Mara in PVP

[MidnightsRequiem]

So... I'm just 50, in the recruit pvp gear and I just cant do anything in pvp anymore... I'm trying to build up some commendations just to start getting gear, but its so hard to. My point is, what pieces of gear should I focus on getting first? what're the most important, In your eyes? Remember, I'm in full Recruit gear, sabers, all that. If it matters, Im a Carnage Marauder.

[furiousferret]

Personally, I think the best bang is to get the sabers first, and put the pieces in a custom augment piece. Slot them with the 41+ expertise crystal the the 18 str augment. Of course that costs alot of cash, and if you dont plan to reslot into custom gear (which imo is a huge mistake) then it doesn't matter.

 

Additionally, I've done all 3 specs fairly extensively, and Carnage is the weakest in terms of damage and survivability. You can still do well, but Annihilation is probably the best for a new 50.

[MidnightsRequiem]

I've tried all the specs myself and I just can't do anything. I get nailed by everyone for... 3k + I find myself waiting for the door to open more often then doing anything useful. I can't kill anyone 1v1, and I feel like Im just focused on hardcore. So ah... what am I doing wrong then? >.>

[Mindbent]

ok so i consider myself a pretty good marauder. not the best but above average. most warzones i usually get 250-350k damage and in a full game of huttball or void star around 530-ish. i have screencaps if you wish for proof. now here are just a couple tips for you. the most important things to note are

1. Skill rotation

2. correct skill tree

3. Kiting

4. knowing when to fight and who to fight.

 

what spec are you currently spec'd in? imho the carnage and anni tree are the most viable for the marauder because i believe that the juggernaut can do the rage tree much better than we can. tell me your spec and i can give you the rotation for it. another thing is making sure you kite/circle strafe. most marauders are so used to PVE leveling up that when you jump in all you do is stay put and do skills. DONT DO THAT. you WILL get ***** and you WILL die. run around opponents and make them WORK to hit you. it takes time but it does WONDERS. second use key binds. all the top players i know use keybinds. im not saying clickers are bad but its alot easier to master a class with keybinds. so yeah fill me in on your spec and items and lets see what we can do. ^_^. btw im from the corsair server. if by some chance youre there mention it so i can message you. peace out!

[MidnightsRequiem]

I'm currently in the Carnage tree, but I'm going to switch back over to Annihilation. Im better at it, know the rotations a bit better and enjoy it overall. I do use keybinds, however I only use 1-7 effectively, mostly because I have a split keyboard and small hands, soo... lol. I just picked up the BM boots as well.

[Mindbent]

ok so carnage tree is very bursty with a little bit of downtime. i love massacre and gore. it hits HARD. my only problem with it is that if they CC you right after you use gore you are pretty much SOL. i used to be carnage tree for about 2-3 months before i went annihilation and i DO NOT regret a thing. now with keybinds dont restrict yourself with only 1-7 keys. use the ones around your wasd keys too. so far i have a bunch from using 1-7 and Q E R F T Z C as my other binds. and Shift+Q, E, Z etc... you want your moves to be fluid and constant. i can use the skill tree site and post my spec if you wish. my hits are usually 2-2.5k for annihilate no crit. with crit i hit about 4k+ and my ravage hits at about 4-5k for the last hit. once again if you dont believe i can post screenshots and even record a video if you guys dont trust me but i am being honest. but yeah circle strafe ALOT. and i mean ALOT. and make sure you are never doing nothing. im always attacking and have virtually no down time with this build. bleeds hurt and i crit more than 50% of the time with them so i heal myself at the same time. my general rotation goes like this

Jump>deadly saber(while in mid air)> battering> Annihilation>Rupture.

now most of you will probably say im an idiot because i use my rupture AFTER my anni. the reason behind this is because i want them to be slowed to the fullest when i pop ravage so they have virtually no way of running away from it. the rest after that is up to you. make sure your priority system is straight. know what moves to use and when to use them. and lastly dont use force scream. alot of people do but it costs too much rage for anni spec. use two vicious slashes instead. i usually hit for 2.5k crits for them so if im lucky with crits i do a ton of damage with it. i'll will await for reply if you wish to see how my skill tree is set up. peace!

[MidnightsRequiem]

I'll have to give it a try. Link me to your spec if you wouldn't mind, and I'll see. My biggest problem is I'm in just Recruit gear, and I haven't seen ANY Annihilate hits over 1300 damage. I just cant do damage or survive long enough to DO damage. Its frustrating. I just have to deal with it until I can get enough armor I guess.

[aRtFuL]

So... I'm just 50, in the recruit pvp gear and I just cant do anything in pvp anymore... I'm trying to build up some commendations just to start getting gear, but its so hard to. My point is, what pieces of gear should I focus on getting first? what're the most important, In your eyes? Remember, I'm in full Recruit gear, sabers, all that. If it matters, Im a Carnage Marauder.

 

Get the saber first I say, augment it out, and be good with escapes - get out if you can't take something down to half health quick at least and people are starting to target you.

 

Don't play your mara like a warrior - play it like a rogue that has limited stealth and you should do a lot better.

Edited May 15, 2012 by aRtFuL

[Yescek]

Don't play your mara like a warrior - play it like a rogue that has limited stealth and you should do a lot better.

 

This, Probably the best tip I've ever seen. Undying Rage is NOT meant to let you kill an opponent who has better than 15% HP left, it's an escape move. Chain it with Predation THEN Camo and people will send you tells asking you where the **** you just went.

