This. I had 400 expertise+ with my scoundrel after he dinged, by just doing the next daily and weekly. If you get to 50 without 1 champ bags and 1k wz tokens/merc tokens, thats your fault. Dont come and complain when you did not even put in 10% of the work people that PVP is doing. To get 350+ expertise today takes a few hours after you dinged 50 if you atleast did the basics pre 50 work, which all pvpers do, and if you didnt, your voice should not even be listened to.

Nerfing expertise I really dont think is a good solution. Already now Rakata gear is much better then battlemaster gear. You want best gear? Get a few pieaces of battlemaster but have atleast 40% rakata gear in your arsenal. Why? Rakata gear have around 10-20% better stats for damage then battlemaster gear. This makes expertise only useful for damage reduction, healing recieved etc. Nerfing Expertise further will only cause casual players to be only FURTHER away, since all hardcore and even mediocre players will just get columni and rakata gear. Since operations in SWTOR is so damn easy, its very easy to get gear this way, it already goes much faster to aquire rakata and columni gear then to get pvp gear. And then ontop of this, PVE gear will be better? If anything, they should BUFF expertise, not nerf it. Expertise needs a 25% buff and THEN it will be better then pve gear for pvp.

its funny how these "sorc flaming" threads always get filled with sorcs and sages protecting their class. Eitherway, I think the class overall is fine. It needs a remade of bubble mechanic, the force speed needs to be looked at, also the pull, and also the cc. Most of above is for hutball. They could also simply, make ball carriers immune to any cc, but also immune to any helpful uses like pull, and you are not able to use speed enchanting buffs or heal yourself in anyway. I think a big problem with sorcs and sages is hutball. As a class in themself if we take away hutball: I think healing and damage is fine, its higher then everyone else but, someone needs to have the topspot. What needs to be fixed is the CC and overall utility of such a strong overall hybrid class. Make bubble a healing tree top tier talent for sages and sorcs, and remove the stun from lightning cage, and reduce the snare effect on sage and sorc channel damage ability by 25% so from 50% to 25%, a slight snare but a snare nonethe less.

You will be surprised, IF you played pvp, how important 1vs1 skills is in a team based game. The number of chances I have tagged a turret in civil war by winning 1vs1 or 1vs2, even 1vs3 is countless. Atleast the 1vs1 and 1vs2. You are running the ball in hutball far from the rest and is jumped by a solo defender, too far to run, none to help and you KNOW, if you kill him, you will score-1vs1 To not hone your 1vs1 skill means you are not a great player, but above all, you are not doing your team any favors. However, there are some classes in this game where 1vs1 skills are NOT needed. Sorcs and Tracer Mercs for imp side. These 2 classes, this is not a flame by the way, but the skills required in a 1vs1 with these classes is very limited as it is a rather easy class to play. However neither of them excels in 1vs1 though. If you play below classes you must train your 1vs1 skills: Vanguard/Powertech Sentinel/Marauder Guardian/Juggernaut Shadow/Assasain Scoundrel/Operative Sniper/Gunslinger Classes that should focus extremly much on 1vs1 skills: Shadow/Sin Sentinel/Marauder Scoundrel/Operative If you play one of the above classes, you should focus on your 1vs1 skills a ton, as it will improve overall team effort, experience and reach of goals. This is all classes but a few, which I explained above. And again, thats not to call a nerf to these classes, its just that they are very, very easy to play well with contrary to more or less all other classes. Last note: Remember that SWTOR only have 8 players per team, that is less then most other team based pvp games. The amount of times you WILL encounter 1vs1 situations are countless.

Did you know that full centurion set with champ relics and champ implants does not break 14k hp for some classes? Smuggler being one of them. I remember when I had fresh gear and was running around with 13.5k hp, buffed and full pvp gear, including champ shottie and rakata main weapon, champ relics, champ implants but rest centurion. So stuff that HP bull somewhere else. If they have around 12k hp however then you can be worried, but above 12k you should not judge them imo. Inspect their gear, not their HP if you are unsure.

I play vanguard as well, its a monster class, but ive never lost to one with my scoundrel. Lower level bracket vanguards and powertechs are more powerful then in 50 bracket.

