I have to agree, this was a dumb "priority" fix on so many levels. They inadvertently had made what was going to be a very popular feature of having an "effect slot." It cost no money for them to develop and it took time, effort, and money to remove it.. If they were smart, they could have seen a tremendous market for pumping out outfits with effects. Even people who like their armor would pay cartel coins for the new effects to put on top of their armor. Just look at how it drove up the popularity of those very few pieces. Rather than recognizing the new game feature they had and the tremendous ability to produce a new revenue stream while making the players happy, developers pride stepped in and since it was an "accident" it has to be corrected. This was not a smart move.

Ops is a good comparison, and you could debate who is the very bottom. Probably Snipers due to ops getting to enter combat on their own terms and the great burst at the beginning of the fight. Merc is not in a great spot, but currently better then snipers and ops due to enhanced survivability.

Certainly there is nothing that says it "can't" be done, however it is an uphill slog to say the least. We all have full time jobs and families. IIRC, it was approximately 3 million to get on the board. If we played 6 days a week (which we don't because we also have republic and imp toons), it would take 12 player doing an average of 40k per day to get on the board. More importantly, even if it can be done, there is no reason not to split the reward to make it attainable to samller guilds. The fact that you boasted about doing it, while very impressive, is not a convincing argument on why not to split the reward.

While I believe "killing small guilds" is a bit over the top, conquest is a good system that for the most part ignores small to midsize guilds. I am in a small to midsize guild that has about 12-15 active members. We group, we raid, we play together, we saved the money for a guild ship. We enjoy our company, and we really don't have a desire to merge into a large guild. That being said, it is depressing that not only is the entire concept of controlling a planet out of reach, but the concept of getting a weekly guild reward is completely out of reach. Most of the time we finish with 30% of the points required to reach the last spot on the leader board, so it is not a situation where a little more grinding and we would see a reward. The only reward in our grasp is getting the individual reward on a hand full of toons. I suspect once the conquest system completes its first rotation (enough time to get crafting nodes and the achievements), it won't kill the small guilds, but small guilds will quit on the concept of conquest. The individual reward will no longer be a large enough pull to keep participating. I would propose a solution of breaking the weekly guild reward in half. Award the first half of the weekly reward as a small, fixed number target that larger guilds will fly past without noticing, but smaller guilds have something to work towards together. The second half of the reward stays as a carrot for larger guilds to make sure they are on the top 10 board. Larger guilds will not make any more money, and they will still be rewarded for being in the top 10. The change is a significant impact to smaller to midsized guilds who now actually have something they can work hard and accomplish as a guild on a weekly basis.

While I am very happy with the flow of new content and many of the concepts of content being rolled out, the actual mid-level design/implementation of these items leaves a lot to be desired. Here are a few examples. 1) Casino Event - This was a fantastic concept that could be used to create a hand full of small mini games that players could enjoy, however the actual implementation of spamming a slot machine for hours on end was an abysmal game mechanic. The concept was solid, the mid-level design was horrible. 2) Thorn Event - The rotation of the Thorn event to multiple planets is a great concept, however I was very disappointed to find out it was the exact same quests and map layout as the previous planet. The only difference was the skin on some of the mobs (even the boss mob was same mechanics).. While I understand this was efficient, a very modest change in layout, quests, and/or mechanics would have provided a feeling of change. Honestly, there really was no point in making it change planets if the event is not changing. Solid concept, lousy mid-level design. 3) Conquest - The conquest system is a great new game mechanic and system, however the implementation was so unbalanced in favor of large guilds that it really leaves smaller guilds and solo players at a disadvantage. By far the most important factor in Conquest is the size of your guild over virtually all other factors (including any personal behavior). While the concept is great, the mid-level design of the reward system is abysmal. As an active player in a smaller guild, it really hit home after the second week that the system is largely pointless. Once I hit my weekly individual total, no other conquest matters since our guild is not large enough to ever be in contention for even being in the top 10 list. It won't be long after a few weeks of node gathering for the house, that the individual quest reward is not a strong enough pull to even bother with the entire concept of Conquest.

