Nerf Annihilation Marauder

[Gyronamics]

It is beyond irritating to see people using dummy parses as straight evidence for ANYTHING.

 

What's that class bottom 3rd for touching up dummies. Oh its AP PT.

 

GUESS NO ONE BRINGS THAT TO NIM RAIDS.

 

Engineering Snipers can touch up those dummies well and they're ranged, must be top picks. RIGHT?

[RikuvonDrake]

It is beyond irritating to see people using dummy parses as straight evidence for ANYTHING.

 

What's that class bottom 3rd for touching up dummies. Oh its AP PT.

 

GUESS NO ONE BRINGS THAT TO NIM RAIDS.

 

Engineering Snipers can touch up those dummies well and they're ranged, must be top picks. RIGHT?

People are using dummy parses as supportive arguments due to lack of experience from top tier raiding, that additionally explains some of the weird arguments made in this discussion. Overall tho, Marauders DPS output in PvE content should be rebalanced a bit, it's a tad bit to high at the moment compared to other classes and demands very little skill to execute.

[Diviciacus]

My favorite part of people crying about class X being overpowered is how close the DPS specs in TOR really are. The entire DPS spread in fully BIS 224 gear is around 11% (from Bant's numbers). That's amazing! +6%/-5% is an absurdly tight DPS spread for an MMO. That's barely even statistically significant! Any difference less than 5% doesn't even matter. It's not significant.

 

And the best part? Almost every class has at least one DPS spec above the median - Guardian/Juggernaut's top spec (Vigilance/Vengeance) is -0.48% below the median (a statistically insignificant number), so only Shadow/Assassin get shafted a little. And I mean a little: Infiltration/Deception are -1.13%, and Serenity/Hatred are 0.86%. WHO CARES?!

 

Look at World of Warcraft right now: There are classes which cap out at doing 30-40% less damage than the top specs. WoW has always been like this, and it's an embarrassment.

[LadyDarkkitten]

Nerf Annihilation Marauder , to achieve class balance

and class balance(and bug fix) should be done frequently

 

Didn't anyone else notice the OP never posted again after this opener? Make an unsubstantiated controversial claim that will get folks riled up then sit back and /popcorn.

 

10/10 troll and the rest of you need to learn2internetz. srs.

[Gyronamics]

Didn't anyone else notice the OP never posted again after this opener? Make an unsubstantiated controversial claim that will get folks riled up then sit back and /popcorn.

 

10/10 troll and the rest of you need to learn2internetz. srs.

 

Yet here you are trying to score points while ironically declaring yourself in a trap.

 

And missing the point that a good argument is entertainment itself, not like there's anything else to do on these forums.

[LosevV]

marauders are capable of one thing: DPS

 

why would you nerf the only reason they're brought into raids?

 

Say it to MM Sniper

Edited June 6, 2016 by LosevV

[g_mK]

Say it to MM Sniper

 

You know there are other specs right?

[LosevV]

You know there are other specs right?

 

And you know there talk about one discipline, not about whole class, right?

And my post was about Bioware doesn't give a ...do not care about what the class can do. They nerf it, if they want. MM discipline of Snipers was nerfed even through Sniper only able to do damage, so there nothing strange if they would nerf Marauder.

Edited June 7, 2016 by LosevV

[LudhaninRolgge]

Why would a class only capable of damage be immune to nerf ? Edited June 8, 2016 by LudhaninRolgge

[LosevV]

Why would a clas only capable of damage be immune to nerf ?

 

Ask this guy about it

 

marauders are capable of one thing: DPS

 

why would you nerf the only reason they're brought into raids?

[Tsetso]

It's funny how people talk about anni rotation being hard and fragile while I almost never can do better in carnage than I can in anni, back in 3.0 times I had 400-500 dps advantage in anni on lurker as compared to carnage and it's believed to be a burst fight. So rotation being difficult? Not THAT much.

 

Well I put 200-250 more dps on carnage on most boss fights so for me the rotation is a lot harder for sure. It's easy enough to keep it on dummy but in a boss fight i make ton of mistakes - clipping dots, rage starvation leading to delaying annihilate and ravage, etc. I admit that i suck terribly at anni and for me it's mostly because i can't replicate a 24 gcd rotation consistently in a boss fight - i make a little mistake which leads to another and couple of gcd later the rotation is totally out of sync and i have no idea how to fix that.

