-Some QQers claim that this game heavily favors ranged classes, others say it heavily favors melee. -PTs, Maras, Juggs, Snipers, Sins, and healers are all FOTM / OP, apparently. (it's like Baskin Robbins in here) I'm sure there's more; keep 'em coming.

Lol, really Ham? You thought his post was "smarmy" and "arrogant?" That was one of the few reasonable posts in this thread. He was really supporting both sides of this asinine argument by taking the middle-of-the-road approach. Pre-50 pvp IS for practice, for learning your class. You slowly get used to playing a given character as you gain more and more abilities and talents. That doesn't mean that everyone who plays sub-50 pvp is a scrub, nor did he suggest that. Man, some people will fly off the handle about anything... I have just as much fun in both brackets. I play 50s pvp when I want better competition (and usually better teammates), and I play lowbies when I want to continue to learn how to play a new class. I've been playing more lowbies recently because I have 5 alts I've slowly been working on. It's taking me forever to level them because I keep jumping back and forth between them. (and playing other games; here's looking at you, Dishonored, you magnificent bastard you) I'm fine with that, though, because I'm enjoying the hell out of all of them.

Wait, what? I think you're mixing up your political stereotypes. It's supposed to be the far-left that picks berries in the woods. (stereotypes are often wrong, btw) I think people from all walks of life can agree that personal responsibility is a good thing. As it applies to this game, well... I don't really care about that. I just like to pvp and troll the forums while I, erm, take care of my morning constitutional. That's right: you all entertain me while I make stool. Thank you for that.

So, call me crazy, but I have a blast in both brackets. That being said, I probably like 50s more. I, for one, would much rather play in recruit gear than play without over half of my abilities. There are many times in lowbies where I really wish I had my interrupt, my energy management talents (here's looking at you, baby sniper o' mine), etc. While it's extra frustrating to have to play with braindead people in 50s, it is much rarer than pre 50s. Plus, the degree of stupidity you see in the lower brackets is much more intense in its slap-dickery. For example; VS, I drop west with 2 others, 5 drop east. Enemy ends up sending 5 west, so I call "5 west." I get focused down, but hey, it'll be ok, right? There's still 2 guys fighting at the door... "West Bomb planted." Then, a few seconds later a bomb gets planted at the east door, even though the rest of my team is still over there because they ignored the inc call. Of course better gear is better, but it's not as big of a factor as people would like to think. A good player (emphasis on "good") in recruit gear will contribute more to the team than a bad player in WH. I've seen this first hand watching my guildies gear up their alts. One started working on a deception sin before the 1.4 buff. In mostly recruit gear, he consistently out-damaged/out-objectived everyone besides the other guildie we were running with that day. This was because he is smart about choosing his targets. (especially important for deception sins before 1.4) Bank your comms pre-50, augment your BM/WH gear as you get it; spend 1 week only doing dailies with maybe 1-2 extra games a day thrown in, and you'll have full BM. (if you completed the weekly too, that is) If you're a competent player, it's not a painful experience at all, and it's infinitely easier than the good old RNG bag hunt.

I stopped reading here, because I couldn't stop wondering whether this is what they call "playing tag" in South Africa, Australia, or New Zealand.

RARGLEBLARGLE RAGEQUIT. Nah, I'm not too concerned with it, actually. Some days the bug doesn't happen to me at all. The days it has, we've managed to pull off some pretty impressive wins and incredibly close loses while outnumbered by 1-2 people. That's because I lucked out and got grouped with people who didn't quit at the first sign of trouble. I know that stuff can (and often does) happen that'll make you miss a WZ. Still, with just a bit of care on our part, we can counteract this bug until it gets fixed.

