I think the reduction to the CD on cloaking screen to 2 minutes means we can drop it down to 1 minute with speccing. If you figure you cycle through a few rotations, combat stealth for 3-4 seconds, then unleash your opener again, I think that's pretty solid. It lets us get into stealth more often and obviously open from stealth more often whch is exactly what we should be doing. Our burst is still generally lousy, our sustained is total ****, and our energy costs are through the roof, but this change to stealth will be pretty nice for PVP and maybe even in PVE. Now they just need to make sure DoTs don't break you out of stealth and we are good (plus the above mentioned stuff).

First, I'm very pleased with the increased level of feedback and communication that's been going on in the last few weeks. I hope this trend continues. Second, while I really dislike how Blizzard handles WoW, Blizzard's team totally hit the nail on the head with their recent Diablo 3 Patch 1.04 notes and communication. See links here for examples: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/6968517/ http://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/6939564/ http://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/6939559/ http://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/6923457/104_Legendary_Item_Improvements-8_14_2012 http://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/6923456/104_Systems_Preview-8_10_2012 Note the simple things being done to increase end game content (increase in item drop probability, changes and 'uniqueness' to legendary items, new icons to denote rank, increase in base stats beyond level cap), the excellent game balancing (no major nerfs, some major buffs to skills to promote use and diversity), and the honest dialogue. Post lvl 60 feels much less like a Daily (pardon the pun) grind. I make mistakes. Sometimes a lot of them. And here are the devs admitting to mistakes readily, discussing the reason why something was made a certain way, and then stating the intent behind the change. Asking and discussing pertinent questions, and sometimes admitting hard truths: And the most important part, none of what they wrote came off as spin. I saw no vague references, no flashy movies, just substance and an honest dialogue from people that make the game directly to the people that play it. As a customer I really respect how the Diablo patch was performed and have really gotten back into the game following the changes. Not bad for a game that basically involves clicking on things until you find an item. But what I'd really like to see are the devs here at SWTOR follow suit. I was extremely impressed by the dialogue behind this patch and the speed and quality with which it was implemented. I really hope BW devs start moving in this direction.

PVP CC is out of control. If I'm not stunned, I'm slowed, or I'm pulled, or pushed. Too many people have too much too often. Papercuts stuff: Animations that have you interacting or attacking something still allow you to rotate away from it. I was fixing an engine last night and rotated so my back was to the engine and I was facing away from it, but still fixing it. This is true with attacks as well.

So with some help I finally managed to beat the Emperor last night, saving the Galaxy, getting medals, lots of clapping, two troopers danced. It was epic! So I went with one of the lightside options where I spared the Emperor's life and took him prisoner. Man talk about being tempted by the dark side on that conversation wheel too! For those that don't know, the Emperor refuses to be your trophy and "kills" himself and brings down the whole temple. So my questions are: 1. Do you think he's really dead? 2. What happens if you kill him (dark side option) or if you choose that other light side option?

Geez guys you complain they aren't doing enough for 6 months and when they ask for help your tell them to go google it, nice work. Here's with the ones I had (if it helps my character is a normal sized male Chiss Jedi Guardian) Has a Giant Butt Robe of the Insight *also jumps up in the front, it looks like he's got wood, also the only light armor one that did this in my experience Saber Initiate's Body Armor Valorous Peacekeepers Chestguard Ancient Vindicator's Chestguard Outcast Chestguard Battle Expulsors Chestguard Reinforced Mullinine Chestguard (shouldn't these have apostrophes btw? ) Not affected Battlemind's Vestment *is a light armor robe so it seems like it should be affected but it's not, no belt on this one tho Reinforced Phrik Chestguard Blademaster's Clan Varad Body Armor Gladiator Chestguard Rampage Assault Chestguard Deathwarden's Body Armor Fortified Transparisteel Chestguard Foeseeker's Body Armor Reinforced Transparisteel Chestguard

This needs to be painted on a wall in Bioware Austin. And in front of every urinal and behind every bathroom stall door. There's a small accuracy debuff and an armor debuff that I'm aware of (though I think the armor debuff is not applied to the target but a damage buff given to the attacker). I never played GW but I loved the combat system in City of Heroes. There were so many varied buffs and debuffs (defense, accuracy, damage, knockback, armor, GCD time) that it made the game really complex and interesting. Two whole classes in that game were almost exclusively buffers/debuffers. SWTOR is like a coloring book at Dennys. You get red, yellow, and blue (tanks, dpsers, and healers).

