Look at page 17...

It should. I still use it on cooldown in yolo and tr. For yolo obviously i am targeting team merc to swap the focus do he can take the pressure off me with reflect, while in tr its a good way to remove anyone from focus. Making it instantcast and with a little bit of damage reduction 5-15% would make it a fantastic and gamechanging skill for both pve and pvp.

NO. The channeling sucked. The only things they should do is to fix the damage delay on searing wave compared to ion storm, and increase its damage on pyrotech. The channeling sucked after 2.4 and was never good enough again. With so many mobility improvements u will Not hit a barn because it will roll away. Instantcast on tank hits Like a truck and i would never want it on channel again. From pvp point of view instant cast is much better and the ability to finish of a Guy with a 30k hits back to back is nothing to sneeze at. So No! No channeling!

This is what i think should be done to PT and VG to make them in pair with the other specs. Powertech/Vanguard First fixes should be ammended to utilities, as they are a total mess. Most of them are worhless, and ovestreched between too many pointless disciplines (Excuse me for not using vanguard terms): Utilities Masterful Tier: Combine Pneumatic Boots with Torque Boosters from Heroic their making it still Masterful Combine Prototype Electro Surge in Enhanced Paralytics Combine Accelerated Reel into Adaptable Assailant Heroic Tier: As mentioned above plus: Introduce Energy Rebounder (from Advanced Prototype) across ALL Powertech specs by making it Heroic Tier utility. Introduce Automated Defenses across ALL Powertech specs by making it another Heroic Tier utility returning PT to 40-50% health instead of 35%. Legendary Tier: Shield Cannon should improve the number of Shoulder Missiles by 3 across ALL specs. Healing factor should remain the same, but the cooldown should be reduced by 15 seconds. Pressure Overrides should be replaced by a more usefull utility not tied to a 120s cooldown. Replace it or make it more usefull by adding railshot, and fixing the searing Weave. Fuel Additives makes no sence from both PVE and PVP standpoint of view. 5% damage increase for a tank every 120s is not even woth it for PVP. While damage reduction for DPS specs is meaningless if it's tied to this one. This is even worse than shield cannon, as you cann't just hold the loeaded utility and can only use it as an innitial burst, making it completly obsolete if you are not focused/taking damage. Battering Ram should be fixed as well as Jet charge. currently you are likely to stay in the place you used your jet charge proc without leaping to the enemy. Skills: Shield Tech: Translocate should be instant cast, with additional % of damage reduction on translocated target. cooldown should remain the same Pyro Powertech: Whith Automated Defenses moved to utilities and Energy rebounder moved from AP also there is a spot for a burst damage passive skill that would potentialy increase both sustained and burst dps. Remove Searing Wave skill delay when dealing damage across ALL specs using it (its vanguard counterpart Ion Wave is applying damage instantly while Searing Wave have at least 0.5s delay making it even harded to hit with its cone. Superheated Flamethrower stacks should be applied whren reload/recharge ability is used. *Note: Pyro is underperforming because of it's long initial rotation, which makes it unusable across PVP, aside from no real big hitters which could finish off the target. Increase its dps and burst accourdingly to the PVE parse standards made by other AOE dot classes (Laceration, Lethality, Engineering) Advanced Prototype: With Energy Rebounder moved to utilities make a new passive skill which increases range on all main rotation skills except Magnetic Blast, Gut and Rocket Punch by additional 5-10 meters. this should solve AP problems with a dps loss on high mobile targets and make it a midrange spec compared to the pyro and the shield tech being melee. Energy Burn should remove the dot effect and instead add that damage to energy burst damage, making it more in pair with burst abilities such as: Heatseeker Missiles. With Energy Rebounder, Shield Cannon and Automated Defenses PT across all specs will get enough boost to DCDs to survive the 1v1 and have the time of the DCDs reduced under focus fire, while also having "OHSNAP" ability.

