Advance classes on bosses

[Anrew]

I'm just curious for a rundown on how does dps operative and snipers do on bosses in hm's and operations. I get that alot of operative dps requires you to be coming out of stealth so on a boss fight I'm kinda curious if they are in demand as dps or if they are more for heals, especially since they are boosting their heals with 1.2 if I understood right.

 

So in hm's and operations am I going to be more looked for as an operative or sniper? Or I guess I should really also ask what are the pros/cons of both in each situation.

[chuixupu]

Honestly, right now nobody is actively looking for Operatives as dps. Melee in general has more issues on bosses than ranged. But I'm an Operative dps and my guild and I are BFF and I sometimes need to heal. Considering things will continue to change in this game, I always say pick whatever you have more fun with. But I think right now if your only selling point is what you'll be more likely to get an invite for in a pug group, then go Sniper. Unless you want to have a healing offspec option. Edited March 14, 2012 by chuixupu

[Anrew]

The thing that is kind of putting me off as an operative atm and making me lean toward sniper is I have a sage and a shadow already. Granted I'm pretty horrible pvp wise on my shadow. I guess I do decent as tank spec on my shadow, but not really anything special. I'm bad at picking my targets and generally blow power skills on something with the force armor buff on it..

 

So back on topic the operative and shadow dps in my mind anyway kind of seem to have the same focus. Just having a hard time choosing an advanced class. So not sure which way to go..

[Anticlonus]

Seem to do fine as melee dps.

 

Snipers seem to run into issues on any fight that can consistently knock them out of their cover. I think I've noticed this mostly on the Infernal Council in EV (I've seen issues occur mostly vs maras, but also with assassins). But like any other situation, they can still pull it off with enough persistence, AND its really the only major case I can think of.

 

Without any kind of log, all I can really say is that I appear to be holding my own in a fight, but I do notice that as melee I can be at a disadvantage on encounters such as bulwark, as I lose dps due to taking cover under the consoles.

[Kamay]

the sniper in my guild can put out good damage

as long as he doesn't have to move

[Irenicus_Jon]

There are rarely any fights where you need to DPS on the move with a sniper (perhaps when killing at during Gharj's phase switches, but you can throw grenades for that). When you need to reposition, you can always use an instant attack (corrosive dart, shatter shot, rifleshot if you are desperate) if you can't afford to go into cover for a sec (assuming you are MM sniper). Even as a MM sniper you can take the instant snipe on entering cover, kneel down for a sec for instant snipe, and followthrough on the run.

 

The only disruptive instance is the council fight in EV where only on normal mode your 1v1 target has an annoying knockback that pushes you out of cover, even that is only annoying for MM snipers, and they can still pull off the instant snipe + followthrough to make for lost time (you can also time your big channeling shots like ambush and SoS right after a knockback so they don't get interrupted). As of now there isn't any encounter that punishes a sniper for having to stay in cover.

[Urothefox]

I'm an operative. My guild regularly clears HM operations and beat enrage timers pretty handily. Sometimes we encounter enrage when one of our silly sorcs or marauders pulls aggro and dies leaving us short on a dps. For the council fight, I'm usually on one of the mobs designated for the tank because we single tank EV.

 

I can see the allure of the sniper (that force field is pretty nice), but if you know what you're doing and play smart, there's no reason you can't do well.

[Anrew]

Thanks again for the replies. Still can't make a choice.