Just joined this weekend. The application process was a great experience & I'm very excited to be a part of this group!

Psh, singers. So E-Z mode. I use 88 keybinds in my rotation, ******es.

I'm not saying Commando is a hard class - it isn't - nor are any of the other AC's I've played, but 5 abilities is disingenuously low, even if higher than 1 or 3. A good Comm/Merc uses as many abilities as any other class when the situation calls for it. In any given WZ I will utilize: Full-Auto (3 sec channel, use when Curtain of Fire procs) Grav Round (duh) High Impact Bolt (Instant, requires Grav Round debuff, stacking charge from GR boosts dmg, charges consumed when HIB is fired) Demo Round (Instant, high damage, damage increased per stack of GR debuff) Hammer Shot (Instant, very low damage but useable when on the run, low ammo or to interrupt cap) Sticky Grenade (Instant, delayed aoe damage) Stockstrike (Instant, melee attack - talented for small KB) Mortar Volley (Channeled aoe) Explosive Shot (Instant AoE, ideal for interrupting multiple cappers, high ammo cost) Plasma Grenade (2 sec cast AoE elemental dot. High ammo cost, best when used in tandem with cds Tech Override (makes it instant cast) & Reserve Powercell (makes it cost no ammo.) By my count that's 10 attacks that a competent Gunnery specced Commando should have hotkeyed and use multiple times in nearly every match, explo shot or hammer shot probably being the most situational. That's also just attack abilities primarily designed to deal damage, that doesn't include Heals, CCs, CDs or any of the other stuff that everyone else has to keep track of too. The point is that it's bad form to just assume that all Gunnery specced Commandos (and by proxy, Arsenal Specced Mercs) are one-button jockeys.

Wow, 27 buttons just for damage? And apparently Marauders have 81!

If your team is attacking 6v8 and the other team has 2 nodes, they've left a node undefended. Someone should be stealing it. You don't need to leave 2 on D under most circumstances, I agree. But somebody capable of typing "3 inc west" has to keep an eye on your team's assets. This has become a really great thread with lots of valuable tips! I completely forgot about that 500 cred target marker Social Vendor item that I bought 2 months ago. I'll be withdrawing that from my bank the moment I get home.

This happens to me in about 50% of all my ACW matches. Unless it's the 3rd win I need to complete my daily and we're up by 100+ pts with a 2-cap. In THOSE instances it's more like 99%. Because the Force is a fickle mistress. Seriously though, I had never seen a post about this before until now. I've tried to be diligent about submitting bug reports when it happens but at the same time I really don't want to inundate support with the same ticket over and over and over. I'm actually kinda relieved to know I'm not the only one this was happening to. This really needs to be addressed before any sort of deserter debuff goes live.

If you say so, but I think Rep v Rep Huttball would get really boring after a while.

One would hope that they'll make an effort to fix the safezone kicks (joining a WZ in progress - don't load in time to get out the door, speeders don't spawn in the ACW safezone, etc.) prior to just penalizing people who get kicked from a WZ for no fault of their own.

I was thinking that same thing. Utilize the radius around the node that currently awards Defender points. If you're fighting in that range, your damage/kills/heals "count." This way those trying to farm "along the road" gain nothing & defenders are encouraged to guard the nodes more closely. Disrupting caps is priority 1, but killing the healers keeping those cappers alive should be worth something. I think bonus medals for capping/preventing X number of caps would be a welcome addition.

Zaodon if you're right about point #1 I agree. I do think we need a little more clarification though. The statement doesn't specify one way or the other whether a change to the medals/commendations is accompanying the removal of the daily (/weekly?) mission. If there is in fact no change to the current commendation/medal system and the daily is removed, winning loses a good deal of tangible incentive, which is overall bad for PVP (imo.) Again, I'd just rather see the full set of changes before determining if this is a patently bad change or not. On pt. #2, I agree completely.

For a 6 second dot on a long-ish CD, yes. It works for both specs if multiple enemies are capping a node and is a great opener for Assault to get the target burning for HiB. However, with Incendiary Shot I can (for example) lock out the 2 stealthers trying to ninja my door for 18 seconds w/out a cleanse - more than enough time for backup to arrive. I can click off an Inc shot on a capper at the mid turret and then go back to helping the rest of my team focus down the healers so that we can force their entire push back faster. Yes, Gunnery can do the same thing either with Plasma Grenade (6 sec instead of 18 for the same ammo cost, not to mention a 2 sec cast although if there's a better use of Tech Override than PG, I don't know what it is. Maybe an emergency heal. I digress.) or any instant attack, but without a dot, you'll have to stay on the capper to keep interrupting them, removing you from burning down the healers, which is what the Gunnery commando excels at. I'm not in any way saying Gunnery is inferior to Assault. At all. But they have different strengths that need to be recognized and as a result play very differently. If you're a new 50 w/out the gear to rake in the kills, then going for more of a "prevent" style of play as Assault spec is a completely viable way to contribute to W's for your team.

All I know is that if a penalty is added I won't be seen in another Alderaan ever again. Half the time I respawn in the safe zone the speeders don't spawn in before I get kicked for being in the safe zone too long. The vendor is there, but no speeders, and I'm not at all OK with eating a debuff because of a bug.

The point where I'm at (Rank 26 Valor, 6 Cent pieces, 1 Champ piece, 250 Exp) I find Assault to be more useful. Simply put, as Gunnery I was not getting enough damage out to kill targets or pressure healers. With a higher amt of Exp and the ability to really put a hurt on people, I don't question at all that Gunnery is better at keeping enemies in the respawn room. But don't dismiss Assault's objective defending capabilities. Non-internal damage tech dots may be the most easily cleansed in the game, but in my experience few players bother to do so. That means one player can single-handedly prevent ~4 opponents from capping for 18 seconds at a time, and that's likely far more than a freshly-dinged 50 in quest greens & mod gear would be contributing going for kills.

If you spec 2/2 into Cover Fire (2nd tier from top) your Full Auto has a 100% chance to apply a 2 sec movement penalty to the target, giving you a reliable slow at least every 15 sec, depending on frequency of CoF procs.

I'm currently Assault specced so my list will be slightly different, but... Explosive Shot is great if multiple people are actively trying to cap a turret/door or other channeled objective. Otherwise, that's 4 ammo that could've been spent rendering someone useless as a capper for up to the next 18 sec. Obviously I don't use Sticky Grenade. I don't get a LOT of use out of Pulse Cannon. I suppose if I had a couple of near dead saber-jockies beating on me & conc. Charge on CD, but even then, meh. As much as I set people on fire, I feel like I should use Hail of Bolts more often than I do. As it is, I hardly ever use it. I think I can find at least situational uses for just about everything else though. Oh, except the threat dump.