Which Melee has the best sustained AoE DPS?

[TiempoLibre]

I suspect it is the AI Operatives/Mirror, but what do you guys think?

 

That said is there a Melee who's sustained AoE DPS comes close to some of the Ranged classes AoE?

 

Thanks!!!

[Stuckontheline]

I don't have a 50 Operative, but I've read they have pretty bad sustained DPS (though I may be thinking of PVP?). Marauders/Sentinels however seem to be the highest melee dps. Edited February 29, 2012 by Stuckontheline

[Sindeon]

Ill throw out one that is good dps i dont know best as I have not really looked at the current flavor but really good sustained dps id say Assassin has some nice tools they can do they dont have alot of aoes but they can sustain them pretty well. I team with an assassin on my heal spec opertive and it works nice for sustaining aoes from both of us to cut through heroics.

[FobManX]

A Focus specced Sentinel can unleash some pretty good AOE DPS. Force Sweep(after a Leap so it auto crits and buffing it) + Sweeping Strike spam = massive DPS. Of course nobody really specs Focus for PVE.

[GeoLager]

Best sustained melee aoe dps is marauder/sentinel.

 

 

 

If it weren't for ridiculous energy costs, lethality operative would probably be #1 in that area.

 

Lethality operative probably has the highest aoe dps burst though (which is the only thing its good for). Carbine burst spam is potentially the best aoe skill in the game. Problem is you go energy dry after 3 of them.

[ACLucius]

I suppose I would have to take a guess at Shadow/Assassin. I know their resource pool regenerates at the same amount regardless of how much is left unlike others who will slow down as they get lower. They also have a few AoE's and one which can be spammed about 6 times before you need to recover force.

 

Honestly though, you aren't going to get near the amount of AoE DPS you would get with ranged classes suited for it. I pretty much do nothing but AoE's with my Sage and have a spec meant for maximizing it's potential. Hell the only time I ever do any kind of focus damage is when people or mobs are not kind enough to stand together like they usually do. Even on single targets though, I can get DPS near to or as good as my focused single target DPS. I don't think the melee classes have the ability to have sustained AoE damage as well as the ranged do.

[Redmarx]

I believe assassins would be it, with marauders/juggs second. Operatives just can't sustain aoe due to energy depletion.

 

I actually think that ranged classes should be bad at AOE, and that all AOE should be on the melee classes to rebalance risk vs reward of AOE and perhaps make larger scale PVP more fluid.

 

Ranged classes having the strongest AOE encourages mexican standoffs, which is what we see in Ilum today.

Edited February 29, 2012 by Redmarx

[Forduc]

Assassins have no sustained aoe dps.

They have one or two aoe skills with "long" cooldowns, aoe knockback and lacerate. Lacerate does pitifull damage and costs too much to spam.

 

But they might have decent burst with wither/deathfield -> dark discharge -> Lacerate -> Overload. If you don't mind them grabbing aggro and knocking everyone back.

[Fei-Ke]

p.s. the mirror class doesn't have a melee weapon, they get a scattergun.

 

I just got my 2nd AoE ability on my knight, but there's a bit too much cooldowns to call using those "sustained".

Edited February 29, 2012 by Fei-Ke

[hadoken]

p.s. the mirror class doesn't have a melee weapon, they get a scattergun.

 

I just got my 2nd AoE ability on my knight, but there's a bit too much cooldowns to call using those "sustained".

 

Which form of knight? And the scattergun IS a melee weapon, effectively.

 

The sentinel/marauder gets a spammable AE (you can reduce the focus/rage cost to 1 point per use).

[Faolon]

A Focus specced Sentinel can unleash some pretty good AOE DPS. Force Sweep(after a Leap so it auto crits and buffing it) + Sweeping Strike spam = massive DPS. Of course nobody really specs Focus for PVE.

 

That's not sustained DPS, which is the reason people don't spec Focus for PvE.

Focus is BURST dps. It can dish out a lot of damage in a short period of time, but on longer fights their damage drops behind everyone doing sustained DPS.

 

 

Which form of knight? And the scattergun IS a melee weapon, effectively.

 

The sentinel/marauder gets a spammable AE (you can reduce the focus/rage cost to 1 point per use).

 

 

That attack's damage is terrible, imo.

Both knights get it, Sent/Mara have talents that reduce the rage cost which makes it less terrible, but still bad.

 

 

 

 

There is no Melee class that has good sustained DPS. The closest you'll come to it is with a Vanguard/Powertech. Those class' shared trees are good AoE, better than any melee class can dish out.

[Fei-Ke]

Which form of knight? And the scattergun IS a melee weapon, effectively.

 

The sentinel/marauder gets a spammable AE (you can reduce the focus/rage cost to 1 point per use).

