Irenicus_Jon
-
Posts
177 -
Joined
Content Type
Forums
Blogs
Events
Articles
Downloads
Gallery
Posts posted by Irenicus_Jon
-
-
The healing reduction on shatter shot should have been there since day 1, because our mirror class (by that I mean the only other pure DPS class in the game) already has it. The AoE damage reduction on entrench should have been there as a passive since day 1 (albeit a weaker version) or the talent should be placed further down for easy access. Because there are other classes that get AoE damage reduction through talents easily and they have a lot more mobility.
I'll need to see how good sniper volley is before I decide MM is completely worthless. Right now the only reason to spec MM is to enjoy good front loaded damage coupled with better energy management. Lethality already does better overall damage in many situations (and seems to be getting the best buffs with the patch).
Plasma probe required all the love it could get. Coupled with the stun engineering looks worth trying now.
Loss of 3% crit is a slap to the face. The loss from that has been moved up to cull crit chance (extremely good news for Lethality in my opinion, since more than half your damage comes from cull). Coupled with other changes it feels there's very little reason to spec anything other than lethality.
What's interesting is that imperial agents (and the smuggler mirror) are the least played classes and they don't seem to be buffed that much with this patch.
-
There is a certain Republic team on my server that almost every empire player hates. This is because they queue with two groups, usually manage to get in the same game, and have 3-4 healers in the team. Nevermind winning, DPS classes can barely (if at all) get their 4 badges, because nobody dies. Even when people put on markers on the healers and focus fire them.
-
There are rarely any fights where you need to DPS on the move with a sniper (perhaps when killing at during Gharj's phase switches, but you can throw grenades for that). When you need to reposition, you can always use an instant attack (corrosive dart, shatter shot, rifleshot if you are desperate) if you can't afford to go into cover for a sec (assuming you are MM sniper). Even as a MM sniper you can take the instant snipe on entering cover, kneel down for a sec for instant snipe, and followthrough on the run.
The only disruptive instance is the council fight in EV where only on normal mode your 1v1 target has an annoying knockback that pushes you out of cover, even that is only annoying for MM snipers, and they can still pull off the instant snipe + followthrough to make for lost time (you can also time your big channeling shots like ambush and SoS right after a knockback so they don't get interrupted). As of now there isn't any encounter that punishes a sniper for having to stay in cover.
-
Bear in mind that this is from personal experience, I cannot put up definitive numbers to support any claim, and in the end you have to make your own mind about it all.
Pure marksman: Has the biggest opener with the highest burst in the shortest time (instant snipe/followthrough with 1.5 sec ambush and explosive probe). Performs well in HM flashpoints and perhaps even better and operations. Because all armor debuffs stack, has slightly higher compared to lethality in operations. Reliance on cover is not a gamebreaker in flashpoints or operations. Reliance on cover is extremely annoying when you are PvE'ing solo (far too many mobs in end-game areas have abilities that knock you out of cover, some of which ignore entrench). Contrary to what many believe this is the ideal PvP build. The burst damage is high, it doesn't realy on dots that can be dispelled, benefits from the low cooldown on legshot, etc.
Pure lethality: Burst damage is comparable to marksman but somewhat delayed. Possibly better damage than marksman in flashpoints since majority of your damage ignores armor. Requires time to setup the dps rotation (application of dots in preparation for cull) which requires you to act quick (for example, third phase of Soa where you have to do dps quickly with his shield down). There are times, both in flashpoints and operations, where you cannot use corrosive grenade which is a big dps hit (bonetrasher comes to mind).
Hybrids with cluster bombs: Cluster bomb hybrids almost always do better in PvE. Not because they pick up interrogation probe (which is nice) but because explosive probe becomes extremely energy efficient.
I regularly switch my build (sometimes twice a week) so I ahve some experience with almost any build except ones focused on engineering.
-
Targets affected by the groundsmash debuff (wounded) take extra damage from swipe and will most likely one-shotted. This is intended as far as I know. Bonetrasher will immediately switch targets after using the groundsmash or the knockback swipe. Optimally your group will have spread out behind Bonetrasher so the target that just got smashed into the ground will not be targetted by swipe.
-
I use him (it?) almost exclusively. This is because I've maxed affection on every companion and have them on crafting missions all the time. If you gear him up he's a reliable healer (even though he lacks a weapon slot). You can find orange gear for every slot except weapon and shield. It's also funny watching him try to punch stuff when he's not healing.
-
-Make sure each ring is solved as quickly as possible (this is more to avoid the enrage timer).
-Make sure south solves 2nd and 3rd rings first.
-If the last ring is solved in one click for either side, don't start and reset the instance.
