Sorc/Mercs: the gods of 8v8 unranked soloqueue.

I've been PVPing a lot with all 8 ACs recently (8v8 solo unranked queue only on PVE server) and I can't for the life of me figure out why there are so many complaints on the forums about how Marauders & Powertechs are overpowered and Sorcs & Mercs are underpowered.



When I play those ranged DPS classes I literally feel god-like in 8v8, getting far more damage, objectives, healing, and far fewer deaths despite being far less experienced with these classes and having 10 times less APM than what's required for melee classes. This doesn't just seem to be me either...in 8v8 games the scoreboard shows time and time again that these ranged classes consistently dominate their melee counterparts.



8v8 PVP seems massively imbalanced towards ranged classes and I don't think it has anything to do with the classes themselves and their ability to 1v1 but due to the way that the game is played. Here are some observations I've made:



1. Large objective-based battles favor ranged.



Typically 8v8 warzones are centered around a central objective(s) and both teams swarm towards that objective in order to capture it. The people in the middle constantly get killed by each other and by the ranged casters on either side while the ranged casters are relatively safe because in order for the other team to attack them they generally have to enter/get past the killing zone and because people generally play in such a way that minimizes their own deaths this rarely happens.



2. Getting healed is rare in 8v8 unranked soloqueue



Usually there are 0-2 healers on an 8-person team and the chances of getting healed as melee are pretty low since healers often get marked as targets and spend a lot of time healing themselves, running away, or healing the other 6 group members.



Of course when I get healed as a sentinel I feel pretty powerful...but it doesn't happen that often.



As a sent/mara you're often faced with this dilemma after surviving a fight with low health. You can run away for miles until you finally drop out of combat and try to regenerate your health (this takes almost as long as just dying, respawning, and coming back), or you can go back into the fight and try to get in some damage before you die. As a sorc/merc you can simply run away for a bit and quickly heal yourself to full (not trolling here) before DPSing again.



3. People generally attack/focus fire whatever's closest to them



As a melee class you need to be pretty close to someone in order to deal damage to them. This will instantly draw their focus and hence you will get attacked, stunned, cc'd way more than if you were killing them from range. It's hard not to notice people swinging lightsabers at you but if you stand far off and cast at people usually they look for whatever's closest to them and have a harder time noticing you.



Also people tend to focus down melee a lot more because it's visually easier to see people fighting at melee range and therefore seize the opportunity to focus fire.



I don't know if anyone else has experienced this, but playing a melee class I am slowed, cc'd, rooted, etc. for almost the entire time while not respawning or running to/away from an objective since people tend to cc whatever's in front of them. As a ranged caster I'm rarely cc'd and most of the time get to pump out DPS unhindered.



4. Running away is very effective for ranged, but not viable for melee



As a ranged caster you can stand 30m away from the objective and just spam aoe attacks/nukes at everyone clumped around the objective. If one of them leaps to you and attacks you, you can simply stun/cc/pop DCD and kite towards your base. This again puts the melee attacker between a rock and a hard place. They can either chase you, bringing them even closer to your team's spawn point and farther from the objective, (which usually means they will die) or they can try to run/leap back towards the objective, in which case you can continue to just kill them from range with minimal downtime.



5. Respawn system favors ranged



This is related to the previous points. As a ranged class you can stand 30m closer to your team's respawn point and run towards it whenever you're pressured which means that reinforcements are always at your back. Because people generally attack/focus whatever's in front of them if the first thing they will see coming out of the respawn zone is a melee attacker trying to duel you, they will all focus fire them down on their way to the objective.





No matter how much I've tried on my sentinel (tried all 3 trees) to be effective at 8v8 warzones, it takes an incredible amount of effort/luck to even be at the middle of the pack while as a sorc/merc I feel like I can fall asleep at the keyboard and more often than not score near the top of the scoreboard and get far more kills/medals and far less deaths. I've yet to have enough experience with my vanguard to be able to comment on it, but although it seems to be a little better due to its ranged abilities so far it seems like it suffers from the same problems.



I realize that these arguments don't apply as much to organized/competitive gameplay/arenas where these classes tend to get marked for focus fire, but I'm curious if anyone else has had similar experiences or tips to share with me on how to improve my melee gameplay in these situations.