 

Cyclone Slash, from the general knight list, so I left out that I'm a guardian.

 

Yeah, there's not much shooting going on with the scattergun, still odd to see it as a melee weapon ^^

[FobManX]

That's not sustained DPS, which is the reason people don't spec Focus for PvE.

Focus is BURST dps. It can dish out a lot of damage in a short period of time, but on longer fights their damage drops behind everyone doing sustained DPS.

 

AOE is generally going to be burst. How long do you sit there sustaining AOE? It's usually pretty quick. At least in current raid content(haven't done Nightmare though but I would assume the AOE situations would be similar).

[Thankyjack]

What about PT/Vanguard? They have some nasty aoe damage.

[LordbishopX]

Smuggler/IA 6 sec grenades hits 5 peeps it's really hard to beat that lol. I hit for over 200k in wz at level 11....

 

 

Fragmentation Grenade

Instant

Energy: 20

Cooldown: 6s

Range: 30 m

Throws a fragmentation grenade that deals 681 - 746 kinetic damage to up to 5 enemies in an 8-meter radius. If the primary target is standard or weak, it is knocked down by the blast.

 

 

At only 20 energy you can spam and still keep your energy up its not that hard lol.

Edited March 1, 2012 by LordbishopX

[Tamanous]

Smuggler/IA 6 sec grenades hits 5 peeps it's really hard to beat that lol. I hit for over 200k in wz at level 11....

 

 

Fragmentation Grenade

Instant

Energy: 20

Cooldown: 6s

Range: 30 m

Throws a fragmentation grenade that deals 681 - 746 kinetic damage to up to 5 enemies in an 8-meter radius. If the primary target is standard or weak, it is knocked down by the blast.

 

 

At only 20 energy you can spam and still keep your energy up its not that hard lol.

 

 

A sniper puts a dps op to shame if they spec for it. Even if ME spec'd for infinite ta procs the aoe is too dependent on 10m ranges and energy inefficient.

 

It has already been proven who can do the most aoe. No other class can beat a sage/sorc hybrid dps spec due to their bug and double dipping from talents. Granted this has nerf/balance changes coming to it but it still remains currently.

[Vid-szhite]

That attack's damage is terrible, imo.

 

You're not the only one. It might not have a cooldown, but you might as well be spamming your autoattack for DPS. I would actually use it more if it HAD a cooldown and did actual damage.

[LordbishopX]

A sniper puts a dps op to shame if they spec for it. Even if ME spec'd for infinite ta procs the aoe is too dependent on 10m ranges and energy inefficient.

 

It has already been proven who can do the most aoe. No other class can beat a sage/sorc hybrid dps spec due to their bug and double dipping from talents. Granted this has nerf/balance changes coming to it but it still remains currently.

 

 

If you say so I just don't see it on my server much both at 50 and the 10-49 crowd a ops/smuggers built around aoeing is really hard not to hit 300k-500k with ease in a wz.

 

Like I said I hit 200k without anything really and no sprint qq so that number will actually grow not shrink as my damage, gear and abilities grow but then again peeps said it was impossible for me at 12 to hit 200k lol.

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/JulianMarsalis/Screenshot_2012-02-28_21_29_58_210503.jpg

 

 

It's hard to beat a class that can tab dot and spam quite a few AOE bombs that's what sorc and sage and ops and IA all have in common but are theirs on 6 sec cd?

Edited March 1, 2012 by LordbishopX

[Boarg]

Assassins have no sustained aoe dps.

They have one or two aoe skills with "long" cooldowns, aoe knockback and lacerate. Lacerate does pitifull damage and costs too much to spam.

 

But they might have decent burst with wither/deathfield -> dark discharge -> Lacerate -> Overload. If you don't mind them grabbing aggro and knocking everyone back.

 

(using Republic Shadow terms)

 

Balance spec can technically do some pretty strong sustained AoE with Force in Balance and then multi-dotting everything with Force Breach (no CD). Then with extra energy do a Whirling Blow, which would pretty much guarantee a free Mind Crush proc if it hit lots of targets...and Sever Force dot can be maintained on two targets. Also, all the dots ticking against targets affected by FiB would have extra Force pouring in to sustain the effort. Get all that flowing, and the damage would be pretty amazing.

 

The problem is that most PvE AoE opportunities are actually more of a short-window burst type. Low health mobs that die fast. So, the realistically the mobs usually die before you can even finish dotting them all up.

[LordbishopX]

The issue with many classes and sustain AOE is the cost of the AOE and in cases where it has to be channeled kind of silly to sit in it but peeps do lol. Its why I love grenades I can toss it at someone not the ground and they can't avoid it lol.

