So send a sniper after the classes they do the worst against? A PT spamming stealth scan would only find the stealther by luck anyway. This is all assuming the stealther doesn't actually sap the non-stealth person looking for them. NoTarget's point is that this mechanic violates what the other rules of huttball currently followed and for no discernable reason. Decloaking would at least give the defense a chance to respond.

Marauders, pts, and assassins were op over 9 months ago and still are today. Balance doesn't come quickly, if at all, so you can't go wrong with one of those classes.

Even though this is a necro, it's still a fun spec for pugs and solo queueing (just make sure you have a decent crit rate first). DoTs don't matter as much when people are breaking mezzes and not cleansing anyway. I'd suggest something more towards http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#400bZrI0bRoZGbbkrMGz.2 with Hold Your Ground, as the snare on corrosive grenade was nerfed to 6 seconds since this was originally posted.

I never quite get these compromise arguments. If you're OP and get nerfed, then compensated for that nerf, you're OP again.

I don't know the specifics of merc/commando mh/oh, but for sniper/slinger, GS actually start to come out ahead when over 100% accuracy. Anyway, about trooper/BH, even if it is actually calculated the same, they actually have the same regen zones, and the cell cost is actually not more than heat, it's still much easier to "ride the line", ie get more dps without dropping over into the lower regen because you actually know where you are on a BH. On a trooper, you have to kind of guess what fraction of a cell the regen might actually be at and it is easy for you go into lower regen or simply lose gcds with your normal shot.

If the sniper is commanding a zone and you can't get to him, your team is screwed anyway, and not because of the sniper. The sniper's team is already dominating yours. I would love to play against people that don't use think LOS is important. I would love to play people who don't LOS casts, who don't use it to heal or to reset a fight, who don't use it to approach, and who leave snipers in good positioning unharassed, but in real situations will run into LOS issues a lot. I was specifically replying to the idea of a "hard counter". The balance of sniper and mara, within a team setting, is not lolambush in favor of the sniper. If anything, it's close to even and depends on who has more cds up and more crits.

Nothing quite like getting your leg shot lolrngdeflected. All you can say is "well, ****". Simply put, snipers are not a hard counter to maras. "Hard counter" implies face roll, it implies beating nearly 100% of the time. Snipers do well against 1 melee with the first shot, all cds up, where you're already positioned well and no los. You're almost never going to get that. A real situation would be with teammates, not all cds are up, effects get cleansed, plenty of los, other people around, funneled towards objectives, etc. And in these with their greater survivability tools, maras certainly break even against snipers. Theorycraft is fun and so is comparing cds in perfect environtments (for the sniper), but snipers are not a hard counter to maras in reality.

Is there a reason to go for the higher cunning mods with the lower endurance enhancements? Is it a better stats return overall? Is it for more dps? Or is it just cheaper to min/max that way?

I have 1396 exp, and medium armor. I get hit for more than 6k regularly. Any smasher with a decent level of gear can achieve it.

Snipers need good teams to do well, but if the team is good anyway, they don't need a sniper to win and the spot could be filled by other classes to equal or greater effect. Snipers can be effective, it's just that others are more effective and better choices overall, especially in non-optimal situations. The melee focus of this game is the one thing that keeps snipers relevant (thank you cover), as it has already sidelined entire classes and many specs

They're very strong and they're easy to play effectively. Yes, they're not hilariously game-breaking like other issues (smash/bubble stun), but pts shouldn't come in here and act like you're not doing well or don't bring anything to a team outside of damage. Pretty much every dps class other than marauders would love to be in your position.

Any energy upgrades (including the 10 from Bravado) only go towards the cap proportionately, i.e. 5 extra energy only gives you a 2 energy cushion in the top regen band, 2 in the middle, and 1 on the lowest. The extra tick on XS Flyby outweighs this not only in damage but in usefulness for things like area control. At most, you'd only want 2 piece enforcers for the extra second on dodge, but with the lag in the game, I've found the extra range from 4 piece Field Tech to be the most helpful.

Sadly, I have to agree (as a solo queuer). The balance also seems much worse now, after coming back for f2p. My recruit geared imp alt wins noticably more than my geared main of the same class. Playing Imp side just feels... smoother, like things are not as hectic and random.

Pve => 10% pvp => 5-10%

1) Lots of people seem to be going with orange pieces and PVE armorings for belt/wrists. I understand for healers because of healing's increased expertise DR and for people with better defensive CDs, but would this be worth it for GS? 2) Are the WH belt/bracers underbudget at the moment and are they changed on the PTS? 3) Many people have their own opinions about the best combination of enforcers and field tech set bonuses, but there is a decent difference in HP for the sets, over 1 k. Do you have a HP level you are shooting for? 4) What trade off would you go for? For example, the difference between GS and Scoundrel implants is 24 End for 9 Cun and 20 crit. Also, the difference between Field Tech chest and legs is 19 power for 18 end.

