Depends on the situation. Against trash in general PvE and flashpoints I fight mobile. Against stronger opponents and in PvP I use cover. My build's designed to be good at both, rather than have the only thing it does be grenade spam.

I actually have this type of partnership RP on Ajunta Pall too. The main thing with finding this type of partner RP on any RP server is to actually go out and look for it. If someone can't make the effort to go out and find it on any RP server, including the PvP ones, then I don't think they will find it from randomly going to taverns on PvE servers.

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#700bcMZrI0bRRrorsZh.1 I don't really like the hybrids. As good as shrap bomb is, I don't feel that it or vital shot suits the Sab playstyle. If you want to focus on single target DoTs... go dirty fighting. Likewise, grenade spamming in warzones always leaves me feeling a little underpowered. I love sab for the defence, and incendiary grenade, but when I want to kill someone I always have to use sab charge and speed shots.

Sab first. The other talents are just buffs to your main sab skills.

Eh... well even so it's two points you can either spend on that or 4% more endurance, and you're never assured of getting a trooper in your group. That 4% endurance isn't going to help your boss DPS. My last group was two sages and a scoundrel. My frag grenade volleys took out trash consistently faster than anyone else, and the sages handled the bosses well enough, quite frankly. I do share your opinions on incendiary grenade/flyby though, and they're criminally ignored by the guide writers in these forums, who try to make shrap bomb better. But a shrap bomb hybrid can never be more powerful than a level 48 + top tier talent. I always find a way to make the firebomb work, and couldn't play without it now.

You trolling? The freighter flyby strike of Han Solo gave Luke the time needed to blow up the Death Star. We get it at level 48. As to things like kicks against armoured groins, well pulling out ridiculous stunts is the essence of the Star Wars smuggler.

That's getting fixed in one of the next patches.

Sure you can charge in. Sab spec with two defence screens, dodge, and thermal grenades. Reduces a lot of incoming damage.

I agree that frag/thermal grenade spamming is pretty poor in warzones, but I find it incredibly effective in flashpoints and solo levelling... currently on Belsavis and it still works. Three frag/thermal grenades and I've killed (as a saboteur spec) three trash mobs, because I've hit them all three times. The first mob I've finished off instantly with headshot as well because the grenade incapacitates what it hits for a second. I've also prevented incoming damage from one mob by keeping it knocked down, so cut my received damage by 33%. Or I've kept a melee mob from rushing me and locked in my incendiary grenade area. Sab charge is nice but it's more suited to attacking strong targets than trash, imo (massive overkill against standards... my contingency charges will never go off). to take out a group of two standards and a strong I'll sab charge the strong, then fling grenades at it. The grenades will detonate the contingency charges, and the AoE will finish the standards. The other issue is there's really little extra to spend the points on down there. I don't see how any of the second-tier talents aside from the 15% to AoE are worthwhile, and you need two points in utility belt to advance. Vital regulators... crap (who uses coolhead during levelling?). Hot pursuit... crap without snap shot - is a sharpshooter talent. 4% endurance... crap, especially while leveling when you have very little endurance on gear. I'll give you credit for a lot of the good stuff you say about the engineer build, but my grenade experience seems very different to yours. Anyway, good guide overall. I found it on the AoC forums.

Funny, I spent 4 hours RPing today on Ajunta Pall. Our guild also has 250 members and we're starting up bi-weekly RP events. I suppose if you just want random hookups in taverns Lord Adraas is better. I'm always wary when people hold out fleet tavern RP as an indicator of "lots of RP". The best RP will always be found from getting to know people in a group... and there are plenty of RP guilds on all RP servers.

I'm using incendiary grenade now and love it. It has a big psychological effect. No one wants to come stand next to you while you're standing in a raging inferno. Best use: find a good spot to set up in cover and cast it on yourself. Anyone who attacks you will go "Aaah fire!"

I also handled Jesh the way crywolf says. Corso however is a really bad companion at later levels I find. He takes too much aggro. He's meant to be a tank I know, but I find fights are easier with me and Risha trading aggro. Also she won't pull his firebomb attack straight away. If you are the target of his firebomb, you can easily dodge it. Tanking companions are often bad because playing a tank takes more intelligence than the AI... like not standing in AoE. Corso, however, has all the intelligence of a brick. I don't know what people see in him. If you must bring along a tank companion, bowdaar fully geared rips everything to shreds, and won't stand in fire like a dumb mule.

