As Lethality you might be SOL, especially if you have dots rolling. This can take up to 30s if the player(s) you dot are still in combat with your teammates. As Concealment it's a bit easier but can still take a while. I normally break LOS and deselect my target (click on ground or myself). This usually takes about 5-10s but I've had it last longer.

Weakening Blast (WB) has no energy cost and should always be used after your dot(s) regardless of where your energy level is at. Corrosive Grenade (CG) should always come first regardless of targets IMO. It has a longer cool down than Corrosive Dart (CD), 21s vs 18s. You can go CG-WB-CD and your dots would end exactly the same time. CG-CD-WB is fine as well. CG would end first then CD and you can easily reapply both dots.

There are more Deception Sins (and mirrors) than the other 2 Sin specs combined. Hell, there are more Deception Sins than Conceal and Lethality Ops combined. They arguably have the best opening and closing burst in the game. Before 2.0 all you saw we're Darkness Sins in DPS gear. I think it's fair to call DecSins FOTM. As far as Heal Ops are concerned, I agree. They are the best healers in the game and even I would call for some nerfs to their tree (and have).

This is why the devs need to look at the Deception tree to see how to fix Concealment. They have a ton of great tools for both damage and mitigation. My Op is fairly well geared but I don't think I've ever hit for much more than 8k and that was against an undergeared Sage or Sorc. Those hits are few and far between. My HS normally crits for 6.5-7.3k while my Sins Maul (with proc) can crit up to 10k in similar gear (Op has higher main stat, sin has higher HP). Op was the last Imp AC for me (done all 8). I probably won't make any more toons (I'm actually out of slots). I like Op and want to keep playing it but damn if it isn't frustrating going up against some of these FOTM classes.

You can come back to Alderaan around level 40 to do the bonus missions there. It helps cut down the time you spend on some planets your first time through while giving you a reason to come back at higher levels. Nar Shadaa, Hoth, and Belsavis all have bonus missions as you can come back to at higher levels as well. The Belsavis ones are actually daily missions you can repeat.

I think you might be confused. Crit works as intended. The problem is that diminishing returns for it was nerfed with 2.0 to the point that it is not worth stacking over power. As far as surge is concerned, the alternatives aren't as good, particularly for dps specs. Accuracy is best used for PvE and hardly takes that many slots to get to 100/110%. Alacrity is also kind of meh as you really need to stack it to the extreme to see any noticeable difference in casts (it's also near useless for most of the specs in game). You can easily get both accuracy and surge to acceptable levels with higher end PvE gear. If you don't know what each stat does by now, I don't know what to tell you. The info is in game and doesn't need an "official" comment from the devs. PS Having a higher crit percentage won't guarantee you will crit more, just give you a higher "chance" to crit. Some classes can usually make up for a lower total crit percentage with talents that boost crit chances for certain abilities.

MEDICINE Surprise Surgery +2 TA when coming out of stealth. Surgical Precision raises TA limit to 3 AND re-grants TA off Surgical Probe when used on someone under 30%. Medical Engineering 30% chance to grant TA per player every 6 seconds. Roll hots on 4 players and your chances are pretty good you'll get one every 6 seconds. Hell you could just run them on yourself and you still have a good shot at getting a TA. SHARED Shiv grants TA. Hidden Strike grants TA. Need I mention the issues of having to re-stealth? Defeating an enemy grants TA. You must get the killing blow. CONCEALMENT Tactical Opportunity is basically a 70% chance (since it procs off Collateral Strike) to re-grant TA once every 10 seconds. LETHALITY Fatality gives 60% chance for Shiv to make your next Cull free and re-grant TA once every 10 seconds. Based on that it sure looks to me like Medicine has a much better chance of getting TA than the other 2 specs. Let's not forget to mention that Medicine gets their first "buff" for TA at tier 4, then one at 5 and 6 whereas Concealment gets theirs at tier 5 and Lethality finally gets theirs at tier 6. PS Damn after typing all that I forgot to mention that Incisive Action grants TA off Kolto Injection at tier 1 and Medicine also gets Medical Consult at tier 2 which makes their TA last 6 seconds longer. :/ Sure the other 2 specs could pick these up but at the cost of other talents that might mesh more with their spec.