[WayOfTheWarriorx]

Well I put 200-250 more dps on carnage on most boss fights so for me the rotation is a lot harder for sure. It's easy enough to keep it on dummy but in a boss fight i make ton of mistakes - clipping dots, rage starvation leading to delaying annihilate and ravage, etc. I admit that i suck terribly at anni and for me it's mostly because i can't replicate a 24 gcd rotation consistently in a boss fight - i make a little mistake which leads to another and couple of gcd later the rotation is totally out of sync and i have no idea how to fix that.

 

Please excuse the many spelling errors that are on the way.

 

Well you see, that's just it. People look at the DPS chart, see the optimal number listed to the class/spec on a dummy and think that this is what said class/spec is always doing in a raid. Nothing could be further from the truth. As a carnage marauder i dummy parse in the 7k range on a fairly regular basis. [i've hit 7.2k exactly four times], but most of the time, even on a dummy, im doing between 6.7-6.9k.

 

Even still, as an end game progression raider, i am not pulling those numbers even remotely regularly. I consider myself a fairly skilled carnage marauder at this point, that said, on average on most hm boss fights i'm doing between 5.6-5.9k. I wouldn't say its unusual to hit in the 6k range, depending on the op I might hit between 6k-6.5k on or two of the bosses. Those fights tend to be ones with adds where some fluff damage counts for the higher dps. Obviously on fights where the mechanics afford damage buffs i can exceed those averages [fights like Kephess, Fabrication droid, malaphar, etc].

 

RNG can't be dismissed as a factor either [obviously there is nothing you can about about critical hit percentage or miss chance [beyond the gearing]. Rnjesus can be fickle or kind.

 

Anyone who thinks that maintaining the optimal rotation for either carnage or annihilation in a operation boss fight enviornment in HM is easy or even common either does not have much experience at the endeavor or has no idea what they are talking about. Exceptions? Yes of course, but not the norm.

 

Annihliation in addition to a rediculously long rotation time [24 gcd] further has the difficulty of maintaining three seperate bleeds seemlessly on different timers. This can easily cause a certain amount of raid awareness loss. Certainly seemless bleed reapplication isn't mandatory and one must consider at times the lose of which as being necessary should mechanics require it, but this comes at the cost of dps loss.

 

Carnage, while it's rotation is simipler than Anni's, due to it's speed it is very easy for the rotation to go off track. Given the short amount of time given to the gore window [3 seconds], which most of carnage's dps comes from, going off track can cost dps in large amounts. Gore window waits for no one. Mechanics will force you to forgo a gore window at times or cut it short.

 

Factors such as these widdle away at dps. So that nice shiny optimal number you see listed on the dps chart is in no way share or form the norm.

 

Melee must have a higher dps average because it will gaurnteed have its dps affected my raid mechanics that will force the melee user outside of striking range [which is mostly 4 meters].

 

Getting a rotation that went off track takes time and as time= dps, the time it takes to get the rotation back on track is in and off itself a dps loss compared to the standard, optimal rotation.

 

Marauders can't disappear when things get rough, they can't teleport, they can't heal themselves, and the can't absorb/sheild damage. They are, by their very nature, front line, in your face brawlers. You can color it any way you like, but if you are not up in the bosses face [loosely speaking; right behind, to the side], you are not doing your job as a marauder. You can onviously avoid cleave attacks by standing to the side or behind the boss [where you should always idealy be;behind] but they're many boss attacks that are aoes that will still affect you if you're behind the boss/side-rear], making marauders damage sponges without a tanks capacity to mitigate such damage.

 

It is true, a dead dps does no dps at all. But, a careful marauder [at a certain level] doesn't do enough dps anyways. It can be a hard line to walk. Marauders as they are currently, are in a good place, but its a place they need to be to be effective. Anyone who played a marauder thru the hell days of 3.0 knows a nerf would would religate the class to a sub-par status. Bloodthirst and perdation won't make up for it. Marauder's would once again be religated to a red headed step-child status.

 

Four months we have been in this "good place" and we were sh_t for a long time before. Marauders are not OP. They're exactly where they should be.

 

Speaking only for myself, and with full knowledge that it would affect nothing, if Marauders are nerfed, it'd be a deal breaker for me. As I do not have alts, and marauder is the only character I play, I would leave the game over it. I'm not going back to being seen as a subpar dps class that people don't want.

 

Pure DPS classes should do the more dps [on average] than non-pure dps classes.