If we adhere to the three criteria above we never have any problems.
-
Hi, end-game sniper here. I'm in half Rakata, just over 2k cunning fully buffed (2005 to be exact) with 820 bonus tech damage (just giving the numbers to put things in perspective).
I am the only imperial agent in my entire guild. I am also one of the few end-game snipers I see in my server. In warzones I will usually be the only sniper or IA, sometimes there will be one or two more.
Most of the reason we are so few is because of our allure (or lack thereof). Being a non lightsaber class already means fewer players, and the bounty hunters have something going for them (call it lore, charisma, kewl, etc) and we don't.
Our companion progression is clunky and slow. Kaliyo is not the best of tanks, Vector is not a good DPS, and you spend more than half the game with just these two. Your proper healing companion comes quite late, as an added bonus he can't heal and dps at the same time (his dps abilities are turned off in healing mode, I do not know of any other class that has such a companion). The proper tank comes very, very late (almost end game) and the all too powerful AoE (orbital strike) is basically an end-game skill (by the time you get it, you are almost finished with the last planet and probably with your class quest). These all combine to make leveling IA tedious and create bumps along the way of leveling. We also have a crippling bug with a certain NPC in the storyline should you choose to fight the NPC.
Many players would grit their teeth and endure that if IAs were strong end-game material. From a PvE aspect,
Sniper: A mercenary will deal comparable damage with higher damage reduction, a heal button and more utility (CC and cleanse to name two). During a boss fight mercenaries out-damage any build of sniper because heatseeker missiles deal more damage the more mercenaries you have in the ops.
Operative: Sorcs are hands down better healers. Certain boss mechanics castrate concealment DPS. Lethality is wierd and as mentioned above, it's not the top DPS against bosses anyhow.
PvP is a bottomless debate pit but even if they performed at equal level compared to other classes (not saying they don't) the PvE shortcomings are enough to steer poeple away from both classes.
-
With the advent of dual spec it might even be reasonable to have 1 tank rest sorc/sage since they can switch on the fly as more/less healers/DPS are needed. If only they had an armor reduction button as well..
-
Hi, I'm a level 50 sniper and I still actively engage in space combat a few times a day (daily commendation requirements are done, columni set is finished, have started on rakata set).
At end game you will find space combat to be a bit more challenging and the playstyle changes from "blow everything up" to "blow the mission requirements up and survive". At lvl 50, even with torpedoes capital ships do not blow up completely but you can destroy every single hardpoint on them. I think you will be satisfied at least visually since when you have blown every point on a capital ship away they do turn into drifting scrap metal trailing many, many lines of smoke.
Currently at end game space combat does not offer much benefit (besides the social items). You can get a purple random item chest at 300ish commendations, but that is a lot of commendations and I don't think the item rolls are that great.
-
Last night my guild did EV pylons in hard mode for the first time. After reading all the horror stories and having done it only once on normal, I was expecting the worst. We managed it on our first go. We used NSSN and each side waited for the messege pop-up each time. I had thought we'd have the consoles lock up on us at least once but it was smooth sailing.
-
You could ask the group to knock the lions into the outer pit (where they will evade and disappear). If cc'ing is the only option, corrosive grenade has a long enough duration (21 seconds) with enough of a recast window to allow re-applying without breaking the cc. If you miss out on the grenade for a few seconds it will not be terrible drop in dps unlkess you need to cull without the dot from it.
-
Sniper/Operative: Orbital Strike, Frag Grenade, Corrosive Grenade (requires skill point). Suppressive Fire is channelled AoE but I'm not sure if operatives have it as well.
Flash grenade if you want to include AoE cc as well.
-
What the..
Wow, I'd heard about the ***-pads robe bug, but.. It's even more insane when you see it.
-
Interesting, after 40% crit rate (self buffed) and at 115 energy (with talents and set bonus) I find the energy consumption of lethality is managable (you cannot spam cull every time it is up) and the dps feels better than marksman. But that is another (perhaps lengthy) debate.
Also, I recall the spreadsheet showed higher DPS for lethality?
-
I still find keeping around 200 surge rating helps. This gives a solid crit multiplier without getting you into the black hole of substantial DR. These pieces come with crit rating so I don't have to stack any more crit rating (I run with 42% crit chance when fully buffed).
After this my mod priority is whatever has the highest total of cunning+power (equal value, though maybe I should give power a slight priority). I am in full enforcer columni (with rakata pants) and I have replaced a lot of mods/enhancements even in that setup (because a lot of pieces had the higher cunning mod with crit rating or something). I don'T mind having accuracy+power on my Rakata pieces (as long as their total of cunning+power is not lower than other modifications) since I can replace a few enchancements with lower quality ones to keep crit rating and surge at a desired level.
