I play a gunslinger and a guardian. So I know both the melee game and the ranged game. To me, melee in this game is a bit silly, every opponent is dealt with in mostly the same way. It's always just a game of cat and mouse to try and keep in range of your target and if others show up and you're outnumbered you just use whatever Cc you have or pop defensive cool downs. Gunslinger on the other hand has so much more going on. Positioning is important, target selection is important, energy management is important etc. Edit: I should mention that I don't think sniper/gunslinger is difficult to play. I don't think any class in this game is difficult to play--in fact I think they're all a little dull and not very involved. All I'm saying is that out of the 8 choices, of which I've played all but one to at least the high 20s, gunslinger is the most versatile and involved. Further, there is a much larger variety of play styles. The guardian is just setting up sweep crits over and over. The gunslinger requires intelligent use of kiting mechanics, LoS, burst setup to take down healers (I.e. Whittling down their health and then using flash grenade/dirty kick to lay a Sab charge/aimed shot/trick shot burst for sharpshooters or a double dot wounding shots for dirty fighters to put a healer in DoT execute range to force too large of a healing deficit to come back from. I also find that gunslingers have a much larger range of tools to select regardless of spec. Just because you're specced into DF doesn't mean you'll never use Sab charge, for example. A good player can really take advantage of some of these tools. Also, having a ranged interrupt is just hilarious when going up against those traced missile spammknf bounty hunters. I just LoS them while my interrupt is on CD and they freak. I literally had one tell me in /say once that he hated me because I managed to kill him when I started the fight at 20% health through good use of CDs and LoS mechanics.

Sniper/Gunslinger imo

It's actually 9 with the right talents. The real barrier to consecutive sweep crits is singularity stacks.

Eh, not really. Not without consumables up and on a light armor target. Most smash crits will register between 3500 and 4500.

I'm not really sure what you're arguing here...I never said sentinels/marauders could hit that hard. Obviously Juggs/Guardians hit harder with sweep/smash because they get an extra 30% damage modifier through talents for it... What's your point?

No, when did I say that? I said sentinels/marauders are fine.... The only thing I disputed is your claim that juggs/guardians can go around smashing targets for 10k. It doesn't work like that--especially after 1.1

Lol, look at the buffs in that screenshot. This was Pre-1.1, and the knight is stacking buffs like crazy. Not doable anymore.

Oh I know they can hit for 10k. I'll say this though--they can't hit an equally geared target for 10k. They can hit for 10k if they're stacking consumables and have 4 stack of singularity and sweep/smash a target with low expertise. I don't really see this as an issue, though.

Probly Smash crits followed with scream/ravage or something. Marauders are fine. They're very potent with the right CD usage...this isn't a bad thing.

See http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=248557 for this. Please contribute so we can get something changed!

Nerfing dispels to be one effect per cure would be fine with me. That leaves enough time to reapply the missing dot and cast wounding shots before one is dispelled again.

Bumping. Not sure how long I need to keep this around to make sure somebody of importance actually reads it :-/

Again, this is not really relevant to the discussion. "Go play X" does not solve the problem. I like the concept of the Dirty Fighting tree, so I would prefer to shine some light on the issue that's causing it to be nigh unplayable rather than just go play a different spec. Edit: Also, I disagree to some extent that Scoundrels/ops have as much of an issue with this. They get Pugnacity (not sure what the imperial counterpart is) that allows them greater energy regeneration, and their version of wounding shots is instant cast, applying all of its damage at once. This at least allows them to dot a target and get a wounding shots in in between dispels or inside of a stun.

Precisely why it needs some dispel protection!

That would be fine if they were actually occupied, but they aren't. It's not just healers that can dispel, its anyone who plays a scoundrel/operative, sorcerer/sage or mercenary/commando. This includes DPS specs. Further, a single dispel removes both of our DoTs, and costs very little in comparison to the cost of applying those dots. So, the most I could do to "occupy" a single healer (assuming the DPS aren't dispelling, which they are) is cause him to use an instant cast ability every 4.5 seconds about 3 times in a row, at which point I'm out of energy. If I use my 1.5 min CD to restore 50 energy, I could re-DoT about 4-5 times. Keep in mind that applying the dots themselves does no real damage, so all I've effectively done is caused the healer to press dispel a few times. Sure, you can argue that I should be interrupting and stunning etc etc, but those are things that every class has and every class should be doing, so its irrelevant to discuss them as benefits to the spec, since they're universal. Edit: Oh, and this applies whether or not I'm playing with an organized group.

That's fine, we all have our preferences. That doesn't mean that its shortcomings should be abandoned in favor of another spec, though. I'm not looking for arguments consisting of "just play X spec, then" because that isn't helpful. I'm looking for arguments as to whether DF/Lethality does or does not need some dispel protection.

Not here looking to whine or ask for buffs to make my class completely overpowered, but dirty fighting needs some dispel protection. A great portion of a DF gunslinger's damage (and their imperial counterpart) comes from Wounding Shots/Cull. Its a very strong ability, but it does require a lot of setup. In order for me to do respectable damage to a target, I need to have both of my bleeds on it to get the most from Wounding Shots. This works great when I'm playing against unorganized groups--you simply dot multiple targets and then fire away. However, in more organized play, Dirty Fighting is very, very weak. If you can't keep dots on a target, you simply cant put enough damage into them to take them down. The worst part is that applying my DoTs to a target costs me MUCH more energy than it costs to dispel them, so if I try to reapply and get a quick Wounding Shots off, I'll just run into an energy deficit and be stuck with flurry. We need some help here. It doesn't have to be some kind of ridiculous change like making Gunslinger dots immune to dispel, but something like a 1 minute cooldown ability that makes your dots immune to dispel for 10 seconds would be nice. This is at least enough for us to get off a guaranteed full damage Wounding shots every once and awhile. Thoughts?

Nope. Currently rank 46. Half Champion half Centurion with a few PvE pieces.

http://knotor.com/item_sets

lol @ this guy. Did you not read the OP orrrr.... I'm worried about you sir.

If you don't like it...play something else? I'm having trouble seeing the point of this. Not everyone is supposed to like every class, that's why there are 8 choices.

Gunslingers are fine in PvP. In fact I've been cautious about posting on the forums at all because I don't want to make the class seem OP and get it nerfed. http://imgur.com/8xEgC It's all about effectively using pillars and objects to LoS targets and positioning yourself to make it hard for melee to attack you without surrounding themselves with enemies.

This was before nightmare mode really existed.

I've run into this issue and had to solve it this way: Everyone in the group needs to disband. Each person then right clicks their portrait and checks to see if they have the option to reset all instances. Everyone who can does so. Everyone right clicks their portrait again. Anyone who still has the option to reset is bugged and needs to actually push the bug onto another player, it's the only way we found to get rid of it. We actually had a guild member make an alt with the express purpose of infecting it with this bug. The way to rid the person carrying it is for them to invite an unbugged player, give that player group leadership and then quit the group. It's a ridiculous process I know, but it works for us every tme.

I clicked it on my iPad and it doesn't seem to be a video link. Id stay away if I were you, probably a keylogger