No, because there aren't other aspects of the Marauder that give them such an advantage over other DPS Classes. Although technically speaking, I suppose nerfing UR does mean nerfing Marauders as well, but not in the way you're implying.

Is Bioware letting Fresh 50s spend money to get Columi gear after 1.2 as well? If someone could clarify, that would be awesome!

It's good to know I'm not the only one who's been dumbfounded by this abilities strength. I mean, it's awesome to have 40% of your health, while the Marauder who opened up on you now has 20%, only to watch them use Undying Rage and kill you in those 5 seconds, while you take their 10% down to 7%. Just awesome....

I for one, love the learn2play mantra that is thrown around quite frequently on these forums. It's definitely the kind of rebuttal that makes QQers realize they are being irrational.

Just to clear up, this ultimately depends on your spec (i.e. Whether or not you get experimental explosives). Frag Grenade might crit almost as much as snipe will crit for, although I've never seen Frag's crit deal more damage than a Snipe's crit, but for me, they do tail pretty close. That being said, you're absolutely right that frag grenade is a great filler, or even an ability overall for Engineering snipers. Spamming frag grenade tends to drain my energy much quicker than Snipe, so I use both interchangeably.

I'm curious as to why you don't like using Snipe? True, most of Engineering's buffs towards snipe are fairly worthless, but you get nice damage boost from the first tier of MM, plus the fact that snipe does fit in fairly well in a Engineering Rotation. To give you an idea of my rotation as an Engineering Sniper is now, it typically opens up as follows.... Shatter Shot* > Interrogation Probe > Cover+Explosive Probe > Rifle Shot > Series of Shots Beyond your initial burst, snipe works as a great filler before you want/need to cast your defensive buffs, more powerful/situational abilities like OS/PP, or whenever takedown becomes available. The challenge of Engineering is ultimately working around how best to make use of your downtime between Explosive Probe/Series of Shots, and how best to use your energy regen talent in certain situations. If you're curious, here's my typical Engineering Build. * Keep in mind, the usefulness of Shatter Shot is up to debate, so I wouldn't consider it a necessity. I personally only open up with the ability on FP/OP Bosses or BH/Juggs

Really? With some classes, being "underpowered" is actually debatable. But I'm sorry, if you are a member of the Bi-fecta known as Sorcs/Mercs, well, you aren't underpowered. When well over Half the player-base flocks to these 2 advanced classes, it's hard to even conceive any significant disadvantages these classes have.

You were spot on with the first one! Although MM/Engi Hybrid? Sure, you can dish out quite a bit of damage. But breaking 400k is usually only possible on voidstar.... But ya, if you see someone doing 600k+, they are almost certainly spamming buffed Frag, using Orbital Strike frequently, and spreading around their DoTs like STIs.

People mixing BM & Rakata gear is an annoying trend, and frankly, one that needs to be put to rest. I get that Fresh 50s don't want to get ROFLSTOMPED, but the entire purpose of having distinctly PvP gear is that it's more suited for PvP, and thus, only attainable through PvP. Having to do PvE content for the purposes of having the best suited gear for PvP is absurd, and something that needs to be fixed.

Comparing Corrosive Grenade to Interrogation probe isn't entirely fair. Corrosive Grenade's snare only lasts for 6 seconds, versus Interrogation Probe's 18 second snare. One can snare 3 people for 1/3 the time the other can snare one person. Interrogation Probe also costs less (if talented), and deals more damage in a shorter time-frame than Corrosive Grenade. I'm not saying Interrogation Probe is better, but if you're going after the most damaging, utilitarian, single target DoT, Interrogation Probe should be your go to. As for Engineer's burst, well, it's not as bad as people seem to think. It's actually much more 'burstier' than MM, but you're left with some downtime in between SoS and Explosive Probe that MM snipers (and Lethality to a lesser extent) don't have to suffer. This can be filled with Snipe/Ambush, but I prefer to fill them with defensive cooldowns, stuns/interrupts, and Frag Grenade (which with Explosive Engineering and Experimental Explosives can crit for almost as much as snipe, it's AoE, costs the same, and is instant). @OP, I would decide what interests you, and how you want to go about PvPing. Engineering tends to have less overall damage, but is much more sturdy then other Snipers, and has great utility. I currently swap between a pure Engineering and a MM/Engi Hybrid (depending on what I'm in the mood to do) for PvP. Pure MM should work as well. And despite what the common forum wisdom seems to be, I would actually advise against Lethality. It's perfectly fine under most circumstances, but against players who can and do dispel, or teams with a competent healer, you'll find yourself useless very fast.

