Correct, which is why I remained out of the conversation otherwise. We all have a biased view of others determined by how they talk or what they say (which can be greatly obscured over simple text). However I still stand with Jherad on this particular point. I (and almost any other commando I have met in game) have always made good use of the stock strike knock back and Oticus is the first person I have seen who appreciates the change. Hell, I remember joining a guild once and the 'resident' commando asked me if I was talented into the stock strike knock back (as a way to tell if I am an experienced commando and make use of more utility as opposed to less). As such I feel that Oticus doesn't use stock strike to its fullest or doesn't use the gunnery mechanics to its fullest. Does it mean he is a bad player? I certainly do not think so. Does it form a bias opinion for me? Unfortunately yes, but I have been playing commando since release (and some in beta) and have dedicated hours into understanding the design of it and how best to use it (just the design, I don't have patience for theory crafty and min-maxing). Now please Jherad and Oticus, stop the hot headed (or near hot headed) attitudes and simply agree to disagree. Everyone has their own preference and use of a certain skill, and of course, can even voice them out. However at the same time, majority rules. When everyone around you says something is wrong except you, then you might want to reconsider reevaluating some of your thoughts. Doesn't necessarily mean how you use the skill is incorrect, and if you find more use of it otherwise more for you, but there is a large portion of commando players who are not seeing the use in it. Not enough to make the change to what it will be. Also, there is the "we may not know what he meant" part by ArchangelLBC. I am not so sure about that considering the sentences (to me) were pretty straight forward and deliberate. I believe that they absolutely intend to give a 4m skill the ability to root enemies next to us.

Despite the fact that he is right? BTW, I have not seen him crying over this. Not once has he started (in a yelling manner or not) saying things like "whoa is me" or "commando/BW is doomed". Instead he has been providing constructive thoughts and experience to this thread (which is certain cases, like this latest, I agree with) much like the majority of the people posting in this thread has. I still agree with the majority on the stock strike changes as well. I used that rather often, whether it was to interrupt a chained attack, to move a player off a ramp or pop them into a pool of acid (or better yet, getting them closer to or pushing them further into after using concussion charge). When I am at range behind my team and a melee jumps to me the last thing I want to do is stick them where they are. In a case like that, even if I could push them with concussion charge it still defeats any purpose, seeing as they still have to wait a few seconds for their leap to cool down then jump again.

I am more curious to what other changes BW has in mind. As for those already announced, I have never once been in a situation and thought "I need an interrupt for this" (of course I rarely go to FP or ops with more than one or multiple troopers). Especially in PVP, since BW has bashed commando's (and mercs) so much that people rarely PVP with them anymore it isn't likely we hit too many players with long cast times (except some medics as others have said, but in a one out of five times a game an interrupt is necessary is not grounds to bother with it). Although I can see why it is added seeing as it should have been there to begin with. Even though BW used to defend themselves saying "commandos have so much utility that an interrupt is just unnecessary". As for the other changes, I do not play medic however even I am excited about that snare with kolto residue. However, as others have state the change for charged barrel seems underwhelming considering that it only applies to AMP instead of MP or both. As for the cryo grenade, well I am not sure if I can completely understand their reasoning for this (even after reading that full posting) but as oaceen said it is a change to everyone so I cannot harp on it as a major change for commandos. I still do not understand it though, I used it like candy rather often (especially in 1v1, can really turn the tide).

What are you talking about? We are keeping concussion charge (concussive round is the CC, not knock back), what BW is doing is changing all other classes with a 360 degree knock back into a 120 degree knock back. What that means is everyone will have to point their knock backs to use them, BW is not changing concussion charge (unless they decide it needs to be on a longer cool down which is bull). As for the flash bang, it is easier to hit more targets than not than one might think (although hitting max 5 can be a task in itself). Frankly it is just like using mortar volley except you do not need to wait for the channel to end, just pick your target and use it. Most commandos who rely on mortar volley tend to develop a good sense of the 5m right off the bat (of course it can still be difficult to achieve, but I know that rather often my ground target does not always form right so I end up gestimating anyway).

I am glad you found something that works for you but I will say this again, commando can turn in place. Both manual and letting the cast do it. When you stand still and cast at a target your character will turn to follow him/her, or if you think your better and more accurate, you can turn yourself while casting.

