The whole puppet aspect was off-putting and even made me upset in RL, but on Voss last night: I've seen all but the BH stories to Voss, since his comp is dead and he's way behind now, and we do seem to be put upon a lot more than anyone else, and I know it gets worse before it's all done, but rising above all this abuse does make us stronger in the end.

Until SWTOR I was always a tank or a healer im my prior MMOs (EQ, EQ2, WoW, CoH/CoV, etc.) so this is my first time really focusing on DPS (level 50 sniper). I haven't run any hardmodes yet since my tanking friend is only 46, but I do see aggro problems I'm not used to. I burn down weaker adds while he focuses on the meaner mobs, but Sniper dps is burst-heavy and can cause issues at times. There's a lot of theorycrafting on ultimate dps rotations but not much on slower and steadier dps like EQ wizards had to do to not not get the infamous:"I summon you xxxxxxx!" and getting splatted.

I'm a Sniper in this game, but as someone who tanked in CoH for years, and especially when as an invuln Tanker I had to plant myself immobile in place with unyielding stance (before it changed to unyielding and we could move!) to tank large packs of mobs, I heartily concur. I even dropped heavy shot just so when I do end up close to a mob that my Jugg friend doesn't have to deal with the KB and I can use one of my more important attacks.

I can't speak of Operative as mine is a whole 10, but Sniper is my first MMO "main" that is DPS and I love her. Just got 50 Sunday and have really been enjoying it. I usually am in a group of old friends so haven't soloed much lately, but the damage we bring is amazing and the class is enjoyable and our extra CC (flash bang, leg shot, debilitate, cover pulse) can really come in handy both solo, and for keeping loose mobs off my healing sorceress friend. My only issue is stabilizing my dps so I don't pull aggro off my jugg tank friend when I crit 4 times in a row.

Act 2 was traumatic and while it did actually make me upset in RL, it made my triumph over those codeword using scum all the sweeter. I hated the fact that I couldn't even protest or mention what was happening to me, but when I broke free and got started getting my payback, it was game on. The agent story does seem to be deisgned to make us question everything we may have taken for granted. We aren't raving zealots like the Sith so things are not as black and white for us, and our perceptions, patience, and loyalties are tested.

Thanks for that information. Looks like I'll have to let some dialog play out before I exact my vengeance to get more background.

I like that rifle a lot. I made, and just equipped last night, a purple level 50 sniper rifle with my Armstech skill, but it looks like my mid-70s Schwinn too much.

I'm just hitting Voss in Act 3 so still not sure yet myself and am curious as well. I too picked the freedom option since revenge can easily come with being free and that whole experience was so traumatic, I almost automatically picked freedom. I don't know what the differences would be but on Belsavis:

I just got my Sniper to 50 and I love her. I have an alt that will be a heal-specced op once she finishes Hutta as well. The combination of the story, the voice actress, being able to be Chiss (I have 4 total, one of each of the BH classes, and my 2 agents), and just having a blast with the class pushes them ahead of my other alts. I'd say to try the class out and see if you enjoy it, nerf or no nerf.

I group with one of each of the other imperial classes and have alts of all of them as well, so I have seen the stories most of the way through and I found the other imperial stories too banal but I love the agent's story. Act 2 was disturbing and I'm not done with act 3 yet, but you learn so much about behind the scenes of both sides it's fascinating.

I made a lot of progress with Vector over the weekend and got my first 'fade to black' scene with him Friday. He proposed to Kylania on Sunday and she accepted. I really hated the bug angle at first but he's just so good to Kylania through all of act 2 and beyond I can easily accept him. I do miss Saganu from act 2 and would have chose him first, but Vector really ended up being a great companion. And when he commented that even without her aura that Kylania was lovely, I knew I made a good choice.

Just over 9k affection with her now. The quest I just did with her reveals exactly why it's a love/hate. I have to admit that she does add some spice to Kylania's life and act 2 makes you question many things as it is.

I had this originally but it just does not have a high enough return on investment as it stands now so dropped it for the time being. Sithwarrior.com goes into more detail and number-crunching if you want to get their take on it.

It helps quite a lot in my normal group against elites+ by making my jugg friend take less damage and thusly my sorc friend has to heal less as well. It's actually one of the better abilities in the tree from my experience.

Yeah, everyone has different preferences, rotations, and priortities. I have not hit raid level yet, I'm 47 about 1/2 to 48 and I had to retool my hotkeys early to make them more streamlined and when I realized that I needed at least 3 of my 4 hotbars hotkeyed. They do need a UI save/load option. I have all 8 adv classes on my home server but avoid my alts lately as I'm tuned to my Sniper set up so well. Like you, I keep certain keys consistent; V is always my interrupt, = is always my break CC, etc.

My crouch, i.e. cover in place is mouse5 which really helped with running and gunning. All my non-cover abilities can use be used in cover and all my combat abilities are hotkeyed. I don't have hotkeys for recuperate and bind point gate since they are not time critical. I'm almost always with my friends though so with a jug tank and a sorc healer and when his computer is working, a dps merc, I have a lot more options than I did when I was soloing. Most of my running is from encounter to encounter.

So....

This would obviously depend heavily on your build, but as a Marksman Sniper I only attack out of cover when I really need to and keeping a hotkey as the same ability whether in or out of cover is important for consistency and reliability.

I'm up and down with her. We had a fun girl's night out early on but then she pulls crap and makes me want to pull a Dick Cheney on her when out fighting.

Can't argue with any of that. Interestingly, my 23 is my powertech.

I'm Chiss but did most of this and didn't get the option or I missed it. I liked him overall but sticking to my lightside nature sure got me yelled at by certain people here.

I'm 46 almost 47 on my sniper and I find her very effective PvE-wise. I went mostly marksman and love it. Sniper damage is generally very burst-heavy so aggro has to be managed in groups. Despite what some might say, we do have some utility as well. Slice droid is of course limited to droids but effective, leg shot can keep mobs off of us or healers, flashbang grenade can be endless fun, etc. I haven't soloed that much compared to my low-level career since I have 3 friends that I play with almost all the time, but the only issue I have soloing is keeping my companions gear competitive to the content difficulty. I have 8 empire characters on my 'home' server and have 1 of each advanced class and the only one above 23 is my sniper. I love playing her that much. It's not a perfect class, and many dislike the cover system, but a big thumbs up from me.

I have all four bars up and have the cover bar deactivated. I also have crouch bound to mouse5 since my wheel button is for talking in vent. I have 3 of the four hotbars hotkeyed with the left bar having abilities that aren't "time critical" (i.e. speeder, crit buff, recuperate) so they can be clicked at leisure. I have my main abilties clustered around WASD although I often use the mouse to move and always use the mouse to turn with A and D rewired to strafe instead of turn. 2 is snipe, Q is followthrough, 3 is ambush, 4 is takedown, E is series of shots, R is rapid fire, etc.

At first Kylania just tolerated them but after all the crap she's gotten from doing her job and not being a spineless little sycophant to their every imbecilic whim, she realizes that the empire would be far better off if these spoiled and rotten little children just went away. Obviously some of the Sith aren't this caught up in megalomanical narcissism but they seem to be the exception. When my two sith warriors (Juggernaut and Marauder) talked their way out of a situation and with some humor, the imperial officer with me commented that I was "Versatile for a Sith."