What's unique about IA?

[Jaksith]

Yes it is a fairly noob question, but to be fair, this is my first research method into the character, rather than reading all the class guides. I understand from RP how the IA differs from bounty hunter - but from playstyle, how does a DPS agent differ from a DPS bounty hunter? Looking for an under 250 word answer if possible summarizing the differences. FYI I've done the inquisitor, warrior and bounty hunter already, I have a tank and a healer out of those, I'm not looking for another healer, so I'm asking for DPS playstyle comparisons.

[XplaguesX]

DPS bounty hunters are wanted in groups.

 

DPS bounty hunters have utility. knockback, stuns, strong ranged attacks. good defence.

[chuixupu]

Always have the bitter emo people mope in at some point, boohoo.

nobody wants me, everybody hates me think I'll eat some woooorrms

 

Agents have knockbacks and stuns too, and fast interrupt, and two different CC's if you're on Operative. I think the BH CC is Merc only.

 

Anyway, I've got a level 50 Op, 44 Merc and level 18 Sniper.

 

As a BH you're got the option to be a Mercenary, ranged dps/healer, or Powertech, tank/melee.

 

As an IA you have to option to go Sniper, pure ranged dps, or Operative, a stealth melee dps, a healer, or the wierd mid-range dot throwing Lethality.

 

Bounty Hunters use heat as their resource. The more you use your abilities, the more builds up and you have ways to dump it, if it gets too high you can't do much. They have a ton of AOE, and very early on. It's a very HERE I AM ***** type of playstyle. Mercs wield dual blaster pistols.

Can't say anything about Powertechs from personal experience.

 

Operatives are basically like rogues. You use energy as your resource which will generate much slower if you get it too low, so you have to pay attention. You steatlh, you have a gun and a knife, you stab people in the back, poison, hurl grenades and shoot people.

 

I've only played a Sniper to level 18, but you're always going to be dealing with the cover system, meaning you have to be in a crouch position to use a lot of abilities. It gives you some extra defense as long as the mobs don't get in your face, but less mobility than the ranged BH class and less AOE. Also uses energy, and you shoot with a Sniper Rifle. (guess you can use blaster rifles too, but why?)

 

 

Hope that helps. Probably is more than 250 words.

Despite what people say I'd rather play on my Operative than my BH any day, it's way more fun to me and I don't have trouble being wanted in groups....though I do like the Bodyguard healing style better than the Medic healing.

Edited February 29, 2012 by chuixupu

[Tarakona]

To add to chuixupu's reply from a 50 Sniper, you have 3 CCs, 2 knockbacks, 1 interrupt (although you can say 6 interrupts if you count the CCs and knockbacks) and if you know what you're doing, staying at range isn't that hard. If you've ever played WoW, your "cover" ability can be used like a Hunter's Disengage. You can actually move across the field in a split second with it if you're good. And burst dps is insane. Comparing my Sniper to my Sith Warrior, what takes maybe 5 hits with my Warrior to kill a mob takes 1 1/2 with my Sniper.

[Jaksith]

 

Always have the bitter emo people mope in at some point, boohoo.

nobody wants me, everybody hates me think I'll eat some woooorrms

 

Agents have knockbacks and stuns too, and fast interrupt, and two different CC's if you're on Operative. I think the BH CC is Merc only.

 

Anyway, I've got a level 50 Op, 44 Merc and level 18 Sniper.

 

As a BH you're got the option to be a Mercenary, ranged dps/healer, or Powertech, tank/melee.

 

As an IA you have to option to go Sniper, pure ranged dps, or Operative, a stealth melee dps, a healer, or the wierd mid-range dot throwing Lethality.

 

Bounty Hunters use heat as their resource. The more you use your abilities, the more builds up and you have ways to dump it, if it gets too high you can't do much. They have a ton of AOE, and very early on. It's a very HERE I AM ***** type of playstyle. Mercs wield dual blaster pistols.

Can't say anything about Powertechs from personal experience.

 

Operatives are basically like rogues. You use energy as your resource which will generate much slower if you get it too low, so you have to pay attention. You steatlh, you have a gun and a knife, you stab people in the back, poison, hurl grenades and shoot people.

 

I've only played a Sniper to level 18, but you're always going to be dealing with the cover system, meaning you have to be in a crouch position to use a lot of abilities. It gives you some extra defense as long as the mobs don't get in your face, but less mobility than the ranged BH class and less AOE. Also uses energy, and you shoot with a Sniper Rifle. (guess you can use blaster rifles too, but why?)

 

 

Hope that helps. Probably is more than 250 words.

