Is anyone actually playing assault?

[hookzlol]

As the title says, anyone actually playing Assault seriously?

 

I would love to play it since it looks and feels more fun, but I can't find anything that the Assault tree has, that Gunnery does not.

 

I'm valor rank 43 and even when I sleep I can hear the sound of Grav Rounds.

 

So if anyone is actually playing Assault in PvP, please tell me about it.

Edited January 13, 2012 by hookzlol

[Kheldras]

Only Lev 24, but yes i do.. What you get is.. Mobility.

 

All Bread & Butter Skills, apart from Plasma grenade so far are instants. And its a pain in PvP if no one of the other team can capture the turret, cause they are all burning.

[ABRY]

I tried out a hybrid spec, 22 gunnery, 19 assault. This still gave me grav round, but the spec really shines when you are playing voidstar or aldaraan. You do decent damage with grav round, but with the dots from plasma rounds, you basically can keep the whole team from capping or getting doors. The spec also allows you to constantly have the other team with a slow on them.

[hookzlol]

Ok, I'm going to PvP all night as Assault Specialist, gonna make a report afterwards.

[Kheldras]

i have to agree, fun on Voidstar and especially Alderaan.. sucky in Huttball, cause you dont burstkill fast... they rather burn slow and slowed down to death, speeded along by one or the other hi-impact bolt, or Explo. Edited January 13, 2012 by Kheldras

[Tharax]

I gave full AS and Gun/AS hybrid a try within the past week. I didn't enjoy AS as much, though I feel like it may be the game's preeminent kiting spec. Put simply, as Gunnery I'm almost always top on damage in my WZs, but as AS I never am although I tend to die less.

 

I also didn't enjoy the hybrid - so many of the good talents (CoF, increased crit damage, Demo Round, Assault Plastique) that really define the trees are so far up in them that it just doesn't seem worth it to me.

[umdiddly]

seems superior to gunnery for aoe damage tho. throw down a plasma nade, then unload with hail and plastique into a group... you will see lots of numbers on the screen

 

but i have to agree, the burst dps is a little lacking coming from a gunnery respec.

[Ronamo]

I tried Assault recently, and while I fully get where the spec is going, and like all the PVP oriented talents, I felt like I was burning through ammo way too quickly. It might just be because the majority of my PVP time has been spent as a Combat Medic, but I felt like I had no long-term staying power as Assault.

 

Granted, I was still putting out damage thanks to the damage over time effects, but the spec didn't fit my playstyle nearly as well as it sounded like it would. I did earn seven medals pretty effortlessly though.

[LordKivlov]

You don't feel like you're doing much as an AS because targets don't die quickly (with some notable exceptions regarding buff stacking but gunnery can do that too) but you do lay out some good damage numbers. If you take advantage of charged bolts proccing your HIB and use it whenever you get a chance, then you'll do well for yourself. I do more damage on average with AS but I don't kill priority targets as quickly (which would explain why I do more damage).

 

An advantage you have is the 18 second DoT. If you're losing a point, or they're winning the fight. Drop that on everyone. That gives you roughly 18 seconds worth of respawn time for reinforcements to show up while they're unable to cap. Operatives and Mercs can remove the DoT from 1 person but it's worth it if you're going to die to keep them from getting the objective.

Edited January 13, 2012 by LordKivlov

[Endeava]

I'm a valor 61 battlemaster. I've been playing assault since valor 50.

 

My typical warzones (unless during my solo queue I come up against imperial premades in my server's pvp guild) consists of 11-12 medals, 400k damage and 100k heals as assault.

 

The burst potential as assault is higher than gunnery. Assault plastique/charged bolts/high impact bolt combo along with dot tick from incendiary round + plasma cell is going to do more than the equivalent gunnery sticky/grav/demo hit, with the only setup being to put incendiary on the target vs 3 stacks of grav round. I dropped a 16k health operative battlemaster in 1.5 seconds this morning.

 

Assault's strengths are in its mobility (it takes at least 3 instant casts + hammer shotd) before you have to cast anything, vs having to plant your feet and put out two charged bolts vs any target you switch to as gunnery. Damage ramp up is much quicker.

