2.4 Arenas: Initial Thoughts

[Edge-]

I have mixed feelings about the arenas. They are much faster than the warzones but the separation of class/specs and powers is more noticeable because its smaller. I wish they had gone the other way and increased the size of warzones for pvp, but we all know that wont be happening because the engine cant handle it. As for cross server queueing it could be nice, but I dont think BW tech is capable of this tbh.

Yeah, I'm waiting for the microscope that arena's put on PvP balance to rear its ugly head. The PvP has generally seemed pretty/balanced fun pre-55, but I can't help but think they're going to run into some serious balance issues with the game as it's still a PvE game at its core.

[Deleted]

Yeah, I'm waiting for the microscope that arena's put on PvP balance to rear its ugly head. The PvP has generally seemed pretty/balanced fun pre-55, but I can't help but think they're going to run into some serious balance issues with the game as it's still a PvE game at its core.

It may not get as bad as you think, I don't think TOR will be subjected the same scrutiny/analysis that games like WoW get put under. For one the player base is not anywhere near so big so there are a lot less number crunchers playing it, I also think that most of the more competitive PvPers have left the game, yeah there are still players who take PvP seriously and really want to win but I'll bet not many of them will capture logs and run tests crunching numbers. IMO the majority of the crying will be based on nothing more than anecdotal evidence and gut feeling which we ALWAYS get but can be easily ignored.

[Deleted]

I heard rumours a while back that they were changing things so f2p chars or preferred accounts have unlimited warzones now. Is there any truth to this?

[Kelimbror]

I heard rumours a while back that they were changing things so f2p chars or preferred accounts have unlimited warzones now. Is there any truth to this?

Yes /10charrengineers

[Requiem4aDr3am]

initial thoughts on arenas...it's a bad day to be a merc dps rerolls marauder

[Fkiolaris]

initial thoughts on arenas...it's a bad day to be a merc dps

Yeap, my gunnery commando aborts asap an arena pops since either way my team might as well be playing with 3. While on one hand I am tempted to go as Assault Specialist, on the other hand if BW is going to be forcing such a game-mode down our throats then they should make sure that everybody can participate with approximately equal chances of success (insert your margins and how to calculate them here). The almost binary state we have atm is simply not acceptable and it detracts from a feature that is otherwise one of the very strong points of swtor imo, the pre-top-level pvp.

[Requiem4aDr3am]

I feel like I lost the game at the character select screen. I tried finding an arena team, but no one wants to bring an arsenal merc the response I always get is "maybe if you spec'd heals, but even then we prefer to bring an operative" Just seems if you aren't a Sith Warrior/Jedi Knight or Imperial agent/smuggler that people are reluctant to add you to their team. Hell even if I were a PT I could have a place on a team just for having the ability to pull. Certain specs just don't bring enough survivability and utility to pvp to be considered for the decent rated arena teams.

[Deleted]

I'm running Deception Assassin*2 - Madness Sorcerer - Hybrid Corruption-Lightning Sorcerer ( for the broken comp! XD) and we're currently sitting at 62 Wins - 5 Losses.
The teams that beat us all had an Arsenal Mercenary ^^'

Now, there are several things that might explain this :
- Electronet is probably the best anti-sorcerer skill... and we have two.
- My server is a Roleplay one so the average level might not be as high as on dedicated PvP servers

Nevertheless, I believe that Arsenal Mercenaries are still doing ok and aren't as broken as people are claiming.
They've got Hydraulic Override, Heavy Armor and do great damage if left alone.
If you have an operative healer and a tank in your team, the opposing team will be forced to leave you alone and let you do damage at some point.

[WarpedAcorn]

Mercs are definitely not as bad as people make them out to be. I wouldn't call them top tier, but they are not bad. Electronet is probably one of the most underrated abilities in the game right now, and it CRIPPLES melee as well as Operatives. If they get ganged up on, things do get nasty...but that's any class honestly.

However, that being said, the PERCEPTION (lulz) is that Mercs are one of the worst classes out there. So your generic team will not pick one up based on that.

[Requiem4aDr3am]

Don't get me wrong I like my merc, but on my pvp server no one wants to bring an arsenal merc. BW claims our heavy armor is an advantage but tell that to an arsenal merc that gets shreaded like he is wearing toilet paper. There are better options with more survivability. I do love electro net and love using it to barrier block or prevent ops from vanishing or getting away but even with my pvp set on healers are not able to keep me alive. I burn HO, I move kite etc when being focused, I use my shield and overload pop my medpac and adrenal and just nothing can stop the inevitable ass whoopin. This morning I resorted to using a reactive warding relic now that its fixed with that on it actually helped a bit but it lowered my bonus dmg by a lil bit. my kolto missile button is getting a workout while I try to kite around to avoid dmg so the healer keeps me alive. I wonder how arsenal will be in pvp after the incoming class changes

[WarpedAcorn]

As kind of an update, I got REALLY frustrated with the amount of Healers in Warzones and trying to deal with what is becoming a healer-heavy game. So I took some time away to play some other games. I came back this weekend and fiddled around in Warzones and got just as frustrated when facing teams with 3-5 healers. However, I remembered that I had not tried out the Solo Rank Queue yet. Well, as luck would have it, Solo Rank Queue yielded an entire night of fun. Despite being subject to the randomness of teammates, the matches were all still fun (even the ones I lost). I did not run into any groups that had more than 1 healer, making the fights a lot more exciting and meaningful.

So I guess my take home of this is...if you're bored or frustrated with the healing game in SWTOR, try the Solo Ranked Arenas.