I think anyone can agree 1 on 1 Gunnery is at a large disadvantage. However it still stands to preferences, as I am ok with not being good at 1 v 1 but can mow into a group and do large damage or be able to protect a node (which I have become good at). I know that I am very effective when I shadow my team, attack from a distance, or better yet above my targets, and just spread damage to enemies attacking my team.

No it does not, you can turn till you get dizzy and your cast bar will keep on rolling. Only when you move from the spot you are in is when the bar is disrupted. I am beginning to wonder just how well you played as gunnery anyway, maybe it simply isn't your style and mobility is. Something as simple as that can be a determining factor in your results.

I would like to add that it is also a play style difference. Some people may be able to play both specs with relative ease, but for others they simply outshine as Gunnery or as Assault. I have always been better as Gunnery than Assault, and frankly when I did PVP the only way I found myself getting ran over is if the other player out gears me (I do not PVP that much anymore, so I am under geared) or if there are like 3 against me. Other than that I am usually at the top of my game and pose a threat to most anyone I run into. I played as Assault for awhile and I was simply not as effective. Granted I did do more damage than usual but that was simply because I was burning people to keep them from taking points.

He wasn't saying we need leaps, but that we needed immunity to leaps. Just to clarify. As for my input on the subject, well I simply hate the idea of switching specs constantly just to PVP. I love Gunnery and I do PVE more than PVP, however having to (or even suggesting) switch my specs over and over again is just asking too much (not saying the OP was saying this).

If I am not mistaken nearly all bosses have an 8% dodge rating so as long as your base accuracy is at 100% you should be good to go. Every singe character, regardless of class, gets a 5% dodge rating right off the bat. The only way to raise that is by getting (or making) armor to raise your dodge %, which mostly tanks may be the ones who are geared for it. So you wont have much trouble with most players as long as you have your base accuracy at 100%. It is generally a good rule of thumb to follow.

I have absolutely no idea why your grav round is blown out of proportion. It has always been a bother to me that it does take more time to do the damage but some of your story just doesn't make sense. Like the second cast bar being finished before the first grav round hits, I just cannot ever see that happening without lag. Ever. Now HiB can hit before grav round, it happens every time and that isn't so bad seeing as how HiB is supposed to be a real quick hit. As for comparison to bounty hunter I still am not seeing the difference. Not at all, I can easily say this as I can use the HiB equivalent (been a little while since I played my bounty hunter) also hits just before tracer missle does (again, this is unless there were some changes to BH in the past month or two). I also find the sound grav round makes rather easy to notice impact. You can hear a thud like sound to confirm its hit. On top of that there 'vortex' animations triggered on the target (it is mostly composed of light however it has 'flairs' that can be seen protruding from the target). I usually rely on the sound over the animation however. I am not sure about the conditions of your testing but for the more extremes it certainly sounds a bit like lag to me. Though I, and any one else, can still agree there is a slight time lag between completed cast and hit. Also on the aesthetic note I would like some more to the animation to enforce the concept of our central attack.

The point other than being the best is just having a good time with people you can enjoy and trust ..... your ability to understand there are other sides to a point is lackluster at best. While you may not have met someone who can best you (whether this is true or not remains to be seen, but I will admit there is always a negative stigma attached to self proclaimed #1's) , it still doesn't mean you are the best there is or your set up is the best there is (despite mounting mathematical proof otherwise). I still cannot see where your stack of Aim benefits more seeing as the amount of crit rate you get is simply not enough to note, especially when compared to an improvement to base attack (which also means higher damage when you do crit, which you can still stack otherwise) which makes sure you are putting out more damage and not relying on chance and the crit system (which still has its wonderful down times, like 10 straight attacks with no crit even at 38% crit rate).

Depends, if you are medic some might say alacrity is a must have. If you are dps I would suggest shying away from alacrity unless you are good with all your other stats you want (power, aim, accuracy, crit). Accuracy might be a better bet, I personally prefer to keep at least 100% normal accuracy at all times whenever possible.

I support the part where it is very useful with enemy's taking points in pvp and it is a great way to stop them, however as for pve goes I find it more cost effective than it should be. There are other ways to deal with trash mobs that may or may not be worth using hail of bolts on, they would usually cost less and do more damage.

