Does it happen to you every time? Because I definitely just tested it and it worked fine for me. There is a bug where force cloak won't work due to unknown reasons, deselecting your current target usually fixes it, at least for me.

Why are you comparing yourself to an operative. We're different classes. Different classes have different mechanics. We have amazing burst, just not right out of stealth.

I haven't had much trouble with operatives 1v1. Just survive the burst via trinket or medpac and then just kill them. No reason to vanish after their burst is done, you can burst them right back. I usually low slash to try to bait a trinket. Maul out of that if the proc is up, otherwise VS. If they trinketed stun them and blow them up. If they aren't capped resolve you can always vanish->spike for another short stun. They do a ton of burst, but after that they hit like a wet noodle. Edit: I disagree, we really don't need a instant cast DoT. If you want DoTs, you go madness.

Kill people without the burst? You can still do this burst rotation without having the cooldowns up: it'll do less, but it will normally be enough to kill anyone of equivalent gear.

Ignore this.

Go madness if you "need" an instant cast dot. Why do other specs need one?

You're also doing it wrong! http://i.imgur.com/IjnUK.jpg

Minor points, but grammar issues really detract from your post (assuming you're aiming it at Bioware, as the title implies). No one can do 500k DPS. DPS is damage per second, which would imply that someone does 500,000 damage in one second. Operatives have amazing (overpowered?) burst, but their sustained DPS is very weak. Hyperbole - claiming they're the best DPS in the game - only hurts your argument. There are definitely issues with deception currently, but make a reasonable argument if you want to see results.

What is this for? PvP, leveling, PvE?

Unfortunately you use Force Cloak as a DPS cooldown as deception, so it will likely be on cooldown when needed. Good tip for madness assassins though, and possibly for an off-tank.

Do you get the tank gear or the DPS gear when playing this spec? Do you think it's stronger than deception for those who have no problems with deception?

I'm going with the power adrenal and crit/surge relic, personally. Crit caps very easily with recklessness, and surge caps near 100% bonus, so power adrenal seems to be the best choice. The crit/surge relic gives enough crit/surge to be useful, but doesn't overcap.

Do you think 23/0/18 is stronger than the traditional 5/33/3 deception (or its variants)? I just hit rank 50 and finished my champion gearset, and I'm looking to experiment a bit while grinding up to rank 60. I find that my burst as deception is quite good, but if I can't kill them within 20s I start lacking in force. I don't have many issues in PvP (can't remember the last time I wasn't top medals/damage) but I'm wondering if this spec might be stronger. The playstyle definitely seems a bit different to me.

Huttball can be rough with so many knockbacks and no way to get back up quickly. Other warzones are pretty good for assassins, stealth can be abused pretty easily.

This is the problem. If you can come up with PvE and PvP systems that reward equal amounts of gear for equal effort or time, then I think it would work perfectly. However, I don't think it's likely for both to require equal effort - inevitably one will be easier (or perceived to be easier) and that's what players will do.