Anecdotal evidence is anecdotal evidence. To be fair, if there had to be one "FoTM" class then obviously that would be merc. It takes time for a class to become FoTM. There are more and more snipers everyday and there are more and more of them re-spec'ing into engi. Please stop defending the probe. It is overpowered.

I would agree with Ottoattack. While alacrity around 1500~ is needed for optimal DPS against dummy's and operation bosses it sort of loses it's "value" a bit in PvP. I've experimented with various levels of alacrity across all 3 of the spec's and found that in PvP it's best to leave it simple. Hit the crit DR however way you wish and then go all power. The reason alacrity loses it's value in a PvP environment is because you are not always on target and constantly pushing out APM (attacks per min). Therefor there is no need to actively build stats which maximise your APM potential. In PvP whenever you hit, you want to hit as hard as possible. Personally, i would recommend gearing for around 1700-1800~ crit (to hit the DR) and then go power. Combat is much easier and more effective in reg's but against experienced players in ranked it can be quite tough. I would recommend running ranked in Concentration with the current meta. If you run combat, I would be happy with fitting 2-3 inside the window.

The 30% less AoE damage is 9 times out of 10 a waste. Like said above, these engi sniper's are most effective in ranked arena's and taking that utility just for ranked arena's would be silly. There is no where near enough AoE damage in a ranked arena to justify that utility.

+1. 19 Days left, reason you mentioned.

Good to see some quite informative posts from long time sniper players. One thing i want to clear up though, you guy's aren't claiming the AoE spam ISNT OP though right? Playing engineer well might take skill but playing it effectively in this meta...takes none. All you need to do to be "effective" on ANY map is spam that AoE. If I am wrong could you explain why you were one of the "few" people to main Engineering yet now i see them everywhere, every single sniper is engineer. If we're gonna play games then what's changed? Let's not be silly no one in their right mind does not think that skill is ridiculous...

this exactly.

That feeling you get when a sorc loads into a ranked game?... Ye, that's the same feeling merc's and engi snipers get when ANYONE loads into a ranked game (that's not a merc or engi sniper). That's how bad sorcs are atm. Regardless of HP (gear) they will 9/10 be the initial focus. Most times with my 242 min-max'd combat sentinel I can have them in bubble inside one precision window. Even when they come out from bubble and get the nice heals they are 100% focused on themselves and survival. The game is 3v4 when the join most of the time. Don't get me wrong, I've seen some great sorcs tho.

Companies normally frown upon undeclared chargeback's and ye the account would be locked. However, that is forcing it through your credit card company and not SWTOR themselves. Also, just the other day i saw someone post about a ticket they opened concerning a locked account due to a chargeback. Support unlocked his account and let him carry on,free. I immediately thought "wow, they let him off with a charge-back...desperate..."

I just right click their name report spam and also the same with the in-game mail.

Many people get it, some don't. 9 times out of 10 it will actually be the relationship between your ISP and the SWTOR servers. Not the SWTOR servers directly. If it is so bad it is "unplayable" you should maybe try an tunneling service like WTFfast. What these software programs do is find the most direct route from you...to SWTOR. They usually have a free trial but often subscription based. Personally, i had to use one with Final Fantasy XIV. Also, running a tracert may also help you narrow it down should you wish to look further into it.

That's exactly what i mean, and I share the same opinion as you. So, when someone says they run this on X,Y,Z fine you can bet their definition of fine is much different from "ours".

You can run it, just the content you mentioned (16 man warzones etc) will not be smooth and far from it. I never mentioned just "running" it. People are also more "aware" of frame rate than others. There is no doubt many people playing this game on similar or older systems than yours and probably playing care free. Obviously, you notice it and it bugs you. Believe me, what i have said is 100% correct and easily proved. I'll say it one more time for a TL;DR : The SWTOR engine is a CPU hog, the I/O interaction in particular causes massive stalls which directly translate to poor FPS. This gets worse with more "requests" (i.e player interactions) on screen, hence why 16 player content tanks. To understand what i mean about I/O you can test it. Open your crafting window or demount your speeder....you see that stall? that small blip? that's the poor I/O coding. Newer CPU's are able to push through this with simple single core performance. Imagine having to tow a car with a higher performance vehicle. Which would pull better, the naturally aspirated V12 or the turbo charged V6? Let's even say the V6 Turbo has modifications and an ECU remap to suit the BHP/PS of the V12... strange analogy i know but if you understand it you will understand what i mean about the single core performance. Multi core and hyper threading while cool (like turbo chargers) is of no use when running SWTOR. Solid single core performance (like naturally aspirated) is what's needed in this particular case (pulling the vehicle, 16man content). Torque, you need Torque...and not at 2k or 3k revs...you need it now (lol). Believe me, Like i said we have all tried. People have come and gone who know way more about certain elements to the SWTOR engine and or computer components. The engine is just an abomination and requires a much better CPU than stated (for smoother 16man content). Again, that's a fact.

