Arsenal PvP fun

[Cammor]

I want to share my Arsenal pvp experience because the lack of positive Arsenal pvp write-up in this forum. I'm not here to proof that Arsenal is the better pvp spec for mercenary; rather, I hope we can share our Arsenal pvp experience and tricks for those who want to pvp and succeed as Arsenal spec.

 

My spec:

 

32 points in Arsenal, I do NOT have: Integrated System, Custom Enviro Suit, and Koto Vent

9 points in Bodyguard: Hired Muscle, Med Tech, Improved Vents (this one for me is not really necessary. Can pick up Advance targeting instead), and Surgical Precision System.

 

My current unbuffed stat:

 

Health: 15657, Armor: 4464, Bonus Damage: 284.3, Accuracy: 96.32, Critical Chance: 33.38%, Critical Multiplier: 81.04%, Aim: 1255, Endurance: 1316, and Expertise: 455.

 

Valor is currently 45.

 

I do not have a whole set of Champion gear yet (missing 3) and I put in a lot of +surge/crit mods into the armor and removed the mod in the pvp set.

 

Gear selection (well the important one): I have 2 piece of Combat Tech to pick up the reduced 15 CD on Determination, and I have 2 piece of Eliminator for the reduced CD on Jet Boost.

 

Play style:

 

Everyone says Arsenal is a "stationary Turret" because of Tracer Missile and Unload. While you do have to be stationary to use the channels spells (and they are really good especially when you proc the additional damage unload), you can choose to use them wisely. For instance, the Tracer Missile armor debuff and heat signature is overrated IMO. Tracer Missile is a meant to setup your other skills like rail shot and unload.

 

What you want to aim for is burst damage. You want as much of your damage to be pack together. In addition, you need to make a choice of front load burst or save for a finish kill. You will also notice that our instant spells are mostly on a 15sec CD making them a package is simple.

 

Here is a sample rotation: Tracer missile x 1 or 2, unload (feel free to cancel early), MOVE (either up the line, back the line, lateral, or the good old los.), while moving use 4 damage skills, explosive dart, Heat seeker missiles, rail shot, and rocket punch (yes, it does very good damage).

 

Since there's no combat logs yet, its difficult for me give exact damage for each skill. But on a non tank target, its safe to say about 1.8to 2k damage none crit per skill if you average them out. SO if you did NOT crit at all, you are still looking at 8 skills x 1.8k damage per skill to be about 14.4k damage on a super conservative number. God forbid you get 4 crits in there. That set of skills is on a 15 sec CD. (The base damage is actually higher I think, but this is sample purpose)

 

Now, this doesn't mean you are going to kill someone that easily. This game has a lot of damage reductions for every class, shields either damage reduction or flat amount, guard, taunt, opponent using los and range, and of course the good old CC. Its good for us that all but 1 of our defensive ability is instant ability. But that is why we have power surge. 3 situations to use it: Concussion Missile, tracer missile (who said anything about standing still to do damage), and rapid scan.

 

To sum up: move when you are doing your burst damage.

 

Survivability:

 

With the gear I posted earlier. My jet boost is on a 15s CD and determination is on a 1:15 CD. Jet boost is really good but takes practice to use it to its full potential. For example, punting a guy to a wall 2 meter away is not going to do anything. But a punt w/ a LOS follow up is amazing.

 

Our stun/mez is a reactionary skill our oh **** button. You use it when kiting failed. You can also use it in your dps rotation. You can put a 8 sec mez on someone and a 4 second stun before full resolve. Power surge, mez, stun, what you know 15 sec is up for or burst rotation again.

 

Energy shield and Koto overload is our PREVENTIVE skill. So you use it when you are below 30% hp... well these skills are not going to do much at all. Use it when you start a fight, you know when people are gunning for you so why wait to pop it? The 2 skills also have good synergy.

 

Cure. Spam it... its good. Although I need to compile a list of what it removes, *cough* marouder dots... I just spam it when I'm running

 

Stealth scan: Its very good, but its HARD to use. Why you say? it takes 1 GCD to activate (i'm not going to count my slow reaction time haha or its worse). In 1.5 sec the stealther can be in a lot of different places. It is a skill where you have to predict where that person is heading or where they going to be in ~1 sec. If you put down the scan at where they were when they vanish, you are not going to catch them. It is also best to use when they pop their combat stealth.

 

Rocket punch: It is good, but also hard to use. While the knock back is good, you have to time it properly. For example, you should be strive moving away and use the punch at max range. You also have to watch resolve. If your rocket punch is going to give them full resolve, don't use it. Your rocket punch is also your interrupt. Or to push snipers out of cover (so good). Or weave it into your damage burst.

 

Determination: It is NOT meant to be used as soon as you are stunned/cc. You have to use it based on your own resolve. If you are hit w/ a mez, just wait until someone hit you. In addition, a knockdown type stun (we all know who) will always generate full resolve. So a shorter 1:15 CD and mix w/ resolve, it is quite good. But don't break a stun just so you can eat another one (sorc/counsler).

