I hit 50 after a very enjoyable run of leveling half the way through PvP. I said my farewells to my friends in the 10-49 bracket and dinged 50 with a magnificent Voidstar win. Then came the days of ruin. The armament quests on my server are borderline impossible to finish- for the Republic, because we are outnumbered 1:10 and there is no way to get a kill, and for the Imperials, who have a difficult time just tracking any of us down (often times there are no more than two or three Rep players in the zone). Added to this pain is the fact that I came into the 50 bracket at a distinct gear disadvantage, despite saving up the merc/wz comms and a champ bag. We can't win to progress in gear, and we can't progress in gear to win. After playing 120 hours to 50, my Jedi Guardian is in complete stasis. I cancelled my sub this weekend once I realized that for me, end game PvP is simply a massive brick wall. And it's not like I can transfer servers to somewhere more suitable. My thoughts on fixing this: Instance for Ilum. Just make it a WZ, or something like Wintergrasp. Cross server PvP. I think this one is in the works, and it can't come soon enough. We simply don't have the players to fill the matches in the end game. I'll pop back in a few months to see how the game has progressed. There's a very fun core here, but it's surrounded by layers of frustration.

Honestly, I don't think we get much out of maximizing stats in the 1-49 bracket. I've got the mountain of +Accuracy from the vindicator set and I do very well in PvP, and I don't have problems questing either. Once we hit 50, I think that's where we want to do careful balancing of accuracy, surge, crit, and expertise.

Don't buy the medium armor. It may look cooler, but the heavy orange armor gives more armor, which is what's intended for Guardians. I'd go with the Vindicator set. It seems to be pretty common to stack DPS gear even if you're going a tank spec for PvP, so if you're doing DPS anyway, rock that one. It's great gear, too. I nabbed everything at 40 and I still haven't replaced much of anything at 48. Maybe a mod or two here or there, but that's it. Edit: As for saving commendations, eh; you've got the whole 40-50 to do that. Splurge on the gear because it's great for helping you through the class quests, then begin saving your 1000 Mercenary and 1000 WZ commendations (plus one Champ Bag!) for 50.

Honestly, I feel like if you're going to invest that much into focus you might as well go all the way and get Force Exhaustion. Hybrid Defense/DPS makes sense to me, but splitting up the DPS trees means you're going to miss an ability that either rounds out your rotation (Plasma Brand) or is pivotal in maximizing the tree's damage (Force Exhaustion for Singularity). Yes, Force Stasis builds Singularity, but it's got a massive cooldown compared to Exhaustion. That's just my guess, however. I'd love to read about how well it works if you find hybrid Vig/Focus useful.

Huttball is a team sport. I understand that a lot of gamers never figured out how team sports work, so I'll give everyone a hint: team is in the name. You're not going to win if you don't coordinate, communicate, and play together. Hiding away from the action does nothing for your team. Our Republic population is outnumbered around 10:1 on my server, yet we rarely lose matches. Why? Because our tiny community learned that we had to communicate and work with each other to win. Talk and strategize. That's how real life works. That's how it works in WZs as well.

I'm impressed how you've obviously managed to go through your entire life without ever being taught a single thing by another person, instead arduously learning each new facet of your living experience through sheer trial and error. But for the rest of us simple humans, it's nice when others share their wisdom. Because that's what humans do. Help each other.

We really, REALLY need to get some Jedi Knight guides going up. We see this exact same crap every day in a new thread. "The Jedi Knight/Sentinel/Guardian blows." Is the JK hard? Yes. Does it take a very long time to come into its own? Yes. Does it seem like the ranged classes get to murder us from afar by tapping a couple buttons? Sure feels that way (though perception does not necessarily equal reality)! We need a sticky that explains the Knight and the two ACs so people can read it and understand the essence of the class. I think that's the biggest problem. Players except the character to play one way when it was designed with something different in mind. What is that expectation? That we're invincible AND powerful, like the main characters of the movies. Sorry gents; you and I are the foot soldiers of the Jedi order. We're the unnamed Jedi that get taken out by blasters in Episodes 2 and 3. Remember how Jango Fett nearly kicked Obi Wan's rear? That is us. Expect to get ripped up. Therefore, expect to play smart. Know your tools, know your limits. Both Sents/Mauras and Guards/Juggs can be devastating when played right. We really need a guide to help players who are struggling. I struggled, and I had to sort through a dozen threads of wacky complaints and arguments to find the good stuff. We should put that in one place.

