Darth Hater

Welcome to the new Darth Hater weekly PvP column, where we’ll collect and update the news about PvP that matters to the PvP community. This thread will be updated periodically throughout the week, so you can refer back to it for new information. If you have any tips on current content that should be featured, or if you think your PvP video or PvP guild should be featured in a future column, send them to darth@darthhater.com with the subject header PVP: Subject.

News

Official SWTOR Posts

Two Q&As to point out this week, as one of them was last Monday and the other was on Friday, as usual.

July 23rd Q&A:

Notable PvP highlights in this Q&A include an examination of why cooldowns do not reset on death in PvP (or in PvE for that matter), and a discussion regarding PvP relics.

July 27th Q&A:

Not a lot of PvP content here, but there is a notable discussion about the increased sprint speed perk which was slated to be accessible via the legacy system was removed in order to ensure PvP balance.

Devtracker Highlights

Allison Berryman confirms that they are still looking into the “permanently stunned” bug in PvP wherein you cannot move after re-spawning.

Allison Berryman responds to problems with the PvP queue system on The Bastion.

PvP Patch Changes

No patch changes to report since last week.

Community Highlight

Around the Forums – Discussion Highlights

AlyxDinas sets up a Bounty Board for Open World PvP on The Ebon Hawk.

Cityfern points out an ongoing Ranked Warzone exploit being used by teams to rapidly farm comms.

Order-Sixty-Six asks for your descriptions of your PvP moments you wish you had filmed.

Order-Sixty-Six offers a public service announcement regarding how to enable enemy resolve bars.

Order-Sixty-Six highlights the imbalance in Huttball created by “crate-diving” in the Frogdog team’s pit.

Drunkshade sums up the result of the dueling tournament on The Fatman server. Scroll down in the thread for a video of the final duel.

PvP Video Spotlight

600k Voidstar HD (Vanguard Assault Spec)

Basileus Reges demonstrates the killing power and all-around threat that the Vanguard represents on the battlefield, making full use of his class’s AoE and damage over time capabilities. Though his team was not victorious, it wasn’t due to a lack of trying on his part.

You can check out Basileus Reges’s channel, along with more of their PvP videos on their channel:.

Op-Ed: World PvP: SWTOR’s Silent Battlefield

For several months now, the battlefield of Ilum has stood silent. Since the changes introduced in Patch 1.2, Ilum has been made essentially obsolete. World PvP, as it currently stands, is limited to user-organized events and of course random fights in contested areas. Though Gabe Amatangelo of BioWare has confirmed previously that Ilum will be redesigned and objective-based World PvP restored, we so far have no ETA nor any idea of what a redesign will entail. World PvP is mostly at a standstill.

For some players, this is no big deal. Structured PvP potentially offers a better chance at a balanced fight, and so the lack of World PvP where one side could feasibly outnumber the other is not a big loss for these players. Also, many users with lower-end systems (and even some with top-end ones!) found that the game was not properly optimized to have 50+ players on screen at once.

For others, World PvP isn’t just an option, it is a necessity. Gaining and holding ground, sometimes against superior numbers, appeals to a lot of PvP-focused players. Moving the fight from the arena-style of warzones to the battlefield of Open World PvP has other advantages, as well. Multiple operations groups and guilds could be working together in tandem, increasing faction cohesion and encouraging multi-guild cooperative efforts.

I personally fall into the second camp. The lack of World PvP right now is upsetting. However, I trust that BioWare will rectify the situation: I just hope it doesn’t take too long.

Poll

What about you?