Okay, I wasn't crazy, it was shorter. The thing is I have the same spec I did before the change and I do not see any of the talents that have the reduction any more...

I have it stuck in my head that I thought it was a 45 second cool down, maybe I am thinking resilience, before the patch and now I see it is 2 min. But, it really seems longer than it was. I used to be able to know when the cooldown was up. Now I go for it and it is still on cool down.

Is it just me or did Force of Will have a different cool down before the patch?

Okay when they say "useless" this isn't completely true. What they mean is that shield only blocks white damage attacks. (ie. saber strike and any other basic no cost attacks that every class has) Most classes use attacks that cost some form of "energy" and gives them the damage type force/tech. Shield does not defend against force/tech attacks and that is the majority of attack types for PVP. Some classes like the gunslinger/sniper and marauder/sentinel use white damage to fill in while their bar regenerates or they need to build force to make their big attacks. So shields are helpful against them. Now comes the reasoning. Kinetic ward increases shield chance. Depending on your view, shield chance helps against white damage. The majority of attacks are not white damage, but rather force/tech so shield does not stop them. This is why people label them as useless in PVP. My theory is any stopped / reduced damage is good, so pop kinetic ward because it doesn't cost a global cool down and the force cost really doesn't seem to affect my play style that much. (I play tank in PVP, guard/taunt/be annoying=) ) Plus it really annoys snipers and marauders.

Depends on your server mostly and the balance. On many servers there is an imbalance one way or another. This leads to the dailies/weeklies being hard to complete. As for the armaments as a choice to complete the task, if your side is the weak one you can't get the armaments in the middle. When dailies and weeklies are done most people leave Ilum, which makes it very hard for others to complete. There is no incentive to PVP other than gaining valor. Taking bases means nothing but more valor gain. Once you hit 60, all valor ranks after that are just for fun and titles... My server is fairly balanced most of the time. Slight advantage to imps, but nothing we can't overcome with a little coordination. I think the main problem is incentive. PVP zones are dead most of the time. Hopefully their planned improvements for PVP will fix this, but at the moment it gets boring once you do it every day.

Yes! keep the focus on everyone else so they don't find us with the nerf bat! Juggernauts are OP, they do 5000000k dps lol But on a serious note, I think the others are right. The bolster makes you feel like a god early on till about level 30. Then it starts to drop. From what I notice on my 50 Shadow is Jugg's/Guards become very one dimensional. They have to be on you to hit you. That being said they can jump to you and then snare etc. They have a cool aoe knock down. Plus they take hits like a boss. The negative is that they have to be on you to hit you. (except saber throw) I just hit them and with my self heals I can usually defeat them no problem. Sometimes if I was low on health to start I kite them. But really they can't do much when you are kiting them. They can throw their saber, but if you keep the right distance they can't jump to you. (unless specced that way) Their damage isn't very good, mostly they take hit's; which they are good at. In short though, play what you have fun with. Every class has something to bring to the table no matter how much they complain and say otherwise on the forums lol.

I can deal with this since i pound face=)

Do the 31/0/10 spec! It is so good! Also as for the gear, most theorycrafters (and from my experience) recommend stalker gear so you are set. It will take some getting used to at first but I think you will like it much better than the guardian. Let me give you some highlights: -average 170k + damage a game and around 210k+ with a good healer -40 kills a game on average -70k protection -4-5 deaths at most -18-20k hps -an aoe snare that can do 1k+ damage and debuff's damage by 5% -an aoe damage that debuffs chance to hit by 5% -aoe taunt that debuffs people who are not hitting you's damage by 30% -a knock down outside of stealth and it's every 20 sec (if you get two pieces of survivor armor, just pull stalker mods and put them in survivor armor -a pull that brings your prey too you -when you use force sprint it removes all movement impairing effects every 20 sec! -a 3 second resist tech and force by 100% -3 self heals: combat techniques on hit chance to heal self every 4.5 sec, battle readiness heals 10% of total health and harness shadows with telekinetic throw -100% crit chance with project after a particle acceleration, which can do 6k damage! (with stims, adrenals, relics, expertise pots etc.) -a huge increase in defenses and survivability with combat stance -guard, stealth and vanish This is just off the top of my head. Shadows specced in 31/0/10 are amazing! I am just an average Shadow, so if you are good you could do a lot more damage than me (I've seen 250K - 325K Claims). If you go to the Shadow Forums and check out Powerr's Tanking guide he is much better than me.

I can usually solo a healer (Kinetic Shadow), but as soon as his two healing friends come along that's when it gets rough. ( Smart healers traveling in packs *grumble grumble*)

All Republic come to The Shadowlands Server! Seems pretty well balanced, maybe a slight favor to empire sometimes, (60/40 empire) but we get our pvp dailies done every day!

Cool I respect your choice. Let me know if you see a difference in PvP. Would honestly like to know. I don't claim to be an expert, just putting in my two cents.

I'll answer, the other stats more than make up for it, the increase in min and max damage is good. The +3 expertise may not seem like a lot but when having 600 makes you a god in pvp, it doesn't take much. This adds to your damage and defense all in one stat for pvp. The crit rating is okay, but the power loss is not enough to justify dropping all of the other stat increases. Power is nice, but the expertise alone probably makes up for it.

Thanks Powerr!

I think we have different definitions of gap closers. Based on what I assume your definition of gap closers is, speed and pull are the two "reduce distance between you and the target at a rapid pace" abilities. In response to your cd comment, they only have force leap... we have pull and speed. Speed is a 20 sec cool down. That is short! Plus if you get to them they shouldn't be getting away from you. We are one of the stickiest classes. Snare them, stun, knock down and if they do get away pull them back to you and snare them again. As for your comment on the others not being gap closers. I think you need to open your mind to different play styles. Snares slow the target so you can close the distance between you and your target rapidly. Same with stuns. Stealth is also a gap closer because you can be on the target before they know you are there. Just because it isn't a flashy flip through the air with spins and glitter doesn't mean it doesn't help you close the distance between you and your target. (aka a gap closer)

Yeah I have the same problem, I vanish and they continue to attack my companion