Imperial Agent / Smuggler PVP Details From Beta

[guardian17]

Check this out, looks like an amazing PVP class. Reposted From the beta forums.

Contrary to popular rumor, many current members of Republic Justice have rolled Smugglers and Troopers for the new build. I was one of those who came over from Imperial side and selected a Smuggler due to the Bioware request for focused testing. Right now this toon (Loghain) is acknowledged by my guild as one of our most effective and most powerful. This thread doubles as detailed feedback for the developers as well a way of sharing our accrued wisdom with other testers.
Everything written here can also apply to Operatives on the Imperial side. Just swap out the talents and abilities for their Imperial Agent counterparts.
Here is the setup I am currently running with:
Gear: Full PvP set in every possible slot, the Corellia token offhand, and the bbb ranged dps relic.
Talents:
Sawbones (11)
2/2 Exploratory Surgery
5/5 Smuggled Technology
3/3 Bedside Manner
1/1 Slow-Release Medpac
Scrapper (30)
2/2 Element of Surprise
3/3 Blast Focus
2/2 Swift Kick
3/3 Advanced Cloaking
2/2 Upper Hand
2/2 Stopping Power
1/1 Ambush
1/1 Sucker Punch
1/1 Flying Fists
3/3 Knockout (Note: This talent appears to be bugged and adds 20 range per rank instead of 2)
3/3 Duelist
1/1 Surprise Comeback
1/1 Shoot Twice
5/5 Execution
Explanation: This talent build has a lot of synergy and can output some truly staggering numbers. Smuggled Technology and Bedside Manner help make your heals effective, but the 5% increase to instant attacks and the 9% increase to cunning also boosts the damage of your key abilities. With the 6% increase to Shoot First from Duelist, and then the staggering 30% increase to crit bonus from Execution, I have crit over 7400 on a Shoot First in a Warzone with no other damage buff except the Specialist's Skill Adrenal from Ilum. I regularly crit over 5000 even against well geared level 50s.
With Unexpected Recovery and Slow-Release Medpac plus the Expertise benefits, I become surprisingly hard to kill in Warzones. When running alongside another healer I rarely die anymore. This durability enables me to use the Level 40 Ilum stims over the course of several games without wasting them on deaths. The other talents invested in Sawbones makes me an effective healer on myself and teammates. That said, Scoundrel/Operative PvP healing in general is not nearly as viable as Sage/Sorcerer healing due to resource management issues. Sustained healing will very quickly deplete your energy pool, so the Scoundrel is most effective when it is goes on the offense and uses heals sparingly to bolster its own survivability.
Numbers
1292 Cunning
1213 Endurance
271 Expertise (9.23% Bonus Damage/Healing/Reduction)
30.25% Chance to crit when self-buffed.
• 50.25% Chance to crit when exiting stealth
53.53% Critical Multiplier
• 83.53% Critical Multiplier on Sucker Punch, Quick Shot, and Shoot First
601 Bonus Tech Damage
479.6 Bonus Tech Healing
101.04% Accuracy
1428 Health 2948 Armor Rating (21.44% Damage Reduction)
Note: Due to some customized item mods, your numbers may differ slightly from mine even with identical gear.
Performance
After dueling many individuals on both factions I find that there is only one class that I cannot consistently take down in a fair fight, and that is the Sage/Sorcerer. This is due to several factors including a lack of effective gap closers and resource management disparity. A well geared hybrid spec Sage/Sorcerer can actually outheal the Scoundrel/Operative burst damage until the latter is out of energy. If the Scoundrel/Operative tries to heal itself, it will only deplete its energy even faster.
The Warrior/Knight Advanced Classes don't stand a chance against this build. To even things up, I actually allow them to get the opening charge on me instead of opening with a Shoot First from stealth. I still win every time.
I have not experimented as heavily with fighting Troopers and Bounty Hunters but so far none of the ones I have fought have posed too much difficulty.
Duels with my Guild Master and notorious Jedi Shadow Chajomin are very close to the point where you can call the matchup a tossup. Much comes down to who gets the opening shot, and even more depends on how often Shoot Twice procs. More on that under criticism.
In Warzones I will eat the average player alive. The critical strike numbers from Shoot First can get a little ridiculous and I've had people /cry at me after being three shot.
Criticism
The efficacy of the class is far too dependent on Shoot First/Shoot Twice. You have one move that outputs Godly damage, and a bunch of filler abilities you unload to either continue whittling away at the enemy health or to simply stall for time while waiting for your next chance to use Shoot First.
This would not necessarily be a bad thing if you had full control over your use of Shoot First. However because you have tied the ability to a random proc from Surprise Comeback, the Scoundrel does not really have control over its DPS. In my experience, Shoot Twice will usually proc either 2 or 3 times per use of Surprise Comeback, and that difference between 2 or 3 can mean a huge difference when we are talking about a 5000+ damage nuke.
Furthermore, Scoundrel healing currently suffers greatly from the aforementioned resource management issues. You will not be able to keep up an ally or outheal enemy damage in the same way that a Sage or Sorcerer can because your energy just depletes too fast. Sacrificing healing potential for damage would acceptable if not for the fact that Sages and Sorcerers are also capable of outputting enormous damage at the same time, and have an advantage in movement and control to boot.
Suggestions
My suggestions can probably be inferred from the above but I would recommend giving Scoundrels and Operatives more control over their DPS. Too much currently depends on crits and procs. Short of introducing a combo point system, you could make Shoot Twice proc at regular, predictable intervals if you insist on tying it to Surprise Comeback. Scoundrel healing in general also needs close examination if not a complete overhaul.
It is also worth noting that the class really needs all 41 talents in order to become something fearsome.
My last afterthought is that Orbital Strike really needs some sort of visual differentiation from its Imperial Agent counterpart. I currently use it to keep people off our node in chaotic situations in the Alderaan Civil War, but there's no way to tell which side is using the ability from the visual alone.

[Brandyn]

I know you're not focused on this class right now, but any updates? I'm particularly interested in the Operative/Scoundrel, no so much the Sniper/Gunslinger.

I like a good melee class and I like stealth (at least I did in DAOC, in which stealth was basically 99.9% invisibility). If I could have a stealth melee DPS class with a fair dose of ranged DPS AND some healing ability...sounds like a fun PvP class... Any additional info/updates would be great. I SOOO wish I was in beta

[Trident911]

Great bit of reading, no doubt slightly doubted - wish I could find the original authour to chase up some questions I had - mainly related to Rotation/Talent changes after the BETA Weekends.

(Someone might remember before the 'great' SWTOR Forum wipe...)

[Alratan]

I'm locking this thread as it's about the beta, and I suggest that discussions move to the new Imperial Agent PvP thread, instead.