Like this and every other thing BW has improved since December, just goes to show that if Bioware offered unlimited IRL money, free cars, and platinum chains to everyone that people would complain that they nerfed life with all the money cause everyone can have it, the cars weren't washed enough before delivery, and the chains weren't shiny enough to wear. smh

Here's the deal- Mara's, by BW's own design are the FotM. They'll get nerfed like operatives first did. However, since they have glowy fun clown sticks, it'll only be a slight nerf. Like a drunk father, BW will continue to take out it's misdirected anger on operatives because operatives don't affect $$ that much. When you read the patch notes and see conceal ops getting the shaft *AGAIN*, just think to yourself "Oh, that nerf was supposed to be for mara's, but they didn't want to lose too many subs over it" and there will be your solace in knowing something was done to fix maras.

I don't know about you guys, but I'm so relieved at the changes to operative. Before 1.2, WHOLE ENTIRE TEAMS OF OPERATIVES on my server would just stunlock us all to death. There was enough evidence for me to quit- I mean you can only get stunlocked by ENTIRE TEAMS OF OPERATIVES so many times before you unsub. So glad these changes went into effect. That'll show those WHOLE TEAMS OF OPERATIVES that they can't just stunlock everyone to death. Right Georg?

Star Wars ships could totally kick the crap out of Star Trek ships! ...oh wait, what are we talking about?

Blizzard gets it. But what is "it"? I contend that Bliz <3s the casual majority so much that it creates expansions around said casuals. That's their 'it'. Each expansion is easier and easier to play. Why? Because they'd rather get $$$ out of someone to level and raid for 1-2 years and have them quit then continue to build a game that rewards actual work and progression. They know that kids are much more likely to play something that gives them instant gratification and purples so that they can go and brag to their other friends in 6th grade that they got C**kstrap of the Infinite because they stayed in a fight for longer than 2-3 minutes. I played WoW since vanilla and saw battleground implementation, the collection of supplies to open AQ, etc etc. When I saw that it was going to be clownshoes after BC, I stuck around for WotLK but things were easy. Naxx, (which I had worked forever to get in on in an earlier time) could be stomped in a few hours time in a pug for "crazay lewts". I beat down Arthas and wondered where the difficulty had gone. Frustrating. When I realized that this pattern was only going to continue with Cata, I unsubbed and don't have any plans to come back. It's not about the experience, it's about an economic model to maximize subscribers to make as much profit as possible. To do this, your game has to be easy enough for anyone who's never picked up computer gaming to play. That "it" that Blizzard gets is a profit model with crazy margins via 10-15 year olds that have never heard of an MMO before. Is SWTOR that way? Sure, to a degree. But to say that Blizzard gets it and SWTOR is lost is an exaggeration. In the end, if you don't like SWTOR go back to Panda-bear purpfest. We won't miss you. I'm much more comfortable right here, but you're welcome to your opinion.

K. Lemme break down both sides, as i have a lvl 50 op and a lvl 50 sorc and i've pvp'd against each class. Op vs Sorc 1. Op uses hidden strike! Knocks down sorc for 1.5 seconds! (unless sorc pops UW, then move to fight step 2) Op stuns sorc for 5 seconds! Op uses back stab! Op uses Shiv! It's super effective (and by super effective I mean maybe 30% dmg or so)! (If the sorc bubble isn't up- otherwise bub soaks most/ALL of that damage) 2. Sorc uses bubble (if not already bubbled) and overloads, roots op, force speeds away, begins rotation against op. As op tries to close, Sorc electrocutes (stun 4s), dots lightning lightning lightning, hadoukens (if available) if op gets too close, WW, repeat step 2. 2b. Bub, overload, roots op, force speeds, heals back up to full, begin rotation. Op gets to close, electrocute/ww, repeat 2b. Fight continues in this fashion until op gives up and vanishes in a cloud of futility. As an op (before and why i switched to healing) i couldn't close crap with a sorc cause they could bub and run even if rotated in my stuns without maxing resolve. As a sorc, i can easily take out ops using the methods i described above. So please, stop the qq against ops. BW has removed all our teeth. We're much less dangerous dead and waiting in a wz then stunlocked and dying when actually on the wz, which is basically our two functions at this point if you haven't given up and switched to healing, like myself. inb4 l2p your classes blarglblarglblargl

I have a scound and an op and I always try and name them 'harmless' names. For example- My op is named 'Tastycakes' and my scound is named 'Snuggles'. With the stealth and ganking I always feel this at least gives some hilarity to my opponent while they're dying.

Man, I <3'd AV. I was the weird one that was totally down for a 4-6 hour fight. You're right too- it ran squeaky clean with all those people there. Then, someone came up with the zerg rush strat for AV and that ruined it for me. AV felt like a truly epic battle to me, and I agree that it was way ahead of its time.

