The DPS for a scoundrel is just fine. Its just not as faceroll as the other class and you have to pay attention to procs.

Since you are level 35 I suggest waiting one more level. At level 36 you get your bread and butter ability "Shoot First". This ability puts some serious pain on any mob you come across.

Scoundrels are tedious to play and require a lot of micro-management but they are not weak.

Scoundrels are tedious to play and require a lot of micro-management but they are not weak.

While leveling, Scoundrel DPS is perfectly fine. In fact, I leveled my Scoundrel as a Scrapper DPS and had a blast (pun intended; nothing gives me the giggles like a shotgun backstab). The problem is that, at level 50, Scoundrel DPS is *completely and utterly terrible*: whereas every other DPS class is going to pull between 1.8-2.1k DPS properly geared and played, an *optimally geared and played Scrapper* is going to pull, at best, 1.6-1.7k DPS (and that 1.7k is pushing the limits of believability) with a *vast* majority pulling 1.2-1.4k DPS. It's not a question of "play better to do more DPS"; Scoundrel DPS is simply limited by bad damage numbers on most of their attacks that prevent them from actually doing similar damage as the other classes.

He is not talking about end game dps. He is saying his DPS while leveling is poor - although i'm not sure what that means either. He could be writing about flash-points or questing. Either way, the damage a scoundrel does is fine.

The real problem with the AC is that if you level as scrapper then you do not gain access to your good abilities until you are almost 40. Also Scrappers have poor AoE so they must pick off their groups one by one. Later on this becomes annoying as every fight requires a lot of forethought compared to the other classes. The other classes get to react instead of pre-planning each fight.

I have never tried to level as DF because I always felt so energy starved when trying it.

Sawbones-- forget about it. It will take you forever and a year to kill your mobs in the later levels and you better keep your companions geared to the teeth.

I have never tried to level as DF because I always felt so energy starved when trying it.

DF is almost ludicrously gear dependent for its energy regen thanks to requiring critical hits with DoTs for most of it (Pugnacity just doesn't cut it). Since you don't get the massive amounts of crit rating while leveling, you're kinda screwed on that account, not to mention that it's a DoT spec which are problematic while leveling since most of your DoTs are wasted on things with low hp.

Sawbones suffers from the same problem that all heal specs suffer from while leveling (re: you have to rely on your companion for 90% of your kill speed and companions are *slow* at killing things while leveling), though you'll never have problems finding groups.

I didn't experience the same problems with leveling Scrapper that you seem to have had: Shoot First isn't nearly as fundamental as you say it is. Shoot First is an opener, not really a fundamental part of your baseline attack priority, like Sucker Punch and Backblast. The fact that Scrapper *isn't* painfully gear dependent and gets most of it's really important abilities early on was one of the reasons I chose to level as Scrapper even though it was a poor performer at 50 (the other was that I simply love the idea of a shotgun backstab and using a gun primarily as a bludgeoning weapon).

 

I didn't experience the same problems with leveling Scrapper that you seem to have had: Shoot First isn't nearly as fundamental as you say it is. Shoot First is an opener, not really a fundamental part of your baseline attack priority, like Sucker Punch and Backblast.

It's not that the tree is reliant on Shoot first, it's that Shoot first speeds along the irritating process's of leveling. Don't get me wrong. I have leveled a Scoundrel to 50 twice - once as sawbones, and an operative to 50. The DPS is fine again. it is the management of abilities that become tedious after killing literally thousands of groups of mobs over the course of the experience.

You are reliant on sucker punch and FF procs to kill quickly. You can open with a backblast and then a grenade but then it comes down to picking off your mobs one by one. In the 40's you have to add CC into your pulls. Some people might find this fun because you remain active, but after having done it so many times - tedious micro-management is the only phrase that comes to mind.

A commando on the other hand can kill an entire group of mobs with a single morter volley and that is up every other pull. If mortar volley is not up, they just throw in a grenade and then use hail-of -bolts. Strong mobs get killed in 2 grav rounds. It is a huge disparity. Don't even get me started on Vanguards.

Different strokes for Different folks I guess.

I had a 44 Op i leveled like crazy in the last couple weeks and just deleted him. Felt good. I knew he was a gimped class at level 30. But I was invested and just continued anyway. I switched my talents on the fly and healed in WZs and flashpoints. Decent healer but if I wanted a healer I would go Sorc for sure as they blow all healers away.

They dont even have a solid dps tree. My pyro, jugg, and slinger blow Ops away in dmg. All a Op has is stealth but if I want stealth I'll play a assassin again a superior class.

I had a 44 Op i leveled like crazy in the last couple weeks and just deleted him. Felt good. I knew he was a gimped class at level 30. But I was invested and just continued anyway. I switched my talents on the fly and healed in WZs and flashpoints. Decent healer but if I wanted a healer I would go Sorc for sure as they blow all healers away.

You sir, may just have done a serious mistake. Operatives are the best healers in the game, not Sorcerers. Customer Service may just agree to reverse the deletion.