God forbid this game get any harder... I would surely hope new content isn't faceroll.

He is on the one next to that, it is a 114K hp mob. Ending combat ~3:00:00

If you want proof of allahakbar you can check out my stream, fight is around 2:59:25. He is the player across the partition from me and you can verify death of mob via minimap. I unfortunately had the absolute worst luck on barrage procs and did significantly less dps on this fight, gotta love rng sometimes.

What? I believe it was disproved that multiple heat signatures stack. However, sunder armor and Sniper debuff thing will apply additional armor penetration. You will see multiple copies of the same debuff graphically on the mob, but the effect is only 1 per type applied.

Working as intended might be a stretch, I would be highly suprised if they do not modify this in 1.2 or a subsequent patch to have HSM only scale off your personal heat signatures.

Not to derail the healing train here, but over the past month as a arsenal merc I have revisited alacrity and found it to be managable heat wise. There are occasions that you spike heat rapidly due to poor lineup on procs, but otherwise it is quite nice. I am running 240 alacrity, 200 surge, 200 crit, ~500 power with the static 4% talent and 5% proc(pretty much static) with much success. My original idea on alacrity was that it would just be unsustainable due to heat and I have been happily proven wrong. I can't wait for logs to verify and get some concrete evidence that proves dps increase over 0 alacrity setup!

Yazule has the right of it in regards to rotations. FCFS priority after starting rotation. Unload on CD HSM on CD Rail Shot on CD(more stacks are optimal, but not mandatory) TM filler I like TSO Fusion/HSM or Explosive Dart personally.

Lol, splitting hairs with me! Yes, 0-39 is 5. WHYSOANGRY Yazule.

I agree that 200-300 hp is useless in the long run, I plan on testing some specs with optimal rotations once we have metrics available to determine if the 5/4 alacrity talents are worthwile. Heat permitting I believe they will be a dps increase. Again, the only reason I worry about using these talents is throwing off my proc times on Barrage, Terminal Velocity, and Relic ICD. The spec I wish to test: http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#300Mc0MZMIkbordRkfzZd.1 My current spec: http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#300RcZMIkbordRkfzZc.1 Considering Rakata gear is filled with accuracy, it should be easy enough to pull enhancements to hit the optimal accuracy rating (tested to be between 6.5% and 8%) while still losing 2% accuracy from talents. This would net us 9% alacrity with 100% uptime on Critical Reactions(no ICD and restarts 6 second buff upon refresh crit). Once again Heat permitting this should be a DPS increase for us if procs line up correctly. Meters will determine if this statement is true or false.

Dear People, Be Less Bad. 0-40 = 5 hps

I would have to confirm there is no 1.5s GCD on channeled skills. Considering our channeled skills are over 1.5 seconds long, if you complete the channel obviously there is no GCD you are waiting on to cast a new skill. However if you are to clip an Unload within the initial 1.5 seconds are you waiting for it to complete before you can cast a new skill? Alacrity - If tracer is down to 1.3 seconds, you can immediately cast another one after. If you use an instant cast ability, you have to wait the full 1.5 seconds before being able to cast another skill, even with alacrity.

Oh god, help! 5% is 5%, not 5% of current. You can put it into some utility items or you can put it here and get a possible dps increase. Casted skills(Tracer, Fusion, Power Shot) and channeled skills(Unload, DFA) are affected by alacrity and reduce the GCD when haste is incorporated. The problem with alacrity is procs(Barrage, Terminal Velocity, and ICD on trinkets) I believe you will run into dead times on procs with alacrity, but overall, if you can afford the heat, considering the surge changes it might be our go-to terciary stat once hard DRs are hit.

My problem with alacrity has nothing to do with TSO. You have to consider procs when dealing with alacrity; Terminal Velocity, Barrage, and Trinket ICDs. My understanding is that procs trigger at the point damage is dealt, not including cast times and travel time to target. When you start throwing alacrity into your gear you are deviating from the standard 1.5/3 second cast times(we will consider projectile speeds consistent, which they are not, but for arguments sake) thus creating additional time before you can activate your 3/4.5/6 second procs. I am not mathmatically inclined enough to fathom a formula that will find ideal "sweet spots" for alacrity to sync for optimal proc on rotations, but just spitballing it, I feel its safe to say alacrity will most likely hurt more than help in small doses, without even contemplating the nature of increased heat generation.

