The above quote is taken from your Game Overview tab of this game. You are not stating any timeline on new content releases regarding this point, but you have commented on this aspect of the game previously when your userbase has repeatedly complained about it. In particular is the significant time period between when DF/DP and Ravagers/ToS were released. Back then you told us we would not experience such a PvE end-game content drough again (the PvPers have it even worse!). We are currently in December 2015. Shadow of Revan early access started 2. December 2014. That is a year ago. You are getting awfully close to accomplishing what you said would never happen again. Unfortunately, it seems it will happen. There is no way you would not tell the increasing numbers of dissatisfied PvE end-game players that new operations (or just one - that would be good enough) would arrive before you beat the record you said would not happen. I would say the common conception of how a fully featured MMO works, includes releases of new end-game content at regular intervals. A year or longer is not regular intervals in the world of MMOs. As others have suspected, these rewards are probably related to reduced subscriber numbers. KotFE was good, but incredibly short in terms of what people expect from MMO expansions. The story was done in an evening (I am being generous here). The rest was a grind fest that became incredibly stale and boring after a while, but sure, people do it. However, there's a limit to even the most ardent of players doing that kind of content. So people probably started unsubscribing due to lack of content, because even end-game PvE now did not have the same appeal as previous expansions. The old operations tuned for lvl 65 gave a bit more to do, but believe it or not, doing those becomes rather boring after a while too. It's been done before. People want something new. It certainly does not help you have yet to fix the loot issues with NiM and that even the likes of EV HM could drop 224 gear. The coveted MH suddenly became very unimpressive to have. Where you previously had to beat the hardest boss to get it, guilds now farmed it for everyone and theirs alts within that single week. Way to go. You had, and these are your own words, your most hyped stream ever tonight. Its purpose was to entice current subscribers, former subscribers and f2p players to either continue to subscribe or start subscribing. The hype you started was massive. I am sure a lot of those watching (and those reading about it afterwards) were expecting some sort of news about the MMO aspects of the game. Obviously this game has a lot of people playing for the story, but it's also an MMO. You may come for the story, but, as KBN put so eloquently, stay for the content. You form friendships with other people, make or join a guild, tackle flashpoints, WZs, and operations together. This relationship is what get people to continue logging on. You create a sense of achivement and joy when you play well together in pvp or finally down those hard bosses in operations. When people no longer feel achieve that, they will no longer long on as regularly. It's shocking that you're not even acknowledging this rather large group of players in your most hyped stream ever. No information whatsoever about such an important aspect of your game. Where is your road map for these things? Arenas, WZs and operations take up a lot of hours spent playing this game. You should thoroughly think about that and really revise how your communicate with your userbase, as tonight's stream only increase their confusion and anger. People have wanted answers to this long before KotFE was released. After its release the current class balance is also something you refuse to comment on. How can you sit there smiling like that on stream when there are some serious and important issues being completely ignored?

Thumbs up for the guide, Oofalong. Excellent stuff. You're a great help to all the marauders in the game. A week into the expansion I must say I am pleasantly surprised with the changes. Annihilation has become miles better than it was in 3.x. I enjoy playing it again, which instantly boosts the enjoyment I get out the game. 3.x was a sad time for marauders. We're back to a more dynamic rotation with shorter dots. It's fun to raid again (probably also helps that the old raids aren't as biased against melee as the new ones). The damage output is very good, too. Parsed ~6650 earlier in a mix of 208/216/220 with 208 MH, so it seems we're in a very good place compared to the other classes, as well. Hopefully they will come out with new operations before long, too. Should be fun. So ye, credit where credit is due, BW. You fixed a lot of the problems with the class. Well done!

We went to do Monolith 8m HM tonight. I usually tank, so had not been there with my marauder yet. The other marauder in the guild plays carnage, so this was the first time we had gone in there with an annihilation marauder. We had a couple of wipes we did not understand straight away. From what we gathered, my berserk heals killed the dps afflicted by Curse of the Monolith. After I was moved into another ops group it did not happen again. This may have already been posted, as I have not read much on this forum lately. Either way, this struck me as odd. Berserk is such a vital part of the damage and is for most marauders something you pop without second thought. There's a way around the problem, but isolating one member in a sole group (in case a tank gets the curse) is stupid, tbh. We may simply have been unlucky during the two tries the dps died and the heals were not the cause, but thought I'd mention it here in case marauder heals actually kill people afflicted by the curse.

The world boss is a joke. It's a major hassle having to kill it to do the instanced boss. As for the instanced boss on HM - a bit of a joke. The one big mechanic (the one with the shiny colours) can be skipped. You simply heal through it. It is ridiculous that they have tuned the boss so that you can heal through the biggest mechanic in the fight. The heal to death mechanic will be hilarious in pugs, I suspect.

Whisper Xenphon, Fafalasimiti or Badonk'adonk (fafa will probably be the easiest one to get hold of) ingame or visit dobswtor.enjin.com and we'll set a date for you.

Actively looking for a ranged dps to join us in our fun playtime with Revan!

