You cannot avoid Mental Alacrity if you plan on PvPing at all with this build. Other than that it does well in both PvP and PvE, but has lower damage than full Balance. However, Balance is the most boring build in the game, so go ahead with your build.

Yes, I guess if you want mobility and less dependency on cover, you need to go Saboteur. Full Saboteur is quite good for levelling, and with good AoE mob groups will die real fast. However, I'd advise not to disregard Sharpshooter. Yes, it requires sitting in cover a lot, but the damage is amazing all the way through levelling. Dirty Fighting is not an ideal spec for levelling. Energy management will be a problem in lower leverls, and DoTs are not really the best way to kill easy mobs. At 50 however, Dirty Fighting is very good.

True, it's good for mez-cap, but it's really annoying if you're trying to stun someone in the fire.

Usually there is an enemy healer as well. If enemy DPS attacks your healer, you attack enemy DPS, and enemy healer is freecasting - guess who wins... I'm not saying that helping healers is bad, it's just that enemy healers are always a priority and since they're there almost always.. you get the idea.

True, because of that the position of Hemo in the rotation is not that important - it'll be eaten up anyway before the rotation repeats. I actually use Shrap -> Vital -> Hemo sequence in order to somewhat equalize 21-sec Shrap with 18-sec Vital and make them finish closer to each other.

First, agreed with the above poster about companion affection. 1% extra crit and surge is very important. Second, crit never competes with surge in gear modifications. There are three tier 1 stats (are available in mods and enhancements) that compete with each other: - Crit - Power - Defense and five tier 2 stats (are available in enhancements) that compete with each other: - Surge - Accuracy - Presence - Alacrity - Shield So you strategy should be: Tier1: crit up to 40%, rest power Tier2: surge up to 270-300 (here the actual % is not important, but surge rating cap is), rest accuracy. Here if you don't have enough stats, I'd rather lack a bit of accuracy than surge because high crit means surge is more important than usual. Also, when optimizing mods, choose those that give less Endurance and more main stat and secondary stats. That'll give you more points to play with. I'd advise against using any augments other than Cunning. You can get enough secondary stats from the gear, but Cunning you can never have enough.

Yep, just forget about environment cover and use portable instead. Hard cover has been bugged since the release and never got fixed.

I disagree that DF is not viable. GS role in PvP is applying pressure on distant targets to whom it's hard to get into melee range (usually healers), or just applying overall pressure to the enemy team from afar. SS is good for that purpose, but DF can do one thing better - moving around. No healer will just stay casting out in the open (esp. Scoundrel). As DF it's much easier to follow the healer all the time while still dealing damage, and apply burst when you catch your target rooted/CCed. As for breaking mezzes - well, you gotta know what you're doing. Over 50% of DPS classes specs have a DoT in their rotation, so discarding them because of that and saying that they'll berak mezzes - that's not correct. In some cases I would prefer SS for the upfront coordinated burst, but in the balanced teams there are other classes to fulfill that role (Assault VGs, Smashers).

Over 2 gunslingers in a team is an all-out disadvantage. 2 gunslingers can be fine, depends on the team composition and map. If these two are coordinating focus fire, then it's ok, damage burst will negate other problems. And yes, in huttball it's meh. One GS is good for roots, but you need jumps, pulls, speeds, etc. in huttball, not slingers.

well, capping RWZ and WZ comms is the best thing to do ATM. but buying WH gear when you know you could buy EWH instead in 1.6 for the same cost - no, thanks. The only thing which will not drop in price is EWH weapon and offhand. These you can buy right now.

not in WZs...

