I don't understand the Blade Dance nerf at all. I don't raid, but in pvp (using full customized 208s) the most I've gotten out of a full crit BD is ~20k, over what amounts to 2 GCDs. Several classes can hit harder than that in one. Overhead Slash + Dispatch is waaay more damage in the same window. So, what used to be the bread and butter of our class is basically a soft cc with a pretty animation now?

Interesting, but I'm not entirely sure this can be applied as a universal rule. In the scenario in the OP (44% crit/74% surge vs 38% crit/68% surge), power augs clearly have the mathematical edge. But classes that still value accuracy, alacrity, or both to some degree, won't have the item budget to manage a base 38% crit chance without crit augs. IIRC I had around 32.5% crit and 63% surge on my guardian before augmenting. Logically, the more crit you have, the more valuable power becomes and vice versa, so it's not so surprising that you'd benefit more from power when you already have 38% crit. I'm curious to see if this comparison holds true at lower levels of crit however, and if not, where the tipping point is.

Rot classes are always going to be able to put up impressive numbers. Just like aff locks/shadow priests in WoW. Their whole purpose is to spread pressure across the enemy team, but their damage alone isn't going to secure kills. Sustaining 3k+ dps across 4+ players doesn't sound unreasonable to me. That's their job. People get too caught up in scoreboard stats.

Yep. /5chars

Don't know that I'd agree. It's true that Ravage/Blade dance is way weaker now, but Overhead and Dispatch have been my money makers thus far in 4.0, and both benefit from accuracy. Especially with as many sorcs/sins as there are around. Vigi DoTs have always been fluffy, but with the new Gather Strength we have some legit burst for a change. Even in my completely unoptimized and un-augmented 204s I landed a near 23k Overhead on an unsuspecting sorc. It's only going to get better.

No ty. It has never taken me close to 100 wins to hit T1 in any season, and I'd like to keep it that way. The less time I have to grind through the flaming dumpster that is yolo queue, the better.

That's what regs are for.

Well that changes everything. Source? Cause that certainly isn't stated anywhere in that letter.

I don't think he's arguing that being fully auged isn't the best option... but prior to 3.0, when augments were separate from bolster, you got a much bigger return (relatively speaking) for your investment. IMO augs shouldn't be included in bolster at all.

The devs haven't gotten bolster working correctly in what.. 2 years now? That ship has sailed. I'd love it if expertise was gone altogether. People act as if no MMO has gone without a "pvp" stat before. Hell, even WoW, which seemingly inspired SWTOR's expertise system, had pvp gear equivalent to pve gear in vanilla (before resilience was even a thing). The pvp gear was a bit more stamina heavy, but that was the only real distinction. Even here, 1-59 works just fine with pvp gear being no different from pve gear. I say let people play the way they want to, and progress the way they want to. Artificial gates like expertise really just serve to waste everyone's time by making you grind and customize 2 sets of gear. It's a smoke screen for the thin end game content, nothing more.

Bolster has been a trainwreck since it was implemented, but this seems like a new low. Would love to see a dev response to this issue. At least acknowledge it.

Yup. It was just unimaginably stupid of BW to allow a CD that powerful to have a 45s CD through talents + pvp set bonus. I still wonder how something like that makes it out of the devs' brainstoming sessions... But 5s of 99% dmg resistance on a 2-3min CD is much more manageable. Kolto Overload and Focused Defense are life savers in the same vein.

You are mistaken. It never provided physics immunity. Force Push has always countered Egress + Force Speed.

During the season, sure. In pre-season, who gives a ***? If anything, now is the time for undergeared people to hop in the queue.

I don't main a Mara but I completely agree with all of the above. The class is in bad shape and has some of the worst utility choices in the game. I mean 4 of the Heroic Utilities (Unbound, Expunging Camo, Inescapable, and Brooding) were ripped straight from the 2.0 Carnage tree... so now it is impossible for Carnage Maras to even get back all of the tools they had available to them pre 3.0, and they were given nothing to compensate for it. Reversing the Undying nerf is long overdue. It was a ridiculous bandaid fix when the real problem was the talent in Rage + the pvp set bonus that combined to let UR have a 45s CD. Leave it as a 2-3min CD with the health cost taken up front and it would be perfectly fine compared to the defenses most other classes have now. And for the love of god, give Maras Deadly Throw back with a root... Taking that away and requiring them to spend 2 GCDs for the same effect was asinine. Then they give us Jugs/Guards a root on Saber Throw as a utility... I honestly have no idea what the devs were thinking with some of these changes. They just make no sense.