Greetings SWTOR community!

 

I basically played around when the game was released, and due to certain circumstances I had to quit. Nevertheless, here I am, back, willing to give the game another go I have some questions which most players will regard as extremely basic - those, of course, who've been playing long enough to understand the game mechanics.

 

1) I'm no rush to level up like a madman. But I am, however, quite anxious to experience PvP at the maximum level. How would people describe the PvP experience here in SWTOR?

 

2) My main goal in playing this game will be to join the PvP battlegrounds and challenges at endgame. How am I to gear up to be able to be competitively speaking at a decent/good level? Is it required that I do some kind of endgame PvE to make this happen, or will I be able to pretty much jump straight into the battlegrounds?

 

Thank you very much for your patience, and I look forward to your replies!

The short answer is: this game is not tailored for PvP. Yes it exists, but the more hardcore you are about it, the more likely you are to dislike it (at least that is impression I get reading the PvP forum on this site).

 

Long answer:

 

1) It's a mixed bag. Go to the PvP forums and you will see all manner of complaints: pre-mades destroying PuGs, teams that belong in ranked doing unranked, matchmaking problems...the list goes on and on and on. That being said, I am a casual PvPer and I usually enjoy the experience. I usually queue solo (occasionally I buddy up with a guild mate or two). I've been in my fair share of my team getting our collective asses kicked, but I've been in an equal number of Warzones where my team has kicked ***. Most of the time an individual warzone falls somewhere in between. My server (The Harbinger) is generally well balanced Imp vs Pub at peak times and overall it's close to 50/50 split. At off-peak times pub greatly outnumbers imp and so WZs end up as "battlefield exercises" (pub vs pub). But each server is different.

 

2) PvP and PvE gearing are completely separate; you do not need to run PvE endgame to get good gear for PvP. That being said, the better gear you have from PvE the more likely you are to succeed when you jump into PvP. There is a "bolster" system that sets a minimum PvP stat level, so if you enter PvP in 100% PvE gear you will not be completely outmatched, but the more PvP gear you have the better off you'll be.

 

All that being said, the next major patch has space combat PvP and PvP balance fixes. Many are eagerly anticipating the patch, but an equal number are underwhelmed.

Edited November 9, 2013 by psandak

The gear gap has shrunk significantly since the beginning of the game. It still takes forever to grind out the top level gear but the gains are so small it's no big deal. I don't really bother to grind top gear, I'd rather bring my alts up with basic PvP gear and just do the dailies on my main.

 

If you focus on being skillful with your character then you can go into top level PvP matches for your first time and do pretty well. You may still get stomped occasionally but it's not the months of beat downs like it used to be.

Thanks for the reply guys!

 

I'm considering playing a healing class, or a trooper of sorts - haven't decided yet. What are the current classes which could be played efficiently as healers, and which are regarded as the best?

 

Also, what are troopers good for particularly?

Troopers can tank, dps, or heal depending on which advanced class you pick at level 10. The Vanguard advanced class can tank, whereas the Commando can heal. Both can DPS. They're arguably good at all of their roles, depending on how you spec and how you play. Healing and damage are self-explanatory, but tanking here basically means that you minimize damage that others on your team get by taunting players and using your guard ability on someone near you. Taunting enemy players reduces their damage by a significant amount if they're attacking any target other than you, and your guard ability reduces incoming damage on one player as long as they're close to you.

 

Many people consider Operatives/Scoundrels (Agent and Smuggler advanced classes) to be the best healers for PvP at the moment, but I play a mercenary healer (the Empire equivalent of a Commando healer) in PvP and I do just fine if I play well. Healing in PvP is really dependent on your team, and if you get matched with players who aren't focused it can be unbelievably frustrating. But overall healers are always needed and it's a fun role to play when you get a handle on it.

 

Honestly, if you aren't familiar with the classes I'd recommend taking some time to play a few of them to get used to them and their capabilities. Not only will this help you find one you like, but it will also make you a better player as you learn each class and start learning how they play so you can anticipate what your opponents will do.

One reason I left this game was how bad the PvP was. It was overly ridicilously unbalanced. Game has great PvE but with no acceptable PvP was time to move on. That was Initial release to early 2012. So here we are a year and some later and I am hoping the PvP issues that were in release are fixed. I subbed for 1 month so time will tell. ATM I have no expectations that it's much better, but hoping the next expansion will be promising.