This SONG is brilliant. Well done sir.

I feel a minute and a half is the ideal cooldown time, but that is just me. I just want more oomph from this skill, and if a two-minute cooldown is what it takes, then so be it. Let a future set bonus take it down to 1.5 min. Or a talent. Idk. (That is, assuming they will ever stop being the most boring game in existence when it comes to set bonuses...I mean seriously, only two set bonuses for almost two years?)

I'm a fan of increased cooldown in exchange for more utility. I vote yes.

Ah, you are right, sorry. Literally, my assassin was my 8th 50, so I do not remember as many of his skills very well. I mixed up the durations for Force Shroud and Deflection (which btw, is a another great skill that Vanguards don't have something similar like Guardians do with Saber Ward). The Wildstar devs actually really love their players. A Massively article came out that gave a bad review to Wildstar (for unfair reasons like not being about to change keybinds at a demo, since they turned it off for the demo). The first three posts were rather vitriolic from fans of the game as they protested the unfair conclusions, and the fourth post was the Community Manager of Wildstar calling for civility saying that they appreciated all feedback, including bad reviews, so they could make a better game. My jaw flipping hit the floor. This is only one example of many of the Wildstar team taking care of their fans long before they are customers. Check out my podcast at WildstarRadio.com for more examples even. We pretty much have something like this to talk about every week.

Quality > quantity Shadows and Guardians have better cooldowns than we do. I play a Gunslinger. If a PT tried to take me on at range, I would laugh as I destroyed him. You literally just nerfed their range in the 2.4 PTS patch by requiring Rocket Punch instead of Flame Burst to start the DoT. I was there when you nerfed their range in 1.4 too. What the crap are you talking about? The PT is a melee class for all intents and purposes. A) Focus guardians' burst >>> Shoulder Cannon burst B) Vigi Guardians are immune to CC after closing gap C) Shadows are basically immune to CC for 12 seconds every minute D) Armor isn't useful against all damage types (esp. in PvP) E) Who cares what the long-range capabilities of Guardians are, when they can close the gap in 2-3 different ways? You realize this sounds incredibly arrogant and dismissive right? My momma would have slapped you for your tone. The DoT needs serious buffs if it is expected to carry out your will on this. Burst =/= survivability It is fine to say that these specs are getting more burst, but the fact is, the TTK for a PT is not nearly as fast as a Jugg. Until you fix Smash, I refuse to accept any bullcrap about burst equaling survivability. When there is a superior burst spec, it doesn't matter, you will lose the DPS race. Here is the deal, I am always rooting for you guys at BW. I want this game to succeed. I am calling you on this crap though. The Vanguard and Powertech communities (and for that matter the Sorc/Sage communities) deserve better than this. You need to realize that you essentially said "it's all in your head" to the PTs/Vanguards and "L2P" to the Sorcs/Sages. This is a PR nightmare for you. I suggest you get your crap together before the PT and Sage questions. This community is simply responding to your call for questions, and while I appreciate the work you put into the questions that Paowee and I got together for Snipers (mostly Paowee), I think you did not apply the same effort to these questions. Even as Gunslinger rep, I feel that the class most deserving of answers is the Vanguard/Powertech. I feel bad that the questions we worked on got so much attention for a class that is doing rather well, while this underperforming, bleeding-players-left-and-right class did not get as much attention. I would recommend you try again with this group or apologize for coming off like arrogant know-it-alls that are trolling your devoted fanbase.

There is a way at the PvP vendor, but you have to trade them in at a 3:1 ratio, so I would advise you to keep your ranked comms and do some more regular warzones to get the partisan gear. I have written up a more detailed guide on this very topic with these two articles http://corellianrun.com/2012/07/11/tactical-strike-obtaining-pvp-gear-part-1/ http://corellianrun.com/2012/07/18/tactical-strike-obtaining-pvp-gear-part-2/

They compete in mods, like the Artful Mod 28AX gives 68 Cunning/25 Power and the Artful Mod 28X gives 55 Cunning/46 Power. Cunning Augments for sure, but I would go for the Artful 20X for more power personally. The tradeoff is actually good, 13 Cunning for 21 Power per mod. If Power and Cunning were weighted roughly equal or even if Cunning were weighted slightly higher than Power, the tradeoff is good

Added, I may rephrase to combine something, but for now, that is great, thanks! Keep 'em comin'!

