Mind telling us what the point you were going for with this thread is? As I see it, you filmed a HB match and posted it due to the amount of damage that you did. That's great - almost 500k done with 16 medals. But, if I may point out, you were death matching most of the game, never supported your ball carrier once, committed the sin of jumping into the pit after people a few times, are TOO in love with your space bar, and you have questionable taste in music. Granted, you were in a PUG so there isn't really much to show. It just seems to be a bragging vid that actually shows all of the things that a player shouldn't do while also furhter depicting the class as being played by kill mongers.

That's #7. Temple never leaves her spot on my ship cause as a DPS Op, she serves no point. I'd rather have Kaliyo or SCORPIO in offensive stance. Their abilities reduce incoming damage and they can pull aggro without much of an issue on stuff that I'm not killing. If you're not a tank, the DPS companions just suck!

If they pop whatever they wanna call their version of Evasion, chances are good that they'll also pop Deflection. In that case, its best to just sit back and prepare to eat some damage because the energy blown isn't worth it. I prefer to just refresh Corrosive Dart. The DoT sticks but it simply won't register damage while their form is active. You lose 1 tick which isn't a big deal.

The problem with running a Deception hybrid lies in pretty much one thing that you said and one other thing. First off, you said that you only took Surging Charge to get something else. Well, that right there pretty much kills the point of a hybrid if you're dumping points to get something else. That isn't a problem with you, particularly, as it is that the Deception tree itself simply doesn't lend to creating an adequate hybrid where you would WANT to actually use Surging Charge. Ultimately, what it looks like you're wanting to play is a stealthy tanky Assassin. Secondly, the unfortunate impact of your design is that you've got no syngergy between Darkness and Deception. While you're party melee and partly force, a great deal of your damage comes from Shocks. Energize is a great talent to support your Shocks but then you don't continue to reinforce that aspect of your game through Chain Shock. Furthermore, Energize gives you a guaranteed crit when you use Shock but you don't have Exploitive Strikes which means that you'll have less melee crit than you should/could have. It is really horrible in my mind when you can't meld a tree with the other two because there isn't any sort of give and take. Decept just straight up sucks if you try to combine it with something else. And Energize would be a great talent for all three trees but it is limited to Dark Charge only. Boggles the mind.

If anything, this just shows that HB is too small and that the lack of an actual rank matching system is awful.

....whom? If you were going to caste a movie based on the Imperial Agent story, who would you place in the parts of the characters? The stipulations are that any character with an accent MUST be played by someone whose accent is genuine and real (I hate when posers try and butcher it - hello Natalie Portman in "V For Vendetta") and no putting hot people in roles because you think that they're hot. PS> (not directed or written by George Lucas) IA: Ralph Fiennes http http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000146/ Kaliyo: Milla Jovovich http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000170/ , Natassia Malthe http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0853573/ , or Kristanna Loken http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0518085/ (all crazy female action stars that will play anything and probably WANT to shave their heads) Vector: Daniel Day-Lewis http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000358/ , Guy Pearce http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001602/ , or Tom Hiddleston http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1089991/ Lokin: Terence Stamp http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000654/ , Brian Cox http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0004051/ , or Pete Postlethwaite http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000592/ Temple: (uncustomized) Naomie Harris http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0365140/ ; (customized) Kate Beckensale http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000295/ or Rhona Mitra http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0593961/ SCORPIO: CGI - continued to be voiced by the sultry http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000679/ Keeper: Hugo Weaving http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0915989/ , Jeremy Irons http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000460/ , or John Hurt http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000457/ Watcher 2: Gemma Ateron http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2605345/ Believe me when I say that this was really hard. Casting Lokin and Keeper meant that I had a HUGE plethora of strong older leads. I could go on for days, especially if I used more dead actors than Posttlethwaite, with so many awesome actors fitting for that role.

