I created a new toon on Bastion a couple of days ago. Am now a level 30 Sith Sorcerer. Enjoying the added sense of danger that goes with open world PVP. I ended an evening session just minutes ago in Tatooine and was surprised at how much open world PVP/ganking there is to be found. I'm not surprised I was ganked - and I don't actually mind getting gankers by level 65s level synced to 30 (I find it funny they find it satisfying) but there were a lot of players on.

 

I must have been ganked by 4 separate groups in under an hour. There was also one largish battle of something like 10 vs 10 outside a base camp. I'm surprised because this forum seems to make it sound like PVP servers are dead. Not so when it comes to Bastion and Tatooine!

 

I do have a couple of quick noobish questions...

 

1. Why do level synced 65s have such an easy time taking me down? Probably doesn't take one or two of them more than 15-30 seconds. I've read something about PVP gear with "expertise" that boosts stats beyond normal level sync - is that the "issue"? Not complaining; just curious.

 

2. Also, is Tatooine going to be indicative of leveling on all worlds on a PVP server? Nar Shaddaa was quiet - very few questing players and no ganking, but Tatooine was full of players.... What will Alderaan etc be like?

 

Thanks in advance!

Edited January 4, 2016 by Katkon

I do have a couple of quick noobish questions...

 

1. Why do level synced 65s have such an easy time taking me down? Probably doesn't take one or two of them more than 15-30 seconds. I've read something about PVP gear with "expertise" that boosts stats beyond normal level sync - is that the "issue"? Not complaining; just curious.

 

2. Also, is Tatooine going to be indicative of leveling on all worlds on a PVP server? Nar Shaddaa was quiet - very few questing players and no ganking, but Tatooine was full of players.... What will Alderaan etc be like?

 

Thanks in advance!

 

1. experience with the class, not to mention, at 65, they have all their abilities, at 30, you've only got half of yours.

 

2. not sure about how the open world pvp will work in those areas. I don't understand why people think that open world pvp is about "ganking". I've tried it in other games, and it's always about the strong preying on the weak. They'll camp up in a lowbie area and just harrass them until a group of higher ups come along and run him off.

 

To me, that isn't what open world pvp is supposesd to be about. Granted, I dont have much experience in open world pvp, but, I can't imagine, when they set up that server, they intended for it to be played like it is. I would imagine they thought there would be mass scale open battles, or skirmishes based on contested spawns/areas, or just random disputes. But, to set out to go into a lower lvl area, and often, wait until someone is fighting an npc, then pop out and attack them, I don't think that was their intended goal. But, I could be wrong.

I do have a couple of quick noobish questions...

 

1. Why do level synced 65s have such an easy time taking me down? Probably doesn't take one or two of them more than 15-30 seconds. I've read something about PVP gear with "expertise" that boosts stats beyond normal level sync - is that the "issue"? Not complaining; just curious.

 

Expertise is a stat that gives you 55% outgoing damage increase and 36% incoming damage reduction when fighting other players. You can only get expertise with level 65 gear, so at 65 they have a much easier time killing you.

 

In addition, "tertiery" stats (Alacrity, Critical, Shield, Absorb, Accuracy) are NOT scaled down. So they can have their neato 1800 crit rating on tatooine.

 

In addition to this, there is always the ability disparety. Even in warzones, I really don't like playing classes below level 40 because you can't kite very well.

 

2. Also, is Tatooine going to be indicative of leveling on all worlds on a PVP server? Nar Shaddaa was quiet - very few questing players and no ganking, but Tatooine was full of players.... What will Alderaan etc be like?

 

Imperial and Republic zones are actually separated on Nar Shadaa. The Promenade is a "sanctuary" zone, while virtually no-one does the bonus missions. Accessing the Lower/Upper industrial sector from the opposite faction is possible, but a great pain, and usually not worht it.

 

The top player kill achievement for NS is actually 50, so that goes to show how much the devs expected to happen there, lol.

 

As most other planets are more "open", you will find yourself with a lot more opportunities for being ganked, and for ganking others.

 

I'd strongly encourage you to be proactive with ganking, yourself. Also, if you can, invest in a rank 50 companion. Yes, they are considered a "dirty move", but they certainly help against outleveled griefers.

I guess with the level sync and redesign of the heroics being needed to get the end game boxes there would be more max level players in the lowbie planets. So I guess consider yourself lucky for the potential of wpvp? I was on pot5 for almost 3 years and I was never once ganked while leveling an alt. Closest to owpvp I ever got was when I'd go to Oricron....but the majority out there are always in pve gear......which boggles my mind but whatever.

1. experience with the class, not to mention, at 65, they have all their abilities, at 30, you've only got half of yours.

 

2. not sure about how the open world pvp will work in those areas. I don't understand why people think that open world pvp is about "ganking". I've tried it in other games, and it's always about the strong preying on the weak. They'll camp up in a lowbie area and just harrass them until a group of higher ups come along and run him off.

 

To me, that isn't what open world pvp is supposesd to be about. Granted, I dont have much experience in open world pvp, but, I can't imagine, when they set up that server, they intended for it to be played like it is. I would imagine they thought there would be mass scale open battles, or skirmishes based on contested spawns/areas, or just random disputes. But, to set out to go into a lower lvl area, and often, wait until someone is fighting an npc, then pop out and attack them, I don't think that was their intended goal. But, I could be wrong.

 

Agreed

Thanks all, for the clarification. I guess I'll just continue to enjoy the ganking (specifically, being ganked) while leveling up!

Glad to hear it's still happening somewhere.

The open world pvp is dead in swtor. Bastion is an exception because it is dead at all - no one ques wrz, so people are starting to fight on planets... Bur it's only on bastion and it would be great if any server will have such a thing

1. experience with the class, not to mention, at 65, they have all their abilities, at 30, you've only got half of yours.

 

Add to that the Dark Triad ... That's most definitively WHJY they are on Lowbie planets ...

The real shocker here is the confirmation that they are still people on Bastion.

That's funny... I just rolled a toon on ToFN, because a guidlie told me PvP was more balanced there, and that ganking wasn't a thing.

 

I started leveling on ord mantell (vanguard), and the chat was full of people calling about imps. I didn't believe it (who would?) until all lvl 65 darkness assassin pulled me and killed me...

 

I still don't know how they got there, and my friend didn't believe me himself (until they got him...).

Add to that the Dark Triad ... That's most definitively WHJY they are on Lowbie planets ...

 

I played in war zones on Bastion 4 times today. I think the longest I queued was 10 mins - most matches were available within 5 mins. So plenty of activity on Bastion, as far as I can tell. It's also the only US PVP server that consistently has the higher load of all the PVP servers - which, granted, isn't many!

 

Edit: Sorry, quoted wrong..... Quote!

Edited January 5, 2016 by Katkon

That's funny... I just rolled a toon on ToFN, because a guidlie told me PvP was more balanced there, and that ganking wasn't a thing.

 

I started leveling on ord mantell (vanguard), and the chat was full of people calling about imps. I didn't believe it (who would?) until all lvl 65 darkness assassin pulled me and killed me...

 

I still don't know how they got there, and my friend didn't believe me himself (until they got him...).

They are exploiting by using an old instancing bug. I have to say during my years on ToFN I've rarely seen max level people gank lowbies there. The people that used to do it never had pvp gear or were good in the first place so I usually just logged into an alt and corpse camped them until they logged off.