/signed. As a healer, the best thing you can do is find a tank to pal around with. It should also be noted that the more you run with a tank, the more you can guess what they're going to do in any given situation so you know what heals to use when. Also, it's a good thing to get in the know of the fps and what fights come up. 1) so you can explain the fight to everyone, and 2) so you can mentally prepare yourself for what level intensity you're going to need to get through any 'difficult' bosses. I say the first, because if you're the knowledgable person in the PUG, you can tell people what NOT to do before the fight. So, if a dps stays in a red circle and gets fried, you have a decent defense of saying "hey- those red circles. remember to avoid them next time cause I can't heal through them" or something like that. I'm not saying you need to prepare a court case or anything, but once in a while you get pugs that assume that tanking 1 add while the group has to deal with the other 7 in which you have to heal your op/fp through it is totally fine and if you can't heal through it, you're a "garbage healer". That's never fun for anyone. So just know your fights, make sure they're explained, and if they get mean on you, you can explain what happened objectively. No PUG is perfect, and i try and make a practice of never pugging an op because you really need some cohesiveness and coordination of either 8 or 16 like minded people to really get an op done well. In my experience, the best chance of finding that is in a guild. But, as far as FPs go, you'll get a great PUG and you'll get crappy ones. Just the luck of the draw. But as they said- don't take it too seriously and just do your job. I assure you if you can keep your group up, they'll keep you around. And before you know it, that PUG you ran with will actually become a party of friends that get together to have a good time in the flashpoints- and you'll be an integral part of that team.

I like the probe stacks on my tanks. It's a decent (depending on how you define the word) cushion if i need to take my focus off the tank for a few seconds and heal other people in the group or op. Most of my time is Kinj/Sprobe but if the tank can get a "free" 750-1k+ heal every couple seconds, that opens me up to throw some healing love to the other people in the group without significant fear that my tank is going to die.

/signed. All we know right now from Georg is that operatives are not inquisitors.

Patch Notes 1.3: Operatives have exploited a bug in which players could not see them at all times. This has been fixed. There have been reports that Operatives can occasionally kill Sorcerers. While we have not been able to re-create this situation on our servers, Operative damage per second has been decreased 50% for class balance. We have also heard reports that Vibroknives are too violent for Operative use. These have been removed from the game. They have been replaced with Vibropillows. Hidden Strike, Backstab, and Shiv have been removed from the game. Operatives will now have an ability named Tickle, which grants 1 Tactical Advantage each time an opponent's day has been brightened. Operatives may sacrifice the Tactical Advantage gained from Tickle for Pillow Fight, which lightly taps the opponent for 0 damage and enables the Operative to gossip with their opponent about the boys they "like, totally have a crush on" at school.

WOAAAH Georg. Slow your friggin roll. I thought we weren't supposed to compare classes to each other. Is it because Agents are not Marauders? It's cool, with all the nerfs for our class, it would make sense that everything's 'working as designed': It seems our unique ability as operatives is to have a 10 billion meter 'nerf' aggro radius. That's what makes our class different. Taken from another sig I saw on the forums (don't remember the guy's name but I'll edit it for credit once I find them), I submit to you the new unofficial conceal operative trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDsUNvDshw8

My guild is called <Your Companion> fwiw.

I only play the other wz maps because I quiver with excitement that every time I join a wz it just might, MIGHT, be huttball. Sure i'm disappointed when 1/15 times it isn't huttball, but you have to play the odds to get what you want.

Let's say you want to hire a construction company to build a house and you interview two companies for the job. Company 1 has all its construction equipment in-house, has architects to make your designs, engineers to follow through with the designs, and the workforce to complete your house in a few months with high grade materials that will last a long time. Company 2 has one pickup, some tools in the bed of the truck, 5 guys as a labor force and a Home Depot card. Both companies can absolutely get the job done- but one is clearly better than the other. That's how it is currently with op heals and other healing options. Operatives can do "fine" healing- that's not the point. The point is that other healers have the mechanics to do more "fine" than we can, sometimes by a large margin and often without having to work as hard as we do to keep people up. That's the issue.

I see we have a comedian here.

I like the skill-based sandbox approach most of the time. I've played EvE on and off and I wish I was around pre-NGE. It sounds like it would have been a lot of fun. It also sounds like even though Jedi were crazy OP that the amount of work that went into them to get them there was worth people's respect. Sounds really interesting. Wish I would have played it.

I'm noticing a pattern with BW. Think about it- PCs (majority) are like sorcs. Macs (minority) are like operatives. So, don't expect anything for a mac any time soon. When it does come out, it will most likely somehow give all PCs a 300% efficiency buff while making your mac crash every 20 seconds. Wine/Bootcamp it is!

qft!!