Rail shot has a variance of at least 200 damage built into the skill, coupled with the fact armor fluxuates based on debuffs available on the mob you are fighting, automatically makes people think the debuff provided by tracer lock is broken. 2 0 init SetCharges: InitialCharges=>1, MaxCharges=>5 2 0 init SetStackLimit: MaxStackCount=>1, IsPerCaster=>1 2 0 init SetScalesWithCharges 2 0 condition IfCalledByEffect 2 1 action ModifyMetaStat: Amount=>0.06, Stat=>Damage Done Modifier (Percentage), Coefficient=>1, StatModType=>1 Game files would dictate that it indeed is working as intended. I have seen 2900-4200 damage crits. Crazy variance right?

Alacrity is god awful bad and the lowest on terciary stat priority.

Our rotation is FCFS with the inclusion of a regeneratively degrading consumption pool. You can grade skills based on HPS or DPS. At 0 or near 0 heat, using highest DPS skill will still net you higher DPS vs giving a crap about being at 0 or near 0. There are no opportunity costs you need to concern yourselves with when you are already using your highest damaging skills. Unload, HS, and rail shot on CD is a must imo, the only restriction will be heat constraints. Tracer missile is filler that does exceptional damage, and must stay at 5 stacks of heat signuature, minus rampup of course.

Well said Tempest. Understanding tiers of heat dissapation is key here. Not sure how I feel about advertising the fact we can double up on TSO here, but with that said the ideal use of this skill is absolutely not on unload. Take it in terms of heat usage avoided. I customarily use TSO on a fusion missile into an explosive dart. WHAT you might say. Well neither of these are normal rotation items I would use in an ideal conservation rotation. Timing on using heatseeking missile can occasionally be iffy and you can miss the combo and burn heat for the HS at times. I use 3 skills on every cd. Rail shot, HS, and unload, so why not use your freebie when these are all down and you need something to make the imaginary DPS meter in your head spike like a boss.

Oh my brain hurts. Managing your heat needs to be very reactive. Terminal Velocity procs can make or break your rotation. The higher up in gear you get, the more you will notice less spikes and more consistent conservation phases. I like to spike up to 80(sometimes I have to work real hard for this) vent heat as early as possible and then go into a nice steady conservation rotation. If heat is approaching 40-50 use TSO and throw in a rapid shot to get back into optimal range. I have watched countless videos of bad players killing HM/NMM from an arsenel merc POV riding 80 heat the entire encounter, so the fact you are doing "Hard Modes" means nothing.

Get Razer Naga, problems solved.

Im having a hard time justifying Advanced Targeting considering the copious amounts of Accuracy on Rakata level gear. I know you can thin it out with 25 level mods, but even then you only need 100% hit(unconfirmed if raid boss mobs have higher hit caps) to land special attacks. I am thinking about either Afterburners for utility, aka. spawns on Ancient Pylons, due to our lack of an interrupt this might come in handy. Possibly Custom Enviro Suit since 1% per point endurance is terrible, but coupled with 3% additional healing might almost make it useful.

I've seen 4800-4900 HSM with power trinket popped.

Eh, I like it for fusion missile or an on the run tracer missile to get stacks up quickly.

You are correct. It is a 6% boost to missile damage as well. (I was pretty loopy when I wrote that post)

Agreed, limited resource pools with regressive regeneration, alacrity is not ideal at all.

Armor mitigates Kinetic and Physical damage. Tracer Missile Mandalorian Iron Warheads - 6% damage dealt with missiles Muzzle Fluting - 9 heat cost reduction Power Barrier - 10% damage taken reduction(5 stack power barrier) Terminal Velocity - 100% chance to vent 8 heat with critical hits Tracer Missile - 20% armor penetration(5 stack heat signature) Tracer Lock - 25% damage dealt with Rail Shot(5 stack heat signature) Barrage - 30% chance to reset Unload, 25% additional Unload damage Heatseeking Missile - 25% additional damage dealt with Heatseaking Missile(5 stack heat signature) Power Shot Mandalorian Iron Warheads - 6% damage dealt with Power Shot Muzzle Fluting - 9 heat cost reduction Power Barrier - 10% damage taken reduction(5 stack power barrier) Barrage - 30% chance to reset Unload, 25% additional Unload damage Why in the world would you want to cast Power Shot again? Edited: Apparently I'm dumb today.