I'd like to see the Medicine tree balanced a bit more compared to the other 2. Bad enough the healing is strong but it also has some very good utility talents that would be great fits with either of the others or even all 3 trees. In particular, Surprise Surgery is overkill for the Medicine tree. This should be low enough (tier one or 2) so that all 3 trees can take advantage of it. Speaking of TA, the other trees need more ways of gaining them besides Hidden Strike and Shiv. In Concealment, Tactical Opportunity could be reduced to 4.5-6 seconds while Lethality could see Lethal Purpose or Dose have poison effects give a chance to grant TA. While all 3 trees have issues breaking combat to restealth, Concealment has it worse, followed by Lethality as both need to be within melee range to use some of their most damaging abilities (while healers can easily do EVERTHING they have to do from 30m away with the exception of Recuperative Nanotech). That said, I'd like to see a talent similar to Evasive Imperative to help us get back into Stealth (replace Evasion from that skill with Cloaking Screen). It would probably be best placed in Concealment with tier TBD (most likely 4 or 5). Energy management is night and day when you compare Medicine to Concealment/Lethality. I find it hard to understand myself but Concealment feels worse than Lethality at times. I'd like to see better energy returns from talents such as Culling (increase to a flat 15 or 20 every x seconds instead), Combat Stims (buff to 20), Lethal Purpose (buff to 3 energy on the second point) and Lethal Dose (increase crit to 25%, in effect buffing Lethal Purpose). Here are a few other loose tidbits I'd like to see addressed. -Hidden Strike usable out of stealth but keep the positional requirement (a la Maul) and it's CD reduced to at least 4.5 seconds. -Acid Blade energy costs removed or given charges. For example, this would effect the next 3 uses. Also, I'd add Shiv to this as well. I'd also like to see the poison duration last longer (9-12 seconds) and or stackable with other Acid Blade attacks (similar to Deadly Saber for Annihilation Marauders). The armor penetration needs to last longer (30s?), especially when you compare it to Tracer Missile which is a spammable attack and lasts 45s. -Calculated Frenzy....LOL. Why is this in Concealment and at such a high tier? This might help with energy regen a tiny bit but come on now. This talent , along with Deadly Directive, need to be changed, buffed immensely, or otherwise moved to the Medicine tree. -Jarring Strike should be 2 seconds to at least match Assassins Spike. It would still require to be stealthed. -Meticulously Kept Blades needs to add Shiv and possibly Debilitate (it is a knife attack). -Toxic Regulators needs to ignore all friendly sleep attacks. -Fatality proc time needs to be removed or reduced to 6 seconds to match Shivs CD. -Cull and Weakening Blast needs a range increase. I understand 30m sounds like a lot but at least make this 20m. -Explosive Probe usable out of crouch please. Easy fix is to make this a passive when you choose your AC. Slightly different fix would be to make this a Lethality talent. I'd gladly trade Counterstrike for this. I could come up a ton more ideas but my brain's getting fired just thinking about it. High up on the list would be getting back into stealth faster and Hidden Strike usable out of it.

I've played both myself and can tell you that Sniper is a bit easier and definitely more robust due to having a ton more ranged options. The 2 biggest differences you'll notice is with Weakening Blast and how you use Cull. While you can use CD and CG from 30m away, Weakening Blast requires you be within 10m to use. Cull requires you have at least one Tactical Advantage (TA) and within 10m to use as well. Where the difficulty comes in is that to even gain a TA you either have to kill something or use Hidden Strike (only usable while stealthed) or Shiv, both being melee attacks (4m). Shiv also has a chance of gaining a free Cull use (when specced). While both classes may seem similar, the skill cap is increased a bit for Ops, at least in my opinion. As far as gearing is concerned I've min/maxed both my Op and Sniper for power mods/enhancements while using cunning augments to gain a bit more crit. Energy management is about the same for both classes. There are times where it can get spotty depending on what attacks you're using and the order you use them but overall it isn't bad. I feel the overall loss of power to gain enough crit to give yourself a better chance of energy return is not worth it. If you spread your dots around without much clipping you should be ok. I don't much if any PvE with either class so everything I do is based on PvP. Rotation varies for my Op depending on the situation. Ideally I like to start as follows.... While Stealthed and within melee range Hidden Strike (TA+1) CG WB CD Shiv (TA+2) Cullx1 if Fatality doesn't proc x2 if it does Explosive Probe Cull (if free from Fatality proc) Backstab (if Shiv is still on CD) Shiv Cull x1 or 2 if proc Stim Boost Cull Of course Adrenaline Probe is used depending on where I am with energy. Orbital Strike gets thrown in when possible, typically before a free Cull or just before I use Adrenaline Probe. Stuns are used as needed depending on situation. Out of stealth and semi ranged (10-30m) is basically trying to get as many people hit with one CG as possible then tagging each one with CD while tossing Frag Grenade into a cluster. This alone should keep your dots rolling and the energy coming in at a decent pace. Then look for a vulnerable target, Cloaking Screen, and use the above rotation.

