A message to BW and the community from a casual player

[Donchivasregal]

This is my second account, ive been playing this game since launch, i have never seen such imbalance as there is now, and such failure to address this imbalance from your side. It is unacceptable that a fully geared merc can solo two other competent players, the same goes for a sorcerer that cannot kill anything, and for juggernauts that lack defensive cooldowns compared to other classes in game.

 

I also want to underline, this is not a nerf this, buff that thread, it`s more of a make things balanced thread. You are turning the game into "all classes have the same abilities with different animations". Waiting honestly the moment when snipers/mercs/pts etc receive the throw your gun into your opponents head ability.

 

The same goes for the gearing system you have made, this game player base consists of players over 25 year old mostly, people with work, children etc. It`s not worth committing 8hrs a day to gear, and still have the RNG issue. As you have probably guessed by now, i am a pvp`er, or at least i was. Until you address the imbalance, and make classes unique and balanced again, both me, and my friends are out.

 

For the community, i wish you the best, it was a great game, and it was great playing you guys.

Edited April 3, 2017 by Donchivasregal
adding things

[AlCorazon]

second that, especially for the gearing part... i don't have the time to commit to get gear

[Storm-Cutter]

I'm an average player. I have BiS gear coz I play every day. - On one character. Bottom line is, I'll always get owned by a better player. - Because they've honed their playstyle. They've put in more hours than me, because they've played every class and spec, because they play ranked and they know that one mistake can spell certain doom for their team. Because they possibly know my class and spec better than me.

 

Class balancing will not make me a better player. Experience, team co-ordination and luck wins more WZ than matching numbers like-for-like.

 

AS an aside, recently a couple of arenas have been 4dps vs 4 heals. All rounds went to acid. That would suggest that if skills were roughly equal, the heals/dps classes are roughly the same.

Edited April 4, 2017 by Storm-Cutter

[verfallen]

I'm an average player. I have BiS gear coz I play every day. - On one character. Bottom line is, I'll always get owned by a better player. - Because they've honed their playstyle. They've put in more hours than me, because they've played every class and spec, because they play ranked and they know that one mistake can spell certain doom for their team. Because they possibly know my class and spec better than me.

 

Class balancing will not make me a better player. Experience, team co-ordination and luck wins more WZ than matching numbers like-for-like.

 

AS an aside, recently a couple of arenas have been 4dps vs 4 heals. All rounds went to acid. That would suggest that if skills were roughly equal, the heals/dps classes are roughly the same.

 

Pretty much nailed it there. Not saying balance isnt important, but in regs you can have plenty of fun even on the underdog, assuming its YOUR underdog. You've been enjoying lightning since launch? Keep at it, its not optimal, if you encounter an equally skilled merc its going to be darn annoying, but you won't vanish in 2 sec if you can play your class. At any rate, you are better off being the best sorc or PT than the worse merc. There are a few PTs I'm a lot more wary off than the average "good" merc (I'm disregarding a lot of very bad in that average, and consider the average good merc as someone who uses the 3 main dcds and damage rotation well enough, without being a pro ranked player). They are sturdier, burstier, and they can quickly manage to turn a situation on you.

 

And I do the same with sorc. Sure thing, a few mercs and sniper on my server I cannot just go head to head 1vs1 without a plan against them, and if I do beat them, its going to have been through brain more than brawn, or because their cooldowns were not availaible and mines were.

 

Class balancing will never make you a better player, it makes some result easier to acheive with less effort, but the better player will still hand your butt to you on a plate. Does it mean class balancing isnt important? No, because some of those better player getting in FoTM class are positively a wrecking balls. And those who happened to already be playing and knowing the class that become FoTM? They were competitive before, they become even more lethal.

 

We all agree mostly there are 2 mostly FoTM DPS classes in merc and sniper right now, and the massively FoTM Healing sorc (which will be fun to adjust for devs, since they must watch not to reduce the actual healing output for pve, or the baseline abilities that would make the dps spec already in an underdog position worse) But you'd be surprised how little of a tweak can be needed for FoTM to become massive underdog. AP PT didnt change that much coming from 4.0 to 5.0, and dps sorc had ONE utility batnerfed. However some classes received big defensives buff, and it was enough to make them bottom specs.

