PvP damage? Can't go wrong with assault. Lots of burst to finish people off and very easy to get the damage to your target.

Thanks!

Life is very busy lately and I'm considering dropping my sub and going f2p for a few months, until I have more free time. But I have two questions; 1. Are WZ / FP per week restriction per account or per character? 2. If I have 8 characters will I still be able to access all of them as a preferred, or will I have to pick 6 of them? Thanks,

When spec for gunnery or arsenal they are always a DPS class. They just have a hard time getting the damage out. And don't compare commandos to juggernaut damage. Juggs are ridiculously overpowered at the moment.

In the expansion, marauders will be granted the following cooldowns. 1. Reduce all damage taken by 99%. 2. Reduce all damage taken by 20% and does damage to anyone attacking the marauder. 3. Reduce force and tech damage received by 25%. 4. Turn invisible, reduce all damage taken by 50%. In addition they get a short cooldown ability which does an absurd amount of AoE damage with minimal set up and 2 leaps to make using it as idiot proof as possible. These leaps also make the AoE ability auto-crit. .... Sorry, what did you say?

I wouldn't recommend tactics prior to level 40. The key talents are all very high up in that tree where assault melting faces from day 1. I'd stick with assault until level 40. Then play around with all 3 specs before you hit 50. The goal would be to hit 50 capped on comms and with a good idea of the strengths and weaknesses of each spec so that you can make an informed decision about what set to buy. Here is the standard assault spec. There are 6 talents in the assault tree that many consider a matter of preference. They won't make or break the spec. I put my preferred ones in the linked spec, but you can choose any 3 you want. They are; Parallactic Combat Stims, Nightvision Scope, Degauss, Rapid Recharge, Reflexive Shield, and Adrenaline Fueled. Enjoy!

In PvE at higher levels they do similar amounts of damage. Tactics is better aoe for trash mobs. Assault has the edge in single target for bosses. But if you are just starting out you'll get more mileage out of assault. Tactics doesn't come into it's own until level 40 when you get fire pulse. Assault is good from level 10 on. My recommendation would be to play assault until level 40. Then play around with different specs until you find what you prefer.

Vanguard here. I'll try to get your names right but forgive me if I make a mistake. I played pyro for a long time. It's good. It's very, very bursty. I can fault no-one for playing this spec. But for a change I have been trying AP. It's been about 6 weeks now. I originally started in high energy, but I found it pretty inferior to pyro, like a damage build without the damage part. So, I switched to ion. It's a bit of a paradigm shift. I've been focusing on survivability, on guarding, taunting and peeling for the healers, and on holding the main nodes. It's been pretty fun. I'm not doing as much damage, but I am dying a lot less. And when working with a good healer, we can hold that main node for a very long time. The spec is not for everyone, and it's probably not as effective as pure pyro, but it is fun. Prototype flame thrower sounds great, but it is flaky. It's rare to get the whole thing off without getting stunned, or knocked back, or having it bug and do no damage. Lately, my favourite bug is when it fires backwards (as a vanguard this looks a lot like you bend over and shoot lightning out of your butt). I've gotten away from using it on cooldown. Now I only use it when several players are ignoring me and attacking my guarded target. Assuming that half of the ticks crit, I can hit each enemy for about 6K over the full duration. That sure doesn't seem like much compared to a modern lolsmash.

I giggle every time I see a sage healer getting focused, and pull a team-mate over to help.

Fair enough.

I partially agree with Randle. Having a talent high up in the tree that makes force and tech attacks shieldable might draw me into a tank spec rather than a hybrid. I might even slap on some shield and absorb gear! But I do think all attacks should be shieldable, even crits. If defence can nullify accuracy why can't shield nullify crit? It may invalidate crit talents, but it validates shield talents which are currently a joke. So tanks live longer, help their allies live longer, and increase time to kill. Downside? No node ever gets swapped.

^ or this

^ this.

What would entice me to heal more? Less CC. Fewer interrupts. Fewer gap closers. Fewer punts and pulls. Longer time to kill. Honestly, I would prefer to heal. I've healed in every MMO I played. But in TOR, 75% of the time being the healer means getting marked, leapt to, interrupted, stunned, snared, stunned again, and sent back to the spawn area. It's just not fun. But healing is very important. So now I play my tank. I guard healers. I stick close. I taunt, I peel, I stun. And if they do their thing right, we can hold the main node for a long, long time. We win more than if I try to heal. And I spend almost no time at all in the spawn area. It's much more fun.

I went with two trappers, for the combined 480 extra HP. The crit / surge vs power / cunning thing seemed more or less a wash.