I am playing a Marauder in the Anhilation tree. There are certain abilities which refer to Bleed Effects. For example Juyo Mastery with 3 points states ... Your bleed effects are 3% more likely to critically hit per stack of Juyo Form .. My understanding is that every melee attack generates a bleed on the stack up to 5. So does the above mean that all my melee attacks have a 15% better chance to critically hit if I currently have 5 on the stack? What does bleed effects mean? Similarly, with 2 points in Empowerment .... the ability states Your bleed effect have a 30% chance when dealing damage to generate 1 rage. Again, in this context, what is a bleed effect? A melee attack while in Juyo form?

Or said another way .... welcome to the game with one of the best implemented MMO grinding mechanics of all time.

There are a number of vocal PvP players that simply do not understand this concept. But I can't blame them. I blame the devs who apparently do not get it or do not care. They keep using the same failed core systems the majority of players tired of by 2005. RIFT is the most recent example and bascially SWTOR PvP is RIFT PvP only worse. As far as PvP players go ... SWTOR will be done in 4 months and people will be moving on to the next game. Unrestricted Open World where a player must venture into PvP zones to continue to level does not work. The uninformed PvP player will ask for rules that expand the areas where they can gank. They will request reduction in guards, the removal of cool down zones, and the removal of fast travel options so people have to traverse their hunting ground. They will request the removal of warzone altogether so people have to level in open world .... as if this is all somehow going to increase the amount of PvP and PvP players on the server....NOT That pat response when you bring this up is .... well go play on a PvE server. Again, how does that create more PvP? But SWTOR has far more problems than the fact the you have open PvP in PvE leveling zones....... - Gear and Valor stat PvP grind. A specific grind path for PvP versus PvE. This simply reduces the number of potential PvP players as we are unwilling to grind two paths to experience both PvE and PvP content. Even if I am willing to grind the PvP gear and Valor stats, do I really want to spend weeks getting WTFPWN'd while I level up? - No brakets in Warfronts. What fun I had in my last 3 warfronts as a 22 with my < 30 team against successive premade 40 groups. The bolstering is a joke and makes little difference. Ending up in a Warfront with competive teams is an accident .... not something that occurs by design. Even if you have brakets, it will not solve the problem once you level cap .... you will then have the same problem with max gear and stat premades againt newly capped players. - 2 factions without balancing mechanics .... Right now Sith can wait 20 minutes for a WF to pop while republic get in instantly. Open World PvP is going to be terrible with Sith running a 3 to 1 numbers on our server. Right now their are some class balancing issues. But I could live with that, and its expected once a game gets into production. Those kind of things can be fixed or tweaked over time. That said, class balancing is the easiest thing to fix but is the smallest part of the problem. If you want to create sustainable PvP, a games mechanics must provide an avenue for new players to get involved without getting their *** handed to them for weeks and weeks while they try to achieve some level of competitiveness.

Well I do not hate them ... actually, being an older player who has probably lost a bit of DEX over the years, macro's are the great PvP equalizer. But ...... without them, PvP and PvE do become more skill based and I think that is a good direction to go. I got bored pretty quick once I tweaked out my RIFT macro's. You could get a good rotation down to handful of buttons in that game. One of my builds was basically down to two buttons. It really took the majority of the skill out of the game and it became boring quicker. In point of fact, on my alts, I really did not even bother exploring and learning my abilities. I simply recreated best in class published macros and let the two finger button mashing commence. Is this we have regressed to ........?

The absolute best scenario is to use a gamepad like the Nostromo in combination with a gaming mouse like the Razer Naga or the Logitech G700. This give you yet more accessible buttons without every moving your hands. As far as gaming mice go .... I was a big Razer Naga fan, but have moved away from that to the G700. My Naga developed button click problems after 11 months of use and judging by other reviews and comments on the net, many others have experienced the quality problem. But beyond the quality issues with the Naga, even though it has 17 programmable buttons versus the G700's 13 Buttons, the position and accessibility of the buttons on the G700 are MUCH better. The reality was that I was not really using all the buttons on my Naga because a number of them are just plain hard to access. A common strategy for a gamepad gaming mouse combo is to setup the modifier keys like Shift-Ctrl-Alt on the most comfortable buttons for you to access on your mouse. Then setup your gamepad to include the numbers 0-9,-,=. If you then bind the quickbar slots you essentially can have access to 4 full quickbars without ever moving your hands.

As one old dog to another .... I would say they are critical. Clicking abilities on a hot bar while moving and targeting is much slower. Consider looking at a programmable gaming keypad. I made the switch about 6 years ago and have never looked back. The concept of the gaming keypad is you never have to move your hand. Initially it will be frustrating and your performance will go down for awhile, but once you get used to it, there is no better way. I use the Razer Nostromo ... But the Logitech G13 is popular as well. Again, it takes some getting used to, but its well worth it .... and us old dogs need every advantage we can get!

Yes I played SWG and like most other games, the OW PvP was good in the begining with the intial player rush and everyone leveling together. However I was there, it was dieing before SOE put the nail in the coffin with their 'enhancements'. I am not saying that you cannot have good OWPvP in a game with mechanics as I noted above. I had some great times in SWG. My point is that those great times will not last very long.

While everyone can point to instances where a highly organized smaller force defeats a large force, it is the exception and generally numbers rule. But that said, it is the ebb and flow of OWPvP that is the attraction. While virtually all OWPvP will start with a big zerg, the other side rallys forces and pushes back. A back and forth ensues that is a lot of fun. An OWPvP player looks at OWPvP as an event that occurs over time as opposed to a brief slice of time where you got zerged. However, a large imbalance in overall server pop in a 2 faction environment is definetly a killer. There will always be diehards who can stomach losing major engagements over and over and enjoy the challenge. However, they are in the minority and most players on a side that is continually getting stomped will leave the game or join the side having the most success. Players self balancing the sides may occur on occasion. However, in a game where people have to start new toons on the other side and then grind up to get PvP competitive, tthe self balancing will never occur fast enough and the servers numbers will drop considerably before this occurs.

Instanced PvP does not kill world PvP .... poor open world PvP mechanics kill world PvP. Somehow people think that if instanced PvP is removed it will force people to world PvP. Not going to happen if the OWPvP mechanics are poor. More accurately, if the World PvP mechanics are poor people will simply look for another game. So if your OW PvP game .... - Does not have objectives - Promotes gank style play of folks as they are leveling - Does not have rewards commensurate with PvE or instanced PvP - Has a seperate PvP gear and stat path grind needed to be competitive - Makes it difficult for players joining 6 months down the road to be competive with established players .... well, there is little hope for sustainable OW PvP. Regretably I think this game will be fun for awhile, but then, as far as OW PvP is concerned will go the way of all the other MMO's based on this model.

The real surprise here is the fact that people seem surprised it has turned out this way. Two faction OW PvP with a perceived light and dark side and no balancing mechanics .... We reap what we sow .....