Oh, Aspect... it was Golden and Celo hitting the pre-50, back when I was still new to PvP. Those were some damn fine huttball matches. It was those experiences that got me addicted to PvP in the first place! I wished we had spent more time together, sir! Thanks again, Zass. You do me too much honour! We have like minds, I believe; I always felt comfortable talking with you, my friend. I will be certain to stay in touch. Steel! I know, I know... I still remember the last thorough scolding you gave me. It was always a challenge to drop you in combat, and bittersweet haha. A necessary evil, one made so difficult by you being so loveable ;-; Soon to be the best healer on a new server, I expect? Jhellsing, we were never monogamous; I know you were getting shot in the back by others! >.> Shiro, i've always admired your playstyle; deadly come hell or high latency. No one could deny me my Shoot First in duels as often as you could. But as difficult as it was being pitted against you, it just seemed to cause too much upset when we were on the same side I trust that you will remain sneaky, deadly and... perfectly grammatical. (Yes, it was Focus. I don't think he even broke 50!) Selianne, odd that you should post immediately after the OTHER killer shadow. I don't believe we ever exchanged bad words; it was always a pleasure to see you, especially when we were on the same team, so I wouldn't have to be looking over my shoulder... >.>

Hey everyone, As some of you may have noticed, I have been absent for however many weeks now due to much unpleasantness of real life. I regret that my leave went unannounced, it was certainly not intended. It was due to the way many small events unfolded that kept altering my priorities list, and so in the chaos, one week became two weeks became a month until it reached a point where I resigned to the situation and let it go. I'm signing in today to make an apology for disappearing - because I do care about you all - and because I ought to make a formal “farewell”. For the conceivable future, it is not feasible that I continue playing SWTOR, due to what a (wonderful) time-sink it is. Though I can report, with caution, that my situation IRL seems to be improving, I must consider that I do have a tendency toward obsession when it comes to games that I love; this one being no exception. Thus, though playing for an hour or two every other evening is becoming an option, such an option is not merely an unappealing one but rather, probably, an impossible one. I must avoid the temptation until I can confirm that I am on the trail which leads out of these woods. Some of you will understand this better than others, depending on your own attitudes toward gaming (or toward leisure in general). Know that it's not as dramatic as may be tempting to read into all the above vagueness. I felt compelled to come back to make this awkward statement because, far more than missing the mindless pleasure of grinding for gear, I will miss the community. There are so many interesting characters amongst you; I was about ready to form a list honouring you person by person, but I would inevitably make regrettable omissions on account of my fallible human memory. So it all seems a bit redundant and a little impersonal to even attempt such a cursory list. Know that I was always genuine, so for all those with whom I spent time, I will miss our unique interactions. If any of you do see fit to comment on this thread, I can make more personal responses to you then It has been an absolute pleasure, my friends. If I don't come back to this game at a later stage, I may be found in another! In any event, if the gods are good, our paths will cross again. -Celo

Haha, I remember his name but I don't want to embarrass the poor fellow. I was told he often complains about votes/lack thereof. He had about 50k more damage, and more defensive medals because I'm not a gun turret - I fight around the doors not necessarily on them (keeps me away from AOE stuns and better for dropping combat to make last second capping interupt) If I cared about medal farming, I'd play to earn more of them. A lot of game changing/winning moves, though, aren't recognised. Interupting reinforcements to cap node, harrassing opposition's node to prevent them the time to form an attack, interrupting caps, floating inbetween nodes to call early incs.... All things considered, it was just very very strange to have someone moan at length about MVP votes, or consider a higher DPS score to = better contribution. Yeah, I make the mistake sometimes of thinking the healers are guaranteed votes, so give mine to high protect or the people I'm grouped with....Then feel bad when I see that no one else voted them either... My last comment was sarcastic, 'cause this thread is very similar to the other one OP posted.

My apologies for hi-jacking your thread, Mjrat. Not intentional, I simply cannot resist telling fools off. Though it seemed like the discussion was pretty much ended, anyway. The only on-topic point I made would be my question; how you feel about groups of strong players who queue together, despite not being in the same guild. Our purpose is not to form premades and it's not so simple for us to organise rated matches. Sometimes there's a call out for it in general, and it just takes so very long to happen... then you get 2-5 games before people start leaving. That's not practical. We just want to PvP. There's no way (or reason, i'd argue) to prevent good players grouping up. I do sympathise still with those new to PvP who feel completely out-classed. I remember the frustration. The simplest solution would be an automated gear-check to place recruits with recruits. For players like you and I, though... I don't believe balance is a problem. The tides turn all the time; premades go both ways. /shrug

