Powertech DPS

[Malles]

I'm having trouble working out a suitable rotation for my Powertech. I can't seem to find one I'm comfortable with and that is as Heat-friendly as I like. I'm Advanced Prototype right now, but I'm thinking about trying out Pyrotech for the constant DoTs (DoTs = constant Rail Shots), and I'm not as good with numbers and math to theorycraft.

 

I'm a college drop out who was raised in a swamp, so I dint lern to gud. I was hoping some kind people could post their experiences with these trees so I can work something out. Thank you.

[Malles]

And a rotation would be nice too!

[renegadeimp]

http://sithwarrior.com/forums/Thread-Powertech-Vanguard-DPS-Compendium

[DredlyLB]

Can't really help you for Advanced, here is my standard pyro though:

 

Death from above > Rail Shot > Explosive Dart (stuns the mob for 3 seconds unless "big") - all while closing the gap to mobs

 

Flame Thrower, just as thrower is ending Dart should be going off which will throw bad guys all over the place and buy time for another rail (on the ground = rail eligible)

 

switch to standard rotation of flame burst, rocket punch, and hitting rail everytime its avail. If the mob is a big boy (> 3k life) I'll throw an incendiary missile on him just to ensure the railshot can always go off. use flamethrower whenever it becomes avail as well

 

I use ElectroDart as needed (and when avail) and Quell to control special attacks as they are being performed.

 

 

With this setup I normally don't have issues with heat unless my "free rails" don't happen

 

I very rarely use Flame Sweep, it does horrible damage for the time and heat it generates, supposedly if you get your crits up high enough it can actually be useful but for me all it does is look cool and do like 150 - 200 damage

 

I can hold my own against most mobs this way and they drop pretty quick, keep in mind everything is about dealing damage as fast as humanly possible and using quell/ElectroDart to stop them from getting off their big ticket attacks, especially healers!

[DredlyLB]

http://sithwarrior.com/forums/Thread-Powertech-Vanguard-DPS-Compendium

 

Good write up

 

few suggestions:

 

- Death from above should be your opening attack, not blaster. As soon as you shoot with a blaster any melee mobs will charge you and the ranged will sit back so you are going to reduce your target effectiveness

 

- I very rarely use Death from above on rotation, reason being is its long cooldown and you need to get away from the mobs to use it (5m min distance). we should be on the mob like glue. I only use DFA when I'm engaging melee mobs and there is a group of ranged mobs as well. Plus it seems to not like being used at the 5m min, never goes off right for me.

 

- I don't know if incendiary missile DoT stacks, I don't believe it does, so hitting the same mob with it over and over really doesn't do anything. If anyone can confirm the stacking/not I would appreciate it

[Vauleen]

When I was Advanced Prototype my rotation was as follows:

 

(Being A/P most of your best damage is done in tight)

 

While closing gap I would use

 

Explosive dart

 

If in range start rest of rotation or else grapple player to me then start rotation

 

Rocket Punch

Retractable Blade (Both RB and RP are used to setup a Railshot Crit)

Railshot

Immolate

 

If needed:

 

Flame Burst

Flame Burst

Rocket Punch

 

At this point its really a matter of cool downs and cc. And trying to get in as many free rocket punches as possible. (Flame Burst and Immolate) But that should at least help you to figure out how best to rotate your skills.

Edited January 3, 2012 by Vauleen

[Mhak]

As a 50 Pyrotech PT who's been doing some HMs and my first Eternity Vault last night, here's my initial rotation -

 

Incendiary Missile > Unload > Flame Burst > Rail Shot > Rocket Punch > Rapid Shots >

 

From there you have to start improvising. Did Rocket Punch proc a Rail Shot CD reset? Then use it. If not, then at this point what you start doing is rotating Flame Bursts and Rapid Shots. You can go Flame Burst > Rapid Shots > Flame Burst > Rapid Shots ect. forever while keeping a steady heat level (below 40 heat), and it's actually not bad DPS because your CGC ticks hit *hard* in good gear (but this isn't your final rotation phase, getting to that), and Flame Burst causes an initial CGC tick (mine crits for 900ish), then you'll get another tick right before your next Flame Burst again after a Rapid Shots. It looks like this -

 

Flame Burst + CGC tick > Rapid Shot > CGC Tick + Flame Burst + CGC tick. By putting the Rapid Shots in there you conserve heat and get an extra hard-hitting CGC tick right before your next FB which procs it again immediately, and that damage adds up very fast.

 

Once you're in the phase where you're rotating FB > Rapid Shots, you'll use Rail Shot every time it's reset, you'll use Rocket Punch every time it's off CD, you'll use Unload whenever it's off CD, and you'll use Incendiary Missile to reapply the DoT when it's off (use a few Rapid Shots to get to low heat before you use this).

 

I won't lie its a fairly complex spec and takes a decent amount of both practice and micromanagement. But if you do it right, the damage both in PvE and PvP is fantastic. Here's a match I did a couple days ago as Pyrotech -

 

http://img441.imageshack.us/img441/8232/screenshot2012010121435.jpg (428k damage)

Edited January 3, 2012 by Mhak

[DredlyLB]

Do you see a damage benefit to using reload over flame or is a /distance heat trade off?

