Ilum is going to be a work in progress for SWTOR over the course of the year, I suspect. They had a concept (which in and of itself was fine), and as far as launching with some semblance of world PvP it was fine. The game is still so young, they're in the basic bug / major systems fixing phase of things. Significant world PvP changes fall pretty low on the list this early on. They couldn't accurately predict how much the faction imbalances / server populations would effect Ilum PvP until now. With all the win-trading that was happening (and establishing itself as the status quo) they knew that was antithesis to their original design for it, because there was very little *actual* PvP going on. So I understand the choice they made to shift the daily / weekly to kills to encourage actual PvP. I don't think they realized it would make Ilum virtually unplayable for a given faction on most servers (to my understanding, its mostly Empire dominated). So in this case, I think their fix did more harm than good. However, it will certainly not be the final adjustment to Ilum we see. I suspect in 8 months, we won't even recognize how Ilum works. Until that time, the over-whelmed faction on any given server will shift their PvP focus elsewhere. It's unfortunate, but only a minor part of the game. Time will see a well-balanced fix.

The issue is that people think "listening to the community" involves instant gratification in solving issues or making updates. Coding (both generating new features and sifting through code to fix problems) takes a lot of effort and programmer hours. Furthermore, there's always debate in the community *and* company on which way to go with certain features. The game hasn't been released for nearly long enough for them to have taken all the feedback and fixed / added much of anything that people want. They've done some, they will continue to do more. Time is a much more valuable (and necessary) resource than consumers ever give it credit for.

They each have their advantages. There is still some class-balancing for BW to do, but I have plenty of faith that they will get things to a relatively even point (in both PvE and PvP). I play a healing Scoundrel, and play both aspects of the game. From a purely PvP perspective, Sage / Sorc have had the highest healing output that i've seen (when played by a veteran PvP healer). This doesn't make them the best, but I think as far as pure output is concerned, they're at the top of the balancing meter at the moment. Commando / Merc has the best healer survivability I have seen. The heavy armor combined with their 'Earth Shield' style ability has made them very difficult for DPS'ers I play with to take them down. Scoundrels / Operatives are more HoT-oriented, and are also very proc based. I would say they're the trickiest to play, but when you've learned them, they hold their own with all the others. Utility is another matter, of course. Sage / Sorc has speed boost and knockbacks, which have great situational value. Scoundrel / Ops have stealth (I have ninja-capped many a door / turret that way). Commando / Merc also has a knockback. So they're all good. It's playstyle most of all, that should guide your choice. I wish you luck in choosing!

I think BW is handling it the best possible way. You won't be a low level forever, eventually you too will be 50. The issue is two-sided. Lower levels are often (though not always) getting wrecked by lvl 50's, simply by the fact that lvl 50's have all of their abilities, and have begun to acquire meaningful (often PvP-specific) gear that gives them a more substantial edge. Yes, of course a truly terrible lvl 50 can get owned by a lvl 12 that is a well-honed PvP'er, but that is in the extreme minority. Similarly, lvl 50's who are looking to establish themselves into the routine of a budding PvP culture are winding up in warzones with lvl 10 - 15's that have very few abilities, and more often than not little experience. This understandably produces a lot of frustration. By have 2 separate brackets, a lvl 50 only bracket, and then a 10 - 49 bracket, you ensure that queue times will be reasonable for both, and the max-level culture can take shape without the frustrations of having (what many PvP'ers consider to be) "weak links" in low-level players. For the moment, the lvl 50 community is still fairly small, so I hope the brackets aren't implemented for about another 2 weeks, as there should be a more substantial wave of people reaching 50 by then. After that though, I really think this is best.

Portsmouth, NH. Live Free or TOR MF'ers!

I really appreciate that even-handed nature of your post. Much of the "This is fine, but this needs adjusting", with a reasonable air that doesn't insist on instant gratification for implementing such a fix, is lost on most of the forum-goers. I'm not sure I agree with *everything* you feel, but the vast majority. Thank you for being an informed and reasonable poster! I will say though, that pointing out how qualified you are to speak on your experiences (while logically the correct thing to do), is like catnip to the trolls.

As someone who looks objectively at the game, I am always amused by the fanboy's and haters alike. I feel the OP is less open to debate than he clearly believes he is (given the mood of the post made), but nothing really to be done about that. I have some opinions on a number of the points made, but i'll focus this post on one specifically, and that is bolstering. I know there's a lot of heated debate on it, but it is neither a black or white system. I play on a server that is consistently full (but not with massive queues), and I see *why* the system is there. Realistically, Bolstering is in place because without it, Warzones would be empty *FOR THE TIME BEING*. There just aren't enough people at lvl 50 (ultimately the real meat of PvP), or upper 40's consistently PvP'ing at the moment to allow for thriving PvP culture to be established. I have no made-up statistics to provide for you, simply the first-hand account of someone that has been doing quite a lot of PvP over the past 5 days (in the upper 40's, and now lvl 50). Of course lvl 10's the queue up don't have a chance against a max-level player of equivalent or greater skill. By simple fact that they have so few abilities to fight with. Bolstering simply allows those lower-level players to participate with some chance, and sometimes you get a real PvP'er that can actually out-play a higher level, because of the slightly closer to level playing ground that bolstering provides. It is an imperfect system, but I believe it also to be a reasonable temporary one. As the level populations stabilize, I believe they will institute some kind of bracketing. Most likely a lvl 50 bracket, and then a 10 - 49 bracket with bolstering still in place. But for now, instituting brackets would mean a lot mis-matched games for number of players.

