That's why the posters here and elsewhere are saying stats should be boosted to a 'virtual' Recruit gear level, not an actual recruit set.

One thing I am not clear on: does the Missile Salvo fire up CGC on all targets damaged by the blast (in which case I can definitely see a use for it when enemies bunch up) or only the 'primary' target? At the moment I haven't even got it on my toolbar and didn't spend the 2 pts to talent it, but if it does light up all enemies damaged I'll probably reconsider.

Devs are not allowed to read the PvP forum. It's in their contract.

Pretty close to exactly the same idea http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=6231596 It's a simple, elegant, transparent fix. Why persist with the current terrible mess?

Merc PvP definitely feels like it's in a much better place. I play Pyro rather than Arsenal and with intelligent use of kiting and cover I can 1v1 most classes and pour out fantastic single target or AoE damage if ignored. Mobility between HO and Degauss is great and Electronet is a great big up-yours to Warriors who try jumping me.

Jung Ma is not West Coast, so you won't get that option. Not that you'd want it anyway if you like PvP, East Coast server latency is 300+ as opposed to ~200 for West Coast

Whatever the final numbers are Bolster should be made simple and transparent. All players should have a reasonable idea of gear that is 'good' or 'bad' or 'better' or 'worse' for PvP without having to research arcane formulae. The simpler the method, the less open it is to things like mod-stripping, augment-replacing, etc bugs that are still with us despite the last 'fix' to Bolster. Gaming of the system by people who use exploits reduces the enjoyability of WZs for those who don't. Quite a few people have proposed there should be a free 'Recruit MK-3' set equivalent, given that the Recruit MK-1 and MK-2 sets provided a simple and equitable solution to entry into PvP. Certainly people could argue the stat difference Recruit -> WH was too large but numbers are tweakable. Problem with the Recruit gear set solutions (1) it involves more gear to stick in inventory and have to switch into between matches and (2) potentially trivialises early PvE progression and devalues entry-level PvE gear. My proposed solution: There is a 'virtual' Recruit MK-3 set, with each item maybe ~5% or ~10% lower in stats than the equivalent Partisan piece. If your piece of gear (or empty slot) has less Expertise than the Partisan piece, Bolster ignores your gear completely and gives you the 'Recruit MK-3' stats for that piece. If your piece of gear has Partisan level (or higher) Expertise, you don't get Bolstered. Pros: People can jump straight into 55 PvP with only a small gear gap and enjoy it. No risk of raid gear ever being BiS for PvP No extra gear sets to carry for PvEers

I haven't yet seen anyone who was a Balance Shadow in 1.7 who likes the 2.0 changes. Both in forums and chatting to friends and guildies. I haven't yet seen anyone who was Kinetic or Infiltration in 1.7 say 'wow, now that it's been simplified, it looks great, I think I'll change to Balance'. Either on the forums, or chatting to other Shadows on server. It would have been nice if they'd prioritised catering to the people who loved Balance in 1.7 because of it's unique, 'mixed' playstyle, rather than prioritising 'simplifying' it on behalf of people who aren't interested anyway. I played a Balance Shadow in ranked WZs in 1.7. I've gone tank in 2.0.

Did you even read the solution? It's not 'more Bolster'; it isn't taking OP PvE gear and then adding Expertise to it (without reducing the non-Expertise stats) which the current version of Bolster does.

If Exp(pieceofgear) < Exp(correspondingpartisanpiece) return(correspondingpartisanpiece) If Exp(pieceofgear) >= Exp(correspondingpartisanpiece) return(pieceofgear) Noone is in worse than Partisan, everyone can jump in to WZ and have a good time. If you invest in earning PvP pieces, you can optimise, augment, upgrade to Conqueror, and gain a meaningful (but not WH-vs-recruit-type) advantage with time and effort. No worries about raid hereos outgearing dedicated PvPers. No concerns about PvPers needing to do PvE ops for PvP BiS. Right, now that problem is solved. Let's move on to establishing cross-server queues to allow a healthy Ranked PvP game!!

None of us who played Balance 1.7 or before were saying 'it's too complex, please simplify'. None of us. We liked the flow of the spec and the mix of melee (not just DS, SS as well) and Force. The cost of the simplification was the loss of the playstyle we loved, arguably less predictable mana management, burst capability in PvP, control in PvP, armour rating in PvP ... We didn't want it - we certainly don't want to be paying a huge cost for something we never wanted in the first place!

I agree, reading the dev blog one gets the impression that the dev did not play a Balance Shadow pre 2.0 and experience the 'difficult fun' that made the spec awesome. My shadow has been Balance since level 40 and while I've tried the othher two specs I just keep coming back .... but something feels missing in 2.0 :-( My DoTs are better. I still perform well in WZs but I don't have burst or control. The *strength* of Balance has always been sustained dps and light self-heals (the 'drain skirmisher' model mentioned in the dev blog) but we also had access to some burst potential (via Infiltration Tactics) and a bit of control (via instant Force Lift.) I can see the point of not wanting Balance to need to access a fundamental Infiltration skill and have it alter their playstyle, but depriving one spec of Shadow of a useful Shadow Strike (the 'signature' move of the class) and any real burst potential while they're at it was poorly thought out. Why not introduce some kind of skill in the Balance tree that makes Shadow Strike viable for burst (even if it isn't viable for sustained rotations if the PvE Balance Shadows can't master more than three buttons?) As a DoT spec which has to be in melee range to deal significant damage, I don't think instant Force Lift (a single-target mez broken by our own DoTs - compare Dirty Fighting Scoundrels - our closest equivalent - *AoE* mez that *isn't* broken by their own DoTs ..... or compare Infiltration - 4 sec hard stun on a 15s cooldown) was excessive. If there was anything problematic it was with Balance Sages who can already DoT people up and then run away from 30-35m having an extra ranged CC. It should have been taken away from Sages but not us. Also ... while we're at it, why take our armour talent out of the first tier of Infiltration? We spend more time 'skirmishing' out of stealth than Infil, and need the melee survivability more than the spec with infinity-hundred stuns and massive burst. TL;DR version: we can still provide sustained damage and be effective, but the 2.0 changes took away fun, burst potential, control and survivability we needed for an unneeded and un-asked-for 'reduction in complexity'.

I thought maybe I was just imagining the lag with Jet Blast (I have a Merc and a lower level Commando, as well as a Gunslinger with the comparable instant pushback ability), interesting to see it is real. Bloody annoying for my Merc, I can't imagine it would be a difficult fix.

This isn't about TTK - it's about a big damage discrepancy I was seeing between myself and the Snipers ... I don't mind them hitting for 7.5k+ if I can do it too

... or after each stage opens up (in Voidstar). But I think we have a winner here folks. Don't break a reasonably balanced ability (and no, I don't play an Operative), fix the WZ objectives.