Just checking. You'd be surprised how many people claim to know how a class works inside and out, yet actually do not know much about the class at all.

Answer: False Acid blade being nerfed kinda sucks, but how often does armor penetration actually make a difference in PvE? Plus, it doesn't help the rest of the team: It only effects the operative Hidden Strike nerfed by 20%? only usable from stealth. How often are you starting a HM bossfight in stealth? Doesn't effect flashpoints at all. Knockdown reduced from 3sec to 1.5sec? You can't knock down flashpoint bosses anyway, no effect. In regular PvE? Still as effective as before. People with operatives/scoundrels pre-nerf will notice the decrease in flechette/acid blade, but it doesn't make them so incredibly gimped they aren't needed ANYWHERE. 1.5sec KD in regular PvE? You can kill just as fast by sleep dart on one enemy, kill the other two, so whether or not you knock an enemy mob down for 3sec or 1.5sec isn't a huge difference. 20% nerf from shoot first/hidden strike? Doesn't really make that much of a difference in regular PvE, either. In PVP? It's harder to kill heavy armor tank classes, but since when have rogue types ever been able to easily kill tank classes? 1.5sec knockdown means it doesn't instantly fill up the resolve bar, so in a way it's actually easier to kill people.

Sage. There is no choice between the two. Until sentinels are looked at more, there's no point in being one unless you absolutely hate the consular story with every fiber of your being.

The range at which a player/NPC can see you is much farther out when they're facing you than it is when you're behind them. When you're behind them, even if they have the camera zoomed out to the max, they won't see you until you've already hidden striked them.

If the fight lasts long enough for a stun, trinket, stun, trinket, restealth, reopener, reshield, run away, DoTs, then the operative/scoundrel you fought wasn't very good and you would have won regardless.

Because doing damage is the only way to determine how good someone is, right? What if I'm a lethality spec sniper/operative on voidstar, and spend most of my time DoTing everyone up so they can't plant the bomb ever? Let's also take it one step further in this hypothetical example and say that without me running around spamming DoTs, we would have lost the match. However, my total damage/kills are pretty low, because all I did was DoT everyone up, which were healed through. Are you going to say that because I didn't break 250-300k damage, even though I saved the entire match for my team, that I'm useless?

Sure, but the title of the thread is "Why do you play an Op?" not "why do you play an agent?" Naturally people are going to think, "Why do you play an Op? Oh, guess he's asking OPERATIVE players!"

In that case it's Surge that was nerfed, not Clairvoyant Strike. And really, if you think infiltration is pointless because of a nerf to a single stat, there are other issues at work.

I'm playing my agent as loyal to the empire and intelligence, but will take any chance she gets at limiting pointless casualties (Lightside. She's a sniper rifle, not a rocket launcher ) This includes being respectful towards authority (which kaliyo doesn't like), willing to take a quieter approach to a mission instead of "KILL/BLOW EVERYONE/THING (UP)" (which kaliyo doesn't like), etc. In all honestly, I think Kaliyo is an idiot, but she's an effective idiot, which is why I keep her around. Sith? I don't like them, but I kiss up to them, because otherwise it's just "You've failed me for the last time! *force choke*" (yes, I know there is no way to get your character killed during a conversation with a sith because this is an MMO, but still). The force has gotten to them and they think they can do whatever they want.

Are you sure you didn't just hit 50, and are trying to hit people in full battlemaster gear, and assuming the damage difference is because of a nerf instead of the expertise in the gear?

Read through the OP again. He wants mobility as in moving around. Not "mobility" as in never allowing the enemy to move. That is basically a lethality sniper or an operative. Anything that isn't forced to stay in one spot in cover all the time.

