Compared to what? Other classes. That's a player perception problem. That's not how BW balances classes. Again: 1. This contradicts other evidence that ops do good damage. 2. Examples of 'underperformance' aren't only attributed to something missing from a class

No one is 'giving' anything just to be clear ... whether you grind the gear or the credits, you have to earn that. Furthermore, the important point here is that I'm saying it doesn't matter if they give baddies access to gear. Baddies with or without gear are still bad.

That's just your interpretation. The fact is that the tricks that were nerfed weren't intented, nor were they even reasonable. That was a clear case of bad implementation that was corrected.

More sensationalism. I will respond inkind then ... yeah. The failure lies in players being unable to master the class. Some players actually make it work for them. If the class failed, then EVERYONE would be having issues. Bottom line: Operatives are hard to play. If you can't hack it, don't assume the devs made a mistakethat the masses of less insightful players have the answer to fix. They make the concept, they implent the tools. Just because you don't like it doesn't mean it's wrong. If the class meets targets and fullfills it's roles as BW sees it, then it's right to them. The other statement you made has no sense to it. There are fewer ops because it's harder to play than other classes. There isn't anything obscene about that. Not everyone is playing to be challenged at that level.

That's where the problem lies. Why is it always the conclusion that something is wrong with the class if it's hard to play? Simply put, Operatives aren't the facerolling easymode class. I'm hoping that BW doesn't pander to the QQing here ... I like the fact it's hard to play. That's it's appeal.

My reasoning still is sound ... comparing access to common resources within a class regardless of talent specialization is not the same as comparing specific metrics like damage or tools between classes. Maybe if TA's were generated and used by classes other than operatives, you would have a point. This argument to make TA's available via only common class actions instead of a talents falls completely under a class consideration, so there isn't a balancing issue between classes because of it. In addition, it would resolve a current in-balance in TA generation that's currently favours healing builds, even though TA's are needed for any operative build to be successful. The concepts for classes are ... class-driven, not talent-driven. Talents simply allow you to specialize. You still have access to the fundamental class abilities that are inline with the class concept, regardless of your talent build. Sorry to disappoint you but there is no contradiction with my thinking. Even if there was ... someone would probably be ready to pounce on you for arguing against an idea for TA generations based only on common class actions if you support the idea that operative DPS talents are not performing well.

I was thinking the same about you, except it was in relation to exaggeration and assumptions. Great loss of subscribers due to inbalances? I bet you're going to respond with some post that tells me you know exactly how many people have quit because of in-balance? I'm looking forward to that. Listening and pandering are two different things. If the situation was as bad as you try to make it sound, the game would have failed already. You're view seems to be that the devs have missed something that insightful players have caught on to. My view of that is players don't understand what and how the devs implement a concept for a class or what to do when they encounter a 'bad' class. There are lots of options, one of them isn't to re-invent the concept for devs, assuming they aren't doing something right. That's not the impression I get or the language I see BW using. I believe it's more accurate to say they have target levels for different metrics in the game and they strive to ensure that each class hits their targets. Sure, it's relative but the target is a number, not the performance of another class. NEVER have I heard a dev say they balanced class X because it wasn't within a certain range of class I'm sorry your comprehension is lacking to follow the argument I'm making. You simply aren't recognizing that balance isn't necessarily about comparing classes and therefore, justifications to fix a class based on class comparisons is also not necessarily relevant. You see, the biggest problem with this whole "LOW DPS OPS QQ" is that there are contradictions. OK, we got people saying how gimp OP's are for DPS, then there's a guy that turns around and posts some truly impressive video of PVP damage or parsed damage dumps from PVE content. I'm pretty sure most of this DPS issue isn't just about the class when I see players doing something right to get the damage.

Personally, I think the TA's should be reworked so that regardless of talents, any operative has the same opportunity to generate them. That is very evident from the way Healers generate TA's vs. 'other' operatives. The other thing is that lacking TA's for damage operatives is a more significant issue than it is for healers. So the operative spec that needs and is impacted by TA's the least has the most way to generate them. If there is an operative issue that I would flag as next up for addressing, that would be the one. IMO, BW missed the mark on the first TA fixes. The problems with TA's for healers at that time were not the same problems that DPS ops have with TA's now. That fix didn't do much for DPS operatives.

