The bottom line is no matter how you want to dress this up it is EA that will cross the line there starting to do it with all their online games EA itself is endorsing more and more F2P games especially browser games for example Command & Conquer Tiberium Alliances , Battlefield Play 4 Free etc now those games are understandably made purely on a F2P model however EA have been forcing this model onto some if not all of their other On-line titles especially BF3 where its almost Pay to win purchasing the game and paying for expansions was not enough now you are basically forced to pay another £30-£40 on premium membership with loads of perks that put you at an advantage if you can afford it not to mention you bypass all the hard work required to unlock items if you can afford to it's a joke. What should make us think EA will break the mould exclusively for SWTOR?

I warned of this the moment there was a hint of F2P and i was shot down by a protest that it was only free trial haha i was right after all. Initially what seems now to be a definite separation between subscribers getting all and F2P player being limited etc, however like many games before, as the F2P experiment gains popularity that line will quickly get thinner due to major expansion into micro transactions and loss of subs to F2P and BW resorting to easing off restrictions. Not to mention there will come a time where even subscribers are going to have to pay more than their sub in order to have everything and be competitive with each other. Those who defend BW due to being self proclaimed SW fans, that's what BW have put all their chips on that you will blindly follow them into the abyss with this project all in the name of George Lucas and the SW's Universe. Eventually even you people will realize turning something into a turd with SW's branding on it aint going to cut the buck, but if not well that's your choice no one can make it for you.

Thats what im doing i love the BH class it suits my play-style i shelved my Merc arsenal spec until they get some sort of adjustment made to even things out a little so no choice but play a PT Pyro.

Here goes im not a Hater but i do believe your not completely correct the patch before last buffed marra/sent not Powertechs. 1.2 patch Notes : Pyrotech (Powertech) Prototype Particle Accelerator now requires Combustible Gas Cylinder to trigger. The chance to trigger this effect has been increased significantly but cannot trigger more than once every 6 seconds. ( this put a damper on Railshot spamming). There is no reason why PT are more OP than prior to 1.2 legacy possibly the problem was either there all along or a result of other classes taking the nerf bat. The patch itself and all successive patches following have not buffed in the slightest PT/Vangaurd Pyro/Assault specs ( the specs that are highly controversial in PVP).

Like iv said many times to these threads i would happily trade some burst and all my taunts if only for better survivability. For a Nerf to burst and DPS alone would break the spec without sufficient trade off in that respect. Pyro have no escape mechanism or variable defence cd's associated with other DPS it's an all in or bust situation. Gunnery/Arsenal spec on Mercs and commando took a fair hit and left them squishy as hell and now under represented because people think it is no longer a viable PVP spec. PT pyro's share the same defensive abilities except we don't have a knock back as the above and would ultimately share the same fate although i admit the above have it much worse due their lack of mobility or lack of.

Yes part of a full picture and only a part , if we where to say nerf PT Pyro and Marauders are we guaranteed not to have more than 2 of a certain class show up regularly... ? No it doesn't always work that way in fact that would mean another class/spec would possibly become over represented and start the cycle again. I flipping hate people quoting from post WZ reports that do not provide the full picture in the first place and people who do not take the time to enable combat logging but still insist their version of events and theory's are correct regardless. I would love to be able to have for once a time where one of these threads are equally constructive and not biased and we can dissect combat logs etc to build up a proper picture of what areas if any need to be adjusted/fixed

It's boring for them to hang around only getting a few hundred defense points now and again especially when the majority really want to be noticed on the leader board with kills and get shiny medals = more commendations. The PVP system stinks in that sense favoring those who are in the thick of it over those poor souls trying to play the objective and defend their cap.

The people have only truthfully figured what is best in their own interests. People have also not done the math etc because we are still lacking anything but end of match screenshot's wheres the combat logs/ data to support ? The only conclusive info is the people's ability to QQ " i cant kill this class or die to quickly, there are too many in Rated WZ's that says they are OP threads. You have to honest with yourself the majority of the community does very little in helping BW help us, we fail regularly to back up with anything other than personal experience, then we believe ignoring threads discussing the subject already and create more duplicate posts all over the forums just to vent our frustration and not being constructive in the slightest in the process just because our plight wasn't center of attention.

