It's nice to see changes being made and feedback being read. I'm just not too sure if the changes hit the marks, atleast when it comes to balancing for PvE, mostly around R-4 HM. Balancing individual specs to achieve equal representation of all classes is a hard task and will never be perfect. But there are two classes PT and Anni Mara, that bring so much group utility in the form of Rebounder, Predation and Offheal without losing any DPS output, that stacking these instead of bringing other DPS specs is the easiest way to kill most bosses in the game. In addition to that: 3 out of 4 bosses of R-4 Anomaly in HM are generally not played with a traditional 2T, 2H, 4D composition! Is that intended? I can hardly imagine, since playing with 5 DPS or even 6 DPS lets you skip entire phases with mechanics. And to be clear here: This is not limit-testing by a few tryhard groups. This is objectively the easiest way to kill the bosses. One reason why playing with 1 or even 0 tanks is possible is the existence of Taunts on DPS classes (called DwT), and one of them happens to be PT. Guard got removed from PT, Sin and Jugg DPS because of PvP. Maybe it's time to remove Taunt from them because of PvE, or give the ability a different purpose in the DPS specs.

The least thing we can do is keep this conversation alive I guess. There have already been more different posters on this topic after Jackie's responses. They should clearly see that the information in her latest post is widely appreciated, but can't be the final answer on the subject, as there are many open questions still.

Hey Jackie, this is great insight, so thank you for this. It still doesn't explain every case I've seen/heard of but that's all 3rd party information that I'm not 100% aware of it's credibility so lets not talk about that. However I still see 2 specific major issues here: 1. Characters of "uneligible" accounts must be removed from the leaderboards. This has been a standard procedure in the past where all characters of such an account would have their MVPs and wins at 0 and their ELO at 1. There have been inconsistencies with this in past seasons aswell, especially when accounts became "uneligible" after the season had ended, but in most seasons the Leaderboards were reflective of who earned and received rewards. Going with your post, this has not been the case in season 14 at all. 2. The system you explained essentially makes the Top 3 title a Top 6 title with a twist depending on how popular a certain class is in Group Ranked. I don't wanna go into a discussion about how reasonable this is or not. My main point is, that season 14 is definitely the first season it has worked this way, and more importantly: THIS CHANGE WAS NOT COMMUNICATED. I also have a big issue with this, but I'm already happy if you read and adress my two main points above. Thank you

As others have posted already, your post and the reality don't add up. So either a) The team that investigated this matter didn't investigate properly, or b) The team investigated properly but the communication between you and them was not, resulting in this post not addressing the issue.

It would be nice if once they read this, they would just start his weekly rotation at the week were it ran out. So everyone that was missing pieces out of the last 2 weeks of his stock have another chance to get them. (or 3 weeks if they don't address this before next week)

New week, still empty. Please fix, I was counting on him to finish set achievements

Considering that, the PvP balance in 5.x and 6.x has been surprisingly decent actually. Maybe they track more than we know, or they were just kinda lucky and 7.0 that luck has run out and it's gonna be a desaster.

What you're describing is Operative in a nutshell. Almost every class has movement speed buffs that force you to roll after them and then you're still not guaranteed to be in 4m range to actually get some GCDs off. At the same time you're a melee and will always stand in AoE CC and get knocked from every bridge. Some tips: - (play with Debilitator setbonus, this one should be obvious though) - open with hardstun from stealth into volatile, bludgeon so they don't mad dash / force speed away immediately once they see your volatile on them. - take the tier 1 utility "Precision Instruments" that makes your Sever Tendon a 2s root. it gives you the opportunity to root people from 10m range so you can get in range for the hardstun. also, use Crippling Slice frequently. rooting them first might give you 2-3 more GCDs to hit them instead of just one and then they run out of range again.

