So... I have been playing this for 3 builds now and wanted to share the best PvP guide that I have read, this was posted in the guilds public forum that I am a member of. This should help everyone out , it helped me out a ton.
PvP has gear rewards for those at level 50. The gear is really quite worth having for those that enjoy a bit of the rough and tumble. Additionally, a vendor on Vaiken station has pvp weapons available for a wide range of levels.
Where is the pvp gear?
The "first" place to get pvp gear is the market in Kaas City. There you'll find the gear that has expertise in it. I suggest picking these pieces up once hitting level 50 so your commendation grind is more palatable. Look for the class trainers in the market area and near them one will find the gear vendor. The other place to find pvp gear is at fleet (formerly Vaiken station). If you travel to the northeast quadrant, you'll find gear vendors of many ranks available.
What class should I roll?
Currently I suggest all players to roll in this order: Mercenary, Operative, Sorceror. Ranged characters have a generally much less frustrating time killing enemies. Additionally, the previously mentioned classes have the ability to heal themselves while in combat. It only takes 2 talent points to make a class capable of self-healing, that's it. For those who refuse to roll one of these three classes, get ready to die ALOT. Where these players will relish not dying an entire warzone, characters that cannot self heal will die a dozen times every match just because the accumulation of damage taken catches up to the player.
What if I really want to be the guy who rolls something different?
Expect to die alot. That said, hope to have someone heal you OR, as I do, break away from combat and use one's out of combat heal. I personally save my "vanish" ability for the purpose of healing between fights. As most classes don't have this ability, I suspect they just die and get used to dying in order to "heal up". That said, non-healing classes do have an advantage or two.
What if I don't mind dying alot or believe I will always have a pocket healer?
Powertechs get an interrupt ability that mercenaries do not. Snipers get an AoE push that Operatives do not. Assassins get stealth, which sorcerers do not. All melee get an ability to deflect damage and ignore tech/force attacks for a short time. Expect any class spec'd for DPS so pretty much SUCK in warzones until fully geared at 50. Those that spec tank will probably feel a bit more successful, but only if there isn't another tank in the group hogging up the tanking duties. One or two tanks is ok in a warzone, more and the team suffers too much from the loss of dps.
Are tanks good in pvp?
I play a tank. Yes they are good. No I do not recommend playing one. For the same reason that people don't want to play a healer, one should not play a tank. A tanks job is to suck up damage for other people. Unless I am running the ball in Huttball, I am shielding someone taking damage. That means I generally look for the most nubly looking player and put my shield on him so when the enemy focus fires on him, I suck up the damage. Because my shield has a short range, I spend alot of my time following a nub around in a warzone (at least until he wanders off). So in short, don't roll a tank unless you want to protect nubs. If one rolls a tank and does not guard other players, its a waste. Might as well roll dps, at least then one's character will make a difference because tank dps is VERY low.
What's the formula for getting pvp gear?
First, let me suggest not buying a pvp weapon unless you really need the upgrade. Secondly, don't worry too much about getting every piece of 50's blue pvp gear from the kaas market. That said, here's the way to gear up in 50's purple pvp gear:
Do your daily pvp quests available in the northeastern quadrant of Fleet. At 50 you'll need to complete objectives in Ilum (more later) as well as win a warzone. In addition to daily quests, one will also find weekly quests worth doing as well. Daily quests reset at 7pm pdt. Weeklies usually reset the day of maintenance Tuesday, but we'll see since I've seen it reset Monday as well.
As you get commendations, save them up to buy the purple loot bags one gets for completing dailies at 50. These boxes contain tokens to get a piece of purple quality pvp gear as well as the appropriate commendations to buy a piece outright. As of this writing, the Gladiator boxes give gladiator pieces and Centurion commendations. The Battlemaster boxes give battlemaster quality gear and Gladiation commendations. As battlemaster gear is only slightly better than gladiator gear, and it seems gladiator bags may provide outright gear more often that battlemaster bags, consider getting the gladiator bags first until one has a decent set of gear.
Ilum?
Ilum is presumably the world based PvP zone for "any" number of people to participate in. Theorhetically there should be areas the two factions will fight over to control. It is a very large map with 5 objectives. Players come here each day to complete their daily objectives by either taking nodes or killing an enemy while possessing the "defender" buff. To gain the defendor buff, one must be in the vacinity of a node controlled by one's faction. As with all objectives, a 5 minute timer will prevent the immediate recap of an objective. Thus, having lost a node, one must wait 5 minutes before they can be retaken.
Each side has a base possessing two cannons that act as an objective to the other side. When at the enemies base, clicking on one of the enemy cannons will cause one's toon to fire a rocket. When both cannons have been destroyed, the faction to which they belong to may attempt to repair them by using the console located nearby. Defending one's base comes with considerable advantages as one can hop on a particle cannon (four located on each side) and fire its cone effect attack for a period of time. It causes a massive amount of damage, cannot be destroyed, but its user can be knocked off with a force or tech effect.
TIP: In large scale warfare, its much better to have long ranged attacks available. As those with the ability to cause damage to an enemy before he dies, will get an objective completed. Melee characters will find it very frustrating to approach a large force wihtout dying in seconds while cc'd.
