raid (which is scheduled once a week by my guild, and I have to miss half of those). So I compensate my lack of PvE gear (one Columi and two Tionese pieces) with my full set of Champ gear. I put on the Columi piece and one of the Tionese pieces when I raid now.

Will Champion and Battlemaster gear be nerfed for PvE? I have a combination of gear, Tionesse, Columi, and Champion. I am Valor 57, so I was thinking about going ahead for Battlemaster before 1.2 strikes. But are the Champ and BM gear being nerfed for their PvE stats? Right now, Champ is better for PvE than Tionese is and Battlemaster is better than Columi is. And will War Hero be better then BM for both PvE and PvP, or not?

Listen, I have to admit something. I have PvP'ed quite a bit since hitting 50. I have gotten better at it and have enjoyed it. I WANT THE LOOT. AND FOR A DIFFERENT REASON THAN YOU THINK. Champ and Battlemaster gear is almost as good for PvE as Tionese and Columi. Due to my guild only raiding once a week on Saturday nights, and I agreed with my wife to only use every other Saturday night for it, the other to be with her, it is a very slow process to get endgame PvE gear. So I PvP at all differnent days and times, getting PvP gear that makes me viable in PvE raiding. If PvP gear was useless in PvE, I would queue up 10 times less than I do now.

You miss his point. The objective in WZs is to win the match. High kill totals can be obtained by players who IGNORE the objectives. So this is a bad way to judge skill.

I don't have a problem with a level playing field in PvP. But it will never be. Gear effects PvP no matter where you get it. If you are in full Rataka, you've got a a big advantage. So, you want all the PvE players to have the advantage, but take it away from the PvP'ers?

The why I understand the new War Hero gear is it will be obtainable without needing any Valor, but it will be so heavily packed with Expertise and almost nothing else? This would make having Champ/Battlemaster gear desirable for the majority of the players who do both PvE and PvP. At least until they get top tier PvE gear. Am I right?

He didn't say you could not be effective spamming TM. He is talking about a skilled Merc vs an unskilled one. A skilled Merc will spam TM when it is appropiate. An unskilled one will die trying.

If they make other skills build the Buffs/Debuffs, I am fine with that. As for making Merc more interesting, meh. It just rearranges my rotation. It will be more for others to not be annoyed by my sound/amination than it will be for a real change for me. If others think that this makes it look that I am more skilled, so be it.

The OP has a perfectly valid point. Please grow up. To the OP, I agree. Its as if they are using all this time on the legacy system to pretend the other fixes necessary don't exist.

Ah, thanks. Someone said there was a Schmatic for lvl 56 Barrel. You cleared that up.

Hell, I'd not care if they made all stats on gear worthless in PvP. But I do want PvP rewards to be usable in PvE. I know a lot of you will frown on that. Let me explain. First off, I PvP much more than I run groups in PvE endgame. I want to have competition in PvP but not in PvE. I want to dominate there. Why do I want some bot program to ever beat me? Of course, thats not going to happen. There are going to be tough bosses, and I want to be as geared as possible for those bosses. I have 4/5 Champ gear and a 2/5 Tionesse. Without those Champ pieces, I'd be a PvE Chump.

Who, where, how do I get a Barrel(56)? I like my legendary (Dark Blue) Bounty Hunter Blaster. I don't want to replace it with any endgame version. I put the 56 Crystal in it, I will buy some Champ Boots to strip out the Mod and Enhancement, both 56. But I cannot find where you can get a 56 Barrel. Please help.

I spam Tracer Missile, but I wish I did not have too. I hit Unload everytime it procs, I hit Heatseeker and Rail shot when I have heat signatures of 3 or more. I use the shock (4 sec stun), the Concussion Missile, the 2 Heat disipations skills, and most other skills I have. But out of every 10 skills I used, 5 are most likely going to be Tracer Missile. Why? Not because it is awesome - it is only because heatseeker, Unload, and Rail Shot require it to be any good.

Hehe, yeah, that guy has a few years on me (I'm 53). Here's how I see it: We older gamers knew what we wished gaming would be in the past, and each year that passes gets us (hopefully) closer to that vision. You really think we'd bow out and let only you young whippersnappers have all the fun? lol. BTW, my 27 year old son also plays. And I know I will still be playing when my 3 year old grandson starts .