I agree that biochem will certainly make you far better...but there's a certain amount of enjoyment in having Cybertech grenades to throw around too. Mez grenade is sexy to use right after a flash bang to keep a group mezed longer, and the Firestorm grenade adds a hefty chunk of DoT (and stops clickers for a short while yet). The others, though? Drop it all for Biochem. If Cybertech didn't keep me rollin' in the credits, I'd swap.

This is a very good explanation.

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You only get the chuckle on a random chance TA proc. As such, you'll receive it on KP and Lacerate based procs, but not KI or Shiv.

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Yes, absolutely. I love the class, I love the flavor, and I love that I can choose to heal or DPS. I'd rather choose between healing and tanking, but I'll take this comfortable mix. The only class I'd consider other than this class is perhaps the Merc, but Tracer Missile spam isn't entertaining to me. We're not "fine" but we are capable. You can do well, and most Operatives I see do significantly well. It just takes skill to be on par others that don't try as hard. Essentially, if you're equal geared with better skill, you'll be on par with others, but if you're equal geared and equal skill, it's an exceptionally tough fight. There are bound to be fixes in the works, so don't worry too much. I'm very productive...though I'd probably be more productive as a Maurader. On the other hand, I don't die, I offer off-heals when necessary, and my damage is significant in some situations. We're just situationally valuable, and others can fill our role easier.

This is largely stopped by better positioning. Be aware of who has knockbacks and their cooldowns and plan your positions accordingly. I'm fond of using tiny pillars as a preventive measure against knock backs. Also, zoom your camera out as far as the game lets you. Situational awareness is godsend. As for force dots, Evasion removes them. Cloaking Screen followed immediately by an Evasion will keep you stealthed.

What server? My server is far from being heavy in Operatives, but healing Ops make up about 1/4th of all the operatives I find in warzones. As for the OP, I'm really getting tired of seeing people essentially say that Operatives are useless. Are we on par for sustained DPS? No. Are we the strongest damage dealers? No. Are we balanced in any way, shape or form? No. But we're not useless. We're fun to play, we're challenging to master, and we're really friggen good at pissing off people (which is apparently a talent; I feel like we should get skill points into "Piss em Off" where we get a bonus to damage if we get a whisper or a say that insults us). There are tons of things to fix, but a lot can be overcome with practice. It just takes time. Gear up more, gear up properly, and learn to select your targets to cause the greatest impact in PvP (also, there is nothing more entertaining than running with another stealther and destroying one target at a time). In PvE, make friends. If you're running flashpoints with random people, you're probably not in an active enough guild. I don't know if this is the class for you. But I will never have as much fun on any other toon as I do on the Operative.

You should never pass up Acid Blade as a Concealment Operative. As for breaking CC, the only CCs that it breaks are Mez effects, not stuns. So Acid Blade will break Sleep Dart and Flashbang, not Debilitate or Jarring Strike. That doesn't mean you can't use them, it just means you have to watch their debuffs and make sure they don't have a DoT when you choose to Mez the target.

Poison tick. Especially if I'm dead, lol.

I'm sure you'll get it. Like I said, it was a tough fight. Keep up the hard work, and know that it'll be worth it in the end. As for what kind of healer it is, mechanically it's very similar to Vanilla WoW Druids, or I at least played it that way initially, and more Paladinesque in healing now.

Interesting that you continue to think that I'm lying, and yet I continue to say nothing negative about you. As for being nerfed, I hit that quest a few days after the game officially launched.

http://taugrim.com/2011/04/07/guide-to-strafing-movement-and-keybindings/

Basically. Though you really have to compare AoE heal to AoE heal, and Merc's 11pnt is still better (which is just sad).

Yes. Or hit more targets. Or heal faster. Or have a shorter cooldown. Or all of those.

That's rude. You don't even know me. And I was around 33rd-35th level, from what I recall. Perhaps I've just played a Druid in WoW since vanilla and playing an Operative isn't much different, at least as a healer. Or, perhaps, I'm just really damn good. I choose to think the first, but if you wish to think the second then I won't stop you.

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Scoundrel: you're doing it wrong.

Um. It's not unplayable. It's just really difficult to be good, which while supremely entertaining for me, is not balanced. As for the HM (I assume that's what you meant), I've never had issues getting a group as either healer or DPS in them. If the rest of the group isn't full of idiots that stand in fire and take unnecessary damage, healing is doable. As DPS, you can still rip some good numbers. Anyway, I completely agree that an equally skilled and geared maurader is going to do better than you, but that doesn't make the class unplayable--just nerfed. Don't reroll if you like the class. I love it and while I do have a Sage, I never have near as much fun as I do on my Operative. Reroll only if you don't like it--as with all things.

1) Wow, Bro, spoilers. Gotta give the alert for that stuff. 2) I did it as a Medic Op, first try. Kaliyo does fine, you've just gotta keep her up. Make sure you have health kits, interrupt consistently, and don't be afraid to toss a poison dart or rifle shot every so often. Stay close enough to see when he's casting, and if you can't see it then there's something wrong with your settings so look through your interface options. I will say, though, that this was the hardest fight I've had to solo in PvE. It's worth the time you put in to get it right.

I like all of those except that cull shouldn't cost a TA. I think removing that would mean that no one would take Weakening Blast and instead take Lacerate to spend the TAs. It would certainly create some interesting hybrid specs, though.

Ah, you're looking at it from a PvE standpoint. Honestly, I just can't see anything involving targeting ever being a viable "fix" for operatives. However, the idea that our burst should be repeatable has merit. Currently, we're constantly fighting an uphill battle, with most of our damage bing front loaded and ramping down beyond that. Your solutions, however inelegant and incompatible with PvP they may be, do raise interesting points as to the merits of repeatable burst versus consistently sustained damage (which is more common to other classes). Your focused idea, however, is not something I'd ever like to see. It's hard enough to kill an enemy that heals without helping him do it. Unless I'm misunderstanding what you said.

Enemies auto target you if they're targeting no one and you attack them, nulling much of that damage. Plus, that second ability is just encouraging enemies to target you, and we're squishy little mo-fos. Better idea would be something to increase long term damage sustainability. 4 stack debuff with 15 second duration that increases armor pen by 5% when you use backstab, or something. Additionally, survivability is an issue. Evasion is damn near useless for anything but a DoT wipe. Adding in a damage reduction component would be nice (20% may be too much, but 4 seconds isn't long for something like that). Also, considering that we have only 2 cast-time heals (with one hinging on TAs), an interrupt immunity for the duration would be stellar (even if it were in the medic tree). Lastly, energy regen is a cruel mistress. I'd be happy if Stims granted 5 energy on use without Combat Stims talent, but an increase to the energy returned would be better. It'd definitely increase sustainability. Keep in mind, this is primarily for Convealment spec. Medic has issues as well that I'd like fixed, but that's a whole 'nother issue. The worst, though, is Lethality. I'm completely unsure how to go about fixing THAT tree beyond making Shiv, Cull, and Weakening blast a 15m range, and increasing the duration/effect of weakening blast. A significant decrease to the energy cost of Cull would probably help, too. ... And that's all without mentioning a gap closer, but a Shadowstep (even just 20m) would be phenominal.

...there are other races for operatives?

But see, that would be logical, and this is the Internet. Can't very well introduce logic to the Internet; it might explode!