More like... Heroic Moment -> Legacy Force Sweep -> Legacy Orbital Stike -> Legacy Force Storm = I WIN against 3 enemy players, lol. Other than that, pets are prone to taunts from players and their pets, so you'll likely need to reuse the attack commando on enemy players several times.

It can be taunted - and it can taunt the enemy's companion into doing the same thing - it's not a player, so it works under the same aggro-generating mechanics as most npc's... unless you're controlling its actions. Good news is that using a key-bind to control your pet doesn't cause you to lose a GCD, so it doesn't inhibit your actions as significantly as you're making it out to be. Also, the biggest advantage using a pet in pvp grants you is access to heroic moments and the INSANELY overpowered pvp applications of the legacy abilities - if you have 3 or 4 legacy abilities (some are better than others for PvP, I must admit), you can easily wipe out 4+ players in seconds.

Well, you're attempting to play as 2 seperate specs, right? Makes sense that you have to earn the gear for both of those (force master set is pretty good for the DPS assassins, too, so maybe even 3 full sets, but that depends on your play-styles).

Sets of WH gear typically require the same version of the set's battlemaster shells (there are some exceptions where there is WH gear of a certain catagory despite the fact that it doesn't exist in battlemaster form, so it requires another piece - i.e. War Hero Weaponmaster's Lightsaber requires BM Vindicator LS). In a nut-shell: Yes, you have to grind it out. Fortunately, it's not that difficult to grind out BM gear (my deception assassin just hit 50 2 days ago and he already has WH: weapon, BM: off-hand, helm, legs, boots - and I've spent more time pvping on my marauder in the past 2 days than my assassin due to ranked warzones). At least you already have a full set of tank gear, so you can obtain medals far more easily than a fresh character. It's not such a bad grind, really, unless you factor in end-game remodding; then again, remodding isn't too terrible since you can usually find inexpensive pieces with the mods/enhancements you want, so at least you don't need to buy the crazy expensive items like Main-hand/Off-hand or chest for remodding purposes.

Sorc/Sage long duration DoT's are a bit underpowered in end-game pvp. As a madness sorc. I rarely come out of a 1v1 with marauders/sents (of any spec) with less than 80% hp. They're easily countered once you know how each spec plays and don't freak out the moment they charge to you (i.e. don't knockback or stun immediately - resolve is your biggest foe as a sorcerer against a marauder and you will need to time them perfectly to turn the marauder DPS into garbage and time your stun to completely bypass their undying rage).

I have no QQ about deception as far as its survivability/damage output go (though I do feel it needs the force speed cooldown reduction/root + slow -breaking attached to it from the tank spec more than the tanks do) and I don't open with a maul. Personally, the only time I'll even CONSIDER using a maul without a maul proc is if i have dark embrace + exploitive strikes melee crit bonus proc + full force + target is squishy and/or doesn't have defensive cooldowns up. Seriously, using a maul without proc (at least) and/or crit chance bonus causes more resource issues in the long-run, and 2x voltaic slashes costs 50 force, so I find it vitally important to V-Slash with dark embrace (unless you're this crazy force-regen hybrid spec, then yes, you're a maul-monkey) and unless your target is a squishy without a bubble, you'll be missing out on a LOT of maul's potential damage. I usually prefer to hold on to a maul proc for 9-10s before using maul (this lets me get back-to-back procced mauls off). It's also difficult to catch moving targets (unless speed debuffed) with maul from stealth (even with the 15% movement speed boost talent - then again, some of this can be attributed to my assassin being body type 1 *facepalm* - not sure how well it works for others).

Fills so little resolve to foes. The high energy cost is to help prevent us from abusing it. On that note, they DO need to address bubble-mez. Don't forget that if we let it run a full 4s, we regain 32 force (assuming we don't have dark embrace active), so it pays for itself. This is my point - the crit/non-crit aspect is how we're balanced out. If we get a crit out of stealth from spike (considered a force-based attack for some reason, since it gives me the melee crit chance proc from exploitive strikes) and use recklessness + overcharge saber, we're going to melt our target(s). Being able to do this more often would really kinda' overpower us.

Only 30? Jeez... my marauder uses 3.5 of the bars with abilities that get used every match (the last 0.5 of the bar has stances, vehicle and other misc. abilities) - I think you need some grenades, mang!!

Here, here! Taunting is easy and becomes VERY SIGNIFICANT late-game. To those that feel that their primary focus is to dish out damage, that's great, but it's not everything you'll be doing as a 50, so you won't likely be considered a good team player (thus, you might get in 1 ranked match before they realise how poorly you support the team and refuse to give you another chance).