OH jeez, I totally misread that talent. My bad

As a Scrapper, you won't win in a stand up fight against them. They've got the anti-stealth which is actually stronger than your +stealth talents. You've got a 5s cool down on cleanse where as they can spam you with DoTs at will. Dodge will limit their opening use of Indendiary MIssile + Rail Shot but the smart ones will simply hold off on using RS cause they know what you're going to do whihc means you eat it anyway. Their shield is far and above Shield Probe and even though you can heal, unlike their Merc cousins, they have an interrupt. And, their heavy armor plus small HOT really puts a damper on what you can dish out. The best that you can do is utilize HS-Shiv-BS-Lacerate-Lacerate vanish HS-EP-Debilitate and then pray. There is so much going against you that it is hard to fight back. The bad ones won't even bother with Unload cause they'd rather spam Flame Burst over and over and eat the heat issue. I've got 20k HPs on my Conc Op along with 1700 Cunning (w/o stim) and 600 power and the fully augmented WH PTs are just a brick wall that I'm digging through with a spoon.

No doubt, Presh. Darkness/KC has the benefit of added utility and you really only lose out on the 16+ Madness talents if you go hybrid. You'll do more damage as predominantly, or even full Madness, versus hybrid/full Darkness/KC. Sadly, in PvP, I don't know if Decep/Infil would out DPS Darkness/KC w/ dps gear.

This is probably a really really stupid question but I've gotta ask it anyway. Does Pooled Hatred activate when you use Smash and Force Scream even if you talent Battle Cry (free FS after charge) and Ruin (free smash)?

I was bored last night and in a weird mood. What can I say?

This is wrong because: 1- Lingering Toxins isn't affected by Resillience. You'll cleanse them on use but it doens't preven the re-application via the talent. 2- Assassin CC is moot when you've got Entrench/Hunker Down. You can't pull a Sniper when they're crouched, you'll be forced to use a 2s cast time on your Mez or blow a minute long cool down on Electrocute. Both of those won't happen against Entrench/Hunker Down. 3- Force Speed breaking roots isn't really an issue. Smart Snipers/GSers won't use it on you at range and even with full Resolve, the PBAoE knock back still roots you. And, both Engineers and Leth Snipers have slows on faster cool downs than you have Force Speed. The only thing that Assassins have the counter Snipers is Deflection and Stealth. After that, its going to be a counter counter game that the Assassin/Shadow will probably lose.

A lot of the problem is the poorly designed Decep/Infil tree. BUT, the larger part is that you make a better offensive DPS if you spec fully, or almost all of the way, into the tank tree. Why is Energize in the tank tree? Don't know. Why is Decep bogged down with stealth talents when it isn't designed to actually operate that well in stealth? Don't know. Why does Surging Charge have such a low chance to activate and do less damage than the other two charges? Don't know.

That's too bad. I mean, her avatar is female and you could do some naughty things with those horns and tentacle like things. Giggity giggity, alright!

You know that you've got a tree that is so poorly designed and predominantly dead (or another tree that is just over tuned) that you'd rather fully spec into a tank tree than actually fully spec into a non-shared DPS tree. I swear, Deception/Infiltration is so poorly thought out that I can't even fathom what the designer was thinking. You've gotta use Voltaic twice in order to get a stronger shock but the tank tree can do a much stronger shock more often AND guarantee that it crits. Both Darkness and Madness have better Force regeneration and neither of them have to depend on a RNG to provide support. And the real kicker is that the Deception/Infiltration trees are supposedly built around stealth and yet they've got a talent which boosts stealth that you can't use while stealthed because the Force regen doesn't do you any good while you're stealthed. And, btw, the tank tree has the out of stealth use of Spike/Spinning Kick while Decep/Infil has a much more costly KD. Hell, you can't even build a decent hybrid build with Decep/Infil that takes more than 13 points in it.

There is a world drop light armor version of the Malgus respirator that you can use. But then you'll look like everyon else. For social gear, you can go with s2 Balmorra piece or s4 Hutt Cartel/Death Claw masks.

One of the problems with the score board numbers is everyone focuses on the damage done. Ok, you did a lot of damage but how did you do it and where were you? The score board is broken in terms of DPS because it factors in total damage done vs the duration of the WZ instead of it appropriately being total damage done vs total time in combat. But a lot of people look at BHs and Juggs in VS and toss out MVPs like its candy when they're attack a door that probably has 3-4 people bunched up all of the time. Personally for me, I #1 want the win. #2, I want to push objective points because it shows that I'm not a mindless kill monger. Then, finally, I aim for about 200k damage done and 50-75k healing (off healing and self healing). If I lose, I still want #2-3 to be achieved. But score board judging is all subjective and it is currently poorly implemented.

