As a Smuggler, your base Crit should be around 40% - much higher than 15%! Well, that's at Level 50 but that's about where mine is before the skill bonuses which don't show on the stats page - about half of ticks should crit as a minimum. Even so, with multiple SRMPs, Shrap Bomb effecting multiple targets and several Vital Shots up I should be getting lots of energy from Fighting Spirit but... frankly, I still am always taxed for energy.

I play a Dirty Fighting Scoundrel (slight Hybrid 11/2/28ish) and really the build isn't as bad as a lot of people make out. You have a lot of utility (Stealth, SRMP, DOTs for cap-prevention, AOE snares) and a surprising amount of resilience (50% of the time Defense Screen is up and you regen about 5k health every 15 seconds.) While you struggle to get the big-hit medals you get a couple of healing medals to balance that out and can still definitely solo most people because of your increased survivability. In Warzones that go the distance I typically average 200-250k damage (which is still good for DPS on my server, I'm typically in the top 1-3 despite being a hybrid) along with 100-150k healing. 7-9 Medals is a reasonable expectation and the fact I can hold nodes well and keep people alive without losing too much DPS seems to earn me a lot of respect and MVP votes too. The main issues with the class is the lack of mobility - which is the main reason I went hybrid so now as I close in I can throw a Shrap Bomb, Vital Shot, Thermal Grenade (don't overlook this one, its similar damage to Quick Shot but at 30m and hitting multiple targets for just 3 energy more) along with putting HOTs on allies around the 60% mark. Once you get close its Blaster Whip, Wounding Shot, Grenades/Bombs. You do need to get close for the Upper Hands (without it, energy management is impossible) but its only Blaster Whip that you need to pull off once every 10s or so - everything else can be at longer range.

I use: http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#701MccMzZ0cZhrrorrMd0M.1 It works pretty well but needs a bit of tweaking still, perhaps. I've found that the extra 7 points it costs to let you get Medpac Mastery are better spent elsewhere. Whether that is on Black Market Equipment (+12% crit chance on HOTs and DOTs) or Survivor's Scars (+3% Healing Done, +9% healing received = +12% self heals) is a close call but I think I prefer SS currently as it makes staying alive when others are healing me much easier too. I'm also a big fan of Smuggled Defences. You can have it up 50% of the time which with twin stacks of SRMP makes you shockingly resilient in 2 on 1s. For PVP, Quick Getaway and Feelin' Woozy are also both nice although Feelin' Woozy does feel wasted in PVE.

I find it amusing that I play on a RP-PVE sever and we don't really have those issues. Seriously, I'd say that at least 50% of the 50 bracket on the Republic side actually know what they are doing and do it well. Maybe it's the fact that we're a smaller, more sociable community who talk to each other and help each other improve? Although yes, when it's me and one other versus 5 attackers at one of the Voidstar doors and the other door gets capped it does make me want to scream... as does the fact that Voidstar objective points don't calculate properly. 3 doors, 3 consoles, 300 objective points? Seriously?

As a Dirty Fighting PVP Scoundrel (yes, we do exist just about) I can throw out a 3-target 21s DOT as well as individual 18s DOTs... it's a lot of fun but you really can't do it indefinitely to hold a point against an attack of 3-4 players - you can only delay long enough for reinforcements to arrive.

Because Melee classes generally have Interrupts with ranges longer than 4/10m? How can I interrupt spamming a 30m ability when I can't get into range to use it?

Kills shouldn't be an issue for Dirty Fighting, the real issues in terms of medals are the two big hit ones (DOTs/AOEs don't seem to award this as often as they should) plus Assassin (your kill is usually slow enough that somebody else gets in on the act.) Really, a Dirty Fighter is a utility/support PVPer. You need to coordinate with your team to make your AOEs and DOTs do their best but defensively they are a pretty strong class. Our burst isn't quite bursty enough and our energy management is a little harsh but... we are far from useless. Except in Huttball where I do normally feel like a waste of space as I spend a third of the game running to where the action is...

Actually on my server the gap is now definitely closing between the two factions. Yes, the Imperials have more Battlemasters but the gear isn't much of an improvement over Champion and now a lot of us are upto around the 10% Expertise mark. Honestly, its only really one very coordinated Battlemaster Premade that often includes two Operatives working in tandem (for pretty much instant kills on anyone) that still gives us big issues - and even that gets beaten maybe once in three attempts when we get a solid PUG. I'm almost at the point where I think that if they fixed the whole 8v6 nonsense Republic would probably be edging the win ratios now. So.. no. No mixed faction PVP (other than in Huttball, perhaps), let us continue to develop as a tightly knit and effective community please.

Although it takes a while you can collect armaments that spawn at Central in lieu of player kills to complete your daily.

