Jedi Archive

First, we should figure out what is meant by a level playing field. If you mean that they should do no more damage, have no better defenses, and no larger array of skills than another combat profession, then I disagree. If, instead, that you mean that jedi should have risks and downsides to balance the additional skills and/or damage/defense boosts they recieve, then I agree, as long as the risks equal the rewards.

Now I will explain the reasoning. No, it's not because of a long grind or because of something I see in a movie, read in a book or made up because of an overdose of pixie stix and Mountain Dew. It's because there are risks, albeit widely ineffectual. No other profession has the joy of facing up to 5 combat professions at a time that get advatages of first strike. No other profession has the risk of xp loss. No other profession gains skills and ranking by pvp alone. Jedi is a pvp based profession by concept, design, and execution. Jedi have 2 built in enemies: Jedi and Bounty Hunters. The pve option is always available, but eventually, all jedi get on the terminals and will be hunted.

Now, let's examine the competition. Jedi: all things being equal, jedi vs jedi will always be even. Bounty Hunters: here is where it can get fun. The Bounty Hunter has a range of possibilities that give it flexibility. They must be MBH, but beyond that, the Bounty HUnter has options of several different combat and medical professions to choose from to exploit the inherent weaknesses found in every jedi template. Pistoleers have mezz, which applied properly can be very deadly. Carbineers have snares and a 40-50 meter range. When combines with BR foods, this can cut a jedi down with little muss and fuss. Rifleman, one of the most effective of templates due to first strike, cover, covershot, startle, and the wonderful snipershot. With a 65 meter range without cyber, a properly played rifle/bh can ruin a jedi's day in 3 shots. Now we get into the combat medics...you see, at doc or cm 4000, they can outheal a jedi. Couple that with dots and a good scatter pistol or proton carbine or other non cert weapons or bh weapons, they can do a ton of damage while completely controlling a fight.

Equal footing would be ok if there was only the possibility of one on one battles...but that isn't the case. Jedi face multiple opponents at the same time. If the new FRS will be anything like the old, then it will get much worse. Jedi will be Special Forces permenently and attackable by gank squads. They will not suffer the xp loss as before, but their FRS points will be decimated by a good group of players. This is where other templates, specifically designed to fight jedi come into play. The TKM/MSwords/Doc combinations, for example. They can attack jedi in droves and the jedi will fall. To compensate these challenges, jedi will need to be boosted up in the pvp category. No, we aren't required to joing the FRS, but neither is a WS required to master their profession.

Now we move to the expectations of the community. Nobody wants jedi to be the same as a TKM combo... they expect jedi to resemble what they have loved and the reason the game has the Star Wars logo and not Firefly. Jedi are what make this genre unique and marketable. If you are going to have jedi in the game, they better fit the mold of what we all know jedi are supposed to be. The only reason they got nerfed at all was due to poor programming of the original code that didn't reduce pvp damage while maintaining the pve coefficient. When you give people too much power, they want to use it. This wasn't in check with the pre-9 jedi and the resulting nerfs came to bear. Then came pub 9, 10, 11, .....24 and jedi have been constantly adjusted, mostly downward and jedi are quitting the game. This is bothe good and bad. Many quit and never play their character again, but too many give it to friends, sell it or otherwise make sure that the nature mortality rate of jedi is artificially maintained. There are many many jedi that aren't played by either the first or second owners. This is a serious problem that SOE will need to address in the near future. Their marketing of the game with jedi as the primary feature requires that there be a migration of jedi in and out of the game to maintain playability. This doesn't mean "nerf them to death" but it means that character ownership and rights of transfer of character needs to be enforced as per TOS and EULA. THis, they haven't done.

So, in summary, jedi do not and should not need to be ona level playing field. They are, by design, concept, and execution, faced with a greater risk and therefore require the "alpha" status. Does this mean that there shouldn't be another Alpha class? No. In fact, most jedi would love there to be one. So instead of calling for nerfs and/or complaining here about jedi, ask the developers and the powers that be (the marketing department) to create a second or even *gasp* third alpha class. I would love to play a Nightsister Witch or whatever the heck Asajj Ventress was.

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