Powertech AP

[TheOpf]

I dont understand what server do you APs playing where your foes are constantly trying to run away from you. Hec even healers dont try to run, just merely use their speed boost to put distance between them and you, which grapple counters very easily.

 

As an AP you are very rarely shocking people with your damage, that they are going to say "wow, it's an AP spec PT, I better try to run away". FT is NOT the icing on the cake? It must be the STAPLE of the tree, otherwise YOU are doing something wrong. To say that FT is just an added benefit to the tree and shouldnt really rely on it, is ridiculous. In PvE, the ONLY way to have AP come close to Pyro dps, is by making sure FT is always part of the rotation.

 

This is correct. Without PFT, your dps is so far behind Pyro it's not even funny. With PFT in your rotation you have burst.

 

I have them run from me all the time. Mainly whenever you light them up with Immolate, they think it's an aoe and run like the wind. I have no problem keeping up with them. Smugglers, Sages, and Commandos are always running and trying to LOS you until their CC are off CD.

 

Anyone that stands in PFT is going to die, so your semi-intelligent players will run out of it or around you or interrupt it. It has limited range, and as soon as I pop it, everyone runs. I still do it all the time, just to screw with Warriors, Shadows, and Vanguards. No one just stands there and takes it unless they want to die. I even use FT as a defensive manuever. I pop it just to get a few seconds where I can heal a bit or get them off me.

[Agooz]

This is correct. Without PFT, your dps is so far behind Pyro it's not even funny. With PFT in your rotation you have burst.

 

I have them run from me all the time. Mainly whenever you light them up with Immolate, they think it's an aoe and run like the wind. I have no problem keeping up with them. Smugglers, Sages, and Commandos are always running and trying to LOS you until their CC are off CD.

 

Anyone that stands in PFT is going to die, so your semi-intelligent players will run out of it or around you or interrupt it. It has limited range, and as soon as I pop it, everyone runs. I still do it all the time, just to screw with Warriors, Shadows, and Vanguards. No one just stands there and takes it unless they want to die. I even use FT as a defensive manuever. I pop it just to get a few seconds where I can heal a bit or get them off me.

 

Patch notes:

[Prototype Flame Thrower now is granted a stack when Immolate is used. In addition, stacks make Flame Thrower immune to interrupt and at 5 stacks Flame Thrower will now slow the movement speed of targets by 70%.

 

Look at the bold part. Am I the only one who would prefer to have these effects be switched? I would rather have the 70% snare on stacks, and immune interrupt at 5stacks. I really think as an AP you have more of an issue keeping people in the cone, than getting interrupted.

[Kororo]

they are very competative.

 

 

i find it funny about his claims because he one of the people who cannot make AP work well..

 

 

Annihilation marauders have the most skills of any class in the game, they have some of the best utility and mobility while having the highest DPS in game. The caveat is they are also the hardest thing to play. DO not let these guys tell you AP is not worth anything because it does equal damage to an merc PROVIDED you play the class correctly. Powertechs are a melee class, so you have to be in melee to get the most out of them. Many of the players here are scared to get into melee thus hurting their performance with the tree.

 

I hate to break it to you but annihilation marauder doesnt have the most skills. I play a 50 deception sin and 50 annihilation marauder there about 10 abilities that actually do damage. I have to manage 15 plus as assassin. Also marauder is incredibly easy to play. There are zero procs you need to pay attention to if your annihilation. This means you can just spam your rotation in priority first way. For assassin you must constantly pay attention to your buffs to check if your procs are up. Its even harder for madness sins(which is why I don't play cause It requires so much practice that I would only be a hindrance to my raid to play it).

PT in general plays a lot a lot like sins. Except your energy management is so much worse, at least for my sin I can double the amount of force I have with pve gear.

 

Right now I'd say PT is one of the hardest classes to play. Lack of gap closers. (maruaders can get 15 percent speed boost and a charge.) They also lack a true sustained dps tree which pretty much every other class has. Mercs can spam tracer missle all day long without worrying bout their heat. Also assassins have a higher burst, imagine spamming three rail shots that hit for 5k+ in a row every 10 seconds. Thats deception assassin dps oh and they get more stuns force speed better energy conservation methods and STEALTH and their defensive cool downs makes them immune to a lot of boss attacks meaning they can stay in and spam their 4 button rotation even longer.

