Concerned about Arsenal DPS

[Daystarr]

Hey guys,

 

I'm a Annihilation Marauder and my guild is progressing 8man HM EC. In every attempt, I'm noticing our Arsenal Merc doing a significant less amount of damage than the rest of our DPS team (Marauder, Sniper, Sorcerer). On our kill of Toth&Zorn HM, I've got a parser showing the damage done:

 

Me (Marauder): 425,341

Sorcerer: 339.083

Sniper: 311,457

Merc: 180,614

 

As you can see, I did more than double of the Merc, and we were both on Toth with no down time, while Sorc and Sniper were on Zorn with occasional switching cause of Fearful debuff.

 

Our Merc is fully Rakata geared, I'm wondering is this normal? He said it's just constant management of his Heat and waiting for the burn phases to unload (excuse the pun) all his damage.

 

Can anyone help? Or is this just the state of Arsenal Merc dps?

[Macroecon]

That seems low, but yes at this point Merc dps is low man on the totem pole. He shouldn't be half that of the top dps though.

[sensiblepoast]

That seems low, but yes at this point Merc dps is low man on the totem pole. He shouldn't be half that of the top dps though.

 

That's ok, the arsenal merc has unmatched utility and survibability to make up for the lost dps.

Edited May 1, 2012 by sensiblepoast

[Defenestrate]

lol. /10 characters

[Ifrit]

if he is having trouble with his heat he is doing something wrong. While I would not be surprised for bh to be the lowest dps class, I am surprised he is THAT low. He should be >230K IMO. PS. We arsenal bh's have 2 broken class things that when fixed should boost his dps, but not double it (barrage +25% unload dmg and armor penetration).

[Daystarr]

Okay thanks for the insight guys. To dissect this a little more I got a read out of his damaging attacks, and wondered if this perhaps looked normal:

 

Tracer Missile 75024 41.5%

Heatseeker Missiles 24401 13.5%

Rapid Shots 20040 11.1%

Rail Shot 15343 8.5%

Burning (Tech) 13254 7.3%

Unload 12582 7%

Radiation Burns (Tech) 6831 3.8%

Energy Surge 5875 3.3%

Fusion Missile 3356 1.9%

Explosive Dart 2976 1.6%

Missile Blast 932 0.5%

 

What else can you say regarding his most damaging attacks? I know there have been bugs reported around Unload to working properly with the procs in the Arsenal tree, but surely Unload at 12k is far too low? Rail Shot also seems underused, is it possible this is an l2p thing?

[Remulan]

Okay thanks for the insight guys. To dissect this a little more I got a read out of his damaging attacks, and wondered if this perhaps looked normal:

 

Tracer Missile 75024 41.5%

Heatseeker Missiles 24401 13.5%

Rapid Shots 20040 11.1%

Rail Shot 15343 8.5%

Burning (Tech) 13254 7.3%

Unload 12582 7%

Radiation Burns (Tech) 6831 3.8%

Energy Surge 5875 3.3%

Fusion Missile 3356 1.9%

Explosive Dart 2976 1.6%

Missile Blast 932 0.5%

 

What else can you say regarding his most damaging attacks? I know there have been bugs reported around Unload to working properly with the procs in the Arsenal tree, but surely Unload at 12k is far too low? Rail Shot also seems underused, is it possible this is an l2p thing?

 

It looks like he may be using the wrong cylinder. Nothing arsenal does should make the target burn. That would explain his heat issues too as arsenal requires high velocity gas cylinder to vent heat on crits. Unload damage is way too low on that parse as well, TM should be about 30-35% of damage at the top with unload right below it. Rapid shots should be at the very bottom, not above RS and unload.

[Elwacko]

check spec tree

 

Unload should be much much much higher of percentage... it should be #2

[Daystarr]

I have been levelling my own Arsenal Merc, currently at lvl 37, but just want to clarify the rotation so I can speak with guildie about it:

 

TM > Unload > TMx4 = Unload on proc > HSM > Rail Shot then repeat?

[gattiman]

I have been levelling my own Arsenal Merc, currently at lvl 37, but just want to clarify the rotation so I can speak with guildie about it:

 

TM > Unload > TMx4 = Unload on proc > HSM > Rail Shot then repeat?

