Commando DPS for PVE is good atm. I have run Denova as both Gunnery and Assault, and Gunnery wins out, but Assault is still competitive.
I run MoxParser to keep track of how i am doing in raids, and for Gunnery, burst sessions get me anywhere from 1850 to 2k depending on if i am able to stand and blast away or if i have to move. Sustained i do 1500-1700. The higher end of that all depends on if i am able to Stand and blast or if i have to constantly move.
Assault runs about 200-300 lower on average for both burst and sustained for me, but then i don't really run Assault very much.
Commandos are competitive right now, even if we are on the lower end of the bracket atm. The nerfs we received were justified to a degree, but i do think bioware took it a little far. One time on Garj 16m NMM back in Feb we were running 5 Gunnery commandos, and this was when Gunnery benefited from other Gunnery commandos armor debuff. I got a 16k Demo round crit. Even i have to say that is WAY to OP. That fix was entirely justified.
After that i was doing 8-9k Demo round crits. And then came the Demo/Grav/Chraged nerf. Those imo were NOT justified to that degree. Nerf it a little bit, but dont nerf it by 40 frekin percent. Screw the whiners in PVP who QQ cause they get 3 or 4 shot by us Gunnery commandos. When they brought those nerfs because of pvp ************ and then the reckless expertise buff, i stopped pvping, so my viewpoint on pvp is a little outdated, but i digress.
Gunnery/Assault ARE competitive right now in PVE. If anyone tells you otherwise, ignore them. If your guild tells you you cant come to a raid because you are commando DPS, gquit and find a guild that will take you for being a good PLAYER, not a guild that will take you for being a certain class. Guilds like that NEVER last.
Just my two cents.