Tell me this, do the dailies at Max level provide a challenge? Back in the day they did. I am not big on OP's and group content outside of some pvp. As long as there is some kind of end game content other than Operations and Flashpoints, I'll be happy. I just wanted a little bit of something other than mobs dying in one hit. I have all these abilities, yet I can kill packs of mobs with Lacerate. It's disappointing. I don't feel like I'm progressing as much as I'm just going through the motions to get to max level. As it stands right now, this leveling system isn't teaching players how to CC or manage CD's and it doesn't teach the player the importance of rotations and situational awareness which is required for harder content. In short, it's not preparing them for the true end game portion of the game. Even me, whom is a solo player, knows that coming from other mmo's.

I just came back as well, and I'm astonished how easy it is to level. I did notice however, that when I sent my companion Khem Val out to do a crew skill the golden icon mobs killed me. They were around 5 levels below me on Dromund Kaas, and they still messed me up. So apparently having the companion healer does make a big difference against certain enemies. Still though, being at level 18 and scaled down I still wreck most areas mobs with the AoE Lacerate assassin ability. I remember having to be very efficient with my abilities and not pull too many mobs in the past. Too easy for me imo. There needs to be a little modicum of challenge

If anybody was around for the Ilum fiasco you would realize that this games engine can't handle 100 vs 100. The Hero engine can only handle up 16 players on the screen at once before performance loss. That's why warzone's can't support more than 8 vs 8, and similarly Operations can't support more than 16 players at any given time. Ever notice how badly the fleet can lag when you're in an area with lots of players?

Care to elaborate? I've been playing this class on and off for many months and it's squishy and the burst just doesn't come for me against any competant geared players. Finesse? Voltaic Slash twice, pop recklessness if it's up, shock, discharge. Maul when duplicity procs and hope he doesnt have a full resolve bar when you go to low slash to get behind him? Sound about right? Use slows and CC's as needed right? Except it doesnt pan out that way when they counter attack and you watch as your health pool depletes haflway after a few seconds of them attacking you. Whereas as a darkness assassin you dont have those issues because it's a battle of attrition, they simply outlast your burst and whittle you down. Maybe it gets better after i have a full BM set. I'm simply stating how the deception class performs for me. I'm not saying I don't like the style. I do. It just doesn't stack up no matter how you dice it. If it did you would see more players rolling as deception.

I definitely believe the type of class and the spec you play with will have a significant impact on the level of fun/competitiveness you will experience in pvp (as well as pve). The reason I say this is because I have had first hand experience with it. First of all, not all classes/specs perform equally. I have tested this very briefly on my assassin and noticed right away the the disparity between the deception dps burst spec and the darkness tank survivability spec. Darkness assassins by far and away will perform better overall then a deception in a pvp environment in terms of utilty and survivability. The sad part is, darkness assassins don't lose much in damage compared to a deception assassin whom has to rely on burst and hit and run tactics. That is the reason why most assassins run as darkness in pvp, they simply perfom better with less effort and less setup than the deception ones. The darkness tanking tree also oddly has more pvp orientated talents to boot as well which would probably be better off in the decption tree. But that's for another discussion. I unfortunately rolled my assassin to a deception burst playstyle, not a tank. But guess what? I'm always going to underperform and die more simply because my class and spec are squishy. I totally understand where you are coming from when you speak of attacking and barely doing any damage. Then the other guy attacks and BAM! Half your health pool is gone. It's lame. I even have about half or more BM gear with maybe about half of it augmented. There is simply no denying that certain classes/specs are more powerful than others. Going up against geared oponents as a fresh 50 recruit only compounds the problem.

The way I understand it is the madness spec is more DOT orientated while the deception is more burst orientated. I've leveled and pvp'd as deception but it can be problematic soloing quests at times. I can't speak of madness because i've never played that spec on my sin.

I've been running as an Deception assassin in full recruit stalker gear and a few BM pieces and im sick of getting blown up and dishing out poor damage ever since I hit 50. I'm considering going the 31/0/10 darkness build and was wondering if I should equip a shield in the offhand? Also, would you recommend me getting a recruitment survivor set for that build? Any info is appreciated.

Let's not forget that there are specific classes that really rely on their hard stuns for certain abilities to be effective. As an example: a concealment operative's Acid Blade only works with either Hidden Strike or Backstab. Both abiliies require the operative to be behind there opponent. Operatives also don't have any gap closers of any sort either, so Debilitate is a crucial hard stun that lasts 4 seconds and does not break on damage. If you were to have the CC breaker reset every time someone dies, it would severely hinder operatives from being able to gain proper position on there target during any kind of extended fight outside of their initial opening sequence. It's hard enough as it is for an operative to stay on a target with the knockbacks, force speed, etc. Don't take our main way of being able to effectively stay in a fight (Debilitate) by resetting the CC breaker after every death. That's a terrible idea.

Ty for the constructive response, I appreciate it.