 

Ammo concerns are alleviated via reserve powercell and the fact that hammer shot hits hard enough to be worth spamming for dot procs and snars.

 

The only thing I truly miss from gunnery is stockstrike knockback for survivabillity, but assault does get much quicher recharges on reactive shield.

[LordKivlov]

I'm a valor 61 battlemaster. I've been playing assault since valor 50.

 

My typical warzones (unless during my solo queue I come up against imperial premades in my server's pvp guild) consists of 11-12 medals, 400k damage and 100k heals as assault.

 

The burst potential as assault is higher than gunnery. Assault plastique/charged bolts/high impact bolt combo along with dot tick from incendiary round + plasma cell is going to do more than the equivalent gunnery sticky/grav/demo hit, with the only setup being to put incendiary on the target vs 3 stacks of grav round. I dropped a 16k health operative battlemaster in 1.5 seconds this morning.

 

Assault's strengths are in its mobility (it takes at least 3 instant casts + hammer shotd) before you have to cast anything, vs having to plant your feet and put out two charged bolts vs any target you switch to as gunnery. Damage ramp up is much quicker.

 

Ammo concerns are alleviated via reserve powercell and the fact that hammer shot hits hard enough to be worth spamming for dot procs and snars.

 

The only thing I truly miss from gunnery is stockstrike knockback for survivabillity, but assault does get much quicher recharges on reactive shield.

Mind posting your spec? http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#8000cZMckZcGrbzGuRs.1 is what I've been using when I play AS however I'd like to get the opinion of someone that actually plays it regularily on whether 30s on recharge cells would be better than Degauss. I quite like the lower timer because once recharge comes up, I can ammo dump and reload without any reprocussions but the snare/root break would be handy too.

[hookzlol]

I would also like to see how you've spent your points.

[Endeava]

I usually spec like this:

 

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#800bcMZ0cZbIMrzGGMs.1

 

Lately have swapped two points from Steady Hands for Adrenaline Fueled, the extra reserve powercell and adrenaline rush are really useful, though I really miss Steady Hands. Rapid Recharge and Night Vision Scope are also interchangable, depends what you prefer.

 

I do not take the gunnery Charged Bolts talents cause I only really charged bolts maybe 10 times a match, I use full auto instead after instants cause it has a higher chance to proc HiB and is more ammo efficient. The medic talents are invaluable in PvP.

 

I'm gonna be posting videos and/or streaming this weekend.

[LordKivlov]

Hmm interesting. I don't bother with making my healing better because I usually have a pocket sage that heals like a king. Always there in a nick of time to save me if I run off on my own since he's usually following our focus guardian around that 2 shots everybody.

 

I find I use charged bolts a lot. I don't know why but a lot of people ignore me so I can sit there and CB/HIB spam people for days which is why I like Gunnery a lot more. What are you doing to pull such large numbers? I've got 45% tech crit and use HIB/APlastique on cooldown. I'm trying to avoid relying on my adrenal stacking to keep me alive/slaughter everyone because that's getting a massive fix/nerf on tuesday. Although, I wear PvE gear so that's another reason I use CB so frequently because it crits 50% of the time.

 

Also, 4% alacrity over 3% accuracy doesn't really seem worth it to me. You're giving up (generally) a flat 3% resistance penetration for less than .1 cast time?

 

Also, skipping over parallactic combat stims seems like a big waste to me. It has no internal cooldown so when people overlap roots and stuns on you, you roll in ammo. I have extreme ammo issues compared to gunnery when I play assault specialist (and I'm not tab spamming incendiary, using 2 ammo charged bolts and -1ammo HIB's) so this seems silly to me. Reduces the number of hammershots you have to do in favour of throwing better damaging things out.

Edited January 14, 2012 by LordKivlov

[Endeava]

Hmm interesting. I don't bother with making my healing better because I usually have a pocket sage that heals like a king. Always there in a nick of time to save me if I run off on my own since he's usually following our focus guardian around that 2 shots everybody.

