I will remember Samir/Thrax for reminding me he was the richest man on the server whenever I needed to bum stims or adrenals off of him. He'd laugh at me if I paid him. Overall just a nice guy which is probably the best complement someone can give. This is way too soon. It's difficult to comprehend why someone leaves with so many years that should be ahead of him. He will be missed by the Shadowlands' community and especially by those of us in Death-Sentence.

I've seen that plenty of times where your role changes and not really by your choice. I will separate this into two so I can explain why I leveled Lethality (for anyone leveling an Op) and then talk about my end game strategy. Again my warning is that my post is very long so my apologies in advance. Also realize I'm going by my own personal experience so what works for me may not work for someone else. I'm definitely not the best operative DPS but I am confident enough in my abilities that you can use what I say as a decent starting point that explains things a lot more than Noxxic for example. Honestly with Legacy the way it is I've noticed even if I gear myself up until around Level 30 my companion is always stronger than me. Once you get cull that changes. Whenever you go up to a strong, elite, or champion just use Corrosive Grenade (CG) and Corrosive Dart (CD) and then Shiv/Cull to burn the guy down. When you're waiting for shiv to come back drop into crouch (not cover) and pop an explosive probe. If it's a group of enemies drop the CG and Fragmentation Grenade (FG) while Shiv/Carbine Burst to waste them. As you level you'll eventually get fatality (40-42) which makes it stupid easy. Add in weakening blast at 45 to help finish off your story. I know your post wasn't how to level an Operative but I figured to share my Lethality experience. For end game I use a 3/7/36 Talent Tree. In Medicine I just use 3 Points into Imperial Education for the 9% main stat. For Concealment I drop 2 into Concealed Attacks and 3 into Imperial Brew. On the second Tier I place 1 into Infiltrator and Surgical Strikes. For the lethality tree I put points into everything except Slip Away (2), Flash Powder (2), Adhesive Corrosives (4), and Counterstrike (5). The numbers in parenthesis are the tier of each talent. So I don't exactly have a rotation but I have rules for my DPS. I always maintain the DOTS for CG and CD. I always put CG up first because it lasts 21 seconds vs 18 for CD. In addition with that spec you'll get a weaker version of them after their timer. This is good if you cull because at least you're getting the max effect of cull. You still don't want to use those weaker versions and should replace them as soon as possible as well or completely avoid them from occurring. I try to maintain my energy around 60% or higher. Both CG and CD are relatively Energy Neutral so you can apply these without worry for the most part. Once you start a fight with your two dots immediately Shiv. (If your ops group is kind enough they'll inform you of a countdown so you can drop an orbital to start the fight) so immediately enter your burst rotation. If your shiv procs a Fatality that is great. If you are bursting now is a good time to pop your relic, use an adrenal, backstab, crouch, and explosive probe. Immediately Shiv again and use Weakening Blast to set up your 10 stack of 30% additional damage for each tick of a poison effect. Since weakening blast gets used up by cull and it's stronger than your regular dots you might as well just use the three culls right in a row. You are most likely low of energy so pop an adrenaline probe and stim boost to get that back. Now Shiv and most likely restore your DOTs on the target. Hopefully your last shiv got you a Fatality again (it's okay if you didn't but watch your energy if that's the case). Run off three more Culls if your energy allows it. Pop into stealth and use a Hidden strike to get another TA and shiv again with a Backstab somewhere in there as well. As i said earlier this could be energy intensive so depending on the fight this might not be a good idea. Use a couple rifle shots to allow yourself to restore some energy and now place the Weakening blast back on the target. Use a cull and shiv again. Perhaps you got fatality and now you can cull two more times for the price of one. I think by this time your Relic is up and the Bloodthirst has been absent for 15 seconds. Your dps should most likely be the top in your group. Now you "maintain" by keeping your dots up and using shiv/backstab/weakening blast throughout. You will have to be more careful about your energy because you don't have the adrenaline probe available and Operative DPS energy is one of the most unforgiving in the game. If your Orbital isn't required for adds then use it on cooldown if you can as long as it doesn't destroy your energy. It takes 3 seconds to put out there and is useless if the boss is going to be moving. Every two minutes your Relic will be made available again in time for your orbital to come back as well. Prepare for another "burst" phase and drop the orbital and rinse repeat the opening strategy. On fights like Writhing Horror or Titan VI you will want to be careful you don't want to destroy your energy when doing AOE but you want to be effective. Orbital with a CG and FG does a good amount of damage. Shiv and Carbine Burst to most likely finish them off and then go back to adds. Some say that Adds provide an illegitimate boost to Operative DPS because it's not on the boss but I counter that the quicker you can kill the adds the sooner everyone can get bac to the boss as well. Perhaps the AOE is good enough they don't even have to bother with adds which is even better. Again this all depends on the fight. Remember the rules and you will do fine. Always have your DOTs up. Never cull unless both DOTs are up. Maintain your energy level so you don't cripple yourself. Don't Orbital on the boss unless you think you can get all three ticks. When using Orbital on adds place it right away so your tank (in the case of Titan) will see a target for AOE). Aggro dump if you aren't guarded and use stealth especially on trash (immediately unstealth so you can get healed) because you will pull aggro even with a guard if you do your Max AOE rotation. Try to time your weakening blast with a series of culls if you can to maximize its effect. If you are in an operation with a Lethality Sniper you'll most likely steal the Weakening Blast they use because you can spam cull and they cannot. My current gear selection is focused on ensuring proper enhancements/tertiary stats on Implants and Ear. If you treat the two implants and earpieces the same as enhancements I have five accuracy and six surge. With Underworld this will put you at 109.51 Tech Accuracy and around 71% Surge. With some Kell Dragon I added a Crit Piece to round out at 25.13% Crit (previously 22.15) and 1531 Bonus Tech Damage. All of my Augments are Cunning due to the 9% mainstat bonus. For Relics I use Serendipitous Assault (Power Proc) and Boundless Ages (Power Clicky) so I can control burst phases more. Thank you for reading. If you have anything you would like to add or dispute please go ahead. While there's a lot to read on classes like Marauder or Sniper there isn't a lot of talk when it comes to Operatives so I'd figure I'd lend a hand on that.