Despite what people say I'd rather play on my Operative than my BH any day, it's way more fun to me and I don't have trouble being wanted in groups....though I do like the Bodyguard healing style better than the Medic healing.

 

 

 

Thank you - that's the type of information I was looking for.

[Mutive]

Actually, ops have 3 ccs (but one only works for droids). Snipers have two - but again, one only works for droids.

 

Other than that, totally accurate.

 

Snipers are basically a glass canon class - high ranged damage, but very squishy. They're also rather immobile, as virtually all of their abilities only work from cover (which lock you into place for a period of time. Also, if you exit cover, some of your abilities turn off until they're toggled on again). In addition to damage (and buffs), they give a lot of utility through a bubble which is pretty awesome in certain fights, and an armor reduction debuff. They're a sustained damage class, so can just keep going and going, and have both fairly good AOE and single target damage. Think of them as being like a fire mage from WoW, if you've played that game.

 

Operatives are both healers (primarily hots, from the little I've seen - I play a sniper, so forgive my ignorance here) and DPS. Their DPS is primarily burst damage. They have stealths - both a single player stealth, a battle stealth *and* a group stealth, which is pretty handy for solo questing. (So jealous there...) They're...near as I can tell, some weird hybrid between a WoW healy druid and a WoW rogue.

 

There's also the storyline stuff, if you care. Agent is a fairly realistically played story, very dark, quite intense. It's one of the better storylines I've played in a game, ever. (Then again, I like grimdark.) The LIs are all crazy (IMHO), but I liked all of them, esp. Kaliyo. Also, as a male agent, if it moves, you can flirt with it. As a female agent, you still get a remarkable number of hook ups. So if you care about that sort of thing, it's a great class. (Beyond the mechanics.)

[stephenjohnp]

Snipers are alright. Handy buffs, decent ranged DPS. Operatives, worst class in the game.

[KekoSplit]

Imp. Agents are unique in a way that their 2-piece pvp armor bonus does not work in pvp at all - the bonus on Evasion.

 

 

Bloody marvelous game design!

[Lammio]

i rolled a Operative and I'm glad I did.

it so much fun in PvE and PvP.

 

Yes it might take me some hits more to kill anything, but I praticly dont die, since I choose my targets wisely.

 

1 vs 1 is difficult and most of the time I die in that situations, but since Im an Operative I can stealth towards an engaged enemy. Backstad - Delibirate - Shiv - Backstab - Shiv = Dead.

[MrDeas]

I've only played a Sniper to level 18, but you're always going to be dealing with the cover system, meaning you have to be in a crouch position to use a lot of abilities. It gives you some extra defense as long as the mobs don't get in your face, but less mobility than the ranged BH class and less AOE. Also uses energy, and you shoot with a Sniper Rifle. (guess you can use blaster rifles too, but why?)

 

That's a little misleading. Snipers aren't necessarily turrets. If you spec into the Lethality tree you get a lot of abilities that allow you to be mobile (this is the preferrable tree for PvP) plus with the 30m range it's preferrable to be a Sniper with Lethality than it is to be Op with Lethality.

 

The cover system in my opinion isn't that bad. I use the cover as an Opener. I'll open with some cover abilities then as people start to target me I go more mobile and can still deal good damage in the Lethality tree.

[DeltaEkotte]

The are two dps agents advanced classes, Op and Sniper. Sniper is pure dps and Op can be a healer or dps depending on your skill tree.

 

Sniper

The abilities that you get as a sniper, you have to be in cover to use them so thats 1 of the 2 main differences between Agent and BH, the other is that Snipers have MUCH MUCH longer range than BH.

Op

Pretty much the same as merc for the BH, except that the Op gets stealth which means you can run past more npc's instead of having to fight them.

[Canis_Anubis]

One thing to mention about the Agent's energy mechanic: It's not very forgiving of sloppy play. You have an energy bar whose recharge rate drops as you use more of it. From a starting point of 100 energy, your regeneration rate starts at 5 but as you have less and less banked, your regen rate will drop as low as 1. So not only do you need to worry about not letting your energy cap out (full energy is unmet potential), but also you can't let it get too low, unless the fight is about to end.

[Atharyia]

Actually, ops have 3 ccs (but one only works for droids). Snipers have two - but again, one only works for droids.

 

Snipers have 3 ccs including the droid one. Debilitate (single target melee cc), flash bang (aoe ranged cc) and slice droid.

 

EDIT: Forgot to mention leg shot. While only a root, it does not add to resolve and can still be used when resolve is full, making it extremely useful.