 

Well heat signatures are broken so he can use HSM whenever it doesn't matter.

[Remulan]

The correct rotation if all talents are working like they are supposed to is:

 

TM x3 -> HSM -> Unload -> TM x2 -> RS is your initial rotation, after that follow the below priority:

 

Use unload whenever it procs, use HSM on cd, use RS when you have 5 stacks of tracer lock, all other time should be used casting TM (or weaving in rapid shots if heat is an issue).

[Yazule]

Okay thanks for the insight guys. To dissect this a little more I got a read out of his damaging attacks, and wondered if this perhaps looked normal:

 

Tracer Missile 75024 41.5%

Heatseeker Missiles 24401 13.5%

Rapid Shots 20040 11.1%

Rail Shot 15343 8.5%

Burning (Tech) 13254 7.3%

Unload 12582 7%

Radiation Burns (Tech) 6831 3.8%

Energy Surge 5875 3.3%

Fusion Missile 3356 1.9%

Explosive Dart 2976 1.6%

Missile Blast 932 0.5%

 

What else can you say regarding his most damaging attacks? I know there have been bugs reported around Unload to working properly with the procs in the Arsenal tree, but surely Unload at 12k is far too low? Rail Shot also seems underused, is it possible this is an l2p thing?

 

this is terribad, he should not be using rapid shots that much, i rarely use that attack and only when heat is bad, the fact that he even used missile blast is horrid, have him take it off the bar completely. unload should be #2 damage (maybe #3 or if he gets lucky on barrage proc #1 )

 

terribad

[Calavero]

Your data isn't the state of Arsenal Merc DPS, it's the state of a clueless player who has absolutely no idea what he's doing.

 

As stated, he's using the wrong cylinder and the wrong attacks in the wrong order, and is probably specced wrong as well. Better make sure he's not stacking Cunning or Strength on his gear, since he hasn't even managed to figure out that he ought to use his strongest attack as often as he can (which, ironically, would help a lot with his heat problems).

 

I know that sounds harsh, but knowing which cylinder to equip and what attacks do more damage that others is stuff you learn before you get off Dromund Kaas, by simply playing the game.

[The_Duck]

Yeah, he has heat management issues because he is in the wrong stance.

The equivalent would be if you were in Ataru Form but not an Annihilation spec

 

Your Merc (assuming he is arsenal tree since he has tracer missile) should be using High Velocity Gas Cylinder

 

From there you get a lot of heat benefits:

1. Rail Shot is basically free

2. Tracer Missile has a chance to vent 8 heat, etc

 

Damage-wise, Unload should be a LARGE chunk of the damage he does (over 25%)

For heat management Rail Shot should be used when available (since it is a free ability)

[DarkForster]

Dude was either Playing around & not being serious or has no clue how to spec and Play a Arsenal Merc

[Daystarr]

Ok thanks again for the input guys I'll be having words

[StaticJoe]

I have been levelling my own Arsenal Merc, currently at lvl 37, but just want to clarify the rotation so I can speak with guildie about it:

 

TM > Unload > TMx4 = Unload on proc > HSM > Rail Shot then repeat?

 

 

I use TMx3, UL, TMx2, RS then lather rinse repeat mixing in Explosive Dart and Missile Blast depending on the how alive the enemy is at that point

Edited May 1, 2012 by StaticJoe

[Bobiefatt]

Right now we as a guild are on HM 8 3th boss in EC.

 

We have no issues with BH merc dps at all.

Merc dps might not be as high as Sorc of marauders but its stil hard enough to beat enrage timers.

We killed the 3th boss in EC HM with 3 BH mercs even.

 

Currently im doing around 1100 / 1250 dps on boss fights while some of our other dps (Sorc, Dps Jugg) hit around 1300 / 1450 dps.

 

Its al in the rotation i use.

 

 

First of all High velocity gas cylinder is a must, losing 8 heat on crits is vital.

Always keep the heat under 25%, never go higher unless a fight requires you to nuke and you have vent heat ready.

Use sensor overide early, i tend to use it on HSM.

 

Tracer missle, tracer missle, tracer missle, tracer missle, Sensor overide, HSM, rapid shot, tracer missle unload.

Now keep doing rapid shots inbetween tracer missles to keep the heat low and use rail shots soon as 3 or 5 heat signatures are on the boss.

