lethality question

[tloops]

is leveling sniper lethality a good thing to do? ive made it to lvl 21 doing this and have a good survivability,but guildies tell me not to do it....what do you guys think?

[stuffystuffs]

is leveling sniper lethality a good thing to do? ive made it to lvl 21 doing this and have a good survivability,but guildies tell me not to do it....what do you guys think?

 

I really like that tree and typically end up using it, but level mainly in another tree for both my Sniper and Operative .

 

You need to get Cull for it to be good...and that doesn't happen until lvl 30+.

[Infalliable]

IMO, no.

 

Most of what you will use in Pre-L30 are snipe, ambush, frag grenade, explosive probe, takedown, and rifle shot regardless of spec. You get almost no benefit from them in lethality.

 

Lethality focuses on long duration DOTs and the heavy hitting Cull. Questing is generally all low health, normal mobs, with some strongs thrown in. You can defeat the normals trivially in a few GCDs and DOTs are a waste. DOTs work okay on strongs, but that's still a lesser fraction of what you fight.

 

Lethaltiies key power is Cull. It's simply a damage machine. However, it takes a corrosive grenade (20 energy) and a corrosive dart (20 energy) just to setup. So it's 65 energy to use the primary skill in the tree. It's a total waste of energy on anything less than a strong.

 

The energy regen mechanic also requires high +crit rating, but that's sort of hard to get while questing. You'd have to focus on it and most leveling gear is whatever you can get. People rarely go hunting (or find) the best possible mix of stats. This really isn't an issue at end game when you have time and opportunity to select your gear.

 

So all the key features of lethality are wasted on most of what you fight while questing. Late game flashpoints and ops, it's a beast as those fights are setup for lethality to shine. Same with PVP.

Edited May 11, 2012 by Infalliable