I can say as a Mandalorian Sniper that has been involved in a fair amount of WPvP due to taking contracts and our Civil War on Jung Ma, that I would love this. It is so frustrating to be limited to the Outlaw's Den and the Western Ice Shelf for Open PvP. And the planets that allow both sides to be on them at the same time is a fraction of what's needed. There are times that I miss the way World of Warcraft had their PvP servers set up. There were only a few sanctuary cities where you couldn't fight anyone, but everywhere else was fair game as long as the person was flagged. Anyway, if they could give us more Open WPvP, that would be amazing, or if they could expand the dueling system to allow groups to duel instead of just 1v1. I would love that and I know my guild would love that as well.

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=403398 Yet another example of how the Dev's don't seem to care about Snipers and have no intention of fixing our issues.

I'm pissed at the unlimited engine energy for Scouts. It lets them do whatever they want and go everywhere and use their evasion abilities as many times as they want. They can turn on a dime, they can two shot me on both my strike fighter and gunship, and I can never hit them.

Did people miss the '?' in the thread title? Like I said in my original post, I was merely bringing up a trend I've been seeing with the scouts. I figured I'd bring it up on the forums for discussion, and the insults, and I wasn't disappointed by either. Yes, I prefer playing the Gunship, but I've played all three ships to get the feel for them, so I've enjoyed the benefit of having an almost unlimited boost when using the power to engines ability with the Scouts. But that's the point of the forums. To let people share opinions and information. To those that are good with the Scouts, would you mind sharing your preferred builds and tactics? I'd love to learn how to better play the Scout and Strike Fighter ships.

Ok, I've been seeing a trend over the last few days where the guys with the most kills are playing as scouts, and often they have zero deaths or only one or two deaths. While the Strike Fighters seem to be slotted as a 'tank' ship, able to take four fully charged railshot rounds and survive, the Scouts are the true threats, even more so than the Gunship, in my opinion. They have almost unlimited boost, able to cross the entire map in seconds, and have the ability to shred anyone in their path. If you are lucky enough to see them coming, you have a chance, but if you don't, they'll get on your tail and stay there until you die or self-destruct. As my preferred ship is a gunship, I will freely admit that it hits like a truck, but we sacrifice mobility and durability for that firepower, in essence flying a glass brick. What do they really sacrifice? If you are lucky enough to actually hit them, they die fast...except for some scouts that just won't die no matter what. I spent a good 30 seconds tailing a Scout that had 10% health left, firing my blasters at him, hitting him a few times, and he just wouldn't die. In fact, he managed to get behind me and kill me. I know it's still new, but they need to balance them a bit more or something.

It also helps once you have Covered Escape. While the move is bugged and only works 3/4 of the time in warzones, it will give you a lot of survivability.

If anything, we could use one more defensive cooldown to help us survive just a little longer to counter our squishiness.

OP? Are you kidding me? We are THE most balanced class in the game. Yes, we can put out massive damage, but we sacrifice survivabilty for that. If we get focused, that's it, we're dead. When you look at a class like the Assassins where they can take on three people and win or at least survive for a few minutes, with stuns, defensive cool downs, and knockbacks, not to mention stealth...yeah, we are no where close to that. If you know how to deal with a sniper, such as line of sighting us, we are easy to deal with.

Ok, the thing that has been frustrating me the most as a Leth Sniper is Operatives. They can cleanse my poisons every 4 seconds! Seriously! I spend most my time with them reapplying my poisons as they just strip them off. How do I deal with that? Because they just cleanse and then get in my face and I'm pretty much dead.

Funny how this has been around and happening since they gave us Covered Escape, yet there has been no interest at all for the Devs to fix either this glitch or the Operative Roll Bug. Oh, they spend time 'evening out' issues with Powertechs, Assassins, other issues....but a broken ability that causes unnecessary death and frustration? Nah, not important enough despite how much time has passed since they were implemented and the glitches discovered.

How many others are getting this bug/glitch where when you try to use Covered Escape, you'll roll away, but then the screen glitches and you get bounced around, and end up right where you started from? Either that or you barely move and you can't move or alter the camera for a few seconds after rolling? I can't count how many times I've died in warzones from these glitches.

