I'm aware of stock nights. How many are heading out in stock ships every night though? That's why I said that I doubt many will use it. Player skill is the most important factor, I agree. But the the gear gap does more to widen that gap than close it.

They should give the option to head out in unupgraded ships. A check box or something. You can still use components you have purchased, but in their basic state. Doubt you'll see many elect to use it though.

The reason these changes are so crap for PVP is because they are geared towards PVE. These mobility changes weren't meant to help chase down other players. They were made to help warriors and sins get back on target as some boss knocks them back or jumps around. The sorc is given tools to escape a bunch of adds and keep healing. Even mercs are being given stuff to help with PVE. The reason these changes are so bad for PVP is because they aren't meant for it at all. They don't make sense any other way. Give warriors a way to stay on target, but then give other classes more escapes? It helps warriors stay on target because it's meant to be used against FP bosses and such, not the players with all these new escapes. Not neccessary in current PVE, though it could be nice at times. I'm thinking with their renewed focus on single player, we're going to see npc's using more stuns, knockbacks, jumps, etc. It is the only way these changes make sense.

I'll take a longer queue. Better than 10 minutes of wasted life in a curbstomp (win or lose).

We even have an entire cinematic showing his *two* Shermans doing their own version of the march to the sea.

I only use berzerk when I'm on my own against somebody. In a group, it is almost always predation, or occasionally bloodlust if it's available.

This convo is almost as good as when somebody organized a newbie night to introduce new players to ranked pvp and a bunch of ranktards farmed them all night.

*sigh* At least I have a new sprint that I can use to overshoot my target once every 45 seconds.

It pissed me off every time I saw my mara force push somebody during the storyline. I can do it during a cutscene, but not any other time.... IIRC they used to have it as one of their warrior abilities.

I fly the **** out of the T2 strike. I fly in a long range support role, which is how I wrote my role guide. I am not solo farming noobs. I am flinging long range support fire at guys that used their missile breaks while dogfighting my teammates. Using the increased missile speed upgrade, my protons more often than not hit. I honestly don't understand why people say that protons never hit, because I have never had a problem with it. Though it has become obvious over the time this game has been out that I don't fly like other people seem to fly. If you want to brawl, which is what your post seems to imply, then yes you will need a different build. However, if you want to brawl, you are better off doing it in a different ship. The clusters are there to help finish dudes off if you decide you want to close in. Concussions can work in that situation as well, and I would like to equip them as well, but I've found the clusters are a little more useful if you have to go into a cramped area for an objective. If people find that concussion works better for them, fine. But what you're doing is done better in a T2 scout. But thank you for your input.

And 3-4k more range. Once you're in conc range, you're one quick burn from getting eaten alive by a scout. If they have to burn in from 11k you have a good shot at dragging him backwards towards a ship that can actually dogfight him, or to a gunship, before he can start chewing you up.

I think you're forgetting that the gunships would have reduced sensor range also. The same things you say will play to the gunships' favor can also work against them if the other team uses their scouts and sensor beacons better than they do. Scouts will retain their sensor range (or we could even increase it!), so a team flying in communication range of a scout is still going to see a gunship approaching before they are in range to fire. I still think there could be something useful here....somewhere. I'm just not sure what. Gut feeling. But yet again, another reason gunships should have been sustained long range support fire; not one-hit killing machines. The biggest problem is that there IS NO role in this game for the strike fighter that isn't done better by something else. The role I see most suggested for the strike only differs from the current scout role by a distance that you can cover with 2 seconds worth of engine fuel. Hence what I said earlier about "resolution". You either buff strikes and make them new FotM dogfighters, or nerf everything else to the same effect. We've seen the cycle in this game's ground pvp. There needs to be a new role so that scouts and strikes aren't stepping on each other's toes all the time, and recon is the natural (and easiest) option.

Darth Bartender

Thanks for the clarification Danalon, that makes more sense. I'm going to throw this out there, just spitballing. It is probably a terrible idea, but maybe it can get people thinking in ways that could cause a good idea to pop up: I don´t know that the ranges at which we play, the game types, and the speed at which we fly gives us enough "resolution" for strikes to really have a role. Right now, the scout is the dogfighter. What if the scout filled another role, like "scout"? Suppose gunships had 15k range, but not the sensors to cover that distance (unless in the focus cone maybe)? Or if dampening could reduce that to below 15k. Hell, what if all ships had a base sensor range of 10k, but the scout had greatly increased sensor and communication range? Suppose scouts had all the mobility and survivability tools they have now, but their firepower was reduced with greatly reduced gun power pools and greatly reduced warhead payloads, without necessarily changing the components available to them. We could couple this with the slightly reduced lock-on times mentioned earlier to give the strike more of a brawler role. The scout could still mix it up really well, but would have to be more careful in managing their power levels, and still performs a necessary battlefield role beyond combat by transmitting sensor data to friendly gunships, bombers and strikes that might have the range but not the sensors to use that range.

I still don't get where people get off calling the T2 scouts balanced. If I (I consider myself average) can get into one and consistently put up 10 kills in Dom, often 15-20 in a TDM match, there's a big effin' balance problem. I would contend that of the scouts, the T1 is actually what you would call "balanced".

