You know, I haven't logged onto these forums in almost a decade and the first reason I log back on is to see if anyone else is experiencing this annoying ass issue with appearance gear dropping instead of something actually USEFUL. Like why in the world would they think this made any sense whatsoever? I was genuinely LOVING coming back to the grind of this game but this has stopped me dead in my tracks. Solo gearing has been pretty excruciating but I know that's just how things work with mmo's, I experienced it fully when I played this game back in the day. I was loving running heroics and dailies, getting an ass load of gear to deconstruct to pad out the meager amount of conquest commendations we get from doing so... and I'm just grateful I was already practically done gearing my main up with all green gear, hoping to move onto blue & fp-1 things but idk now. Guess since I'm almost done gearing I may as well just continue the story til the end and keep it moving. Sincerely hope they reverse this very CLEAR issue, because dropping useless garbage instead of something that will actually be helpful to your playerbase seems incredibly asinine and ridiculous. EDIT: You know the worst part of this is to me? The fact that most of this gear that drops looks exactly like the garbage that already drops throughout the game lol, just named differently. None of it is even like cartel market level stuff, which is obviously understandable but like... most of my appearance options are CM stuff, SOME of the in game stuff looks good but very little of it does to me. I genuinely hope this is reverted because an extra 15-20 commendations a planet (depending on how lucky you are with drops) is very demoralizing to lose. I'm unbelievably fortunate that I geared my main up close to max before this awful change.

I'm confused by this change, aren't the ranked matches in pts the only way to actually PLAY arenas? Why would it be a smart idea to take away the credit you get for actually doing the matches?

I believe the method will be more stable once arenas actually come out. Right now, regular matches last entirely too long for this method to even be applicable. If matches in arenas last like 5-7 minutes, then it'd work well with a 2 hour time limit instead of 15+.

First off, let me start off by saying I play main an operative, normally I do concealment, but because the dps on that spec is trash in pretty much every situation that doesn't involve solo capping a node or a door or whatever, I decided to do heals. I do understand everyone's concerns about operative healing, the energy management is laughably easy and we do have a good amount of instant heals which doesn't make interrupting us an easy feat. I have been watching these forums for a very long time, watching, lurking through pretty much every thread and all I see is someone calling for a certain class to get a nerf. Nerf this, nerf that, that's pretty much the name of the game when it comes to these forums. The smash spec has been asked for a nerf pretty much since this game came out so there's no surprise there, right now the spec that's being asked to receive a hit fro the nerfbat is operative healing. I'm not against nerfing whatsoever; however, I've noticed a trend that more people are calling for nerfs to certain classes so they'll be on an even playing field with every other class. My question for everyone (and maybe this has something to do with the devs being lazy or the game engine or something I just don't understand about the game) is why not call for more buffs than nerfs? I'm certain that it'd be a lot better to buff sage and mando healing than to just nerf op healing into the ground so no one will want to play that class either. Just a suggestion.

Don't get rid of any of the abilities, just make sage and commando healing ON PAR with op healing, this way, all healers will be viable and people can choose what they want to play as, not what is most efficient because it's just a better designed class.

There's a few streams I've been watching since it hit that have involved a LOT of strategy in these arena matches. Give it some time.

I don't mind doing another gear grind, especially since I only have conqueror belt and bracers, relics, and implants. Earpiece is partisan and so is everything else. This way, I can just buy the rest of the conq gear with regular comms and I can get a few pieces of obroan gear once it hits live... which won't be for a few more months. I'm glad they brought it on the pts now, i'm a little peeved that it's only slightly better than conq honestly but that's just me. I would say just stick with partisan at the moment if you aren't already full conq'd out, then save up comms. Or get full conq'd out, then save up comms.

Once BW balances the class so that concealment can do the damage it used to to be on par with the other stealth class and can compete in the open environment, then yes. However, with the way things are working on the PTS now, ops are only good for healing.

They could also make it like force potency to where it'll up crit chance by 60% for the next two tech attacks. This way, hidden strike can be of some use to crit, because lets be honest... a hidden strike without a crit is wasteful lol.

Have it be an ops chat maybe? I know there isn't a way to chat with the opposite team besides say in the chat, but I would assume that with people being on the same team, they could chat using the ops chat? I do like the idea of cross faction, this would greatly help queue times i believe.

I had a thought about the auto-crit that we so desperately need for hidden strike, why not make it an ability that we have to press sort of how snipers/gunslingers have the ability to make snipe an auto-crit. This way, hidden strike doesn't auto-crit all the time and become op in some casual's eyes. I do agree that a force camo would greatly help us, because I hate busting out my cloak just to finish someone off. Waste a 2 minute cd meant for escape on some random guy... no bueno.