I have couple of points i would like you to consider before making class changes: Powertech/Vanguard First fixes should be ammended to utilities, as they are a total mess. Most of them are worhless, and ovestreched between too many pointless disciplines (Excuse me for not using vanguard terms): Utilities Masterful Tier: Combine Pneumatic Boots with Torque Boosters from Heroic their making it still Masterful Combine Prototype Electro Surge in Enhanced Paralytics Combine Accelerated Reel into Adaptable Assailant Heroic Tier: As mentioned above plus: Introduce Energy Rebounder (from Advanced Prototype) across ALL Powertech specs by making it Heroic Tier utility. Introduce Automated Defenses across ALL Powertech specs by making it another Heroic Tier utility returning PT to 40-50% health instead of 35%. Legendary Tier: Shield Cannon should improve the number of Shoulder Missiles by 3 across ALL specs. Healing factor should remain the same, but the cooldown should be reduced by 15 seconds. Pressure Overrides should be replaced by a more usefull utility not tied to a 120s cooldown. Replace it or make it more usefull by adding railshot, and fixing the searing Weave. Fuel Additives makes no sence from both PVE and PVP standpoint of view. 5% damage increase for a tank every 120s is not even woth it for PVP. While damage reduction for DPS specs is meaningless if it's tied to this one. This is even worse than shield cannon, as you cann't just hold the loeaded utility and can only use it as an innitial burst, making it completly obsolete if you are not focused/taking damage. Battering Ram should be fixed as well as Jet charge. currently you are likely to stay in the place you used your jet charge proc without leaping to the enemy. Skills: Shield Tech: Translocate should be instant cast, with additional % of damage reduction on translocated target. cooldown should remain the same Pyro Powertech: Whith Automated Defenses moved to utilities and Energy rebounder moved from AP also there is a spot for a burst damage passive skill that would potentialy increase both sustained and burst dps. Remove Searing Wave skill delay when dealing damage across ALL specs using it (its vanguard counterpart Ion Wave is applying damage instantly while Searing Wave have at least 0.5s delay making it even harded to hit with its cone. Superheated Flamethrower stacks should be applied whren reload/recharge ability is used. *Note: Pyro is underperforming because of it's long initial rotation, which makes it unusable across PVP, aside from no real big hitters which could finish off the target. Increase its dps and burst accourdingly to the PVE parse standards made by other AOE dot classes (Laceration, Lethality, Engineering) Advanced Prototype: With Energy Rebounder moved to utilities make a new passive skill which increases range on all main rotation skills except Magnetic Blast, Gut and Rocket Punch by additional 5-10 meters. this should solve AP problems with a dps loss on high mobile targets and make it a midrange spec compared to the pyro and the shield tech being melee. Energy Burn should remove the dot effect and instead add that damage to energy burst damage, making it more in pair with burst abilities such as: Heatseeker Missiles. With Energy Rebounder, Shield Cannon and Automated Defenses PT across all specs will get enough boost to DCDs to survive the 1v1 and have the time of the DCDs reduced under focus fire, while also having "OHSNAP" ability.