[Smokt]

As a 50 Pyrotech PT who's been doing some HMs and my first Eternity Vault last night, here's my initial rotation -

 

Incendiary Missile > Unload > Flame Burst > Rail Shot > Rocket Punch > Rapid Shots >

 

From there you have to start improvising. Did Rocket Punch proc a Rail Shot CD reset? Then use it. If not, then at this point what you start doing is rotating Flame Bursts and Rapid Shots. You can go Flame Burst > Rapid Shots > Flame Burst > Rapid Shots ect. forever while keeping a steady heat level (below 40 heat), and it's actually not bad DPS because your CGC ticks hit *hard* in good gear (but this isn't your final rotation phase, getting to that), and Flame Burst causes an initial CGC tick (mine crits for 900ish), then you'll get another tick right before your next Flame Burst again after a Rapid Shots. It looks like this -

 

Flame Burst + CGC tick > Rapid Shot > CGC Tick + Flame Burst + CGC tick. By putting the Rapid Shots in there you conserve heat and get an extra hard-hitting CGC tick right before your next FB which procs it again immediately, and that damage adds up very fast.

 

Once you're in the phase where you're rotating FB > Rapid Shots, you'll use Rail Shot every time it's reset, you'll use Rocket Punch every time it's off CD, you'll use Unload whenever it's off CD, and you'll use Incendiary Missile to reapply the DoT when it's off (use a few Rapid Shots to get to low heat before you use this).

 

I won't lie its a fairly complex spec and takes a decent amount of both practice and micromanagement. But if you do it right, the damage both in PvE and PvP is fantastic. Here's a match I did a couple days ago as Pyrotech -

 

http://img441.imageshack.us/img441/8232/screenshot2012010121435.jpg (428k damage)

 

I notice you arent using thermal det, is there a reason for that? Also would you mind posting a spec?

Thx.

[Guurzak]

I very rarely use Death from above on rotation, reason being is its long cooldown and you need to get away from the mobs to use it (5m min distance).

 

The radius of the effect is as large as/larger than the minimum distance, so you can hit mobs you are in melee with by positioning the stamp at minimum distance on the other side of the mob.

[DredlyLB]

yeah for some reason I have significant issues with actually getting it to go off in "danger close" range. I don't know why but even if I'm clear of the circle it still doesn't go.

 

Also you are vulnerable while you are floating in the middle of the air

 

The biggest factor for me is the 1 min cool down. if I want to use it as my opening attack its going to take forever to go through a dungeon if I use it during combat as well

Edited January 3, 2012 by DredlyLB

[Vauleen]

Thermal Det is okay but it is not worth the trade off in points you can use to max your damage.

 

He'll be running something like this:

 

Pyro Spec

[Mhak]

I notice you arent using thermal det, is there a reason for that? Also would you mind posting a spec?

Thx.

 

Sure thing. First, here's my spec - http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#301bMZMsZfhMbdGhrs.1

 

Second, I do use Thermal Detonator...just not for PvE is all. What Thermal Detonator is great for is a huge burst of damage in PvP using this rotation - Incendiary Missile > Thermal Detonator > Flame Burst > Rail Shot

 

The Rail Shot will hit exactly at the moment Thermal Detonator is going off, as well as re-proc your CGC that was applied with Flame Burst just before. If that rotation all crits, it's an easy 9k+ damage if you're in half-decent gear. After all of that potentially massive burst of damage, your enemy is set up with 2 dots that are probably ticking for +30% damage due to the target being at or below 30% health, making clean-up easy work.

 

Realistic numbers I've gotten look like this: 500 damage from IM + 300 tick from it 3 seconds later = 800 damage during the rotation. Next is Thermal Detonator, going to blow soon. Next if Flame Burst, pyrotechs have a high tech crit chance and fire skills get an extra 6% crit, so FB and the CGC it procs crit all the time. Lets say they both crit, that's roughly 2k damage. Now your Rail Shot crits for 3k and procs a 900 CGC tick right as your TD crits for 3k.

 

800 IM + 1200 FB + 900 CGC + 3000 RS + 900 CGC + 3000 TB = 9800 damage you've just done if you get some decent crits off. More often you'll see about 6k damage and sometimes as low as 3-4k damage if nothing crits. The burst potential is incredibly high though, and stacking crit + surge means those numbers won't be that rare.

 

To be fair though, I'm in a pretty solid combination of epic PvP and HM/Ops PvE gear, I wasn't seeing these numbers right after I hit 50.

Edited January 3, 2012 by Mhak

[badalchemist]

Why not Rail Shot right after Incendiary Missile? Especially when Flame Burst is going to re-apply CGC anyway. Seems like a waste not to have it on cooldown sooner.

