I just wish datacrons applied to your entire legacy. It's even worse when you have to do it on all your characters.

Cunning is better if you have the 5% buff. If not, power is better. Either way, they are extremely close, unless you don't spec Imperial Education (which would be dumb.). Personally, I want all the +crit I can get, so I go +cunning.

Yeah, with the addition of Exfiltrate, I don't really see the need for Ghost anymore, in Concealment tree. But even so, Lethality also now has access to Infiltrator (My spec will include it, at least.), and we have Escape Plan + Augmented Shields, and Counterstrike. Overall, our effective mobility may be higher, simply because we will be less affected by CC's and damage. Escape Plan is such an awesome and underrated talent! I used to spend 4 talent points for the same effects, back when it was 2 seperate talents! In fact it baffles me when I see Lethality Ops not spec it.

I think I've been preaching this since I first started playing Lethality. I played Lethality with a new level 10 character, and leveled 100% from WZ's. Thus, I did not even have Cull for some time. But ultimately, I think this really helped me learn to play the spec well, because I was up against level 50's at the time, and had to learn how to make the best use of the abilities I had. By the time I learned Cull, I had already developed a basic playstyle for Lethality, and Cull didn't really serve to change it much. It's more like icing on the cake, than our main ability. It's a lot like Hidden Strike for Concealment. Most Concealment Ops wait until they have it trained, to PvP, or even wait until level 50. More often than not, these players tend to put too much emphasis on Hidden Strike (As I've pointed out in another recent post, so I won't say much more on this here.). The same goes for Cull. Most people that I have seen give Lethality a go, are ones who are already 50 and have been playing Concealment. They look at Cull as being our most important move, and base their playstyle around it. But guess what! It isn't! Honestly, if you were to ask me what our best move was, I'd say Corossive Dart (amped up by our talents + Imperial Brew), or Corossive Grenade, followed by Weakening Blast. In fact, most Lethality Ops only use Weakening Blast when they plan to follow up with Cull, but personally, I use it more often just to increase my DoT damage. But back to the topic of License to Kill. It really all comes down to a little math, and weighing cost vs. benefit. I could get counterstrike, which increases my survivability against maras significantly (and other classes too, ofc, but they are the prime example.), at the cost of having to wait half a second longer with each Cull I use, or, I could be able to Cull half a second more often, yet lose out on an entire move. It could take hundreds or even thousands of Culls, to make up for a single death from not having Counterstrike. And even if it's not a matter of life and death, it certainly still helps you get in or out of a skirmish more quickly, thus increasing your overall DPS. And in 2.0, we will get free Culls, so the energy cost will be even less significant.

Oh, I didn't realize I'd suddenly lose the ability to do these things, if the enemy team doesn't see the AoE circle. Setting up your AoE moves well, will always have a place, target circle or not. And hell, I'd be perfectly happy if there was no target circle even for the one using the ability!!

So change the animation, if it's too much of a problem! But honestly, the area of effect not blatantly being given away, is a GOOD thing!! This line of reasoning, shows that AoE circles are, at best, a band-aid fix.

You're joking right? This is your argument? Agents becoming OP because of it!? So getting hit once or twice by the ability, which has a long CD, and which you yourself pointed out can ALREADY be forced on them, is somehow going to be OP? I'm sorry, but no. I would have stuck with the graphics angle, if I were you. But even that is not enough justification for it. PvP should never be tailored for clickers and keyboard turners! The more avenues there are for skill to shine, the better the PvP will be. AoE circles reduce the need for skill, and that is bad.

Agreed. It's 2013. If your computer is running on a Dorito chip, and can't render AoE effects, you deserve to get hit by them, lol. Go play a game with crappy graphics that your computer can handle, like WoW. Our gameplay should not be diminished simply because a handful of people are playing on garbage machines. And God forbid people actually get HIT by channeled AoE effects! Those circles need to go.

Operative Cull has no cd, and does over double the damage of sniper Cull. And Operative can heal and stealth, etc..

I'm not sure the +2% Alacrity will be worth trading Slip Away for. From what I'm reading the impact of Alacrity is, it may not be worth it. We're still going to need +10% accuracy, which will be taken in place of +Alacrity. Then we'll probably want the higher power/crit/surge, instead, as well. The extra energy regen is pretty insignificant, and I'm not really sure the faster activation speed will be significant either, especially with mostly instant skills.

Hmm, not speccing Slip Away is an interesting idea. I'm kind of bummed they got rid of the +run speed.

Yeah, but he also didn't have DoT's spread out, proccing him energy.

If the Operative opens from stealth, Operative wins. The circumstance where sniper has an edge? Hmm, honestly, I fear snipers less than any class in the game. A stationary turret has one huge weakness - Walls!! But our evasion is far more effective than theirs, in a toe to toe fight, because our damage is mostly yellow, yet they do a lot of white. And it lasts a second longer now. With hidden strike + shiv, you have a very high chance of chaining 3 Culls. The sniper Cull is on a CD, and does half the damage of ours (a little less than half, actually.). DoT's are cleansed with Toxic scan and/or evasion. Also, with counterstrike trained, you can cleanse all of their slows. And if they Exfiltrate and try to escape, we do the same; ours is shorter, but we can sever tendon/nade, or double exfiltrate if needed. Plus, in a 1v1, we can flash bang and heal up, but they can't. Or we can LoS and heal (and if they chase, maybe even get a debilitate in.).

I was actually considering the same thing. But I already only spec 1 point into License to Kill, as it is, and with the addition of Fatality, Cull energy cost is even less important. EDIT: Also, I assume the tooltip for Infiltrator is wrong, and is supposed to be +15% movement speed and +2 stealth level (otherwise that would make you impossible to detect, lol.). I always found that the lack of this talent was one of the major deficiencies of Lethality vs. Concealment, and now that it only costs 2 points instead of 3, it's accessable for us!) Honestly, I'd put no talents into License to Kill, if it wasn't needed to train higher tier. A 13% reduction of energy cost, which is regenerated in half a second, is just too minor for a skill that is not used often enough. I just can't justify the talent cost. Precision Instruments was different, because it reduced several skills, which were used FAR more frequently.

I've been planning 2.0 specs, and figured I'd see what other people have thought of. This is the spec I'm currently leaning toward: http://pts.swtor-spy.com/skill-tree-calculator/operative/230/?build=000300000000000000000000000000002300200000000000000000000000000000322021012222212112001103200100&ver=20 Since we don't need to keep stim boost up anymore, that makes Incisive Action much less useful. And since Precision Instruments no longer reduces energy cost of darts, it's also not worth it. With the addition of exfiltrate, shiv speed boost, better shield probe, and Infiltrator....I'm going to be one tough bastard to kill. I assume that most will spec Devouring Microbes, but I've always felt it was a worthless talent. And now that being slowed affects Exfiltrate, it's even more reason to want Counterstrike.