Anecdotal evidence is anecdotal evidence. To be fair, if there had to be one "FoTM" class then obviously that would be merc. It takes time for a class to become FoTM. There are more and more snipers everyday and there are more and more of them re-spec'ing into engi. Please stop defending the probe. It is overpowered.

I would agree with Ottoattack. While alacrity around 1500~ is needed for optimal DPS against dummy's and operation bosses it sort of loses it's "value" a bit in PvP. I've experimented with various levels of alacrity across all 3 of the spec's and found that in PvP it's best to leave it simple. Hit the crit DR however way you wish and then go all power. The reason alacrity loses it's value in a PvP environment is because you are not always on target and constantly pushing out APM (attacks per min). Therefor there is no need to actively build stats which maximise your APM potential. In PvP whenever you hit, you want to hit as hard as possible. Personally, i would recommend gearing for around 1700-1800~ crit (to hit the DR) and then go power. Combat is much easier and more effective in reg's but against experienced players in ranked it can be quite tough. I would recommend running ranked in Concentration with the current meta. If you run combat, I would be happy with fitting 2-3 inside the window.

The 30% less AoE damage is 9 times out of 10 a waste. Like said above, these engi sniper's are most effective in ranked arena's and taking that utility just for ranked arena's would be silly. There is no where near enough AoE damage in a ranked arena to justify that utility.

+1. 19 Days left, reason you mentioned.

Good to see some quite informative posts from long time sniper players. One thing i want to clear up though, you guy's aren't claiming the AoE spam ISNT OP though right? Playing engineer well might take skill but playing it effectively in this meta...takes none. All you need to do to be "effective" on ANY map is spam that AoE. If I am wrong could you explain why you were one of the "few" people to main Engineering yet now i see them everywhere, every single sniper is engineer. If we're gonna play games then what's changed? Let's not be silly no one in their right mind does not think that skill is ridiculous...

this exactly.

That feeling you get when a sorc loads into a ranked game?... Ye, that's the same feeling merc's and engi snipers get when ANYONE loads into a ranked game (that's not a merc or engi sniper). That's how bad sorcs are atm. Regardless of HP (gear) they will 9/10 be the initial focus. Most times with my 242 min-max'd combat sentinel I can have them in bubble inside one precision window. Even when they come out from bubble and get the nice heals they are 100% focused on themselves and survival. The game is 3v4 when the join most of the time. Don't get me wrong, I've seen some great sorcs tho.

Companies normally frown upon undeclared chargeback's and ye the account would be locked. However, that is forcing it through your credit card company and not SWTOR themselves. Also, just the other day i saw someone post about a ticket they opened concerning a locked account due to a chargeback. Support unlocked his account and let him carry on,free. I immediately thought "wow, they let him off with a charge-back...desperate..."

I just right click their name report spam and also the same with the in-game mail.

Many people get it, some don't. 9 times out of 10 it will actually be the relationship between your ISP and the SWTOR servers. Not the SWTOR servers directly. If it is so bad it is "unplayable" you should maybe try an tunneling service like WTFfast. What these software programs do is find the most direct route from you...to SWTOR. They usually have a free trial but often subscription based. Personally, i had to use one with Final Fantasy XIV. Also, running a tracert may also help you narrow it down should you wish to look further into it.

That's exactly what i mean, and I share the same opinion as you. So, when someone says they run this on X,Y,Z fine you can bet their definition of fine is much different from "ours".

You can run it, just the content you mentioned (16 man warzones etc) will not be smooth and far from it. I never mentioned just "running" it. People are also more "aware" of frame rate than others. There is no doubt many people playing this game on similar or older systems than yours and probably playing care free. Obviously, you notice it and it bugs you. Believe me, what i have said is 100% correct and easily proved. I'll say it one more time for a TL;DR : The SWTOR engine is a CPU hog, the I/O interaction in particular causes massive stalls which directly translate to poor FPS. This gets worse with more "requests" (i.e player interactions) on screen, hence why 16 player content tanks. To understand what i mean about I/O you can test it. Open your crafting window or demount your speeder....you see that stall? that small blip? that's the poor I/O coding. Newer CPU's are able to push through this with simple single core performance. Imagine having to tow a car with a higher performance vehicle. Which would pull better, the naturally aspirated V12 or the turbo charged V6? Let's even say the V6 Turbo has modifications and an ECU remap to suit the BHP/PS of the V12... strange analogy i know but if you understand it you will understand what i mean about the single core performance. Multi core and hyper threading while cool (like turbo chargers) is of no use when running SWTOR. Solid single core performance (like naturally aspirated) is what's needed in this particular case (pulling the vehicle, 16man content). Torque, you need Torque...and not at 2k or 3k revs...you need it now (lol). Believe me, Like i said we have all tried. People have come and gone who know way more about certain elements to the SWTOR engine and or computer components. The engine is just an abomination and requires a much better CPU than stated (for smoother 16man content). Again, that's a fact.

And what do you do now former "editor". I would think carefully about your answer. I spent a large part of Operation TELIC "listening" and i can tell you right now of the 9 PC Format editors I have confirmed you are not 3 of them, that was in 30 minutes at work with limited tools. You are snow balling this...

You don't know what your talking about CLEARLY. Please stop spreading assumed and incorrect information. You are not as smart as you are acting and no where near as informed as you think you are. SWTOR was not build on i7 2010 chips (the game went into development in the mid 00's). So the game went into development before those processors even hit the market. At most they were used on test VM's towards the later half. The base code developers more than likely used 6+ core Xeon chips with 32GB+ plus of ram (yes in 2005). They may even have used linux with only the asset guys running on windows for modelling, animation etc. SWTOR has had NO "upgrades" to the code architecture that you speak of. Since 2012 there hasn't been A. the requirement, as from EAware's perspective this would be a huge time sink for minimal gain and B. There simply hasn't been the bodies at Bioware for such a task. There has been graphical updates to the "pallette" and fixes such as limited the LOD and draw distance. I'll admit, the game does run better than it did around 3.0. That's because of what coders would call "band aid" fixes though i.e reducing the draw distance. The hero engine devs cannot help as the engine used was an alpha build that was heavily modified. This situation remains in 2017 as it did in 2012. His hardware SHOULD be able to handle swtor relatively well...it is the engine. I don't know why you are discussing points with me as if it is my opinion. This is basic computer science mate. Nothing i have said is not a fact. That includes the fact that you do not know what you are talking about and that you are spreading misinformation. At best, your giving him false hope...at worse your causing people to read what your saying and spend their money. The engine is crap, doesn't matter what date it is. Please at least go and do an MCSE and you might understand why a C++ AAA developer would not be using an i7 desktop consumer chip. Maybe stop blogging (sorry "journalism") about WiFi baud speeds and the evil Software overlords in the process because you are clearly misinformed...and the worrying fact is you believe it.

People, this thread...is everything wrong with the internet. Information is great, but look how "bad" information has created an in depth discussion between two people that is completely mad. Microsoft "harassed" people into windows 10? lol, are you a millennial? OP, i suggest you look back through the thread and read my original reply. I also suggest you google something along the lines of "swtor hero engine performance" or "swtor hero engine fps". Take into account what I have said in my original reply...add it together with EVERYONE else's you find. Then, weight those against what this guy is saying and let your mind decide what the most "logical" reason is for your performance issues. Your hardware will NEVER run smooth in 16 player content. That is simply a fact. It's not really your hardware at fault but rather the development of SWTOR.