I do not believe it's within BIOWARE's power to fix the internet. Happens to me all the time on my sniper, using pulse. Yesterday I actually knocked a ball carrier who was approaching me, forward, safely across the fire pit and onto the ramp behind me. I wish they could iron out the ability delay we constantly see in PVP, but.. I've stopped holding my breath.

ROTFLMAO!! I haven't gotten an abundant, bountiful or rich underworld metal mission in 2 weeks, to even 'try' to get mando iron. I can say though, that most of my companions are now at 10,000 affection...... However: I swear to god, the higher the affection, the less chance of getting a crit. Kaylio used to crit all the time. Now that she's 10,000, she's only crit 4 times in the past month. (when I do get missions besides 'companion gift' ) She runs, on average, at least 2 missions per day.

I'm not gonna say 'No' to lvl capped brackets, but there are several problems. 1: Server populations currently do not support this. Mergers 'might' help for a little while, but sustainability is questionable. It will only work 'if' the game starts to grow, rather than bleed subscriptions. It doesn't have to grow a lot, but it needs to at least start gaining as many new subs as it loses. 2: No 'open' war zones that you can enter / leave whenever you choose to. ( City of Heros / Villians did this extremely well - Bioware. Please take note.) This gives a nice option to PVP'rs who dont want to wait for a war zone to pop. These need to be level capped ( or diminished returns / locked powers above the cap ), EASY TO ACCESS areas. (Outlaws Den on Tatooine is almost a good start, but this zone is not level capped, and is too damn far out of the way for players to migrate to, for some casual fun. No objectives, no NPC's, no missions, no rewards. ) 3: Cross Server queuing is wrought with problems, both technical and social. Those issue aside, I think level brackets would be fun. Maybe even a little more balanced. What lvl's they are capped at, I'll leave Bioware to decide. It seems every class gets their game changing abilities at different levels so.. hard to say.

Hehehe... I watch for the 'brow wipe' animation. You know they are sweating in real life at that moment.

I'm with the OP on this one, I HATE gear grinding. I do it because I have too. I also hate it when people say they "worked" for their gear. That's laughable. In fact: Gaming = Work = ROTFLMAO!!! If you think it's work, try a real job. As far as 'rewards' for playing PVP?? I can think of TONS of different rewards that DONT include gear progression. 1: How about a 'free week' of play for hitting a certain valor rank. 2: How about a wide selection of gear / looks to choose from. 3: How about more titles that can only be gotten via PVP. 4: How about a wide selection of weapon skins to choose from. 5: How about specific PVP emotes. 6: How about PvE companion buffs, for achieving valor ranks / kill ratios or something. 7: How about Unique perks, like Planet Passes (similar to Fleet Pass) 8: How about a new unique pet for reaching kill / heal / capture objectives. 9: How about a unique companion for achieving a valor rank. 10: How about a unique team PVP buff for reaching a specific valor rank. 11: How about a unique speeder bike that's even faster than the fastest ones (presently) so we can 'catch' other players in the open world. 12: How about a 'perk' that allows Op leaders to briefly see "non' stealth enemy players, on the map view, in a war zone, for reaching a specific valor level. 13: How about consumable temp powers. .... and I can go on and on and on... listing dozen's and dozens of ideas that do NOT involve gear grind, provide perks / rewards for dedication and playing and DO NOT create imbalance on the playing field. I'm just saying. The last MMO I played for a long period of time, had NO rewards for PVP except 'rank', which went down daily if you did not PVP. I played that game for years with no PVP rewards. Don't need them. I think the expertise mechanic works to separate PVE from PVP, but at some point it needs to be capped, forever.

That's because you DONT use it. If you did, you would understand the advantage it gives you. But you dont use it, so you don't know... apparently. Regardless - as posted before - Biochem is just 1 issue with PVP. It is not the end all be all of balance changes. On paper, it looks good. At any rate. IF people really wanted to keep biochem adrenals in PVP, then I think Biochem needs to be reconfigured. Either allow anyone to buy/use reusables, OR reduce the cost / materials to craft regular consumables so they can be reasonably priced. Crafting costs for green and blue biochem consumables are ridiculously high. Crafting of purple biochem items SHOULD be ridiculously high since they are unbound, powerful, reusable, and never need to be repaired. But personally - I think removing them from PVP use is a better option, for the time being.

I would LOVE to see a huttball match that included the use of the magnetic gun you can buy on Alderaan.

There is DEFINITELY some bug with entrench now. I was in cover with entrench up, void star, near the door not in natural cover. Somehow I got knocked out of cover, though entrench was still up. I was no longer in cover (standing), none of my 'cover' abilities were available but entrench was up. Entrench was 'still working' as I was immune to several CC attempts. I was ALSO knocked out of cover/entrench during a match yesterday. Wasn't lag, as I'd been in entrench for several seconds before it happened. Nor was I behind natural cover. BOTH of these instances are new issues that have never happened to me before.