 

Arenas are different a bit from 8vs8 since the weight of a single player is relatively much higher, and some class are more suited to various environment. As for your exemple of 4 dps vs 4 healer, its ridiculous when its obviously a non-premade same faction fight, total matchmaking failure. And the healers cannot lose, unless they make a mistake and its 4 very good dps, but mostly they wont lose. Still, 4 dps with self-heals like sorc or merc can make the stall to the acid. 4 dps with no self-heal will slowly be trickled down and focused. 4 healers doing dps still means roughly 2k dps each on one target. And tbh it needs to be balanced that one dps cannot solo a good healer, but 2 can, otherwise heal in pvp become mostly pointless.

[Icykill_]

I'm an average player. I have BiS gear coz I play every day. - On one character. Bottom line is, I'll always get owned by a better player. - Because they've honed their playstyle. They've put in more hours than me, because they've played every class and spec, because they play ranked and they know that one mistake can spell certain doom for their team. Because they possibly know my class and spec better than me.

 

Class balancing will not make me a better player. Experience, team co-ordination and luck wins more WZ than matching numbers like-for-like.

 

AS an aside, recently a couple of arenas have been 4dps vs 4 heals. All rounds went to acid. That would suggest that if skills were roughly equal, the heals/dps classes are roughly the same.

 

That's well said and something many people don't understand or forget. Experience and skill wins most outcomes

[Eastiano]

Waiting honestly the moment when snipers/mercs/pts etc receive the throw your gun into your opponents head ability.

 

Can you imagine the animation on a mando haha 😂

[SteveTheCynic]

That's well said and something many people don't understand or forget. Experience and skill wins most outcomes

But Experience+Skill+Gear beats just Experience+Skill...

[Stummt]

Can you imagine the animation on a mando haha 😂

This is the first that comes in my mind

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caber_toss

[Thaladan]

i share the feeling and i give up too.

 

paying a sub for a command rank grinding and the worst balance ever is irrelevant. i forced myself to play a lot only one character for these ranks, for looting crap..and at the end it's useless if you don't play mercs, and because of the new tiers coming.

 

you're doomed to continue the same character or be obliged to play another at 0 rank, can they see how it's just ridiculous? and after this 250% bonus...LOL it's long enough right now !

 

remains few days to test this new pvp content but tbh i am sure it will be a fail, cause it's bioware and they don't play their game, they don't know how to implement a thing correctly.

 

i am testing black desert this week. i don't want to play this game anymore now.

Edited April 5, 2017 by Thaladan

[MercenaryPlayer]

This is my second account, ive been playing this game since launch, i have never seen such imbalance as there is now, and such failure to address this imbalance from your side. It is unacceptable that a fully geared merc can solo two other competent players, the same goes for a sorcerer that cannot kill anything, and for juggernauts that lack defensive cooldowns compared to other classes in game.

 

I also want to underline, this is not a nerf this, buff that thread, it`s more of a make things balanced thread. You are turning the game into "all classes have the same abilities with different animations". Waiting honestly the moment when snipers/mercs/pts etc receive the throw your gun into your opponents head ability.

 

The same goes for the gearing system you have made, this game player base consists of players over 25 year old mostly, people with work, children etc. It`s not worth committing 8hrs a day to gear, and still have the RNG issue. As you have probably guessed by now, i am a pvp`er, or at least i was. Until you address the imbalance, and make classes unique and balanced again, both me, and my friends are out.

 

For the community, i wish you the best, it was a great game, and it was great playing you guys.

 

The two players weren't that smart if one merc burns them down, and if you were on of the two players mentioned.....

[psandak]

But Experience+Skill+Gear beats just Experience+Skill...

 

But More experience+skill will beat less experience+skill+gear. Gear will help that less experienced and skilled player, but in the end the more experienced and skilled player will win most of the time.

[SteveTheCynic]

But More experience+skill will beat less experience+skill+gear. Gear will help that less experienced and skilled player, but in the end the more experienced and skilled player will win most of the time.

Of course. My statement is based on the assumption that the skill+experience part is broadly similar.

[OneHit]

This is my second account, ive been playing this game since launch, i have never seen such imbalance as there is now, and such failure to address this imbalance from your side. It is unacceptable that a fully geared merc can solo two other competent players, the same goes for a sorcerer that cannot kill anything, and for juggernauts that lack defensive cooldowns compared to other classes in game.

 

I also want to underline, this is not a nerf this, buff that thread, it`s more of a make things balanced thread. You are turning the game into "all classes have the same abilities with different animations". Waiting honestly the moment when snipers/mercs/pts etc receive the throw your gun into your opponents head ability.

