Other Relic Explanation Posts: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=728264 1.post There was no change in relics for a long time, so the math is still the same and correct (i did the maths when they buffed the shield amplification with i think 2.4 and it was still the same...)

Yes, there's a mathematically basis (dipstik's thread for example). http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=686677 second post

That would depend on the Boss Encounter. They are a lot worse in the long run then On-Hit-Relics. On some bosses with short important burn phases (Brontes for example), they might be slightly favorable but on average they are worse. In Dread Palace/Fortress 7 out of 10 bosses are constant damaging bosses were average mitigation is important. Therefore it's recommended to use On-Hit-Relics.

Yes, that was changed on PTS for NiM (as you get a damage increase debuff on NiM). If you wouldn't fly away from Bestia because of a resisted knockback there's a high probability to auto-die in Nightmare Mode. Therefore it was changed, so that you still are getting the knockback even if you resist the attack (probably for hm aswell).

Oil Slick still reduces 60% of Tyrans damage by 40%.

Energy damage can be defendable (if it's melee/range energy damage). It is essentially the same as kinetic. The values of DP NiM have more or less not changed compared to HM. Juggernauts are not that good on Tyrans because: a) higher f/t then usual b) poor Juggernaut cooldowns, because you take Tyrans excactly for 30 seconds every minute. None of the Juggernaut cooldowns aligns with that (saber ward 2m30, Invincible 2m30.....) On the other Hand the important cooldowns of both Powertechs (Oil Slick...) and Assassins (Force Shroud, Overcharge Saber, Deflection) align perfectly with usual Tyrans swapping.

The SA Relic is worse then FR and RW. I doesn't matter if you have 30%, 60% or 100% shield Rating. The question is always: How much mitigation do 740 absorb rating give you? There's no big difference between juggs (40% shield) and sins (60% shield) as sins already take more absorb rating, which means higher dimishing Returns. Unless you are taking over 2000 damage per second, the RW Relic wins.

Every powertech has this class skill.

This fight (the only interesting one for tanks in Dread Fortress) was completeley ruined. It's way way too easy now. Either tank the adds near the Boss (as their damage was cut down by more then 95% that's fine again) and aoe them down or make excaclty 2 pipe smashes to insta-kill them.

Almost all of the damage taken issues on Bestia are dps or coordination issues in reality. Either your damage dealers don't kill the Monsters fast enough, or the tank is not able to make the Monsters attackable fast enough for the damage dealers. The better dps and coordination is, the less healing the tanks will need and the more the healers can actually dps (which will make the fight really easy ) If you still have problems, go hybrid. Pulverize is an area ability so . Obviously a powertech tank, that has 3+ Monsters on him is pretty good aswell as he will get 2,5% healed everytime a monster uses pulverize on him.

I can think of some really important phases were you will be using 10 charges within 10 seconds (brontes and dread master final phase for example). Other then that i can't really think of really raid heavy damage phases, were the old enraged defense would be really important as a dps. Also, when you have to tank something you will easily use 10 charges within 10 seconds (as most of the operation bosses attack multiple times per second). I don't think it will change anything in PvE. Either you get attacked pretty often (Dread Masters Last Phase) or you don't get attacked at all.

Thanks for the work! My engineering parse is not in the list of the Overall Top Parses, although he's top 1 parse in the engineering section. I've got one question: How do you handle the Leaderboard, as with 2.8 relics are not double procing anymore (which affects a number of classes)?

Live numbers.

Update: Zah'ik - Hybrid Sniper - 5/18/23 - Drop it Like it's Hoth - 4m 16'837 http://www.torparse.com/a/692597/time/1402163688/1402163945/0/Log 19:54:48.174 Zah'ik enters combat. 19:59:05.011 Zah'ik kills Operations Training Dummy. Same AMR

That is your correct Torparse link: http://www.torparse.com/a/684870/time/1401281456/1401281693/0/Log Time goes from the: enter combat to the kill dummy line

Most unhelpful post for hybrid (lethality/Engineering) hybrid: Hybrid Rotation: no attention to your 3 dots required, just learn the rotation by heart. Spec: 5/18/23

