Necessary? No, not really since you don't have speed shot yet. Do you want to use it? Yes. Wounding shots will get interrupted a lot if you don't drop into cover before shooting it. Also, since you don't have a few of your abilities yet, like speed shot and hemmorage, you might need to fill those gaps in with a charged burst or sabotage charge.

I tested it with a buddy in a duel. At 50, wearing some Rakata and a lot of columni, it seemed to be blocking around 3kish. I was pretty surprised, as I felt like it was a lot lower.

I'm fairly certain mine is blocking more like 3-4k. I also tested defense screen on my gunslinger. It seems to be blocking roughly 3k as well. Granted, both of these toons are pretty damn well geared (rakata weapons and gear).

When i first hit 50, I found Zenith to be my best champion. I prefer to bring the extra damage over having the higher survivability, but i just live on the edge like that. Nadia is ok, but tends to get a lot of aggro and die. Zenith, you can turn off his AEs and he will just single target burn stuff down. I remember seeing him crit stuff in the face for like 1600 when i was a fresh 50. As you go on though, it won't be long before Nadia is wielding a Columni saber, wearing all your hand me down or duplicate columni gear, and just be infinitely better geared than your other companions just due to her being consular as well. My Nadia has like 17k hp and does tons of damage with her cyan saber. Zenith can't compete with that anymore.

WHAT?! Sents are easily the most powerful class in the game now that scoundrels/ops have been nerfed. They do crazy amounts of damage, have two cooldown that make them invulnerable, and have the knight's low cooldown interrupt. Oh, and with watchman spec (probably the only spec worth going), they are constantly healing back up while fighting. Long story short, sents are amazing. Sages are really really good healers and kind of 'meh' dps'ers.

uh huh..

I would post a counter-argument to your barely legible and non-sensical post that did nothing but try and tell me I don't play the class, but there is nothing I could say that would make you look worse than your own post already does. I guarantee I've seen more of this game's end game content than you, am better geared than you, and i'm fairly certain you have no clue about positioning or anything useful in pvp as well. Enjoy your fail sir.

I routinely outdamage the next closest guy to me in pvp by 200k+ We certainly deal the damage, but it is true about the keybinds. This class is not easy to play. If you want easy to play, go sage. My old-main was a sage, and that class is pretty hard to do wrong.

What 3 abilities are you talking about that requires cover? Your rotation in DF should look something like: Shrap bomb, vital shot, hemmorage, free attack to regen, wounding shot, speed shot, quick draw. There is very little reason to use any other ability in there except maybe a flourish now and then on a tougher target. If you start throwing in sab charges, charged bursts, or aimed shots you tend to run out of energy. Even that standard rotation I put up there will leave you waiting on energy quite a bit. I clear nightmare runs and usually outscore the next closest guy in pvp by at least 200k damage playing this way, so i'm pretty sure it is efficient. Just to be clear, i'm not arguing that you shouldn't use cover for the defense bonus (which doesn't work btw in pvp) or during a wounding shot, just that I don't understand what 3 abilities you are talking about that "require" it. Way i see it, we have one that requires it. Speed shot.

My main is now my level 50 slinger. I changed over from Sage. I am pretty epic'd out at this point, wearing quite a bit of Rakata gear and wielding 2 Rakata guns. My sage is also Rakata'd out with his rakata saber. I throw these credentials out there to let you know I have experience with not one, but two classes clearing everything on nightmare and doing lots of pvp. We'll start with your main point. Argument: While this is logical and I can see why you think this, in reality it is a flawed argument. The problem with this line of thinking is that if you make one class do more damage than the others, even if it is justified in that they can do nothing else, it soon becomes a game of anyone who wants to seriously clear end game content as fast as possible will bring almost exclusively slingers. Ya, you might squeeze in something else if you need their buff or someone who can sap or something, but mostly why would you bring anything but the highest dps class for your dps spots? 1 - No versatility While this is true, we have 3 different ways to do damage. Most classes only have 2. One pvp spec, and one pve spec. So, for example, if you hate the way a sage dps's by standing there spamming disturbances until something procs, well, you don't really have any other good options except to become a healer. 2 - Low to no mobility This is true of only one spec. Also, even SS spec encourages getting up and moving every 6ish seconds to get another insta-charged burst and to refresh your ballistic dampeners. 3 - Low HP Low Armor This one is mostly true. We are squishy. That being said, we have much more armor than sages or non-tank shadows, and we do have some very nice defenses in defense screen and dodge. Also, it is a BIG deal that cover makes us immune to interrupts, unable to be charged to, and hunker down is flat out one of the best abilities in the game making us immune to all forms of CC or knockaround for 20!!! seconds. You can plant, turn on hunker down, and nobody can do anything to you except run away while you blast them to smithereens. Sentinels/marauders are a bit silly in their ability to go invulnerable or to vanish (and be invulerable while invis) though. We can't compete with that. 4 - No CC 5 - Low Utility Flashbang is amazing in pvp as it is the only area effect CC that works on players. Although, slicing droids is an amazing CC when you do need it due to having no cool down. Sage force lift can CC anything, but it has a 1 minute cooldown, so if someone breaks your CC, tough cookies, can't re-cc. Our utility is in scrambling field. That ability is pretty damn good on some of the tougher fights in the nightmare ops. It's worth bringing a slinger just for that ability. We have the best armor reducing ability in flourish shot (20% reduction in a single debuff, no stacking required). XS Freighter Flyby is probably the single greatest AE ability in the whole game in both pvp and pve. In pvp, scrambling field can be ok, but it is our flashbangs and having the best "knock everything 20 miles away and root them ability" in pulse detonator. So, as a fellow slinger, i'm here to tell you that your argument is pretty much wrong. Thank you.

Please give us a way to show off our crystal colors without needing a target. Like, why isn't sweeping gunfire set to our crystal colors? That would be a perfect ability for this sort of thing. All the jedi can just pull their saber out and be like "look at me, i have my awesome pink/blue-black saber". Us slingers and troopers have no way to show off our leet colors!

cover is basically not necessary at all. the only time you NEED it is for speed shot, which DF gets a few bonuses too, but for everything else you can skip it. That being said, you get defensive bonuses while in cover in PvE.. so no reason not to use it unless you really gotta move.

I do great in pvp as a slinger. Shrug

All this would make more sense if sentinels/marauders weren't already so powerful in pvp. Next to the incredibly OP scoundrel/operative, they are easily the second best class in the game. I mean, if you spec watchman, you have two cooldowns that basically make you invulnerable. Add in that sentinels are probably the best dps in the game (barring the burst damage of the previously mentioned OP scoundrels/operatives), and I can't understand what you are complaining about.

You don't know what you are talking about. I am cybertech. At level 50, your ability to make armoring is completely useless due to the fact that like 15 minutes of work on ilum will buy you a purple level 51 armoring that is way better than anything I could ever hope to craft. Crafted armoring/hilts/barrels are completely pointless within an hour of hitting 50 pretty much.