This thread is a pipe dream btw. BW won't read the thread and nobody in the MMO business would stick out their neck to attempt this model. WoW is a proven model and its currently generating profit for BW so why change it?

The PvP "grind" is about a week long atm. I find 1 week is a fair investment to be geared. My concern is with vertical scaling. What happens when a new tier comes out? And the next? When you keep up with vertical scaling, its not so bad. Its when you level an alt and there are 8 tiers of gear to work through before you are relevant.

I like the idea of 1-49 vertical scaling but I think it should be more story driven and revolve less around random filler quests. at 50 there should be a level 50 class story chapter that slowly gives you your level 50 gear as you progress. once you're done that you are equally well geared as any other level 50 and now you can start making your character your own by fine tuning your look, feel, abilities, etc.

bump.

Yes. Yes times a million. The best example of horizontal progression itemization is TF2. There are the basic items everyone has, and then sidegrades of all sorts of variations that can be unlocked/crafted/etc Imagine every sniper had a basic snipe shot that dealt 1000 dmg. You could unlock incendiary rounds that deal 800dmg and then 350dmg over 12 seconds, freezing rounds that deal 700dmg and apply a slow, explosive rounds that deal 500 aoe damage, etc These numbers are obviously just made up on the spot but you get the idea... There is no clear best ability. They are sidegrades and let you fill whatever roll you want to fill in a team and let you gear your playstyle to your own liking. This type of progression is far more fun to "grind" through because you don't feel you NEED to do it to be competitive. You do it because you want to try it out and flesh out your character to your liking. Grinding towards something fun and cool is way more rewarding to grinding so you aren't terrible. The other advantage is flashpoint/operation/whatnot balancing. They can set up normal/hard/nightmare difficulties knowing how strong all characters will be. Its no longer a gear grind to be able to advance. Nightmare is for hardcores willing to put in the time to practice and perfect execution of an encounter. Having unique looking gear or crafting schematics drop from these harder instances gives players status as the elite (aka baller status) that truly sets them apart and that will never be cheapened. (By cheapened I mean this: in wow we were alliance first to kill Illidan. We had status because our gear and people stopped to look at you because you had gear they could look up online. Fast forward a few months and everyone had cleared BT and pugs were doing it weekly. Our once amazing gear was now commonplace. It severely cheapened the experience for me and is the reason I left wow. What we poured hours and hours into every night was all for a few weeks of being unique. ) People will often bring up that there is no reason to play a game when you aren't grinding gear. I can tell you that this is false. I have 2000+ hours on TF2 because it is fun to play and learn all the difficult playstyles possibly with the different items. Playing against other people on a level playing field is exhilarating and rewarding. The progression you see will be your own abilities getting honed instead of your gear getting a stat boost. When you beat that player 1v1 after weeks of him mopping the floor with you... you know its because you as a player got better. Not that his gear fell behind. I've been saying for years that horizontal scaling is the breath of fresh air that MMOs need in this era of WoW clones. Idk who this Tagrim is but he's absolutely right!

For your assault build, I would forgo Field Training in favor of Steadied Aim to make concussive round more reliable and charged bolts more spamable. Gunnery and CM/Gunnery hybrid will probably be popular in ranked WZs

Rotating your character can be done via the "a" and "d" keys by default. Your skill tree can be accessed via the "k" key. If you'd like more info, please be more specific!

Don't have any parses confirming, but afaik you cannot stack vortexes beyond 5.

Yes; we will roll with 2 commandos, I believe. I think that gunnery will shine in rated WZ when your team will be able to support your positioning and let you run your rotation freely.

This is pretty much what these forums consist of: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=154012 Glad to see another commando enjoying their class and makin' it happen!

Assault is the way to go. http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=443181

Oh, was there a competition? How does one rank survivability? 10s stun usable in combat from 30m, 4s stun, knockback w/ slow, talentable 0 cost 50% slow, adrenaline rush (can be talented to reduce CD), 25% DR shield (can be talented to break snares/roots, make immune to interrupts, increase healing received by 20%), heavy armor... I can't see what else you want.

30m vs 4m range. I'll take it. I would prefer the damage output be instant instead of channeled but that would probably be OP. I would be unstoppable. My survivability is already great. This would put me over.

I would support this 100%

I would gladly give up that alacrity talent :\

I'm sick of the argument. A) 1v1 fights are rare so arguing who is best at them is pointless. If you are 1v1 defending a point, your only goal is to survive until someone shows up to help before more forces come to wipe you out. Balance should not be done around 1v1. B) Every example stated shows marauder using every single defensive cooldown. If someone needs to use all their CDs to get a single kill that probably means very little (as 1v1s usually happen between points and don't actually accomplish much) then they won't have those CDs up once they get to the point. They are just as bad off as you are for about as much time as you take to respawn and get back to it. C) Its not even that bad.

Sorry I thought this was a WZ rotation question. Are you looking for eventual rotation or current rotation (lvl23ish)? Do you mean PvE? PvP? Info for both?

You don't have a lot at 23. Grav round when you have full ammo regen. hammer shot otherwise. If target is <20% go for SG, HiB, SS

I'm happy the thread was useful to you and most of all I'm glad you're enjoying your commando! If you ever want any tips or have questions, feel free to post them on these forums and people will gladly help you out

Well you dont actually have to cast FA, just start it for a split second to proc the HiB reset. If you have the time and space, let it run its course though because its good damage.

LoS is friendlier to DoT based ranged classes than it is to melee, yes. If I can hump a pillar then there's very little a mara can do.

Single target burst heal is usually going to be lower overall healing output vs mass HoTs. It is, however, better for keeping up focus fired targets. At the end of the day, those numbers are just a pat on the back at the end of a WZ. If you're effective and keeping your team in the fight, you will overall have better rewards from winning WZs.

I've never done any PvE really in this game so I can't offer too much advice. How often is pushback an issue? If it is a real concern, then Steadied Aim is fine, but otherwise I might move the points elsewhere. Hammer Shot is a large chunk of our DPS, would it be worthwhile to drop Soldier's Endurance for Target Lock for more white damage and more plasma procs? Again, I have 0 PvE experience and can only ask your opinion on these points. Otherwise it looks pretty stock.

I took a closer look at your build. I would say this is better: link Faster vortex building and charged barrier for a bit more DR. I still believe that straight assault is better and that hybrid CM/Assault is more effective than this build.

Makes sense to me. You play a support role. Why should you win 1v1 against a DPS class? With nothing to support, a support character should fail. Having a healer is also not a guaranteed win. If you get outplayed and out CCd, the other team will win. TOR is one of the better MMOs for PvP and it really comes down to awareness and control. If you lose an even match, its usually because you're outgeared or outplayed.