1.2 state of PvP

With 1.2 being live for a couple of days now, it's time to talk about the state of PvP. To be clear from the beginning, I won't go through classes' nerfs and buffs as I've done it in a previous post. So, let's start.

One big change is the adjustment to the expertise rating. They have changed the curve of the diminishing returns and now, expertise gives a hell bigger advantage in PvP making PvP gearing up a true upgrade. If we add the healing reduction for all healing classes, you understand that damage dealt means more right now. Melee classes seem to have gotten an overall buff, as they stand better toe-to-toe against ranged dps. Overall, fights are faster and more bursty and for me, Bioware hit in the nail in the head with those changes as their battle system has been accused many times for being clunky and slow.

Sadly, they let a of people down as they didn't solve the low population servers problems. They could either allow cross-server queueing or/and allow server transfers. The second big dissapointment is the withdraw of the rated warzones. Let's hope that they make the correct changes and make rated PvP a smooth and enjoyable feature.

As far as the new warzone, Novare Coast, I'm having a blast and Ι have to admit that it's now, along with Huttball, my favourites. I really really hope, they add some new warzones soon, even if they are different stadiums for Huttball.

To coclude this post, I can't say that I'm dissapointed with 1.2 but I feel that they could do better. Giving free game time is a way to appease the subscribes but if they don't solve the problems, especially the low population servers ones, soon, people are just gonna lose their faith in BW and leave the game.

1.2 PvP: Medal Changes

During Guild Summit, Developers said that they won't to redesign the medal system as it was not working as intended. So they make a cap to the medals that can be earned in a match. When you get 10 medals, a buff named HIGHLY DECORATED that will prevent you from earning more. Still, if some requirements are met, more than 10 medals can be earned after a match has ended. That medals are named DAUNTLESS and is rewarded depending how fast you won a match. 

Medal list from Hutball

Medal list from Voistar

 Also, there more objective medals. Additionally to the original medals for damage, healing and defensive done, new objective medals are introduced, divided to OFFENCE and DEFENCE. Passing the ball at Hutball rewards 500 Attacker Points, killing the ball carrier rewards 500 Defender Points, interrupting enemy capturing an Emplacement rewards 500 Defender Points at Novare Coast. Collecting enough defender and attacking points, rewards offence and defence medals. Surely Bioware reacted fast and solved the imbalance of the medal earnings. Healers tended to be left behind whereas dps with taunting abilities could easily get 12+ medals in a match. Also, those changes will avert dragging the matches for medal farming and also encourage more teamwork, more fast paced and more engaging battle.

PvP Changes in 1.2

With the introduction of 1.2 a lot of changes will come in PvP

CHANGES IN DAILIES AND REWARDS

Right now, daily missions require players to win 3 matches. From 1.2 daily missions will require players to win a certain number of medals. That will make a lot of people happy, as people that don't play WZ in groups, tend to get steamrollered from premades. One day, a friend of mine that was PvPing solo had 9 consecutive loses... It took him more than 5 hours to get 3 victories. I know he's excited about this change.

Now, remember that winning and losing both reward medals. Hopefully this will address the situation where people that had a bad group would just leave the WZ. They said that they will be some restrictions for people abandoning the WZ before it finish but they din't give any details. I speculate that they'll do something like a penalty for leavers that would prevent them to queue for another WZ that would last for some minutes. 

Luckily for us, there are 18 new medals, many of which are objective based, like scoring a goal in Hutball or defusing a bomb in Voidstar. Healers right now are in disadvantage against other classes about wining medals, the new ones will boost them too. Like if an ally you are healing gets a killing enemy point, the healer will get one too. Now, to prevent medal's farming by dragging out matches, there's a cap of medals that can be earned in every match. To encourage faster games and more activity from players, finishing a match fast gives more medals. For example, finishing Huttball under 5 minutes will give you one more metal, finishing it under 4 will give two more metals. Now, there's a lot of AFKers in PvP, especially in Civil War and finally we have some good news: In order for players to earn medals, a minimal level of activity is required and  Vote to kick inactive players is in 1.2 where the open spots would be filled by players in the queue. There are measures in place to prevent abuse, like kicking someone because his level 10.

