Man, this topic was going a few months ago when I last played - good to see it's still at the top. Perhaps it should be stickied, for great justice?

@Zomise - Good suggestions all, especially about the UI layout. I'll make some tweaks before my next video and play a few matches to get used to it. As far as Healing Probes, I usually spam those like crazy, but this warzone was actually a rather interesting one - I kept on finding situations where my allies were either A) already in deep trouble by the time I got there, necessitating a large heal before dropping probes, or B) weren't very durable to start with (e.g. that Lv.11 Jedi Guardian, who was facing off against three Imperials at once.) Though, while I can justify those particular decisions all day long, I'm not the uberest of PvPers, as I've noted before - could I have handled those situations differently to give my buddy a few more seconds of combat life, that you saw? You seem like you've done this a time or two before, and now I'm curious.

A marauder, a sniper, and an assassin walk into a bar. They all wake up in the hospital with severe head injuries, because they really did walk into a bar. [/punchline]

Just so we have this 'opposing viewpoint', link some of the reviews/podcasts in question? I'd like to hear their exact words on the matter. I agree that SWTOR's PvP is different. Great attention seems to have gone into making SWTOR's PvP about objectives, not kill/death ratios or topping out on DPS meters. I don't feel it's inferior to other games; it certainly beats World of Warcraft's PvP, which is just a deathmatch with a timed objective tacked on (and now, pandas.) The battlegrounds themselves are great examples of how to do PvP level design; they're not too big or too small, they offer tactical options, and they accomplish the goal of emphasizing the warzone's objective. BioWare may have shot themselves in the foot with the mechanics, though. While Resolve is an intriguing idea, it does very little to actually stop the Stunlock problem (it sort of delays it. Sort of.) Further, the Bolster mechanic, a great anti-Twink innovation, was horribly broken for a long time apparently due to the sheer complexity of the thing. ...Oh, and it's still not stopping twinks because if you get lucky with certain packs, you can get weapon crystals and other goodies that are more powerful than anything normally obtainable in the game (e.g. the pink/purple Lv.10 'saber crystals with Lv.50 crystal stats) - in short, SWTOR has violated a key tenet of F2P, which is the ability to buy power; you totally can. SWTOR PvP is not a failure; there's quite a YouTube community around SWTOR PvP now (a far sight from when I started the Tales of the Healer series), people do play SWTOR's PvP mode. But it's more focused around tactics, and buying packs with Cartel Coins, than raw damage output (though, Cartel Coins help you with damage output it seems.) tl;dr - BioWare, simplify, and remove the ability for people to purchase power, and you'll be in a lot better shape.

Honestly I play so many classes, I'm sure I'd note the difference. But, I'm an altoholic; the first step is admitting I have two troopers. And, I'm about to, because I'm close to rolling a new Trooper on The Ebon Hawk.

I can suggest [/shameless plug] to help our OP with that...it might even be informational. EDIT: With is spelled with an 'h'. I am not a gangster.

I unequivocally say that Prophecy of the Five is where you can have some great matches regardless of faction (you're better off if you're Empire, but ye ol' Pubbies can make some excellent wins every once in a blue moon.) While The Ebon Hawk is a RP server (I've had people /ignore me for rolling a character named Captain Kruhnch before...I laughed my little troll-booties off), I've fought some great matches over there.

This is why, I'll never make an MMO; you can't do anything right.

A fun fact - most of the advanced PvPers are actually pretty nice folks. More often than not they'll have helpful suggestions born from their experience. If you have a question, ask on your faction's Fleet; chances are good you'll get more info than you initially bargained for! EDIT: You may have to disregard some* spam, but you'll still get the info you need. *: by 'some' I actually mean a lot. Fleets are obviously places of great scum and villainy. You must be judicious.

To expand on that - 3. There are times you'll need to progress with 'standard' gameplay to get improved gear. Use this time to experiment with new skills and different skill rotations; often times, you'll stumble onto better patterns that will help you to be more competent as a PvPer. Also, try to PvE while moving as much as possible, as another form of PvP-training. 4. A lot of people say that all orange gear is the way to go, but NOT SO FAST! There are some powerful pieces of purple gear that are actually better than a fully-modded orange piece; don't confine your 'back-end' strategy (I'm referring to gear, augments, and talents) to standard strategies - try different things and see how they change your warzone performance. 5. You'll die in PvP. No matter how good your gear is, it won't save you from the entire enemy team focus-firing you. No matter how well you communicate, it won't stop those two Operatives from shank-ganking you from stealth. Death in this game is at best a slap on the wrist; take it as such. Don't be discouraged if you die a lot; learn from it, instead.

