Opinions on Sniper Volley

[IronSalamander]

I have this now at 34 as I push to finish the MM tree before grabbing gearhead, energy tanks, lethality, and deadly directive, but I really don't find it that great even at 100% (3/3). I am seriously considering dropping it but there isn't a lot of skills I really want to replace it with.

 

My current planned build:

 

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#400bsrbdRsRxzZbcZr.1

 

My alternative to drop sniper volley and heavy shot since heavy shot can be a pain for my jug friend at times:

 

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#400rcrbdRoRgzZbcZr.1

 

What are the thoughts on these and the Sniper Volley skill in general from my fellow snipers?

[Kesal]

it boils down to your playstyle, as a PvP sniper I skip this talent, but there are many other PvP snipers who use it.

 

I think if you enjoy the plant and turret aspect more, then grab it as you will be taking advantage of it more often. But if you play a more mobile sniper (yes i said mobile sniper, deal with it) then its probably not a good talent to spec into for efficiency reasons and you wont have it up nearly as much.

 

My thoughts, I dont take it, but to each his own

[Mythicrose]

I have it for both pvp and pve. To be honest, I don't think I'd notice any difference without that small alacrity boost.

[Caramel_Ham]

That small alacrity boost is useless for pvp. Snipe goes from 1.5 to 1.4.

 

For pve, all the way though.

[Crustededge]

I had this talent before as well and I personally didn't feel it was useful at all. For one, it helps eat through energy faster as you need to start spamming Snipe after Ambush. Plus, at cap (which is only 3 stacks) it does only decrease it down to 1.4 if you have no other alacrity boosts. I also play a mobile sniper myself, but after testing this talent at max I couldn't find much use for it because it not only helps burn through your energy faster, it is only useful for 3 snipes since it is capped at 3 stacks. Once you get Followthrough and Series of Shots, spamming Snipe after Snipe is not an efficient use of your skills as a sniper and I felt this way in both PvP and PvE.

 

If the Ambush to get the buff, or the Snipes casted after, cost 0 energy, this would be useful. But I personally can't agree that it is a useful talent by any means unless they do something about the energy consumption, allow it to stack higher, or even allow you to keep the buff stacked at 3 by constantly using Snipe (which is still a large amount of energy consumption).

[Strah]

Snipes don't refresh it , so it's roughly 6 seconds of 9% haste every 30 seconds.

 

Pretty rubbish imo.

[SandTrout]

I tried Sniper Volley and quickly respeced out of it in favor of other abilities. For instance, you build lacks any ranks of Pillbox sniper, which is critical for PvP where CCs are prevalent. Also, cover screen is a far more useful talent that boosts our survivability while repositioning from cover to cover.

[Fentanyl]

Also, cover screen is a far more useful talent that boosts our survivability while repositioning from cover to cover.

 

But only against basic ranged attacks (i.e. blaster fire, a particular type of kinetic damage).

 

Jedi Shadow / Sith Assassin? Internal and Kinetic (non-ranged).

Scoundrel / Operative? (Concealment) Tech and Kinetic (minor ranged) (their primary damage abilities are non-ranged)

Scoundrel / Operative? (Lethality) Internal and Tech (minor ranged)

Trooper / BH? Tech and kinetic (some ranged) (their primary damage abilities are tech)

Jedi Consular / Sith Sorcerer? Elemental and internal damage.

 

Gunslinger / Sniper? Kinetic and tech (primary damage ranged kinetic)

 

The only people that you're really protected against are other players of your class. I take this talent while I'm leveling because of the frequency of Gunslinger/Sniper enemies and then drop it when I hit 50.

[Tokran]

Well.. spamming snipes is the best way to NOT get any useful buff out of Sniper volley.

Better time it so you will get the next stack shortly before it runs out. This way you'll get a lot more overall duration.

 

I still think its pretty weak given how far up the tree it is. We dont have that much attacks that profit from alacrity, spending 3 talent points and messing around with your attack priorities seems hardly worth the few percent buff from time to time.

 

If BW would change it to, say, to 2% per stack, 9s duration and have additional snipes refresh its duration... now that would be a useful talent.

Edited January 12, 2012 by Tokran

[stealthrider]

Best way to use Sniper Volley is for a massive Rapid Fire sequence, especially if you have some Alacrity on your gear and the 4% talent.

 

Step 1: Build 3 stacks of Sniper Volley

Step 2: Hit Target Acquired

Step 3: Series of Shots, Rapid Fire, Series of Shots, Series of Shots

Step 4: Ambush/Followthrough

 

Then burn Adrenaline Probe if you're somehow still in combat and haven't killed three people with that combo. All in under six seconds, too.

 

Yes, it's a massive energy drain, but it's also easily the highest six second burst damage you'll ever deal.

[BlindRapture]

Best way to use Sniper Volley is... to not use Sniper Volley.

[vimm]

I don't understand why that box is garbage at a higher tier.

[skitknapp]

Maybe a bit off topic, but is there a reason why 'Suppressive fire' never shows up in any discussion like this? It's as if that ability is completely unlinked to anything else. I've never seen it in even a single suggested dps rotation, for any situation.

 

What gives?

[vimm]

Maybe a bit off topic, but is there a reason why 'Suppressive fire' never shows up in any discussion like this? It's as if that ability is completely unlinked to anything else. I've never seen it in even a single suggested dps rotation, for any situation.

 

What gives?

 

It's weak and costs a lot of action.