After that keep using this rotation but never go over 25% heat.

Keeping the heat low gives good stable dps.

 

My gear atm is with buffs around 2100 Aim, 38% crit and 102% accuracy.

Let your BH's practice on the boss dummy and use combat logs to see the result.

[Andarilhodoceu]

The correct rotation if all talents are working like they are supposed to is:

 

TM x3 -> HSM -> Unload -> TM x2 -> RS is your initial rotation, after that follow the below priority:

 

Use unload whenever it procs, use HSM on cd, use RS when you have 5 stacks of tracer lock, all other time should be used casting TM (or weaving in rapid shots if heat is an issue).

 

That's basically what I have been doing (sometimes I unload before HSM to see if there's a difference, none that I have noticed so far), but then I started practicing on the target dummy and I realized that my barrage procs so often (making me use unload much more, and TM much less) that I usually only have 2 tracer locks when railshot comes off cooldown.

 

Now I'm wondering if I should really wait for 5 tracer locks before using railshot, since it still has good damage even with only 2 locks and it's basically a free ability (considering spec and pve set bonus), which helps with heat management. What do you guys think?

 

Obs.: Because of barrage processing very often, I unload so much that it usually does a little more overall damage than tracer missile, even - last parse I got 37.58% damage from unload and 37.34% from TM in a 6-minute session. Rail shot was only 8.89% because I was waiting for 5 stacks of tracer lock (17 rail shots in 6 minutes).

[Ifrit]

Yes this is a L2P issue. Also, some1 said that arsenal has no burn damage which is wrong. Fusion missile is still one of our hardest hitting attacks (especially with no working armor pen), but it has a huge heat cost so I only use it with thermal sensor override.

 

My preferred rotation is as follows: 2-3 TM (2 if barrage procs, 3 if not) - Unload - TM (only if <5 heat sigs) - HSM - 2 TM - Railshot. After that point I use TM only as filler. He should be hitting unload EVERY time it procs and is available to use. Unload should end up being about 35-40% of his overall dmg. Also after that first rotation, railshot and HSM are used whenever possible. If railshot and HSM are both up at the same time use railshot first to dissipate heat. I also use unload before HSM in my rotation in order to reduce heat before using HSM (unload used @ <40 heat = net negative heat).

Edited May 2, 2012 by Ifrit

[mavsynchroid]

I concur.

[DkSharktooth]

Hey guys,

 

I'm a Annihilation Marauder and my guild is progressing 8man HM EC. In every attempt, I'm noticing our Arsenal Merc doing a significant less amount of damage than the rest of our DPS team (Marauder, Sniper, Sorcerer). On our kill of Toth&Zorn HM, I've got a parser showing the damage done:

 

Me (Marauder): 425,341

Sorcerer: 339.083

Sniper: 311,457

Merc: 180,614

 

As you can see, I did more than double of the Merc, and we were both on Toth with no down time, while Sorc and Sniper were on Zorn with occasional switching cause of Fearful debuff.

 

Our Merc is fully Rakata geared, I'm wondering is this normal? He said it's just constant management of his Heat and waiting for the burn phases to unload (excuse the pun) all his damage.

 

Can anyone help? Or is this just the state of Arsenal Merc dps?

 

He should have unload at around 30% of his damage and tracer missile around 40%.

He also may be using the incorrect cylinder for that fight causing him to not be able to vent 8 heat every 3 seconds.

Edited May 3, 2012 by DkSharktooth

[Swaggz]

I'll agree that those numbers are a bit on the low side for DPS. We aren't the top but we do more than that. The one thing I can see is the heat management. Not sure if it's just an unlucky string of non crits or what but I've found myself overheating more now than before 1.2.

 

That's ok, the arsenal merc has unmatched utility and survibability to make up for the lost dps.

 

HUH? Unmatched utility and survivability? Compared to who/what?

[Glorionn]

Swaggz thats called a troll attempt.

 

Your guildie needs to L2P. Unload is awesome for heat management. I prioritise Unload over everything (including TM). Highest DPS ive done on a dummy was 1400 over 6 minutes. Generally do 1300-1600 on bosses. Unfortunately our guilds sentinel is hitting nearly 2000 DPS on Karagga (No aoe).