I'm a Pyro powertech and I'd say I'm relatively good. I'm able to stand toe-to-toe with a mara in terms of burn speed, but when crunch time happens, he's got about ~4 different defense abilities to pop that just dwarf mine by comparison....I've only got two for that matter. My CC's are quick (carbonize is only 2.5 sec stun and Electrodart is 4 sec), whereas he has Force Choak and Intimidating Roar. He also has the ability to Obfuscate, punching my ranged Accuracy in the gut. Gore gives him 100% armor pen (if carnage) to punch in his heavy hitters for full damage. You can't interrupt Ravage anymore, and with it's mile-long range, it's annoying as hell.

I'm a pyro powertech....going toe-to-toe with a Mara, it's pretty even fight. Problem is, I get out defensed. I can burn a Mara as fast as he's burning me down, but when we start playing a defense game, he's got me beat by a mile. I can pop Energy shield (25% damage reduc for 12secs) and Kolto Overload (15% max health over 10 sec) and use a WZ Health pack if it's getting really sour. Problem is, so can he. On top of that, he can do one of several things to take me out of an otherwise even fight. He can pop Force Cloak, Cloak of Pain, Saber Ward, Undying Rage (Jesus mode), AND is able to use a GCD ignoring Retaliation, and should you try to run, they can always smack you with Vicious Throw if you're low enough. The part that makes it so bad is the fact that each spec marauder has is DPS. They have extremely powerful abilities, Gore is an example with its 100% armor pen while being completely capable of shrugging off tons of damage, something you would only otherwise see from a Tank spec'd class. They have the best of both worlds, making them extremely difficult to deal with. Ranged classes cannot kite in this game, there's a gap closer for every single short-range/melee class. Mara's in specific has a counter for nearly everything in the game. You cannot lose distance, you cannot out heal, you cannot out defense, you can double team and hope for the best. The fact that it causes three people a bit of trouble to kill a Mara with all its defenses up is silly at best.

He's so cuddly but just soooo useless

It's completely dependent on the spec you choose. If you spec into pyrotech (which I personally suggest, as it's amazing damage and mobility for both PvE and PvP), you will use CGC exclusively. Now...should you go Advanced Prototype, you'll likely be using High Energy Gas Cylinder whenever it becomes available to you. Shield tech....stick with Ion Gas Cylinder.

No other class has been given a special case when it comes to weapons and neither should we. Every class has it's own weapon that isn't shared by any other class within its faction (lightsabers excluded). I do just fine with my pistols.

I think I melt face more now than before. I do die faster...but so does everyone else. The TTK has been noticeably reduced.

Gunny and arsenal weren't all that a big of a deal before the patch. Easy to handle by a landslide, all you had to do was interrupt grav or tracer and their dps takes an immediate hit. A good gunny or arsenal would know how to keep up the dps, the bad ones sit there with their thumb up their ***. I was a gunny commando and I was good. People could dispose of me if they did it right though. I'm now a pyro PT...and I didn't get nerfed with 1.2, if anything, I got garunteed RS procs and wont wind up wasting them should I have a proc active, ignite him with FB, only to have it reproc and be wasted and probably not see another for a while. I still melt face, even more than before I'd argue. I destroy gunny and arsenal with ease...if you want to point fingers at who's OP, look at pyro PT. We don't have to stand still to totally tear you apart and all our abilities cannot be interrupted/instant.

Having everything in the arsenal tree circle around TM makes it so linear. In prospect, keeping all the buffs focused on one skill makes things incredibly limited. If you want to keep a BH from getting heat sigs on you, stun and interrupt their TM's. Without TM, they can't make use of other abilities to their fullest extent. Migrating out of TM and allowing a more diverse method of gathering these buffs is more of a buff than anything.

Now do you have numbers to prove this or are you just speaking out of your rear? I find that the level 35 grav round hits as much as the level 35 tracer missile......same with the 40 demo round/heat seekers. The only thing different is animation/skill execution times. Mortar volley has to "power up" while DFA is instant. I'm pretty sure sorcs fire off their lightning faster than a sage picks up their object, chunks it, and waits for it to hit.

It's replaced by grav/tracer in the gunnery/arsenal tree....and those trees only. Power Shot is used by those in the healer or shared tree. I don't see why you choose to complain about grav round/tracer replacing a skill and not about thermal det/assault plastique replacing sticky grenade/explosive dart. For the one who suggested a 4.5s cooldown, the majority of the time, the player your targeting usually dies in about 5-10 seconds, it'll take a total of 18 seconds to have the ability get off cooldown, fire it, and repeat 3 times. Firing off something MAYBE twice that has the ability to stack 5 times would be pretty useless, not to mention you'll be damn lucky to have any ammo after that period. OH! And I use roughly ~18 of my abilities on my toolbars. Grav round is nice, but those who use it as their one and only skill are doing it wrong.

When 9 talents all buff one skill, or that one skill complements or activates those talents, then it's more than likely that it will be used to get the stacks it provides. Charged barrier, Charged Barrel, and Gravity Vortex all stack up to 5 times. One makes you survive, One amps up High Impact Shot, One reduces the target's armor AND amps up Demolition Round. The grav round gets ammo reduced and pushback reduced by two other talents and activates Curtain of Fire. When literally half of the boxes you spec into by the time you hit 40 all contribute towards one skill, chances are, it's going to be a skill that we are going to spam/use a lot of. I don't see why unlimited Force Lightning/Tele Throw, an instant cast large AOE, instant cast 10 second root, and Force Run-like-hell is any better or worse. I don't see why a level 40 operative/scoundrel can pop out of stealth and perma-stun you and kill you easily within that window. I don't get why it's okay to half a marauder/sentinel debuff heals and throw up an invinca-shield. Need I go on? Every class has its own thing going for it, any Commando that knows how to play uses roughly twenty of their skills. Full auto on curtain of fire slows the target and hits for 25% more (activated by grav round), Charged bolt gets it damaged increased by 30% (increased per grav round shot), Charged barrier increases damage reduction by 10% (increased per shot of grav round), Demolition round gets it damage increased by 25% (increased per shot of grav round). You use reactive shield, adrenaline rush, and recharge cells (for kolto recharge if you spec'd into it) to decrease your damage and restore health. Concussive round and Cryo grenade to push back melee players and to freeze runners/interrupt force sprint, Explosive round to finish people off, Impact bolt to finish people off/high damage, stock strike to push people back, plasma to AOE dot (works wonders on people trying to cap on voidstar and alderaan), sticky grenade for even more damage......The list continues.

Make Gunnery/Arsenal not so dependent on one skill (Full auto/Unload cooldown with 25% extra damage, Charged Barrel/Signature lock, Demo round/Heat seekers damage modifiers, 5% armor debuff per stack of grav vortex/heat signature, Cell charger/Heat vents) and we may consider not using Tracer and Grav almost exclusively.

That's the thing, when the first group of people came in and chose their servers...they weren't full. As some mindlessly grinded at their toons, easily reaching 20+ in a 24 hour period (me not being one of them...I've got better things to do), being told to remake their toons to avoid queue times is ill advise at best.