Yep. Let me bring to perspective for everyone: Last night, I was in Battle for Ilum (EDIT: hardmode) with a PT tank, jugg dps, merc dps and myself as an op healer. (important for story- I also have a 50 lightning/madness dps sorc) We got to Krel and we had to jimmy rig the entire fight because of our party make up. Did we beat Krel? Eventually, and we finished the instance. 1st wave, merc DoAd them down with ease. PT and jugg stayed on boss and for 2nd round, I orb striked. During that time, the tank went from 85-90% to about 25-35 as i was channeling for orb to drop. Additionally, if not placed correctly, mobs wouldn't get knocked down correctly and then we had to target them down one by one or attempt to kite them until they were down. Then I had to Kinj/Sprobe the tank up while krel is nading other players, shooting other party members etc etc. Made it really difficult, but we got through it and I healed them through it. My point is this: replace me with a sorc heals. 2nd wave comes around- pop static barrier on tank, insta-channel force storm, slow mobs 35%, kill mobs, turn around inner the tank for hots, then go back to regular healing rotation. Any boss dmg spikes? bub player, follow up with heal rotation, etc etc. If we had one sorc, that fight would have been easymode, not because of our handicap, but because the sorc class mechanics tailor to that fight easily, as most of the fights in this game are. TL;DR- as someone who has a 50 sorc and has a 50 healing op, it's really frustrating thinking what could be done on a sorc that simply can't be done or even closely imitated on an op. INB4- Just quit op and make your sorc a healer.

QFT. I play as an op healer, and even I would pick a sorc healer over my own class. I do fine, but I know a sorc healer has more utility and stop gaps (static barrier, etc) to make the job easier. To follow up on a previous post- I don't think ops need 'exact same things' as other healers. I just would like to be a fully viable healer. Right now I feel like merc and especially sorc are the "real" healers, and us ops are left running around like ******* trying to hump doorknobs in our fps and ops.

Just wanted to insert my response. Not on board with the "I canceled my sub" threads entirely, but I don't entirely blame them either. It's not really frustration as much as it's pretty clear that they aren't particularly concerned with a class that's in the extreme minority. Here's what I wrote back to that dev: "Hey brah, It's already been proven in countless threads that agents get the shaft when it comes to comparing sorc to agent (even merc to agent?). Additionally, this is the first time I've ever seen a dev answer -any- agent complaint about anything. As I play an operative healer, I still do fine in ops and flashpoints. That's not the issue. Like Animal Farm, the healers in this game do more "fine" than others, often by a wide margin. The people who are discussing the inherent issues with agent mechanics deserve a little more respect. Does the OP? That's up for discussion. The fact that you responded to a pot shot thread rather than people who carefully maintain and update their agent threads with statistical evidence that heavily favors any other healer than the agent shows that you really don't take the agent community seriously and are perfectly willing to let our class fade into the background to please the majority. I can understand your frustration, but this is the first time I've been appalled at a dev response- not because of your "witty" retort in this thread, but because after all of the devs ignoring perfectly legitimate complaints about our class mechanics for what seems like the beginning of launch, this is the thread you chose to respond to, acting like a child rather than addressing the agent community's complaints at large. Pathetic." Not sure if it helps understand where agents are coming from a little more, but my hope is that some dev reads it and takes it into consideration with the next round of balancing.

This was my response to that post in that thread. Not that he'll read it but maybe it'll get some more visibility here: "Hey brah, It's already been proven in countless threads that agents get the shaft when it comes to comparing sorc to agent (even merc to agent?). Additionally, this is the first time I've ever seen a dev answer -any- agent complaint about anything. As I play an operative healer, I still do fine in ops and flashpoints. That's not the issue. Like Animal Farm, the healers in this game do more "fine" than others, often by a wide margin. The people who are discussing the inherent issues with agent mechanics deserve a little more respect. Does the OP? That's up for discussion. The fact that you responded to a pot shot thread rather than people who carefully maintain and update their agent threads with statistical evidence that heavily favors any other healer than the agent shows that you really don't take the agent community seriously and are perfectly willing to let our class fade into the background to please the majority. I can understand your frustration, but this is the first time I've been appalled at a dev response- not because of your "witty" retort in this thread, but because after all of the devs ignoring perfectly legitimate complaints about our class mechanics for what seems like the beginning of launch, this is the thread you chose to respond to, acting like a child rather than addressing the agent community's complaints at large. Pathetic."

Hey brah, It's already been proven in countless threads that agents get the shaft when it comes to comparing sorc to agent (even merc to agent?). Additionally, this is the first time I've ever seen a dev answer -any- agent complaint about anything. As I play an operative healer, I still do fine in ops and flashpoints. That's not the issue. Like Animal Farm, the healers in this game do more "fine" than others, often by a wide margin. The people who are discussing the inherent issues with agent mechanics deserve a little more respect. Does the OP? That's up for discussion. The fact that you responded to a pot shot thread rather than people who carefully maintain and update their agent threads with statistical evidence that heavily favors any other healer than the agent shows that you really don't take the agent community seriously and are perfectly willing to let our class fade into the background to please the majority. I can understand your frustration, but this is the first time I've been appalled at a dev response- not because of your "witty" retort in this thread, but because after all of the devs ignoring perfectly legitimate complaints about our class mechanics for what seems like the beginning of launch, this is the thread you chose to respond to, acting like a child rather than addressing the agent community's complaints at large. Pathetic.