That's a very cute way of ignoring the issues Snipers have. @ the OP To say snipers are 100% useless for competitive play is, well, wrong. I've been devoutly playing a sniper in PvP since release, and am currently valued in my PvP guild, mostly because I can put out fairly high numbers on enemy targets. Despite what a large portion of the sniper community says, we can put out quite a bit of DPS, even solo queuing against a premade. Being able to focus and takes down targets quickly, either eliminating significant targets or peeling them off from the objective and forcing them to pay attention to you is valued and something not many other classes can do to the same effect. Now, that's not to say I'm blind to the issues that do plague Snipers, and there are plenty of people who are. Not being able to enter cover on ramps/ledges, not being able to enter cover while rooted, Entrench and/or Cover Pulse not working 100% of the time, et cetera. Some of these are overcome-able, but the fact of the matter is they do severely raise the skill curb needed to play a Sniper effectively. Beyond that, certain individual trees do need some work, namely Lethality. Quite honestly, the only viable builds for a good sniper to use in a competitive PvP environment are Engineering, MM, or an Eng/MM Hybrid. Lethality could work in competitive PvP, if there wasn't an instant cast a few classes had access to which effectively make Lethality completely useless. As a tree, they are in desperate need of some sort of Dispell protection, because I can promise you when rated WZs come out, the few snipers aren't going to be using an obsolete spec. While I disagree with the OP on some points, this is a discussion that needs to be made apparent to Bioware. It's clear even from Sniper sub-forums that there is a significant portion of the Sniper community that is finding the class extremely difficult, and virtually non of the issues presented have been given lip service from Bioware.

Lethality/Dirty Fighting is a bad spec for both Operatives and Snipers. Snipers who disagree have never gone up against a premade. As for Engineering/Saboteur, well, I'm not sure how any Sniper could claim it's the "Stepchild" spec, given it's equally as viable as Marksmanship.

That's not what people like the OP are asking for at all. They don't want a system where gear progression is based large in part off of luck (which is how the system works at the moment). They also want to be able to see their total progression. Frankly, having a 25% chance for a BM Token is absurd in the first place. It's clear BW is intending for players to require 8 BM bags to get a single piece of gear, so why let the system run rampant where some people can grab a piece of BM gear with only two bags opened, but someone else has to open ten? The fact that Bioware hasn't simply quadrupled the price of BM gear, and made the chance of getting a BM token 100% is beyond me, and suggestive that they aren't interested in creating a genuinely fair and balanced PvP experience.

Overall, I'd say you structured it well. This is actually very similar to the spec I use for warzones at the moment. I would move your points from Dealers Discount into No Holds Barred, and one point from trip shot into diversion. While It's not difficult to have energy issues with this spec, it's not difficult to avoid those issues either, so dealers discount probably won't be worth it. As for diversion, well, it's such a great power to begin with, even if the other target isn't a GS/Sniper. Also, you also get the standard 3 abilities you would normally get if you went into a deep, pure tree. Once I get into all/predominantly BM gear, I'll likely switch Underworld Hardships into Sab. Utility Belt, and No Holds Barred to lay low. The quicker cooldowns aren't necessary, but Flash Grenade, XS Freighter Flyby, and Hunker Down are all great abilities and it doesn't hurt to be able to use them more liberally. In BM gear, having +4% Endurance and +4% Crit won't be as significant either.

I don't know if this is entirely true. It will definitely a hindrance on players who enjoy DoTing up and forgetting, but the only times when this was done was usually if you are the only defender left alive, or your team hasn't come to your aid yet, and so you are looking to buy some time by spamming CD - tab - CD - tab.... you get the idea. It should be fairly apparent that this wasn't conducive to a more competitive experience. In a lot of cases (especially against someone with off heals), it made taking an objective with only one defender much more difficult, and in many cases the attempt to cap was fruitless because one player knew how to run around and apply instant cast DoTs. For MM snipers, this probably won't be a big deal. Lethality Snipers will have to get use to defending the old fashion way, but I don't think that's a bad thing. On the other hand, Engineering Snipers will get a significant advantage over other classes in Defense (and not just compared to Snipers, we weren't the only class that could employ a few different DoTs), and that tree seems to be fairly underplayed as is. Hence, I actually like the change.

http://www.swtor.com/community/devtracker.php In the future, you can always try googling whatever was quoted, that's what I did. edit: Nevermind, I see someone else beat me too it.

