Either they balance around the healer having guard or they balance around the healer not having guard. It's damned if you do, damned if you don't. With guard, especially if they have gear, they are unkillable. They are better tanks than the tank that put the guard on them. This is obviously not a good situation. Without guard, they can die easily. Even ignoring this obvious issue, which DPS class do you balance the healers ability to 'tank' through the damage around? The highest or the lowest? If it's the highest, the lower DPS classes have zero chance. If it's the lowest, healers will complain that any DPS trumps them. Give the changes some actual time to settle in, give yourself the chance to relearn your class, and you might discover some goodness there. For the record I play a Bounty Hunter Mercenary healer, as my signature indicates, and I will tell you that BH Merc needed the nerf stick badly. I never went above even 10% heat on my healer going full-out on heals. This is obviously only one of the three healing classes opinion, but it's what I think. If you don't see a problem with a tank/healer combination being 'god like', using your own words, than I can't do much for your opinion.

Not crying, constructive criticism on the implementation of PTS. I have multiple level 50 toons, none of which are playable on PTS. Therefore, by your logic, I should just wait for all of these patches to go live since there's no way I can have any input on the implementation on an entire laundry list of changes to both my class and my crafting skill. So I suppose in your universe it would be an acceptable solution to play a toon up to level 50 on the PTS server, grind my crafting skill to 50, get the end game recipes, craft the recipes, then find 7 other people who have also done so, then test it for a few weeks, then post a constructive critique. Is that about what you would suggest? Nevermind the fact that in that month long trek 1.2 would have already gone live, rendering pretty much that entire last paragraph moot. So, yes, they have stopped us from trying the changes whether we get our pants in a 'knot' or not.

The flaw in your argument? This is a game. For fun. No one is going to enjoy playing through the exact same content with the exact same crafting skill just to provide BioWare with data. I'm paying for a subscription on a monthly basis, and leveling a chracter to level 50 (again, mind you, with the same class/crafting combination) is work that I'm paying money to do for them. If you don't see an issue with that, I propose you come and do my job for me and send the salary you get from it to me. They should have had a character copy tool already in place if they wanted useful feed back. As it is, it's obvious that they wanted 'elite' player feedback as quickly as possible. They basically invited all the criers into the PTS server to see how bad the complaints were, so I think they've managed to get exactly what they wanted out of this.

Just for information, I have a Sith Jugg. Immortal Spec. with BioChem as his crafting skill. Level 50 toon with maxed crafting. I'm not going to claim I'm leaving the game over this, but I will guarantee that I will be taking both my toons that have BioChem as their crafting skill and putting them into CyberTech. Why you ask? Because there's a greater variety of craftable items that actually sell for money, and it still comes with a 'bonus power' in the form of a reusable grenade. All BioChem had going for it was a reusable heal pack. Sure, I can craft some Implants and maybe sell them for some chump change. At the end of the day BioChem has been nothing but a giant money sink for me for very little reward. Especially since this is at least the second big nerf to my chosen crafting profession. The people who are going to be really complaining about this change a few weeks from now? Every healer class except for the Sorcerers and every tank out there. They can't keep up as it is with an entire Operations group given that they have terribly limited AoE healing, but I guess the SWTOR Beta will chug along merrily dispite having one less viable crafting tree. BioChem medpacks filled the gap for healing classes with lack-luster AoE (read: Everyone but Sorcerers) so they could rotate their healing between various single targets. Sometimes they get slow or low on power. Since the in-combat rez is laughable, dying means the end even if the rez is up. Ergo, the Medpacks filled that gap for classes that require constant strong healing (I.E. Tanks.) Honestly, just remove BioChem completely from the game. It's been nothing but troble, and obviously ruins BioWare's entire 'balance' pipe dream with stims, adrenals, and medkits. If they don't remove BioChem, it's going to be nerfed every update. Mark my words, it's already been the whipping boy from launch. Next I suppose it will be the Stims that get the nerf bat. (For those who say I should try out the changes on PTS, I'd love to but I'm unwilling to relevel the exact same toon I use as my main with the exact same crafting skill. Until character transfers are available to anyone PTS is and will continue to be a joke of 'invite only' testers. Especially since it's limited to guilds only who have their own agenda's and opinions as to how the game should be. I guess only former WoW players with hardcore guilds matter to BioWare, except for the fact that their game as it was envisioned was never going to be popular with WoW kiddies. Just my $0.02, take it or leave it I don't really care.)

