Is best idea to quit trooper to roll agent in this situation?

[Finrok]

Anyone ever quit trooper and roll agent? Think maybe I should?

 

1. I like to heal (people say I am good), I dislike tanking mainly because the feedback I have gotten in the past is that I suck at it.

 

2. I like the trooper story and think troopers are coolest looking in game. I like republic as well.

 

3. I hate the BFG so much that I cannot play a commando. I just cant stand it as I am on RP server and it ruins my experience I hate the BFG sooo bad. Hate animations, hate how its held, etc. I want to use small carbine. I simply cannot deal with it.

 

So is it a no brainer that I quit and roll agent since i can use a small carbine and heal and I am not gimped while doing it?

 

I'm about to go agent but wondering if I am missing something. If I use the blaster as commando my understanding is I am pretty gimped and that is unacceptable, correct?

[LordKivlov]

You can heal with the blaster rifle but you won't get one with alacrity or be able to help your group out with damage if healing is easy (on trash).

[Andrew_Waltfeld]

You can heal with the blaster rifle but you won't get one with alacrity or be able to help your group out with damage if healing is easy (on trash).

 

also the only thing as a commando you can't use is charged bolts and hail of bolts.. which I don't find useful as a commando gunnery since usually my job in the war-zone group is to focus down one person as quickly as possible. Either way, I don't use those two abilities. Charged bolts is the same ammo for grav round, and thus, I don't need it. Grav Round is infinitely better.

 

It sounds like your either vanguard or commando, I can't tell, but I have heard good things about the Arsenal tree as well.

[Finrok]

On second thought, I am going to give commando a whirl I might be able to get used to the BFG.. Edited January 21, 2012 by Finrok

[Grimoir]

Keep in mind what the other two posters said about using a rifle instead of the BFG. It is entirely possible to do so until you get to end game where the PvP guns do not have replaceable Mods/Enhancements eliminating the possibility of an end-game alacrity rifle. For PvE however, you can replace the Mods/Enhancements on a tanking rifle to achieve the same effect. Same goes for using a custom(orange) rifle on the way to 50. Just keep throwing +Alacrity and +Crit Mods/Enhancements in it to keep it up to date.

 

Do note that you get a smaller min/max damage range from a rifle as compared to a BFG so it can quite possibly gimp you ever so slightly in that area, but I have not read whether or not switching out the Barrel to achieve a higher min/max was tested...

[LordKivlov]

also the only thing as a commando you can't use is charged bolts and hail of bolts.. which I don't find useful as a commando gunnery since usually my job in the war-zone group is to focus down one person as quickly as possible. Either way, I don't use those two abilities. Charged bolts is the same ammo for grav round, and thus, I don't need it. Grav Round is infinitely better.

 

It sounds like your either vanguard or commando, I can't tell, but I have heard good things about the Arsenal tree as well.

 

That's because Grav Rounds is meant to replace it

[Quesadilla]

I don't have a commando, but I see no reason why you wouldn't be able to function just fine with a blaster rifle. You can put the same mods you'd put into an assault cannon into a blaster rifle and be just fine, apart from whatever minimal passive stats purple weapons would give you to counter the lack of a removable barrel.

[Rhavim]

also the only thing as a commando you can't use is charged bolts and hail of bolts.. which I don't find useful as a commando gunnery since usually my job in the war-zone group is to focus down one person as quickly as possible. Either way, I don't use those two abilities. Charged bolts is the same ammo for grav round, and thus, I don't need it. Grav Round is infinitely better.

 

It sounds like your either vanguard or commando, I can't tell, but I have heard good things about the Arsenal tree as well.

 

i had no realized this, but its true, when i'm healing spec the only things i do for damage (usually on trash) is mortar volley and full auto, both dont require the big gun, neither does healing.

[choboon]

I don't have a commando, but I see no reason why you wouldn't be able to function just fine with a blaster rifle. You can put the same mods you'd put into an assault cannon into a blaster rifle and be just fine, apart from whatever minimal passive stats purple weapons would give you to counter the lack of a removable barrel.

 

You can take an orange gun from Hard Mode (Kaon under Siege drop), which has a lvl 56 Crystal, replace the two lvl 51 mod/enhancement with lvl 56 stuff from pvp equip and you got a champion equivalent gun with the stats you need.