Thanks for a communication on your end guys! This reminds me of the times when class representatives were present to articulate problems with their class pool. I have couple of points i would like you to consider before making class changes: Powertech/Vanguard First fixes should be ammended to utilities, as they are a total mess. Most of them are worhless, and ovestreched between two many pointless disciplines (Excuse me for not using vanguard terms): Utilities Masterful Tier: Combine Pneumatic Boots with Torque Boosters from Heroic their making it still Masterful Combine Prototype Electro Surge in Enhanced Paralytics Combine Accelerated Reel into Adaptable Assailant Heroic Tier: As mentioned above plus: Introduce Energy Rebounder (from Advanced Prototype) across ALL Powertech specs by making it Heroic Tier utility. Introduce Automated Defenses across ALL Powertech specs by making it another Heroic Tier utility returning PT to 40-50% health instead of 35%. Legendary Tier: Shield Cannon should improve the number of Shoulder Missiles by 3 across ALL specs. Healing factor should remain the same, but the cooldown should be reduced by 15 seconds. Pressure Overrides should be replaced by a more usefull utility not tied to a 120s cooldown. Replace it or make it more usefull by adding railshot, and fixing the searing Weave. Fuel Additives makes no sence from both PVE and PVP standpoint of view. 5% damage increase for a tank every 120s is not even woth it for PVP. While damage reduction for DPS specs is meaningless if it's tied to this one. This is even worse than shield cannon, as you cann't just hold the loeaded utility and can only use it as an innitial burst, making it completly obsolete if you are not focused/taking damage. Battering Ram should be fixed as well as Jet charge. currently you are likely to stay in the place you used your jet charge proc without leaping to the enemy. Skills: Shield Tech: Translocate should be instant cast, with additional % of damage reduction on translocated target. cooldown should remain the same Pyro Powertech: Whith Automated Defenses moved to utilities and Energy rebounder moved from AP also there is a spot for a burst damage passive skill that would potentialy increase both sustained and burst dps. Remove Searing Wave skill delay when dealing damage across ALL specs using it (its vanguard counterpart Ion Wave is applying damage instantly while Searing Wave have at least 0.5s delay making it even harded to hit with its cone. Superheated Flamethrower stacks should be applied whren reload/recharge ability is used. *Note: Pyro is underperforming because of it's long initial rotation, which makes it unusable across PVP, aside from no real big hitters which could finish off the target. Increase its dps and burst accourdingly to the PVE parse standards made by other AOE dot classes (Laceration, Lethality, Engineering) Advanced Prototype: With Energy Rebounder moved to utilities make a new passive skill which increases range on all main rotation skills except Magnetic Blast, Gut and Rocket Punch by additional 5-10 meters. this should solve AP problems with a dps loss on high mobile targets and make it a midrange spec compared to the pyro and the shield tech being melee. Energy Burn should remove the dot effect and instead add that damage to energy burst damage, making it more in pair with burst abilities such as: Heatseeker Missiles. With Energy Rebounder, Shield Cannon and Automated Defenses PT across all specs will get enough boost to DCDs to survive the 1v1 and have the time of the DCDs reduced under focus fire, while also having "OHSNAP" ability.

Since 5.0 Bioware is no longer including class changes in the patch notes. This comes down to stealth nerfs mostly, but we would like to see those adjustments noted under patch notes. patch 5.1.2 Minor changes like Shield Tech Powertech flamer damage reduced, Patch 5.2 Minor changes to Mercenary defensive cooldowns Patch 5.2.1 Minor changes to Mercenary Arsenal spec and minor damage changes to Blazing bolts and heatseeker missile. This SHOULD be stated and noted as class changes, because i would like to know when the freaking class is taking any changes to skills. I will not guess what else was changed. I don't want and will not accept being treated like an idiot who can't see when a class is changed. I want Bioware to behave properly and state those changes.

Two full 242 sets on my PT alone. Add almost 2 full merc 242 sets to it and 1/2 of the sets for OP and Sniper. People ARE geared. It just takes time.

Brennet/Mercenary/Arse

You still presume that i am calling people names when playing Yolo. I haven't said anywhere that i aprove talking other players into suicide. In fact i haven't said anything about it focusing purely on the matter of skill OP has. Because that is the main reason he was called in the first place (rightfully or not). Stop this crap with: "rest of the world would this and that". Are you the rest of the world combined? I hear the same bullcrap talk every time i play an MMO: "this game is laughable and not very competitive". EVERY MMO. As for insulting me personally. It is proven that smarter people are actually not only cursing more, but also insulting others more (you can find various reaserches about that subject published by renowned research parties). Not being nice might have nothing to do with lack of social skills. As i said. I do not expect fireman to be nice when my house is burning. I expect that he will use all his skills to put the fire down before i will lose the building.

