Im having trouble vs marauders!

[sithlordcip]

Im a arsenal specced merc and I seem to have problems agaisnt marauders in pvp, any advices pls?

 

Thx

[Diddley]

Respec to pyrotech! As arsenal you are pretty much food for every other adv class because of interrupts and LoS. With pyro they are much less of a problem as you have mobility, kite-ability and instant casts.

 

You may already know that, but as such there is a very slim chance you will win against an experienced marauder as arsenal.

Edited April 7, 2012 by Diddley

[McGarnagle]

Pyro is much better in pvp, as noted. It is also way better vs. maruaders.

 

Yet with marauders you have to realize a few things. First of all, they have 5 different defensive cooldowns. You have to recognize them.

 

1. Saber ward. Not much you can do about it. It's a damage reduction and on 3 minute cooldown. You will see them raise their lightsaber and get a bubble around them. Again, not much to combat them. Just know you forced them to use a 3 minute cooldown.

 

2. Cloak of pain. This is one where you have to kite some. It's tough to recognize too. They get a sort of mist around them. It lasts six seconds, but every time you attack them it refreshes and can last up to 30 seconds. It also deals damage every time you attack them. It's only on a 1 minute cooldown, so they use it a lot. I try to run away when they use it (or save the knockback for this if they didn't use their long jump to get on you) and not attack much while popping my defensive cooldowns. Insta concussion missile is good here. They will probably break it (using their cc breaker, so that is a plus). Personally I think this ability is op, but that is another discussion. Edit: I would have to check, but I think this is only a ranged attack damage reduction, so tech attacks are a plus here.

 

3. I forget the name, but it's the thing they throw on you that looks like a cloud. This lowers your ranged accuracy by 90%. Try to stick to tech attacks as much as possible since this has no effect on that.

 

4. Undying rage. CC is key here. Once they pop that it's obvious. They always do it when they are near death since it take half their health, but it also reduces damage by 99% (so they are pretty much invulnerable to all attacks). Save your electro dart for this. As soon at they pop it, hit them with electro dart. By the time they are un cc'd you can kill them. For pyro thermal detonator is nice here. You can hit them with electro dart, drop a thermal detanator on them, and as soon as they come out of cc (along with undying rage being done) they simply blow up and die.

 

5. Force camo. This is their vanish. It only last 4 seconds. Either take them out of stealth with aoe or drop your stealth scan before they die. If none of that, just look around. They can't stay in stealth long.

 

Other than that, understand their leaps and rage builders. If they used their long jump, knock them back right away. They cannot do anything from that distance and no longer have a long jump. Plus they are slowed, so you have time to attack them while they cannot do anything until 10 meters. A rage spec marauder has obliterate and it's a 10 meter jump and it costs rage (so if they don't have rage built up they can't use it). A smart marauder will jump on you with obliterate, take the knockback, and then use the long jump. So understand where they jumped from and check out the animation if you didn't see where they came from. If they used obliterate to get on you, it will be really tough since they have the longer leap if you knock back. Personally, if they have full health and the rage to jump on my with obliterate I consider myself screwed. It's takes some luck.

 

Most pvp marauders are rage spec (although more and more are going other specs). When they jump to you and then choke you, smash is coming. It's a 100% crit and buffed at that point (it will hit really, really hard...6k+ hits are very possible if they are geared). After they choke jump in the air. Smash does not work if you are in the air (again, pyro is a plus here since it has attacks you can use while you are jumping in the air...avoid smash and attack at the same time). Either that or cc break choke and run. Often they will use smash right away, and it's only 5 meters (plus it take a little bit to activate). Smart ones will wait to use smash since they have up to 15 seconds to use it buffed, but most will use it right after they choke or use crush.

 

There is also stacks of fury. If they are able to stack fury they will look like they are on fire. When they use it they get a buff (what kind of buff depends on their spec). I won't go into it all since there is not much you can to do stop it, and each spec has a different buff (even then there are 2 buffs to choose from, damage and speed). Simply kill them before they are able to build their stacks.

 

I know that is kind of all over the place. Marauders are tough to play, but when played well they are tough to deal with. The best thing I can say is play a marauder to truly understand everything they are doing. In the end, they are probably the best 1v1 class in the game. Yet they are terrible running into groups, which they have to do often if you group up. They need to use their jump to build rage and buff smash if they are rage spec. So don't sit alone, and if you have to make sure you can knock them back to an area where they either can't jump again or you have an exit.

