Probably the last thing this server needs is more Canadians. lol

Wow... it seems everyone left this game, and then just came back.... Kinda scarey really. This game has a deeper hold on people than I think most are willing to admit.

Okay... someone told me you lose more for leaving.... But you don't get comms for leaving... do you? Anyway, I just don't understand leaving. Or not loading with the match...

When I see an opponent with a bucket hat, I know they're friggin' awesome. That's why I'll never own one. But yea, I see one, and I groan. But yea, all the queuing has been fantastic.... literally awesome. The ONLY thing that is really bugging me is the 3v4's that obviously will never backfill... why these don't end I don't know. It doesn't make sense. Also people leaving... they don't know that their rating hurts more? Otherwise it's been fantastic. I'll be sad to see it go.

That's true... like Jaiden for instance, I know he got his 1500+ on pot5... and I do know a few alts on that +1500 list but Reps could be the same thing... I don't know them well enough. So to say which side gets more is kind of misleading right? I mean Monkey/Brohawk for instance? Or the alts on the same side. I also know some of those people got the 1500 rating on that list PRIOR to the rewards announcement. Would they be able to maintain it now? (I realize they still get the rewards) now that so many people are queueing ranked? Regardless it's a fun time. I hope it continues aside from the odd troll it's been really good.

I am very sure he is queing ranked as Tank. I know because he messaged me to play my tank more (queue up) so he'd get more pops. :(

Thank you for your responses. For DPS I typically bounce between my Powertech and Merc. I don't know why I've always enjoyed Merc a little more. I think I'll read those guides and see about more PVE content in my playtime as it always seems to be about 90% PVP.

I appreciate your honesty. That's the thing with Solo ranked... your priorities are VERY dynamic. I notice cloakers pretty much do whatever they want. They have their own agenda often. As a healer things are pretty ugly. My highest rating was attained with a Merc healer and it often came down to face tanking a crapload of DPS and hoping the other healer died first. As far as playing DPS, there are so many composition types.... usually the only commonality I can suggest is targeting the weakest link, until the healer pops out of stealth. (most ranked healers seem to be ops/scoundrels). If the other team has a tank this can change things. Is your team mostly ranged? Mostly melee? A lot of dynamics there.... For example, if you're a smasher and teamed with a smasher, and happen to have a stealth healer, have him smuggle your 'smash team' to the opponent's healer or weak link, both leap out of stealth, smash and you can often get a global kill that way. (it has happened to me more than I care to admit, but I have successfully defended it as well.) So you can see team dynamics are huge.. team composition, team abilities... even small things like do you have a pull? I will say for the record I never call anybody out unless I think there's something so seriously wrong it can -appear- like they are sabotaging the match. Most of what I mention above you cannot control. What you can control is: -armour. Get geared, and with bolster bug it is entirely possible to be potent in a warzone without PVP gear. - augmentation. Yes it can be expensive, but getting a full set of 28 blues is a lot more affordable than purples. Good luck!

A little off topic here but I've started dabbling in PVE higher end stuff with my guild. I just ran in pure Arsenal. I am recalling back with Sithwarrior.com was math-hammering all the rotations out and I believe at the time Arsenal was the PVE spec of choice. What happened that changed that? Is there a recommended guide for PVE Pyro?

Wow nice. I didn't really read bodyguard changes.... So I guess I need to start putting... 6 pts on there. At most I typically put about half of that in there so it will be a squeeze for me, but the payoff could be great.

But are you guys doing Pyro or Arsenal in ranked? I am far better in Arsenal spec on my Merc, but it's too easy to shut down. I know when I'm healing, and I see Arsenal on the other side, he's the target. These games aren't lost very often to be honest. When I load up and I'm healing, AND I have a merc, it is a struggle to keep either one of us alive. I think for now I am burned out on ranked on my Merc. I have accepted 1500 will NOT happen on this toon. I hit 1375 solo as heals. I stayed heals, and I went down to 1281..... !!!! I also find side effects of the 'system' are killing me. Like loading with 3 people and the warzone doesn't backfill (for good reason) and since there is no shutdown sequence, you now have an almost automatic loss. Aside from people leaving, or disconnecting, or just not loading, I think it's weird you have to win 2 times for every loss to just tread water. Solo queue is just too... random. Far too random. You get 24K lightning sorcs, and the odd guy saying 'Hey is this ranked? Sorry.....\leaves warzone). That stuff is something you have zero control over. I've also been stealth globalled too often.... I really hate that tactic but all I can really do is guess with our cruddy stealth exposure and try to press my butt into a wall.... wait for the double leap/double smash, or double Shadow takedown... whatever the flavour of the match is. I still think Op heals is just at such a huge advantage... you can NEVER open up on them, and they can always disappear and at least alleviate enemy targeting 100% for a period of time. We are face tanking with our wonderful armor! I've played a lot of 8 man ranked when it was around but 4 man reminds me how easy it is to focus target. Trust me, grenade is on cool down! I just thought I'd ask you guys if you're able to hit 1500 with DPS and what spec you were trying...... As I dip below 1300 last night, I'm thinking of changing to DPS....

