The run from NW to NE is shorter than from South to either. If you unexpectedly take the opposing bunker in the start, you can run back and forth from both, or pull a good number of them from South so your team can sweep it...it's basically like attacking the right turret when you start a game of Civil War.

That sounds about right, honestly. Quick Shot, Blaster Whip, Back Blast, and Sabotage Charge are pretty much your best attacks at a low level. This class is a very late bloomer, needing both shoot first and sucker punch to really start to play effectively. For now, going into cover and hitting them with Charge Bursts isn't a terrible strategy. Basically, do whatever works for now, and later on once you start getting your more key talents it'll change.

I think we may be looking at this from different perspectives, since most of my experience and advice comes from a Warzone sort of perspective, whereas you seem to reference a lot of dueling tactics. Anyways... Like I said earlier in the post, there are certain enemies who you don't Dirty Kick off the opener against, but I think it's one of the best abilities to use in almost any DPS vs DPS situation. DPS vs DPS fights are just a race, so opening with the full stun combo is sort of like giving them a car that doesn't start until you're half way down the track. This also puts a lot of pressure on them, imo, and like I said, if you REALLY need to CC, that 2 second root from Tendon Blast + Cleanse to get rid of most snares on you does wonders. This also lets you keep away from Marauders who pop Undying Rage, and I think the combination of the Pressure Game + our ability to always keep them out of range allowing us to heal makes us a really unfavorable match up for Marauders (at least in my experience). Honestly though, our match up vs Assassins is well...idk. That 5 second immunity from the popular tank spec to all of our CCs, our hard hitting damaging abilities is pretty much the nail in the coffin for that matchup. If we were to have any "counter class", it would be them. It's more important to save Dirty Kick vs them or healers when they use their powerful channeled ability, but against Marauders I find it always easier to just mess them up in the beginning, and heal if I really have to. It works well for me most of the time. As a guy who solo guards turrets a lot, I disagree with a lot of this post. Your primary goal when playing defense is to play defensively, not offensively, so you don't mess up and lose your node due to making a mistake/getting outplayed. You want to stall for time while one or two people come to assist you, never come out guns blazing. There's always a chance that you're fighting someone who outgears you, or that they have a stealth nearby who'll quickly turn that matchup against you. Pretty much Tranq Dart, run off the node so you don't get caught by random AOE or any enemy stealth classes, and watch for the cap. Remember to call incomings early, and keep the team updated to the status of your turret. Even if the team is skilled, you can still try and score once against them if they're unprepared for a stealth waiting in their endzone. One score is 1/6th of the way to winning, so it's not insignificant (though I usually wind up as mind control in most games, since I run PUG a lot).

