Why I'm no longer playing concealment/srapper

[vennian]

I loved the concealment/scrapper spec up until 3.0. No longer.

(Caveat: I'm mainly a PVP'er. PVE -wise I always used a tank-companion to grab aggro and expose mobs backs.)

 

 

1) Besides the burst being gone there are a few QOL things that have made me lose my identity as a scrapper/concealment

 

- We lost the "trigger at will" animations for Acid Blade/Flechette Round. It's now a boring passive. But half of my identity as a scrapper/concealment was the sheer fun of being able to use the move at any given time. I loved applying that poison, loading that round so much that sometimes i cost me too much energy for the sheer fun of doing it. I loved the signifier of the buff icon saying "don't turn your back on me or bad things happen". Now, I feel generic

 

- I mentioned the loss of burst. I will not elaborate.

 

- You took away our major heal. In PVP it was kind of an art to find a spot and a timing to apply that heal. Now we got some silly HOT's that won't do anything as the healing isn't coming on fast enough. Appllying the heals cost too much in GCD in a fight to be worth it as the healing is too slow.

 

- Blood Boiler. Besides it being somewhat unreliable and delayed it's a major loss of immersion as a scrapper suddenly relying on a PROBE as an animation. It feels wrong. Probes are the trademarks of agents. What's next? Do we get a vibrosword too?

 

- We used to be fast and slippery. A trait we shared with a FEW other specs. Now that trait is a generic utility point?

 

- I must admit I'm not fond of shank shot. I miss the days when we actually had to position ourselves behind the enemy by being faster and better at getting behind them. Shank shot is boring.

 

- Energy management. This is not an issue at all any longer. Cool head and Adrenaline Probe are now superfluous. Boring!

 

- Minor niggle. The loss of "shoot first"/"hidden strike" means that we now have to be very careful about stealthing during PVP if we want to reengage as backblast might be on cooldown. This is likely me having to L2P, but the change is annoying.

 

All in all i feel like you succeeded in removing both the fun, the identity and viability of the whole spec. It's too mainstream. I'm going to try out ruffian. Scrapper/concealment is dead to me.

Edited December 6, 2014 by vennian

[ishbindeinvater]

I played some FPs and war zones and due to my macros it was a little bit boring but damage was nice. I am still lv 55 so I don't have the +30 crit and the lv 57 skill yet. In PVP I was wrecking people (was in the better team though). So many yellow numbers flowing.

 

I will try out lethality though because seems more versatile.

[Devako]

I agree that they really "drove" these class specs right into the ground, not only are they now annoying to play but boring as hell, fire a few shots or punch/stab and that's it.... all started getting boring for me on my Operative and Scrapper once they removed the "knockdown" effects and with the loss of Orbital Strike/Flyby....yea this class is dead to me for sure. After reading the responses as to why all the changes they made is utter crap and lame excuses just like when we lost those "usable while stunned only" skills on all classes back in the day...just because some people may not have used it doesn't mean it should've been removed. Edited December 5, 2014 by Devako

[wishihadaname]

I'm with you guys though I used to be lethality. The loss of our heals really hit this spec hard, lethality was always a rapidly regenerating and slippery skirmisher. Annoying if managed correctly, lethal if not. Now its just a stinkbug, it spreads the weakest dots in the game and then has to get into melee range to actually do anything with them. Everything is now more mobile and we lost our comparative advantage in mobility. We still have no decent DCD (though the ultimate utilty to stim boost is nice) and wither fast under focus fire.

 

Those are all balance issues though, the real problem is that this class is just NOT FUN. When I rolled an operative I had something like the infiltrator class from mass effect in mind. Nimble, stealthy, engage at any range with a wide variety of tools. And at launch it was like that, we had very good melee damage, passable ranged damage, the unique utility that is cover, airstrikes, healing, stealth, and great CC. I would have preferred if we favored ranged combat over melee but other than that it was great. Then they started changing stuff, simplifying and streamlining. We progressively became more and more of a pure melee dot class. They don't want us using AOE's, cover, cast abilities, heals, stealth (otherwise we wouldn't be stuck in combat so much), or ranged attacks in general. Our toolbox keeps getting smaller and we've never been particularly good.