I suppose if you are on the bridge on Voidstar this could be an issue, but if you like using Pulse Detonator, you might consider speccing into Sharpshooter with the Hunker Down at the end of your roll. Then you can roll out onto the bridge and hit Pulse Detonator without worrying about getting knocked off first. EDIT: Forgot which forums I was on, below is Sniper version. I suppose if you are on the bridge on Voidstar this could be an issue, but if you like using Cover Pulse, you might consider speccing into Marksmanship with the Entrench at the end of your roll. Then you can roll out onto the bridge and hit Cover Pulse without worrying about getting knocked off first.

This ^ In all counts, get whatever has more Power IMHO. Usually that seems to be Professional. Basically, my usual thing is to look at the Conqueror pieces to see what has Power, then get that from Partisan.

Short answer, Cover is a great tool, one of the best in our arsenal. If you don't want to use it, go Scoundrel. Sharpshooter requires it for almost all of their good skills. Saboteur gets a 6% incoming damage reduction boost in Cover, plus the two big hitters, Speed Shot and Sabotage Charge, both require Cover. Dirty Fighting can allow you to set up your DoTs out of Cover, but you need to pop into cover when casting Wounding Shots, or it can get interrupted. Plus, you get leaped to a lot, and you get ranged defense from it. Scoundrels can play the Dirty Fighting tree completely out of Cover, and better. While I prefer GS, Scoundrel's DF has an instant-cast Wounding Shots, so no interruption problems. TL;DR Only non-Cover-using spec is Dirty Fighting, and Scoundrels do it better if you don't like Cover. Then they have two other specs that don't use Cover.

What I don't like is when Sharpshooter talents proc and then immediately disappear when rolling into natural cover. This has been a problem since launch, but there were about two months where I didn't notice it. It's an odd bug. But, while that, and the delay for Vital Shot would be great to get fixed, this isn't really a chance for us to make sure they hear our bug reports, it is a chance to ask questions lol. We don't want to waste it on bugs. I agree with that we are in a good place, and this makes a great wildcard. It is a question asked more times than I can count, and we finally have a guaranteed answer lol. Also, verticality isn't always great in PvP. It is great when people are distracted, which happens in objective based games, and arenas aren't objective-based. Sometimes, being above everyone else causes LOS issues. The only real advantage is distance from melee, which granted, is nice, but it also has to be balanced for them as well. Also remember, with LOS issues, LOS only works when enemies can get away from you. If you are working together as a team, just because you root and they cleanse doesn't mean that your buddy doesn't use their root right after so you can blow your target up. We have to stop thinking about our classes' shortcomings and think about synergy with other classes. Plug the weaknesses.

I'll cast my votes as such, noting that the first question is on row 3: PvE= question 6 (row 8) Wildcard= question 9 (row 11) A note on question 9, if it wins wildcard, we can rephrase like so: Sneaky, right?

Not sure if Reps should vote, so I will refrain for the moment. Trying to get as much attention to this thread as possible, as well as the PvE one. Questions are due on Friday, no? Whew...

When we start getting a little closer, and after we see the responses for the Sniper posts, I will start getting together the questions here and sticking them in the spreadsheet. My personal pick for the wildcard is the A-300 question, and I think expanding that is also a really good idea, but some people might not want us to have a simple cosmetic question in there (albeit one of the most asked and most ignored questions on the entire forums). We will put it to a vote! All that to say, the Sniper questions are here and now, so go look at the threads! See links above!

Absolutely! That is the plan. Plus, we have to ask one of each, plus a wildcard. Be sure to share those concerns of which you speak!

yes, it is thefanaticalswordsman@gmail.com. And, I must have been thinking of another forum, because shockingly, that feature is missing from this one. How annoying. True, I was thinking of phrasing it more in the manner of "what specifically are you doing to improve the cover-using experience?" That is still rather specific. You may be right on that one... I think you are right. The major questions are with Hightail It/Covered Escape and its design, the place in Ranked PvP that we are expected to play, and the intention behind all three of our specs. I feel that SS/MM got weaker against healers in 2.0, was already weaker against tanks, and so we are left with sniping other DPS, which is fine, but seems odd. We have a good balance of utility and burst DPS with Sab/Eng, but DF/Leth is really weak against healers due to cleanses. I really want to know our place with regards to curbing rampant healing. EDIT: I should say that I actually believe we are in a pretty good place with PvP at the moment. I am more worried about nerfs than about getting the right buff at this point lol.

I would really like to emphasize the Cover bugs with question 10. Even some little random edges can cause the "Unable to take cover" bug. It is such a crucial part of GS/Sniper gameplay. I would also like to know what the devs think our purpose is in ranked PvP. Are we healer killers? Then question 6. Are we supposed to be general focus targets? Then why do we have a cooldown on Flourish Shot/Shatter Shot. It could be changed to have a lower or no cooldown and only be able to be on one target at a time like Shock Charge/Interrogation Probe. Paowee, are we going to do an official "poll" or just have votes in-post?