Don't forget about some still complaining about bolster and wanting to make it even easier to kill those would be 15k HP players. As far as the overall level of badness in WZ's I still feel like the level of play dropped considerably on Imp side since the transfers but it had been dropping before that. However it seemed more noticeable since transfers. I would think you'd see a lot less f2players in the 55 bracket since they, you know, don't want to pay for anything much less an expansion. As far as guarding nodes go, I find it funny how many times I'll see some premade telling someone outside their team to guard instead of having one of their own do it and wind up losing the game because of it. Better yet, they complain when no call is made to help the node. It would stand to reason that if you have better communication with your own premade, one of them should be guarding the node. Pure pugs are FFA in my opinion. You take what you can get.

I remember a thread not too long ago on this subject and all the QQ from tanks was insane. I personally think guard is too easy of a mechanic and needs to have the skill level raised on it. For instance giving guard a CD and/or adding a negative effect on the player it's used on. For example, a high amount of reduced outgoing damage/healing to the guarded player. In other words make guard more of an oh crap ability and less of a god mode ability to healers. It will probably never happen. The flood of tears on the forums would see to that. That said, there are other things that could be done to tone down the amount of healing. The easiest way would be to reduce/remove the bonus healing from expertise or significantly increase the effect of the trauma debuff. Lastly, allowing taunts to affect healing output (taunted targets healing output reduced by 50% for 6 seconds) is another way to curb the numbers we see in WZ's.

I was able to use HK from level 1 but eventually just stuck with Khem from my teens and on. I was able to solo just about every heroic (including some 4 man) with him. It helped that I leveled as Cybertech and was able to keep him very well geared along the way.

This. Always wait for the dot to drop before using BS. You can preload AB between the remaining rotation for when the dot is on its last tic. The very few good Concealment/Scrappers I've seen have always been in premades in regular WZ's so the spec needs to be taken with a grain of salt. I've tried it. I don't feel it's viable in solo play. If you're looking to roll against pugs with a premade you're probably going to have some fun. Otherwise, Lethality has been very good to me. I tend to be in the top 5 in damage while keeping my deaths to a minimum if any at all (whereas I tend to die a lot more as Concealment). Mind you my Op can hardly be considered geared as I don't even have one item augmented and I'm mostly using 61-66 rated PvE items (just hit 55 yesterday). I like Concealment for solo PvE in some cases as there's faster up front burst as opposed to dot damage which is better for sustained damage fights. Luckily I have field respec so I can even switch to healing if needed. Long story short, Concealment/Scrapper needs some work. Devs need to take a page (or 2 or 3) from the Assassin book and apply to Opscoundels.

While I'd agree with Lethality being the de facto DPS spec for PvP right now, it doesn't man it should be the only one. Also, Lethality can feel kind of derp at times it's so easy to top charts. It's one of the reasons why I switched to Marksman on my Sniper. For the time being I'm rotating spec s with my Op depending on what I'm doing. I go full Medicine to solo heroics and do FPs and either full Concealment or hybrid with Medicine for all others. PvP I go full Lethality. I've tried full Medicine in PvP but I don't trust pugs to peel for me so I tend to stick DPS.

