Everyone on this forum will tell you otherwise, but we're actually ok in operations. The gap closer isn't that big of a deal. One would be nice, but it's not nearly as gamebreaking as people make it out to be. Sents do out damage us, and it has nothing to do with a gap closer. It's more their resource system and how it interacts with their focus/rage pools, and that their most damaging attacks have shorter cooldowns. While it's a little lame that Sentinels get Inspiration and we get... pretty much nothing, it's just the game. They can't heal so they got something different. While it's not optimal, if things go south, a Scoundrel can save himself with a heal and the sent can blow his cooldowns and hope he catches one. Different classes are different. It's why we have no gap closer, it's why they have more offensive utility abilities. We might not do as much damage, but we're not totally gimp, either. Don't get it twisted either that we're more 'skill based'. We have a very simple priority dps rotation, just like everyone else.

Dirty Fighting will never get a ranged method of generating Upper Hand unless they removed it from Blaster Whip. A Round Two ability for Dirty Fightning is more reasonable, as you have to have the Upper Hand in the first place to have it refunded. If given a second way to GENERATE Upper Hand, it would be too good. Dirty Fighting is still a melee spec, regardless of how you think it should play. We are a melee class. You still have to Backblast as a Dirty Fighter to maximize your DPS. A ranged Upper Hand builder would still not make this a ranged spec.

Haha, was this supposed to be a supporting argument? From your signature I can tell that English is not your first language, so I am hoping that some of this is just lost in translation and you aren't really this thick. So you preach on how pvp is team oriented; that's all well and good. Does your team EVER target switch? Watchman has a ramp up time; Combat can switch to whoever it wants with Precision Slash and do full damage on the drop of a hat. That is valuable. Watchman heals are not. They are insigificant in the longrun and simply exist to pad meters to give you the illusion you are useful. If you were truly a team player, you could focus more of giving your healers/team a (near) permanent sprint buff, allowing your healers to run around untouched and your other melee dps to maintain their own uptime. Does Watchman has higher dps? Why yes, yes it does. In PvE. With 100% target uptime. Cool for bosses. As far as the plethora of CC and knockbacks/pulls in this game, a sentinel has better tools to do with them than oh i don't know.. any class in the game? Did you forget that roots also ignore resolve so if you needed to stop an opposing player from scoring in a huttball match and/or peel for another player and/or stall a guy long enough for someone to cap a node in Civil War or Novarre Coast, that you could do that regardless of circumstances? Most of what you posted contradicts everything that would benefit team play. So, I'm still waiting.

Oh yeah man, being an unpeelable armor ignoring monster is soooo weak. Not to mention the ability to target swap on a dime and blow someone up. Can't kill the guarded healer? that's cool, just Precision Slash and maul the tank. Elaborate on why it's the weakest tree. This is always thrown around and never explained.

Everything from that post comes from Combat/Carnage.

I like you. You get it. I don't understand why everyone is Watchman/Annihilation with Combat/Carnage is just soooo much better for pvp.

Sorry for the slow response, been playing Guild Wars 2 this weekend (it's awesome). I would suggest going up to at least Sucker Punch if you're using this spec for leveling. If you ask me Sucker Punch should be baseline, as we got nothing besides Blaster Volley to spend upper hands on. You should go scrapper until 20 when you have Sucker Punch available, then start to flesh out your Sawbones tree. You can really level as anything and do it fine, the leveling experience in this game is incredibly simple. Personally, I went full out Scrapper and dind't even bother to CC or stealth at all.. just me and Riggs ****** the universe.. until I got Akaavi then we started ****** the universe. With the 23/18 spec I've healed HMs (Flashpoints, OPs but I DID miss having Kolto Cloud in OPs), but I would not suggest DPSing for your group with that spec. Flechette increases damage too much over the course of a boss fight to live without. Very strong in PvP, however. Short edit: I did stealth after I got shoot first; for the first 36 levels I ran forward and opened with Thermal Grenades and just sort of mowed everything down with that and Blaster Volley.

Best bet is probably going 23/18ish. SRMP on it's own is trash, but if you pick up EMP and the 3 UH talent next to it it's alot better.

Might as well, since Marauders/sents have a 45s cd on Camo., as well as 100% damage reduction while it's active. People gonna cry either way.

Flechette and Shoot First change the game.

Akaavi Spar is the best dps companion in the game. She does so much damage it's unreal. Turn on her bleed stance and watch her go.

As a Scoundrel, tank assassins are one of my easiest fights 1v1. Much more afraid of tank powertechs/vanguards.

I've heard surprise comeback keeps you in combat as well. When my respec reaches humane numbers again next week I'll try a spec without it to verify.

To be honest, against a good Scoundrel, nothing wins 1v1. The class is pretty well rigged and setup to neuter single targets with ease. Against a class restricted to rooting itself to cause its large damage, the gunslinger/sniper might as well be a sitting duck. This is coming from a Scoundrel player, my best advice to you is to pop hunker down, pray for crits, and pray the guys too stupid to use Triage to cleanse your roots.

Muscle memory is a hell of a drug. I find myself doing that also, reaching for the backblast that isn't there yet, haha. Backblast simply didn't cost energy before via the sawed off talent. Now it costs 5, and Flechette is 15 instead of 13 if I am not mistaken. So your former 13 energy backblasts are now 20, it's pretty brutal.

Backblast isn't free anymore and Flechette costs more. Things do cost more than they used to and we needed more than a band-aid reduction to Sucker Punch to offset it. It's still manageable, though, just takes some time to get used to it again.

Use whatever gives you more expertise. You didn't really have the surge before, so it isn't like you're going to miss it. In changing out for my last few peices of BM, I've dropped a good bit of surge as well but the additional expertise is making the loss a little less painful. You'll also need the expertise to survive pretty much any form of incoming damage flying around in pvp right now. Ran into a guy with (probably) 0 expertise and he ate a 5.6k shoot first and a 5005 backblast. I apologized.

That's funny. Isn't like they listen to us on anything else.

It was an even more amazing troll when you were running around jamming a needle into your leg like some kind of crack addict, laughing like crazy while someone tried to kill you. And that, good people, is the most enjoyment I ever got out of sawbones.

In spite of the tone of nearly all of this guys posts the past couple of days, I do believe him when he says a marauder tore him apart in about 5 seconds. The buffs they gave to ravage are a bit over the top; it did not happen to me, but I did see a BM geared sage that I was trying to peel for eat a ravage and drop to about 15% health. From full. I have personally been caught in a ravage that took me to around 40%. It'd be nice if we could still interrupt it with your.. you know, interrupt, but.. alas.. I don't get anything else he's upset about, though.

How do you figure this makes you valuable? You did half the job of what you could have done either way. Where I come we call that 'underperforming'. This isn't being elitist, as by your own admission you did less than adequate compared to people fully dedicated to either one role or the other. Raids also do not want hybrid specced players. The only fight its even remotely useful is Nightmare Council, and no one with any brain cells will struggle to kill their mob on that fight regardless of spec.

rofl IE7. Nice. And probably true.

The comment made sense before Bioware censored me for using the "r" word for 'mentally challenged' at the end of the comment.

If your boss enrages, it's because you have poor dps. It's not one persons fault. It's your dps as a collective whole that are bad.

Nutshots and uppercuts