Haha How would you implement that though? Everyone gets the pop at the same time, if someone declines and there is no available player playing then what can BioWare really do?

Yes and no. The way the system works, you will only be put up with and against players who have selected the solo queue option. Hoewever you can still get premades in by premade players queing solo at the same time - there is no guarantee that it will work, but it often does. So you can face people on voice coms, if they get on the same team, which considering the non-existence of cross server queues is not that unlikely.

The guide comes off as you being somewhat uncertain about most of the issues you describe yourself - it is very shallow and inaccurate. 1) Focus fire does not mean you never alternate between targets, it means that several DPS attack the same target. It isnt only efficient for dropping healers, but it also means that you rapidly decrease the amount of incoming damage since you kill enemy DPS faster than if everyone attacks their own target. But alternating between targets is perfectly viable and advisable - otherwise the focused target can just kite you around a pillar, and you all spend some time re-positioning to be able to target them. You do not always have to get the kill. 2) The magical resolve bar whom people do not understand is not affected by slows, electronets and roots. And you do not use your CC breaker when the bar is white, you use your CC breaker based on situation. Hydraulic overides have nothing to do with CC outside of knockbacks. 3) Spreading around is not always a bad move. Standing too close to eachother if the enemy team has considerable aoe pressure (what with everyone and their grandma rerolling smashmonkeys) is not a very clever thing to do - in fact sometimes luring enemies away from the node can help you cap.

I feel the same about people who use tired ad hominems. Feel free to wiki what it is. On topic: At least on Ebon Hawk the amount of premades seems to have rapidly increased - you have a lot of players waiting for a specific member of their Arena team, and so they run normal WZs in the meantime, to practice coordination or just to pass time. I personally enjoy fighting against premades regardless of whether I am PuGing at that moment or whether I am in one myself - it just feels a lot more challenging fighting coordinated players who know how to play their class (because if they didnt, they probably wouldnt be allowed into a PvP premade eh? ) even if it means more deaths for me, since they actually do focus healers unlike a lot of PuGs.

Solo ranked? Perhaps to an extent. The lack of voice communication and inability to select your group-mates turns it into something of a lottery ticket. But then again, their function was to allow players with little to no ability to form groups for PvP to engage in Rated PvP. Funny how the same people who would have probably complained if it wasnt released ("omg I actually have to interact with other players in an MMO for Rated?! Dumb BioWare!!!") are now hating on it. It also allows players who are not so experienced, not so geared up, or simply do not use keybinds to gain Rated coms due to there being a higher chance that the enemy team will have "someone" like that on their team as well - which will probably not happen in group ranked since the team would not take them. As for group ranked, not really. The amount of coordination, target swapping, CC announcing, kiteing etc is quite intense. If you disagree and consider it a mindless DPS race, then my only concern would be whether or not your team is the top team on the server. Unable to win a DPS race or completely missing something?

I like them. I imagine the two reasons for why people dislike them are: 1) They do not enjoy DMing. and prefer objective based scenarios. 2) Whereas in an 8man it is possible to get carried by your team regardless of personal sklil and gear, in arena every player is vital to their team, and if someone isn't performing well in one way or another, they will lose a lot. From what I've seen in the team ranked Arenas, there is no space for poor performance, you just won't win.

Didn't happen to me so far, but I've had a few stealthers cloak screen and run around in stealth until the acid turned up. Of course they died and lost anyway, but it is poor sportsmanship.

There are 3 queues: -unranked, joinable with a team or as a solo player -ranked solo, where you are randomly teamed up with other PuGs and only face PuG ranked teams -ranked team, where you queue up with 3 other players Ranked and unranked are seperated. Albeit since you get 60 ranked coms or so for a loss, it might be more efficient to always run team ranked if you can. /shrug

I did about 7 Warzones today and didnt get Arena a single time.

Guildie is doing fine with the spec, dont think he lost a single Arena yet. =P

What do you suggest then? Equal level queues? Have fun waiting millenia for a pop. Cross server queues would probably negate that to an extent (queue would still take ages), but BioWare cannot or do not want to implement those.