 

I find I use charged bolts a lot. I don't know why but a lot of people ignore me so I can sit there and CB/HIB spam people for days which is why I like Gunnery a lot more. What are you doing to pull such large numbers? I've got 45% tech crit and use HIB/APlastique on cooldown. I'm trying to avoid relying on my adrenal stacking to keep me alive/slaughter everyone because that's getting a massive fix/nerf on tuesday. Although, I wear PvE gear so that's another reason I use CB so frequently because it crits 50% of the time.

 

Also, 4% alacrity over 3% accuracy doesn't really seem worth it to me. You're giving up (generally) a flat 3% resistance penetration for less than .1 cast time?

 

Also, skipping over parallactic combat stims seems like a big waste to me. It has no internal cooldown so when people overlap roots and stuns on you, you roll in ammo. I have extreme ammo issues compared to gunnery when I play assault specialist (and I'm not tab spamming incendiary, using 2 ammo charged bolts and -1ammo HIB's) so this seems silly to me. Reduces the number of hammershots you have to do in favour of throwing better damaging things out.

 

I heal a lot in PvP, mostly on myself. I queue solo, no benefit of pocket healer. The alacrity talent over accuracy is a no-brainer cause full champ gear puts you at 100% accuracy, stacking accuracy for tank classes is pointless (any tank class wearing tank gear are gimping themselves anyways, see mitigation thread in pvp forum). Alacrity is useful for the healing benefit, and affects full auto.

 

Taking Paralytic Stims makes you give up other stuff, in your case Reflexive shield and Adrenaline Fueled. It is definitely not worth the 2 points to me.

 

I don't charged bolts because I'd rather hammer shot and build ammo, and also get chances for plasma cell procs for snares and damage. Obviously I use Charged Bolts for burst combos, but outside of that its rare. Incendiary, Assault Plastique, HiB, Hammer Shot, Full Auto is 9 seconds before I need to charged bolts on someone, 10.5 if Full auto proced a HiB.

 

I do nearly 100k healing per warzone I'm in, and most of that is to myself to stay alive. Anything to help with healing and survivability are golden.

[hookzlol]

Thanks for the tipsr Endeava, the combo is really nice for putting some hard pressure on people.

 

This is how I specced, thoughts and comments would be nice.

 

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#8000cZMckZcIMrzGGro.1

[Endeava]

Thanks for the tipsr Endeava, the combo is really nice for putting some hard pressure on people.

 

This is how I specced, thoughts and comments would be nice.

 

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#8000cZMckZcIMrzGGro.1

 

I would not pvp without quick thinking.

 

I don't take the charged bolts talents cause I rarely ever use them, you don't turret as assault like gunnery does, you pillar hump, chase people down with hammer shot snares, heal teammates, defend objectives. There really isn't space to charged bolts and turret with assault.

 

When I post vids this weekend y'all will see what I mean with no charged bolts.

[hookzlol]

Ok I see what you mean, but woth mentioning might be that I have a pocket healer and a tank

[LordKivlov]

True, however all lightsaber wielding classes get a 10% deflection bonus. Even sitting at 114% accuracy (104 for hammer/hib/full), my HIB gets deflected a lot. I have no problem dropping non-saber wielders, but it can be fairly irritating when I'm adrenal/expertise potted up and my HIB is deflected by a healer that's looking the other way.

 

Anyways, I think it's a difference of playstyles. I tend to favour the turret-y-ness of using charged bolts because of HIB and because my main spec is gunnery. I don't do quite as much damage as I do with gunnery, but it definitely gives me the flexibility to damage on the move if I get some pesky tank on me that's using interupts. Even solo queuing, I find that I don't need the medic talents because of the stupidly low cooldown on the rakata medkit combined with a tech-override MP will put me high enough to kill someone and if it doesn't, I was probably going to die anyways. But still, I believe that is a difference in our playstyle, not in the value of faster/less pushback heals.

 

As for plasma cell, a fellow made a post about making our PvE bonus affect the proc rate on this which I think would help a lot. 16% is awfully low and it never procs when you need it to. Doesn't feel nearly as good as APCell (despite doing 1000 damage for free) because it doesn't proc often.

Edited January 14, 2012 by LordKivlov