I think the second solution is a little too powerful. It would trivialize keeping HoT's up, and make Operative healers maybe a little too good. The first option definitely seems viable. Even doubling the effect from 1/2 to 2/4 would make a huge difference. It definitely doesn't give back enough energy in its current state...

1. Operatives are like Sub/Mut Rogues, where as Assassins are like a mixture of Combat Rogues with some Enhancement Shaman traits. 2. Assassins definitely have more utility. While non-healing specced Operatives can Heal, they burn through energy and Operative heals in general are very underwhelming. 3. If you're talking about for leveling or solo play in general, I think Assassin is a lot better. Khem Val's abilities heal him, Kaliyo's just plain suck in comparison. While leveling my Sith Sorc I've noticed the companions you get as an SI are a lot better than the ones IA's get. The sustained damage and increased survivability of both companions and the class lead me to believe Assassins win out here. 4. Hard to say. Assassins are definitely a lot better out of Stealth, and I think their defensive CD's are a big plus. Operatives are really all over the place. Concealment seems useless if out of Stealth for too long, and Lethality is really frustrating to play. I think it will really boil down to preference. I've heard a lot of people saying Assassins are a little underpowered, but after 1.1.2 I'm not sure if that's still true.

Even as an Armormech it really doesn't benefit you until you have like 500+ Cunning. It is a pretty big waste of points that could be used on talents that give quite noticable results and skills while leveling.

20% nerf to HS base damage is a lot more than people realize. There's also the fact that Lethality uses Hidden Strike since it generates TA and we need to be in range anyway. Anyone that claims to have died in 2 hits from a Concealment Operative is either talking about pre 1.1 or is absolutely terrible with no gear (I mean literally none, empty slots).

DAoC was a piece of crap, there's a reason everyone left it. WoW may not have had the best system, but the underlying fact is they had the best game. Blizzard's level of polish allows them to get away with mediocre design and poor mechanics, because everything works flawlessly. There's no issues with ability delay, or people falling through floors, or quests not giving credit. That's why it's so successful. Anyone that says otherwise is delusional. Until you fix the bugs that make PvP a pain, you cannot innovate.

I don't think anyone is arguing that TM is the staple of the tree as the many BH's seem to be claiming. The argument is actually that it's too good for a staple\filler skill. Yes, it works as intended, but the way it's intended to work is the problem. As Lethality, just to get the most out of my best skill I would have to cast 3 separate abilities. A BH? Just 1. I know the tree is built that way, I'm not arguing that fact. I'm saying that no tree should make it so a filler move is spammable for acceptable dps. No other spec has that, BH's should be no exception.

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/01/26/ncsoft-seek-to-prevent-us-release-of-tera/ "NCsoft then allege that project lead of Lineage, Yong-Hyun Park, had become disgruntled by his salary, and began plotting. Referring to him and others who planned to leave and form their own company as “conspirators”, they explain how he used NCsoft meeting rooms to recruit their employees, and was soon fired. 48 of the 100+ Lineage 3 team followed him out. Taking Lineage 3 with them in their brains was in violation of agreements they had signed previously, and NCsoft goes further to claim they also committed “theft”, putting “an extensive amount of proprietary data to, among other things, personal storage devices”. These are claims that seem to have been upheld by Korean courts, and fines and prison sentences were handed out to Park and three others."

What? Concealment never was FOTM. Anyone who says they were was delusional. At most I've seen 2 Concealment Op's in 1 WZ, and that was because they were Guildmates that leveled together. But you know what I did see? Teams with upwards of 6-7 Sorcerers, or 4 Sorc's 4 BH's. In the first month of playing an IA, I saw maybe 1-2 other per WZ, and most of the time I was the only one. I'm sure people will post about how their server had 15 per WZ, and they were the only non-Concealment Op, but I am willing to beat just about anything they are full of ****.

Roll Sorc\Cons? Everyone else is...

