I can understand the benefit of each class having a counter. So what is the best class to counter a Mara/Sent?

OMG that was so f**** funny! If I was drinking milk it would have sprayed all over and out through my nose! Can't..get..image..out..of..head...

Agent Shagalot

I approve this message!

Like I said, someone will try to nullify the speed advantage the Galactic Empire has with regard to interstellar travel... It's a shame really that an advanced star-faring civilization over 25,000 years old seems to always be on the losing side of a technological debate against the Federation that is around 500 years old. Trek tech will always be declared superior only because the Trek technical writers were far more clever with describing the technology of the Trek continuum. Star Wars tech writers left too many holes in their technology database (i.e. laser/blaster conundrum) because they were focused more on story telling. I's all good. I really see no point in debating this any more and salute the savvy Trek writers. I really like the stories on both sides and am glad that they came to be, because they have opened up the imaginations of millions (if not billions) of people.

I see lots of arguing around the fact that the Empire would not have a map of the Federation to safely hyper around wherever they will. I got news for you: Quark or any other entrepreneurial information broker would very likely sell a full set of Federation navigational maps to the Empire for a couple chests of whatever precious metals they desire Of course I expect a fanboi (including those that vehemently deny being one) to state that Quark would be too principled to do such a thing or that the navigational maps are super secret, non-transferable, encrypted with an unbreakable code, or some other techno-babble that would prevent the Empire from using their superior speed in any way.

I get the impression that the directors that make these shows and movies don't read up on the technology developed to flesh out each universe. Their scenes are designed to dazzle the audience with cool explosions and stuff. Unfortunately, this leads to lots of inconsistencies in terms of what exactly happened and whether it is even possible within the defined technology base. For example, the two logs smashing the walker was probably purposely set up to look funny in an anthropomorphic way. It was almost cartoonish and probably made all the kiddies laugh because the teddy bears can kick ***. That is part of the story telling and made the audience happy. But I still won't buy the concept that a bunch of care bears can take down a few battalions of stormtroopers (as inept as they are often portrayed).

I don't really know the guy but listed him since I am not the author. I personally thought it was a well written and entertaining story. Of course anyone on the extreme ends of the current debate will find fault with the author's technical representation, but that is inevitable given this highly passionate crowd

Just needs hops.

Check out this great piece of fan fic titled, 'Conquest' by Michael Wong: http://www.stardestroyer.net/Empire/Fanfic/Conquest/Conquest.pdf It has it all: Picard, the Death Star, the Borg, and even Q who does what he does best! I'd be interested to hear what anyone else thinks of this work.

I can agree that Trek technology is more elegant and advanced in many critical areas. However, I would describe their technical superiority as a tactical advantage vs. a strategic advantage. The Empire's approach is very simple: 'build it bigger and make it fast.' The strategic advantage of hyperdrive vs. warp drive is huge. The Empire has the resources and industrial might to build huge armadas of city-sized ships. They can hyper over to a Federation planet, slag it, and hyper out before the Federation can even respond in strength (probably days later). The Federation would be spread too thin trying to defend all their member planets screaming for protection from the onslaught. Also, how much more advanced does Trek technology have to be in order to beat the Goliath that is the Empire? We're talking about a couple hundred worlds against 1.5 million worlds. Would the Empire even notice that the Federation is attacking? What happens if the Empire inevitably captures a Federation ship with its technology intact before it could auto-destruct? I bet the Sith interrogators will make the ship engineers quickly spill their secrets and guts in that order. An Empire that now has access to Federation technology is even scarier. Now if the Federation captures an Imperial ship, they are less likely to benefit since they don't have the economic base to produce enough ships to counter the Empire. History has shown that battles can be won by technological superiority but wars are generally won by whoever has the greatest resources, logistics, and industrial base, all of which the Empire has an overwhelming advantage.

Let's imagine for a moment that this is not an argument about which side's tech is more uber. In fact, take all the fancy schmancy phasers and blasters that defy physics out of the equation. Let's simply look at the respective size of each government entity. In one corner we have the Empire: The Galactic Empire's territory at its peak consisted of some one and a half million member and conquered worlds, as well as sixty-nine million colonies, protectorates and puppet states spread throughout the entire galaxy, stretching from the borders of the Deep Core to at least Wild Space. In the other corner we have the Federation: The Federation is described as an interstellar federal polity with, as of the year 2373, more than 150 member planets and thousands of colonies. The Empire would very likely crush the Federation just in manufacturing might alone. Heck, they could build a steel moon and ram it into a planet for giggles and Federation weaponry would probably not dent it before it impacts the planet. The Empire can build ships the size of cities that Federation ships would get lost in. They chew up entire worlds for raw materials. They would throw a billion troopers in mass planetary invasions without batting an eye. They are more merciless than the Borg. How does one compete against that kind of power?

I'm going to vote for star wars. The sheer size of their ships dwarfs anything the trekkies have including borg cubes. Also, the ability to blow up entire planets is nothing to sneeze at. Check out this link for some obviously biased but entertaining analysis: http://www.stardestroyer.net/ Also, there is some really good fan fic: http://www.stardestroyer.net/Empire/Fanfic/Conquest/index.html and in pdf format: http://www.stardestroyer.net/Empire/Fanfic/Conquest/Conquest.pdf

That's a really great point about loading up resolve bars for players with more frequent use of knockback. It would force the commando to be more judicious about using the ability, which is why it wouldn't be op to reduce its CD.

One of the major problems with commandos is not being able to disengage from melee. What makes playing one so miserable is that melee classes can force leap to you (or pull) every 12-15 seconds depending on spec. Our knockback CD is 30 seconds. Why not bring our knockback CD down to 12-15 seconds as well? Seems only fair...