PVE Scoundrel Scrappers and the 1.2 nerfs

[zilvra]

I have a lvl 32 Scoundrel Scrapper. I am already having problems killing my on lvl bosses due to the 1.1 nerfs. What will the 1.2 nerfs do to me in PVE? It seems really unfair to the purely PVE players when the nerfs hit.

[MashTactics]

This isn't going to be something you want to hear, but Scoundrels currently can't compete with the other DPS in PvE.

 

Sentinels make them look like a joke in sustained DPS, and Ranged have the ranged advantage, of course.

 

If we had better sustained DPS, then we'd be a much better choice... but burst damage does nobody any good in PvE.

 

TL;DR: Scoundrels are primarily a PvP class. Until they get some decent sustained DPS, they'll stay that way.

[zilvra]

This isn't going to be something you want to hear, but Scoundrels currently can't compete with the other DPS in PvE.

 

Sentinels make them look like a joke in sustained DPS, and Ranged have the ranged advantage, of course.

 

If we had better sustained DPS, then we'd be a much better choice... but burst damage does nobody any good in PvE.

 

TL;DR: Scoundrels are primarily a PvP class. Until they get some decent sustained DPS, they'll stay that way.

 

So no matter what this class is sunk in PVE. Before the 1.1 nerf I was kicking butt. But now I can't seem to fight my way out of a paper bag. I end up spam healing my companion all the time to fight the boss, and since I put most of my points into Scrapper, I don't heal very well. Yes I know of the skill reset that they are giving us. But that is not going to help IMO.

Edited March 25, 2012 by zilvra

[MashTactics]

As scrapper, you shouldn't be leveling with a healer companion. That's most of why you're doing bad damage.

 

Without being able to use Backblast in your rotation, you're purposely taking out about a third of your damage.

 

Run with Corso or Bowdaar. They'll keep the mobs facing away from you.

[Luigrein]

As scrapper, you shouldn't be leveling with a healer companion. That's most of why you're doing bad damage.

 

Without being able to use Backblast in your rotation, you're purposely taking out about a third of your damage.

 

Run with Corso or Bowdaar. They'll keep the mobs facing away from you.

 

While yes I damaged things faster leveling with Corso leveling with Gus was significantly safer. Sure ideally you don't need the extra safety of Gus around (I leveled into the 40s without him it's obviously not absolutely necessary) but fighting (some) elites with Corso felt like a race against Corso's HP bar.

 

Some of the things I've pulled off with Gus I don't think I COULD have pulled off with Corso but those were edge cases and not things you normally run into while leveling.

[zilvra]

As scrapper, you shouldn't be leveling with a healer companion. That's most of why you're doing bad damage.

 

Without being able to use Backblast in your rotation, you're purposely taking out about a third of your damage.

 

Run with Corso or Bowdaar. They'll keep the mobs facing away from you.

 

No, you misunderstood. I run Bowdaar, and I am healing him most of the time. Before the nerf I was doing most of the damage when it came to the end bosses.

Edited March 25, 2012 by zilvra

[zilvra]

While yes I damaged things faster leveling with Corso leveling with Gus was significantly safer. Sure ideally you don't need the extra safety of Gus around (I leveled into the 40s without him it's obviously not absolutely necessary) but fighting (some) elites with Corso felt like a race against Corso's HP bar.

 

Some of the things I've pulled off with Gus I don't think I COULD have pulled off with Corso but those were edge cases and not things you normally run into while leveling.

 

Who is Gus? I have Corso, Bowdaar & the droid from the ship as companions.

Edited March 25, 2012 by zilvra

[Coldin]

Who is Gus? I have Corso, Bowdaar & the droid from the ship as companions.

 

You get Gus later. He's a healer. You don't get him until about level 40ish though.

[MashTactics]

No, you misunderstood. I run Bowdaar, and I am healing him most of the time. Before the nerf I was doing most of the damage when it came to the end bosses.

 

Oh, gotchya. I must have misread that.

 

Either way, I'd recommend Corso. Bowdaar is about as sturdy as wet cardboard for whatever reason.

[zilvra]

Oh, gotchya. I must have misread that.

 

Either way, I'd recommend Corso. Bowdaar is about as sturdy as wet cardboard for whatever reason.

 

So I should run Corso in 'The Endless Abyss' quest? I can't seem to get past the stupid Assassin Droid boss. I haven't run Corso since Nar Shaddaa.

[FWHBKG]

So I should run Corso in 'The Endless Abyss' quest? I can't seem to get past the stupid Assassin Droid boss. I haven't run Corso since Nar Shaddaa.

 

I've run Bowdaar since I first got him. The key is keeping his armor upgraded. Every few levels I shop at the market for item mods to gear him back up. Just like me he's all Orange geared out. But yes, on Elites I typically stay on healing most the fight while keeping bleeds on the boss, occasional use of DK, etc. I'm 49 now, only had to call in help on 2 mobs that were way out of proportion to their level.

 

The biggest key I found in those fights is making efficient use of Cool Head and All In. Once I've exhausted my energy the first time I pop Cool Head. Then I immediately hit All In as this adds a HoT to both you and your companion, which helps keeping him healed. Also make use of Dirty Kick and Flash Grenade when you need to catch up on heals. Typically when the boss is down to 15-20% I'll jump in and start DPSing. Most of the time I'll kill the boss before Bowdaar goes down. But if I don't I turn on Defense Screen as soon as the boss turns towards me. That and Dodge keep me up long enough to finish him off.

[dizzyMongoose]

So I should run Corso in 'The Endless Abyss' quest? I can't seem to get past the stupid Assassin Droid boss. I haven't run Corso since Nar Shaddaa.

