So I came back from a 2 year long leave from the game, to find that every PVP match I queue up for is Arena? WHY?!

To answer the obvious questions: I am not playing a max level character. Yes I am queuing during prime time. yes I'm sure that I'm not queuing up for ranked on accident. yes it has been 2 years since I last played which was in February 2017.

Mid level pvp is kinda dead.

Try levelling up to 70 and q pops are fine!

Bioware changed the map choice so that it favors 8v8 over arena if possible. But if there are not enough people in the queue for 8v8 it will, after an undisclosed amount of time, give a 4v4 instead. In practice, in lows and mids you get mostly 4v4. You should see an 8v8 once in a while. At max level it flips, and you see mostly 8v8, with an occasional 4v4.

One thing I've found weird in lows & mids... once 4v4s get popping, they will pop almost immediately one after the other, with the same 8 people mixed up in them each time (nearly). Seems like the "wait for X amount of time to see if we can get an 8v8 going" has X set to zero or something.

Mid level PvP does not exist. There are simply no rewards for it, at least none you can transfer to max level since tokens got removed.

That means there is only lowbie PvP but that's just a lot of new people who have no clue what they're doing, and twinks who stay at level 40 and exploit that bracket, because there is no fun if they level any further.

No incentive, no play.

Sure no gear advantage... but a massive level one. Anyone thinking a level 15 can fairly compete with a 36 is a bit out of their mind. I don't complain about it because there really isnt much fixing it.

I speak this as someone who does in fact enjoy lowbie/midbie pvp.

man that sucks i used to love leveling up with pvp. also enjoyed mid tier because there was no gear advantage but guess i'm not doing that anymore. it sucks if all new / low level players get stuck playing arena. "like why play pvp when all you get is the worst game mode" even though other modes exist and are fun.

Ya I loved lowbie/midbie pvp back in the day. I was extremely angry at BW when they removed pvp gear/warzone comms and went with that stupid galactic command garbage. It ruined alts for everyone and it effectively killed lowbie pvp.

Ya I loved lowbie/midbie pvp back in the day. I was extremely angry at BW when they removed pvp gear/warzone comms and went with that stupid galactic command garbage. It ruined alts for everyone and it effectively killed lowbie pvp.

Yeah, all of this. ^

I have tried to level new toons through nothing but PVP recently and 4v4 lowbies is lame, I got tired of that and by the time I got close to mids, I lost inspiration to queue any longer for PVP at lower level than cap.

I just pulled my old toons out that were 70, and played them or used insta-70 tokens if I wanted a specific character that wasn't 70 yet because trying to level through PVP only was just too slow and 4v4s get old fast.

It's sad to me when the best way to get to 70 is to just skip all the leveling process and use a token to get instant 70, but w/e I guess that's what BW wants. They rather make money off selling the 70 level consumables instead of making lowbies/mids PVP enjoyable and worthwhile doing.

I believe if lowbies and mids PVP was active like it was 3-5 years ago the game would be a lot more welcoming to newer players and the game would be that much more alive, too.

man that sucks i used to love leveling up with pvp. also enjoyed mid tier because there was no gear advantage but guess i'm not doing that anymore. it sucks if all new / low level players get stuck playing arena. "like why play pvp when all you get is the worst game mode" even though other modes exist and are fun.

BTW, while gear doesn't matter much in lows/mids, it does now matter. I remember a time when you could be in your level 10's pretty much all they way to max level, and it didn't matter. Now if you stay that way, you will gradually get behind. I tend to "gear up" every 10 levels or so, and I can see a stat boost each time. Well, except for ear/relic/implant. I've tried updating those once in a while, and for those my stats don't budge. (Oh, you know, main hand doesn't bolster even at max level... now that I think about it, I wonder if the stat boost comes only from that. Oh well, doesn't cost much to gear up everything.)

I have tried to level new toons through nothing but PVP recently and 4v4 lowbies is lame, I got tired of that and by the time I got close to mids, I lost inspiration to queue any longer for PVP at lower level than cap.

I like lowbies/mids a bit better than max level lately, if only because people are more likely to actually try to win. Maybe that's because arenas pop so much, and "deathmatching' is basically the same thing as playing arenas. But I get so fed up with going into a max level match, and finding that everyone there is apparently so bored with playing the game that they just want to fight and that's it.

Although, it's true that when the rare 8v8 pops in lows/mids, it seems just about as likely that the teams will deathmatch instead of playing the map. And the mismatched teams in lows/mids is also just as bad. It's not at all uncommon to get a 4v4 where one team has tank & healer and the other has neither. Or one team has everyone level 65+, and the other has all 40-somethings. Or it's a 2v4. Wow, I just convinced myself that lows/mids sucks.

