Has to do with the fact that killing people around a node you own also gives defense points.

Keep shatter debuff up Snipe (snap shot) - FT - SoS - Ambush - FT - filler - filler - snipe - FT - filler - filler - snipe - FT Filler abilities being orbital, EP, CD and rifle shot depending on energy availability Only deviation from this rotation should be to burst with TA - SoS - RF - SoS - SoS (then moving into ambush - FT) and continuing rotation. Using it only with TA means the gain in dps is worth the delay to followthrough as using that every 6s is the cornerstone of the rotation

I'm curious as to why the 2 different MM builds? Unless I'm missing something its just dropping heavy shot and distraction for cover screen. But isn't cover screen just as situational as the other 2?

I agree with your main post but not with this point. A MM should beat a lethality due to 2 major points. 1) legshot and flashbang actually do something as MM so you can prevent the LoS easier. 2) wait for the 2 dots, hit diversion, interrupt cull.

No no AV now is terrible. The original AV... with 40 people fighting for every inch of ground, people staying behind your lines to farm wolves/rams, sneaking behind lines to free windmasters, looting every single enemy player and turning armour scraps and trying to summon the boss. Yeah the ones that lasted for several hours (took part in a 47 hour one myself) of glorious mass PvP with no such thing as dimishing returns or target caps on AoEs... was fantastic fun.

Basically it boils down to this. Operatives rely on stealth. It is a core mechanic. The opening from stealth is crucial as is being able to escape and heal up/restealth Assassins stealth is a convenience. You have 1 CC and 1 2s stun that require stealth (and if you go the tank spec the stun doesnt any more) and they are just as deadly if they catch you without stealth as with.

The scrapper scoundrels there's not a whole lot you can do. Anyone not in heavy armour that gets opened on by those guys when their attacks crit tend to die pretty quick (if they don't crit though you can turn it around). Its pretty much as the other poster said cover pulse em, stun them, run to friends lol. They have the definite weakness of being that 1 trick pony with the opener and if there are others around they'll squish pretty soon after. As for the healing ones full lethality is definitely a big plus now with lingering toxins helping with the dispel issue. Make sure to always keep shatter shot up obviously with the 25% trauma debuff. The biggest trick to scoundrel/op healers is save your stuns/big burst for sub 50%. At 30% their big instant heal refreshes TA/UH and so can just be used for free every time they are less than 30% and it heals for a lot! I'm a big fan of wearing them down with dot damage/series of shots etc till around the 50-60% mark then debilitate -> EP -> WB -> cull -> takedown. Their HoT's are easy enough to damage through, especially if your making them use GCD's on cleanses, the healing comes from the 2 casted heals and surgical probe/emergency medpack.

All sniper/gunslinger specs are viable in PvP currently and its purely down to playstyle. A SS/MM may do less overall damage but your job should be picking off people from hurt to dead with your front load burst. Speedshot -> aimed shot -> trick shot -> quickdraw (play a sniper, hope i got the mirror abilities right). It can do well against full health targets but suffers from lack of mobility and struggles against heavy armor and high defense classes Lethality/DF is more backloaded burst and is more mobile due to not relying on cover. Weakness is an inability to CC current target beyond debilitate (as flashbang, legshot and cover pulse are all broken on damage from dots) and quick target swapping due to high energy ramp up and cooldown on corrosive/shrap. Eng/Sab is far greater survivability and objective control but your not asking about that....

It would be possible in novare also due its no time limit thing. I've gotten 14 medals as a sniper before but died plently in a really long game of it (thus no protection or healing medals) Also for the really quick games you can get the dauntless medals which do kind of count (i've heard it yell people are unbeatable/invincible at game ending when it awards the 6 medals for a quick win)

Well the theory of whether its worth it to give up some offense for some extra defense and staying power is a perfectly valid discussion point. However if the extra survivability is via defence it would not be worth as the tanking stats (shield/defence) are broken in a pvp environment

Hit 50 -> buy recruit -> use recruit to do dailys to get modded oranges with daily armoring/mods/enhancements -> ops

However coming from someone who played a tank before rolling a sniper defense does very little except against MM snipers and marauders and in the small amounts you would be getting focusing on the loss isnt worth the gain (thats not to say defense is completely useless but you only want it if you don't have to sacrifice to get it such as talents that increase it along with something else, or cover or cooldowns like deflection/saber ward)