I'll put a bounty on the bounty board. I want that smug signage turned into kindling by dawn! It's gotta look like an accident, though. (I'd suggest using termites, maybe beavers)

Here's a simple way to alleviate the problem until it gets patched: (hopefully tomorrow) Don't queue for pvp and go afk. Long matches only take about 15 minutes; if you don't have 15 minutes to spare, don't queue. If you miss a queue because you ran to the restroom/ went to grab a drink/ got the urge to bake a casserole/ whatever, exit out of the queue when you get back to your computer. Yes, this annoying issue shouldn't be an issue to begin with, but it looks to be very preventable. Do your part to prevent it, please.

Those 3 guys deserved to win for tying your score. Seriously though, ick; that's pretty lame right there. Just take it out on Cheld, Phael, and that dirty, dirty squirrel for not insta-grappling the other team back into the match.

Had a VS game tonight where we got the bridge faster than them; we won and got credit for 3 games played. You guys need to use that bug instead.

Oooo, got a new one. Best way to start off a CW: Everybody go mid and west, we don't need our side turret. Why is that guy sighing in chat and running east? Oh well, we'll just keep fighting mid. We should probably make sure to ignore the healers up top and let them do their thing. Oh darn, we weren't able to kill anyone at mid for some reason. That's OK, we have 2 guys who kept them from taking west. We'll go help them and completely abandon east. Huh, that same guy said he'd defend east for some reason; how odd. We should probably ignore the turret at west, though. Let's let them cap it even though there are at least four of us still here. Gee, why didn't we win the game?

What's more stylish: hard-wear or soft-wear? I just can't choose!

The best way to start a VS match is as follows: Send 5 guys east to fight 3 people, 3 west to fight 5 people. Be glad that the baddie who calls out "5 west" dies first so he can't watch the door. Ignore his call, and while you're at it, ignore both doors so the other team can immediately plant on both of them. Continue ignoring calls for the rest of the match.

If you wanna be really stylish, wear some Rare-wear, aka a red tie and a gorilla suit; accessorize with bananas. edit: This post will make no sense unless you go to the end of page 17. Even then, it will only make marginal sense.

I think this is what people tend to neglect in these threads. Now, I would argue that the number of cheaters (especially in the months since 1.2) is insignificant enough that many people (like me) have never had to deal with them. The important thing, though, is that those few who do resort to cheating are punished in a timely fashion. Out of curiosity, I did a search for "swtor cheating bans". One of the first links that popped up was a forum for hacks and such. Within, there were many posters talking about getting banned for cheating. What was especially telling, though, was that manyof these cheaters weren't using obvious speed hacks in pvp, but had used bots to run space missions. (there were also your run-of-the-mill pvp cheaters complaining about getting banned, too) So, not only does BW catch what few pvp cheaters pop up, they also catch cheaters that are never observed by other players. If you think someone is cheating and report them, they will get banned IF they are actually cheating. The problem is that in many of these threads, there are people who simply don't understand how all the classes and specs work. These people file erroneous reports without checking their combat logs or doing any research / testing to see if what they experienced was actually a legitimate ability or a common bug. They then come to the forums to vent, and nothing constructive is accomplished. If you're not going to take the time to check your facts before reporting someone, please be smart enough to at least be discreet about your possibly frivolous reporting. Just suck it up and acknowledge the possibility that you were simply outplayed. If the person you reported was hacking, they will be punished. If not, re-read two sentences back.

Naw, you, the patch notes, and the in-game vendors are all lying.

Yeah, we just need to get rid of that baddie Hedley and we'll be in good shape.

Well, to be fair, Bantha Milk poisoning is no laughing matter. That ish will make you trip balls if you're not careful. [This message is approved by Mothers Against Bantha Milk]

As far as early plants go: I've only had it happen once to me, but I believe it was a bug. (this was pre 1.2) I'm not sure exactly what happened, but my team either all got loaded into the game late or our door didn't open at the buzzer. I've also seen an enemy team get caught in their spawn at the start of a match. I'm not sure if they were just being slow and missed it or if a similar bug happened to them. The other case I've heard of is an old exploit where the attackers could jump out of their spawn early. I think BW moved around whatever they were using to hop up and over, AND they made it so anyone who still managed to slip through would get blown up instantly. Maybe there's still some way to 'sploit it up, but I haven't heard any mention of it.

