thats what she said

I used to do this when playing in WoW when being a raid leader to figure out how much of each class I need to make to get the best possible raid make up to have the most of each. i'll update this each time I see a new valid information. I currently play an arsenal mercenary and marksmen sniper so I dont know enough of all the other classes to give a full guide. so please give us your input to help the rest of the community do our best also please avoid things like "gives dps, tanking, healing" since those are obvious, be more specific and to the point and only abilities that improve the operation as a whole also when providing information please note specificly if its a class or advance class specific ability or even a talent specific as well. sith warrior/jedi knight -5% healing/damage increase -interrupt melee range -ranged interrupt and jumps to target ---rage/focus ---Juggernaut/guardian ----20% armor reduction ----leaps to friendly and reduce 20% damage and reduces target's threat ----single and self aoe taunts ------immortal/defense -------guard (though only requires tanking stance) ------vengeance/vigilance ---marauder/sentinel ----increase healing and damage 15% ----no CD in combat droid CC ----reduces accuracy by 90% (non bosses) ----increase movement speed by 50% and defense by 10% ----target gets decreased 20% healing ------annihilation/watchmen ------carnage/combat __________________________________________________________________________ sith inquisitor/jedi counselor -5% primary stats and 10% interal and elemental damage reduction -interrupt mid range ---madness/balance ---assassin/shadow ----single and self aoe taunt ----out of combat CC ------darkness/kinetic combat -------guard (though only requires tanking stance) -------aoe 5% damage reduction -------pulls target to themselves ------deception/infiltration ---sorcerer/sage ----in combat revive ----lower's target's threat and pulls target party member towards themselves ----cures 2 mental or force effects ----shields targets ----in combat CC 60s CD ----no CD revives ------corruption/seer ------lighting/telekinetic __________________________________________________________________________ bounty hunter/trooper -5% health -stealth scan ---pyrotech/assault specialist ---powertech/vanguard ----single and target aoe taunt ----pulling target to themselves ----interrupt ------shield tech/shield specialist -------guard (though only requires tanking stance) -------lower accuracy 20% -------ranged interrupt/jumps to enemy -------4% damage reduction with flame burst/sweep ------prototype/tactics ---mercenary/commando ----cure 2 physical/tech debuffs ----in combat CC 60 sec CD ----no CD revive ------bodyguard/combat medic -------reactive healing ------arsenal/gunnery -------20% armor reduction __________________________________________________________________________ imperial agent/smuggler -5% crit chance -interrupt ranged -no CD in combat droid CC ---lethality/dirty fighting ----flash bang/grenade causes targets to lose 20% accurcy after stun is broken ---operative/scoundrel ----in combat revive ----group stealth ----cure 2 physical/tech debuffs ----out of combat non droid CC ----no CD revives ------medicine/sawbones ------- out of combat CC applies a 50% damage reduction for 10 seconds after broken ------concealment/scrapper ---sniper/gunslinger ----20% armor reduction ----15 seconds of 20% damage reduction ------marksmanship/sharpshooter -------single target 45% accuracy reduction on non bosses ------engineer/saboteur __________________________________________________________________________ so if you can think of anything else please leave a comment and i'll add it as soon as I can, hope this helps many operation leaders out there in making the best possible team they can thanks to: Shroudveil

wow really? plz read before you comment, this is about armor debuff STACKING obviously if your solo of course you want to use this ability, but in a group situation when your with a jugg or a merc, and in operations, chances are you'll have multiple of them, then whats the point of wasting a cooldown on this ability if the debuff is already applied by other players who require them to use that ability

so if the armor reduction does not stack, doesnt that mean its a waste of time for a sniper to be casting shatter shot since we do not require it for any of our abilities, unlike juggs and mercs who uses it to increase their damage output? that is in a group situation.

>.> ummm these 2 classes arent even the same faction >.> just wanted to make sure you werent talking about a gunslinger or commando, or powertech or sniper

just because it shows up on the enemy doesnt mean they stack, I've had multiple mercenaries use tracer missiles and all of them do show up, but that doesnt mean they all stack since if this is true, that would mean in an operation you can lower a boss' armor down to 0? that seems a bit rediculous if you ask me plus your test doesnt actually prove much at all about if they do stack or not, because what you just proved was that the ability does reduce their armor by 20% 20% of 22.5 is about 2.5 so clearly the numbers are about right I guess the only way you can test it is if you had 3 people, 1 to take damage, and then have one of each class type cast their abilities to see if they do lose out or not but then you'd really have to test it out on a tank or such to take such punishment to see the difference

I just want to figure out wither or not these things stack, as far as I know, there are 3 classes that have this ability; snipers, Juggernaut. and mercenaries. now from what I understand is that the same ability does not stack with itself, like having 2 mercenaries with tracer missiles will only apply which ever is highest at any given point. so you'll only ever get 20% reduction from tracer missile max, same with if 2 snipers shot shatter shot. but for juggernauts and mercenaries, their abilities only take their own personal debuffs into calculating their damage from abilities such as crushing blow and heat seeking missiles. but do all 3 combined causes the target to take 60% armor reduction in total? or is 20% the max? please let me know if any of this information is fact or fiction and please if possible show sources.

