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Is Powertech considered ranged DPS?


BlazeMazeRaze

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If you are AP you are pretty much entirely Melee

 

Pyro has tools (TD/IM and stronger rail Shots) that help in encounters where you may be out of range temporarily for melee so you can still keep DPS Up. However that overall still requires you to be within an appropriate range to maximize your abilities and procs.

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No.

 

An operative has no cooldown on snipe and can spam it from 30m along with an explosive probe, 2 posion abililities (if lethality) and a frag grenade.

This does not make them ranged dps, as their dps would be terrible.

 

The same applies to a PT, you have abilities with range but you are not ranged dps.

Edited by ducksmyth
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I don't know what your spec is, but as a pyro, I consider myself a mobile melee/ranged hybrid. Many bosses have some sort of melee-range AoE, so I find myself at max range for Rail Shot/Rapid Shot/Unload, running in halfway for Flame Burst, running into melee range for Rocket Punch, and then running back out ASAP. If you're good at timing your abilities, you won't get hit by any boss AoE but you'll still do your maximum DPS.
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Powertech is melee dps.

 

Where other MMOs give melee more ways to get into range, SWTOR gives some of the classes ranged dps tools. All of the abilities we can use at range we can use up close, though.

 

Honestly, even though I'm now more comfortable with the Powertech and Operative I still think Bioware missed an opportunity, not many games have this kind of gameplay framework to live with. I think an even greater compromise between ranged and melee dps could've been met. A class that didn't rely on 'melee' moves, but had a 15-20m limit. A 'skirmisher' dps if you will, a class which had the 'ranged' flavour but had to stay close to their target and on the move. Instead of a boss fight which is 'okay melee stand here, ranged stand over there' we then had classes which could hover in-between, still being close to the melee and in danger so they had to move around tactically.

 

Obviously there's mechanical and balancing concerns, but I'd feel more comfortable playing that kind of role in SWTOR than any other game. My Operative, for instance, started out like that; your melee abilities are heavily restricted, so you burst out of stealth and backstab/shiv a mob to kill it - what do you do next? Whilst your melee moves are on cooldown, you take on the other mobs with an assault rifle and various abilities like overload shot and grenades.

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Hard to say we are more or less hybrids. It depends on the boss. We can stay out of 4m range and dps only closing the gap to use iron fist with a neglible loss of dps because our abilities are mostly insta cast. Even then we will suffer a fraction of damage compared to meele dps like maruader,sin or operative who has to operate whole time under 4m.
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Powertech is melee dps.

 

 

In regards to pvp, if you're in melee range then you're doing it wrong. Pyro has one skill within 10m, one at 10m and the rest are 30, including our bread and butter ability, rail shot.

 

 

 

I use rocket punch only when I have a window, otherwise I pot shot with FB until RS resets. My burst set-up begins at 30m. I can remain beyond the reach of true melee classes and have less distance to close against true ranged classes. I don't have to enter the dog pile on voidstar to do my job and I do enough damage to disrupt a turreting trooper on a cat walk from ground level in hutball. It may not be a lot of distance, but its quit bit more than melee and to the tactically minded PTs, its something we take advantage every match.

 

Are we ranged? No but neither are we melee. We're hybrids and any good PT will play it that way.

 

Edit for clarification - i melee troopers, grav round hits too hard. Fortunately, they don't have force speed so its easy to grapple them into a corner and have my way with them.

 

 

I cannot and do not speak for pve.

Edited by Sowwy
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Its a hybrid in my eyes but mainly focused on close combat 4-10m - depends on the build aswell-..and honestly due to lag melee classes hit you in this range quiete often. The operative is another class which can be played similar, he has also ranged and close combat abilities. Edited by BobaFurz
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I wasn't speaking solely for PvP.

 

Powertech is probably the most hybrid dps class in any MMO made - I vaguely remember the White Lion in WAR being promised as a hybrid class but not quite living up to it. You really do feel like a skirmisher as a Powertech.

 

What I'm saying though is I'd be interested to see if they could take it one step further. The PT is a melee dps at heart, the fact it can maintain good dps output at range is fantastic, but it is a class which thrives in melee and doesn't mind being there. I'd be interested to see some of the reliance on melee moves taken out of the PT more, maybe having one tree have its most efficient and effective dps between 10-15m?

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I wasn't speaking solely for PvP.

 

Powertech is probably the most hybrid dps class in any MMO made - I vaguely remember the White Lion in WAR being promised as a hybrid class but not quite living up to it. You really do feel like a skirmisher as a Powertech.

 

What I'm saying though is I'd be interested to see if they could take it one step further. The PT is a melee dps at heart, the fact it can maintain good dps output at range is fantastic, but it is a class which thrives in melee and doesn't mind being there. I'd be interested to see some of the reliance on melee moves taken out of the PT more, maybe having one tree have its most efficient and effective dps between 10-15m?

 

If AdvP was viable you'd have your wish. That spec pretty requires constant melee up-time.

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