The pts has closed alongside the forum. The 27th of March John posted this: You can find the post here. It will probably be archived, so if the link is dead that is the reason. There was a patch the 2nd of April, which, going by John's post, was not the patch he referred to. That brings me to my question: Where is the final patch we were promised that would, and I quote, "have a number of goodies for Marauders/Sentinels [..], with a spotlight on [..] Fury/Concentration. "? What happened? Was the immunity change the only change you decided to give fury? You did not even touch our ridiculous utility points, which would undoubtedly have helped the whole class. I lack the words to properly articulate the confusion, anger and disappointment I am left with at the moment. What happened to the transparency you promised us? You literally wrote "have a number of goodies for Marauders/Sentinels [..], with a spotlight on [..] Fury/Concentration. ", but gave us but two changes. One of which was rather minor (the blood ward change). I will end it here. I have struggled to keep this as constructive as possible without spouting my anger at you. The closure of the pts is a slap in our face, basically saying you can't be arsed to even give us promised changes. I have just one more question for you: Have you given up on marauders|sentinels as a class?

We are not trying to gimp other classes. We're simply trying to fix our class.

We seem to be in the minority, unfortunately. I have voiced my opinion that there is no reward for uptime on bosses to warrant the excessive mechanics melee have to worry about. BW do not care. John clearly laid the blame at the content team. The content team has been mute. There has literally not been a single word from them about the concerns about the current operations and how they favour ranged. That is inexcusable. It shows a complete lack of respect for their customers, all of which paid for the expansion and a lot that pay a monthly subscription. Although I do agree with John that the content team's partially to blame, the combat team is by no means innocent here. They have clearly failed to balance the melee vs. ranged numbers. Until the last patch mercs were kings on dummy and in raids. Marauders may now surpass them on dummy, but in raids we stand no chance whatsoever. Raids, which matter most, exacerbate a massive balance flaw. You, and others (myself included), are correct that the utility changes we want will not fix this issue completely. There has to be actual damage modifications, too. Especially if they go through with the nerfing what they have called overperforming classes. Previous enrage timers will be impossible for progression kills and without 198 MHs. Revan may even be impossible in optimised 198. So yeah, it would be nice to get some input on these concerns. Especially from the content team. We do not even know whether we will get NiM or not of the current HMs. If not, will you address these major flaws in the future operations? Will the new boss on Ziost be indicative of how new boss encounters will be? (I hope it is not a continuation of what Ravagers and ToS ended up as)

My own answer to this: another answer: The video proves it is doable when you have solid experience with every aspect of the fight AND you have farmed gear from former kills to fully optimise your alts. There's a reason that kill came in April and not before. As for OP's concerns; BW have already been informed about these issues. It does not seem they plan to listen until they see for themselves the problems it will cause. It is unfortunate, but I have the impression that BW feel they have to implement their own ideas and see for themselves over a span of several months whether it was smart or not. Any and all feedback from the players will be ignored until that point. So very, very true.

The problem is not that it is not doable. I have the same progression as you. The issue is that you have to work harder than any ranged for, if you're lucky and the ranged are slacking, the same result. There is no reward for melee uptime, no ranged taxation and most mechanics only affect melee. It scares me that you think it is normal that your numbers are lower. They should not be. According to BW they should be higher or at the very least equal to ranged. The fact that they are not means there's a balance issue they have yet to address and which they seem to happily ignore. Although far from the hardest fight, I find Underlurker as the best example for how the operations favour ranged. The adds that spawn will do more damage if you're in melee range. Melee first have to get to them (charge helps here for marauders, unless you're annihilation and just used it), then you have to worry about the increased damage you take compared to any ranged in your group. Add another melee to the group and the healers will be pressed further. Ranged on the other need only move to hide behind a rock, otherwise they are good. It's beyond ridiculous that something like that found its way into the game. To repeat, I do not think it is hard, I think it is stupid. It highlights everything done wrong in the new operations mechanics-wise.