I play a PT Pyro in the 10-49 bracket and although i frequently hit the top of the leader board for DPS at lvl 40, in no sense do i feel im greatly influencing the outcome of a WZ. On average i tend to not have a problem in 1v1 situations unless up against another pyro or assualt vanguard who gets the jump on me and merc commando healers. The concept that even a monkey can play this class makes me laugh, people talk about grapple and slow preventing them from kiting us it takes a smart pyro to resist the temptation to pop grapple off to start a fight too many times iv been grappled by fellow pyro/assualt on an opener only for me to successfully kite them to their doom because they have blown the main gcd to close the gap when i stun and run. Healer's chain healing each other is another issue in PVP the amount of times iv ran into brick walls because i cannot take ether one down but merely distract them, take away burst and Healers will once again rule PVP. Armour is irrelevant in PVP due to the over reliance of internal/elemental damage favored in pvp by many AC's wanting to be competitive due to its armor avoiding nature in most cases it is Internal/elemental bleed effects that are OP and not the AC's using them because they are the silent killers no one notices. I went 1v1 with a Gunslinger last night and i applaud him/her for their handling of the situation they apparently knew my class as well as they knew their own and gave me a run for my money i found myself stunned i broke it to face another then slowed couldn't grapple as he/she where bunkered down found myself down to 30% health before being finished off by one of his team m8's who came to his aid. The only time i feel i have sufficient up-time to gather big DPS numbers is stalking the fringes looking for people isolated on their own and maximizing my up-time, the minute i try to lead a charge or mix into the fray im down faster than a blink of an eyelid i think the community exaggerates the actual survivability of a PT Pyro we effectively gain very little if anything defensive wise from a supposed tank class that you claim , Shield Tech and AP offer those options due to Hydraulic overrides for AP etc. We have the same defensive cool downs if not less than a Mercenary Pyro due to them having a knock back and healing abilities we get better burst as a trade off. Prove to me other than the ability to taunt that doesn't effect us anyway what makes us Pyro's able to tank/ absorb/ deflect more damage than Pure DPS AC's in PVP, I look like a tank i may think im a tank at times but in all fairness i am anything but a Tank and would happily trade all of my taunts and some of my DPS for better defense.

BW gave us Combat logs for more than just admiring our own DPS output. I would like to see more people actually making these type of threads based off facts and gathered data. All we can take from the original post was you encountered 2 PT's one must have been Pyro as you recall receiving a Thermal Detonator to the head and that's about it as far as fact goes you are assuming and expecting others to assume your plight was unjustifiable off the back of the general feeling Pro/Assault are OP. The community needs to dissect your combat log to even get a glimpse of truly what went on in those few seconds you claim to have lived for. Can i make a note to everyone who wants to make a similar claim on what is wrong and what isn't by enabling combat logging and backing up your claims with more than speculation. If you fail to do that you have as much weight in your argument as someone apposing a change on PTS notes and kicking up a stink on the forums without even taking the time in testing the content yourself and gathering the facts.

My first character was a Merc and since iv had a PT Pyro It would appear from cross referencing it is mobility itself that is gimping the class, with both specced Pyro this is the defining difference between the classes they both have the same defensive abilities the 25% reduction in damage shield, you have a knock back that does very little in giving you sufficient breathing space as a DPS to get a rotation going . Your survivability is linked to your mobility standing around having to channel an ability or wait for cast time is leaving you a sitting duck as is for sorcs and any other static caster but you do a fraction of their total damage output. A PT's attacks are almost all instant allowing the class to operate on the move, PPA procs off an insta flame burst or rocket punch where mercs need two seconds of charging up a powershot or channel an unload to gain the same effect and gain a chance of a free railshot. More mobility should be offered to mercs not involved directly in Healing it would be a different case if DPS mercs could keep up but because they don't i feel the extra mobility in the DPS tree's could alleviate the problem.