Simple ... the people that are flooding your server that you have a high probability to team with likely didn't do endgame hard content because of the lack of population on their old servers. Those are now the people that are blindly formed into teams on LFG. LFG is for people without friends/guild or for people doing easymode content where they can carry others.

Sure, but the issue here is that there was an option to have a healthy server population without queues ... so why didn't BW take that option instead? I'm absolutely astonished that players find either one of these extreme situations acceptable, even though there is a way to have neither of them. Are people really this satisfied with sub-optimal levels of service? In the simplest terms, we pay BW for a service. If they had the option to optimize that service for everyone, but choose something else that leaves people unhappy, why is that OK for people? I get that there are LESS unhappy people because of Q's than there is from unpopulated servers but there isn't any reason to have ANY unhappy people due to either of those things.

Sensational much? You're just pouting. The fact is that people will come and go from a game but last time I logged in, people were still playing the game. My conclusion ... you're not going to scare the devs into thinking their game will tank as long as you aren't satisfied by the performance of any single class. Realistically, this game won't because in all honesty, there is enough diversity and balance in the classes that class in-balance isn't destabilizing enough to make people quit in numbers that would cause panic to ensue. OK back to the sensible part of the conversation. So exercise it. If Operative DPS is THAT bad and affects your gaming experience that much, you have choices. It's just a bit silly to think that the least effective choice of QQing on the forums is the one that people tend to the most. I attribute this to a lack of honesty or a lack of ballz. Easy. The Devs set targets for specific metrics or define roles for each class, independently. Is a marauder inbalanced because they don't heal? No? Why? When I compare marauders to healers, there is a HUGE between-class inbalance for healing. It's because marauders aren't balanced according to comparisons to other classes. Maruaders have a concept, they have a thing they are supposed to do according to that concept and BW makes the tools available to do that ... COMPLETELY ignorant of what any other class does. Logically, neither is any other class. If you can't bring yourself to understand that each class has a concept and that concept dictates the tools they get, you aren't really qualified to talk about class balance.

So what? That's not going to help them when future releases and harder content is released. Hell, it's not even going to help them run a Hard Flashpoint if they don't know the fights, etc... Knowledge and skill DOES actually play a part in the game you know.

I don't find that I'm using cover ... ever. I'm healer speced and using rDPS/tank companions exclusively. Are there spec's where cover becomes a more active part of the operative toolset? I always felt this element didn't fit with the operative roles. If you heal, you aren't in cover and if you are DPSing, you need to be mobile for positioning. Cover mechanics and the abilities you get from it seems less viable and redundant.

You're just being delusional. it's not necessary for BW to be infallible. Besides, the voice of unhappy players is exactly what they need to convince them they aren't following their development process for balancing classes? If that's what I'm reading, players aren't recognizing their role in all this. Really, it's just a simple matter of this being a game THEY develop according to their process, not players, regardless of what their capabilities to do that are. You can TOTALLY balance without comparing classes as well. It simply requires the developer to set targets for performance for each class. It allows for a class to be adjusted without complex considerations to other classes (Apparently a favourite pastime that players LOVE to do on paper). You might argue that approach is wrong ... it's not going to get you very far. It's not relevant unless you have some influence on how the game is developed.

Pretty much this. Why is it even reasonable to think that BW should be appealing to players definition of what a class is? So if a player doesn't think the class they like does enough of something, it's all of the sudden a failure on BW's part? Listen, if BW targeted a certain level of performance for a class and it's NOT equivalent to another one, that's not a failure. It's only a failure if a class doesn't meet it's performance targets, not some artificial targets concocted by players that justifies their own position. I keep seeing numbers about 30% lower than this an that. You're assuming that not where BW wants OPs to be. That's a VERY bad assumption. Fact is that I doubt anyone has the insight to say what BW has set for targets on OPs for anything. All these comparisons to other classes is rather nonsensical.