Okay so what stats should I have or be focusing on in Arsenal and what augments should I get?

Hi, I'm new to PvP on Merc. Just want to hear some general tips on what to do. What's the best PvP tree? I'm currently Arsenal and liking it. I'm having trouble picking utility because they have several attractive ones PvP on the last 2 tiers. What utilities do you recommend?

This is correct. That's how I've always seen the class. The problem with this is right now the risk is not worth the reward in comparison to what other classes can do in most scenarios. An example, we have gap closers in Operations but a huge part of those fights we have downtime while ranged can sustain DPS through the entire fight. Not only do ranged classes get higher mobility now, they also have the capability of DPSing even if they need to move. In theory a Marauder/Sent should be the highest single target DPS in the game if everyone has 100% uptime on a target. I'm not sure if that data is correct as some classes have ridiculously high DPS. Marauder should be the highest DPS in the game unquestionable since it's their only role and they're a melee squishy class. I honestly don't believe a Marauder's DPS is where it should be even if in certain scenarios we are the highest DPS. if they're not going to buff our ways to survive or increase more ways of mobility in both Operations and PvP, then the targets need to be punished when we have too much uptime on them. In PvP if you don't CC that Marauder, he should be able to kill you faster than any class in the game since they lack counters to CC and gains to high mobility outside a situational Predation. We're also one of the only classes with this bane right now. This in turn makes Marauders the most highly coveted class for pocket healers because with proper cleanses/heals they can wreck everything...the difference being they benefit more from a pocket healer than any other class since they lack counters themselves. The ultimate group class. The ultimate squishy class without one. Fair gain? Marauders should be the single highest DPS by a fair margin in most scenarios in PvE/PvP if they're allowed uptime on extended periods and Snipers should be the highest ranged DPS possible in the game. They have only 1 role, therefore, they should be the masters at that role. As it stands, in Operations, ranged will do more DPS because they're more sustained on the target and they also drain less healing resources. We're not worth the risk when compared to reward right now in either scenario to PvP/PvE. Too easily killed even with shields. One easy fix for PvE without doing anything to classes will be simply to start designing more anti-ranged fights that benefit melee for a change. This will make us much more desirable for those fights.

If you do not have the Predation utility, you stand no chance in PvP period. It's a requirement in PvP because they have too many ways to CC a Marauder to kite them. The bane to a Marauder is lack of mobility in PvP and CC counters. Predation is godly and it's also an amazing group PvP buff if used correctly. You must know when to use your Predations though...that's key. You don't just spam it as it's up or someone is just going to counter with another CC ability. You use it as it happens so you can stick to your targets like glue. It's that or you pop it when you need a group buff to hit an objective faster. Predation is also an amazing group buff in arena play if used right. I really don't see many scenarios where it makes sense to skip the Unbound utility. Sadly, a typical PvPer does not recognize how vital Predation is to a group. A smart group of PvPers know how much Predation can make the difference. It's the only buff like that in the game and Unbound can be used to break CCs on your group like healers. A group buff that has 10% dmg reductions, massive speed boosts and a group CC breaker is not something to overlook.

What people are doing personally on the team is uncalled for. That said, their communication and philosophy behind the class is broken. It doesn't really make sense to anyone outside their office. Can Bioware explain a Marauder's role in PvP and PvE Operations? Highest DPS on what? Encounters where we become healing sponges where the raid looks at us as a possible liability due to stealing healing resources so much? At some point you become a problem even if you're a skilled player. You're going to take damage based on the OPs design. A lot. What's our role in PvP? Spam Predation for the group? An amazing buff that nobody else gets but also very few seem to ever recognize. Get a pocket healer and destroy everything? What class doesn't do this? What does a Marauder bring in PvP/PvE that another class can't? Every class has high mobility with CC control the easy counter to our class while we lack ways to gain ground on the targets outside a situational Predation that can sometimes be used to break CCs.

What people are doing personally on the team is uncalled for. That said, their communication and philosophy behind the class is broken. It doesn't really make sense to anyone outside their office. Can Bioware explain a Marauder's role in PvP and PvE Operations? Highest DPS on what? Encounters where we become healing sponges where the raid looks at us as a possible liability due to stealing healing resources so much? At some point you become a problem even if you're a skilled player. You're going to take damage based on the OPs design. A lot. What's our role in PvP? Spam Predation for the group? An amazing buff that nobody else gets but also very few seem to ever recognize. Get a pocket healer and destroy everything? What class doesn't do this? What does a Marauder bring in PvP/PvE that another class can't?

