Just hit 50 a week ago on my GS and I like going for off specs. I always wanted to try DF but I saw the potential (the same as you have) for a hybrid of DF/sab. I tried Sab first, then full DF and now that my gear is better I am DF/Sab, though not 2/16/23, I went 0/18/23. I took fighting spirit instead of feeling woozy and reopen wounds (cos crits are fun), depending on how much utility you want you could drop reopen wounds to get feeling woozy. It is really useful.
When all is said and done hybrid is very energy intensive, so you need to be getting energy back from your dot crits (of which shock charge counts), by the same token wounding shots hits harder if you have all 3 dots on the target. I found as hybrid i was an expert at taking down hard to kill targets (ball carriers, healers etc) because your damage is inevitable and your burst with the buffed sabotage charge is massive (but on a long cool down). Wounding shots provides the 'killing blow' that sabotage is missing, but you will run out of energy a lot and and your dots take along time to get full value for spend, so you need to learn when to dot and when to just flourish, sabotage and speed shots for a quick kill instead. I found it's almost better as hyrbid to die quite often rather than be healed up, cos it solves your energy management issues. I've also seen a hybrid that takes Sabotage instead of wounding shots to manage its energy issues, but I think it lacks sustained burst the same way that full Sabo spec does.
It also doesn't work very well when you have poor gear, because there is a wind up for your damage when a Marauder/Jug is in your face 3 GCDs establishing dots and then another for flourishing shots is a long time. You need to be tough to survive the first 5-10 secs against the OP melee, so you need gear that will support that. But you get the hang on snaring them and LOS' and you start getting more warhero gear you will melt faces.
Until my gear got better I played full Sabotage spec at 50. I was hard to kill, I was a nuisance on defense (and offence) and I pumped out quite large damage numbers due to AOE, despite have terribad recruit gear. I can also earn 2.5k heal medic medal and 50k healing medal (hah). If you're clever you can make short work of melee who are better geared than you (cast incen grenade and flyover on yourself while hunkered down and stun/snare them in the area, then open up with sabotage charge and speed shots, even if you die, they die too!).
The problem for Sab spec is for your damage to overwhelm a healer they have to stand in the fire. I basically couldn't kill a healer even if I was left alone to do full rotations on it. I was able to harass them by disrupting them and forcing them to heal themselves quite intently or move around a lot to avoid the fire etc. But especially a well geared merc, I was lucky if I could get them down to 40% health before they would pop back up, that said I was in poorer gear than I am now.
Hope that helps. I don't really want to be sharpshooter, but I may have to spec that way till I get some stronger gear as the problem with the hybrid spec and full DF is you are much softer than Sab or SS spec (you have no ballistic dampeners and don't spend as much time in cover).
