Another thing I noticed is that my protection numbers have dropped since 2.0 went live. I expected them to up as damage has gone up. Something just really seems to be amiss in regards to this class. Even accounting for the nerfs, it just seems to me that a lot of numbers are "off" somehow

Early reports look like this from what I've seen/heard/read: Crit > 25% Surge > 70% Accuracy > 95 to 100% (I think there's going to be a lot of debate on this) After hitting those marks, main stat/power. I have not heard anyone other than BW claim that alacrity is now a great stat to have. Too much sacrifice in other stats for very little return from what I've seen. I don't claim that these are THE perfect stats, this is really an opinion based on current gear values and observations. I would expect a lot more (and probably better) information to surface over the next few weeks as people min/max with the new gear and formulas.

We all know about the nerfs so I'm not even going to start. I'm just curious to see if anyone is continuing to play/gear their VG and see what kind of numbers they're hitting on crits/attacks. I can't help but notice that my commando is critting for 8k to 9k, my sentinel is hitting for 8k to 9.5k while my VG is still hitting for 5.5k to 6k (HIB). I'm not fully min/max in conqueror but I was expecting at least a little bump just going to 2.0. Everyone's HP is up at least 20% and crit numbers (damage/healing) seem to be up across the board. However, VG assault damage is just not moving in the right direction to make me want to keep playing. I have seen a 7k crit on a rail shot with stacked relics on proc, but what are the odds that's going to happen very often (well, never after they fix the stack on proc relics). So, if we now time our sticky grenade with a rail shot and happen to crit we *might* be able to sniff the crit damage that a sent/guardian can basically output on demand with an autocrit. As others have noted, I can still put up pretty stats at the end of a match, but I'll gladly trade my dots for some kind of burst. Is anyone else having better luck? And again, yes, I know about all the nerfs but HIB crit'ing for the same damage pre and post 2.0 just seems a bit off. Hmmm, maybe it'll all get fixed with the bolster...yeah, that's the ticket.

Dunno why but this cracked me up. Well played sir

It has made gunnery fun to play in unranked WZ's, but I still don't see it as a viable class in ranked. Everything still revolves around grav/tracer. As soon as you fire off your first shot in a ranked match you will most likely be the number 1 target. Damage potential is now higher than VG/PT while being just as easy to kill. Gunnery will work against unorganized pugs, but I just don't see it working against quality teams. Assault got the same nerf as VG/PT so I would say that's gonna be off the table. I'll say medic is a *maybe* since I've never been good as a commando healer. Overall, the class is improved and there may be some teams willing to take a very high skill player in as a merc/commando. Until gunnery is completely rebuilt though, I see it as a weak slinger/sniper that you can leap to and interrupt easily. Once the commando goes on the run, damage potential drops to almost nothing and it becomes a burden on the team to keep you alive until you can start casting again. My personal idea for a fix (pre 2.0) was to put a skill in the assault tree making charged bolts insta-cast with adjusted damage. You could have proc'd rail shots like a PT/VG and been playing with the big boys. Oh well, still much more fun to play.

I would also like to see a dev comment on this too. I was expecting crafting/gathering to be repaired in this patch. I was very disappointed to see nothing in the notes.

This is a good piece of information. I believe that I was in fact misunderstanding its freedom from the GCD. If I can pop an HIB and then stack a rocket on top during the 1.5 GCD then that should add some much needed punch. Thanks for the constructive feedback.

Let me spec in to an ability called "overload" that fires all missiles at once. Then the shoulder cannon becomes awesomesauce. As it is, I tend to agree that it's pretty meh in comparison to the other new abilities. The damage is mediocre and I just don't see it making a difference in high end pvp. As someone noted previously, it can/will make a difference in guarding a node/door/pylon. It would be better if the range was greater than 10m. Seriously, who fires a missile at someone 10m away?

/signed I didn't spend much time on the PTS and it was a bit of a shocker when this went live. Don't get me wrong, hold the line is a nice ability but giving it to all troopers kind of spat in the face of everyone who played tactics. The shoulder missiles come off as a gimmick and simply don't make up for the burst that was gutted from AP. The sad part is that they could have just left VG/PT alone while most other classes got brought up in DPS. Instead, the scales have shifted so far in the opposite directions that they've now made an entire class (not just advanced class) unplayable for high end PvP. The commando/merc buffs were nice, but everything still revolves around grav spams which basically turns them into a lame sniper that anyone can leap to and interrupt. I don't feel that I even have to address assault tree for commando as it got the same nerf as VG. I'll probably try to do some more testing with commando but I just can't imagine quality pvp'ers allowing someone to stand there and spam gravs/missiles when they are so easily shut down. A gunnery commando on the run is going to be useless and that's what they'll be doing (assuming they survive choke/smash long enough to even move) Oh well, that's my QQ for the day. I guess I'll go back to my self loathing sentinel to smash it up like the devs want me to.

