Err, I just don't think the skill cap is nearly as high for GSF as it is for Warzones, and I'm just saying it only takes a couple of matches to notice a noticeable difference in improvement.
Where I'm disagreeing with you is that I think the wall is much much higher in warzone pvp,
In that case you are correct, we do disagree. The best PVP player's skill level may be harder to reach than the best GSF player, by some degree, but a
good PVP player's skill level is much easier to reach than a good GSF player skill level because you play 95% of the game with the same abilities you use in PVP.
A PVE all-star can waltz into PVP with no experience and still put up respectable numbers and follow the few directions that are shouted in /ops (get mid, left door, etc), being a help to a team. I regularly see people in full PVE gear putting up nice dps (I also see them putting up terrible dps, for what it's worth) and definitely see them putting up respectable healing numbers. A barely serviceable story mode raider (ie: shouldn't even be in SM ops they are so bad) can guard a node or door and call out incomings, pop stealth and pop out to interrupt a cap, use knockbacks or AOE to prevent caps, etc...aka: be useful. After all, PVP is
exactly like the rest of the game as far as your hotbars, your movement, your skills, hell even your rotations for the most part. The only difference is the strategy of use of things like your cooldowns/stuns and what not, and a little observation really helps there.
A novice GSF player for those first 5 to 10 matches is basically a floating turd in space. It's hard to get your aim right. It's hard to keep from flying into walls when attempting to evade pursuit. You manage to get away from whatever scout is guarding a node only for one of the three turrets to kill you. You can't even really guard a node properly as a noob because you don't really even know where to sit to avoid long range fire...I could go on and on. You can't really watch what other players do in GSF because the map is so big and the encounters are so fast in the beginning you don't even get a grasp of what abilities are being used at what time until you've messed around for a good while on your own.
GSF is basically SWTOR: FPS Edition (In Space) (TM), or that's what I think when I play it. A lot of the folks who play MMOs don't do a lot of FPS style gaming in my experience, so they are inherently at a disadvantage to those who do (and those who do play those games gravitate to GSF) and hence why there are threads everywhere whining about the learning curve.
If you (Draxal) played a lot of Call of Duty or Halo or whatever in the past and are used to quick twitch aiming for headshots and the like, I can understand where you're coming from about getting to an acceptable skill cap in GSF quicker. IMO, however, that's not the type of person who plays these kind of games long term, hence my opinions on the longer learning curve.
All that said, I do enjoy it when I play it. I'm not complaining about it, just making an observation.
I don't think the nerf to the hybrid tank/dps spec was enough tbh. I think it's time I leveled my Scoundrel to 55 and started dueling again to get a feel for where each class stands at the moment. As of right now, Assassin's seem to be stronger than they ever were. In the old 1v1 tourneys, you had Ops and Marauders who could always hang in there, but right now in 1v1's I don't think anything comes close to an Assassin.