I pvp a good amount of time and was wondering why the devs decided to make Low Slash break on damage? I mean the whole point of having a stun ability is to be able to unload in that brief (4 second ?) window of time. Yet in most scenarios, when I low slash an opponent to try and get behind for when Duplicity procs, somebody else has attacked and I'm not position to Maul. In the case of operatives they have what we are missing in the form of Debilitate, imo that is how our Low Slash should function, 4 second stun, you can damage them for the full duration of the stun until it expires or they pop there stun breaker. Thoughts and comments appreciated.

On my assassin I get lingering "shock" sound effects. Normally, after I kill a mob the sound effect stops. Now I have these "shock" sounds all around me that don't stop. Some other sound effects seem out of balance too. Also, the voices in cut scenes sometimes dont work, the dialog just cuts out. Wasn't like this for me prior to patch 1.2

It's not working here, in this game, right now. Example: concealment operatives. They were hit with a major nerf in the last patch, and are getting nerfed again. This will effect there already poor sustained dps. Assassin's bring more utility and better sustained dps than a concealment ops. Concealment ops are a one trick pony that is good only in a pvp environment. Why bring a concealment ops over an assassin for end game content when they can do better at it and have more utility?

@ Narny. You state who cares if it's and MMO? SW:TOR was advertised as such, and the pvp game play in Ilum was highly talked about too. You want to know what's really ironic? Most of the nerfs to classes are due to people complaing about X class being overpowered in pvp. A fine example would be concealment operatives. They were nerfed in the last patch, and subsequently are being nerfed AGAIN in 1.2. Why? Because bad players are still whining that they are overpowered and getting killed by them in a pvp environment. Concealment operatives brings nothing to the table in terms of utility compared to an assassin in pve. There sustained dps will be even worse in 1.2 and the player base of concealment ops were hoping for some form of buff for sustained pve dps. It's looking like the concealmnet op is going to be a one trick pony that is only good in a pvp environment. So that spec is basically doomed in pve. Concealment operatives are currently in a position of "why" in the meta game. Sure you can play them similar to a rogue. But why bring an operative class over an assassin which can do what they do better and with more utility?

I don't know if this has been mentioned or not. But it sounds to me like that tactic is trying to get the desired effect of a weaker mini Shadow Dance. For WoW subtlety rogues during Shadow Dance you can spam the Ambush ability or other openers within a 6 second window (8 if glyphed). By opening with a HS then popping CS to follow up with another HS is beneficial to finishing off opponents weak on health or to put some quick pressure on a healer, etc. The problem with that is it leaves you vulnerable for another 2-3 minutes with no escape option to re-stealth while CS is on CD.

I have a rogue, and I know the roles they fill. The mechanics behind "controlling" your target to set up a kill window for Shadow Dance, and the importance of pressuring healers. I'm not familiar with DK's, maybe ops are closer to DK's then rogues are, that is probably where I went wrong. The funny thing is, when I went over to the assassin threads inquiring how similar an assassin plays to a rogue, they told me to roll an operative instead. They said ops play closer to rogues than assassins do. At the moment I'm at lvl 25 on my op, and the class seems to have a lot less utility than a WoW rogue. Looking down through the skillset we are very limited to what we can do to stay on a target outside of the initial stealth opener. I guess I have become really spoiled with all the goodies and resets available as a subtlety rogue. The problem is, we can't stick on our targets for very long due to a lack utilities. No form of a gap closer is a real deal breaker considering how many classes have knockbacks and escape abilities. That being said, we have no type of Force Speed or Shadow Step equivalent type of ability to help counteract kiters. It is what it is.

We're not a burst DPS class? What are you smoking? Concealment is all about burst, we have very little utility to work with, and even less sustained DPS. Concealment ops are closer to rogues not DK's buddy.

^^ Thanks for the constructive feedback SneakyErvin. Very informative, good tips and insight on the class and specs. For the most part yeah, you are right, fights tend to not last long enough to really drain my energy down too low. It's not something that I experience on a regular basis. Usually it's not a 1v1 scenario anyway, at some point other players are going to come in for backup. Harassing the healers or the ball carriers or picking off vulnerable players at key moments is a better way of going about rather than trying to stand and fight toe-to-toe. Hopefully I'll improve my game play and my contribution to the team in WZ's as I level and progress. Huttball seems to be the most difficult WZ for me with all the traps and AoE's going on pulling me out of stealth, I have to be a little more aware of my surroundings and such. A lot of times if I'm up on one of the ledges I'll get knocked back and down to a lower level. I'm finding I prefer to stay on the lower platforms rather than getting taken out of the play by trying to engage on the upper platforms. P.S. could you link your concealment build please?

The problem, is that you want to frontload your damage fast for burst, at least in pvp anyways. You end up in a situation where you are "duking it out" with another melee class and you are burning through your energy quickly. At that point you can pop Adrenaline Probe when it's not on CD. But outside of that, once your enery is low, you are sitting there unable to use abilities due to energy starvation. Stim Boost is a joke to use when in combat, restoring 3 energy every 3 seconds over 45 seconds. It might be useful to use right before a Cloaking screen and then you can sit in a corner somewhere while it regenerates if you happen to have a TA to waste. On a final note, I'm only level 24 and I don't have all my abilities yet, but I would imagine I would still run into the same situations if I'm caught in a drawn out fight.