[Serriph]

I'm going to start a movement to squash this baseless and ignorant rumor right now. The rumor being that Commandos become "gimped" if they use blaster rifles. This assumption was made by someone who didn't test it out themselves. I just now got an orange blaster rifle, replaced the mods in it with the ones I had in my cannon, and began questing/running heroics with it. There was NO difference whatsoever, I was doing just as good with the rifle as I did the cannon with the same exact mods. People will try to tell you that there are skills that can only be used with the BFG, which is true, but what they don't tell you is that they have never gone through and checked to see which skills you absolutely needed. I went from using an autocannon, to a blaster rifle, and only had to swap out one skill due to the inability to fire with a rifle, that skill was charged bolts (replaced with full auto). And I will have noone telling me that I didn't have enough skills to know yet, because I have all the skills that I need to be an effective commando already(gunnery or heals). The modding system in this game, and the very SMALL amount of unusable skills(with a rifle) allows for a commando to be perfectly effective with a blaster rifle. Anyone that hates on you for this, just keep smiling at the awesome clone rifle you are packing while being a viable commando at the same time.

[Phalynn]

every now and then im reminded that not everyone thinks the way I do. I have a 50 Operative, 50 Marauder, 50 Juggernaut and now im currently 44 on my Commando. Up until now, my Operative was my favorite of all my classes...and now the Trooper is mostly because of the BFG.

[Iret]

I enjoyed using rifles lvling with my commando

 

but beyond lvl 50 it just got to a point where BFGs were just overall a better option mainly cause of the aim endurance accuract etc. while the lvl 50 rifles mainly went towards strength etc.

[choboon]

I'm going to start a movement to squash this baseless and ignorant rumor right now. The rumor being that Commandos become "gimped" if they use blaster rifles. This assumption was made by someone who didn't test it out themselves. I just now got an orange blaster rifle, replaced the mods in it with the ones I had in my cannon, and began questing/running heroics with it. There was NO difference whatsoever, I was doing just as good with the rifle as I did the cannon with the same exact mods. People will try to tell you that there are skills that can only be used with the BFG, which is true, but what they don't tell you is that they have never gone through and checked to see which skills you absolutely needed. I went from using an autocannon, to a blaster rifle, and only had to swap out one skill due to the inability to fire with a rifle, that skill was charged bolts (replaced with full auto). And I will have noone telling me that I didn't have enough skills to know yet, because I have all the skills that I need to be an effective commando already(gunnery or heals). The modding system in this game, and the very SMALL amount of unusable skills(with a rifle) allows for a commando to be perfectly effective with a blaster rifle. Anyone that hates on you for this, just keep smiling at the awesome clone rifle you are packing while being a viable commando at the same time.

 

If you go Medic then it probably does not matter. If you go Assault spec you rely on Charged Bolts, which has no cd. Full Auto is in no way a replacement. If your teammates are ok with a DD gimping his damage by a fair amount to be a special snowflake, well, more power to you.

If you go Gunnery you could use your important skills, the base damage would still be lower though.

 

In short, depending on spec you can take a rifle but at least 2 out of 3 specs would suffer damage wise. As such it is not an equal replacement.

[bigchunk]

I have a level 50 sniper and a level 17 fat commando. Man do I love my little fat trooper with his oversized BFG. I understand the desire to use the rifle though cause that's the standard stormtrooper look and the cannon can feel gimmicky if you look at it a certain way.

 

I really liked the story for the imperial agent, and if you get a kick out of class stories and companions as much as I do, you owe it to yourself to roll another class. I don't know how it compares to the trooper's story, but the trooper's story is shaping up to be pretty decent as well.

 

Going Empire also has the advantage of being sent to new areas with different quests, but if you really prefer republic that much, consider making a scoundrel. It's the same thing gameplay wise as an operative only you're on the republic side. You get a single pistol which fits the narrative of a medic or some kind of engineer at war. I have not played a scoundrel myself, but from what I hear people like it.

Edited January 30, 2012 by bigchunk

[LordRaeth]

If you want to pvp or want to look good, don't go agent, agents have the worse appearance of end game gear out of every class imo and they are also extra squishy compared to a commando.

[nevetss]

I enjoyed using rifles lvling with my commando

 

but beyond lvl 50 it just got to a point where BFGs were just overall a better option mainly cause of the aim endurance accuract etc. while the lvl 50 rifles mainly went towards strength etc.

