I think there's still a few MUD's out there that have seemingly infinite character level/progression if that's your cup of tea.

I sorta do half and half. I let the entire scene playout on class stories and stuff. I like to hear the entire conversation due to the excellent Voice Acting by the likes of Jennifer Hale and company. If it's just a run of the mill quest, I still let it play but I have subtitles enabled and read them whilst partially listening (just so I can read it in their voice, y'know?). I attribute the latter method to my watching of many subtitled videos over the years.

Just gimmie a personal best/high score feature so I can at least try to top myself each daily run.

I didn't think any AAA MMO released after Warhammer would lack Dual Targeting, but I've been disappointed each time so far.

The combat is great. The warzones are enjoyable, just give me more maps variations. Ilum is a huge let down.

I had a CSR suggest this method of travel as a way to get out of location I was stuck in if other methods were not working...

I don't know that I've ever claimed DAOC was more skillful in any regard, it was just more fun. I didn't grind my RvR ranks, they just came as I killed people. I could do that in keep defenses, zerg vs zerg relic fights, roaming 8v8, lowbie persistent BG's, or soloing on any character I had for some sweet 1v1 or 1vX encounters. My RR's eventually let me do one or more things much more effectively, but until then I knew I had to work with others or use my other advantages (skill, terrain, whatever) to their fullest else I'd be defeated. I never once said, "Man, I need one more win for my daily".

What I think we can agree on is that this isn't something that can be hotfixed in or done with the next content patch. If anyone has the resources or ability to pull off such an overhaul, it would be Bioware. Blizzard took many years to flush out their mechanics, and as far as I know they still change them on occasion. I haven't played since '06, but since then they introduced (and then removed?) resilience, changed the ways many stats worked, etc. GCD has been adjusted, so on and so forth. This proposal isn't any different than something like that. Easy? No. Quick? No. Worth doing in the long run to really simplify things on the PvP front, while not requiring gear-inflation to the point of WoW? When I left WoW, my rogue had something like 4k hp in really good Tier 1 or Tier 2 gear. When I got accepted to the Cataclysm beta, with blues for the max level for that content I had ~120k hp? That boggled my mind. This isn't just for "balancing" PvP, it's to combat that type of gear inflation as well... but maybe I'm just in the minority in worrying about that outcome.

Kind of unnecessary if you simply normalize and balance everything from the ground up. Adjust HP values, damage and healing values, and let the PvE-Expertise stat balance it for PvE content. So, basically balance for PvP first, and let the PvP-Expertise (or Ward system) handle the PvE side of things. The system doesn't have to affect damage/healing at the same rate, like the current expertise does. You could easily adjust the effect of it for healing and damage (both incoming/outgoing) individually. You could even have it boost endurance values to compensate for higher healing/damage requirements or something. That said, the trauma buff/debuff solution isn't out of the question. There's plenty of ways to approach the problem. I honestly don't know what the best way to do it is, but there's got to be something better than we have currently.

Just move the focus of the balancing stat to PvE. Expertise for PvE content, not PvP. http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=275614 Why? Because PvP is all about the competition on a mostly even playing field. The more people that have access to this, the more fun I'll have. PvE is about progressing through content. Completing a certain encounter, dungeon, and taking what you've worked for there and moving on to the next. That act of progressing is part of the allure. Expertise (or Wards, or any similar system) affecting PvE would mean one can take PvE gear into PvP and not have an advantage. You no longer need to inflate PvE gear for each tier and future content because that's handled by the new PvE-Expertise stat. This allows future PvE content to not have an adverse affect on PvP, since both PvP and PvE can continue to increase in very small increments.

As long as it doesn't stun like getting dismounted in PvE, I'd be okay with it happening at a higher rate.

That isn't a problem at all. The "PvE Expertise" stat would handle damage done in PvE. Raw stats, which is what PvP damage is based on, and would be equal to same-tier PvP acquired gear. That is, when you keep progressing and acquiring new gear. The current ability damage and everything can simply be adjusted to be normalized/less powerful and let the PvE-Expertise stat handle damage in PvE. Toss in Realm abilities, a "talent tree" to progress down for PvP'ers, and you can give small advantages to those who PvP more than others. That gives those who need a reason to PvP something to work for, and everyone else treats it as a bonus.

Here's my overview of "Wards" from another thread on the subject ---- Dual Targeting was amazing. Wards, while in their first incarnation were quite bad, ended up being great. http://warhammeronline.wikia.com/wiki/Ward Each tier of content required wards from the previous tier. With no wards, you took 300% damage from and did 40% damage to the creatures in that encounter. There were 5 wards for each tier, one for each primary armor piece. Each ward lowered damage taken by 40%, and increased damage done by 15%. So with full "Wards", you took 100% damage and did 115%. At the start you had to actually wear the gear that contained the ward to do the encounter. Eventually they removed this requirement, and instead the Wards became unlocked in your Tome of Knowledge (eg: Codex, here). You could then also unlock Wards with various different ways, such as: Loot a certain piece of armor containing the correct ward from the previous tier (eg: Head slot). Kill a certain boss X amount of times in the Previous dungeon. Perform a certain feat in RvR Y amount of times. This allowed you to obtain wards even if you couldn't get the drop you needed. The Kill X bosses, and Perform Y feats could take quite some time... but you would get the ward. This allowed the gating of progression content, and also allowed gear to remain competitive in both PvP and PvE without affecting one or the other adversely. Not only does this solve the need for "Expertise" or "Resilience", but it also does away with ridiculous amounts of gear-inflation required to improve PvE gear for future content. Now I'm not saying this system should be copied identically. eg: Using RvR feats for Wards, but still. We'd no longer need expertise (or uh, a healing debuff?... so consumables could be universal again), and PvE still requires Progression/work to get through. --- Again, this doesn't have to be an exactly replicated system. Just take the idea and improve upon it, modify it some. The potential is there. Whether that means another Ward-ish system, or simply making "Expertise" a PvE stat, I'm not sure. Guess it depends on if you want progression gear to lead from boss to boss in future dungeons (eg: Expertise stat then?). Or simply let the wards cover entry to each tier, and let each boss's difficulty in the dungeon scale by mechanics/execution.