Only thing I think deception needs is the mobility (root/slows breaking from force speed - albeit this talent is in the tank tree). Low slash is great as is and would be HORRIBLY overpowered if its force cost were reduced. Recklessness is fine as is, since any good deception assassin stacks a good bit of crit and uses the 4-piece bonus from stalker (which gives an extra stack of recklessness and reduces its cooldown) - I think deception would be putting out WAY too much damage if recklessness were on a shorter cooldown - and yes, although we don't do HUGE damage without crits, we DO dish out HUGE damage with crits - and we still do ~2k shock damage/2.5k discharge damage with non-crits, which is pretty good compared to other classes' non-crit damage values; but... I DO wish we could get something like a crit damage bonus from force slow.

Though you CAN augment the Matrix cube (this guy is misinformed), power relic (which can also be augmented) is still better.

Deception needs some extra mobility (i.e. force speed for tank spec on a 20s cooldown and breaks roots/slows) - sorry, shroud is used for me to remove DoT's and negate things like Thermal Detonator damage usually, and since we don't get the shroud duration bonus or the cooldown reduction (without sacrificing a lot), that's its main function. Other than that, deception is great (squishy as hell, which it should be since we have crazy DPS and an incredible stun-lock). I just hit 50 on mine last night, and already topping damage charts despite being in recruit gear with WH weapon and BM legs (that's all I got up to before we began doing ranked matches, so I had to hop on my main). Been dishing out ~3500 shock crits (x1.5 if they chain-shock), ~3300 maul crits, ~3600 discharge crits (with 5 stacks), and 3800 assassinates to full WH geared enemies... albeit, I'm averaging ~8 deaths per match, since everyone outgears me and I'm taking huge damage.

Sorry, I'm a bit rusty on some of the tactics with annihilation spec - I specced to carnage a good ways back - used to be able to use vicious slash 3 times (there wasn't an internal cooldown on how often it could be applied and each melee attack with it up would only consume one charge of it) and potentially apply 3 stacks of DS on up to 5 enemies at the same time. I know they've changed it up a bit, so it's nice to know you're now getting full heal values from a 3-stack (6% per tick) of DS instead of having to spread it out for maximum survivability. As for spacing out your DS stacks, it results in more overal damage to an enemy (particularly if an enemy is being supported by a healer that isn't removing the DoT); works best to do this when they have 2 stacks on them before you use the 3rd, though you CAN milk it between the first and second stacks (albeit the single DS stack isn't doing much damage).

It's also rare that you're within range of said jugg/guardian when they pop them both. Not that it doesn't ever happen, but you can go several matches without them working. Also, heal values are higher for allies when they don't have a pvp healing received debuff (which is rare, but occurs sometimes in huttball) - player respawned, takes some falling or fire damage as they've come back to being within range of the healing.

Alacrity is good for classes that use activated and channeled force/tech abilities - it does not apply a reduction for any melee/ranged channeled abilities (if it does, there are exceptions), however (i.e. ravage). Basically alacrity will reduce the amount of total channeled time required for channeled abilities such as force lightning - it doesn't increase the total damage the ability does, but the damage occurs more quickly, thus it increases the overall DPS for such abilities. Now, as for activated abilities (akin to most turret-mode specs), it will reduce the activation time required for them and is immensely useful since activated (and channeled) abilities DO NOT cause a GCD (you can use an instant-cast ability immediately following an activated or channeled one). The 1.5s activated abilities can be reduced down to 1.2s (best I've seen) - thus, spamming such activated abilites causes the ability to be used more often (assuming they aren't getting interrupted) than someone using instant abilities (which always cause a 1.5s GCD). So, a lightning specced sorcerer with heavy alacrity (1.2s cast-time on lightning strike, which was my example of the best I've seen someone get it down to) can use lightning strike 5 times in 6s compared to... say a PT spamming flame burst 4 times in a 6s window. Only classes/specs that benefit significantly from alacrity are turret-mode DPS (arsenal merc/lightning sorcerer) and healers (though ops/scound healers tend to rely more heavily on their HoT's and instant-heal so many of them stack very little if any). Sure, most classes/specs have at least one ability that will benefit from alacrity, but sometimes it's an ability they don't rely on or use often, and in some cases alacrity might even cause significant resource issues.

Well, if you stack crit, you'll get more reactive healing without having to use berserk every time. Other tricks to maximize healing received at the cost of dealing weaker damage values are to pop deadly saber then apply one DoT stack to 3 seperate targets (rather than to stack them all on the same target) - this causes your DoT damage to be spread out and you can get ractive heal ticks from 3 seperate targets - it's a good tactic to use if you're not trying to kill enemies outright and instead wish to last longer (great to do in hutt-ball + VS room transitions). Also helps to try and reset rupture's cooldown as much as possible. Hell, even if you only have one target to apply your DoT's to, you can wait until your 1st stack is about to expire before you apply the 2nd stack and do the same before applying your 3rd stack (each time you increase the stack, you refresh the duration of the DoT back to its maximum timer, so you're even gaining more TOTAL DoT damage on a single target this way). Increasing max HP (not only for you, but your entire team as well) causes increased heal values. Jugg/Guardian teammates that are getting your team heals (from berserk) can reach ~750 HP per tick when they stack endure pain and rakata medpack (which both increase max HP and still stack with each other). Highest total healing I've seen from Annihilation/Watchman mara/sents are ~220k healing.

