Oh, it's been going on for a long time already, every patch making the game easier and the choices lesser. The game was in easy-mode from the beginning compared with older games like for example Everquest or Ultima Online or other games, where choices had real consequences and dying was painful in losing levels / xp / all items on you and there was real world pvp. Taking away the skilltrees that allowed people to choose a fully individual character and replacing it with a few perks to choose from, making teleporting around commonplace by reducing quicktravel cooldowns every other patch and removing the requirements of discovering the destinations first, making all mounts upgrade automatically according to speeder licence etc. was bad enough and uncalled for. Now in the latest patch they make every armor you find fitting to your class by making all armor adaptive (adaptive armor is crap for any RPG anyways) and replacing main stat with a common single stat. They also remove the requirement of actually taking care of your companions and equipping them with the correct and fitting items (I've actually seen a lot people equipping their companions with their old items even if they used a different stat or only using green items they found). People who actually geared up their favourite companions with items that made them really strong are now punished in comparison. I've spent a lot of my time gearing up my character perfectly, min-maxing everything, gearing up my companions, only now to be levelled with the most moronic of all players that used to run around in green items. Crafting is ruined by simplification, furthermore the reason for training up skills removed. I trained up synthweaving mostly to be able to craft intelligence mainstat augments so I wouldn't need to buy them and have an item in high demand on the market. A complete overhaul of the system was completely unnecessary and a waste of manpower. To be continued after lunch ...

Well, if games weren't dumbed down so every whatsoever dumb and incompetent person can achieve the highest results, it wouldn't be necessary to invent such words for experienced players.

You wrote that my concerns were invalid because I'm a pvp player and you and your mates are not concerned. I replied with a wish of good fortune when you're all that's left because people who shared my sentiments left this game which is already failing due to lack of playerbase. My first post was never edited and states clearly at the final paragraph that I levelled multiple characters to level 60. In conjecture with this it was clearly obvious that I wanted to indicate that I paid for a full years subscription while not playing the game at all during this time.

You should learn to read posts before you reply. I explicitely stated in my original post that I have multiple lvl 60 characters which are perfectly geared in ranked pvp gear. How on earth should I have achieve this with only 10 hours of total gameplay? I only wrote that I paid a whole years subscription without playing the game due to its miserable state. I even detailed on this in my 2nd post which you apparently mostly ignored. See above. My total playtime measures hundreds of days according to /played. Oh yeah, you're playing on a RP-PvE server, so the rest of swtor must play the game as you want. Hey, let me tell you something. Soon you'll be alone with your roleplaying friends on a single server with 1k players. Let's see how long Bioware will keep paying the bills to keep the server up and running.

As my son won't learn english for at least 2 more years I think this is not a major concern for mankind

Of course it makes sense. I never wrote that I only played 10 hours total. In fact I played this game a lot as you could have read out of me having multiple perfect ranked geared pvp toons. My sorcerer for example has according to /played a playtime of 63 days, 9 hours, 18 minutes (which I think is bugged as well, should be way more). I kept paying the game because I used to love this game, wanted to support bioware and had still hope that they'd finally see the light and take care of the REAL issues like missing x-server ranked queue or merging servers so pvp would finally be viable again. Instead they nerf features experienced players loved and dumb down the game even more. I'm fed up and thus I don't see any reason to support bioware anymore, pity they killed an originally good game and the best franchise of all.

I'm astonished there's still 10 people around that like the game it turned in 4.0... I cancelled my subscription yesterday which ran like 1 year with me playing maybe 10 hours total anyways, waiting for improvements. The game that was already fit for small kids on terms of difficulty (literally, not analogy, my son proves it) is now being made fit for kindergarden age. Anything with the tiniest hint of being demanding is noobificated to the extreme, loved features and equipment is being deleted. There's so many good games out there and the playerbase of swtor has been dropping heavily ever since 24 months, we're back beneath the level of players at the point when the game went f2p and it's keeping to fall. Instead of fixing the obvious flaws in the game they keep removing features until there's nobody left to play the game. It's a pity only because I used to love this game and played up so many characters to lvl 60 and fit them completely perfect with ranked pvp gear.

