Assuming they are all close enough, could be viable. But generally you want to save your heat, and 25 can make much more of a difference. Besides, damage reduction really only makes a noticable difference on bosses. From all the upper flashpoints I've done, none of the elite enemies have been close enough for a flame sweep, let alone once I've started kiting. PT's are a ranged tank, so if you're tanking, you should be at range. Outside of using RP on NPCs that chase, I don't get close to any enemies. To each his own. I still don't see a good use for flame sweep for tanks that are kiting properly.

I understood it just fine. You hit them with IM first, pop them with rail shot, and then hit them RP. Thus putting a good amount of burst damage and some decent dot damage. Keeping the ion cell for survivability. But your tech crit chance is quite low, and your FB (most common attack at close range, and what you use to try and refresh your attacks) is rather weak compared a lot of other possible builds. Is the build viable, yes, it's hard put serious effort into making a build, and it not be useful. It's just that you're not going to maximize your burst, nor are you going to have good sustained damage without some luckier refreshes. Switching over to comb cell lets your FB do good damage, along with good dot damage. However, that being said, looking back at the build, it's not bad at all. It definitely has advantages. You'd be a great hit and run build, and you have a lot of durability. I may have been.. over zealous(?) on my first response. Why I do still disagree with some things, the build isn't bad, I just don't think it's anything to put a big fuss over. I apologize if I was being overly harsh with my first comment on it.

Mercs don't need any more get away. They've got ways to slow people down, knock them back, stun then, 2 ways to break stun, mitigate damage, and still do some of the best damage out there, even while being hit. Also, to my knowledge, Operatives and Snipers have no way to fly to people or fly away from people either, so why is there complaints? Anyway, if you removed Merc's knock back, I would then say it's reason to have a distancing jet boost or something. Boosts them backwards. Heck, why can't PTs use the Jet Knockback like mercs can? Oh right, cause it would be unfair to give them so many options, especially for a tank.

From my count, it's split 5/3 in terms of melee based to ranged based. Is that really odd? Besides, Powertech is more midrange based if anything.

Sonic missle is better, and flamethrower has more aggro, and is a less heat pig. Also does more damage.

EDIT: Turns out, I'm just dumb.

I do tank and I literally never use it. Not good damage, doesn't aggro much (not to mention you have far better options) and it's a heat hog. If there's something I'm missing, please tell me, because I have far better options, and the thing is a heat hog.

Missle Blast and Flame Sweep are useless except knocking people off the flag/door. Shoulder slam I find useful in PvE for taking down silver stars, since Mako will cc them, then I'll shoulder slam/rocket punch hit them. Makes for a good quick burst of damage, rather then just 1 rocket punch. Other then that. Shoulder slam is rather useless. Can use it to quickly take down a normal enemy by hitting them with explosive dart and then shoulder slam. I find myself always forgetting to use thermal override but it does have it's uses.

I mean, Kolto Overload does have it's advantages. Great for PvP when you're on the run, I'm always using it. However, Oil Slick is pretty much a must for PvE tanks. 20% chance for them to miss not only you, but others is huge. PvP there tends to be too much movement and is only really useful on doors and what not. If you can hit a group of enemies wiht it, all of their DPS will drop slightly.

It's worth it, but the 5 points spent cut into your DPS ability. Oil Slick is nice if you remember to use it all the time. 20% misses really add up.

My thoughts? Burn Enhancers are only 2 points. So you can afford all of it.

The 2 seconds on quell is a big difference on holding off a healer. It doesn't seem like it should, until you are actually doing it in pvp. Also, the build you posted is no longer a tank even. You don't get the movement slow down from ion cell, you don't have guarnteed root from grapple, you don't have oil slick, you waste 3 points for 3% endurance (basically 3% more hp), 2 points to just give rail shot a 6% damage boost (when puncture isn't even finished), and yes, of course you waste 3 points on combust cylinder. Also, superheated rail shot only vents heat if they have combustable cylinder on them, which they won't cause you'll be in ion. You're effectively capping your survivability and your DPS with that spec. You wouldn't even really be a tank, especially not in PvE. Anyway, if you don't mind sacrificing some survivability, you could go with a build like this: http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#301GoGrzRboMZMsrrob.1 It's based around using your rocket punch (which has a bonus 30% chance to crit, and 30% bonus crit damage) and refreshing it quickly (30% chance to refresh with flame burst, 50% chance to refresh every time your shield activates). Rocket Punch also puts Ion Cylinder's effect every time it hits, and Ion Cylinder is buffed from 'Supercharged Ion Gas', 'Prototype Cylinders', and 'Ion Overload'. Basically you'll start every fight with explosive dart, then rocket punch, then rail shot, rectractable blade, and then flame bursting them, then rocket punch when it's up. Flame burst will be used when rectractable blade/rocket punch/rail shot are on cool down, and it will sometimes refresh your rocket punch. The 2 points in Power Armor (they are filler points to get to 'Flame Barrage') could be moved to 'Prototype Electro Surge' for having CC every 50 seconds, I just prefer the damage reduction. The only bad thing is you can't get 2 points into 'Iron Fist' to buff your Rocket Punch with 8% more damage, but you'll still do good damage, while still being a somewhat good tank. No wasted points this way either, and you have more variety in your attacks. You can also double dot people this way, hitting them with Ion Cell's effect and Rectractable blade's effect. Good survivability and DPS this way. Full use of the Ion Cell's effects.

I'd personally drop the 3 points out of steely resolve (what you want to be doing is surviving and controlling the battle, not so much DPS) and put 1 point in Rebraced Armor (8% more armor rating) and 2 points in Hitman (will lower the cooldown on quell to 6 seconds). Quell is extremely useful, especially if you're a tank. I'd say the cooldown on quell is even more useful then the 9% aim, for PvP.