RANKED WARZONES AND RANKED GEAR

Ranked warzones will be introduced in 1.2. There will be a ranking system for bath group and solo play. For 1.2 Ranked Warzones will be SERVER SPECIFIC ONLY, cross-server matches will come later. Coming in the future will have cross-server queueing. When the new feature will be implemented will have a pre-season period. Each ranked game will reward a specific currency that would buy the new PvP gear. There going to be more than one tier of gear  but all tiers will have the same stats. Gear that require a higher rating are going to have different colours, only for prestige reasons.

NEW PvP GEAR AND VALOR CHANGES

Valor system will not be centralized from now on. It will still be in game and will also provide titles but will not be fundamental for acquiring the PvP gear. A new intro PvP set for new 50 players will be introduce to fill the gap in gear. More emphasis on expertise will be given on PvP to make it less powerful in PvE as they want to address  issues where people with Battle Master gear were raiding Eternity Vault and Karagga's Palace. 

NEW WARZONES AND SAME FACTION MATCHES, NEWS ABOUT ILUM AND WORLD PvP

The new warzone will be Novare Coast. It can also be played with two teams of the same faction. It would be object orient and would has 3 points of focus. Two out of three must be captured from a team to 'do damage' to the object. Existing Warzones will be made same faction. That would either happen in 1.2 or 1.3. For now the matches will be from same servers. Sometime in the future cross-server matches will be introduced.  They want to introduce Tournament brackets to allow for mini-tournaments between PvP teams. Another new feature that would make a lot of people happy, YOU CAN NOW QUEUE WITH A FULL 8 PERSON GROUP AND YOUR GROUP WILL NOT BE DISBANDED AFTER A MATCH. They also enlightened us about some world PvP changes. They will pull back Ilum for a while to redesign it as they are not very pleased with it's current state and there were some technical difficulties. PvP in Outlaw's Den will be supported from now on. For world PvP in general, they said that they'll add a reward drop for world kills.

PvP: Sith Juggernaut vs Healers

I've PvPed a lot this past days with my Sith Warrior and I've noticed that a lot of level 50 healers are now actually strong. During leveling, it was plain easy to me to kill most healers by outdpsing their heals and even easier after learning my interrupt.

First to analyse, all people that engage PvP get a debuff called Trauma, that reduces the healing the receive by 30% while they are in combat. Here comes the PvP attribute named "expertise" that increase the damage and healing done while in combat against other players and also reduces the damage received by them. At level 50, the amount of expertise (mainly) and the other attributes (secondly) make healers pretty strong. They can outheal the damage they are receive while they're crunching your own health and killing you in the end.

What you can do to confront them? On thing. Play OFFENSIVE! Don't let them breath. Stay on them and dps them, interrupt them and faceroll them. Here some tips to help you.

1. Sith Juggernauts have 4 interrupts. Force Charge, Disruption, Force Push, Force Choke. Use them all.
2. They should be slowed ALL THE TIME. Refresh your Chilling Scream before it expires.
3. Keep your rage high. When their health points are below 60% you'll need to burst them.
4. Don't waste your interrupts on their damage abilities. Only use them on their heals and CC abilities (like Whirlwind).
5. Stack both your DoTs on them. That would push them hard.

So, an ideal battle would be to Saber Throw and Force Charge the healer, Chill Sream and stack your DoTs. Use interrupt for their first healing ability and Force Choke on their second. Burst them and interrupt their third healing ability with Force Push. Again, Saber Throw and Force Charge as soon he tries to cast his next heal. Burst again and use Enrage to keep your rage up. Interrupt would be up again if need it.

See you on Huttball, EU Hex Droid PvP