I do occasionally PVP on my Lethality DPS but if I was to be serious about it i probably would use Concealment. Lethality is great in 30-54 and sometimes in Random 55 PVP. When your opponent doesn't recognize DOTS and refuses to cleanse you will get a lot of passive aggressive kills. I can say survivability isn't really a strength of the DPS Operative. This means you'll probably want to have someone distract your enemies while you get your DOTS in and maybe drop an Orbital. To be honest that strategy wouldn't work in Ranked or against decent Warzone teams. Even if you spec into some of the "PVP" skills in the Lethality tree your ability to kill someone just isn't fast enough. That is why I would recommend Concealment. Again it's not about survivability as much as killing someone as fast as you can. You have Hidden Strike (with the knockdown) which is one of the most frustrating experiences in the game. Add in a very powerful Acid Blade with a back stab and you've crippled them. I guess technically you could stealth out and do another Hidden Strike. Lacerate replaces Cull as your TA ability as well. As I said earlier i'm very casual with PVP but if you're serious about DPS stick with Concealment. It's just a lot more Lethal, pun intended.

Alright so I was a little snarky the last time I posted. It wouldn't be a bad idea to improve Concealment energy management but the problem them becomes balancing between PVE and PVP. I am not an expert on PVP but I do realize that ideally an operative would use Concealment and not Lethality in higher end PVP due to the awareness of teams to cleanse. Cull is absolutely useless unless you have the dots on. In addition Concealment is super bursty on PVP targets. The reason i said that Concealment isn't really a PVE spec is twofold. The first reason is because I don't play it and prefer Lethality. I am biased. My other reason is that the benefits in the Concealment Tree don't translate as well to a lot of PVE fights. Back stab and shiv are 4 meter abilities but on fights like Kephess in TFB you have to constantly move around. Okay some might say so are most Marauder/Juggernaut abilities but they have a gap closer. The roll for the operative is an energy hog and makes suspect energy regeneration worse. I would argue that there isn't a class more crippled at low energy than the operative DPS. With all that said i'd love to use Concealment in PVE and maybe there will be some changes. Post 2.0 I couldn't be happier with Operative DPS from it's state prior but I understand Concealment Ops out there feel the opposite.