Lethality/Dirty Fighting DPS is a false positive. Yes, you'll do a lot of damage but all of it is pathetic and slow damage. If you were to take away the AoE aspect of Corrisve Grenade, your damage would be much much less. As to the PT/Vanguard comparison, it is valid. But the reason you won't have the same survivability, EVER, is because you've got stealth and that is considered the end all be all of balancing cool down nightmares in any game ever. On top of that, your shared AC is the Healer and you can't give them more survivability when they're already a nuisance to kill. Plus, you've got Snipers on the other side of the equation and the last thing this game needs is a ranged class with the same DPS capabilities of a Marauder/Sent and the same survivability options. So, enjoy your frail nature and the knowledge that it will never be altrered because everyone else is screwing you from it.

AP/Tactics isn't looke down because it is bad. Its snubbed and ignored because you don't have to put in as much work or effort (not going to use skill) with Pyro/Assasult and your damage is ultimately higher on a much shorter recycle with less heat. Plus, as Pyro/Assault, you can literally ignore the bulk of your abilities and use JUST three: Flame/Ion Burst, Incendiary Missile/mirror, and Thermal Detinator/Assault Plastique. Furthermore, in order to kill the Pyro/Assaut, you have to attack them which lowers the cool down on their damage reduction shield which means they constantly have it on a shorter cool down. Most the PTs/Vanguards that I run into that play Pyro/Assaut, back pedal or run circles spamming the Burst attack because the Heat build up is offset but the heat dump on Rail Shot and if they die, their heat issues are solved which allows them to come back and start spamming all over again. I don't blame people for playing Pyro/Assaut or going with the lowest common denominator when it comes to playing it. I blame BW and their continued derp-ness when it comes to balancing things out. You've gotta juggle a bunch of different things as AP but you don't have to for Pyro and yet Pyro/Assault does 2x as much damage. Keep up the hard work and enjoy it - just know that you'll be slower killing and less WOW!!! than the derp spec.

I like it! But if I did it, you'd have to make me look OP. And my right side is my best side. Ooh, and I always want to be shot with the setting sun behind my back to make it more dramatic. But seriously, I like it. I wouldn't know where to start on how to make a vid.

The reasons why I will be unsubbing shortly: 1- Zero Communication From EA. I thought the Q&A was a great idea. And then it started slipping. Now, its basically a list of questions that make the company look good or L2P answers from devs that want the player base to play a specifc AC tree the way they intended even if it isn't fulfilling moderate numbers in a vacuum. Add on top of that the multitude of prior Devs that have since been released and the impending F2P and you've got a perfect storm of people paying money for a product that isn't providing any sort of direction to those of us still playing AND paying. 2- Eternal Gear Grind and Imbalance. It isn't just the PvP grind (I'm in full WH) but it is the added weight of having to PvP for BM gear to upgrade to WH gear to pull out one mod or enhancement to make my vanilla WH gear better. Then I have to drop Armorcrafting to pick up Biotech to further extend my power. 3- Continued Lack Of Class Balance. It has been 8 months since this game has come out and the only true nerfs seen in this game was two for the Operative/Scrapper, a slight talent switch for Marauders/Sentinels, and a minute adjustement to Assassin/Shadow tank trees. Marauders and Pyro PTs are still on top, healing Sages are struggling versus the other two healing ACs, hybrids continue to dominate full specced ACs, stealth is a complete joke, tank stats mean nothing in PvP, and playing a spec that is a "hit and run" means that you're doomed to being less than fully optimal in a rated game. 4- Halting End Of Story. I lucked out on my Operative in that I had probably the richest and most intriguing story of all of the ACs, Imperial or Republic. But, then it came to a crashing halt and I've got nothing left to do. All of the millions of dollars spent on voice over is now meaningless. 5- Promises Left Unfulfilled. Basically, this was a game that hat the opportunity to print billions. Instead, what you have are long load times, boring PvE which forces people to space bar through the same rhetoric every time, the lack of actual feel of being in G Lucas' origianl trilogy universe, and a million other things that simply make you feel like the designers and game company owners just don't want you to enjoy. The game has been out for 8 months and there isn't anything that really makes you want to keep logging in. And now the game is going f2p but the people appointed to be Community Liasons aren't talking to us about anything other than F2P and the only game updates have been fluff additions that don't actually start to fixing the multitude of bugs that exist. Could you all take 5 minutes to figure out why it is after I leave a LFG that I have to relog just to get a new instance to pop? Seriously, license to print money and you failed to deliver. Instead, we got WOW IN SPACE with the same talent trees, the same LFG tool, the same WZs, and the same kind of end game content.