I am not. Being blunt doesn't mean i do not support people. In fact you haven't been more wrong. I am creating tutorials for people on my server, explaining math behind gearing and rotation, as well as helping people with performance and teamplay both on TR and Yolo. That being said i still think that if you queue as a healer without proper experience you cripple your team more than you would by going dps. The reason is simple - as you might noticed healer games are based on healer tunnel (especialy with all those mercs flying around). And so if your healer is globaled because he doesn't know how to position himself or minimalize focus on him, he should practice more. remeber that once the healer is down you have only several seconds to nuke the other, or your team will fail. Well. If you wan't to improve, go on Thieve's Den on Tatooine and take 3 dps with you. Let them team up, and start focusing you hard. Train until dead. Repeat. Profit. (this training is all about learning how to position yourself to LOS and keep surviving as long as possible). And whos fault is it? Mine? I learned most of the stuff myself, or by talking to other players here and there. This is a gosh darn MMO which is theoreticaly Skill Based (yeah i know). To progress and aquire skill you need to spend certain amount of time playing it. Most "Weekend Warriors" will never compete with Team Ranked palyers because they simply do not have the time to learn. Having several leagues was never possible. ELO rating and the first 10 games are screwed, and here is why: When you do not have the official rating aquired (first 10 games), you might be matched with ANY rating players, even way above 1500. I had talked to players who landed up in 1700+ rating team, where the others landed in 900+. This creates an uneven start for some people, and is based purely on RNG. If you do not win all 10 games at the start (as a good player) you will be condemened to rarely raise your rating above 1200, because you will land up in a bracket with people that are simply not skilled as you are. You have multiple sites describing the idiocity of ELO rating. So yea... it is bioware fault. Also, because of the class balance, lack of bolster and DLV gear amongs others (skill qualification included), people that are fresh have slim chances of winning. I would even say that ranked is exacly like the raids in any MMO: if you do not have propler gear and knowledge you are not fitted to do the raid. The team might not even invite you (and they will not if you consecutively make them wipe...)

It's not an interpretation. Its the reality of ELO rating. "Maybe practice more?" "Maybe i should tie your shoes and pack you a lunch?" - what is this? Why do people try to excuse their lack of time, attention and skill with this nonesence. I might be blunt, but if someone needs to learn how to play he is not: "rendered incapable of acting properly in that given moment". This is an MMO, and if you don't have time to get better, you can't expect others to treat you on the same level. You presume too much. Calling me yerk (seriously?!) because i expect "you" to perfom when i am in a team with you, and you do not deliver is a bit over the top don't you think? As long as Rating works as it does, people will rant on weaker skilled players for their poor performance. If you do not like to take competitive environment i strongly suggest you should try out Mario. Bioware wants us to play PVE to gear for PVP. Does that mean we want/need to do it? Your point is invalid. They are about as oblivious to the game balance as they are to ELO rating failure. It's nice that you are comming from a PVPless game. How was RP there? Were all the people nice? - Don't answer, those were rhetorical questions.

Before i will answer, let me ask you a question? Would you run a bus full of people without a driver license? Ranked are comeptitive and rewarded for victory, while penalized for a loss. I do not expect people to be nice, but to perform, because no matter how nice you are - at the end of the day you are not rewarded for it. Its not grief, its not crap - this is the reality. To put it into more militaristic background: if your 4man navy seal team is deployed anywhere in the hostile teritory and your only quality is pottery, you are not very useful to the team, arent you? There is a difference between unranked and ranked warzones. You are not penalized for a loss in unranked warzones, so noone cares. Yes, your reward is smaller, but you are still rewarded. But in ranked, you actually lose something. The biggest issue is the ELO itself, because it penalizes players that have the skill but were unlucky on team comps, and lost their forst 10 games. After you get into a 1000-1200 rating hellhole you are (most of the time) doomed to play with lesser skilled players. And since there is not enough players for solo ranked to begin with, you end up against a team with above average rating (because system pairs people with equal ratings), and you just die again because you are paired with people that do not know, how to play it on a higher level (for various reasons). In other words, your attitude is not helping the team. For ranked environment you should not only have the above average knowledge about your own class, but also an average knowledge about all the other classes, to be more effective. When you decide to go unprepared by any means (gear, skill, knowledge, tech spec of your PC), you should expect to lose thus making your own team lose because of you. So if you doubt your ability to play it - train some more, and try again when you get enough skill. And if you do think you are ready - perform on the proper level, so that your team will feel it.

Its easy to tone them down by just taking one of their defensive cooldowns/utilities to Vanguard which would also fix problem for underperforming PT/VG.

I am a dedicated IO player, but as much as i like it it just isn't cutting the deal for TR. Dots are making it much harder to manage the any swaps/mezzes synchro. Besides swaping requires to much prep time on the dots. BUT if u play split dps then yeah, it works. Especially when you are dedicated to deal with sorc/sniper/mara

Sorry but you are full of bullcrap. Wasting time on typing here where most of us have multiple toons (including me playing a mercenary/commando since pre release). Mercs do need slight adjustment which would remove one of their defensive utilities: Trauma Regulators or Responsive Safeguards. This would balance the issue PT/Merc. And yes i know how to kill a merc. Excusing mercs with sin/sorc opness back in a day doesn't realy cut the chase doesn't it?