Edited March 8, 2012 by Atharyia

[Canis_Anubis]

Okay, an 8 second disorient isn't crowd control. Crowd control is something you can use to completely neutralize a mob while you kill his buddy. The operative sports two real crowd control abilities, sleep dart (instant, out of combat, from stealth, bio only), and slice droid (1.5 second cast, droid only).

[DarthPunitor]

Yes it is a fairly noob question, but to be fair, this is my first research method into the character, rather than reading all the class guides. I understand from RP how the IA differs from bounty hunter - but from playstyle, how does a DPS agent differ from a DPS bounty hunter? Looking for an under 250 word answer if possible summarizing the differences. FYI I've done the inquisitor, warrior and bounty hunter already, I have a tank and a healer out of those, I'm not looking for another healer, so I'm asking for DPS playstyle comparisons.

 

I have a 46 mercenary-arsenal and a 24 operative-concealment. THERE IS A BIG DIFFERENCE. yes, mercs have more utility, and, imo, a better rotation available. However, operative burst dps is extremely lethal and very satisfying in pvp type warzones. DPS operatives are close range, stealthy, bad *** assasins.

 

Im not as familiar with snipers, but imo theyre far less mobile than bh's and rely on high crit shots.

[DarthPunitor]

Snipers have 3 ccs including the droid one. Debilitate (single target melee cc), flash bang (aoe ranged cc) and slice droid.

 

debilitate is a stun, if you included that operatives would have 4: debilitate, flash bang, sleep dart, slice droid

[Kahzard]

Okay, an 8 second disorient isn't crowd control. Crowd control is something you can use to completely neutralize a mob while you kill his buddy. The operative sports two real crowd control abilities, sleep dart (instant, out of combat, from stealth, bio only), and slice droid (1.5 second cast, droid only).

 

Crowd control is anything that stops or hinders the crowd or mob from acting normally...usually three forms include a root, a mez/sleep, or a hold/stun. Some can be stacked, some can be long lasting, and some break on damage...but they are a cc.

 

All cc's are not the same strength but the all do slow/impede damage.

 

You can even go as far as saying Knock downs/Knock backs along with slows are also minor forms of CC if used right.

 

Sniper actually has a few reliable cc's Flash Gernade, Slice Droid, Leg Shot (root), and debhilitate.

 

You can also spec into some minor ones like Knock back on Aim shot or a root added to your aoe knockback.

Edited March 8, 2012 by Kahzard

[ConnorSalak]

Snipers are alright. Handy buffs, decent ranged DPS. Operatives, worst class in the game.

 

Playing a Sniper I still disagree: when I picked this specialization, the forums had many threads like "Snipers suck", "Operatives are the strongest" ... So I guess it all depends on your preferences and playstyle.

I like(d) the stealth aspect as it allows you to omit unnecessary fights in PVE (my 1st was a JC-Shadow) and certainly gives you the chance to backstab.

Just imagine the sniper having stealth (like the ME2 class): would be god mode

 

Well, I think that the Sniper and the Operative are just two _very_ different classes:

As somebody wrote in another thread (was it about comparing these two classes? I don't remember): To play the Sniper use tactics, to play the Operative employ strategy.

 

From my PVE point of view:

The Sniper is a straight shooter (in any sense), the Operative(&Scoundrel) is likely the only class being able to be a kind of Jack of all trades (being master of none).

As I like to kill fast and hard (extreme burst DPS) and don't care much about healing, I chose the Sniper (mid 40's: 4K damage with 1st Ambush + explosive Probe in PVE don't leave many mobs standing). With a healer companion the sniper is being able to survive more than one elite/hard mob at a time (at least when they're ranged).

The downside is you're squishy and you generate a lot of threat.

 

In terms of storyline, as you can read everywhere the IA's is great. Dark, feels "real", lots of decisions, epic moments, conspiracy...

 

Yeah, I really like my Sniper!

[DarthPunitor]

From my PVE point of view:

The Sniper is a straight shooter (in any sense), the Operative(&Scoundrel) is likely the only class being able to be a kind of Jack of all trades (being master of none).

As I like to kill fast and hard (extreme burst DPS) and don't care much about healing, I chose the Sniper (mid 40's: 4K damage with 1st Ambush + explosive Probe in PVE don't leave many mobs standing). With a healer companion the sniper is being able to survive more than one elite/hard mob at a time (at least when they're ranged).

The downside is you're squishy and you generate a lot of threat.

 

I gotta say that as an operative i agree. I find pve much more challenging than when i played as a mer, another pretty bold and up front class.

