Sorry for a double post glitch

I don't do WoW. I wouldn't touch MMOs in general (too much tedious grinding, too much of a time sink). But KOTOR? Second favorite game of all time. BioWare? First class writing, and you never feel like a second class citizen playing female, gay, or non-white. (The fect you still are a second class citizen only hits when you look at their Expanded Universe stuff. From Bhaalspawn to Hawke, the canon is always white, straight male; Jade Empire os just Asioan straight male. *sigh*) My sister and brother in law are also big Star Wars and Bioware fans and nabbed a copy. They usually play together. And this is a lot more fun than phone calls talking about work and crazy relatives. But not Star Wars and not BioWare, and no relatives playing? Likely not.

Author: Allronix Prompt: Paying the Piper Characters: Felix Iresso, mention of Alylia Terel (Consular Shadow) and Yuon Par Spoilers: Consular story with romance, presuming mostly Light actions

OK. I do not play a Knight. I play a Shadow, but I've run escort for four different Knights as they took out Darth Cthulhu. 1) Gear the Knight up. I mean, run some Black Hole or Ilum Dailies. Spend your planetary commendations at the Makeb dealer (if you have access to Level 55), or Classic Commendations (Level 50). 2) Gear the little astromech up. People forget about their companions in this game, but I'm a BioWare vet. Your companions make all the difference in the world on a brawl like this. There is a puzzle in the Dark Temple that gives you a passible set of gear if you haven't bothered to maintain the little guy, but it's no subsitute for Classic Commendation armor. 3) There is no shame in asking for a little backup. Shadow Tank backing up a DPS Knight (and I take Tharan with me; the man isn't intimidated by Force-based nonsense) works nicely. A Healer Scoundrel teamed with a Tank Guardian also makes for an excellent team (and what's more humiliating to Emperor High and Mighty than getting taken out by a kick to the groin?) 4) Once you and the party are armed for bear, charge in. His followers are a pain, which is why the backup from your guild or your pals is uaually a good idea. 5) when you reach him, DPS like crazy. Your little astromech is your tank, so let the droid distract him while you wail on Cthulhu with your glowbat. 6) Oh, he splits into a half dozen pieces? I remember that trick from the old Brotherhood of Shadow mod. Nice try, but Akirrikon Sin did it better. Don't hit tab and try to attack them all. Focus on one and see if you can damage him. No damage? Go to the next until you're hitting the guy who actually takes damage. You only need to cut off the source and the others will fall. 7) Voice of the Emperor is a one-shot kill, so keep your interrupts on standby; not just the regular interrupt ability, but all the push attacks, the knockbacks, the stuns. He wants to scream, cut him off. If you have a buddy, let them know to throw all of their interrupts and keep Darth Cthulhu distracted. Oh, and amusingly enough, he did not appear to be immune to Holiday.

Light and Dark alignment scores also help with certain equipment or relics, but all of the level 50+ gear has no alignment restrictions.

Tharan's my right hand man, best Lancer a Jedi could ask for. Maxed out affection with him ridiculously fast. But his feelings are with Holiday. I've got a thread on Care and Feeding of Consular Companions, BTW.

Again, I dawdled and dinked around, so I was Level 50 and in a full set of Elite War Hero. Tharan was in full Rakata gear. Addition: If you keep getting knocked back, the classic trick is to make sure your back is close to a wall so even if he does knock you back, you're still in range to chuck a big rock at him.

This Shadow's run escort with four different Knights to take out Darth Cthlulu. you first have to tell the Knight to pony up the funds to arm his little astromech like an assassin droid. A lot of Knights don't keep the little guy's arsenel up to date. Tell the Knight to arm himself for wampa, too. You're going after the Emperor, don't go cheap on the gear. Second, you take Tharan, and he's got to take the droid. Third, when His Travesty splits himself, do not hit tab, just keep throwing rocks on the guy right in front of you. Usually, there's your man and the rest are illusions.

