Yeah, Bioware has a really, really inexplainable stubborn wish to forcing us into ugly unwanted looks if we pvp past 50, until we reach war hero and shell out a fortune to put the mods into non-ugly gear of our choice. Hey, Bioware - give us schems to craft recruit mods, so at least we can wear gear that we like.

Crafting is useless in TOR. Any use it has is limited to a short time after a select patch, until the "raiders uber alles" mentality kicks in again among devs and they make sure crafting has no use at all again. In order to make crafters not useless they'd have to adjust the schems so what we make is actually useful for the endgame, and not just for leveling alts. Armormech/synthweave: As it is crafted armor won't even be good for companions, they are better off with hand-down loot from raiding. The crit crafted orange shells were viable for a bit, but there are not enough schems around (without any good reason) and we can't make most of the actually nice things. PvP armor is right out - BW could have given us the recruit gear schems, but chose to make that vendor only. Rakata belt and bracers used to be BiS, but as gear progresses they are rendered useless (and can't be sold anyway). Augments are the remaining hope, but when I start an armormech I want to craft armor people use, not some gimmick. Cybertech: LOL. Any mods we make are useless as soon as people start dailies, and we lack some mod types still (tanks). Ship parts are about the only decent thing to sell, no one sane buys speeders at those material costs (and such limited selections). Grenades are a gimmick, but have some uses in pvp. Earpieces are rendered useless by gear progression. Armstech: In the endgame we can crit-craft cheap oranges, one per player. That's it. Barrels are useless, people use the barrels from daily comms or loot. Augmetns help out some, but all in all you're crafting for low levels. Artifice is a mixture of armormech/synthweave and armstech. As with the rest, any endgame products are rendered useless by loot. Biotech - only crew skill you can actually use at endgame, since there's no looted stim/medpack/adrenal that's better, though pvpers might get by with pvp stims and medpacks, provided they spend the comms. In order to make crafting viable BW has to stop elevating loot above all. Crafted stuff should always be around second/third best, not dead last in the gear progression. I'd suggest that whenever BW introduces a new tier of gear, the oldest tier gets added to the crafting schems. So we'd be crafting collumni-quality armor, mods and weapons when people start gearing up with campaign gear.

What is killing pvp for me is always facing the same players, with increasingly long queue times. X-Server PvP will help pvp. It won't help Pve, but then - we care for pvp before pve.

I'd love a crafting system that allowed you to gear up without having to raid, but it'll never come since BW caters to raiders first and foremost, even if it means making all crafting obsolete past 50. We can be glad raiders only rule the PvE side, and not the PvP side as well.

Expertise makes it so pvp players do not have to pve to pvp. Expertise prevents raiders from curbstomping pvpers thanks to better gear. Expertise keeps pvp gear top in pvp. Expertise is needed.

Well, technically you can play as a member/recruit of the SIS:

It's not the stun that kills you when a group focuses on you, it's the damage from the group. Your problem is that you blame the stuns for the damage.

I don't even remember when I was last "stunlocked to death". It simply doesn't happen anymore unless you are totally outgeared. What does happen is that I melt under focus fire, and may get stunned as well sometime between getting targetted and dieing. Not that it matters much - when focused on one dies without support, and often with support. But stunlocked by a single player, and dieing during it? Nope, haven't seen that in weeks now. Resolve works.

Yeah, no more brackets, or we never get games. As far as lopw level games are concerned - going after the objective nets the most medals, usually, so even farmers should be motivated to do that, once they realize it.

What he said. The costs just for visual changes is absolutely unacceptable. The range of available orange schematics is far too limited. Everyitem in game should be able to get reverse engineered into an orange schematic. And set bonuses should transfer far more easily.

Ryloth.

If PvP had, regardless of whether you win or lose, better rewards more people would do it. As it is credits earend in pvp still don't come even close to pve earnings.

If you remove expertise then PvE is mandatory to pvp. If you remove expertise you let the raiders steamroll the pvpers. That's bad.

I camped the GTN for mine. Otherwise Underworld Trading can give it too on a crit.

Raiders are already catered to to the point of crafting being useless. There's no need at all to make pve gear viable in pvp in any way just so tehy can ruin pvp too.

I do not understand why BW doesn't simply make every item available as an orange schem. If it's in game - especially if it's green - it should be able to re'd into an orange schem.

The social point system is broken to begin with. Even if you pair up from 10 to 50 with a partner and do everything together you don't even reach social 3 or 4. It's not an incentive to group with others, it's an incentive to grind Black Talon/Esseles until you get sick of it, and then some.

That's a reason I have high hopes for that game. They will have to make the game appealing and fun, instead of adding time sinks.

Expertise is good, it means pve players cannot dominate PvP. The problem with expertise is that there's still a long grind. PvP gear should be far easier to get, so people can pvp on an equal field for fun (and for "trophy" rewards).

It would be good if there was a "PUG Only" queue. Facing the same people each time is not fun.

He can't wear it. I agree with the OP - we should be able to buy PvP gear in advance, so we don't have to grind at 50 if we level through pvp. The game has enough stupid, boring, pointless grinds already.

I wish people would stop lieing about the risks of PvE. You don't have repair costs when you do dailies, since you don't die doing solo quests.

In a PUG, unless someone really stands out - like the guy that defends the turret, all game long, always calls out inc, and never leaves his post for some action, therefore allowing us to cap middle - I go by objectives.

PvP depends on players to provide the content, so it's imperative that anyone who wants to pvp can do so easily and without trouble, which means getting gear must be easy. PvE too will face the same question sooner or later: Make getting the gear easier, or see the number of new and returning players dwindle since the gear grind is too long to catch up to current top tier.

Without expertise you'd have to PvE raid to do well in PvP. Expertise is a great and needed addition to make sure people are not forced to pve to pvp. What is needed is to make sure everyone can get the needed expertise gear quickly and cheaply, so PvP is easy and fun to enter.