It does look as though the burst on deception sin and the cleave on pyro pt are a bit overtuned because they can put out a lot without much effort. I remember seeing Krea, on his stream do 70k,50k,30k,50k...stealth....60k,50k,30k,40k...end match. For deception sins, maybe make the resource cost of the mauls go up so that spamming said attack carries substantial risk. I'll reserve full judgment on what adjustments need to be made to deception sins until season 12 starts and we see how, when the games actually matter, how the meta plays with, or around the deception sin burst. Warrior awe/diversion. jugg/saber-throw/obfuscate, for example, could really neuter the burst if played correctly...and by correctly, I mean spam on CD if there are multiple warriors in a match. I may be wrong though..... atleastnowpeoplewontbecomplainingaboutfurymarasandtreatthemastheonlyclassinthegamewithccimmunity

Solo Ranked was incredibly vibrant as of a few weeks ago before season 11 ended. At that point, most, of the participants had their 258 gear and fully-min-maxed. They were queueing for reasons that had nothing to do with gear-grind or mats. They queued either because they prefer the competitiveness of SR, or they wanted to make that final elo push, or the more likely reason....they had nothing better to do with their time. It's not forbidden knowledge that SR pops, at its most, during the beginning and end of the seasons, neither periods were are in right now. When it comes to the Weekly Monumental Crystals, I remember the SR community HATING that addition because it brought mat-farmers to the queue.....not just in the off-season, but in the beginning of the season like you said...ie during their placements....IE THE MOST IMPORTANT MATCHES. The ranked community tolerated mat farmers in GR because it was easy elo and the mat farmers were always on the other team. It inflated GR elo sure...but no one lost anything. But when mat farmers came to SR, and the SR community faced the real possibility of having those players, on their team, likely costing them valuable placement matches .....there was massive dissension and I don't want to go back to that dark place. You guys just gotta trust me when I recommend patience because the SR community, especially in NA, will start showing up once the season starts. They don't pay the subscription fees just to run Red Reaper.

Item rating has very little to do with it as I've played dozens of PVP matches on toons with iLVL between 265-270 and not once did I feel as though me not having iLVL 306 held me back. What I did notice, however, was that not having the right tacticals/set bonuses/amplifiers did put me at somewhat of a disadvantage. Not to the point where I was ineffective, but I knew I was not and still not performing to my full potential.

It's true that NOW, the SR pops are very slow to dead on NA servers, but considering we are just over a week into a new expansion and we're in the off-season of SR, I'm not sure why we need to hit the panic button? At some point, those ranked players grinding will get the gear they desire and once they do, they'll start queuing for SR. If season 12 starts and the queues are dead, then we can have a discussion about the 'Death of SR!'.

Gear does matter somewhat in PVP, for bolster does not boost armor rating which aids in your natural DR, plus the perception that a lower-geared character is an easier kill than a higher-geared character may make them more of a target in arenas. However, PVP has so many variables to take into account when determining a players ability to do DPS, Tank or Heal. For example, when it comes to DPS, knowledge of priorities regarding attacking abilities and targets, knowledge of DCDs for offensive (avoiding big crit attacks into mitigating DCDs) and defensive (keeping yourself alive) use are more important in causing damage than gear. Not to mention fortune regarding if your team can support you, or if everyone can stay alive long enough for you to maintain a high uptime which gives you that high DPS. There are several players I group with who play burst-spec classes, with no character above 248 who can frequently out-DPS me because they are, in fact, really good players, who are skilled enough to make up the difference we have in stats. You do not need all 258's to pull top-damage in a warzone, and if you believe that to be the case, you are in for a rude awakening when you finally get all 258's and see that......you're still not top-DPS.

In terms of what the devs can do to remedy the situation, one solution brought forth by the player-base is to allow players to choose which types of maps they'd queue into, sort of like what PVErs can do with flash-points. For example, a more obj-minded PVPer may select Huttball maps or Odessen, or Civil War, whereas the more 'death-match' oriented player would go for Voidstar, Hypergate, Novare Coast or Arenas. Unfortunately, the PVP population isn't large enough, on any server for such a measure to bring forth satisfactory matches as the queues will take longer than what should be necessary for casual PVP. Looking more from a micro-perspective...ie..the players, solo-queueing in regs, or in ranked can be an incredibly tilting affair because you have no control over who your teammates are. Therefore, the universal advice for players frustrated with the play of their teammates (due to lack of skill or objective play) is to find several players who share your mindset and group with them.

