Frustrated with commando PVP - need help/tips

[hazeswtor]

So I just hit 50 about a week ago, and at first I thought it was just my lack of gear, but now that I'm full centurion, with a few champion pieces(yes I realize I'm still undergeared compared to battlemaster geared players) I have not seen much of an improvement. I have read that commando's are not a very good 1v1 class, and I've definitely seen that to be true. Theres really no class I feel I can beat straight up 1v1 and I truely feel I'm not a bad player, just seems the class is limited in a lot of ways. I feel like grav round/charged bolts should not be interruptible. Its impossible to beat melee in its current form, sorcs just straight up out dps me, and even BH's seem to as well. All I try to do in WZ's is find a high perch somewhere out of sight and assist someone and help them burn someone down. But I still find myself in 1v1's once in a while and never seem to win, and usually its not even that close.

 

Anyways, I'm curious. Is there a preferred pvp spec? I've tried both gunnery and assault. I prefer gunnery because of the extra knockback of stockstrike, and lowered cooldown on concussion charge(15secs with pvp set bonus), and feel that it has a nice burst potential with grav round, demo and HIB. Assault feels too ammo intensive.

 

So, if you are a great commando, what does your rotation look like vs melee? Should I be using explosive round while trying to kite? Seems like most maras/juggs have the talent so they can't be knocked back after charging for a few seconds, and with there OP smash ability, by the time I can knock them back I'm already half dead. What can I do? Please reply with any good specs/rotations/tips. Thanks!

 

Also, if anyone has a link to a good youtube commando video, please post. I've checked and can't find much.

[EchoTwoOmega]

Assault or combat medic is the way to go for PVP.

 

Assault nets you a few DOTS that will chew away at their health bar. Under 30% the dots tick substantially harder [burnout]. You also get assault plastique when when timed right with high impact bolt you get a really nice 1-2 shot especially if they crit (it wont kill them but it will put a nice dent in their health bar). It also picks up a bit more in mobility which is nice.

 

Medic lets you heal (and damn well too I may add). Your team will also greatly appreciate the healing. 1v1 most people will be rather frustrated since you can just heal through whatever it is they are dishing out. Especially if you have a tank protecting you.

Edited March 12, 2012 by EchoTwoOmega

[Gyronamics]

Assault is no more ammo intensive than Gunnery.

 

You spec for proper ammo conservation and use your skills as you're meant to.

 

 

This is Gunnery ammo control when specced for:

 

Critical hits with "Rounds" and Full Auto can regen 1 ammo. Can't happen more than once every 3 seconds.

 

Reduce Reserve Powercell CD from 2 mins to 1 min 30.

 

Reduce cost of Grav/CB from 3 to 2 ammo.

 

 

Now THIS is Assault ammo control:

 

Reduce CD on Reserve Powercell and Adrenaline Rush by 6 seconds with every critical hit, can't happen more than once every 1.5 seconds.

 

Reduce CD on Recharge Cells from 2 mins to 1 min 30

 

60% chance on FA and 30% chance on CB to proc a free HiB

 

HiB regens 1 ammo if it hits a burning target

 

Regen 1 ammo if stunned/cced/snared with no limit on how often that can happen

 

 

Also, a good Assault will nick the Gunnery spec of reducing the cost of CB from 3 to 2 ammo otherwise you will be completely screwed for ammo if you want to nuke something.

 

 

Use Recharge Cells and Reserve Powercell like you're meant to and don't fire IR more than once per 18 seconds per target.

Edited March 12, 2012 by Gyronamics

[thamightyboro]

Gunnery is weak in PVP it only works v the brainless who just stand there and let you grav round them to death.

 

It has zero mobility, zero cc, zero escapes it is a bonafide mash n smash PVE class IMO and anyone who uses it at 50 BM or not is fodder for any class with a close and interupt.

[Kokkos]

Gunnery is weak in PVP it only works v the brainless who just stand there and let you grav round them to death.

 

It has zero mobility, zero cc, zero escapes it is a bonafide mash n smash PVE class IMO and anyone who uses it at 50 BM or not is fodder for any class with a close and interupt.

 

I am playing a Gunnery commando, i am a War Hero (as if that means anything) and i do very well. The main thing to learn is how to position yourself. If you are the first guy running to a point, you are the first guy to get targeted. Let the melee charge in and then take a few sec extra to poition yourself close to a pillar, on top of a ramp or somewhere else where you are not going to be next guy targeted for the zerg. Most of the time they will prioritize other targets over you if you are not all the way up in their face.

Our greatest defense is the 15 sec aoe knockback that applies a slow. If you position yourself somewhere that melee have to use their gap closer to get to, then you can just knock them right back down again and take minimal dmg as well as ensuring you have good uptime of dmg while they either try to run back to you, run away or whatever.

The knockback is also the best defensive tool in huttball after offensive pulls. And we have the same ammount of CC that other classes with the same archtype have.

 

And if you find commando weak then you are not playing it correctly. I can get locked down myself at times but it mostly only happens when i get into teams that steamroll us, and if you are on a side that is loosing badly then its very hard to make a impact on the game.

We are also one of the absolut weakest 1v1 classes so try to avoid 1v1 We can provide great peel for a ally, and our greatest asset is our amazing sustained dmg with good burst, if they are going for yur healer you are most likely not getting interupted and can fully unload nonstop forever if you manage ammo properly.

IMO we are the strongest overall ranged dps class maybe behind assult vanguard, but they have to be in melee to do proper dmg.