[SandTrout]

Deleted. Wrong thread. Edited January 12, 2012 by SandTrout

[IronSalamander]

Thanks for all the feedback, it's appreciated. I ended up respeccing out of it last night right before the end of my chapter one story arc and didn't miss it at all. As the MM tree stands now, there seems to be a few too many skills that fall into the category of:"grabbing this because I need something to advance the tree to the next level". Considering how often certain other games re-wrote their trees, I expect changes sooner or later. Edited January 12, 2012 by IronSalamander

[vimm]

Thanks for all the feedback, it's appreciated. I ended up respeccing out of it last night right before the end of my chapter one story arc and didn't miss it at all. As the MM tree stands now, there seems to be a few too many skills that fall into the category of:"grabbing this because I need something to advance the tree to the next level". Considering how often certain other games re-wrote their trees, I expect changes sooner or later.

 

The tree has some really useful things. My only real complaint would be the very last box.

[IronSalamander]

The tree has some really useful things. My only real complaint would be the very last box.

 

Some of the skills are quite essential, don't get me wrong, but some just feel like filler. Marksmanship, Steady Shots, Imperial Assassin, Followthrough, etc. are all good/great to name a few examples.

Edited January 12, 2012 by IronSalamander

[theonepanda]

As far as i can tell, Ballistic Dampers works not only on ranged attacks, but also on all force skills, DOTs even, and is pretty awesome.

[skankified]

Best way to use Sniper Volley is for a massive Rapid Fire sequence, especially if you have some Alacrity on your gear and the 4% talent.

 

Step 1: Build 3 stacks of Sniper Volley

Step 2: Hit Target Acquired

Step 3: Series of Shots, Rapid Fire, Series of Shots, Series of Shots

Step 4: Ambush/Followthrough

 

Then burn Adrenaline Probe if you're somehow still in combat and haven't killed three people with that combo. All in under six seconds, too.

 

Yes, it's a massive energy drain, but it's also easily the highest six second burst damage you'll ever deal.

 

SO you can use:

3xSoS

1xRapid Fire (off GCD but cant be used when channeling)

1xAdr Probe

1xAmbush

 

in 6seconds? My soS with sniper volley is 2.6seconds so thats a minimum of 8-10 seconds for me including all the GCDs etc

[IronSalamander]

As far as i can tell, Ballistic Dampers works not only on ranged attacks, but also on all force skills, DOTs even, and is pretty awesome.

 

BD is better than I expected. I find it very handy and combined with my insta-snipe on entering cover, it makes for good synergy. Crouch and get the instant snipe, then break out and re-crouch after a short time to get the free snipe and reset BD helps me a lot when soloing.

[Ayestes]

Forums ate my previous post, argh.

 

Essentially, Sniper Volley is worth it after you setup properly. The problem is setting up properly is often a huge downgrade in damage and is extremely energy inefficient, not to mention you are amplifying your sustained damage ability which is Series of Shots and not your burst damage abilities in Explosive Probe, Reactive Shot Ambush, Followthrough, and Takedown combined. With or without Sniper Volley the differences between a Target Acquired Series of Shots is petty, because it's the Target Acquired that is pretty much doing all the work. The reason I think the setup isn't even that great, is as Lethality you go through a much more efficient setup and that single Cull does more then two of the Series of Shots in that Target Acquired.

 

On that note, I think a lot of the Sniper talents and abilities need a pass over in terms making everything equally viable and something you strive for. Quality of Life buffs, not necessarily power buffs. Perhaps not immediately, because I think we are fine in terms of balance because even quality of life buffs are still buffs, but it's something that should be looked at in the future. As an example, the top of Marksman and Lethality seem somewhat lacking and the middle of Engineering has the same feeling. Target Acquired doesn't work and I'd rather have it be a debuff you place on the target to have it take +15% Damage as a Sniper or +15% Healing as an Operative. There are a whole myriad of changes just to make things useful and give more distinction to each of the talent paths, but at this time I think it's too early to mess with things due to early game balance.

Edited January 12, 2012 by Ayestes

[TrueDND]

skankified;1523107]SO you can use:

3xSoS

1xRapid Fire (off GCD but cant be used when channeling)

1xAdr Probe

1xAmbush

 

in 6seconds? My soS with sniper volley is 2.6seconds so thats a minimum of 8-10 seconds for me including all the GCDs etc

 

Not to mention that Ambush has a 15 second cooldown and it is required to hit for the the initial Sniper Volley effect. After 2 Snipes (with alacrity boost up to around 30%), that still leaves about 12 seconds (more than likely around 13 because of the alacrity bonus to the Snipes) for Ambush to cooldown to hit with it again. The math isn't there to get it all done that fast with having Sniper Volley.

[Ayestes]

You could theoretically string it long enough by staggering your Snipes after the initial Ambush. However... that's a lot of work... for very little return. You are looking at .25s off the cast time for getting a fully setup Sniper Volley on Series of Shots, when Series of Shots isn't that damaging of an ability in the first place unless you are Engineering.

 

It's still a bonus and if you feel you like then more power to you. However it's certainly something that isn't required or sometimes even recommended for a Marksman to obtain.

Edited January 12, 2012 by Ayestes

[Nightsorrow]

The main problem for me with this talent is that, once you reach 3 stacks of it, any additional "Snipes" wont refresh the duration. That, and the duration is so low that if I ever use Series of Shots, I'll most likely lose it.

 

I'll most likely drop it when I get to 50, I am soon there, and can take some time checking more indeptly into the talents. A bit of topic, but I also feel that "Rapid Fire" is a big letdown for a "end-talent" in a tree. I have maybe used it 5 times since I got it. Unless I seriously mess up my rotation/priority on abilitis, I never need the relatively "cheap" damage from Series of Shots in comparison to the much higher Damage Per Second that Snipe and Ambush etc give me.