I love that the there's two posts by scoundrels/ops (the supposed burst class) and one of them is nowhere near anyone else's crits. And the other is just a frownie face Hahaha Game balance FTW!

It's pretty clear at this point that you're just trolling. But in defense the community team for the last 19 pages of general hate and ire directed at them, the community team works for everyone else at the company. They don't get to march into Bioware or EA's office and demand answers from CEO's and developers team because someone posts on the forum that they want their jedi hood to be up or down. Developers take care of creating the game, liaisons convey the information that has been finalized and decided upon by devs. Liaisons don't get to call the shots, they do what they are told and say what they are allowed. There's a lot this game lacks right now, and a lot of problems with it, but they've taken huge steps towards trying to make things better by cleaning house. You can't take a game the size of SWTOR and completely remake it within 2-3 months if you are serious about delivering a quality product. If you're going to complain about something, complain about how the devs don't allow community team to say anything or complain about the sluggish pace of the devs' content releases and terrible class balance. But don't shoot the messengers.

This is a ridiculous argument. Meeting the internal metrics is a fairly simple process. Determining whether those metrics are desirable and best for the game is something that gets worked out between the developers and the players. The same way developers don't anticipate every possible contingency to min-maxing (i.e. the original acid blade 50% debuff, stacked with BH/Rakata gear, stacked with the original biochem buffs one-shotting level 50s). Each of those things met the internal metrics but combined one certain players in specific instances it was an unforeseen problem which was addresed. As far as community communication since the big shakeup, I am very pleased at the number of replies and feedback by the new community representatives. Am I irritated at how long things have taken to get to this point over the life of the game? Absolutely. But now that we are here, there has been huge turnover in the staff, and there appears to be a concerted effort to change things (i.e. class feedback threads posted in every class specific forum, solid, frequent, and consistent community support), I'm willing to wait a few more months to see if this game finally meets its potential. The other thing I think is funny is that people assume if developers or representatives are out doing PR that they somehow aren't doing their jobs or working to make the game itself better. Between email, texting, conference calls the average office worker can do a lot of things at once. The average manager or ceo can make normal office worker multitasking look like childs' play. Look, the game is not living up to its potential right now. Its lost hundreds of thousands of subscribers. You know it. I know it. They fired a ton of people so they know it (they just can't say it for a number of reasons). But serious steps are being made to change things (F2P, requests for class feedback, frequent update/patches/bug fixes (like every Tuesday almost), and excellent community coordination). So while it's your right to complain (and trust me as a DPS operative I've complained a lot), I think we should give it 2-3 months and see what this new team comes up with. Restructuring and retooling something this large takes time. If you don't like that then quit. Or just play it when it's free. Otherwise just be patient and don't shoot the messenger (the community people). They aren't in charge. They work for people that make the decisions just like you and me.

For concealment you are going to be all about burst. The secondary stats all hit a point of diminishing returns. Start with crit, when that hits a soft cap add surge, then if that hits a cap, throw in power (imo). Here's where you can play around with stats/gear: http://swtor.askmrrobot.com/character

Assassin's get shield and several skills which multiply the amount the light armor contributes to their defense or damage reduction. Marauders' damage out put and situational skills far outweighs what an operative can currently bring to the table.

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=505818 Put it here. Since Zoeller is finally gone and they lost a few 100k subscribers, BioWare is finally listening to the community.

