I still play WoW and love my guild, but mostly I just raid there. I play SWToR for PvP for several reasons. 1. Bolster Mechanic means that even as a fresh 55 you can compete in Unranked. I finally decided to level a character to 55 and with a few gear adjustments and some credits invested I have found myself able to compete in unranked, even as a scrapper scoundrel (always been my favorite class). I don't want to PvP in WoW because they still use the outdated 'gear as a crutch' model to make PvP viable (even with the base resilience added in battlegrounds). 2. Most of the classes in WoW aren't as interesting, and the balance seems way out of whack compared to SWToR. Even though it is common knowledge that scrapper scoundrels are below average in terms of PvP usefulness, I still feel I compete and contribute. I don't feel that way in WoW, and I don't feel like rolling a flavour of the month class and spending the time leveling it to compete. 3. Leveling is a lot more fun in SWToR, I have most of the classes either at 50 or well on their way. And with bolster in lowbie PvP I can contribute even at low levels there. Bolster really is just an amazing mechanic that makes this game so far above WoW when it comes to PvP. Now some of you reading this will realize I am a bit behind when it comes to leveled characters and what not. Which is true I have quit and come back a few times. I quit after about 6 months, I didn't feel like grinding out War Hero gear to be competitive. I came back when FTP started and played for several months leveling new characters. I quit again when I started playing some new games and trying to wean myself off MMO's a bit. Then I came back for GSF and because I resubscribed I got RotHC for free, so I finally leveled a character to 55 and found that the 55 bolster mechanic really was a lot better than I expected.

Balance is the DoT tree for Sage, it is called Madness for Sorceror's. Darkness is the tank tree for Assassin's, Kinetic Combat for Shadow's/

Pushback - When you get hit by damage (mostly direct damage, not DoTs, not sure about AoE) your cast bar retreats a bit (example if you are casting something that takes 2 seconds to cast and are hit 1 second into the cast, the cast will be bumped back a bit and take an extra 0.2 or 0.3 sec to cast, similarly if you are channeling a spell, it means your channel will finish faster and likely lost the last tick of damage or healing) Pushback prevention talents either prevent or reduce the amount of pushback you get, many times until it is barely noticeable. You can get a decent feel for the two classes by about 20, but they don't really start to shine until the 30's. Part of the reason why PvP brackets are split between 10-29 and 30-54. As for the differences, Sage is healing and ranged DPS. Shadow is tanking and melee DPS. The shared Balance tree is still much more melee as Shadow and ranged as Sage mostly from the limits in range of telekinesis and some of the other spellls that are given range increases when picking Sage. Shadow is a stealth fighter, they can sneak around and open from stealth, Infiltration in particular is a very burst heavy spec, allowing you to rip into things quickly. Even the tank spec can stealth and sneak around, just not as efficiently as infiltration. These specs use a double-bladed lightsaber, and use the lightsaber for far more attacks, infiltration in particular uses mostly lightsaber attacks. Sage is all about throwing around force powers, telekineticly driven rocks and force waves. They can't stealth but attack from range, or heal themselves and allies. Telekinesis is a very turret like spec, meaning it requires alot of standing still and casting spells with large cast times. Balance is far more mobile, a DoT heavy spec with lots of instant cast spells, but still requires some cast time ones. Healing allows you to put force bubbles on yourself and allies to absord damages. It is somewhat mobile with an instant heal over time and instant bubbles. But alot of the other heals require cast times or channels. Hope this helps, both are a fun to play, as long as you realize what you are getting into with each advanced class.

So Combat ability, as in hand-to-hand? or all encompassing ground based combat? Starfighter Combat? Dejarrik? Sabacc?

I am not entirely sure who to nominate. I think about someone like say Wedge Antilles, he could vape any other non-force sensitive in starfighter combat easily (Except maybe Baron Fel, his nephew Jagged, and Tycho Celchu). But put him on the ground and while he was capable with blasters, vibroblades and hand to hand, he wouldn't stand a chance against Grievous or the Fett's. He was also an above average tactician, though most of that came in Post-RotJ. The Fett's too were both above average pilots, their hand to hand skills and weapon mastery was nearly second to none. But I am not sure they had much experience with large scale engagement tactics (small group sure) and both were loners who had pissed off or scared away anyone who was ever close to them. Send them against Thrawn or Antilles who both easily made allies and could command them in such a way as to make easy work of either Fett.

Also he wasn't only Post-RotJ, he was in Tie Fighter, and his brilliance was shown when he took down the traitorous Grand Admiral Zaarin. That happened before and concurrently with Endor.

