A PvP a Day...

[Lhancelot]

As I flew down to mid on the speeder (Alderaan Civil War) I couldn't help but notice who the other team was... As both teams made their serpentine path to their starting points I tab-targeted no less than 4 sages.

 

*sigh* I knew I was in for a stressful warzone, not only was it pub vs. pub, but we were up against FOUR sages maybe more! RNG-zus really does hate me sometimes.

 

Me being a commando only meant I was in for even more pain than usual, because I found sages could basically dot me up and outheal my damage.

 

The battle started as usual. I hit mid hoping we got it as it's the fastest place to defend and easiest to hold... Obviously only me and 2 others felt this way. As us three bee-lined to mid into a swarm of 6 enemies, I watched behind myself as three of our team went to snow (obviously meaning 2 went to grass).

 

Three of us kept the fight going for longer than I had expected, but it was inevitable we would succumb and lose mid. The enemy team had six on mid, with two sage healers. No matter how much damage we did, the health pools of our targets would ebb down to 30-40% then miraculously peak back to 90-95%.

 

Suddenly I seen snow taken by the enemy team, grass then was taken shortly there after, and, as mightily as the three of us fought on mid... Well, we failed too.

 

As this type of match goes, our team always seemed to be one step behind the other.

 

I would see snow with none on it, so I would run as fast as I could to take it... Start capping, and damnit... I got mezzed by a stealth! Shortly there after, two more pubs would be there and I was dead by three enemies in quick fashion.

 

This happened over, and over, and over... It was nothing short of being Groundhog Day in Alderaan!

 

Perhaps a better analogy of my suffering would be Prometheus who was chained to a mountainside where an eagle ripped out and ate his forever-regenerating liver every day, as punishment by Zeus for granting humans with his enlightenment.

 

Only, I never enlightened any human, and, my liver couldn't possibly regenerate for all of eternity, that would be ridiculous...

 

Anyway! As the match seemed to last forever, and I watched a three cap torturously work against my team, I never stopped trying to win.

 

I knew if I kept going, I would find a victory, somewhere, somehow, and it would make this entire ordeal worth it! I never stopped looking for that moment...

 

And it came! I ran towards snow and I could see two enemy republic /dancing. They were really enjoying themselves. One was a sage (of course) and the other was a sentinel.

 

As I approached, Their dancing stopped and I could see they seen me as both of their heads swiveled in my direction.

 

The sentinel was leery and understood I was trying to lead them out where I had a chance to kite them. The sage however understood him being a sage had an advantage over me, so he didn't hesitate to engage me out in the middle of nowhere!

 

We began our skirmish, and our fight began ferociously.

 

I leveled him with some pretty hard shots and channeled damage, which I think caught him off-guard... He actually had to hold off on dotting me up because his health dropped very fast and he needed to heal himself, afterall.

 

Once he got himself healed up, he finished layering me with his dots, then he began pounding me with other attacks.

 

Now it was my turn to heal up, only I had to burn through all my defensive cooldowns, and heal packs to get my health back up to where I felt relatively safe from death at least for the moment...

 

I then began peppering him hard with channeled rounds, and some nice solid shots with grav rounds, and high impact bolt, and suddenly his health went to 10%! I couldn't believe it, he was about to die!

 

My heart actually started pounding a little faster than usual! I knew and now HE knew he was looking at death from 10 feet away in the form of a very tough, very rough (and fat) commando who COULD kill him.

 

Then inexplicably as I cascaded damage into him, my damage did very little, and he began healing again... And, he was back to 75% health, while I was at 25% with lots of "fluff-damage" dots eating away at my health.

 

My sudden elation just moments before came crashing down as I tried to manage some healing miracle of my own, only to see my health go up by a fraction of what those dots were doing...

 

The next thing I knew, was I was eating a mouth full of dirt and humility while that sage ran back to continue his dancing with his annoying sentinel partner on grass.

 

I never found that victory in that warzone, not until the end when I got to see the numbers of our scores.

 

Our team had a total of four kills, and I had two of those. that was good. At least I killed two of the four who managed to die at our hands.