Thanks for filling in the blanks for me.... I guess it sounds okay? I mean damage and duration are unchanged... but the damage is spread out more through out the channel. I still think arsenal is my favorite spec in the game. Has been for years.... and from a purely PVP perspective I'd trade all of this for some un-interuptable ability and (Sorry to sound like a broken record) less reliance in the tree off of Tracer. The people that are saying Pyro is in a good spot... are we talking about PVE or PVP? PVP-wise, personally as dynamic as it can be, it still seems to be a "B" variant of the Powertech version.

You have a 961 solo rank and you think the only problem is defensive abilities? Think of it this way... this class has the cooldowns relative to Powertechs.... so what is the difference? An AOE freeze? Do you think that would fix things? Sure it would help, but really think about this..... Why does a Powertech survive a situation the Merc cannot? It is because you (on your merc) can be shut down. Sorry, I'm not trying to be negative, but these are changes I've followed from day one, and I'm a little tired of the way they've treated the class going back to 'No interrupts for Mercs', and silly stuff like.... they couldn't figure out why Mercs were hitting so hard in PVP and realized it was an error in the way multiple tracers were being applied to Heatseeker... or something like that. But do you think they removed the nerfs applied along the way in order to figure the true cause out? Powerbarrier has been nerfed, so I'll tell you right now, that is a strong indicator that BW think we have survivability. (Also I notice they put high value in heavy armor. Jugg/ Marauder is an EXCELLENT example of their value of armour over CD's. This has been backwards for a looong time.) I can't talk for PVE but PVP wise the class is still far too reliant on Tracer to proc other things. This means you are an interrupt away from being denied the following: - A stack (or 5) of increasing Rail Shot Damage - A decrease in casting a heal - A stack (or 5) of Barrier, a damage resist at 1% per stack. Now this is defensive, but triggered only by offensive moves. -This is also our armor break move. The cost of tracer missile is the cast. The cast roots, and penalizes inherently. You shouldn't be further punished by being interrupted. You're okay with this? No other class has this penalty (IE Reliance) tied to one ability. (Not lightning sorcs, nor Snipers, etc, etc.) I don't like the change to Unload, and it seems unnecessary. When you (Bioware) decided to make Ravage a guaranteed proc, you didn't nerf the damage on Ravage as a result. Why do it to Mercs? It's still white damage, interruptable, certainly not empowered by anything like... I dunno.... "Unstoppable".... why nerf it. The dual pistol damage is one of my favorite parts of Merc. I'm really, really hoping you reconsider this change. Trying not to be negative here, the greatest thing that happened to the class is the net. Where I once felt I was done, this is a 'once in a while- get out of jail' card. Pyro in Merc...Meh... it is so clunky compared to Powertech. I guess it's good in PVE? PVP wise it's blah to me. I still think Thermal Detonator should have its damage buffed in Warzones. Just to make sure I understand this: Unload is getting a damage decrease with an unchanged channel time? Barrage is guaranteed now, but happens every 8 seconds rather than every 6 seconds (RNG)? Not liking this at all.... unless I'm missing something????

As far as 'people don't like you' not sure if you're trolling or not but rarely, if ever, do I talk in a warzone. My PT does get hate.... I almost never respond. If there is hate against me specifically? I can't say for sure, but I doubt it. As far as PT's dying last? I don't think I have written it down, or tracked it specifically enough to have a valid opinion of this. I can only speak of my Powertech's experiences which have been far worse than any other toon I've queued ranked with. BUT I started noting more powertechs after my own experiences playing mine, and experiences winning/losing with/against them. Not many are actually doing that well. (Powertech/Vanguards over 1500.) At first I thought... wow PT's are not the cat's meow I thought they would be in this race, but then I looked at our Juggs and wow that list of >1500 rating is LOW too (I personally know one of them and he is DPS). And you say the top two are tanks? (I thought one was DPS? Not sure). Maybe I should change back to my tank? lol Sorcs/Sages same thing... VERY low number at or over 1500 (again I personally know one of them, and he is DPS)... but I don't know how many of that small number are healing. My healing Merc seems to give me the best chance at 1500 so far. Not sure why... Also noted that once I switched to Smash, my Jugg made 'respectable' progress... still so much of it is luck of the draw.