Dispatch = Knight finishing move - hits hardest from Watchman specced Sents and Vigilance specced Guardians. Spinning Kick = Shadow Finishing move - should be hitting harder than Dispatch. Zealous Leap = Moderate damage gap closer, shouldn't crit for more than 2k. Rail Shot/HiB = Yes, we all know that one. Marauder throw = Vicious throw - it should be on par with that of dispatch. Backblast... yeah, I can see it critting for 3k. Majority of the abilities you've listed are "finishers" which hurt, yes, but can only be used on targets below 30% HP. Others you have mentioned can be countered - back blast must be used from stealth IIRC, and you should always have a bubble up - which will pretty much negate all of its damage. Zealous Leap can only be used within 10m, so you can either root (which prevents gap-closers, btw) or keep beyond its range. Any rage/focus specced Warrior/Knight's close-range gap-closer shouldn't be what you're complaining about, it's their empowered smash/sweep damages you should look out for. Sages can hit for ~3600 total from a chain project (balance tree) - you'll see 2400's frequently on the first damage, followed by 1200 if it chains. Also, FiB should be hitting for 3800-4600 with ease - assuming you're balance specced. Bare in mind the numbers I'm spitting out at you are from my WH geared madness sorc, so sure, I understand that you might be missing SOME gear. TKT should be dealing ~1k - 1.2k per crit tick. DoT damage is rather poor unless it's a PoM procced Mind Crush (deals ~2k up-front and ~2.5k over 6-8s), albeit, weaken mind + sever force damage does add up if it isn't removed.

Yes, they're avoiding dinging 50. Yes, you can report them for this. Yes, Bioware has given out suspensions for this (even read that someone lost their account for this due to being a repeat offender). Do they tend perform well in pvp against 10-49's? Sure. Do they tend to perform well in pvp against 50's? No. That's why they refuse to ding 50. Yes, they often "twink" out their lv. 49 toons into full purple gear and augment everything. They're certainly capable of doing some crazy things because of this, but they aren't god-mode, and you'll still see them get rocked by any half-way decent lowbies. When this occurs, all you should be doing is /point followed by /laugh.

Tank juggs spam AoE slows so much it hacks my computer and forces me to unsub! Nerf them NAOWish!! =p On a more serious note, that happens to be one of the most annoying abilities in the game - being able to spam it freely with a 1s GCD... many a match has been won or lost with this. And even though I have lost 1v1's as a marauder to tank-specced juggs/guardians, I'll never admit it coz it had to be haxx! lol

Shield is a 2 min. CD (which reduces its CD when hit if talented, ~ 50s CD in my experience), and the heal is a 3 min. CD (which can also be talented, but I don't - it's also a lot more powerful than it appears to be on the tooltip for some reason). Mara/Sents do poor DPS when taunted (timely) since the taunts reduce their offensive windows - after the taunt has expired, their offensive window is usually on cooldown (~15s, same cooldown as single-target taunts, mind you) and their damage is moderate when they wait for another offensive window. Yes, Snipers/Gunslingers certainly have very little issues with cooldown management for their offensive windows, but you can deprive them of a lot of clutch burst with a taunt (personally I find protection medals come easiest from taunting a sniper/slinger), but if a sniper lasts long enough, you're absolutely right, they can easily go back to bursting the moment the taunts expire.

Well, what I meant for healers being a FoTM is that in ranked warzones, many DPS players have noticed how vital healers can change the outcome of a match, so many of them have begun rolling a healer alt. As for ops/scound healers being FoTM is what many Sorc/Sage/Merc/Commando healers have done, since they have discovered that ops/scound healers can bring a bit more to the table and have an easier time supporting multiple teammates. Yes, to be played optimally, ops/scound healers require far more than 3 buttons (then again so does EVERY class/spec, I don't care how easy you might believe their class happens to be, they're using most of what they have - sure, they're using 3-4 abilities more often than everything else which is why you notice those abilities most of all); but... ops/scound healers can self-sustain heal while on the move with a single insta-cast "fresource" (no resources consumed) heal when they're linging ~30% health. Pretty sure you know what I'm talking about. To other healers, this would make self-sustained healing "easy mode" by comparison to what they're used to. I agree that healers aren't ever really a FoTM, but they are around, and will always continue to be around due to demand (other classes/specs might start one simply because they're more likely to get a ranked warzone spot as healer, for example).