 

I also did top damage for our team, so I was content knowing that at least the enemies got as much from me as they gave us... It was a hollow self-victory though.

 

The sad truth is, no personal triumphs in losses ever match accomplishments you gain with your fellow PVPers in a hard fought match where everyone tries their best... Win or loss.

[AlrikFassbauer]

Ah, Alrick, can't tell you how many times the Snipers/Slingers blew me up and completely dominated the field.

 

*Sigh* I've yet to see that. Or maybe I'm really that mediocre that I constantly - no matter what I try to do - end up in the middle field of the scoreboard ...

 

Far too often I feel like Sysiphos : Fighting against others only to be killed far too quickly without being able to kill the other char quicly ...

 

Even when there are other Gunslingers, they are often so much higher in the scoreboard than me. And in one case I even saw one earning much more medals than me, even although his "objective play" point numbers was so much lower than mine - through his so many more kills.

 

Or, better, like a Lemming. Yes, that fits it so much better.

 

My advice is, don't judge the server or any server for that matter by their lowbie or even mids WZs.

 

But this fits only if Ranked is the end goal of a player.

 

Considering how long lveling in in mid and low levels require (I'm talking of days or weks),

mids and lower levels can be quite a brutal "rite of passage". Designed to get the weaker and more sensittive players out of PvP. Only the strongest survive ( "Survival Of The Strongest"). Typical Darwinian Selection.

 

I know it is NeXT to impossible for anyone pve or pvp to really know if a "New" player is experienced or not,

 

Ah, someone who remembers that computer ! I once saw a specimen in an technical museum.

 

Yes, you caN't tell whether someone is inexperienced or not - apart from the actual play.

It might be an top Ranked player with a new alt, for example, outclassing and dominating everything else t level 10. Just as an example. But you can really tell that only from / by the play.

Edited December 5, 2015 by AlrikFassbauer

[Lhancelot]

But this fits only if Ranked is the end goal of a player.

 

No, not really. On TEH, the majority of the pvpers do not do ranked. I know, because one of the largest pvp guilds pub-side is The Core, and I don't think any of them do ranked now. If they do, it's a small margin of their players.

 

That's why on TEH, when you see how awful pubs are in lowbies or mids, it truly is not indicative of 65 pvp, not one bit. It's insane how bad mids are for pubs, I mean, it's truly brutal!

 

As soon as you do 65s as a pub, suddenly the door of winning opens up though. I find more imp "pros" stay in mids longer than the pub "pros", and maybe I am wrong but it seems to be the case.

 

Anyway, my point is, lowbies and mids are not any accurate iindicator of how good a team is in 65s. TEH is a true testament to that.

[Yorioko]

No, not really. On TEH, the majority of the pvpers do not do ranked. I know, because one of the largest pvp guilds pub-side is The Core, and I don't think any of them do ranked now. If they do, it's a small margin of their players.

.

 

This however doesn't give them the right to demand "ranked behaviour, skill and what not" when they them self CHOOSES not to play ranked.

[Lhancelot]

This however doesn't give them the right to demand "ranked behaviour, skill and what not" when they them self CHOOSES not to play ranked.

 

Since when do they "demand" certain behavior from anyone? The Core is a respectful guild I honestly have never seen any of them say one disrespectful thing to anyone in a warzone, ever.

 

You have no idea what you are talking about, lol.

 

I assume they choose to not play ranked because ranked only supports a few particular classes unless you do group ranked, and, that's their choice if they don't want to do group ranked.

 

I was just pointing out TEH server has a strong pub-side PVP presence in 65s, yet the lowbies and mids for pubs is awful... Meaning just because lower tiers are terrible that doesn't mean that gameplay in 65s is also terrible.

[AlrikFassbauer]

I was just pointing out TEH server has a strong pub-side PVP presence in 65s, yet the lowbies and mids for pubs is awful... Meaning just because lower tiers are terrible that doesn't mean that gameplay in 65s is also terrible.

 

This basically means nothing else but :

 

Level as a Republic player on a different server, then at level level 65, transfer to TRE ...

