Hey all, Came back after a long break and noticed my Q button was unmapped. Couldn't remember what was there so I just dropped a move I rarely used before in the now empty slot. Start pvping again and after a few matches I get into a HB match. I do my normal rush to the ball only to find out when I instinctively press Q to pass that it is the skill that was somehow unmapped. So I open the Abilities window and go to the General tab and there is no "Throw the Huttball" skill...check all the abilities tabs and can't find it anywhere. Tried reloading UI in the match and nothing. Relogged and now waiting for a queue, while both hoping for and dreading that I will get another HB match. Any ideas?

No more level 10-19 pvp 20-50 lowbies (and give players the entire level 20 WZ comms armor in the mail when they ding 20, add a couple relics that don't have a light/dark requirement) 51-64 midbies 65 end game (and give players recuit gear {6 ilvls below non-ranked pvp gear} free in the mail at 65, relics included) Don't allow pve gear into WZs at level 65 and either show a message when they try to queue without it equipped, or just automatically replace any pve gear with the appropriate recruit gear in that slot(s) for the duration of the match. Give us something useful to buy with WZ comms while leveling, JUST MAYBE make the old centurion, champion, battlemaster, and war hero skins available for purchase with WZ comms at level 30, 40, 50, and 60. (yes I know the levels don't match the valor ranks/titles, but they can make this work somehow)

Here's my two cents, as far as pvp is concerned. It depends on what kind of pvp you want to do. Both specs perform well enough in regular pvp. Scrapper is considered the stronger of the two by the majority of the population and is very good at guarding and taking nodes, but don't discount the off healing power of Ruffian because it is quite strong. If you are the guy who likes to guard or run off solo, play Scrapper. If you are the guy who like to stick with the zerg, play Ruffian. Both are great in 1v1 situations, but I feel Scrapper is stronger for that because you are more likely to get a fast kill. It seems the majority of the scoundrel community feels that Scrapper is in a nice place right now, as far as balance goes, and that Ruffian needs some love with the most common suggestions being a bit more damage on Wounding Shots and/or the dots, or a faster ramp up to Wounding Shots. If you are interested in ranked, you are better off as heals, unless you are very good, then you may have some success with Scrapper. Look for Mosh on twitch to see some ranked Scrapper/Concealment game play. There is supposedly a high ranked Ruffian/Lethality, but I don't think that player has any video content. Good luck!

"...corroding the enemy..." sounds like corrosive assault, no? Dots do damage in ticks and CA gets additional ticks of damage for dots present. You may disagree with my choice of wording, but it doesn't alter what happens with the skill. So much condescension in your replies. I can see that the frustration of having so many people disagree with you must be wearing you thin. I will leave you to your opinion since you're obviously not to be swayed. Your obstinacy is impressive, though. Enjoy your vacation.

The in-game description of Lethality: "The Lethality Operative firmly believes the one true gift that keeps on giving is poison. Dispensing potent toxins using a variety of methods, the Lethality Operative's attacks take a toll over time, corroding the enemy from withing until all that's left is a withered husk that only thinks it still has a chance." Sure sounds like a dot spec to me. And lets look at the discipline path which grants 17 skills to the Lethality spec. At least 12 of these are directly related to Lethality's dots. Plus the dots do internal damage, right? And CA does weapon damage with bonus internal damage for dots present. Sounds to me like you get two potent additional dot ticks if you have your other dots on the target. Different wording on the tooltip vs Cull but in effect you are still getting more dot ticks. And that delayed burst is also weak right now. Concealment (just for example) can roughly match the "burst" of the entire CA train in two moves in half the time. So since the burst is weak does that mean Lethality is not a delayed burst spec either? By your reasoning? Lethality needs to be looked at and the damage needs to be tweaked somewhere. There are plenty of great ideas in this thread and in the Op/Scoundrel forums to improve this dot spec.

No, it cannot. While you could cut away the fluff of the damage of the dots themselves, the fact that they are required to give CA its max damage (60% without dots present), just further cements this as a dot class. Lethality needs its dots to reach its maximum output. I see what you're trying to prove here, but it just isn't true. It absolutely is a dot class that just plays a bit differently than the more traditional dot classes of madness/hatred. Simply because the dots themselves do weak damage, doesn't mean they can't define the spec. In my opinion, the dots should do much more damage (2-2.5x more), or CA should do more of it's damage (90%) without the dots present. The second option would push the class into your view, I think.