I recently switched to Eng on my sniper. At 31 points you can pickup plasma prob. While guarding south on Novare, alone, I was repeatedly engaged by an OP. He died 5 times. In "this" scenario I did the following: Camped in cover, inside the bunker. Dropped Plas Probe on top of myself (18 secs, 18 second cool down, so can keep it up constantly.) This prevented him from getting his jarring strike off. Once we engaged one another, it was a simple DPS race, which I won. He tried sleep darting me, which was fine with me since it jacked my resolve preventing him from incapacitating me completely (trinket after his debilitate) and the Plas Probe still worked so he couldn't get his hidden strike off. Now his flash bang did nothing (full resolve). Inter Probe and leg shot kept him from running away. Outside of this specific situation, it all depends on if they screw up their rotation, or you manage to get Debilitate OR interrupt off, the moment you come out of CC. Rare... but it can happen. Beyond that, you're in deep bantha phoodoo if you're alone / have no help. My tactic above worked 'this' time. Can't speak for the future. 9 times out of 10, if they get the drop on you, and you have NO help, you die. Edit: Just wanted to add: IF you are not Eng, you can try just running around like a chicken with your head cut off. Believe it or not, constantly turning, jumping... panning view... you can sometimes catch (see) them in stealth approaching, target and engage them before they engage you.

HURRAY FOR CHANGE!! Petition not signed. Hopefully this will mean I do NOT have to drop my level 400 Armor, arms, synth and art, crafting skills on all my characters so I can be competitive in PVP. There is a serious 'flaw' in the game design if you HAVE to be Biochem to be competitive. This is a welcome change before ranked war zones.

My BIGGEST concern with the increased level cap is as follows: 1: Ranked War Zones coming. How will 'gear' gap and 'level' gap be addressed with Ranked Warzones? ALL professional sports leagues play with the 'exact same equipment' as the other team. NO advantages in 'gear' are allowed. Period. End of Story. How is Bioware planning to address this issue, or can we just farm lowbies/fresh recruit teams so our ranking is artificially inflated? 2: The gap between a fresh 50 and a WH 50 is pretty big, which means most of the "Ranked" teams will not welcome any fresh 50's onto their teams, which means those fresh 50's will earn ranked WZ comms at a very slow pace. ( Slower than those who can actually participate in ranked war zones.) This of course means it takes longer to build 'new' teams to fight against, and longer to replace team members who quit/unsub/fall off the face of the earth. 3: How will a fresh 50 compete against a level 60 (my speculative level cap) in the 'new' top level gear??? Thus leading to even fewer new people entering the PVP arena, which is already a problem.

LOL.. kick babies and rescue kittens!! Classic. All great ideas.

I absolutely and completely agree with the OP. Underworld trading needs to be FIXED!! I've been trying for 2 days to get lvl 3 underworld metals, on THREE DIFFERENT TOONS and it's been nothing but 'companion gifts, luxury fabrics'. On THREE DIFFERENT TOONS, each at 400 skill. Cut the crap bioware, fix the mission tables on these (and other) crew skills. Why do you feel compelled to 'needlessly' frustrate your player base?? I 'wish' I could just buy the materials on the market, but there are NONE on my dying server.

You guys aren't dumping "merc" body guard healers into this 'impossible to 1 DPS down" group are ya? Granted; I don't have full BM gear yet, but... I've yet to find any class that can't out damage my healing. Looking at the percentage increase I'm gonna get from WH gear, I don't really see that changing much. My rotation may not be perfect, but considering I can't get off 4 heals before I die, once focused even by 1 mara or Pyro PT,... I just don't see gear making that much of a difference. The ONLY thing that will save me is a tank/guard and another DPS or healer helping out. Otherwise I melt. Good gravy..... I need to find a decent premade guild......

