Lethality is definitely not fluff damage, infact there is no such thing as fluff damage unless it's the player not being effective. Dots being seen as useless in this game kind of amuses me. In other games they are just as if not more easily cleansed. Most DoTs in this game are easier to apply than they are to cleanse, and if they are being cancelled out by a HoT you can look at it the other way around, that it's cancelling out a HoT. It takes a GCD to cleanse, and that's not always available in heavy focus moments. As for lethality itself the damage is far from burst free "fluff". The problems lie in the base class and it's lack of anti-focus fire as well as the specs long set up. But in a prolonged fight lethality can wreck people. Cleanse is a definite weakness to the spec, but the belief that lethality is useless damage is a misconception and not the problem with the spec.

Well I have broken 800k+ spamming nothing but my shrap and vital in huttballs and voidstars just for fun, but you are right regarding the misconception of DF being a fluff damage spec and nothing more. The single target damage is quite vicious. The problem is that someone on top of cleanses can really neuter your damage, and once they realize you are DF a healer isn't going to have that much trouble against you. For PvE both specs are fine, and can handle current content. DF is a lot more forgiving for raiding.

Those things can be utilized better by healing OPs though. The 1-2 warriors will also already be on snaring and mezzing duty. Hard to get a spot over a warrior. Most likely wont get a spot intended for ranged dps, tank, or healer. So it leaves you with a small niche to fill that many teams don't attempt to fill. Which is lone wolf dps. Doesn't work well in games that have splits on their teams, meaning you're never going to run into solo guarders. And then comes the issue of why an operative over an assassin? I play both classes, not speaking out of bias but experience. And that is that the assassin is better. Better burst, better survivability and equal utility (neither excels in utility compared to other specs of the same class). I'm not saying you can't have a DPS op and be winning games, just that you could take another class assuming both players are at an equal skill level, and see even better results. DPS ops just don't really have anything that makes them desirable vs others. That in addition to their huge susceptibility to focus fire compared to assassins and warriors (DPS PTs share the pains of this class well imo, at least they were top dog killing machines for awhile though) makes it hard to justify the dps OP getting a spot unless they are your friend, assuming there is an equally skilled and geared replacement of a more appealing class. Right now trying to get a dps spot as an operative over the better classes is a lot like trying to get a healing spot as a merc over the operative. If the players and gear are equal, most teams will take the OP and understandably so. Doesn't mean the merc isn't a good player that knows his stuff, it's just that it's much easier to peel for an OP and partly due to that and the nature of their skills the OP will do more healing. The silver lining if you can consider this that, is that DPS op is just fine in pug games and really fun. I hope they get a survivability boost though (as long as the healer spec can't take advantage of it).

I'm guessing this is one of those things that got done incorrectly, but instead of fixing it they probably just went "meh whatever".

Depends. Jugg tank is nice, yeah they will be bait but that can work out nicely for you. As long as you guys communicate, he and one other of you (op healer) can play bait while you cap a node. If they see the op come out of stealth they may assume there are no more stealthers trying to sneak. Start the battle near the node, and slowly move it away. In a pug game 90% of the time they will tunnel vision and go for the kill, leaving the node wide open. Plus OP healer and jugg tank is the hardest combo to take down right now, so it won't be easy for them to get the kills even if they do ignore nodes. For straight combat, you WANT the jugg getting attacked. Juggs can take a beating, with heals if you can get the other team to attack you things are going your way as a juggernaut even if protection numbers don't show it at the end. If the DPS is focused on him your healer should be able to keep him alive while the assassin picks off targets. The best alternative if you don't want a non stealther is a second assassin though. 1 dps assassin, 1 tank assassin and 1 healer op. Same strategies can apply, just keep in mind assassins aren't built the just soak all the damage, an assassin tank needs to make the best use of his abilities to stay alive and be that ultimate pest.

Yesterday on my merc I was healing voidstar and after defending a door I got left alone because my team believed that you had to have 7 people to defend against 5 and it's best to leave mercenaries as solo defenders. This leaves me alone at west. The previous battle was pretty intense and my cooldowns were popped. Suddenly the 2 scoundrels in the match forgo sapping me knowing my shield was down and began attacking me. I stayed alive long enough to call for help and to stop the plant on the door by a 3rd stealther assassin that showed up to plant when I was almost dead a few times. Some teammates finally came over and we successfully defended after the scoundrels were eaten alive when being caught out of stealth. It was almost sad how easy they went down after all of that effort to carry out a good plan due to my team's stupidity. The point is, I died. Nerf operatives.