Sab isn't a 'non-cover spec'. It's a defensive AoE spec. All those high end talents are for use in cover. I don't think thermal spamming is particularly effective. Dirty fighting is the only effective full mobility spec. Thermals are still useful to spam when you're out of cover, since you don't have short cooldown single target burst, but you need to play aggressively with cover to do any damage as a sab.

That's the reason I went saboteur... I don't really want the high damage/low survivability of sharpshooter. In group PvP it's better to have the extra cover defense and anti-melee abilities that high single target burst, imo, since if you want burst then it's just better to get another class to help.

I use elements of the class story in my RP all the time. And a lot of the smuggler dialogue lines are too funny not to quote at other RPers in situations. I don't refer to specifics, but I can easily say that my smuggler took action against separatists, somewhere, and has a crew member who hates separatists. Then you can also play up specific parts of the story that really gel with your character, rather than it be her entire life experience. Especially because the timeframe of the story is two months tops... what did your character do in the other 20 years they've been in action, and why couldn't those two months happen somewhere in there?

That's a good reason why I play republic. Like the classes more, and have plenty of targets to shoot at in both world pvp and warzones.

I find a lot of RP on the Ajunta Pall server. I RPd for 6 hours today. You're not going to find easy RP to the same extent say on a big PvE server like Lord Adraas, but that's because they put a much bigger emphasis on random tavern RP. But if you get into a good guild with fellow RPers on a RP PvP server it really is great. You can RP with people who enjoy PvP as much as they do RP.

Neither is the gunslinger. I spend most of my time outside of cover. One of my best skills - shock charge - is the direct counter to the socundrel/operative, since it's a slowing DoT that prevents re-stealthing.

Snipers are fine. They a burst support class. Team up with a trooper/bounty hunter, and you'll take things down so quickly. your sustained damage is a bit lower, but you have the ability to wtfpwn in a few seconds once something gets below half health. Shock charge/interrogation probe will also troll stealthers, forcing them to clear dots before they can restealth. Then you hit them with it when they next come out. Fortunately, if you don't enjoy this role, troopers/bounty hunters are available. They're more your font line pew pew class.

I know there's a website with them. And they're not very much...

Thermal grenade isn't really worth it for sharpshooters or dirty fighters, but sabs get large damage bonuses to it. If it crits on a group of adds it will blow them apart. Also useful because it allows you to use headshot.

Well, for PvE, try this: http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#700bzZrI0bRRrorsZG0M.1 You've got a three second cooldown knockback grenade for add control. You've also got a flashbang on a 1:15 cooldown (devs have said this will be reduced by 30 seconds soon) that will also give mobs a 20% miss chance. So if you come across a group of adds, hit them with a flash granade then your thermal grenades. Also got a single target slow, and the scrambling field at level 42 is pretty decent. Otherwise it's big on AoE DPS. It's very effective in groups because you chew everything up.

I can throw a thermal grenade out to 30 meters every three seconds that knocks back standard mobs. So I can keep one standard mob perpetually crowd controlled at the same time I kill the rest. So just say you have a flashpoint situation where you have an 'ambush' of a group of mobs that appear suddenly off to the side (pretty common). The scoundrel is probably too far out to respond, but the gunslinger can pick up their flash grenade, and their thermal grenades, and go at them.

I'm not really concerned about the gunslinger's different performance on difference maps. I'll usually top the charts on voidstar and alderaan, and come middling in hutt ball. Plus I'm much better in world pvp than most simply due to my range. The defense screen tree does get the 18 second single target slow, though, which I find incredibly useful. I tagged an operative with that today, and stealth couldn't save him once tagged.

Well, the way you write it, it gives the impression that gunslinger has *no* CC, which really isn't the case. That 30 meter ranged knockback really is quite huge against adds. I open fire quickly simply because... I can. If I take aggro, I can tank things effectively with dodge and defense screen, or drop aggro with surrender. Plus by the time the scoundrel slowly moves into position the adds could have been dead yesterday. All it usually takes is a couple of grenades and sweeping fire.