Actually it is. Orbital strike in PvP allows you to prevent the node from being capped for the full duration of the ability, which is enough to buy your team time to ressurect in Voidstar, or hold the node for long enough till renforcements come. Hence why healer Operatives often selected it. I also once killed a smashmonkey with it.

I think it is more along the lines of a single mistake (such as a late inc call, no inc call, attacking blinded targets so they lose the CC etc.) can and often does decide the outcome of the game. People naively believe that having the same guild tag gives players an unfair advantage, but it really doesnt. I can think of several premades on Ebon Hawk, whom you really do not want on your team and would instantly trade for your average PuG anyday.

Heaven forbid you have to interact with other players in an MMO. BioWare do something, there are players in my game.

Any good DPS player can cause enough damage to force a healer to focus heal themselves - well geared players can put out 6k mauls/smashes if not more, which hurts the healer a lot. Not to mention most ACs have several means of interrupting - your normal interrupt, pushbacks, grips, CC, leaps etc, meaning if 1-2 players focus a healer, they can get them from getting any casted ability off within the kill span. Operatives can still use surgical probes, but if you are focusing them the chances are that they wont be able to generate as many Tactical Advantages to outheal your damage. The issue with healers arise mainly when several healers cross-heal eachother. Its not that this isnt counterable - it is, but the problem is that while it is relatively easy for us to cross-heal eachother, you DPSers have to start focusing and using your CCs. If you dont, and this might not be a you issue, but simply having X DPS on your team who will struggle to break the 70k dmg per match (yes healers have a breeze when the enemy DPS is bad), not use their CC, break your blinds etc., then it will most likely cost you the match. That is the thing with 55 PvP - in lowbies it is mostly just a matter of who is less experienced, but every single player who does not use their keybinds, is undergeared (because why would I cap coms before 55 when Im such a PvP allstar) know their rotation and how to counter what is a huge burden in 55s and healers have no trouble outhealing them. Hell Ive fought DPS who wouldnt outdamage the 700 or whatever tick on Kolto Probe if their life depended on it. If a game is a stalemate due to too many healers on both sides you need to realise that this is also because healers have a relatively low damage output, so both teams have lots of heals and no damage. But all that means is people need to play smart - try get first to the node, try cap from an angle that people do not notice you, use your CCs, ninja cap. There is more than one way to win a warzone, not just "tunnel tunnel tunnel oh look Im dead" or "tunnel tunnel tunnel oh look everyone else is dead, time to do objectives".

I dont understand why there would be any connection between how good a player is and whether or not they quit a warzone. One is a matter of awareness and player sklil and the other is a matter of preference. Is player X a bad player even though he outdamages everyone but leaves when his team has players with under 26k hps? Nope, not really - he is just extremely picky. Rarely leave warzones myself, and when I do it is because I feel that my time there is ultimately wasted. Does that mean that I am bad? Dunno, my healing output was higher than the healers that stayed in the WZ and were the reason that I left in the first place (you know things are bad when 3 healers on your team dont even do 50% of the healing you did combined - and I aint even particularly good). If you dislike PvP to the point of leaving matches often, then you shouldnt bother with PvP in the first place. I know some people just want everything handed to them effortlessly - heaven forbid I have to PvP to get PvP gear, and this is perhaps why BioWare changed the Weekly. That being said, there is a bunch of games that guide you step by step, congratulate you for every tiny move you make and are ultimately effortless, so why ruin the more challenging ones with suggestions like these. I personally think the Weekly should have stayed as it was - if you are unable to get those X wins, then you simply wont complete the Misson. Its not like it is mandatory to do so. Would just reserve it for the more enthusiastic PvPers.

The amount of times Ive had to guard a node because no one else bothered going there. And then people cry that they arent getting any heals mid...