 

I'm out, time to play my commando I guess.

[Mubrak]

I'm with you guys though I used to be lethality. The loss of our heals really hit this spec hard, lethality was always a rapidly regenerating and slippery skirmisher.

 

We lost the 2.5 sec 5k heal, and got an insta-cast hot. With the lol-roll proc Lethality/Ruffian still can insta-cast the 2.5k heal+hot. And we now also can have the 5% heal on shield probe collapse. So even less need to stand still.

 

Healing isn't really the problem, Imo. The 50% cooldown time increase on shield probe is.

Edited December 5, 2014 by Mubrak

[QuiveringPotato]

We lost the 2.5 sec 5k heal, and got an insta-cast hot. With the lol-roll proc Lethality/Ruffian still can insta-cast the 2.5k heal+hot. And we now also can have the 5% heal on shield probe collapse. So even less need to stand still.

 

Healing isn't really the problem, Imo. The 50% cooldown time increase on shield probe is.

 

Yeah, I agree. If the CD is that long, that heal should be a 10% total HP heal, I think.

Edited December 5, 2014 by QuiveringPotato

[Pilgrim_Grey]

I'm missing the flechette round, but it's also kind of nice not to need to replace it. So it's a wash for me with that. I actually miss using blaster whip, as the shotgun but animation just feels a little weird. But hopefully those who wanted more shotgun animations are enjoying it.

 

But I rather love shank shot. It makes soloing in PVE much better (no longer do you need to waste a stun to get a backblast in), and it's a great way to dodge some damage in PVP. People have major issues with that, and with how laggy my game gets, I know it throws people off when you move around them.

 

Actually, I'm liking my Scrapper more now than I was before.

[Urelro]

I think the scrapper now has nothing that looks special. Blood Boiler is one of the most boring animation of all new animations. Its not so much fun now to play the scrapper.

[Mannam]

I leveled an Operative to 55 previously, and tried leveling another to choose different outcome. I tried the KDY Tactial FP, and got the Jedi Boss. Bounced around so much, and with no closer my dps tanked. Getting into 5m to land a shiv only to be thrown across the room. Gets old really fast.

 

I would love if they gave Ops Zipline, but without the threat. And made Cull 15m instead of 10m. Having the TA as 24 seconds is great start. As a Lethality Op at only level 17, I am hoping it gets better. Otherwise shelving this toon, I found leveling the previous one a tad boring. Apart from the story, so could end up rolling a Sniper.

[Shipwright]

The Op/Scoundrel ha lost a lot of fun for me, and I have little desire to play them anymore. Once my favorites, they are my least favorites now. Sad.

 

I tinker with them a bit now in hopes of finding some of the fun I found before but seems to be gone. Just lost too many fun abilities for my taste.

[XxCowBoyDanxX]

What is the point of having 2 stun abilities. Even one stun was redundant for PVE, giving us a second is a slap in the face. I don't even wanna get started on veiled strike. *** Bioware, did you even try or was concealment op an "oops I almost for got this class" moment?

[snave]

I have quite a few problems with the "new" style of playing concealment. When I first saw the changes I figured that BW were relying on us having HOTS up constantly and rolling to avoid damage constantly, in terms of damage I figured the overall play style and "feel" of the class would remain somewhat intact.

 

The removal of hidden strike and having backstab from stealth share a cool down with regular backstab is a HORRIBLE change to play style. Frequently I would use a vanish in to hidden strike to interrupt a cast or to act like an execute style move but now the only way I can do that is to not use backstab which is obviously not a viable option. Even if the stars align and I happen to have backstab off cooldown I no longer have Jarring Strike (I consider the defensive utilities a much higher priority) so I can't interrupt them any way.