Sin and Sniper are probably the most unforgiving classes in solo ranked right now. One bad breaker or bad positioning often gets punished immediately, so you‘ll need a lot of practise and experience, maybe advice from other players/streamers, until you see good results on these. PT and Merc are a lot easier to get into as they are more forgiving. However, PT can be frustrating if you never get matches with healers where they transform from an alright class into god themselves. The hard part on Merc is that you need to learn both the survival game when you’re first target, aswell as the offensive carry when freecasting by placing the game-deciding nets, stealth scans and burst damage, combined with utility and peels like roots, knockbacks, cleanses and offheal. Mara is somewhere in between. More forgiving than Sin and Sniper, but still quite vulnerable, especially to PT/Merc and Stealthers. The tricky part on Mara is that it’s usually not enough to just run and kite when focussed first, your damage on target and predation utility is still needed for your team to succeed. Similarly, when you think you’re freecasting but take a lot of fluff damage on the way, you need to find the line of how many things you can afford to use aggressively and what you need to keep to not be exposed at the moment the rest of the enemy team swaps to you as next target.

this ^ being banned from something feels bad, especially when you feel like it's undeserved. but yea on the bright side you're only banned for the soon ending season, still have your old titles/rewards and can login daily for any other activity in the game.

I understand both sides here. Adding Ranked mounts to collections seems odd. NIM PvE mounts like Wings, Hyperpod, ... aren't in collection either, and they can be acquired much easier. So Collection completionists would be pretty sad there. Also, I personally prefer a system, where a reward can only be used on the specific class/character it got earned on, like it is right now with bronze/silver/gold/platinum Flairs, Titles and Flags. On the other hand: all Ranked rewards from the vendors (e.g. Mounts) are Bound to Legacy anyway, so that's not even a point here really. I'm not sure about it. The mounts are meant to be expensive and therefore somewhat rare, so it should be well-considered which char to activate them on. On the other hand, the prizes are so high, that some of the most active Ranked players struggle to get all Replica mounts even once.

"is XYZ pay 2 win?" is one of the most asked questions for every free 2 play MMO that exists. there are probably more people asking that question than people that actually try the game afterwards, no matter what the answer they get via google looks like.

Everybody should stop reading here. This thread is in the PvP section of the forums and therefore should get PvP oriented answers. There is nothing bad about building Accuracy for PvP in general, BUT when it comes to Sorcerer DPS it's the dumbest sh*t you can do. So here is how you actually should build your Lightning Sorc for PvP, no matter if Regs or Ranked: Setbonus: Gathering Strom Tacticals: Stormwatch, Elemental Convection, Eyrin's Haste, Endless Barrier, The Life Warden. Yes, get them all, they are all viable and useful. Amplifier: Force Sensitivity Relics: Focused Retribution and Serendipitous Assault Only use Adept or Nimble Enhancements. Accuracy: 0 Alacrity: 1895-2500. 1895 is the absolute minimum, but there is the option to go up to 2500, because of how Polarity Shift works. Critical: 3400-4000, depending on the alacrity value you chose. Every remaining Left Side piece, Enhancement and Augment should be one increasing your crit value. One additional info: If you're not using any augments at all, Bolster will handle you as if you had Blue (item rating 276) Mastery Augments.