Shout out to all the pvp'ers playing naked per Bioware's design and programming. Play by the rules that are given, if the rules are f'd up, then you gotta do what you gotta do. Hating on people for playing naked is like hating on people for wearing pvp gear in 1.7. You put on (or take off) whatever provides the best stats...period.

Well, occasionally things happen in the world of playing video games that require people to act like a 12 year old girl on Facebook who just broke up with her boyfriend. The events that have occurred to me over the last week require me to act in such a way. I find myself staring at the beautiful daisies outside and wondering what to do with my life. Please help me decide what to do with myself because the world has become too sad and confusing to move forward without the help of the wonderful swtor forum community. I am known as ShloMoJoe and I come from a very long lineage of MMO gaming history. I started off in the world of Ultima Online and will admit now, after many years of silence, that I was actually the person who poisoned the blade that once killed Lord British. I was a young and foolish lad back in those days. Many regrets have piled up during my life as a gamer. My main profession was being a bard in those times. I would entertain all the beasties of the land with my epic tales. I’ve since played many other games, and finally found myself best suited to be that guy that has a lot of health and gets beat up on at the front of the group. I think most people refer to that role as punching-bag, but I’ve heard others call it a tank though that never made much sense to me. So, in time, people just started to call me “Punchy”, and boy could I take a beating like no other. By the way, I also wanted to share that I come from Canada and was born with a vestigial tail. I’m very proud of my tail and enjoy playing puppy-dog with my girlfriend. I like to make jokes about my tail, but please be aware that you can only make jokes about tails if you have one. But anyway, I had been playing swtor for over a year and I thought that I had finally found a guild where good old Punchy would be embraced and I could happily wag my tail. I personally enjoy a good RP-PVE experience where we’re all playing at a high level and getting in to our characters. I like to take down difficult end game content while Punchy entertains his mates with tales of galactic space travel. Everything seemed to be going okay, until some bad thing happened. Something bad just always seem to happen doesn’t it…. I woke up one day after not having logged in for a few weeks, ready to take Punchy in to glorious battle, only to find that I was no longer a member of my beloved guild. Instead, I received I big mean message and a link that outlined a new direction for the guild. It was a droopy tail day to say the least. I have changed the names to protect the innocent, though in this case, clearly innocence has been lost. The following message had been posted explaining the circumstances of several members having been removed from the guild: “Greetings future, past, and present members of Gx Fxxx YxxxxxxF. Undoubtedly news has met you regarding the recent changes made to create a reduction in the competitive future for our guild. This announcement is designed to elaborate on any communication you’ve received regarding how you were impacted as we made this adjustment to our membership base. I will do my best to message the delicate topic of both thanking and dismissing some members who have helped recreate the guild as well as refocus those remaining FxxxxxS towards a singular focus moving forward. To understand why there is a need for change you have to first see where the FxxxxxS come from. We come from a gaming experience where mediocrity was expected at all levels of the game. Learning your class, skills, and each other meant nothing to the overall success of the guild. Being good or even above average was simply not acceptable. It should mean nothing to be a FxxxxR, and over time we’ve lost that as a collective whole, but more specifically the leadership team lost focus of what that meant. The reality is we’ve accidentally recruited some quality players in to the guild. We used to just swing an invite to any chode that knew how to put on a pair of pants, but recently we started to actually evaluate players before sending an invite. Accurately, it’s been said that the FxxxxxS have some of the most average and underachieving players on the server, but have a handful of quality players that may accidentally give the idea that we are more than just average. Previously our allies had the assurance that when grouping with any FxxxxR they’d be playing with one of the most average players on the server, or possibly the game. As a guild leadership group we’ve worked diligently to implement smaller changes to help change the culture and inspire others to not log in for weeks or wear leveling greens at all times. These efforts have been met with mixed participation after spending many hours developing plans to move our guild toward the dead center. Ultimately, we’ve lost who we are and it’s time to refocus. Do not mistake the above paragraph as averageism. The term has never been associated with our guild and never will be. We have always been the same fun loving group of chodes who enjoy each other’s company, but who enjoy wiping equally. We have a rich history of Star Wars MMO experience that spans 1000’s of years of guild leadership and we will continue to grow our core moving forward with members who match the quality of those remaining. The Council has determined that adjusting who is within our membership is necessary to create an intentional focus on getting back to what Gx Fxxx YxxxxxxF used to be, and creating an opportunity to focus on achieving our goal. Today, on the 3rd of March in the year of our Lord 2 thousand and thirteen at 11:15 o’clock, approximately 12.5 quality members have been removed from our guild. This was not an overnight decision. Our guild leadership did not let this happen abruptly or without delicate care and consideration as to how to move forward. There has been much deliberation, and conversations on what change needed to take place, but one thing was clear … the Council agreed that a change was necessary. I personally want to thank every member, past and present, which helped in shaping who we have become in the new gaming platform, and more importantly helping shape what we will become moving forward. A message for those who have been removed… We wish you the best of luck in your gaming experience and in finding a new guild that matches you. Since finalizing our removal list I have reached out to fellow guild leaders and will provide them a list with individual recommendations to assist you in this journey of finding a new home. I know that this offers little consolation, but it is my hope that you find a new home that fits you and your play style. Moving forward we will be redefining our recruitment standards, and as previously stated only be adding painfully average individuals who meet the mediocre standards of our remaining members. If at some point in the future you decide that you would like to reapply and be reassessed for guild membership, we will respect your decision and do so without prejudgment. It is our hope that all of you take some time away from the game, lose touch with how to gear your characters and let your skills diminish to the point that you will fit within our ranks. Those who meet the new standards will be readmitted and follow the normal recruitment path from that point forward. From this day forth, we shall be known on this server as the most unremarkably average group of PvE players that have ever stepped foot within an MMO. We shall spend all of our time wiping on bosses, and all of our credits on a never ending repair bill. If at some point in time it may look like we will progress past a boss, I will personally stand in the fire until the raid is wiped. I will soak up damage that no healer can handle, and in turn everyone else shall perish due to my own actions. To all my remaining brothers and sisters within the average guild of Gx Fxxx YxxxxxxF, I give to you our new battle cry: “STAND IN THE FIRE!!!!!” If you have any questions, please contact me or some other person, it really doesn’t matter because we probably don’t have the answers anyway.” Clearly, they are trying to play this off like they’re just trying to let the rest of us go and pursue our own desires such that we can enjoy the game experience as much as possible. But clearly, I tell you that this is a case of averageism!!! They have singled out us quality players, like Punchy and my good friend D-bag (he’s a DPS’er). The community should all turn against this band of averageist FxxxxxS. I can’t believe that someone would behave this way. I think it would be so much more logical to create some sort of vision statement where you might, I don’t know, want to try to be the best at one particular aspect of the game. Then, perhaps let go of the people who were not interested in that particular type of game play so that they could go do whatever it is that they wanted to do within the game to make themselves happy and get the most enjoyment from the game. That sounds totally logical right? Don’t you all think so? Anyway, I’m sure that there are many here who will not take my post seriously and may try to make fun of my glorious vestigial tail. Of you are one of those jerks, then perhaps you too would be a good candidate to join the ranks of Gx Fxxx YxxxxxxF. To all you people and to all the remaining guild members, I will let you listen to a song sung by me and some of my brothers as inspiration and remembrance: http://youtu.be/27-mI1FTJRw Strong are you in the force, but always remember: It takes a big man to cry….but it takes an even bigger man to laugh at that man. My name is ShloMoJoe (aka Punchy) and I endorse this message. Have a nice day

