This is the same PoV player logic that caused so much hate against Arsenal Mercs. It wasn't that LoSing one Tracer Missile was hard, it was that you had 3 Arsenal Mercenaries focusing one target with Tracer Missile. Personally I don't care one way or the other, I would just like it if the game 'math' would stay stable so that we knew which way was up for more than a month.

I don't think (my opinion) SWTOR is dying but I do think PvP is being boycotted by swing players. This leaves the diehard PvP crowd wondering where all the targets went. -When Ilum open world PvP was rolled out and people went from VR 35 to 55 in a day. Many real Battlemasters left in disgust. -When Operative/Scoundrel was nerfed many of them rerolled or left in disgust. -When Warzone rewards were monkeyed with and the "4 medal cap" was instituted and people would camp one node in CW to get their 4 medals and max reward, still more left. -When 1.2 PvP with all its rebalancing for Rated Warzones went live everyone, including PvE, was impacted by PvP changes in a negative way. Advanced Classes were not performing at an expected level in either dps output or survivability; Commando/Mercenary are very unhappy right now (Effective area of DFA nerfed by 61%). The net effect is that through a long string of very deliberate actions, PVP in SWTOR has been wrestled to the ground and made UNFUN by the development team. -If Valor had been rolled back 24 hours after Day 1 Ilum release and all the cheesy wanabees who nabbed Battlemaster had been pinched. Then those who earned Battlemaster would have happily stayed. -If instead of nerfing Scoundrel/Operative they would have buffed stealth detection and put it on the player to keep the ganker from giving him what he deserved for being stupid then the Scoundrel/Operatives would have stayed. -If rewards had been left alone then exploiters and valor farmers wouldn’t have filled the void in warzones that the real PvPers left when they stopped cueing because of all the nonsense. -If 1.2 hadn't changed so much about character performance in PvP then the Casual PvP player would still be happy to cue up and play. Right now they are waiting for a change that fosters the possibility for a fair and fun match. In a stacking game where it might take weeks or months to achieve a target stack, having the dev team smash your stack and change the rules will make people stop stacking (ie. playing). What is the point of becoming good if the final reward for your leetness is the nerf bat????

Pre 1.2 a good Marauder/Sentinal was very deadly. Post 1.2, they still are. Nothing to see here but nerfed class rage looking to pull others down into their mud hole. Marauder/Sentinal should be left alone. If anything, those classes that were nerfed prior to 1.2 should be restored. PvP was wildly successful at launch because everyone felt heroic, nobody died in 3 globals, and it was insanely fun. A small percentage of people cryed because they could not cope with it. Did nerfing help? If the goal was to swell the ranks of the people who couldn't cope with pvp then yes, it was very successful. I have little bias in preserving some perceived advantage that Marauder/Sentinal has in PvP; I'm a Mercenary.

I have this pattern on my Armormech and the note on the link says that it is also a world drop. Good Luck. http://www.torhead.com/item/3KKBT1y/td-17a-imperator-helmet

I bought mine on the GTN while I was trying to farm it on Hoth. There is a heroic area on Hoth in the Starship Graveyard, NE corner of the map. Just before you enter it you will see a Republic Walker parked down in a draw next to the hull of the Star of Corrusant. There are 2 Champion Level Troopers fist fighting next to that walker. There is also a Champion Level Jedi in the very back of the Heroic area standing in front of a large chest. You will know if you killed the right one when it drops loot. All the other Jedi Camps up there dont drop any meaningful loot. You can farm these three champions and if you are lucky the chest you are looking for will drop. I farmed for it for 5 days and made around 4 million selling orange items on the GTN.

Full HM clear last night in a pug from /General. Jug Tank (Columi), Assassin (Rakata), Bounty Hunter (Columi), Sorc healer (Columi). No VoIP coordination measures. It was the first time I had ever been in Lost Island the rest of the group had experience with the Flashpoint. 1 Shot first and second boss. 2 Shot thrid and final boss. I found this Flashpoint to be very fun and think BW did a great job on it. The mechanics required movement and awareness but honestly that is what I found fun about it. As long as a player gets out of the way of the mechanics the fights are very easy.

The good news is that Smuggler Hands have a Power / Surge enhancement in them that one of your troopers could have used to drop some of that over budget Accuracy.

I pugged story mode on a fresh 50 up to Kephess the other night. The first three fights are mostly dancing. Kephess is a dps check. I was geared at about a 126-130 level. At 140 gear level, story mode isnt anything other than learning the mechanics IMO. In my opinion I don't think EC is in need of the nerf bat.