 

Volatile Substance taking 3+ seconds to initiate and only working on our DOTS means we have to apply it immediately after using backstab to get the acid blade tick to proc it which is obviously very easy to counter, I find myself having to keep corrosive dart on my target which in turn decreases the value of our flash bang. Why on earth they decided to give the stealth tree the DOT based move and not have it in lethality makes zero sense to me.

 

Crippling Slice sounds lovely in theory but during my levelling time mobs were continuously hitting me over their shoulders because of the increase hit radius, getting in to that sweet spot behind someone in PvP when you're moving around and the game engine isn't showing their position correctly is very much hit and miss. Channelled abilities don't seem to care if we move directly behind them and all in all it's just a very lacklustre ability.

 

Upgraded shiv is simply just that, it's lazy design and brings nothing to the table other than marginally higher numbers.

 

Kolto Probe is great assuming you can have 2 stacks up when you engage in combat, this doesn't happen often and I find it difficult to use this ability during the start of a fight when we're meant to be bursting down people. Using 2 GCD's to apply the probes is a somewhat unacceptable trade off but without them (and even with them) we simply get torn apart.

 

The thing that bothers me the most is that the class simply doesn't feel the same any more. It just isn't very enjoyable for me to play concealment any more and that's a little bit sad.

 

Solutions:

 

• Have backstab from stealth no longer trigger the cooldown on backstab, have vanish reset the cooldown on backstab. Alternatively give concealment Lethal Strike, have it function in the same way that backstab does now (big hit from stealth, weaker hit outside of stealth) and give it the same cool down as volatile substance to avoid any potential large DPS drop. The second idea would need some tweaking but I feel the concept is fine and at least in line with the spec.
   
  
• Crippling Slice should stun / interrupt the target for 1s to at least allow us to move in to position without having channelled abilities follow us.
   
  
• Jarring Strike needs to be baseline for concealment, having this as a top tier utility is stupid
   
  
• New utility - Kolto Probe now apply two stacks upon leaving stealth
   
  
• Volatile Substance should detonate from ANY damage we do, leave the 3s delay if you must but making it DOT specific serves no real purpose other than to annoy
  

 

As it stands concealment is no longer fun for me to play and enjoying concealment was pretty much the main reason I played the game.

[Pilgrim_Grey]

Solutions:

 

• Have backstab from stealth no longer trigger the cooldown on backstab, have vanish reset the cooldown on backstab. Alternatively give concealment Lethal Strike, have it function in the same way that backstab does now (big hit from stealth, weaker hit outside of stealth) and give it the same cool down as volatile substance to avoid any potential large DPS drop. The second idea would need some tweaking but I feel the concept is fine and at least in line with the spec.
   
  
• Crippling Slice should stun / interrupt the target for 1s to at least allow us to move in to position without having channelled abilities follow us.
   
  
• Jarring Strike needs to be baseline for concealment, having this as a top tier utility is stupid
   
  
• New utility - Kolto Probe now apply two stacks upon leaving stealth
   
  
• Volatile Substance should detonate from ANY damage we do, leave the 3s delay if you must but making it DOT specific serves no real purpose other than to annoy
  

 

As it stands concealment is no longer fun for me to play and enjoying concealment was pretty much the main reason I played the game.

 

I'm with you on some adjustments being needed, but some of those sound a bit over the top, particularly the kolto probe. I agree it's a little tricky to apply mid-fight, but I don't know that the devs were intending it to be on us when we dropped into a fight, necessarily. It's just access to a heal ability that isn't meant to be quite as strong as underworld med (or whatever that channeled heal was name, brain fart right now). If anything, it works better as a heal for the dps classes, since you can use it on the run. I actually was thinking it's overpowered when I was playing tonight, as I broke 100k healing in the tier 2 bracket, and I was hardly focusing on throwing it on me and teammates, just throwing it when I was on the move and not fighting. Giving it to us as we drop from stealth would be overly strong.

