I ONLY play operative/scoundrel and sniper/slinger. I'd say my stealthers would be considered my mains.

As mentioned above it is likely max bolster. I recently leveled out of lowbie bracket with my scoundrel. Prior to entering pvp I made sure to pick up every datacron relevant to my stats on nearly every pre-50 planet. I obtained and build my level 23 matrix shard. I ground out (4 runs) through the first instance to raise my light side to rank 2 to wear a relic. I crafted my own low level augments and kits. I wore near level blues from leveling comms although I don't think this makes a massive difference with bolster. Crit and secondary stats are hard to stack at those levels but I still raised my crit and surge as best I could through mods selection and augments (rest combined with power and main stat). End result: I'd see 2 enemy players run at me and I knew without a doubt I could kill them both ... often easily. This is not their fault. They should have the right to be on even terms with me in gear so skill is the only difference. This is nowhere near reality in this game. It is plainly obvious most do not bother to do this. I am unsure how the stat datacrons bolster if at all but augment slots have bolstered for a while now and if you are missing them you will be nowhere near as powerful as others with them. I know it is a pain in the *** especially with 12*xp but if you don't take the time you WILL be dominated by those who do. Call it a failing of the current system and a pointless barrier to entry but it is what it is currently. My scoundrel crit normally for 9k+ from stealth (even at such low level) and easily double digits when using relic buff and/or warzone damage buff. Others certainly could have maximized stats better than me. I simply wanted to be powerful'ish enough to compete. Sadly it mostly ends up face rolling others who often are puzzled why they are so weak. Oh and even all of this won't help you when you enter the next bracket at level 30. You will do decent damage but your lack of abilities and utility will make you helpless against level 51+, well played characters. I do not like this system. I vocally challenge it all the time on multiple forums until Bioware understands that their excuses about their tech unable to be upgraded or changed doesn't cut it. They take our money so FIX YOUR $**T!

I have to agree that hard stuns are fine as is. The OP mentioned someone gets stunned then they ALL attack the stunned target. Umm, no kidding the dude dies with multiple people attacking him! We have a hard stun break ability. Do NOT use it on soft stuns. Do NOT use it on anything other than a hard stun and only if you require it to survive through and know you can recover or escape after. You need to suck a stun or mez to build your white bar which also maintains the value of a stun. Accept when you are team ganked and your break is on cool down. Thems the breaks! I've played mmos that developed for the arcade-like, console bread mmo players which nearly remove cc because players cry over it. Pvp is a complete button mash-fest with zero strategy. I come from an RvR background in Daoc where stuns, roots and mez's were required to fight against zergs in large scale combat. CC is meant to be strategic but it's value diminishes rapidly when teams become smaller which is why arena 4x4 is total crap for mmo game play designed around objective warzones (Mythic balanced this game on warzones ... NOT arena. The game has suffered on all levels since arena launched trying to reshape the classes to fit it). Objective based warzones show the value of strategic cc use. Personally I have to ignore most arena players complaints as they rarely comprehend the impact their demands make on pve and warzones which is what this game was designed around. Perhaps Bioware's solution is to convert pve to solo play through story as an answer ... as very sad answer indeed.

Biggest new change I have seen since coming back is the ability to stock pile effectively unlimited comms gained through pvp at low levels. It was incredibly restrictive prior not being able to stockpile much in order to buy pvp gear when you were appropriate level. As mentioned though, it some what disheartening the band-aid approach Bioware takes at fixing a broken system. I'll gladly accept these band-aids over nothing though.

Good to know! Thanks. Doesn't affect me as I am either light or dark side for all characters (partly RP and partially due to old restrictions) but if my bud comes back to the game his main will love it.

Last I read is that Chris Pratt is their primary choice but still no confirmation on it yet? Honestly I do agree with another poster that him playing 2 roles effectively the same may be a little too much. I'd love to see him in another 1-2 Guardians of the Galaxy movies.

I did the same thing with my slinger (got HK with my operative and already had a sniper too). Started HK at level 1 and love it with a slinger/sniper because he lives longer than most tank companions and works as a single target cc while I mop up the trash. That said, people are saying the dot spec dps companions are the highest dps currently so I plan on using mine when I get it but I think smugglers don't get her until mid levels. I actually level without a companion early on anyway as the game is too easy.