Yeah, wait until you've learned the mission well and you've upgraded your ship's gear to the point that where, once you finish the objective, you can *literally* walk away from your computer and come back to a finished mission because the remaining enemies can't produce enough damage to weaken your shields/hull and kill you.

Bioware, you've introduced a system that requires significant grinding of items in order to unlock rewards like quests and reduced gathering/crafting times. The time this affection system takes is multiplied considerably not just by the fact we get many characters (only one of whom can be present for dialogue affection rewards), but also by the gift cooldown. It takes 5 minutes of waiting to hand out 10 gifts... that's significant waiting time of doing nothing. Sure, I could do it while questing, but that becomes considerably less likely at the end of the game for players waiting around for PvP or Ops/FPs. We can't give out gifts in those situations, only when we're waiting. Late-game companions or ones that are rarely used (because they're not useful for the player) already take extra time to gain affection with. Please, take off the gift cooldown. It's already a long grind to obtain/distribute the gifts. We don't need an arbitrary debuff to artificially extend the process, which turns it from a cool concept to a boring grind.

YES. This is why I quit doing space missions altogether very early on. I calculated that I was spending about 10 minutes sitting around doing nothing waiting for the missions to end when I did my space dailies. The missions become extremely boring when you're forced to sit around for 1-3 minutes after finishing the objectives.

Oh, man. I'm level 46 and have been PvPing with Vigilance for the past 10 levels or so. Today, I finally decided to take Focus for a test drive. It took me a couple matches to really get the hang of it, but hot diggity damn! That boy produces some damage! I really enjoy Vigilance, but Focus is a real freakish beast. I don't think I'll be switching back any time soon. I got 7 medals within the first 3 minutes on Alderaan thanks to a pocket healer and judicious use of Taunt/Challenging Call. Maybe that's not impressive to anybody else, but it tickled me pink for sure. Though it lacks some of the utility of Vigilance, with Focus I suddenly stopped having as much difficulty with some classes in 1v1 that I did before. Focus isn't a panacea for all the Guardian issues in PvP, but it's super awesome. Everyone should try it at least once.

I'm curious why we wouldn't want the 6% strength increase from Perseverance in the Vigilance tree. Edit: Plus, any thoughts on this build (doesn't have that 6% strength)? http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#500cMZhMZGrR0ddMdGR.1

There's a lot of debate about which specs (or mix thereof) are best for PvPt. I've read a lot of it, and I'm not interested in seeing any more arguments. What I am interested in is seeing some discussion about the Focus tree within the context of the Focus tree. Translation: I don't care if you think Vigilance or a Def/Vig hybrid spec is better. There's already 8 threads on that topic. I want some thoughts about Focus talents, strategies, rotations, tips and tricks. So, Focus fans, help me out. I'm level 46, and I've been PvPing as Vigilance since 32 pretty consistently. I've also tooled around quite a bit with Defense. Focus, however, is absolutely brand new to me, and I'm ready to keep things fresh by trying a new spec. Any recommended builds? Are there talents I should avoid in Focus? Are there talents in Defense or Vigilance that I need to grab? What are the ability priorities? Should my playstyle change much from my Vig spec? Thanks!

You make that sound like a conscious choice. If you've divined a method of picking your WZ, we'd all love to hear about it. I agree that the Guardian is somewhat crippled in comparison to other classes of the same level until later in the game. Force Stasis and Push are essential PvP abilities, but those don't appear until the mid-20s. I think that's when the Guardian really starts being useful, though I was able to get at least 5 medals per match around 20 through careful tanking in Defense spec. I'll go along and say Force Push is when you really start getting fun in PvP. Leap. Push enemy into a pack of your allies. Leap again. Go to town. Basic strategy for messing up anyone.

Will the Legacy System offer players experience gain bonuses for alts? I love the stories in TOR, but I don't need to see the same planet quests 4 times for each side as I experience new class quests.