[Korevas]

You're not the only one. It might not have a cooldown, but you might as well be spamming your autoattack for DPS. I would actually use it more if it HAD a cooldown and did actual damage.

 

No way, it is awesome for marauders the way it is (if you know how to use it) =)

 

Currently, I'd say the best aoes come from sorcs, simply because they can weave in aoes when they proc from their main single target attack, so they basically get them "for free" if they just do their single target rotation.

 

Operative's aoe actually is crap, you can throw your grenade every 6 seconds and can carbine sweep every now and then, but in order to do that you will basically do auto attacks in the meantime because you can not afford to go below 60 energy.

[Forduc]

(using Republic Shadow terms)

 

Balance spec can technically do some pretty strong sustained AoE with Force in Balance and then multi-dotting everything with Force Breach (no CD). Then with extra energy do a Whirling Blow, which would pretty much guarantee a free Mind Crush proc if it hit lots of targets...and Sever Force dot can be maintained on two targets. Also, all the dots ticking against targets affected by FiB would have extra Force pouring in to sustain the effort. Get all that flowing, and the damage would be pretty amazing.

 

The problem is that most PvE AoE opportunities are actually more of a short-window burst type. Low health mobs that die fast. So, the realistically the mobs usually die before you can even finish dotting them all up.

 

Quite true. While it technically isn't aoe, it could be sustained indefinetly and have pretty much same affect.

[Rigermortis]

I believe assassins would be it, with marauders/juggs second. Operatives just can't sustain aoe due to energy depletion.

 

I actually think that ranged classes should be bad at AOE, and that all AOE should be on the melee classes to rebalance risk vs reward of AOE and perhaps make larger scale PVP more fluid.

 

Ranged classes having the strongest AOE encourages mexican standoffs, which is what we see in Ilum today.

 

That's a very intelligent observation IMO. I agree. Ranged should be like snipers (not the class). Accurate big damage on one target with melee going in and hitting everything near them. The risk reward thing makes sense as it gives a reason for getting a melee class into the fray.

[Hizoka]

funny how everyone has ignores vanguards... a tactics vanguard has stupid AoE and can sustain it far better then anyone else. Even thinking a sent/mara is even in the running for AoE shows you have no idea how the class works.

 

Vanguards as a DPS are overlooked in general, when it comes to tactics they are one of the more involved classes to play like a sent, nut at the same time they have one of the poorest gearsets out there, you basically have to get new enhancements for every piece. However when you look at a tactics vanguard with proper gear they have 0 wasted itemization you need 0 accuracy so you can put everything into upping damage.

 

 

Most players do not see troopers/bounty hunters as melee but when played right they can do nearly as much damage in melee as sentinels without having to be in melee 100% of the time.

[Elyx]

funny how everyone has ignores vanguards... a tactics vanguard has stupid AoE and can sustain it far better then anyone else. Even thinking a sent/mara is even in the running for AoE shows you have no idea how the class works.

 

Vanguards as a DPS are overlooked in general, when it comes to tactics they are one of the more involved classes to play like a sent, nut at the same time they have one of the poorest gearsets out there, you basically have to get new enhancements for every piece. However when you look at a tactics vanguard with proper gear they have 0 wasted itemization you need 0 accuracy so you can put everything into upping damage.

 

 

Most players do not see troopers/bounty hunters as melee but when played right they can do nearly as much damage in melee as sentinels without having to be in melee 100% of the time.

 

I think your misrepresenting Vanguards/PT's there. They certainly have AoE, but they have limits just like any other class. they're biggest AoE has a minute CD. It certainly is powerful, but it's VERY burst in comparison with smash on a Mara/Jugg. it may do higher damage when it hits, but a properly telented smash is on a 12 sec CD. I can get off 6 smash's in the same amount of time. and if your specced rage, the smash is an autocrit when it happens, and has severely increased damage over other attacks. without real DPS numbers, it's going to be hard to say one over the other.

 

As to the other AoE skills the classes have, they pretty much share similarities. the PT has a frontal cone fire attack. again, high damage, but on a CD. The Mara/Jugg equivalent does less damage, but is infinitely spammable (given rage), and cheap. PT's have an AoE fire spread, again on a longish CD. they key is how much does the damage add up overall.

 

I could say that based on experience, the PT can put out the AoE easier...but thats due to the harsh requirements to set up the "smash burst" in the rage tree. But until people start posting their personal log file results, it will be hard to tell.

 

OP: each class has decent AoE capabilities. At this point, I don't think any specific one is king over the other so much that you should pick solely on that. As an example, in PvP Smash damage is king due to it's higher set up and burst. but in PvE, over time the sustained damage smooths out, and it doesn't really mark much higher then the other classes.