I must warn you I wrote at length but tried to explain it from my personal perspective. I do Nightmare Ops on my Lethality operative and can absolutely hold my own without special consideration. Alright, first of all Lethality is great. For those that have a sniper in Lethality there is a major difference in the way cull works. You still want to get your 2 dots on your target but where Op Lethality shines is in the acquisition of Fatality. This proc can be applied every 10 seconds and it lasts for 10 seconds. This means that if you wait to use it and run off three straight culls you could theoretically shiv stim boost and cull three times again if you were fortunate to get fatality again. Add in a stealth/Hidden strike and another Cull and that's around 8 culls in 10 seconds. When you have Fatality it gives you a free cull (no energy) and then regenerates it as well. Essentially 2 Tactical Advantages with Fatality is 3 culls. When you have weakening blast added on you're dealing with some good burst damage. There are multiple ways to acquire tactical advantage on a dps op (max 2 at a time) but the standard is going to be Shiv. You also get TA's from Hidden Strike, Stim Boost, and killing blows of an enemy. The operative still can use Orbital very successfully. It's good to set up your burst with an orbital so you can time your adrenals or relic to coincide with the strikes. Lethality is the go to spec for Operative PVE DPS because of it's mobility and I find it pretty good at survivability too. You can use your Shield Probe every 30 seconds which is a plus. Operatives have a tech cleanse and Evasion serves as another cleanse. In addition you have the ability to proc a kolto infusion when you roll. I'm not advising people to roll constantly to get it but if you proc it there's a solid instant heal and hot for free. The aggro generation of an operative due to its burst is pretty high so being guarded sometimes is a good thing for the initial aggro phase. If you are not guarded you have a complete aggro dump in your stealth which then would allow you to quickly transition into a hidden strike and back stab. Always stay behind your target so you can get your back stabs in. Often times if i'm doing okay on energy I would pop crouch and an explosive probe. Stealth Res - This can be tricky because you are most likely going to have dots on the enemy when someone goes down. You have to let the dots completely clear before you can do a stealth res otherwise you'll be popped right back into combat. This means that if it is a tight enrage timer the stealth res is not going to be effective. Also saving your stealth for a stealth res will also prohibit you from using your stealth to eliminate an orb on a fight like Kephess in Nim. I also personally prefer to use Hidden strike every 2 minutes so stealth res isn't my idea of a good time. (Note: A weakness to the Lethality Operative is evident on fights where your Dots can't effectively stay on the target for the allotted amount of time (ie. Scyrak) but it is still manageable) AOE on the operative can be argued to be the best in the game. Orbital hits ALL enemies but isn't exclusive to the operative. The same goes for Corrosive Grenade and Fragmentation Grenade. Where the operative shines is using Carbine burst which requires the activation of a Tactical Advantage. This is an instant ability hitting 5 enemies in a cone in front of you. Whenever a enemy dies from your own damage you get a tactical advantage in return. This can result in quite a few carbine bursts and assorted grenades to finish off your enemies. If you parse AOE (yes I'm a nerd) the two groups after Writhing Horror in the tunnel generally get me around 7500 DPS.

I'm getting that information by the fact that some classes don't have multiple DPS specs for PVE. It's not the end of the world. If you want to DPS as concealment in PVE fine but don't expect to be good and if you are I would have great respect for you. You don't need 3 options for one specific role. Anyone who played operative pre 2.0 would appreciate the gains the operative has made since. The class is fine on the DPS end and Concealment doesn't need a boost.

Let me add a few more things... operatives don't need an execute. They have some of the highest burst in the game. Why on earth would you give execute to a concealment op in pvp who uses acid blade and hidden strike to cripple you and then back stab and whatever else. You are already pretty low. What you are saying is... "Let's make it easier for concealment ops to do what they are already good at". For Lethality again.... the Burst is fantastic and an execute is not necessary. They have the <30% Dot ticks for more damage already. The reason this forum doesn't have more replies is because there isn't inherently any serious problems with the operative. Stop the QQ. On a side note Operative heals in PVE are solid at the moment but I would not say overpowered. If you know how to play all three of the classes you'd realize there are benefits to each and reasons why they excel at certain fights.