OK, I was level 50 before leaving Hoth (being a completionist), which may skew the results here. 1) Be prepared. When Nadia's Codex entry came up, I saw gift and weaponry info. Spoiler that she would be my party member. Willpower/endurance stat and about the same gear as me? OK, let's have an adaptive set all ready for her before leaving Belsalvis (accumulated in bits and pieces). Sure enough, her default gear is garbage. So, let's arm you for bear, little one. 2) Crates - he can't hit what he can't see. Nadia will not follow you behind the crates, so you have to keep aggro or come out and heal her. 3) Interrupts. Use them. In addition to the usual, Spinning Kick did a good job of shutting him up, if I recall right. So did Force Wave. 4) Use your buffs, including Heroic Moment. He's not simple, even on level 50. so play accordingly.

It helps to think of most of the classes as being an expy of another character. Wanna play Han Solo? Roll a Smuggler Wanna play Luke (or Anakin) Skywalker? Roll a Knight Want to play Darth Vader or Darth Bane? Go Sith Warrior Are you more into Exar Kun or Jerec? Did you play a mage in Dragon Age? Go Inquisitor Did you read too much Karen Traviss? Was Canderous your favorite party member in KOTOR? Here's your Bounty Hunter. Do you miss Commander Shepherd? A Trooper will help you over the loss. The Agent is a class by itself, which is probably the reason people like it so much. Closest you can really call it is a cross of James Bond, Jason Bourne, and Grand Admiral Thrawn (I won't say Tarkin - Thrawn had more brain cells). The Consular's expy? Leia Organa-Solo. And kinda like Leia, she gets a bit overshadowed by the flashiness of the Smuggler and Knight, but her job is a lot of the behind the scenes work that paves the way for everyone else. The first act? Rather dull; find some Jedi Masters affected by a Dark Side plague and manipulating the situations on contested planets to go metaphorically (or literally) nuclear. The first three planets? Not much to write home about. But hit Alderaan, and things REALLY start to click. A three way civil war, seven squabbling noble houses, centuries of grievances and feuds, and one insane Jedi Master setting all of the parties against one another. It's on you to force a peace treaty. Good luck. Act 2? Because of your awesome job in calming those volitile situations, you get a special job from the Supreme Chancelor himself. There's a coalition of neutral (but influential) worlds. Your mission is to convince them the Republic is a better deal. However, words aren't going to be enough, especially on Imperial-occupied Balmorra. Your best bet to liberate the planet is a mysterious, short-tempered terrorist. (Balmorra is the second CMOA for the Consular). From there, it's onto Hoth, then Belsalvis to make contact with and recruit a species even the Rakata were scared of. However, there is also a shadowy organization tied directly to the Emperor trying to sabotage you at every step; and its members could be anywhere, or anyone. Act 3? To Voss, where you must prove a vision true by being the honor guard for a young potential Mystic, adding him and his substantial entourage to your growing list of allies. By the time you roll into Corellia, you have access to the largest droid factories in the galaxy, a fleet from species the Rakata didn't want to mess with, a small army of Voss, the Skahari army (they were a little angry about what the Sith did to their monarchs and their Senator) , and anyrthing else the Rift Alliance can muster. Corellia needs an army; you just rolled into town with one. However, the Imperials are ready for a fight, and the Emperor has a lot of Manchurian agents, including a very close ally.