I hit lvl 50 last night. I didn't "power-level" through, by skipping content. I tested beta for a long time, so i'll admit I did a lot of space-barring through Ord Mantel and Coruscant... in fairness, i'd heard it all before 5+ times. Though for my story missions, I still loved em, so I didn't skip most of those. I did however have plenty of time, because i'm a teacher and currently on winter vacation. It's a newly released game... is there as much to do at max-level as say another MMO which myself and many others switched from to this? No, of course not. BW's initial focus had to be on the leveling experience. If you can't enjoy the game getting to level cap, you're not going to like once you get there. Being in the phase immediately after launch, their focus is on stability. There are bugs to change, features to spruce up, and small things to polish to make sure things are as solid in the early community as they want. *Then* they will expand level cap content. It may be a few months before we see major content updates, but they will be coming. All of that said, there's still plenty to do. Now, I see tons of people who introduce themselves as "I hate PvP", "Daily grinds are boring, I refuse to do them!", and "I'm going to play this solo, I don't like grouping with others". And these people are suddenly surprised that they have little to do, when they've eliminated all PvP content, all heroic Flashpoint / Operations content, and all the daily quests on Ilum and elsewhere. Let us not forget all the people up in arms about a space combat system that many are too stubborn to stop and *try* in the first place. So yes, when you refuse to do any of the multitudes of experiences there are to have at max level, you might find yourself lacking stuff to do. Me, i'm having a great time

I PvP'd intermittently from lvl 14 all the way to lvl 50 (which I hit last night, actually in a WZ). It's not been my focus in playing, but I typically did at least one WZ each day. The last 3 days have seen me doing a bit more PvP, as i've been having a good time with it. I can honestly say, I don't see an issue. Both before and after the patch, I felt the XP gain was reasonable. Along with credits, valor points, and commendations, even losses were fairly rewarding. I've seen people complaining generically that WZ's were "buggy" with few to no examples of such bugs, and i've encountered none of them. My only complaint with the WZ's is the fact that the Imperials dominate Huttball on my server. Like 95% win ratio for them. However, with the people i've been queuing with the last few days, we have just as high a win ratio in Alderaan and Voidstar, so i'll take it. And really, the Imperial Huttball advantage is nothing wrong with BW's design for PvP, and more the fact that more organized PvP'ers went Empire than Republic. What can be done about that, honestly? Ilum, while not buggy, is in need of serious adjustment in how it works. It's fine as a daily mission goal right now though, but it invokes no *real* PvP. BW's got their hands full at the moment trying to take care of bigger issues (as they should be, and anyone who thinks the game is too buggy for a fresh release on this scale... is simply delusional). I have absolute faith that they will get to said adjustments in a reasonable time (which I would estimate at anywhere from 1.5 - 4 months time from now). Patience and trust are important for enjoying these early large-scale MMO's.

What people who say this don't realize, is that video game companies are competitors... they don't call up their business competition and say "Hey, can we get your coding for this feature? Thanks". Not only do companies not share their features, it is neither easy to code these large-scale games (even if they've been done before in the industry), nor is it a good practice to completely copy another company's style. Yes, its a rail-shooter, and that is in no way totally original and unique. However, for it being a side-feature of the game, they made a rail-shooter that feels right for the aesthetic and cinematic nature of SWTOR, making a style of mini-game that is in no way original, feel unique to this game. I appreciate space combat as it stands. Would love to see it expanded in the future, but for a 2.5 week old game, it is right where it should be.

Those who don't understand this post struggle to comprehend complex humor (like Irony) or colorful story-telling. I appreciate the OP's point, and his writing skills!

The real point is that it was well and clearly stated the moment that pre-orders began, was that early access would be staggered based on the sooner you redeemed your code. BW is moving quickly with getting waves in, and I highly doubt anyone that pre-ordered has to wait til the 20th. It's a brand new MMO... there's no unfair advantage. You won't log in on the 3rd day of early access and find half the guild's out there face-rolling the hardest difficulties of raids. Almost everybody will still be in the lvl 1 - 15 range. I understand the frustration, but relax... it's going to be fine and a lot smoother than if over a million people rush the server in the same moment.