I did some further testing on the Energy Regen levels. It appears this issue is entirely graphical. I compared using the two abilities Missile Blast and Explosive Round. (3/12 Ammo (25%) = 25 Heat)

On my Powertech

I tested using Missile Blast, Rapid Shots, Rapid Shots. I was able to use Missile Blast 16 times.

On my Vanguard

I tested using Explosive Round, Hammershot, Hammershot, I was also able to use Explosive Round 16 times.

Finally I inspected the Ammo percentage gauge. Bounty Hunter moderate regen begins at 60% heat remaining. Trooper's moderate regen begains at 66.66%.

Every time I got my ammo between 60% and 66.66%, the Ammo display would display "Moderate" regeneration, but would still increase by intervals of 5% every second instead of 3%.

I tested it with the very slow regen interval. 25% for troopers, 20% for Bounty hunters and got the exact same results. Between 20% and 25% I would still be regenerating 3% Ammo, despite "Very Slow" being displayed which is 2% Ammo/sec.

Ammo/Heat Regen appear to be working identically, The UI display should be fixed to display the correct intervals. Moderate starting at 60% Ammo instead of 66.66% and Very Slow starting at 20% Ammo instead of 25%. This will allow troopers to more accurately manage and assess their Ammo levels.

Cost however is still a major issue. I would like to see a response that the Devs are at least aware of this problem.

2 Weeks and still not any closer to getting a dev response. Anyways here's a repost from another thread discussing the same issue.http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=587930

Pretty simple method to test it yourself.

The longer the test, the greater the disparity will be. That's why my test is ideal. Two button rotation.

Ion Pulse, Hammershot, Ion Pulse, Hammershot, Ion Pulse, Hammershot, and repeat.

Count the number of Ion Pulses until you're unable to use another Ion Pulse. Repeat two more times to account for lag.

 

Bounty Hunter

Flame burst, Rapid shots, Flame burst, Rapid shots, Flame burst, Rapid shots.

Count number of Flamebursts until you're unable to activate it again. Repeat twice more to account for lag.

 

Compare the results.

All it requires is at least level 10 Powertech and Vanguard (minimum level to get Ion Pulse/Flameburst). Arguably it should also work with a Merc and Commando. (Power shot / Charged Bolts) Though only when it's talented for 1.5 second cast time. (Minimum level 15).

If the new changes are correct, it would appear this is finally getting fixed.

12 Ammo -> 100 Energy Cells.

High Friction Bolts: High Impact Bolt ignores <<2[%d/%d/%d]>>% of the target's armor. In addition, if High Impact Bolt hits a burning target, it has a <<1>>% chance to generate 8 energy cells and refresh the duration of your Plasma Cell's burn effect if present.

Supercharge Cells: Converts 30 charges of Combat Support Cell to supercharge your blaster, restoring 8 energy cells and increasing all damage and healing dealt by 5% for <<1[%d seconds/%d second/%d seconds]>>

If the new changes are correct, it would appear this is finally getting fixed.

12 Ammo -> 100 Energy Cells.

 

High Friction Bolts: High Impact Bolt ignores <<2[%d/%d/%d]>>% of the target's armor. In addition, if High Impact Bolt hits a burning target, it has a <<1>>% chance to generate 8 energy cells and refresh the duration of your Plasma Cell's burn effect if present.

 

Supercharge Cells: Converts 30 charges of Combat Support Cell to supercharge your blaster, restoring 8 energy cells and increasing all damage and healing dealt by 5% for <<1[%d seconds/%d second/%d seconds]>>

This is very interesting! Where did you get this from?

Yay!

General

•The Trooper's Energy Cells have been reworked to be a 100-pt resource system. Players will see Energy Cells be consumed and regenerate in fractions, and all Energy cell costs will be charged against the new 100-pt total rather than the old 12-pt total.

Taken from here.

Yay!

 

General

•The Trooper's Energy Cells have been reworked to be a 100-pt resource system. Players will see Energy Cells be consumed and regenerate in fractions, and all Energy cell costs will be charged against the new 100-pt total rather than the old 12-pt total.

 

Taken from here.

I was about to post just that.

Welp, there ya go. Problem fixed.

Yay!

 

General

•The Trooper's Energy Cells have been reworked to be a 100-pt resource system. Players will see Energy Cells be consumed and regenerate in fractions, and all Energy cell costs will be charged against the new 100-pt total rather than the old 12-pt total.

 

Taken from here.

So just to be sure that this did fix the issue being discussed in the thread, I hoped onto the PTS, levelled a trooper until I could use the shuttle to the fleet, got bumped up to lvl55, trained the Vanguard AC, bought Ion Pulse from the trainer and headed to the training dummies.

End result: as a Vanguard it is now possible to endlessly shoot Ion Pulse followed by Hammer Shot without EVER running out of ammo, (just as you could before with a Bounty Hunter, while the Trooper would quickly run out of ammo).

No more discrepancy.

So just to be sure that this did fix the issue being discussed in the thread, I hoped onto the PTS, levelled a trooper until I could use the shuttle to the fleet, got bumped up to lvl55, trained the Vanguard AC, bought Ion Pulse from the trainer and headed to the training dummies.

 

End result: as a Vanguard it is now possible to endlessly shoot Ion Pulse followed by Hammer Shot without EVER running out of ammo, (just as you could before with a Bounty Hunter, while the Trooper would quickly run out of ammo).

 

No more discrepancy.

Woot