Sniper's should be buffed appropriately, though taking into consideration as a ranged class they are less affected by certain raid mechanics and tend to have better uptime than melee classes. Nonetheless, imo, Marauders and Snipers should be at the top of the dps chart. It simply doesnt make sense any other way.

People talk about raid utlitity alot, if re-specing to another role is not a HUGE raid utility/QoL, i don't know the meaning of those words.

 

I understand everyone wants they're favorite class to be on top. Thats perfectly understandable. But the fact that a pure dps class cannot offer anything other than dps, without that higher dps range there would simply be no reason to bring them along when another class that has far more options and thus raid utility could out DPS them as well. People respect roles all the time in raids to get over a particurlar bump they've encountered. That matters greatly. They shouldn't have greater dps than the pure dps to boot.

 

Even should a nerf for one spec be seen as necessary, it should not be to a degree that knocks them out of their current ranking on the dps chart. I.E. Even if annihilation was had it's dps nerfed by say 50 dps, it would still be in the number one spot on the dps chart. That said, despite the fact that I play carnage, I have no problem whatsoever with annihilation having the higher dps ceiling, nor am I of the opinion they should be nerfed at all. The two specs are where they should be.

 

Fury could use a buff in PVE tho =]

 

P.S. Buff Snipers.

[Greezt]

*snip*

 

That was quite a long post, but to be perfectly honest I expected more from it.

 

Your premise seems to be that classes that can't respec to heals/tank should do better dps. Many people here think it. Not a single one of you has brought up a compelling point as to why it should be so.

 

Why do you think it relevant that I could tank on my shadow? Or that I could heal on my scoundrel? I'm not doing that. I'm dps'ing. I want my dps to be just as viable as a sent's dps. Balance is done by spec, not AC.

 

Sents bring a fair amount of utility, and you completely ignored this in your post. Raidwide buff (the best in the game), transcendence. Those alone are reasons to bring one even if they weren't top of the dps charts.

 

Watchman has a long rotation. Other specs have a long rotation too. Take a look at IO mercs, serenity shadows, ruffian scoundrels. Why not mention them?

 

Finally, the part about sents being the frontline. You have a plethora of DCDs to help you out in that respect, even on bosses where you will inevitably take damage. This is quite irrelevant to your dps.

 

Tl;dr: I haven't seen a single actual reason as to why watchman is where it is.

Edited June 18, 2016 by Greezt

[AndoEyrune]

*stuff*

 

Well put, this is almost exactly what i would have said, very well written sir!

[AndoEyrune]

I understand everyone wants they're favorite class to be on top. Thats perfectly understandable. But the fact that a pure dps class cannot offer anything other than dps, without that higher dps range there would simply be no reason to bring them along when another class that has far more options and thus raid utility could out DPS them as well. People respect roles all the time in raids to get over a particurlar bump they've encountered. That matters greatly. They shouldn't have greater dps than the pure dps to boot.

 

Even should a nerf for one spec be seen as necessary, it should not be to a degree that knocks them out of their current ranking..

 

Honestly, and with no offense intended, you seem to fall under the category of an individual who wants his favorite (and only) class to be on top. Your argument of a pure dps class needing to parse more than any other dps class is quite poor, especially since it doesnt factor in anything other than the damage the class is capable of. DPS rankings need to be based on defensive capabilities, mobility, and positional requirements as well as dps. Marauders have the best defensive capabilities of any class as well as a raid speed boost and high mobility, and as such should not be the highest parsing spec, in my opinion. While anni should still be near the top, both lethality and hatred deserve to parse as high, if not more than, anni due to the factors pointed out above.

 

Additionally, carnage absolutely should not be the 2nd highest parsing spec in the game simply because it is a "pure dps class". It is a rather easy burst spec with amazing aoe to boot, and to have it beating most dot specs is not right.

Edited June 18, 2016 by AndoEyrune

[HaoZhao]

Annihilation SHOULD be the strongest spec. It's the hardest spec to master in the entire game. I say this as someone who plays carnage. There are so many DPS specs in the game where you can just turn your brain off and still do almost optimal damage. These specs deserve to be weaker because they require significantly less effort. Edited June 18, 2016 by HaoZhao

[LosevV]

Annihilation SHOULD be the strongest spec. It's the hardest spec to master in the entire game. I say this as someone who plays carnage. There are so many DPS specs in the game where you can just turn your brain off and still do almost optimal damage. These specs deserve to be weaker because they require significantly less effort.