You silly billy Lego, you're helping prove my point. My point was not that hacks don't exist in this game, it's that there are too many people who cry foul when they lose because they often don't understand legitimate game mechanics. Cheating in this game is possible, but it is rare to the point that many people have never had to deal with it. (such as me) Most cases of speed hacks and the like were in the first months of the game. Since 1.2, BW has significantly improved the security of the game. Both then and now, actual cheaters were punished, and repeat offenders were banned. I love when people claim someone must be hacking because they either say they don't or say they haven't seen any cheats first hand. Sure, a cheater probably won't admit to cheating. However, someone who is, in fact, a legitimate player will also tell you that they don't cheat. Food for thought. My anecdote about my guild and I being accused of hacking was simply to illustrate that there are more false accusations flying around than real hacks. I'm not "trying hard to defend" anyone because my guild and I don't need defending. We just find it amusing when people mistake good play and teamwork for cheating. I agree with every other sane person and advocate reporting someone who's behaving suspiciously. However, starting an in-game / forum witch hunt when you have no real proof accomplishes nothing - and, as I said, makes you look childish. If you see something that looks like shenanigans, go ahead and file a report. However, it'd be better if you took a bit more time to check the combat logs / do some research on different abilities and talents before you file an erroneous complaint. (Hint: there are a lot of things out there that effect movement speed, CC immunity, etc that are not hacks) Should you choose to go with the knee-jerk reaction and immediately cry wolf, don't be surprised to find out that the other person was actually playing fair.

Actually OP, you wrote: Nothing about them running. So, were they airborne or on the ground? If they were flying over gaps, then yes, it was probably jet storm. If they were on the ground and running faster than normal, there's a good chance that they had a sentinel nearby to give them a speed boost. (whatever the Repub equivalent of Predation is called) Perhaps they were hacking, in which case they'll get banned because speed-hacks are stupid easy for BW to catch now, but my guess is you're over reacting. As far as voidstar goes, there have been and maybe still are well-known bugs that have caused people to spawn farther ahead than they should, where they can plant bombs on the back-side of doors. (I haven't seen this in a long time, though) You only come across as petulant and hurt your own argument when you accuse people of hacking just because they say they haven't seen any hacks. I've been playing for close to 9 months now, and I've never seen a hack. My guild and I have been accused of hacking several times by people who overreact. None of us have been banned because none of us hack. I'm not saying it's impossible to hack this game; it's just not as easy or as widespread as people make out. I think the real problem is you're setting yourself up for a loss with that name. Too bad "Legowin" doesn't have a good ring to it.

Well, I probably wouldn't mind having a more user-friendly design for consumption, but I don't really mind the way it works now. (especially with my tasty new insta-heal) I do really like the idea of having a stronger version of the spell, though. Make it 4x as powerful and instantly give the max 4 stacks of degenerated force, maybe make it unaffected by force surge to keep it from being abused.

Positioning yourself and mobs in pve is very easy. Start walking one way and the mobs will follow you, all while staying in front of you. You can also hit more of the ranged mobs that don't move as much with the new 15m range, or you can simply train the melee mobs close to the ranged ones and overload the whole group. Quite frankly, the new overload and the reduced range on electrocute have done nothing to hurt the pve side of things for us. Overload still gives us more room/ stuns weak mobs and electrocute is still good for stunning stronger mobs. For pvp, I actually think the new overload is better, and the reduced stun range is very manageable considering the buffs we got and the range reduction on most other classes' stuns.

Seconded. I'd even say that I like the new overload better.

Not I, but oh my! That sounds pretty lame there, guy. Five more syllables. Seriously though, I haven't had any straight up misfires, only cases of me misjudging distance. Maybe there's something janky about your connection, or maybe it's an actual bug. I certainly wouldn't recommend taking it off of your quickbar, though. 20% is better than 0%, after all; fortunately for me, my Overload is fully operational.