In addition to earlier answers I'd like to ask what kind of gear you yourself are wearing... I started makeb right after buying the expansion back then, in lvl 50 pvp gear and never ran into any problems killing any mobs on the planet using xalek who was wearing my lower end lvl 50 pvp gear.

Why is there no option to prevent a character from crossing a certain level cap to be able to continue playing with family / friends that don't own certain expensions? I have multiple lvl 60 chars and levelled up a new commando to be able to play with my family members that are in preferred status and don't own any expansion, at the moment we're all at lvl 46-48, but soon they'll hit their lvl cap but I can't prevent gaining xp each time we group together and soon I won't be able to play with them anymore. Am I supposed to start a new character and level him up to 46 each time I want to do some flashpoints / operations with my family? They don't want the expansions neither as they only played for the story and aren't into the competitive gaming. Other games have the option to set a level limit, thanks to the noob mode of modern games it's not even possible to kill yourself down (EQ 1 was much better).

Well, to amend my previous posting: Marauders/Sentinels had their days in the sun I created my marauder when sorcerer was nerfed to hell previous to ranked season 1, it was fotm back then and best class to have. For season 2 I created an OP healer, now I'm back on my sorcerer (circle of life) while marauder is roflstomped. Soon, about in 1 or 2 years the marauder will be overbuffed and sin/shadow will be overnerfed and the whining will be on them

Then you should try lvl 60 pvp In all honesty, in sub 60 pvp I still rock the show, most times top dmg and most kills, simply because my marauder is still 59 with full brutalizer augmented pvp gear from lvl 55. The real **** starts at lvl 60 pvp.., in ranked when the enemy team fields a marauder or a sentinel we just laugh and enjoy a nice 4-3 game..

Uhm, you DO know that each warzone meanwhile has quest stations and a vendor where you can trade warzone comms for ranked and buy adrenals + heals? Only thing a Jensen would be useful for would be speeder/weapon cycling, which I only do when I would return to the masochism to level a new class again (multiple high end chars are enough). On the other hand I have all I ever need on the entry point of my stronghold (cargo hold, legacy storage, GTM kiosk, post, a vendor for selling etc.) but I still need to return to the fleet to purchase new pvp gear. If I had a holo statue for the pvp gear I never ever would need to enter the fleet again

As to learning the class, it's true that just spamming force storm won't make you learn the class, but I'd like to state that in PvE, especially levelling you'll never learn the real tricks of the trade. How to play your class you'll learn in the difficult fights at the end of the quest, during flashpoints or operations a little bit, but I usually consult starting with PvP as early as possible and do a considerable amount of your "youth" levelling by doing warzones. Also I'd like to add that lightning is by far not as stationary as it used to be, nor as a DPS race anymore. The original author also stated he's lvl 42, so he's already gained lightning storm, subversion and convection for many instant casts of lightning bolt and chain lightning. Until lvl 51 he'll be forced to stand still to cast thundering blast and force storm, but otherwise he can be on the move relatively often. Once you reach lvl 51 in pvp you only stand still to cast force storm or an occasional hard cast when the enemy team absolutely ignores you and force storm is not valid (is it ever?)

Also another hint: If you play arena games, always analyze your opponents, if they field a merc/mando, ALWAYS save your stun breaker until you need to use barrier. Good enemy teams will use this to their advantage by putting you into CC right away, if you break that, you're dead as you won't be able to use barrier when they use e-net on you. So you're forced to endure the full duration of the CC and are a lost asset to your team. As mercs/mandos can dish out decent damage and can be killed relatively easy, they are often chosen as early targets also as to remove the threat of e-net.