Poor OP wants pointers on playing Combat Sentinel and to a greater extent, all Sentinel specs, instead their thread gets hijacked with an "are wintraders skilled?" debate which doesn't help them at all.

This definitely looks like a Concentration question, which is the spec I play the most in the game. Concentration has the easiest resource management out of all the Sentinel specs, but you can still run out if you are inefficient in your rotation and/or you do not equip the right utilities. You have the right utils for the most part, though you could swap out Jedi Enforcer for Adamant for more focus generation. Like Combat, you want Zen to be available as often as possible, except instead of Zen boosting your APM, Zen for Concentration (along with Force Exhaustion) grants Koan which makes your next Focused Burst/Force Sweep do 15% more damage and consume no focus. When it comes to rotation for Concentration, I split it into 4 parts, each depends on the time frame between. Keep in mind that if you have trouble nailing down priorities, don't beat yourself up over it because with 6.0, the set-ups will change. It's important to make sure that passives like Felling Blow (Leaps make FB autocrit), Centered Focus (Concentrated Slice makes FB hit 15%), Concentrated Defense (Concentrated Slice gives 10%+ defense) are always being applied. The latter means that Concentrated Slice should be used off CD as much as possible. The first rotation is basic opener I do at the start of every match. Taking advantage of all the Set Bonuses and Valorous Call. Force Leap > Force Exhaustion > Forcused Burst > Zealous Strike >Blade Barrage > Pacify > Dispatch > Zen > Zealous Leap > Concentrated Slice > Focused Burst > Blade Storm > Force Leap The second rotation is one I try to use every minute, sort of like the first where I'm taking advantage of all the Set Bonuses except for Valorous Call, and I may or may not need to Force Leap. If you need to use Zen earlier in the set-up, that's fine, just make sure it's not 4 GCDs before Focused Burst. Force Leap/Zealous Leap > Zealous Strike > Blade Barrage > Pacify > Dispatch > Concentrated Slice > Zen/Force Exhaustion > Focused Burst The third rotation is one I try to use every 30 seconds, only making use of the Set Bonus where Zealous Strike boosts attack for 15 seconds, pacify may or may not be off CD. Again if you need to use Zen earlier, that's fine, just make sure it's not 4 GCDs before Focused Burst. Force Leap/Zealous Leap > Zealous Strike > Concentrated Slice > Zen/Force Exhaustion > Focused Burst. The final rotation is one I use as often as I can between the 30 second and 1 minute windows, it's the most important window and it's all about making sure Felling Blow, Concentrated Defense and Centered Focus go off, all in at least 4 GCDs, (earlier if you use Zen instead of FE). IMO, getting this consistently is the hardest part of the rotation. Force Leap/Zealous Leap > Concentrated Slice > Zen/Force Exhaustion > Focused Burst Fillers are Blade Storm when proc'd because it doesn't cost any Focus which helps with energy management, also is ranged and is yellow damage. Slash because it does decent damage and lowers CD of Focused Burst. Zealous Strike for obvious reasons, attack boost every 30 sec and grants focus. Twin Saber Throw because it's ranged and gives some focus. Blade Barrage, don't worry if the auto-crit set-bonus procs earlier than intended, the buff lasts more than long enough to take advantage of (unlike say AP PT). Leg Slash if I'm healer chasing or in a Tank/Heal match. DO NOT use Strike as Concentration.