 

edit: oh, BTW, on a sort of tangent, pyro can spec into increased stealth detection. It is incredible. I destroy so many ops and assassins in stealth who think they will open on me when they are in stealth. I am able to pull them out of stealth before they can open and it's makes them useless. Another reason pyro is much better pvp. I can literally hear their cries of "how did he see me?"

Edited April 8, 2012 by McGarnagle

[Ihazcrayon]

As others said, go pyro.

 

Only the marauders that are really on top of their game cause real troubles for me. Most average marauders are generally easy. Especially since most of them are going rage now to ride the 1.2 change bandwagon. It's so easy to see the rage burst coming.

[Mursy]

Arsenals should stay away from Mauraders for extended periods of time, otherwise hit and run and make sure the other glow stickers on your team are ready to pick them off of you. You take them on 1v1 for very long and you die. Electrodart, concussion missile, and run away run away.

[Cegenaus]

to expand on what mcgarnagle said: the other spec you'll see mostly is annihilation which is a dot spec. they have an ability called rupture that does direct damage as well as a bleed on top of another ability called deadly saber that makes their next three saber attacks stack a bleed, this means 4 bleeds at once. both of these abilities are on a 15 sec cd and the bleeds last for 6 sec so they cant keep them stacked up. berserk also synergizes with this, when they get their full 30 stacks of fury and pop berserk their bleeds get 100% crit chance and heal the entire party for 1% of max health. the only way to combat this is to use cure when you get one of them on you.

 

the other spec is carnage which is a burst spec, you wont see it a lot for the time being but it got a buff from 1.2 so youre gonna encounter this more soon. it revolves around using an ability called gore to grant 100% armor penetration followed by ravage which is a hard hitting channeled skill and then a force scream that has a 100% crit chance buff from blood frenzy. these guys are a little harder to counter but my advice would be to wait for the ravage and then use a knockback. that will cancel their ravage and waste part of their ap pen buff and hopefully some of their blood frenzy buff. a massacre > gore > ravage > force scream rotation with blood frenzy (from massacre) and ap pen up the entire time is a beautiful site to behold ive been told

 

ive played an anni up to lvl 27 and i am now on carnage for a lvl so i have limited experience as a sw but i would suggest going to their forums. there is a sticky at the top of the mara room that explains every spec with detailed explanations about the abilities, rotations, and stat stacking. knowledge is power

Edited April 8, 2012 by Cegenaus

[sithlordcip]

Respec to pyrotech! As arsenal you are pretty much food for every other adv class because of interrupts and LoS. With pyro they are much less of a problem as you have mobility, kite-ability and instant casts.

 

You may already know that, but as such there is a very slim chance you will win against an experienced marauder as arsenal.

 

However i don't feel im doing that much dmg as pyro.

 

Im lvl 44 atm, I bought the whole lvl 40 pvp gear and I have an epic chest.

 

I don't top the dmg meter in warzones, but as ars I can.

 

Can any of you guys link me a good pyro build for pvp?

 

Thanks guys

 

Ty McGarnagle for your time

Edited April 8, 2012 by sithlordcip

[Diddley]

If you go hammer and tong at dps as a pyro you can get great numbers but doesn't really appeal to me as it usually it involves laying dots on people, aoe and spamming healers instead of objectives. Breaking 300k every warzone is no problem at all even if you do play objectives.

 

Here is a general all round spec people use:

 

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#3000cZMckZMIrbzGGMs.1

 

It's up to you how you spend the spare points in bodyguard, some go for hired muscle, some go for the extra heat vent. Your other major choice is between energy rebounder or automated defense near the top of pyro. Both have their merits.

 

I use this spec which is my own devising. Not everyone's cup of tea but I've had success with it:

 

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#3000cZMckZMIMrzGrrR.1

 

This way I get automated defense and energy rebounder but lose a little bit of dps from burnout and rain of fire (negligible in my opinion). I also have degauss which is great for line of sighting and running away. However, if you are just starting to go pyro I would take gyroscopic jet alignments to help you manage heat. People also rate stealth detection but I've not had that much luck.

 

Your main rotation is

 

Incendiary missile > Thermal Detonator > Rail shot > Power shot/unload to proc a rail shot > repeat power shot unload.

