Darth Hater

Can anyone enlighten me on what they think "Burst ranged damage" means with regards to the Operative? I originally thought this meant Imperial Operatives would have Crowd Control abilities (and I want to play a CC Agent). But with today's update and the revelation that Sniper will have access to stronger Orbital Strike abilities...this means the Sniper, not Operative will have CC. Or am I reading too much into it. Maybe "burst ranged damage" means the Operative will have access to grenades? The Operative is clearly more direct in his/her approach...and has elements of a Trooper almost.

"burst" or "spike" are terms that refer to the magnitude of damage delivered in one shot. DPS = damage per second. When you are playing a character with high "spike" or "burst" damage then you're NOT doing constant firing or constant damage, but instead doing one really massive shot. Averaged out over time they may equal the same amount, but burst damage is delievered all at once, instead of gradually over the entire length of time being measured.

It is possible that we are ALL reading too much into things at this point so don't knock yourself too much on that count DIA. I do think that the Operative AC of the IA will be the one with the most "support" style skills, and will likely have a few more CC (crowd control) type abilities, but the Sniper AC will almost certainly be the one with the higher DPS, and will likely also focus more on AoE (Area of Effect) style skills - ones that will do alot of damage to more than one mob at a time.

I'd have to agree that the Operative would be more likely to have cc/support skills. The bursts of damage would be there to makeup for the time spent on skills that are primarily non-damaging.

So, Sniper's damage - damage - damage - damage would be balanced with damage - support - damage - cc - damage.

Yeah, the Orbital Strike focus definitely tabs the Sniper as the one focusing on AOE damage in comparison to the Operative tree.

If you look at the Concept art the pillars are actually Rakatans, my guess is that the planet is Belsavis since it's the only planet announced so far that deals with the Rakata.

I liked seeing that Vanguard was the name for the "Tank" style Trooper... there was some confusion about that a day ago... Commando fits the DPS Trooper better imo.

Teased us with just a little bit more info on the ACs, but still holding back soooo much (due to it still being in flux no doubt) but I was relieved to see them say "officially" point blank that everything (including the names) about the ACs were still being worked out and subject to change. Still, this at least gives us a "ballpark" idea of where they're going with the ACs and allows us to continue speculations with a bit more focus - basically we can rule some things out, and our imaginations are a bit more guided than they were before this announcement.

*EDIT* They still need to take a long hard look at both Wizard and Powertech as AC names imo... surely we can do better on both counts.

I tend to play the "rogue" first in any rpg, so does that mean I should be a Sith Assassin? The SA seems like a mage-rogue hybrid, which would be perfect for me because those are my two favorite classes, so to be able to bounce between them with one character would rule.

That, Jedi Shadow,, Smuggler Scoundrel or Agent Operative should do it for you.

Well, that narrows down my first-class to either Vanguard, Guardian, Scoundrel or Shadow...

Sith Assassin = Rogue with Force powers. Yay for melee DPS

If Jedi Wizard/Shadow isn't changed I will be amazed. All of the other AC's I can handle but when it came down to the JC AC's it's like they asked a 10 year old what they should name them. Umm how about Wizard and Shadow woooossshhh. Ultimately I won't care but I KNOW Bioware can come up with better than that.

Shadow is fine. It's already in the canon and it works for the AC abilities. It's actually a cool tweak on what was commonly known about Consulars. Wizard is the only one that really should be changed. Sage really would be better.

The Shadow AC is nothing but a mirror to the Sith Assassin so they really should think of something better than ok let's take the SA and make an equivalent AC for the JC and since they both use stealth lets call it Shadow. Now one thing I am thinking about and I hope this isn't the case but, it is very possible that there are references to your AC in the story itself by the voice actors which would make changing the names of the ACs difficult. Anyway I can deal with Shadow but it's pretty obvious that there was a lack of inspiration there. Here are just a few example AC names that I can think of. Interceptor, Enforcer, Warden, it's not too hard to think of something better.

Shadows are canon tho, I believe,