/sign Strongly recommend Bioware hire BigRedJedi on the spot. I do not know what OP does for a living, but if it is not designing games, it seems he missed his calling. Conversely, to Bioware I say: This is all you do for a living. You should be, at least, proficient. I do not pretend to know how to do it better, but this is not my occupation. I would not hire a plumber that can't fix a leaky faucet. Although these problems are more complex, there is still an expectation of proficiency, if not excellence, when one is tasked with doing something well within their realm of expertise. I suspect this is crunch time for you. It seems likely you will get very little extra time or additional chances to make a significant move in the right direction before you begin to lose more of your pvp subscription base than you care to think about.

Seriously? OP started an entire thread to complain about people actually being nice? Get a life.

To preface, I play a Vanguard that can guard (not all specs can do it). I find it difficult to sympathize with so many that would like a way to counter teamwork without using teamwork themselves. As has been sufficiently pointed out, tank/healer combos have several ways to be countered. Most of those ways, however, require teamwork to pull it off. You are trying to counter a specific team makeup, and it might just require specific roles to get the job done, go figure. If you're trying to do it solo, you deserve the most likely result. As for the QQ that suggests that guard requires no skill, that might be correct IF the tank contributes nothing else to the wz. If said tank ccs/interrupts/loldps's enemy healers (which are not often in guard range of your own healer) or enemy dps (which are often painfully within incoming AOE range of your own healer) then playing a tank requires more situational awareness than people tend to think. I don't claim to be an elite pvper, but I'm not too bad either. I do, however, find playing a tank effectively in pvp to be a lot of work, even though not fundamentally complicated. Throwing guard on a healer and forgetting about it requires no skill, but the tanks doing that aren't the ones giving you fits either. Don't be mistakenly lured into thinking they are.

Really? OP actually started a thread about this? I guess if we get rid of pulls/grapples because they're annoying in Huttball, we'll have to get rid of Sorcs too... ...and pugs, I guess.

204. That's a lot of red nameplates. 205. Hmm, where are all my team mates? 206 Am I crashing? Nope, still stunlocked... 207. All the red is here; how are we not capping something? 208. Use my trinket? Nah, it won't matter... 209. Really need a bio break, think I'll chance it. 210. Back. Good, still stunned. 211. Think I'll mow the lawn while I wait for the gate to come down at the medcenter...

I would sure hate to feed a troll, if that is in fact the case, so let me start by saying that you (OP) are right about bounty hunters and troopers being able to do all those things. One individual BH/trooper, however, most likely cannot. If we ignore certain specs, or even advanced classes altogether as you have done, then one might be able to conceptualize a superhero character that can do all those things at once. After choosing an advanced class and allocating skill points into one or more of three trees, one would pretty quickly find it impossible to do all the things on your list, much less do them all effectively. I am a truly average player, so there are probably others who can do more with the same setup I have, but with my vanguard (as an example), I have no knockback or significant healing ability (one heal that does 15ish % health over x seconds?). I do ok damage but not great damage while in tank/dps hybrid spec. I can take maybe 2 more hits than a robe-wearer, I can guard a healer, and I can stay on an enemy healer fairly easily. That's my job. Don't get me wrong, the spec can do its job fairly well, but it can't do all jobs well at once. Sounds pretty balanced against most other classes for group play.

/signed This is one of the most frustrating parts of current gameplay for me. Not that there aren't lots of other great ideas (or great QQ) regarding different topics, but this is the one that actually impedes my gameplay the most. I'd like to see it at or near the top of the honey-do list. Thanks.

Although numbers were not discussed, an increase in the number of wz commendations per time played was mentioned. Hopefully, the increase will put the gear grind on par with how it would be if everyone (ignoring statistics) truly got a BM token 25% of the time. It's a good place to start. RNG always leads to a significant portion of the population feeling shafted. I've seen a lot of nasty replies by people stoking their internet egos explaining how statistics work. Everyone already knows not to literally expect a token out of every 4 bags (or they don't--who cares?). People are frustrated at seeing others acquire half their gear with the same effort they put forth to get ZERO gear. It's a legit complaint, and at least Bioware is listening. Now, if they will only listen to what is being said about the actual numbers and adjust accordingly...

^This. Although a number of pvp tanks do prefer pvp tank gear, most that I have seen wear dps gear for a reason. Making the tanking skillset work in pvp will then give tanks and the guilds to which they belong a choice: Wear tank gear with a tank spec and function as an actual tank with subpar dps, wear dps gear with a dps spec and pew pew and don't tank, or wear dps gear with a tank or hybrid spec and be a utility dps who can guard but not actually tank very well (as it is now). Seems like it would work out. Geared, spec'd tanks wouldn't put out the dps you see most "tanks" putting out right now.

Most of the gear problems presnted in this post, once again, come down to pve vs pvp gear. Although pvp gear is of little worth in pve when compared to raid gear of the same ilevel, pve gear can actually be quite useful in pvp. Hence, the debate about how one should be able to get gear. Crafting is neither pve nor pvp inherently, yet it only yields pve gear currently. To quiet the storm, either crafting needs to be a source of valid pvp gear as well or pve and pvp grinds need to result in the exact same gear for the time spent. Sure they could have different skins and whatnot to make them unique, but the stats would need to be the same to make crafting viable for all player types. EDIT: If crafting were to become a source of pvp gear, the required mats would have to be available through pvp sources to make any sense at all.

I love Star Wars, and this game has provided the most engaging leveling experience of any I've played. I also like the fact that there are no orcs, elves, dwarves with guns, or too many other things from the fantasy genre. It's a welcome break. That said, I don't like feeling like the proverbial hampster on a wheel. Farm Ilum, grind WZs, get gear, repeat...for the life of the game. I play to pvp, and one could argue that I chose the wrong game, but I'm a Star Wars fan. What can I say? However, without something more to the pvp experience other than grinding gear, my subscription will be rather short-lived, unfortunately. I'd much rather see Bioware learn to pvp, because I enjoy the game otherwise.

/SIGNED Tab targeting is broken. I'd like to see tab target the nearest enemy in a frontal cone on first keypress then cycle through enemies from near to far in 360 degrees upon subsequent keypresses. Just putting it out there.

I didn't have time to read the whole thread this morning, so my apologies if this has already been discussed. While I have read some arguments both for and against what the OP is describing, there is another point to pvp that many seem to miss. While farming Ilum and grinding WZs is necessary in order to acquire better gear, neglecting to use said gear to do something other than farm Ilum and grind WZs transforms us into something little more than hampsters on a wheel. Granted, there's nothing else to do with all that shiny new pvp gear that's really developed in-game, but I would like to think that, as players, we can improvise well enough to make some pvp happen despite the lack of official attention to world pvp. I, personally, don't like to be camped by 50s while I'm just trying to level (even though I've never rolled on a pve server). That's the point. Jump on your main or call in some guildies (or the whole dang server if necessary) and fix the problem. That's the point of even having a pvp server. You can farm Ilum and grind WZs all day long on a pve server. Conversely, those 50s sitting around fleet waiting on a queue to pop might as well run out to lend a hand in protecting their lower level players between matches. In my opinion, they almost have an obligation to do so. Again, it's one of the things unique about pvp servers: pvp happens, and players out leveling should expect those who are capped and geared to show up to help in those situations.

Great thread, please sticky! Thanks for all the work putting this information together.

/Agree RP cutscenes and the like have no place in PvP. It's like taking a Benadryl with a glass of warm milk and cookies right before the big game. It's somewhat counterproductive...