The problem here is BW Nerfed and buffed classes before dealing with the actual causes of the imbalance in the first place making things worse by refusing to accept a need to revise and back pedal on some of those changes. whatever metrics they used ( as they so far do not want to disclose the factors and formula they use to justify changes they make in fear of having their results challenged) did not take into effect where the real problems lay for example Operatives appearing OP because of a screw up with Rakata stims offering too much surge, Sorc healers also exceeding because of same reason and an additional force bending bug that allowed us to double dip it and benefit 2 abilities rather than one and similar bugs in the DPS trees made them destroy hybrids etc Im pretty sure and although this is only speculation without evidence that if the metrics where run without the above factors and whatever other bugs classes had that where present before the nerfs and buffs we would have been possibly facing a different result when it came to viability. In fact in some cases they really screwed some classes with their metric fixes Mercs lost barrage procs for a while and the reigning in of the radius of death from above meant centering it over a group of mobs left you with only getting one tic of damage off due to the first tic knocking all mobs out of radius of the remaining procs, well at least they back pedaled on that one.

I play a Pyro PT as an alt and tbh skill does play apart as well as situational awareness and teamwork in being successful winning WZ's is not about kills,damage etc. Success is based on objectives If the members of your team cannot apply themselves correctly and in a way that compliments each other you will fail. I have yet to have found a situation where i could just mindlessly charge into a group of people spamming my so called easy kill rotation and not die within a few seconds. If i try to take down healers against a good team they close in and defend that healer The community has already found away to balance out things already every-time i show my face with my flame icon im focused down to keep me out of the fight iv now become a 3-4 sec meat-shield for my team so that appears to be my new role currently to form a distraction for my team as i have no real defensive capability 25% damage reduction gives me an extra second or two under heavy assault. And honestly if that is what i have to do now then so be it i don't care about my skill rating etc i aim to support my team in the best way possible to get a win not lone wolf it ,there is no gratification in me hitting big numbers and leading the board when my team fails and everyone's complaining in ops chat how s... we are

Reduce DPS if you want in return we require more defensive options in the trade off . because as it stands now we have to have burst to kill anything we engage or anything that engages us as there is no way to back out of a fight for PT/Vangaurd once its started It's a kill or be killed scenario unlike most other classes who have some form of exit strategy at their disposal. The views of everyone claiming to balance this class with a DPS reduction and offering no real proper trade off to keep the class viable in combat shows me how Narrow minded and insensitive to overall balance most of you all are. In my eyes as having a PT Pyro myself is if there really is a requirement to soften our damage capability BW might as well do away with the concept of a pure offensive tree in the Tank AC's , Improve viability of full tanking specs in PVP other than having them as dedicated huttball carriers making them more attractive outside of PVE, and creating a new offensive tank tree specializing in offering lower dps than before but inherit more defensive capability in the trade off , do away with shared trees whats the point sharing a tree with another AC when the other can take fuller advantage of that tree,the tree's should be unique to their AC As it stands now PT pyro inherits grapple and taunts from Tank AC and very little else it does not even have the off-tanking capability in PVE due to its lack of any real defense measures. You can say but this is PVP not PVE well yeah however BW do not change things in half measures whatever effects PVP inevitably effects PVE and vice versa . Id much rather see a better use for a so called PT or other tanking dps spec who given tanking abilities such as taunt and grapple etc regardless has a more specialized role than taking up either a tanking or DPS role. That way there is not a feeling of your supposed to be a tank not a proper DPS you shouldn't be able to that as well as DPS etc.

Offence forms allot of a PT pyro's defence Nerf our Dps if you please but give us defensive abilities in return PT Pyro is pure Offensive spec and the trade off was no real defensive capability even other DPS like maras and snipers have a few at their disposal especially more so the snipers.