They don't need to reduce the amount of energy per roll. It sounds like a lot of QQ'ing more than anything. It is not the most overpowered class in the game. If you are talking about PVP you have to be very careful you don't ruin PVE. For those thinking Concealment needs some sort of buff it's not a PVE spec. Get over it. And for those complaining about the healing on an agent... Maybe the three people focusing the Operative should learn how to play. I'm sorry a class makes you think outside the box for your warzone teams. Lastly, your last sentence just proves you are a complete idiot. Operatives had nothing pre 2.0 and now you are sad because they are killing you or out healing you. Again... learn how to play your class.

Honestly from playing my DPS Lethality Operative it feels like the energy regeneration rate is much improved. I've always felt that AOE burst damage was good on an operative but with the free tactical it feels even more so. For single targets... free culls and tactical advantages on boss fights definitely make this class very viable. I can't wait to show some people that Operatives aren't a forgotten dps class anymore. The haters will hate but Mox tells the truth.

I totally understand the whole idea behind swapping legacy stuff and giving it to alts and companions. Personally... I've done enough ops that my companions I use are at least Columi and I level alts for the story but really only play on my Juggy tank so I don't care about the legacy swaps. 1.3 just hit today and there might be something in there I missed but ExoTech gear is not OP so anything at or below should be BOE at level 50. Right now Foreman Crusher and Jarg and Sorno fights in KP HM seem pointless when people can just get the legacy belt/bracers or just buy a Campaign piece from their galactic trade. i think I'm rambling though. Thanks for responding to my original post.

Do not do this... not everyone should have social X except for the crazies spamming Black Talon and Esseles and the husband/wife pairs that quest together. Having the title "Big Time" is unique and don't just give it away. If you have 8 toons and you have to get social x on all of them be my guest.

thanks for the post... I am hoping 1.3 comes out sooner than later so I can pick that up.

They definitely need to add this. If you can have these ridiculous Black/Green Black/Purple/ Black/Orange and Black/Blue you should have the straight green. To me there should always be Green/Blue/Red options for any toon.

Here's my two cents... Free to play up until Level 15 is fine. It's not one step away from a Free to Play model. It's like allowing for someone to test drive the game. This is also probably happening due to new content and consolidating players to less servers in order to improve the liveliness of the game. A true F2P system would definitely drive me away from the game. Why listen to the trolls that left the game in the first place and keep trying to keep those you are already servicing. EA does have pay features to a lot of their games. For some reason Madden comes to mind. I personally hate it with a passion. Lord of the Rings Online has F2P and personally I think that game is garbage and I'm a huge fan of Middle Earth. Whatever BioWare has to do to keep this game profitable I am for as long as the subscription continues. I pay for content and service and not items or perks. Earn those by playing and keep it competitive. It seems like those articles about F2P are written by the same trolls that have more time trolling than they do anything else.

Today I completed Eternity Vault Hard Mode and Soa dropped a schematic for Exotech Stalker's Headgear. This is a Columi Equivalent (No set bonus) Sith Assassin Headpiece. It provides 98 Endurance 114 Willpower 48 Accuracy and 44 Power. It is a great helm if you are looking to upgrade from Tionese and are willing to forego the set bonus. Here's the primary problem, it's bind on pickup when crafted. No one completing Soa on Hard Mode is rocking a Tionese helm and the odds of them picking up the schematic on the off chance that they are a Synthweaver is slim to none. Therefore this schematic is absolutely pointless unless you want to waste two Rakata Energy Nodes and an Alien Data Cube on a companion. My point is there is no incentive to having this schematic. Being a Sith Warrior with Sith Sorcerors in my guild that could use a helm like this I thought maybe I could make this for them and then I click trade and realize how pointless my craft was. Jaesa just got a new helm even though the Sorc only had to swap out the Enhancement (for one without accuracy) to have a significant upgrade. Lastly check the statistics... I can guarantee that less that .01% of Level 50 Sith Assassin's are even using this helm. That alone should change its properties from bind on pickup to bind on equip. If it is because HM's and Ops drop the same gear then change the properties of one or the other.