Lows and mids rarely pop, but when they do it's because the number of people queuing are not enough to make it a full 8v8 warzone.

As has been said, you can no longer earn tokens in lower brackets to spend at level cap gearing out your character or earning tokens for an alt.

It's also a way for people just below the caps to farm people at lower levels. There's usually one or two key abilities that you only get near the cap.

The only reason to play them is to hone your skills by taking your lumps, and to aviod PVE as you level up. - But most of the time it can be the same 8-10 people in differing combinations until you get to level cap.

Yeah, all of this. ^

 

I have tried to level new toons through nothing but PVP recently and 4v4 lowbies is lame, I got tired of that and by the time I got close to mids, I lost inspiration to queue any longer for PVP at lower level than cap.

 

I just pulled my old toons out that were 70, and played them or used insta-70 tokens if I wanted a specific character that wasn't 70 yet because trying to level through PVP only was just too slow and 4v4s get old fast.

 

It's sad to me when the best way to get to 70 is to just skip all the leveling process and use a token to get instant 70, but w/e I guess that's what BW wants. They rather make money off selling the 70 level consumables instead of making lowbies/mids PVP enjoyable and worthwhile doing.

 

I believe if lowbies and mids PVP was active like it was 3-5 years ago the game would be a lot more welcoming to newer players and the game would be that much more alive, too.

Healers are stealth-fodder in arenas anyway till you get your kiting skills, which makes the process painful enough as it is. Recruiting the better DPS into a group makes things easier but still, 8v8s are where the fun really is for a healer IMO. I miss those active low/mid PvP days too, such a better place to hone your skills as you got them rather than being chucked in at the deep end but I can't see the situation reversing at all now.

Healers are stealth-fodder in arenas anyway till you get your kiting skills, which makes the process painful enough as it is. Recruiting the better DPS into a group makes things easier but still, 8v8s are where the fun really is for a healer IMO. I miss those active low/mid PvP days too, such a better place to hone your skills as you got them rather than being chucked in at the deep end but I can't see the situation reversing at all now.

This is why I still find enjoyment on my healers, I like to do 8v8 best and on my healers it's most fun in this game mode for me.

One thing that has changed though is how I play heals now. I find the amount of DCDs available make me rely more on timing when to use DCDs than actually kiting away from damage.

Used to be that was my strong point, kiting and avoiding incoming damage, now I am lazy and just manage incoming damage with my DCDs.

This is why I still find enjoyment on my healers, I like to do 8v8 best and on my healers it's most fun in this game mode for me.

 

One thing that has changed though is how I play heals now. I find the amount of DCDs available make me rely more on timing when to use DCDs than actually kiting away from damage.

 

Used to be that was my strong point, kiting and avoiding incoming damage, now I am lazy and just manage incoming damage with my DCDs.

I'm planning to go back to heals proper for the first time in 3-4 years soon so I'll have to relearn all that stuff again, though at least I'll know what not to do having one of those stealthers in arenas myself recently. Still, I know what to expect when I roll my new ops healer - a lot of pain in lowbs unless I can befriend some good DPS to run with. Are pocket healers still valued these days?

I'm planning to go back to heals proper for the first time in 3-4 years soon so I'll have to relearn all that stuff again, though at least I'll know what not to do having one of those stealthers in arenas myself recently. Still, I know what to expect when I roll my new ops healer - a lot of pain in lowbs unless I can befriend some good DPS to run with. Are pocket healers still valued these days?

On merc, I usually go with the best defensive utiltiies, to make my healer harder to interrupt/control, because honestly i find merc healer a waste of time trying to kite enemies in most cases.

Most enemies have far better ways to close gaps than the merc healer has ways to kite, so I just go the opposite route which is to make him as tanky as possible.

On my sorc healer, I pick most defensive utilities but usually run with innervate on the move whereas on my merc healer I can manage without picking scan on the move.

With Ops healer I am awful so have no input for that spec, lol.

I have tried nearly every utility for the fun of it on my sorc and merc healers. With sorc, I find there's not as many useful options whereas for merc healer I can create two very different builds and they both perform about the same numberwise.

Thing is, it don't matter with merc healer you end up unable to keep up yourself and another target if they hit hard the output is too easily interrupted. The sorc is much harder to pin down, and I can tend to keep myself up and at least one other target when they getting hit hard.

My point here is I wish merc healers were better but they have a few different flaws in their design that make them inferior to sorc heals.

If you enjoy Ops heals, I'd say you probably would find this spec the best for heals. I just never enjoyed the micromanaging of the HoTs and I find the stand-and-cast heals clunky-feeling on the Ops healer.