 

Say it to Deception.

[Iona_Var]

Pretty sure Bioware stated somewhere that it's their intention on having marauders being the highest parsing melee dps class in the game, so if they did get nerfed I don't think it'd be by much.

[sumquy]

That was quite a long post, but to be perfectly honest I expected more from it.

 

Your premise seems to be that classes that can't respec to heals/tank should do better dps. Many people here think it. Not a single one of you has brought up a compelling point as to why it should be so.

 

Why do you think it relevant that I could tank on my shadow? Or that I could heal on my scoundrel? I'm not doing that. I'm dps'ing. I want my dps to be just as viable as a sent's dps. Balance is done by spec, not AC.

 

Sents bring a fair amount of utility, and you completely ignored this in your post. Raidwide buff (the best in the game), transcendence. Those alone are reasons to bring one even if they weren't top of the dps charts.

 

Watchman has a long rotation. Other specs have a long rotation too. Take a look at IO mercs, serenity shadows, ruffian scoundrels. Why not mention them?

 

Finally, the part about sents being the frontline. You have a plethora of DCDs to help you out in that respect, even on bosses where you will inevitably take damage. This is quite irrelevant to your dps.

 

Tl;dr: I haven't seen a single actual reason as to why watchman is where it is.

 

mostly because bw has to try and balance the game for pve and pvp, i think. if you have a class like mara or sniper, doing roughly the same deeps as a merc or sorc, why would you bring the mara or the sniper? if off healing classes have the same damage potential as pure damage classes, that puts the only damage classes at a significant disadvantage. this is a little true for pve, but a lot true for pvp. bw has gone back and forth on whether "pure" dps classes are supposed to do more damage, and with maras they usually end up answering yes. the problem is that they are not consistent with it, either in what they say, or what they do.

Edited June 23, 2016 by sumquy

[AdjeYo]

mostly because bw has to try and balance the game for pve and pvp, i think. if you have a class like mara or sniper, doing roughly the same deeps as a merc or sorc, why would you bring the mara or the sniper? if off healing classes have the same damage potential as pure damage classes, that puts the only damage classes at a significant disadvantage. this is a little true for pve, but a lot true for pvp. bw has gone back and forth on whether "pure" dps classes are supposed to do more damage, and with maras they usually end up answering yes. the problem is that they are not consistent with it, either in what they say, or what they do.

 

Well, pure dps classes have their own useful things, like predation and sniper shield

[sumquy]

Well, pure dps classes have their own useful things, like predation and sniper shield

 

i'm didn't say that i agreed or disagreed, just that that is the standard they have used and abandoned several times over the game.

[LosevV]

Basically in my opinion, more or less i still agree that pure dd should do better dps then other classes. Like 2-3% of average dps. And less amount of dps should deal self-healer classes, because you nearly always can survive with selfheal. Like -2-3% of average dps.

But not like now, when one of spec of pure dps deal ~6% less dps then all other specs and one of spec of pure dps deal ~7.4% more dps then all other specs.

Or Bioware can just use this

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=885189

Edited June 25, 2016 by LosevV

[verfallen]

its more than dummy parsing.

 

Annihilation is a spec that will potentially lose the most "dummy dps" in ops fight when something moves, or in forced pause or target switches.

 

If a burst dps is going to be required, they'll have to lower their dps in the moment before the burst requirement comes, and still be inferior to spec like arsenal mercs or even the bottom-of-dummy-parsing Marksman snipers.

 

Mdps also means having to avoid boss close-ranged aoes range doesnt care about, and sometime put an extra load on the tank and healer's job (as they typically take some more damage than RDPS), sometime its a very noticeable extra load.

 

So if done right, they should come up slightly on top in actual boss fights, or at least on a good few of them (some really are just too punishing on mdps or annihilation in particular) just to be worth it for high end ops teams, and for that they need a rather big margin in the actual dummy.

 

But when you look at parsely's actual ops parse annihilation is not the OP monster this thread describe, more often than not carnage does better, and when it doesnt its very close by.

 

 

So less dummy hitting, more real HM NiM boss hitting before trying to talk class balance please. No one care about how hard you wack your dummy outside the initial recruitment check an ops team will do for its dps (to check if the person at least knows its rotation before checking if they have raid awareness), and then again, even if you pull 7k on the dummy, this can drop to 4k very easily if you have no raid awareness. Bosses are not known to be unmoving unattacking vegetables.