 

The things we are really lacking is a escape skill and a interupt. Only ranged dps with a with a escape skill is Sorcerer tho, and we are a lot sturdier and have higher sustained dmg. Dmg at the end of a WZ means nothing. We are plain better at focusing down and killing targets as long as we are left alone. A sorcerer that is focused is not doing any dmg and also dies faster so that is the same for both of us.

[Cormacus]

For survivability go Medic / Gunnery Hybrid, I didn't try it until very late levling up to battlemaster through mainly Gunnery.. but now I wouldn't go back. It's a perfect spec for PvP.

 

As Healing/Gunnery hybrid you can really help your team by both doing good DPS (Grav rounds hit for 2500-2700 regularly) and excellent healing as needed, whatever the situation calls for. If you get focused on by anyone you can just out heal them unless they are extremely good and use all their interrupts perfectly. Most of the time they will just get totally confused by you and give up.

 

You will of course lack the real punch that a Gunnery spec would have but I gladly give that up to survive. Even without the top talents in Gunnery you can still take down other players fairly easily.

 

Best of all, since changing to this hybrid I rarely die in a match which means I have more time to do damage or heal:

 

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#800dfRoRbcdkZMIkbR0z.1

 

I just wish there was a way to run around with Plasma Cell with this type of healer build and I'd be a very happy bunny.

[Gyronamics]

Medic/Gunnery is annoying but inefficient.

 

I wouldn't say it's better, it's different and different sometimes surprises people. But someone who knows what you are can see the weaknesses.

 

You're more interruptable than a full healer (no BI) and you aren't specced properly for sustained damage (what, just going to cast grav with no ammo regen?).

[Cormacus]

Medic/Gunnery is annoying but inefficient.

 

I wouldn't say it's better, it's different and different sometimes surprises people. But someone who knows what you are can see the weaknesses.

 

You're more interruptable than a full healer (no BI) and you aren't specced properly for sustained damage (what, just going to cast grav with no ammo regen?).

 

Not been a problem for me so far. Yes they can interrupt your healing, but if they do I hit them with a Grav Round/Charged Bolt. If they interrupt the Grav Round I heal. No class seems to have more than 2 interrupts so not a major issue.

 

Gunnery has not much more Ammo Regen than a Hybrid. Again I don't have any real problem with spamming Grav, i just weave in a hammer shot inbetween each Grav Round or two. It's quite efficient and with good gear most Grav Rounds does 2500-2700dmg.

 

So far I've only met one person who managed to take me down 1on1, that was (I think) a Merc Battlemaster, he was exceptionally good and I don't think it would have matter what class or spec I would have been, he would have won on pure skill.

 

I'm not by any means a great PvP player, I do decently but this spec really helps me going as a commando. Pure Gunnery or Assault is just lacking too much at the moment. I'm hoping they will fix that.

 

BUT

For Operations/Raids I would go Gunnery each time. No question about Gunnery's ability to do a massive amount of damage.

[Nytak]

I enjoy gunnery in pvp. I'm at work so I might be slightly incorrect here, but my points are split... 7/31/3

 

I picked up all the +accuracy and +crit from the other trees, and a couple points to speed up my heals a tad (helps me heal myself, and keep a ball carrier topped off in huttball).

 

Like others have said, you really gotta play to the spec. I switched from guardian to commando, and the guardian playstyle mixed w/ the Commando class didn't work. I was always used to running in full charge etc. My guardian could soak up the dmg, my commando can't. It's all about positioning yourself in such a way that you can do sustained dmg while standing still. If you're lucky enough to run w/ a good healer, you can do some serious dmg even with multiple people beating on you.

 

Pick your targets. I avoid 1v1 like the plague, if I had a sage like sprint, I would use it liberally to avoid these situations. I always go for the lowest health bar first and work my way up from there. I spend a lot of time using grav round, mixed w/ demo round or HIB, and anytime curtain of fire procs, I full auto down whatever I'm targetting (or the next target if the grav round that procced it killed the target).

 

Eventually they will find you and focus you down, only classes that really stand a chance there would be a geared tank w/ a darn good healer.

[Aaoogaa]

You are still undergeared compared to even the average PVP player. It was crappy of BW to greatly slow down the gear progression after most of the hardcore PVPers were already in full champ or higher. I was in full champ in 10 days of pvp after level 50. Now you are lucky to get full champ in 20-30 days. At least battle master gear is easier to get.

 

Couple of ideas:

1. If they interrupt your grav round there is nothing wrong with casting a charged bolt...same cast time, same ammo cost, and about the same damage...you just don't get the one ammo back off of a crit. This will allow you to do damage while grav round comes of the interrupt cooldown without a loss in dps.

 

2. 11 points into the medic tree is an ability that makes your shield immune to interrupt for 12 seconds....this is a beast when you need to kill someone dead that is an interrupt class. There are not many classes out there that can survive 8 uninterrupted grav rounds 1 v 1 while you are taking 25% +10% less damage from your shield and charged barrier.

Edited March 12, 2012 by Aaoogaa

[Cormacus]

You are still undergeared compared to even the average PVP player. It was crappy of BW to greatly slow down the gear progression after most of the hardcore PVPers were already in full champ or higher. I was in full champ in 10 days of pvp after level 50. Now you are lucky to get full champ in 20-30 days. At least battle master gear is easier to get.

 

Couple of ideas:

 

2. 11 points into the medic tree is an ability that makes your shield immune to interrupt for 12 seconds....this is a beast when you need to kill someone dead that is an interrupt class. There are not many classes out there that can survive 8 uninterrupted grav rounds 1 v 1 while you are taking 25% +10% less damage from your shield and charged barrier.

 

Thank you! I totally missed that it gave you immunity to interrupts! A must have skill!

[dejavy]

Stand in the line heheh )

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=342375