I really don't think stealth would make the sniper OP as long as it contained 2 very important distinctions between operatives/sins. 1) No movement in stealth - The sniper can pick his spot and wait, but they can't move in stealth. 2) No in combat stealth mechanic - Once a sniper is in combat, they are in combat. It would make the cat and mouse game of finding a spot quickly and waiting for your prey patiently. You would need to know when to pull the trigger. The other key about these differentiations is it then would make absolutely zero change to PvE play of snipers. It is only a PvP survival mechanic that lowers the amount of picking out the sniper and burying them before they get a chance to do anything. I also think being able to pop shield probe while stunned is a must for Snipers.

1) Orbital Strike does splash damage thus making it truly an AoE skill and not in the single target rotation. 2) Make sniper going into cover grant low grade stealth. The sniper cannot enter stealth in combat and entering combat breaks stealth. Leaving cover also breaks stealth. (i.e. no movement in stealth) 3) Shield Probe can be activated while stunned. While the stealth sounds overpowered, the inability to leave combat or move in stealth significantly impacts its effectiveness. What it will do is make is make it harder for PvP participants to all pounce on the sniper. It also would give a good sniper feel of find a nice position and patiently wait for the right moment to "ambush"

While not very constructive or open minded, the OP does have a point in that it is an uphill slog in arenas as a sniper. Even Bioware has acknowledged it as a problem they are not currently addressing. For those that believe otherwise, what class is worse than a sniper in arenas? What is depressing is the arena problem has largely been relegated as not as big a problem as the PvE sniper glutton. Bioware's flawed way of thinking that Snipers and Marauders needed to do more DPS than other dps specs has left them poor class balance in PvE. Their answer to this has been to drive down the population of snipers by subtly dropping their dps. The subtlety was accomplished by very minor sniper nerfs and some major buffing to other classes. It appears that if they leave us at the bottom of the barrel as far as DPS, many snipers will leave or re-roll other tunes and re-balance PvE in time for their next expansion. In conclusion, the developers were very careful not to break snipers to an unplayable class, but they have certainly tried to dull the luster. It is a dangerous and frustrating game they are playing that could easily backfire. I don't agree with their plan, but I think I understand what they hope to accomplish. If you want to be a sniper, grin and bear it a few months until they balance the class distribution in PVE and then they may bring us back to an equitable level. Arena sniper play is collateral damage. The last thing they want to do is add functionality that is going to increase the number of snipers, and I doubt snipers will see any positive changes any time soon.

My suggestions with Sniper 1) Sniper is not a utility class. This was presented as a pure dps class and the name sniper itself lends to a high damage combat oriented class. Do an immediate and minor cross the board dps bump now to put it us in line with other range dps classes. Since the DPS is the primary purpose DPS classes, this should not be balanced against utility unless there is a sizable utility impact. The idea of having a utility dps penalty is very similar to the same line of thinking that started this problem by having sniper/marauder dps too high. If the utilities of dps classes need to be balanced, then do it by supplementing the utilities of other classes. The only reason to lag Sniper DPS behind other classes at this point is to drive down the population that bloated when they had higher than norm dps. This is a rather unfair solution to the population glutton of PvE snipers. 2) PvP could be reworked with a couple of items. The core change would be to make a sniper going into cover grant low grade stealth. The sniper could not move with stealth. The sniper could not exit combat and enter stealth. The sniper would lose stealth when attacking or being attacked. The goal of the sniper is to achieve quick positioning and then quietly and patiently wait for their prey to ambush. This would achieve the feel and game play that reflects a sniper. It would help in PvP because it would be much more difficult to single out snipers initially and target as an easy kill. The second item would be allow the snipers shield probe to be popped when stunned. This would mitigate, but not eliminate the squishiness problem that frequently leaves a sniper helpless. Neither of these would have any meaningful PvE impact (may be allow snipers to patiently skip pats), but for the most part they would change the way a PvP sniper is intended to be played. 3) Engineering rework suggestion. Change scatter bombs to be a single damaging ae strike that occurs midway in the roll path 1 sec after rolling. A grenade without knockdown. Lower the damage considerably to make this a utility and not part of the required engineering rotation. No more wall bang exploit. Change electric dot to be higher damage and remove the stacks. The dot is started by the IP and the IP needs to be on the target for the dot to exist. Snipe and Overload shot refresh the dot, but SoS is no longer part of the equation. Now you have the frame work of a nice consistent and solid single target rotation. (IP –X-X-Snipe-X-X-X-Snipe-X-X-X-X). The single target damage output of an engineering sniper should be good enough that this can be used as a full time spec and not just a specialty spec. At the same time, due to their AoE ability, they should have lower single target damage than the other two specs and at the lower end of all classes single target dps spectrum.

