So for top 3 do you need to be in a top 3 spot with 200 wins or is it given to the top 3 players with 200 wins. Because if it's not given to top 3 with 200 wins that basically just defeats the whole purpose of a win requirement as people can hold top 3 spots with around 30 wins and take it away from people who grinded 200+ wins. Most of the community seemed under the impression that it was given to the top 3 players with 200 wins and this post is a little unclear so please clarify.

If they are labelled "Replica" so original's maintain their prestige what's the point of skipping season 3?? If you go this far to explain that original's maintain prestige there is literally no reason to not release it.

I've tried it and sure it does more damage but you sacrifice your basically 90% uptime on supercharged. I use it in cleave games but it basically makes CC impossible whereas with EC you don't need to spread to still do a lot of damage with. CC meta on DM basically demands that u don't spread on every target and with such a high AOE percentage in your rotation it can lose games. I assume if you use it selectively it could be good but I don't see giving up the extra single target dps viable in CC games.

what other tactical would u use?

I'm an IO main but arsenal is a lot more useful in ranked content than IO. For PVE I assume IO is better in some situations but this thread is mainly concerning arsenal. Arsenal doesn't need a nerf. For ranked there is a burst meta so IO gets thrown on the back burner as it has less controlled burst than Arsenal.

Honestly SF is bad I get it but on DM votekick isn't abused and its actually a vital tool as there have been several throwers. Not just bad players but actual throwers to manipulate the queue. After the bans DM has been a lot better but votekick is still needed. A reason for that would be this https://www.epicnpc.com/threads/wintrade-dm-solo-group.1624704/. I have yet to see anything come of it but votekicking allows us as players to regulate match manipulation. I would be totally okay with removing votekick during placements as I can imagine for new players it would be terrible to be votekicked during your first games. This would allow more experienced players to tell newer players how to improve rather than just kicking them.

I haven't been able to get on the PTS as it gives me an error everytime but I've heard that it's only baked into the IO tree and not the arsenal tree. IO needs a buff for pvp as there is no reason at this point to take it over arsenal but the way to "Buff" it is not by nerfing arsenal lmao. If I'm wrong please let me know

I've been playing Merc a lot this and last season and I can see that DPS Merc was pretty over tuned in 5.0. But in 6.0 I would argue Merc is the most balanced DPS right now with a viable Dot and Burst spec. Concentrated Fire gives Mercs the ability to dish out a medium amount of damage which is great. Mercenaries are performing well in PVP and PVE but not to the point where it is overpowered. Merc is also one of the only anti-stealth classes and by removing their decent damage you are in fact buffing the stealth classes even more. If you compare elo from mercenary to other classes, mercenaries are right in the middle of the pack (around 1600 highest). If you look at both Assassin's and Operative's their highest is right around 1800-1900. Mercenaries have the ability to survive and find people from stealth while being able to do damage. By nerfing this set Mercenary will not be seen nearly as much and will allow stealth classes to have even more power over ranked than before. I understand Merc healer is over tuned but taking the DPS down along with it seems quite stupid as Merc DPS is very balanced IMO. If you are looking for something to nerf about Merc healers look at taking away the 30% DR for AOE and Stuns from healers as it allows Merc healers to sit in cleave and be virtually unphased whereas Ops and Sorcs have to kite around outside of cleave.

What do you mean? As of now I'm the only person running it and organizing matches. We have been doing daily kickball to help newer pvpers learn GRanked and organizing some real games with teams. You should make a team.

We are organizing a Group Ranked PVP League League Information This league will be hosted on Star Forge but we will allow teams from all over the game to join. If interest grows I may expand into a league for EU and NA. As of now to participate you must join our discord and register your team. ANY SKILL LEVEL IS ACCEPTED. If you are worried that you are not experienced enough this is a great time to learn how to play well. If there are enough registrations we will attempt to do skill brackets. How Do I Join? Joining is very simple, follow these steps and you'll be registered in no time. Join Our Discord Select Your Roles From The "React to see channels" Channel Fill out the registration for your team if you have one If you don't have a team register in the looking for team channel How Does The League Function? -Teams register for league -Schedule will be made and adjusted to fit availability -Each night 2 teams will face off and play to best of 5 (first to 3 wins) -Win/losses will be recorded in the main season and posted in this discord -The main circuit will have each team face every opponent at-least once and potentially more depending on interest -After the main circuit is completed teams will go into a playoff tournament where winners advance and losers are disqualified. Pools will be assembled depending on registration -The season will end once the final circuit is completed and a new one will begin within a month Rules 1.) 1 member from each match must stream the game in Discord or Twitch so that moderators can make sure that rules are being followed and to note the progress of teams 2.) Hacking is strictly banned in all matches (This will result in immediate removal from the tournament (Only individuals will be punished and teams will be allowed to recruit to fill their missing team mate) 3.) Teams must show up for their games on time to make sure that the league runs smoothly (If complications arise just let an admin know) 4.) Roster changes must be updated in the registration channel before a match begins

Alim / Operative / Lethality / Empire

Enjoy your delusion.

"Are you really argueing with me over how to play the class I've mained over the last 5 years?" There is no point having a disagreement with somebody with the above mentality.

Rating is irrelevant, it's just q-syncing and win-trading. Time played is where it's at.

I didn't say you should blindly use low slash on cool-down. You talk as if low slash is your only gap closer. Force speed and phantom stride? Where have I said they should nerf Assassins for this, I'm only arguing that there's a benefit to being able to use it as a hard stun which you are understating. I've only played Assassin for a little less than 2 years so from here on out I won't disagree with your 5 years playing the class. Time played is definitely the best determinant of skill.