 

in pvp, however, the operative is incredibly fun to play. just so many things you can do. i have a lot harder time stacking up damage than i do with my merc, but the kills are much more satisfying, and all of the evasions and cloaks give my operative more opportunities to get unbeatable and invincible.

[Canis_Anubis]

Crowd control is anything that stops or hinders the crowd or mob from acting normally...usually three forms include a root, a mez/sleep, or a hold/stun. Some can be stacked, some can be long lasting, and some break on damage...but they are a cc.

 

All cc's are not the same strength but the all do slow/impede damage.

 

You can even go as far as saying Knock downs/Knock backs along with slows are also minor forms of CC if used right.

 

Sniper actually has a few reliable cc's Flash Gernade, Slice Droid, Leg Shot (root), and debhilitate.

 

You can also spec into some minor ones like Knock back on Aim shot or a root added to your aoe knockback.

 

We'll just agree to disagree. I'm not interested in getting into a semantic argument about the definition of crowd control.

 

My point is that it's only the long-term CC's that really affect your utility in a Flashpoint or Operation. Will stunning/disorienting trash mobs reduce their damage output during an encounter? Sure. Will any group bother to coordinate their use? No. Will the presence of that ability determine whether you're invited to run flashpoints with a team? No. If you drop flashbang in an instance, it's going to be broken the next time the tank's AOE is off cooldown. Knockdowns are just stuns with an annoying side effect, short term disorients are broken at the first opportunity, and roots are highly situational, especially roots whose duration doesn't exceed their cooldown. I'm not saying that you shouldn't bother to map these abilities to your bar, but if you think their presence makes your class more attractive to groups than another, you're mistaken.

[Canis_Anubis]

From my PVE point of view:

The Sniper is a straight shooter (in any sense), the Operative(&Scoundrel) is likely the only class being able to be a kind of Jack of all trades (being master of none).

 

Given that PVE group play is all about roles and specialization, I don't think being a jack of all trades can be considered meritorious in anyway.

 

FWIW, I enjoy my operative immensely, but I haven't gotten to the grouping phase of the game yet. What I do know is that the operative is functionally either a healer or melee DPS. If you appear occasionally to be using ranged attacks in your rotation, don't let that fool you. The filler may be ranged but the essence of the class is up close and personal.

Edited March 12, 2012 by Canis_Anubis

[CTifer]

I've got a 50 BH (Merc) and tomorrow, I'll be able to say I have a lvl 50 IA (Sniper).

 

The main difference I see is BH has to spam 1 attack constantly (Tracer Missles) to stack armor debuffs. Their big AoE is better because the damage is dished out over a few seconds whereas Orbital Strike takes 9 seconds.

 

As for the guy ************ and moaning that no one wants an agent because they don't have any utility: I have Flash Bang, a slow, an immobilize, a droid-specific stun (with long duration) and an interrupt.

 

One thing to know because apparently everyoneI group with on my BH thinks this: Mercs do NOT get an interrupt.

[Kahzard]

We'll just agree to disagree. I'm not interested in getting into a semantic argument about the definition of crowd control.

 

My point is that it's only the long-term CC's that really affect your utility in a Flashpoint or Operation. Will stunning/disorienting trash mobs reduce their damage output during an encounter? Sure. Will any group bother to coordinate their use? No. Will the presence of that ability determine whether you're invited to run flashpoints with a team? No. If you drop flashbang in an instance, it's going to be broken the next time the tank's AOE is off cooldown. Knockdowns are just stuns with an annoying side effect, short term disorients are broken at the first opportunity, and roots are highly situational, especially roots whose duration doesn't exceed their cooldown. I'm not saying that you shouldn't bother to map these abilities to your bar, but if you think their presence makes your class more attractive to groups than another, you're mistaken.

 

Actually yes I do think those abilities make me more attractive to another group...the Tank I run with sees flashbang go off guess what he does he focuses on one target and not aoe the group. Maybe the people I run with are just better at working things out, not sure however I find the tools that a sniper has very useful in many situations in just about every flashpoint I run.

 

I'm sorry your experience may differ from my own but I have run with several tanks that often make comments of how they had wished my sniper was with them earlier because of situations we have gotten out of due to some of these abilities you underestimate.

 

I also use my abilites to protect my healers. A mob peels off, is too spread out to actually be picked up by the tank or one of a thousand adds that spawn as part of an encounter. Flashbang one group gives the tank 8 seconds to establish agro on them. It buys the healer 8 seconds of not being hit. It buys the group 8 seconds of adjusting to the new threat. 8 seconds is a heck of a long time in a game.

Edited March 14, 2012 by Kahzard