Finally the bad with the wrong engineering rotation leaves the thread. Now we can discuss the current sniper issues, without Interference. In PvE as i said before snipers need a third spec for fights with adds and decent AoE. As far as i know Engineering was always thought to be the spec for AoE damage Performance: If we judge from other similar specs (Rage Marauder/Jugg or AP Powertech), they: a) do 25-35% of their single target damage in an AoE b) are slightly behind all the other specs in terms of pure single target damage (currently 3,7k max on a dummy) If we get 25% of the theoretic values of Scatter Bombs into another skill, then (in this case Scatter Bombs go to Orbital Strike): a) we would have 23% of our single target in an AoE (which is definitly lower then other similar specs) b) We would reach 3,7k max on a dummy ; As you don't roll through the dummy anymore you win some more global cooldowns, but these globals have to be abilities that cost no energy and rolling does not cost you a whole global cooldown As there's still the relic fix, (according to my maths) the dps will stay 3,7k max as the relics (~-100 dps) will eat up these additional abilities (Overloard Shot or other fillers most likely) Now we need to increase AoE of the Single Target Rotation: My idea is to replace Overload Shot with Fragmentation Grenade: Fragmentation Grenade is AoE, deals very slighlty more damage but currently costs energy and doesn't proc Railgun (although Railgun does next to no damage). a) Change the Overload Talent (Calculated Pursuit), so that (just an example): Activating Interrogation Probe on a target has a 50/100% chance to finish the cooldown on Fragmentation Grenade and make the next Fragmentation Grenade and makes your next Fragmentation Grenade cost no energy (could also be multiple Fragmentation Grenades that don't cost energy) b) Change Electrified Blast (Railgun Talent), so that Fragmentation Grenade also applies 1 stack. With these 2 changes Fragmentation Grenade will be the new filler of the Rotation. That will increase the AoE damage of the spec and it should go into the 25%+ range. Rotation Issues: The Rotation feels really clunky. Basically it's 5 gcd - Series of Shots - 5 gcd. In theory you should also aim to permanently have your Railgun stacks, but as this talent does next to no damage in reality, it doesn't really matter. Snipe just feels like a stupid energy burner, without any fit into any of the engineering abilities. As you anyway have a crazy amount of energy (because of the the constant Adrenaline Probe reset), it just feels crazy to burn 90% of your energy for a very slight dps increase snipes bring. Additionally Snipe is one of the lowesting damaging ability in your rotation. My snipes deal 2792 damage per second. (Plasma Probe =6000 damage per second, Interrogation Probe 4666 damage per second....) The rotations lags proper fillers. You have 5 global cooldowns each 10,5 seconds, but signature abilities like Orbital Strike/Explosive Probe/Interrogation Probe/Plasma Probe all have a very long cooldown. None of these abilities align properly (in terms of cooldown timers). Keep in mind: Without having Scatter Bombs by rolling-in-place, this spec would be the lowest dps spec in this game by far.

Just reposting this: Snipers can do very good damage in ranked arenas, but they have a surviveability issue (especially against internal/elemental damage) in ranked Arenas. The problem i see is that most of their defensive cooldowns are medicore at best in pvp and awesome in pve (covered escape for example because of the predictable damage in PvE), so you cannot straight buff them. 2 suggestions: The previous evasion change (Force/tech immunity) but just against other players (not for pve). Players get a debuff that lessens their damage when they attack a sniper while the sniper activates a certain skill (Evasion, Orbital Strike ....)

