Well,

I can tell you this as a marauder,

it's about competing for "loot" vs tanks (which are mostly warriors).

Please note that I have not been to any Raids, so i'm not sure about raids.

but 90% of all PUGs FP (flashpoints) and HM FP tanks are Juggs!,

which means that you will be competing for end boss loots with them

as "warriors".

Also, HM FP,

all the bosses (excluding the end bosses - columi (empire) piece please).

have yet to see any medium armor for warriors (after like 17+ HM FP),

and other marauders are complaining about this too.

have yet to see any medium armor for warriors

Farming hard modes, as a guild who don't even know any Sentinels, all we've seen is Medium Armour with Str. Damn Sentinels -.-

With that being said: As a Melee Scoundrel i can safely say, in large part, Flash Points contain a large amount of "Anti-Melee" abilities. So yes, a ranged DPSer will ultimately suffer less than a Melee DPS.

With that being said, Marauders/Sentinels have a gap closer and a fair few defensive cooldowns so they won't suffer as much me. *Sadface*

Melee are more than capable of competing with ranged DPS in Flash Points though, as long as you're prepared to run the gauntlet of never-ending knockbacks, slows and melee AoEs.

I can't comment on Operations.

From what I have seen, my 50 Marauder does higher/more consistent dps than any other class, I have partied with, at level 50.

Marauders' are a high difficulty class to learn, and you must learn how to play a Marauder for multiple situations, so you must be flexible.

P.S. Marauders are still too squishy, imo..

It's been that way for years now, across multiple games, and it IS a problem. The game designers here face a tough choice, and if they choose to use previous conventions, such as boss's with aura attacks, or "when a melee attacks it" powers, then the problem will carry right on through The Old Republic.

Melee classes inherently have to work harder than ranged classes, because they have to cross the distance to the target again and again. Slows and knockbacks turn this from a chore into a massive challenge. Boss's with 360 cleaves, auras, and melee reactives make it damn near impossible.

And in answer to the millions of slackers, no we don't hate melee, we LOVE it, but it's like loving to walk your dog and having one crazy neighbor that always runs at you with a megaphone for doing it, you don't want to stop walking the dog, you want to get rid of the crazy neighbor.

Melee DPS players want to be able to contribute to Ops content without being punished constantly for daring to use a light saber instead of a gun in star wars.

but it's like loving to walk your dog and having one crazy neighbor that always runs at you with a megaphone for doing it, you don't want to stop walking the dog, you want to get rid of the crazy neighbor.

That's a very specific example. Personal experience, perhaps?

Everything seems fine and dandy, except the whole melee class problem. I've read tons of posts that claim the endgame content favors ranged dps, is this true?

This game ***** on melee deeps. Garhj with his stomps, Soa with the lightning balls (if you're good you can avoid trailing one through all the melee deeps), annihilator with his missiles (sorc healz can heal through this though, even on nightmare mode). Karraga's palace is a little better, but it's still bad.

Though, if you run with my guild, you'll be geared in one, maybe two runs as nothing but BH and SW gear drops. Our Marauder is almost full rakata, but I'm not even full columi yet as a sorc. Thanks BW for the crappy loot tables. -_-