Basically. The only difference now is that Lethality Snipers can't solo defend east/west turrets against teams who don't make use of their DoT removals.

That's not true at all. Just as a note to anyone who's curious, going into warzones with the mentality of racking up as much damage as possible, even as a sniper, isn't very productive. It might net you a modicum more medals you might not get otherwise, but that's about it. Go into warzones with the mentality of focusing down targets, drawing attention from the enemy team away from the objective, and making use of your distinct abilities (Orbital Strike, Ballistic Shield, and other spec specific abilities). If you play that way, and you do it well, there's a good chance you'll get some high damage numbers. If someone else was out DPSing you, it could be because they were either better (geared), had the advantage of a team, or were playing a DoT/AoE centric build. Ask any Lethality Sniper (or even Leth/Eng Sniper for that matter), even if they feel they were less productive than they were before, they will likely still have a lot more damage than they would otherwise.

It is fairly ironic. Truthfully, it is quite pathetic that Snipers have struggled with a plethora of glaring glitches/bugs, one of them being this, with very few of them actually getting fixed. I had actually assumed it wasn't a bug/glitch, and this class was "working as intended", though why Bioware would severely gimp Snipers/Gunslingers that way I truly don't know.

I've only done PvP with that build. It's really good for farming Medals/Valor, and you can get some pretty absurd scores. Depending on what kind of player you are, I could easily see reaching 700k with that build in warzones, especially if it's voidstar. Even though Fentanyl and Quorra recommend it for Flashpoints, given the frequency of 60 sec duration CCs, I can see the AoE centric build being somewhat of a drawback in situations where you have to depend on your group's CCs.

Back when Operatives could triple shank you to death in a few seconds, I remember a few players claiming to both be playing an Operative/Scoundrel and asking for a nerf. Realistically though, you can't expect very many people to be sympathetic to the woes of other classes. While there are probably a good portion of players who sincerely think their blatantly overpowered classes are actually balanced, there are likely quite a few who will defend their class tooth and nail. More often than not, these are the probably the people quick to throw out insults as well.

This is blatantly not true. Firstly, the fact that Sorcerers do, on a consistent basis, get higher numbers than most every other class is indicative that they are doing a lot of damage. I suppose you could argue that the damage is more evenly distributed through DoT's and AoE's, but that wouldn't explain why most Sorcs stand on catwalks and nuke the enemies below. Snipers, depending on the Spec, may have a slight advantage in the Single Target DPS camp, but this is more than compensated for Sorcs plethora of Debuffs, CCs, Static Barrier, and off heals. I don't play a Merc, so I can't speak for this. But as a sniper, I have yet to encounter a decently geared, Pure Healing Sorc who doesn't out heal my damage. Ironically, I've never had this issue with Operative and Mercenary healers. Static Barrier, Force Speed, Overload? If that "1 good hit" is a fully talented Ambush in full BM gear with an upwards of 27% Expertise (only possible with the expertise buff), then yes, it only rocks for "1 good hit". Honestly though, watching ABSORB pop up after some of your most powerful attacks are executed within Rapid succession is pretty discomforting. Especially when that happens every 20 seconds. Static Barrier and off heals don't fill that "void"? No roots, but plenty of stuns. Oh, and while you might get the ability to self cleanse yourself of DoT's, not every DPS specced class does.

In regards to that one ability, I completely agree. This sort of goes into my general gripe with DPS Classes being able to throw off heals, because once they are done with an engagement, even when DoT'd, they can heal up fairly quickly. Sure, it's fairly minor. But ultimately, being able to Channel my OOC healing ability, even when DoT'd, would go a long way in making sure Snipers/Powertechs/Warriors aren't any more hindered than Mercs, Operatives, and Sorcs (especially sorcs!)

Operatives/Scoundrels Sorcs/Sages Mercs/Commando's Everyone Else Snipers/Gunslingers Honestly, no other class on my server does much to get my attention. Most Imperials on my Server are just really bad in general, so I probably die to Gunslingers more often than I do to other Snipers. Sorcs and Sages just annoy me in general with their Uber Bubble, Plethora of CCs, and healing *shiver*, and I sincerely can't consistently beat Ops/Scoundrels in a 1v1.

Frankly, I never understood why Mercenary Commendations were in this game to begin with if they aren't awarded from Open World PvP! In fact, why do we even need a bounty system? When you kill someone in Open World PvP, you can loot them for a (few?) mercenary commendation(s), and then you move on with your day. They may as well just make the Warzone Commendation cap at 4000 and have Champion Bag's cast 800 Warzone Commendations.