Being the only relevantly USEFUL craft does not make something overpowered, by the way. Buff other crafts up, as opposed to nerfing the useful one into the ground. All these developers know how to do is respond to QQ on the forums... Same thing with the concealment operative/scoundrel nerf. Baseless and ignorant.

Thanks for pointing out why this is a bad idea. Mainly, not everyone wants to raid. You should never have to raid/PvE to get an item that gives you a competitive advantage in PvP.

What's your main rotation as Combat? Haven't tried the tree yet, and it's a bit hard to tell with the video movin' along.

Just spam your might buff in the zerg Operations group. You'll get credit for everyone else's kills, for having given them your basic class buff. It's lame -- yes, but everything on Ilum is lame at the moment. Be glad melee classes can even do this.

No thoughts on this from other players? I think disable particle effects with a toggle would add a good 20 fps to a lot of folks on Ilum.

Server transfers are desperately needed to suit some individual cases, at the very least. Make them paid server transfers to lessen the impact on populations.

Particle effects. All of the lasers, explosions and whatnot going off in the air (mainly in Ilum and the Alderaan warzone) are absolutely killing people's framerates out there... making the game crash and/or near unplayable. I actually had to buy a new computer to deal with this, so it won't be as bad for me once it arrives and I assemble it... but by and large, this is a very unfair for a lot of people whose computers met the recommended specs, and then some, but are still unable to play the game as they should. An option to disable particle effects would go a -long- way. I would rather be able to SEE what is happening around me, minus a few lightsabers and lasers, than have my framerate reduced to 5-10 in competitive PvP areas. Honestly, I don't think this is a long-term fix, but it would certainly give a great deal of temporary relief until something more concrete is figured out later. A draw distance slider wouldn't hurt, either.

I don't normally do this, but Jesus. A new alt of mine, 10 Champ bags from my dailies/weeklies (2 bought with marks)... opened consecutively, and nothing but Centurion Commendations. Is there anything more frustrating than this? Congratulations, BioWare, this is the stupidest *********** endgame gear system ever conceived.

Keep the posts coming, guys. An interesting discourse... one that's actually been pretty constructive, by and large. I'm standing by my original points.

Thanks for the support on the post, guys. It's a credit to the community that there's been good feedback here instead of random flaming/trolling. I hope BioWare is listening, as well.

No. I've done enough testing to conclude that the nerf is unfounded. My testing cannot possibly extrapolate why they are considering this nerf, but I consider it highly likely that it's an overreaction to complaints on the forums. I can't conceive of any other reason. And to the other posters, I understand that a well-played Operative can help his team out by killing people, protecting the ball-carrier, but all of that assistance is pretty much dependent on the burst damage I talked about in my post. Assassins and other classes can also stealth and run across the end-zone for Huttball passes. That's not exclusive to Operatives, so I didn't include it in my analysis.

How do I know? Because I've played the class now... I've fought against it plenty of times, and I find there's absolutely no justification for it. Secondly, as to Operatives being able to pick off people... That's what the class does. It's really the only thing it does well. Once again, this is a TEAM game. There are no 1 vs 1 PvP arenas, therefore, how it performs 1 vs 1 picking people off is wholly irrelevant considering it does not contribute to its team very well. It's apparent to me why the nerf is happening... and it isn't because of extensive testing. My testing was extensive enough to show that there is no real foundation for it. If you can explain to me how Operatives killing people 1 vs 1 before going back into stealth, playing the lone wolf role is breaking Warzones, please do. In my mind, it has very little effect.