Classes with burst are THE BEST at blowing through enraged defense. They are not "wasting" their burst on you. I've blasted through it and had mine blasted through. The only time enraged defense is really good is when you're taking medocre levels of incoming damage.

____________________ Ship: Quell/pike (T2 Strike Fighter) Key Component: Heavy Lasers, Proton Torpedoes, Cluster Missiles, Power Thrusters Strength: Range, Accuracy, Shield and Armor Penetration Weakness: Reliance on missiles and range equates to poor performance in high LOS-able environments, struggles close to satellites and will need to redeploy above or below satellite to maximize effectiveness. Should avoid close-range engagements if possible. TDM Role: Long-Range Fire Support Anti-Armor Sweeping Gunships Dom Role: Long-Range Fire Support Anti-Armor Sweeping Gunships Defense Turret Neutralization Satellite Defense Responibility: Providing long-range missile support to allies. Assisting dogfighters in neutralizing heavily-armored/shielded targets, or targets with high evasion and additional missile breaks from long range. When to use: May be used any time so long as team acts in fairly coordinated manner. Do not use to engage in solo dogfights. Focus on remaining behind main battle line and providing support fire. Solo Fitness: Can be an effective craft, but must remain flexible. Requires above-average situational awareness to remain out of trouble and may find it difficult to support teams who spread out too far. Will service well enough as an objective guard when no bombers are available due to long range and anti-scout weaponry, but may not survive a sustained assault by multiple opponents. Can provide long-range support to nearby objectives without straying too far from own objective. Group Fitness: Experiences greater effectiveness as part of a balanced team and excels in coordinated environments. Does not provide bulk of killing power in these situations, but rather acts as a force multiplier. ____________________

Honestly it sounds like someone flies a battle scout and wants to retain their advantage. I don't want strikes (or any ship) to obsolete any other ships either, but we have exactly that already, and it is called the T2 scout. There's a reason almost every "ace" flies one. The difference in shield pool between strikes and scouts isn't great enough that buffs to QCS or Directionals are going to greatly help the strike whether DF remains the same or not; because if you buff them too much, you're going to see the battle scouts start using them too. As to jousting strike vs scout, you actually suggested that the strike should disengage and avoid a joust with the scout? You are implying that you think it is perfectly fine for the scout to be favored in this type of engagement, are you not? Do you even strike, bro? The scout has the speed and maneuverability advantage. He is the one dictating the engagement, and the only one realistically able to say "I ain't jousting". If a strike doesn't want to joust, all he can do is boost to close the distance quickly while rolling to keep the deflection angle high, which may or may not help...no matter what, he's still taking hits. The scout likely has the advantage in any close LOS-ing situation. The strike can't run away. The scout will just chase him down and shove lasers up his butt, so he rolls the dice and jousts. Where I do think he gets things right is on the lock times. As a heavy missile user, I think a lot of what is being suggested would be too short. This seems pretty good, provided a lock reduction ability can still be selected for both. We have to be careful, lest bombers become too powerful when they take these.

To add some torpedo insight, I use torpedoes a lot, but only on the T2 strike. The lock on and arc are too restrictive anywhere but mid-long to extreme range. Around the 5-6000m mark, you have to have something available with a shorter lock on, and bigger arc (though arc Is mostly because of the latency). In high LOS-able areas, torps are nigh useless. Sometimes you can get a torpedo off if you relocate directly above or below a sat, but that raises other problems. Due to all this, on any ship with only 1 missile option, I never bring torpedoes. On the T2 strike, I absolutely love them, but only because I have a second option to overcome their weakesses.

The ace talk, while great, completely misses the point I was trying to make. A scout jousting a strike fighter at full capability shouldn't be a viable option. If the strike has wasted their cooldowns, is damaged, or in duress in some other way, sure. But as a complete noob I was able to joust down full strength strikes in my scout way too easily, and that has never changed. How is buffing QCS or directionals going to help the strike without helping the battlescout EVEN MORE?

I see a common trend through this, and as a strike pilot I see it in game too: Scouts jousting with strike fighters. A scout shouldn't be jousting with a strike fighter. A scout should be using their speed and maneuverability to get out of the strike's forward arc, not charging at it confident of their success. Whatever it takes to make it so that a scout jousting a strike becomes a dicey proposition will do a lot to make strikes viable.

Give Snipers 60m range.

Super ultra rare drops from a cartel pack. Muahahahaha!

Or a crossguard? LOL, you're hopeless. That's not how marketing works. That's not how expanding your market works. Far fewer people will quit this game because of a crossguard on a lightsaber (something that will be 100% canon and seen in the films) than will be drawn to this game by the release of the new films. I have more problem with talking bird-people than I do with a perfectly canon crossguard lightsaber. But really, there are any number of more stupid things that have been included in this game than that.

I love the 3-4000 years in the future argument. Yet the first canon double-bladed sabre comes from the same time period and nobody has any problem running around with those literally everywhere. If Disney allows them to, bioware will include tie-ins. Simple as that. The bioware team would have to be stupid not to capitalize on it. It is just a matter of whether Disney allows it.