 

Heals: So i pick up the shorter cast time. Punt>los>heal>shield>fight. Or heal that tank who put a guard on you and taunt your attacker.

 

Summary, read up on how resolve work and use our tools accordingly.

 

Heat management:

 

What's that? J/K. But it takes a lot for me to over heat. For example, I spammed 20 tracer missile because no one come after me. Well, that doesn't happen. But if it DID happen, vent heat. I use it about once a game.

 

Damage per game:

 

The main difference is not the actual damage number (although i hit 200 to 300k per game and usually top 2 on my side). Its the ability to drop someone. You know when you kill some one. You know when you are about to unleash your burst damage. For me, that's what I like.

 

Conclusion:

 

While I can and I do sometimes, play Arsenal as a stationary turret, I don't have to. I feel that I have enough mobility to contribute to my team. It is not easy by any means, but its doable. What I found and some times learn the hard way, is proper positioning. We are not the best long range turret (snipers are) and we suck at melee, but we can hold our ground in the middle but only w/ proper position. Unfortunately that takes a long time to learn... especially on a game that's 1 month old.

 

Anyways, I hope other Arsenal spec pvpers can share their experience and wisdom and help all of us blow up some republic scum.

 

Back to work.

[Vealage]

I started a Mercy not too long ago. Thanks for the write up!

[Alianar]

Arsenal is great as a dps support class in PvP.

 

Like a sniper, you just should stick around with some melee allies and let them lead the charge. As a support dps, Arsenal is quite deadly as it deals a hudge amount of damage on a short time and the AoE damage you can generate can make a big difference.

 

However, once you get in the heart of the battle, it's a different story.

 

Fact being that channel skills (which honestly is 70% of our damage output) are easly interupted once you have one or two skilled ennemies on you. You can only trow so many rocket punches at them.

 

I love my arsenal Merc, and i agree that you can have some amazing burst damage with it. However, once you get focused the channel focused nature of this tree works against you and there isn't much you can do against it.

Edited January 21, 2012 by Alianar

[Anelyn]

I don't know why peeps don't like mercs in pvp. They are a fearsome sight on battlefield and one of the most important targets to take down since if left alone hell breaks lose.

 

Yes it sucks to be snared and unable to break it, but that is same for any class with few exceptions (and even those can't do it non stop, they have 1 min + cd on those abilities).

 

Not having an interrupt does suck, but is not so important as peeps make it out to be. Keep in mind an interrupt only affects 1 ability for 4s, there are no school lock-outs in SWTOR. Which means crap in the large scheme of things. All healers have several healing spells, so you can't really say if I did interrupt that heal the guy would been royal screwed. Most important CC is also instant (flashbang, Awe etc).

 

Is really not so bad, I played an assassin, a sniper, a consular sage - balance, and a jedi sentinel (which I loved the most until my merc), and can't say (with the bugged Transcendence for Focus sents exception) one had a big advantage over other, each had their niches to perform in group play, and how successful you are depends more on team mates / team play than on your own skill set / class / AC.

 

Could mercs use an interrupt? Defo. Could the use an escape mechanism like a 3-4s speed enhance upon using a defensive skill or knockback etc? Sure. Snare? Would be nice. Root? Awesome.

[Cammor]

I personally think a range interrupt will be great for us. But I also don't see that happening soon. I think a root will be really OP for us. A sprint on a 2 min CD will be nice as well.

 

But I found that you can't expect to play Arsenal as a "full" range class. You obviously want to get away from melee class, that's a giving. But I prefer to get up close and personal against any range class. Once you get close against the range class, you will have 3 instant interrupts: rocket punch, jet boost, and stun. Use it wisely to avoid max resolve. Weave in tracer missile here and there.

 

Spam cure... I can't stress this enough. Not only does it remove dots, but it removes most snares and I believe some roots as well. However, you cannot break any channel type movement impairing skills. Cure is OP.

 

Another trick I pick up today when I fought a assassin type class today. It takes jet boost, mez, and stun to fill up 1 resolve bar. But you cannot put stun first since that generate too much resolve.

[TemplarAZ]

Great post, thanks for taking the time to put this info down for us.

[scootle]

This is great info. Thanks for sharing this.

 

I have been struggling on my Arsenal Merc to survive most melee attackers... they just tear the crap out of me. Tbh, I think one easy fix would be to either give Rocket Punch a longer knockback or maybe a 1 talent point root or knock-down option.

 

The short distance it knocks people back means that in the span of GCD they are right back in your face again, so it's sort of worthless in that regard. The only time it's good is to knock people off a ledge (if they are close enough...), which is way too situational.

 

Left to my own devices, I do agree, our burst is a bit nuts if you pop the right cooldowns and fire off everything at once.

[Kortobowden]

My most fun while I was arsenal was aggroing the whole enemy team after my first 2 tracer missiles of the game and being focused on while the rest of my team did their stuff to win. those 3-5 seconds of life between life and death when focused helped my teams quite a bit.