Imperial Agent & Smuggler - Simple Questions and Answers

[Peryle]

My experience is in playing a heal-spec operative.

Solo PVE - any class that can heal can do more in solo PVE than any class that cannot, especially with companions. In many cases a sniper will outpace a healer in terms of kill speed, but in terms of soloing heroic content, a sniper will start to fall behind.

The value of stealth in completing PVE content solo is very high - skipping unnecessary fights is huge.

Solo PVP - Snipers do well in PVP maps where they can set up shop and go to town. I've seen snipers dominate from the upper levels in Huttball especially, and they are fantastic at defending the middle objective on Alderaan. However, concealment operatives have some of the best burst in the game, and the only class I really worry about in 1v1 is a well-played, well-geared concealment operative as they can burst me down within a stun if they pop all cooldowns.

Operatives are essentially a melee class. All of your abilities that your skill choices enhance are close range. The ranged abilities pale in comparison (note that this holds true even for healing-specced operatives). You can grenade, use AOE cooldowns, and autoattack from range. For everything else, you're better off trying to close the distance.

Snipers don't have a minimum range on their abilities, so as long as you can avoid interrupts / knockbacks you can set up shop in melee range. You are less mobile than a melee character but more mobile than, say, an arsenal mercenary.

CC - Snipers have more ways to create space and can potentially gain access to additional snares. The talented version of Debilitate is better for Snipers (arguably) as the movement increase can be used to create distance while your target is stunned. Snipers can also pick up a 30m snare, but it's in the AOE tree (which may suit your play style - it's amazing for PVE, and if people fight on objectives it's a great way to pad your damage numbers in PVP).

I feel that the healing companions (the annoying droid & Doc Lokin) vastly underperform as healers. You can do more healing a tank companion than you can as a DPS being healed by a companion.