Well they could give 3man and 4man groups que priority and automatically put them on top of que and matching against another 3 or 4man group when possible. And if no other 3 or 4 man group in que atm just pop em into a game like normal. Que priority would be nice incentive for ppl to group up too.

Another choice would be to have a debuff module like the white acute one for xp, making you and your comp deal less dmg and take more dmg from pve enemies, just be sure to make it toggle off automatically in group pve stuff.

This could be easily done by swapping places of shield rebounder util from tier 3 with supercharged defense from tier 4. Then arsenal can't take thrill, trauma reg and rebounder at the same time, io could still feasibly go full merc tank though.

I assume dps with guard and dps off-heals would be popular team comp, but I don't think it would be auto win in any way. Though they might disable guard and maybe even stealthing without the escape stealth to keep it as fair as possible. Also to be clear I meant 2dps vs 2dps, no hls and tank specs allowed. The 1v1 mirror que could work, I don't know how fun it would be in the long run but it could work. Probably would need to be mirror spec even and not just same dps class.

I agree on the healing debuffs being too weak, particularly for the two dps classes with it (costs a gcd and no aoe). Though I don't know if they should make the debuff last longer or give a shorter duration but way harsher healing debuff for the dps trauma. Also make applying heals debuff give medals for preventing x amount of healing. A nice fix would be to rearrange sorc hls numbers, by reducing hls on roaming mend and increasing numbers on puddle and innervate, so that whatever pve hls balance exists isn't affected too much. Imo roaming mend is the biggest problem with hls, it hls for huge amounts with instant cast and you can't counterplay it unless you are psychic and pull the target out of reach at just the right moment. Also it's even worse when there's just sorc hls and tank, because it can bounce twice on the same target.

You can't respec utils while in wz que, and probably not spec either. Also the point here is the matchmaking happens wz side not in que if someone comes in at very last second of popwindow they bypass the matching, hence quick and dirty. It only tries to setup a sort of fair match in respect to the pop without affecting que times.

1v1 que would probably have to be mirror dps or tank matches to be anykind of fair. But imo 2v2 dps que could be interesting, I think someone suggested that somewhere but not sure.

So my suggestion for a matchmaking system would be to pool all 16ppl in a wz pop or 8 in arena pop together, but otherwise keep the first come first serve style of que. Then something like 30 or 20 secs till start split them into teams, trying to distribute special roles like hls and tanks as equally as possible. And in cases where there is only one hls and one tank, one team gets hls and another gets tank. This probably should take into account taunt dps somehow so hls team don't get an advantage there. Obviously this system could also try to split evenly on stealths or even classes in general. But imo important part is fairish split on tanks and hls. Not sure would it be better to spawn ppl on map or into one or both spawns while waiting for the team divide. And after the initial divide backfills can be like they currently are. Obviously would need xfaction to work, but could be tested in Odessen and maybe by making regs arenas xfaction too, where 4dps vs 2tank and 2 hls is super lame. Ideally the system would split premades up in case of roles imbalance, but that probably wouldn't be popular, so obviously tank and 3hls sandbag prem comps would still be problem.

My favorite blaster is the Hammer Precision Holdout, that one really deserves to get a cartel version or a few different versions with different sounds.

Weapons in outfits sounds great. Would it also be possible to add a hide holstered weapon toggle for the outfits? Sometimes the weapon just clips really noticeably, usually issue with cape and back holstered weapons. Having toggles for hood, buttcape and cape would also be nice if it's possible to do it without huge effort.

I must confess I like the "pixiedust" too and the plasma flare is very nice looking and the sound has oomph to it, 100 times better than the old plasma tech magic fireball thingie. I also kinda like the instant ion wave, it's like a lightning shotgun, I only wish the animation was a bit "fuller" with a few more frames, they could have cannibalized the old shieldtechs ion storm a bit with the bolts arcing into the ground etc. Imo there was no reason to limit the new mortarvolley to 10m range, it could be 30m and low lvl vanguards would instantly have a move to use while they walk towards the enemy and calling an artillery strike on top of yourself feels a bit silly. Pt version would be very nice without the big fridge popping out of your back, just have two shouldercannons shooting the missiles pls, the missiles and pyrotechnics look good imo. One thing I dont like is that they changed shieldtechs heatblast into yet another flameburst knockoff like pyro's immolate. Unless they use the old heatblast animation to make a new blaster move for all pt specs (hint hint).

Pyro is def one of the weakest specs but it still brings decent utility and is more of a support spec. Imo the good parts: -aoe taunt on 35sec cd with util reflect bbl for mates -40m pull with util -rotational root on fist (roots don't build resolve) -15 sec 75% slow with util -can guard(remember to taunt attackers too) in a pinch (huttball, healer on low health etc) -90% aoe slow for 3secs, almost root and works through whitebar -good mobility with overdrives Imo defensewise atleast in regs you need to use kolto first and when kolto ends use medpac and pop shield if still under attack, that way you get to benefit from the cd reduction on kolto more, wz adrenal can be used with kolto, shield or separately after shield depending on enemy focus. For offense don't worry about aoe or dotspread it will happen naturally, keep dots on your primary target and keep using fist, rail and immolate on cd. Only ever use flamesweep to interrupt caps or aoe slow spam, don't use it for dmg, flame burst is your filler. Sucks that new flamer builds 20 heat for so so dmg and you have to use it after lvl 66 before immolate for buff, pre 66 you can delay new flamer if heat is too high. That being said pyro is too squishy/low dmg for a melee dot spec imo.

Too bad tank can't stance dance into shi-cho anymore and become an aoe burst spec for real.

Also check out Defiant technographer off hand blaster (usable in mh too), has a nice look and good sound, better sound imo than even alkion blasters.

They could have done some adjustments when it came clear how strong the ranged self heal tanks were. I realize the merc&snipe dcd buffs were given to help survive arena focus but the total defensive buff was too strong. But imo an arena dcd should have a longish cooldown like 3-4 mins so they're not spammable in regs and be hard enough to survive heavy focus for a few seconds and give you and your team time to react, this is just imo from someone who does not play ranked and sort of dislikes regs arenas too. For the record IO and engi are in my top 5 favorite specs and I really like the kolto utility making kolto worthy of a 3min cd. Imo bring down damage or survivability of the ranged overlords, very hard to justify 40% surge on mercs in their current state. Also pp radius down OR slow to 50% and perhaps no interrupting of caps, it is a dot after all...