This developer post really strikes a nerve. The main points. 1) DPS vs Utility: The two main problems with this answer involves consistency and validity. Consistency: When I started my sniper it was explained that we were "pure dps" and therefore would be on the high end of the dps spectrum because we cannot tank or heal. Now we are being informed that due to being a "utility" dps we will be on the low end of the dps spectrum. That is a very different design implementation that kind of redefines the vision of snipers. Obviously you can see the frustration that largely feels like bait and switch. Validity: The snipers do have a lot of utility and they are a very well rounded class, however I don't believe the magnitude of their utility necessitates a harsher dps penalty than other dps builds. We still cannot heal, battle rez, taunt, stealth, cleanse others, or buff others dps. Our armor debuff is very generic and shared among others. Our mobility is average at best. Our group damage debuff is a situationally used item that can only be deployed every 3 minutes. I don't want to imply that snipers lack utility, rather our group utility is just different and in line with most other dps classes. Make our dps in line with others and you will have no issues. A lower dps than other dps specs is an unnecessary punishment designed to run off the glut of PvE snipers and drive them to swap classes. 2) PVP: There was once a developer statement that made the sniper sound like a turret. If a melee started at range and tried to take a sniper head on, they would die a horrible death. The problems in PvP started when the sniper dps was brought down to the lower end of the spectrum. At this point, snipers are a PvP class with very limited strengths. They are not strong dps, they are not extremely mobile, they cannot heal, and their survivability is limited. IMHO, the problems in PvP is related to what appears to be no clear developer vision on how a sniper should be played. The post that started this thread that indicates developers don't know how to fix snipers in PvP is very depressing. 3) Engineering: Engineering has never been a solid build from day 1. The idea that sometime in the distant future it would be addressed is just a further delay on an underdeveloped spec. The spec rotation is both very clunky and complicated. It often feels like the old variety show contest to keep all the plates spinning. The scatter bombs was a very poor implementation that turned out to be a situational pseudo-exploit. IMHO, balance the spec by dropping scatter bomb damage and increasing the electrified rail dot to bring the single target dps to a level that is acceptable for end game content. It certainly should be the low end of the spectrum, but it needs to be in the ball park if it is going to be considered a serious option. If the scatter bombs are removed from engineering parses, the dps just doesn't cut it. My conclusion: In response to being overpowered, snipers came out of the woodwork. The developers heavy handed reaction appears to be a strategy of making us the red-headed step child class to drive down the population. The three answers is nothing more than a very hollow promise that sometime in the future we may fix you, but we make no promises.

I agree with original poster. This is a lousy event and extremely poor content. I don't have to pay for this events quality of content. I am sure there are free phone aps that are more engaging than this event. I will admit I am jaded having gone 4.2 mil in and still not found the rancor, however here are the three main points I have. 1) The mini-game itself is an abysmal design. It is spam clicking. If it was three card, or black jack, or anything that involved the least amount of mental stimulation, it would minimize the pain of losing constantly. All this game is a sore finger and headache. 2) While losing 4.2m is unlucky, IIRC, it is probably in the bottom 15%. It is not an unfathomably unlucky %. People are going to get to this point. I have won 144 gold certificates. What do I do with them? I could buy multiple copies of every item on the vendor. If this is going to be a 3 month event with this many certificates distributed, there should have been more effort put into finding a way to spend the gold certificates. At minimum let me buy my kingpin token back. A gold certificate is not a win, it is just a fancy graphic loss. 3) Who actually is going to enjoy this event? Sure those who get lucky and win the rancor early will feel great about their luck, but a majority are not going to be in that category. I bet if you took 10 people and made them play these slots for 1 hour straight, 1 will be lucky and enjoy it. 3-4 will say "it was ok, but I am kind of tired of it. I would rather not play again." 5-6 are going to say "this was really boring after the first 15 minutes and I did not enjoy my next 45 minutes."

