Unfortunately I have to agree. As someone who has played a Bounty Hunter AP since launch, it's a very weak DPS class. I average the same numbers (~2800 with 3800-4000 burst). Once I do overheat after a good 3 minute facemelt the DPS starts to taper off to around 2600-2800 before bursting again once Explosive Fuel, relic and TSO is off cooldown. The burst damage and splash damage on mobs is great and in fact 99% of the time I will pull aggro because of it. However, the average DPS is still 2800 once all is said and done. Which is way behind other Melee-range classes. The recent changes to the heat ventilation is wonderful, and has given me more breathing room in my rotations. I'm able to hit harder, faster, and longer without worrying so much about overheating. BUT the numbers are still weak. The burst damage simply doesn't add into overall DPS because the bursts last perhaps 30 seconds. And the burst numbers simply aren't as high as some of the other classes either.

I happen to agree here. Just like in any computer program, when you can exploit a timer to your benefit then it's an exploit - plain and simple. I agree with two suggestions: Tie the chests to a mob so that when you kill the elite/champ, you can open the chest and nobody else can. However this still doesn't negate a stealth player from sneaking in, knocking the big guy and tagging them with Overload, then killing them. Stealth classes are NOT helpless! Quit saying that it takes away the stealth advantage. It's blatantly ignorant. Second suggestion I agree with is to make the chests spawn on a random timer >30m - but this still won't rid of farming. But at least it would require more effort than slipping in and nabbing the chest - then hari-kari off the cliff and incurring no damage costs. Each chest drops anywhere from 10 - 15k a pop, and there are LOTS of them on Makeb. Bottom Line: It is an exploit when you're abusing the timer to your advantage and accumulating millions upon millions in credits by simply looting chests, switching instances and looting them again and again. I have also personally seen a lvl 50 with BS health running around on GH7 grabbing every chest just as it spawns. Why do I know this? I spotted him one day when he was hanging out near a chest spawn point. Curiously, I waited, and just before it spawned he ran in, aggro'd the mob, grabbed the chest the INSTANT it spawned. Intrigued, I followed him around GH7 and he was grabbing every single chest sequentially as it spawned. This is blatant abuse of the timer system and it needs to be fixed so that players who don't have the TIME to camp every chest spawn site can have a fair shake at getting a chest. I do like the first suggestion, tying a champ or elite to the chest so that they drop a key or something to open the chest. This is akin to tagging when you aggro the mob. People with lvl 50 toons and crap gear would be hard pressed to farm them with simple nabbing, and suicide runs off cliffs because they can't beat the mob. I honestly don't think this was intended by Bioware, because why ELSE would mobs of elites, strongs and standards be guarding a chest if you weren't meant to fight them for it?

I currently have a post about how there are four bosses in the game that utterly ignore Hydraulic Overrides (since the tooltip does say that it makes you immune to physics such as knockbacks - and in my opinion grapples also fall under physics). The Savrip boss in H2+ The Specialists ignores the hydraulic overrides, as does General Ortol, Darth Malgus and Jindo Krey. They all ignore the Hydraulic Overrides. It's most troublesome against General Ortol in Cademimu because he'll knock you into the rocket flames even if you have Hydraulic Overrides going. If you're beside him or slightly behind him, he WILL turn and slap you into the rocket exhaust and kill you. Nobody has yet to give me a valid reason why these four bosses will ignore the Hydraulic Overrides which the tooltip says makes you immune to physics for 10 seconds (Advanced Prototype Powertech talent). It should be pointed out that those four are Bosses. With a Boss buff. There is the Temple Guardian in Athiss that also ignores Hydraulic Overrides. They aren't bosses, they're standard champions. Jindo Krey will yank you from the panel if you have Hydraulic Overrides going. He won't try to yank you UNTIL you touch the panel, and I have tested it numerous times with Hydraulic Overrides running and him yanking me from the panel. And this is right after I activate them and touch the panel. So yes, I was under the influence of Hydraulic Overrides before he pulled me. I haven't tried this with a smuggler or sniper, but if the Hunker Down/Entrench works perfectly against him, why doesn't Hydraulic Overrides? Both abilities are very similar with similar wording in the tooltips. For a while there was a robot encounter in Maelstrom Prison that would ignore my trooper's Hold The Line ability but that was promptly fixed. Now if they are going to have bosses that are allowed to ignore anti-physics abilities like Hunker Down, entrench, hydraulic overrides and hold the line, the boss should have a BUFF on the bar so that the trooper/smuggler/sniper/BH doesn't bother using the ability expecting it to work when it doesn't! It should be also noted that those of us who play these classes have experience using these abilities against numerous mobs and bosses - and having that ability work! So we're accustomed to entering the fray expecting to use some of our channeled, hard hitting abilities like Flamethrower against a boss to get some hard, quick damage before being knocked around like a bunch of namby-pambys. Since an AP has the flamethrower buff which makes it uninterruptible (except for knockbacks), we'll use Hydraulic Overrides to remain stationary and get some good DPS on the boss before that ability wears off. Few things are more frustrating than stacking 3 prototype flamethrower buffs, hitting hydraulic overrides and channeling flamethrower ONLY to be knocked back and thus interrupted! In my opinion, Hydraulic Overrides should either WORK ALL THE TIME, or NOT AT ALL. Or at the very least, give these bosses that IGNORE the ability a special buff or something to let these people know not to burn a useless ability in the encounter.