The "canonical" storyline: KOTOR 1 Male Class: Soldier class/Sentinel Name: I can't recall the first name, but the surname is Katarn (leading to the speculation that Kyle's a VERY distant descendant) Options: All Lightsided Romance: Bastila Planet order: Taris - Dantooine - Yavin (1st trip) - Tatooine - Kashyyyk - Yavin (2nd trip) - Manaan - Leviathan - Korriban - Yavin (Last Trip) - Lehon - Star Forge KOTOR 2 Female Name: Meetra Surik Class: Probably Sentinel Options: All Lightsided Romance: there's not much of one in game, but lean towards Atton's Cross-class all your companions (Bao-Dur will be VERY difficult to pull this off with, BTW) Planet Order: Peragus - Telos - Dantooine - Nar Shadaa - Duxn - Onderon - Korriban - back to Onderon - Back to Dantooine - Back to Telos - Malachor V Now how I like to play them: KOTOR 1 Female Name: Kairi Niko Class: Civilian (Scoundrel, but I use a save game editor to remove the class feats and replace with Master Empathy)/Consular Options: Light or neutral (ending with a light side score of about 90%) Romance: Carth (Juhani is also a good option. She was the first same-sex romance Bioware did, but they had to fly a lot on Taylor's voice acting to get it past the radar) Planet order: Taris - Dantooine - Yavin (1st trip) - Tatooine - Kashyyyk - Yavin (2nd trip) - Manaan - Leviathan - Korriban - Yavin (Last Trip) - Lehon - Star Forge KOTOR 2 Male Name: Cian Li-Bek Class: Sentinel/Assassin Options: Gray to dark, until Nar Shadaa, and then start slipping to red. (to recruit Hanharr). Start choosing Dark Side once you go into the cave at Korriban (play it like you're slowly going mad, and go off the deep end at that point) Cross-class: Atton and Handmaiden Planet Order: Peragus - Telos - Dantooine - Nar Shadaa - Duxn - Onderon - Korriban - back to Onderon - Back to Dantooine - Back to Telos - Malachor V I prefer playing the first one as female a lot more than I did playing male. As much as I like Hale, Sbarge really did a great job with Carth, and there are a lot of little things that seem to flow better when you're playing female (the torture scene on the Leviathan is a big one that works better). I also appreciate the little half twist it puts on the reveal. The Dark Side options are a bit too stupid to want to go through with, and your party is mostly lightsided, anyway. Carth and Mission are higher on the alignment meter than the party's Jedi. Bastila and Juhani are definitely Jedi...just Jedi with some issues to work through. Zaalbar is generally a good boy, but very confused and easily led. Jolee protests he's neutral, but he's a textbook Chaotic Good. T3 is too new to have much of an opinion. Canderous and HK are dark-aligned, but even Canderous has a code of honor and a decent set of standards. HK-47 is just a psychotic nutcase. The second one? The Disciple is a character that fanfic cuts a better deal than the source material. His dialogue tree is bugged, and it's possible to max him out in a couple conversations. With the Handmaiden (available to the male character), you have a full-blown arc that ties right back to the bigger overall picture with Atris, Kreia, Malachor, and the Jedi. As for Dark Side? Well, few if any of the crew are nice people. Your first two human companions are as nasty as they get (Kreia's obvious, whispering poison in your ear the entire time, but Atton might actually be worse), setting the stage for the story. Through it all, NPCs ranging for Dantooine farmers, Telos Security personnel, and even the Jedi you have to find treat you like a monster. So might as well live down to it after a while. It helps that some of the Dark Side options are more manipulative bastard than crazy destructive. (Convincing a mother to sell herself into slavery to be with her daughter has to be one of the better ones)

