Glorious indeed!

What is this, I don't even... I will be there in spirit through the wonderous Ryuzo Order; I'm out of town for work from Wednesday to Friday.

Bugs in SWTOR not getting fixed expediently!? What is this madness!?!?!?!?

I think you're missing the point. The point is that there is way too much value placed on the first 10 games, such that those first 10 games easily dictate your rating and it's exponentially more difficult to change where you end up after the first 10 games vs. how easy it is to move your rating in the first 10 games. Just as you can get lucky and go 10-0 and get 1500 immediately, you can get unlucky and lose a lot in your first 10, get ~1000 rating and then would have to win about 30-40+ straight to get up to a 1500. The 1500 rating line for tier 1 is a joke and SWTOR's ELO system is a joke.

- Commando|Mercenary: the buff with 2.6 brought the class back to relevance in conjunction with the number if small changes to the class since the 1.2 nerf. This class now has the highest skill ceiling of the healers and is viable in competitive PvP finally, but requires very good play and is very unforgiving. - Sage|Sorceror: very hard to play well. The class is viable in 8v8 PvP but not really in 4v4 currently. Not sold on its viability post 2.7. - Scoundrel|Operatives: easiest to play currently and most forgiving in competitive play. The 2.7 nerf will bring the class down to earth and likely expose those that really aren't that good at the class. Wil still be viable and the most mobile healer. In my opinion, the choice now comes down to preference. For competitive play, only Scoundrel|Operative and Commando|Mercenary are truly viable in the current meta.

Not sure if serious...

The Ops healers ability to keep someone alive via Surgical Probe was OP. No other healer has anywhere near that ability to keep someone up on a free ability that can be spammed without even casting. And for free! This nerf is going to hurt the Ops that relied too heavily on the instant cast spam of Surgical Probe and neglected casting. You also completely undervalue how much HPS Kolto Probe will amount to in your healing. My use of surgical probe is typically only 1 time to get them back over 30% when they cross that line, then Underworld Medicine + Kolto Probe to burst heal them back up, followed by a Kolto Injection to deal with any further DPS coming in. Anything more than that in the use of Surgical Probe under 30% was absolutely OP (and I admittedly used that when I needed to as well). We shouldn't be able to keep someone on the brink indefinitely.

We were never talking about PvE, and I won't even attempt to speak to PvE because I don't enjoy it and therefore don't do it. This was a discussion about PvP and an Operatives survivability within it.

1. Evasion lasts 3s and can be brought up to 4s via gear set bonus. Your stun + evasion can be alternated vs. a Mara. Against a vigi jugg, it's a bit tougher, but generally speaking I evasion the leaped one, stun the second one, flash or nade the the third one, flash or nade the fourth one (unless it's another leap, in which case cloak or evasion if it's back up), cloak the fifth one... there are ways but you will probably eventually eat one if nobody else is peeling for you. Suffice to say, however, we have a LOT of tools to deal with it. 2. Not arguing against the fact that Shield Probe sucks. 3. Exfiltrate will no longer require energy, so it will be a better escape now. As is, Ops survivability is OP compared to other healers. The change will be a reality check for a lot of Ops, but I believe it will raise the skill ceiling and we will take some deaths that other healers would have taken too now. We're going to have to cast more, which means a lot of Ops will have to learn how to use dummy casts and jukes to get casts off.

Evasion and Debilitate to offset ravages, Defense Screen sucks but still worth popping generally on CD to eat a little damage. Flashbang to get people off you, Scamper to get around a corner from the LOS. Cloaking Screen as a last resort when your DCDs are on cooldown. Other classes have it too, but worth noting grenades are great to peel for yourself. Currently, Suyrgical Probe allows Ops to just edge around the 30% mark until they can break free a bit and cast a heal; this is what brings Ops survivability far above that of other healers when played properly (READ: Positioning, rationing of your DCDs, not panicing as soon as u get some pressure, etc.). The nerf to Surgical Probe will bring the class back to earth. Also, I personally consider the Exfiltrate change a buff for Ops healers. I can now roll 2x in a row without any energy cost, and I would never do that even every 20s due to energy management I'd be reluctant to even Exfiltrate twice in a row currently with how much it costs. I can now do it every 10s. The only thing it changes is our map crossing abilities, which will still be solid. I suspect we will still be able to get to the huttball first, for instance (will require testing to know 100%). This is because of our ability to ramp off of the top of the stairs and low platform, which I suspect will put us ahead of a Sorc/Sin using force speed. And I'll actually have energy when I get there.

Whatever you feel validates yourself as being good. NOTE: "Good numbers" doesn't mean always chart topping. But consistently, the numbers will be up there. Depends on the match in question, but talking across a large number of games. If you're consistently outdamaged / outhealed / outprotected by 2-to-1 or even 1.5-to-1, then you're average no matter how good you are tactically.

If he's good, he'll still put up good numbers whilst doing all those things. That's the difference between an average player and a good player.

They do mean something, but they aren't everything. If you lose every single group fight, you're more than likely going to lose the warzone barring sap cap heroics or some sort of turtle scenario, let alone arenas which showcase weaknesses far more than 8v8s. Bottom line is good players will still consistently get good numbers.

This thread is just bursting with gems. I don't even know where to start, but suffice it to say I'm thoroughly entertained.

Would definitely love to see the sound for the self heal. Another thing that caused me some grief at first is that the self target modifier doesn't allow you to fire Rapid Shots at yourself - you literally have to target yourself, which completely throws off how I normally heal myself. i've had to change my normal self target modifier key to target self now so I can properly Rapid Shots myself when I want to (in addition to heal myself). Adds an extra step since before I didn't have to stop what I was doing to heal myself - I could just hold that down to throw a heal as I continued on with whatever friendly healing I was going to do. They clearly have the ability to do it because I'm able to Rapid Shots a friendly through Focus Target Modifier, so hopefully just an oversight.