 

PT's should be pissed that their class is this hard to play and doesnt come close to the dps deserving of that skill.

[Hizoka]

I hate to break it to you but annihilation marauder doesnt have the most skills. I play a 50 deception sin and 50 annihilation marauder there about 10 abilities that actually do damage. I have to manage 15 plus as assassin. Also marauder is incredibly easy to play. There are zero procs you need to pay attention to if your annihilation. This means you can just spam your rotation in priority first way. For assassin you must constantly pay attention to your buffs to check if your procs are up. Its even harder for madness sins(which is why I don't play cause It requires so much practice that I would only be a hindrance to my raid to play it).

PT in general plays a lot a lot like sins. Except your energy management is so much worse, at least for my sin I can double the amount of force I have with pve gear.

 

Right now I'd say PT is one of the hardest classes to play. Lack of gap closers. (maruaders can get 15 percent speed boost and a charge.) They also lack a true sustained dps tree which pretty much every other class has. Mercs can spam tracer missle all day long without worrying bout their heat. Also assassins have a higher burst, imagine spamming three rail shots that hit for 5k+ in a row every 10 seconds. Thats deception assassin dps oh and they get more stuns force speed better energy conservation methods and STEALTH and their defensive cool downs makes them immune to a lot of boss attacks meaning they can stay in and spam their 4 button rotation even longer.

 

PT's should be pissed that their class is this hard to play and doesnt come close to the dps deserving of that skill.

you do not play an annihilation marauder. you have several skill that reset depending on procs and skills that change in cooldown time based on buffs. Playing carnage is not even CLOSE to playing annihilation. but hey if you want to believe it go for it.

[Poe_]

Right now I'd say PT is one of the hardest classes to play. Lack of gap closers. (maruaders can get 15 percent speed boost and a charge.) They also lack a true sustained dps tree which pretty much every other class has. ... PT's should be pissed that their class is this hard to play and doesnt come close to the dps deserving of that skill.

Errr ... ever gap-close with Grapple? Jet Boost? Electro Dart? Ever shoot around a corner?

 

Sustained dps ... ever hear of a tree called Pyro? Ever play it right?

 

PT is not a hard class to play, it's a hard class to master. That comes mainly from managing your heat resource. In PvP there is no reason a well-played, well-geared PT should not be in the top 3-4 in overall damage, not that overall damage is a mark of a successful warzone run but it's one indicator.

 

For PvE, I don't know how you can say this, without logs to back it up.

 

The changes to the class procs on Railshot with a GCD notwithstanding, good Powertechs find the class fairly well balanced mechanically I think. I have not seen too many posts on how 'hard' they are to play.

 

Go play a Sniper well, then tell me about 'hard' to play mechanics ... I am afraid you look, just a wee bit, like a baddie. But it could be that I misread your post. If so, apologies.

[exphryl]

Errr ... ever gap-close with Grapple? Jet Boost? Electro Dart? Ever shoot around a corner?

 

Grapple: 45 Seconds

Jet Boost: Shield Tree Only

Electro Dart: preference, I prefer not to waste a stun on an enemy to gap close unless they are near death.

Corner: I don't have magic bullets that bend space and time and wrap around corners. I need to be actively chasing. However, I shall suggest such bullets on the suggestion forum. i feel it would be a great addition.

 

But at the end of the day, we aren't Operatives. Those guys get screwed on gap closers so always something to be optimistic about

 

PS: Sniper isn't Hard to play. No class is. Most classes just require common sense which is where people lack.

Edited April 10, 2012 by exphryl

[Poe_]

Grapple: 45 Seconds

Jet Boost: Shield Tree Only

Electro Dart: preference, I prefer not to waste a stun on an enemy to gap close unless they are near death.

Corner: I don't have magic bullets that bend space and time and wrap around corners. I need to be actively chasing. However, I shall suggest such bullets on the suggestion forum. i feel it would be a great addition.