First off: Greetings, Troper! I'm with you there. I play a Bounty Hunter, so my loyalty to these $%@@#$ extends only as far as their pocketbook. The first was running through the Black Talon. Here I was, just trying to hop a ride to Dromund Kaas. And I'm stuck with three Sith. And here's this arrogant scumbag of a Grand Moff putting an assassin droid aboard and telling us to go kill loyal Imperial soldiers if they weren't going to walk into an obvious trap. I did not beat the saber-swingers to the draw, and they butchered good, loyal, useful soldiers from their own side. Then, we board the ship and there's this gravely injured old man, a defector, being smuggled to the escape pods. And this Padawan kid that couldn't be older than Mako willing to lay her life down to buy that old man just a few more minutes. And the old man? He's talking about WMDs the sith have, bloody warfare. OK, I'm a Mercenary. War's good for business, but not the kind of war he was talking. I managed to beat the saber-swingers to the draw and ask the old man's life get spared (best I could do to honor him and the kid), but realize I probably condemned him to a lot worse than a painful death. Dromund Kaas wasn't much better. Couldn't stand everyone's attitude. More than once told someone to go do it themselves. (you want me to poison a bunch of alien slaves after you just called me "alien scum?" Screw you.) Spook wants me to shoot his boss. Guy wants me to shoot his own daughter. Imperial nobles are just as full of it as I suspected. Duchess and the Revanites were the only decent folk on that rock. With all that infighting, you wonder how the hell they managed to quit it long enough to invade the Republic. Plus, their capital is a pathetic little town compared the cities Republic core worlds, with a dirt road leading to the spaceport. But are they working on infrastructure? Nope. They're putting a bunch of slave labor into building momuments to the Darths' egos. But Mako and I need to eat, and we are trying to carry on the Old Man's dream of his stable winning the Great Hunt. Time to grit our teeth and keep going. The big "We're on the wrong damn side, Mako" moment, though, came on Balmorra. Not only are we there as invaders to make everyone's lives a living hell, but the incomptant twit of an officer wants me to undermine his more intelligent peers, no matter who or what gets hurt in the process. (Imperial Standard procedure, apparently. Keeps me employed, but just serves to make me hate them all the more). And then we get to run errands for Darth Lacris (geez, I wanted to beat the Consular to it and ventelate that shutta's head), who was just as competent as she was sane and merciful. And here was that renegade general from the Republic turned "mercenary" with a squad of men who were willing to fight to the death for this planet in defiance of the treaty everyone knows might as well be made of toilet paper. And when I faced down the general? He was willing to surrender if it spared the lives of his crew. It's what Braden would have done. Other time, other place, other client, and that guy could have been Braden. There are good people in the Empire, but they're wasted there, trampled underfoot by backstabbers, lunatics, and bloodthirsty thugs. They got lucky in catching the Republic off guard, but their luck isn't going to last, especially with their track record of infighting and lack of infrastructure. So, whatever I can do to speed it along...

I dunno. I'm playing a Bounty Hunter, Level 42, and up to Light III. I'm no angel. I hunt people for cash, but those people have usually done something to earn that price on their heads, and the clients will pay just as much for a carbonite block as a bloody corpse (less of a mess to cleanup). Several factors are involved. One, I'm playing a Miraluka hunter (Legacy unlocks FTW). Means the Imperials would just as soon see me in a slave labor camp or worse. But they need the services bad enough to hire some "alien scum" and I'd just as well shoot them as my target. Second, being Miraluka, I'm probably tracking that prey via the Force (the species doesn't use conventional sight), which means the Sith probably don't like me any more than I like them. Unfortunately, those backstabbing, racist, sexist, incompetant, crazed jerks are hiring. The only good thing I can say about those maniacs is that they're more reliable than the Hutts when it comes to paying bills. I thought that, by playing Imperial, I could see their point of view, maybe sympatize with them, see their point. My head's not fitting that far up my rear, and it's obvious to me that the Mando 'ade are getting scammed yet again. So if I can troll the Imperials or undermine them and still get paid? Win-win for me! The last factor? Well, Old Man Braden ran a good shop, as clean as you can get for the kind of work Hunters do. Means you capture when you can, make it quick and clean when you can't, and do not leave unnecessary collateral damage. The old man hired professionals, not butchers. You want a butcher, there are dozens of thugs on Hutta working cheap. The shop's still Braden's, he just ain't around to run it anymore, and I can think of no better way to honor the old man and flip the bird to his enemies than to carry on as though he's still in charge. (And if there is an opening in the Genoharadan, I'm signing on ASAP)