Reduced CD wouldn't do a whole lot as its only really worth it if you save it for TA + relics which are both 2min cooldowns anyway. Outside of that keeping a standard FT every 6s rotation is better

I hate CTF matches in MMO's. FPS games can pull it off because there isnt tanks/healers speed classes etc. In MMO's capture the flag ends up as 'who can avoid as much PvP as possible and either speed run with the flag to avoid everyone or just spam heal 1 tank through 8 players of damage and no one bothers fighting back

Story Mode of karaggas palace and eternity vault. End bosses of HM flashpoints. They used to be a guaranteed drop from these sources but 1.2 lowered the drop rate and made them not Bind on Pickup

Yeah many people dislike rapid fire but if you use in combination with TA you get a period of the highest DPS that sniper can do. TA + SoS - RF - SoS - SoS. PvE wise your only delaying FT by 4s or so and its worth it and for PvP id be impressed when someone can survive 1-2k damage per half second for 6s unless they have guard and some pretty good dedicated heals

However dummys cannot dodge. Which means the ranged attacks against them will always hit (georg has come straight out and said this due to it skewing results for gunslingers/mercs/marauders with 2 weapons). Its still close but unless your sitting at 110% ranged accuracy (not tech) then it skews it back a little again.

Which is ironic because sage/sorc were the ones who could 'exploit' the previous way the best with their 15s duration low cost no cooldown instant cast dot lol

Give PvP instance a lockout ID? If you get DC'd you can rejoin the same one (it'll not invite someone else in for 2mins or so say). If you finish a WZ the lockout is cleared, if you leave a warzone you are locked to that one for x mins. Probably be a complete ***** to code but covers most things.

20s. 45s cooldown for marksman, 1min otherwise. It is however easy to counter just run out of LoS. If the sniper has to leave cover to move entrench ends automatically. Or if they aren't marksman drop some big nasty AoE on their heads and make em move (would probably work against a lot of marksmen to as not many seem to be taking the new 60% less AoE damage while entrenched talent)

The balance didn't skew towards marauders till they started getting heavily geared. A 'few months' ago people were still levelling there was no 50 only brackets so marauders weren't considered all that good. My personal opinion isn't that marauders are 'overpowered' its that 1.2 broke the game and marauders have the skills to offset that. When everyone's TTK has dropped to 5-10s (possibly because its being balanced around the 20k+ health of WH gear i don't know) extending that by 8-10s with good use of force camo and undying rage in combination with the marauders bleed self heals feels overpowered.

Definitely as others have said (didnt read all 11 pages) it was more the nerfs to other classes and changes to expertise and TTK that really pushed them over. They were close to top of the heap pre 1.2 when played by a player with half a brain. The buffs to ravage/master strike made it powerful and so it started seeing use. Main thing being when TTK is so low across the board, being able to gain 99% immunity for 5s on a 90/75/45s cooldown almost doubles your survivability without affecting offensive pressure causes a rather glaring difference. In almost all other cases 'class stacking' has a disadvantage somewhere. A theoretical other class stacking situation that could defeat it (8 x class A would be beaten by 8 x class B but that would in turn be beaten by 8x class C). Marauders/Sentinels however are at a point where you could theoretically have 8 of them and win... especially if a large number of them are rage.

Its always refreshing to see a really good player show that a class everyone considers nerfed to oblivion can still kick some serious arse when played really really well. Good show sir!

Other way around but yeah. One will override the other and you will only get one (the armoring)

The only time a good sniper should have problems against a single melee is against the warriors/assassins when deflection/saber ward is up. Outside of that its not hard to take them down 1v1. Leg shot if you see them coming (cause they can't leap at you) Entrench Cover Pulse (Bonus points if you wait for force lighting or ravage to start casting first ) Ambush w/Heavy Shot -> Leg Shot Debilitate -> Orbital Strike At this point you should be far enough ahead to just burst them down and if not in order to damage you they're standing in a lovely large n tasty orbital. Multiple melee will certainly kill you. But a single melee shouldn't provided your paying attention. Ops give me trouble because of the hidden strike knockdown taking you out of cover but they are few n far between now.