That's true. Though everyone has their own criteria for judging ability. I was once berated with paraphraphs of whispers from a DPS Sage who disliked that I received more votes than he did, despite "clearly beating me" (beating someone on your own team, you wonder? Confused me, too.) Of course, a smart player knows that a total DPS score is not comparable between a ranged DPS, capable of pummelling anyone in field of vision, and a single target back-stabber who has to chase his victims around. Especially on Voidstar, where a good stealther in defence serves his team better at times by hiding, to get that last second interupt so that his team can respawn... But yes, all of that is obvious to a smart player Back on point, 1 v. 1 survivability wouldn't be a fair measure of a PvPer universally. It discounts healers. It discounts any Commando or Sentinel who comes across a Scrapper (sorry). It discounts context... I can't help cringing a little when someone has jokingly bragged about killing me after a match, and the only times I can think of is situations of gang rape... were you one of my rapists? Sorry, I didn't catch all of your names. But to some people, that counts as a personal 1 v. 1 victory, as not everyone is aware of all the sources of damage you're taking, or that you've only just burnt through all your CDs or were chasing an objective rather than engaging them/... Many players aren't even aware of how much they are being HEALED, or that they're being healed at all. <--- Context is a big one. I would say a Scrapper or a Shadow/Sin can be fairly judged by how well they kill others in isolation. That's what their class will be doing often as they try to cap nodes or... just generally be a nuisance everywhere. Snipers/slingers are more heals dependent, but they'll be outputting a lot more damage overall if they know what they're doing. Likewise for most DPS PTs/Vanguards. Huge total DPS, but they can't achieve that alone. And why should they? It's a team game. (I still like to tease them about it, though) ...what the hell is this thread about, anyway?

First of all, punctuation please. Fullstops, commas, paragraph breaks. It's not just a pointless formality; proper punctuation makes big blocks of text like you've posted far easier to follow and understand. The easier it is for people to understand you, the more likely they'll be persuaded by what you have to say. Whether or not you do queue solo, in my experience you are quite often rolling with SnX or NS. The last time I saw you complaining in a WZ about we "premades not impressing" you, it was to my recollection only 3 MVP members on our side and the rest a mix, while you were on a team with 5-6 SnX. So not only were we not a premade...... YOU were on a premade. That sort of behaviour confuses and annoys people, including those on your team, who said at the time something to the effect of, "Yeah but we don't want him..." Personally, I never set out to queue in groups. I am invited to groups either when I first log in or after i'm spotted by friends on the field. My point here is that quite often these are very strong groups - we win a lot - but we usually don't share a guild tag amongst us. So what would you have us do? Stop playing with our friends? Would you like me to decline offers from now on, "Sorry, but we're too good together... it's just not fair on the Mjrats of the world". Sometimes you'll be on premades, like I have seen you many, many times before. Sometimes you'll be on a team with crappy pugs. Either way, you as an individual player can have fun and learn things from every match. You can find someone squishy to focus, or just look for people who are isolated and kill them as fast as you can for the sheer pleasure of it. It's supposed to be fun, win or lose. Best not to take advice from people like Carthy, though. Despite all the people with whom i've exchanged trash talk in WZs, he is one of only two homines nihili who have been sad enough to insult my guild rather than me directly. This may be only a game, but no one likes a coward

Why stop there?

I don't consider them the same. I consider that right now, a quick refresh defensive stun that hardly fills resolve on everyone around a Sorc is very imbalanced and makes back-stabbers redundant. if Sorcs need an extra layer of defense for some much needed survivability, let them have it. Not every single damn person on their team. I will be putting my back-stabbers in the bin if they don't fix this ridiculous situation.

Yeah, I do agree that Sorcs badly needed the buff. Hence why I say leave the bubbles but make the stun self cast only. Seeing 8 stun bubbles just makes me want to stay in stealth for the whole match. Glow stick users increase damage over time. They can recover from stuns far far better than we bursty operatives.

Not all melee are maras/sents and juggs/guardians with saber throws, screams, pushes, leaps, etc. DPS operatives and scoundrels rely on a first attack melee. if our opener is not from stealth, we have a weak, garbage rotation. There is no distance opener without losing our biggest hit. "L2P" therefore means re-roll as a glow stick melee.

I can appreciate that Sorcs need the defense, and so my only objection is that this stun needs to fill as much resolve as my dirty kick. The major problem with the bubble has been well mentioned here. That it can be applied to all members of a team is where it becomes grossly abusable and broken. For those Sorcs or sympathisers who make the L2P argument, and suggest breaking with ranged attacks.... have you considered what it's like for back-stabbers? People often QQ about scoundrel/operative damage, and what seems to be lost on these morons is that burst damage is a scoundel's ONLY UTILITY. Consider that we have mediocre defensives/immunities (compared to juggs or assassins), no distance closers like force speed or leaps (haste does not compare), no pushes or pulls and only one good ranged attack on a 1 minute CD. When you take away a back stabbers back stab, you are left with a soggy and useless melee with an empty dps rotation compared to maras/juggs. This stun bubble makes back stabbers unviable. Where our only utility was high burst from stealth, now we have to wait for someone else to burst bubbles OR lose the use of our Shoot First, which is absolutely essential in our rotation. Think about what a scoundrel/operative has without that bursty damage. Nothing. So who suffers most from these raid wide bubbles?

If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck. Only a pedantic tosspot of the highest order would cite the official classification as being somehow more pertinent than actual experience and observation. IT STUNS PLAYERS FOR FULL DURATION, IT'S NOT BROKEN BY DAMAGE. IT IS THEREFORE NECESSARILY A STUN. You could call it a ham sandwich, it will still be a stun.