(This post regards the PvP aspects of the Operative concealment spec. How this nerf will affect PvE is even more egregious and should be obvious to everyone.) My main toon is a 5/5 Battlemaster Powertech Pyro. Recently, out of boredom... with nothing to do really, other than my dailies, I decided to level an Operative to get a feel for the class. This class does not need to be nerfed, and let me tell you why. I've leveled my Operative to 50 and done about a hundred 50 bracketed warzones. I've also fought operatives/scoundrels plenty on my Powertech, having logged probably over 1000 matches at this point. Just a bit of credentials on my part, so you guys will know that I'm not just some Operative player who's going out of his way to defend his class against all logic. My first point would be utility. How is an Operative useful in Warzones? What can it do? Well, I've found that it can really only do one thing: burst damage. The class has very little utility... In Huttball, for example, Operatives spend most of their time in stealth... trying to catch up to other players (who are moving faster typically, thanks to not being stealthed). Whenever an Operative does get up to a group, he has to stop and think for a few seconds. If he hops into group combat, chances are he's going to kill 1 person and then get facerolled. Vanish has a 2 minute cooldown when talented, so you really only get 7 max in a 15 minute game. 7 "oh snap" moments to escape from overwhelming adversity, flee, and run away to regroup. So what can an Operative really do? Well, they can kill one person extremely fast. Do you realize how SMALL the impact of killing 1 person in a 8 vs 8 Huttball game is? It really doesn't accomplish a whole lot, unless it's a clutch stoppage of a ball runner. Let's compare this utility to my Powertech's (keep in mind, the same goes for mostly any other class on the game, even you light armor folks are more survivable than Operatives). The thing that makes other classes great, and more helpful for your team are their sustained damage. I can put up higher DPS totals, and probably 75%+ of an Operative's burst as my Powertech Pyro. 90% armor penetration Railshot spam, all of that good stuff. Not only that, but as a Powertech I have heavy armor, a lot of health, and I'm very survivable with the Energy Shield ability and all. Not only that, but my DoTs do a considerable amount of damage that will prevent people from capturing turrets/planting bombs/defusing. I don't want to drone on about this forever, but it seems to me that almost any other class on the game contributes more to its team in Warzones than Operatives. Operatives are hunters... they stalk around in stealth, pop off some fast burst kills... but that's really ALL they can do. All of the talk of them being overpowered, in my experience, comes down to one thing. People, individually, get knocked onto their face and either killed, or have a large portion of their health disappear in a few seconds... so they rage, say "Omg! This is so unbalanced!" and go to the forums to QQ about the class... but I've got to say, after fighting a ton of Operative/Scoundrels (and winning most of the time, even when ambushed), this is just a base overreaction by people who do not understand the classes' shortcomings. Let's recount the scenario that leads most people to thinking this class is overpowered. You get ambushed, you lose a crapload of health... but have you ever thought about how you can deal with that? On my Powertech, if an Op pops out of stealth and nails me with Hidden Strike... I burn my CC break ability and instantly pop my 50% damage mitigation shield, preventing their burst from taking as much health as it normally would. At this point, I've survived their first volley. So, what can the Operative do now? My resolve bar is full (Hidden Strike fills it up 100%, so you can't be stunned again until it ticks down), and they honestly don't have the sustained damage to kill me. If I hit them with a stun, then a DoT, then a couple of 4.5-5k railshots... they're almost dead themselves, and they can only vanish and run away... if it's on cooldown. If it isn't, they're dead. And if my method for countering their burst doesn't work? Well, then I'm going to die, most likely. So, what does that really mean? Absolutely nothing... because as an Operative has taken the time to single me out, away from the group on the objective (if he did this near my team, he'd get killed 90% of the time), my team is most likely going to accomplish it's goal... and they'll have one less player there to help them resist our efforts. This proposed nerf of Operatives takes away the 1 thing it can do... kill people in a burst with a large frontload of damage. It will break Concealment spec. It will, most likely, ruin the class mechanics altogether. And why? Because people get angry that they're dying 1 vs 1... in a TEAM BASED PvP OBJECTIVE GAME? It makes very little sense, when you think about it objectively. I will take my Powertech's utility and sustained damage ALL DAY over my Operative's. The class makes for some pretty numbers, occasionally. Some nice hits, and some devastating 1 vs 1 potential, and I am -absolutely- fine with that... because it does not really help their team much and impede my team from winning. Yeah, so you're going to die 1 vs 1 if they get the jump on you most of the time. How is this a problem? Respawn, run back, PLAY THE OBJECTIVE and they most likely won't even attack you again. If they do, they'll expose themselves to group combat where they have very little utility and very little chance to survive or make much of an impact. My conclusion is that Operative/Scoundrels are probably the least impactful classes on the game when it comes to helping your team win in Warzones. I honestly cannot think of any other class that contributes less. Whenever you die 1 vs 1 and you get angry... let that reaction go, and take a look at the big picture. It seems BioWare is going to nerf/buff things by forum QQing alone, as opposed to proper testing and metrics... so you're not helping anything by running to the forums and shouting for nerfs. Because when they nerf Operatives, it's going to make the strengths of other classes all the more apparent. Powertechs, Rage Juggernauts, Sorcs, and pretty much everything else will be complained about next, because they'll be easier to notice. It's a slippery slope. Think about it. This is not a 1 vs 1 game. A class should not be nerfed for excelling at 1 vs 1 combat (especially when utterly handcuffed in groups). Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. I'll try you answer you as promptly as possible, but WARNING: I do actually play the game, so I don't just sit here trolling the forums all day.

You guys have an execute, at least.

I've got to say, this is going to be terribly received. While I agree that the front-loaded damage needed to be nerfed, this is a bit severe. Not only that, but I only felt it could be nerfed with a few stipulations... such as, buffing the classes' survivability and/or giving it more sustained damage. Operatives are so squishy, if we can't kill someone almost immediately, we will be burned down in several seconds by a good DPS class. And forget about being able to kill healers. That dream is as dead as we'll be, as soon as we unload all of our damage and someone still has half of their health. Sadly, all we're going to be able to do is re-stealth and run away... and this is just disappointing. BioWare, do you only respond to people complaining about things in forum threads? How could you not have TESTED things like this before the game launched? The beta tests were long and extensive... I guarantee, as soon as this happens, you'll start getting QQ threads about Sorcerers/Sages, Powertechs, Juggernauts and everything else that could put out just as much DPS as we could. If you nerf our front-end damage, you NEED to buff our survivability and our sustained damage, or we will become a broken class.