Trying to list all Ranked season rewards and their availability as of patch 6.3. Feel free to point out errors or things I missed. Season 1: Replica Giradda's Rancor mount - 200,000 at Tullek Replica Juvenile Rancor pet - 50,000 at Tullek Replica Victorious Battler Armor Lockbox (Knight/Warrior) - 100,000 at Tullek Replica Victorious Mystic Armor Lockbox (Consular/Inquisitor) - 100,000 at Tullek Replica Victorious Infiltrator Armor Lockbox (Smuggler/Agent) - 100,000 at Tullek Replica Victorious Combatant Armor Lockbox (Trooper/Bounty Hunter) - 100,000 at Tullek Replica Victorious Blaster Lockbox - 50,000 at Tullek Replica Victorious Lightsaber Lockbox - 50,000 at Tullek Replica Victorious Assault Cannon - 50,000 at Tullek Replica Victorious Blaster Rifle - 50,000 at Tullek Replica Victorious Sniper Rifle - 50,000 at Tullek Replica Victorious Saberstaff - 50,000 at Tullek Season 2: Replica Baron Deathmark's Huttball Helmet - 50,000 at Tullek Trophy: Giradda's Pleasure Barge (Holo-Replica) - 200,000 at Tullek Season 3: Replica Furious Battler Armor Lockbox (Knight/Warrior) - 100,000 at Giradda the Hutt Replica Furious Mystic Armor Lockbox (Consular/Inquisitor) - 100,000 at Giradda the Hutt Replica Furious Infiltrator Armor Lockbox (Smuggler/Agent) - 100,000 at Giradda the Hutt Replica Furious Combatant Armor Lockbox (Trooper/Bounty Hunter) - 100,000 at Giradda the Hutt Replica Furious Rew-Yellow Color Crystal Lockbox - 20,000 at Giradda the Hutt Replica Furious Weapon Lockbox - 50,000 at Giradda the Hutt Baron Deathmark's Furious Walker Replica - 150,000 at Giradda the Hutt Season 4: Ranked Warzone Black-Silver Crystal Lockbox - 2,500 at Tullek Replica Swashbuckling Black-Blue Striated Color Crystal Lockbox - at Giradda the Hutt Replica Swashbuckling Weapon Lockbox - 50,000 at Giradda the Hutt Baron Deathmark's Swashbuckling Cutter Replica - 200,000 at Giradda the Hutt Season 5: Replica Gladiatorial Gold Outline Color Crystal Lockbox - 20,000 at Giradda the Hutt Replica Gladiatorial Weapon Lockbox - 50,000 at Giradda the Hutt Giradda's Special Pet Nexu Replica - 200,000 at Giradda the Hutt Gladiatorial Nexu Replica - 200,000 at Giradda the Hutt Season 6: Replica Predacious Gold-Green Color Crystal Lockbox - 20,000 at Giradda the Hutt Replica Predacious Weapon Lockbox - 50,000 at Giradda the Hutt Baron Deathmark's Predacious Wrangler Replica - 200,000 at Giradda the Hutt Season 7: Title: Canyon Crusher - 1,000 at Tullek Title: Cove Cutthroat - 1,000 at Tullek Title: Mesa Mauler - 1,000 at Tullek Title: Orbital Station Obliterator - 1,000 at Tullek Title: Slayer of the Square - 1,000 at Tullek Replica Eternal Gold-Blue Color Crystal Lockbox - 20,000 at Giradda the Hutt Giradda's Acklay Replica - 200,000 at Giradda the Hutt Season 8: Replica Commanding Burning Orange Color Crystal Lockbox - 20,000 at Giradda the Hutt Replica Commanding Weapon Lockbox - 50,000 at Giradda the Hutt Ember Makrin Replica - 150,000 at Giradda the Hutt Season 9: Title: Battle Ring Brawler - 1,000 at Tullek Frogdog Gold Color Crystal Lockbox - 10,000 at Tullek Rotworm Purple Color Crystal Lockbox - 10,000 at Tullek Centurion Defender Weapon Lockbox - 85,000 at Tullek Battleworn Holo-Rancor - 145,000 at Tullek Season 10: Resourceful Renegade Armor Lockbox - 100,000 at Tullek Season 11: Precise Insurgent's Weapon Lockbox - 100,000 at Tullek Season 12: Rombuk Mount - 200,000 at Tullek Season 13: Airborne Invasion Armor Lockbox - 50,000 at Giradda the Hutt

I just made a little Wall of Text in a different thread. Seeing that you are very new, I think that post can give you a first hint to know, if Ranked is something for you or not: http://www.swtor.com/community/showpost.php?p=9899797&postcount=3

Yes, getting started in Ranked is rough, and if you're super new to the mode, you will cause losses for your team. Either because you don't know what buttons to press first when focussed, or because you don't have a grasp for strategies yet. Unfortunately, the only way to learn these things is to play Ranked. I usually say: a good benchmark for when somebody is ready for Ranked is, when he has played a good amount of Regs and finds them boring. Because he tops dps leaderboards easily, or because he wins almost every 1v1 situation by knowing the mechanics so much better than most Regs players. If you find yourself to be pretty average or even below average in Regs, you won't find any fun in Ranked. The most useful source for information about Ranked are experienced Ranked players. Maybe try to get in contact with one that's willing to help you via fleet chat (yes I know haha, but maybe you're lucky and someone serious responds), or maybe you have a Ranked player in your guild. They don't need to be platinum tier players, for a completely new player any other player that plays Ranked regularly can give you useful tips. The second thing I would recommend is to watch the SWTOR category on Twitch for Ranked streams. Not only is the streamer usually not that bad himself and you can learn things by watching them, but also a big chunk of the Ranked crowd hangs out in their chats. That does not only give you the opportunity to ask questions, but also might give you a first impression of who's good and who's not. That's very valuable information for your games, and also for knowing who you should take advice from because they have the most experience. But keep in mind, all of them are human in the end. Like in any other game mode, some people are helpful and noob friendly, some people are elitist and toxic a**holes. That all being said, maybe you're already better than you think you are. I have seen many examples of players that hopped into Ranked with very little experience, but did pretty well from the start. If you find fun in the mode, just continue and learn everything while doing. If people flame you, try to work out, if they do that just because they are salty cuz losing, or try to hide their own mistake ("mad cuz bad"), or if they actually have a point, that there was something you could've done better. Either way, if you're willing to put in some work to get better, don't let anyone discourage you from playing Ranked. But also, if you feel like the gap between everyone else and you is too big, try to catch up by going back to Regs, or doing practise duels with players that are willing to show you what their class can do and how you can counter it.