Can we add going into cover using a GCD to this? Also, rolling into cover failing?

A version of leg shot that is yellow damage so I don't have to pray to the rng gods every time.

Yes, BW said they weren't going to make them stack anymore, but they still do.

While the OP's whining about force storm is unjustified, sweeping blasters really is truly terrible. The ONLY time it's worth it is if there are exactly 3 mobs, no more no less, you will hit all 3 for the entire channel, and you have to be at full energy and your grenade is on CD. It's entirely too expensive for its damage. The optimum aoe roation (outside of orbital strike which is once a min or talented to 45 sec) is actually just chucking a grenade when you can and doing single target attacks the rest of the time. Sweeping blasters is not involved at all.

Thanks for the pic. How much of an upgrade are the WH power relics over the BM ones?

450 surge is way, way too much. 300 tops and as much power as you can get.

Ammo vs. heat is still uneven, giving an advantage to BHs. Abilities that cost 8 and 16 heat cost slightly less than their ammo counterpart. Heat is regened smoothly while ammo is regened in chunks so BH can ride the regen line closer and not have to wait a fraction of a second for that partial ammo to fill to not fall under the line. BH have a much wider range of high/mid regen zones so they can use more abilities before going to lower regen. But it should be nothing like what the OP is describing. The actual damage formulas should be identical since there isn't an offhand weapon to differentiate the equations like commando/merc and sniper/gs. Maybe one side was using stims/buffs/all their rail shots crit? I could also swear there are times certain abilities use 1 more ammo than they cost, noticed on my commando AND vanguard, though I have no idea if this bug appears on BHs. Only really noticed it with the 3 ammo costing abilities (incendiary round and hail of bolts), and when starting off with full ammo (so it's not fractions of ammo someplace) so it's eating 4 ammo instead of 3. This really isn't a mirror problem unless BHs don't have this issue.

*Can't tell if trolling or really just stupid.jpg*

It's not the problem. It is a problem and certainly contributes. There's also on demand high or 100% crit abilities/talents, power having no DR, expertise change, gearing changes at 1.2 release that left wide differences of expertise, larger gear differential between new and established pvpers, larger difference between full expertise and none, etc.

Snipers are loltasticly OP 10-49, all burst specs/ACs are. We're also the best ranged dps at 50 (though over dps sorcs and mercs that's not saying much). It's largely due to cover and not being vulnerable to being instantly dogpiled and driven into the ground by the melee train. We're still behind marauders, pyro pts, and tankassins in terms of overall strength, though, like everyone else. Note: I have never really played engineering extensively, so I don't know much about it. However, I have also not seen a sniper deep in that tree where I've thought "I've got to kill them, they are a threat". So mainly, I've seen Lethality and MM and can compare them. This is from my own view, of course, others may see it differently. The difference in mobility is exaggerated, and lethality has plenty of drawbacks. - Lethality is built around Cull (3 sec channel) and uses series of shots (3 sec channel) and hard casts ambush (2.4 sec). I think it's easier to LOS Lethality's big damage because of cast length and roots not lasting as long. You'd still have dots on you, but heals take care of that easy. - CC's and LOS that interrupt channels wastes energy, as opposed to casts where it only uses it if the cast goes off. - Lethality relies on setup and having corrosive grenade up (15 sec cd) so it's poor at fast switching to targets. - Because it relies on dots, you have poor control relative to MM, with not being able to mez targets and roots only lasting 2 sec. - Also, with the dots, especially if you have the cleanse "protection" that lasts an extra 9 sec (and keeps putting you in combat so you can't run anywhere fast anymore, even after you die), you can break peoples' mezzes for 30 seconds. - Even with the regen fixes/buffs in 1.2, Lethality can constantly run into problems if people with the dots die to quickly or the other team coordinates to double cleanse (screwing over your damage and any protection). - Finally, you don't get ballistic dampeners (unless you do something like 7/3/31, without the extra 10 energy) which are huge in and help out immensely with a healer if you get the refresh down. The big benefit to lethality is that you kill tanks and heavy armor dead. Another is that since its a lot of internal damage (and not almost 100% ranged attacks), armor and defensive cooldowns don't hurt it too much. It also has a built in snare that hits 3 people. You can spec for lower cds on shield probe, dodge, and cc break. In the end, they really fulfill different roles. MM is to finish people off, to take them from half to dead before healers can react, to help control melee and healers. Lethality is constant pressure and killing tanks. IMO, Lethality is fun for pugs, but the best overall build for organized team games would probably be MM hybrid, 23/16/2 because of its high damage, very little regen problems, and tools like short cd flash grenades, snare, and roots.