I have a 41 Assassin and a 32 Operative I have been leveling concurrently, but interestingly enough I have been leveling as Tank Assassin and Healer Operative.

 

 

I am considering switching one of them to my main as DPS, either Deception Assassin or Concealment Operative. I was just curious what seems to be the better DPS, all in terms of ease of use, overall burst and sustained damage, and pros and cons of each.

 

 

One thing I do know is that Assassins seem to outnumber Operatives on my server about 15 to 1. I'm not sure if that is because of Lightsabers or something though.

 

 

 

 

I could easily see myself playing either, but I want one that people will want in a raid and isn't a pain to use micromanaging skills while trying to optimize dps.

well, since operative is getting nerfed with a 30% dps nerf ( that means you will do less DPS than any other class, because at launch they were thoroughly tested in PVE/PVP and did the same amount of damage initially ), the operative is now the worst DPS class out there.

 

Choose assassin.

 

ps : then ofcourse, since OP got nerfed, ALL other classes will have to be nerfed by 30% dps also... , until the circle is round ).

Doesn't matter how much assassins outnumber operatives.

 

Operatives will NOT be viable in patch 1.1.1,

 

They die instantly right now, and you lose all your burst in 1.1.1.

 

Assassins are argueably on par with Ops right now however this is before the nerf.

 

Only bonus' ops have is a good story so if that is important and you are willing to suck in PvP then go op.

 

EDIT: Not sure if i have clarified this enough, but BW has taken away absolutely ANY reason to play operative what so ever.

Edited January 26, 2012 by ArchAUstin

I dont care about PvP. I don't PvP ... at all.

 

 

Do Operatives bring anything to a raid that Assassins don't? We have two Snipers in our 16 man, and that is the extent of our Agents, so I would probably be the only Operative if I do go to 50 with it.

 

I am currently raiding with a Juggernaut, but we have an overabundance of Tanks, and Juggy DPS isn't that great either.

If you already have 2 snipers, Operative won't bring anything but a troll face. Operative damage will take a huge hit and if you are re-rolling from a jugg dps... Consider yourself playing your jugg over a operative.

well, since operative is getting nerfed with a 30% dps nerf

 

Lol you get an F in math class?

If you choose assassin you'll be forced to play tank if you need daily PvE quests + ilum PvP daily. No use for melee DPS in PvE while there is shortage of tanks and force pull is the only way for assassin to be useful in PvP ops on ilum. Edited January 26, 2012 by Pashgan

If you choose assassin you'll be forced to play tank if you need daily PvE quests + ilum PvP daily. No use for melee DPS in PvE while there is shortage of tanks and force pull is the only way for assassin to be useful in PvP ops on ilum.

 

Thats funny, because i was just watching some boss kill videos what featured multiple assassin dps's

operative sucks in operations even before the nerf. they bring nothing to the table besides mediocre damage. they have no group utility whatsoever. they have no group-damageshield like sniper, they have no groupspeed like marauder.

 

the only way they could fit in an operation is as hybrid dps/heal, and even there a sorcerer is way better.

for normalmode operations its perfect, cause you only need 1 healer and a hybrid.

 

on top of all the problems, its another melee, which is always overcrowded anyway.

First of all, don't worry about the OP's receiving a nerfbat. No matter how much people try to play it off, the only thing that's gonna affect you much in PvE would be having 20% less armor penetration than before. The other two changes (reduced stun and less damage on the opener) won't be noticeable at all.

 

I have an Assassin (Well, a shadow, but same difference) and an Operative. I've mainly leveled my Assassin through the tanking tree, but I did give Deception a shot recently. As for my Operative, I've leveled purely through Concealment. I can't speak for the shared trees for either classes, though.

 

Even at this level, Operative DPS feels much more difficult to maximize than Assassin DPS.

 

If you're going deception (something like 2/31/8?), your rotation basically is using Voltatic Slash (to build shock damage and reduce shock cost) twice, followed by Shock. You essentially watch for procs while doing this. You Maul when Exploit Weakness pops up and use Discharge when Static Charge builds up to 5 stacks. You also pop uh, whatever Combat Readiness and Force Potency (2 min CD's) are for Sith Assassins when you can.

 

As for the energy management, use Blackout or Force Cloak when you can to keep energy regen up. There is no real penalty for low pooling other than risking a proc falling off while you wait for your energy to regen. Overall, I find it to be a very forgiving system.

 

As for the Operatives... The rotation is just way tightly knitted, or rather, a pain in the ***. That is to say, if you want to most effectively max out damage, you'll be watching out for alot of things... You use Corrosive Dart and keep it up at all times. You have to Shiv to gain Tactical Advantage and keep Stim Boost up. Try to keep two stacks of Tactical Advantage up and use Lacerate when it's around 2 GCD's from falling off. Follow it with either Shiv or Lacerate -> Shiv depending on whether your first Lacerate refreshes your Tactical Advantage. When Lacerate does proc Tactical Advantage, it can happen once every ten seconds. So, theoretically, you could try and maximize that timer... but, seriously, who wants to do that... Shadows have a similar system with the Maul proc, but one of your passives is responsible for proccing it, which doesn't require any countdown on your part.

 

You can use Overhead Shot (no CD) to avoid capping energy and rifle shot to pool some energy. Dumping energy via Overhead Shot is useful but not at all an energy efficient method to do damage. (i.e. poor damage/energy ratio) I believe it's also heavily mitigated compared to other abilities. (because it's not tech)

 

With this general rotation and energy management, you throw backstab into the mix. Ideally, you want to use Backstab everytime it's off of CD by wrapping your rotation around Backstab in such a way that you are still performing your normal rotation well without being in danger of losing procs. Also, everytime you use Backstab, use Acid Blade (no CD and off of GCD) beforehand to apply the dot and refresh armor pen.

 

I'm sure you know all about Operative energy regen system at this point. The big difference between medical or whatever tree and Deception would be that you can only build up Tactical Advantage once every 6 seconds (unless you get a killing blow, of course) and you gain additional 1.5 energy/sec passive energy regen at all levels. You do also need to keep your energy between 60 and 100, but I'd imaigne PvE Operative Doctors usually abide by that too. Overall, I feel like I'm fighting to keep my energy within the allowed limits while the UI tries to trick me into letting my buffs fall off.

 

My personal guess as to why Operatives are not popular would be because their rotation is evil.

Edited January 26, 2012 by poasiodss

There is one thing that no one has mentioned that an Operative brings to the table in a raid environment.

 

A In-Combat rez

 

however, most of your healers are probably going to be Sorcs which means one of them will have the Rez too. Still is a useful tool to have in the Raid if the healer goes down.

There is one thing that no one has mentioned that an Operative brings to the table in a raid environment.

 

A In-Combat rez

 

however, most of your healers are probably going to be Sorcs which means one of them will have the Rez too. Still is a useful tool to have in the Raid if the healer goes down.

 

If you dont have any other sorc or a merc in your raid, which is highly unlikely

Mercs don't have In Combat Rez I believe, but Sorcs are definitely a plenty lol.