The nerf to
Scoundrels (Operatives) caused a lot of discussions at the official forums. Not
only was it a heavy blow against an already underplayed class, but it was the
first real PVP nerf since launch. The truth is people really have it hard
dealing with frontloaded burst classes in PVP situations when they are the
target. It is not fun getting knocked out relative fast while feeling
completely out of control. What people fails to notice is the fact that these
bursts classes often gets killed just as fast if things goes wrong for them. So
we get to a situation where the outcome of the fight is decided before it
begins. And each time a scoundrel/operative/rogue/thief/whatever successfully
executes one of these stealth attack, there’s a high chance of spawning another
forum warrior. Which results in a nerf and often the burst class gets left
behind the rest.
The game
designers have to make an important choice. Either accept that such class
doesn’t belong to the game or step up and tell the community that that’s the terms
for that class. If they choose the former option they have to give their
stealthy class some other tools so they are still viable without the burst and
if they choose the latter it requires some delicate balancing and create a pvp
environment that allows such a strong 1v1 class. The problem is, however, that
most game designers get stuck between those 2 options and it’s easy to see the
results. The 2nd option is rarely the solution for an MMO game. It’s
only in EVE online where I have seen it viable. However in SWTOR, and WOW and
RIFT for that matter, we have to face it that a stealthclass with frontloaded burst doesn’t belong to these games, which
means that the Scoundrel/Operative class and especially the Scrapper(Concealment)
tree have to find a new role. This doesn’t mean that our class shouldn’t be
able to pop out of stealth and take out a vulnerable target. It just means that
we should do it in a slightly longer fight rather than a few seconds of burst.
