This is overstating it a bit imo, the pops aren't back to back, but you rarely have to wait more than 15-20 minutes during afternoon and evening times. The last character I leveled the past couple of weeks was around valor 60 when hitting level 80, and got most of the 70->80 experience through pvp. It's not exactly a lot of amateurs who "just want to have fun" though, but fairly competitive -- a lot of players are in the 75+ range with maxed gear and augments. Which I guess makes sense, pvp isn't fun when you lose.

I'd say sniper -- a merc has a much harder time keeping the jugg off him, whereas given ideal conditions, like someone posted above a sniper can keep a jugg at a distance and/or slowed for a very long time. That's only 1v1 and with enough room though. If anyone else joins in the sniper's a sitting duck.

Well, I've tried out a madness sorc for a few days now, and yeah.. so far in warzones it's a tremendous difference, you can 1v1 pretty much anyone (assassins have been the trickiest, not all sure there) even without being particularly used to the ins and outs of the spec, and if you don't get bothered by a second enemy (or face a sin) you often don't even have to use dcds, just like my experience that prompted this thread to begin with. You can also thrive in the relative disorder of warzones, e.g. spread your dots around, and relatively easy get away from less focused pressure situations and often survive and recoup even when someone tries to follow you to get the kill. In arenas the difference is smaller compared to a merc. You can't stand up to the direct focus of multiple players as well, and lose a lot of effectiveness in those situations -- so it's not all that uncommon that you get chosen as the first target. This is also the only real weakness I've spotted so far. 1v1, there really isn't any obvious one.

I don't know, it seems to put the onus on the people getting farmed to give up collectively, and doesn't seem better than the individual being allowed (with relatively small repercussions) to leave. I'd consider at least the following three alternatives to be better: 1. Prevent the forming of premades altogether, i.e. you can only solo queue. This would seem like the most direct way of addressing the problem, even if pvp matchups will still be uneven. 2. Premades not prevented but if you do queue with 2+ people you can only get matched vs other configurations with 2+ people queued, and you will have to wait in the queue until that happens. This allows for premades to exist but might lead to the waiting time becoming longer both for them and solo players. 3. Allow players to preview participants and queue status of the warzone/arena before accepting to join, including an indicator showing if some players queued together. That way, if you don't want to play vs a premade you can simply opt out; no penalty needed since you never joined to begin with.

I think the current penalties are ok. Relatively lenient and keep you from instantly requeuing but get worse if you repeat the behaviour, though also not so rough that you feel forced into staying put to get farmed.

Yeah, I realize I may have asked a question that doesn't really have any kind of specific, concise answer. Since posting I've come to that very conclusion, going to do some pvp as a madness sorc and see what kind of problems I run into. Also I can see not losing to them 100% of the time, certainly if there's a big skill difference -- but just like what prompted me to post in the first place, that feeling that someone just facerolled you without having to resort to any of the tactics normally associated with pvp in general or the class in particular is a bit hard to digest. So the question remains, assuming the madness sorc knows what he's doing and doesn't make any obvious mistakes, is there a way through that or does the answer end up being more along the lines of just not engaging 1v1? I don't know about this one. I hear you on the skill level, but in my own experience, that part is often balanced by lowbie/sub-80 pvp not being one-sided ordeals just as frequently. At level 80 premades are common and in many cases you can accurately predict how a match is going to end within 30 seconds after starting. And in a one-sided match, whether you're on the winning or losing side, there aren't a lot of opportunities for developing your skills.