The Valor system in Rift is brutal. Having 8 ranks, and making it take so damn long to get through them, makes for one unenjoyable PvP experience. The change to 40 ranks is definitely welcome.

You mention they should do those things, yet only 1 class has a 30m range interrupt. What exactly am I too do as a Lethality Op? or an Assassin? Just interrupting is easier said than done when the ability in question has a 30m range. If you're using Tracer on someone inside 10m, it says more about you as a player than the person you're using it on...

I reactivated Rift recently, much better game than it was at launch, that's for sure. Worth checking out for anyone looking for a semi-lively sub-based MMO. As for TERA, I wouldn't bother. It's basically Lineage 3. No seriously, the guys that made it were 50% of the team from NCSoft that was making L3, and they left the company and within a year announced TERA. They are now sitting comfortably in Jail. TERA isn't doing so hot in Korea, and I wouldn't expect it to be much better here since our versions of the Korean MMO's always suck (Aion being a prime example).

All of those abilities are nerfed with the AB\FR nerf. On top of that, Overload Shot\Blaster Whip cost a lot of Energy and doesn't do much damage as Concealment, and Sap Charge\EP requires you to take cover which is broken at best, meaning you may roll 30m off to the side, or just stand there and eat a GCD. Not arguing that people underutilize their abilities, but having people use abilities that their class isn't really designed to use shouldn't be the answer.

With good gear it crits for like 2k. Most dps can stop that in 1 stun.

I'll just repost this since nobody felt capable of responding to it. Learn what? What exactly should Operatives learn oh mighty sage of all knowledge? Should the Melee DPS spec start LEARNING how to close gaps with the 0 abilities they have to do it? If you tell me "BUT DEY HAVE STEALTH" I am going to punch you over TCP/IP. Stealth is not something you can throw on whenever you want. Cloaking Screen is on a long cooldown, and can easily be cancelled out with 1 well timed DoT. So what else should they learn? To use Cover and fire their rifle? That makes sense for the Melee class. Let's all make sure we give the Operative some time to run away and use his 3-4 ranged abilities--1 of which is kind of boosted by talents--while we rip into him with full force talented abilities. Maybe you're saying they should learn to survive more? Evasion? Only works on Physical Attacks. Shield Probe? 45s cooldown for 2200-2500 damage mitigation, Sorc's shield has half the cooldown and absorbs 20-30% more, and can be cast on other people. Cloaking Screen? PUNCH OVER TCP/IP. Stealth? Your time amongst the living is up... So when you can write me a nice guide, as to what exactly Operatives have to LEARN, that would make them more effective, I will accept your arguments. Telling a class that they "now have to learn to play" after a 20% flat damage nerf to the only ability they can reasonably use out of stealth, and is affected by several talents, is flat out stupid. How about this, next patch, we remove all the buffs Tracer\Grav gives to other abilities, drop the damage by 10%, and give it a 4.5s cooldown. GUESS YOU GUYS WILL JUST HAVE TO LEARN TO PLAY!

A snared target has almost no chance of LoSing Tracer Spam, and it follows you around walls half the time. I know it's not supposed to, and it's probably delay, but it's worth mentioning. As for the Gunslinger example. Gunslingers entire arsenal is Weapon Damage, which means it is mitigated--in full--by armor and almost all defensive cooldowns. There's also the fact that Gunslinger's abilities all also have cast times so they are just as succeptable to interrupts, and they have medium armor instead of heavy. So your entire comparions sounds good--until you apply logic. The main issue with Tracer Spam is that it is viable. Tracer gives a debuff and buffs 2 other skills substantially. No other ability in the game is that beneficial to use next to maybe Force Lightning.

All Poison Affects do Internal Damage as a description, Cull's description also stats the additional hits are dealt as Internal Damage. I have seen it take ticks away, but more often notice a sizable change in potential damage when I have WB up versus when I didn't. I've heard several other people mention it on these forums as well. Lethality is very fluid, and has excellent synergy, but is still broken as ****.