I can't stop myself from expecting a map and expecting to be disappointed at the same time...a black hole forming in my brain.

This game has always been PvE oriented with BW even stating that from the beginning.

Op cleanse works on tech roots, not force.

Scrapper is great for leveling. One problem you might be having due to 12xp is that your gear can quickly become obsolete. Tranquilize the silver/gold mob in the group and kill the others first, using flash grenade if you need more control. Disappearing Act if you get overwhelmed.

Actually, this will be a mess with trying to stop spammers from removing the bomb, which is what, like a 1.5-2 second cast time? Ha!

I'm disappointed by this. One of my favorite uses was to root and escape some nasty dps that had full resolve and was about to eat my face. So now when you use sever tendon on a full resolve enemy it will apply two 50% slows? The normal 12 second one and a new 2 second one that falls off if damage is applied? I guess I'll be keeping Sedatives full time instead. Seems like this will have a big impact on HB matches, especially those last second saves at the goal line.

I wish you had opened with this. Much funnier than the rest of it.

That did the trick, thanks!

Personally, I prefer Ruffian for leveling and Scrapper for PvP. I find the off healing to keep up a companion just feels easier/smoother on Ruffian, even though they are basically the same until Ruffian gets Scurry. Maybe because I tend to stay farther away from the mobs, whereas on Scrapper I am just punching everything in the face. And I don't find it repetitive, at all. Between sap, flashbang, kick, off heals and unloading Brutal Shot chains, I don't get bored. I am also a little silly with the extra goofiness I put into making it more exciting for myself. The dps is perfectly fine for all PvE content. The class is underplayed because this is Star Wars and scoundrels are republic, don't have a light saber, and they are not FOTM. Plus they only rock the single blaster, so I think, aesthetically speaking, many folks are turned off. Be that as it may, I like it and the scoundrel's "look" with the armor is my favorite.

So I have a 55 Operative with all 156 gear and mods, except for two level 19 relics and I'm sitting at 1908 expertise. What do I change to get to 2018?

You may need to make some utility changes. Emersion, Backlash, Electric Bindings and Shapeless Spirit are all very annoying for Scrappers. Pick whatever suits your style. As to you getting slaughtered in 4 hits... I'm no probability expert, but with some rough crit chances: Backblast 40% crit Bludgeon 30% crit Bloodboiler 100% crit (assuming set buff for simplicity) Suckerpunch 30% Having all four of those crit in a row will happen on 3.6% of a scrapper's openers, or about a 1 in 28 chance.

Hey KBN, do you have any thought on stats for the PvP side? Is accuracy a consideration? I know concealment avoids it like the plague, but it seems to have value for lethality. I was thinking to gear all power/alacrity with cunning augments, but maybe pick up a little accuracy, if needed.

All of the scoundrel specs use the blaster pistol for main hand and the scattergun for offhand. The blaster pistol will be seen all the time, but the scattergun only makes an appearance in certain animations.

Thanks for the quick reply. So, basically just gear it the same as concealment then.

Hi. I'm leveling a lethality op with no plans of ranked, just regs. I was wondering what stat priority you went with. Is it worth getting any accuracy since toxic blast is white damage and corrosive assault has a white damage component. I think if the white damage of corrosive assault misses then the whole attack misses? Do you get any crit or alacrity, or just go full power surge perhaps?

If you (anyone) have interest in PvP at 60 then you should have maxed reg and ranked comms ready to spend when you ding. Kaos offers great advice above. Look for Icykill's thread about Bolster, it's usually on the first or second page. If you are going to be PvPing casually (no ranked) then I would personally recommend aiming for Dark Reaver for your MH/OH and non-set pieces and min/maxed Exhumed for your set pieces. You can get there faster by converting your ranked comms back to reg to buy exhumed more quickly. That will also make the initial couple weeks of farming far less painful. Again, I only recommend that if you are not planning any ranked goals. *edited* Here is Icykill's thread.

Nice guide, thanks. I won't be dusting mine off, but definitely pointed out some good tips for helping me better counter the ones I run into.

I'll miss your posts, always a good read. Good luck in your future endeavors.

Yes, it is.