 

The same goes for the gearing system you have made, this game player base consists of players over 25 year old mostly, people with work, children etc. It`s not worth committing 8hrs a day to gear, and still have the RNG issue. As you have probably guessed by now, i am a pvp`er, or at least i was. Until you address the imbalance, and make classes unique and balanced again, both me, and my friends are out.

 

For the community, i wish you the best, it was a great game, and it was great playing you guys.

 

 

You've been here since launch and never seen such an imbalance? Are you new to pvp? Or maybe your new to your toon being "inbalanced? Cause this expansion is the same as ll the previous ones. They like to change which class is OP from time to time.

 

Also maybe your definition of "competent" differs from others.

[Stellarcrusade]

Of course. My statement is based on the assumption that the skill+experience part is broadly similar.

 

Typical, just more short sighted low-intelligence people trying to diminish the gear imbalance issue by reminding us that someone with enormous amounts of skill and practice can in many cases beat a crappy player with BiS gear. The problem with that is:

1.) It is a pointless argument, how does it solve the problem? Gee, I'm a good player and I lose 90% of the time to other equally skilled players because they have much better gear. So all I need to do is quickly go log a few thousand extra hours practicing pvp while and the better geared players are not allowed to play during this time period, and then I'll be able to overcome those opponents.... ***. That statement implies there is no solution to the problem, because you cannot just add skill immediately.

2.) The issue has become magnified by faction. Now you have imp1+skill+gear + imp2+skill+gear + imp3+skill+gear..... Versus pub1+skill + pub2+skill..... Making the imp team have a gear + gear + gear + gear + gear + gear + gear + gear advantage over the other team where imp.skill is close to pub.skill.

3.) When gear is out of the equation, players on each side can easily see when someone is better than them. Now everyone just assumes the other opponents are similar skill but have better gear in 100% of the cases, because in many cases that IS the truth.

4.) The title of the thread has "from a casual player". I believe the point was, in 4.0 casual players had a level playing ground in PvP at whatever the frick skill level each casual player had. Now those same casual players cannot compete nearly as well. The idea is, casual players will never skill up more over the non casual players over the same period of time. And there never was an issue implied here between equal skilled casual players, it points out that casual players no longer have a place in PvP because the no-lifers all have unfair advantage. Its a members only club now, and to gain membership you had to put in lots of hours since the launch of 5.0. Its too late to become a member now, and casual players need not apply anyhow.

[verfallen]

Typical, just more short sighted low-intelligence people trying to diminish the gear imbalance issue by reminding us that someone with enormous amounts of skill and practice can in many cases beat a crappy player with BiS gear. The problem with that is:

1.) It is a pointless argument, how does it solve the problem? Gee, I'm a good player and I lose 90% of the time to other equally skilled players because they have much better gear. So all I need to do is quickly go log a few thousand extra hours practicing pvp while and the better geared players are not allowed to play during this time period, and then I'll be able to overcome those opponents.... ***. That statement implies there is no solution to the problem, because you cannot just add skill immediately.

2.) The issue has become magnified by faction. Now you have imp1+skill+gear + imp2+skill+gear + imp3+skill+gear..... Versus pub1+skill + pub2+skill..... Making the imp team have a gear + gear + gear + gear + gear + gear + gear + gear advantage over the other team where imp.skill is close to pub.skill.

3.) When gear is out of the equation, players on each side can easily see when someone is better than them. Now everyone just assumes the other opponents are similar skill but have better gear in 100% of the cases, because in many cases that IS the truth.

4.) The title of the thread has "from a casual player". I believe the point was, in 4.0 casual players had a level playing ground in PvP at whatever the frick skill level each casual player had. Now those same casual players cannot compete nearly as well. The idea is, casual players will never skill up more over the non casual players over the same period of time. And there never was an issue implied here between equal skilled casual players, it points out that casual players no longer have a place in PvP because the no-lifers all have unfair advantage. Its a members only club now, and to gain membership you had to put in lots of hours since the launch of 5.0. Its too late to become a member now, and casual players need not apply anyhow.

 

1st- if you lose 90% of the time, maybe you should consider that you need to improve. Gear might be a convenient scrapegoat but we are far from previous "PvE geared player" getting their butt critted for half their health by expertise. They've made it so its not that hard anymore to get your 1st set bonus just from pvp if you so desire, and 5.2's fixed drop rate are "expected" to adress this further. You get bolstered to 232 with the current system. The best geared players are in 242.