Obviously spamming flurries is a loss of DPS so it should be avoided. However, with the high energy drain sometimes it becomes unavoidable. So use up energy when there's need for burst (i.e. durning down healers), and use more flurries when the situation is easy. In the prolonged fights when end of combat does not seem likely just stay above 60% and use flurries when below 60. Some things to consider when adapting rotation: - Do not start full rotation on a target that's about to go down (low HP or being focused). You'll use up a lot of energy and will not get it back from DoT crits because target will die. Some options for fast damage are: Sab Charge -> Speed Shot; Smuggler's luck -> Charged Burst; Vital Shot -> Wounding shots. The ability to distinguish when you need full rotation, and when not, is one of the most important skills for DF. - Use Shrap Bomb is you see groups of targets. If no groups, just use Shrap Bomb as a part of your single-target rotation If you get targeted a lot, try to reconsider your positioning. Stay behind the shield of melee's, and CC/knockback those trying to get to you. Also, keep in mind that we're quite mobile with DF, so change your spot often, so not stay turreted like Sharpshooter.

What is your average damage in full-length Voidstar or Civil War when you're in the middle of action all the time? In those scenarios you should aim for 300-500k for starters, but in, say, quick Novare numbers may don't even reach 200k, so it's speculative. Also, how much do you die in these WZs? Optimal numbers can only be reached in case of <10 deaths. Now, some advices. I don't know what's your problem, so just some general things. First - rotation. Standard PvP rotation is: Vital - Shrap - Hemo - Wounding Shots - Sab Charge - Speed Shot - Wounding Shots - (although target should be close to death by now) - repeat Now since PvP is dynamic, you'll have to adjust of course. Use Shrap Bomb as soon as you see a group. After that you can select a target from that group (say, a healer) and proceed with Vital -> Hemo -> etc. Use Thermal Grenades for groups as well if you are good on energy. I would not recommend using Aimed Shot in PvP. 2,5 seconds gives your target so much time to defend/LoS/CC. Flourish Shot usage is circumstantional and is recommended mostly for taking down healers. Energy management. Are you running out of energy often? DF is the heaviest spec on energy, so it's recommended to have good Crit (about 40%), be very careful of not overspending, and use out-of-combat heal at each available moment. Other things. Use cover on Wounding Shots to avoid interrupt. Use root before Wounding Shots to avoid LoS. When targeting healers (and that's always a priority) try to set up a "sudden" burst so they don't have time to outheal. I like to set up DoTs, then root/CC, then unleash Sab Charge - Wounding Shots - Speed Shot burst. I guess that's all for general advices. If you have specific questions, we'll be able to provide more specific answers

For starters, you can go with full Field Tech set. Augment it with Advanced Skill augments 22. After that you can start tweaking the stats. As Dirty Fighting, you'll want more Crit than usual - about 40% buffed, surge at 75%, rest into Power and Accuracy. Nothing into Alacrity. And one more advice - don't buy any WH gear before patch 1.6 goes live. It will be much much cheaper then.

For PvP it does not make a big difference because you're playing in a group of 8 anyway. If you want to perform some duo action, then something like Shadow tank will be the most useful, or another DPS to practice joint targeting. Healer will not be suitable, because Gunslinger cannot protect healer in PvP at all. Having said that, IMO Gunslinger is not the best class for duo action in PvP. Gunslinger works best in the big groups. Whereas the best usage of duo combinations is playing away from the group capping nodes or defending against overwhelming odds. For that you'd need something like tank/healer or double melee DPS. In PvE levelling anything will work. Choose tank or healer if you plan to do heroics/flashpoints, choose DPS if you just want to destroy mobs faster.

The general rule is to always prefer Cunning to Endurance. That means when choosing your gear, pick items that give maximum Cunning (and secondary stats - Power, Crit, etc.). Don't worry about Endurance at all - it will always be present in sufficient numbers anyway. Now, if you're alrealy well geared with endgame sets (Rakata+ for PvE, WH+ for PvP), you can start min-maxing each modification slot in your gear. That means getting rid of mods that give more Endurance and less primary/secondary stats, and replacing them with less Endurance and more stats. The precise numbers of Cunning and Endurance will depend on your gear. With the best in slot lvl 61-63 gear you can push Cunning up over 2300. Endurance never reaches 2000.

