Tanksin burst is terrible. Their CC is decent but not amazing. The problem is people are dumb and blow CDs on force shroud. The assassin then resists all their good stuff and they get pwnd. Tanksins are on my kill list after everything but tank spec juggs. Their schtick is defending points solo until help arrives. In big fights their DPS looks nice but a ton of it is fairly ineffectual AE damage with wither (thought the debuff is great). A tank spec (hopefully Iron Fist) PT has WAY more control and is much better at shutting down a healer. Good healers will not die to a tanksin, even after 1.2. Overall what you want, however, is 1 or 2 tanksins for defence, a couple of healers and a crapton of awesome DPS to tear through the enemy at breakneck speed. Right now good healers and good DPS are what win WZs not tanksins.

Pyro's don't have good AoE. AP/Tactics are the AoE kings. After the patch pyros are still nasty but nothing compared to what they were before the patch. The way to beat them is using any CD that increases defense chance by a considerable amount as soon as you know they're attacking you. The problem is AP/Tactics is also really nasty now and you fight them very differently. PTs/VGs have been the best PvP DPS in the game since releases.

Honestly the new PvP system is much less forgiving and favors good teamwork. I actually enjoy it as when I've played with the 2-3 people I often queue with we can really do some good stuff. Fights that would have been impossible before are now possible because we can actually kill healers. I do think there is less room for tank specs in PvP now (well tanksin being the exception...) because as long as you have a couple taunts and some CC, guard is less important than being able to just kill the enemies before they kill you. I think the problem people are having is you have to play the game much differently now. You can no longer stand still with someone healing you and expect to survive. You have to kite and move and CC and everything else to keep from dying horribly. I welcome the challenge. Also the new WZ is awesome. By far my favorite.

VG version damage is fine but the slow isn't working.

The snare lasts 6s the DoT lasts 15s. You already have 15% increased movespeed and HO to ignore any snares and even more movespeed. I never need a snare to stay on a target. Spamming RB for the snare is very bad for PvP damage. I've played both specs considerably. The snare isn't worth the 8 talent points either.

You have no idea what you're talking about. You THINK it's a bad idea to drop it but I've tested it and it's a bad idea to keep it. Your DPS is no higher when using it (2X FB = RB + RS) and once you hit low ammo you won't even be able to use either since you need PFT stacks. You also can use those 8 points to get 9% aim, 4% damage debuff on FB targets, 10s less CD on electrocute and some damage reduction or other jazz. I tested both builds a ton on a PvP dummy today and keeping the DoT going is a huge waste of GCDs and heat.

Used my Free RP whenever I was missing 3+ ammo, all CDs used properly for ammo regen and conservation. Tests went about 10 rotations of maxing DPS without trying to keep ammo high. Basically a PvP situation. A NORS build would pull farther ahead when trying to keep ammo high since you could easily use the extra space in the 12 second rule for hammer shots/rapid shots. Where as you need to keep Gut/RB going to use RS/HiB. RB/Gut and RS/HiB are a complete waste now IMO. They do nothing but hinder PFT/PG stacking once your ammo is low in a long fight. The only way RS/HiB will be able to be a proper fit in AP/Tactics is that they refesh the Gut/RB DoT and slow. The 2 ammo need to get the DoT to use HiB was painful once you get past 3-4 rotations where you're really going all out. Had I done longer tests the RS build would have basically ended up having the same rotation and the NORS build with low ammo. From playing around with both builds today I have to say the NORS build seems to be the way to go. In any prolonged fight it wins due to better stacking of PFT and the fact you get to spend 8 points on other stuff. Also make sure to use explosive surge (not sure what BH AE is called) to get stacks before a fight/keep stacks after a fight. You can run into a fight with 5 stacks blow relic/adrenal/battle awareness and just gib someone before the fight even starts.

Tried both builds on PvP dummy with full battlemaster combat tech gear and I had around 1100-1200 DPS for both builds. I included 9% aim in both builds for a better comparison and they were dead even (dropped the DR when stunned on RS build). The problem with RS builds is after a few rotations it becomes difficult to have the ammo to use PFT/PG every 12s. The DPS for RS builds dropped faster from ammo issues than a NORS build because you don't have the ammo to both keep up PG/PFT stacks AND use gut and RS. NORS build IMO is superior because it allows you to have those 5 stacks 24/7. The one thing RS may be good for is burst. Build 5 stacks, Gut/RB, PFT/PG, immo/FP, SS/RP, HiB/RS would be slightly better burst. EDIT: I was fully buffed for all tests

Awesome, I'll be able to go into he first fight with 5 stacks now, this should be amazing for bursting down my first target.

I'm waiting until after the downtime to pass judgement on the TTK issue apparently some people were reporting that mitigation was severely bugged and DR skills and talents were not working at all last night.

As someone who kills healers as a day job in SWToR I will say that the specs with defensive CDs are far harder to deal with than the pure heal specs. Get that instant WW, or shield stun or root on the knockback or as much instant CC as you can if you want to live in PvP right now. Especially when I run with a guardian friend of mine and we focus fire, any healer without defensive tools will die extremely easily.

Good healers are even more important now than they were before 1.2 as the skill gap has been widened a lot. This patch has made the PvP much less forgiving and you have to be on your game to do well. The difference between a good player and a bad player has simply been amplified by the changes to healing. Before the patch even a mediocre to bad healer was generally worth having on a team because they were pretty easy to play and needed 0 resource management skills. Now a bad healer is just as bad to have on your team as a bad DPS. The skilled healers that I've played with are still awesome, some healers that I had thought were good are now failing terribly. I think healing may have been nerfed a little bit too much but as people are still adjusting to major changes in playstyle it's better to wait than freak out after less than a day of playing 1.2.

I'm going to try to get a full DPS test between the 2 specs (RS & non-RS) on my PvP dummy today once the servers come up. I'll be wearing full battlemaster combat tech with no mods swapped and the only non-BM piece being the matrix shard with aim and crit. The accuracy is a waste but is really hard to get rid of right now without losing a ton of expertise and expertise > * right now.

Novare Coast is by far the best WZ IMO. Huttball is still awesome but VS and Civil War are very bland in comparison. Everyone else liking it?

Wait, people care about war hero gear? It's a very tiny upgrade over BM. A suit of BM with maximized enhancements, yeah, tough to do, will beat a full WH set every time.