 

But - where can someone level up with a Republic side character, when the imperial side is strong almost everywhere ?

 

But ... this rather belongs into the "which server for Republic ?" discussions ...

 

This here is imho rather a thread for people's actual PvP experiences ...

Edited December 5, 2015 by AlrikFassbauer

[Lhancelot]

This basically means nothing else but :

 

Level as a Republic player on a different server, then at level level 65, transfer to TRE ...

 

But - where can someone level up with a Republic side character, when the imperial side is strong almost everywhere ?

 

But ... this rather belongs into the "which server for Republic ?" discussions ...

 

This here is imho rather a thread for people's actual PvP experiences ...

 

Yeah I created one of those and then for some reason this thread took some weird turn... lol.

[DomiSotto]

Honestly, the best server to play Pub PvP on is the server you are on.

 

Played on Shadowlands, have not won a single game, but it was good and steady, and no shenanigans. I just appreciate folks still going out to give it a shot. I am of course not much of an asset struggling with my character. I reviewed Kre'a's guide again, and finally stopped forgetting the AoE taunt (and keep forgetting other things, like FORCE SLOW, DAMN IT), but movement is still a problem, and so is the weaving in and out of battle. It is harder to watch the surroundings in the middle of it.

 

I think I am going to level my Shadow and Sin there to level 38, then start re-levelling to get a better grip on it. The only bright thing is that I can take down the Sins, that all by some reason run Deception throughout the lowbies, with my Serenity being at an advantage in the lowbies. Also did a couple Pipeballs and a couple of arenas on my SIn, with 50% win:loss ratio. Totally forgot I now have that very Assassinate that killed me numerous times in the past!

 

I can't believe I am finally playing the AC, and even if I can't manage it better, well, I am still happy I am trying it. It is all I loved about playing KOTORs and the SWs aesthetically.

 

Then I caught up with Banderal in the pub midbies, and we run a nice republic winning streak. I felt a bit awkward healing again, and still have a problem of starting to heal too early, instead of using stealth to position first. As much as a Sage is an asset, Scoundrel is just kindda a bliss to play. It's a class which had the most humor incorporated in the design!

 

I am sort of thinking about transfering my lowbie Sage from SL the EH though to keep Banderal company in the lowbies/mids if he is going to stay there. I am sure a tank and a healer will work well.

Edited December 6, 2015 by DomiSotto

[DomiSotto]

Tried to finish my Operative's Weekly at some point today, but could not get a pop. I guess the Empire is in ranked.

 

The midbies were fast pop though, so I tried to run my Mando and regretted it. I can't remember her and it just confuses me. I have to give props to my teammates in one of the Novare zones, because the opposing team had 2 sorc heal. We had a Sage heals, so in the end there were next to no deaths at all in this zone, but I saw continous pressure applied to the two sorcs. We pushed and mezzed and interrupted the two. One of those moments when I really do wish I could put out a decent DPS

 

I also did an enjoyable stretch on my Scoundrel heals, very different from the day when my pants were coming apart at the seams. Again, I am guessing ranked off-season is taking a priority, so the zones were favoring the Pub.

 

Finally, in my attempt to keep playing my Shassin to L2Move, I did a daily on the Sin. Let me swipe away a few clumps of hair off my desk. I just can't keep sharp enough to avoid those "Oh! Suddenly I am cc'd and in a 1vs4! Where did they all come from? Actually, I am dead. " And, yeah, ability triggering requires a LOT of work. Death Field in particular gives me a lot of trouble because I can't figure out a sound associated with it, and can't reliably tell that I set it off, so I keep pounding on it, resulting in a target mark, but no field. About the only gratifying moment I had was using my overload in the AHG, pushing and binding a bunch of opponents and watching the golden glow close over them. Ah, I will take it.

Edited December 7, 2015 by DomiSotto

[AlrikFassbauer]

I just did the very last time my - now level 53 - Gunslinger with the current ( date of this posting ! ) ability to do damage ... I was very often jumped at by melee people - I fear that I have been to much hunest when describing a Gunslinger's weaknesses.