I only recently learned that trolling only applies to causing people to overreact to a stupid behavior; originally, I thought trolling was a shortened form of the word 'controlling', based on someone doing something to force a response (I was a bit off, needless to say.) However, there were a few times my usage was valid. For instance, when I threw the grenade with all those Sithies at the bridge controls and they went into OMGHAXOVERKILL mode on me, that was intended; I wanted to distract them for even a few more seconds; the fact that they used such overkill (e.g. everyone there) makes it actually trolling. So...blah. I'm glad I entertained! I'll try to stop being bad, but that's hard. Maybe I should heal from cover more, and not take cover in front of the Snipers... One final note: I do these just for fun. Seeing as how BioWare hasn't quite gotten around to an eSports friendly PvP setup, I'm honestly not concerned about PvPing professionally or anything - as long as I have fun, and my viewers have fun, to me that's all that matters. Besides, it's not like SWTOR videos can be monetized anyhow. I briefly considered a WoW PvP series along these lines, but there were way too many pandas. I thought I might come off as pandering to the audience...huehue...geddit? Pandering? Hahaha...ok, I'll stop making bad jokes, at least until my next video.

So, I had another fun Voidstar Match, you should check it out.

Hey guys, long time no see! I've been busy seeing other games, and doing the daily grind. But, every once in a while I can spare a few minutes to record a new episode, like this one! In this one, one of the teams demonstrates how not to attack a door in Voidstar. But, is it my team, or the opposition?

That match I did wind up getting a couple of heals off...I think. My teammates kept dying before I could do anything more, like cast the big, slow heal on them, or even the quick heal. Additionally, my Sage is DPS spec (0/10/0). When my monthly cartel coins come in, I'm buying her personal field respec perk. Yeah, that last match I was pretty awful. I'm usually not that awful - I usually opt for a slightly less flagrant flavor of badness...but last night I was. It also hurts that before this, I hadn't played my Sage for like 4 months. And backpedaling ftw, indeed I keep trying to break myself of that habit and keep failing miserably. I can't pitch good games all the time folks. I just hope this one was entertaining and made you giggle a little. I've never presumed to be a good PvP player, and I'm not about to start now. Especially with all the time I take off from the game. But, you're right to correct me and point out the fact that this match I sucked hard. I'll do better from now on guys - thanks for the critiques.

For photographic proof of your premise...check my video series [/shameless-plug] Are you not entertained?

In this one, I get hit so hard with an imaginary lightsaber that I take real brain damage.

If only...if only.

Scoundrel/Operative. People are still crying for both to get healthy nerfs!

Get to da choppa!

That's something I didn't understand with this game, despite the KoTOR heritage - where'd the land mines go? Those would set up some interesting strategies in PvE and PvP alike. But, I could settle for a Huttball map with randomly-spawning landmines. Gotta amuse the Hutts, since they're the lords of this expansion!

/waves hand This is not the thread you are looking for! Move along.

Being a long time Republic player, I think it's very similar to what happened in World of Warcraft. You have a lot of new players who are familiar with the Republic, and roll their first characters as Republic. They get more experimental as they play on, and roll Imperial just to see how the other side lives. The fallacy I see is that 'Republic players are universally bad at PvP' - there are many good ones out there, some who I've even had the luxury of queueing with in the past. However, you have a lot of people who are learning the game playing their first matches as Republic players...and even Bolster cannot make up for lack of skill, intuition, or advanced class abilities that make PvP winnable. From the times I've played on my Imperial characters, I've seen similar displays from Imperial characters, but more to the point a lack of teamwork (at least, on Shadowlands and Ebon Hawk). You have characters that, if they would use chat at all, could probably coordinate and wreck the Republic team, but do not. I would say it's sad, but I'm primarily Republic...so, I say keep on going rambo, my Imperial friends!

[insert snippy response to the last sentence, including but not limited to 'that's what she said!', here.] That would be really interesting. How about it BioWare? If you do this, I'll buy a Cartel Pack or two, which means me spending money on Cartel Coins in addition to my subscription? Are you not enticed, BioWare?

Agreed with all of this. I really think that a system closer to that used in - forgive me, fellow forum-goers - World of Warcraft would be a lot better; tab-targeting in that game felt very natural and was extremely reliable in PvP and PvE alike. I don't go out of my way to hold PvE player's hands, but a better tab-target system would help everyone. Literally, everyone.

I throw grenades powered by Mt. Dew and antibiotics at people's faces and it heals them.