The absence (and sometimes presence ) of a single player is enough to affect the outcome of the match, so it makes sense that the engine tries to find a replacement as fast as possible. If no one else is queueing, then it just throws in the person who left and re-queued. Yea I realise it's unpleasant because that spot is constantly closed and the person isn't much of a contribution, but to be fair, people who leave like that ought to wait a minute before requeing instead of mindlessly leaving-rejoining-leaving-rejoining, which serves nobody.

I think Snaplemounton's two tutorials should be mandatory in PvP.

Yea it really just changes the course of action you have to take in order to win the Warzone. Instead of blindly tunneling everyone in the middle until you wipe the enemy team or until you and your team get wiped, there is more focus on capping the nodes thanks to smart positioning, being first to the ball, line of sighting enemies and so on. So not really a problem in my opinion, just means people have to adapt to the individual composition of the enemy team, which is part of what PvP is about.

I don't like the idea of a surrender option. It seems to reduce PvP into a "the world owes me a win" activity, which kinda defeats the purpose. PvP is meant to be competitive, even if you do not win you can at least give the enemy team hell and make them work hard for their win. Defeatism is yucky.

I like it. Not really a fan of those "lol-one-shot" PvE mechanics in Huttball, though I understand the necessity for them.

My post wasn't a whine about voice chat giving an unfair advantage, but about the function of voice chat being misinterpreted. There is no voice chat vs awareness scenario, voice chat isn't supposed to compensate for awareness. It is meant to aid coordination. Of course you more or less know who is where, but do you know what they will do? No, most likely not, especially if skill levels and individual goals vary. And since there isn't any objectively best course of action and Warzone behaviour is beneficial to your team based on the specific situation, voice chat just allows players to relay information faster. If you are facing a team with say two healers, you probably are aware that you ought to focus one of them down. But which one? And can't you focus a DPS and outdamage their healing? Or separate them from their DPS, ultimately making the DPS overextend? You can do several things, but having everyone pursue the same course of action or be aware of what you are trying to do simply is more efficient - that's what voice chat is for, not to increase your awareness by informing you that the enemy has so and so many healers, so and so many players there and that so and so is of that spec etc. Though it works for that as well if you want to save people the time it takes to identify the situation. I don't really want to go into the premade vs PuG convo (which seems to be a permanently hot topic in the PvP forums). Anyone can form a premade, and if they consider it to be such an immense advantage they probably should. The game is an MMO, not a single player game so it makes sense that grouping up is encouraged. Not to mention that my impression, at least from the Empire side is that players who perform well will eventually get whispers from people wanting to group up, spontaneously forming their own premade. Anyhow sorry for going a bit off topic.

I don't think it is worth it - the damage difference is mild and you use them for the CC effect, not damage.

I don't really agree with this. If you for instance consider the time it takes to call out an inc, or ask your team to perform an attack on an enemy node by using Ops chat, you probably have at least 2-3 less abilities used because you were typing in Ops chat. Which is a difference. That's why people in competitive PvP always use voice chat - not because they are lazy to type or because they require social interaction, but because it is more efficient than stoping to type "okay guys, hardswitch to the healer" or "I'm going to flash bang the marauder". Asking for peels on voice chat and in Ops chat would probably be a dead healer difference. I personally think that just coming against premades or good players in general (as said before a premade isn't automatically a win by default, in fact some premades might make you miss your PuGies) makes PvP fun, even if you aren't always on the winning side of things. It keeps you on your toes and forces you to use your keybinds extensively as well as pay attention to considerably more factors than if your team was just steamrolling the enemy team and your sole concern was toping charts, getting medals and not falling asleep. As far as "gging" and boasting in general chat goes I think it just comes with PvP being a competitive game activity as opposed to PvE where everyone is a winner. I would lie if I said that find it pleasant - I guess I am just one of those more sensitive people as well, but I suppose for some people banter just makes things more interesting. Don't have the need to do it, but don't really look down on people who do. Oh and I also noticed someone was offering advice for node-guards: I know I could use that. Planning on giving Concealment a shot, at least at times, because having 3 dps on you every match is a tad depressing.