 

As for volatile substance/blood boiler, I dunno. I don't see it as a big deal to have it trigger on bleeds, since it's not hard to apply those with how the spec is set up. Is it really that big of a deal to drop it after a backstab? or with a wounding shots? I guess I'm not seeing it as that big of a deal, though it is a little lame to have a key power trigger so much on that bleed, rather than a 3 second timer.

 

I really agree about Jarring Strike... I have no clue why that's an add-on, let alone a top tier. It's a seemingly minor thing, but a really big help in a fight (or nice option) that isn't overpowered.

 

I can't comment on crippling slice... the game is laggy enough still that I can never tell if I'm having a harder time getting in that hiding area and having a harder time getting to the spot for backstab to happen, or if it's just lag. I have found it annoying how big the "they're behind you" zone seems to be in some pvp matches already, so I'd be leery of changing that at all. The interrupt (if jarring strike isn't changed) seems fairish, though.

[Nocturnalg]

As for volatile substance/blood boiler, I dunno. I don't see it as a big deal to have it trigger on bleeds, since it's not hard to apply those with how the spec is set up. Is it really that big of a deal to drop it after a backstab? or with a wounding shots? I guess I'm not seeing it as that big of a deal, though it is a little lame to have a key power trigger so much on that bleed, rather than a 3 second timer.

 

I agree with most of what you've been saying. But in practice the timing window is actually very small to get it to activate when using backstab. It's doable but often the dot doesn't tick at the right second to activate Volatile and then the dot falls off. Wounding shots/Corrosive Dart remedies this due to the duration being 18 seconds.

 

Either way I'm gonna try to make it work better, Perhaps a little alacrity to speed up the dot ticks could increase consistency of application.

 

 

Edit: I should note that this is only a relevant "issue" during the opener when you are using backstab out of stealth and are unable to do it again. If you choose not to open with backstab or if you are already in a combat out of stealth situation, you can simply use bloodboil/volitile substance first and backstab later in the rotation.

 

I really agree about Jarring Strike... I have no clue why that's an add-on, let alone a top tier. It's a seemingly minor thing, but a really big help in a fight (or nice option) that isn't overpowered.

 

Yeah agreed. Should be built in or lower in the tree. Cant afford to spend a heroic utility on it but it's kinda integral to a stealth class.

 

 

As far as survivability goes things are more than fine.

Edited December 7, 2014 by Nocturnalg

[Baalzamon]

Concealment op went from being the most fun spec for me to play to the most boring one.........

[texoc]

....

Solutions:

 

[*]Have backstab from stealth no longer trigger the cooldown on backstab, have vanish reset the cooldown on backstab.

....

 

They caused to much problems with the removal of hidden strike.

 

Implementing your solution would create 1.0 Operative burst.

 

Opener -> Blood Boiler -> backblast -> vanish -> backblast -> sucker -> sucker > Bludgeon ->sucker -> stim boost-sucker

 

Your opening rotation has 4 abillities that can crit for 10k+ and than following up with 5 abillities that crit for 7k+ not even counting in acidblade and collateral strikes.

 

Bring Opener back, give us an uttility that enables Hidden Strike to be used out of stealth or a proc that enables hidden strike to be used out of stealth every 10-15 secs, without granting TA, increase cooldown to 12 sec (prior 9secs) . Remove extra dmg on backstab. Improve "Jarring Strike" ( 1 sec stun on opener or give KD back or see first solution)

Make Volatile explode after 3 seconds much like PT Grenade.

Eventually decrease Backstab and Veiled Strike dmg by 5%.

Done!

[snave]

They caused to much problems with the removal of hidden strike.

 

Implementing your solution would create 1.0 Operative burst.

 

Opener -> Blood Boiler -> backblast -> vanish -> backblast -> sucker -> sucker > Bludgeon ->sucker -> stim boost-sucker

 

Your opening rotation has 4 abillities that can crit for 10k+ and than following up with 5 abillities that crit for 7k+ not even counting in acidblade and collateral strikes.