 

2nd-Encourage your crafters. 240 mods are all on sale for relatively cheap at least on JC, I'd expect on Harb too. In previous versions, you couldnt buy pvp mods at all, and it was a forced grind. not anymore.

 

3rd- People who play competitive ranked WZ learn fast from having their butt handed to them. Players who invested a lot of hour in their class also have a better comprehension of it and use it at peak.

 

 

I still see sometimes a player that come in with their old 208, sometimes not even using the new augments, and still doing pretty good just from class knowledge. Even with full 242 you must not make many mistakes against those.

 

 

True "casual" players, somewhat imply an average skill set, someone that knows their best damaging move and what are their dcds, but dont play enough to truly master their class or understand the other classes. And its perfectly fine. No one expect everyone in regs to be pros. But sure thing, chance are when you meet the competitive guy, he went the extra lenght to make sure he is geared to peak, and he is using his class to peak. And his gear might be all 240 crafted with set bonus armoring.

 

However keep in mind that this IS an MMO. MMO who by definition are a time-based grind to reward people who invest more time or beat down harder content. You have to give gear a small edge, and encourage crafted gear to be worthwhile and easy to access. But currently the max gear vs bolstered cap (which is easy enough to reach, as I've said) is not that big, and I'm sorry to say even if I was to give you full 242 gear, you'd probably still lose 85% of the time of that previous 90%.

[BigDumbViking]

You've been here since launch and never seen such an imbalance? Are you new to pvp? Or maybe your new to your toon being "inbalanced? Cause this expansion is the same as ll the previous ones. They like to change which class is OP from time to time.

 

Also maybe your definition of "competent" differs from others.

 

lol... this was my first thought. Merc's aren't nearly as badly imbalanced as Marauders and operatives were back during the height of smash and healing OP's.... I remember multiple guilds running 3 Marauders/ OP heals. 3 marauders leap in and could wipe an entire team if they were clustered together.

[jedcjedcjedc]

Just look to the sig Edited April 10, 2017 by jedcjedcjedc

[SteveTheCynic]

Typical, just more short sighted low-intelligence people trying to diminish the gear imbalance issue by reminding us that someone with enormous amounts of skill and practice can in many cases beat a crappy player with BiS gear. The problem with that is:

I like the way you picked on my post on this subject. You know, the one where I'm discussing about how while an advantage in skill+experience will mitigate a gear deficiency, it's a good idea to have the gear as well as the skill+experience, in case you come up against another person with the same skill+experience as you AND better gear.

 

And I'd also modify the general Skill+Experience > Gear thing to note that it is only a mitigation, not a crushingly decisive advantage. To be sure, the S+E gap can in some cases be bigger than the gear gap, but it can also be less.

[WayOfTheWarriorx]

lol... this was my first thought. Merc's aren't nearly as badly imbalanced as Marauders and operatives were back during the height of smash and healing OP's.... I remember multiple guilds running 3 Marauders/ OP heals. 3 marauders leap in and could wipe an entire team if they were clustered together.

 

Yes, let's not learn from the mistakes of the past and continue to riddle PVP with some classes that make playing other classes nightmares. heh

 

How much worse would the smash monkey's have been has they had h2fs, damage reflects, the ability to kite, self-heals, and DCDs til the cows came home?

 

The only people who don't think Merc's aren't insanely OP, are people who play mercs, and half of them even know themselves that they are insanely OP but simply don't want to have their class nerfed.

 

It's very hard to take anyone seriuosly anytime who thinks Mercs are balanced and in accordance with the general power level of the other classes.

 

Smash monkey's weren't walking Trinitys. They were overtuned DPS. They did not have good survivability, they were not hard to kill, and had no better uptime than any other melee. - - - OP? Yes, but they were no John Merc.

[Vember]

lol... this was my first thought. Merc's aren't nearly as badly imbalanced as Marauders and operatives were back during the height of smash and healing OP's.... I remember multiple guilds running 3 Marauders/ OP heals. 3 marauders leap in and could wipe an entire team if they were clustered together.

 

Smash era wasn't nearly this bad, because Smash monkeys could be killed easily. All they had was burst. Mercs can't be killed easily, they have burst, tank like defense and healer levels of off healing. How anyone can compare this to the smash era is beyond me.

