The benefit of guard isn't the 5% less damage, it's the 50% damage moved to the tank.

OP, your rating is unclear to me in more than one way. Even if we assume we're talking about DPS specs only, rating classes as classes and not specs is weird. No one in their right minds would claim that Infiltration and Serenity are the same rating right now -- Serenity is the squishiest spec in the game, Infiltration is still fairly tanky. If we include healing and tank specs, then we have an even more complicated rating. You should probably rate tanks in comparison to tanks, healers in comparison to healers, and DPS in comparison to DPS. Finally, I don't really understand why set up your "proper" rating that way. Maras have a ton of utility in PvP with an AoE speed and defense buff, a raid buff, and AoE stun. They also hit like trucks. Why on earth would they be rated so high? Assassins have an AoE taunt. You count stealth as a utility, but it's only really a utility if you're guarding. Would you say PTs deserve to be squishy because of shoulder cannons? I think this post needs clarification.

I disagree. Lowbies and midbies are good if you want to progress slowly with your class, but they're I not at all similar to 70s. If they were, all you'd see in 70s was snipers spamming suppressive fire. OP -- choose your spec first of all. Vigilance is the DoT spec and probably the better DPS spec for PvP because it's tanker and less prone to CC. Focus is the burst spec and hits really hard, especially with some utilities that can be taken. Defense is the tank spec and is probably the best guardian spec for PvP because unlike the DPS specs it doesn't melt under focus fire. Once you do that ask for specific tips regarding rotation, utilities and gear, and I'm sure some guardian players here will answer you.

I played twice last night. The first time I was solo on a sage healer and went 5/5 losses. I took a break, came back later on my shadow with a friend, and went 4/5 wins. I don't see pubs sucking in general, but sometimes they do.

I've tested it on 4 different characters, with both T5 and T4 upgrades. It definitely works in AOE but doesn't in single target.

This is absolutely true. I find nothing but women healers on pubside. In fact, I have recently started healing myself, and as a result I've found myself becoming more and more feminine. It's amazing, how far factual science can get you!

Since the latest patch, EMP missiles have what I consider a game-breaking bug -- they only disable systems in AOE. The main target will not have their systems disabled, only shields or engines from the T5 upgrade. I have tested this multiple times and can provide video proof if needed. Please fix!

The game is absolutely not "fly fighter". Every TDM between good players I've seen so far devolved into gunship chess. Strikes are still weak compared to gunships in TDM, and nothing has changed that. All you need is one team to start swapping, and you're in the old meta. As for Dom, T2 scouts are still the best at controlling nodes. Strikes are definitely useful in this mode, but saying the new meta is "fly fighter" is completely wrong.

I don't want anything. Actually, that's a lie. I want shadow DPS to get their 30% DR while stunned again. Other than that, I don't care one way or another. I can deal with most mercs as a shadow, because most mercs suck. But comparing merc defensives to op ones is objectively pretty dumb. A merc has three defensives with no counter except for not dealing damage more or less, and they can continue to deal damage while using them (as opposed to stealth out or barrier).

I just want to point out that evasion is one of the most easily avoided cooldowns in the game. Stun the op and voila! no defense chance, you can use melee/ranged damage and not fear their evil reflect. Also, worth noting that ops have to take time off their DPS to heal themselves (like any offhealing DPS class) unless they take utilities for two abilities. The only way to avoid merc reflect is AOE, and let me tell you it's super annoying that as a shadow my technique will still proc from AOE, so they'll still get a heal out of it. But even if that weren't the case, your DPS is basically nonexistent against them for the duration of reflect, while you can absolutely deal damage to ops (or shadows) with their reflects up. But hey, they're comparable!

Mercs can avoid CC with rocket out, as warriors can with mad dash. Barrier is also probably worth mentioning.

Iokath is turning into my favorite map. It's the best scout map, significantly better than Kuat Mesas in my opinion. The broken debris may be cluttered, but the more I've flown the map the less of an issue I have finding my way around it. Missiles aren't nearly as dominant as on the other maps, because you can almost always reach cover by the time it takes to lock anything like a torp. Gunships can still stack and in serious matches that's what will happen, but that's not a map issue to me -- that's because slugs and plasmas are so accurate, and ions are still so powerful in TDM. I have no complaints with the way this map was designed. I also love all the powerups, and the fact that there seem to be more engine overcharges than any other powerup, This encourages mobility.