Well, this just tells me I shouldn't waste time on my Marauder anytime soon. While I like that they're at least communicating to us and what their philosophy is...it still doesn't make sense to anyone outside Bioware's office. Seriously. I really wonder if the combat team plays this class hard in operations and pvp. Can't have much choice in a utility when it's considered mandatory by any Marauder who understands his class... I guess I'll be putting this class on the shelf. Bioware...you should look long and hard as to why this is the lowest actively played force class in the game right now. Your community keeps telling you why but you're not seeing it for whatever reason. You can't tell me you guys put extended hours into this class to ignore the changes many suggested. The class is not on par with the rest in the game...that can't be argued. I'd say I'm a pretty good player who grasps mechanics well in this game and any MMO. When I do operations or pvp I really have to work 3x as hard compared to my other classes. I don't think Marauders are broke but they're not where they should be. The class is extremely hard to play in order to gain anything. It's mostly due to our limitations and the design around other classes+encounters now. The best way I can describe me playing a Marauder right now compared to my other classes is...it feels...handicapped in a lot of situations especially operations/pvp. It's just an extremely frustrating class where you have no margin for error especially in pvp.

I was thinking full power on augments because I don't think it has a soft cap unlike surge rating which sees major diminishing returns. Also, power will give you more consistent damage as it's added dmg on both attacks that don't crit and do.

Okay, so another question...what should I aim for in stats on concealment? The PvP armor sets really suck because only 1 gives set bonuses to Concealment and it seems very limited. It has a lot of alacrity and accuracy which seems pointless? I can understand a tiny bit of alacrity but not accuracy. I was thinking high crit rating...I think I'm around 26% buffed, surge rating and power. So I was going to go all power augments or do I need to mix surge ones in there? I think my surge rating is around 66% and I have the full PVP set but it's not augmented yet. What augments? Full power?

I find that Gore is the key ability in a Carnage spec that needs to be managed perfectly. You lose a lot of DPS if you don't use your Gore windows right in both PvE/PvP. Why not change it to where when you pop Gore it creates a buff on the character that makes his next 3 attacks ignore 100% armor? This would solve the problems of us popping Gore in both PvE/PvP and getting knocked around like an abused baby. It would be a huge buff in both PvP/PvE and increase the DPS on the spec. It can't be too overpowered considering it's so vital to the build? The only change here is it makes Gore 100% consistent on what it's supposed to do.

I just recently got an Operative to 60 and been playing this spec in PvP. It's great but I'm still trying to learn the ins and outs to it. How should your open rotation look on classes? I usually Backstab from stealth, Veiled Strike(PvP set bonus), Volatile Substance, Corrosive Dart, then spam Lacerations until Veiled/Backstab is back up. The problem I'm having is Corrosive Dart kills my burst dmg and sometimes I'll throw Debilitate behind Volatile Substance so they can't shield/pop CDs. Is there one ideal rotation for every class? I find that for some reason when I pop Volatile Substance right behind after Backstab+Veiled Strike it doesn't activate despite Acid Blade still ticking on the enemy...that's why I use Corrosive Dart. Volatile Substance has me confused because I know it needs poisons up before it activates. Is Acid Blade and Corrosive Dart my only option there? The Dart is good for keeping other classes out of stealth too. I will sometimes run into the problem where I get too antsy on my burst and do not Debilitate in time before they pop CDs...so I was wondering what's the ideal rotation for burst dmg? Lastly, what utility talents do I need? I have Hit and Run(mobility), Infiltrator, Slip Away, Pin Down(love the extra immobolize), Counterstrike(more ways around CC), Jarring Strike(extra immobolize+interrupt), Revitalizers. I'm asking this mainly from a 1v1 perspective. Should I rotate Stim Boosts in there too? I usually pop that when I need an extra heals with my kolto probes and need an extra dmg reduction+faster CDs. Also, does Evasion only work on white dmg abilities?