No amount of add on programs will fix your tank issue. I've tanked all the hard mode operations on a jugg tank and have had no issues with holding aggro unless I've been knocked halfway across the map and the ranged dps fail to slow their roll. Common sense will net you a lot Mr. Elite Raid DPS. Also, thanks for suggesting for the dev team to make this game exactly like WOW even so far as copying the exact abilities. Too bad that game was already made huh?

Umm...or you could just use Static barrier and leave the merc at home? This is a good idea, but I would much rather they make all the AoE heals hit more targets. I'd rather buff it than nerf it, although I'm aware my opinion does not, in fact, matter.

Short Answer: Yes. Long Answer: Yes, because the Sage/Sorcerer has no cap on the amount of people their AoE heal can affect. Stacked healing rings from two Sorcerers is better than anything any of the other two heal classes can bring to the table. On top of that, they can also throw shields on people that easily surpass any armor buff the other healers can table. I suppose if all those armor buff's were slapped on the tank it would be good, but at the same time you could just stack heal rings and a bubble on the tank and it works far better. Sure, maybe their single target heals aren't as good but when you have 8-16 people in your Operation single target doesn't really mean anything any more except for your main tank or if you're trying to save over zealous DPS that don't have any gear.

While it probably doesn't factor into PvP very much, the Sage/Sorcerer is by far the best Operation healer. As a matter of fact, it's the best by such a large margin that I can't see any reason to bring an operative or a bounty hunter healer into an operation. Can you imagine doing the falling floor portion of Eternity Vault without the AoE circle heal? The Operative might be able to keep up with their single target HoT on everyone in the raid, but your energy would be toast if you tried. And the Bounty Hunter? Not a chance in hell. I know there's a change coming for the Bounty Hunter's AoE max targets healed, but I bet you the change ups the target count to 4 just like the Operatives AoE heal. Being able to heal an ENTIRE operation vs. only being able to heal half or a quarter of it is a big deal that really needs to be addressed.

Our guild had the same thing happen last night during our boss fight. We also had one instance where the ball lightning failed to despawn after the boss became immune and the floor fell out. It tracked us and eventually exploded on the entire group as we jumped from one stair step to another, thereby killing half the raid group. This was on normal mode. I can say that there isn't an aggro issue with the mind traps anymore. Side point, whenever we reset the phase for the boss fight (you know, when there are floor tiles missing or it's otherwise bugged) the transit hovercycle from the crash site drops us off at the very beginning of the forest, as opposed to the center of the forest right outside the boss area. It would be nice if it didn't do that each reset, but maybe fix the boss bugs first eh?

So you're complaining about PvP, then interject about how it's supposed to be a role playing game... In all seriousness though, you're complaining about there not being enough republic people to play PvP with. I fail to see how this is BioWare's fault. What, they should set it up so that you're forced to roll republic side because Imperials are all full? Yeah, I'd change servers to avoid a heavy handed approach. As an alternative, reroll on a server that has enough people to actually form a warzone. You can't force people to play a warzone with you but you can play on a PvP server with high population if that's what you're looking for. A low population RP server is the last place I would expect a decent War Zone showing. (I'm guessing it's an RP server anyway, since you appear to be a role player...)

