The new 8v8 is a lot of fun. I think it would be a good idea if we, the PvP community, decided on standard INC calls for the new warzone. I suggest: North, South, East, West, and Mid. Each one would have their own letter so there would be little confusion.

Let me just start off by saying my complaint isn't with just Sorcs but with the ability itself. I play an Assassin along side my Mercenary so I know its strengths and the unfair advantage it gives to that player. I'm strictly trying to point out the mobility and utility this ability gives to you and your team when people want to play for objectives to win. Is it a great survivability/kiting tool, sure. Not what I'm trying to point out here. So far only E-net has come up as a counter for this ability. Any Sorc/Sin player who knows how to tie his shows will just CC break then PW/Bubble/Vanish, or just lift Merc until net runs out and continue business as usual. Most of the time I save my nets for bubble not PW to ensure a kill. One ability used to counter another then enables the use of two very powerful abilities. I see players using it offensively all the time especially in Pre-mades if one of them decides to guard. With the amount of Sorc/Sage players right now, the "goo" is littered all over the battlefield. Scenario: During ACW, if your teams node is under pressure and you have mid capped, any Sorc/Sin player will just place it on the top catwalk or the little alley way on the second level around the mid node. They then can provide assistance to the guard. Once all the attackers are almost all cleared out and are starting to assualt mid, you can just port right back over instantly entering LOS of the node to stop anyone capping. No other ability allows you to do this. Scenario: During Classic Huttball, a Sorc/Sin who manages to sneak to enemy top catwalk or even right next to their endzone can now pretty much guarantee their team a score. Sins just port up there to receive ball or allow for Jugg intercede. A Sorc can just port up there to receive or pull ball carrier. There are many more examples I can list but there's no point. You can't counter it anyway. All of which requires NO target. I don't see how you guys don't think this is broken.

I don't think it's fine on either AC, Sorc or Sin. It has the farthest range of any ability in the game and is the only one that allows for teleporting through walls and floors. My issue is more of it's function as a mobility/utility ability than a survivability skill. There is NO counter play to this. It's twice the range of any gap closer so leaps don't work, stuns don't work, no interrupt, off GCD, doesn't require a target.. You can travel half the distance to your node instantly if it's under attack, teleport 5 meters from enemy endzone in Huttball, I could go on and on. In my opinion, whoever has the most Phasewalks on their team is most likely to win.

Yes, this post was a little bit of a venting session and salt in the wound, but I also feel like it has some merit. I mainly wanted to point out the mobility/utility factor that this skill provides and not just for Sorcs but for Sins as well since this has turned into another Sorc bashing thread which I didn't want it to be. No other mobility ability is anywhere near as useful as this. Predation? Sure, but it can be countered with a stun. Operative Roll? Total travel distance is 16 meters I think, also countered with a root and slows reduce distance by half I believe (don't play Operative). This ability has a 60 meter travel distance, instantly. That's absurd. Not only can it be used while stunned but also functions through walls and floors. I'm pretty sure we can't Predation/Roll through any walls or floors. As it it wasn't powerful enough, it doesn't break casting unless you LOS your target. Healers can continue to Innervate themselves and port to safety. Sin tanks can continue DV on their target if it's still within range and LOS. What is the counter to this ability? Is there even one? Sure, you could place your own on top of it but that would require you playing Sin/Sorc which some people would prefer not to do. As far as I'm aware, this is the only way you can counter this. The point is...... With how the meta currently is involving 2+ healers and their pocket tanks or vice/versa, the best strategy I've found is to assault the off node to draw attention away from the contested node. However, with this ability currently functioning the way it does, it's almost impossible to get the node unless you're stealth and even then you'd have to sap cap because reinforcements will show up almost instantly if you try to kill the guard.