When it comes to keybinds, I use a Razer Tartarus v2 gamepad and my mouse is just a standard laser gaming mouse. The only abilites on my quickbar that are bound to my mouse are Target Switch and Transendence, everything else is on that gamepad. One thing I will bring up when it comes to keybinding is to not have the binds for Saber Ward and Guarded by the Force right next to each other because you will fat-finger, hit both of them when pressured. For solo ranked survival, like Alex said, you need to raise your gear rating. It's not just because a low-item rating will make you seem like global-bait, but bolster does not affect armor rating, a stat which boosts your natural damage reduction (in turn will boost the effectiveness of Rebuke). The higher the gear level, the higher the armor rating, the tankier you will be. In terms of survival in a solo ranked match, Concentration is definitely preferable to Combat. The passive CC-immunity from Force Exhaustion means that you should not get chain-stunned right off the bat. If you coordinate the 6 sec CC immunity from the start of Saber Ward with the 6 sec CC from Force Exhaustion after the prevoius immunity, you keep the other team from hard-countering your Saber Ward with a hard stun....they have to hit through it or swap. Like I mentioned earlier, using SW with Transendence boosts your defense to 65%, using a Concentrated Slice attack will boost it even further to 75%. That being said, you can still be effective with Combat Sentinel in SR, definitely much easier if there are tanks, heals or tank/heals. Some other survival tips I would give for a Sentinel is...and this is irrespective of the spec. If you get tunneled, especially against burst, it's perfectly OK to stealth out early before using your DCDs. This is especially true if I'm going against other Sentinels who can obfuscate me or Mercs with nets (which lbh you will face) as even if I play my DCDs perfectly, it'll be hard to do meaningful damage as I'm getting debuffed throughout the tunnel. Better sometimes to just stealth out early, try to find a spot to out of combat heal....if they chase, use your DCDs to help kite as the DCDs are much better at keeping you alive against 1-2 attackers than all 4.....if they don't chase, just heal and then jump back in, this time fighting, using your DCDs before stealthing out because their burst shouldn't be sycned. I wouldn't recommend doing that all the time, should the other team pick up on your strat and adjust by jumping on you then swapping to their intended target the moment you cloak out. Also, if you know you're getting tunneled, don't use Transendence at the very start of the match because the defense boost will go to waste, don't force camo in because you'll be without your best escape tool for quite awhile. Regardless of whether or not you're the target, if you're playing with an OP, tell them to stealth you in so you can get the first jump because that's super important if you don't get jumped on right off the bat. Don't want to type heads off so I'll cut it off here.

The best pointer I can give you, just in general for improving at PVP is to record gameplay footage of yourself and give said footage to a player that is more familiar with the class than you so that they can offer critque. Without any sort of video to observe your gameplay, I can only offer vanilla advice. A lot of the problems that people who are new to Sentinel, or just aren't as adroit with the class as others stem from 1) Not setting up bursts properly 2) Not being able to stay on target 3) Either being too slow with their DCDs which makes them take way more damage than they should (therefore causing panic-pop Saber Ward + Guarded by the Force), or they aren't quite familiar with how each DCD works which leads to misuse. With Combat Sentinel, the DPS is dependent on the burst during the Precision Window. Setting up said burst with filler, Strike, Zealous Strike, Twin Saber Throw, Leg Slash or Blade Rush, then popping Precision and using Clashing Blast, Blade Barrage, Dispatch and/or Lance. The rotation itself isn't too complicated, easier than Concentration. Using Zen as much as possibe to boost your APM is important too, but getting it to consistently pop before you use Precision is the key to getting that burst in there as fast as possible. However, even when mastering the rotation, what can really hurt you as a Sentinel is not being able to stay on target once they start kiting away from you. Aside from time, which helps with pretty much any deficiency in your game, using hardstuns (you took the util which lowers the CD of the HS which is nice) just before you precision, or roots/slows such as leg slash and twin saber throw will help. There are a couple rooting utils that you can take instead of the 6 sec stealth which I find to be overrated. Also, if you don't operate with mouse movement instead of keyboard-turning, please do so because it'll help stay on target. DCDs are a massive part of maintaining uptime obviously and I don't feel as though I can fit all of my thoughts here. But I believe what really boosts your survivability as a sentinel would be applying obfuscate to the right targets at the right time (ie obfuscating the white damage dealer rather than the yellow damage/healer if possible). Maximizing the amount of defense given by Saber Ward by coupling it with Transendence, some good RNG with Ataru form and trying to make sure it is popped when you are whitebarred (if you take Zealous Ward util, don't have to worry about whitebar) because a hard stun will pretty much negate the defense benefits given by SW. Timing the blade blitz to absorb big bursts, which is easier to do against ranged because much of their bursts have a cast time. And, of course, stealthing out when you are low, trying to out of combat heal or find a kolto station. I could give more tips (and I hope other posters give some too), but without seeing how you play and in this somewhat finite space of a forum post, I'll cut it right here. In terms of whether you should switch specs, Concentration is the easier of the three to play because it's much easier to stay on target with the second force leap while Watchman is the DOT spec. However, it's ultimately up to which one you have the most fun playing because it's going to hours upon hours to 'git gud' so might as well spend those hours working on a class you enjoy.

That's a possibility, but I'm not sure the Utilities will be changed that much with 6.0, rather the main change to the balance of play coming from the Tactical Items and Set Bonuses (to a certain extent the new abilities). Could be wrong, but BW making massive changes to Utilities WHILE adding in the Tactical Items/Set Bonuses would seem to be too crazy for them.