As a Scrapper you should be looking at all the Story Mode flashpoints up to level 40. That means up to Maelstrom Prison. Colicoid war games requires 4 real players, so not an option. You can also try Red Reaper and see if you can take it on. Having said that, you'd probably have more flexibility as Sawbones. The best combination for soloing is either a tank with healer companion, or healer with tank companion. That way you can try all the Story Modes up to level 50 (except Lost Island). Some people do solo HMs (although they're mostly Shadows/Assassins), but these are rare cases, and require special preparation and training.

Nice Try is a must have for DF builds in my opinion. In PvP it provides much-needed protection from cleansing. In PvE it allows you to variate your rotation and adapt to curcumstances. For example, you can use additional damage ability for extra burst, and not worry that your DoTs will expire in the middle of Wounding Shots. Or very useful in heavy movement fights when it's hard to find 3 seconds to stay still for Wounding Shots. The fact that weak DoTs will be ticking for a couple seconds is not a problem compared to damage gain from extra Wounding Shots. I agree that UI icon for weak DoTs is not informative, but I got used to it anyway, because I always remember when I applied the DoT and when I have to refresh it. Flash powder seems to be a waste. It most likely will not work on bosses because they cannot be CC'd (although cannot confirm that). And in solo levelling / trash killing -20% accuracy is not needed because everything dies anyway.

If you mean High Impact Bolt, which is used by Assault-specced Commandos, their energy cell applies the DoT anyway. And Gunnery commandos don't usually use HiB.

On The Progenitor imps own republic in pvp for hell knows how long. At least couple top imp guilds dominate the warzones, and in general reps play worse. At some point there was not a single dedicated PvP guild left on rep side, everyone has rerolled imp. Currently reps are posing more united front and start to win more, but it's still far from being equal.

Never use: - Headshot, Cheap Shot These two abilities are useless both in PvP and Ops, so using them in the solo play is detrimental to rotation practice. - Blaster Whip Somehow never got to use it Don't use as Dirty Fighting: - Quick shot DF is so much energy-dependant that the filler must always be Flurry. Use as Dirty Fighting circumstantionally: - Charged Burst with Smuggler's luck (pvp) If everything is on CD, and I need burst - Sweeping Gunfire (pvp, solo, trash-killing) If more AoE needed Use quite often: - Surrender (pve) Why, after AoEing a big trash group with Flyby, TG, Shrap bomb, Sweeping Gunfire, TG - I always need it and fast! - Sab Charge (pvp, pve) Good damage and burst

Check this thread: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=555367 It seems that they've updated Dread Guard relics stats since PTS, giving them fixed Power. So at least one DG relic of Boundless Ages will be probably beneficial now. Second one can stay WH.

I'm with you on this question. Think I have 2400 or so coins, and have not spent a single one yet. I think I'm gonna unlock the most expensive (in credits) legacy perks - rocket boost, HK on alts, etc. After that I'll probably save up coins. Either something good comes up at the market or I'll unlock FTP restrictions and play for free for couple months before resubbing when the coins run out.

While levelling you can forget about it completely. In endgame PvE ideally you wouldn't use Vital Shot in the regular rotation because Damage/Energy ratio is definitely not worth it. However, in the movement phases when you have nothing else to spend energy on, it may be useful. In PvP there is use for a lot of skills, especially instant casts. Circumstational. P.S. All said above only applies to Sharpshooter. For Dirty Fighting for example, it's one of the main abilities.

Is your gear augmented? The gap between BM and WH is not THAT big (although against optimized WH it can be quite noticeable), but augments play a big role as well. Also, are you the only healer in the group? Do you have a tank guarding you? Solo healer without guard is very easy to kill. But two healers with guard can take a lot of damage. Over 2 healers - and it becomes a healfest when neither team can kill each other. So no, healing it still very strong in PvP.