Retractable blade says hello. I agree that PTs need an execute, and that it needs to be a 10m ability, though. The PT has horrible DCDs, and should only be within 4m of their target (when against other melee) when they need to interrupt or use RP. Sins are like us, in that they have a heavy mix of both 4m and 10m abilities, but have much better DCDs and stealth. So they are fine IMHO with a 4m execute. Juggs are almost all melee with a dash of 10m (scream, obliterate, and crushing darkness) [ may have missed something as I don't play rage], and some 30m with leap and throw. Their execute is fine at 10m. Someone mentioned Operatives. I agree with the sentiment that healers don't need an execute, but DPS Ops need something. It has been too long that they have had trouble killing their targets. I think Concealment should be able to use HS out of stealth on targets below 30%, but it won't trigger grant a TA or a knockdown (this should be deep in the concealment tree). Heck, just making DPS Ops less squishy would go a long way to helping the two specs.

The reason Mara's and Snipers have the utility to heal debuff is actually a good reason. They are the 2 pure DPS classes in TOR, and thus cannot spec tank or heals. Every other DPS class can either Taunt, or they can Heal to varying degrees when time allows. A Gunnery/Commando should be dropping Kolto Bomb regardless of spec, a PT/Vanguard should be taunting regardless of spec. They have those utilities built into the Advanced Class, and Maras and Snipers get heal debuffs as a more unique utility. It actually makes a great deal of sense. Given the present state of things... I would rather keep that as is and bring down healing/tanking a bit. I don't know what reasoning Bioware had to make Mercs/Mandos the only ACs in the game without interrupts though. That, I agree, made little sense. As to the OP, I think the PTs definitely need love, and I am of the opinion that both DPS specs need to be tweaked. Pyro's are too squishy to not have better burst, and prior to 2.0 health pools were a bit OP. However, when health pools increased I think their damage output would have been fine. AP needs something more to make PTF a more reliable damage source and power loaders needs to have value pre-level-51. I am still kind of baffled that Shield Tech got Flame Engine, AP was nerfed, and Pyro got its burst taken away while not being given anything toward increasing their longevity in the battlefield. Given the slight nerfs to AP it should have received Flame Engine, ST should have had one of the other AoE attacks buffed (DFA maybe), and Pyro should have been either left alone or given something to increase their durability as recompense for the nerf. All 3 specs do Ok in Regs, but have major issues. Now that Operatives have the roll... DPS PTs now face the issue of being the least mobile melee specs in the game, have crappy CDs (still not Operative crappy lol), and can't stealth. IMHO, all 3 trees need work, and I would pull leap from the ST tree, and let all 3 specs trees have it (I would increase its CD to 20 seconds). I would replace the point to get Jet Charge in the ST tree with a point to decrease the CD to 15s, as it is now. I would either move Flame Engine to AP, or give AP something like unstoppable in Vengeance to make PFT actually worthwhile (personally AP could use a bit more burst IMHO). I would give Pyros a buff to increase RS armor pen +15 for 6 seconds after leap, or something to that affect. The Specs need more than this IMHO, but this is just where I am at the moment.

I am definitely not saying AP is Rated viable, but it does consistently well in Regs. It has good healer pressure, but sometimes has trouble closing the deal on healers for lack of heavy burst. It also does really well vs Warriors and Casters while it has trouble with snipers (depending on CDs), Assassins, and some operatives (the ones that are good at waiting for the right moment). EDIT: admittedly my matchup assessment above could be me as I am still shaking the rust off after coming back. Resolve is bugged at times, but... it helps to use PFT at full resolve more often than not for me. I tend to use HO anyway, like you said, but it is mostly habit to hit it before Flame Thrower. I agree, having the major damage of a primarily melee class on a 3 second channeled cone attack isn't the pinnacle of brilliance, but I find that giving the Shield Tech something like Flame Engine when they have to know it would help AP more is worse IMHO. PT tanks needed a solid AoE threat builder, and there are 4 choices on the table... Flame Sweep ( it already uses this to some effect), DFA which no spec really uses specifically, and Explosive Dart. Any of those could have been buffed to fill that roll... Although DFA may be a bit OP to have on a reset lol. In the end, I don't know what I would have done for the ST specs for PvE tanking and AoE threat, but not giving Flame Engine to AP was silly. The spec could have had its day in the sun, after the Pyro nerf, with that single ability. I rolled a BH for the AP spec, I was forced to play Pyro, left the game for a bit, and came back and now I can play AP. I am sad the BH was nerfed to where it currently is, but I am glad no one has a reason to force me to play Pyro anymore.

