Denova Story is fine. As is Lost Island. Nightmare Pilgrim is fine. People are just shell shocked at their first encounter (in this game) of actual well designed content. Everything before this wave of content has been stupidly easy with few exceptions. Take the challenge of current content as what things should have been from the beginning and step up your game. It is no longer acceptable to play with a blindfold on.

I agree that fight punishes melee way too heavily in comparison to ranged. However I will never under any circumstances support dumbing down of any content. Currently this game has BT, BfI, FE, D3, BP and Foundry with all stupidly easy mostly tank and spank bosses. If you can't or aren't willing to step up your game then stick to the easy stuff. Kaon is a a small step up in the right direction and Lost Island I consider the first real content that Bioware has put out for single groups. Everything else has been an insult to gamer's intelligence and skill.

I stand by Genshin on this. Half of the fun of these games is figuring out the encounters yourself. Pilgrim isn't some uber boss that takes elite guilds 200 wipes to figure out. That said heres some hints, its far more than my guild had going in and we still got him in half our scheduled raid time. Every mechanic is predictable. You can even use an in-game tooltip to determine the timing on two of the most dangerous mechanics.

In my guild who rips agro/has second agro is decided for the most part by who doesn't receive guard. We have had all 3 ranged classes rip agro at the strangest times, most noticeably during Karagga for obvious reasons and again, all 3 classes have done it. Also note I write this from a purely 16 man perspective. As for Specs, our best Sorc runs a 0/25/16 spec. As I understand it frequent use of Chain Lightning with the 30% damage procs and the 3% global bonus beats Deathmark quite handily. Now since the OP asked for a comparison between the 3 classes here is what I have experienced having played both Sorc and Sniper in a raid environment and speaking a great deal with DPS Mercs. Sorc: Best sustained AoE, Single target DPS beats most classes easily. Comes with a powerful built in heal, Static Barrier and can cleanse Mental and Force effects (rare/non-existent in current content). Can interrupt. Force Speed makes dodging mechanics easier. Overall brings the most frequently and generally useful utility to the table. Can spam a strong heal in times of need. Static Barrier is very useful. Interrupts are critical. Powerful sustained AoE helps in a few encounters. Sniper: Competes for best single target DPS. Has a powerful but high cooldown AoE. Most specs come with built in survival mechanics to reduce damage taken as well as some defensive cooldowns. Can spec into a powerful accuracy debuff (Flash Powder 20% 8 sec) to serve as an additional defensive cooldown for the tank. Ballistic Shield 20% raidwide damage prevention is useful in many situations. Has an armor debuff in Shatter Shot which does stack with other armor debuffs. Can interrupt. Overall a survivable if well played high DPS class with frequently useful (interrupt) and situational but powerful (Shield and Flash Powder) utility. Also increases overall raid DPS by bringing an Armor Debuff, the effective DPS of a Sniper exceeds their own personal DPS. Merc: Competes for best single target DPS. Heavy armor and powerful defensive cooldowns provide excellent survivability. Healing capable though not as effective unspecced as Sorc. Can cleanse Tech and Physical effects which are the two most common debuff/dot types in current content. As Arsenal Spec as an armor debuff that stacks with other armor debuffs. Overall highest survivability of the 3 ranged DPS classes. Armor debuff is overall raid DPS increase thus effective DPS is greater than personal DPS. Heal and Cleanse are useful at the right times. The lack of Interrupt is a tremendous downside, many fights in current content require interrupt.

Operatives have an ability they can use from stealth that while it doesn't knock him back it can be used for the first hit so a real knockback will work. Hidden Strike or something like that.

The Force Bending buff isn't consumed until Innervate finishes so if you cast DI before it finishes you can get most of Innervate with the boosted crit rate and the fast cast DI. I use that trick very often for when my tank takes a big spike of damage and I want to get him to full health fast.

This talent interests me because of the way it is worded. I know the most likely answer is "its just a snare" but I need to ask anyways to make sure. Is it just a snare? Force Lighting and Force Slow both explicitly state that they slow movement speed but this just says slow, does it slow cast times or make mobs attack less often? If so this is an amazing talent.

Don't sweat it. From what I have encountered thus far the DS/LS gear is mostly on the commendation vendors. There are always equivalent DS and LS pieces for all classes available on these vendors so whichever side you end up falling on you'll be able to pick the appropriate piece. If you think you are going to end up neutral I know my initial lightsaber had no limitation and it was a modable weapon. Meaning its effective base damage and force bonus were based on the item level of the hilt component and its stats were based on the other mods. So you can just yank out the mods from any lightsaber you find and put them in the neutral saber.

The very first medpack REing it took about 5 greens to unlock blue and 5 blues to unlock purple. This was doing it right from when I learned the skill and had harvested enough to satisfy myself. The second medpack I didn't get the mats for until I was well over the skill needed to make it (grouped a lot so my companion was off crafting all the time). Both blue and purple recipes were unlocked after just one RE each of a green and blue. I suspect skill level plays a part in recipe unlocks.