 

Since its not the case, if you put EVERY class at the exact same dummy dps, say 6,7k what will happen are ops team of arsenal mercs lightning sorcs and marksman snipers on the dps spot.

 

The issue is not that Annihilation and carnage are too high, they are high enough, its that the other mdps spec are too low to be worth it when strong rdps spec exist. When is the last time you saw a dps sin, pt or jug in any serious ops team?

Edited June 30, 2016 by verfallen

[WayOfTheWarriorx]

its more than dummy parsing.

 

Annihilation is a spec that will potentially lose the most "dummy dps" in ops fight when something moves, or in forced pause or target switches.

 

If a burst dps is going to be required, they'll have to lower their dps in the moment before the burst requirement comes, and still be inferior to spec like arsenal mercs or even the bottom-of-dummy-parsing Marksman snipers.

 

Mdps also means having to avoid boss close-ranged aoes range doesnt care about, and sometime put an extra load on the tank and healer's job (as they typically take some more damage than RDPS), sometime its a very noticeable extra load.

 

So if done right, they should come up slightly on top in actual boss fights, or at least on a good few of them (some really are just too punishing on mdps or annihilation in particular) just to be worth it for high end ops teams, and for that they need a rather big margin in the actual dummy.

 

But when you look at parsely's actual ops parse annihilation is not the OP monster this thread describe, more often than not carnage does better, and when it doesnt its very close by.

 

 

So less dummy hitting, more real HM NiM boss hitting before trying to talk class balance please. No one care about how hard you wack your dummy outside the initial recruitment check an ops team will do for its dps (to check if the person at least knows its rotation before checking if they have raid awareness), and then again, even if you pull 7k on the dummy, this can drop to 4k very easily if you have no raid awareness. Bosses are not known to be unmoving unattacking vegetables.

 

Since its not the case, if you put EVERY class at the exact same dummy dps, say 6,7k what will happen are ops team of arsenal mercs lightning sorcs and marksman snipers on the dps spot.

 

The issue is not that Annihilation and carnage are too high, they are high enough, its that the other mdps spec are too low to be worth it when strong rdps spec exist. When is the last time you saw a dps sin, pt or jug in any serious ops team?

 

 

Excellently done. You really nailed the realities of this issue with your post.

 

Melee DPS is inherently more difficult to sustain well compared to ranged dps. There are simply more variables for mDPS that WILL come up, often that simply will not effect rDPS. The sucessful rendering of the optimal rotation for many mDPS [especially Anihilation due to it's complexity, and even Carnage simply due to it's inherent speed which the spec rely's on for its effectivenss] mechanics will force melee out of attack range at times [you can't sustain effective DPS of a melee spec with a lightsaber throw or two assuming they are even off cool down at the time the mechanics force you to move out of melee range] There is always a dps loss switching from dummy parsing to live raid condition. Simply put, there is a substaintial DPS loss between the two enviornments.

 

Those 7k + dummy parses can become 5.5s- 6.2s real fast in raids {For experienced, skilled players}. Different bosses bring different circumstances of course, affecting melee to larger or smaller degrees, but either way those effects bring considerable comparative differences between dummy parsing and live raid dps numbers. A nerf to these specs would render Marauders unable to preform their inherent functions effectively.

 

I agree with you totally that the idea here is not to nerf Marauders, but to bump some of the other mDPS to bring their numbers up to more reasonable levels of dps output. Marauders being a pure dps class should however keep the edge. Juggs, Assassins, and Operatives can spec other roles and have more options available to them compared to Marauders who can only DPS. If these other classes out class Marauders in terms of DPS, there would simply be no reason to ever bring Marauders into raids. Less DPS, less options, why would you bring one? Bloodthirst and predation alone would not just defy bringing a Marauder rather than one of the other aforementioned classes. And hontesly, that's just calling a spade a spade.