And what do you do now former "editor". I would think carefully about your answer. I spent a large part of Operation TELIC "listening" and i can tell you right now of the 9 PC Format editors I have confirmed you are not 3 of them, that was in 30 minutes at work with limited tools. You are snow balling this...

You don't know what your talking about CLEARLY. Please stop spreading assumed and incorrect information. You are not as smart as you are acting and no where near as informed as you think you are. SWTOR was not build on i7 2010 chips (the game went into development in the mid 00's). So the game went into development before those processors even hit the market. At most they were used on test VM's towards the later half. The base code developers more than likely used 6+ core Xeon chips with 32GB+ plus of ram (yes in 2005). They may even have used linux with only the asset guys running on windows for modelling, animation etc. SWTOR has had NO "upgrades" to the code architecture that you speak of. Since 2012 there hasn't been A. the requirement, as from EAware's perspective this would be a huge time sink for minimal gain and B. There simply hasn't been the bodies at Bioware for such a task. There has been graphical updates to the "pallette" and fixes such as limited the LOD and draw distance. I'll admit, the game does run better than it did around 3.0. That's because of what coders would call "band aid" fixes though i.e reducing the draw distance. The hero engine devs cannot help as the engine used was an alpha build that was heavily modified. This situation remains in 2017 as it did in 2012. His hardware SHOULD be able to handle swtor relatively well...it is the engine. I don't know why you are discussing points with me as if it is my opinion. This is basic computer science mate. Nothing i have said is not a fact. That includes the fact that you do not know what you are talking about and that you are spreading misinformation. At best, your giving him false hope...at worse your causing people to read what your saying and spend their money. The engine is crap, doesn't matter what date it is. Please at least go and do an MCSE and you might understand why a C++ AAA developer would not be using an i7 desktop consumer chip. Maybe stop blogging (sorry "journalism") about WiFi baud speeds and the evil Software overlords in the process because you are clearly misinformed...and the worrying fact is you believe it.

People, this thread...is everything wrong with the internet. Information is great, but look how "bad" information has created an in depth discussion between two people that is completely mad. Microsoft "harassed" people into windows 10? lol, are you a millennial? OP, i suggest you look back through the thread and read my original reply. I also suggest you google something along the lines of "swtor hero engine performance" or "swtor hero engine fps". Take into account what I have said in my original reply...add it together with EVERYONE else's you find. Then, weight those against what this guy is saying and let your mind decide what the most "logical" reason is for your performance issues. Your hardware will NEVER run smooth in 16 player content. That is simply a fact. It's not really your hardware at fault but rather the development of SWTOR.

Take UlaVii's advice. Also in answer to your second question. Yes, you can. It takes 4 people to start a guild but any number of those 4 can leave freely. As long as there is one person a guild, there is a guild.

By the sounds of it you do not know what your on about. 1. You failed to notice that he is talking about a laptop. The 460M and QM chip is a dead cert, so short of ripping his motherboard and soldering on a new cpu and gpu chip he is out of luck in terms of upgrading those. Truth be told, the mobo probably wouldn't support anything past those series anyway. 2. The SWTOR (modified version of a hero engine alpha build) is very very very I/O heavy. Like people have tried to point out above the only true way to bypass this is brute single core performance. Top end desktop consumer chips on the market right now still struggle, that includes skylake i7's...see example above. 3. I have run SWTOR on 2 laptops as a test. These machines were both fresh OS installs with newly pasted chips and cleaned out for maximum airflow. They were running 8GB of ram and SWTOR unleashed. The first laptop, had a very similar CPU to the OP but with an nvidia 555M. Outcome was the same as the OP. Second, had the 750M and a much later CPU and wasn't much better. Thing to realize is that these "gaming" laptop's carry the same number but no where near the same performance. It's pretty much common sense but worth mentioning. For example, a 960M would not out benchmark say a...750 desktop. 4. The fact is his CPU has no where near the capability required to run SWTOR with 16 player content even remotely smooth. It's 2017...since 2011 we've all tried everything. No matter of software, ini tweaks, ram disks, wifi routers (lol), isp tunneling, graphics card control panel tweaks will help this. That's a fact. There are hundreds if not thousands of videos on youtube that show just how bad the game runs...on any PC. If you think I'm wrong then prove it. Upload a 16man raid (or warzone) with msi afterburner running with spec's and you wouldn't get anywhere near smooth gameplay...or what most is considered standard (60fps, no dips). Believe me, it's been tried..and I do know what i'm talking about. I am an "IT" engineer and have been professionally for the last 14 years. I built my first PC when i was 8 int the mid 90's. Gaming since then too. I've worked on civilian and military hardware systems with all manor of software. Point is I have and do spend a lot of time getting things to run or optimizing...or finding out why they are not. My personal gaming PC specs: i5 4690K 3.5Ghz (OC'd to 4.6), MSI GTX 970, 16GB DDR3 (CL 9), Evo 840 SSD, noctua dual tower cooler, MSI gaming 5 mobo, EVGA 850W PSU (gold cert). nothing else matters... i also use a 144hz ASUS monitor...most games i play locked at 72fps but SWTOR i gave up a long time ago. His entry level "gaming" (and this was circa 2010) laptop cannot run SWTOR smoothly during 16 man content. Fact.

