Quoting myself for more people to see my infinite sarcastic wisdom.

The cover system is fine. Snipers are balanced and can compete well in PvP and are absolutely fine in PvE. Everything's fine, we can all go home now. How are you?

Jesus Christ, I'm balls deep in accuracy. I've got so much accuracy I don't know what to do with it, AND I stack crit and surge. It must be a gear problem, because I was over the accuracy softcap (8%) really early. EDIT: PvE

My marksman sniper keybindings are (roughly) as follows: 1- Rifle Shot 2- Snipe 3- Ambush 4- Interrogation Probe 5- Explosive Probe 6- Series of Shots 7- Diversion 8- Rakata Med-pack 9- Corrosive Dart Q- Distraction E- Escape (trinket, think it's called escape) R- Followthrough T- Takedown F- Take Cover G- Frag Grenade Z- Evasion X- Debilitate C- Leg Shot V- Shield Probe Hope that provides some clarity. And yeah, I think I use a lot more letters than most, mainly due to the fact that I hate pressing shift.

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#400rsrbdMoRZrI0bRoZb.1 23/16/2. This spec uses the same rotation as Marksman, with the priority being on casting Followthrough whenever it's up. Interrogation Probe is there to help use all the extra energy you'll get from using Explosive Probe. This spec is based on the theory that more energy = more damage. This is a significant energy gain. HOWEVER: I've not taken into account the decrease in damage missing from the sixth tier of the marksman tree. This may or may not make the build worse than PURE marksman. All I have to back up this spec is anecdotal evidence: I find it does better, and has EVEN LESS energy management than Pure Marksman (which has barely any!).

Nah, you don't want it. It does not affect damage-over-times, unlike the mirrored stat in a certain massively multiplayer online role playing game involving pandas.

*replies weeks later and bumps old thread* Yeah, my guilds 16 man set up usually involves 3 or 4 snipers. Ballistic Shield is invaluable and when cast consecutively give the healers a great help. We're even one of the only two classes (as far as I'm aware lol) to have an active armour-debuff ability (though I'm unsure if it stacks with the warrior one, I keep it up anyhow). Snipers gonna snipe

Apologies, that's the tactic for every other class. On a side note, is there any other class other than mercenaries who do not get an interrupt?

Yeah, 'cause being able to perform to the same standard as any other ranged class while being immune to charges, grapples and interrupts needs buffing.

Star Wars IS real life

Not on my bars: -Heroic Moment: Advanced Recon (come at me, 1-50 gameplay!) -Headshot (Way too situational and thus awkward to keybind. I'm also more of a PvE player) -Eviscerate (see above, except I fight at range...) -Shiv (Again, seems a wasted keybind considering I could just shoot them for the same damage. Then again, it's Tech damage so it won't be shielded...) -Suppressing Fire (Just overall bad)

Pahaha, we've got more crowd control than Batman EDIT: And no, more range would be unbalanced. We're already immune to charges, interrupts and grapples while staying at 35m range. What else do you want, snipers to be realistic and one-hit people too? If you want realism, the Force users would win almost every confrontation, so you'd better reroll.

Cover is fine. It doesn't cost a global cooldown, so makes no difference. It just makes you immobile while casting, and seeing as you can't cast while moving doesn't make a blind bit of difference. Sorcs have to stand still when they cast lightning strike and force lightning too (but they don't get increased ranged defense!). You'll also find that Cover stops people charging and grappling you, which is great! And you also can't be interrupted while in cover. So, in conclusion, you have the same limitations as a normal caster (the only limitation = immobility) and the added immunity to interrupts, grapples and charges, with a sneaky bit of ranged defense too. And the only downside is that other marksman snipers (or the gunslinger equivalent) can knock you out of cover (very) temporarily.

Bloodthirst and mobility. Quit crying.

*interrupt* *proceed to destroy the Mercenary while they wonder why their tracer missile isn't working* *use any CC to interrupt when they try to tracer missile again* lulz