 

You can begin to mix it up your rotation mixing in rapid shots which does decent damage as a pyro and is free. I like to do IM > TD > PS > RS. That way power shot, rail shot and thermal detonator all hit at once and will melt targets if it all crits. Putting PS before RS in 1.2 will be risky business however because it may proc your free rail shot leaving a 6 second cool down with no rail shots.

 

Keep your dots up and when the target is at 30% health launch a fusion missile on them as burnout means your dots do 30% extra damage.

 

You can also kite melee classes by using rapid shots. Run away, jump>turn>rapid shots, keep running.

 

You need to learn how to use line of sight and keep mobile too.

 

That's pretty much everything I've learnt from the kind people on this forum and in the field

 

P.S wow mcgarnagle. thanks for that post!

Edited April 8, 2012 by Diddley

[iDraxter]

why o why would anybody spend 3 talent points for 3%endurance:eek: most useless skill on swtor for any AC

[Diddley]

It's how you level the tree. More useful than alacrity. My gear give me 100% accuracy in total

[Yazule]

i run about 40/60 vs marauders... they are one of the hardest for sure...

 

arsenal is not as bad as all the pyro fanboi's say, it definitely does more single target damage than pyro.

 

The secrets are

 

1) stand your ground.

 

use your knockbacks, use your edart, interrupt anything they have to chanel/cast with these

 

2) watch their resolve bar

 

never let it fill up because secret number 4 will need him to not have a full resolve bar

 

3) make sure to get 5 stacks

 

it makes you do more damage, it makes you take less damage, it gives you the railshot bonus as well

 

4) use an "intsta concussion" when below 30%

 

you should be able to get him down to at least 50% by the time you are at 30, at that point take the 8 second stun and put it on him, heal twice and then TM/HSM/Unload/rail ... he will die or be close enough that he is using cooldowns not damaging you ... you are at 60% health at least

 

this works about 40% of the time vs equally geared Maurauders

 

in the end do not fret when you get the 4 seconds of no TM, use unload/hsm/rail/rapidshots... unload alone will take up most of that time. dont forget to kolto yourself when needed, and explosive dart has its moments in there

 

once you move you are dead, you cannot dps while moving, any arsenal kiting is not too bright unless he is waiting for friends... in a solo fight you stand your ground, better to burn out than to fade away.

 

 

this of course is straight toe to toe.. if you can get an advantage any other way (standing near the blow vents in huttball for a quick "getaway" for example) then sure do it... trying to kite though? BAD IDEA... he is at least as fast as you, if you are in range you will stay in range, he can still do almost max dps and you can do 30% of your dps... bad equation.

[Macroecon]

Some interesting replies in this thread. Here are my thoughts as someone who PvPs with both a Merc Pyro and a Anni Mara.

 

In a 1v1 fight the Mara beats anyone. This is assuming both combatants enter with full health and all abilities available. The Mara simply has too many additional abilities. That having been said, there are certainly a lot of Mara/Sents that are not well handled and thus beatable. But as the player base climbs the learning curve for this class, the chance of beating this subclass will get worse and worse.

 

Your only chance of beating the Mara/Sent is to NOT beat it. Ironic eh? You need to force the Mara/Sent to engage in heavy downtime where it is not fighting. Some of this is under your control (pushing a Mara off a platform in Huttie for example and then immediately moving to the other side of the platform so he cant Force Leap back to you). But a lot of it isn't. For example, IMO the biggest obstacle to a Mara's performance is the composition of the team he is on. A Mara on a team with no healers is probably less effective than a ranged dps. That's because the a team with no healers and lots of dps kills enemies quickly but dies a lot too. Spawn churning means more downtime for the Mara/Sent. He can only reduce that downtime to be roughly equivalent to the downtime a ranged dps has by prematurely using his Force Leap. Which is not a good option.

 

The flip side of that is when a Mara/Sent is on a team with the right fit between classes, he is the best team buffer/debuffer in the game as well as being the best dps platform in the game. Right now there simply aren't enough good Mara/Sents to form the right 8 man configurations. But there will be. By the end of Preseason 1, we'll see the Mara/Sent come into his own and really start dominating. You haven't seen anything until you see 5 Mara/Sents on a team with voice comms and they coordinate to chain cast Frezny/Bloodlust. In any terrain control type PvP match, it's game over. The enemy can't afford to run away for a full 75 seconds. And if they fight, they will die. All of them.