 

But at the end of the day, we aren't Operatives. Those guys get screwed on gap closers so always something to be optimistic about

Despite the cooldowns, they are gap closers! The post I replied to suggested we had no way to gap close in PvP at all ... I was showing we clearly do is all. As for magic corners, you've never seen your unload channel for a few ticks even when LOS is broken? E-dart, ya I save it to. But if someone's runnin' and I can get to them by stunning them, I make that decision ... as I am sure you do. My post was trying to show that this is not a hard class to play. It's not easy to be great at, but it's not a hard class to play. Anyone who suggests it is perhaps hasn't played a number of others. Anyway, not looking for a fight, just stating my opinion

[kbstealer]

 

So I'm a bit confused how you can hold off 4 people for a decent amount of time =/

 

because i use ion cell (tank cell) not the cell for the tactics tree. with assault you can run with ion cell now but in 1.2 you wont be able to whereas tactics will still work perfectly fine with ion cell.

 

My tactics build for use with ion cell:

 

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#801hMGZMsrrobfkds.1

[Kororo]

you do not play an annihilation marauder. you have several skill that reset depending on procs and skills that change in cooldown time based on buffs. Playing carnage is not even CLOSE to playing annihilation. but hey if you want to believe it go for it.

 

Ok there are three proc based abilities

rupture

berserk

retaliation

there are no proc based attacks you should be paying attention to except berserk (which you barely even have to look at since its off the gcd meaning you can spam it at the same time as your attacking and you build fury at a ridiculous rate to the point its up every 15-20 seconds making it more like a cool down ability).

 

If your using retaliation your bad since its a dps loss for the amount of rage it costs and it really should be a jugg attack since it procs based on parry and the points you spend in buffing it can better be used elsewhere.

 

That leaves rupture. Its the easiest ability in the world to know when its up. ITS UP WHEN THERE IS NO TEXT COUNTING DOWN. You'd have to be bad to not keep track of your rage and see the lack of giant numbers counting down.

 

Being a marauder takes no thought. You have enough defensive cool downs to make tanks jelly and you heal more than madness sins and darkness tanks. You also heal your party. You get frenzy which gives you 30 stacks of fury and in annihilation you get that cool down reduced making it an even easier to spec to play.

 

Carnage on the other hand it much harder to play because of the lack of heals, and the fact that your cool downs dont line up even in 1.2. since you want gore and blood frenzy up at the same time you force scream it gets hard because force scream's cd is shorter than gore so theres little point in even speccing into lowering its cd

Edited April 11, 2012 by Kororo

[Morticoccus]

Grapple: 45 Seconds

Jet Boost: Shield Tree Only

Electro Dart: preference, I prefer not to waste a stun on an enemy to gap close unless they are near death.

Corner: I don't have magic bullets that bend space and time and wrap around corners. I need to be actively chasing. However, I shall suggest such bullets on the suggestion forum. i feel it would be a great addition.

 

But at the end of the day, we aren't Operatives. Those guys get screwed on gap closers so always something to be optimistic about

 

PS: Sniper isn't Hard to play. No class is. Most classes just require common sense which is where people lack.

 

AP gets CD reductions on grapple and dart, rather massive ones actually.

Also if you are playing huttball or voidstar grapple is an almost guaranteed kill move.

Edited April 11, 2012 by Morticoccus

[Kororo]

Despite the cooldowns, they are gap closers! The post I replied to suggested we had no way to gap close in PvP at all ... I was showing we clearly do is all. As for magic corners, you've never seen your unload channel for a few ticks even when LOS is broken? E-dart, ya I save it to. But if someone's runnin' and I can get to them by stunning them, I make that decision ... as I am sure you do. My post was trying to show that this is not a hard class to play. It's not easy to be great at, but it's not a hard class to play. Anyone who suggests it is perhaps hasn't played a number of others. Anyway, not looking for a fight, just stating my opinion

to get most damage you should only use grapple to grab someone into a pack of other players to get the most damage possible. Assassins get a gap closer every 30 seconds and can spec for 20 without losing damage where as we would. They also can spec tank do ridiculous damage and get pull which is basically grapple. They also get an awesome ranged slow that lasts a decent amount of time.

 

Marauders get charge which can be off cd every 12secs they also can have up to 3 slows. Juggs get 15 sec charge and aoe slow and roots and stuns.

 

So yeah in comparison to other classes its like we have nothing for a true gap closer for pyro which is why the tree has decent ranged attacks.

 

The reason I think pyro is hard is cause of heat management is much harder to deal with than warriors agents and inquisitors. This makes for a rotation where I have to use my basic attack more often than I'm use to playing other classes. Atleast so far leveling up to 34, but at this point I don't think theres going to be any major changes to how I vent heat so my rotation is pretty similar to how it will be at end game I think.