I guess the only real question this makes is either, do you wanna reduce your heat, or do max damage, since using it on fusion missile will improve your damage, but using it on unload will vent more heat. but then isnt venting heat a lot more important than using it on a high damage ability? not to mention the 2 abilities dont even sync up either,

so many opinions already well I just wanted to add mine and that would be to just add rapid shots to vent 8 heat with high velocity cylinders. this way we can use it to get back to normal heat instead of waiting 30 seconds (with tracer missiles to keep those stacks at 5) before we can get back into our rotation or waiting for vent heat to come off cooldown. also I find it silly how people complain how expensive aoe abilities are. in the world of mmos, aoe abilities are always expensive cuz theres only one situation you'll ever use aoe, when your fighting a large amount of trash. if you play any other mmos, you'll know quickly that CCing is key to almost every fight of any equal level task. this game is no exception, you should never use aoe abilities unless you know that they'll go down quickly if they are used. so the heat cost wont matter as much also I think it'd be better to increase the heat regen thresholds as well, I think 0-39 is way too small of an amount to work with since if we happen to not crit for a bad case of luck, then we would go over that before the end of 1 rotation, which I feel is kind of unfair. and once we do, it goes from 5 to 3 regen which I feel is a huge drop. just 3 tracer rounds and a heat seeking missile right after will put us into the 3 regen zone if we have an unlucky streak of no crits. and even with the crits, we'll still dip into that 3 regen zone after we use unload I think that the brackets should be changed to 0-49 is 5 regen, 50-79 is 3 regen and 80-100 is 2 regen that extra 10 heat difference will make a big difference imo

looking through torhead to find helms with that icon and came across this http://www.torhead.com/item/9RE55Xi/td-07a-blackguard-helmet doesnt have any notification if its smuggler only but then again I dont think torhead has that information yet on any items. is this crafted? or anything? theres no information at all on it edit: found another http://www.torhead.com/item/fOWUxcC/nightstalkers-helmet edit again: T_T nvm just saw them on darthhater database and yea they do say smuggler only >_< damn it

but.... cad bane isnt a smuggler, hes a bounty hunter plus theres no where that says we cant wear the same gear unless its only gunslinger specific. I just cant seem to find it anywhere. unless the icon doesnt match the look which I think may be the case

i've been looking for a hat thats similar to cad bane from the clone wars tv show. hes a bounty hunter but he dresses like a gunslinger. I've seen some gunslingers in pvp sporting this gear so I was wondering if its offered to us as well I know gunslingers wear medium gear and bounty hunters are supposed to wear heavy armor, but it doesnt seem like theres a heavy armor version of this hat. Im assuming that the only difference between heavy and medium is just the armor values which I dont think i'd mind sacrificing just for the look. heres a picture of him for a better understanding of what Im talking about http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Cad_Bane

I see a lot of people just claiming the bug but no one seems to realize what the cause it. for those who have done the quest will realize that the area in which you must stand in order to actually attack him is actually the same area that the force field that drops on him once the quest is done. therefore I would suggest having a look at the coding at which when the force field is applied and when the game registers if its there or not. cuz I feel that the game thinks that the force field is up the entire time causing the LoS issue but did not put any collision detection until the force field really did go up. hopfully that'll help speed up the fix of this bug

the best mods possible are from raids/operations the best pre raid/operation/hardmode flashpoints are grade 22 artifacts, you can obtain these either from belsavis/ilum dailies for your own stats (the heroic quests) or from artifices/cybertech for armoring and barrels, the highest is 23 artifacts from daily commendations. purple gear is basically a normal orange that has a barrel/armoring built into the item. the quality of it depends on the item level and it would be on par with the same item level barrel/armoring. so it really doesnt make much of a difference except purples cant be upgraded beyond its own level.

im sorry but this is a terrible idea 1. an arsenal merc uses rail shot the least I would think because we save up for 5 stacks of tracer lock, and usually rail shot coolsdown faster than we cast 5 tracer missiles. 2. your speced into 2 different cylinders, your just wasting talent points by doing that. 3. you just have the wrong idea of how an arsenal merc plays. I suggest you reading more in the forums about how the play style works for this class and just pick one or the other for your talent tree. not hybrid them