[RooRider]

Typical, just more short sighted low-intelligence people trying to diminish the gear imbalance issue by reminding us that someone with enormous amounts of skill and practice can in many cases beat a crappy player with BiS gear. The problem with that is:

1.) It is a pointless argument, how does it solve the problem? Gee, I'm a good player and I lose 90% of the time to other equally skilled players because they have much better gear. So all I need to do is quickly go log a few thousand extra hours practicing pvp while and the better geared players are not allowed to play during this time period, and then I'll be able to overcome those opponents.... ***. That statement implies there is no solution to the problem, because you cannot just add skill immediately.

 

I've never heard anyone I'd consider a good player blame their gear for them losing a game. If you think that way you'll only ever be good in your own mind. If you're getting significantly lower numbers than someone else running the same spec, who was involved in roughly the same amount of combat during a match, you shouldn't kid yourself that "gear" is to blame. Actually analyze what you did right, what you did wrong, and what they were doing different to you. Gear is a convenient excuse; as someone else pointed out, it's no-where near as bad as it was when expertise was a stat.

[Stellarcrusade]

I've never heard anyone I'd consider a good player blame their gear for them losing a game. If you think that way you'll only ever be good in your own mind. If you're getting significantly lower numbers than someone else running the same spec, who was involved in roughly the same amount of combat during a match, you shouldn't kid yourself that "gear" is to blame. Actually analyze what you did right, what you did wrong, and what they were doing different to you. Gear is a convenient excuse; as someone else pointed out, it's no-where near as bad as it was when expertise was a stat.

 

What we are talking about here are veteran pvpers, who did very well in 4.0, but are not no-lifers so it will take 2 thousand years to max gear out and noticing that chumps are having a very easy time man-handling them. Yeah, class balance is bigger and most likely things will even out with that at some point, but the gear shouldn't take skilled veterans to the point of giving up just because of a gear disadvantage. I'd prefer if gear was taken out of the equation completely with PvP. Thats what real PvPers want, skill vs skill.

[Soljin]

I've never heard anyone I'd consider a good player blame their gear for them losing a game. If you think that way you'll only ever be good in your own mind. If you're getting significantly lower numbers than someone else running the same spec, who was involved in roughly the same amount of combat during a match, you shouldn't kid yourself that "gear" is to blame. Actually analyze what you did right, what you did wrong, and what they were doing different to you. Gear is a convenient excuse; as someone else pointed out, it's no-where near as bad as it was when expertise was a stat.

 

There is this thing called MATH the would disagree...

 

Pretty much all debates in the PvP forum with regards to stat/gear/build comparisons are under the assumption of equal/comparable skill of the players involved.

 

Once that is out of the way you then realize that 1 damage over your opponent could mean they die first AKA not an equal gear match up if that 1 damage comes from higher stats rather than player action.

 

The far edges are not the problem....Veteran vs. newb.... It is everyone else that is negatively affected by gear deficit.

Edited April 12, 2017 by Soljin

[verfallen]

There is this thing called MATH the would disagree...

 

Pretty much all debates in the PvP forum with regards to stat/gear/build comparisons are under the assumption of equal/comparable skill of the players involved.

 

Once that is out of the way you then realize that 1 damage over your opponent could mean they die first AKA not an equal gear match up if that 1 damage comes from higher stats rather than player action.

 

The far edges are not the problem....Veteran vs. newb.... It is everyone else that is negatively affected by gear deficit.

 

At that point its a preference. you would like pvp to not be about gear, and about how to play the bolster system, like at launch where 208 geared player performed better than 230 geared player. Because there always will be a "gearing" in a way with this. You cannot either say "everyone gets the same stats!" because, player preferences. Some prefer "standard" builds with alacrity, others high crit/power stacks, some like running 105% accuracy, others don't.

 

The fact is the grindable gear only, which is 242, is not significantly higher than the freely craftable 240. This might chance with coming expension if they dont give access to 246 quality mods and enhencement to crafter, but for now, its not a major issue, and its easy enough to quick gear toon assuming you are willing to invest in it.

 

And if performance is something that is truly important to you, you will. If not, then its a choice you are making.

 

There are impacts on WZ and playstyle but also in the game economy and the impact of the pvp community in that economy. PvPs get access to schem and mats to craft for themselves or their fellows like anyone else, maybe even more than PvE players sometimes. In previous age, pvp gear was a grind-only (altough shorter) play, with expertise and was out of players hands. I for one think its not "bad" that there is no need for a 2nd set of gear, and that pvp players are now part of the game economy more fully.