This, more or less, but I tend to use Flame Burst > R-Blade > Immolate > Rocket Punch > Railshot > Flame Burst > Flamethrower. The reason is, as someone else said, the DoT on R-Blade makes everything hit harder, and you want that with Immolate, RP, and Railshot. So, I tend to save those until after R-Blade. I also like tossing an Explosive Dart just before R-Blade for a little more burst when you need it. Learn to monitor your Resolve. When that bar gets full make use of PFT as they cant stop it unless they can get out of range at that point. Also, use HO when you don't have full resolve. I can't tell you how many Inqs/Cons and merc/Mandos try to use their AoE knockbacks in response to Flamethrower. HO makes that useless. Make good use of the Carbonize/Flamethrower combo as it works really well. Another thing, Grapple is like a force charge... don't use it right off the bat. Save it for runners. Another use of it is to use it to pull the tank guarding that healer you are focusing just before a Flamethrower. Tank will take full damage plus the half he splits with the healer he has guarded. Get use to making use of Stealth Scan on Operatives, Sins, and Maras. The reduced CD on Quell makes us really good vs casters. Dat Quell eats those Gunnery/Arsenal specs up. RB can be spammed, and that means (with the 6 second snare it gives + the movement speed buff you might have specced + HO) you can kite melee (Warriors, Concealment, Sins), and keeping them at around the 5-10m range means you can use everything except RB and RP while they are given less options. You have mediocre defensive CDs with hefty cooldowns, and this helps you take less damage from melee. Basically stay at that 5-10m range until you need to RB and/or RP them... move in, use them, and move out. Use a CC, if they are up, when you do this when your life is getting low. In other words, don't face tank the other melee classes as you don't have to. I use Shoulder Cannon as burst when targets are low on health, and to prevent caps. Basically, my burst rotation is something like Explosive Fuel> Explosive Dart> R-Blade> Shoulder Cannon > Immolate > Shoulder Cannon > RP > Shoulder Cannon> Railshot> Flamthrower. Use Shoulder Cannon liberally or conservatively. I tend to change depending on the target: Healers get spammed with it when low, some DPS do, and I tend to be more frugal on bad DPS and many tanks. These are just some tips that make things easier, and some others may have differing tips or tips I am not thinking of at the moment. EDIT: On the Burst Rotation... Sometimes it is good to save Explosive Dart and a Shoulder Cannon just before you use Flamethrower. That means you will have those 2 hit during your flame thrower channel.

Gonna have to agree with this. Nothing says, " Where do you think you are going?" Like Sever Tendon on a Inq/Cons that just popped their force speed. It's a pretty awesome feeling. Hidden Strike has its moments too. The times when you drop from a catwalk to plant someone face first into the acid pit or a fire trap in huttball as they are trying to get across. Fun stuff.

