many look down a bit on scoundrel dps, especially for pvp, and i tend to agree their 'lone wolf' niche is simply not as useful as more inyourface class with obvious group utility. i know it didnt appeal to me, and i dont feel on any other characters that their presence on etither team makes for a huge impact, as even their 'ninja' capability is only noticeably more strong than that a non-stealth class player that knows how to los on one map (civil war), 2 counting huttball endzone camping. healing is seen as perhaps the strongest in game, especially in pvp due to the prevalence of instant heals. the >30% uh proccage of emp is still extrmely powerful, and unlike, for example, the mercs uninterruptability while their bubble is active, emps power is virtually always available to any decent pvp sawbones. while pve healing feels good, challenging but not overly difficult if im on the ball, pvp is a bit faceroll. the combination of the the hots and emp is incredibly simple and effective.

i think a lot of people, outsiders and the players themselves, misunderstand engineering, namely plasma probe. both many of the (largely newer) users and non-snipers think its a magical stealth scan and interrupt machine, which is why, in ranked, there is some complaining about its opness. i think engineering is really good where its at, its very good at what it does, but many dont really understand it, which means that those who do take the effort to fully understand it can take advantage. as for snipers as a whole, i again think we're pretty good where we're at. i sometimes feel the cover mechanic is a bit too strong when comparing the ranged classes, particularly to merc/commandos, but the only parts of it that i feel that way about are the uninterruptability and pushback immunity, and yet all other classes ever complain about is jump/pull immunity, so i guess they really dont feel the former matter as much. if anything give others some sort of compareable utility, as we are we're fine. against a similarly geared (and intelligent) player of any class, 1v1s always come down simply to which cooldowns are up and who makes a mistake/ genius move, not any sort of innate class imbalance.

THIS. **** THIS. the lack of thought dps seem to put into a fight makes me afraid to go driving, knowing that theyre out there.

ev doesnt require two tanks. that is all

classes must endeavor to be balanced, therefore no reason a non-force class couldn't get force using companions of lesser powers. first on the list: get guss tuno some force moves. force heal and whirlwind instead of electro trap spring to mind.

heals are 'tech'(no) abilities. 'distance' would be ranged (white damage) attacks, such as the basic 'rapid shots' move. so yeah you could probably drop some crit to lower tech crit chance down to 35ish in favor of more consistent power. as for the mainhand any aim based gun that doesnt have useless (for healers) stats like accuracy or defensive things will be good.

aim. the only boss fight(s) in the game where melee survivability becomes an issue due to boss stomps or whatever are so unforgiving to melee that the little bit of extra hp isn't going to be noticeable.

be sure you actually have a shield generator equipped (if your tank specced) as opposed to a plain generator, which dps powertechs have, with no chance to shield no matter how much they stack it.

i thought she was gonna betray me, general pudgy never struck me as a tough enough guy to actually be the final boss. looking forward to more on her for sure, as romance or anything.

be sure to manually have her attack weak things, along with youself, first, so half a group will be dead before they even get close to you.

personally i dont plan to remod my war hero stuff until im pretty much fully hero geared, including implants and all. stat balance isnt perfect out of the box so to speak, but its not horrible either. as you seem to be doing, going beyond the 'field tech' gear is a good way to avoid unnecessary amounts of accuracy and whatnot, so on the non set bonus related pieces theres no reason not to do it. 35 crit 75 surge is still typical, and slightly above 100 ranged acc. is reasonable for ss. dont forget that armoring mods are bound to the slot of gear they came from, so you cant put the armoring from gloves into a chestpiece, so full hero armoring requires a grind for each of the big 5. my understanding of the cunning v. power debate is that, while power will give very slightly more base damage, the slight increase to crit that one gets from cunning, being unrelated to the diminishing return on critical chance from critical rating, is, again slightly, better overall.

if you did the conversation in the room between the two gateways you'd have been given the lost island quest already, all i can think of.

watching the background of a group for certain castbars, usually with a green tooltip, is the traditional way, but certain animations and healing effects are more obvious, so should be watched for. slow release medpac from scoundrels stays on its targets, so if you see it, time to look for the scoundrel/op, while sorc/sages often leave purple/white clouds on the ground, and in their hands while casting, for example.

get engineer's tool belt to get into the upper tiers, then its all good.

what determines the op leader in a pvp pug?

against

i like a pvp power and campaign on-demand alacrity. like the alacrity boost since it gives both burst and some quick access to energy regen via diagnostic, which go together nicely when cool head isnt up.

the instasnipe isn't that useful, since snipe has a cast time equal to the global cooldown that even 'instant' abilities have, so all you gain is a frontloaded snipe, which has uses but not a whole lot. most engineers, including myself most of the time, particularly for pvp, go for the health booster.

my engineer isnt particularly geared, but among equally geared fellows i do very well. its just not a rotational spec, its a priority system, which cooldown should go first, then refresh everything. least thats how it feels to me, toughest content my snipes done is li hm and ev hm. big thing is to be making good use of the 1 minute adrenaline probe thanks to emp discharge.

force choke/stasis is definitely supposed to be blocked by hunker down, but it can be a bit flaky at times. last theory i heard was it sometimes bugs out whenused at the same time as defense probe/screen, which is annoying, and also its a bit slow to 'kick in', many time i have just been too slow to press it, even knowing a stun is forthcoming. then of course there's diversion, but most likely its this sneaky little hunker bug.

if you've been 'clicking' on abilities to activate them, you may have inadvertently dragged an ability off your toolbar, go into your 'abilities' bar, 'P' by default i think to see if you can find the missing move. if its just that one move, thats all i can think of.

i am now very confused. if anyone can explain using small words how this is possible please do.

probly marksmanshiop for early lvling, much as i love engineering, and frankly hate mm for endgame pvp, mm starts off strong, give lethality a try once it picks up cull/wounding shots forget which is sniper one and engineering once it gets plasma probe id suggest.

they fight who you tell them to, ctrl+1 default. anyway for op by description sounds like a debilitate got laggy, i admit i was hoping it was a plasma probe stun and there were still people who didnt know what it was.

best set bonus ive seen in game is PVP 2-piece field tech. its moar orbital/flyby, i believe, but have yet to test since im lazy, granting a 33.33 damage increase to it, not to mention an additional chance for one of its epic ticks to crit. all i know is it goes from 3 booms to 4 on sniper. couple remodded battlemaster shells should make it wonderful in pve for any smuggler/agent regardless of ac. however the pve field tech bonuses are literally useless as above poster pointed out. 2-piece pve enforcer is really pretty good though, if you dont mind the look of the old endgame gear (/shudder) its the way to go for pve or pvp id say. pvp enforcer bonuses are quite meh, most people, especially pugs, aren't quick enough to know what do when a scoundrel pops smuggle, and more than half the player attacks in the game, including all dots i think, bypass dodge.