I find arsenal merc is the easiest class to do their rotation but its not really a rotation, its a situational priority list, almost all classes are basically priority lists for single target: is heat signature at 5 stacks? no -> tracer missile yes -> is your heat seeking missiles off cooldown? yes -> cast it no -> is your tracer lock at 5 stacks? yes -> cast it no -> has your barrage proced? yes -> cast unload no -> cast tracer missile thats basically your priority list. but obviously if your heat is over 40 you'll want to start throwing in rapid shots after your tracer missiles until the heat is down to about 24, though if your heat is at 66 or higher than you'll want to use vent heat. make sure you have at least 30-35% crit chance to allow your abilities to crit often for the 8 heat vent, this will help a lot with keeping under the 40 heat to keep your rotation going without having to worry about heat management

arsenal rotation is basically 4 abilities Tracer missile is what ties everything together, it'll put up heat signitures to reduce armor, it puts up a buff to increase your rail shot's damage, and also has a chance to refresh your unload and make it do more damage. so obviously your other abilities are rail shot, unload and heat seeking missiles. the last one is the only one thats not really obvious unless you read the talent tree and know that it gains a damage boost from each heat signitures is on the enemy. as far as I'm concerned anything else is a waste of time except for any modifiers like the shielding, healing, vent heat, or thermal sensor override. and obviously this is for single targets, aoeing is a whole other story but really you shouldn't be aoeing unless its trash mobs or leveling in which case you just shot everything you got and you really never should have to worry about heat management in those fights

if im an "agent" where the hell do I find my tux and tie? really? an agent without a tux and tie is just not an agent at all

you wanna stay away from sniper volley mostly cuz alacrity at the moment is a very poor stat, decreasing your cast time only means increasing your energy usage and thus runs you below the 60 energy mark quicker and then it becomes a slow pain waiting for it to come back up plus according to people the talent is a bit broken since a 3rd snipe does not refresh it's duration thus once you start it, you cant keep it up for the 30 seconds thus you'll have a down time of no sniper volley which is kind of pointless then heres my build for comparison http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#400dsrbdRoRgzZbc0MZh.1 the last 2 points into vitility serum can easily be put into vital regulators, its really person preference, and the 1 point into cover screen is really just a filler since theres nothing else i'd put that 1 point into.

that fix is in 1.1.1 right now we're only at 1.1.0b, 1.1.1 was supposed to come out last tuesday but something changed and well got postponed and 1.1.0b came out instead

the stuff on sithwarrior seems to be either outdated or misinformed, seeing how they believe accuracy beyond 100 is armor penitration which is wrong, its reduced defense meaning they'll dodge and parry less. also if it is true that they do stack, that would mean that your reducing 60% of the enemy's armor, which seems a bit too much, assuming the only armor reduction in the game is from sundering assult, shatter shot, and tracer missiles.

without knowing what your current gear is, its almost impossible to tell which is better just know your stats should be 30-35% crit chance, 85% max surge, 110 max accuracy, and that should be the only numbers you should worry about. going beyond these numbers will just be wasted stat points since crit and surge will be effected by heavy diminishing returns which means it'll take much more rating to increase 1% than at lower numbers. and anything beyond 110 accuracy will just be purely wasted since at 110 you'll never miss already. as for the relic, I would choose the first relic you had there since it is more damage and I dont like to have to watch cooldowns to activate that 200 power. plus it does have less endurance so it is the better switch out. just keep those 3 numbers in mind and make sure you have them as close a possible without going over.

Im a terrible PVP player but since my friends love it I join them whenever they're on but I do fairly well in most cases, the thing I noticed that works best for me is higher ground, position yourself such that it will require them to either only use ranged attacks or they need to move around more to get to me, in hutt ball im always on top of the catwalks and in aldarran im standing on top of something. but the idea of playing a stationary mercenary is to keep your distance, and dont rush in. harder than it seems I know but its whats worked for me so far.

all pushback does is if its a channeled ability, it causes the ability's duration to be shorted thus less damage. if its a casting time, it just makes it longer. with the talent in arsenal to reduce pushback by 75% it'll solve most problems but obviously it wont solve everything. in raid situations this shouldnt ever be an issue since the tank should always have agro, and if you are getting hit, then your doing something wrong, or you have a very poor tank in solo situations it cant be avoided unless you switch to skadge or blizz, having them tank will mean you wont have any push back problems, but this also means that you must kill them before your companion dies, and i find in elite situations, I need mako to survive it (mostly cuz only mako is geared up for me)

I've had my inital companion (mako) only at about 6k when I hit 50, and then decided to max out all my companions I spent money on the level 1 and 2 companion gifts that you can buy on the fleet. just make sure you know which item they like best, its always 96 points for the item they like the most. once thats done, I just kept sending all 5 companions out on gift missions for the lowest level and just keep going from there. took me about a day to finish them all. just remember that every 2k of affection is 1 rank