Charged Bolts - overhyped? (Commando)

[Renthicya]

Hello there!

 

As a Commando (or a Trooper), I was disappointed to see that quite many talents of the Gunnery and Tactics tree emphasize Charged Bolts (CB), offering semi-useful upgrades for that skill.

 

I was kinda thinking, is it really worth it? It has an activation time of 1,5 seconds and doesn't really deal much damage compared to other skills I can use during the time CB finishes dealing damage.

 

I've noticed, even the most basic Explosive Rounds deals more damage and by default it's even cheaper (2 ammo compared to default 3 of CB) than CB.

 

Even, during a single CB hit, I can almost shoot 2 Explosive Rounds, so this makes CB even more useless.

 

What's the point using CB then and what's the point spending all those points to upgrade CB? Sad thing is, reading through the dps talent tress, I can't find enough, truly useful talents I could spend my points on, so the game kinda makes me choose a talent that has something to do with CB.

 

Edit: Also, why Explosive Rounds is so neglected by talent trees? I haven't found a single talent offering an upgrade or modification for it.

 

Any comments on this?

 

Thank you for time and replies!

Edited January 12, 2012 by Renthicya

[GuyWithFace]

I can't speak much for Charged Bolts, since I'm a Vanguard, but I can safely say that no talent trees buff Explosive Round because it's absolutely worthless except in the most specific of situations(such as keeping a group of people from capping a door in PvP). It costs 3 ammo, does only slightly more damage than Hammer Shot, and its AoE damage is laughable.

 

And if Charged Bolts' casttime is only 1.5 seconds, than theoretically, it has the same cast-time as Explosive Round, with the exception that you have to stand still to use it. (1.5second cast-time vs. 1.5second GCD.)

Edited January 12, 2012 by GuyWithFace

[Myxam]

It gets alot stronger as you get better and new weapons, as will alot of the Commando skills as most of their abilities are Weapon Damage Based.

 

Full Auto, Hammer Shot, Grav Round, Charged Bolts, all base their damage on your weapon.

[VultureAggressor]

As gunnery you use Grav Round in place of Charged Bolts, its there just for Assault Specialist and Field Medic to have an extra toy.

[SirHaggis]

Also charged bolts is a ranged attack so it's effected by your cannon's damage.

 

The only real use for explosive round after you hit level 10 is if you got to hit someone on the run.

[Renthicya]

Problem with CB is that its firing animation (and damage distribution) only starts AFTER the 1,5 activation time, so it takes almost 3 seconds to shoot it.

 

Explosive rounds, while offers insignificant AoE damage (CB doesn't offer any), it always knocks down the lesser targets and it's still better than Full Auto. There are other, better alternatives for Explosive rounds on higher levels, but still, it seems to be quite better than CB.

 

So later on, Grav Rounds and Hammer Shot all the way with High-Bolts when available, occasionaly dropping grenades between them?

Edited January 12, 2012 by Renthicya

[majcameron]

On single targets I'm using Full Auto quite a bit. At 50, assuming you went into Gunnery to get Grav round and then demo, you'll likely have curtain of fire which means using full auto. For me, just hitting 50 yesterday my full auto is doing 2700-4100 depending on crits. So in between grav, hi-impact, and demo, i'm using full-auto about every time curtain procs.

 

Explosive round I'm using only on the run or in pvp sometimes.

[McSire]

Having my trooper to level 50 and spending about 31points in the gun tree Grav rounds are what you will be using the most. Please note that is NOT the only button you will be mashing.

 

For myself, when fighting in a PvE solo fight I open up with a Grav round, this places a debuff of (I think) 2x armor reduction, which can max to 5x stacks total or three Grav round shots. Depending on the target I normally then use full auto and then another Grav round.

 

Once I get to five debuff stacks I fire a demo round, this SOMETIMES can hit some some nice damage. After such I might either fire another Grav round or if I get the buff, use full auto again that gets a bonus with instant cooldown. I can then fire another Grav round and then a charged shot as I was also gaining another buff to that ablity as well.

 

Now please make note that you have to kind of high in level to preform what I was doing but for the most part you hardly ever touch charged bolt... unless you were silenced twice in a row which happens more than I would like from electrical bots.

 

I hope what I said uplifted you a bit about the gun class tree and also gave a bit on light on what you might be doing. Also, longer fights will force you use hammer so you don't spend all that ammo and it's regen factor.

[AWDBAHL]

Grav round is superior to charged in every way. Same ammo cost, more damage, procs high velocity.

[LordKivlov]

You don't use charged bolts at all in gunnery (if you're doing it, you're doing it wrong). It's mainly for Assault Specialist to proc a free HIB or for combat medic to use with overcharged cells if their healing isn't requiring a lot of ammo (trash pulls).