Wait a minute? Are we now saying that it's socially acceptable to try to put together a guild with people who only like to do PvP ..... with other people who also like to do PvP ..... and want to try to do it at a high level !?!?!? no.....just.......no Seriously though, Zenod is good people, even better when he's playing a Shadow

My six month old rant lives again.....muahahahaha I hope someone necros it again in another six months

Yeah, face-tankers in PvP drive me crazy too. Those guys need to stick to PVE so they can stand still and execute memorized robotic fights. That was the point of this thread right? or did I miss something?

I've been following this off and on and must admit that I have not read every single post 100% so I apologize if I'm re-stating something here (or missed something obvious). Going back to the original post, what I'm seeing is a guy that does. 0.7% more damage to a guy with 2.7% more health....and the apparent conclusion is that it's better to die?? The pictures are somewhat blurry on my screen, am I misreading the HP numbers? I understand that PvP is not 1v1, but the delta here appears to favor the lower EXP value. I know people have talked about "feeling squishy", but apparently all things being equal, this looks like it's going to be close to a wash as most healers are only going to "top off" someone's health if/when the fighting has slowed down. If nothing else, I would think that one would have to ponder long and hard whether it's worth getting the EWH mainhand/offhand if you're running a lot of toons and gearing them out via legacy. Now I've looked back a bit further and see simulations showing that the lower EXP build should be outputting more damage. Sooooo...I'm now seeing a player with higher damage output, and what would appear to be enough additional HP to offset the damage mitigation lost by the EXP reduction. Is this still an argument?

I have noticed this a few of times as well. I can understand lag, but there have been a few matches when there has been "isolated" lag. Part of the team notes a huge lag spike while the rest of the team says that they did not encounter any lag. At the end of the spike, the people in the area of the lag tend to be dead or near death while the opposing team has taken no damage. Just reading this I would say it's total BS to have isolated lag in this manner, but the fact that it happened 3 times in one night and all 3 times against the same premade tends to make me raise an eyebrow

The answer to whether or not any of these questions will actually be responded to by a BW/EA rep can be most accurately addressed by asking another question. Do any of the original questions have anything to do with EA making money on cartel items? I'll leave the answer blank because I don't want to ruin the surprise.