 

Bring Opener back, give us an uttility that enables Hidden Strike to be used out of stealth or a proc that enables hidden strike to be used out of stealth every 10-15 secs, without granting TA, increase cooldown to 12 sec (prior 9secs) . Remove extra dmg on backstab. Improve "Jarring Strike" ( 1 sec stun on opener or give KD back or see first solution)

Make Volatile explode after 3 seconds much like PT Grenade.

Eventually decrease Backstab and Veiled Strike dmg by 5%.

Done!

 

Well to be fair in 2.X you could do a similar rotation, just replace Volatile Substance with Explosive Probe and factor in the 6s CD on HS

 

HS > EP > BS > LC > Vanish > HS > BS > LC > LC > Shiv > LC > Stim Boost > LC

 

I agree that Volatile Substance hits hard and more often than Explosive Probe which would result in more burst and also being able to HS>BS>HS>BS does sound like it could potentially be an issue but you can solve this by simply putting a ICD on the Backstab cooldown refresh. "Entering Stealth resets the CD on Backstab - cannot occur more than once every 6s.

 

I agree with the rest of your post too, really think they dropped the ball by not giving Concealment Lethal Strike as a straight replacement for Hidden Strike and incorporating the use out of stealth in to that ability, seems like that was something we'd been asking for over and over on these forums.

[Haystak]

I leveled my scoundrel. Got all the new gear. Its fun, sometimes, but in reality it still lacks a place in pvp.

 

Mostly we were made worthless by the sheer amount of heals being thrown out now. I have seen a sorc self heal himself and gaurd, through the onslought of atleast 3 veteran players. I have seen a tank take 2.75 million damage in a warzone, have 1.77 million in protection, and still never die.

 

level your scrapper for pve, not pvp. it is depressing to see how well we do when the oppenent doesnt kite, or use defensive cooldowns, compared to when they do.

Edited December 7, 2014 by Haystak

[texoc]

However im quite happy with our defenses right now, kudos for the changes BW.

They dont seem much on paper but are quite incredible ingame.

 

Been playing concealment in yolo ranked since day 2 of EA. No problems so far, no facks given when focused.

Best part is if you exfiltrate dodge a e-net... man this made my day. The delayed burst is quite handy and many players still cant handle the sudden loss of 20k hp. The out of stealth burst and pressure is higher than pre 3.0, but i still Feeling like something is missing...

[FoE_Khorne]

I have quite a few problems with the "new" style of playing concealment. When I first saw the changes I figured that BW were relying on us having HOTS up constantly and rolling to avoid damage constantly, in terms of damage I figured the overall play style and "feel" of the class would remain somewhat intact.

 

The removal of hidden strike and having backstab from stealth share a cool down with regular backstab is a HORRIBLE change to play style. Frequently I would use a vanish in to hidden strike to interrupt a cast or to act like an execute style move but now the only way I can do that is to not use backstab which is obviously not a viable option. Even if the stars align and I happen to have backstab off cooldown I no longer have Jarring Strike (I consider the defensive utilities a much higher priority) so I can't interrupt them any way.

 

Volatile Substance taking 3+ seconds to initiate and only working on our DOTS means we have to apply it immediately after using backstab to get the acid blade tick to proc it which is obviously very easy to counter, I find myself having to keep corrosive dart on my target which in turn decreases the value of our flash bang. Why on earth they decided to give the stealth tree the DOT based move and not have it in lethality makes zero sense to me.

 

Crippling Slice sounds lovely in theory but during my levelling time mobs were continuously hitting me over their shoulders because of the increase hit radius, getting in to that sweet spot behind someone in PvP when you're moving around and the game engine isn't showing their position correctly is very much hit and miss. Channelled abilities don't seem to care if we move directly behind them and all in all it's just a very lacklustre ability.

 

Upgraded shiv is simply just that, it's lazy design and brings nothing to the table other than marginally higher numbers.