 

So in short, yes, it's a very important skill for assault specialist. Also, if you're using explosive round then you're doing it wrong as well. It's 3 ammo for mediocre damage. Not worth it. If it's on your bar past 20 then you're being incredibly ammo inefficient.

Edited January 13, 2012 by LordKivlov

[Bobinator]

CB gets replaced with Grav Round btw

[Druterium]

Yeah, Explosive Round got pushed off my hotbar pretty early because I didn't want to accidentally break CC in flashpoints Then later on I found it just plain wasn't as good as other abilities I had. Same with Charged Bolt.

Grav Round, Full Auto, Hi-Impact Bolt, and eventually Demolition Round became my bread and butter.

 

(I dunno if it's just me, but I also found Hail of Bolts to be less useful later on. In the beginning I could obliterate a whole group of standard enemies by doing Mortar Strike + Hail of Bolts, but as enemies got tougher it just didn't provide that one-shot option anymore, and at a cost of 4 ammo, it was a bit pricey.)

Edited January 13, 2012 by Druterium

[snipegunner]

full auto is bad, you should feel bad for using it. worst skill ever that only shoots twice when being hit. You could be doing 2 grav rounds in the same time for more damage.

[Arell]

First of all, Charged Bolts max rank does higher damage than Grav Round, for the same ammo cost. Sadly that does NOT warrant it's use as Gunnery because of the additional buffs/debuffs/procs Grav Round generates. Doesn't change the fact that Charged Bolts deals more damage though.

 

Furthermore, Full Auto does actually do 3 ticks of damage. The problem with it however is that the animation delays the proper timing of the ticks, resulting in having to wait a slight moment after the channeltime has fully finished for that last tick to actually tick. If you are trying to chaincast skills, which you should be able to do to maximize dps, you often queue up your next spell before the final tick occurs and you miss out on it. Having to wait for that final tick is basically a slight dps loss, because IF you wait for that tick, you're not casting anything thus losing casttime and potential dps.

 

Regardless of this, Full Auto is still nice because of the added benefit of the increased damage proc and the fact that the skill takes 2 global cooldowns to cast or channel, which maintains more stable and beneficial ammo regeneration. Granted the skill costs 2 ammo just like Grav Round and Demolition Round, but because it is spread over 2 global cooldowns it doesn't deplete your ammo as fast as the other two do. For burst damage, Grav Round and Demolition Round are obviously better, but for sustained dps a steady and high ammo regen wins.

Edited January 13, 2012 by Arell

[choboon]

full auto is bad, you should feel bad for using it. worst skill ever that only shoots twice when being hit. You could be doing 2 grav rounds in the same time for more damage.

 

Terrible advice, completely and utterly wrong.

 

Full Auto i get over 6k damage if a bit lucky and its ammo cost is 0 as you regain the cost during its animation if you are at full regen.

 

Two Grav Rounds can also do 6k damage in that time but the ammo cost is not regenerated.

If you go Gunnery you should ALWAYS use Full Autowhen off cd, especially with the +25% damage buff.

 

In pvp i often use it when i am not beeing attacked myself, though i agree of course that the bug is enervating.

Emphasis on BUG, once it is fixed it will be awesome in pvp as well.

[Arell]

In pvp i often use it when i am not beeing attacked myself, though i agree of course that the bug is enervating.

Emphasis on BUG, once it is fixed it will be awesome in pvp as well.

 

Slightly offtopic, but since you mentioned pvp, how do you feel about pvp as gunnery? I'm personally in a weird spot when it comes to it. I love the playstyle of gunnery, but it is so immobile. Especially if I get focussed on, I feel like I become completely ineffective.

 

For example, I would love it they'd add a secondary effect to the Curtain of Fire proc, to allow us to use Full Auto while moving (only when it procs ofc). It would give us a bit better mobility, without making it too overpowered.

[choboon]

Slightly offtopic, but since you mentioned pvp, how do you feel about pvp as gunnery? I'm personally in a weird spot when it comes to it. I love the playstyle of gunnery, but it is so immobile. Especially if I get focussed on, I feel like I become completely ineffective.

 

For example, I would love it they'd add a secondary effect to the Curtain of Fire proc, to allow us to use Full Auto while moving (only when it procs ofc). It would give us a bit better mobility, without making it too overpowered.

 

Gunnery is awesome for pvp imho.

If i get jumped i activate Shield, Stockstrike to the face, GR/GR for 4 stacks, HIB, DR, Concussion, FA or GR, depending on damage i took and what map i am on etc. i might try and grab a speed/damage/heal lying around or just take a medpack and give them the rest.

If you have Ops in warzone and they tend to attack you, make sure you keep your cc breaker off cd, cryo them and start unloading, dont turn your back on them and use whatever you have as damage while beeing mobile, HIB, DR, Sticky etc.

 

Not a pro by ANY standards but i at least get by.