It's ridiculous how slow and in denial BW is: there are actually 210! Servers worldwide afaik and on 80% of them, it's quite annoying to find BG's and Ops-groups and on the lowest 30-40%, you simply cannot play the content. Does BW really think ppl keep paying for that or are they happy if they just have half a million subscribers within a month?

Now it's over.... Over the last few weeks on our small-pop-server, almost all active pvp-players on the rep side have left: 5-10 started to play WoW again, some unsubbed and some are twinking on another server. Now, we get maybe 4 hours per day, where we can get roflstomped with 4-6 players against a full team of Imps that have been able to play PvP for hours against each other with about 3 or 4 times the players that we have. Why does BW focus it's attention on stupid legacy-stuff that no1 cares about and risks loosing players in masses? Why don't they give us server-mergers and/or transfers NOW? They've already transfered tons of ppl, what's taking so long? And btw. the 0.4 Mio subscribers you've lost since March aren't casual players, they are players from ghostservers and I'm predicting, that they'll loose even more players in the coming weeks if they don't let us transfer chars NOW. Simple question: BW, do you want to make money and not loose half a Mio subscribers in the next 3-4 weeks, then give us transfers NOW. You won't loose subscribers, because ppl on RP-servers can't fistbrawl while drinking a space-brew in the cantina, but you will loose them if you don't let ppl transfer. This issue transends which type of player you are; nobody will pay monthly for a game, where you cannot enjoy ANY content because of lack of players on your servers. With all the competition coming up, there is NO way ppl will endure this treatment by BW any longer and anyone who is denying that fact, is totally in denial. *Edit: I'm just in Teamspeak with my guildies and about 5 of us have just now cancelled their subscription, including me - well done BW.

There have been quite a few games that have done "open"-PvP right, like Warhammer, DAoC (afaik, never played it) etc. IMHO, the first thing BW needed to do to fix Ilum is instance it and make it a global cross-server instance with max 20 players (more if the engine could actually handle it). This way, it would be at least fair for every side and it wouldn't become a lagfest. Yes, this would mean that the PvP isn't really "open", but what most plpl want out of this is just fights in big numbers. Then maybe add some cool objectives to Ilum that maks it more dynamic and give some decent reward once they conquered Ilum. Maybe it could also be broken down into sections and combined for certain servers, so one group could take the first instance and then other ppl from the same server-group could continue. Or there could be some point-system that collects all the points from one side of the server-group and at different treshholds the whole group would advance to another stage of Ilum, kinda like in Warhammer I guess. This would create the feeling of a big battle going on and strenghten the ties between the factions, even if they're not on the same server.

Yepp: wanted to get my daily done before 2 P.M., but with merely 6 ppl on fleet on our side it's gonna be impossible. We basically get 4 hours where you can actually PvP on our server but theres never more than 1 team active on our side, so half the players that wanna play have to sit out a WZ quite frequently. I don't see how BW expects us to suffer trough this until they finally get transfers/cross-server and I don't know how SWToR won't loose all it's players to diablo3 and GW2.... Personally, I play less now, because I simply cannot PvP anymore and I'll probably buy Dia3 to check it out. I'd really like to come back to SWToR once transfers and cross-server are here, but until then, I might stick with Dia3 or have switched to GW2 completely - what a shame, this game has so much potential, but BW pretty much ruins it by setting their priorities wrong. If I were them, I'd take all ressources possible NOW and work on transfers and cross-server, you can worry about gimmicks like legacy later, cuz no1 will quit playing cuz they can't have a fistfight with other, but tons of ppl are leaving because they simply can't play PvP, which is (as BW stated themselves) a HUGE part of why ppl are playing SWToR right now.

Just read the post above yours and be amazed at how uninformed you are.... Everything is gonna be fine for everyone with cross-server; it's not gonna replace transfers/mergers and it won't rid you of the fun you have playing the same ppl all the time.