 

My problem was that they jumped at me when I was running to the current battlefield. I mean, when they were attacking mid in Alderaan, they ( especially a particular one who really seemed to like me ! ) even when I was running into it from my respawn point ! Of course, I'm bad , and that means that I got beaten far too oiften than a "real" Gunslinger would have to - or so the people on the forums say.

 

In the end, we won : 20 them, 40 we.

One of the closest matches I have ever witnessed !

Edited December 7, 2015 by AlrikFassbauer

[DomiSotto]

@Alrick: I suppose you can roll through the spawn-camp area? I usually try to get to the top shelf on the Alderaan as a Mando/Merc, since it’s such a great place to be as a ranged. And when I am on any other DPS, my life's goal is to dislodge a sniper from those rafters. Because they make everything impossible if they are freecasting from there.

 

Did not have a chance to play yesterday, but hope to get the Weekly finished on the operative (3 points, duh) and then switch to the Sin/Shadow tonight. Luckily, I have a day off on Thursday, so I can spend quiet time on gearing etc. I've set the raids to 3x week, and hope to keep it that way to leave more time to PvP.

 

I also need to decide if I want to try Gunnery or not, as that’s basically my window of opportunity now, from level 60 to 65. I've never done it on my Merc, just fast-leveled him through an Op run. :(

 

I am really, really, really exhausted after this year of learning all the ACs. It was a great advice, but a thought of cramming up for another rotation is just... unappealing. I am normally extremely eager to learn, but I just feel like when I was about to graduate the Uni. Just... be done with it already.

 

I mean, the AS/IO can't be that much worse, can it?

Edited December 8, 2015 by DomiSotto

[AlrikFassbauer]

I must admit that I don't quite like the roll. I rarely use it, because I'm never that sure where - at which position - I end up with it.

I guess that "not rolling enough" is my only real weakness play style wise.

[DomiSotto]

Well, I am kind of like that with some of the most powerful utilities I have, 'saving' them, but then I remember what Zetsuma said in his guide: "The sooner you use it, the sooner it would be off the cool-down". So, when I saw someone using the roll off the bat in the regs to gain ground, well, that's what the Operative do to gain the initiative. So, maybe not such a bad idea?

[Banderal]

Well dang, here I am on another server, assuming I'm being all anonymous and stuff, and someone types in chat "Anyone remember that show the Flintstones?" "Or listen to Guns and Roses?" Hmm. Could be pure coincidence that those are two of my toon names, but somehow I doubted it. Turns out it was Lhancelot, who randomly ended up in a lowbie match on EH with me

 

We ran one or two more where we got "randomly" put together. Not very random in mid-week-day-lowbie-pubs on EH though, since I guess there are only 9 people pvp-ing to pick from. Then we grouped up for my last one before I had to leave. Someone else joined us whom I'm pretty sure I've seen here, but I can't remember his/her name now.

 

The matches were pretty good though. We won a couple ACW. I'm really missing my high-level guardian powers though. I keep trying to click them and then nothing happens... well nothing except I die.

[Qwurdilu]

Finally sharing some thoughts here:

For over a week now we que grp ranked with guardian DD and mando heal, and its TON OF FUN! Acutally we lose most games against competent teams, but we actually manage to win some.

Best about it, lots of teams too tried other compositions than fotm, and id say everyone was having more fun.

So i want to encourage every good team on all servery to stop caring about wins in a game with very little competition and actually just have fun together. After years of gameplay i can say there`s nothing more satisfying than winning with guardian and mandoheal...the loses...who cares?

[DeLaaNie]

Decided to make something I haven't played since the early days of this thread:

 

http://postimg.org/image/3y4umjjxr/full/

 

Got murdered in the first match whilst trying to take out the lowest Powertech by the Assassin, since I did not pay much attention to him when he appeared. Second round I decided to screw cover and played as if I were an Operative by staying on the move and kiting like a boss.

[DomiSotto]

Oh, I vaguely remember you playing your sniper! GG!

