So you want to nerf Concealment Operatives again?

First suggestion will make no changes since as someone pointed out - Probes last longer than that. Second suggestion would be a very significant nerf. I could live with nerfing TA refund (for example refund it once every 10 seconds) but adding an energy cost to a heal that is supposed to be our energy dump would pretty much kill the spec. It would force us to cast but we don't have any mechanic like a Merc (immunity to interrupts) or sorc (Force speed/knockback/bubble stun) that would allow as casting without being interrupted all the time. Third suggestion would make Operative healers even more powerful than now. I think that cover nerf we received in patch 2.5 was a step in the right direction. Thanks to that you can always pull/leap to an Operative. But I'm afraid you don't see the bigger picture. It's not about nerfing Operatives - it should be about boosting other healer specs - or I should say - casting specs. The game is designed around so many interrupts/cc's that it is impossible to cast anything once you're pitched against a good team. You'll instantly get shut down unless there's more of you (casters). When it comes to casting only Snipers seem to be in a very good place. Other than that it's just a meele insta-killing fest.

I don't want do disappoint you but based on devs idea of balancing it'll probably turn out to be something like this: "Based on our metrics Operatives abuse Cloaking Screen ability in order to survive until the end of the round by staying stealthed. In some cases this can lead to winning a round, therefore we're preventing them from using Cloaking Screen in Ranked Warzone Arenas environment. In exchange, we're reducing the energy cost of using Overload Shot by 1 and increasing the amount of damage absorbed by Shield Probe by 5%."

And Sins will still be superior. Take their burst for instance. Not to mention cooldowns - Force Shroud (imune to everything, yay!) and Deflection. And Overcharge Saber (I'd trade Stim Boost for that anytime). And better Stealth level and detection than Conc Operatives (unless you pop Sneak you'll never open up on Assassin before he opens on you). And a finisher that hits for more than our HS. And a viable utility (2 taunts) unlike our piece of crap Infiltration that can be used only at the beginning of the fight, yay!

+1 to that. And I would go even further with the statement. It's not JUST the case with Sorcs and Mercs being underpowered, it's about the number of stuns/snares/interrupts in this game. It's too easy to shutdown a ranged casting class just by coordinating interrupts and stuns (if you do it correctly your opponent won't be able to cast a single thing without relying on cooldowns). That's the only reason why Operatives shine because they can effectively heal a target without resorting to casting. Take that away and Operatives will become a liability (since their defense without instant casts is by far the worst of all healer classes) and the only competitive PvP tree will be gone. Why do you think the top DPS classes are PT's, Maras, Juggs, Sins (meele)? It's because every abilities that matter in their cases are instant (aside from Ravage and Flamethrower, I doun't count Choke since it's also a CC) and ridiculously powerful and they can easily close the distance to their target. Yes, you can kite them... for a while. And then you're gonna get destroyed. That's the part of the reason why Concealment Operatives suck - since they can't close the target (well they can, but it costs 1/4 of their energy pool) and their DPS is ****. It's totally possible to shutdown an Operative Healer, it's just not as easy as with other healers. Does this mean we should nerf Operatives and let meele DPS totally own the competition?

Meanwhile in the PvP forums: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=697740 Bioware, you have to do something fast.

Considering the current state of the class balance - I'm happy that it got delayed. (Not that they're gonna do any changes in the meantime...)

