Let's just say I currently need a high def. Really. Once you don't need anything any longer it may become irrelevant but all the more I'm well adviced to focus on the present problems.

Maxing def out might be unnecessary though. Perhaps I'm already at the sweet spot, where mobs don't hit me. It might be time to drop the dex focus and pick up stun immunity.

On a side note the jump always works. It requires a minimum distance and a free line of sight, which can be tricky. It is however not random.

Not sure why you need high Defense, when your tactic is to rely on sneak jumps and run away if you don't kill it on the first jump.

When I just stand toe-to-toe and have very low defense and find it was a non issue.

I played both characters (Scout/Scoundrel) to Dantooine and the Jedi Trial and fight with Juhani and a lot of animals roaming the fields.

Jump Sneak is very nice when it works. But I was testing in a open field where I could see the animals long before I could click them or target them. I then walked until they were in range and clicked. No jump just started moving towards them, disengage, and try again. Same result, again, same result. Other times it did, but it was 50:50 and there was no way of telling when it would. Same when I encountered a Mandalorian around a ship with some goons. I really wanted to Jump Sneak the Mandalorian, but nope, switched to his goons, nope it just walked over attacked. Though when they were dead, the jump did work.

Jump triggering may not be random, but it is so fussy, it feels that way. Glad I wasn't relying on it. There really should be an indicator when you have a jump set up correctly (cursor changes color or something).

If it worked consistently I might have stuck with the Scoundrel.

Though another impact you need to run Scoundrel to level 7 to benefit significantly, but Scout 4 works great. That means my scout is always 3 levels of Jedi ahead, so always has 3 more force powers... That ties nicely into the original post about saving levels.

I would never go as far as staying at level 2 Until Dantooine. But Level 4 Scout, Level 5 Soldier, and Level 7 Scoundrel can be reasonable. But Scoundrel gives up a lot for those sneak attacks though.