Subjugation is more useful than Phantom overall, though each has their own uses. We have a marauder "tanking" Sorno in Karagga's, he can solo-interrupt all heals and unloads with Subj. It's almost possible without it, but not nearly as easy and requires a bit of RNG/luck. There are several mobs in ops that will deal less damage to the raid overall with enough interrupts on a short CD, while as Phantom generally doesn't have the same kind of use, there are far fewer moments in ops where your taking damage while not dealing damage at the same time, other than first boss in EV. To address the OP: In a PVE operations setting, assuming you don't use force charge every cooldown, before a boss hits 20%, you will have enough rage generation from constant usage of assault to use one Vicious Strike when Rupture, Annihilation, Deadly Saber, and Battering Assault are on cooldown. Once a boss is below 20% the addition of Vicious Throw will take up just enough rage often enough that you'll not use Vicious Strike at all, all your rage will now be used on cooldown abilities. Again this is on the assumption you're not using force charge every cooldown, but it's best to save that anyways on every fight but Soa, where you cant even use it on Phase 2 and 3 unless you've been mind-trapped. PVP is different, of course. PVP is about burst and current target ability/priorities. Though I've never, ever, ever found a need to use force scream as annihilation.

Endgame gear, PVP and PVE, the chestpiece has a hood, just have to turn off the show helm option. Affects both male and females.

I'm one of the more geared operatives on my server and usually get about 1-2 hate tells and claims of OPness a day, mostly by people under 50, or 50s without nearly as much gear as me. However, even with all that, I got out of a huttball match where I got a total of 3 kills. 101k damage done, 3 kills. Healers negate a TON of what we can do. People sticking together removes our opportunities to kill people. And defensive tanks are nigh unstoppable, even though we're the ones with Armor pen. There are several players that sigh when I get the jump on them, but upon seeing me the next time out of stealth they jump me, knowing that I'm a free kill if they aren't my target. A shield usually absorbs my entire hidden strike + the first tic of acid blade. I cannot tell you how many times a sorc has stood up after me wailing on him for 3s at 90% health. On the contrary, most (NOT ALL) lvl 49 and under players get destroyed by me. However, the players that are skilled and good at their class, even if level 34, are real threats. Every so often there will be that one guy who looks like an easy kill with 12k life, who trinkets immediately and proceeds to whittle me down to 2k life before he finally goes down. The Agent is extremely powerful in the right hands, in solo or 1v1 play, and when very geared. Against a competent team, or a simple healer, or a very competent marauder, they suffer. Oh, and on our server the highest damage done is usually a marauder who rarely pvps. When he does he breaks 300k pretty much every match. Having non-positional attacks and a GAP CLOSER is such a huge deal. I'll need battlemaster before I can really determine the limits of our power. It seems like before gear we are in fact more powerful than others, obviously when we outgear you, and in the centurian ranks. Once everyone starts getting full champion, all 50, and a piece of battlemaster here or there, I think at BEST we will be balanced, but hardly OP. TL;DR Wait another month for people to start complaining about unstoppable tanks + healers.

It'll have it's use once you get two-piece of Columi/Rakata medic gear, which increases it's crit rate by 15%. Kolto > DS > KI and you've healed a ton with still plenty of energy. We're definitely crit-based healers first and foremost. Which is... interesting.

Coming from 50 op, so you might be hamstrung by ability usage, but here's how it goes: Acid Blade to Hidden Strike faceplant, Backstab, Shiv if you have time. The second you see their character start doing the stand up animation run back 10-15m while first hitting with Sever Tendon. Most will use their AE knockback at that point, which you should have avoided. If they stun, trinket, then run up and either distraction their Dark Heal or Force Lightning, Then proceed to own them with Lacerate AB + BS and a Shiv. If they aren't dead by then, that's a scary Sorc. Cloaking screen and HS again if you need. It's all about getting them when they are incapacitated and relying on them to be a "smart" Sorc who is quick to hit his knockback button. If they choose to run when they get up, the sever tendon should have stopped them/slowed them and wasted their force speed. Of course, from just the dots and lightning they can probably still get off during that, you'll be at 3/4 or 1/2 health with a DOT. Run away!

Actual weapon. Replace one while seeing the before/after of the damage on Shiv, the tooltip updates itself to it's real damage. The weapon contributes quite a bit, it'll make a difference later on as well. It does suck that they aren't moddable, but it does appear every other planet has one as a commendations reward.

Kaliyo is good for a while. We used her as a main tank for most the sub-40 flashpoints, up to Cad, I had specced medicine. Now though, Doc Lokin is my companion of choice, full heals, while I go full conc. Equal level Champion mobs are fine now, even without kiting, though throwing in shield probe every so often helps a bit. It's also easier to gear the Doc, since he uses the same gear. Pre-Lokin, however, I used Kaliyo and could usually take on about 2 elites and a couple Normals at once, but had to always keep her geared to the max.