After resetting this quest multiple times I could not get past the part where you have to use your holocom. I kept getting a loop where my char says "Signal trouble. I'll need a moment." then I get kicked out of the conversation. I've tried using the holocom out of the instance to no avail. I logged off and on again to no avail. Finally I tried dismissing my companion (HK-51) and the conversation was able to move on as normal. I escaped out of the conversation to see if any other companions were having this issue. I tried all the others and the conversation moved on with one exception in that I had a brief dialog with the companion. This bug can also occur if you have 2V-R8 summoned. I submitted a bug ticket even though I was able to fix it myself. This is more a heads up for other players and the devs in case the bug ticket gets "lost".

Having already played a sniper some time ago I figured Op should be easier due to stealth and heals. Well, I might have been a tad wrong. Don't get me wrong, it's not terrible but I feel like I had a much easier time with sniper. Part of the reason may be with my choice of companions. I used Kaliyo until I got Doc and it wound up being a fairly quick run to 50 (this was way before the expac). Since then I unlocked HK-51 and figured I'd use him from level 1 and on. He helped tremendously for the first 20 or so levels before gearing him started to become a pain. I tried Kaliyo but her gear was still behind and I just didn't feel mobs died fast enough. Right now it seems aim gear is at a premium (I see a ton more BH/Troopers around) but luckily HK uses cunning as well so I was able to get him up to speed faster than I would Kaliyo. That said, even with being fairly geared, he doesn't grab aggro which meant I had to heal more often. My op is only 42 but I feel a bit underpowered compared to what my sniper felt like at the same level. The only saving grace is that i can stealth past most trash mobs. Looking back I should have concentrated more on Kaliyos gear so that at lest she could keep aggro. I have level 43 gear lined up for her so hoepfully the next 12 or so levels will be easier on me. Long story short. Sniper will deal more damage than Op. Self healing is a non factor when mobs die quickly so if you go Op spec into DPS. You need a tank for the first 2 acts and/or a heal companion for the last act for either AC. Consider leveling as Cybertech to make armorings and mods. Use planetary comms to buy everything else.

Serendipitous relic for sure to start as most leveling relics are crap. If you plan on sticking around a bit might as well get the Conq version. The Partisan one isn't bad compared to the Conq but it is a lot cheaper. If you don't plan on using the matrix cube relic as the secondary, go with the internal tech damage proc one. Ear/implants are probably the best slots to upgrade next as they will give a fairly large boost depending on if you've been doing any L50 flashpoints. Once again, the stat difference isn't that large from Partisan and Conq and there are some PvE ones that have better stats than both and still give near/full expertise in WZ's. I haven't had a chance to look at the armor set bonuses but I'd probably get these after the above. If you've done any FP's or farmed dailys before 55 you could easily pick up a set of 61 rating gear. If you've farmed basic comms you could also use the basic gear (66rating) but will lose expertise in WZ's. These sets can easily tide you over until you can get enough comms to start your armor sets. As far as weapons are concerned, PvE versions were still looking good up until a few weeks ago (haven't tested them since the last patch). You can buy 162 rated hilts, mods, and enhancements for fairly cheap on the GTN (35-60k per). Use +power crystals and you're set. On that note try not to mix PvE and PvP mods in any one item. IE PvP hilt, PvE mod, PvE enhancement, PvP crystal, etc as you can lose a lot of expertise that way.

It wasn't that bad pre transfers. Now that the bads have increased with all the new players coming in, it's downright terrible. Perhaps all those transfers were used to mediocrity and instant losses.

Basically along these lines. If you plan on doing a good amount of PvE, stick with PvE gear (up to a point). Another thing to think about is what your gear looks like now. How are your ear/implants? What relics are you using, etc? Those are the items that usually have a larger impact on your main stats right off the bat. Going for Conqueror versions of those items might be a good idea, though keep in mind that even some blue PvE versions are almost as good if not better. I saw the biggest impact from upgrading my ear/implants compared to the crappy craftable ones. I also picked up the Serendipitous (Sp?) relic for some added burst (these can be used anywhere, the PvE ones can't be used in PvP areas). At some point however, if your PvE gear is too good, it could be detrimental to you in WZ's by giving you reduced expertise. I found the sweet spot for mixed gear was around 1900ish expertise though I haven't took notice of the recent changes to see if that still applies. Lastly, if you plan on doing open world PvP, owning a full set is a benefit. In a nut shell, look at your gear and see where you will benefit the most in the quickest way possible. I suggest getting the Conq relic (using matrix cube as secondary) and 1-2 ear/implants.