Both really. Heavy armor, and if they are ion, they have shield, they are extra hard. If not, they are probably running pyro, which bursts like a truck through brick wall. Adv Prot has great cc breaker, is fast so they can kite like no other, and has good dot damage. Then there's hybrids which get some of the good and bad of it all. It's kinda ridiculous. Extremely versatile class.

I've got to agree with this entirely. I like PTs for their versatility, rather then their DPS. I feel like there are 4 different builds I would happily play with this class, only 1 of those being DPS based (and only based, it's not it's sole function).

I strongly disagree. Quell is insanely good for keeping a healer locked down, probably better then almost any other class. You have a ton of versatility with grapple and jet charge as well. http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#301uZMsMroZfhrrzhMM. With that you can do decent range damage (no anything great, but it can hurt) with Incendiary missle and then a rail shot (90% armor piecing at that). At close range you've got flame burst which puts a stronger combust on them, then you have a possible refresh on your rocket punch and your rail shot. Rail shot will vent heat for you if you hit a combust opponent. You've also got your 6 second quell for healers. Energy Shield can break cc, and it recharges very fast with Energy Rebounder skill. Then Retractable blade can put a second dot on them (a third if you hit them with Incendiary missle), and Flame burst cuts their damage by 2% (not huge, but can add up for sure). You could move Gyroscopic Jets into Infrared Sensors really, and would probably be smart for pvp to really help on those stealthers. I have no problems with this build what so ever, and I don't even have all the points to use it really. If I was not the tank for my guild, I would be running this build all the time. Just to clear up, obviously some people won't like this build, or will even have a better one. I'm just saying that Power Techs are not underwhelming in PvP what so ever. Each tree has it's uses, and can be very effective. There are even some good hybrid builds, which is isn't true for some other classes. I don't know jack about Merc's so I won't comment on them other then saying I've seen some lvl 50 mercs wreck teams with tracer missle.

I do take it for the PvP aspect. I find I don't shield nearly enough to get the 50% heat vent, mainly because PvP armor has little to no shielding. My spec looks like this. http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#301GorrdMdogzZMsbM.1 The unfortunate part in this is you miss the 6 second quell, which is amazing for pvp. However, I've found the build is pretty durable, even though I'm only lvl 40.

I'm so confused by all the builds in this thread. No big deal wasting 3 points on Combust Cylinder? If you're going to go Ion, you should just go most of the way. IMO this build is far more useful. http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#301GRGbdMboRZMsMroZb.1 Even still, I'm not sure where people are going with the Ion cell. If you're doing that, you should be going after shield chance, and thus 30 points into the left tree. No point in wasting 3 points in the right tree. If you're trying to maximize your damage, go with something like this. http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#301uZMsMroZfhMrdhMM.1

Another thing that is forgotten, is that Power also increases crit damage. Crit is useful for builds specializing in maximizing crit damage or occurance.

For most BH builds, Power will be better due to having far more dot effects. For mine I actually like crit because I run with the combustible gas cylinder and I bonus to crit hit damage. Truthfully, it will always depend on build for the most part.

I had this same glitch and had to reset the quest 5 times. Then it glitched and even though I beat his padawan she kept healing him still. On top of that some of the enemies on that match could not be targetted by attacks, making them invincible to anything but Death from Above and flame thrower. It's probably one of the most bugged sections of a game I have ever played. The rocket jump didn't work much either.

I really appreciate the stream, since I've fallen in love with my sniper recently, but I think it should be said that it helps a heck of a lot that you are lvl 50. I know you face off against some higher level people in that too, but still.

Perhaps I'm confused, sniper's put out plenty of damage, and have plenty of maneuvers to keep enemies at bay. You've got leg shot, cover pulse, Ambush (which is a knock back), debilitate, and flash bang. That's only what I know you get up to lvl 25 so I'm sure there's more. I also finish top 4 in damage almost every match, even though PvP has a incredibly high amount of lvl 40+ in it. Now maybe on sniper's damage drops majorly in PvE for some reason, but I just don't see it. Get some Overkill gear which has Alacrity and Crit rate bonus on it, and you can do some real damage fast. One top of that you get a buff while in cover (Ballastic Dampners) so there's no real reason to come out of it when a melee person is on you. They don't do more damage while you are in cover. Now, to be fair, I can see how Operative is better. It's a much more versatile class. You can be a DPS, but still do a fair bit of healing. I can also see how they'd do more damage because their Concealment tree just looks nasty. So they are a mobile DPS tree, that can also keep people planted or stunned for quicker damage. If I had to guess, Operative would be the better of the 2 classes, even with never having played one. However, I don't think that somehow makes Sniper bad DPS. Worse then Operative, maybe, haven't played both enough to tell. But bad at DPS? No, Sniper puts out some crazy DPS, especially once you get your alacrity and crit hit up.

What in the world does Shield rating and Absorption rating do? All I can guess is Shield rating increase the chance for shield to activate (if so, follow up question, does it in it by %age, ergo if you have a 20% chance for it to activate, and had 20 shield rating, it would now be 25% chance for it to activate, OR does it increase it by direct percentage, ergo 20% chance to activate with 20 shield rating, now 40% to activate). Absorption is probably increasing how much the shield can absorb, no?

Question on if merc can be used as a good healer, with a bit of DPS to go along with it. If anyone has any specs or anything that would help too. I've played a bit of all classes (Sith side, since that's what my guild seems to be set on), except for bounty hunter. I don't really care much for the Sith Inquisitor, so I figured next best healer would be Bounty Hunter, but have no real experience with it. Halp?