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Tibbel

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  • Location
    In orbit... or free space... or hyperspace... or maybe 35m behind you with a blaster rifle.
  • Homepage
    http://www.sithwarrior.com/forums/Thread-Marksman-Sniper-Compendium
  • Interests
    Crafting of all types... goods crafting, theorycrafting, spacecrafting, etc.
  • Occupation
    Eagle Eye for Hire
  1. But how handy is the question. To find out, follow Tibbel's Simple Guide to Determining How Handy That Energy Is: Which ability is the best one that you can't use on cooldown because of energy?: _________ ____ How much energy does that ability cost?: ___ Let's call that E. How much damage does that ability do on average (accounting for both crits and non-crits)?: ___ Call this D. Take the 10 energy from the set bonus and divide it by E: ___ We'll call this N. This is how many uses of that ability you'll get for 'free' each time you use Target Acquired with the set bonus. Multiply D by N to find how much damage you gain per use of Target Acquired: ___ Divide this by TA's 120-second cooldown to determine the DPS gained: ___ DPS Note how low this number is. Weep. Pull self together. Recall that the 4pc PvP set bonus doesn't add any damage at all, so you'll be getting the 2pc PvE bonus anyway (in PvE), and therefore there's probably not a whole lot of thought that needs to go into it. Shrug.
  2. Very much this. Simply not pushing enough buttons is by far the biggest thing most players do that reduces their DPS.
  3. I'm actually not sure how often passive energy regeneration is added. In-game, the energy level appears to update on the UI once per second; however, this doesn't necessarily indicate that it's only regenerated once per second. In the spreadsheet, energy regeneration is modeled as continuous, and for most purposes that approximation gives accurate results. I don't see how the timing of casts would affect this. Abilities with an activation time deduct their cost immediately as the activation time ends. Conversely, channeled abilities deduct their energy cost immediately as the activation begins.
  4. The Noxxic sniper guide is heavily lacking. Most of the information within it is either oversimplified or flat-out incorrect. A couple of examples: It recommends 330 accuracy rating to get to +10%, despite its recommended spec already including 3% from skill points. It talks about surge and crit rating decreasing above certain points, which suggests some kind of soft cap. Of course, a soft cap does not exist for either of these stats, and their value (especially for crit) depend on more than just your current rating. It still has surge stackable up toward +50%, which hasn't been possible since before patch 1.1.3. It lists Corrosive Dart ahead of Orbital Strike on the ability priority list. Wrong-o. We should absolutely prioritize OS over CD when we have the opportunity to hit with all 3 (or 4) OS ticks, or against multiple targets. It doesn't talk about the importance of utilizing Snap Shot in maintaining the rotation while moving. It only talks about the WHY for one single suggestion (using Laze Target even if Snipe is not our next ability). Beyond that, there's no discussion about how the conclusions in the guide have been reached, meaning someone who's relying on it might be left without the information needed to make situational adjustments. But not that you asked about that, sorry. Regarding the rotation, there are actually two types of rotations: 1. The "burst phase" rotation -- This is actually not a rotation at all, but instead a priority list of abilities ranked by DPCT ("damage per cast time" = Damage / {GCD for instants or activation time for non-instants}). During a burst phase, we are aiming to output as much damage in as little time as possible, without regard to energy costs. An important add needs to die, the boss is entering a period of extra vulnerability, or we're about to run off and stop attacking for a bit, for example. Another time for bursting is when Adrenaline Probe is available (or about to come off cooldown), and we can afford to drop low on energy before using AP so that we don't cap our energy during its effect. We usually can't burst for more than a short time before we must resume a sustainable rotation. 2. The sustainable rotation -- This is what we typically spend the most time doing during a fight. Since our sustained damage is limited by our energy availability, we use a rotation during these "regular" times that sustains our energy in the highest-regen bracket (60%+). During this time, we prioritize abilities based primarily on their DPE ("damage per energy"). As MM snipers, we have Followthrough, which has a DPE far higher than any of our other abilities. This leads to our prioritizing it highly during a sustained rotation, and since it has a short 6-second cooldown, we very naturally fall into a consistent cycle: (3s of filler) - Ambush - FT (3s of filler) - Snipe - FT (3s of filler) - Snipe - FT Naturally, Takedown should be used in place of Snipe whenever possible. We use the 3 seconds of "filler" as time to prioritize other abilities by DPE -- generally, SoS > OS > CD > EP > Snipe -- however, keep in mind that any energy regeneration that is lost during that ability's usage (by hitting the cap or dropping into a lower bracket) should also count toward that ability's energy cost. What this means in practice is often one of the filler abilities in a cycle will be Rifle Shot and one will be either OS, CD, or Explosive Probe. Making the right choice for fillers is part of what helps us deal great DPS. If you are interested in more details and discussion about the MM rotation, stats, abilities, etc, I recommend reading through the compendium linked in my signature.