Shutter slug for 75% slow to peel? The new aoe noone remembers name off - when facing 3+enemies. Just be sure to begin with slow on shutter, then flame and then use the last AOE, then you can reset the free flame sweeps with a jump or, pull someone back with grapple+RP to spread also railshot.

Hi. Thanks for the update on this. Could we get any chance to have a round of conversation with dev team about the possible changes to classes. Some of them are just fixes (simple buggs here and there), while the other require more of a discussion (balance issues). Simple buggs could be fixed quite fast and would help classes to perform any environment (PVE/PVP) as it should. I know this might not be the place, nor the time, but i personaly feel we lost all lines of communication with the dev team. thanks.

Sure! I had exajurated abit, because of TRE meta. I do have 2 sets, 1 of them being 240s (except couple of armorings for set bonuses purposes) the other being 230/240s, but here it goes: Full Skank dps gear: All Lethal Mods (high power), 2 Alacrity Enhancements enahcements - rest for Crit (Adept & Quick Savant), DPS relics, Versatile Stim, Implants, and Earpieces for crit, all Augments with Mastery, shield generator. When to use: I am using Skank tank against sniper, mara, sin combo, because PT is not then directly forced into melee with 2 melee dpsers that can launch AOE. 48% crit, 72% surge makes your Searing wave deal with that sniper quite well scoring you even 28k hits. Survival gear: All mods and Enhancements Highest endurance+crit, All augments with high endurance & Power, Versatile stim, shield generator, Earpieces and Implants with Shield & Defense/Power & Crit. When to use: Against Eng sniper+mara+PT tank, 2 melee DPS on the opposite team, 2 Ranged DPS paired. Why? Against 2 melee or mara+eng combo its self explanatory - you will eat alot of AOE. Your guarded target also. Considering slows, mezzes and AOE you need that extra shield, and health. Against 2 ranged, you will eat alot of burst, and you don't want to get shatter armor from sniper+Arsenal merc and their burst on your ~140k health as a skank swaping when you are low. Because recently i am explicitly facing teams using tankasin, carnimara, MMsnip, sorchealz i am using skank, as i can't be the focus target, and sniper is severly hampered in therms of DPS (elemental damage works wounders on him, and usualy i am calling for a hardswap on the sniper before the other targets reach that ~40% bracket). Sniper swaping on you makes his life even harder considering a huge chunk of his dps is still a subject to defense (white damage), as well as shield and absorb. Mara swaping on you while you are on sniper ears OIL+slow+Searing wave damage reduction by 5% and carbo at the same time. PT tank have its uses, but his defensive capabilites are severly limited to very fast guardswaps and some peel tools, but if you consider meta and it's offensive capabilites against sniper i would say it gives your team an edge in the fight vs tankasin. Tho sin will be favourable in any other conditions, when sniper is not MM or it is replaced by any other class (merc for instance).

First of all, good guide mate! Sorry for being an arse, but its missing the TOP Legendary utility Real the Rattle, which is an amazing 3rd stun you get. It simply is that good and can make peeling/control easier. Couple things to consider: Because of the number of MM Snipers+Carnage Mara DPS pairs, full endurance gear is a waste for TR IMO. Im actually going full skank on TR most of the time because of the extra damage i can put as a pressure. PT tank can melt down the MM Sniper due to elemental AOE and offensively used Oilslick+sonic rebounder combo. It is a very viable strategy, when between peeling, guardswaps and targeted CC, you will use all your single traget stun+rebounder+Oil (most of the time), as an offensive measure, to create immence pressure on the sniper, who can't realy do anything about it. Focusing you means a DPS loss, and defense works well agaist all the white attacks, Oil+rebounder and two speced sungle target stuns are here to break the burst, while elemental attacks are doing the job against both entrench and evasion. To peel for your focused teamate from Mara use Real the Rattled grapple+RP combo, while still staying on the sniper. Pulling mara makes it easier to pop that Searing wave also. This is of course a TR strategy agaist one of the strongest teams: tankasin, carnagemara, MMsnip, and sorchealz. If you havent read the PVP gearing thread so far: both 234 and 242 are not bolstering well in PVP. use only 242 mainhand and offhand barrels/hilts/armorings as this will be strictly a DPS increase. Otherwise go only 240 as the top gear as it is the highest properly bolstering gear. (242 is legendary meaning it will never be bolstered, and the small stat increase over 240 doesnt justify loss on the boster).