You are mixing up many different things here: Merc reflect: takes 0 damage from single target hits, reflects 50% of each hit, each hit heals the merc. All AoE and DoT damage goes through. Oper reflect utility on evasion: takes 100% damage from single target yellow hits, reflects 150% of each hit. All AoE and DoT damage goes through. If the Oper isn't stunned, all white damage is dodged (because of Evasion). If the Oper is stunned, all white damage goes through (because Dodge does not work while stunned). In both cases white damage is not reflected. And once again, an Oper constantly rolling around and LOsing doesn't do damage. They have a very strong (maybe OP) burst window, but outside of that they are hitting you with marshmellows. If you hit into reflect, that's on you. So much for your information. Now on topic: I'm not against nerfing ops at all. The reflect utility is probably too strong, aswell as the double hardstun setbonus combined with the incredibly low cooldown. But opers aren't nearly as OP or as "dominant" as people say here, that's all I'm saying. I rather fight an army of OP ops than an army of OP PTs or OP Sorcs.

There are classes that are designed to be able to buy some time = don't die fast. Operative roll can be quite annoying, but don't forget a well kiting sorc with phasewalk and barrier, or Assassins with 2 vanishs. And they all have one thing in common: While stalling time, they won't kill anything. Healers can stall multiple people even longer, or the absolute unkillable demon kings: jugg tanks with defensive gear, grit teeth and maybe even force bound. Good luck killing one of these guys even once per match, no matter if they have a healer or not. It's not a new thing that you're not able to kill someone on your own, it has always required team focus to kill some targets. when 3 people can't deal with 1 operative, they are just dogsh*t. I think you're very wrong. (Concealment) Operatives act very much on their own, or support others, but gain very little by getting supported compared to other classes. There really is no such thing as an "unstoppable force of operatives" that I would fear when entering a reg. They would be annoying and global someone here and there but that's it. But with a class like Jugg, PT or Sorc on top, therefore multiple of them stacked, whole teams would get obliterated in seconds by their offense. If you make Merc OP again, you will complain about Net, if you make Engi Sniper OP again, you will complain about the Engi void. Trust me, Ops being strong is better for the game than most other classes.

I didn't attack OP. I attacked the guy that encourages OP to not listen to reasonable explanations by multiple people and wasting CS time and energy.

Yea that's a relic from the time when PT/VG had 30m range on many abilities, and access to Merc/Mando abilities, which mostly had 30m range aswell.

The fact that someone who is capable of writing full English sentences creates a post like this is pretty ridiculous. Literally 4 people have explained that it‘s just Marauder abilities what OP witnessed, and you want to tell him to not believe them? What‘s next? Do you want people to report everyone that stealths out because they can’t tell the difference between a Merc and an Assassin? Btw. Counting votes is cheating. 5G made Corona. And H**ler lives on the Dark Side of the Moon. Welcome to ducking Fake News age...

Interesting. When I compare them next to each other ( S9 ; S11 ) I agree that S9 looks quite nice, but for some reason I'm using the newer ones on pretty much every toon I have. I guess they are more.. shiny?

I'm gonna link a post I made on this topic in a different thread. It's a bit older, but reading through it, I would probably make the same ranking today. If anything, I'd say Merc got a bit stronger, while Sorc got a bit weaker since then. http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=9700351#post9700351

class-specific abilities are meant to make a difference. Some classes can stealth, some can phasewalk, some can taunt and guard. However I don't disagree with your point that the guard nerf might've not been enough, I was just trying to summarize where the other posters are coming from. fair points i guess

This went downhill fast.. So the title of this thread is a viable opinion to bring up. But what's also true is that the screenshot isn't meaningful, it doesn't prove anything, it doesn't support the argument. Bashing Mero for his illegitimate title (that he still has for whatever reason) is generally a proper thing to do, but in his defense: it has absolutely nothing to do with the discussion.