The comment concerning LOTRO is untrue (no clue on DDO) LOTRO has had very good updates since they went F2P.

The model isn't bad. Free to Play lets you play from 1 to 50 every class, but not experience everything. Subs get to do everything. Shop lets you buy cosmetic stuff but no real in game advantage and can be accessed by everyone (if they start selling major in game advantages then it's going to cause major issues). If it keeps the game alive, and even more so, allows the devs to keep advancing the game, then great.

Is there any word on when this may happen, even if it comes with a fee? I have a character on one server that I need to transfer out, but the server I want to transfer to isn't one of the offered ones at the moment.

For me Engineering was the best spec to level up with especially pre level 30. Before 30 MM and Leth both fealt inferior. Post 30 MM catches up mainly due to follow through, Leth gets better due to Cull, but I still rather be engineering or MM for leveling purposes. At 50 they all seem to do fine, just have different focuses. In PvP it's especially fun when you get in a warzone with 2 (or more) snipers who know what they are doing and who have different specs, if they work together it just becomes nasty.

This actually was my thought, well the part about how did cover just randomly break when (as far as I know) nothing was supposed to be tweaked on the agent/smuggler end at all. In any case as mentioned it's a very annoying bug in PvP and I know most snipers would appreciate if it got hotfixed as soon as possible.

I've always thought snipers should have some sort of stealth detection personally, though I wouldn't complain about having a bit of stealth either.

I'm going engineering and it's been working well. One thing make sure and keep your weapon updated, it makes a big difference.

I admit I'm very new to sniping, but right now engineering seems to be kind of like a jack of all trades tree. It's got access to some burst, some dots and some aoe.

What would be a basic rotation/priority for engineering?

I think there is some confusion here. Can a mara take out a sent? Sure, especially if they get the drop on them. But a sniper has all the tools necessary to shut down a mara, especially one they see coming, and there are flaws in trying to use your CC to stop a sniper from casting.

Never annihilated a anni mara as a pyro, I either win or I loose, usually it's a close match, unless RNG totally fubars me, occasionally it will end with both of us dead thanks to dots.

This. Sniper/Gunslinger has all the tools needed to shut down a mara/sent.

It's a matter of timing and admittedly a bit of luck. Does a mara/sent have all the tools to take down a PT/Van? Yes, but it's not impossible for the PT/Van to take down the mara/sent either. Course with the change to rail shot procs with the coming patch things will probably be much harder so there will be no chance at all for back to back procs anymore.

PT/vanguard can take out mara/sents, it's not as easy as is for say a tank assassin but it's certainly doable. Big issue for the PT/Vanguard is they won't be running away once the fight starts. I've seen some pretty good juggs/guards take down mara/sents and snipers/gunslinger can do it as well.

Merc wasn't nerfed.... EDIT: This pretty much.