Operatives do get a gap closer, it's just on a longer cool-down than other classes and most people use it as an escape. First, pull your head out of your behind. Second, open your ability tree. Third, check and see what 'Advanced Cloaking' does. Fourth, L2P your class. (Hint: Advanced Cloaking up's your movement speed by 50% for 6 seconds. This stacks with your 30% movement buff from Debilitate. If someone gets away from you, refer to step four above.)

^ This. There's nothing stopping you from ignoring the XP of an area and doing all the content anyway for purely story reasons. I know you'll faceroll the content, but I fail to see that as an issue since once you get past Tat you'll be remembering the 'old days' when you leveled quickly quite fondly.

Im really sorry but in moving to another game you might be required to change your skills and relearn how to play since this is not, in fact, Wow. As an aside, they're already working on a customizable UI if you bothered to read the main pages updates. I really hope they meet your arbitrary deadline so you'll stick around and beg for more changes to make this game more like the last one you played.

I totally agree with the OP. Balance will never exist in this MMO and the more Bioware attempts to balance pvp the more broken pve will become. Especially when they start nerfing classes with no metrics to back up their nerfs. You can't seriously claim the operative nerf was justified after less than a week of the biochemical nerf. The size of the nerf far exceeds what I expected. They nerfed an entire crafting tree as well as two end-tree abilities for concealment. That's a super nerf in my book, all based around pvp with no regard or consideration for pve what-so-ever. I do not deny that operatives needed some adjustment, but they not only nerfed the class they did it to an entire crafting tree as well. If this doesn't concern you, just wait until the inevitable sorc/BH nerfs that will certainly follow.

I whole-heartedly agree. Now that the babies got their way with one class, it's on like donkey kong for these mouth-breathers. Welcome to nerftopia, land of the salty tears!

Ah! So the Operative gets the nerf bat and the first thing I see this morning is Sorc crying. I believe I said this would be the second class against the wall after Operatives. Glad to see I called it since even pre-nerf a sorc with even half a brain could negate an Operatives 'broken' opener with their 'broken' bubble shield. Personally I'd rather all the classes keep their 'broken' abilities as most of them negate each other. If we keep nerfing everything every class has, PvE will suffer while PvP becomes Toon Town. I guess catering to the lowest common denominator in an MMO is cost-effective. Oh, and after Sorcerer/Sages you can look forward to a huge Bounty Hunter/Trooper nerf if you're a betting man. Mark my words, it's coming.

My intention wasn't to call people names, but rather to point out a truth. People are too lazy, or don't know enough about the instances, to form their own teams. This isn't meant as an insult, this game is just new. Watch the general channel and you'll see a thousand LFG's and no LFM's. If I cry 'LFG' no one responds. If I cry 'LFM' I get a deluge of tells. (Usually, anyway.) If you were looking for tips on how to find people to team with, I'm trying to help with information that has consistantly helped me out. Take it or leave it. (Just to point out, there's currently a video up on the main page showing the new customizable interface. Perhaps it will include some LFG tools as well. If not, the above should work.)

The real question is this: Instead of posting LFG, have you tried posting LFM? It's a small difference, but I've had far better luck looking for players than looking for groups. No one wants to start them, ergo no one can join one. This is the real problem. (Would a quene system be nice? Sure. Is it necessary? No. As one of the above posters stated, you can already flag yourself as LFG. It's just that not a lot of people are checking it and forming teams. Ergo, it's a community issue of people being lazy and not forming their own groups. I will admit it could use a better filter system though.)

DPS is tanking after a certain point, and yes you can 'ranged tank' quite effectively on an Assassin that's Darkness spec. although I can't speak to how 'ranged' a Powertech is. And yes, it's way easier to tank on an Assassin tank as well since you have some ranged options. Jugg. only gets a few, and none of them are stellar damage dealers or threat generators.

Sounds like Gunslingers need a love tap from the nerf bat, huh? ^_- At least, that's the rationale I've heard from a lot of people about why the Operative/Scoundrel needs nerfing. It must hold true for other classes that do well too, right?

