Gunnery commandos/Arsenal mercenaries for 1v1s, with Telekinetics sages/Lightning sorcerers coming in at a close second. However, in terms of team play, Dirty Fighting scoundrels/Lethality operatives can't even assist their team in burning down targets because of the absurdly long set-up time for their damage, and generally hinder CC capability. I mean they have to use Vital Shot, Shrap Bomb, Hemorrhaging Blast (within 10m), and Blaster Whip just to have the privilege of using Wounding Shots. Then they have to wait 6 seconds for the cooldown on Blaster Whip, so they use Back Blast and two Quick Shots, then Blaster Whip and Wounding Shots, but by now they probably have to set up their DoTs again. Of course, all that is only accurate if the scoundrel already has Pugnacity up and doesn't have any energy problems, because otherwise they'd have to waste the Upper Hand from a Blaster Whip on Pugnacity and add in Flurry of Bolts, and this becomes an even greater problem in sustained fights. TL;DR: I'm actually going to go for Dirty Fighting Scoundrel/Lethality Operative, despite being a major supporter for Commando/Merc and Sage/Sorc buffs.

Eh, I liked Belsavis because it was kind of like a first contact scenario, and it actually felt as though I could fail in winning over the Esh-Kha. The final battle was also pretty exciting with the way I pounded at the door as Hallow Voice was basically being murdered, although I thought it was kind of weak that I just healed him(?) after his organs were probably fried from being forced out of stasis. It would have been more dramatic to break down the door before that happened, in my opinion. My time on Belsavis was really the only part of the consular story I enjoyed, however, because it feels like the only point in the story which requires you to make difficult decisions. The character of the consular is pretty much a mary-sue in that (at least when played light-side) they possess no notable character flaws and are able to bypass dramatic plot points by simply using their powers to fix everything (as in the case of Vivicar and Syo). I mean, I'm playing a jedi master, so I suppose I can forgive the lack of character flaws, but even so, I never really need to make difficult decisions; I've also played through the trooper, smuggler, and bounty hunter stories, and I simply can't become as invested in the consular story as I can with those. The others all require difficult decisions which you solve by considering your principles (the bounty hunter story is really freaking good in that respect), but the consular story doesn't have much other than light side/dark side. TL;DR: It's pretty meh.

*Removed because I can't bring myself to stop playing. Laugh it up.*

Commandos/mercs, sages/sorcs, vanguard/powertech tanks... I could go on.

37:00 - He mentions that ranged classes were pleased with the crowd control range reductions. In reality, however, only gunslingers and snipers were happy because the range of their CCs remained unchanged, and they could no longer be stunned and pulled out of cover from 30 meters by pyrotech powertechs and and stuff like that; commandos, mercenaries, sages, and sorcerers were (and still are) quite upset, as they had lost the use of their stuns within their effective range. Their stuns have effectively become purely defensive tools, which is rather insulting, seeing as they were already at the bottom of the PVP barrel, so to speak. 37:30 - Everything you ever need to know about resolve is right here. Just keep in mind that nowadays the resolve granted to the recipient of a stun or sleep (apparently the SWTOR term for mez) is subtracted by the resolve value of the remaining duration of the CC. (a 4 second stun is applied and grants 800 resolve, another 4 second stun is applied 2 seconds later while the first is still active, causing the second stun to only grant 400 resolve and stun the target for two seconds) In other words, it's true that many people don't understand resolve, and that should be worked on, but there are plenty who do. 39:55 - *GASP* THEY GOT IT WRONG 40:02 - Oh, never mind. I am SO happy to hear them admit this. He's admitting that time-to-kill is too low, he's admitting that the gear disparity is too great, he's admitting that the resolve system could use a bit of work (though not too much, which I also agree with), and he's talking about modifying PVP gear to reduce the disparity. No talk about an option for equalized gear warzones, unfortunately, but frankly I'm just happy that the issue has been officially recognized. FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF FEELING GOOD ABOUT CLASS BALANCE WHY DO YOU MOCK ME GAMING GODS

HEY GUYS LET'S PRIORITIZE KILL TO DEATH RATIO DATA OVER DPS/HPS/MITIGATION+DPS BECAUSE TAPPING ENEMIES WITH YOUR BASIC ATTACK IS REALLY HARD AND IS A TRUE MEASUREMENT OF A CLASS'S WORTH I don't even.

