Killed this with a Jugg tank, a Sorc healer, a Merc DPS and me as an Operative DPS. It's a pretty simple encounter once you get the strat right. It's not even a gear check - all of us were fresh 50s, and it was our second heroic ever.

Part of the reason I think this issue isn't getting more attention is because of the lack of damage meters. At the moment, many raid leaders are bringing their most trusted DPS, regardless of Melee/Ranged. If they could actually quantify how much damage is being lost because they brought melee instead of ranged (and the subsequent benching of melee in decent progression guilds), I think you would see a much sharper spotlight brought to bear on this issue.

Because if the tank is competent, and I properly balance my cooldowns (for example, countermeasures?), that isn't a problem. And what about Assassins? It's my experience that they have less burst than Operatives do - what's your reasoning there? Even if you were right, it would still be sloppy design by Bioware. Instead of artificially punishing all stealth classes, maybe they should consider fixing the burst threat problem? Yes, you do lose DPS. Every second you're not attacking is lost DPS. Even with the speed increase talents, Operatives are still the slowest class to get into melee already. Every other melee class has an effective gap closer - whether it be a charge, or a sprint. Stealth is supposed to be our's. Instead, we have to blow two points in a t5 talent, and blow our vanish in order to get a boost that is still slower than every other class and, because of the way stealth detection is currently set up, we have to start from further back than any other class? That's poor design, and it needs to be changed.

The problem for me isn't so much that bosses can put knock you out of stealth and put you in combat. That mechanic is fine as far as I'm concerned. The problem is the exceedingly large range the mechanic has. I was running heroic battle for Ilum today, and the boss was detecting me in stealth before it was detecting my party members, who were standing literally right next to me. That's a serious problem, especially if, as has been pointed out, your class relies on a stealth opener. This mechanic essentially forces you to delay your damage in the hopes of being able to run up from a far distance while slowed by stealth, just to get your opener. You just have to pray the boss doesn't have any aoe or target abilities, since I found out the hard way that most bosses can target you, even if you're in stealth, when the encounter begins. I think the mechanic should detect people, and should knock them out of stealth. However, I think the range should be toned down significantly. Maybe a compromise can be that the range is reduced, by the ability knocks you out of stealth faster than it does now (atm, it seems to take 8+ seconds to actually remove you from stealth).

Here's the problem: If you nerf an Operative's burst, they have very little else. Operatives have absolutely terrible sustained damage. Nerfing their control is a questionable venture, considering the fact that they have exactly two gap closers on comparatively long cooldowns. Plus, as others have pointed out, your escape skill can break the opening CC. Complaining about how they can "just restealth" ignores the fact that Cloaking Screen is on a two minute cooldown, meaning they can't bet on having it up for every fight in a WZ. If you're going to nerf something, you're going to have to compensate for that nerf. If you want to nerf their burst, buff their sustained damage/control. If you nerf their control, give them a better gap closer or more damage. Unfortunately, Operatives are one of those classes that have to be balanced very, very carefully. Even a slight nerf in the wrong place will completely break the class.

I would have enjoyed it...if it wasn't for the constant bugs. It's by far the buggiest flashpoint yet, and some of them (I'm looking at you, gun bug) make it very difficult for even the best of groups to progress. There are some great ideas in there, but they've been implemented poorly.

IA healing is very clunky until level 30. At level 30, you have Kolto Probes which proc TA, Diagnostic Scan regens energy, and you have Surgical Probe for your TA procs. After that, it flows very nicely and you can really see the potential of the class. If you're having problems, and you aren't 30 yet, just wait. The best has yet to come.

I think my build is going to look something like this: http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#401rffbzGoRzsZ0cZG0b.1 The talents I'm not sure of are Precision Instruments over Chem-Resistant Inlays/Med Shield/Evasive Imperative and max Corrosive Microbes over Lethal Injectors. I'll figure the latter out at max level, when I can do a bit of testing to see which is better damage. The former, I think, will depend on my raiding experience: I assume that I'll have enough free time to pretty easily roll Corrosive dart on the boss, but if I don't, I may consider the other two talents and maybe even double up on Evasive Imperative and Chem-Resistant Inlays. We'll see. At the moment, I'm at 26 and just beginning to enjoy life. I had serious concerns about the longevity of the Operative heals, but experiencing the potency of Patient Studies has largely allayed those fears. I can't wait to get Surgical Probe; I'm hoping it will solve the fact that I seem to be constantly sitting on tac procs.