1) Class Quest expansion The class-neutral storyline stuff and the dailies can be fun, but there are SO MANY loose ends that you could build an entire single-player sequel around each one. Consular still has a boatload of diplomats, including a Voss Mystic charged with seeing the galaxy. The Knight beat back the Emperor, but we all know Darth Cthulu ain't staying down. Smuggler and crew probably left more property damage and ticked off law enforcement officials than the Blues Brothers. The Imperial Agent and Bounty Hunters effectively get options to turn on the Empire. How about a quest for Sith, either being approached by a secret order of light-siders who want a conclave with Gray Jedi to try and find a third way (light side) or hunting down heretics (Dark Side)? And if that wasn't enough, let's check out our companions or class quest characters. Felix Iresso still has a Sith time bomb in his head. Mako still probably has people in the SIS that would like her back. Scourge likely has factions of the Empire wanting to crown him or kill him (The Revanites might have put a price on his head after they get wind of what happened). Revel's made a lot of people mad, including some former commanding officers who might be in a position to make life very uncomfortable. LOTS to play with there. This is a potentially expensive and VERY time-consuming expansion, but we kinda need it. What separates this game from the pack is the storytelling. But it's so sad to reach level 50 and have all that wonderful class quest storyline all used up! They've had practice with having your early game decisions benefit you/bite you in the rear with Mass Effect, so it's feasible, though. 2) Better matchmaking system for PvP I've burned out on 55 PvP for the Pub side. Tired of queuing up, only to spend the next few hours getting steamrolled by fully-geared Imperial premades. Of course, I can switch to my Bounty Hunter and it's a lot more fun as the win/loss ratio is far more even and there's not as much emphasis on PvP gear when you're under 55. (It also does not help when PvP gear turns out to be far inferior to Flashpoint gear in every way except Expertise). 3) Pazaak and other mini games I'll admit, I miss Pazaak. I'll sometimes fire up KOTOR just to play a couple matches. Would really love to have player-versus-player Pazaak. Is it really true about legal issues preventing it from making a comeback? Swoop racing was also a lot of fun, and too bad they weren't able to put in the feature to upgrade bikes.

Being social on this game means I never get a chance to be bored! There's always someone I know that's on, or someone who needs help. Maybe my sister's on and she wants to team up for a little PvP. Or maybe my pal Spark is on - she's pretty new to level 55 and still gearing. Maybe Fearless Leader Xoza wants to take the guild on an ops run. Maybe some other guild could use a spare tank. Maybe some lowbie's hit trouble and can't find a second or third person for a 4 man heroic (sadly common at the hours I play which is 1-5AM PST) . Maybe some fellow's hit That One Boss and could use an extra hand (No, never played Jedi Knight. I've seen 75% of the story and killed the Emperor 4 times due to escort runs) I don't pretend to be uber-tank. I've got 162 gear, mostly. Couple 168 pieces, one 156, one 150 (because PvP gear bites compared to Flashpoint). What I've got is fully Mk-9 augmented with Resolve 28s (means I had to do plenty of grinding through the dailies and escort missions to afford it). I also plan to gear up my companions; Tharan and Nadia taking top priority. Anything left over, I can send to my Bounty Hunter (Level 41, all armor has Mk-6 slots due to the Consular picking up Augment kits before the level cap went up)

*snerk* On Bergen, I've run into a Tron and a Rinzler. Might be the same guy playing alts, but it gave Spark and I a good laugh (Spark's a pal I met on a Tron board I convinced to start playing). Appropriately, Rinzler's all in black and one of the nastiest guys you can run across in PvP. As for more Spaceballs? Well, I ran into a Trooper (Body Type 4) named Barph. I did tease him about being his own best friend. Spent a heroic seeing who could outquote the other on Mel Brooks movies. I've also seen a Commander Shepherd and Lieutenant Alenko running around (Troopers, tank and healer respectively), and a Juggnaut named Wrex (legacy name Urdnot, natch). Nice enough fellow running around calling himself RebelZhan, shoutout to Tim Zhan. There's also a guy named San-ta on the Pub side who just LOVES attacking gankers. I've run across a Sith Sorceress calling herself Fluttershy as well (who knew the little pony was on the Dark Side?). Guild names: Mos Eisley Cantina Ska Band. (Pub Guild, the name tells you the kind of high-energy folk it attracts) My Little Pwny (Imperial Guild, PvP) Renegades of Joker Squadron (Three cheers for more Mass Effect!)