All I can think of is that Xemnas can now be made an actual sith lord. I mean, marauder much?

*tear*

True, I suppose I didn't need to say that, as your videos show that you know what you're doing. Still, the point of that experiment was for the best to fight the best, and I recall that you were really intent on fighting that guardian who admitted they weren't all that great, which resulted in a waste of time that proved nothing.

Aren't you that person who dueled a mediocre guardian, and who eventually admitted that you weren't all that good yourself? You know, you basically wasted everyone's time in what was supposed to be a legitimate test of a commando's capability versus melee classes like sentinels and guardians?

wut I mean COVER is off the global cooldown; both Snipe and Followthrough eat up 1.5 seconds. Also, sure Snap Shot is mostly pointless in a PvE setting, but it provides amazing mobility in PvP. As for all the people saying to use Tech Override/Power Surge with Concussive Round/Concussion Missile, mezzes are pretty much entirely useless for assault specialists/pyrotechs, and unless you're in a 1v1 setting and you know that your enemy has already used their CC breaker, it's almost always better to go for an instant heal or an instant Plasma Grenade/Fusion Missile.

Nope, it's off the GCD, so marksmanship snipers can pop into cover and fire off an instant Snipe, then get up and use Followthrough on the run without losing DPS; they can also toss out a quick Explosive Probe when they feel they need it. Also, something that bothers me to no end is the fact that my gunslinger actually has more damage mitigation capability than my commando BECAUSE Ballistic Dampers can be reset so frequently; I just need to remember to step out of and back into cover about every six seconds, and I've got an awesome passive shield. They were probably referring to the mez. Frankly, I'd be happy with an instant activation for Concussive Round/Concussion Missile, like what balance sages/corruption sorcerers get for Force Lift/Whirlwind.

Can we, like, stick to complaining about commandos and mercs? Arguing whether maras or assassins are better 1v1ers in this thread is like arguing whether a pie or a cake tastes better while you're eating dog food.

We're worse than most - if not all - other classes at that, too.

whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat You can't dispel force based slows and roots (which most melee classes use), the snare is absurdly weak and unreliable, you still have to turret to deal damage effectively, your gap-openers cannot compete with many enemy gap-closers*, and you can't use Concussion Missile because of your DoTs. *Pyrotech mercenary (with PvP Eliminator's set bonuses): >knockback on a 25 second cooldown that knocks enemies back about 12-13 meters with a 4 second 50% snare attached >10m range 4 second stun on a 1 minute cooldown >2 second 30% snare (applied twice throughout the duration of the Combustible Gas Cylinder DoT) with a 16% chance to be applied on ranged damage >30m 8 second mesmerize with a 2 second activation time on a 1 minute cooldown (It breaks on damage, including your damage over time effects, making it nearly useless for pyrotechs.) >The 25% damage mitigation ability on a 2 minute cooldown can be talented to remove all movement impairing effects upon activation. Rage marauder (basic Rage mara skills as I don't play a knight/warrior): >30m leap with a 3 second root on a 15 second cooldown >10m leap with a 1 second root on a 15 second cooldown (increases movement speed by 40% for 5 seconds if talented) >4m 50% 12 second snare >10m snare on an 18 second cooldown that progressively slows an enemy by 40% to 90% over 5 seconds >4 second in-combat stealth on a 45 second cooldown that increases movement speed by 30% (cannot be broken by damage) >10 second 50% speed boost on a 1.5 second cooldown (requires 30 stacks of fury) Side notes: >The various ranged/melee defense boosts available to marauders can be used to cause a Pyrotech merc's ranged attacks that would otherwise apply the CGC snare to miss, thus granting partial immunity to the snare. >Keep in mind that I am only comparing gap-closers and gap-openers here.

I was kind of expecting them to post in the 61 page thread instead of the 4 page thread, but hey, I'm not complaining.