 

@Banderal: well you want the high level abilities, come back to the Binger Glad you guys managed to find one another on the hawk.

 

I finally managed to get off work and into the warzones Had two arenas, one loss, one win, and lost a VS to the Republic on the Shadowlands. Between the zones, I managed to make it to the dummy and sort of kind of started getting the idea how the R-strafe turns me back on a... well the dummy.... while I ran at it and casting a limited number of abilities. I have also achieved the highest DPS on the character of the 1.4K (I expect a round of applause right here obviously....) ANd I still have not used Assassinate even once.

 

Anyway, gotta try to finish the last week's weekly on the Operative before turning in & be back hopefully in time to catch up with someone somewhere....

 

Also, I think I will tough it out and try Gunnery, just to see if it is indeed an easier speck on the Mando.

 

Cheers, folks, and good zones.

Edited December 9, 2015 by DomiSotto

[DomiSotto]

Actually, I quite forgot - I also had a Huttball Classique match on the SL with my Sin. I guess I have forgotten it because (shock! horror!) enough of the opposing team quit it mid-match to initiate the zone shut-down sequence. So, it was not exactly a riveting game.

 

It took forever (in Harbinger's time scale) to get the 65 pops, but yay! Two arenas and an Alderaan. In both arenas I pulled a cross-heal comp with a sorc against a trinity. The first trinity was a triple PT combined with a sorc, the second - a triple sin with a merc heals.

 

My first sorc counterpart refused to come into the smuggle bubble with me, got caught out in the middle of the fight and quit after R1. We fought the second round 3vs 4, my DPS were a PT and a Sin. Now, PT did come into the bubble, and we actually put up more of a resistance in that one. For a moment I almost felt we might have stood a chance to kill one of theirs

 

On the second one, the sorc knew what s/he was about and we cross-healed well, with our DPS being an Operative and a Sin, so won round one well enough, on round 2 I goofed out, and overextended, so got squashed by two Sins. I blame it on a missed bind that opened up my GSF interface (I swear, I am going to unbind the thing one day!), but we came back strong on R3, so, yay, a win.

 

Alderaan, well, it was one of those, but with a fun element for me personally. The sides got capped on us while we barely managed the mid, so you know not a great start. But one of the players on my side was a Sin with a nametag that made me think about a top 5 Guardian in my beloved Season 4 (awesomely Tolkienesque), so I went to pocket heal the player in the off-node tom-foolery attempt. Rusty and goofy as I was, I got caught out a couple of times by what seemed like the sea of red, but well, I wanted to see the stealth actions off-node, and so I did.

 

I think I have never pocket healed a DPS Sin on a Scop. I played with Banderal's Shadow tank, and I played with sensei's Shadow in both the DPS and tank stance as a Sage.

 

On inspection, my Operative does not have the Exemplar MH/OH, everything is Cynosure. Honestly, I own a Sage and a Sorc heals in full min-maxed Exemplar, and I am playing an undergeared Operative. Go figure. Rats, I need more comms, always more comms....

Edited December 9, 2015 by DomiSotto

[Banderal]

Met up with Alrik for one midbies match. We had an arena that we ROCKED!!!! Haha. Well, we won it anyway. It was 3 DPS and a heals against 3 DPS and a heals. We took them 2 for 2, with none of us dying, but somehow it didn't feel like a slaughter. Maybe they thought different?

 

Then several more solo queuing on my poor scoundrel. Had another arena that we won, and a VS - a loss against one of those dreaded "premades" - or maybe just a team that was way better than us. Well... yeah, same thing.

 

Then I shut down to switch out to my new "gaming mouse" that just arrived in the mail! And now the sensitivity is about twice as fast, and I can't do anything because I keep spinning in circles. Ah well, it'll be good once I get used to it. The old "standard" mouse I had was beginning to jump around the screen a bit. This one at least the cursor movement is smooth again. Plus I have BUTTONS! I don't use any of them yet, but I have them so I think I'm already getting better.

[flem]

Ah damn, I'd love to play with you on SL, Domi, if you ever get to 65 there. I suppose I'll make a lowbie Scoundrel if the Great Seer Nerf ever actually happens.