Concealment 1. How do you think your Operative spec is perceived by other classes? I think at this point most people think the Concealment spec is at best balanced for PVP and at worst totally useless. They have been nerfed in almost every patch and I think people mostly just feel bad for the players of this class. For PVE, FPs, Raids, no one wants a concealment operative because their burst DPS is useless on boss fights and they are too fragile for melee damage. 2. How do you perceive your own spec? I think they are useless in almost every PVP aspect, and useless unless solo against normal, strong, or a single elite mob without numerous companions. If you remove their situational abilities they have like 3 attacks total as almost everything depends on getting into stealth or gaining a tactical advantage that doesn't last long because this class has been nerfed into the ground while the energy costs and cooldowns were all increased and damage decreased. Concealment ops need seriously buffed because they should be dangerous and difficult to play and should have people complaining that they die to them; that's what dangerous classes should be...scary. Medicine 1. How do you think your Operative spec is perceived by other classes? People see this as the best healing class in the game right now and I agree. The ability to heal prior to receiving damage is loved by tanks and the rapid heals are loved in all situations. 2. How do you perceive your own spec? The channeled heal is a useless skill and this class has far too few attacks (especially against bosses). The heals are generally amazing and I wish all other classes could heal as well as operatives can. The ability to combat stealth can be a total lifesaver/timesaver in 16 man raids.

Hey BW is asking for our feedback and opinions on class specs! Make sure your voice gets heard for what we want to change on our Agents! Ops http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=505818 Snipers http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=505819

Yeah what Tacito said. Just root the op and run away, or take 4 steps back and shoot him again. Since all but like 3 of our attacks require us to be withing 4-10m, rooting and shooting is death to most ops.

It's fun but it's a lot more work than on any other class I've played so far. Guardians, marauders, tanksins, mercs, vanguards, everything has an easier time in a fight than a concealment spec op. Because killing anything is highly dependent on stealth, and getting into stealth is highly dependent on what is going on with you, your companion, and any cutscenes/plot elements (you always get taken out of stealth for conversations, so after the conversation is over and the fight resumes, you are at your most vulnerable and can't use your opening strike), doing most types of normal combat is very difficult and highly situational. Plus Kaliyo struggles to stay alive in long fights and to hold aggro when your DPS is so high, and she is your only companion until lvl 32ish (end of Alderaan).

Except Epic Rap battles of History!!!

So I read a Dev Tracker post where George Zoeller has left Bioware. You guys think that will help us get back to pre-1.2 levels?? I'm pretty psyched to see any changes that may be in the pipeline for concealment DPS in PVP/PVE. You guys think they will buff us? And how?? Personally I'm hoping for a faster cooldown on most attacks, lower energy costs, and an easier way to get back into stealth! Team of Operatives can now return to stunlocking the everyone!!!!! HUZZAH!!!

Your operative is level 22. You haven't unlocked most of what this class can do yet (hidden strike, acid blade, anything heal spec related or lethality related). Watching youtube videos will not give you any idea as to how a class plays at level 50 or more importantly against other level 50s. Youtube is for highlights, it's not a documentary channel. I started my op the day of prelaunch and have watched them get progressively more and more downed to the point where the damage output is the lowest and by far the most situational of any DPS based class in the game. People that have played this class a lot more than you are trying to explain to you why it sucks. You can either accept their experience at their word or you can disagree, but it's starting to look like you are just arguing for the sake of trying to look smart. If I had a level 22 rogue on WoW and told you they were crap and you've played one for 3 years, would you care at all about my opinion or correcting it? The pre-launch operative class was just plain dangerous. They were scary and a high risk/high reward class to play with and play against. They could disappear, reappear, give you a 50% armor debuff, keep you pinned to the ground for 3 seconds where they could take half your health or more, then stun you after a few seconds and finish you off. Then re-enter stealth and find a new target. They could hunt. Even prior to 1.2 they were still very dangerous and very playable. Since launch (and what really killed ops DPS was patch 1.2), the cooldown timers on backstab and hidden strike have been increased, the energy cost has increased, the debuff has dropped to 30%, and the damage on the main attacks also decreased. My first match in a 50 warzone post 1.2 , I hit a merc with my alpha strikes, unloadedeverything I had and burned every cooldown, and they would just ride it out because I couldn't do enough damage to kill him or get him near dead. They wouldn't even bother attacking me, just ignored. Sorcs with their shields up can do the same thing. I'm an assassin that can't kill people, just annoy them. Nearly every class in the game can outgun us very readily while everything in our arsenal can't do much to overcome it. Concealment ops have dropped from being elite lethal assassins that keep everyone on their toes to circling the battlefield picking off people near death anyways. It's not fun, it's just putting down a sick animal. The worst part is, most of these nerfs (consistent nerfs over 4 separate patches with no dev posts in the operative forums or directed to operative players to explain why) were done to address PVP complaints but in the process made concealment ops useless for PVE as well.

