I like the auto cover mechanic idea, but it's been discussed in many threads. I really wish they'd just scrap the cover mechanic at this point. Tired of being rooted, but that's just my opinion. Gunslingers need some love, yet they haven't seen fit to give us any attention.

No, I'm not happy with the class. I do enjoy the PvE aspect to some degree, but find that even in full rakata gear, and a decent amount of surge, that other guildies in similar gear but different classes do damage equal to and better in some cases. We do decent damage in pve but is it wrong that other non pure dps class put out similar number? When those classes are hybrids that can heal and damage or off tank and damage, what's the point of being full dps class when half tards can do it just as well? As for PvP this class is terrible. Lack of mobility, lack of a decent CC or escape, and over reliance on root with new GCD mechanics make using those abilities and this class the bottom of the barrel when it comes to pvp. Can I burst? Sure, if the planets align and some lone player charges me when all my cd's are gone I can pop em. I can find a nice perch and dps away till i get knocked off or jumped or pulled down. But more often then not, people see the shield go up when I kneel down, and I get a giant bulls eye over my head. I see 2 people turn, and I wait to knock em back with pulse. Run up to the ridge or some advantageous spot, and root again effectively stop and wait for them to pounce before my dps make any real impact and I drop because my survivability is weaker than that of the light armor classes. The lack of mobility and the constant root make this class NOT FUN. So being only half good is still bad. Ya don't congratulate anyone for doing a job half well, you take em out back and knock some sense into em or fire em, and get a refund for the bad meal or poor service that they provide.

Honestly, why don't any of the rakata sets have Surge? One of my main stats as a sharpshooter, and wearing columni gear lets me do better damage than my rakata set? Is this an oversight or is the design team that inept?

Cybertech and abilities are both independant of each other, down side to the cyber tech ones is the 5 min CD after use, i had my scoundrel get em initially, and even after getting all the rakata grenades, even after the fix that locked the grenades to cybertech, i still ended up dropping it for Biomed, and slicing on the side since other toon passed mats over.

If my argument dissuades him from playing so be it, ultimately it's his choice. Just trying to offer him insight that gunslinger scoundrel isn't the only option in game. I play both at 50, both geared, also play a sage and trooper, both working towards 50. Scoundrel was fun, in the way that any OP Flavor of the month class is. It was overpowered, and it was nice stealthing around and being able to essentially pop out and beat down a class in 3-4 hits is without them being able to do anything about it. But they were recently brought down, and atm are ineffective in the DPS category in the stealth tree anyways. Healing their fine, and if heals are your thing than fire away. Dirty fighting has the same mentality in both classes, damage thru dots, but gunslinger does it better. But better still doesn't matter if it's bad, only being slightly better than worse. This class is bad atm, needs a serious look over. Once nerfing / buffing / balancing act is done we'll see where the dust falls. Story wise smugglers story was fun, I like the snarky side of the game. PvE and PvP wise this class needs lots of attention, and until it receives it just pointing out you may enjoy other classes better balanced with good mechanics, less ability delay, and more mobility than this one.

Yes I am talking strictly from a pvp perspective. PvE is a different matter, if you don't have trouble dodging mechanics, and team play, no class in this game is challenging for PvE content, in a guild who 2 weeks into raiding downed hard mode Soa and Kraga's Palace. By no means are we hard core. I see PvE challenge in this game as trivial at best. I'm also the type who goes into a fight knowning what to expect and the mechanics each monster and encounter have. My group focuses on execution. Now if your not like me, and like to go into encounters blind, then you have even less reason to play gunslinger, the class is the squishiest of all of the classes, even cloth classes have way more survivability then we do. Also dodging mechanics and damaging is much tougher when you need to be rooted in place to do the damage. You spend most of your time moving on hard encounters, and the least amount of time bursting in most ops situations. Hence I still recommend trooper, or sage. I like to steer people clear of the bad situation that is gunslinger / scoundrel atm. There is more fun to be found else where in game, this class is not the one your looking for.

Saboteur is a nice AOE tree in gunslinger. It still requires you to root to do most of your damage based abilities though, as is the whole problem with GS pvp based dps mechanics, but it's better than sharpshooter in the mobility category. Only mobile build would be dirty fighter, and even that is still lots weaker compared to it's other class counterparts. My opinion on gunslinger, the class is too squishy and no mobility and damage that isn't really any better than other classes, burst or sustainable, i'd prolly recommend looking else where, like at a trooper or sage or the imperial counterparts bounty hunter or agent.

Short answer: NO Long answer: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooooooooooooo Having played both to 50, even with the coming nerf Scoundrel is still better and more fun than GS. Heals plus damage. Only thing that I can see happening to give any value to Gunslingers at this point is them buffing smugglers as a whole, then and only then making Gunslingers the only ranged dps that truly top dps. Cause hey, why play a gimp DPS class with no other utility when there are so many other options.

Lameanduninteresting

The logic is simple, due to the ilum fiasco which so many imperials abused, republic players won't be able to do the daily in a timely matter. Not easy for the 1-2, heck even groups of 4-8 to take on the raving and roving masses of sith foamin at the mouth for free and easy valor. Sure we republic can pick up stragglers, anyone can, but when it comes down to it, any time we form up a group, on most servers there is another group 3-5x larger that just comes in and stomps the opposing player. To keep the gear gap, which is now totally blown, even remotely close they need to lengthen the time it takes for the over populated side to gear up with commendation bags, while finding a way to entice the population that has no incentive to go there to come back. But it will not happen.

Roll sab. You'll enjoy it more than our this weak class. It has Good dps, decnet for pve, but for pvp it's a joke, and don't listen to anyone who likes to hide in a corner and plink away at enemies. Hopefully the cd fix helps it some, but it's still not enough, they need to remove ability reliance on cover, or give us a mobile cover, even if it's less, that increases channeled abilities so we can hit and run.

And not a single bit of love for our class. Lovely. As if pvp wasn't bad enough for sharpshooter. I also love seeing more premade battlemaster healers not dying to my burst but healing thru it.

I for one am glad respawns on those armaments are so long. If they were short then overpopulated factions would have a severe advantage over underpopulated ones when controlling a zone, kinda like what's happening now.

Repub vs repub huttball is weird, kinda annoying too cause I know everyone from my premade just drops anytime hut ball pops, not worth the time imo. Even if we do win 5-0 or more there are still better ways to spend our time.

Republic hasn't given up, more like wised up. There are better things to do than waste time bashing your head against a wall expecting different results. With GCDs and certain class abilities as well as Population grossly favoring 1 faction over another, are you surprised? I'm glad imps can now stare at empty space. They can go crate farm for all i care. Me and my crew were rolling war zones, got our 3, and called it. Let the imps suffer for all i care, isn't that part of their creed anyway?