 

Kolto Probe is great assuming you can have 2 stacks up when you engage in combat, this doesn't happen often and I find it difficult to use this ability during the start of a fight when we're meant to be bursting down people. Using 2 GCD's to apply the probes is a somewhat unacceptable trade off but without them (and even with them) we simply get torn apart.

 

The thing that bothers me the most is that the class simply doesn't feel the same any more. It just isn't very enjoyable for me to play concealment any more and that's a little bit sad.

 

Solutions:

 

• Have backstab from stealth no longer trigger the cooldown on backstab, have vanish reset the cooldown on backstab. Alternatively give concealment Lethal Strike, have it function in the same way that backstab does now (big hit from stealth, weaker hit outside of stealth) and give it the same cool down as volatile substance to avoid any potential large DPS drop. The second idea would need some tweaking but I feel the concept is fine and at least in line with the spec.
   
  
• Crippling Slice should stun / interrupt the target for 1s to at least allow us to move in to position without having channelled abilities follow us.
   
  
• Jarring Strike needs to be baseline for concealment, having this as a top tier utility is stupid
   
  
• New utility - Kolto Probe now apply two stacks upon leaving stealth
   
  
• Volatile Substance should detonate from ANY damage we do, leave the 3s delay if you must but making it DOT specific serves no real purpose other than to annoy
  

 

As it stands concealment is no longer fun for me to play and enjoying concealment was pretty much the main reason I played the game.

 

I'm rather surprised by your post... I've been loving the new concealment. The only gripes I have are not having backstab when i re-stealth. The easiest fix would be to make cloaking screen refresh the cooldown on backstab IMO. And volatile needs to hit on the 1st dot damage, regardless of time after application. And maybe increase the duration of the 6 piece set bonus... its annoying having it proc right after a VS just exploded, and then the proc is gone by the time it is off cooldown.

 

I've pulled near 2.3k dps in an arena already, and I'm not full dark reaver gear yet. And I find myself being very very hard to kill even under pressure from multiple people. I really cant speak negatively about the spec. The best overall I've done was 1.6k dps and 900 hps in a voidstar.

 

Of course it isn't the same. I miss hidden strike and the acid blade sound/animation ALOT... But it certainly is in a better place than pre- 3.0.

[FoE_Khorne]

Well to be fair in 2.X you could do a similar rotation, just replace Volatile Substance with Explosive Probe and factor in the 6s CD on HS

 

HS > EP > BS > LC > Vanish > HS > BS > LC > LC > Shiv > LC > Stim Boost > LC

 

I agree that Volatile Substance hits hard and more often than Explosive Probe which would result in more burst and also being able to HS>BS>HS>BS does sound like it could potentially be an issue but you can solve this by simply putting a ICD on the Backstab cooldown refresh. "Entering Stealth resets the CD on Backstab - cannot occur more than once every 6s.

 

I agree with the rest of your post too, really think they dropped the ball by not giving Concealment Lethal Strike as a straight replacement for Hidden Strike and incorporating the use out of stealth in to that ability, seems like that was something we'd been asking for over and over on these forums.

 

Ive been messing around dueling guildies with fulll 60 pvp gear.... The highest opening burst i have was a backstab 10k --- x2 acid blade crits ~800 x4 at 400 --- 8.5k veiled strike ---- 11.2k vs - --- 8.4k lacerate + 1.2k cs...

Which totaled ~43000 damage... killed him in 4 GCD. Order of BS --> Volatile --> vs --Lacerate. The volatile auto crits hits when lacerate hits. Sure the crit gods smiled at me on the veiled strike and lacerate... but you can do that type of burst very often. even if they didnt crit it would have left him undeer 25% hp left. .. Followed by dart and x2 lacerates, and veiled strike, and another backstab for another possible near or over 40k damage in 5 gcd.... then its back to VS burst phase. And your energy is still near topped off unless you casted probes in there. Also keep in mind, that this was out side of a warzone... when im in a warzone I have 200 more tech power.