Thanks for the detailed reply -- to start off, yeah, I could probably have used this better, didn't really watch and wait for any particular cast. I've used the power surge + concussion missile as a neat trick now and then, but not in this fight. I can't really see what I'd gain from stunning the sorc, especially if I'm already dotted up. Also he might as well just use his stun breaker, it's not like I can follow it up with a hard stun. The interrupt is a good point though, like flare I could probably have used it better. Again I'm not sure I see the strategy here, as in what will running away get me? Against several other classes I can understand it, but here my health will keep going down if I'm dotted, he'll heal from them, my damage will go to zero without los and he has access to more self heals than I do. Even if he just waits and lets me stand behind a wall, odds are that when I go back out I'll likely be at more of a disadvantage than when I went in. Almost but not quite the same as you. I usually run the hunter killer droid instead of power barrier, and jet escape instead of energy rebounder. I guess it makes me a little less geared for pure 1v1, but they come in handy in warzones. Yeah, pretty much the same, usually use my regen when I can and then pop kolto shot to keep it at 10 stacks until needed. Haha, yeah, no I realize they work in different ways and use them one after another like I said. Very much like explained in that video, though I sometimes combine energy shield with the warzone adrenal to stack DR. I'm not sure how well responsive safeguards works vs dots though. Hmm, yeah at least with IO it might make it more reasonable to play for time. I'll try it out at some point. Yeah, in many situations it's a great ability, I guess that added to my frustration here: like with so many other of the things I could do it felt like there was just no real effect/didn't change the outcome in any way. Edit: going further with this, the general feeling was that it seemed like such an uneven encounter that even if I'd played it perfectly, the outcome would still have been the same. Maybe the sorc would have been forced to heal actively or use some los, but still not be in any real danger of losing. It's a bit like the feeling of fighting an operative -- if they know what they're doing, there's not really anything you can do to beat them 1v1 -- even if you make the optimal choice in every situation, the best you can hope for is to play for time. The difference is that at least an op or a sin have to be able to take their sweet time to kill you, dip out of combat, open again from stealth and so on, something you don't always get the time and space to do -- they can't just run up and facetank you without worrying about their own healthbar.

I'm pvping as a merc to learn the class better and have so far been able to hold my own in most situations, be it group or 1v1 I could at least feel I was contributing and when I lost to someone at least I gave them a good run for their money. When I faced a madness sorc alone though, it was like running into a brick wall. I play arsenal, we were both around level 78, I'm fully geared out in 306 gear and tactical. I went through all my dcds one after the other (could probably have used flare better, but can't see it making a big difference), and the sorc just stood there. Didn't have to pop bubble or actively heal, didn't phase walk, didn't even try to los. Literally just stood there and face tanked all my damage, and when I went down he was still around 40% health. I'm relatively new at merc so is there anything I'm missing here? Any way through their dps+self heal I'm not seeing? Does IO fare better than arsenal? It seems like if you try to run and recover, you'll still take damage from the dots while the sorc heals up.. and it's not like you can outrun them. Even electro net doesn't do much against an opponent who doesn't have to move or pop any escape.

They can when facing a single melee opponent, e.g. they handle juggs and marauders well, and PTs better than some classes. Put 2+ opponents on them though, or even one ranged, and their ability to keep themselves alive drops very quickly. Under any kind of serious focus they really struggle to do more than slightly delay their demise. On top of that, since they need to be stationary for such a big part of their damage output they're very vulnerable to being los:ed.

Maybe the most simple, but probably more logical like OP implies to change how premades work, e.g. if you queue as a group you'll only be matched against other groups and if you solo queue you'll only be matched against other solos. Most "skilled premade" players aren't all that hard to overcome when you place them with randoms. Don't really have to do much more.

What. There's pretty much no way a sniper can handle an op 1v1 given similar skill. There's no way for the sniper to keep the op in combat, or counteract self heal as long as there's something to los behind. Keep in mind the dps and survivability of a sniper both drop drastically if they're forced to leave cover and run around. They also have a fair bit less mobility than an op any way you look at it, and nowadays no self heal save for the passive regen while in cover, so it's easy for both ops and sins to chip them down.

No mention of deception assassins and operatives? They're both pretty much impossible for any other class to handle 1v1 given similar skill levels, and even with the game being as old as it is there's no effective counter for stealth and/or the ability to dip in and out of combat at will, which leads to a lot of consequences in what those classes are capable of doing. If any classes are in need of a rebalancing for PvP, those are the ones.

I don't know, conquest has been nearly essential for amassing encryptions if you run solo guilds and still want to expand your flagships. That has always been the main draw for me, at least. Every other reward has either been pretty easy to get through other means or never really needed in significant quantities. With this change, unlocking a full flagship (nevermind one for each faction) for people who are just now starting up solo guilds will seemingly be a fair bit more challenging.

It wouldn't really make any sense lorewise. If it were a serious battleground it would mean the Empire had managed to launch and sustain a continued assault on the Republic capital world and as such were close to finishing the war. If it were a testing/training facility kind of like OPG it would mean the Republic had decided to invite various sith lords and dark council members to come practice on Coruscant, which would seem stranger still.

A poncho. A bit like the base tempest warden one, but without the backpack and imperial pauldron. A good role model would be the classical gunslinger one worn by the man with no name in the Dollar trilogy. Ideally this would come in two versions for the chestpiece; one worn regularly and one with the front flap thrown back over one shoulder to expose the sidearm. The rest of the set other than the chestpiece is of less importance, similarly themed with cowboy boots (preferably with spurs) and thin/half-finger, discrete gloves would be good.