I'm an operative because I like being called overpowered despite our entire class apparently being gimped into being unplayable. Plus: I like stealth, melee and healing. With an Operative I have all three.

considering how jedi knights start with melee, are encouraged to melee, and each advanced class continues to melee? It's a whole different ballgame if you decide to stay at range and spam saber throw than it is for a smuggler who begins at range, gets some melee abilities but for the most part encourages a ranged playstyle, then has a radical shift in playstyle with one of their ACs. Someone didn't do their homework

Never used adrenals and all that other stuff that people consider "vital" to the class, and was still ranking #1 with damage and kills before the nerf. And this was before I got Flechette Round (I was playing scoundrel) So seeing as I was doing just fine without the 100% armor penetration, why won't I continue to do just fine when I do get high enough to get the now 30% armor pen? Also, a 20% nerf to damage doesn't make an ability completely useless. 1.5sec KD instead of 3sec KD? Boohoo, now I actually have to press one more button to kill someone. So yeah, not seeing how operatives and scoundrels are no longer worth playing at all. I'm thinking it's mainly due to the theorycrafters who don't actually play the game seeing that nerf from 100% to 30% and thinking it kills the class, when they don't actually play it themselves.

The moment a scoundrel/operative can't go into cover and pewpew things to death in PvE is the moment some (read that to yourself. SOME. Not all, SOME. As in, not all scoundrels/operatives think they're ranged classes.) will either complain about how it's "impossible" to level, will either reroll, or take a look at their skills and figure out, "Oh hey, we're given lots of melee abilities, and we gain our class mechanic by using those melee abilities. Maybe it's like that for a reason!" Until then, you're going to continue seeing people playing at ranged. After all, if you're breezing through the game just fine, and someone comes along and says something contradictory to your own personal experiences, who are you going to believe? Your own experiences, or some person who just comes up out of nowhere and says, "YOUR DOING IT WRONG!!!!!!!!!"?

And yet when solo leveling in PvE, operatives still benefit more than the other classes.

Stance Dancing: You don't need to do it in PVP, ever. An infiltration spec has ALWAYS "only" had circling shadows, and it has ALWAYS said shadow technique only. Now it just works as intended. Also, shadows in shadow tech survive just fine when you play smart. You aren't running into a group of 3+ enemies who all decide to focus fire you, are you?

Use your force cloak as well as blackout?

Because regardless of how nerfed and unplayable the FotM PVPers think they are now, they're perfectly playable and just require you to do something other than press 2 buttons now

If you pick your fights correctly, you shouldn't need force cloak all that much. I find the ONLY time I need it is when I pick poorly. Be it against a guy when I didn't see he had 2 friends with him, or what not. And why is it everyone here talks like, "zomg 2 minutes is so long and you'll get focused!"? You have STEALTH, for crying out loud! If they can't see you they can't focus you!

You lose what is arguably one of your most powerful (and useful) abilities just for the ability to remove being rooted with force speed. Not worth it, in my eyes.

I found that a female miraluka with the orange blindfold fit pretty well...Playing through as a human female now, and it doesn't seem to fit as well...

Leveling as a scoundrel/operative isn't very smooth? Excuse me while I stand over here and giggle like a fiend. Now that that's out of the way...If Scoundrels/Operatives got Shoot First/Hidden Strike at the lower levels, it would trivialize the entire game for them.

You know how your force regenerates much quicker when you're in stealth and for a few seconds after coming out of stealth? Masked Assault makes your force regenerate that quickly when you're out of stealth when you use Blackout.

So far every fight I've started I've won. The only times I run away is when I'm fighting a guy and a friend or two of his pop up and fight as well. I avoid classes like Vanguard/Powertech other heavy armor classes like the plague if I can, and prefer to beat on the light armor/medium armor classes. One thing to make sure you avoid doing is spamming shadow strike. You do NOT want to do that; just because we're a stealth class with a backstab does not mean that's our primary attack. Heck, even when find weakness procs I find myself ignoring it in favor of clairvoyant strike and project. Being a stealth class means you have to fight dirty: there is no "honor" in PVP. Nobody is going to respect you for waiting until your target is at full HP and running at them out of stealth so you're both on "even ground". If you see ANYONE with less than half health, you kill them, period, even if someone else is fighting them. That's how stealth classes work. Our job as infiltration shadows is to piss other people off. They're beating on one of your teammates, both at low health, and they're about to strike the final blow? BAM, ambushed and dead. If you get them to go, "******** SHADOW!!!!!oneone!!11111" you're doing it correctly.