Yea it's basically an opportunity to rethink these changes and see if they are getting metrics that may validate other changes instead.... how can it hurt to learn from this data?

It's not 'so-called'. It is the way it is structured. It feels like old school PVP because it is the closest thing we have to a free for all in an arena. The inexperienced part is something you can weed out. They will have the metrics to filter this. Regardless, there will always be 'capability' (I don't want to use the word 'skill') gaps. This has to be factored too. What I said doesn't have to delay 2.7 but I guarantee you the data they are using is probably less than they have available now. My concern is they will make changes, put a checkmark on a board in a meeting room and call it 'done' for a looong time. What I'm saying here is I want them to be certain. Some of the changes made are quite substantial. Case and ponit: Operative/scoundrel DPS gets a nice buff. Immediate reaction by the community is largely negative. Bioware reacts by contemplating turning it down... which includes BUT is not limited to removing the face plant on hidden strike. That scenario needs to be avoided as much as possible. There is ZERO negative imo on waiting for class changes a little bit longer. To say the changes would have the results you suggest... I just don't know what to say to that... other than your reaction would seem to be quite shortsighted and limited considering the whole of the information available now. That is to say, those looking at metrics I -assume- understand the dynamics of an arena vs a huttball, vs picking up a snow ball on ilum.

The title is pretty clear. Right now, on every server, Ranked is popping like never before. Solo Ranked, I am guessing is popping far more than Group Ranked simply because no one wants to go against those well established/stacked guilds. It seems more logical to roll the dice on a random group rather than hope that stacked team has a disconnect during the match. I have PVP'd since day one but never really cared for ranked once you pulled the plug on 8 man (although there is far less raging now imho since you pulled that plug). BUT Solo Ranked gives you more metrics than ever. You are notorious for acting slowly, if at all to some of the most blatent issues in PVP. And a real 'gift' is handed to you... real life metrics based on solo ranked where it is a real test of '"mano e mano". Mano e mano gives you raw, (light on strategy IE: GANK THE HEALER) playstyle. You're getting information on how easy it is to global certain classes, and which classes can do it. Which tanks are under performing, which DPS is excelling while some DPS is root casting their way to the sin bin. Considering that BW is slow to change, I'd like to ask you pull back 2.7 until you can react to all this new information. Secondly some VERY obvious items have popped up. I kind of hit on this in my server forum but I consider your 'event' (announcement of rewards) almost TOO SUCCESSFUL. What I mean by this is I am seeing PVE'rs hitting solo ranked that are acting/playing/geared like they've never played basic PVP nevermind Ranked. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE that so many people are queuing but not for ranked. So please put a restriction in: I recommend a minimum 20 PVP games before being allowed to queue ranked. Second request: Put a warning in that if you leave a ranked warzone you will be penalized and prompted again to leave. Third request: Cancel lopsided Warzones. Just like you do in 8 man. If a team in ranked starts with 3, and the other has 4... start a shutdown sequence with no rating gained or lost. I realize a ranked warzone will never be backfilled, and for good reason, but a lopsided warzone happens too often and should not count for/against rating. Just some thoughts and I hope you can use these metrics for 2.7 because I have a feeling we wont see PVP based class changes for many months after this and I wonder if recent events would make you reconsider some of these, or thing of new ones.

Macroeconomics, I never got along with you in college, but I find I agree with you 100% here. Srsly though, that is my experience in a nutshell. PLUS since the weakness is so obvious, it is heavily exploited by even the most entry level of opponents. A Merc's greatest chance of survival? Perhaps being paired with a Sorc. Oddly enough if an enemy decides to try to global a Sorc it CAN backfire. I've seen a pull and two smashers kill my Merc in a global... but a Sorc CAN bubble. I mean it's tough though, I'm not going to pretend a Sorc has it easy. The heirarchy really hasn't changed with DPS. I cringe when I see I'm going to be healing Ar senal Mercs. If I get two, it's just that much worse. In speaking of the opposite, seeing two smashers load with me is a good thing. (I realize smashed is getting nerfed out of existence). But now we are doing Solo Ranked, and even BW with their strong denials, and lack of action will have plenty of metrics to look at and not just the 'whining' of a community. Will they do anything with it? What can be done?

