Darth Hater

I don't mind the cover system so much. If you're taking on a ranged opponent, then its actually pretty great. But you if you are taking on a melee opponent, then I am concerned about how the mechanic plays out. If a Jedi strolls up behind you and starts whacking at you, then cover obviously isn't doing much for you. What mechanics does the Sniper have to fight against that melee opponent? The Operative could be fine. He has some passable melee skills himself. He could "vanish", toss some HoTs on himself, and continue to dps while kiting. The sniper doesn't appear to do so well out of cover, he's not a melee combatant, doesn't have heals. So I'm not sure what his options are. Again, lots we don't know yet.

Something I have noticed in the PVP that we have seen thus far is the large team fights. If the real gameplay ends up being anything like that the IA would most likely sit a little ways back from the fight and snipe from cover. Once the other team realizes that they are taking damage from the IA and decide to go after him wouldn't the rest of the IA's team in the fight follow and be there to back the agent up anyways? Or if the agent's team is losing the fight he should be far enough back to use moves like escape and fall back until the respawned allies arrive.

As for the stealth aspect i feel that would be best used as a good way to finish up the weaker enemies in team fights. Or possibly to stealth to objectives that appear to only have one enemy protecting it. You could stealth to a cover position and surprise the enemy from a distance or try the up close battle if it turns out that is viable. Like it was said we don't know a lot about the agent's abilities so who knows what works best.

Finally I feel that the agent will not perform well in 1v1 open world PVP because I feel it is best used with teammates on the front lines, despite the solo nature of its class story.

You can't have a class that is entirely dependant on others, while having classes that can perform well without. And don't mention healers, they will still be able to throw out a lot of damage. That should eventually drain attackers than can't heal. And if a healer can't heal through the damage of a DPS (talking flat out heal vs damage, a DPS should of course be able to harry the healer with CC and such to eventually win), then what point is there to a healer in PvP over another DPS?

The Sniper need to be able to stand on his own, or he will not just be the least played but also the least successful. How likely is it that the average PvP group will actually work together beyond "go X" "defend Y"? The Sniper needs to be able to compete in such situations, and I'm sure that is the problem they have right now.

Kraxis

How likely is it that the average PvP group will actually work together beyond "go X" "defend Y"? The Sniper needs to be able to compete in such situations, and I'm sure that is the problem they have right now.

This made me laugh thinking about all of the "bunching up" that there is in all of the huttball videos that BioWare/fansites are releasing. It's like watching 5 year olds playing soccer. No passing, everyone from both teams within the same 50 foot circle and everyone just fighting it out for the ball.


I'm sure, just like in soccer, after you get some experience and time playing the game that the tactics will evolve a bit. I doubt they get to the level that a team with a decent strategy could do in a PUG, but I would be suprised 6 months after release if most PUG Huttball teams are still doing completely the same thing...


The agent, especially the sniper, appears to be one of those classes that is going to take some more advanced tactics. Standing in a group and dueling it out, or carrying the ball with a bunch of jedi on you just isn't going to work that well. However, I think being mobile via cover hopping will become a very effective strategy for staying with (not in) the pile....

If WoW PvP is any indication, then Huttball will look like it does now, with some chance for an actual fight. I can't remember the number of times in WoW where I have tried to get people to not fight in the open, try and intercept flagbearers or in the case of Eye of the Storm actually ignore the flag and cap towers. Sometimes it worked, oftentimes it was me and a couple others that actually tried, the rest just did whatever they thought was good.

It is in these limited cooperation situations a Sniper, or a Gunslinger for that matter, needs to be able to not outright suck. I hated having to wait around for someone to play meatshield for me, especially when nobody wanted to go with me.

I'm sure you saw Dover's video, but the point that really stuck out to me was right after he capped and the other guy was heading toward him to cap. Dover is healing the guy while the guy is getting hammered by an enemy. I'm sitting there thinking "$50 says the guy aint smart enough to throw it to Dover....". Luckily, I believe the guy still scored, but just think of the possibilities you have sitting on the "outside" of the pile like that...


Additionally, you're probably right. As a general rule, the soccer analogy would work. However, typically in those situations, soccer teams tend to keep some players (continuity) and they have coaches (authoritative decision maker). Unfortuneately, in MMO pvp, even if you know what you are talking about and are willing to be the authoritative decision maker, people take it as an insult. That's part of the reason I personally prefer PvE. 8 people actually work together rather than 16 solo people split onto 2 teams of 8.

CptNumbers

Unfortuneately, in MMO pvp, even if you know what you are talking about and are willing to be the authoritative decision maker, people take it as an insult. That's part of the reason I personally prefer PvE. 8 people actually work together rather than 16 solo people split onto 2 teams of 8.

There's also the option of grouping up with your friends for PVP, it's not like you're forced to queue by yourself. You're free to prefer PVE of course, but I think the comparison is unfair. You wouldn't start a raid with 7 strangers and no plans to coordinate or communicate, right? The same thing applies to PVP. The difference is that warzones give you the option to queue solo if you're so inclined.

I heard somewhere that TOR is limiting us to 4 player groups being able to queue for warzones. So that's only half a group, but from my experience, 4 people working together + 4 random players are going to beat a PUG team almost every time.

Give it a shot.

NOW that the NDA is over does anyone have any specific questions around Agents in PVP?

 

I haven't touched Cybertech, I've mainly done artifice and biochem (as I will have a JK Main and a smuggler healer at launch)

 

Deep concealment can be very viable...like everything it depends on your playstyle, I tend to get aggressive sometimes and without the ability to heal myself I get squished. But most of what I played was more of a combat medic spec.