Hello, Going to give this game a go after a few years or not playing. How's imp vs rep faction balance? Is imp still horribly outnumbering rep everywhere including pvp?

I find that with Engineering I'm more bursty and mobile which throws people off guard in low level pvp. Cluster bombs imperial methodology wreck people.

Groups with more than 2 snipers/slingers are seriously gimping themselves. As great as they are, their primary role in every WZ is are denial and not doing the actual objective. I have faced off against teams of snipers in HB to have them lose because they don't play the objective. Having one or two is good enough. But having 2 smashers or another combo is way better.

I like Op/Scoundrel better in PvP generally. However, if the opposing team is full of idiots and lets a sage/sorc free cast I'd rather have them.

Playing properly doesn't make them any less unbalanced or underpowered. If a properly played class is still not within 5% of [insert x class here] in DPS and are useless in either PvP or PvE (or both) -- it's not a L2P issue. It's a balance issue. Screwing with PvE for the sake of balancing PvP is stupid. Developers should take the ArenaNet approach and balance the skills appropriately with separate skill effects in warzones. IE. Skill A has 90% armor penetration in PvE but in PvP it's reduced to 50%. And don't even mentioned open world pvp. There isn't any.

I take it the operative/smuggler is level 40-49 where they own lowbie pvp. Prior to that and at 50 they are pretty worthless. I think operatives have been through enough nerfs, goes the same for sorcs.

Utility belt - sends out a grappling hook from your belt which attaches to your enemy pulling you towards them. I've thought about it a lot. Lol. I agree. 36-49 is loleasy. 50 is a different game and concealment needs help.

I don't know if this was mentioned... but you also have an advantage playing Lethality -- since no one really uses it, no one really learns how to counter it. I normally sit there and play defensively while I have shield probe up and watch people die. In moments where I need burst I use cull. It's a very different playstyle from the other 2 specs.

They don't. We are a burst class. The low amount of sustained dps we do is supposed to be evened out with high amounts of burst so we still remain competitive in all forms of gameplay. The devs just netted our burst and then didn't compensate it with anything. Some of the nerds were a little too much. I agree that getting back the original acid blade which fix us to be balanced enough in pve and be good in pvp (even though competent players are good even in the state that we are now). I just don't like having 3-4 skills in a rotation. On top of having increased cool downs.

Not to mention Operative/Soundrel DPS is all about burst and that was nerfed... lol.

Love - and I mean LOVE: Quinn -- although I haven't finished SW storyline but he was the only character in the entire game that prior to getting him as a companion I was hoping he would be a companion. So I was very happy when I didn't need to leave him behind. Vector -- I love that he's so weird and after having Kaliyo for what seems like forever I'm sure that plays a part of why I loved him so much. T7 -- what's not to love about him? :') Mako -- she's occasionally funny and I just like her. Hate: All female companions that aren't Mako. I don't know why... I just don't like the other female companions. Kaliyo -- yes, she's a female but she deserves her own mention since I hate her skank ***. It made leveling a Operative such a pain. I was SO glad to get rid of her. That's it. Everyone else I pretty much didn't mind. EDIT: I also forgot to mention that I like Vette too, but she was quickly forgotten about because I fell in love with Quinn the moment I saw him.

To add insult to injury, assas/shadows have a gap closer, better utility, overall better survival when specced correctly, better sustained dps, a knockback... I could go on and on. In the game's current state, SWTOR is an objective based pvp game. Mindless killing does nothing for a team... which is all the operative can currently provide.

GW2 doesn't need progression because it's not a game with a sub. In the P2P model there NEEDS to be progression to keep people playing and paying the sub. With GW2 you can get to level 80 and stop playing the game until the next expansion or content update. That's completely fine because you won't be paying a sub that entire time you haven't been playing (or even played). People who had fun in the first 80 levels will come back.

Again, I'm not talking about presence. I'm talking about raid gear in general. If the other option was just as time consuming as raiding I don't see why the gear can't be rewarded in several ways. You're basically saying it doesn't matter if it takes 2 weeks of dailys (just an example) to get one piece of gear because they didn't raid for it. Well, sorry, but it does matter. What doesn't matter is how the gear is obtained. As long as all the possibilities require the same amount of dedication who the hell cares how you get it in the first place.

