Operative DPS OP!

After two years they finally gave Lacerate/Sucker Punch the 30% surge instead of the slow

Sounds like suckerpunch will finnally hit as hard as it should.

They are moderate but I think the changes are fair. They didn't go over the top and these changes will help quite a bit. The 100% to flying fists and changing the alacrity to crit boosts and adding sucker punch to the crit talents is pretty huge. Stil crit reliant, but the damage after our opener will now be less RNG as we will always punch twice now which I've been wanting since day one.

This will help a lot without going crazy with the burst that people all feared.

Long as there is less whining when people realize I'm not a healer, I'll be happy TBH.

Well. I'll still never take this spec into arenas. These improvements are nice but we still die instantly. I will enjoy it for regs though. That's why I say the changes are fair. I think the damage increase will be very good without going overkill on the burst but ya, it doesn't really fix the overall problem with them in arenas...I dunno, we'll see in 2.6.

There never really was a huge problem with scrapper dps, but at least their damage will be greater without relying so much on stealth. The problem still lies in their survivablity and so far Biowares excuses have been less than satisfactory. So far: 'scoundrels are supposed to be slippery/shady characters!1!! You can cast 2.0 sec Underworld Medicine at melee range!!11!' (If you spec into exporatory surgery). And finally, 'if we give the scrapper moar survivablity it will drastically impact the healing tree somehow!' Geezus, I'm not asking for the survivablity of a non-stealth but scoundrel dps is melee and they lack the proper DCDs of a melee class.

opener will still be RNG since you get calculated frenzy AFTER you use 1st hidden strike .. in other words , assassins will keep opening for a lot more then operatives anyway

Indeed, I would like something similar to recklessness but I've given up on ever having burst on par with assassins. But our overall dps is going to be better than theirs. If they keep their word and follow through with increasing our survivability down the road then it wont be as big of an issue. So like I said, I think these changes are fair. I'd rather they take these baby steps than go overboard and give us insane burst. Its a fine line with stealthers so I'll take this as a good step in the right direction.

At the very least though, it would be nice if our pvp set bonus gave like a 15% increased crit chance on shoot first instead of the garbage pvp sets we have now.

I think that this is incorrect, and that the Rolling Punches crit buff will apply to the opener. Here's why.

Rolling Punches procs off Shoot First and Back Blast. So does Flechette Round.

Some investigation (of combat log lines and damage done in warzones) seems to confirm that Flechette Round's armour pen buff is active even for the attack that triggers it.

Rolling Punches procs simultaneously with Flechette Round, if you read the combat log data it is applied before the damage of the attack that triggered it.

These two pieces of info imply that the Rolling Punches crit chance buff WILL apply to the attack that triggers it, like Flechette Round's armour pen buff already does. And this is good - 6% better chance to crit on your opener.

Also, given Rolling Punches (15s duration) should be up most of the time you're fighting (12s Back Blast cd, then there's SF), that's a decent crit chance buff all around - so long as you play competently and keep it up. Finally, as ever, remember that this is a flat crit chance buff, it's unaffected by and doesn't affect your crit chance gained from Crit or Main Stat.

Woop woop.

QFT tested this and a number of other buffs, only thing of ours buff wise that doesnt apply on the attack that procs it are the pvp relics, which only go into effect after that attack.