I have to agree here and state some points why I think the marauders allow bad players to have a big impact on the game and how good players have very limited options of dealing with them: 1) Maras are Melee, so the first thing that comes to mind for good supporters to do to deal with them is slowing the maras: Unfortunately, they have a 15-second CD leap (which is wayyyy to low of a CD for such a strong leap), and quite a few slows/stuns/roots themselves, so kiting them, even if you slow them, is very hard. They also don't need to rely on good support as much as other Melees: Normally, if a Team would want to maximize the Potential of a Melee-Class, you would need some supporters/healers babysitting them; removing slows, taunts, CC etc and/or slow/root the targets of the Mara. This would also create a certain tension for the Heal/support: Do I wanna heal or deal DMG or maximize the DPS of the Melee-Class and it would require more skill and teamplay. --> Solution: Double the CD of the leap and/or remove it's root-effect and lower the slow-effects of the maras slows. Also, remove the Master-strike-root from the game and add sth. different. 2) The Maras defensive CD's are way too strong and allow the Mara to overextend beyond belief and be very effective even with bad healing/support from the backline. A Melee-Class that deals so much DMG shouldn't be allowed to be that hard to kill and to be able to function without any support at all. Take the Shadow without it's tankstance as an example: He deals quite a bit more DMG than the tankier Shadow, but it's easier to kill than a Sage and he only has a very specific defensive CD. which, if activated, at least allows certain classes to still DMG him; This means that it requires more skill to use it effectively, but it also allows a skilled team to react against it and for good Sages etc. to quickly switch targets until the CD has weared off. --> Weaken the defensive CD's (and I mean heavily weaken them; you can pretty much double the CD on all of them and they'd still be too good if used wisely) or revamp them completely.

He has a valid point, but as BW has already stated, server-transfers are on their way as well.....

I wish ppl would actually inform themselves over what BW tries to do with cross-server PvP before they whine: BW actually knows that a lot of ppl prefer playing in a smaller community with other players and they've come up with a great way to make those ppl happy as well: - If you search for a cross-server-game, the system will first try to get a game on your server; if there are enough ppl, you'll pretty much get exactly what you have right now, except with rating and 8-man teams. - If there aren't enough ppl that are in a queue from your server, or if you have specific Settings (like map-preference) that conflict with those of the players from your server, the system will widen the search for players and draw upon the pool of other servers. So: If you want and if there are enough players on your server, you will get exactly what you want. Now I ask you: If you are on a low-pop server or really want to play a certain Map, would you rather play with/against ppl from other servers than not playing any PvP at all?

2 words: TOO LATE!

Arena isn't the pinnacle of PvP; we've seen it with Guild Wars that you can have very high level PvP with 8-man Groups. It's true though that the PvP in SWtOR really isn't real PvP: - It's more about gear than skill - I don't even get WZ's most of the times cuz our server is so empty - We often don't get 8 ppl vs the imps who have 8 all the time and much more WZ's, so they gear up faster - No Ladder - No Cross-Server - NO 8-man TEAMS - REALLY?! PvP in SWtOR is kinda like if DotA only had PuG's, no Ladder etc. it's basically a joke right now.... Kinda sad, cuz I still play it because it would have so much potential if they fixed the points above: It could be fkn awesome!

Have to disagree here very strongly and it's not because I don't want WoW-Fanboys to have what they want, it's because of the various implications it would have for those who prefer 8v8 on strategic Maps with different objectives, rather than simple 2v2 or 3v3. Here are my reasons why: 1) 8v8 requires more skill, because more players have to work together. You could compare it with Micro and Macro from RTS-games, with Micro being controlling your Character well, and Macro is strategy and working with the other teammates. you could compare 2v2 and 3v3 VS 8v8 in the macro aspects with early VS lategame in RTS-games: In the early-game (2v2 and 3v3) you have less Units, so you need less macro and can focus more on Micro, in the lategame, Macro gets more important and you might not have time to micro as well, but because in SWtOR, 1 player control 1 Char all the time, you can micro just as well, but you need increased Macro. 2) It's way easier to balance a game for bigger teams than for 2v2's or 3v3's and I have no Idea why you think the opposite: In 8v8's, certain disadvantages in Chars can be extinguished by playing together with other Characters. The smaller the Team, the more is it necessary for Characters to be "Jack-of-all-trades". With bigger Teams, you can actually have specialized Chars and not have them be completely useless, because you can seek out situations in which the Pros outweigh it's cons and have him supported by other classes to make up for it's disadvantages. 3) It's easier to balance teams if you use different Maps with variing Goals than balancing classes in a simple deathmatch-scenario. Take this example: If there where infinite ways to win a scenario, every class would find a good way to utilize its strenghts, if there is just "kill this while you survive", there might be whole classes left out, just because others are simply better in this particular aspect. Let's take Huttball: - You can have ppl that dish out a lot of DMG--> useful in Huttball, also useful in Deathmatch - You can have ppl that heal --> useful in Huttball, also useful in Deathmatch - You can have very tanky chars that don't do much DMG --> useful in Huttball, not useful in Deathmatch, cuz you'll just kill the other Chars first and don't mind the Tank until he's the only char left (I'm not counting for the guard, bc it's just an example) - You can have very mobile Chars --> useful in Huttball, not so useful in Deathmatch There are hundreds of other aspects that come into play onto the different Maps, that wouldn't count for much in a small Deathmatch-Arena. So why am I against Arena? - Depending on the success of Arena, BW would have to balance it towards Arena, or, if the 8v8-system had more success, balanec towards 8v8. In any case, balancing stuff for 8v8 with different Maps is completely different than balancing for teams of 3 in a Deathmatch. Take for example a team of 8 which will have probably 2 Healers and a team of 3 which would probably have 1. In 8v8, the healer would have to heal up 4 chars, in 3v3 only 3. Another example could concerne stuns/CC/interrupts. In 8v8, 8 players could arrange it to stun/interrupt/CC 1-2 players, probably the healers. In 3v3, only 3 chars could do the same thing, so in 8v8, stuns etc. would be much more effective when you wanna take out heal-power of the opponent (3 to 4 ratio). - You cannot simply balance an MMO towards teams with a small number in a Arena with no variing objectives and think everything will be fine for 8v8 as well, that's not how it works.