Bads with 8% more crit on Series of Shot and also more crit on Followthrough dare to say they had unluckier parse . Also the less then 150 k HP is calculated for the whole Team, not for the player. Your whole Team will lose more DPS when you apply Shatter Shot on a target between 100 and 150k HP (depending on your line-up of course). A Hybrid spec is not a bug in the game. Rolling-in-place is a bug. Exploiters use bugs to gain unfair advantages. The 15 second cooldown comes from 20 sec cooldown on Scatter Bombs + 1 min EMP which equals in a 15 second cooldown on Scatter Bombs. Maybe some persons should learn to play Engineering. I also added some more parses to the leaderboard with all different parses that would've been Top 1 (out of the excact 10 parses i did so far with that spec) Here, here and here I am not sure, i think it would probably be better if the Scatter Bombs would be changed into some sort of DOT component. That would fit the spec (with Plasma Probe and Interrogation Probe) more. Like: with each hit of Orbital Strike additionally 2 "air bombs" drop that deal "same damage as before" Another problem is, that snipers still are very easy focused down in Arenas. The main problem is, that a lot of the defensive cooldowns are sniper has (covered escape...) are stupidly overpowered for PvE (because incoming damage for DPS is really predictable in Operations) but medicore/bad in arenas. You can't really buff Snipers defensive cooldowns (like they tried witht the Evasion Change) unless you want to completely screw pve Balance. Snipers should get another cooldown that prevents them from being focused that much in Arenas (especially against internal/elemental damage). Maybe the previous Evasion Change (5 sec immunity against force/tech) but just for pvp? Maybe also some damage debuff for enemy Players when you activate an ability (Evasion, Orbital Strike....) @SamuelAU: I suggest you start reading the thread again from page 13 on and read my insights i have from the sniper class. Unfortunatley the only possibility to get rid of bads derailing this thread (keep rolling-in-place ), is to show them how bad they really are. If people want to continue to abuse bugs, instead of really finding solutions for this class, they have no point in this thread and i will continue to argue against them. And if their argument is "i am a better engineering sniper because i have higher dummy parse", i will start playing this spec again on the dummy, to make it invalid. Also i think these parses can help to tune the single target damage of Engineering to the correct Level, when it gets reworked.

And you lied again. You have more Vital Shot hits because it double procced. Just means that you got luckier then me, with your parse. You had more double procs and stupidly used Corrosive Dart at the end of your parse instead of burning the target. You have a 4% lower crit rate on your AMR Profile then i do have and you had more crit on Series of Shots (56% compared to my 52%). Also on your Followthrough (37% compared to my 40% with 4% less crit) you were luckier then i was. I can't be bothered to calculate the rest that is already over 50% damage of the the rest of the parse. But the fact, that you write something about my parse luck compared to yours while you had 8% more crit on Series of Shots, then i had makes you just look really stupid. If i got "extremly lucky", what did you get, with an additional 8% crit on your highest hitting ability? The probablity for a) and b) is about 0 (i don't know any add in the game were this happen). I did take the armor debuff for snipers (useless when the add has less then 150k health) into account. Since when is a hybrid spec and exploit? You abuse a bug to increase the damage you do by more then 20%, by placind 5 mines into one place without a wall next to you. A Hybrid Spec is not a bug in the game (same with med packs). You are simply an exploiter. I did beat your parse now more then 6 times out of 10 tries. My highest parse is over 150 dps higher,i have not even started analyzing it properly i am just randomly pressing buttons. I guess if i finish my analyzations i will be a lot higher then what i currently am (4500 dps). You are just not good enough and i as i said no one cares about a spec that you can only Play in raids, while exploiting. How does it feel when it takes me 30 min constantly crush every Engineering parse of the . Anyway, i will not talk to low-level gunslingers with pseudo-arrogance anymore. Go, do some close to 3,9k parses without rolling through the dummy and we may talk again. But you are just not good enough, to give any advice for this class (like your Suggestion of keeping the rolling-in-place exploit ). Now back to the real Topic: I like Escarli's question. I would split it into two parts tough, one question for pvp and one question for pve. I would evolves the PvE question around: Engineering was supposed to be the area spec of sniper (30% surge, 15% more damage to most of the area abilities...), but currently this spec does not have enough good area abilities (Plasma Probe is medicore at best ; Fragmentation Grenade is not constantly useable and more thought of a filler ; Orbital Strike does not get any real improvements from this tree -> 2 gcd for a medicore damaging area ability is too much). On the other Hand in PvE, all this spec evolves around is exploting a rolll-in-place bug to place mines on a target that deal 5 times as much damage as Fragmentation Grenade without costing energy. The easiest suggestion (from myself) would be to tie Scatter Bombs to Orbital Strike. Like "Orbital Strike will now additionally drop 5 "air bombs" in the air that deal "same damage as before" each. If you do that Scatter Bombs will be used on a 45 Second CD (instead of an ~ 15 second CD). That means the spec would currently deal 3800 single target damage (according to my parse). That would also make Engineering the spec for all Orbital Lovers. Of course that is just the beginning, i will post more suggestions later on.