I'm transferring 8 chars from Shadowhand to Shadow Lands and I'm on my last character, but Shadow Lands is saying it's full even though I only have 7 toons on it. Any suggestions?

Just got this email from BW Don't let Kaliyo down? Are you freaking kidding me Bioware? Would someone at Bioware please tell Kaliyo that I'm sorry she's lonely but I can't really help it. See my acid blade doesn't really seem to work so well as it first did, and my hidden strike seems to hurt about as much as an uppercut to the face. I guess in my old age my backstab just isn't as fast as it used to be and I seem to get tired just so damned fast now. Also, my stealth belt just doesn't seem to cut it. Perhaps Kaliyo has some sort of useful one I could borrow when I get in a fight. In fact I'm so useless in a fight that really the only thing I can do to help out is throw some Kolto at people. Some secret agent huh? I realize we had some great times Kaliyo, but truth be told you are terrible at your job. So bad that you slowed me down for most of the time we spent together, bailed on me at one point, and are now fully replaced by a robot. Ya know what, screw the in character ****. Bioware if you had bothered to listen to anyone in the operative community before repeatedly implementing massive character overhauls and nerfs, if you had allowed us to copy our characters over and test things, and then if you had bothered to listen to us, reply to us, interact with us, or make us feel heard or appreciated, maybe I'd be really itching to log in right now and play my operative some more. But you didn't. You ignored me. You took my money and you ignored everything I had to say about what I'm paying for. How's that business model working out for you? Oh wait we know. You had massive layoffs, a huge loss in business, and you transferred tons of people from other projects to try to save a sinking ship and salvage what could have been and should have been the greatest MMO yet produced. Meanwhile you implement 1.3, which will let me level faster if I grind out some legacy features. The only reason, the ONLY reason I still have a subscription is because some of your games (Mass Effect 2, Dragons Age: Origin, KOTOR) were amazing and I'm hoping someone responsible for some of that success manages to take the reigns and turn this trainwreck into something I enjoy again. And you have the freaking nerve to even imply that I am letting someone down??? You freaking joke. Go do your job and do it well. When you do that I will log back in. But as long as you gimp the class I put hundreds of hours into and ignore me while taking my money you will get nothing but morbid curiousity and pretty soon a cancellation notice from me.

I'm cool with the healing tree, but concealment is almost useless now because of high energy costs, low relative burst, and no sustained DPS. Do people actually successfully use lethality? I assumed the DoTs would be so slow that you could heal around them. I'm not sure about a gap closer, I kinda of like having to slowly stalk or hunt my targets. But I do think we need more survivability, whether that's in the form of higher defense or greater damage I don't know. I think the worst thing for an op now is their inability to quickly restealth (other than their so called "burst" damage which isn't enough to actually burst someone down). I would love to see it easier to get back into stealth after combat. Waiting 2 minutes sucks when you have no other defensive abilities other than shield and evasion (which are both borderline useless in PVP). The timer on on the combat stealth should at least reset when you die.

Ops/Scoundrels keep getting nerfed entirely because of PVP concerns. I really enjoyed PVP prior to 1.2 but I'm so tired of having the class I've been playing since pre-launch get nerfed that I've almost given up on it and just rerolled. So many people ***** and complain about getting killed by an op or ops getting kited or slaughtered in most scenarios now, but I haven't seen any real input on what a stealth burst damage class should be able to do. How much health should we be able to take away on our alpha strike? How quickly should we be able to get back into stealth? Do we need more ranged attacks? Do we need some sort of better buff or debuff? Do we need more defense? More sustained burst? Less attacks that require procs? More energy? Faster regen? Or are we fine the way we are? Maybe we need some new skills to tweak our burst, a cooldown reset power for all skills with a 3 minute cd? I don't know, but I do love playing my Op and I want to know what you guys think will help make it a great class to play and a dangerous class to play against again? Whatever you think please keep the QQ/l2p **** in another op thread, there're plenty out there

I seriously burst out laughing at this

aaaah right that thing, thanks guys!