Ding, 50! Begin Rant...

Last night, after months of playing and a server reroll, I hit the top level in Star Wars: The Old Republic. I will admit, it was very bittersweet. I really did enjoy the leveling process. The Jedi Knight story was particularly interesting, with a few twists and turns along the way. I thought it was a great idea by Bioware to include mini-zones that serve as bridges between planets, and in the Jedi Knight's case, the final stop for the story arch. I don't want to give anything away, but the final fight was a fitting end for all the hours of spent progressing my character.

Rylanor Malcador, Jedi Guardian (can you tell I love War40k?)

I know some of you may not believe it, I haven't gotten the "now what?" feeling just yet. I have dabbled in the Belsavis dailies and have not even been to Illum yet and I plan on holding out as long as I can so I have something to do when I get sick of warzones. Speaking of which, I played only one level 50 warzone thus far. I was placed in a Void Star that was halfway through. I died lots and lots and didn't do that much damage, but what really irked me was that I did not earn a single medal. I know I am at the bottom of the totem pole since I just turned 50, but it dawned on me that it's going to be a looooong grind to valor rank 65. One of my guildmates in vent made a good point when I brought this up. She said that for every player that achieves valor rank 50, the next player will have a harder time gaining valor since they will be competing against more players with better gear. For example, by New Years Day, there were, for the sake of argument, 100 valor rank 50 players on any given server. By the end of January, there were 200, and now there are 300. When I enter a warzone, the chance for there to be Battle Master geared players are much higher than if I had been playing in them in January. Isn't Warhammer Online running into this problem and are considering scenarios bracketed by renown ranks and not just level?

It's not just the gear that is the problem, it's also the expertise stat. Not only is a new level 50 player facing a gear deficit (which I really don't mind, I mean, earning kick ass gear means you should kick ass), but they are facing a massive stat deficit as well. Expertise affects the damage you do as well as reduces the damage you take. With my current hear, I do 2.1% more damage to players and take 2.1% less damage from players. If a player has ten times more expertise than me, they are doing 10% more damage to me AND they are taking 10% less damage from me. Stack that with the stat differences from their better gear and you can see why people don't exactly care for the current state of PvP in SWTOR.

I would love to hear what you all think, as PvP gear balance and progression is one of my favorite topics to rage...I mean debate about.