Well, a bit of overgeneralization, use it with care is how I would express the issue. I had healer sorcs yell at me because I didn't extricate them when they were in trouble as well. Overall it's a matter of reading the game. If the sorc already used his barrier, do your best to extricate him when he's hard pressed, or if the healer is surrounded by melees who are likely to interrupt and stun him and he's not already low on HP and likely to use his barrier. It's of course better if you're on voice comms and you can announce you're going to extricate them. In sRBGs I usually talk about it before the round starts: "want me to extricate you from tight situations?"

I just noticed that, caused apparently by sleep deprivation induced mental incapacitation, I wrote force lightning instead of force storm as intended. I hope it was clear what I was talking about. I corrected the original posting.

Well, while madness keeps you well healed and ready to go, it's mostly a single-target spec, only DF hits multiple targets. Therefore I found that it's considerably slower in levelling compared to lightning. I've never encountered any serious issues in levelling as lightning or as hybrid in the old days. Of course you're ALWAYS bubbled as sorcerer, preferrably with healing ability on bubble. Fighting against group of npc like following: force storm (slow + stun on weak/normal mobs), at proc chain lightning, mobs dead. Only fighting elite / strong mobs you need to use other abilities. No other class has such good AE potential including stun and slow on hostiles, no cooldown on the AE, means you can cast it nonstop (very low mana consumation) and it procs an even stronger AE. You are normally MUCH faster clearing the path to the final destination. I still notice that I clear yavin 4 dailies a LOT faster on my sorc in lightning spec than with my operative or warrior. Fighting against boss mobs is of course easier with madness, but perfectly doable with llightning, and overall you should be way faster. I burst through Yavin 4 on lvl 60 a lot faster than on madness spec, and I've stopped using Khem Val (or any other tank) when I first got ashara. You don't really need a tank against low mobs, and you're much faster using additional DPS, when in question I'd rather use Boneface, who can tank somewhat while still applying dps. For hard fight you might use a tank, though I preferred a healer while going max-dps myself. Edit: In fights against boss mobs, remember to use LOS against ranged enemies, and kite melees.

OK.., my main is sorcerer, I'm pvp only player, ranked veteran and best possible equipped..., this forementioned: While I'm ranting for years about too much crowd control in this goddamn game (really.., what kind of game gives mezzes to almost each class?), it was a ridiculous decision to remove the instant cc from the only paper class that should by design be entitled to it. In all other historical mmorpgs mez was a resort of the light armor caster classes, and those are the ones that really depend on the ability to disable enemies without being offensively overpowered. The sorcerer used to have this abilitiy and when I came back after 1 year break where I went back to eve online I was shocked when I noticed they had nerfed whirlwind for PvP (the PvE nerf doesn't really effect me) and left all other cc's undiminished. The sorcerer isn't as useless as it used to be in 1.4 for ranked games, but it's far from the strongest class, and there was no reason at all to nerf the cc ability of the weakest pvp healing class and not at all overpowered dd class. And no, I don't need to l2p, I know how to los (if I los the guy I want to whirlwind, I can't ww him neither), I have multiple 55s, all of them in full pvp armor and played them all in ranked.

As stated above, lag issue.., client registers your input, shows the animation, server notices your death/knockback before getting info about you trying to go barrier and disregards the latter. Happens to me all the time on my marauder, hit undying rage at 20% hp, see the glow, icon grays out, die nontheless, grind teeth, repeat. Fortunately I rarely see the issue on my sorcerer, as I usually don't trigger the barrier that late and knockbacks against a sorc in ranked isn't all that common, all those melees want to pound me, not push me away

Well, my time as new Mar was quite some while ago during 1.5 or so, but I never had any problems levelling in annihilation spec. In fact I found the progression tremendously easy in comparison to my first char as sorcerer and finished my class story at lvl 47 (couldn't win the final fight at 46 due to resists) After having completed all quest lines at orange difficulty during levelling , which would have been impossible for my sorc. I went with Jaesa for speed and quinn for tough fights, though quinn basically ensures no downtime at all provided he actually heals and won't pepper the enemy with his pea gun instead.

