It will only work that way if both ratings are updated every time you play, and I don't think that's the case (please correct me if I am wrong here). If you only get group rating when you queue with premade and only get solo rating when you queue solo, I think some folks will only have group rating, some will only have solo rating, and some will have both. In other words, it will be meaningless as a metric - somebody with high group rating and low solo rating just might be playing with premade all the time and hardly ever queue solo.

It's not fun because problem #1 means that large scale battles are impossible and small scale battles are basically warzones in disguise. If you have no level restrictions at all, lowbies and casuals will get ganked repeatedly and rage quit in droves, like it happened in Aion. If you have level restrictions, you will end up with Ilum and we all know how popular it is now that there are no incentives to go there. Dominant faction will have numerical advantage in any zone. If empire outnumbers republic 5 to 1, it's highly unlikely the republic will have higher numbers in any level range.

Let's see...force speed is countered by any stun, mez, root, knockback, and grapple...in other words, it's countered by practically every class. So, good luck with making it "past the line of defenders". Only if campers somehow forgot to drop that AoE stealth detection thingy at the bottom of the spawn point...I guess they could be too busy celebrating their victory and manage to overlook that little detail every now and then.

I don't think so - campers will see the other team dropping down from spawn to the left and can adjust accordingly, as they will have shorter distance to cover to both right and mid turrets (mid is mentioned just in case the other team attempts to drop left, go around to the mid and cap behind campers' backs). It looks like the only viable strategy is going to be "cap left + mid, then camp the spawn". Whoever caps 2 nodes first wins the game.

@OP: Problem #1: Open world PvP requires a game engine that can handle a larger than 20v20 fight without slowing to a slideshow. Given that Bioware's record of fixing things is...shall we say, less than stellar, I wouldn't hold my breath for that particular fix. Problem #2: Open world PvP requires incentives, otherwise people won't do it. Rank/title is a very poor incentive in general, besides we already have valor titles and will have WZ ranks in 1.2, so yet another rank is unlikely to get anybody excited. Problem #3: Faction population is heavily imbalanced at the moment, so dominant faction will simply zerg Ilum and win all the time (if they create an incentive for people to go there). If you instance Ilum, it will merely become just another WZ.

Something is off with your math (or I am missing something) - if you just break 8k if you catch his guarded target, how do you get 12k is pretty common part?

@Coramac: How do you make it hit for 8k reliably (I don't have a trooper, so can't test it myself)? The skill info that I could find says that base damage is 1593 elemental over 3s channel...unless you mean that it hits for 8k on all targets combined? But then you won't ever hit tank for 8-9k.

Fixed it for you

In order to hit the tank for 14k in this scenario that AoE has to hit for about 9k...why don't you tell us exactly which AoE move does this much damage?

Ilum is too big for 20v20 and game engine can't handle 40v40 without ungodly amount of lag.

Sticking to the topic: you're lying. You either have been doing dailies+weeklies and have WZ/merc comms to exchange for enough BM comms to get at least a few pieces of gear or you "havnt gotten a single BM commendation", but not both at the same time.

If you walk into mid controlled by the other team like that, you will be pulled away from PT and PT will go down before they reach the ball. What you're describing is not mid control, it's just some baddies roaming mindlessly in the general vicinity of ball spawn.

Good teams don't let an enemy sorc just sit on the catwalks unmolested, bad teams are well...bad.

Not sure if serious... Dude, here's how it's going to work - you craft a piece of orange gear with augment slot, put it on GTN. I buy that piece, remove mods from WH piece, put those mods into orange piece that you crafted and I just bought, then wear that orange piece. BoP mods stay with me the whole time.

I doubt it will work out this way - we lose 6% dmg on FL, which ticks for about 1k per second (and is used a lot) and gain 6% dmg on shock (around 1200-1800 dmg currently, has CD) and affliction that ticks for about 350 gmg every 2 seconds. I think there's a net loss in dps here. No, after you applied affliction and creeping terror, you spam FL for wrath proc, apply crushing darkness, use shock or death field if they are not on CD (depends on the rotation), then what? The only dps skill you can use now is FL until crushing darkness wears off (which in madness spec has 2s longer duration). Hybrid applies affliction, spams FL for wrath, applies crushing darkness (shock and death field - same as above), then spams FL only until the 2nd proc for CL. They move around while casting CL while you're stuck with FL spam. In other words, kiting is pretty much the same, but hybrid has extra 1.5s to move around after CL, if they don't need to reapply crushing darkness yet. Hybrids don't even have lightning strike on the bar, we never use it. We also don't put points into subversion. Easier - yes, but it doesn't change gameplay. Both specs kite when they are not spamming FL, hybrid simply has better survivability. No good dps sorc ever stands still unless they absolutely have to (i.e. trying to proc wrath, being out of force, etc.)

Pretty much. BW gutted both hybrid and healing specs and left both full lightning and full madness specs as useless as before (i.e. completely useless in pvp). In other words, we got shafted big time.

We already get blown up in seconds when focused. The difference is that hybrid lives for about 10s while full madness build dies within 5.

Improvement? How did you figure that nerfs to two talents in madness tree qualify as improvement? You are sitting still more than hybrid. You have Creeping Terror which has 9s cd and 18s duration (i.e. only useful once every 18s for dps, only works as root if you cast it more often), while hybrid has Chain Lightning on 6s cd (subject to wrath proc). On top of that, you run out of force much quicker than hybrid and after that you turn into a Force Lightning turret. Not really, same amount of buttons to press overall and you don't have to hit Creeping Terror as often as hybrid has to hit CHain Lightning. Madness build is more simple to play actually. Especially if you consider that after a few minutes of WZ you're out of force and have no useable skills except for Force Lightning until you die.

Shorter version of the OP: WOW Beggar# It takes whole 3 days to get to 50? QQ on forums... I don't get valor rank 60 as soon as I hit lvl 50? QQ on forums... I don't get full set of end game gear as soon as I hit lvl 50? QQ on forums... Voices told me about [insert some idea that has nothing to do with reality] - QQ on forums.., AIonSUperHonedGrindingMachine# I can hit lvl 50 in 3 days instead of 3 months? I can get full set of end game PvP gear in a week or two after hitting 50 instead of another 3 months? Bosses in PvE instances actually drop gear more often than once in 100 runs? Re-modding gear doesn't involve RNG and all existing mods don't disappear when said RNG fails? They have GCDs in this game? Ezmode alert! I'll let my cat walk on keyboard and go have a few drinks...

Silentera Canyon iirc.

That's wishful thinking at its best, my friend. You pretty much confessed that you think SWTOR is challenging, a.k.a. requires some sort of a skill to play - you ain't gonna be "just fine" regardless of what class you play.

You're the one who thinks this game requires any kind of skill and you think you won't keep getting facerolled? /facepalm

Players with little/no functional brain cells think that this particular game involves any kind of competition to begin with.

Let me try to explain. People generally want some sort of a reward for their efforts/achievements, a.k.a. "a carrot" to work for. In most activities that "carrot" is either valuables (i.e. money IRL, gear in games) or proving that you're better (more skillful) than your peers. The second part (proving that you have better skills) only works for activities that actually require some sort of a skill. In other words, it works for a game of chess, but doesn't apply to watching grass grow. In SWTOR (and most other MMOs, to be honest) combat is so dumbed down that my high score only means that I am better at hitting buttons than a bunch of 5 year olds, which I kinda know already anyway, and don't need to get any extra proof of it. This leaves us with gear as a viable reward.

So, you're very bad - marauders are pretty much THE anti-sorc class and should have no problems taking out a sorc (btw most don't have any issues there).