Ops and Operatives

[Mikemo]

Do melee operatives really not have a spot in Ops atm? I've been lvling an operative (currently 48) and looking to raid with him once I hit 50 but have just recently heard on a podcast that nobody brings melee ops to raids and that they dont really have a spot in raids. They only bring op healers. I wouldn't mind healing but i'm really really enjoying the melee side of things. Now I don't really understand this because I've lvled an assassin to 50 and im killing things so much faster on my operative in aoe and single target. my assassin is also slightly better geared. He has about 2 days at 50. Without DPS meters, why is there an assumption that melee operatives don't have a spot in raids? Am I forced to play a spec that I won't really enjoy?

[DemaioJ]

It's a combination of melee being weak in general and a limited number of spots, if you're going to bring an op why not bring one in their strongest spec?

[Deleted]

Because the current raids favor greatly ranged dps over melee. Not because the abilities or gear you have but because you simply cannot stay near the bosses the whole time and do dps. You must avoid bosses melee aoe etc and run to safety while ranged dps can keep dpsing the whole time.

Examples:
Annihilation droid: Melee has to run to safety behind the pillar whereas ranged dps can just pile up next to the pillar and keep dpsing while healers heal them from behind the pillar.
Gharj: The boss has several melee aoes that need to be avoided whereas ranged can just keep dpsing during the whole time.

This is not so big problem on normal modes, but without good geared groups in hm/nm it will be a lot easier to accomplish the enrage timers with ranged dps groups than with melee.

[asharia]

surge nerf certainly didnt help operatives either :P

[Deleted]

In 8 man ops there are only 1-2 spots for melee dps. There are few operatives and powertechs that play dps as most melee spots are already taken from either warriors or assassins that most people play. That's why they ask you to go healer. As time pass by more more people will roll more alts and they will be surpised how strong none force users are.

[Gerion]

Melee operatives/scoundrels are by far the worst melee DPS in PVE. Their strength is being able to stealth and do good front-loaded burst. However, stealth is useless in raids and you can only burst when your vanish is up. It is widely known that operative/scoundrel sustained DPS is piss poor. Add in the acid blade/flechette round + hidden strike/shoot first nerfs without sustained DPS compensation and you have a recipe for disaster. The surge nerf also affects them greatly due to the fact that what little damage abilities they have rely on crits (+31% crit rate on backstab/back blast with talents and 2pc set). Let's not forget that operatives and scoundrels lack any sort of gap closer unlike Jedi or Sith. You have to run everywhere and position yourself behind every target.

Why take a concealment/scrapper when you can take another sage/sorc or commando/bounty hunter?

[dredlox]

We typically bring two, maybe three sentinels just for inspirations. (Depending on enrage timers, etc) Other than that, we don't use any melee cause they just aren't worth healing honestly. Unfortunately, we don't bring healing scoundrels either, sage ae's are better, and combat medic's healing/mit buffs for single targets are better.

I was a dps VG and could definately pull my weight, but after 2 or 3 weeks of raiding I switched to a Gunslinger, why not go ranged and also bring some utility to the raid. It sux honestly and it definately needs to be changed. The only saving grace is that none of the Ops require this sort of min/maxing, just worked out for us that way when we started and we avoid recruiting classes outside of what works for us. (NM modes only though, you can do normals with 7 tanks and a healer if you'd like)

[Hellfury]

DPS Operatives are kinda fucked atm, we got burst nerfed without any sustained dps compensation was a total knee jerk reaction because of all sorc/sage QQ on forums. Bioware says all classes are balanced DPSwise at this was before launch and why we get a nerf so hard that afects both our burst and sustained. I kinda agree with the nerf but we got no sustained buff, we even got another one now with the surge, and that stat affected us alot

We are melee and healers and RLers hate melees atm couple that with positional requirments to backstab to do max damage this 2 together makes it hard to do ur max theorical damage because of how things work.

Without a meter its impossible to say how we doing but when I see what snipers, sorcs and mercs are doing by watching them play, I get abit disappointed with the operative class as whole.

It was a blast to level having stealth being able to heal H4 so never had a prob getting a group, can solo stuff very good by using tank comp and then healing it, but on ops I got really disapointed.