Maybe it was a hacker or 1 or more players fired transendence or sth.... Probably a speedhack though.

First of all, not every Char has to be extremely mobile to be useful in Huttball; scoring is one aspect, but securing the next ball is just as important. Secondly, the invis of the Scoundrel/Ops is extremely useful but underused in Huttball. He can for example run forward in stealth and w8 for ppl to throw him the ball from the lowest stage of the Arena, right under the flametraps, so that no baalcarrier has to walk through the traps. He is also good defensively, because no1 can jump towards him when he's in stealth. Yes, all other stealth-classes can do the same thing and Shadow is for example clearly better in Huttball, but not every class has to have exactly the same value on every Map IMHO. Try to make the best of it, cuz IMHO, Ops won't get a Leap anytime soon. ^^

In GW, where you could only pack 8 skills for one spec, Melee used to fill one of those 8 slots with a leap that had tripple the recast of the leaps in this game and didn't deal any DMG, nor did it interrupt/root or anything - it's soooo easy for most melees in this game to close distances thanks to leaps, self-remove of conds etc. even in a bad PuG-group, where nobody supports them. Also, No1 said you have to use the leap as your first attack, it's mostly superb because you can 1-2-3-spike much easier if you have a leap every second spike. And yes, the AoE is only in rage-spec, as I noted in my post above and yes, it's the worst spec for pvp, as noted in my post above. Carnage/Combat has by far the best spike-possibilities and can easily spike every 5-7 seconds: - Leap+rooting Master-Strike - Crit Bladestorm/Crippling Throw while running towards the target, then Precision slash than slash/blade rush - Crit Bladestorm/Crippling Throw while running towards the target, then Zen+Bladerush+Slash-spamming Or you can also take out a healer while the others are spiking sth down with Stasis/Interrupts... I prefer this spec heavily over the others, even though watchman is nice as well, just because the combat-spec is by far the most reliable in a 1-2-3-spike, which is atm the best way to kill sth.

DPS/Support-Sages 1) Less Burst-DMG than other Ranged classes 2) Glass-Cannons 3) Interrupting will take out a lot of the DPS 4) No good Cooldowns, especially no defensive ones 5) Healing in a DPS-spec isn't very effective and will give you Mana-probs very soon 6) Bubble is the only skill in the game that gets worse if you have more Sages Heal-Sages 1) Even easier to kill than the DPS-specs 2) Not really great CC/Stuns compared to the DPS-spec 3) Almost no burstheals in under 1 Sec 4) Mana-management costs health, which makes them very vulnerable 5) No free Heal like Comm Marauders: Pro's: - high burst-DMG - Best CD's in the game - high sustained and AoE DMG in some specs - ridiculously OP leaps for Huttball - Best Class for 1v1 - almost unbeatable - Nice skills for the team like Transendence and heal in watchman-spec Con's: - Melee.... But they have leaps, so it's okay - cannot remove conds/slows/CC easily, but for that, you have support - Focus-Spec can't really spike consistenly and is realiant on opponents balling ---> therefore the worst spec and the only one with deficits

Are you kidding me? First of all, this sort of Problem will always exist in PuG's, have you never played HoN or DotA, where in every PuG, all the players pick a carry and no1 support? Secondly, having a lot of healers obviously gives you certain advantages, but it also has huge deficits: We recently had a Game on Voidstar where we nearly went insane cuz we couldn't open a door against 2 Fullhealers and 2-3 Offhealers, well, we opened one at least and thought - this is gonna be a loss for sure, but hey: The didn't even come close to opening one door, cuz more healing equals less DMG. In most Maps, this stuff tends to balance itself out quite good: on VS, they'll hold easier, but they won't open doors, on Novare/Alderaan, they can def points easily, but they won't be able to recap a point that easy and in Huttball, they might be able to heal up a ballcarrier better, but they won't be able to kill yours. Another point is, that often ppl think that there are 3-4 Healers, when actually, a majority of the healers are offhealers/hybrids. Many Hybrid-specs and Offhealers don't even have the reduced drawback to casting when healing, so simply attacking them will reduce their Heal-output heavily. Also, Offhealers have less effective heal and often more points in DMG, so if they heal, they are less effective than when they are dealing DMG. The third point is, that they have pretty bad mana-management when healing, so if you keep adding enough pressure, they will run out of mana soon. And about Tanks being useless..... yeah, for sure.... Just another whinethread by sm1 who doesn't understand the game....