Yeah, I feel you. I had something similar. I don't usually have much lag, but apparently I did in this game. It was Huttball, I was on my PT and coming out of our spawn. They had the ball 4ish of them on the lower catwalk between the fire pits. I think it was a Commando (either way it was a class with no charge ability) IIRC that had the ball, so I wasn't too worried about a charge. I moved to the edge of our pit, jumped, pulled.... lag kicked in, I rubber banded, and one of his team mates who was a guardian had leaped at me, and my pull went off. He landed on the edge of our pit. All I could do was sigh and shake my head in shame. I had one game this past week where we were steam rolled in VS. We were on defense, I am on the first east door. We have 3-4 team mates on that side (including me), and only 2 enemies, so I high tail it to the other side, and come around the pillar to see one of our Snipers behind cover next to the pillar, and he is going to town on the middle of the action while ignoring the door. I got a shot off just at the capper that was literally 5 meters to this sniper's left side just before his cap cast bar was over, but the damage didn't reach until right after the cap happened. The guy was so close to our sniper that I think cover pulse would have stopped it. That was the game where if I was on one door the other was capped every single time. After the first cap I intentionally stayed on the side with less team mates to ensure we had someone watching the weak side. It just turns out that if 7 team mates don't watch the doors... there isn't much you can do.

@Snave 1. I think DoT damage is ok atm. Just my 2 cents, but it is a large chunk of our damage. If you make acid blade stronger then you run the risk of giving the class too much burst again, and we will be nerfed to the floor again. 2. Not against Rifle Shot damage being increased, but would prefer bioware fix our energy issue. We have too many 17+ energy abilities with either DPS spec. 3. I kind of wish we could use probe from stealth. That way it hits with our hidden strike, and gives us a little more burst right out the door without messing with damage numbers. 4. I agree with the class needing an auto-crit ability. The question is to what ability? I think HS should auto-crit since we only use it as an opener, but that would require a change to the +16% we skill toward its crit chance. In the end I dunno what ability should auto-crit. 5. We only have 1 DoT that should be an issue with Flashbang, and that is corrosive dart. I do not use it in 1v1 situations for that very reason. I only use Corrosive Dart if I am in a group situation, and have a healer at my back. So, I consider CD very situational. Acid Blade shouldn't be an issue because it is only 6 seconds long, and you should be able to hold out till it has run its course, and then use flashbang. Personally, I think the best thing Bioware could do to help the class is either lower the cost of some of the abilities: Shiv, OS, EP, etc... Or, give us another way to increase energy regen. An ability that gives us energy for being stunned, or something that gives energy when our DoTs crit... I dunno.

I will support this when I stop getting grouped with 2-3 fresh 50s in a pug that are too thick to wear their recruit gear at least. Until that utopian day arrives... No. I am not gpnna suffer for 10+ mins cuz bob the vanguard tank, and his buddy Johnny the gunslinger have 12k health each and zero expertise.

"Need?" No, but it is much easier, and I mean infinitely easier. As a 50 Jugg I guard a 50 DPS when I don't have a healer, and utilize our jump and intercede a bit. I jump in toss some quick CCs, taunts, and DPS, and then intercede out when I am getting focused. Depending on the situation I may use intercede to get into the fray and jump to move out of it with force jump if there is a near dead person on the outskirts of the battle. Try to stay near the guarded player as much as possible. If they turn out to be a bit hard to keep up with... then try to find another person. I have trouble keeping up with Sorcs, and never guard stealthies. PTs not using Ion Gas Cylinder, Juggs not using Soresu (check their buffs), Sorcs, Snipers, Mercs, and Marauders are the classes I look for. Operatives are harder to tell if they are healers or DPS, and I tend to ignore them for Guard if they don't cast heals in the spawn areas. Note to healers: Casting your heals in the spawn area of a map will get an instant Guard (if your group has a tank class) in a WZ. Atleast, I always hit someone up with it if they are casting heals. Also, I save my push for after I jump out of a rough situation because there will always be a PT, Sith Warrior, etc that can jump right after you. Even sometimes it is possible to get pulled back in by a PT or Sin, and die regardless. I still die a good bit without a healer, but I still can pull off high mitigation numbers, and fair DPS. Locking a healer down, and letting your PUG know they need to focus that player can change some games. Especially if the other team only has 1 healer.