2 Button PT was a sarcasm. I am talking purely about PVP here, not PVE since the latter is just so poor in SWTOR im not going to even pretend im interested anymore. Jugg tanks perform much worse in PVP especially TR environment, which every good TR team will confirm to you. Only the assassins are better. Yes much better. As for burst goes, you are underestimating the PT burst. And yes i do play Arsenal and IO merc as well as engi and mm sniper in TR/YOLO, as well as norms. Talking about usefullness? Yes both merc and sniper are simply the DPS specs go to, but mercs are not played in TR anymore if you havent noticed (its to easy to bait their DCDs and hardswap again making their defenses useless and bringing no health back). Carnage? Putting the same or better burst on TR than a mara right now, while also having the same or better sustained. As i said. I will be glad if they will add one/two defensive utilities from merc, and combine some useless utilities into packs (or remove them altogether). YOLO is more tricky, but as i said, doable and winable. Even under full 4 man enemy focus. Range. Think you forgot we had one range nerf already in the past, and pt was still playable and enjoyable. They returned pt to 30m range because most people just didnt knew how to survive.

********. Truly. I haven't read such a post in a while. People are shelving PT because they are dumb. Tank spec is far from being inferior to jugg, pushing 3.5k dps on TR games. While i do admire your love to a merc, let me tell you how to deal with him: Stun and dont attack. Is it simple? Was your brain fried in a process? Probably. AP PT/TAC VG is in a good spot. Not the best tho. You can push the burst noone else does, and quite frankly i would like to see your WZ or TR dps results. PT tank can out dps about any other tank spec, and is the only viable response to so much used MM Sniper right now. If you have troubles dealing 3.5k dps on ranked i suggest target dummy and full dps gear with at least 46% crit. As for AP, the advantage you have is that in 12 second window you can outburst about any other class, and still kite like mad, provided you took 75% slow on Mutilating Shards. Anyway, as much as i like your tryhard response mercs are not that OP and can be dealth with on PT 1v1 regardless of their spec. You just need to learn how to counter merc cooldowns, thats it. And yes i do play a merc in 1v1, solo q, and TR. VG/PT specs are not inferior. Do not treat them as such. Sure if u will go pyro GL to you. But as we all know pyro was **** for the last 3 years. AP on the other hand is about as good or better as the marauder. Just learn how to use 3 stuns, carbonize and your sonic. And for the sake of all PTs/VGs. learn to use range and kite. It is that simple.

Unfoirtunately i can't participate. Im on waiting list anyway. Signing off Brennet. Next time guys!

Or learn to play. See this is a problem of 90% of you guys. Been playing PT/VG since pre-relase, and while i do think a small defensive buff would be nice, plus they could combine some utilities, VG/PT is still an absolute beast in terms of burst, and kiting - And this is where your survivability starts (excluding pyro - RIP). You want an easy game, when you just point and shoot at anyone? Go battlefront (yes i know how bad it is). TBH. I had pulled 6.5 dps on TR here and there (usualy rolling 4.5+k), consistently putting at least 3.5k dps on normals. Solo is very tricky, and yes, you can survive focus of 4 other classes if your teamates are at least average, and no - you don't realy need their help all that much to do this (they just all need to burst the same target). PT from a mindless class with two buttons and no internal cooldown on PPA became a class that requires above average skills to shine. And i actually am happy about that. Everything in PVP is a challenge, that you can solve if you can learn how to adapt, and change perspective. Dwelling on the past will only make more FOTM rollers. So i dare you! I double dare you! Go play that merc and stop posting if you can't adapt to class changes. Also: Miner on Windows is still for free

Brennet/Mercenary/Innovative Ordnance/Empire