As a scoundrel that have done tons of 1vs1s the toughest opponents is definately Marauders. Actually, as a scrapper I have never lost to anything but a mara, but I beat them 9 out of 10, only when they outgear me they have a chance. So with that in perspective, an operative or scoundrel with cds ready is probably the strongest 1vs1 in this game, by quite alot. With CDs down, Mara does very good, with CDs up Mara does insanely good. I personally have never felt very threatened by them but again, it is the toughest opponent to beat, for my scoundrel there is no other class that can put up a chance, unless Im facing an operative or scoundrel that opened up on me, cause then they will likely win, but not necessary.

Completely agree mate. Sorcs and Sages destroys hutball tactics completely. A team that is coordinated with 2 sages or sorcs, just won, if they play premade. Often we see atleast 4+ sorcs sages, although there are probably 5 sorcs for every sage. When its rep vs rep there is seldom more then 3 sages per team, contrary to when you face imp, where it often is 5k sorcs per team. I have not seen a team with less then 3, ever since I hit 50, which was a while ago. They need to remove some of the utility it has and its good though. Again, change the bubble mechanic, maybe remove it all together, and definately remove the force speed or one of the CCs. The problem is not A Sorc or Sage. The problem is that they come in twos or threes. And no other class can cause such havoc of the same class together, as this class can. Possible an operative or scoundrel in the right hands.

Dude, You are so wrong. The gap between premades and pugs will be much larger due to this implementation. I think overall its great but you should get rewards for ALL medals. Why else would you want them? Trust me, the tanks out there that use guard, often recieves already NO heals in pugs. THey do it for the medals and it actually saves the game as well, as healers lives longer. Overall, great implementation idea apart from the extreme valor gains AND no gains from medals above 4. How someone can even remotely think of that is beyond me. I can imagine in order to give healers a chance, but then increase medals on healers. For example, give them a medal for 25 2.5k heals? No operative or scoundrel is going to try and get that in a normal fight as thats 2 minutes of none stop healing in an average 10 minute game. No way. Give aoe heal medals, an easy one: Healed 3 people in one heal. Only healers can get this medal if htey have aoe, and yeah sorcs and sages, reason for 3 is due to thats the max on I believe operative or scoundrel, or if it was merc and commando. Etc etc etc. They are taking a lazy way out when it comes to the medal system and this will cause alot of people to dislike pvp. Im always fighting for objectives but its nice when I manage to squeeze in a few extra medals and get rewarded for it. For me as a scoundrel scrapper: I will have my 4 medals in the first, roughly, 30 seconds of a game, as thats when I pop all I got on an enemy healer in the back: 2.5k, 5k, solo kill, killing blow: 4 meds in a few seconds. And thats all I get the entire game when it comes to valor and honor. Apart from the win ofc, but...well, only pure pvp people know what I mean. The score is not important but its a carrot on a stick. And an important part of the games pvp success.

This. I dont agree on medals after 4 not giving results, we will see people slacking ALOT. Pugs vs Premades will have a stronger gap. Why play a protection vanguard where you can get 10-12 medals per game and 4 just from protecting. They need to still give something for the effort people actually do to get those medals. Im all for winning and the flipside this will also cause people to maybe focus more on objectives then numbers, but I still find we should benefit from above 4 medals. Also, Ilum from warzones is great, but the valor gained from warzones IS already huge, why the heck increase it cause a bunch of extremly casual players shouldl get into battlemaster gear within 3 days played. Casual people will wear champion gear and have the possibility, which is not long, to gain battlemaster gear. Honestly, getting to vrank 60 does not take long time. Overall however its nice changes, again, the Ilum daily, weekly is the best one of them all. Also its nice changes for our healers also with the medals. But those that contribute more and gain alot of medals should be rewarded from this not just by the screen shot. Which will be the thing now. And thats a tad sad.

They should do it just like what they did with champ bags. Give commendations, just remove this chance to drop as its completely flawed. I remember before with champ bags, I had 30 bags opened with 2 champ pieaces, before the change. Then you see some people with full champ and hardly vrank 20. BM drop chance should be remade. Either 25% chance that stacks by 15% per new bag opened or maybe 10%, and after that it resets back to 25, or just give commendations. Its sad to see some lucky bastard that just dinged vrank 60 and is popping 3-4 BM items excluding implants, and then you have people at vrank 70 that have 3 pieaces including 2 implants you can buy from normal coms. The system is beyond flawed, its a dishonor to all the pvp people out there that enjoys the game. Been monitoring some blogs for a while, since beginning of SWTOR. One thing is clear: People do not pvp as much anymore in the 50 bracket. I love it, but fact is, people dont pvp due to the badly implemented now BM bags, the champ bags now are fine. That and 3 warzones and at times 20 minute ques.