 

You should run whichever companion you've geared up the best. Corso and Bowdaar have similar stats and abilities other than the range/melee attack thing, and most of the difference is the quality of gear you give them. After all, the amount of damage you resist is directly dependent on the strength of your armor, and companions are no different. Also turning off their AoE attacks is essential if you use the slice droid and tranq powers regularly.

Edited April 1, 2012 by dizzyMongoose

[zilvra]

I've run Bowdaar since I first got him. The key is keeping his armor upgraded. Every few levels I shop at the market for item mods to gear him back up. Just like me he's all Orange geared out. But yes, on Elites I typically stay on healing most the fight while keeping bleeds on the boss, occasional use of DK, etc. I'm 49 now, only had to call in help on 2 mobs that were way out of proportion to their level.

 

The biggest key I found in those fights is making efficient use of Cool Head and All In. Once I've exhausted my energy the first time I pop Cool Head. Then I immediately hit All In as this adds a HoT to both you and your companion, which helps keeping him healed. Also make use of Dirty Kick and Flash Grenade when you need to catch up on heals. Typically when the boss is down to 15-20% I'll jump in and start DPSing. Most of the time I'll kill the boss before Bowdaar goes down. But if I don't I turn on Defense Screen as soon as the boss turns towards me. That and Dodge keep me up long enough to finish him off.

 

OK, so don't pop All In till I exhaust my energy lvls? I am getting sick of dying on this quest, and I just want to it over and done with. LOL

[Acindo]

I'm not really sure what advice to offer. Is the quest higher level then you? Gear out of date? Companion undergeared?

 

I had pretty much 0 problems using Bowdaar all the way to 50 while I was Scrapper.

Edited April 4, 2012 by Acindo

[Coldin]

OK, so don't pop All In till I exhaust my energy lvls? I am getting sick of dying on this quest, and I just want to it over and done with. LOL

 

If you're under level, you might want to hit up some warzones or other quests to level and gear up. Also make sure to use your interrupts to stop any big attacks.

 

You might also want to not focus solely on damage, but heal your companion through the fight. That's how I beat several of the harder bosses; just won through attrition.

[Aetou]

To be honest I'm not sure how much of your problems are due to the 1.1 nerfs. You're only Level 32 now, so when those nerfs hit you were what... early 20s? The amounts of surge that you had at that point (or even now) would be nowhere near the soft cap and so would be unaffected. You don't have Flechette round, so that change didn't effect you. Heck, you didn't even have Turn the Tables back when the 1.1 nerf occured...

 

I think that what's actually happening is that you've run into some of the bumps in difficulty that the game has (Lightspring, the start of Alderaan, etc.) and think that your issues are due to the nerfs rather than actually being because... of you to a large extent. While comments like 'Scondrels are bad at PVE' are true to an extent they are really talking about Endgame PVE. The leveling content shouldn't present you with many issues because you aren't having to put out sustained DPS for 5 minutes while avoiding mechanisms that effect you more than all the other classes (due to no gap closer.)

 

Scoundrel is quite a tricky class to play. You need to manage your interrupts, CC and target priority very well but if you do and always tranq the strongest mob in the group, then keep the others Flashed until at least one of the normal mobs is down... you shouldn't have many issues. Just make sure you and your companion aren't using AOEs - that's the quickest way to give yourself more enemies than you can handle.

[Shy-Nee]

Scoundrels are a lot stronger than most people think IMO. Doing good PVE damage at endgame requires using ranged abilities, mellee abilities, and cover abilities at the right times, and positioning carefully, it's difficult and incredibly fun.

 

I agree at l32 the nerfs have little or nothing to do with the difficulties you're having.

 

You have a huge toolset as a scoundrel, you need to use them all to play the class well.

 

I have nearly a month /played on my scoundrel and only now do I really feel like I understand all the abilities and how to utilize them, my guess is there's abilities you're not using or not using to their potential if you're having trouble with leveling content. You need to CC whenever you can, interrupt whenever you can, and when all else fails use your root and kite.

 

Companions don't matter that much really, the tanks work well but leveling with a tank can be tedious. Guss actually works fine with a scrapper, his damage isn't too bad and he has a CC that lets you get in extra backblasts, with the stuns/CCs we have available you shouldn't miss too many BB cooldowns running with Guss. Risha does a ton of DPS and she works great with a scrapper because nothing lives long enough to do much damage to you. What matters is that you gear your chosen companion up and use the right tactics for the duo you've chosen.

 

After trying everything I've settled on a 5/31/5 build with incisive action and survivors scars and taking utility over raw DPS, it's not an optimal max-dps build but that really doesn't matter, I still do top dps in my PVE group and in WZs and enrage timers aren't really that tight in this game. The reason you're not making the timers if you're geared properly isn't that you're not bringing enough DPS, it's much more likely your tactics are sub-optimal. While leveling, incisive action makes a huge difference when you're alternating between dps and throwing a heal to your companion. As a scrapper you really can't just spam heals on your tank, or ignore healing and charge in and DPS, you need to get good at doing both as appropriate, use stuns to get enough time to throw a heal, manage and bounce aggro, it's all about tactics.

 

I have my concerns regarding balance as well, don't get me wrong some of what's happening in 1.2 seems very contrary to what I see in-game, particularly regarding scoundrel adjustments compared to tankassins and marauders, but don't take the QQ on the forums too seriously, the sky isn't falling and our class does not suck, it's just a very high skill cap, you have to work harder than the commando does.

 

I have a powertech, assassin, guardian, and commando as well, all of them are easier to play at an acceptable level, but it's scoundrel I main.