I think they were removed because players had a hard time remembering which set outranked which set. I'll admiot to scratching my head and having to speak to all three vendors when I had commendations because the names were rather non-indicitive. That being said, the armoring was pretty and would work well on the Cartel market or (if they were feeling ambitious) as a reputation-based unlock for future expansions, like a Makeb-style run through the Tion Cluster or a planet of Rakata ruins. (I play for the story!)

Well, I'm running with my usual partner in crime, a Guildie who has the nickname "Medbay" (DPS Guardian). Aussie on the American server even before the migrations. Lovely lady, up for anything, still getting the hang of gearing. And I'll be the first to admit that I'm only a decent tank. I'll remember the basics (keep them angry at me so they ignore the healer, attack the big guy first so the DPS can deal with the minions, enable Kenetic Ward before charging) and a few tricks, but if work goes bonkers, it can be a couple weeks between even getting to play, much less running a flashpoint. Fool's Company's Guild Review put it best: Meridius may be the friendliest guild on Bergen, but we aren't the most elite. So, Medbay and Basic Tank throw ourselves into Group Finder for a basic run. We end up with a healer (I think he was Trooper) and a DPS Sentinel. Fair enough. Healer think he's hot stuff...maybe. Bit hard to read the stuff he was writing in chat with all the l33t speak and slang that put his age somewhere around 13. (And this is 2am - what are you doing up past your bedtime!) . The DPS? German guy. OK, his English wasn't great, but it was better than my rusty German. He apologized for the language barrier, and I admitted I knew enough German to understand him, and say things like "Clicken Sie hier!" L33t healer was getting fried (at least that's what it looked like from the gibberish he was posting). German guy had also never run this flashpoint before...ever. Medbay and I are cool with this. Healer rage quits. We queue up, but no nibbles - it's 2am. My version of Tharan beat their pair of Docs, so we ended up 3-manning the thing with a healer companion, the chat window a surreal combination of Australian English, American English, and German. Yeah, we got wiped a few times, but we managed to limp through.

Or, at the very least, don't put an 8 man team versus a 6. If one team has only 6, then the other team ought to be restricted to 6. Warzoning is only fun if both teams are equal matches.

One of the features I really like in SWTOR PvP is how they integrated a backstory into each and tie it into the bigger plot going on. Helps the immersion. To that end, something like a straight "capture the flag" is a classic, but wouldn't fit the theme. Pubs and Imps have been at each other throats for so many thousands of years that neither party would really give a gizaka's rump about a party running in and capturing a banner. They have bigger stuff to brawl over. In theory, you might be able to pull more than one prisoner at once. In practice, it would likely be too much bother, since your team also has to guard their own. Maybe freeing one puts the other cells on a 10 second lockdown to prevent a zerg rush/Battle of Alcatraz. Fair enough. I was thinking short distances only, but not so short as to require traveling in packs. Nasty trick - I like! I was thinking a fat purple or gold line at the entryways of your base, kinda like the Huttball goals. Cross the line with prisoner in tow, he's home safe. The toxic gas would be like the Huttball flame pits. There would be a pattern, and some visual warnings as to when it would start to blow, but the pattern wouldn't be as "regular" as a Huttball fire trap where only one side burns at a time. Yeah, the initial thought on the turrets was to throw a bit of a curveball into things. Say you have a good marksman who isn't in L55 Uber-PvP gear (still grinding away for a set). Put Squishy on a turret and we could have a guy who wins the game for his team without being ubergeared (or on lower levels, being lower level than his teammates). Oh, and the turrets would be neutral, meaning you might have to brawl the Juggernauts to keep them both from opening fire, or the Pubs grab both and manage to give the Imps a headache. Another element of risk versus reward - grab prisoner and hope you can make it across the bridge, or brave the elements. And for defenders - how many men do you risk going after the guy on the bridge, knowing it could send your team plunging?