There is no difference. That is what they were saying. Both grav round tracer missle apply buffs and debuffs once fired and once it hits its target (buffs-debuffs respectively). I have played both commando and bh several times and can say with confidence that is the case. Also remember that the commando and bh are mirrored classes, so each tree and attack closely resemble, if not exactly the same, to each other.

Personally I have not viewed alacrity for a commando (healer or not) a required stat. More of something to add after aim, crit and surge. As for the sets, if you play as one role for everything (like I do) it would be best to go with two sets (a PVP set of WH/B M and a PVE set of rakata/BH) so I can switch between one another depending if I pvp or pve. See pvp sets have lower stats when compared to the pve sets because pvp sets provide expertise, which is better in pvp but not so much for pve. So as you duel role you may want to consider 4 sets (2 pve and 2 pvp sets, one of each for healing and one of each for dps) to fully cover what you do. Of course that would take along time to work on, either way each of the sets are geared towards certain roles, you may lose in the long run trying to mix healer sets/mods with dps.

I am still ok with not having an interrupt. Yes it does make a lot of fights easier for PVE however we can still prevail. What we need is defense against interrupts (for PVP) and not much more than that. We need more defensive utility because our offense is better than most would admit (yes it does take more skill and effort to be good with a commando but frankly it makes me happier to be good at it) and an interrupt does little for us seeing as how our biggest problem tends to be melee players and they are not heavy on cast times. As for the argument of bosses who demand interrupts, BW really just needs to start designing bosses that do not demand constant interrupts.

Not only that but there are plenty of players who picked the Commando just to go for pure damage with a really big gun. When I made my Commando I had the mindset of "I will be able to put out as much damage as a part of the best dpser's around, either burst or sustained." I was not expecting this. Although PVE still works for me in most cases, pvp not so much anymore (I used to do it regularly earlier in the year).

The leveling areas are not nearly as bad as say the dailies. Belsavis, Black Hole and Ilum are notoriously bad with high populations, and when another instance isn't formed until there are at least 10-20 players per daily area then yes it is worth complaining about. I now spend almost half as much time waiting for respawns just so I can finish each daily.

You can heal while using the Gunnery tree however that skill tree is for damage, not healing. So yes you will have slow cast times as opposed to if you invested in the Combat Medic tree.

This is more of a preferences kind of choice. Both Gunnery and Assault are viable trees, the main difference is really the damage type. Assault focuses on DoT (damage over time) types of damage, which bypasses armor rating and damage reduction but has to deal with the elemental and internal type damage resistance (all character have, at least, 5% elemental and internal damage reduction. You can find armor that raises that but is best for tank classes, not dps). Gunnery focuses on heavy hits and kinetic damage which is lowered by the receiving characters armor rating and damage reduction. Because the elemental and internal reduction is almost always low the individual numbers from assault are going to be lower on assault than gunnery, but makes up for it with constant damage over a period of time. As I said, it is more for preferences. I enjoy more to hit heavy and hit hard so I play gunnery however it is always fun to burn someone out with flames, I still like gunnery more though.

Which is still affected by so many variables as azhrione just said. It is even worse now that the servers have been jammed pack full together with the transfers. You will absolutely see far ranging stats like that when in a pug group since you can never know the other players experience with the game and with the class they play. I have also reached such high amounts of damage also but that usually happens when I am fighting against a team with good healers and I can simply sit there and stack my damage, I have also reached over 500k just by sticking by my pug members and providing support. I can only imagine what would happen if I was with a team who all knew what they were doing. What the main issue, as far as pvp goes, is BW strong reliance on expertise. In a good few cases it takes the skill out of fights.

Diminishing returns is when you have a stat that reaches a certain point and whenever you get more of it the benefit is less than what it used to be. It is a fail safe system to keep players from becoming over powered. An example is if you have a crit rate of 30%. If you raise it by 5% then you will likely get crit attack ~35% , however if you raised it by 10% to 40%, you may only hit a crit about lets say ~37% of the time. That 5 extra % didn't quite equal 5% at that high of a crit rate. The same goes for the crit multiplier with usually DR around 70-75%.

Well that kind of defeats the purpose of Gunnery, why not just go with Assault?

I haven't really checked websites for such info (I always work on my own experience) however I know SWTor is a great website for whatever you may need so you can give them a try.