Sadly what you state is likely the main reason why the queues are what they are. Bioware appears to not have the ability or inclination to make global queues (or at least far larger server pools). This killed ranked warzones too ... and why we got ranked arena out of the blue without many really wanting it (and thus 4 man pvp balancing has been killing pve balance ever since and required entire reshaping of classes not designed for arena). Pvp issues will remain until larger queue pools can be created. Remember that Mythic was brought in to construct and balance warzone pvp (with all of WAR's failings their battle grounds and systems were hella fun) ... classes were NOT balanced for arena from the very start. Can you imagine being able to queue instantly into pvp at nearly any time? Oh what a difference that would make and low pop servers would have a hell of a lot more fun.

Oh I agree. I only meant to describe what is vs what could be better. I too hate the new pvp brackets and I slightly dread the fact I am about to enter the next bracket that is loaded top end with players with actual pvp gear. Bolster affecting more slots now than before further exacerbates the issue. That said level 10-15 does bolster amazingly well but you are then restricted in strategy and game play due to your lack of utility. You feel like you have to endure the punishment until you finally obtain real pvp gear. You still need to know what gear levels bolster fully and not throw it away before reaching max level in order to make a fully bolstered set ... just to not be massacred. My main issue is that one main enjoyment I have in this game is pvp. I grind my set, leave the game for a time due to what ever reasons and come back seeing my old gear is useless, I can't upgrade it and must grind all over again from scratch and all the best bolstered gear has long ago been deleted. I F'ing HATE IT! I just want to smash bro! EVERYONE in non-ranked just wants to log in and smash ... then return to pve fun as well. The current system inhibits entry to game play. Fewer players participate due to it. Bioware only seems to want to slap on band-aids by making grinding easier instead of fixing the core issues. I guess I'll see how the new cheaper gear works but this only affects high level pvp. All the low level issues still remain as you stated.

I know right? Since the first month of release players have been screaming for neutral relics. I can't believe they aren't in game still. If I were neutral I'd at least get my matrix shard but some colour combos are FAR harder to get for some classes than others. Relics are still a rough situation in this game ... which further emphasizes the BS bolster system that requires gear. I'm sure my post history is a sad thing to witness going as far back as launch. It apparently is my personal campaign to scream at Bioware to fix their damn game with regards to bolster and pvp balance. How is it beneficial to the health of pvp in Swtor to have new players being pwned hardcore mainly due to inferior gear? They already have a huge skill gap to make up for. They log out, never return and we ALL lose.

I had rank 2 light side by level 25. Just ran the first flashpoint 4 times @ 250 points a run. Done ... easy ... I have my relics. I also have most of my datacrons relevant to my statistical needs even from higher level planets (easy to stealth run them for the most part). I took the time to go get my shards to construct the get the level 24 Matrix Shard (this can be skipped and a second relic used to make it far easier): Matrix Cube M3-L1: 28 Cunning, 14 Endurance Green, Yellow, Yellow I use comms to by cheap blue mods for orange set gear (mine is legacy but a full set is easily obtainable, if not simply in mail for long time subscribers). Train a crew skill that makes the augments and kits you require. Go out a find the resources you need (dead easy to grind to each augment bracket you need). You may need to buy a few augment parts from GTN but most is obtained through deconstructing what you grind. Only need green augments as I believe since 3.0 the slots bolster. Cheap and tool me about 2 evenings of play time to augment all my gear with greens. All done solo. If you don't take the time to do this and blame the 12x xp (which I benefit from too) you only hurt yourself in pvp. If too lazy to bother getting them ... don't pvp and complain about being weaker. But this is my point. Most players won't bother because of the super easy mode 12x xp and the modern gamer's laziness and instant gratification mentality. I do not expect human nature to change in a game emulating all the lazy mmo design choices cloned largely from Wow. It is a story based game largely solo friendly so it may as well just equalize all pvp outside of ranked ... simply enter a warzone and you are at a predetermined stat level at full resilience. The discrepancy in gear is killing pvp fun in matches that are pure sport. Imagine a pro football team having the best gear available and the other team is wearing gear from the 1920's. That is effectively what Bioware is making players do. For now there is no excuse to not be geared ... 12x xp does NOT affect pvp warzones. Take a break from the story and learn how to gear until Bioware figures out they need to change their system. I wanted to pvp. I didn't want to play the "I'm weaker because I'm too lazy to play the game as it is currently meant to be played" game. Consider it a quest granted to me by myself: Go forth and gear for pvp! A few hours to gear up. A few more hours to obtain my shards and datacrons. 3-4 days of casual game play and I enter warzones fully bolstered. I need the datacrons anyway and one should be getting them when first on the planet instead of later ... which is simply procrastinating.