Depends on what you do in PvP. If you're expecting to win 1v1 yes it's horrible. It has extremely low burst damage. For group pvp it's not that bad. You have heals for the entire group and if you play it right, you can do extreme damage by filling everyone down with dots. It puts a lot of pressure on healers but it's very difficult to play correctly in pvp. If you're looking for a more group pvp role then anni is arguably better than carnage or fury. I personally hate it for pvp and carnage fills more of my needs. Another issue with Anni is if you want the heals you have to sacrifice Predations. So you ask yourself do you take it for the team with weak heals vs. Predation? Personally, I prefer Predation as the group utility because I can break snares on anyone, spam it and it also allows me to stick like glue on anyone trying to kite me. I prefer Carnage or even Fury over Anni. I find Anni is too difficult to be "great" at in PvP while Carnage/Fury are far easier to learn. Anni has low burst dmg, Carnage probably medium but has high potential for very high burst with luck and Fury is high burst. If you learn to master Anni in PvP you can do a lot of DPS with the dots in big group PvP moments. You're not going to kill someone fast like that but it rakes up damage and when 8 people are being dotted away at the same time it creates healing pressure which is great in big PvP.

Uh, that predation utility is not a "buff". The only good thing about it is you no longer have to sacrifice DPS to use it. In PvP it seems almost useless. My problem is not DPS but staying on top of people and staying mobile from all the snares/roots. How's this going to help me? I can possibly break a snare once every 30 seconds but as soon as I do I'm going to be snared again. Now if predation had some kind of immunity it would be worth it. As it stands I can get several predations within the 30 second cooldown so why would I spec that way? This utility is actually gimping me in PvP. I'll gladly sacrifice DPS so I can gain predation on call when I need it to break snares to stay on someone. I can currently pop predation to break snare, get snared again, pop my CD, pop predation again to counter second snare. With this utility I can pop predation to break snare, get snared again then ??? as I get blasted from a distance. Force Camo is not a viable option because it's incredibly inconsistent when it comes to snares. Most times I sit in place when I pop it 4 seconds on the duration because I'm rooted. Who's not going to spec towards the cleanse option for Camo? I don't understand why Bioware thinks that's a good change unless I'm not seeing something. Being able to Beserk for extra DPS means nothing if I can't stay on someone to DPS them down. Why do they keep ignoring the fact we need snare immunities like other classes get? Ranged at that. Change the masterful talent to give a small movement speed increase+snare immunity for half the duration only on the caster? Change it to the full duration of predation snare immunity but once every 30 seconds? Why's Defensive Forms still not a passive instead of a utility? Every Marauder/Sentinel is going to spec it no matter what. It's a requirement. It seems they're terrified at making predation OP since it's a group buff. It's not hard to look at our abilities and place snare immunities somewhere else like on a Cloak of Pain. I mean if predation by itself had immunities that would be really the only buff a Marauder would need to be great again in PvP.

I can think of just a few small changes that would be amazing to us without being OP. Defensive Form as a passive and not utility. The Predation utility adds 5 seconds or entire duration snare immunity only to person who activates while keeping the group buff viability for PVE/PVP. Cloak of Pain damage reduction increased to 30% or make the damage done to people who attack us significantly higher. Possibly a Utility. When they see Cloak of Pain popped they should know to switch targets much like we do on bubbles. It's not OP because if the player is smart it can be only a 6 second duration. Force Camo should completely break any snare and it currently does not. I'm not sure if this is a bug but I stay rooted in Camo. Force Pull - 15 - 30m range pulls target to you and immobilizes for 2 seconds on a 30 - 45 second CD. That's it. I think those changes would make us amazing. Considering what other classes get it's more than fair. The predation buff would be amazing and probably the only real change with some utility changes we need. Not sure how it would be OP considering ranged get similar but still able to move/DPS at range. We sacrifice dps using predation too. I currently use predation almost exclusively in PVP and it's incredible. However, often times I'll break a snare and get snared again. It just needs a little more. It allows me to stay on anyone and often path through them to exploit people like clickers. Mobility is our issue with utility talents. Being a glass canon is our class. I'm okay with that because when I'm on top of someone I rip through them. We just need more help keeping people in melee. You can't have more than 2-3 predation buffs within 30 seconds to prevent spam from a match full of marauders. I'm pretty sure this already exists because I can't use it sometimes.