DPS PvE : supercharge cell+muzzle fluting ?

[erei]

Like any DPS commando in the game, I'm used to play with armor piercing cells, but lately I was thinking using combat support cell and supercharge cells. There is a combo with muzzle fluting (-1cost for grav round/charged bolt) and supercharge cell (-2cost for charged bolt) which makes every charged bolt for free for 10s (if both bonuses stacks). And the extra damage may offset the loss of armor pen.

The 2problems are the loss of armor penetration (but an increase of damage/crit from the support cell), and the loss of cell charger. With X4 columi (eliminator set) you still have HiB for 1 ammo (instead of 0).

This is the build I'm thinking :

http://db.darthhater.com/skill_calc/trooper/commando/#::e2fe9fe5fe2f13ef2ef2ef7cf5ef4

I kept cell charger for now. Maybe swap for alacrity for more free charged bolt, but that's not the point.

The idea is to charge the combat cell during combat (with HS) and outside (green beam). Then using supercharge cell, and spam charged bolt, with maybe 1-2 grav round in between to keep the vortex debuff stack on the target. The rest of the time, just play the usual rotation.

 

I haven't tested yet, I wanted to know what people think about it. I really don't know if it can increase overall DPS.

[Freeborne]

I think the moment you have enough points in Gunnery for grav round you should remove Charged Bolt and never touch the skill again.

 

 

I also think that in end game you'll be spending any stationary time you have using grav round to keep the debuffs/buffs stacked using Full Auto and you won't want to waste that precious time with Charged Bolt even if it *did* do more damage.

[Sylanaris]

Combat Medic here with "Muzzle Fluting" Talent, and yes, I can confirm that when using SCC, Grav Round cost is zero.

 

The problem I see from the DPS perspective, is that in order to get the max out of it, you need to almost run out of ammo, and in that amount of time, the 5 stack debuff may fell off, plus you will get no procs for full auto and so on.

[Eihnlazer]

As a full time combat medic i can assure you muzzle fluting isnt needed at all.

 

use that point on somthing else.

 

 

Even without it, SCC reduces cost down to 1, and with our ammo regen at .8 per second, and the casting time with standard 10% alcracity bonus being close to 1.5 per shot, you regen the 1 ammo cost by the time you fire your next round making it a redundant skill to have.

[Kabaal]

I think the moment you have enough points in Gunnery for grav round you should remove Charged Bolt and never touch the skill again.

 

 

I also think that in end game you'll be spending any stationary time you have using grav round to keep the debuffs/buffs stacked using Full Auto and you won't want to waste that precious time with Charged Bolt even if it *did* do more damage.

 

I know the thread is about PVE but thats a silly thing to do for anyone who even PvP's once in a blue moon. Charged bolts is your friend when people start spamming their interrupt on you, which they will do on a commando/trooper more so than any other class.

[ZucriyLyhdnamm]

As a full time combat medic i can assure you muzzle fluting isnt needed at all.

 

use that point on somthing else.

 

 

Even without it, SCC reduces cost down to 1, and with our ammo regen at .8 per second, and the casting time with standard 10% alcracity bonus being close to 1.5 per shot, you regen the 1 ammo cost by the time you fire your next round making it a redundant skill to have.

 

This.

 

Why have it cost zero if you regen the 1 cost it takes anyways?

 

This is what I did while soloing as heals... stack to 30 on companion with hammershot spam, engage enemy, stun him, hit SSC, then spamtastic CB until your SSC runs out... things die, quickly.

 

If you want to do this as an actual dps?

 

Negatory Ghost rider!

 

You'd lose 35% ArP, plus 20% armor reduction (which translates into very big damage buff for Demo Round) in order to gain a spec that yes, pretty much doesn't EVER need ammo management...

 

Hmmm... Problem with that?

 

Play smart using Grav Round and you don't hardly have to do any Ammo Management anyways! You crit so often with your 2 piece that you easily get ammo back from GR spam, your enemies armor will remain debuffed, your demo round will rock people's socks off, not to mention the obvious damage accross the board to your skills from the 35% armor pen...

 

So... why even contemplate this? If you can do an in-depth study (kill a very strong mob, 200k health+ with no damage help just be healed, and time how long it takes) of this spec then do the same as GR spec, compare the time-to-kill for your DPS... I think it will become grossly obvious that CB spec is no good.

[erei]

First this is an idea for a pure DPS, not a healer at all.

The idea I got was to keep the armor debuff on target, so we still have the 20% armor reduction on target.

Contrary to what someone mentioned, charged bolt also proc the buffed full auto.

 

I planned to play the usual DPS rotation (grav round, HiB...), even run low on ammos regen, and once SCC is ready, use it and spam charged bolt until it run out (using grav round once or twice to keep the debuff running), then rinse and repeat. You will not loose the debuff stack, and still can use a buffed full auto and demolition round.

Edited February 14, 2012 by erei

[Enzid]

I always thought this sort of build would be interesting to try, but without a combat log and parser there is no decent way to gauge its effectiveness (or lack of) and compare it to the typical Gunnery builds.

[-sasori]

Seeing the synergy each tree has with your stance it boils down to:

 

Armor Piercing Cell (APC): Gunnery

CSP : Medic

Plasma Cell: Assault specialist

 

 

Two talent's give your Armor Piercing cell the ammo management you need for Gunnery. (Special Ammunitions for High impact bold & Cell Charger for Gravitiy round and Full Auto). Even suffering diminishing return with grav round debuff, APC still nets you a base increase in damage.

 

 

CSP + CSS would only increase your ammo management by less than the three points spend into training APC will. Basically just Full auto and Charged Bolts.

 

CSP + Charged Bolts works good for medics because outside that we don't have any ammo management for Damage skills. Medics can't deal good damage because they run out of ammo fast. Muzzle fluting + SCC is the way for heal hybrids but not for 31 point dps specs.

 

So as most others did say, you don't need the ammo savings for charged bolt since grav round is your main synergy skill in the Gunnery tree and you will want to use it as priority over charged bolts anyway and when you do, ammo savings come for free (critical hits).

 

Cell charger even works for your second synergy skill in the Gunnery tree, Full auto.

Edited February 15, 2012 by -sasori

[Gonaho]

This.

 

Why have it cost zero if you regen the 1 cost it takes anyways?

While the topic is about using SCC in DPS, i just have to touch this.

 

Muzzle fluting + SCC is very, very good in PvP as a hybrid Medic/Gunnery. There are times when you're low on cells, and having the ability to do free damage while your cells regenerate is very effective.