Ok - I got about 8 pages into this thread and have YET to see anyone actually give an idea for expanding the gameplay. So... I'll give it a shot: First: Expand level cap to 60. Much like your NEVER CHANGING decision when you picked an AC, you now have 1 more choice to make THAT CAN NEVER BE REVERSED. They go as follows: 1: Pilot - you will specialize in space combat. Obviously - a FREE ROAMING mutiplayer space combat and exploration elements added. (PVP and PVE). It is OPEN WORLD. So.. you'd best be ready to fight, but you can be a 'smuggler', 'star fighter pilot', or 'capitol ship captain'. These characters will be the ONLY characters in the game that have access to advanced piloting skills and perks that apply ONLY to space combat. This will require a massive expansion of space zone, territory, etc..etc..etc... 2: Master Craftsman. While you haven't 'completely' retired, you've put your lightsaber/blaster on the shelf to pursue a less combative role in the galaxy. Master crafters will be the ONLY craftsman who can make the TOP TIER gear in the game, period. While raiding will get you materials to build these master crafted weapons and armor, ONLY the master craftsman/woman/alien can put it all together. 3: Master Combat Specialist: These are the cream of the crop PVP / Raiders in the game. They gain additional combat skills and powers that NO OTHER CLASS will have access too. (Say for example, those annoying PVE only skills become available in PVP. I'll leave Bioware to figure out the balance issues) You WILL however, be forced to 'choose' between PVP or PVE combat specialist. You can't have both. a: Top end raiders will gain ultra rare materials that they can sell to master craftsman/women/aliens to craft master gear. b: Top end PVP'ers will 'also' gain rare materials that can be sold or traded to master craftsman to make epic PVP gear. 4: Entertainers: (just throwing this in to keep the old SWG people happy) Entertainers give additional 'group buffs' and bonuses. Be they in PVP or PVE. ( likely best applied to healer classes, but anyone can do this role) These 'buffs' can be anything from: bonus damage, bonus healing, bonus out of combat healing, bonus energy regeneration, bonus XP... the possibilities can continue, but the point is; these are NOT combat specialist or space pilots or crafters. These are BUFFERS who can participate in ALL the above activities, and still provide a benefit. So there you have it. Some 'sandbox' type elements. Edit: I would just like to add: JUST because the level cap is increased, and you 'specialize' in another branch of the game, DOES NOT MEAN you cannot play the game as it exists 'today'. "new" content 'is still accesable to 'everyone' but only the 'specialized' will have the top end powers/perks/gear...etc..etc.. You can still participate in raids, as a crafter, but the combat specialist is going to out perform you, just like the 'entertainer' will not get 'damage/heal' numbers like a combat specialist. This doesn't mean they 'cannot' do the content. Just that they are 'not' the best equipped to do it.

Ok... I'm convinced. I'll give them time to fix things. In the meantime... I'm taking my gaming dollars elsewhere. When things are fixed, I'll come back and play again.

OP - I read you're post. You're entire wall of text and..... I disagree with almost everything you said, as far as 'why the game is losing subscriptions'. I think the game is having growing pains because it's still in "Beta", we are just paying them to develop it.

No doubt about that. Nice paraphrase there Ibiza-Vin.

No - I can't "earn" FULL rakata gear, but my pre 50 character can already craft and sell Rakata gear having never done a hard mode flash point.... ever. No - you can't do Black Talon Hard mode, but you can still farm Black Talon normal for companion affection and Light Side/Dark Side points, which are (arguably) equally as important as your end game gear. And Finally: The only 'major' difference between Pre 50 and Post 50 PVP is the vast amounts of "Expertise" stats floating around. Here's another difference between the two. At Pre level 50, a team of low level skilled players can beat a team of of high level players who are not working together. However, At lvl 50 - a team of ungeared players, no matter how skilled, will not beat a clueless but fully geared team, ever. I'm sorry, but if you want to blame anyone for Biowares end game design schizophrenia, blame them. Do not blame me for wanting to bypass some of the grief, and 'break the game' by being able to save more than 2000 war zone comms.

I wont disagree there needs to be incentive, something to work towards. If a player is working on saving 12050 war zone comms, is that NOT working towards something? You have to hit valor 70 to even use War Hero gear. A goal that cannot be achieved until after lvl 50, let alone the comms to buy the gear, so again.. an objective / goal / reward. Also - I don't believe either of us can 'prove' this point, but.. I don't think as many people will quit due to lack of PVP goals / incentive, as you seem to think will. Those who are disgusted with SWTOR PVP have already left. Those that remain (if they are still paying) do so hoping for some added content, changes that make it even more fun / balanced. It still remains to be seen how dedicated to the PVP community Biowares Dev team really is. Many of us are holding out, hoping for the best. We apparently 'surprised them'.

Wait.. You're the one saying the game isn't worth the $15 per month. Why are YOU still here??

Ya... nothing but whining and complaining. Nothing to see here. Move along. Ranked comms? Really? Oh gee golly mister, I didn't know that!! Let me guess? You're one of those people that think 'Title Loans" are a good deal? Am I right??

Some good ideas here. The increase of comms per valor rank is good. Adding more for legacy lvls is a nice touch as well. These would allow Bioware the opportunity to increase WZ cap, without offending all the 50's who farmed Ilium....... er.. I mean... 'earned' their BM gear. (for the record, I don't care if they offend anyone, it's their game) Regardless: Solid ideas. If it was implemented 'today' I'd be happy as a lark. Currently lvl 45, 45 valor and 21 legacy.

Yo... genius. The character I'm working on, and have posted about in this thread, is NOT lvl 50 yet. So... no.. I would not be 1/2 to BM gear yet. A full set is 12050 WZ comms. The most I can save at any given time is 2000 and I can NOT spend them on BM gear until I hit lvl 50. As myself, and others in support of this thread have ALREADY POINTED OUT, we've spend 2X, 3X the amount of comms it takes to buy BM gear, BEFORE we even hit lvl 50. Many of us at valor 50 the moment we hit 50. You're a smart one. Lesson for you: It's better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to open your mouth and leave no doubt.

Not at all. You un-subbing works to my advantage. Letting YOUR dollars speak ALSO speaks for me and every other player in the game. You cancelling your account affects their bottom line, so.... in turn they will make adjustments to their game, and take player feedback seriously. So... thank you. Go have fun doing whatever it was you planned on doing.