I agree with much of what you said, and yes I'm well aware that taunt-based survival requires running with another taunt-tossing teammate (which is where I said that PT/VG survivability becomes amazing). Now, as for enemies also tossing taunts, I find that PT/VG's have a significant advantage over other taunt-tossing classes in terms of being able to dish out DPS even while taunted. Yes, solo against multiple taunt-tossers is an issue (as it is for every class), as is facing enemy Pyro/Assault PT's/VG's that are also decent players (actually use taunts; know how to manage resources + time their abilities for maximum burst potential to make it difficult to heal back up). I'm not saying PT/VG survivability is overpowered or anything, I'm merely stating that their survivability is remarkably higher than most other classes if you know what you're doing and coordinate well with teammates - again, much of it comes from what you've agreed with me on: quick kills = less enemies beating on you and there are very few classes that can do this as easily as Pyro/Assault PT/VG.

Vulnerable to DoT's and AoE damage, mostly, yes. Only significant FF damage I've noticed on my Pyro is from snipers/gunslingers, stealthy stun-lockers (ops/scounds, assassins/shadows), and "in-your-face" melees that stagger their offensive windows so that I can't counter all of them with a single carbonize. And it's not like ANY class/spec is immune to focus-fire; sure, some can buy more time while getting FF'd with their burst-like defensive cooldowns (provided that they aren't stun-locked so they can actually pop them) compared to PT/VG, but in well-organised taunt-staggering groups, you really can't claim that PT/VG's don't last equally if not longer against FF than any other class/spec.

As I stated, it comes from staggered taunts + "The best defense is a strong offense" mentality. If I'm grouped with a fellow pyro PT guildmate, the 2 of us usually win at a node being defended by 4 (sometimes even 5) with taunt-staggering. Even when solo, I have a very easy time taking out 2 (even 3 at times) enemies with relative ease. Only times I have had issues are when I'm facing opponents that are also Pyro/Assault PT/VG and happen to be decent (baddies are bad, and consistantly perform poorly no matter what class/spec they are and should just stay as tank-specs so that they can last longer, lol).

All classes/specs are painfully unstoppable with gear disparity. Seriously, I can't figure out why people complain about maras/sents as much as they do. My most time-invested toon is a madness sorc. and I can take out equally geared marauders with very few issues on him, sometimes even 2 maras/sents against just me. Sorcerers have been one of the biggest complainers about marauders (even during 1.1, when there were few maras/sents, but some of them were incredible - 1.2 and 1.3 didn't significantly change marauders - all specs gained some things and lost some things). Also, when I play on my marauder, I find that there are 2 easily discernable types of players (class/spec and gear aren't even a significant factor here): those that know how/when to counter us (they'll either beat you or force you to pop all your defensive cooldowns and make it take very long to kill them) and those that don't (yes, these guys get dropped in 6-12 seconds) - every class/spec has enough to counter us, even merc/commando DPS, but not every player knows when to or even how to - I'm not even going to bother elaborating on what to do to counter us since I've done this so many times in other posts already, but it's certainly not this whole "use 8 million stuns and completely ignore marauders/sents" that people make it out to be. VG/PT (pyro/assault specs) dps is a bit much, and their survivability is far more powerful than most claim. Their DPS could use some fine-tuning by reducing cylinder DoT damage and/or putting an internal cooldown on how often it gets applied (currently it is bugging out when attacking a guarded target, applying the CGC DoT to both the tank and the target you're attacking with a single attack, causing it to deal 2x its intended damage -1.5 of that is going to the tank, 0.5 of that goes to their guarded target you're attacking) - Combustible Gas Cylinder's DoT damage rivals (or is even superior to in some cases) the total damage dealt by long duration DoT's, yet it has a short duration (thus, it causes significantly higher burst-like damage and is difficult to manage for healers). I think the damage from Rail Shot/HiB (even with the free use + resource return proccing every 6s; which I find to really average closer to 8s) is fine, but in its current state, the cylinder DoT effect damage + the burst DPS is a bit much and the fact that PT's/VG's have incredible survivability in groups due to taunt-staggering. Also, to those of you bashing DPS ops/scounds, all I can say is that you're doing something terribly wrong (possibly not even playing the spec correctly anymore) - you can't 1v1 every class all the time without ever getting hit and be able to immediately re-stealth after a quick kill anymore, so maybe if you stopped trying to do the same things you were able to do before the nerfs, you'd discover that you're still able to do many things noone else can (exception being Deception/Concealment Assassins/Shadows, which typically play very similar).