Actually, the overall nerf is rather drastic and uncalled for and should be fixed. Nerfing, classes based on PvP is not a viable way of "balance" in a game. The single target DPS drop makes it where you as a support requires a support, which makes no sense at all. Arena net found a highly affective solution to this problem and it should be implemented here. They treat PvE and PvP differently as 2 separate states. PvE has it's own gear you gain through game play via missions and class/race storyline and PvP having it's own gear set aside AND given to you at the starting point. If you PvP in GW2 you MUST have PvP gear on or else either you could not get past the sentinel gate to enter the match or like prior to that you did such crappy damage and died faster you left the match and put it on.
However, even though PvP IS gear based, they leveled the playing field by simply separating the two with making it impossible to PvP in PvE gear and vise versa. Will SWTOR do this? No, because they are turning into blizzard and getting lazy. All the issues PvE side such as the targeting your companion/friendly player as the next closest enemy is STILL broken after 4 years of complaining about it. A simple addition such as separating PvE from PvP is too much to wrap their minds around along with fixing a broken targeting system that has been broke for some time now.
You can't complain about the nerf now, it's done and over with and everyone of that class either has to deal with the bogus changes or adapt to them and find a work around. Mind you, from a PvP stand point, maybe we were OP and needed a nerf BUT from a PvE stand point, the class is now broken and is not a viable DPS option anymore. Being support dependent support is ludicrous, unwarranted and should be addressed quickly, implement the PvP/PvE separation option and make them 2 separate phases like Arenanet did. It's not hard, yes PvPers will complain about it being gear based and they can't use their amped up PvE gear but let them complain, they should NOT PvP in PvE gear anyway. If they don't like it, they can go to WoW and deal with that cluster f$%^ of what they call PvP. <-- Thuglife
Edit: I forgot all about this until recently, the separate phase restriction is already there and simply needs a few additions. Case in point, you can ONLY enter the Lord Zash phase of the Inquisitor storyline with Khem Val and NO other companion. The instance gate dismisses your companion that you are currently using and leaves you with no one at your side until you summon Khem Val. So BW, you have no excuse to not add this function to PvP, you already have it set up. Put up a gate that warns you that you have no PvP gear on, issue baseline PvP gear and problem solved. Yes, there will be others that already have PvP gear that has been PvPing longer, but the simple fix to that is a ranking system which in my guess is probably already implemented. So, fix the broken parts of PvE and leave it alone after. In which I mean revert back to the way it was and make it where we as support is not support dependent.