DF Slinger for PvP needs advice =)

[EclatDeGivre]

Hey Guys !

 

I am just wondering if anybody has a good guide to link or good pieces of advice about Gunslinger Dirty Fighting in PvP=) This is just a presentation of my playstyle and a request for analysis from experienced DF PvP Slingers.

 

I'm not even 50 (but soon) and I just play for fun, and playing one's AC well is fun =)

 

I love DF spec, and I am quite sure I do not play it at full potential. I play a classic (2/8/31). Please read and comment !

 

 

General overview

 

-Flurry every other attack

-Quickdraw as soon as I have the opportunity. So yeah always on top of the list.

-Shrap Bomb First. Always on top of every priority list.. Even in a 1v1 situation. Way too high a dps and too low a CD to be kept. However on 1v1 with no life I may save it for later =p

-Pulse/Dirty Kick on CD when there are ppl around me. I do not like people and they don't like me. I usually do not follow the main group (except for objectives ofc).

-Escape/Defense when I get hurt. I try to adapt Escape depending on my opponent spec.

-Cool head, on CD. When I see cool head is about to be available I simply skip flurry of bolts to get at 50 energy.

-I tend to tab/distraction/tab-back because I love interrupting ^^

-I play a very dangerous game, all about battlefield awareness. I nearly never keep a skill "just in case" and have no "omg ***" button. If an opponent reach me I consider that I am dead. I always move according to my team's state (Only one melee standing? Go for a strategic withdrawal ^^). I play a lot with LoS, generally hiding behind a pillar and doting people by move/dot/hide/move/dot/hide the time I carefully chose the target of my evil wrath.

 

 

My priority lists (NOT rotations)

 

When I move :

• Vital Shot
  
• Flurry
  

 

The points of this is to DoT as many ppl as possible while staying at full energy. Moving is essentially about finding a good spot, not being seen by too many ppl, but enough to dps properly. DoT ppl is a good investment as each crit gives extra energy regen. Ofc if I see a low life aroud, Quickdraw will always come up. I repeat it one last time Shrap Bomb always.

 

When I dps a target I feel will survive more than 15s :

• Vital shot
  
• Flourish shot
  
• Hemo blast + Wounding shot
  
• Wounding shot (Leg shot before if I feel he's gonna get away from my LoS)
  
• Smuggler's luck + Charged burst
  
• Sabotage charge
  
• Aimed shot (I usually never reach this low in the list)
  

 

The point here is to get a stationary dps rotation. With Flurry of bolts I can basically keep on shooting for ever with this list.

 

I never use Hemo blast without wounding shot following. I do not know if it is considered as a bleed (I do not think so) but even, this combo makes a spike of damage. If you think there is a better use of Hemo blast please feel free to explain =).

 

I always try to reset the CD of vital shot DoT just before I change target.

 

When I need a burst (2-3s):

• Sabo
  
• Smuggler's luck + Charged burst
  

 

The "need burst" is an exception to the "Shrap Bomb first" rule =)

 

More than 2 ppl

• Flyby
  
• Thermal grenade
  

 

With this playstyle I easily reach the 300k+ in the 10-49 bracket in a won game (like 3-0 at the first min or No door opened in the 1st part of a VS as defense) and around 200k+ in a lost or strategic game (ie when I have to actually carry the ball because none of my team mates realize that pure dps is not enough to win a huttball game). I Often top the chart in terms of Damage and kills, but to me this is far from being a good indicator. I do not focus on DPS or numbers, my ultimate goal is for my team mates to think "Oh it's him, this is a good Slinger we can count on him" and being able to bring the right opponent down quickly at the right time is key for an AC as ours. I'm also GM in a small guild of irl friends and try to give them good advices and guides. This is why I ask here for advice ^^'

 

I mainly post for comments, analysis or feedbacks about the light blue part. However any constructive remark will be welcomed. I do not play well. I do not have the pretention to teach how to play DF slinger. I just need some help about the way i play my slinger =)

 

 

Thank you guys and keep rocking !

Edited March 29, 2012 by EclatDeGivre

[ByeToWoW]

 

The points of this is to DoT as many ppl as possible while staying at full energy.

 

 

This statement bothers me. However, maybe I either misread it or you simply used the wrong words to explain it.