Personally my Powertech has been focused so hard.... it's a totally different world from being a 'regstar'. My healer Merc is the only shot I have at 1500, but with my previous post you can see it probably won't happen. I had a horrid start on my powertech and can't recover. My Jugg however? I gave up on tanking, went full smash before it gets nerfed out of existence, and all of the sudden his ranking starts picking up bigtime. There's a few combo's I like, and hate. Multi smash? Great. Pick a softie before the match and global him. Happens so often it actually feel wrong. Most of these matches have turned into healer gank fests. I want to bring my sorc in, however, I only personally know one sorc that is pulling over 1500 ranking while playing DPS. Last night I couldn't do it. lol

Good news: Since the announcement of ranked PVP rewards, queues (solo at least ) are popping everywhere. Bad news: Solo queing is showing up the classes that simply don't belong in solo queue, and perhaps even further, arenas in general. This post is mostly about solo queue ranked, but pertains to ranked in general..... Since the rewards announcement I have been queing a fair amount with a select few of my toons and have found some new... 'revelations' for myself. But since this post regards Merc's so I'll keep it there. I have hovered around 1300, hitting a high of 1400ish and have been frustrated by certain classes I see. I have achieved my rank while healing in half Obroan, half Conq, full augmentation. I do not consider myself a 'great' healer, but feeling the class limitations, and knowing full well I have and can be a 'regstar' if left alone, I feel it is in my best interest (as well as my teammates' best interest) to NOT queue for Solo Ranked as DPS. I started noticing a disturbing trend on my losing streaks. Burst is a beautiful thing to have on your side, and healer gank fest is what a lot of these basic matches turn into. It's a fight to simply stay alive. Now on my losing streaks the disturbing trend was a few classes that are hard pressed to perform without, let me phrase this correctly, highly skilled players, playing these 'handicapped' classes. Many, well most, were Arsenal Mercs. Many of the names I started to recognize, and I would be happy to see them on the other side, or cringe when I saw them on my team. I started looking them up on the leaderboards, and most of them struggled to break 1000. If that. Of course this isn't a hard, fast rule, but I consider myself a better DPS merc than I am a healer Merc, yet I will not queue DPS because I feel the DPS specs are underperforming in Ranked. It seems my experience with a fistfull of Aresenal mercs has confirmed this. So how many of you out there are queuing solo-ranked? What spec are you playing? If you're DPS, what spec? What kind of success are you seeing? Most of all, what do you take from this experience with Ranked solo?

This is getting to be painful. I had a match where my healer was a sorc with 1000 expertise. Then the two dps were a r senal mercs in pure PVE gear. I almost never call anyone out in PVP, but had to, "Thanks for bringing your favorite PVE toons to RANKED PVP guys". They laughed in response. I went back to my healer, and got the same DPS, then got a back to back with a person leaving the arena before it started.... my winning streak took a horrible nose dive as a result. (Some people seem to mistakenly believe leaving the Arena before it starts saves you a rating penalty?) How much of this has to do with luck/bad luck? I'm starting to think this 'event' is almost too successfull in bringing out people whom I believe never normally PVP, let alone ranked. Still even with its frustrations, it has been great to see so many out.

You know since I've been in VVV with you is this the one time I agree with everything you're saying here. lol Srsly though, the game will be definitely taking a PVP shift to ranged. I don't like most of the changes. I mean I don't know what kind of glue you'd have to be sniffing to play Melee in this game (PVP) unless you're cloaked. It's a clear shift to ranged. Melee has always been more difficult but perhaps more rewarding at times. You take that away and the dynamic will be pretty weird going forward.

Congrats man. That's crazy. Granted I struggle to get 1700 ! But I don't know how you could pull that off.... /deletes mercenary.

I personally believe that as donkeys we prefer to have a carrot dangling from the stick rather than a question mark. I think my hope originally was to convey that people want to do this sort of stuff. That the 'vehicle' is there and with this sort of incentive it shows people want to do this sort of stuff. Bioware can (and hopefully will) look at their metrics that result from this announcement/event and develop it further. Solo queue for fun has been fantastic. It brings people out of the woodwork I haven't seen even PVP before... It still gets your hard core guys queuing and the population in general is really participating. I think this is a -great- indication of potential. I just really hope BW see this, chew on it a bit and give us more. I know this is largely a PVE game but this has caused worlds to collide. I wonder how many 'rare' PVPers have tried ranked for the first time because of this?!?!

Maybe but..... that's not the point of the thread. They're doing something right because the queues are hoppin' even if it's temporary. I just hope BW is watching... and that this is happening on all servers too.