Generally speaking, there is no balance whatsoever to set bonuses. I actually like the Rakata field tech bonus (+10 energy from target aquired) for my leth/eng hybrid, extra energy is always nice. Certainly more often useful than the 5 meter range add for distraction and take down. OTOH, nothing available to snipers is even in the same area code as the trooper/BH bonuses. Sorc ones are hit or miss, and I really don't know about warriors, but I've been told they're nice.

Too bad justice lacks a grammer checker

PTs also have more railshot-enhancing abilities in both their other trees. Mercs have...better range and KBs. If mercs had a way to actually maintain seperation they would be equal, as it is...meh.

I think the problem is that generally their code and engine are so horribly, hilariously bad that a minor thing like this doesn't even register among their real technical issues.

Honestly, given the horrible engine that is in use, friendly fire would be hilarious. Already, the flight time for most ranged attacks is just....stupid. Added to the lag most people have to deal with, combat would be pretty funny to watch. After 15 minutes, no one would play melee, or teams wouldn't allow ranged DPS to play.

I totally agree it's boring and unfortunately required to compete at this point. Both healing and damage should have DR.

Without collision detection, there is no reason to have any modicum of realism so why bother? I mean if a sniper rifle's maximum range is less than 1/3 that of a smoothbore PISTOL, then why even try for realism?

Sure, if they enable collision detection and restrict turning to a physically possible rate. Until then, just see if your doctor will up your ritalin dosage.

It sounds like the only real connection you have with 'your' guild is a name tag. Ditch them.

First, only tanks can have shield/absorb, and it doesn't work on a fairly large amount of attacks. Defense is nice, but it is directly countered by accuracy (which you actually have to actively remove from most end-game sets since it is otherwise useless for most ACs) and also doesn't actually have any effect on a large number of attack types. Basically, for all except 3 ACs, shield/absorb are literally useless, and for all ACs, defense is of very limited usefulness. So, your choice in 'customization' is, 'what kind of offense do I want'

Well, I have noticed a lot more people playing 'immune to CC' specs which is probably part of the problem - tankassins, Juggs/Guards with the force leap thing, even the occaisional PT/Van with their version, though that is pretty rare. IIRC, they get no resolve if their immunity is up when the effect goes off. OTOH, I have experienced classes with no immunities ignoring my FB and even debilitate sometimes - I dunno if it's extreme lag, hacking or a bug, but it affects more than just my Agent, it's across the board - and it affects non-CC stuff too, it's just not as noticeable. This has been much more noticeable since I switched servers, when my ping got much higher so I mostly blame that, but I have also run into a couple of obvious hackers on my new server too, so I can't rule that entirely out either.

That bug (I haven't seen it in a while, might be fixed) is actually annoying to the sniper too, they can't use their 'cover required' abilities even though you can't leap to them. Also no cover roll, and you don't actually get your cover screen (just crouching, which does nothing). Anyone doing this as a hack just to avoid interrupts and leaps is doing you a favor

I'll be honest, for PvP I would probably be happy with just getting stealth while in cover. Come on, a stationary sniper who has time to set up is highly visible while some dude can run around invisible?

What it boils down to is that the engine and server architecture is so ludicrisly un-optimized that hacks are nearly indistinguishable from 'normal' sluggishness, bad targeting and ability failure. The fact that even with only 3-5 people on screen it's nearly impossible to assume that someone's location is accurate seems to be a worse flaw than the unlikely possibility of hacing. OTOH, their report functionality is so poor that I gave up reporting hackers, even the obvious ones. Seriously, the original EQ had a more friendly user interface.

I don't really see a problem too much during an actual duel, but in a WZ, having 3 ACs able to 'top-off' while still in combat and un-engaged is, well, unbalanced. Why can an arsenel-spec trooper go from 75% to full while waiting for the fleeing sorcerer to drop out of combat, but the assault vanguard has to sit and wait or run around looking for a healer? In either case, as soon as the DPS Sorc gets a nice range cushion, he's full again. Personally I would be ok if ALL healing abilities were moved to the healing trees instead of being base abilities- easy enough to spend 1 point for the crappy or 6 for the decent heal, but you'd actually have to give up some offense for it.

Mainly because even with this buff, snipers are still far lower DPS than a marauder? This takes nothing away from a marauder, and while nice, by itself won't be making snipers massively more desireable in PvP. ETA: is crippling throw weapon damage? Because IIRC shatter shot is, and is thus avoidable.