It totally depends what do you want to do. In terms of PvP: - Concealment was designed initially as a PvP burst spec (how laughable at this point) and after countless nerfs (spec was regularly nerfed since January 2012) it hit rock bottom (maybe Madness Assassins are worse, hard to say). It's "initial burst" is weaker than most classes sustained damage and sustained damage is beyond weak. It's very difficult to play this class well, especially in Arenas. Aside from weak damage, the class has very weak defensive cooldowns and everyone knows that, so uou will probably be the first targeted person in every warzone once you come out of stealth. That's basically the reason for our frustration since developers don't seem to give a damn about this spec and a class that's filling a similar role (Deception Assassins ) are very strong ATM in terms of out-of-stealth burst and guess what? They're getting buffed again in 2.5 - Lethality was initially a bad spec and funny thing is that it's better than Concealment in terms of raw damage. Big minus of this spec is the lack of initial burst (well, you have it but only after around 3 GCDS - many classes will reduce your hp by half at that point) but after you dot your target (works especially well against force users) the sustained damage is very good. I'd say Lethality is better since you can open from distance and dot your target while slowing it. Of course, the biggest advantage for this spec (Cover bonus) will be gone as of 2.5, unfortunately. Faces the same problems as Concealment - lack of defensive cooldowns. If you're not focused you can easily top the DPS board. It terms of PvE: - Lethality is one of the strongest specs in the game in terms of damage output. It's pretty fun to play and many people reach top10 in DPS parses on TORParse. It's the one spec that allows you to do both tremendous single target damage and AOE damage (Orbital + Corrosive Grenade + Fragmentation Grenade + Carabine Burst FTW). - Concealment isn't in a such a good place because it relies heavily on the opener (Hidden Strike) which can be only used while stealthed. In some fights it does its job (especially ones where you have to switch your target very often).

Your rotation alone shows bluntly that you don't know how to play this spec either. If you start with HS, you always follow up with a Shiv (in order to build UP TA's) and THEN dots combined with WB. WB is for increased damage from Cull and not the other way around so you want to make sure you have at least 2 TA's (pref. with Fatality and Stim Boost) up to maximize the output. Then you can unleash hell (which means 4-5 consecutive culls combined with Explosive Probe/restealthing). And cover has its uses many, ESPECIALLY in Lethality. You never open from stealth when faced against a Leaper. You start with Cover and then: CG -> CD -> EP -> Autoattacks/Snipes This will put you in an advantage because CG slows your opponent and you can keep dpsing him from range and use either Auto-Attacks or Snipes. When he finally catches up to you, THEN you start with the normal rotation. I agree that this change will hurt Lethality Operatives the most - one thing that gave us an edge against leapers will disappear.

Snipers wield powerful Sniper Rifles. Mercs wield powerful dual Blasters. We have a kitchen knife. I think that's the part of the reason.

Don't whine people! I can already sense another nerf coming Understand - Juggers, Marauders and Assassins are always gonna be above us. They are force wielders, whereas we are not. You can't argue with that now, can you?

Yep, now they're just spitting on our graves Remember the good old times? - 6-second Backstab CD - 50% Armor Penetration on Acid Blade - no CD on Hidden Strike - 3-second Knockback - Very nice crit chance - Better set bonuses TBH it wouldn't hurt if we got some of these things back... (excluding no CD on Hidden Strike, that was OP, no arguing about that)

More like 10 PM But yeah, some answers would be great!

Gifts!

Corso Riggs!

My hopes? Probably a fool's hope but even still: 1) Add a new PvP GAMETYPE (yep, a gametype - not a warzone). Arenas should do the trick and/or some kind of Instanced Mass PvP you could queue for. 2) Add new PvP Quests - like Open World quests. For example a daily/weekly quest that would require players to kill enemy factions players in certain areas (where players could also earn valor). Of course none of these things will happen. We're gonna get a new warzone. Ranked WZ's are still gonna be pre-season and bolster won't be fixed. Not to mention that when 2.4 hits it would be around a year (correct me if i'm wrong but still pretty damn LONG) since the last PvP content (if you can call new warzones a content). That's one of the reasons servers like ToFN are one of the less populated servers in the game. PvPers are leaving.

Scoundrel Sawbones/Scrapper. The Smuggler progression trailer was aaaawesome! I always wanted to play some kind of Han Solo class. Then my guild rerolled Empire but Operative is ****** too. That was my first 55.