2 things need to be addressed here. The first being energy management for ops/scoundrels is just way too good compared to the other 2 classes and needs some "adjusting". Throw in the the roll and being to able restealth and it just makes that class so much better than other healers. Secondly, and this is in regards to all healing classes, the Trauma debuff needs to be increased by a larger percentage and/or the healing boost gained from expertise needs to be reduced. Since trauma doesn't effect PvE, the latter suggestion shouldn't be an issue. The former would need some tweaking so as not to gimp Ops/Scoundrels in PvE. As a side note, I'd love to see taunts affect healing as well as damage. It would provide an interesting strategy in WZ's.

This. Planetary comms are a dime a dozen and the WZ comm cost is way too high. If you have a security key attached to your account you can buy hourly fleet passes for 1k each which makes selling those PvP weapons back that much easier. While this might not be ideal for lower levels, doing this from level 50 and up will almost guarantee you at least full Partisan by 55 and maybe even a few Conquerer pieces depending on how much you PvP. Just as important, get to Valor 40 ASAP and convert your comms to ranked. Honestly though they should just remove the comm caps for WZ/RWZ comms and/or remove the level requirement to buy gear (like we used to be able to many moons ago). I've only been asking for this for almost 2 years now since they made comms a separate currency (you used to be able to trade them in beta).

Opener varies but assuming 0 rage and no available procs.... Force Charge Sundering Assault (edit, I originally had Strike listed) Ravage Vicious Throw (if proc'd) Shatter Impale Ravage (if proc'd from the above 2 attacks) Force Scream Vicious Throw (regardless of proc ths should be up again) Rinse and repeat If you're being attacked through this you shouldn't have a problem with Rage through one whole rotation via Endless Rage passive skill. If you find yourself Rage starved, Assault, Enrage, or Saber Throw are options with the latter 2 usable as an opener as well. Force Push/Charge is another. I rarely use Force Choke outside of WZ's but it is an option. Ravage might not be ready for the second rotation so there's a chance you might have to use fillers such as Assault, Vicious Slash etc.

If going Immortal stick with Vette or HK-51 if you unlocked him on another toon. Best thing about him is that you can use him at level 1, broken armor and all. Talk about OP. if going Rage spec (über easy to level once you get Shockwave) use Quinn. Vengeance takes some getting used to at lower levels but doesn't really get into form until mid 30's and should really be paired with Quinn as well. I'm almost done with Jugg (already did a Guardian so it's the same thing) but I found Immortal spec early on to be easier as far as downtime was concerned (less after fight healing) but slower damage wise as there really isn't much to use. Vette really needs attention to her gear if you want to go this route. I messed around with Vengeance in my 20's but found it a bit weak at those levels. Once I switched to Rage, everything sped up. I recently switched to Vengeance at 45 and feel the rotation is much easier to live with for elites and pretty fun for PvP but I think I'll wind up finishing up as Rage. The AOE makes leveling way too easy. I might mess around with a hybrid Soresu stance Vengeace soec (w/o picking up Shien) build and use Vette or HK-51 again.

Oh the hypocrisy. 1-Go to a PvE server. OR 2-Get a set of warzone gear and keep it in your inventory. THEN 2A-When you see a red player in the open world, quickly change gear. THEN 2B-Write a whiny post to the devs about how you are still bad at PvP. OR 3-Stay on fleet as you craft and wait for FP/Op queues.

This is why we haven't seen a real nerf for the ability yet. Metrics is telling BW that while on a whole, smash/sweep is being used a lot, there are more than enough bad players around that the damage numbers are in line with other classes. This is one of cases where balancing based on what a spreadsheet is telling you is actually detrimental to the game. I highly doubt we'll ever see it adjusted. Someone in BW got their wish of having a Bright Wizard in heavy armor and they don't want anyone ruining their fun.