My concealment operative agent is named Greyfoxx based off of Greyfox from the Metal Gear Solid series. It seems fitting.

A properly spec'd hybrid madness/lightning sorcerer has absolutely no resource management whatsoever while also dishing out good burst. Let's take a look at the talents I'm referring to. Madness tree - Sith Efficay - allows you to recover 1% of your total force when dealing damage with Force Lightning. Wrath - grants you a 30% chance when dealing damage through Force Lightning to cause your next damaging Force ability with an activation time to activate instantly and deal 20% more damage. Deathmark - increases amount of damage targets suffer from your next 10 periodic damage abilities by 20% (use Crushing Darkness for instant cast when Wrath Procs after placing a Deathmark on a target). Lightning tree - Reserves - increases your total Force by 100. Chain Lightning - Delivers an arc of lightning that deals 792 damage to up to 5 targets within an 8 meter radius (if Wrath procs it deals 20% more damage and is an instant cast). Lightning Barrage - Afflictions critical hits have a 100% chance to grant Lightning Barrage, causing your next Force Lightning to channel and tick twice as fast, cannot occur more than once every 10 seconds. Spam tab Affliction on everyone and you will get it every 10 seconds. And last but not least, the biggie - Lightning Effusion - Force attacks that critically hit have a 100% chance to grant Lightning Effusion, reducing the Force cost of your next two Force abilities by 50%. You will literally never run out of force with this talent, it procs more times than you can use it. So yeah, can I have something similarly overpowered to that kind of resource management on my operative please?

Cool, glad to hear some good news for a change. My op is at lvl 23 right now so I don't have all my abilites yet, but I'm looking forward to seeing how this class progresses. I noticed the energy starvation issues you have mentioned as well, I'm hoping that Stim Boost will be somewhat effective at countering that, although I usually use up my TA's on Laceration. Time will tell.

It also seems to take a long time to drop out of combat as well. For a class based around getting back into stealth as quickly as possible, that's a serious issue for concealment ops.

I'm simply stating the obvious, if you are going to make a class that is based on stealth, requires to be in melee range, and damage based on burst, you need to give the class the utilties to do so. For instance, with rogues on WoW, they have Sprint, Dismantle, Shadow Step, and Preparation. Those are key elements that are missing from an operative. We have an interrupt in Distract, its like a ranged equivalent of the rogues kick. Stim Boost is a variation of the rogues recuperate, and you can spec into Revitalizers for the health restoration. Ops have no way of dismantling a melee foe when engaged against similar classes, no biggie, we can deal without that. A Shadow Step type of ability would solve the gap closer issue, period. The lack of a way to reset our Cloaking Screen and Evasion is a vital missing component for a class based around getting back into stealth as quickly as possible. The amount of time it takes to leave combat is staggering at times. There have been many times when I am trying to hide in a corner somewhere waiting to leave combat before somebody spots and wrecks me. It should not take that long to leave combat, it's a serious issue. Without any form of a gap closer, we will get kited, no way around it, Sever Tendon helps, but I don't know if it effects resolve or not. You don't want to be wasting your control abilities in situations where you are not able to do damage unless you are planning to make an escape (or unless you are locking down an enemy ball carrier). The concealment op is really gimped without any way of closing the distance to it's target and also no way to reset Cloaking Screen . A Shadow Step and Preparation type of abilities are necassary imo.

^^ That's how I feel too Shy-Nee. I've been bouncing back and fourth between my decepetion assassin and concealment operative. Both are still relatively low levels. My sin is lvl 17 and my op is lvl 23. But I notice that if I have to "duke it out" with another class on my op I either A: run out of energy, or B: get kited. I use Flashbang when I can or my ranged shot abilities. My assassin feels better suited to deal with those situations, I have my Force Speed to close gaps, and I don't run into force issues in longer fights like how I run into energy issues with my op. I can also pop Overload if I'm getting pounded on and need to make some room for myself, we don't have either of those options with the op. It's still early for me yet, I haven't gotten all the goodies yet on my op. I don't really want to give up on him, I like the class story so far and I don't want to go through another inquisitor storyline (I have a 50 sorcerer). For now I'll just play both the op and the sin and see what I end up liking more in the end.

One of the things that is the most irritating so far as an operative is a lack of a gap closer of any kind, which I believe most other melee have in some form or another. Assassin's have Force Speed and Overload to knock others down. We really are at a disadvantage without a similar set of abilities. My suggestion would be to have an ability called Sweep: tripping and knocking down anybody within a 4m radius. The cd can be the same as an inquisitors Overload. Dash, does the same thing as Force Speed, same cd. At least those abilities would even the playing ground in terms of a little more utility.