 

You never want to be at full energy if you can help it. You want to be constantly inside the 60%-100% REGEN. When you are at full energy, you are at a big fat whopping 0 regen. If you are at full energy, be looking for someone to fire something at. You seem to be more focused on pure damage vs game objectives, so this comment pertains to you more than the objective player.

[Riiquiem]

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=363174

 

Sending from my phone so I cant write much right now. Check my posts

There's nothing I cant tell you about DF. Since I have BM gear I hit 400 k in 80% of the games, I am ALWAYS at the top of the scoreboard. Not just talking about dmg. Most kills and most objectives too I can tell you everything you wanna know but it'll take me some time cause actually my english isnt very good. I'll try to make it as easy as possible as soon as I am back home at my pc.

[EclatDeGivre]

@Byetowow : Indeed when I said remain at full energy I meant as close to 100 without being at 100.

Like everytime i hit 100, i vital shot someone around. Then I wait until i hit 100 again (or 95) and I vital shot someone else

 

@Riiquiem : Yeah I already read it =) so about more specific question about my priority list

 

Quickdraw

Shrap Bomb

Vital shot

Flourish shot

Hemo blast + Wounding shot

Wounding shot (Leg shot before if I feel he's gonna get away from my LoS)

Smuggler's luck + Charged burst

Sabotage charge

Aimed shot (I usually never reach this low in the list)

 

Is Flourish shot at the good place? I tend to think it is better before wounding shot as Vital shot and shrap B are bleed so no mitigation.

 

Is Sabotage charge/Aimed shot at their right place? After you put all your dots, how do you use your skills? Numbers would help, but I admit I not know.

 

Are wounding shot ticks per bleed is considered as bleed for hemo blast? If it is then obviously hemo blast should be used before even shrap bomb as it is the highest ticks i think.

 

Do you use speed shot? If you do, why and when?

 

More questions later when i have the time ^^'

[Riiquiem]

in DF spec I never, really Never use aimed shot/charged burst. There is simply no need, not even in 1vs1 situations. I thought about using aimed shot but the only reason could be high burst vs a healer. But since energy is rare just avoid it. However i start with vital shot, hemo blast and only use shrap in 1on1 or when i can hit at least 2 targets. After dot flourish shot, sab charge followed by wounding shots dead target. Hemo blast doesnt count for wounding shots. It improves the dmg of the 10 following dot ticks like every time shrap or vital deal dmg counts as one tick and reduces the 10 of hemo blast.

Speed shot is nice but not needed in pure DF. Just use it as you see it fitting in and when you have enough enerrgy after wounding shots

[EclatDeGivre]

Well about Shrap bomb, it is far higher damage than vital shot, lasts longer, same energy price, low cd. So yeah we could use it waiting an opportunity to hit 3 targets to maximize dps. But it's in the end depending on battlefield awareness. Most of the time ppl do not stack in a predictable way. Even then, I prefer focusing down a primary target than maximizing my dps by hitting many useless people. On top of that stacking ppl do not survive long anyway as they draw attention too easily and I am afraid shrap bomb won't do that much dmg. 21s is quite long. To sum things up about Shrap bomb it's a matter of choice and battle awareness. My choice is "use what you have when you can, you never know how long you will live. Carpe Diem - Smuggler's spirit" x)

 

Shrap bomb first also have the benefit of all your dot hitting in the same time. Start with the longest then keep on to the shortest.

 

Smuggler's luck + Charged burst has it's place in the sense that auto crit is bursty, ignores avoidance/shieldind/deflecting (crit pushes shielding for sure, so i guess it's the same for avoidance/deflection) and is quite interesting in terms of dps/energy point. Then maybe when my crit will reach 75% there will be no need to use it anymore.