I think the problem is the fact the slots are so darn boring. At least make it black jack or something where you are using your mind. It is not just the fact I have spent 3.3 million credits and still don't have the darn thing that is frustrating. It is the fact that the credit sink is extremely time consuming not in the least bit enjoyable. It is just an endless and mindless button clicks. I spend an hour or so playing I get up frustrated with a headache and my finger hurts. It is absolutely horrible content. I don't have to pay for this level of game play. There are thousands of free aps that are more engaging then click a slot machine a thousand times or so and win a prize. Who is going to enjoy this? The only small proportion of player who get lucky are going to enjoy this. If you get it early you feel like a million dollars and it is a fun event. For everyone else it is hundreds and (in the really unlucky group thousands) of mindless and frustrating button clicks with no apparent end. Please let us buy the darn thing for the achievement for 100 certificates. No one is going to want to win it that way, but giving some mercy to the endless unlucky will prevent this stupid obsession from developing a hatred of SWToR based on this latest abysmally designed event.

My two cents on the answer is there are two ways of looking at it 1) I am serious about this class and learning the different builds. A sniper has an advantage of several viable dps builds that can all use the same gear set. You can learn all the builds and then use your knowledge of the builds to choose the best build per encounter/activity. I utilize this method and strongly recommend it. 2)I am looking to pick one build and stick with it for all encounters and be the best player I can with that one build. If you are in the first grouping, then learn them all. I generally think Marksman has the lowest single target dps of the sniper specs (still slightly above average of all dps builds in the game) but has unmatched target swapping ability. If you are in a fight with a lot of add swapping, you most of the time will be better off with marksman. Lethality and Leth/Eng Hybrid are very, very close in terms of dps and strengths. They have great sustained single target damage, but since they are dependent on dots, they struggle with power and set up if you utilize too much target swapping. Technically, Lethality has a tiny bit more dps and hybrid a tiny bit more burst and AE, but they are both so close that personal skill and comfort with the build will outway the difference. Finally, Engineering is a fantastic situational and warzone build. It excels on AE and if you can utilize the scatter bombs to fullest extent in the encounter, this build will do more damage than any build in the game. The problem with engineering is it is so specialized and complex, it struggles outside of its comfort zone and falls behind on the other 3 builds in DPS without the scatter bombs. If you are in the second grouping, I would suggest stay Marksman. Even though it is the lowest sustained single target dps spec of the snipers, it still is around middle of the pack for dps builds. The flexibility of being able to target swap rapidly (since you have great range and have no dot set-up) it will allow you to do well in the more complicated boss fights that usually encounter adds and rapidly burning a target when it appears. Marksmen, imho, is the best arena spec and is a very adequate warzone build. While the nerf to orbital strike has certainly made it a more debatable question on what is the best single size spec for snipers, I don't think it is enough nerf in overall dps to dethrone marksman as the best choice for the single build sniper. (I am sure there are some lethality snipers that disagree)

IMHO, the stat that sticks out is APM. I would guess this should be much higher and he is leaving too much damage on the table by time between shots. I would assume it is the result of one of two things 1) Practice - He is thinking about the rotation instead of executing it. Try simplifying the rotation or just practicing trying to be faster 2) Technical - He has some lag and/or computer issues which is impacting the speed of his performance. In short, tell him/her to turn his settings down to zero and practice more on dummy with the goal of trying to minimize time between shots.

Oh that is exactly the point. If the rollbanger gets a situation where the bombs can be used effectively, they are too high. If they can't use the bombs, the dps is the lowest of all dps builds. Nerf the scatter bombs, raise the single target dps. Make engineering more than just a rollbanger.