So is there anyway to pick up the pieces from War Hero gear? Or is it gone, and you just had to have it before the expansion?

Advanced Pyro PVE DPS Guide by Dirtnap Okay this is my first attempt at writing a guide…blah blah blah don’t hate me. Everyone says that Pyro PT’s are the easiest to get super high DPS numbers which is true to a point. You utilize many less skills than other ACs but to completely maximize your damage you have to be focused on everything that is happening with your Procs. Here is the spec to completely frustrate tanks and run the DPS Meters http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#301hMhZMsZfhrbzGhMM.2. This Guide is predicated on you having the Full Combat Tech 4 set bonus. If you don’t have that, just favorite this and come back when you do. This entire spec and game play revolves around proc’ing Railshot. Your whole job is to PROC RAILSHOT. You want to have as many Railshots per fight period. This is twofold. First Railshot ignores 90% of the targets armor due to the talents Puncture and Superheated Rail. Second it is our hardest hitting single damage skill. Third Railshot is not only free to use due to Superheated Rail it actually refunds heat when used with the Combat Tech set bonus because it is free and you are constantly dissipating heat. So basically you’ll get anywhere from 4-16 heat back when you use a Proc’d Railshot. That being said let me let you in on a few truths that you must come to terms with to perform correctly. 1) When Flame Burst hits the first tick of Burning Tech will hit at the same time, everytime. 2) Due to #1 Flame Burst hits harder than Rocket Punch almost everytime. (Yes if Rocket Punch Crits and both Flame Burst + Burning Tech don’t Crit Rocket Punch will be higher, but come on) 3) Flame Burst has a 45% and Rocket Punch has a 60% chance to Proc Railshot. 4) Because #2 & #3 are truths you never use Rocket Punch only when it is off cooldown. You will want to use it only when you need to Proc a Railshot. I will explain later. 5) Incendiary Missile is a waste of Heat…but I still use it and I’ll explain later. 6) We have some very Powerful Ranged attacks. Boss fights make you move away, but that doesn’t mean you cannot still be attacking. Aside from Rapid Shots that do Proc burning tech which is very nice DPS, you can Railshot and Death from Above. DON’T FORGET THESE. Also DFA is a nice starting move for the Counsel in TFB. Okay so here is the Deal with #4. If you Proc a Railshot off of Flame Burst and Rocket Punch is off of cooldown, Railshot immediately. If you are under 20 Heat I Flame burst x2 and then Rocket Punch. That will push you past the 6 second internal cooldown on Prototype Particle Accelerator. If not I Flame burst and then Rapid shot or Vice versa depending on my heat. Rocket Punch has a higher percentage of Proc’ing Railshot than Flame burst. And to recap what is our entire goal? PROC RAILSHOT. Heat After knowing the basics regarding what our goal is we need to discuss maximizing DPS with regards to Heat. We all how heat works at this point. We also know that a Proc’d Railshot vents more heat back than it takes, another reason we want it to proc at all times. A good rule of thumb is if you are at 26 heat or less use Flameburst or Rocket Punch. If you are over 26 heat Rapid shot then Rocket Punch or Flame burst, based of course on truths 2-4 above. Another thing I want to add is that it’s Okay to overheat. I do it frequently on purpose because of our wonderful Vent Heat ability and with our wonderful spec it’s on a 1 min 30 sec cooldown. The normal Ops Boss fight is anywhere between 4 ½ and 6 minutes long; sometimes more. That means that I can vent heat 3 to 4 times a fight. In reality I always vent heat at least twice during a boss fight. I prepare for Vent heat and explode with everything I have, meaning Flame bursts, Rocket Punches, Railshots, and sometimes Incendiary Missiles and Flame Thower. My point is BioWare gave us this ability so I say we use it to it’s fullest extent. Don’t listen to everyone saying, “Never go over 40 heat.” You can just be prepared for it and do it intentionally. Also if you are ever sitting at 0 heat in a battle you lost DPS and did it wrong. You could have gotten off one more 16 heat move before you vented and/or Thermal sensor override. Rotation…LOL I’m sure you have heard this before but we don’t have rotations nor do we have priorities. Well sort of do but not in the sense of any other AC out there. Our priorities are based on Procs not cooldowns as everyone else. Now since our entire job and spec is based around Proc’ing Railshot I will now give you scenarios to begin a fight to give you an idea of the logic you must be completely honed in on to run the DPS meters. –Commen Sense note: If you aren’t on the Tank’s rear end when he pulls you should be Rapid shooting until you get within 10 meters. Rapid shots+Burning Tech is still nice till you get there. -Commen Sense note #2: Save adrenals for Burn phase, Bloodthirst, or right at the beginning depending on fight. The “Planets Aligned” Starter Flame Burst (Procs Railshot but don’t use it Remember don’t ever want to get to 0 Heat) – Explosive Fuel – Incendiary Missile (again cause you don’t want to get to 0 heat) – Railshot – Flameburst – Rocket Punch (Railshot Proc) – Railshot – Flame Burst until just over 40 Heat – Thermal Sensor Overide – Flame Thower – Flame burst + Railshot + Rocket Punch as to Truths 2-4. So depending on your gear setup you basically did roughly 30-70k damage in the first 14 or so seconds. Superb Starter Flame Burst – Explosive Fuel - Rocket Punch (Procs Railshot but don’t use it Remember don’t ever want to get to 0 Heat) – Incendiary Missile – Railshot – Flame Burst to until just over 40 heat – Thermal Sensor Override – Flame Thrower - Flame burst + Railshot + Rocket Punch as to Rules 2-4. Either of the above 2 starters will Rip agro off the Best Geared Tanks regardless of Guard, every time. Seriously every time. You spend the rest of the fight keeping your heat at 40 until you are ready to hit Vent heat alternating between Flame Burst – Proc’d Railshot and Rocket Punch again to reiterate refer to Truths 2-4. You get back down close to zero heat begin those amazing openers I explained above. So the only reason I am using Incendiary Missile is because I am getting close to 0 Heat with a Proc’d Railshot in the queue. Max Dots and Damage for most Heat efficiency. This will take a while and a lot of experience until you can nail everything every time. And sometimes the RNG gods will hate you and you might actually have to fire off an un-Proc’d Railshot. Do it. It is still a Vent heat gain. See so there is a ton of theory of knowing when and what to cast regardless of cooldowns. I know this is a ton of information but the next time someone tries to tell you that you are playing the easiest DPS in the game just laugh at them as you consistently pull off the Tank and Demolish them on the DPS meters. True that Maras and Snipers can get higher numbers on a Dummy, but in the real world you’ll be a head of them every time. Keep at it and you’ll be unintentionally tanking daily HM FPs in no time. TL;DR Tough, too much info and theory for you to skip.