 

I wonder about speed shot. I should update my xls sheet to see if it is worth it or not. But maybe it has it's place under Smuggler's luck + Charged burst and later after sabotage charge. Then if you do not use Charged burst/aimed shot/Speed shot, then I wonder what is the impact of flourish shot. -20% armor seems nice but due to the fact that most of our attacks ignore mitigation, well i am not sure it will bring your target faster than a priority list without it. Ofc if you have any ac kinetic/energy dmg specced with high with you, yeah it's worth it (Btw do any of u have a list of this? xD). If not well i seriously think i'll simply get rid of it. But with 1.2 though -20% healing will be awesome so maybe I should not xD

[Riiquiem]

Thing about shrap bomb is that it has a cd at all. Vital does not. Ofc it has higher dmg but always keep it for a dangeroues situation. Hard for me to explain. Ofc i didnt mean to tell you to never use shrap... just situational depending. And the thing about flourish shot: armor reduce is for your entire team. Always use it on focus targets, ball carrier, healer etc. in addition it increases your wounding shots dmg cause it is "weapon damage".the use of aimed shot and charged burst is just too energy consuming and their dmg output too little. I reach highest dmg of all the players in the wz and win most of 1on1(except vs jugger and marauder, those are really giving me a hard time..). There is really no time when i feel like my rotation or playstyle needs cover more often than for hunkers down + flyby or sab charge. Cover = dead so don't use it. Simple as that

[EclatDeGivre]

I appreciate your input.

 

I think we agree on Shrap bomb. Then it's a matter of focusing someone down and maximizing dps.

 

About flourish shot. This may be a server problem but Republic Phateem hall of knowledge do not have the brightests healer killers or strategic players. It's not a problem, it's nice to learn and stay with ppl that neither think they are the best of the best played all MMOs and have the absolute truth nor rage every minute but well... most people focus the closest target. And again it's not a problem, if we lose i try to convince me that it's not my team fault, but because I was not good enough to carry my team. Thus I chose to focus the strategic target. I love shooting ppl that do not expect it and are for instance quietly healing everybody, or peacefuly spamming their tracert missile. Most of the time these are my candies. Eat them, love them, eat them again. I always try to spot the good players (opponent i mean) and ignore the rest as far as the objective is not threatened. I tend to die a lot, as well as toping the dps/kill chart 70% of the time. In the end, flourish shot is no good in most of the situation unless i focus the focused player which is either guarded, healed or will die too quickly for my dots to hurt enough.

 

About cover, well I completely disagree. I admit staying still as DF is bad, but once you get a good position, getting behind a cover is very good. No leap, no interrupt, no pushback, 20-50% ranged def, i cannot ignore it. I usually spend a lot of time finding a good position (while vital shooting everybody around xD) then cover hunkerdown and own. On top of that many of our awesome skills require cover (Scrambling field, Pulse, Sabotage charge hunker down mainly). I don't want to start trolling and endlessly talking about it. So I will simply ask to respect my opinion abt it =)

Edited March 30, 2012 by EclatDeGivre

[ByeToWoW]

About cover, well I completely disagree. I admit staying still as DF is bad, but once you get a good position, getting behind a cover is very good. No leap, no interrupt, no pushback, 20-50% ranged def, i cannot ignore it. I usually spend a lot of time finding a good position (while vital shooting everybody around xD) then cover hunkerdown and own. On top of that many of our awesome skills require cover (Scrambling field, Pulse, Sabotage charge hunker down mainly). I don't want to start trolling and endlessly talking about it. So I will simply ask to respect my opinion abt it =)

 

 

My thoughts: If you are on the move, then no need to be in cover. If you have no need to be moving, then you have a need to be in cover.

 

Also, cover will prevent interrupts to Wounding Shot whereas if you hit that button without cover first, you can be interrupted and lose a 9 second CD.

[jayfourc]

Check some of the posts here:

 

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=367592

 

and here:

 

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=369399

 

The biggest difference I think between how you play DF and how I play DF is that I'm not looking to be in any kind of support role. I'm there to kill healers and high dps targets as quickly as possible.

 

I don't view shrap and vital as a useful form of damage, but like you I'll use them to keep a few targets dotted up to help with energy regen. Everything else I do revolves around keeping energy and CDs up to enable the full shrap->vital->hemo->wounding rotation on a high HP healer or priority DPS. I throw in flourish, sabo charge, flurry, thermal, quickdraw, and defensive/CC/hunker/interrupts down as the situation calls for it. I hardly ever use charged or aim since I'm rarely ever under cover outside of throwing sabo->wounding shots. Mobility is the key.

Edited April 1, 2012 by jayfourc