Considering how much Ilum valor farming goes on, especially on some servers, I think that only a very small number of people think that valor rank (beyond 60, which is useful) means anything. It doesn't. Give me the respect of my team mates and the mild apprehension of my enemies over high valor anyday...

Winning 6-0 at Huttball in less than a certain amount of time (it's pretty long, around 12 minutes perhaps?) doesn't count to prevent farming rather than due to a bug. So far, the fix seems to have worked except for very quick wins which I'm pretty sure is intentional.

The false companion wanting to talk icon bug definitely isn't due to you having the affection but not having reached trigger points in the class story. I'm 100% sure of that as I still get it and am level 50 with everything fully finished (except grinding companion affection on a few of them.)

The weird thing is, I think it will effect my Dirty Fighting build more than my Scrapper build. The fact it is the base ability they changed means it effects the other two trees who often use it as an opener because it does good damage and grants Upper Hand. What they should have done is left the base damage the same and changed the Underdog bonus from 10% (x3) to 4% (x3.) Same effect pretty much, Underdog remains a useful 3 ability points and it leaves Dirty Fighting and Scoundrels, who aren't broken in anyone's opinion, unchanged.

Yes, making it so that you never risk queuing solo and/or getting stuck in an 8v6/12v8 stompest is going to fix PVP instead of making less people play it... right.... Fix the imbalances first so that going into every game both sides have a fighting chance and then you can start thinking about punishing defeat.

Is it just crit? Or crit and surge? If it's crit and surge then that, otherwise probably the power one.

Right, this is why in crazy melee brawls I often get spammed with a mixture of 'Not Facing Target' and 'Effect Condition Failed' (because I'm no longer facing my target AND behind them at the same time.) Melee should gain 360 attacks too so we stop the silly dance of 'run back and forth through each other to gain a slight edge' which just looks stupid.

Since our Republic-50 Community has started to get well geared and close the gap with the Imperials and have got to know each other better so even as PUGs we work well I've seen a lot of very close Warzones in that bracket - many more than when I play my 10-49 alts. Winning Civil War by 5 points thanks to a cap when the scores were around 20-30, for example. Or getting to 7.9 on a cap before getting interrupted which eventually ends up being the difference between a win and a defeat.

Sage Healers. Love their AOE Heals in both Voidstar and Civil War... they make such a difference.

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#701MccMzZ0cZhrrorrMd0M.1 That's my current build and its pretty viable. Personally I don't think the 7 extra skillpoints I'd need to invest to get EMP are worth it, I'd rather stay mostly DPS. While all those Upper Hands are nice you'll have big energy management issues without Rough and Tumble too. The only thing that really gives me issues are stunlocking Sorceror teams and then pairs of operatives stealthing up and ripping me to shreds almost instantly.

And make it count as a single attack for medal purposes. Landing the 12s version (Champion Combat Tech) on a group of 4-5 Imperials really should get me a medal or two...

It's pretty much only Scrappers who can get this one. As a Dirty Fighter I've not come close even though I have decent Expertise (350ish) and Reusable Hyper Adrenals & Stims. The best I've managed is 3600... Against most targets (with their lovely Imperial easy gear) I struggle to hit even the 2.5k medal - almost all of my attacks are around the 2k range or do the damage in separate components which don't get counted together. I mean, my Shrap Bombs normally do about 6k total damage (2-2.5k ish including Crits, on each of three targets) but nope... that doesn't count...

Personally I still prefer Crit/Surge over Power/Accuracy for my Smuggler. I'm mostly wearing Combat Tech gear for that reason (plus the sexy 2-piece set bonus and the fact the chest looks less silly.)

It's one of those points where the difficulty is a little off. Smuggler needs a few more ranks before you start to come into your own and so Alderaan can be a pain. Make sure you're 2-3 levels above the content (PVP, Space, etc.) or if thats not an option just do what I did... group up with somebody for those nasty opening missions and cut through them easily. A lot of classes struggle around the start of Alderaan so finding somebody to team up with should be pretty easy.

What Scoundrels actually need is for people, including Bioware, to remember that there are three trees and sort out the issues with the other two. Sawbones and Dirty Fighting both have some significant issues but get overlooked due to what Scrappers can do to the unaware...

It's only really in Huttball that I notice the real problem of perpetual knockbacks and insufficient range closers. In the other WZs it isn't too bad as people need to stay close to the objectives and can't push you 20s away from them. I think the core of the Melee-Ranged issues are: (1) The maps. (2) The fact that Sorcerors/Sages have too much CC/Knockback and have linear energy regeneration. Swap them to the same sort of system as Smugglers have and they'd become a lot more balanced. Basically, fix the ability of Sorcerors and Bounty Hunters to spam abilities without worrying about their resource much and I think the difference between the styles would narrow. Also, please remember not all Scoundrels are Scrappers.