I spend my time mostly PvPing on my Merc and Assassin and a few others. I get it, it's a cool ability. Seeing it from both ends of its usage, I can really say that it needs to be reworked, especially now that Sorcs have it. In most matches, it cuts the travel time between nodes by a third, sometimes half, if placed appropriately. With the high number of Sorc/Sage players right now, moving between nodes to back up the guards is trivial and, in my opinion, offers no counter play. Some examples include: ACW near the mid node. Placing it near the wall on the second level so you can port instantly into LOS of the node stealer. Everyone else has to walk around the wall. Classic Huttball in the enemy endzone. Placing it near the platform ramps in the enemy endzone allows a quick 10 second score if a Sorc and another player are even slightly on the same page. Ball carrier runs into pit, Sorc/Sin ports up to pull or receive pass and scores. No targets are even required to get there unlike leaps/strides/traverse. Novarre coast between nodes. Placing it close to your side's nearest nodes allows for quicker backup and makes trying to take that node from the enemy team near impossible once you do manage to kill the guard. Let's not even talk about the Phase walk capping exploit. Void star on the opposite side. Essentially the same as civil war. Queshball on second or third level. Quickly port to second or third level, pull or receive pass, rinse/repeat. AHG outside of middle above the cliff to quickly stop attackers when everyone else has to walk around. In Arenas it functions merely as another get out of jail free card. Note, the examples I mentioned are mostly seen if the player is playing for Objectives. The amount of trolling and other "tactics" you can do with this ability is pretty annoying. Some suggestions I think would make it less OP: Not useable while stunned. Perhaps tie this in with the PW utility each AC gets already. Increase the cool down. It's really short for such a useful ability. Decrease the range by half, at most. I think 30-35 range to get out of range of melee and most ranged classes. Decrease the time it stays active. 5 minutes I think? Most matches only last 15-20 minutes. The reason it is so strong is it is the only ability in the game that I can think of that instantly breaks LOS and can port through walls and floors while not requiring a target. I'm well aware that BW likely won't read this and take these suggestions into consideration since Sorcs are their golden child. So for all you new Sorc/Sin players, enjoy easy wins with these tips. Are other inquisitor/non-inquisitor players as annoyed with this ability which really cuts out a lot of the tactics and strategy AKA fun out of this game? Thoughts?

If you're looking for PvP rotations, these are pretty solid. It's how I learned to play IO spec in PvP. The guides are from 3.3 but not much changed for us besides the butt boost ability. From Helos SWTOR: Innovative Ordinance/Assault Specialist: Arsenal/Gunnery:

This has always bothered me as well. Wonder what the reasoning is behind this. Another thing that bothers me is why they separated our basic attack/heal into 2 abilities? As if we don't have enough abilities to worry about. Man, I miss the old one.. It's the small things in life.

I keep everything on my bars. Some skills are situational but I'd rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it. I mainly PVP so I can give you examples of times when it would be ideal to use them: Explosive dart: As mentioned before, this spreads your Serrated Shot DOT if you're IO spec. You can throw it on a stealther right before you think they might vanish. Even if they resist it while stealth, it should still keep them in combat so they can't hide and heal. I also like to use it for cap interrupts. If I'm the last man standing at the cap, I always try to use my last GCD for an explosive dart on whoever I think will be going for the cap. It's an AOE explosion, so if more then one tries to cap it'll interrupt everyone close by. It has a few PVE uses: keeps a standard enemy cc for a few seconds so you can try to burst down a silver mob then move back to the standard(s). Missile Blast: Don't be afraid to use it in Arsenal spec when everything is on cool down and you are kiting a melee and don't want to stop to cast Tracer Missile. It allows you to still do damage while kiting but just try not to spam it since it costs a lot of heat. In IO spec, it's used as an execute. Don't use it outside of this proc since IO's heat management is harder to manage than Arsenal. Both are good to have too for heal spec to add a bit of DPS. The only thing I would ever consider taking off my bar is Chaff Flare if playing heal spec in PVP. It does absolutely nothing for you unfortunately. I even still keep Flamethrower key bound for max disrespect on 1v1 kills!

I love IO spec for PvP. It's a lot easier to kite with since there are almost no cast times which you should be standing still. The 30% move speed debuff on Incendiary Missile helps with this. My only issue with it is the atrocious DOT spread mechanic so I usually never bother unless they are really clumped up and I can spare the heat. I mostly just use it for single target high dps with a bit of burst. Incendiary Missile > Mag shot (vents heat) > Instant Serrated Bold > Thermal Detonator > Supercharged Gas > Full Auto > Mag shot > Power shot (if instant procs) The Thermal Detonator with the SCG DOT followed by a Mag shot at the same time TD explodes is some nice burst. If you're lucky, this will usually net you a kill on unsuspecting sorcs or squishies. They don't expect it.

I agree that Gunnery/Arsenal is better for lowbies and midbies. Once you reach 65 though, I/O and A/S become more viable. Mercenary is my main and almost exclusively do PvP. I find that I/O is more mobile and can really put on the pressure. Once you get the rotation and mechanics down, there really should be no reason for you to stand still. My only issue with Arsenal/Gunnery is that if your Priming Shot/Vortex Bolt misses, now you have to stand still to get a few TM off. Heat management requires a little more finesse but it's totally still viable. Just use your free heat/ammo ability before Full Auto and take the Heat/Ammo regen while stunned, slowed, etc. utility in skillful tier. The only reason I ever want to go back to Arsenal is for that sweet sweet sound of Rail Shot and delivering a killing blow with it. Mag Shot animation is meh. Anyways, I recommend any Merc/Mando to try DoT spec. You'll really surprise people.