The problem is, even if you're a good player, you're still going to have an equal chance of getting queued with bad players or groups with no healers. This past saturday, I played about 20 games as a solo queue. I won 2 of them. That isn't because I'm bad like the rest of my team - I'm not. But when you're grouped with a bunch of people in recruit gear, mixed PvE greens, and no healers, even in full modded WH gear, I can't do enough to swing the balance. So, by your suggestion, I would have a crappy bottom level rating because of those 20 games instead of rising to the top where I should be. Again, reducing the queue to solo only puts you at the mercy of the random group builder and at the mercy of random gear and skill level of your other 7 teammates. Hell, right now, you can't be guaranteed of having a full group let along being grouped with 7 people of equal gear and skill.

Fun or not, intended or not, none of that changes the fact that it is, in fact, lame. You can't dispute that at all. The people saying that it is fun are proving that it is lame. And the people that camp the traps just to pull people in it for a quick easy kill are proving that it is lame. But you know what else is lame in HB? Marauders/Sents popping Undying Rage so that they can run through it. Or Inqs/Consulars Force Speeding through the fire to minimize the damage received or Force Speeding + jumping off the top rafter to avoid it at all. Or Juggs/Guardians doing the jump+push+jump for an easy score. Here is the kicker, though: while some (or all) of that may not have been intended, after 8 months of release, it apparently isn't against BW's idea of fair or fun. That doesn't make it right but it certainly doesn't make any use of those abilities wrong. As an Operative, I don't like it because hey, I can't do any of that. And yes, it pisses me off when I get pulled into the fire. But people get pissed at me for Crouch+capping in CW, NC, and VS because you can't pull or jump to me to stop it. Tactics, cheap or otherwise, win games.

I want to touch on option #1 as you have it listed. The primary problems with the solo queuing option are as follows: 1- At the beginning of a season, everyone starts with the same rating and thus putting you in a situation no different than queueing solo for normal groups. So, you're just as likely to be grouped with people in recruit gear that keyboard turn and don't keybind abilities as you are someone that is awesome. Only, one or two super bads can crush your team where as one or two awesome can't take it to the promised land. 2- Solo queues already put your team at a disadvantage because you're not guaranteed to have a healer or tank present. Why would anyone want to play a rated game without any healers? 3- Solo queues also don't help with team variation. I've landed in games where I was one of 5 or 6 Snipers (my alt). I've also played games against 5-6 Marauders/Sentinels or 5-6 Pyro PTs/Vangards. Now, of those three offerings, which one do you think did worse? 4- Finally, coordination will be utter garbage with solo queues just as it is now. People want to win and it is much easier playing with friends/teammates that you know that you can depend upon to do their jobs and have a means with which to communicate when needed. The ONLY way that solo queues would work is if they tied in the same system that is currently on the LFG tool. When you queue, you list what role you play and then the game groups accordingly with 2 tanks, 2 healers, and 4 dps. You're still not guaranteed to be grouped with bads and you'll lose out on coordination but that would prevent #2 and #3 from happening. Ultimately, I think what needs to happen is the implementation of a 4man group queue for rateds. In WoW, 5 man arenas were damned near impossible to get going because getting 5 people together at any one time was absolutely brutal let alone trying to find competition to play against. Rated BGs was just as bad and that required 15 people to work. Right now, the game doesn't have enough population to really support a healthy 8v8 match (unless they add in cross server competition) and people that want to do rateds can't because finding another 7 competent people is kind of difficult.

The first thing that I see is the complete lack of 2 piece PvE set. Why leave 15% crit on BS on the floor when you can have it without really losing any stats? Toss in the BM armor mods in those 2 pieces and you're golden.