Thanks all for the replies! Let's see how the next expansion plays.

I'm on 'Ebon Hawk' now, the pop's for WZ are fast for PVP but I can't abide walking in the Open World, seeing the opposite faction and not being able to fight. Which of the PVP servers has the better population at the moment?

ObamaCare!

That's a good question and one I'd like to understand as well. I'm running around 27K health in my Partisan with 2 Overkill 28 Augs. I'm thinking Conq may be the how of having over 30K health?

I very rarely remember a name from a match. Ivy fighting with and against has stood out as an Operative. Wouldn't say I fear her, but as someone else said, if she's in the opposing team, one needs to pay more attention.

I'll do an SS later this evening. It should be easy to replicate. Wear PVE gear in the L50 region and have 'zero-expertise'. I recall the Dev's said not to mix / match PVE / PVP gear; and this still seems to be true. I'm sure other PVE'rs are finding the same thing 2018 Expertise. My health is probably around 24K, though remember I'm nowhere near geared. I upgraded to a 25 purple barrel, it added about 96 pts of damage and didn't effect my 2018. Here's the advantage for capped out PVE, is you can focus on other stats, primaries and secondaries. I don't know how my damage compares to others (L52 and undergeared but bolstered), FWIW: Primary Damage: 944-1398 Expertise: 2018 PVP Boost: 60% PVP Damage Reduc: 37.5% PVP Healing: 20.83% These are my stats using two expertise +41 barrels as my only experrtise Damage: 978-1302 Expertise: 1718 PVP Boost: 51.08% PVP Damage Reduc: 33.81% PVP Healing: 17.35% It's a big difference. Maybe with full PVP gear it'll improve but the main stats and secondaries would have to exceed PVE gear, if I stay capped at 2018?

I have L50 PVE gear. I put two expertise barrels +41 (or thereabouts) into my blasters. Using these my EXP went to 1890. I swapped these out for two blasters with a damage of about 170-240, low level guns. My EXP went to the cap of 2018. Why would I bother with conq' gear when I can hit 2018 EXP with PVE gear (and zero-expertise capping me?). My kit it's all orange with commendation mods, and blues only. I'd rather stack nice PVE attributes on top of my 2018 expertise.

Seeing as you've got HS in the rotation, you've got a bunch of other skills as well -- I can power surge two tracers instantly, so I'm on the move. Then I can instant HSM. Rail shot. I'm still gap closing so there's no issue with runnes. I can rocket-punch and root. Then use a channeled like unload or flamethrower. Pop a barrier shield. Then tracer (vent) and repeat. At L21 life is different though, but it still leads with Tracer for Unload / Rail Shot.

I'm leveling a PT at the moment, and I have a 50 Merc. Merc As Turret This is much less true now, with Power Surge, on the heel I can fire off two tracers instantly, which gives me a rail shot and a heatseeker, all instant. By this time, I can be on top of my enemy, rocket-punch, instant, and then stun and issue a channeled flamethrower or unload. Merc As Heal Tank I heal tank a lot in WZs. I can drop a shield, a kolto missile, then power surge two rapid heals, drop another kolto, a warzone stim, and by this time my enemy has used all their heavy offensives, and I can begin my rotation (and my heals will already becoming back off cool-down). Throwing in a vent heat gives me another lease on life and a nice alacrity boost. I can heal-tank a lot of pain, several people for a good 10-15 seconds and jet boost some space if I need it. PowerTech My PT is only 24, so there's not much for me to go on personally. I can guard (and will be able to taunt). Guarding gets me some medals in a WZ... I can grapple someone in close, and then I can use a flamethrower or rocket-punch. Not a lot of options. In terms of absorbing damage, I can't take anywhere near what my Merc can via heal-tanking (even at low levels, I had rapid heal, shield and kolto missle). In terms of value over my Merc's Healing or my PT's guard, the Merc I can switch from offensive to heals, reinforce a Sorc's Health and then get back into the melee. I don't see a lot of difference here between a healer reinforcing a tank, and my switching from offensive to healer to support the core-healer. PT has some fun skills, it might get more useful later on, but the Merc is so durable and versatile compared.

In the 30-54 bracket, I fought the same DPS Operative across 4/5 warzones I played today -- I was consistently decimated in each encounter; it's stun and then 'whap / whap / whap' -- followed by dead. Incredible burst. This isn't a call for a nerf, more for suggestions as to how to counter a DPS Op. Is it a case of surviving that first wave of burst? In most fights, I can throw down a Kolto, fire off all my instants and in close quarters rocket-punch, flame thrower. None of these burst as such but they're good steady damage, against a high-burst melee DPS Op, whatever I throw back won't mitigate how fast I burn down. If anyone's got any strategies -- please share. Reviewing an encounter like this, it's a good way to improve.

One of the things, as a PVP server, the world-design seems to lack is 'friction'. I was doing some quests on Nar Sheddar, it's easy to get tunnel vision doing quests, and miss how stunning the world design is. I was in the Casino area (contested territory) and it would make such a great area for PVP. Nar Sheddar as a whole, lots of objects, great environment, multiple city layers. There's an 'odd-lack' of skirmishes, that is smaller groups of opposing faction players, rather than mass oPVP -- skirmishes are more viable given the limitations of the engine. If that's the objective of your 'occupy Alderaan', I can understand that, build some friction, wait for more enemy faction to be called in (as opposed to a lowbie gank-fest) and kick off a fight.

Agreed. I stack my queues and sometimes forget to grab a fresh batch of WZ stims -- it's not a deal breaker but would be a nice convenience. WZ bans don't work as the other poster said -- zoning in and booting before the load-screen clears happens too often.

Thanks Kyanite!

One of my purple-off hand generators allows me to 'mod' that is remove the purple items from it, whereas crafted purples don't appear to (so far in my testing). Is it only 'looted' that can do this? Or is there another 'force' at work? Cheers for any light-shed?

Checked the Developer Tracker on that one, apparently as of Patch 2.0.1: "That's what she said"