Have you tried using tendon on a full resolved enemy? I think operatives and scoundrels are ok but a gap closer would be appreciated. We have huge problems to close in on targets if out of stealth or in stealth if they are moving. Then again, we need to play smart, and try and figure out where they are moving so we can cut them off. Works for me. Tendom blast, I almost never use it, in rare cases to save someone. After a kick they are dead anyway and if not, their resolve is full and it wont snare them anyway. its usually a wasted gcd every 12 seconds.

True. But railshot, High Impact bolt still hits harder then the stealth opener of an operative or scoundrel. My 50 when fresh in epic and orange pve gear, 0 expertise, and mainly lvl 45-49 gear, had 3.5k crits on HIB. With champ gear you should be around 4.5k on crits. Thats my crits if I pull all I have on a weak target with my stealth opener as scoundrel. But shoot first was nerfed by 20%, despite it being used much less frequent. Average CD on railshot or HIB is 8-10 seconds due to talents that reduce timer.

There is a more simple solution. have 1 champ bag and 1k/1k merc and wz comms when you ding 50. Have orange gear. Buy from corelis the enchancements etc from there. Maybe spend 100k on GTN. No more needed. You should have full centurion in 2 hours played. And first day you can get daily and weekly in, for 4 additional bags, while farming this you will have ennough for 2 additional bags, so thats 6 bags apart from the 6 bags you had upon dinging. Thats 180 centurion badges and 84 champ coms in a few hours of game time after you hit 50. Thats enough for ALOT of gear in a few hours after 50. Anyone, and I mean ANYONE that joines warzones with green or orange none modded gear have zero respect for the pvp and general mmo community. Everyone needs to gear up, but atleast be prepared and have some orange and blue gear and have those 6 bags ready when you ding.

The highest ever ive seen someone do on a HIB with correct spec is 5k. That was with full rakata gear mixed with battlemaster on a guy in bad gear. HIB will mainly hit for around 3.5 up to 4k. That said, thats a truckload for an ability that is ranged. It hits more then the stealth opener from my scoundrel. The damage should be lowered some on it, I can agree on that. But 9 k crits...in your dream. 20% damage reduction and its fine.

They nerf ALL healers by 30%, AND, expertise neglects this. If you have 10% expertise, you get 10% stronger heals. If you heal a target that have 10% expertise, he is healed for 10% more, which equals 20% more healing from you on that target. Capish? Pull is overpowered in hutball and thats it.

Although I agree with you, I also disagree. Try doing this with a team of 4 sages or sorcs. The Pull ability alone makes hutball into a sage/sorc hutball fiest.

lol. I had full cent and 5 part champ in 2 days after 50. And that without pvping too much. But i did the ilium daily and weekly in 2 days and 2 daily warzone and weekly in 2 days. Really, you get gear so fast now you just need to play a few hours a day. In a week you will have alot of gear if you play alot, if you play some, you will have good gear.

Agreed. Mid is important, but if you manage to take the sides its better. With current implementation, defending the sides is incredibly easy as the speeders land at the foot step and takes a few seconds. You just need 3 people to defend a side turret, even vs their entire team, they can never cap it.

Final note: I cant begin to understand what I can do with this class when I am in full BM gear with 2 parts rakata, as now with mainly cent gear Im ripping holes into battlemasters. Only class I need to really fight hard vs is fully BM geared sent or maras. But once im full BM geared they wont be a problem either. At the moment its marginal and I win most but there is 1 or 2 that is hard to beat and its gear that playes their toll as they stand there with 1-5% life left when I bite the dust. And thats without cd usage, if I have cds up they stand no chance, but can camo and run away. I wonder how this class was with the 20% extra damage on shoot first. I rolled scoundrel after the nerf, to try it, and fell in love with it. Surge nerged us further but Im bypassing this by stacking crit and power. You just need surge to around 70%, after that, skip it, and max out power. With my power relic and rakata power adrenal my base damage is increased by 40%. Thats 40% more damage on crits AND none crits. And thats more then you can get if you use a surge adrenal and surge relic, due to diminisihg retuns. Power is the new surge, and far better, as it affects none crits. You want damage: Stack power and ensure you have enough crit in the gear as well. Surge: get what you can but as long as you have 70% your fine, above this the diminishing retun kicks in by a ton.