They have the gear they need to progress through the next tier of content? I liked the Ward system Warhammer used... It required you to progress through PvE content to get to the next tier, but it allowed gear obtained in PvP to be equal to PvE gear (statwise), and without the gear being too crazily strong (until the RR100 gear, but that's another story), because the increase in stats from one tier to the next didn't have to be ridiculously large. You could technically take PvP gear in to PvE in Warhammer, but that was because PvP gear contained the Wards in that game. Put the Wards only on PvE gear, and it means you must have PvE gear to progress. Why would this work better than the current system? Because progressing is part of the allure for PvE. Completing content, and moving on to the next tier is part of the fun. PvP isn't like that, PvP is all about the competition. Therefore the more people we have out PvP'ing, either in Warzones or the World, it's more fun. With the upcoming gear changes, you could then potentially take PvE gear set bonuses and throw them on PvP gear. I'd still be okay with this even if I didn't PvE, because it wouldn't be an insurmountable bonus. So move the "Expertise" stat to PvE, make it even more pronounced, so much so that it's a requirement to move to the next "Tier". My goal/plan here would be so that you don't have people running around with 100k hp in a few years following expansions... because the Wards would be needed, not higher stats, to progress in PvE. It kind of kills two birds with one stone. No gear/stat-inflation with future content, and you can keep PvP/PvE gear equivalent in power so that PvP remains competitive. Throw in Realm Abilities/passive stat boosts that you purchase with your Realm Points and you have the advantage long-time pvp'ers get over those with less experience. Anyway, the system doesn't have to match Warhammer's ward system exactly, but the idea and potential is there. There's definitely something to work with.

I've seen it 7x so far on my Critical Nano-Optic Reflex Implant. Trying to get the Endowment recipe, and currently have Supremacy, Tempest, and Fervor. I'd rather not see a message at all.

Hell, I wish Guard was slightly buffed allowing the transfered damage to be shielded.

Assassin It seems to happen when I or my target (or both) have died while guard was currently on. The guarded target can then not be guarded by myself again or anyone else until they relog, possibly zone.

+1 more for "When can we expect to see some UI improvements?"

Indeed. I luckily have a good Purple for nearly every 49 implant, so I'm able to keep the Market stocked with everything. Stims sell way too cheaply to be of any profit atm.

Good change, carry on.

I log in to kill stuff mainly, gear is a bonus. What do you plan to do once you have full battlemaster? Never log in again?

Read that again. The re-usable items are still biochem only, the ones that are currently BOP dropped schematics are no longer going to be so.

Just gimmie some more maps!

I've always wondered if there will be a Solo type bracket/rating established. I was never really a fan of rated anything to be honest, but then I considered the Solo Queue rating system that League of Legends uses (and others? Not sure if it's commonly used elsewhere). The idea mildly interests me, and I'm really not a fan of BG's/scenarios at all (much less rated ones). With that in mind, the only way I could really support such a system is if the rewards and such were only cosmetic, or visual in effect. eg: Titles, or certain particle effects for your character (a color crystal that mimics any you already have stat wise). A status symbol if you will, but nothing more.

This is the most important thing to note during these discussions. Many seem to overlook it. Below is how I feel on the subject. I don't understand complaints about leveling playing fields in PvP. I really couldn't care less about PvP gear so long as anyone who participates in PvP is on a relatively level playing field. I don't care if you come from a PvE Raid background, you just hopped in yesterday, or this is the 1000th hour of your PvP fest. Gear wise, I'd like for everything to be pretty close. I want the end result determined mostly by play and not by gear. Anything that gets more people actively PvP'ing is not a bad thing. PvE on the other hand, progression is one of the primary allures of the entire experience. You must clear content, gear up (maybe not entirely, but enough to move on), and continue on through the content. Due to that, it isn't as feasible to primarily PvP and go right into PvE expecting to be on equal footing. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, if you enjoy PvE that's really just part of it. The sense of completion, then getting one of those last drops, and moving on. They're two very different parts of the game, but they don't have to have an insurmountable wall in-between them. PvE if you enjoy it, then come and PvP if you like. So long as everyone understands we're on equal footing, regardless of what else we've done in the past. With that being said, I'm willing to give any any idea put forth a shot if it can bring us closer to such a PvP experience. Personally I was happy with the Ward system put forth in Warhammer (that is, the later system after it underwent changes). Due to the way Wards worked, PvE gear did not have to increase exponentially to keep up with different tiers of content. Wards simply made you sure you progressed through the appropriate content in order to continue to the next.