 

It also make, once you've got one toon in the tier 3 and start getting schematic accross your crafters, it very easy for you to get 230 armorings for the set bonus quickly on a new toon, for pvp OR pve, and 240 mods/enhencements and the still pretty decent Iokath MK-4 implant/ear of your choice.

 

And even if you don't if you choose to go fully by bolster, any augmented gear is still going to be bolstered in the 112k hp range, and roughly 2400 tertiary stat budget. Your "dummy" dps will roughly in average be 12% inferior to someone fully 242 geared, which is under the 242 actual spread of 14% from top to bottom. And this is coming from someone who uses a sorc dps in ranked that isn't BiS. So you can look at anyone that is "similarly" stat distributed than you, but in 242, and you with your bolstered 208 will roughly be 12% inferior to him, with no effort.

 

Simply using a cooldown or a single stun at an opportune moment while your opponent doesnt will cover any gear disparity issue there if you are better at your class than he is (I stomp 242 merc VERY often even on my "underpowered" sorc, and with my own merc its sometimes ridiculous. Even a very good 242 merc, if they make a single mistake I can capitalize on it, similarly if I make one I can get my butt handed to me by a lesser geared player that has the capabilities to capitalize on it.

 

And if you choose competitivity, crafted gear will bring you within less than 5% of a full 242 geared player.

 

So the MATH says there is a difference, but that difference doesnt explain why a dps get 5k dps and another 3k in a similar encounter. also, getting that extra hit on someone because you handled their dcd correctly and they wasted their best move on yours also matters a lot more than the fact you hit for 10k and they hit for 11.2k.

[Soljin]

At that point its a preference. you would like pvp to not be about gear, and about how to play the bolster system, like at launch where 208 geared player performed better than 230 geared player. Because there always will be a "gearing" in a way with this. You cannot either say "everyone gets the same stats!" because, player preferences. Some prefer "standard" builds with alacrity, others high crit/power stacks, some like running 105% accuracy, others don't.

 

The fact is the grindable gear only, which is 242, is not significantly higher than the freely craftable 240. This might chance with coming expension if they dont give access to 246 quality mods and enhencement to crafter, but for now, its not a major issue, and its easy enough to quick gear toon assuming you are willing to invest in it.

 

And if performance is something that is truly important to you, you will. If not, then its a choice you are making.

 

There are impacts on WZ and playstyle but also in the game economy and the impact of the pvp community in that economy. PvPs get access to schem and mats to craft for themselves or their fellows like anyone else, maybe even more than PvE players sometimes. In previous age, pvp gear was a grind-only (altough shorter) play, with expertise and was out of players hands. I for one think its not "bad" that there is no need for a 2nd set of gear, and that pvp players are now part of the game economy more fully.

 

It also make, once you've got one toon in the tier 3 and start getting schematic accross your crafters, it very easy for you to get 230 armorings for the set bonus quickly on a new toon, for pvp OR pve, and 240 mods/enhencements and the still pretty decent Iokath MK-4 implant/ear of your choice.

 

And even if you don't if you choose to go fully by bolster, any augmented gear is still going to be bolstered in the 112k hp range, and roughly 2400 tertiary stat budget. Your "dummy" dps will roughly in average be 12% inferior to someone fully 242 geared, which is under the 242 actual spread of 14% from top to bottom. And this is coming from someone who uses a sorc dps in ranked that isn't BiS. So you can look at anyone that is "similarly" stat distributed than you, but in 242, and you with your bolstered 208 will roughly be 12% inferior to him, with no effort.

 

Simply using a cooldown or a single stun at an opportune moment while your opponent doesnt will cover any gear disparity issue there if you are better at your class than he is (I stomp 242 merc VERY often even on my "underpowered" sorc, and with my own merc its sometimes ridiculous. Even a very good 242 merc, if they make a single mistake I can capitalize on it, similarly if I make one I can get my butt handed to me by a lesser geared player that has the capabilities to capitalize on it.

 

And if you choose competitivity, crafted gear will bring you within less than 5% of a full 242 geared player.

 

So the MATH says there is a difference, but that difference doesnt explain why a dps get 5k dps and another 3k in a similar encounter. also, getting that extra hit on someone because you handled their dcd correctly and they wasted their best move on yours also matters a lot more than the fact you hit for 10k and they hit for 11.2k.

 

Long post but I get the intent. That said we have opposing viewpoints and I suspect that will not change regardless of how many times we morph the discussion so I agree to disagree.