The main problem I have with replacing Top 3, which has a fluid barrier of entry, with a tier that has a fixed barrier of entry is that once a player gets platinum, there really is no reason for them to queue again on that character. Sure, they can keep queuing to try to ensure the top spot for their class or overall, but considering there would be no special reward for securing said top spot, how would it be remembered? Does anyone remember who the top Mara was in season 10? I don't.... I'm cognizant of how the Top 3 system now plays into wintrading, but, for better or worse, the top 3 can provide players at the top some motivation to continue queueing, in order to maintain their position and not have someone swipe it from under them. Plus, I'm not entirely sure that adding a platinum tier won't just lead to more people wintrading on more toons to get to 1700+ since that's all they would need to get to for that platinum flair.

I will agree that their new ability Furious Focus is a little underwhelming, mostly because (not sure if this was changed, if so I'll stand corrected) every charge will be used once you activate the ability, instead of one at a time. Sure, it'll be help with the initial burst, but some may want to save each of those stacks for a particular ability instead of blowing them all at once. That being said, with tactical items and set bonuses, Maras are getting some boosts to their defenses. When you take into account the fact that many agree that Maras have the strongest set of defensives outside of Mercs, they shouldn't be underestimated, especially when boosted by the right utils (should be easier with 9 utils granted). For example, and I know the OP touched on this, but the Force Camo CD refreshing after predation is huge. Equipping that tactical item along with the Util which makes Camo last 6 seconds and faster movement, you'll be able to cover more ground to escape. Or, if you're playing in matches with heals, you'll be able to receive more heals because you'll be cloaked for much longer. When taking into account the CD for Camo being 45 secs and Pred 30 sec, it can be tough to burst down a mara when supported properly. One set bonuses that I'm not sure has been broached on here, but there is a set bonus that makes Intimidating Roar act like Diversion (admittedly smaller range and can't expose cover targets), greatly reducing accuracy of those affected after the soft stun wears out. Coupling that set bonus with the Util which lowers the CD of Intimidating Roar by 15 sec....you've got a mini-Diversion, in addition to the 6 second AOE soft stun. Of course, we won't know for sure how the meta will shape up until 6.0 comes around and the PVP community gains a better understanding of how the classes will work. But, I still think maras will be in a solid state come 6.0.

Honestly, there is nothing in unranked that compares to SR or GR, as evident by every player's first SR match pretty much ending in them getting globalled. It'll take quite a bit to adjust to the different pace and higher skill base of SR. In terms of being a tank and not to put any pressure on you, but you are the most important member of your team, even more so than the healer. Being able to execute guard swaps promptly and consistently will separate you from at least half the tanks in queue, no matter the server. A team that has a tank that swaps guard will almost always beat the team whose tank doesn't swap REGARDLESS OF THE SKILL LEVEL OF DPS AND HEALS. You cannot just stick a guard on your healer and call it a day. Great tanks anticipate swaps, placing guards on a target just before they take burst. From a damage perspective, every tanks main source of damage is cleave, taking that along with the fact that guard does not have infinite range, you'd want to ask your team to stay as close to you as possible so you can do as much damage as well as offer as much protection as possible. Controlling with CCs and taunts are also going to be important. From a gearing perspective, pretty much every tank I know goes for a DPS build because tank-tunneling has (thank God) lost its popularity and they prefer to do as much damage as their class allows, so I would recommend going that route. But like I mentioned earlier, it's the swapping of the guard that you should be mastering first, not DPS. Good luck!

This is why it's important to differentiate between 'toxic' comments made by someone immediately after a loss because of tilt, which they would hope no one take personally......with 'toxic' comments made by someone who is a flat-out jerk, with total apathy towards their intended target. The former can definitely be engaged with constructively (albeit right after a rough loss may not be the best time) and the latter usually isn't, therefore should be ignored.

SR is, at its heart, competitive and competition can bring out the best...and the worst in people. It's just something that you're going to have to cope with if you want to queue and not lose sanity/heart because not everyone queues SR just for 'fun'. Of course, there are some that take trash-talk or criticism too far, and those should get reported as I have seen such players get banned (albeit temporarily) for their behavior. From my experience however, the queue is not as toxic as it was in seasons past. I understand how unpleasant SR can be to those who are either (or both) new to SR or far from an expert in their class. Ask anyone who's at the top of the leaderboards how they started and I guarantee most of them will say they had to suffer from similar growing pains as well. If toxicity becomes too much to bear, just put the bad apples on your ignore list, ask/whisper another teammate what the instructions are and keep grinding away. The main problem that I have with imploring the Devs to 'crack down' on toxicity is that the term is nebulous. What is toxic to one may not be considered so to someone else, making it impossible for a group of Devs to discern such behavior responsibly and reliably.

