Have Snipers changed much since ~month or so after release?

Is Rakata gear still considered really good?

Is there incentives to running flashpoints when you don't need gear? Before there was nothing to really gain from doing them if you already had nice gear, if I recall.




Anything else I should know?

Snipers have changed, but they're fundamentally not that different.

Rakata gear is basically the minimum you need for the story mode raids of the newest content. And even then you need to get it augmented. Rakata is lvl 58 mods. You can now get Black Hols/Campaign(61) and Dread Guard(63) And people can craft most of the mods for Black Hole/Dread guard, so Mats are important.

Yes, Group Finder Flashpoints give you commendations on each boss, along with a daily reward of 5 black hole coms. Similar effect on raids.

You can get augment kits to add augment slots to gear you've already got.