It has been a long time since our last update and I'm happy to announce that we've cleared the entire 16-M PvE content: http://9kohorta.com/news/star-wars-the-old-republic/225-niezniszczalne-gwiezdniaki.html (news in Polish) What of our further goals? Plain and simple - now we're awaiting new challenges coming along with the Game Update 2.2, which means Nightmare Mode for Terror From Beyond Operation. Promo images: http://9kohorta.com/images/stories/snv_16hm_styrak.jpg http://9kohorta.com/images/stories/SWTOR/tfb_hm_16_terror.jpg http://9kohorta.com/images/stories/SWTOR/gf_16_hm.jpg

As far as the new expansion is expanding, so are we when it comes to progressing the available content in the game. http://9kohorta.com/news/star-wars-the-old-republic/224-imperium-kontratakuje.html A while ago, IX Kohorta has successfully cleared the entire 8-man SM and HM content and we're happy to announce we're currently progressing the 16-man content. Our current lineup is 4 raid groups with the fifth one being created as I write down this message. Our current progressat the end of the first post. A few promo images: http://9kohorta.com/images/stories/SWTOR/snv_zrx_8_hm_styrak.jpg http://9kohorta.com/images/stories/SWTOR/snv_sid_8hm_styrak.jpg http://9kohorta.com/images/stories/SWTOR/snv_hm_8_styrak.jpg We are always happy to recruit new members and expand our Community. May the force be with You!

Greetings, I am a representative of IX Kohorta - a polish community of mature gamers. We have been around since launch as an SW:TOR guild, and also since year 2008 as a community. IF: - you're polish / you're able to speak polish - you're at least 20 years old - you're playing on Tomb of Freedon Nadd on the EMPIRE side - you want to participate in daily PvE Operations - you're looking for a guild with a great atmosphere Then you've come to the right place! - The people of IX Kohorta are not only pixels on the screen of your monitor. - We are a community of mature gamers. Our age structure spreads fom 20 to 50 years old. We also understand what free time means, so we don't judge people not being able to play for an extended periods of time. - Our guild is focused and up to new challenges. You can be sure that while your character is progressing you won't get bored and get to know the whole content on every difficulty level. - Membership in our community also means responsibilities. One of the few requirments of our members is attendance to weekly guild events. The second one is being online on our TS. - Every week, there are at least 2 guild PvE events being held at Tuesday and Wednesday starting at 8-9PM GMT+1. - IX Kohorta means playing together, but that's not all. We meet together during RL events (2 times a year) where you can meet people you only know for their voice and in-game character. It's also an opportunity to meet players from other divisions - There are 2 levels in the recruitment process, the first being writing an application here: http://9kohorta.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=296 . The second level is an interview on our TS. Our progress pre-RotHC was: - Terror from Beyond (Asation) - 8man/16man Hard - Explosive Conflict (Denova) - 8man Nightmare - Warstalker title Promo videos: Our website: http://9kohorta.com/forum/ Promo images (in polish): http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/9420/oldpapertexture01.jpg --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Our CURRENT progress: TFB SM 8m: 5/5 TFB SM 16m: 5/5 TFB HM 8m: 5/5 TFB HM 16m: 5/5 S&V SM 8m: 7/7 S&V SM 16m: 7/7 S&V HM 8m: 7/7 S&V HM 16m: 7/7 Golden Fury SM: 8M/16M Golden Fury HM: 8M/16M

Don't be ridiculous about Scoundrel/Operative. Just c'mon - we've been nerfed so many times since launch, it's become literally child's play to counter us (if you know when to use your cc breaker). Just give us a break already... We can only cc one target for 5.5 seconds in Scrapper/Concealment tree. Unless the target is completely undergeared there's no way we can kill it during that time. Normally (for Healer and Lethality/Dirty Fighting tree) its 4 seconds stun and one aoe blind which is easily interrupted by one attack (the most common situation is when i use AOE stun in a warzone some random smash moneky just cant help it but smash and break it right away - especially frustrating in voidstar). Right now Sage/Sorcerer has superior CC and in stun bubble build is almost unkillable by meele single target classes (if he knows how to play). Not to mention knockback/cc/force speed. I agree with the point of this topic though. They should limit the number of CC each class can perform and redesign some mechanics.

