Agree ^^ The diminishing returns are on surge and crit RATING, not so much on surge and crit %. Thus, any talents or companion bonuses etc do not count towards the diminishing returns. In the end, however, if gear continues to scale, this will become more of a problem.

^^^ PT DPS >>>>>>>>>>>>> Operative DPS

There is now a damage meter, however, it is not as user friendly as the 3rd party add-ons in other games. It requires others synching to it as well to compare data. Most top end raiders use it. I have heard rumors of a HoT and DoT monitoring add-on in the works. Google: MoX Parcer

You need a crafted armoring that can be put into any slot. You can google the ingredients for Advanced Skill Armoring 27, however, off the top of my head i think it requires: 6 Molecular Stabilizers (the tough part) 2 Energy Matrix thingies 8 Mandalorian Iron 12 Zol Alloy 12 Durasteel At this point you will have to pay someone (there are not a lot of people with these patterns around) to craft the item unless a friend or guildmate has the pattern. On my server the fee is around 200k. If you advertise enough in general chat looking for someone with the recipie, or just stay in fleet looking for someone able to craft the item, you will find someone. Good luck

This is spot on. Agree ^^^ I would add that Arsenal Mercenaries can still do very well in PvE on sustained DPS fights; They just parse a tad bit lower than a skilled and equally geared Lethality Sniper

The original OP post was from February.... RiP

I currently play an Operative Healer and an Arsenal DPS Merc in PvE. Both raid HM TFB (4/5) In my experience, both are viable at both DPS and heals. However, there is less of a learning curve and you can get better results with Mercenary DPS and Operative Heals in PvE.

I have seen Operatives who can parse decent numbers, but they are few and far between. My understanding (from personal experience and talking to others) is that you can do well as Operative DPS if you are a very good player. There is very little room for error in rotations. Min/Maxing is essential.

The affects seem to be intermittant. To truly test go onto the target dummy for 5-6 mins. Look for the number of unload hits. There should be 6 each time unless you are not accuracy capped. I get big hits as before the patch as well. 8/10 or more times the 4-piece set bonus works. However, sometimes (in the same fight) it doesn't. I didnt believe this one either untill raiding with another merc who was complaining about it I watched my heat after every Rail Shot. Every once in awhile my heat went up after using a rail shot. This can all be easily tested looking at parses in your damage logs after attacking the target dummy. Unfortunately, intermittant problems are the most difficult to diagnose. There are many posts on these, as well as other forums, noting the same issues. It is not as if I am upset because of my DPS or that I am pulling up the caboose as far as DPS in raids that I write this. Remember the bug with unload after 1.2 that lasted months...

There was a dev response on my posting in the Customer Service forum: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=541253 I hope all mercs who are concerned about the problem follow this proceedure and report these intermittant bugs which are in affect a nerf. The more of us that report these issues, the more likely they are to address the problems. While I do not have any hope of a timely fix, I am at least hoping for an EVENTUAL fix so that we are not bugged forever. Last night in HM TFB my DPS was again extremely erratic. Sometimes I would get 6 hits from unload, other times 3-4 as one example which was easy to see in real time.

I should have ammended that. It seems to be intermittantly not working. Same with barrage damage buff. Try yourself on the target dummy. BTW, thanks for all the great guides.

I have a post in Customer Service asking for aknowledgement of these bugs. If mercs that care could post a reply on that thread aknowledging that they have the same problems, maybe it has a slightly higher chance of getting attention. I will continue to bump that thread untill they delete it over the next weeks/months. http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=541253

I am suprised there is not more discussion and outrage at the bugs which significantly affect our dps as of 1.4. 1) Unload is only hitting 4/6 times most of the time, a 33% reduction to our best attack. 2) Barrage is no longer buffing the damage of unload, a furthar nerf of our best attack. 3) The four piece PvE bonus does not work 100% of the time, leading to increased heat -- and a dps loss. 4) The tracer lock buff/stacks no longer buff the damage to Rail Shot If the community does not continually bring these issues to the attention of the dev team. They will NEVER be fixed. The squeeky wheel gets the grease.

If you are primarily a PvE healer, make sure that you are using the 2 piece PvP set bonus (modded with PvE mods) combnied with the 2 piece PvE set bonus. The 15% bonus to RN can help a lot. I was very suprised when once, on an heavy raid damage fight, RN parsed as my top heal after using it on cooldown. Generally I agree with KI with probe with your HoT rolling on 2-3 peeps max unless it is a heavy movement fight.

RN is easily our best HPS (heals per second) and HPE (heals per energy) abilities with the 2 piece PvP and 2 piece PvE bonus and hitting 3 or more targets. Kolto Infusion is useful if you have to get a strong heal off quickly. Other than that, it is far inferior to Kolto Injection plus probe as far as HPE and, more importantly, sustained healing in HPS, and HPE.