Also, I have a rakata earpiece but I replace my implants with augmented columni ones since they have higher stats.
-
Check your local AH for blue lvl 50 dark/light 5 relics. Relics are one of the easiest slots to fill up with credits. After that, for long term use PvP relics are solid.
-
Take a look at the Marksmanship Sniper/Sharpshooter Gunslinger Compendium linked in my signature for more details.
I've been meaning to ask, why is your compendium centered around MM and does not include a word of lethality?
-
Glad you had fun.
It would be more substantial if you actually blocked Belsavis or Ilum (not the PvP side, the daily quest side) since then you'd have more of a response from actual 50s. What you probably ended up doing with this is stall a few 40s, who went to fleet to ask for help, and a limited number of lvl 50 people actually had nothing to do and showed up.
Besides the enjoyment you get from the siege atmosphere of it, I don't actually see the point, since it's not beneficial for your side or exactly detrimental for the other side (players blocked planetary access can still level through other means).
-
This is the setup I'm running at the moment:
Belt/bracers: Orange moddable with purple armoring/mod in them. If you have the necessary crew skill/resources to craft Rakata pieces, they are only better than moddable gear if they crit and come with an augment slot. Even then, they will be better by +9 or +16 mainstat at most, depending on the mods you can fit into the orange ones.
Earpiece/implant: Columni crafted with augment slot. These are BoE so they can be bought on the AH, but you need people on your server to have the schematics drop in ops. Augmented with +cunning. They will surpass Rakata pieces you get from daily if you can find ones with augment slots.
Mainhand: If you are mainly going for weapon damage (marksman build), PvP rifle is quite good with relatively easy access. If you are not so weapon based (lethality), Columni or Rakata with the best mods you can stack into them. Crystal is a problem here, but the first boss in Kaon drops the best crystal currently available.
Offhand: Best pre-ops is in Battle of Ilum as far as I can recall.
Set items: I haven't done a piece by piece analysis, but none of the set bonuses appeal to the sniper so perhaps there should be one. I run a heavily modded Enforcer set (Columni except for Rakat pants) because the +5 energy helps with Lethality energy rotation. If you don't care about the set bonus, random bits from any piece that has the highest cunning in their hidden armoring would be ideal (there are two kinds of armoring in the pieces, one with high endurance and the other with high cunning, just like the patron/skill modification from pre-50). I am assuming you will replace the mods/enhancements of the pieces as best you can. Pre-ops the best Columni mod is the one with the lower cunning but higher +power piece (can't recall exact numbers). You get your crit rating and surge from enhancement pieces (the other option is accuracy and power which I do not prefer).
Hope that helps.
-
Imperial Agent population is low compared to most other classes (my feeling is that on any given server the least represented basic class is probably imperial agent). On my server in warzones and operations I'll rarely see other snipers or operatives.
Looking at advanced classes only, I don't see powertechs, ever. There are one or two here and there but that's about it.
-
Pick sniper. Operative would get you more groups as you level up (whether you need to do flashpoints as you level up is another discussion) but at end game you'll see snipers are really rare and wanted. Operative healing in raids is problematic and generally not preferred whereas sniper DPS is much coveted.
-
Here's the harassment part of the game rules:
Harassment consists of misuse and/or abuse of game mechanics and verbal harassment with the intention of distressing and offending other players. Game mechanics allow players to interact with the world and each other. For example, the ability to block a doorway is a game mechanic. Use of game mechanics like these is by no means considered harassment in and of itself. The key to determining whether the mechanic is being misused or abused is to determine "intent." Reported incidents are not considered harassment until it is determined by the SWTOR CS that it was done to intentionally to cause distress or to offend other players.
That point could be argued in this case.
-
Both are extremely good damage dealers. Marauders have the better buff (even though snipers' buff is extremely good as well), their DPS may suffer on some encounters because of melee abuse (or they may require more heals). On the other hand snipers can die suddenly (especially if they steal aggro) and I think marauders have a better survival button. Snipers have a %20 dmg reduction dome on a long cooldown whereas marauders have their fury spenders that can help the group.
IT is a tough call and I don't think we can ever say one is superior to the other even if we had exact numerical data on everything.
What? 1.2 Patch?
in Gunslinger / Sniper
Posted
MM is currently the only worthwhile PvP spec because of the points you mentioned (I am MM spec btw). What I mean is MM will start getting useless as a general build (when you think of PvP and PvE combined). With the buff to Lethality sniper volley better be damned good to keep MM on par.
Yes in PvP lethality suffers against competent players but perhaps this will call for a change in playstyle (a change of target preference away from healers).