I know, you've heard it before from all those virtual dual-wielding gurus who explain away all woes with a simple 'learn to play' or 'get to 50 and get PvP gear'. It takes a little more than that, but I would like to emphatically stress that what you're doing now- slugging away through endless situations that don't look too bright? That's all worth it. The class gets on par with everyone else, and it starts doing just as the box implied. Here's a check list: Frame rates. Hit CTRL-SHIFT-F to check. Make sure yours is decent. If it's not, improve it. Make sure your keybindings are well suited to multi-tasking. Consider a mouse/gamepad of your choice with lots of buttons. You've got a lot of abilities. You may be tempted to only focus on the twelve or so that you use most often. Don't give in to that temptation. Use almost all of them, and learn which situations suit each ability best. Play a few other classes a little bit, to get the gist of how they work. Weaknesses, strengths. Use that knowledge for timing interrupts/defensive cooldowns. Always backstab, if you can. Always be on the move. There's no reason to stand still. Get to 50. Don' be discouraged by how hard you'll fail without gear. It kind of sucks until then. Experiment with all three specs, till you find the one you enjoy. Get some Champion/Columni/Tionese gear. Doesn't need to be a full set, yet. Unless your server is full of overachievers. *********** finally, you're ready to go and pull your own weight. In short: don't give up. Stick with it. It's awesome.

I would be interested in seeing a non-force melee character utilizing vibroswords/blades/electro-staffs. Ultimately, I'm satisfied with slapping orange vibroswords on my Marauder, but hey, it would be cool.

That might explain why I've been doing better. I thought it was the new Champion gear implants I got. Probably both! Yay.

Yeah. They're working on it.

Wall of Text: A Marauder's Journey tl;dr Marauder is a fun class to play, but it's the only reason to play the class. I'm not sure if I suck or if it does, but it's definitely one of the two. Update: I have enough gear to add up to 200 Expertise. It seems to have made a huge difference. I'm glad I stuck with the class. I'm pretty ecstatic. This is awesome. Wooooo. To get here, I used: more RAM, a better graphics card, bought a Naga, spent countless hours analyzing game mechanics and finally got some Champion equipment after hitting Level 50. Good god. I'm not sure what I would've done if it wasn't worth it.

I've got the same processor, with 8GB RAM and the Radeon HD 6770. 20-50 fps at the moment, though the 6xxx series ATI seems to have issues, so I'd definitely go with the GTX 550.

For the record, I concentrate on PvP and have no issue beating Battlemaster Sentinels 1 on 1. I'm just doing horribly in general, when I go out without my guild's pre-made. A lot of this is gear- as an example, I had 11k health at 50 until today.

I'm not going to lie, I'm doing horrible. I had a warzone the other day where I got no medals. Suffice to say, my ego is about as low as it can go. Hopefully things will change when I'm geared. If not, I guess that means I'm a horrible player and it's time to re-roll.

I actually have a harder time against Smugglers/Operatives. They tend to burn my health out before I can escape. Correctly timed Undying Rage/Force Camouflage with Annihilation is about the only thing.

Currently Rage, with 45-49 gear for Annihilation. I feel more useful with the 50 brackets (and have an easier time with medals) in Warzones, but I don't enjoy it as much as I did Annihilation. I'm going to try out Carnage once I've got some decent gear.

I'm surprised. I just hit 50 last night, and I've actually had faster queues than ever before. I'm talking about gaining entry to every warzone within 3 minutes or so.

It would be nice, but I doubt we'll see large steps taken that way any time soon. We'll have to settle for creative defensive pairings as a gauge for 'skill'. Another issue is that it's still a very conventional MMORPG, and that means, at the moment, that equipment settles a large portion of the fight. Sure, it would've been nice to see, say, Riot Games' take on an MMORPG's PvP system, but, at the moment, it's a niche dream. Anything that promotes competitive mind games and a greater depth of strategy is a plus as far as I'm concerned, but it's all about demand, and I'm not sure the players actually want it. Though take a look at STMP's streams. I think you'll find a large difference between the choices he makes mid-battle and that of the average Marauder. In addition, a lot of it seems to come into play when you engage in duels with sub-par equipment.

At least when it comes to Annihilation and Carnage, I disagree. PvP seems highly reactive and situational- in terms of when you're timing your defensive cooldowns in regards to your opponent's abilities, as well as your interrupts and the crucial use of Unleash. In fact, I often feel like I'm playing Slark (a none overpowered version, obviously) in either of those talent trees. However, the lag caused by the glitches and bugs take a lot of this away. It's more apparent to me in Open World, since I personally have fewer of the lag issues there. If they can make warzones a smooth experience, I think we'll start to see more of this kind of dynamic among the melee classes. I'm not sure if we'll ever see it with the rest.

First comprehensive post on PvP I've seen that I can almost wholeheartedly agree with. Thank you.

You're better off than dps Jedi Knights/Sith Warriors.

Annihilation for leveling. The rest really seem worst off until 40, to me, Rage for PvP, though I do think that's more of a question of taste and play-style preference. Rage will give you the big numbers for damage, though, if that's what you're looking for.

I have yet to be offended by anything on General. I honestly believe there's humour hidden in most 'insults', though I have no doubt there are a few pockets that like spitting their vitriol. In a lot of ways, the internet is like a public high school gym locker. Everyone assumes familiarity, and once that's realized, it gets a lot more pleasant. Of course, there will always be troublemakers and malcontents. **** them.

Hilarious.

Power over Criticals, surely, since we've got high criticals as it is. Surge vs. Accuracy is a personal preference thing.

Admittedly, I don't like the idea of giving us knockbacks or pulls. I think the lack of those things makes our gameplay that much different. Now, some sort of anchor ability- that would be sweet. At this point, a geared Level 50 Marauder can do wonders with the ball through lucky Resolve tics, Saber Ward, Force Charge, Predation, and Undying Rage. I'm not sure if this will be the same once the gear is fairly equal all 'round.

Allowing one full xp-returned reroll per character would probably see whole guilds switch over to Republic.

I simply assumed some of the developers were anime fans.

Fun times. Admittedly, I don't take raiding as seriously as I take PvP, and I'm either watching cartoons and/or in the kitchen while doing so. It makes for some funny (trying to CC a non-droid, CCing the wrong droid, hitting Predation instead of Berserk, walking straight off platforms into my death...) screw-ups, and, knowing my guild, there are SWTOR drinking games on the way.

I'd like to keep my Cloak of Pain, thank you very much.

Once you hit the higher levels it's all good. Undying Rage and talented Force Camouflage make a huge difference. Not to mention the Bleed health returns as an Annihilation Marauder. Try Broonmark out instead of Quinn, fully equipped with (I know, it's a *****) blues. Send him in to die, and you'll survive.