 

I think it's important to recognize that inherent basis of any given class and this idea should help to determine where a given class should be in a pecking order of DPS. I recognize that everyone wants their favored class to be as good as possibly, thats perfectly natural. But it seems to me that common sense would a decent guide in making such calls about levels of dps output. In buffing the DPS of Juggs, Assassins, and Operatives DPS specs [the none dps specs of these classes shouldn't receieve a DPS buff tho. Thus the incentive to choose a dps spec], I think some common sense would sort of dictate that a DPS Jugg should do better DPS than a DPS assassin. Juggs are Sith WARRIORs, Assassins are not warriors, they are murderers. That's what an assassin us [again, just calling a spade a spade, not trying to denigrate anyone here]. Who would you rather have fighting at your side in hand to hand fighting? Mike Tyson or Lee Harvy Oswald? Who would you expect to do better in a sword fight? A samurai warrior or a Ninja assassin? Ninja's werent challanging the people they were sent to kill to duels to the death, they were first trying to sneak up behind them and use a garotte to strangle them to death. There swords were there as a last resort in case they were spotted and engaged before they could get to their mark or fleeing from an area once they had murdered their mark. Thats why Samurai wore armor and ninjas didnt. Samurai were trained as frontline fighters who would be fighting other frontline fighters toe to toe, ninjas were trained to first and foremost, not fight if they could avoid it, fighting was not their function, their function was to murder.

 

I think BW should do the right thing by everyone here [for once]. Buff the DPS of Assassin DPS and Operative DPS specs. Get thier DPS up to more reasonable levels, they need it.

 

And for the love of God, buff snipers. A pure DPS class should not be being out dpsed by non pure DPS classes. They should be right up the list right under Marauder. [under Marauder only because they are ranged and not as affected by raid mechanics as the melee of the Marauder class]. I think the ideal order here should be "something like" [not written in stone]

 

1 - Annihilation

2 - Carnage

3 - Virulence [sp]

4 - Engineering

5 - Vengeance

6 - Arsenal

7 - Hatred

8 - Lightning or Madness

9 - AP

10- Lethality

 

Every class should be represented in the Top 10

 

Some might feel it's wrong that some classes have two specs in the top ten, but I think that the only two pure DPS classes should have that representation as such because they are so single-mindedly made for DPS and nothing else.

 

One last point I'd like to throw out there. If DPS is so important to you, more so than simply liking a class, than play a class with higher dps levels. An anaolgy, you may really like the thief class in ADnD, but if you really really wan't to be doing alot of damage in fights, than play a Fighter. A thief shouldn't be better at fighting than a fighter. If you were to equate terms, Marauders would be fighters, and Snipers would be fightiers who simply specialize in bows. If you've played ADnD/Pathfinder, Fighters get more feats than any other class, because fighting is all they do, so they get more feats than other classes to reflect their single-minded pursuit in prowess on the battlefield. - But, at the end of the day, as good as they may be in a fight, they ain't throwing any fireballs around, they ain't charming anyone to do as they tell them, they arent teleporting anywhere, they aren't turning invisible and sneaking past any dragons who are sleeping on a mile of gold coins in every direction, and they aren't polymorphing into a lion. - Give and take.

Edited June 30, 2016 by WayOfTheWarriorx

[AdjeYo]

....

1 - Annihilation

2 - Carnage

3 - Virulence [sp]

4 - Engineering

5 - Vengeance

6 - Arsenal

7 - Hatred

8 - Lightning or Madness

9 - AP

10- Lethality

....

 

I think that's a terrible ideal ranking for specs. First of all, carnage shouldn't be that high up in sustained dps, it's a burst class and thus should generally deal less damage than most melee sustained dps. And to add to that, why would you bring something like a vengeance juggernaut to a raid with this ranking? Snipers have quite more ranged, awesome defenses and an AoE shield. Snipers are a ranged dps and they should not be out dpsing everything but marauders, just because the rest are not 'pure' dps. This balancing would take us right back to any serious team bringing only snipers and marauders as dps.

 

And let's talk about 'pure' dps classes. So yes, an assassin could taunt a boss, but it's going to die extremely quickly if it does. Why? It doesn't have the defenses of a tank. Same goes for juggernaut and powertech dps. So in the end, all you really can do is dps. And yes, an operative can heal it's teammates, but it's going to do nearly insignificant healing, at the cost of a lot of lost dps. You'll not only lose damage in the gcd's spent healing, but also after while you're recovering force. Because offhealing is quite expensive. In the end also they will pretty much only be damaging the boss. Also marauders and snipers actually have some of the best defensive cooldowns available to any dps, at least from a PvE perspective. And they also have some of the best utility of any class. With marauder having one of the 4 raid buffs and predation, while snipers get the sniper shield.

Balance is done per spec, not per advanced class.

 

Then there's all sorts of different things wrong in this list. Like AP being in the top ten, but not pyrotech. Like arsenal being in the top ten, but not innovative ordenance.

 

In short, NO.

Edited June 30, 2016 by AdjeYo