It's 30% additional damage to Poison Effects. Cull's secondary hits are classified as Poison Effects.

WB buffs Cull's extra ticks, and it has the same range as Cull. You're alkso planning on BSing them on CD which means you plan on being in range, so range isn't an issue. You also said Corrosive Dart was the bread and butter, but ignore WB which buffs it substantially, and reducing it's Energy Cost. My head hurts.

Learn what? What exactly should Operatives learn oh mighty sage of all knowledge? Should the Melee DPS spec start LEARNING how to close gaps with the 0 abilities they have to do it? If you tell me "BUT DEY HAVE STEALTH" I am going to punch you over TCP/IP. Stealth is not something you can throw on whenever you want. Cloaking Screen is on a long cooldown, and can easily be cancelled out with 1 well timed DoT. So what else should they learn? To use Cover and fire their rifle? That makes sense for the Melee class. Let's all make sure we give the Operative some time to run away and use his 3-4 ranged abilities--1 of which is kind of boosted by talents--while we rip into him with full force talented abilities. Maybe you're saying they should learn to survive more? Evasion? Only works on Physical Attacks. Shield Probe? 45s cooldown for 2200-2500 damage mitigation, Sorc's shield has half the cooldown and absorbs 20-30% more, and can be cast on other people. Cloaking Screen? PUNCH OVER TCP/IP. Stealth? Your time amongst the living is up... So when you can write me a nice guide, as to what exactly Operatives have to LEARN, that would make them more effective, I will accept your arguments. Telling a class that they "now have to learn to play" after a 20% flat damage nerf to the only ability they can reasonably use out of stealth, and is affected by several talents, is flat out stupid. How about this, next patch, we remove all the buffs Tracer\Grav gives to other abilities, drop the damage by 10%, and give it a 4.5s cooldown. GUESS YOU GUYS WILL JUST HAVE TO LEARN TO PLAY!

Debilitate - 2s Knockdown\JS - 1.5s ------------------------- Total Stun Time - 5.5s What?

20% = 1/5th. It's probably more than you get taxed on your pay check as well. Go ahead and donate 20% of your blood, come on, it's not that much.

Either you're lying, or don't know what you're doing. I play as a Medicine Op at 50 quite a bit, and with about 350 expertise, am yet to die in a knockdown solely to a Concealment Op. You know why? Cause I know what I am doing. I save my trinket for Concealment Op's since they are really the only class that has any chance of MAYBE killing me quick enough. It goes basically like this; 0.0 Operative HS 0.25-0.5 Pop Escape 0.5+ Spam Shield Probe 1.75+ Spam Evasion I never get tagged for more than 30-50% of my hp using that system. Once Evasion goes off I either Debilitate or throw a Flashbang, then start spamming heals on myself. Battle won. At this point I have the upper hand, and can start dealing DoT's and actual damage back while healing myself for substantially more than the Concealment Operative. And I'm the healing class with very little utility. I don't get a knockback, my shield is on a substantial cd and can't generally be used multiple times, and my heals are primarily HoTs with long ramp times. If I can turn the tables against a Concealment Operative as one of the most underwhelming specs in the game, most other people should have no problem. Seriously, what is so threatening that people need to use their CC Break on CD? You should really only save it for Concealment Op's or if you're carrying the ball in Huttball. Save it for things that actually matter people. If you show up to any fight in any game without your key abilities ready, you should be prepared to be at a disadvantage.

Here's one I literally just made for post-JS nerf (PvP mostly); http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#401bcZGhMRdkrfczZhM.1 I would do this for PvE leveling Concealment though; http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#4010cZGIMRdkbbfzZhr.1 I reccomend the second build to be honest. In PvP you'll want Pin Down, but I think you could manage without it while leveling, and Culling is just bad so don't bother getting that no matter what.

I would rather take Precision Instruments honestly. Something along the lines of this; http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#401bcZGhMRdkrfczZhM.1