I would say, you don't need cover a lot, yet sometimes it is highly useful. Charged Burst one of highest damage abilities is used from cover and energy regen is increased in cover, so if you are off healing as a dps, it is worth going into cover. And there is one last important use almost exclusively for PvP, Maras and Juggs can't use their standard leap on you while in cover. So I think you can do almost all leveling from 10-55 PvE without using cover at all and don't have any problem. If you want to go DPS and you want to get the most out of it you should get Charged Burst into your rotation in both specs. And for PvP smart use of cover can drive Leapers nuts (at least before they get Obliterate/ Zealous Leap) in all three specs.

double post, but bit more serious now. Outside of the healing tree (which probably is OP, but if BW continues their nerfing practice they make it unplayable if it get nerfed [rendering the class not being viable for any role in any content] the biggest issue is survivablity. Yes we have stealth, but without stealth we are close to defenseless as dps. As a melee class this is far less than optimal. Considering PVE you are a liability, since healers need to spend more time one you (and you are not even a major damage dealer) and PVP wise it just means you are pretty useless in group fights, because everybody know that we have like no defense out of stealth (yes we have good CC abilities, but against snipers and smashers they wont give you the edge, or even a reasonable chance). While lethatiity surely can put out good numbers (if not focused), the range issue makes us way inferior to snipers in the same tree. Here the generation of TA seems the second highest issure besides survivability. That you have to go full melee to get TA (or cast nonsensical heal if you specced it) is a major disadvantage, even though we can heal up. In PVE and PVP the sniper normally will be prefered simply he doesnt take the damage after all, because of his higher range for culls and less problem setting it up. Healing without the abilities higher from the healing tree means downtime in DPS and doesnt compensate for the range disadvantage. Concealment it is in the current setup very crit dependend. If you win or lose a 1v1 a lot of times depends on mere crit luck and not skill. We might have a great opener, but we can only use it very rarely and if it doesnt crit it is just like you unnecessarily exposed yourself. Since Hidden Strike is hard to be avoided for other classes i think, Back Stab needs to be buff, especially you can use it more often in PVE and it can be countered with skill in PVP. Some significant increase in crit chance would definitly help the concealment specc in both parts of the game. It is not an AOE and it has positional requirement, making it crit most of the time, wont lead to the feared stun locks to death (which assassins still can pull of btw). Generally I think we all can agree that the two dps speccs are in deep trouble in both kinds of content (you can still do good in pve if you are an extremely skilled player, and you do ok to great in PuG normal WZs, depending on group composition and quality of opposition), but basically you get weird looks for playing Operative DPS on both sides. I might be a perception issue, but then apparently next to everybody playing the game is diluted).

I guess we all have a perception issue anyway (and all other classes) , the class is fine since we can heal to full... sorry had to be

the pve comment was only that carlenc actually has some of the best pve parse in game, so with a competent player the class is viable as dps in pve and even good. and his point was that you have to be carefull in balance only along pvp since it would screw pvers.... i mostly do pvp these days, but i guess he has a point

Yeah is lethality is melee and should stay, the only problem is getting the TAs for culls basically, that is why i think some 10m ranged ability to get TA Sever Tendon seemed my solution. otherwise i think all DPS operatives think the same about concealment..... survivability and better sustained burst... especially out of stealth

mate, lethality from range already exists....snipers, and they are really strong, so some would say they are OP. So I guess they would never make operatives the exact thing as a sniper. Otherwise, i think there is a universal agreement that despite the healing tree both dps tree need some serious DCD in both PVE and PVP. Crit nerf hit operative amongst the hardest, so i guess we need some ability to balance that, at least for concealment. Problem is Carlenc is such a good PVE'er that he gets numbers that high that everybody will think we are OP An proc induced auto crit or even just an signficantly increased crit chance on backstab in concealment would be fair. I would not be OP since a skilled player has some chance to evade it, just like a skilled player can evade smash to a degree. And I would prefer it on backstab instead of hidden strike since you can use it out of stealth, which would partially solve the stealth dependance problem. I really like the idea of a serious healing debuff in some way associated with acid blade... almost makes logical sense. for lethality i think the major problem is getting TA from mid range. Considering that the DoTs are full range, Cull and Weakening Blast or mid range and Shiv is melee, you really get in trouble with adjusting your distance correctly. The idea of letting Overload Shot create TA is good, but otherwise i think giving that to Sever Tendon would be even better. It is not a root in lethality but still you would have a great set up for your culls, alone it runs on a CD so you can spam it as you can with Overload Shot. Carlenc definitely proved that we are viable for all PVE contend in all three specs (but then again it is probably hard to match his skill level), if the class even with changes to what ever kind will be viable and actually used as DPS in arena is another question.

Signed..... Please save them, they are what RP part is all about, and especially on imperial side, I wanna see how the character evolve further