That's cool, I'll return the favor when they drop the nerf bat on your favored class. The literal second they nerf anything, there will be brand spankin' new thread topic begging for nerfs on everything from Sorc's (who negate Operative opener DMG, as an aside.) to Powertech's. Sure, you'll try to defend your class using rational and well thought out reasoning. In the end, though, the hammer will drop and your class will be rendered a pathetic shadow of it's former glory. Then, when your class is unplayable in PvP, you'll cry your nerd tears of sadness and wonder how this came to be. Operative is a burst damage stealth class. If you nerf the burst damage, what are they then? A one shot off-healer? Sounds super fun to play.

There are inherent stealth detection buffs outside of the detection droids, I've stated that at least twice so far in this forum. I should edit my intial post with this information since it seems to be something people aren't understanding. It does seem to last quite some time. You can do lots of things I can't though. I demand a speed boost on demand, insane ranged damage with a snare attached, and a PBAoE KB ability! J/K, but you see my point? All the CC's last a bit long. As it stands, 4 seconds is actually one of the shorter ones. I think part of the problem is that people see their toon sitting and assume they can't move, but in reality you can move long before the 'stand up' animation is finished running. It looks stupid to channel force lightning while standing, but it's possible. I think that's one of the many reasons people are complaining about Hidden Strike.

Oh, I must have misunderstood then. It should take two people with different classes to take you from 100% to 0% then, that makes sense. I'm just being nit-picky, I think what you meant is that it bothers you that they do it so quickly. Apparently not quickly enough, however, since you're getting a look at their buffs before you die. I wouldn't think you'd have time for that. If they aren't on your team, I imagine it's hard to tell what buffs they're running since we're usually invisible. I never said buff stacking was the only issue, I think that the stacking issue isn't even the tip of the ice burg as far as PvP issues go. By far, the biggest issue is the PvP gear being broken as hell. The way it's set up, as of now, the PvP gear is unstoppable unless you also have the PvP gear. (Maybe unstoppable is the wrong word. They can be stopped, if your entire team decides to throw in against them. That's about what it takes though for some of these 20k HP motherless PvP'ers.) Either way, there's going to be a class that does the highest DPS. If not the Operative, then someone. Unless you're a darn good tank, odd's are high that someone will take you out in the blink of an eye. Lets wait for the BioChem nerf the cry babies bought with their righteous tears before we go around changing core class mechanics, hmm?

No I get that, people hate being killed while CC'ed. Thing is, there are CC's everywhere. If it isn't the Operative with their Hidden Strike it'll be the Sorcerer with his stun/slow. If not the sorcerer then it will be the Mercenary with Electrodart. It's everyone. Even if you take the CC off Hidden Strike, we'll just wait until someone else CC's you and murder your face then. Stealth allows any assassin class to pick their battles and their timing, which is the most useful tool in PvP IMO. Take that away, and they are useless. (Lack of gap closers/range/speed) People keep saying things like "we're getting killed with absolutely no way to counter it", and "unless the trinket is ready and even then it's quite dodgy". Well, your crowd control break is always there. Yeah, it's a CRAP cool-down. I get that and I agree. I have other toons that get face-rolled by Operatives on occasion. My point is that if your CC break is on cool-down you're already dead. It doesn't even need to be an Operative, it can be anyone. You will be held, and you will die before the CC has worn off. Welcome to SW:TOR PvP, Land of the Held.

Assassin is only part burst, and as such it doesn't have as much of it. It does, however, boast some formidable ranged options as well as some of the best CC options around on top of it's stealth and speed. Oh, and it gets a low cool-down 'soft' CC remover as well as their 'hard' CC break. And a taunt. And a vanish. You're right, all those things would need to be up for a duel and they probably won't be up in arena. But if you come across an Operative with his cool-downs recharging and yours are all up, it would be just as one-sided of a fight as if your roles were reversed and that's a fact.