I feel like I disagree a lot with what's posted in the guide. Flyby is a great skill, but I think it's terrible for one vs one due to the long cast time, as well as high energy cost. It's much better as a specialty skill to keep groups of people off the door in Voidstar, or force enemies to reposition on Civil War or Alderaan. I also wouldn't waste Vanish to use another Shoot First, since it's way more useful as a tool to escape and heal, or to drop your target and move ahead of the group to stealth cap a voidstar. I feel like using Vanish on CD might be better for Duels, but in an actual Warzone I would avoid using it like that unless you REALLY needed to get that 2nd Shoot First. I also think, specced into the 15 second CD reduction in the DF tree, that stunlocking on the opener is a great move. You can still CC with Tendon Blast to get away if you need to, and it puts an enormous amount of pressure on people. Their resolve bar won't be full for long, so if you really have to you can Flash Grenade later on. I also REALLY dislike the Tranq dart opener, you use a lot of energy, and it relies on them not moving out of the fire, as well as wasting a vanish CD. Even against high armor targets, you can just hold back on the Back Blast to give yourself a longer Flechette Round bleed/armor pen buff. I also would not use Vital Shot as part of the opener, ever. Vital Shot is a good skill, but use it when you're KB'd or approaching an enemy out of stealth, otherwise your other skills take priority imo. Finally, I think it needs a section about defending as a Scrapper, which imo is one of the most important roles we can play. While we aren't as tanky as an Assassin, we can stall one or two people for a decent amount of time with Tranq Dart (try using it while they're halfway through capping to stall for time), and pretty good hit and run tactics. I've managed to hold off 3 people long enough for reinforcements to get to my turret in Civil War. I think it's important here to not stand too close to the turret, but off to the side where you can see where they'll come from, so you can call your incomings early. This also means you're much less likely to get ambushed by enemy stealth, since most of them will only check the areas closest to the node, you can wait for them to start capping and then mez them to stall for time. This is really effective in Civil War, and slightly less effective in Denova (because of gradual capping+multiple people speeding up a cap), and viable but tricky in Voidstar. You can solo hold a point in the beginning, which lets your other 7 team members hit the contested points. Finally, I disagree about Huttball being our worst. If you run with a premade you can pretty much win the game by yourself by leaving yourself open to passes in their end zone, but you are also great at hitting key targets (sorcs in your balcony, people waiting at mid for the ball to come back, or RDPS who are decimating your team from the balconies) and taking them out. Against RDPS, positioning is pretty key, so that when they use their KBs you don't get knocked from the balcony or into a hazard, so try to keep your back to an object that will stop you or line yourself up so that you won't get knocked down. Most of them will blow their AOE KB immediately, instead of waiting until you're at a good spot. Not only can we do a lot of good for a Huttball team, but it's also a lot of fun to play, since 1 vs 1 happens more in Huttball PUGs than anywhere else. Also, if this is hard to understand, I apologize. I'll probably go through my posts earlier in the topic and clean them up a bit, to make them easier to read.

I'm not the guy writing the guide, but I figured I'd throw in my two cents. I have never really had a problem with Juggernauts, especially when I get the full opener off. The opener I typically use is: Flechette Round->Shoot First->Blaster Whip->Dirty Kick->Crouch+Pugnacity (to help keep your energy up)->Sabotage Charge+Flechette Round->Back Blast (while coming out of cover by moving slightly)->Blaster Whip And from there I make my priority: 1. Flechette Round + Backblast 2. Sucker Punch 3. Blaster Whip (when UH not at 2) 4. Quickshot Usually after getting the full 5 or so seconds of the opening off I've created such a huge gap between us that they can't catch up, however, Marauders are one of the higher DPS classes in the game, so it's not impossible. Against them, you can pop Dodge during Ravage if you REALLY need to get out of there, as well as Snare and heal around obstacles with Tendon Blast and UWM/Kolto Pack (I typically use UWM to conserve UH stacks, but I'll give Kolto Pack a try next time I play to see if it serves me better). Also, against healers, it changes a little bit, saving the Dirty Kick/Sabotage Charge part of the rotation until later. Sabotage Charge puts a lot of pressure on them since it deals quite a bit of burst, and you can Dirty Kick to interrupt a heal, Sabotage Charge + Sucker Punch/Blaster Whip/Quick Shot if you REALLY have to but I hope you don't anyways to deal quite a bit of damage, and put them in a situation where they can't heal themselves before you kill them. Basically, it's nice as a second Distraction when fighting healers. If you solo queue? No, you're pretty screwed, at least you're not going in as a healer where everyone focus fires you. I think the only way to make it less painful is to Queue with a group who already had gear, so if you're in a decent guild. Other than that, from valor 40 and onwards, collect as many Ranked Warzone commendations as you can by converting your needless regular ones into them. From a personal stand point I'm not sure, but I do know that Wounding Shots hits very hard, very fast. The spec is probably much better when playing a gunslinger, but if you wanna give it a shot, go for it I suppose. Don't get discouraged. Anyone who underestimates a Scoundrel/Operative is putting themselves in a crappy position. We don't destroy entire teams of people like Marauders or Pyrotechs, but we can quickly take out key targets like strong RDPS (Snipers, Sorcs) and have some of the best CC in the game in my opinion.