Wait...they went towards strength? I dont think I have seen a single rifle with strength lol

[Suwa]

Wait...they went towards strength? I dont think I have seen a single rifle with strength lol

 

Neither have I. And even if there was a rifle with str, it was probably one out of a few hundred. I've seen tons of blasters with tank stats...but that's to be expected. I don't know what this person was seeing, lol.

Edited January 30, 2012 by Suwa

[Pestwulf]

I'm commando heal spec, currently lvl 29, and I find that Charged bolts its a needed item in my rotation for single target damage.

 

Hammer shot, Charged Bolts, Full Auto. That's pretty much all I got that doesn't do area damage.

 

On the flip side, I find Hail of Bolts to be invaluable. I can pretty much clear any trash cluster with that being that if you center it on yourself it does a 360 degree attack, which Pulse does not being a cone.

 

Trooper has pretty much ruined my perceptions for the other classes except for Sage, who I think is the more damaging of the two healer builds. Not sure if they stay the most damaging when in a non-healer build, but they are butch, no doubt.

 

I'm hoping to get some better auto-canon models though, I really don't care for the early ones. I'm really wanting one that looks like it has a rotating barrel.

[Gyronamics]

If you go Medic then it probably does not matter. If you go Assault spec you rely on Charged Bolts, which has no cd. Full Auto is in no way a replacement. If your teammates are ok with a DD gimping his damage by a fair amount to be a special snowflake, well, more power to you.

If you go Gunnery you could use your important skills, the base damage would still be lower though.

 

In short, depending on spec you can take a rifle but at least 2 out of 3 specs would suffer damage wise. As such it is not an equal replacement.

 

Assault doesn't use CB in a significant way, in PVP it's more about Hammer Shots and DoT skills for pressure (and stopping objectives) with burst damage from Plastique, HiB and Stockstrike on targets you want to bring down. Sometimes pause for an AOE if no ones watching.

 

In PVE, again it's not really a big deal, Assault hasn't got much ammo regen so a spammable ammo skill is a bit dubious. At some point you're going to be back to Hammer Shot and it's better to have more Hammer and more ammo than no ammo and needing it.

 

Hail of Bolts is very useful for an Assault Commando. It gives you a second powerful AOE.

 

Think I'm mad? Plasma Grenade to get targets damaged and on fire then drop a HoB which gets a 9% boost on burning targets. When the mobs go below 30% health the DoT on them increases by 30% damage.

 

Great way to decimate a pack.

 

If you do HM with lots of mob swarms it's very valuable. Unless you stop before every pack to wait for Mortar Volley to CD

 

 

For a Gunnery Commando, skill-wise you're not losing as much. You don't need CB and you can't combo Plasma nade and HoB like Assault can (but you still lose an AOE ability).

 

 

SKILLS ASIDE....

 

 

Don't pretend it's not happening, Rifle < Cannon in damage.

 

At 140 rating a Cannon has 15 extra base and 123 extra random damage over a Rifle.

 

Cannon: 321-597

Rifle: 306-459

 

So before stats it has 20% more damage

 

After stats I can't be too exact but if I take my Commando (it's got decent but not ultimate gear for a 50) and take 20% off the weapon damage:

 

With Assault Cannon - 126 barrel rating

 

Base Damage = 292-542

Bonus Damage = 371

Total Damage = 663-913

 

 

With Blaster Rifle - 126 barrel rating

 

Base Damage = 274-417

Bonus Damage = 371

Total Damage = 645-788

 

 

So the difference with my commando as the example is 10%. That's your pvp damage boost neutralised right there.

 

 

 

TL:DR

 

For the sake of appearances you lose (by my calculations) 10% damage and possibly some effectiveness with skill attacks.

Edited January 30, 2012 by Gyronamics

[Jetflair]

To be honest I avoided commando because BFG and rolled vanguard. And yes I agree Vanguards look awesome. Still rolled commando too.

 

Still BFG is not that bad. Far as I can tell the guns scale with carrier. So if you take little slim girl the guns get smaller too in relation to carrier. To me it looks smaller even relatively than my big macho male commandos gun.

 

Take size one female, level it to level 10 and look how it looks in the end after AC is chosen. Should be 2-3 hour ordeal I think.

Edited January 30, 2012 by Jetflair

[LordRaeth]

You can use rifles as a commando, just find a moddable one you like ( i like the one you can buy on tatooine) and then get the necessary mods from Cybertech and Artificer I think. To make it suit your needs.