There never being good Melee vs Melee fights in MMO's.

You are misconstruding the suggestion. By making Smash hit your target and the closest mobs next to you (not the closest to your target, but closest to you), it would function exactly the same way as now except it would always land on your target in addition to your surroundings. Current system = No target check, hits enemies in AE at time of casting. New system = 5 meter target check + hits target + hits enemies in AE at time of casting.

They need to reduce the range on lighting/rocks or put it on a cool down...

Simple solution: Make Smash hit your selected target in melee range as well as 3 additional surrounding enemys. Problem solved.

What's funny is your indignation over violonce in a video game when I'm guessing you pay taxes to the Fed...

Impossible. She only uses double bladed.

Win^ PS. Its funny people feel entitled to superior veteran attitudes for a game that's been out a month...

My Jugg is level 47 and I have never used Quinn. For a long while I used Vette and later switched to Jaesa. In my experience Vette is better DPS while Jaesa is a better tank which is useful for bosses, I now switch back and forth depending on the fight. The whole key to success with out having heals is using your companion as a tank to start the fight. I have companion attack bound to my "Y" key. Put them on the hardest mob at the very begining so they pull the pack's aggro and initial focus fire, then use your AE dps cooldowns to clear the weaker mobs, saving your CCs to tank the hardest mob. Let your companion keep agro on the hard mob as long as possible and then taunt off them when they are around 10% (usually you will pull aggro through dps by now, but just in case, you want to avoid losing the companion's dps and having to rez them) Be careful doing this on bosses who AE, you may want to leave your companion 25% or more so they can live to dps the entire fight. Another important thing is to assign the right attacks for your companion for the right fights. Its a waste of dps and utility to have Vette's grenade or Jaesa's AE sweep active for a 1v1 boss fight, but not having these active for a big pack pull can make their dps useless. Overall its probably more "complicated" then having a heal bot, but I enjoy it. In open world pvp I find Vette and Jaesa to be amazing at killing other people's heal bot companions while I fight the player, usually their companion is dead half way through the fight, and now I'm getting my companion's dps bonus on top of my damage while they squirm trying to figure out why their heals are not working.

People seem to be confused. Gear does not mean you are good, it means you play a lot. Having gear should not let you beat other players in Pvp just because they grinded less then you, that is what Pve is for. The whole point of Pvp is to test your skill against real people instead of NPCs because humans are the best competition. Having better gear then your opponent in this case is actually a HANDICAP meaning it takes less skill to win which really means you suck and missed the whole point of Pvp in the first place. If they made the best PvE gear = the best PvP gear for both pvp and pve, it would actually be MORE skill based then just rewarding PvPers. In conclusion, you are wrong, everyone here is now dumber for having read your thread, I award you no points, and my God have mercy on your soul.

Its not too big a deal right now. Getting Battlemaster isn't impossible, give it another month and more 50's will be geared out, then real balance can start to occur based on player testing and feedback. I think the bigger issue is if in the future they expanded the pvp gear BEYOND Battlemaster, which would further the gap into "unbalanced for new 50's" territory. It also makes balancing the classes more difficult. This has happened in WoW and AoC. I hope that IF more pvp gear IS added, it is the same stat values as Battlemaster but with new appearences and specialized stat allocation for different pvp builds. This would allow development to expand OUTWARDS in a level playing field with more customization rather then UPWARDS with a tier system alienating new 50's and alts alike. It would also make it easier to balance the classes for pvp, having a general statistical starting point when making adjustments that doesn't need to be reconsidered every gear content update. Vanity items could be offered for ranks beyond Battlemaster that do not effect your stats but serve as reward and prestige for veteran Pvpers. Some ideas off the top of my head; Access to a "Veteran's PvP Hall", new unique tattoos / eye effects, new unique companion customizations, unique colored crystals, cooldown reductions on fast travel, an Ilum transportation device, unqiue combat emotes, anything that is just "cool" that doesn't unbalance the baseline Pvp stats and abilities for each class. I hope Bioware can learn from past MMO's mistakes, creating too many new tiers of Pvp gear (building vertically and not outwardly) actually makes balancing a game more difficult. It hurts new players. It alienates people from playing more then one class, which limits game knowledge within the community as well as acurate feedback for developers. My 2c as a 12 year pvper.

Its time I wrote out how I feel about world pvp in MMOs. What's working, what's not working, and what I would hope to see in the future from developers. The biggest problem, or "trend", facing mmo development is having the wrong goals in mind when approaching the monster that is World pvp (Wpvp). The "complete world objectives for rewards" system is the predominant folly that comes up time and time again. Lets look at this concept a little closer and learn why it doesn't work in creating good Wpvp. Q: What is a world objective? A: Well, it is a predetermined place or thing which players are supposed to interact with. Q: Why should players interact with and complete a "world objective"? A: It gives them a reward. Q:What is a "reward"? A: Well, typically it is a statistical improvement to their character through items or experience progression. What does this remind us of? PVE Now don't get me wrong, this system works very well for PvE, it also works well in small scale PvP, which is why we see MMO developers try to implement it in every situation. "Lets just put PvE it in a PvP zone like a first person shooter, they will love it." This will work right? Well, it does work on a small scale, but it won't work for World PvP. Why not? There are two reasons: 1. The "do an objective to get a reward" system is linear. 2. People aren't mobs. So what do these mean? Independently these are very simple statements we can all agree on, but the implication of them combined is what eludes developers. You cannot set up a reward system which is linear and expect the "game" to continue on forever. One side will eventually "win" the game. Why is this a problem? Because people aren't mobs. Getting rez camped is not fun, it does not promote good ongoing pvp. The reason this linear objective for reward system works in pve and small scale pvp is because those systems are designed to have an "end". Its okay to get pad camped in a Capture the Flag Map, the other team will eventually make their last cap or time will run out, and the game will end. "You win some you lose some" as the saying goes, and it works well on a micro scale. Heres the crux. World pvp is supposed to be large, continious, on going, having no end. How then can players play endlessly within a linear system desgined to be "completed"? They can't, it doesn't work. The answer to this problem is so simple it hurts. Instead of a linear system, what's needed is a circular system, one that balances the push and pull, or ebb and flow of two competing forces. Balancing ebb and flow between contesting forces while making the experience both enjoyable and rewarding at all times for individuals on each side should be the goal of a good Wpvp system. Like most things in life, this is easier said than done. Resurection systems and map design, risk and reward vs objective and reward systems, more to come.. I'll finish writing it up this weekend. -Micks

Seeing lots of new faces Republic side

Greetings fellow PvPers! I am extending an invitation to any and all players interested in a fresh start on a more balanced server. Come roll republic on RP-PvP server Jung Ma. The server is still favored empire in population, but not as drasticly as other servers I'm hearing about. We have back and forth fights in Ilum, regular minis popping on both sides, and a great community. Bring your friends, guilds, kids, spouses, whomever! If the PvPers interested in playing republic work together moving to this server we would have 1:1 population in a week's time. The power is in your hands! May the Force be with you.