It is still the early stages of PTS, so give it some time and post enough in the PTS section of the forums to help out. There are other classes that got ignored also, so we're not alone.

I agree with this wholeheartedly, nothing pisses me off more than being knocked out of stealth when I'm about to wreck someone. I propose why not give blackout a reason to be used eh? Give it an ability that lets it absorb one aoe attack once it's used and it won't break us out of stealth so we can hit people with hidden strike and be done with it?

Well BW has already stated that cross server queue is something that wasn't possible for them at the moment so there's that. I never played ranked so I won't talk as if I know what I'm talking about; however, 2.4 is scheduled to hit PTS in a couple of days. Therefore I suggest wait for it to hit PTS, play it, give all the relative feedback needed to make it a great patch that ALL PvP'rs can enjoy, not just you and your cult of "good players" and 2.4 will be successful. This patch being good largely depends on the communities attitude towards it.

Augment cunning, it'll help overall better than power. But I would go for power and surge honestly. Crit has some terrible diminishing returns i've heard and it seems to be a waste to try and get your crit chance higher than 25 or so. could always spec into the talent that gives you 3% extra crit chance if you want to move towards crit more.

Hopefully, the devs will look at these class forums and realize that people would actually LIKE to dps on their operatives; however, with concealment being so damn weak it makes it impossible to do any solid damage. At least in 55's, there have been talks to add a healing debuff on AB which is great. Also, making hidden strike an auto crit would GREATLY help out effectiveness with single target. Concealment is a great class to play in lowbies, once you hit 45 and get ab that is. Once you get to 55, might as well heal since every dps class is pretty much better than concealment.

You make it seem as if good ops don't make mistakes and run out of energy...

That's the most moronic thing I've seen said ever. Ops already run the risk of gutting their energy with the roll as it is costing a FOURTH of our energy pool as it is.

You can't cleanse all slows unless you use evasion, which I try to keep up only for emergencies. Scamper doesn't need a CD, that's what the snipers roll is there for.

Well well, an actual intelligent response instead of someone just barking random nonsense. I applaud you sir. While I understand the endless ta's and the HoT's and all, it's still possible for an OP to burn through their energy, especially if one op is trying to keep multiple people alive and the hot's just aren't cutting it. Adrenaline probe is on a 2 minute cd IIRC so that can pretty much only be used once in a fight if it's an intense one, say a battle in mid on alderaan or novare. Ops have two heals that can be interrupted, kolto injection and kolto infusion. Surgical probe and recuperative nanotech can't, but RN is on a 15 second CD and uses 30 energy, whilst SP uses up TA and doesn't heal for **** unless it crits. Sorcs don't need energy replenishment when they can spec into having 600 damn points of energy, not to mention the bubble they can put on ANYONE that absorbs an insane amount of damage. Scamper can easily be countered with a slow, which if i recall, most slows can't be cleaned either, unless you use evasion. Also I have only played an op healer and a merc healer and they can't be interrupted when their shield is up. I'll agree that a lone op healer might be able to hold a point for a longer period than the other two but no healer should be guarding a node at all anyway lol. FB is on a one minute cd and debilitate, unless spec'd into is 45 seconds. That's pretty long if you ask me.

Why do people complain all the damn time about OP's? Seriously, I'd like to better understand what makes them so much better than a sage/sorc healer. For the last damn time, the roll isn't op whatsoever. Consider the fact that it uses up a QUARTER of ops resource bar with every roll, if someone uses it a lot in quick succession, you know.. to escape, they'll be out of energy before you know it. If you're smart you can pop an op out of stealth quickly if you move fast enough. What are these two stuns that last a long time? Flashbang can end prematurely if damage is taken, and debilitate ends in four seconds like every other damn stun in this game, not op at all. Also, assassins can stun you while you're out of combat also. But this stun doesn't matter either because it breaks on combat too.

/sign . Notice how no dev has even attempted to respond to this? Not even eric or the other people who randomly roam the forums...

Wow that's pretty messed up, gotta love good ol helpers though.

Solid reasons, I've always wondered when watching your videos but thanks for the clarification. Keep them coming bro, I love watching operative videos.

No offense, but you do come off as some bad who's made because premades kill him all the time. I'm sure you're good like you say you are, but the point is that people SHOULD be able to queue up with friends. The precise reason WHY people queue (or the main one at least) is because randoms are indescribably bad at the game. I welcome premades, mainly because most of the premades I see are really good and it gives me a chance to test my skill out against people who are more than likely better than me. Why not form a premade yourself then if premades are a problem? Don't punish people that want to play together because you hate the fact that they have an advantage that ANYONE can take advantage of.