People not using low slash as a stun in 1v1s is largely due to people not even knowing this bug exists more so than due it's lack of effectiveness. Low slash has such a short cd that you can often use it as a short hard stun and have it back by the time you need it to prevent someone escaping, or cc someone during a defensive/offensive cool down. Yes, low slash will add some resolve meaning the next 4 sec hard stun will lead to a quick white bar, but that white bar will also drop off faster than two 4 second hard stuns back to back. I don't think anyone is saying that you should be using your low slash primarily as a short hard stun. In most situations low slash will in fact be better used to cc someone for 4 seconds, as a gap closer or prevent someone from escaping (You can actually use it to both prevent someone from escaping and then as a stun). It's just the option of also being able to use low slash as a short stun is definitely beneficial. The best players will understand the best situational use of their low slash and sometimes that will include using it as a short hard stun, for example, Increasing a stun lock to finish someone off when no one else has a stun available. In 1v1s, against operatives especially, having them spend more time in stuns is the key to beating them. Having the enemy caught in stuns as much as possible is more time where you are dpsing them and they aren't dpsing back which is always a positive.

Deception sins being able to use their low slash as a 4 second cc or as a short hard stun is a huge benefit, don't try and understate it, especially in 1v1 scenarios. Also, damage is supposed to cause the incapacitating effect to end prematurely. Which makes it seem like this isn't intended.

Ranked God / Operative / Concealment / Empire

Operative and marauder better than sniper and merc in all Dps games? That's just wrong.

I was making fun of the players who imagine long lists of conspiracies in their head to justify to themselves why they aren't able to achieve a good rating in solo ranked. But apparently that didn't come across.

There's no way you've managed that without some queue shenanigans. I bet you're one of those players who leave the spawn area at the start of the round to gain a huge advantage, god forbid.

I've managed to reach T1 on operative in this season and the two previous, so lets see if I can help. Straight away I can already see that you aren't using 'show cool-down text', 'target of target', and 'focus target'. You really need to be using all three of these if you want to maximize your game. Watching round 1 of the win match, I can see you seem to be running the shield probe heal utility, and not running the revitalizers utility. Those two choices indicate you need to change your utility set-up since you aren't using the best defensive utility ( revitalizers ), but rather running one of the weakest defensive utilities instead ( med shield ). When you force the sorc to barrier you flash bang the merc which was good, but then go onto veiled strike the sorc which is pointless, in this time you should only be off-healing and ccing the enemy. After the sorc barriers, he then force speeds away and phase walks, as you go to chase him down, you should be sticking hots on the mara since you had already double rolled, had downtime + free gcds. + putting hots on won't prevent you from chasing the sorcerer since there's no channel. You probably need to work on off healing, I especially notice that you only start to off-heal when your teammate is already at low health with no defensive's left, which at that point operative off-heals are somewhat useless since they are a heal over time. After you kill the sorcerer, you pretty much just waste the next 10 seconds walking around the map. When you get back into the fight the mercenary on your team gets flash banged which you then don't cleanse. On Operative you have an ability called toxic scan which can cleanse most roots, operative and mercenary hard stuns and flash bang. You really need to be cleansing flash bangs on your teammates and even hard stuns in certain situations (e.g stun locks) to be making the most out of your class. At the start of each game one of the first things I note is the enemy teams classes and what of theirs I can cleanse. Next, you start to get focused by the conc operative and the mm sniper. The sniper knocks you back and you cleanse with evasion, Ideally, in this situation you would cleanse the root with countermeasures (assuming you have the utility which enables this to cleanse, which you should) since you are facing an mm sniper and will most likely need dodge his ambush with evasion or possibly cleanse a dot before vanishing. Your evasion did allow you to reflect some nice burst from the operative, however you are still taking that damage, and only returning damage to a target who is not your current focus target (this is exactly my main issue with this utility point, it mostly works works as an offensive utility and only works as a defensive target drop in 1v1s or 2v2's. So if you are often focused first or second I would avoid taking it, but if you are often left till third or last it can be very handy). - Whenever cleansing a root you need to decide which of your three root breakers is the best to use in a certain situation; toxic scan, countermeasures and evasion. Which you use will depend on whether you can afford the gcd to cleanse with toxic scan, if you can afford to possibly waste a white dmge defensive with evasion, or want the speed increase tied into countermeasures. The cool-down of each root cleanse is also worth taking into consideration. After eating the ambush, you roll away and heal up. This was good since you are being focused by a sniper, constantly losing to heal up is great since in order to chase he will have to leave cover and be vulnerable or will be forced to let you heal up. You don't want to let your health drop too low on operative, since you are very vulnerable in stuns. After you re-engage the operative and sniper instantly switch back to you and the operative places his volatile on you and both the operative and the sniper root you. You then break the root and die before being able to roll and/or vanish. Meanwhile you have countermeasures, shield probe, adrenal and medpac all available at the point of which you die. I'm going to assume not using the medpac and adrenals was a one off, but this might show a lack of awareness of what defensive's you have available and how to use them. You need to be constantly glancing at your quick bar to see when things are coming off cool-down, especially those defensive's which are short e.g shield probe. Becoming a top tier operative will be as much about support/ surviving/ kiting as it is doing damage. If you play operative purely for doing damage you're much better off playing a class like marauder. What separates the average and the good players in solo ranked is much more about being able to use defensive effectively, any average player can do some damage when free-casting. Your main issue seems to be your utility points, specifically you need to be using the countermeasures root-break, stim boost with revitalizers (20% dr with 25% hp hot is generally a lot more effective than using stim boost for 10% alacrity boost and a TA). Anyway, I hope these tips helped, It took long enough to analyse one round, so i'll end it here.

If we have a pre-season until they "fix current, broken meta", this pre-season will last months on end. No thanks, Ill take the immediate season 9 please.

Signed

No pre-season thanks, knowing bio-ware it will last half a year like pre-season 7.