Pasted from another thread.

My experience playing ch.10 was kinda lukewarm but as soon as I heard that voice, it made everything worth it. I know some people don't like him but Guss Tuno is one of my favorite companions in the game. If Bioware were to create a new game where it was just your smuggler and Guss getting into trouble across the galaxy, I'd totally buy it. I wonder what became of Guss, maybe he's a ****** Jedi....or at least as close as Guss can to becoming a ******..

I've played SWTOR since November of 2014 even though I owned the disc since release...just never got around to playing it until much later. In terms of how much I play, when I first started and was pushing through the main story-lines of each of the 8 classes, it was about 3-4 hours a night. Then there was a time I got heavily invested into the MMO aspects such as FPs, and PVP I spent about 2-3 hours a night. Now, my log time is rather inconsistent, I might have a night where I play for a couple hours and sometimes I can go days or even weeks without touching the game.

Because Dr. Lokin is not an integral part of the KOTFE storyline and whether or not he is in your party is up to you. Meaning there was no reason for the developers to include a cutscene where Scorpio and Dr. Lokin interact. Personally I don't mind because there wasn't really an interesting dynamic between the two while playing the Agent main storyline. .

With the exception of the hardest Flashpoints (Depths of Manaan, Lost Island, Blood Hunt etc) you can beat any of the tactical flashpoints without a healer, I know because I've done it. You just need to have a group that knows what they are doing, though you can get away with one or two not having a clue as to what they are doing. Also, making sure someone stalks the kolto stations will help too, I mean that's what they're there for,, so that people can beat these bosses without a healer. But if you really do want to do a FP that doesn't require another player to tank or heal....might I suggest solo FPs?

I will admit that it's a little weird seeing characters like Tharan tank and Skadge heal but I think that giving the player the ability to change the roles of each companion helps gameplay more. Sort of like what Tenacity wrote earlier, there were companions that would join your crew who were really interesting....yet because their natural role didn't mesh well with your own character, they would just be left on the ship. Not to mention, I like having a healer right away. In my opinion, the ability to switch between roles makes unlocking companions even more exciting because you get to choose your main companion based on how interesting they are and how they fit with your character rather than...do they heal, tank or DPS. My issue with the companions is that they are a little too overpowered (no need to go in depth with that as that dead horse has been beaten a long time ago).

There's a kinship between the two. Force Users on opposite side of the spectrum working together and slowly developing a mutual respect for the other to the point where they become great friends even in death....and hopefully that's it. We don't need every friendship to have some sort of romantic angle to it . Yes, I'm aware of the fact that Across the Stars played while they talked in KOTFE.

I'm sorry to say but it probably won't make a difference. It's pretty clear that Bioware has made a strategic pivot away from the MMO-style game-play and more towards single-player. No offense but there have been far more eloquent and lengthy posts on here and on Reddit pleading with the game developers for better content in regards to raids and PVP. While I am a PVE'er at heart, I do feel bad for those who enjoy PVP in SWTOR because they are getting the shaft. Not to mention that focusing on making SWTOR a single-player/story dependent (and ignoring everything else) will hurt the game's life-span, no matter how great the story is. It's a troubling trend in gaming development nowadays where instead of working on improving a game/franchises shortcomings, game developers end up half-a&^ing or ignoring those elements all-together.

Since 4.0 I've had this happen several times while I was going through class-quests with new toons. For example, companions like Zenith and Torian I would unlock them as companions when it was appropriate during the class-story-line.....and then afterwards I would only see them in cut-scenes as I couldn't find them on the ship or summon them. I couldn't do anything about those guys other than wait for a patch.....and one came around. There have been other times when I unlocked a companion but the storyline didn't require me to make a switch right away to that companion.......if I didn't summon that companion on a world or a hub before entering my ship....they wouldn't show up on the ship or on the companion/contact screen. Luckily the remedy for that problem was to summon them on a planet or hub and then they would appear on the ship and comp/contact screen. Not sure if that's the case with Ashara.