[Morbidar]

Sure thing. First, here's my spec - http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#301bMZMsZfhMbdGhrs.1

 

Second, I do use Thermal Detonator...just not for PvE is all. What Thermal Detonator is great for is a huge burst of damage in PvP using this rotation - Incendiary Missile > Thermal Detonator > Flame Burst > Rail Shot

 

The Rail Shot will hit exactly at the moment Thermal Detonator is going off, as well as re-proc your CGC that was applied with Flame Burst just before. If that rotation all crits, it's an easy 9k+ damage if you're in half-decent gear. After all of that potentially massive burst of damage, your enemy is set up with 2 dots that are probably ticking for +30% damage due to the target being at or below 30% health, making clean-up easy work.

 

Realistic numbers I've gotten look like this: 500 damage from IM + 300 tick from it 3 seconds later = 800 damage during the rotation. Next is Thermal Detonator, going to blow soon. Next if Flame Burst, pyrotechs have a high tech crit chance and fire skills get an extra 6% crit, so FB and the CGC it procs crit all the time. Lets say they both crit, that's roughly 2k damage. Now your Rail Shot crits for 3k and procs a 900 CGC tick right as your TD crits for 3k.

 

800 IM + 1200 FB + 900 CGC + 3000 RS + 900 CGC + 3000 TB = 9800 damage you've just done if you get some decent crits off. More often you'll see about 6k damage and sometimes as low as 3-4k damage if nothing crits. The burst potential is incredibly high though, and stacking crit + surge means those numbers won't be that rare.

 

To be fair though, I'm in a pretty solid combination of epic PvP and HM/Ops PvE gear, I wasn't seeing these numbers right after I hit 50.

 

Excellent post. Confirms some of my burst kills I've gotten (currently 0/3/31 at 43). One thing to mention to you man. I feel that Gyroscopic Alignment Jets is better to invest in than Automated Defenses. The amount of stuns we're in justifies it for me and that Kolto Overload is underwhelming at best.

[Tarelther]

Why not Rail Shot right after Incendiary Missile? Especially when Flame Burst is going to re-apply CGC anyway. Seems like a waste not to have it on cooldown sooner.

 

Because in PvP you want the damage to all hit at the same time if possible making it impossible to heal through.

[Mhak]

Excellent post. Confirms some of my burst kills I've gotten (currently 0/3/31 at 43). One thing to mention to you man. I feel that Gyroscopic Alignment Jets is better to invest in than Automated Defenses. The amount of stuns we're in justifies it for me and that Kolto Overload is underwhelming at best.

I used to talent GAJ until I got to the point where heat management is so second nature to me now that losing 8 heat while stunned/KD/rooted is just unnecessary. I can easily keep under 40 heat without this talent. On the other hand, the +2 levels of stealth detection I'm finding makes a very noticeable difference. I'm popping Scoundrels and Shadows with DoTs and un-stealthing them constantly now, much to their displeasure and my joy. I find just pissing off enemy stealthers is enough lols for me to take that talent, it's a pretty big difference imho.

 

Why not Rail Shot right after Incendiary Missile? Especially when Flame Burst is going to re-apply CGC anyway. Seems like a waste not to have it on cooldown sooner.

Because it would cost 8 heat to do so (16 total, refunding 8 for hitting a burning target), and that would ruin the perfect cycle of maintaining under 40 heat that my posted rotation provides. Believe me when I say I have tested very, very many different combinations of skill rotations. The rotation I posted capitalizes on heat/DPS, and adding any other heat-costing skill to the initial set of skills would take you above 40 heat.

Edited January 4, 2012 by Mhak

[theangryllama]

When I was Advanced Prototype my rotation was as follows:

 

(Being A/P most of your best damage is done in tight)

 

While closing gap I would use

 

Explosive dart

 

If in range start rest of rotation or else grapple player to me then start rotation

 

Rocket Punch

Retractable Blade (Both RB and RP are used to setup a Railshot Crit)

Railshot

Immolate

 

If needed:

 

Flame Burst

Flame Burst

Rocket Punch

 

At this point its really a matter of cool downs and cc. And trying to get in as many free rocket punches as possible. (Flame Burst and Immolate) But that should at least help you to figure out how best to rotate your skills.

 

If you use immolate at the start of that opening rotation then the rocket punch is free. Worth noting and changing around imo

[Kneeknow]

I'm level 24 and it my build looks something like this

 

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#301ZMsMroM.1

 

 

My rotation usually depends on whether enemy is strong or not but it goes like,

 

 

Explosive dart(weak enemy), retractable blade, rail shot, rapid shots, rocket punch, flame thrower(multiple enemies) or Unload(single)

 

 

With that I am never above 35 heat and can spam whatever I want without problems.

[Morbidar]

I used to talent GAJ until I got to the point where heat management is so second nature to me now that losing 8 heat while stunned/KD/rooted is just unnecessary. I can easily keep under 40 heat without this talent. On the other hand, the +2 levels of stealth detection I'm finding makes a very noticeable difference. I'm popping Scoundrels and Shadows with DoTs and un-stealthing them constantly now, much to their displeasure and my joy. I find just pissing off enemy stealthers is enough lols for me to take that talent, it's a pretty big difference imho.

 

 

GAJ has nothing to do with stealth detection right? Infrared Sensors does. Confused!