really? awesome, can't wait. since I didn't preorder in time I'm just stacking comms, since we can still do the pvp weapon dance (even though they bound all our previously held weps at 3.0 patch, we can start over now and stack them again on the standard 2hr timer).

GW2, at least when I played a year or so ago at launch, had something sort of like this. You can choose a specific pvp server to log in to, so people in my guild would all just choose a server and we'd have duels. Downside is anyone can choose any server to join, so we'd have randoms occasionally come in and start attacking, even though there were only 2 fighting and everyone else was just standing around eating popcorn or whatever. I agree that for the time being, Outlaw's Den is probably your best bet. Perhaps one day, but it would obviously require extra server space, and pvp servers just existing empty to allow for the occasional group duel to commence, and that's extra money being spent, so I doubt it.

if you want to be a legitimate contender in pvp, then yes, you will see an obvious difference. Even the highest possible level of pve gear vs. the lowest tier of pvp gear, the pvp gear will be superior, as bolster will never match the quality of dmg output or mitigation that full expertise does from pvp gear set (unless of course you figure out how to exploit the system, but only the doucheiest players play that way imho). Do you "NEED" it, as you ask? Of course not, that's what bolster is for. It ain't perfect and there have been ways to exploit it, and players will find ways to exploit it again after 3.0, but it does its job for the most part. Will a bolstered player match someone in full pvp gear in dmg output? Probably not, but realistically they shouldn't be able to. Do the math, you need almost 100,000 unranked warzone comms to get to a full set of top tier ranked warzone gear. Figure you make on average 100 comms per round if all you ever queue for is unranked zones (and please, as a pvp'er, don't ever queue for a ranked warzone in less than at least bottom tier pvp gear, unless of course you play a pub toon on the Harbinger server, then by all means, queue naked , plus dailies/weeklies of course, that's a lot of rounds. So no, someone who worked that much to get that gear should be allowed a significant advantage, but still not enough so to make it unreasonable for new people to play some pvp from time to time. BW clearly understands that concept with their attempts at bolster, it's just not perfect, and honestly probably never will be, but that's ok with me as long as it keeps getting better, i'm ok with imperfection. I look at it this way, in a completely ungeared dps toon, I'dprobably average 300-400k dmg per round in 8v8 warzones. In first tier of pvp gear, I'm more in the 600-700k range per round, and in full top tier, optimized gear, I'm 800-1mil or more in a good round. Would I steer away from pvp simply because I'm only doing less than half a million dmg in a 10 min round? Of course not, that's a lot of fun and a lot of damage. So queue up you crazy ungeared toon, BW's doing their best to make you competitive with their mostly-functional bolster system. Get enough comms to grab at least your four clothing pieces that will give you the set bonus, and enjoy that 300-500k dps you're grabbing in every 10 min round. Because hey, those are other people you're slaying, and that's far more rewarding than killing the 1's and 0's that make up npc operations bosses.

umm, isn't that what we did previously? Stash our comms until we hit 55 and could buy gear? Perhaps I misunderstand your question. BTW, I too am sitting at 1exp shy of 56. Interestingly, I think some of us will have a leg up on those that preordered in pvp for a bit, by the time I hit 60 I'll have enough comms for set 1 and part of set 2 pvp gear, so while my guild is off chatting about Yavin and stuff, I'm just sitting there hoarding comms like Scrooge McDuck

i also was unable to pick up the weekly last night, got my daily done (of course the gray'd out No Man's Land was still sitting there). I'm sure they're aware, or will be made aware and it's only Wednesday, plenty of time to bang it out this week. Probably send a ticket in tonight if it's still not showing up. Certainly won't keep me from queue'ing.

the thing is, pvp'ers gonna pvp, regardless of the reward, speed of leveling, etc. We pvp because we like pvp. Whether you're lvl 15 and in all greens you picked up on Korriban or Ord Mantel or whatever, or you've already hit exp cap, you bought all your gear, you've got all your augs, you've even min/maxed your stats with other mods, you're still gonna keep pvp'ing. It's just in the blood. We charge face first into battle against players that we know are both more skilled than us AND outgear us, but we do it anyway, because that's just what PvP'ers do. The goal for any pvp'er isn't to level, it's to smash other people in the face. It isn't to get the gear just to have the gear, it's to have that extra edge to smash more people in the face. And if you don't have the gear yet, who cares, because you can still get out there and continue with a little bit less face smashing. They're trying with bolster to even it out some. It's not perfect, obviously, but it does work for the most part. It is not "completely broken" as some say. If it didn't exist, then geared toons like mine would be getting about 3mil damage on every match and a lvl 31 in pve gear would do about 11k dmg, so yes it does work, mostly. Some people like progression, others like story telling, and others like me enjoy the rush of both owning and getting owned, seeing what other people are doing with their class, knowing that if someone that plays my class can destroy me regularly then there's skill I can learn from that player. There are no extended rotations in PvP, it's all situational awareness, and it's not about numbers, it's about winning. Enjoy it for what it is, I'm que'ing in pvp because I didn't preorder in time so I don't get to speed through to lvl 60 this week. Guess what, I get to starting next tuesday if I want to, so whatever. Or I can just keep pvp'ing, whatever, it's a big game and I can do whatever I want in it. If it bothers you that other people have already hit 60 and you haven't, just pretend there's no such thing as a pre-release and that the expansion comes out next Tuesday, because if all you care about is hitting 60, that's great, there's genuinely nothing wrong with that, but you're not a diehard pvp'er, and that's great too. Be yourself But seriously, pvp rewards for EXP have never matched pve rewards. PvP is about PvP, not about leveling. Take joy in the fact that the person you just killed is actually a person, screaming at their monitor as you stand victorious above them. Who cares if you're level 42 or 17 or 60, it's not the point, so try to enjoy it for what it is. Also, the reality is that gear only makes up a portion of the difference. People who pvp regularly don't generally complain about bolster. The reason being, skill makes up the difference. I can name a few players on the harbinger (I am NOT one of them) that could walk into a warzone at lvl 45 and destroy lvl 55's in pvp gear because they are really good. PvP is not about "highest dps rotation" like ops bosses are, it's about situational awareness, and that comes with hours and hours of practice, not bolster or gear or exploits, but skill and time spent. Besides, for those of us who are pvp junkies, it gives us some extra time to stack up those pvp weps again so that when we do hit 60 we can get at least that first set of gear. Find the silver linings in life, enjoy a half-full glass, smell the roses, shower together, all that other jazz.

lol, of all things to discuss, this topic/thread is 20 pages long?

Stockwizzle... as an imp on Harbinger, just wanted to let you know that we hate you guys and your stupid guild BTW, that was a compliment

I've heard you get pts for MVP votes, that could be it

just finished my conq gear and have 2 obroan pieces, so I figured, 'hey, I'm slightly undergeared, but let's jump in to some ranked.' I'm 1-2 and queueing (sp?) solo. But I join up solo and in all 3 rounds I've played thus far, I'm by far the best geared in my group, and it's not because someone is taking advantage of the 45/45/45 thing. FML. I guess that's the nature of being on a PvE server. Also just to confirm, group and solo score separately, right?