Major Problem on Low-Pop-Servers unfortunately and although a hotfix wouldn't be that hard, BW just doesn't react. I mean, how hard can it be to just stop putting ppl in one team if the other has fewer players? Or give the team with fewer players some sort of buff to compensate?

1) No1 needs Arena, only WoW-Fanboys want Arena. A Game that has 8-man PvP and different Maps with different Objectives is more fun, easier to balance, has a better chance to make every class be viable in a team and requires more skill to play and coordinate. 3) I think as the maps are now, it's an interesting system, especially if ranked global 8-man PvP becomes available, cuz you'll have to get a Team-Setup, that is usable on every Map, or you might want to take risks or set priorities and build one that is very good in for example huttball, but lacks power in VoidStar or whatever. This creates a very interesting dynamic in making a good PvP-Team and this would suffer, if you just seperated one of the more interesting Maps from the others.

Best Tip I can give you is find a guild that plays a lot of PvP, join them on their TS-server and start playing with them and feed on their knowledge.

Both as a Healer and as a DD, the Sage is probably the worst class right now, maybe in DD the comm is a bit worse cuz interrupting him is just devastating. If you srsly think sages need to be nerfed, you are clearly doing sth wrong. - Sages have very low survivability - Interrupting them will take out a lot of DPS or Heal - Their stuns/CC can easily be removed - There are enough roots, stuns and slows to counter Force-Speed - They do the least Healig and the least DD, especially if you stay out of their AoE, throw ppl out of their Voidheal and remove DoT's fast, so it's actually easy to simply ignore them, if they wouldn't die if you simply stare at them for a second.... I'm full modded T3 with 3 T4-pieces as a DD with max stuns/CC and I literally die within seconds against a Mara/powertech/slinger that spikes me down.... -.-°

Actually, it's pretty easy to balance healers and not overpower hybrids (which is a big reason why ppl have the feeling that nothing dies in PuG's, cuz 2-3 healers and 2+ offhealers isn't a very rare occurance). Sage: give them THIS instead of healing trance: http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Infuse_Health This way, the Sage had very strong burstheal, but worse pressure-heal and would require supporters/other healers to heal him up. Then, give Healers a T4+ skill that gives them an expertise-buff on healing: for Sages: Clairvoyance and Serenity adds +1% Healing in PvP per point for Scoundrels: Acoomplished Sawbones and Homegrown Pharmacology adds +1% healing in PvP per point for Commandos: Potet Medicine adds +1% healing in PvP per point That way, Fullhealers would get buffed, while hybrids wouldn't get the buff and sages actually had a useful burstheal against the 5k instants almost every DD has in store....

The way the x-server system would work if it was in place and if it worked as BW anticipates, it would actual try and match you up against players from the same server and only go global, if it wouldn't find enough players locally or if you had very specific settings, like maps you want to play etc. They realize that some ppl would rather play against ppl from their own server, but if there simply aren't any around, wouldn't you rather just play WZ against any1 else than playing no WZ at all?

It's exactly the opposite on our server: We have about 3 times the imps playing PvP but nearly no reps, so while they have BG's in the morning, gearing up etc. we have none and while we get teams of 6 in the early afternoon, they get full teams, so they stomp us. Then in the evening, where it should be fair with 8v8, they win because so many good players on our side have already left, the new players can't get gear nor practice, while the imps have already farmed T4 quite a bit. And the longer it goes on like the, the worse it gets. I sincerely think that if we don't get X-server pvp, our server will die, if BW doesn't do sth. to help us get more and fairer WZ's. For example, why not cap at 6 players if one side can't get 8 and only let new players in, if the other side has other players in the queue.

That's a problem that has nothing to do with balance, but with PuG's and no premade 8-man teams. Or do u really think a team would be stupid enough to use more than 3 (3 is too much, but maybe if they wanted to play veeery defensive or sth) healers in a 8-man premade team? How would you get through a door on VS, how would you kill a player carrying the huttball, how would you recap a point that has been taken?

General: On using jumps, players drop the Huttball Sage - they get this spell http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Infuse_Health Sents - Double CD on their defensive CD's Gunslingers: - Only non-Interruptable when Hunker down is active