Iconic Classes in Star Wars: The Old Republic

Ten Ton Hammer has conjured up a two-page article that examines Star Wars: The Old Republic's recently announced Bounty Hunter class and speculates as to which "iconic" classes we might see next.
What's also interesting to note is that classes in TOR will, at least initially, be specific to one of the two main overarching factions. While I tend to consider myself an MMO (gray hat), there is a point to be made by encouraging players to take a stance on one side of such a massive conflict. For example, while Han Solo may not have intended to become a hero for the rebel alliance, even simple smugglers weren't immune to the effects of the war.

Speaking of smugglers in Star Wars, many believe that the writing is already on the wall for that to be the next major class revealed for The Old Republic. While not an exact opposite or counterpart to the Bounty Hunter, Smugglers could still offer a class on the Republic side of the fence that offers some of the same core gameplay concepts, yet is different enough to stand wholly on its own. I'm actually pretty excited about this approach in particular, as it's entirely possible that faction-specific classes won't simply be mirror images of one another. At the same time, I'm sure many fans are wondering how class balance can ever be achieved, or more importantly how content will be created if things aren't entirely equal while remaining exact opposites. Since I just won my last 10 hands of Pazaak I'm feeling a bit lucky, so I'm willing to bet the answer will be a combination of personalized storylines for each class in the game, as well as the usage of NPC companions a wildcard gameplay element that could remove the necessity of spending more time LFG than looting. Droid pocket-healers anyone?