I will update the top post as well, but all PvPers should head over to this page http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=665628 where we will be discussing PvP questions for the sniper class. Paowee and I are coordinating since he is mainly PvE and I am mainly PvP.

Alrighty y'all, let's get down to business, shall we? First off, kudos to SamuelAU, my "opponent" in the race for this position. He is a top-notch guy, and I hope he participates freely in the discussion here, because I greatly value his opinion. Okay, next on the agenda is making a list of questions so we can run a poll to see where people stand on these issues. Below is a link to the spreadsheet I will be keeping updated as we go along. Keep in mind that for the next week I am getting ready to defend my masters thesis, so if I don't update within 15 seconds of you posting, it isn't because I don't love you. After that, things will settle down, so no worries there. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AhRddbWeDqx2dGpWcWRsbEE5cGl0blFDTXBkZndLUEE&usp=sharing A couple of quick things: 1. Check the spreadsheet to see if your question was already asked. If it was, reference it if you want to add additional info, so we can maybe get a question answered in a more specific way or something. 2. Depending on how many questions we get, it may not be possible to have all of them on a poll. If that is the case, I will be picking the best three or four questions per category and setting up a poll sometime in the future. I look forward to hearing from y'all! Geldarion UPDATE 9/30 - As most of you have probably heard, the Class Rep system has been suspended until after Update 2.5 when class balance changes go through. See you all then! UPDATE 9/2 - I forgot to put down when we are going to need to have this ready, which is Friday 9/27. UPDATE 7/30 - Head over to http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=665628 to start discussing the PvP questions! The Sniper Rep Paowee and I are coordinating the questions, since he is mainly PvE and I am mainly PvP.

Good race, SamuelAU! It was so very close the entire time! Cheers!

I just keybind both of them in Options, so I don't have to have it on my bars, freeing up space for other things! I use F to drop cover in place and Shift+F to roll into cover. Good to have options, especially since rolling into cover gives better bonuses, but can be annoying sometimes.

Let's do it! I definitely speak for me, but I bet Forsaken would be game. The main issue I have with Ranked is scheduling a time to do this when we get queue pops, so this would be great. What time would these events occur? Every Saturday night? I know I would be happy to jump in and play with some folks! Looking forward to more details!

Yeah, drop all the crit. Get more power. Also, get more accuracy, since you are running SS, you need more of it. Like 100% ranged accuracy. I wouldn't get any more alacrity. From gear, you might get another 10% off of cast time, but your big hitter Speed Shot will still be on cooldown the same length of time, so its total DPS isn't increased by 10%, however, any more accuracy you put in means every shot you take does better. That priority list is fine, though as other said in this thread, Gunnery Commandos and Guardians of any kind already debuff for 20%, which is all you will get out of Flourish Shot. Switch Quickdraw and Charged Burst. Quickdraw should always be on cooldown, right after Speed Shot. XS Freighter Flyby goes higher on the list if you have talents in Saboteur to make it better, which you probably don't. Charged Burst is good for three things: instant damage after shifting position in movement-based fight (which also refreshes Ballistic Dampers), setting up faster Aimed Shot, and getting an auto-crit with Smuggler's Luck. Use Smuggler's Luck whenever it is off cooldown, as it lasts for 20 seconds, and it is off the global-cooldown. So even if you are in between Speed Shot and Trickshot, hit it so it can be on cooldown again, because you will definitely do another Charged Burst in the next 20 seconds. By the way, when I have XS Freighter Flyby off cooldown, I will do a Speed Shot + Trickshot, then hit Burst Volley with XS Freighter Flyby, then hit Illegal Mods and start another Speed Shot + Trickshot. Hits hard and fast. EDIT: It was pointed out to me that I put 105% accuracy, which is really not feasible. It may not even be possible lol. 100% accuracy is good. That's what I get for responding too fast.

I'll double check, it could be that I was in cover, so I might have been "looking" with my right mouse turn, but the character doesn't move so I didn't notice. Here is my situation with PvE and parsing. Really, I don't do much of either. I know that the builds I use work for Flashpoints and up to Hard Mode Operations, but I don't even have the gear to get top DPS for Nightmare modes.. I do have Partisan/Conqueror gear, but parses are definitely not indicative of PvP performance, and "rotations" aren't as useful as "priorities" because of changing situations. Also, utility is more useful than pure DPS. Burst is also supremely important over consistent DPS. If you have a suggestion, go for it! I added a bunch of stuff from a guy who was an expert in Dirty Fighting before it was obsolete in 2.0! I like this thread because it has been some really good discussion.