Look back at PvP at game launch. It didn't serve one crowd of people. Instead it was rewarding and inclusive. It allowed everyone to play for THEIR OWN REASON. One person was leveling while the next was making credits. Some were after Valor rank and titles. Still others were farming comms for a chance at Champion gear from the bags. Was this system perfect? No but it was dynamic and appealed to everyone. Now our PvP has a singular purpose and it no longer serves as an activity that benfits a wide range of people. Now it serves the Hard Core PvPer who is after a Ranking. That is it. Wins earn rank, gear, and credits. Losses earn nothing because you will not advance unless you win. That is how ranked competition works. So as far as I can figure (IMO): If you are trying to level, a ranked pvp system is not the place to do it. If you are trying to earn credits, a ranked pvp systme is not the place to do it. If you are trying to have casual pvp fun, a ranked pvp system is not the place to do it. If you are trying to establish your pvp ranking then this is the place for you. (edit: althought actual ranking is not active yet the game it was meant to be a part of is) Honestly I am not happy with the change because I feel like PvP has been hyjacked by one of its special interest groups at the expense of an extreamly fun in game activity. I like PvP and I will participate at lvl 50 for the purpose of ranked PvP gameplay. But I will not enter into any more matches while I level my army of Legacy alts. I will not PUG at 50 either as that the stakes for loosing are too high. The reason for this isnt because I'm a poor looser. It is because the Time to Benifit ratio in 1.2 is terrible. Winning is all that matters now so until I can stack the odds in favor of a win, I will invest my valuable time elsewhere. Others will do the same and PvP will grow stale and suffer.

The good news is that the data they are collecting will paint the true picture. BW has demonstrated a commitment to changing things when the data shows a negative trend. There are two distinct groups of people that this new system is effecting in very different ways. The level 50 group who is seeking valor and gear The sub level 50 group that is leveling and pvping on the side. The Pro and Con posts in this thread contain the pov of all four platforms. PvP has changed with every content patch. I am confident that it will change again.

Punishing everyone for the 5% that abused the system is discouraging to 50% of the players (the loosing team). The net result will be less pvp activity due to the concept of Just Deserts. http://www.wisegeek.com/what-does-just-deserts-mean.htm So it is obvious that some positive action must be taken that makes people want to participate in PvP while they are leveling up. The current system is not positive at all in that it slows down the leveling process. For a game like this one slowing that process is not something I care to think about.

The new system of getting nothing for your time because your team lost is the product of AFKers and Leachers getting rewarded for doing nothing. This is as it should be BUT to punish players that are actually trying to win is the wrong answer IMO. Commendations and Valor should be tied to Kill count, Healing Done, and Medals; not just winning. A win still benefits the Leaches and Bads on the winning team.

I enjoy Pyrotech Merc and Assault Trooper game play in both PvP and PvE. My Merc is currently being leveled and is at 41. My Trooper is at 50 and I've played extensive PvP and HM Ops on that toon. OBSERVATIONS: In PvP I have not noticed my Power Shot being any more of a liability than it was pre 1.2. In PvE the longer cast time on Power Shot + push back from mobs shooting the character has made Power Shot very difficult to use effectively. It has slowed the leveling pace while using the pyro/assualt spec by locking players in a cycle of trying to proc Prototype Particle Accelerator with Power Shot for the Rail Shot refresh. The % chance for PPA Power Shot is at 45% making the likelihood that PPA will proc a Rail Shot via Power Shot in 2 or 3 Power Shots. With Push Back in a worst case scenario, PPA will not proc before Rail Shot is nearly off CD. This makes PS feel quite useless. I created this situation using the following shot rotation and a 6 pack of Miller Light (optional): Incendiary Missile, Rail Shot, Thermal Detonator, Unload followed with PPA proc RS if avail, Power Shot spam until PPA proc or Rail Shot comes off CD. (note: these conditions are most noticeable when attacking a Strong level range type MOB) Before the 1.2 change the process of fishing for a PPA proc via PS would allow for 3-4 attempts before the CD on the shot rotation would reset naturally. Post 1.2 the number of attempts to gain a PPA has been lowered to a point that PPA via PS isn't fun to use. Build The pre 1.2 build that I used for pyro was 3/7/31. 31 points were put into Pyro first in order to obtain Thermal Detonator. The next 7 points go into Arsenal for Muzzle Fluting and and Upgraded Arsenal. The final 3 points go into Bodyguard for Hired Muscle. The 1.2 change to PS has me considering a move of 3 points out of Bodyguard and into Arsenal in order to pick up Stabilizers. These talents would do nothing to improve Mercenary Pyrotech leveling as that Stabilizers and Muzzle Fluting are not obtainable until lvl 46. Thoughts and Recommendations I was told by several people that Power Shot was given a longer activation time due to Healers spaming it. The fix was to make the cast time longer in order to bring their dps into line. Healers stack Alacrity where Pyrotechs do not. Therefore the longer cast time does not have as great of an effect on healers as that they already stack a stat that decreases the time it takes to cast; Alacrity. Instead it has had a negative effect on Mercenary Pyrotech Leveling. If in fact the reason for the change to PS was due to healers then I would recommend reverting the current change and implementing an increased heat cost to PS. The increased heat will put Healers in check without interfering with the Pyrotech PPA/PS synergy that existed pre 1.2. Disclaimer If you think I'm wrong then it was just the beer talking. Peace~

Support

The April Fool’s Day joke was "Be your ship's droid" mini-game. Only for the Trooper in 1.2 that is not a joke. The Trooper set is colored to look like a protocol droid, at least that is what I see when I see it. 1. The protocol droid is not a war droid. 2. See number 1. So bad, lol, just BAD. I give it a 3 just because it will bring mirth to anyone killing a trooper.