As someone who only plays the mirrors from those classes I can say with all honesty that SNIPERS NEED ENTRENCH! The limitations of snipers being more of a turret class demands it. They would be useless without it. Intelligent players know how to work around it and often do. One must push ego aside and know when not to be in the line of fire from a sniper ... just los them until your time to shine comes. I do this all the time with my new scoundrel in pvp. As most know, when the same mirror attacks you they often can't get passed their own ego and MUST prove they are better than you at your class. When a scoundrel/operative attacks my I typically cc and los/move out of their range. This pisses them off so badly that they peel from their own support to kill you ... easy kill for me then. They fell into my trap. Do NOT play into another classes strengths. I fully agree though that giving a similar ability to assassins is mind-numbingly stupid.

I am doing nothing but low bracket pvp atm with my new scoundrel. I've seen this happen just last night. The issue is obvious. I'll log into a warzone or arena and first thing I do is inspect my team. The match making is atrocious. Most players in pvp chain off several games so you end up seeing the same people quite often. My team will be loaded at times with players over level 20 at 40k health (meaning they understand bolster and have all slots filled and even have some or all items augmented with lowbie augments) and other times most of my team is either low level (not always a big deal as they bolster really well but the lack of abilities hurt them) or have low health and it is obvious they don't have relics, no augments and likely missing implants too. On top of this I'll see a team built from experienced players who's records clearly show dominance in warzones yet the opposing team is loaded with noobs. Match making sucks! Gearing discrepancy in pvp sucks! I've done several matches (even last night) where my level 29 scoundrel fully augmented and with a matrix shard + relic was wiping out 2-3 players solo while solo ninja/defending nodes. Ego aside I actually feel bad for newer players running up to me thinking they even have a chance. They don't often know it is largely driven by gear. Yes they need to learn how to play and should be allowed a fair chance at it but instead they run into teams filled with fully bolstered players with experience while their team is loaded with scrubs.

Early access was I. I keep coming back even after sometimes taking off an entire year. I'm sticking with casual play for now (summer) and only play my agent/smugglers as I really do not like other classes ... slinger/sniper, scondrel/Operative for life. My main bud I played Swtor with passed away 2 years back and myself and a couple other friends just couldn't log in and play until time enough time passed. Currently though I am leveling my scoundrel (only one I have bothered to level) but am sick of Imperial side so sticking with Republic. Leveling from 27-30 strictly through pvp then will continue main story quest and burn out the next pvp bracket for a bit too before end game content. No rush at all until new expansion hits. Swtor is my current fall back game but will forever be a love/hate relationship with it. So many flaws that go along with all the good.

I feel ya ... but leveling a scoundrel (main is Op) and now that they don't entirely suck at anything outside of healing pvp including arena is rather fun. I still want them rare on rotation. The answer to sniper/slinger (I have both. I only play smuggler/agent) is to actually provide them with a defense against the initial focus. I am hoping the new ability they get when cap raises addressed this directly. All it takes is for the other team to know that a rush focus on a slinger/sniper isn't a worthy tactic. The whole ranked warzone back story is hillarious. Bioware promised it before arena was ever talked about (in fact they always leaned toward not creating arena) then suddenly *POOF* they give us arena and told us ranked warzones wouldn't happen. No warning at all. Pvp has sucked because of it ever since because an mmo with diverse classes NEVER fits arena that only befits certain class types in every game ever created. Then you have all the balance issues impacting pve and even larger scale pvp (not that this game an even support large scale pvp). Why was this done? Because their queue system cannot handle matching 8 man teams because the Swtor doesn't have a global queue (All of NA or EU) to pull from. It will never happen until a global queue is created. Bioware made a near single player game and converted it into an mmo ... and the game has suffered from it every since.