Tactics' damage seems to be designed around frequent use of Pulse Cannon. In PvP that just doesn't work with the current toolset and it won't work after adding a single target snare either. They'll have to either modify the skill so that it's actually useful outside of a very narrow range of very specific situations ( read: enemies piling up in front of a door on the Voidstar ) or rethink the entire tree.

It really doesn't. The class is just poorly designed in low levels and flat out sucks until the mid 30s. At 40+ things look a lot different though.

You're wrong on that one, sustained damage certainly has it's place in PvP. Pyro neither has the resource management nor the survivability for such a role though.

People over on the BH board are saying Ionic Accelerator procs are up to 45% on Ion Pulse and 60% on ShockStrike, i.e. you'll get to use HiB every 9 secs on average and still have to spam Ion Pulse/SS frantically to get even that. Sad face.

Your theory is flawed. Sentinels/Marauders have been FotM for quite a while now.

While I don't see the reasoning behind that particular change either I'm amazed people are still this concerned with AoE tanking. It just doesn't matter much in this game. Yup.

I'm not so much concerned about Guard/Jugg damage, LolSweep is a one trick pony and considerably less useful than the accumulated scoreboard numbers may indicate. They also perform best in a protector role out of all the tank classes by a large margin though and ranked warzones will be ruled by specialists ( bye bye hybrid Sorcs ).

Changes look good to me, we'll have to wait for specifics on some though. Not seeing a nerf to any spec. It already is

Tactics changes are sorely disappointing. Adding a snare to Gut is great for hybrids but not particularly useful for deep Tactics. The change to Combat Tactics is less significant than it may sound as HiB just isn't that important for the build. Adds some small on demand burst though which is a good thing. Imo these changes just promote Shield/Tactics hybrids running Ion Cell rather than deep Tactics builds. Survivability/Damage balance will still be somewhat off in full Tactics. Assault gets more predictable and that's certainly a good thing in PvE, we'll see how it stacks up in PvP in 1.2. Burst is the only thing Assault has going for it and nerfing it won't make a lacklustre Tactics tree better. If the chance on Ionic Accelerator is high enough 6 seconds cd on the proc should be fine though and actually allow for a more varied rotation than now if you're hitting a bad streak desperately spamming Ion Pulse and ShockStrike. Not happy about the changes to the defense tree, from a PvP perspective anyway. The changes seem to even increase the reliance on shields, right after they've told us these will remain largely useless and we'll just have to suck it. Shield Vanguards will also feel the blast radius reduction on Mortar Volley more than DPS oriented specs due to the lack of other hard hitting options, in all fairness we saw that one coming though. As for Energy Blast, it's basically a resource management tool and further reducing the already pitiful damage will even reinforce that notion, global cooldown or not. With defense spec doing ok(ish) with ammo I certainly won't go up to 31 points for 1 ammo every 15 seconds, especially considering tier 6 sucks donkey ***** as well. Full shield builds look even less attractive with these changes. Overall the already strong Jedi/Sith classes get a little too much candy in 1.2 imo ( No, Guardians/Juggs are not weak at 50, on the contrary ) and the already strong preference for them in organised PvP will turn into a fullscale glowstick jockey dominance with the odd Trooper/BH and Smuggler/Agent in between. Was bound to happen sooner or later I guess...Back to valour ranking my Guardian

This game's PvE in it's current state is so trivial you'll do ok with everything but a completely broken spec as long as you're a somewhat competent player.

Tbh I barely notice the 30% runspeed increase on HtL, in it's current form Battlefield Training seems completely worthless to me. Agreed on the Gut/Serrated Blade issue, the return on investment is extremely poor and even with the lower cd on interrupt being useful against certain opponents only it's the far better choice imo. In today's terms: Frontline Defense + Power Armour >>> Serrated Blade + Combat Tactics As for not having Guard, it's possible to run a 31 Tactics spec in Ion Cell and basically all you have to do is be somewhat more conservative with Ammo. In practice that is more of a challenge than it may sound though, as the ability to spam hard hitting Ion Pulses is probably the main source of damage of this build. After running with a 31 Tactics build for a while for the explocit purpose of getting a better understanding of what it can do my general assessment has not changed much unfortunately. It's not a broken spec, you can certainly make it work if you play to its strengths and have some support. I'm not sure why you'd want to though. Sustained damage counts for little in PvP, burst will trump it every single time and Assault is just miles ahead in that respect. The utility and survivability gain past the second tier of Tactics is pretty poor as well and making full use of Pulse Generator as argueably the token damage talent of the tree poses just way too many issues, from the short time window on the buff to the server/sync problems causing you to not hit something directly in front of you frequently. I don't think the tree needs a complete overhaul but without some adjustments deep Tactics will stay a niche spec and for good reason.

It's pretty obvious Shadows won't stay the way they are at the moment tbh. Using them as a yardstick is flawed and if you're as knowledgeable about the game as you pretend to be, you're probably well aware of that.

Marksman/Sharpshooter damage against heavy armour wearers is a problem with Marksman/Sharpshooter, not with the heavy armour wearers.

That's exactly how it worked before the patch as well and pretty much the reason why a lot of players think HtL isn't all that great.

That's not gonna last though and you know it.

Is this another round of theorycrafting "me alone against 4 guys" ? Pro tip: You're gonna lose that one, no matter what class combination they are.

Can you two lovebirds get a room and make out already ?

Especially considering PT/Vanguard specced for defense isn't that great to begin with in PvP. A tank Guardian/Jugg will outperform a tank PT/Vanguard any day of the week. ( At the moment a Kinetic specced Shadow will probably as well, but I don't expect them to stay the way they are right now. )

The term you're looking for is "bloat damage".

Might wanna educate yourself on the abilities mentioned here, buddy. Hint: Like the other BH/Vanguard specs Pyro/Assault have to be in melee to be fully effective, they are just slightly less useless at range. Personally I wouldn't mind seeing the entire proc mechanic go, but that would require a redesign of the entire tree. Without the HiB/Rail Shot reset it would be pretty useless. With the underwhelming Tactics/Advanced Prototype tree that would leave that advanced class with Shield Spec and Shield hybrids only.

Yup. Go 23 points in SS or drop it entirely imo. As the minor tree in a hybrid build 18 points in Sab are a much better package.

Funny thing is, as soon as GW2 is released, both groups will leave SWTOR anyway. Catering to "hardcore" or self-proclaimed elite players is bad business.

How far did you go up the tree ? Without the 21 point talent Trickshot/Followthrough and the lower cooldown for it Marksman/Sharpshooter is useless and absolutely not viable for, well, pretty much anything. As for the thread's topic: Right now Snipers/Gunslingers need serious support and protection against not completely stupid opponents and personally I don't think the burst potential the class has in BM vs BM fights is really worth the effort.

What it actually would require is to run in a premade 100% of the time and queue hop until you get into a warzone with an undergeared PUG. Then again such behaviour is exactly what a lot of "elite" PvPers mean when using the word skill

Sentinals/Marauders will rule rated WZs and leave the dreaded hybrid Sorcs in the dust. Gunslingers/Snipers otoh will probably need some modifications. No sweeping changes, mind you, but atm the desirable spec for rateds ( at least 23 in Marksman/Sharpshooter ) would be a little too taxing on healing and general support.