There are database sites but many of them are out of date or not updated at all. Two sites i would recommend for fashion type stuff: http://www.dulfy.net http://torf.mmo-fashion.com There are many other similar too tho. I haven't really looked.

vid after work of your failed sap cap attempt then the stumble (pop everything) as i take the health and drop you with dispatch...toon vanishes and it goes 7v8. Scoreboard at end shows 9 imps, you were the ninth with next to no numbers (the obvious rage quit) mate. Don't worry, i know why you left. The imp's did lose. Just want to clear things up a bit, I'm not picking on you and generally have nothing against you. You've been around for as long as i can remember. It's just the players who are into pvp and a bit more "vocal" about their "skill" i tend to screenshot, process video etc....for...well...this very reason. There were some PvP'ers back in the day that would run rings round the lot of us here. True theorycrafters who's unique builds caused entire patches to be released (tankassin etc). True PvP'ers who liked to fight other players...not re-roll faction and run through half f2p teams in a premade voip'in hardswappin stream machine. It's a shame you fell to the dark side so easily Evolixe (not Exilove). lol

http://imgur.com/rFD0mMo When i asked you why you no longer main your rep. Your rep was your main, all of a sudden it wasnt. Well not all of a sudden. Because theres more "better" players and premades on Imp. In another thread you stated you only get good playing WITH good. That's as untrue in SWTOR as it is in life. To get better you have to be tested and often fail to improve. Throwing in the towel (switching to maining imp) is for losers.

So why do you ONLY pvp on your imperial since the ToFN exodus? You already told me it's because rep's are bad (i.e you want easier games). Instead of balancing it out a bit more you've made the problem worse. Like he said, part of the problem or part of the solution. 8v8 the other night on hypergates. Bad reps (this includes the ones who don't just jump ship) capped the node that most would assume is imperials from the get go...you know the one you didn't go to to try sap cap the other. You fail that sap cap (because of me) you then fail to force speed into the health (because of me) and then you leave the warzone. about 1 to 1.30 in. Your not looking for balance mate, your looking for an easy time. Hence the imperial exclusiveness and hence the rage quitting against the "reps are bad" teams.

I think what your also experiencing is the game and meta change. Everyone lives longer now, has more DCD's and healing is quite powerful. Couple this with the fact that your not geared and it probably feels like your shooting them with a water pistol. My main sentinel is full 242 and i still get that feeling with all the sorc bubbles etc. Honestly, best thing to do because your just back is to play the MM spec for a bit. You will get to know it and you can always move back after. Burst is quite good these days as sometimes (with a sliver of hope) the other DPS will get a healer or tank low enough where you can step in.

You don't know how to run a tracert but are "pretty sure" it's server lag? Can you explain? I'm a network engineer so look forward to your response.

I use the logitech g600. It's quite chunky and perfect for my grip. Whatever mouse you get, do not map all of the buttons to "twitch" skills, that's silly. The back 6 requires significant thumb and hand movement that will slow you down. WIth the front 6 and the usual keys (Q,E,S,R,F,C,X,V,Z,T,G,2,3,4) you will have more than enough. One thing people overlook is the type of mouse "user" they are. Take a look at this: https://www.technobezz.com/files/uploads/2015/09/forums.thesims.com_.png Now depending on what kind of "user" you are you may find some mice better than others. I bought the razer naga before the g600 but had to return it because it was too small (more suited for claw grip imo). So find out whats comfortable and go from there. You dont "need" an MMO mouse and some of the other options with a few buttons would be more than adequate.

This is truly ridiculous how much flak this guy is getting (Snave). Why people think that he has to act a certain way (their way) or he is some kind of evil is beyond me. Christ, he's not "allowed" to do /emotes in case it hurts your feelings? Truth is, your feelings are hurt because you've been bested. It's an ego thing, ego's get hurt and something has to be attacked in retaliation...even something as stupid as doing an emote. You want to learn how to play the class? right click and queue warzone like everyone else (including this Snave) and learn. period. Analyse what you did wrong that warzone, not what he did (/dance apparently). If you can't hack it? re-roll Imperial like the rest of the sheep who are no doubt /whisper Snave every 2 mins... I don't watch his stream but I have seen a few of his videos and on a podcast a while back, obviously faced him in arena's and regs. He seems a sound enough guy and i get the whole sense of humour (maybe its a brit thing) and as far as I'm concerned his content or persona or whatever you want to call it is good for the game. Some of you in this thread however, not so much.