[DomiSotto]

Sure, it will be awesome! Well, with the 2xXP coming I will be in midbies on my Shassins, but I have more mirrors salted away in lowbies for the future use there, so I will start relevelling another Shassin pair to catch up on gathering and crafts and well, learning!

 

@Banderal and Alrick: ROCK ON! Vanguard and Gunslinger, I guess? Also, buttons, wow, buttons! Buttons are good.

Edited December 10, 2015 by DomiSotto

[DomiSotto]

I *have* to share this one! I've never seen this happen before. Shadowlands, lowbies, I am playing a horrible bully Sin on L34. We get a pipeball. I kill their ball carrier by our net and cross towards their zone over the pipes. A sniper runs in front of me. I try to pass to him, but he moves, and a red catches the ball on their shelf. I push the red (I think some of you might feel happy 'cause the poor red was a Sage) into the goal, and it dies, in the net. It counts as a score.

 

But what happens next is that the ball does NOT reset, it passes to me. So I walk right back for another score.

 

Other than that, yeah, I was still relaxing on my L64 Scoundrel for 3 wins in a row, and I am getting slightly better on a dummy... Actually on one specific dummy. I tried another one, and weeee! run far, far away! but awfully clumsy in the zone. But I can hear the death field now, and kept watching for a shiny proc for Assassinate, but it never lit up. It just became available. I assume it lits up when it procs at any health level?

Edited December 10, 2015 by DomiSotto

[Banderal]

I *have* to share this one! I've never seen this happen before. Shadowlands, lowbies, I am playing a horrible bully Sin on L34. We get a pipeball. I kill their ball carrier by our net and cross towards their zone over the pipes. A sniper runs in front of me. I try to pass to him, but he moves, and a red catches the ball on their shelf. I push the red (I think some of you might feel happy 'cause the poor red was a Sage) into the goal, and it dies, in the net. It counts as a score.

 

But what happens next is that the ball does NOT reset, it passes to me. So I walk right back for another score.

 

I think I've seen that described once before. I guess it's sort of like a safety in "American" football? But nice. So you got 2 goals!

 

Other than that, yeah, I was still relaxing on my L64 Scoundrel for 3 wins in a row, and I am getting slightly better on a dummy... Actually on one specific dummy. I tried another one, and weeee! run far, far away! but awfully clumsy in the zone.

 

So... I was trying to practice on the dummy a bit. I run the scoundrel AC that relies on bleeds to proc things. But I couldn't get that to work! Do bleeds not happen on dummies or something? I'd apply a bleed attack, get upperhand, hit em with the attack that uses upperhand... in a WZ I'd get the upperhand back because of bleed. (I forget the names of things, sorry.) But I couldn't get that to work on a dummy. Kinda makes it hard to practice a "rotation".

 

But I can hear the death field now, and kept watching for a shiny proc for Assassinate, but it never lit up. It just became available. I assume it lits up when it procs at any health level?

 

I've grown to hate that deathfield sound almost as much as the knives from an operative.

[DomiSotto]

The only thing I can think with a dummy is that when you practice, you can't have companions running the missions because it continues to reset the dummy and you lose your bleed. I had that problem happen on my PT, when my Gut would keep falling off because of the dummy resets, and I would overheat in 2 GCD. Try setting your ship dummy to 500 K hitpoints and see if it suddenly goes back to many millions.

 

And, lol, Huttball/Pipeball is the only team sport I've watched ever, so... I have no idea what happens in the American Football.

 

Okay, I better stop procrastinating and go do all the super-boring character maintenance and re-equipment stuff I was pushing till today. Yay! Material gathering! Yay! Equipment building! Yay! Dummy for Arsenal/Gunnery!

Edited December 10, 2015 by DomiSotto

[Banderal]

Try setting your ship dummy ...

 

Hahahahahahahah ahah a ha ha aaa.

 

Oh wait, were you serious that you thought I had a ship dummy? That would require creds, which would require me to do boring cred stuff.

Edited December 10, 2015 by Banderal