Well, that's also an issue with the P2P model. You need something to strive for and the carrot on the stick model is what keeps people playing. Hench why a game like GW2 will have no end game raiding or "best" gear. It doesn't have a sub. So you can pick it up, play for all you want, shelve it and wait for the next content update or expansion to continue playing.

Unfortunately there are only 2 types of gear: PvE or PvP. I see no reason why getting the best PvE gear should be limited to raids. If the other option requires as much dedication and time I don't see an issue.

Lol. Just lol. It's true. The cooldown doesn't prevent from using double hidden strike. It only prolongs it. Using Hidden Strike > Vanish > Hidden Strike is cheap. It shouldn't have been allowed in the first place. I keep saying I wouldn't want a cooldown. You keep saying it's a nerf. I don't understand. I would PREFER to keep Hidden Strike the way it is. There just needs to be some sort of balance to prevent the abuse of double HS. This has NOTHING to do with the way hidden strike works, or the damage is does. It's other mechanics of the class that need to be looked at and re-vamped or changed. You keep on bringing other factors into a conversation that just revolves around the abuse of double HS. You say it's a nerf to hidden strike, then go on to explain that you don't even use it in a rotation. Please. Go cry and rage somewhere else.

This is why I'm looking forward to GW2. No carrot on a stick for stats. Gear is purely for aesthetics and not for stats. IMO they should just make all level 50 gear the same, but the better, cooler looking stuff for raids, HM, and NM. But then again this is Star Wars and not Guild Wars.

Double HS is a nerf everyone saw coming. It was much needed and I agree with it. My opinion on my previous post did not take into account the other changes. There are better ways to deal with the hidden strike cooldown. Like revamping the way Vanish works. And I'm sorry that you're so butthurt that you clearly can't have an intelligent conversation.

What he meant is giving VANISH a debuff so it reduces the amount of damage you do. This would solve the Hidden Strike > Vanish > Hidden Strike problem and there wouldn't be a need for a cooldown on hidden strike. The debuff would last several seconds if you're under the effects of vanish, or completely go away when you come out of stealth. I would prefer a Vanish debuff (thus making it more defensive than offensive) than a cool down for hidden strike.

Bioware nerfed burst for Operatives a while back (which I agree was needed). They didn't change sustained DPS outside of that initial burst. Now, they're SLIGHTLY buffing burst (after they initally nerfed it), and are nerfing sustained DPS by a considerable amount. No Operative I know wants more burst. They all want less burst for more sustained DPS or some form of utility. There will be no reason to take a Operative in PvE in any situation once 1.2 hits. I will continue playing the class simply because I like it. I do not like the fact that they're changing the pace of the classes by increasing/adding cooldowns.

I feel like the Operative forums are mostly negative and we need to bring some much needed positive thinking in here! The idea is very simple: why did you decide to play operative, and what do you currently like (or love) about it. Try not to bring anything negative into the topic (such as damage, utility, PvP, etc). Just focus on why you continue to play the class despite all the negativity. I'll go first: After sampling all the classes to 10 I love the storyline and decided to go Operative instead of sniper. I absolutely love their animations (stabbing people never get's old imo) and their playstyle is very exciting and fun. I also love that compared to certain classes, I don't have to constantly watch my cooldowns or keybindings (compared to marauder for examlpe). So that's a big plus. Also, the armor and big guns.

On The Fatman everytime I enter a WZ solo the team loses about 80% of the time. :\ However, when entering with my guild almost always win.

The issue is the MMO community itself has created a double edged sword for themselves. Players are yearning for a next generation game that will be refreshing. A developer comes and creates a game that's trying to break the mold but the community screams because they miss the carrot on the stick model or are unwilling to change the old MMO model. However another developer will come into the business and create a game that has the best of everything but is in no way original. The community screams because the game is too much like other games and they need something new and different.

It's honestly not as bad as Guild War's 2 fanbase. It's gotten to be very cult like and unlike something I've seen in several years in the mmo community.