  5. Crit's diminishing returns are well-understood. Besides that, 1 DPS is well within the margin of error based on just those 2 data points. For comparison, running 1000 5-minute simulationcraft trials (i.e. no variation in execution) seems to result in a margin of error (for 95% confidence) of ~2 DPS. (Here's an example.) It's true that power contributes more to "bonus damage" than cunning does (although that difference is greatly diminished when taking into account group buffs). However, cunning also gives crit chance (on a separate DR from crit rating), whereas power does not. In the end, cunning is better than power by somewhere between 10-20%, depending on spec, gear, and ability selection.
  6. Do you have a source for this? I haven't seen this claim before.
  7. Interesting topic! I could see the Imperial Agent's 3rd AC being 'Officer' (maybe with 'Captain' as the Smuggler mirror). Mechanics-wise, I would like them to be either DPS, with an emphasis on group cooldowns/synergy/etc and use of a pistol or blaster rifle with a tech knife, and/or perhaps given the option of tanking using a pistol/rifle with a shield generator. With group sizes of only 4 players in this game, it may not make sense to develop a full-on support role, but I could see an officer/captain AC leaning in that direction, at least thematically. One cool idea (IMO) related to the shared skill trees would be to share a different tree than the tree already shared by the existing two ACs. For example, sharing the Engineering/Saboteur tree with snipers/gunslingers would not only fit well with the officer/captain theme, but also would not require diluting and generalizing the Lethality/Dirty Fighting tree too much in trying to keep it relevant for all 3 ACs.
  8. Hey, come on now. We're pretty damn good in PvE too.
  9. No, not at all. What I'm saying is that no matter which two points we pick, the returns are going to be different. There's nothing mathematically unique about 75% (or any other point). The returns gradually decrease as we get more of a stat. If Sniper A thinks 75% is where the returns become "too little", that's fine, but it's subjective. Sniper B may have a different opinion about what "too little" means. If Sniper C asks the math what point is best, the math is going to say, "It depends."
  10. Looks like this is going to be very helpful to a lot of people! Just a couple things about the stats section (4.2): Might want to specify which accuracy you're talking about (ranged vs tech/special). There's no such thing as a surge soft cap. While it's perfectly fine to say that 76% is a point at which it "feels about right", it's incorrect to say that anything significant happens to its scaling at that point.
  11. It does not. We can roll in and activate Snipe as we're rolling. In that case, there will be a delay before Snipe hits due to the rolling animation, but the GCD will begin as soon as you hit the Snipe button, even if that's mid-roll.
  12. 31/7/3 is the standard max-DPS MM spec. Details about it are in the compendium linked in my signature.
  13. That's technically correct, but the implication is misleading. Technically, it's correct to say that the DR is "harder" after 350 rating than it is before, but we could say that about any point. It's harder after 157 rating than it is before, and it's harder after 614 than it is before. It's like saying the sky is darker after 9:00 pm than it is before. That's true, but that doesn't mean anything special happened at 9:00. We could just as easily say it's darker after 8:30 pm than before, or that it's darker after 10:15 pm than it is before. The sky gradually gets darker throughout the evening, just as the return on stat ratings gradually decreases as we gain more. Here's a graph of the stat gain per rating point. (It shows how much you will gain from your next 1 rating, given your current rating.) We can pick any point and say, "Right here is where the DR gets too hard," but there's no mathematical basis for choosing any such point.
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