I'll admit that my 55 marauder is a rather unloved child for pvp. While I really like the char and pve (if I ever can be arsed to do any) is great, pvp is plainly frustrating. I still will top 400k dmg each round minimum and top the killing blows, but all the snare, root, stun, mez and interrupts drive me insane. Yesterday I had a 1on1 vs. Assassin at a node, and I guess everyone will know how it went. Spike, spike, stun, slow, mez dead with enemy at 80%. I'll much rather play my sorc or my healer op. A lot more relaxed to play. Back to op, if you want to pvp on marauder go carnage. In pvp you need burst and there's only true burst now in carnage. Other than that you'll deliver utility to your team by carnage buffed predation which you can use more often by gaining fury through talented gains, my favourite being brooding.

You guys are all replying to this as a real posting. For me this looked immediately to be a troll post,confirmed by asking how many people roll a range class as fotm or classifying merc and dps op as fearsome classes. In my opinion this was clearly either satirical or a troll posting.

I'll try to respond chronologically. .. When enemies strike through your bubble all enemies in question will be stunned/mezzed. Make sure to keep your bubble up all the time and to reapply immediately upon expiration. If you dot all enemies in a ranked Arena you'll most likely piss of your teammates as your dot will break all cc which would contribute far more to victory than your measly dps by the single affliction dot that can be easily healed by most enemies. Same goes for AE damage. While especially for me as hybrid most of my burst depends on AE I always try to make sure not to break any cc. While I played pure madness ever since the wrath/cl combo was nerfed, I switched to a 30/16 hybrid build a while ago for a higher burst and survivability and no more force issues at the same time. I might return to madness with 2.8 but that remains to be seen when the final changes are certain. Oh and for the op, if I am let the chance, my opening rotation is usually affliction - recklessness (3 charges stalker set) - FL - LS - CL (all crit) - DF -shock if enemy is low - FL on crack - etc. Just don't forget to use your own cc and stuns and support your focused teammate especially if it's the healer with extricate, overload, bubble etc.. This will often be even more important than one more dps ability in the same gcd.

Well. . Let's put it this way, if as you say multiple melee pound you and you get no support in Form of guard healing taunt and peeling you are simply dead and all you can do is buy time for your teammates. I play 30/16 for survivability too. Blind on bubble, stun on kb, slow stun and force speed are your friends. Barrier followed by instant self heal, med pack, polarity shift, another self heal and pvp stim help too. Try to deal at least a bit dps by keeping dot up and hitting shock and double hit DF while running around like a rabbit. And try to get your CL out as it will also snare them. And of course add soon as you're allowed to free cast let hell loose. Of course there will always be **** rounds. .. Yesterday I had a game against 3 assassins where I was stunned out of stealth and couldn't do anything until dead. Or the great games where a sniper will hit you for 20k hp if you can't los (really go barrier at 60% hp?) I meanwhile can predict rather good how the round will end just by seeing team compositions and the players I know. But sometimes I'm surprised. Yesterday we won a round against a team when I would have thought it impossible.

This kind of elitarism is what ruined the elo rating system in the first place and made the first season the piece of crap it was. In a system with large enough player pool you elite players will never see the noobs as your elo rating is too different. And while gear should be perfect, many things about arena games that play vastly different from zergstar and co can only be learned in those games. That's the reason there is a rating for, to differentiate between good and bad players, if it was only for the ultimate elite you wouldn't need a differentiation. I'd like minimum gear requirements implemented but that's all. Minimum valor is a bad idea, my 6th alt is about to hit 55, has merely valor 40 but almost enough weapons to buy full obroan the second she hits 55. Augments are ready so the toon will be Arena ready immediately. Removing loss due to quitters would be a horrible idea as it would if course be exploited. Bioware super system matches 3 sorcerer and 1 mercenary against 3 assassins and an operative healer (happened to me yesterday as did a 3 guardians + 1 vanguard in a no healer game)? No problem, drop one player to save the rating of the rest. Rather lock droppers out of queue for 24 hours first time and each additional drop within a week double the time.