Don't know what your skill level is, but I can't imagine someone that thinks movement isn't that important and they can get away with clicking better than ranged as melee being very good. It's just completely wrong. A good melee player will dominate any keyboard turner with ease because they move and stay in their dead spots. The way you move and react is what separates good melee players from bad. Ranged is all about positioning and having escapes, which is slightly more clicker friendly. The "jump shot" style attacks you mentioned are not a ranged only thing. If I'm retreating on a melee I can strafe in ways so that I can attack my pursuer without losing speed like a backpeddler. It would be hard to react to the enemy this way keyboard turning.

Assault is "viable" as in you can play it and find success... but gunnery is better in many ways. I'd say assualt is a little more pve friendly than pvp at the moment. Yes aim is your main stat for any spec of mando. When leveling just look for anything with aim, power and surge. Some crit is good for leveling too. And yes, they do have an instant heal. Kolto bomb is instant and should be used often but , even as a dps spec it's nice, but I'm guessing you mean other than that. At 45 you get bacta infusion which is an instant, free, medium sized heal on a 21 second cooldown. Depending on the fight you can either use it every chance to save on heat or save it for emergencies. You'll also have kolto shell (can't think of the commando version's name) which is an instant cast technically, but only heals when the target actually takes damage. It's more of a fluffer to keep damage spikes smaller, but at the same time is your most efficient healing per heat skill so keep it up when needed.

In an average pug game a tank can get anywhere from 50-200k on average depending on how things go, which is enough to counter 1-2 dps. It's harder to get higher protection numbers in pugs because you may not have anyone healing you, can't tell you how many healers I've kept alive that do not return the favor in pug games. However what people don't realize is how much damage a tank really is protecting you from. When I'm peeling, stunning, mezzing, pushing and doing everything I can to weaken the other team there is a lot of damage that simply doesn't happen because I deny their chance to deal it. That doesn't show up in numbers, which is why tanks go so unappreciated. A tank that's focused on peeling and interrupting can prevent a crap ton of attacks. Lets say your typical pug game goes something like this. DPS: 300k damage - 4 deaths DPS: 500k damage - 3 deaths Tank: 185k protection - 4 deaths Heals: 700k healing. - 2 deaths People see things like this and assume the tank didn't really contribute THAT much, not understanding that without him the dps numbers and healer deaths would be a lot higher.

Class balance aside from a few outliers is in a pretty decent spot. Each class does have at least one spec that can do well in rateds, which is better than before. I think powertech/vanguard is probably the least desirable atm. Mercs and Mandos are beginning to shed their stigma as least for arsenal/gunnery.

That's very silly reasoning. A merc healer is not a merc dps. What's the point of having multiple trees if you purposely make some weaker? All healers should be relatively equal.

Well it's not like an assassin sure, but I do fight against those guys as well and don't want them behind me. And no I don't need to be behind anyone to use my abilities but I do want to be behind them either way. I strafe and try to back attack just as much fighting other melee as I do ranged, more so even. Getting 1-2 more attacks in on him than he does you is what can decide fights. Remember if you're behind him he's not attacking you, a melee that turns slow is hurting himself just as bad if not worse than ranged. I get what you're saying, don't agree though.

Mandos are decent face tankers, but only in relation to other healers. It's still not something you want to be doing. Sorcs and Ops are powerful because they avoid damage, not soak it. Heavy armor isn't really the biggest difference maker, if their bubble isn't up a merc isn't going to do too well face tanking either since they won't be able to get a cast off. Even then you better hope your CC breaker is ready and they fill your resolve fast. HO has been huge for the class in pvp but merc escaping still pales compared to other healers when it's down. Sorcs do have to wait on force speed if it's down but double bubble soaks quite a bit of damage up, and they can buy plenty of time to get cross healed with their barrier. With cross healing and guard even mercs are tough to take down, but not like the other 2. OP . Sorc . . Merc That's how I see it in pvp right now as far as difficulty to kill or at least shut down. Not to say merc is super easy to kill but just in relation to ops. I play a scoundrel and mercenary healer but not sorc.

Put a heat sink on emergency scan instead of just being free. Add a constant heat depletion similar to arsenal (weaker is fine) Double the heat venting of super charged Give rapid shots a 1-2 heat per critical vent. Not saying they need ALL of these, but stuff like this is what I would happy with.

What? I never stop moving on my juggernaut, ever. Ravage is the only time I stand still, and choke if not specced for free casting. I rely BIG TIME on moving around and facing the correct direction. Constantly strafing and leaping around debuffing and protecting people. Why on earth would a jugg or guardian not rely on movement? You should be one of the most mobile players on the map when playing this class. I'd say it's tons easier to get away with clicking on a ranged class. They shouldn't really be clicking too much either though.