Edited December 7, 2014 by FoE_Khorne

[FoE_Khorne]

I leveled my scoundrel. Got all the new gear. Its fun, sometimes, but in reality it still lacks a place in pvp.

 

Mostly we were made worthless by the sheer amount of heals being thrown out now. I have seen a sorc self heal himself and gaurd, through the onslought of atleast 3 veteran players. I have seen a tank take 2.75 million damage in a warzone, have 1.77 million in protection, and still never die.

 

level your scrapper for pve, not pvp. it is depressing to see how well we do when the oppenent doesnt kite, or use defensive cooldowns, compared to when they do.

 

Sounds like people were more concerned about dot spread that doing focusing the heals. He wouldnt have lived that long unless; there was no direct effort form 3 people, or if there was a 2nd healer freecasting on him. Even through guard 3 good dps should be able to hit a healer for 30-50k in 4 gcd... Meaning the tank and healer die in short order afterwards. Ive seen it happening against healers which in other matches have done 3.5k+ hps

Edited December 7, 2014 by FoE_Khorne

[Mel_the_Jedi]

I've been loving the new concealment...

 

Nice to see someone is doing well with the changes. What Utilities are you running currently?

[Haystak]

Sounds like people were more concerned about dot spread that doing focusing the heals. He wouldnt have lived that long unless; there was no direct effort form 3 people, or if there was a 2nd healer freecasting on him. Even through guard 3 good dps should be able to hit a healer for 30-50k in 4 gcd... Meaning the tank and healer die in short order afterwards. Ive seen it happening against healers which in other matches have done 3.5k+ hps

 

LoS played a big factor. He was pillar humping the whole match, and with his tank peeling for him, it was relatively easy for his to do so, as 2 of the other players hitting him were ranged. Coordinating burst and stuns was problematic, as for the most part only two of use at a time could really hit him. Over the course of the match though, he racked out 2.8 mil in heals, which is the most I have seen personally without some odd mechanics to get in the way.

 

Tanking as always hurts a lot of the single target damage classes. They may do really well at pve, but in pvp they get neutered by a gaurd real quick.

 

You do have a short burst tactic with blood boiler, but considering the requirements to get to use it, your going to have to play very smart to make use of it. Meaning your going to have to lure that burst phase out of the opposing team in arenas, and negate it with a well timed roll. and then roll back to your target to go through your burst phase. It is still quite easy for a scoundrel be be burst to hell though, so like I said before, you pretty much have to catch your opponents pants down to get that burst off effectively.

[snave]

Ive been messing around dueling guildies with fulll 60 pvp gear.... The highest opening burst i have was a backstab 10k --- x2 acid blade crits ~800 x4 at 400 --- 8.5k veiled strike ---- 11.2k vs - --- 8.4k lacerate + 1.2k cs...

Which totaled ~43000 damage... killed him in 4 GCD. Order of BS --> Volatile --> vs --Lacerate. The volatile auto crits hits when lacerate hits. Sure the crit gods smiled at me on the veiled strike and lacerate... but you can do that type of burst very often. even if they didnt crit it would have left him undeer 25% hp left. .. Followed by dart and x2 lacerates, and veiled strike, and another backstab for another possible near or over 40k damage in 5 gcd.... then its back to VS burst phase. And your energy is still near topped off unless you casted probes in there. Also keep in mind, that this was out side of a warzone... when im in a warzone I have 200 more tech power.

 

No offence intended here but that level (or at least comparable) of burst has always been possible, it relies on everything critting and the opposing player doing literally nothing to prevent the damage. I've got 3 pvp videos filled with this type of thing happening and in pretty much every case the main factor was the other player being sub par in their counter play.

 

It appears our personal experiences vary quite a lot at the moment, granted I've not played a huge amount recently but in the games that I did play I felt super ineffective compared to what other classes were doing. Glad it's working out for you though and I'd appreciate it if you could share your talent / rotation / play style so I can try to emulate it.