Other than damage there are two major points I would like to refute that are constantly given with regards as to why operative/smuggler damage was nerfed.
1. "You can't see it coming so you can't stop it."
Yes you can. Sure, you might get opened up on once at the beginning of the WZ because you don't know the other team has stealthers, but after that, it's your own fault. On my operative after I see one stealther, I'm constantly watching out for them. It's akin to when playing dota/lol/hon against a jungler (who may or may not have stealth himself). You don't know EXACTLY where they are, but if you've played enough, you know when you are vulnerable and when they are most likely to strike. For example, if you get out of combat and have < 50% hp and you go to the back to heal up, you better be ready to be put on your *** by an operative.
Secondly, with the amount of BH/commando I see in every WZ I see it's appalling how few stealth scans I see going off. Seriously, that thing should almost be on cooldown 24/7 unless you're trying to save it for their vanish and they are already unstealthed.
Knocking an operative out of stealth completely destroys their burst.
Lastly, even if they do manage to open on you, you can simply trinket or survive the initial stunlock and laugh when you knock them off a ledge, because now they have to spend 30+ seconds doing 0 DPS or very minimal DPS. The operative has to make a choice, do paltry ranged DPS now, or run back, sacrificing dps in the hopes that when he gets there he can make up for it.
2. "You can see a juggernaut coming, so you can stop it."
In a 1v1 situation, this is simply untrue. They can either wait till you stun them and then trinket. Wait till you stun them, then start their burst. They can mez you. They can knock you on your *** while simultaneously resetting their 15s charge cooldown.
In a group pvp situation you might get someone to cc him for you, but as mentioned before, he can CC you as well or their teammates might CC you. Good juggernauts wont miss their smash unless the stars align and someone knocks the juggernaut back right as he is smashing.
Even without stealth, you can't always see the smash coming. Due to the nature of how smash is buffed on the juggernaut and not on the intended target, he can simply decide to force charge the guy on the catwalk 30m away that he isn't fighting and smash him. Hell, for that matter, he could wait until he sees a BH/Sorc use their knockback and charge them when they're SoL. Having a 15s 30 yard charge, a 60s knockdown that resets said charge, a 20s 30 yard friendly charge, and a 15s 10 yard charge gives a juggernaut a million and one ways to keep their dps on a target.
With that being said. If you negate an operative's stealth or knock him off a ledge his DPS drops DRASTICALLY and they can only vanish every 2 minutes to set up the burst again. If you manage to stop a smash, guess what? He can do it again in < 30 seconds.
I really don't want to nerf juggernauts. They feel like one of the most balanced classes in the game. I'm fine with burst that takes a little time to set up, even if it can't be avoided easily. What I'm not fine with is the fact that operatives now don't have burst, sustained damage, nor any utility other than a complete joke of a skill called infiltrate (seriously, *** is with that useless skill, maybe if it lasted 60s or more it might be useful). Every class in the game has more CC than an operative. Every melee class in the game has more mobility than an operative. A shadowstep like ability would do wonders for this class, as would a slight buff to sustained damage (make lacerate +30% crit damage instead of sever tendon possibly).
Lastly, before anyone mentions it: Until lethality gets a way to generate TA reliably, gets some sort of energy reduction, and get's some way of preventing dispells, it isn't a viable alternative. It takes too long to set up, requires too much energy, and is easily dispelled with 1 GCD. The damage is great and reminds me a lot of a powertech pyrotech, but just doesn't work in its current form. Operative healing is also a joke compared to BH and Sorc, but I'll leave that for another discussion as this one seems focused on damage.
TL;DR - Operative burst can be avoided, nobody uses stealth scan. Juggernaut burst isn't as easy to avoid as people would like you to believe. Simple knockbacks destroy operative DPS uptime. Juggernauts have a ton of ways to get back into the fight to keep their DPS on target while still doing more burst than an Operative while also being AoE. Lethality sucks, operatives need more sustained damage and mobility.