At 30%, most tanks on my server still have almost 6K HP minimum....your rotation mught take out an an-bubbled sorc or another GS/Sniper, but good luck on any one else. Snipers can definitely win a 1v1, and put out a lot of damage, but bursting down a geared 50 in 6 globals isn't happening that I can see, even if they sit there the whole time - which I admit, many are dumb enough to do, for now.

It's not any one ability, it's cumulative: No interrupts, no guard or taunt...no biochem, relics or secondary stats. Sure they may be great PvPers, but chances are, they're just clueless.

Well as a 50 sniper, I play because I enjoy the class, not because I'm under any illusion that it is not by far the most mechanically challenged in the game. If they ever fixed the issues with cover, all weapon damage (MM) or easily-purged dots (lethality) and generally poor utility, I think they would be a lot more competetive. Also, I would like my huge-***** rifle to actually outrange other ranged classes, though since our mirror equals our range with pistols I guess that's never going to happen.

Well as a 50 sniper, I play because I enjoy the class, not because I'm under any illusion that it is not by far the most mechanically challenged in the game. If they ever fixed the issues with cover, all weapon damage (MM) or easily-purged dots (lethality) and generally poor utility, I think they would be a lot more competetive. Also, I would like my huge-***** rifle to actually outrange other ranged classes, though since our mirror equals our range with pistols I guess that's never going to happen.

Stealth would be an easy answer, especially since without adding talents we would be both slower and more visible than assassins/operatives (and in fact I would be happy with stealth that only worked on enemies 10+ meters away). No new code would be required, so from a technical point of view, this is by far the easiest thing for Bioware to do, but also, I can't see them adding a game changer to the class unless they realize how utterly unwanted snipers are becoming in PvP. I think a better, more 'sniperish', approach would be an improved version of entrench that we have to be in cover to use, but that doesn't break on ambush (only). So we could choose to be really, really annoying but do not much damage or just go to town and become a huge target like we currently are. Tactically, this would make snipers very good for what real snipers do - lay in wait and only expose themself when they have a good target or need to achieve a tactical goal (stopping a cap for example). Also, stationary-only stealth is far more realistic for a sniper, movies not withstanding. Given the puny range of a sniper rifle, any halfway sentient player should be able to find the sniper before a second ambush could be used if they are not doing anything else. Another option I would also like to consider is something like a 'prone' stance - which some PvE mobs have, that merely grants you cover status and hides your name bar - you would still be targetable etc, but not as glaringly obvious without your target designator, erh, cover screen.

Synergy is really a problem for Snipers, compared to, well, everyone else. We don't have a single key skill per tree that everything buffs or works off, and it shows. I'm not saying it's bad that snipers can't just faceroll everything with, say, snipe, but since many classes (cough *sorcerer lightning spam*cough*tracer missile*cough) have one ability that buffs/debuffs/procs all sort of goodies, it seems a little unbalanced. That said, I don't want all the classes to be played the same, but frankly I'd like to see some more synergy like maybe, MM has a mid-tier ability that has Snipe make all our damage tech for a few seconds or something, Lethality having something that makes dots less of a joke, and engineering doing something besides just white damage with a couple week internals thrown in.

Harpoon is nearly as buggy as the cover mechanic...won't work when resolve is full, sometimes pulls to an unpredictable location if either target is moving, sometimes either gets blocked by non-LOS terrain or simply doesn't work. In return, my Powertech has no KB, sprint, friendly pull and has to spec 21 points into tank to get a leap. More points if I want my harpoon to immobilize (it doesn't on it's own). Honestly, I have no particular problem with it, compared to force push/pull/leap, all of which are also 'free' and useful outside Huttball. In terms of utility, a KB would be vastly more useful 99% of the time, but I happen to LIKE harpoon shot because why go to them when you can have them come to you

I just saw the same thing, I actually stunned one IN the fire just as it came on...he sat there for 4 seconds, no bubble, no team-mate ANYWHERE near him much less healer + guard. Did not take a point of damage, from me pumping my DPS into him or the flames, then walked down to score. He started taking damage again only after he scored, so for a good 10-15 seconds, he was apparently completely invulnerable. He didn't cast anything that I could tell. And as I mentioned, I had just spawned, he was totally alone except for me. Didn't know invisible (no graphic, no icon) sage bubbles were so strong. I was thinking it must have been lag, but maybe not.

Well, since shields currently work that way against the vast majority of sniper and marauder attacks, I guess other classes would have to deal with it too...