Augments are a pain in the kiester to buy, but all those little things add up. I have two toons, neither has the necessary skill (I guess that's going to be my NEXT toon's skill). I wound up with a bunch of MK6 augment slots that...well, not so useful for my 55, but for my (at the time) level 30 Bounty Hunter? Sure, she could use those. The Tron armor from the Gree event also didn't look good on my Consular, but looks GREAT on my Hunter and equally good on Mako (especially with the customization I found). So, Hunter and Mako have augments on all their adaptable armoring. My Consular is still grinding for augmenting all her adaptable armoring, since it took me a while to find some clothing that didn't look like it came from Queen Amidala's garage sale. I wouldn't bother augmenting until/unless you find (or build) a nice set of adaptable armoring. Even then, just augment the armoring. Implants and earpieces are a lot more dodgy unless you're talking Elite or Ultimate.

Nope. Not a troll. Just the odd duck who honestly likes this one. Voidstar is my second favorite because there are a lot of different approaches you can take that still gets the job done. Alderaan can be fun if you have a good team and know how to call incomings. Denova can get a little dull sometimes, since you kinda know one team will get West, the other gets East, and everyone spends the rest of the match squabbling over mid. Huttball is my least favorite of the lot. Most of the time, it's a lot of smash and not a lot of strategy.

One I literally dreamed after a night's worth of warzoning: No Man's Land On an island in a remote area of Balmorra, the two factions have set up trenches and a bunker. Inside the bunkers are three prisoners of war. Your job is to charge the enemy bunker, rescue a prisoner, and escort them across a "no man's land" of environmental hazards, blast cannons manned by the enemy, and any enemy fighters who are on patrol. Goal: First to rescue all 3 prisoners, or the most prisoners in 15 minutes wins. 1) Prisoners are treated like Huttballs. You're attacking their escort, not them. If you kill a prisoner's escort, the prisoner is "recaptured" and teleported back to their cell. 2) Prisoners can be "handed off" to teammates like Huttballs, but only with direct line of sight and close proximity, say 30 meters. 3) You cannot stealth while carrying a prisoner, but stealthing into the enemy base to grab a prisoner is totally kosher. 4) You can be pushed, pulled, stunned, and the prisoner is hit with the same effect. 5) Freeing a prisoner triggers an alert notification like a bomb plant in Voidstar. 6) Crossing the threshhold into your base with a prisoner counts as "rescued." A rescued prisoner is out of the game and cannot be re-captured. 7) Between your base and the enemy base are several environmental hazards; a chemical river that will drain hitpoints when you cross it . You get pulled across, use a jump, or you take the damage when crossing. Add some random fire traps and/or vented, toxic gas for additional danger. Oh...and the turrets. 8) Turrets: These are like the ones in Colicoid war games. 2-3 to a side. A player can hop on one, point, and shoot an enemy player. The hits from these will hurt. Likewise, your men can hop on a turret and shoot back at the operators of the other turrets. This adds a touch for players who may not be uber-geared or heavily experienced to still play a contributing role to the warzone. That DPS Sage just became every bit as destructive as a Juggernaut by hopping on the turret, provided they can keep from getting killed.

I'll admit, having both is a touch redundant. But the hypergate? That one's actually my favorite. you can't get lazy guarding a node or going 4/4 camping all warzone. Each reset makes it a brand new ball game. I also like the multiple ways to win it. Sure, go for kills or go for orbs. Get sneaky and send all your stealthers to the other guy's pylon at 45 second mark to nab it at the last second. And early dominance is no guarantee that you'll keep it, whereas Alderaan is one where you pretty much know who'll win within 3 minutes. Doesn't hurt that the map itself is just stunningly beautiful. All those wonderful curves and color, all that moody atmosphere and the big shadow of the gate hovering over mid. (Guard duty is often a thankless task, but it has advantages sometimes!)

I keybind everything, but that's part because I've found it easier, especially with how fast PvP moves.