Long time Merc/Mando player here. Just wanted to suggest a few changes that would bring Mercenary further inline with similar specs: A: Give our interrupt a 12 second cool down just like every other class in the game. Why we are the only ones with a 24 second cool down still is beyond me. B: Change Priming Shot to proc instant Tracer Missile to "on use" instead of "on hit". The amount of times this ability gets deflected is ridiculous, even with ~105 accuracy. It just screws up the entire rotation if it misses. C: The DoT spread for I/O needs to be completely reworked. Having to use 2 abilities to spread both of your DoTs is just plain dumb. Maybe move the DoT spread to Fussion Missile, remove the cast time and put it on cool down for 15-18 seconds. Death from Above might not be bad either and just lower the cool down and damage alittle although I fear it might be interrupted a lot. Instead of getting damage stacks for Sweeping Blasters, give DFA x number of stacks to make it immune to interrupt. D: Give Bodyguard something for Chaff Flare but I'm just not sure what. I/O Mercenary is my favorite class and spec in the game. I mainly PvP but I feel like this wouldn't put Merc/Mando too over the top in PvE either. I'm not even going to comment on the DCDs of this class since that horse has been beaten to death but this might at least help us kill stuff faster/easier so it would partially mitigate the need for improved DCDs. Let me know what y'all think or what other changes you would like to see.

Hello everyone, I'm mainly a PVPer and looking to do an upgrade on my rig from 2011. I know my system is CPU bound so I want to switch over to an Intel system during Black Friday/Cyber Monday deals. Here is what I have: MOBO - Gigabyte 990FXA-UD5 CPU - AMD FX 8150 3.6 MHz 8 core Black Edition GPU - GTX 760 RAM - Corsair XMS3 16GB PS - Cougar XS 850w Cooler - Kuhler H2O 920 (1155 but will fit 1150) SSD- SanDisk 240 GB OS- Windows 7 Home Premium but have free upgrade to Windows 10 My plan: I will be keeping/using everything except the MOBO and CPU which I plan to replace with ASUS z97 http://http://www.newegg.com/Product...18&ignorebbr=1 CPU: i7 4790k http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...69&ignorebbr=1 or i5 4690k http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...72&ignorebbr=1 Which CPU will be better for SWTOR? I do plan on trying out some streaming so the i7 might be nicer for that however, I've read that the i5 is a better single-thread processor which might perform better with SWTOR. If you have any recommendations on other hardware that might net me better FPS then these, please feel free. Again, the main priority on this upgrade is for SWTOR PVP Warzone FPS. Everything else is secondary. Thanks in advance.

Hello everyone, I'm mainly a PVPer and looking to do an upgrade on my rig from 2011. I know my system is CPU bound so I want to switch over to an Intel system during Black Friday/Cyber Monday deals. Here is what I have: MOBO - Gigabyte 990FXA-UD5 CPU - AMD FX 8150 3.6 MHz 8 core Black Edition GPU - GTX 760 RAM - Corsair XMS3 16GB PS - Cougar XS 850w Cooler - Kuhler H2O 920 (1155 but will fit 1150) SSD- SanDisk 240 GB OS- Windows 7 Home Premium but have free upgrade to Windows 10 My plan: I will be keeping/using everything except the MOBO and CPU which I plan to replace with ASUS z97 http://http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813132118&ignorebbr=1 CPU: i7 4790k http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117369&ignorebbr=1 or i5 4690k http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117372&ignorebbr=1 Which CPU will be better for SWTOR? I do plan on trying out some streaming so the i7 might be nicer for that however, I've read that the i5 is a better single-thread processor which might perform better with SWTOR. If you have any recommendations on other hardware that might net me better FPS then these, please feel free. Again, the main priority on this upgrade is for SWTOR PVP Warzone FPS. Everything else is secondary. Thanks in advance.

http://www.swtor.com/user/ce/2fp94z

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Dang, well that's a bummer for sure. Guess we'll have to continue waiting in the dark about FPS issues.

Hello all, Subscriber and daily forum browser here. I don't post at all but I found something that seems to be pretty interesting and could potentially help this game's FPS a lot. Link to page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HeroEngine Basically instead of using one core in the processor, it would be using more, if not all of them. Other games have this issue such as Stronghold Crusader 2. Anyways, thought this was interesting. Would be great if we could get a developer post on if this may be happening and if when.