Thank you for the response, Eric. I actually did not think we would be given one, given BW's track record so far. I suppose John's big words of transparency actually meant something. That said, the information given is not exactly new. It's a mash of feedback from this thread and other posts made by BW, tbh. Anyway, my thoughts follows. First of all, going by the people posting on the forums, I would use another word than 'some' to define the amount of people dissastifed with the new annihilation. Most marauders from 2.x progression guilds and pvpers agree that the new annihilation is a massive step in the wrong direction from what annihilation was known as until 3.0. "Never change a winning team" couldn't be more fitting when it comes to annihilation. I am quite confident that your metrics for 1.x and 2.x would show that annihilation was by far the most played marauder spec. Why on Earth would you change it in the way you did? The overall flow and feel of the spec was completely changed. It has baffled "everyone" from day one, yet you still need time to find out how to change it? Are you unwilling to accept that the changes you made were wrong in the eyes of your customers, although feedback tells you so? Is it pride that stops the combat team from reverting the changes to what players want? It would be nice if the combat team could talk to us instead of using Eric as their shield. Man up to your mistakes. Although probably being the most discussed change in 3.0, Annihilation is actually the spec that performs the best in the new operations. You can actually manage in most fights even during progression kills. You have to work far harder than any ranged (as was pointed out some posts above), but it can be done. Revan is Revan. The dot is vicous to any melee that has to be within 4m to do most of his dps. However, carnage and fury are supposed to be viable, yes? Carnage can be used, but you have to work even harder there for it to work. I haven't tried fury. Have no wish to, tbh. It serves no purpose whatsoever, except making me infuriated with the game. You need to address these two disciples in PvE, as well. Although not only related to marauders, but you continue to ignore the state of your current operations and the viability of melee. The combat team has said the blame lies with the content team. Can the content team answer us whether they will address these issues in a possible NiM or make sure it never happens in the operations? I am talking about ranged tax, mechanics that do not favour specific classes that will make a fight significantly easier and rewards for melee when they actually do have time on target. The last point is obviously in the real of the combat team, but they seem to think the current numbers are absolutely correct and the ranking of dps they announced before SoR was fantasy. Ranged is supposed to be on par with melee, if not above, and certainly not below. Honestly, your posts would have been nice mid-January or the start of February. We're getting close to mid-April now. SoR was released over four months ago. You should have plenty of data to verify every single bit of feedback we have given you. Both the content team and combat team should have been able to implement said feedback into changes that would balance the game, yet we see barely anything. It has already been said why nerfing overperforming classes may result in harder times in PvE, but you still stand by that decision. Why do you refuse to listen to us? We have played this game for years. Many have come from others MMOs. There is value in listening to us. Do not shut us out. It will only end badly for you.

I loved the double proccing gore carnage. Sure, it could be infuriating when it happened when you charged, but mastering that iteration of carnage was truly challenging and fun. It was probably overperforming compared to annihilation at the time, but they could have simply adjusted some numbers to fix that. They did not have to **** up what made the spec amazing. Just one of many examples where BW have failed. 3.0 annihilation is yet another example. I also do not understand why annihilation is defined as the high skill spec. Carnage is still the most difficult spec to master, in my opinion. The problem is that the reward from mastering the spec is quite low in the new operations. You still feel like you're being a burden for your group because of the boss mechanics. We can only hope they start communicating, so they can implement the big words they threw around before SoR released. Ranged tax and actual class balance would be a nice change of pace. Mechanics you cannot cheese with specific classes or make easier would also be quite nice.

This. Annihilation is not hard. I am quite certain you'd struggle to find a going sentiment that the annihilation rotation is hard. The only way it would be considered hard would be because people tire of tracking the dots. As Ardarell said, we have two choices; do I use assault or vicious slash? That is the only choice in the rotation. Sure, if the choice made turns out to mess with your rage, you'll have to improvise. The improvising will reduce your dps, but it is not hard. It baffles that annihilation is supposed to be a hard spec. It clearly isn't. It is boring. It is static. You managed to make an enjoyable and highly popular spec into something most people want fixed. That should be reason enough for you to take a good look at the spec. The cry for change has only increased SoR's release is further and further behind us. We want QoL changes. It is clear that the spec does good damage given uptime, but it's extremely boring to play. As someone answered earlier, dot ranged is supposed to be on par with burst melee. The current reality is very different, especially given mechanics. I find this very odd, as well. You have an incredibly amount of feedback about what changes marauders should get to fix our current predicaments. Why do you not test these ideas and tweak them (if necessary), so the class gets fixed. You'll see that the vast majority of the constructive feedback revolves around mobility issues, not buffs to raw damage. Our damage is good, but the problem is to be able to actually dish out that damage. This has been said numerous times already, but you still do not grasp it. We need mobility buffs against the plethora of cc you have introduced to the game. Marauders are supposed to be a class that's in the midst of the fight dishing out damage. That is our sole purpose. We're a pure dps class with no permanent stealth. We have no way of doing this at the moment. We're ping pong balls when we are facing skilled opponents. Why do you need to do this in future updates? You should be plenty aware of the current struggles the class has. We have continuously given you feedback since the release of SoR. It would not surprise me if people told you about this during the beta of SoR. Despite this feedback you tell us that these changes will not come yet, but in the future? When? Surely your metrics will show you an exodus of overall playtime on marauders|sentinels. The reason is what we have told you. Fix these problems and you'll probably see that the popularity of the class rises again. I may be asking a lot, though, as it seems you have problems using your raw data properly. It has already been pointed out the flaws in your metrics. I am also interested in hearing from the combat team regarding PvE. This post did not really address PvE at all. Given John's statement that the content team was at fault for the performance of the class in PvE, should we ask them about the mechanics that punish melee far more than ranged in PvE? Relative to melee, there is no ranged tax whatsoever. Are you planning on releasing NiM of Ravagers and ToS? If so, will this be addressed? In your future operations will you actually try and implement the ranged tax you talked about before SoR released?

I have always accepted the slightly harder mechanics melee had to react to, because we we were rewarded for mastering them. Even mastering the current mechanics perfectly do not net the same rewards. You can do the necessary damage, but it is often less than ranged and most certainly not above. The best you can hope for is being equal, and that is more because the ranged is making mistakes rather than anything you do. They clearly stated melee would do more damage than ranged with 100%. Even that is not true, and then add the various mechanics that hamper melee more than ranged and you got a badly balanced game.