Got more experience now, nearing BM rank, not there yet, been level 50 for 5 days (vrank 56 atm). Had full cent and 4 pieaces of champ in 2 days. (off pieaces though). At the moment got champ shottie, rakata main hand, a pieace of exo and columni gear rest cent and champ. 10% expertise at the moment since using 3 parts pve gear, including main hand weapon. The day I dinged 50, with 4 parts centurion, I 1vs1 a battlemaster sorc in voidstar and killed him. Now with some gear. Yesterday in civil war I did a 1vs3 vs a merc, sorc and a marauder, the merc was in champ gear, the sorc as well, mara must been cent/champ. I killed them all 3, solo. In ilum, me and a scoundrel scrapper friend went out the other day and faced a team of 4 imps. We beat then 8 times in a row, they even brought in a 5th member and we still beat them. The team was mainly geared in champ or pve similar pieaces as average hp was above 15-16k. The team in ilum was a shadow, juggernaut, merc and sorc. later an operative joined but we still killed them. Skills means very much in this game, and knowing what you can and cant do with your class. That said, those we faced in ilum was not very experienced in the art of PVP. The simple fact that in one fight I managed to flash them all, and get a flyby on their heads, vanish and open up on their healer, said it all. Ive won so many 1vs2 fights with this class I have lost count, and usually against better geared players, and often good players. Won countless 1vs3 and my highest is 1vs4, but that have only happened once. And that was 2 sorcs 1 merc and a juggernaut. This class is not overpowered, it needs energy resources for sustained damage in PVE. But its a wicked nice class for PVP if you utliize it correctly. Im grinding my way to BM to faster get champ gear and hopefully some BM gear. My only disapproval of this class is the lousy stats on the PVP gear and the set bonuses is laughable. Luckily our pve set makes up for this, with 15% crit on backblast as a meager 2 set bonus on columni and rakata. And any sane scoundrel should go for that, as more then 10% expertise is not that much required, and due to diminisihg return you dont loose much from dropping 2 pieaces of pvp gear. Due to the stealth mechanic I still find that our sucker punch need a little more damage, add it to underdog talent maybe, reduce cd on flying fists e tc. Above all, we need more energy regeneration. Pugnacity and base energy reg should be increased by 50%, and our sustained damage in PVE would go up simply due to this.

No need. At your level, as i said, belsavia got a 39 version, dont forget to check weapon vendors on planets. Just get a blue one and live with it for now, there usually is a few on GTN as well. At 46, buy the lvl 46 version at coreli weapon vendor just near the spaceport.

Get commendation ones. You can get a lvl 39 I believe, from belsavia. Later you can buy a lvl 46 version on Corelis, and after that your FIRST champion pieace for a scoundrel should be the shotgun, especially if you are a scrapper. Getting a "main" weapon at the cost of an off set pieace is awsome. But yes, shotguns are a problem to come by thats for sure..-

Like to add to this that I have gone from surge to power as well. And my crits are as hard as with surge, but none crits hits like a truck. Power is the new surge. And for relics and adrenals, its only power. Tried surge adrenal earlier but now using rakata power adrenal and with a power relic, it adds more then 50% damage. Thats similar to +50% surge, which you will just NEVER get, with an adrenal and relic you might get +25% tops. But this 50% damage is also on none crits, making the none crits, hit as hard as a crit with none or very little surge.

This is a problem with pvp gear in general. The development team dont know their own game. The PVP gear is so bad its sad, for all classes. But smugglers got the worst of them all, with the most useless 2 set and 4 set abilities in the game, bare none. Sawbones have it a tad better, scrappers are better off getting rakata and just handpick the best pieaces of BM from field medic, field tech or enforcer. Look at the dps gear: It has more accuracy then PVE gear. And accuracy is not needed in pvp, at all. So we are forced to remod our Champ and BM gear in order to make it good for pvp. As a scrapper, I need crit and surge. Now how much of that do we see on our gear, at all? Not much at all. We see crit and accuracy, power and accuracy.. accuracy...accuracy.. Where I need 0 accuracy to hit my tech attacks in pvp, which is 90% of my attacks. And sawbones, dont need alactrity, you need crit and surge. Every scoundrel knows this, but not the developers of the game.