PvP has gear rewards for those at level 50. The gear is really quite worth having for those that enjoy a bit of the rough and tumble. Additionally, a vendor on Vaiken station has pvp weapons available for a wide range of levels.
Where is the pvp gear?
The "first" place to get pvp gear is the market in Kaas City. There you'll find the gear that has expertise in it. I suggest picking these pieces up once hitting level 50 so your commendation grind is more palatable. Look for the class trainers in the market area and near them one will find the gear vendor. The other place to find pvp gear is at fleet (formerly Vaiken station). If you travel to the northeast quadrant, you'll find gear vendors of many ranks available.
What class should I roll?
Currently I suggest all players to roll in this order: Mercenary, Operative, Sorceror. Ranged characters have a generally much less frustrating time killing enemies. Additionally, the previously mentioned classes have the ability to heal themselves while in combat. It only takes 2 talent points to make a class capable of self-healing, that's it. For those who refuse to roll one of these three classes, get ready to die ALOT. Where these players will relish not dying an entire warzone, characters that cannot self heal will die a dozen times every match just because the accumulation of damage taken catches up to the player.
What if I really want to be the guy who rolls something different?
Expect to die alot. That said, hope to have someone heal you OR, as I do, break away from combat and use one's out of combat heal. I personally save my "vanish" ability for the purpose of healing between fights. As most classes don't have this ability, I suspect they just die and get used to dying in order to "heal up". That said, non-healing classes do have an advantage or two.
What if I don't mind dying alot or believe I will always have a pocket healer?
Powertechs get an interrupt ability that mercenaries do not. Snipers get an AoE push that Operatives do not. Assassins get stealth, which sorcerers do not. All melee get an ability to deflect damage and ignore tech/force attacks for a short time. Expect any class spec'd for DPS so pretty much SUCK in warzones until fully geared at 50. Those that spec tank will probably feel a bit more successful, but only if there isn't another tank in the group hogging up the tanking duties. One or two tanks is ok in a warzone, more and the team suffers too much from the loss of dps.
Are tanks good in pvp?
I play a tank. Yes they are good. No I do not recommend playing one. For the same reason that people don't want to play a healer, one should not play a tank. A tanks job is to suck up damage for other people. Unless I am running the ball in Huttball, I am shielding someone taking damage. That means I generally look for the most nubly looking player and put my shield on him so when the enemy focus fires on him, I suck up the damage. Because my shield has a short range, I spend alot of my time following a nub around in a warzone (at least until he wanders off). So in short, don't roll a tank unless you want to protect nubs. If one rolls a tank and does not guard other players, its a waste. Might as well roll dps, at least then one's character will make a difference because tank dps is VERY low.
What's the formula for getting pvp gear?
First, let me suggest not buying a pvp weapon unless you really need the upgrade. Secondly, don't worry too much about getting every piece of 50's blue pvp gear from the kaas market. That said, here's the way to gear up in 50's purple pvp gear:
Do your daily pvp quests available in the northeastern quadrant of Fleet. At 50 you'll need to complete objectives in Ilum (more later) as well as win a warzone. In addition to daily quests, one will also find weekly quests worth doing as well. Daily quests reset at 7pm pdt. Weeklies usually reset the day of maintenance Tuesday, but we'll see since I've seen it reset Monday as well.
As you get commendations, save them up to buy the purple loot bags one gets for completing dailies at 50. These boxes contain tokens to get a piece of purple quality pvp gear as well as the appropriate commendations to buy a piece outright. As of this writing, the Gladiator boxes give gladiator pieces and Centurion commendations. The Battlemaster boxes give battlemaster quality gear and Gladiation commendations. As battlemaster gear is only slightly better than gladiator gear, and it seems gladiator bags may provide outright gear more often that battlemaster bags, consider getting the gladiator bags first until one has a decent set of gear.
Ilum?
Ilum is presumably the world based PvP zone for "any" number of people to participate in. Theorhetically there should be areas the two factions will fight over to control. It is a very large map with 5 objectives. Players come here each day to complete their daily objectives by either taking nodes or killing an enemy while possessing the "defender" buff. To gain the defendor buff, one must be in the vacinity of a node controlled by one's faction. As with all objectives, a 5 minute timer will prevent the immediate recap of an objective. Thus, having lost a node, one must wait 5 minutes before they can be retaken.
Each side has a base possessing two cannons that act as an objective to the other side. When at the enemies base, clicking on one of the enemy cannons will cause one's toon to fire a rocket. When both cannons have been destroyed, the faction to which they belong to may attempt to repair them by using the console located nearby. Defending one's base comes with considerable advantages as one can hop on a particle cannon (four located on each side) and fire its cone effect attack for a period of time. It causes a massive amount of damage, cannot be destroyed, but its user can be knocked off with a force or tech effect.
TIP: In large scale warfare, its much better to have long ranged attacks available. As those with the ability to cause damage to an enemy before he dies, will get an objective completed. Melee characters will find it very frustrating to approach a large force wihtout dying in seconds while cc'd.