The first statement does not compute. You don't want a buff, but you would like to have extra tools? I personally still enjoy playing my commando and run unranked WZ's with him. However, I will fully acknowledge beforehand that the class is gimped and I have to put in way more effort to keep up with other classes. That being said, I can often put up top damage with the exception of some derps and VG's. It sounds like you're pretty much in the same boat. So, why call for a nerf on PT/VG? Is it because it's the other AC from the same base class? Also, if you're outdamaging everyone else, what's to keep them from saying "nerf merc/commando"? There's going to be some parity between classes any way you cut it. If every class has the ability to output the exact same damage with the exact same tools, then what's really the point of playing different classes? I also don't recall seeing any suggestions other than to warm up the nerf bat. You've got a beef with a specific class (that you supposedly play), but don't really explain what you want done other than nerf. Any ideas on how you would like to nerf your companion class so that you can reign supreme on the DPS charts and have PT's cry out for a merc nerf?

I have to wonder as another did, how does nerfing one class help another? Everyone knows that Merc/Commando are weak PvP classes. That was my first toon and I've since rolled 3 new ones for PvP purposes. I've also been able to 1v1 plenty of PT's with my commando, some of which are pretty good. I think commando could be brought up to a higher level if charged bolts was changed to insta-cast with an adjusted damage. This would proc more rail shots and beef up dps. Full auto would still require a cast time which should help balance the range vs. damage. On a side note, I don't get why people refuse to play certain classes or trees "out of principle". This is a game of numbers, and leaving 200k+ damage on the table out of principle is silly. "derp..I like to play a bad PvP class that puts out less damage because I rolled it first and it's more challenging to underperform..derp". <-- That guy is worse than the smashers, at least they have the sense to use the system to their advantage. So, in the future, if you have a gripe about your class, why not discuss buffing/adjusting your class to bring it in line with what you feel is acceptable rather than cry for nerfs of another class that is outperforming you? Also, for the record, PT's and vanguards are just as squishy as commandos/mercs. Their "defense" is basically bursting people down faster. However, the healer is probably going to put more effort in to the PT since, you know, he's playing the class that can do more damage instead of clinging to principles.

Bubble stun fix: The stun effect shall only be applied to the caster. This should be applied when derp is fixed/nerfed/refined Derp smash fix: Provide a CD/proc time on the autocrit and/or reduce the window of time for the autocrit....or....change the ability to single target damage. I think derp is a much bigger problem than stun bubbles in the grand scheme of things. However, it would appear that BW created a poor mechanic to counter a specific problem rather than fixing the problem. I'm not trying to derail the topic, but I don't think you can look at the bubble stun problem without also addressing the derpsmash problem.

I think this sums it up nicely. Watchman is pretty dead in PvP and combat is getting shut down by the bubble spec. I think a quality group will still be running a focus/combat pair and combat numbers will bump back up after the bubble stun is fixed.

I think anyone who implies that this isn't an issue most likely hasn't actually seen it executed. Capping from the corner does make sense, you're obviously shielding yourself from site and damage (interrupt). The issue is that some people clip their bodies in to the bunker wall and cap so that all you really see is a sliver of the leg/arm/head. There have been times that I was staring in the bunker wondering *** is going on when I see a small sliver of a person capping. They are hard to see/target and this is without a doubt a glitch/exploit. I even know specific people on my server that do this every match. They know it's a glitch and they are trying to use it to get a cheap cap against people that don't know to look for a person that's clipped in the wall. This should have been fixed months ago and it continues to blow my mind that such a simple issue can't get fixed.

I tend to agree. I've seen full WH on either side that are completely worthless. They simply put in a lot of time to get the comms. The easier solution is to suck it up for a few days, get a full set of augmented BM and go compete. WH can be a long grind and it boggles my mind why people refuse to augment their BM gear. It makes a big difference and you're going to get the augments anyway for your WH set. This greatly reduces the "gear gap". Now, if you're going up against a skilled player who bought an extra 12 pairs of WH gloves to min/max their gear, all I can say is.....sorry about that

The Fatman got merged ?!? I remember at one point reading that the Fatman was the last chance for success because everyone was rerolling on to that server. Perhaps they did not want to mess with the higher population servers while preparing the MEGA population servers. Strange days...

No argument here, but I thought the first merge handled that issue. I guess my point was that I was surprised to see a further reduction in servers. Perhaps I have misunderstood and the purpose of this was to force the remaining holdouts from the dead servers on to new servers so they could officially shut them down. Did the amount of "destination" servers (or active servers I guess) actually remain the same ?