The problem that I've found is that even doing this trick, I only spot them three times out of ten before they open up on me. And that's not even mentioning when I duel an Operative or Assassin in an open area where they can move around me and I can't see them until they hit me for huge damage. The limitation to our spotter sight BEHIND us is insane. Yes, I get that realistically you can't see behind you, but while we can't see behind us, Sorc's and Assassins are able to us Overload in a Huttball match and affect people on the catwalk above them. Call me crazy, but I'm tired of people being able to easily slip in behind me and take away 3/4 of my health before I can even hit my escape to roll away. Only the newer players to stealth classes or complete idiots attack a sniper from the front. That almost never happens in the Top Tier matches. My guild leader plays an Operative and the only times I beat him are the rare occasions I knock him out of stealth or if he has his defensive abilities on CD. Otherwise, I get owned...every...single...time.

I agree with the purposed changed, but I would MUCH rather have another defensive cooldown instead. I'd rather have them change the name and function of Laze Target to something that gives us a 4 sec stealth like the Sent/Mara's have. Our sister class, the Operative, is a stealther class, so why not give us a temp stealth to get us out of trouble when we get locked down by Operatives/Assassins/Warriors....? It makes total sense to me.

I've been messing around with my spec's, but lately for arenas and warzones, I found that I've been doing better and surviving longer with Marksmanship, as Lethality just doesn't have the shear stopping power that is needed most of the time. However, I still use Lethality for duels as that is where it really shines. I can even take out Assassins if I time my moves and CD's just right.

We're only weak when going solo and get no help from our teammates. Though I've had to switch from Lethality back to Marksmenship in order to put out the burst that is needed in arenas, but it lets me survive longer too. If we have someone watching our back, it lets us survive a little longer, but we are still probably the squishiest class in the game, a true Glass Cannon. I'd say that the only class that is squishier would be the Sorc/Sage.

Everyone says that Snipers are a well balanced class, but while we can put out good damage, our surviveability is lacking imo. I'm currently a Lethality Spec on my main, and I am ALWAYS the first one targeted and I usually die within 4-5 seconds, just enough to throw up my defensive CD's, use covered escape (when it works and doesn't keep me in place), and get off maybe one attack. My nickname in most arena's is 'bait', as we all know they'll go for me first. Sometimes I am able to get away and do my damage, but 9/10 times, I get locked down, usually by Assassins/Shadows and killed hard and fast. I've been hearing rumors that they will be nerfing us in an upcoming patch or expansion, along with Operative healers. The one thing that I'd give anything for is a defensive CD along the lines of Force Camoflage of the Marauders. Give us a short term stealth to let us get out of danger and re-position ourselves. Not a buff, just something to let us survive just a little bit longer.

I've been getting that so freaking often lately. I've lost many a match because when I try to roll away, I drop my poison cloud, but I don't go anywhere. It's really pissing me off and makes me feel like the devs hate Agents because we have so many bugs and glitches with no one caring to fix them. The Operative Roll bug has been around for ages, yet there is no fix on the horizon. You have classes that are super smooth with little glitches because those are the preferred classes of the devs. Yes, a sniper can put out good damage, but we are more squishy than almost any other class out there. Even a Marauder lasts longer than a sniper.

I find that annoying personally. Snipers are supposed to be the anti-stealth with "Spotter", but it rarely works because it only works in front of you. And when you do see them, it's too late to do anything except hope you can hit cover pulse or entrench before they can hit you for massive damage.

I've been doing a lot of arena's the last few days as a MM Sniper, and I have to say, the LOS issues are killing me. That's one thing that works in favor of the Lethality spec. While people can duck behind some rock or building or catwalk and break your LOS just as you are about to let off an ambush in MM, you can be a heck of a lot more mobile as Lethality. Using dots and the flashbang to full effect will be really interesting once I get fully back into Lethality. Thanks for the guide as it's given me a lot of ideas and I'm trying out your rotations. I am also really curious about min/max'ing my gear to best effect. Any chance you can follow up on that?

As always, Clan Epsis is willing to offer our services...for a price. Contact one of our members if you are interested in hiring our skills and talents on the field.

I think this is an awesome idea, though as Clan Epsis is a Mandalorian guild, we would show up for something like this in armor, as that is our formal dress. That being said, we will try and send someone to attend, as long as real life issues allow us to.

/signed As a Mandalorian sniper/operative, I've had to make due with improvising my armor and mixing and matching different pieces. I would love to have the option to wear real Mandalorian armor as a medium armor wearer.

Just updating this to remind people about the tournament this weekend. I hope to see you all there.

Ok, in regards to companions, that is a clear no. No companions are allowed to be used. But medpacks, stims, grenades, and adrenals are all fair game. It's up to each fighter to come prepared to win.

If you think you can handle it, go ahead and sign up with both. Just make sure that both are there 'on time', you have their entry fees, and you check in with both. And of course, you can't fight yourself, but we'll cross that bridge if we come to it.