Yeah, Engineering will need a huge overhaul (i've made a couple of suggestions). The rage tree should be the skill tree (both pve and pvp wise) you wanna aim for this spec. With a little bit more gear and proper relics i should do the same top dps (3850-3870) when 2.8 hits, as i will still kill the dummy with the 9th Explosive Probe. I think Lethality Hybrid is in the middle of the pack of the sustained dps specs, some specs are better (Pyro Powertechs for example), some are worse. It's not all about dummy dps, a sniper brings stuff that is better then 100 more damage.

Well my average of the hybrid spec is higher then 3800. The max dps i had with that spec is 3870 (i had that multiple times, because it aligns with my 9th Explosive Probe which means even 30000 damage difference will results in the same kill time). If i get a lucky parse or more gear i might go over 3,9k and kill it before the 9th Explosive Probe. Lethality Hybrid is probably the most consistent spec in terms of damage currently. While Marksmann is slightly more inconsistent, it's still a lot better then similar specs (Arsenal..) on the dummy,, both in average and top parse. Engineering is the big sniper problem. Redesign the whole spec, get rid of covered escape Cluster bombs, for example make Orbital + Plasma Probe really strong. Redesign Engineering to a similar spec like smash and make it good for pvp aswell. That would solve 95% of the sniper Problems. In my opinion atleast 2 out of the 3 questions should evolve around Engineering and a heavy redesign. If snipers have a viable AoE tree you could essentially stop caring about that for Marksmann for example (no one cares about carnage AoE Problems for example). It would solve almost all of the problems for snipers. Anni = Lethality Carnage = Marksmann Rage = ? currently

Zah'ik - Engineering Sniper - 4/36/6 - 3m 42'080 - 4503 dps http://www.torparse.com/a/687736/time/1401574362/1401574584/0/Log Same AMR as hybrid. http://swtor.askmrrobot.com/characte...a-7e8c9f7a3004 Did not play this spec since months, that's for when you try to provoke me ..

http://www.torparse.com/a/687461/time/1401542901/1401543128/0/Overview Now #1 Engineering is a Sniper. Took me half an hour. @BaineOS: I like your question. I would additionally be a bit more specific and give the developers some ideas on how to fix Engineering (Tie Scatter Bombs to Orbital Strike, increase Plasma Probes damage, Replace EMP Discharge with another Rotation filler...)

Learn to analyze offhand hits from gunslinger sharpshooter. Says a lot about you that you don't even know how offhand hits are accounted in torparse. Your parse had a 56% crit chance on Series of Shots (54 crits, 42 non-crits) so it was a luckier parse then mine (didn't bother to analyze the rest). It's pathetic that you lie about your 41% crit Chance on SoS, while in reality you had 56% mainhand crits , Again, come back when you are able to reach close to 3,9 k without rolling through the dummy. There are multiple people that reached 3k on Brontes (not only marksmann snipers). Explosive Probe does roughly the same damage as Corrosive Dart, therefore there's no difference in damage when the target lives less then 15 seconds. Additionally there's Sniper Volley Window or Orbital Strike, were you also won't see any dps decrease. The only possiblity to see a (tiny) dps decrease is when: a) target lives less then 15 seconds but longer then 10 seconds b) Orbital Strike, Sniper Volley and Explosive Probe are off cooldown Yeah very likely 1) , flexibility over Lethality? 2) No one really bothers with Engineering, as you can just really use it in raids when you exploit 3) I have over a dozen 3,85k+ parses on hybrid (because you always kill it with the 9th Explosive Probe), i also have a higher mm parse then Tianna. The parse that is currently on the leaderboard is not the parse with my highest dps, just the parse were i had the least Server Lag. The top Lethality parse is a roll-through-dummy parse 4) , i did do one 3,6k on Draxus and reported myself. Rolling-in-place is stupidly easy and there's not really additional skill required. 5) You don't have integrity. You are abusing an exploit and according to Biowares own rules you should be banned. @Falver: I am using way over 300 crit rating. I did average my last 20 hybrid parses and i did get an average over 3,8k. Here: 3740, 3820 and 3870: http://www.torparse.com/a/685988 3810,3740, 3850, 3810 and 3870: http://www.torparse.com/a/685850