You should read the whole thread. I'm fine for it taking longer, as long as random chance is eliminated. And to the guy who said it would only take a couple of weeks to get fully geared... That is remotely possible... but very unlikely. I know guys who went like 2 out of 40 on Champion bags. It's all luck, and luck can be terrible sometimes. Take luck out of the equation.

I don't even think they slightly improved it. This is, in many ways, worse. Not only is the Ilum daily nearly impossible to complete on my server at the moment.. If I even approach the zerg, I just crash... But the fact that with the tokens, at least you were guaranteed a piece of gear with them. Now, you're dealing with the same random chance to be able to get 1 Battlemaster Commendation... when it takes 2-3 to get a substantial piece of gear. This whole thing is just making me pull my hair out. No one wants to deal with random rolls to get endgame PvP gear. No one.

You missed the point, troll. I'd be fine with it taking longer, setting higher costs for the items as long they eliminated random chance from the equation.

Agreed. I would be absolutely fine with it taking like 10-20 Battlemaster Commendations per item, if you took the random chance out of the equation. Everyone has been saying this... I haven't seen ANYONE play advocate for the random chance system. Why the hell does BioWare keep sticking with something everyone hates?

Opened my first Battlemaster bag, was so pumped to finally get a Battlemaster Commendation... yay, random chance eliminated! Oh wait, I didn't get a Battlemaster Commendation. I only got 3 Champion Commendations. So, you're telling me that I have to deal with RNG rolls to even get Commendations now? When it takes like 3 of them to get a main hand weapon? This is even worse than getting the broken pieces to exchange and dealing with duplicates. Now, it'll take god knows how long to even get commendations out of bags... yeah, it's nice you can use them on whatever piece you want... but for random chance to still be a factor is ridiculous. I don't even have the words. You guys are kicking the PvP community right in the junk and god knows why. I'm not even going to get into how much of an advantage and headstart this gives to people who already had 3-4 pieces of Battlemaster gear from the tokens. Great job. /sarcasm.

I don't think I used any particularly large words, nor is this about things not going my way, specifically. This is about a lack of communication, and something not going EVERYONE's way. It's not cool to drop a "Oh, wait, we're going to delay the massive patch that should fix a lot of large issues for you for nebulous, vague reasons" less than 12 hours before it's supposed to hit. It's about the timing... the generally bad explanation, and the continually awful breakdowns in customer service. I'm not going to humor your random, trivial "Stop QQing" posts with anymore replies. It's like you guys don't even examine the topic, you just start lobbing angry taunts to anyone who expresses frustration about this game. Like I said, I've done nothing but defend this friggin' game at every turn. After a while, you get peeved and make a post about it. I did, and that's the end of that. Talk all you want, bash my post and its intent... but if you think it's pathetic for me to be complaining about this, then you have to admit... taking the time to stop, post, and say so is a small measure more pointless.

...I don't even know what that's supposed to mean. I have both Empire and Republic characters.

Also, forum mods... please don't post and refer me to the other thread regarding this. I think my brand of frustration here is somewhat different from that being expressed in the 'No patch tomorrow' thread.

...Not really, no. I've dealt with the bugs and everything else without saying a word on here. I'm not a forum troll. I've played the game, cleared NM mode raids, valor to 60+, full Champion gear and everything else. I'm not some whiner that's played the game for 5 minutes, bashed it in General chat, and wasted everyone's time by comparing it to WoW. It isn't like me to make a post like this, I'm just really bummed that they couldn't make this work. You get a bit tired of defending something for so long when the thing you're defending continually makes it harder on you to do so.

I was really looking forward to being able to actually -get something- out of my Battlemaster bags tomorrow. It's hard enough to get the motivation to play my main character right now, when I really don't get anything from PvPing except 2 Battlemaster bags a day.. where my chance to actually get a piece of gear is so unbelievably terrible, it makes me want to pull my hair out. 1 of 18 so far, a pair of gloves... that had Accuracy, which I don't need, and had to pull the mod out of my Champion gloves for to make them even a very small, worthwhile upgrade. This is just depressing.. Was looking forward to some actual world PvP with incentives and everything else this patch was supposed to bring. I don't even know what to say, BioWare. This smells like EA, forcing a delay so that people would be more inclined to renew their subscriptions (what a coincidence, they'll renew sometime around the 20th for most people). Even if that isn't the case, this is just sad. I've stuck up for this game so much when people bash it. I've defended it at every turn, but it's really starting to grind on my patience at this point... I'm not even going to get into the mysteriously terrible framerate issues I'm getting on Illum and the Alderaan WZ (about 30-40 fps less than BF3, Skyrim, and other top tier releases). Keep your word for once. Don't set a date unless you can make it. Don't force things out before they should be released. Have some integrity and don't let EA bully you into doing its bidding. /endrant.