Hugging corners as a commando/mercenary simply does not work, even against a single melee enemy; you can't deal significant damage while running around pillars (maybe for a short time when specialized in Assault Specialist/Pyrotech, but only for 3 attacks, maybe 4 if you immediately cancel Full Auto/Unload), but melee classes can, and healing is absurdly ineffective when not specialized as a healer due to the activation times, pushback, resource costs, and low healing done relative to damage taken. If an enemy applies a snare or root (which any decent player will do), it becomes impossible to evade melee enemies in this manner. Furthermore, melee classes can keep us slowed indefinitely due to the lack of downtime on their snares, and the fact that most melee classes in the game use force based slows and roots makes the situation even worse, as we cannot cleanse force based effects. The 30% snare available to Assault Specialist/Pyrotech specialized commandos/mercenaries that has a 16% chance to be applied with ranged damage is a woefully inadequate counter to enemy slows, and the 4 second root attached to Stockstrike/Rocket Punch when specialized in Gunnery/Arsenal is even worse because we need to be within melee range to apply it; If we're slowed when we apply the root, it is entirely useless, as we will not be able to gain any significant amount of distance. Also, why are commandos and mercenaries expected to hug corners when gunslingers and snipers are not? The former possess no advantage over the latter. It would be understandable for us to lack the defenses of gunslingers and snipers when specialized as healers, but there is no reason for commandos and mercenaries - and sages and sorcerers, for that matter - to lack comparable defenses in their damage-centric skill trees. (Please note that I used the word "comparable"; I would like to see different playstyles for different classes.) I could go on, but I'll conclude here and say that while I am pleased to see that the PvP design team is looking into the troubles with commandos and mercenaries, it bothers me that they still do not seem to understand how the classes function in high level PvP.

You do actually have a level 50 powertech/vanguard, right? I recall that you used to say that mercenaries were fine and that we all just needed to learn to play even though you never leveled your merc past 34 (or something close to that).

Cripes, that pull.

Ranged/Melee/Tech/Force sections on your character sheet, listed as critical multiplier.

Who's willing to bet that if we finally get a response, it'll be something like, "The class is working as intended, but we'll continue to monitor player performance and make changes as necessary"? Metrics™

Watch out guys, we got a pro merc here; time to quit complaining because some random guy says they're awesome.

Yeah, my ideas are just personal preference, but your "circle of balance" is perfectly good, and if it allows the devs to actually get some decent class balance in the game, I'm all for it.

You bring up a good point by noting that PvP is mostly team oriented, but even so, I have to note that the current utility to offensive capability ratio does not support the idea of DPS lacking team utility. For example, the pure DPS classes (Gunslinger/Sniper and Sentinel/Marauder) have some of the greatest utility in the game, with one offering a quite powerful team-wide damage reduction barrier and the other a team-wide speed boost, to name two of the most significant. Meanwhile, tanking-capable advanced classes get taunts regardless of their spec, and the DPS specs of those classes are certainly not lacking in 1v1 capability. (At least the most prominent specs.) It is worth noting, however, that tanking-capable ACs do not have as much utility when specialized as DPS as the pure DPS ACs, despite not having a notable advantage in damage or otherwise. I'm going off on a bit of a tangent here, but I would argue that healing-capable classes are "taxed" the most for the support abilities inherent to them. Even though heals for DPS specs, unlike taunts, are on the global cooldown, cost a significant amount of resources, and have activation times/are channeled, these advanced classes are probably the least desirable PvP DPS, generally possessing the lowest effective offensive capability (for varying reasons), while only sages/sorcerers have any notable utility. (Scoundrel/operative DPS is viable, yes, but still inferior to that of the other non-healing classes.) Perhaps healing is more useful in PvE and the developers have designed the classes this way because of that, but I digress. (If anyone wishes to dispute my claims regarding healing ACs, feel free to do so, as I don't want to put out false information.) To my mind, all of the points I have made lead to the idea that DPS classes in SWTOR actually are intended to possess the team utility that would make 1v1 balance possible. I could be wrong, but the fact that the devs have stated in the past that they intend for all DPS classes to be within 5% damage potential of each other, and that they have also stated something to the effect that they want what a class gives up in damage to come back in healing or otherwise (it was some comment on hybrids, I think) seem to support me.

Sorry about that, my post was pretty confusing; I actually disagree with point #3. Not wholly - I did say healer matchups should be stalemates - but mostly. Tank jugg vs DPS op? I'd imagine the ideal situation to be one in which the tank would directly trade damage for increased survivability, meaning that the DPS would take about the same damage they dealt to the tank. In other words, a 1v1 with a tank would last a long time, but neither combatant would be at a disadvantage. Of course, perfect balance like that is nearly impossible to achieve, but as I said, it's my ideal situation That said, I'm certainly not against classes having advantages in certain situations; I'm against class counters. I just wouldn't want class counters in a game in which you cannot readily switch classes. Anyway, great post, I just don't agree with all of it.