Regarding the first post - That's odd. Recently I called them regarding my Security Key and was waiting only 5 minutes for a Customer Service agent to pick me up. Problem got solved in 1 minute. Maybe it's different for EU/US/Asia.

Been here since launch and not planning to go. The last year summary from a Scoundrel/Operative perspective: 1 - pre-launch: "WOW, this game's gonna be so great, I'm gonna roll a Scoundrel - always wanted to play a Rogue with an ability to heal!" 2 - launch and leveling: "WOW, this game is so great and I love the story, I love the mechanics, can't wait till i reach lvl50!" 3 - pvp pre 1.1: DPS: "Ha! I'm doing so much burst damage! Now that you can call a true assassin". HEAL: "Damnit, why is Kolto Cloud/Recuperative Nanotech so slow?" 4 - 1.2: DPS: "Oh my god, they're nerfing me for the 10th time...." HEAL: "Finally, they fixed Kolto Cloud/Recuperative Nanotech". 5 - since 1.2 till this day: DPS: "I think I'm gonna try Dirty Fighting/Lethality... may as well use auto-attack O_O" HEAL: "Hot,hot,hot,instant,hot,hot,hot,instant..."

Some people may call me a selfish ******e, but this is why i prefer solo'ing rather than grouping with other people for quests: 1) Speed factor and time control - its obvious that due to various reasons a group can't progress constantly and quickly, which isn't a problem when you solo. You know your real world schedule and you know how much time you can put into leveling and you won't annoy other teammates if you're in a state of emergency before pulling a final instance boss for example. There's also a problem with several missions that have LIGHT/DARK choices. Depending on the choice, there's usually a different progression of the quest and it turnes out that 3 people have to go to spot A, while you have to do something at spot B. Another thing is if you grouped with a newbie player that just started SWTOR and doesn't skip dialogues. Frustrating as hell. 2) Educational value - more of a factor for new players, but still - you gain more knowledge about your class while pushing it to the limits - which means things like soloing heroics 2/4, rare planet champions, or even world bosses. You learn exactly how to benefit from each ability which is usually harder to see when you're in a group of 4 people and they all dps. Trying different build on the way to maximize dps/heal/survivability isn't a necessity when you're in a group. A group makes it way easier to the point of spamming auto attack being more than enough (of course not exactly, but you know what i mean). This is a great method especially if you're trying out many different classes - this way you can easily compare, tell the weaknesses and strong points of each class and also understand the mechanics behind them. When it comes to playing in group - a great experience when doing all kinds of operations. The same thing with a good premade in warzone/ranked warzone. For questing? Thanks, but no thanks. If you want to socialize with people - my best suggestion would be finding a good guild.

Lokiliesmith, bobudo - listen, I know that Sage/Sorc is OP and I'm not even trying to deny that. All I wanna say that it's POSSIBLE to heal efficiently with Scoundrel/Operative, that's all (its difficult but thats another issue). When it comes to raiding, my group didn't really carry me (at least I don't feel that way since I saved quite a number of people from dying and managed to keep people at good health most of the time). Two situations for example - Jarg & Sorno fight near the end (hardmode), 2 healers wiped and I was the only healer left at the stage. I managed to keep the raid alive. Yes, barely - there's no denying that. SoA final phase - same situation. I was even mind-trapped when people were taking damage from the lightning balls, but still managed to keep everyone alive. If you don't belive me, well - I can't say anything more. I don't have movies to backup what I said and screenshots won't tell you much. But once again - even if you play to the highest skill with a Scoundrel/Operative, still Sorcerer/Sage will have the Upper Hand <inside joke>even tho it hits constantly on my smuggler </inside joke>. I wish Bioware made healing as a Scoundrel easier and more powerful. Don't get me wrong - I love healing with this class and I don't want to switch to Sage just in order to do everything the easy way...