In my opinion, a scrapper who can't do decent sustained damage outside of stealth is a bad scrapper. I'm not the best at this class, but even when I get stuck out of stealth for a long time I believe I still manage to contribute to the team. As for dangerous classes? I'd say enemy Operatives are dangerous, since those fights are pretty much determined by who finds who first. Assassins, especially tanks, are also pretty brutal. Their Resilience gives them 4 (or 5?) seconds of complete immunity to all of our hard hitting attacks, and they are completely immune to all of our stuns during that period. They are certainly one of the most dangerous classes we can face, for sure. Also, if you're playing a Scrapper, make sure to have Underworld Medicine somewhere easy to press. Underworld Medicine is one of our strongest skills, and if you don't use it when you've been hurt a bit in any fight where you aren't going to immediately enter stealth afterwards, you're hurting yourself. It gives you a ton of sustainability. Tendon Blast is a great skill for getting off UWM, as well. The pillars in Voidstar, the boxes and other obstacles on Huttball, the Turret and underneath the ramps on Alderaan are all great places to Tendon Blast your opponent, run around cover, and get off an UWM or two. That will save you on a lot of fights you should have lost.

No, it's a Gunslinger only ability. You don't need to stay in cover to do DPS, and unless you're trying to stall a warrior or something's approach, probably shouldn't linger in cover.

Honestly, any fight that is painful as a Gunslinger is almost always more painful as a Scoundrel. Once your squishy tank companion dies you're locked out of your best and hardest hitting ability (Back Blast) barring any stuns you use since the enemies all auto face you. That said, the DPS on the Gunslinger is usually better for Operations, but being able to heal is also nice. I wouldn't dismiss DPS scoundrels in PVP either. A lot of people say they're useless, but I can beat people who are slightly more geared than me fairly reliably one vs one, and can still contribute to the team if I get stuck out of stealth for a while.

DON'T pop Dodge during Tracer Missile/Grav Round. That will just make you disappointed when that Tech damage comes through anyways and kills you.

I play DPS spec and I do fine. Stealth of any form is good, and Scrapper is the king of stealth IMO. You can stall turrets with your mez like no other, absolutely destroy bad teams, and make anyone leaving one at a node a bad idea in a way no other class can. DPS Scrappers may need some work, but DPS wise I honestly think we're fine.

Scoundrels may not have the best utility in the game, but saying they're worthless in PVP matches is just flat out wrong.

I don't do great at solo fights on my Gunslinger personally, but you are still probably one of the best Ranged DPS classes in the game.

Anyone who thinks Scrapper DPS is irrelevant is foolish. They're still incredibly powerful, I can gank people who out gear me on my Scoundrel frequently, and only lose some fights to gear. While "ganking" people isn't considered team playing, my own scoundrel has still managed to top charts without being in combat 100% of the time. If you didn't like Sniper, try scoundrel. They're a lot of fun.

They're really good at keeping themselves alive. Make sure you keep up Flourish Shot on them, and focus on burning them down. Don't waste shots when they dodge, and make sure to interrupt their nuke heal (Kolto Injection, also, keep in mind that Thermal Grenade will interrupt.). A lot of the times if they're focusing on someone else who's low on HP, you can catch them off guard if you open up hard enough. Generally, for me, once people get into Quick Draw range I can keep them from leaving it until I get the kill.

To be honest, if you want to use two guns, you're better off going Gunslinger. The Merc DPS specs focus more on their explosives with some gun attacks, while the Gunslinger Sharp shooter spec is almost all guns. As for the story, the Smuggler story is awesome, and a lot of fun. Smuggler characters get some of the best lines, imo. End game PVP both are viable, although the Merc has more versatility with a heal spec. Mercs definitely solo better. My commando step brother was able to solo 4 man heroics for a long time, which is something you just can't do on the Gunslinger.