I would have to say Grand Admiral Thrawn would take the #1 spot. Not only was he a tactical genius, but he was able to circumvent the Imperial prejudice against non-humans. After all he was the secret 13th Grand Admiral, the rest of the Empire beyond his own Fleet for pacifying the Unknown Regions didn't even know of his existence, or at least of his rank. So the remnants of the Empire had no reason to trust him, but he emerged at the head of their navy and sent the New Republic reeling until his assassination by his own bodyguard. He outwitted just about every other tactician of his day, and those are some of the greatest in history too. Admiral Ackbar Garm Bel Iblis Grand Admiral Zaarin Gilad Pellaeon, himself a masterful tactician was nearly always at a loss to comprehend Thrawn's ability to see several levels below every action and stay multiple steps ahead of the enemy. He often wondered how differently the Battle of Endor might have been had Thrawn been there, and the Empire had Four other Grand Admirals there. His one fatal mistake was not anticipating how the Noghri's reverence for Darth Vader would be a weakness his enemies could exploit, specifically that one of the Noghri would be able to identify Leia and not finish the job Thrawn had requested of them. His fatal oversight was not seeing how easily the Noghri could be turned against them, looking upon them as disposable troops and not working to earn their trust for more than just Lord Vader's caretaker. Granted as an individual I'm not sure he would rank as powerful, but since the title of the thread is GREATEST, an ambiguous term at best, I think he deserves the #1 spot.

As Ambush is a 2.5 sec cast it doesn't help his point, it is pretty easy to LoS if you are a DoT class.

Considering you don't get followthrough until 30 I'd say your just lying out your ***.

I am loving PvP again. I initially quit before server transfers when my server's PvP consisted mostly of Huttball matches between 2 premades from my guild. I was also sick of the gear treadmill and having to play endlessly to keep my gear on par with other people. But the release of RotHC gave me an opportunity to enjoy PvP as much or as little as I wanted, but without the gear treadmill forcing me to do it if I didn't want to. Or on characters I didn't want to. So now I have 2 50's that I consistently PvP on, and I am enjoying myself to no end. The PvP for the most part seems to be fair, I don't seem to lose more than I win, if anything the win column may be larger. Also as I level up more of the characters I abandoned before I quit, none of them will level past 50 and I can PvP on them as much or as little as I want. As far as I can see I have months of fun ahead of me, if not more before I will even consider upgrading to the expansion. Lowbie PvP is so much more fun, and you don't really need gear to participate on equal footing. If anything I had to change out a bunch of my gear to replace my old Battlemaster stuff so that I wasn't gimping myself.

It is my second relic, I had no plans to change it out. I mostly just wanted to replace my battlemaster one because it has expertise on it, and so bolster ignores it and I get the stats on it as is.

Hmm I didn't notice that, but I sold it back once I got the message during a warzone. So I just bought a new shotgun instead. Ahh well, maybe there is a different one I can use, or I can still use my Battlemaster one since the 107 power on it is pretty nice.

Hi all, I currently don't have the expansion and so am enjoying playing low level PvP without having to really change my gear. I made sure to replace my old Battlemaster gear with stuff using crafted armoring and mods. However I found that one item I could not easily replace was my Battlemaster Relic. I have been doing dailies and got the 150 classic comms required to purchase the Dread Guard activateable Power Relic (Boundless Ages or something like that). However, now I have found that I can't activate the relic in PvP. Is this intended? I was away from the game since last may and only came back about a month ago, so I may have missed them removing PvE trinkets from PvP. Thanks in advance for any input.

Kolto and Bacta basically serve to increase the bodies natural healing properties. Examples: - They help the body fight back against disease by strengthening the immune response. - After conventional surgery to remove shrapnel and what not, you are dunked to speed the healing and recovery process. - Broken Bones are reset then a bacta/kolto sleeve/cast is used to speed the healing process. - In species that regenerate, a bacta/kolto cap can speed the regeneration process. - Blaster burns are healed through either a bacta/kolto bandage or full immersion depending on degree of damage. - in the case of limb reattachment or prosthetic attachment, immersion or at least a cast or stabilization use of bacta are used. - Bacta is cycled through the lungs in the case of prolonged space exposure (EV pilot encased in only flight suit and person magcon field) or inhaled poisons. - healed scar tissue can be removed with reconstructive surgery, then treated with bacta to let the skin heal over the old wound. So for the most part bacta/kolto are used to speed healing processes, conventional medicine is still used in initial treatment of wounds. Bacta/kolto wont stop a person from bleeding out, a wound must be closed before they can be properly treated. Internal organ damage is dicey, I imagine it requires some amount of conventional treatment before the bacta can be used on the organs.

Another way to look at this is to take away lightsabers. Lightsabers tend to be a great equalizer when it comes to force powers, in that they can be used as a conduit to enhance the defense against force abilities. If Windu hadn't had his lightsaber he would have been fried. As stated, even with the Lightsaber he couldn't quite absorb all of the force lightning Sidious was hitting him with and it would have been moments before his defenses fell. That is why Sidious is more powerful, even the most potent defense a Jedi could muster, was not fully sufficient to defend against the onslaught of Dark Side energy. Lightsaber combat is all well and good, but it is hardly the single best measure of power when it comes to force users. Sure most powerful force users are extrememly good duelists as well, it is part of the whole package thing we are talking about. Luke isn't the best simply because he wipes the floor with anyone in a lightsaber duel. He's the best because he is far more deadly when he doesn't have his lightsaber, the things he can do defy everyone's expectation of what a force user can do. Sidious was the same way, he was even more powerful than Luke at the end of Empire's End, but Luke has 30 more years of experience because he survived. This is the same reason I put Vitate high on the list, very few people have seen him use a lightsaber, but the sheer power of his onslaught stopped Revan, Surrik and Scourge in their tracks. Those 3 weren't exactly slouches either. Not too mention the power he may have attained through the ritual on Nathema.