Yes, who ever heard of sith coordinating with jedi in star wars (1, )? If after X-faction you don't enjoy the game then maybe you should find another game? You must change to fit the game not game changes to fit you. Yes for cross-faction, this would not be star wars anymore.

It's basically the same for heroics and such. Obviously don't stealth out, that drops aggro. Otherwise, force pull → shadow stride for opener, and then cascading debris when procc'd only, slow time, project and force breach are your main abilities. You have a ton of AoE, so just use it and you should be fine for all solo missions.

A well played mara is top of the line, both Carnage and Fury (but especially Fury). There's almost nothing that outshine them.

Argument for snow/grass: people are too dumb to know cardinal directions. Argument for snow/grass: people who can't tell it's snow/grass are dumb. This thread is beautiful.

I'm amazed so many PvPers care about cross faction. Maybe you should organize your RP events or something. X-faction is objectively better for balance in terms of both skill and comps. If your sensitivity is hurt by having to play alongside people who chose the other side () to the point where you'd rather have imbalanced teams, your priorities are skewed and you should set them straight.

That's player preference. You'd see some players stick to strikes even before the changes, and they were definitely more inferior back then. Ask yourself this -- were these 4 strikes + 1 scout in 5 GS, would you have survived for a longer time? Or a shorter time? The slug accuracy buff is unwarranted. The whole point of reducing the accuracy + tracking in the first place was making it less effective against evasive targets, no? So we went from 104% accuracy at max range and centered to 108.5%. At deflection you now lose only 0.5% accuracy compared to pre-patch... and in return you gained 6% hull damage. Slugs are better than ever for good players, and to me they seem to be better even for mediocre players who don't understand tracking. I dislike this change, as it means that any matchups between even and skilled teams will invariably end up as gunship walls. There's no way around that.

In TDM, we're back to the old meta. I've seen teams pull back from over ten points deficit by swapping to gunships. An ion/slug combo will kill most strikes (or bring them close enough to death that it doesn't matter), except specific builds. Also, the issue isn't a single gunship against a single strike, it's that gunships once again stack too well. 4 GS will decimate 4 strikes.

Well, what's wrong with that? I don't mind if imps want to focus on numbers over wins, I don't really care about what the scoreboard shows in the end. I play to win, that's it. If a couple of DPSers want to chase me around all match it sucks, but if we win in the end I feel vindicated. I don't play imp on SF, so I don't really care about what they do. Let them lose.

It seems to me as if you're saying exactly what I was, only in more words and an even more condescending tone (I didn't know that was possible). Good job.

Sages have better DR lol. Balance = Serenity, only they can get ~4.5% more energy/kinetic DR basically all the time by using rejuvenate (whereas Serenity can only have 30% DR for 6/45 seconds on an ability they're probably using for team utility). TK = Infiltration, only they have an extra 5% DR basically all the time (force imbalance) instead of -15% damage taken. Both also get 3% DR to all damage types with an easy T1 utility.

I've been PvPing on SF pub lately, since it's become my second server. Imps there seem to win enough, and I'm usually either solo or with one friend.

The only recent change I dislike is the slug accuracy buff. They didn't need it, it makes gunship stacking trivial once again and I'd argue that slugs are better than ever now. You don't even need WM as bad as you did before. Other than that, it's good.

Can you provide such contrary evidence and data? I can very easily show that the DTPS on a sin is higher than any other class in the game, even sorcs. Passively, sins take the most damage of all classes in PvP, and actively they have very few DCDs compared to any other class apart for PT DPS (and we all know how good they're doing...) It's very easy to show these things, too. If you say "but BW have the data!" I'm going to call BS. That's nothing but an excuse, frankly. You haven't seen that data, I haven't seen it, and you can't point me to anyone who has actually seen it. Your whole argument hinges on some ethereal evidence you can't provide, and to me that seems disingenuous at best.