I have both a Arsenal Merc and a Pyro PT. Of course I completely abandoned my Merc for PVP, even when she was spec'd as Pyro too. Anyway I just noticed that electro dart change. True will still use on my close up enemies one thought came to mind...Snipers/Gunslingers. I use electro dart all the time to take them out of cover so I can Grapple them to me. I thought Snipers/Gunslingers owned me before now I'm totally useless against them if I cannot LOS Dot kill them. GRRRR

The only thing I want to see changed is the amount of medals Protection from guard gives. I never see heals at the top of the medal list, but I always see a tank. I'm not hating on the tanks because they are a very valuable piece of the PVP WZ equation. I just think they get awarded too much for it. Bring it more inline with the heals and dps medals.

Today I finished the Imperial Agent story line giving me all 4 of the Imperial story lines. Although Agent is an intriguing story line Bounty Hunter is by far my favorite. I loved it. Slow during the 2nd Act, but first and third are Epic. Superb ending. The force user story lines are ehh IMO.

Not only that, but we were led to believe that Armormech and Synthweave would be getting Augment Recipes. We have had our slicers working overtime and still haven't found any. And I mean on the entire server.

I have not found any issues at all with the nerfs. Yes Maras and Knights now *** pwn our faces. They got drastic buffs. I always seem to be #1 on damage in WZ still after patch. Sometimes 2nd if I'm with a Full BM Merc or PT. 1) DFA has not had any damage nerfs. They do half the damage, but the ticks of damage have been doubled. So the numbers you are seeing are much smaller. Because of this change people can move out of it easier without getting all the ticks so it won't do as much damage, but a person sitting in DFA will get hit for the same total amount post 1.2. 2) All of the PVP gear has basically had it's Expertise Doubled!!! Doubled People. I know so has yours but their damage reduction has gone up. 3) Once all 5 stacks of Heat Signature are up (only 3 Tracers) switch to Power shot for your filler. It does 10% more damage than Tracer Missile. 3b) "But Tracer Missile puts the buff for Rail shot to hit more" - Not according to the Math. Another 6% damage buff to Railshot < 10% increase that Powershot puts out. I am excited that I own Sorc and Sage now. I am in full Rakata with only BM Helm, Boots, Legs.

My Roommate was on the Blizzard design team for the LFG tool. It took roughly 7 months to create, test, implement. They have been modifying it continually since then. So ya your opinions aren't even close to facts.

Except that Optimal at this point means we out dps everyone else in the game with one button skill and there is an obvious nerf coming, this isn't too bad. I was just seeing the silver lining since everyone knew the nerf was coming. The tone of my response was completely missed if you think I would sacrifice DPS for Variety. This doesn't destroy our class and gives us an extra weapon. We'll still be right up there.

True TM gets a 10% damage reduction, but now we can add power shot into our rotation and PS hits harder than TM. So now once our Heat signatures are up on the target we only need to use TM to keep them up every once in awhile. With the Barrage increase and now being able to use PS I think we'll see maybe a decrease of 3-4% damage over a 5 minute fight. I'll give up 4% damage to have a more variety of game play. Not too much of a nerf IMO