[Mindbent]

i agree 100% with the posts above. avoid playing the way you did when leveling your character because PVP is a whole nother ball game. this is what my tree looks like

 

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#100bIrRroMfsZhMZG.1

 

as for my stats i am at 100% accuracy, 27% crit chance, 76% surge/crit multiplier.

others may have their own style with all that 110% accuracy and 30% crit blah blah but this works for me so please dont question it. i stack ALOT of power btw. oh and im sitting at 1240 expertise. a tad high but im ok with that

[Roastmouse]

This, Probably the best tip I've ever seen. Undying Rage is NOT meant to let you kill an opponent who has better than 15% HP left, it's an escape move. Chain it with Predation THEN Camo and people will send you tells asking you where the **** you just went.

 

It is entirely possible to 100-0 a poorly geared squishy during the period of undying rage, such as an unbubbled sorc or a merc who choose to facetank you. They very often just stand there because they expect you to die within 1-2 gcd yet you have time to do a full deadly saber-rupture-annihilate-ravage combo in the 5+ seconds before you finally die.

 

 

I'll have to give it a try. Link me to your spec if you wouldn't mind, and I'll see. My biggest problem is I'm in just Recruit gear, and I haven't seen ANY Annihilate hits over 1300 damage. I just cant do damage or survive long enough to DO damage. Its frustrating. I just have to deal with it until I can get enough armor I guess.

 

It's just a gear issue. I'm in half WH gear and sometimes annihilate crits for 5k. Also the more HP you have the more your periodic heals tick for which adds up significantly. In a civil war i usually finish with about 60k healing which is more than a few deaths that didn't happen, discounting the berserk group heals. Annihilate is godly in 1v1 you can pretty much guard a node and mow down people if they come at you one at a time.

[aRtFuL]

It is entirely possible to 100-0 a poorly geared squishy during the period of undying rage, such as an unbubbled sorc or a merc who choose to facetank you. They very often just stand there because they expect you to die within 1-2 gcd yet you have time to do a full deadly saber-rupture-annihilate-ravage combo in the 5+ seconds before you finally die.

 

Yeah it is possible and it does happen, however the reason why a mara pops UR in the first place was because they are in trouble.

 

If you are in trouble I'd say survival and get out alive is probably the first priority. If you are planning to play the sacrifice game (which sometimes you need to, for example on door or point defence, to buy your team time to arrive) then any of the move that is meant for escape can also be use to prevent cap and prolong the fight.

[AsiriusNazriel]

It is entirely possible to get mowed down especially by better geared players. Just today I was in a WZ and faced what I think was a fresh 50 sentinel. His life bar melted so fast I didn't realize that I had killed him. I literally 3-4 hit him. I have main and offhand WH and my chest is WH, everything else is BM. This guy may or may not have had recruit gear, for all I know he couldn't had PVE gear, he died that fast.

 

Gearing is important, but the most important thing is rotation, building up and keeping a high rage reserve, using assault as the main attack, and appropriate use of CDs.

 

I had a killer day today though, hit 774 dps (not 774k, but dps) in a WZ. I'm a fully Annihilation spec'd Marauder and literally 9/10 WZs I am always the top dps, always. Sometimes I double the enemy team, which is sad. This is alot of credit to my teammates, if you're team up with scrubs then your overall performance is gonna be poor.

 

My recommendation is to practice your rotation on the ship dummy, until it feels natural. You should be activating abilities before the GCD is up. That way they're in the memory queue.

 

Anyways, GL!

[Jagil]

You're a little fish in a big pond being a fresh 50. It'll start out painfully now that people are starting to become fully geared in WH.

 

Your damage output and medals has a lot to do with the rest of your group. If you're constantly surrounded by scrubs in their pve gear, then consider just leaving WZ's before you start (its better for everyone if you leave early). Inspect players as they wait in the ready room. If the average expertise stat of the players is below 800 and there's not many people over 1100, then consider leaving the wz.. your team is likely to get rolled.

 

While you're weak, stick around in crowds helping out with injured enemies so you dont draw attention and don't run way outside the pack to attack healers (known healer hunters get focused).

 

I agree with an earlier post... sabers give you the best bang for buck, then switch out the power crystals with expertise crystals and put them all in a custom, augmented saber. Will cost you 1 BM saber + about 200k credits per saber to set up, but well worth it.

Deck out all the items which have the biggest benefit over your recruit gear ... legs, arms, chest, feet and leave the artifacts and implants till last. When going from BM to WH, again look for the biggest benefit gains.... probably do your sabers llater in the piece because the augmented sabers will give you some good mileage.

[Soreyox]

 

Additionally, I've done all 3 specs fairly extensively, and Carnage is the weakest in terms of damage and survivability.

 

<.<

>.>

lolz

[Yescek]

If you are in trouble I'd say survival and get out alive is probably the first priority. If you are planning to play the sacrifice game (which sometimes you need to, for example on door or point defence, to buy your team time to arrive) then any of the move that is meant for escape can also be use to prevent cap and prolong the fight.

 

Right. I still want the Marauder community to have the right mentality about those moves though. Annihilation is the ONLY spec I feel can use UR offensively, and ONLY during Berserk when you can count on the crit-heals. The other two specs MUST use UR to escape or they more or less WILL die. The only other use for UR I can think of is running past fire in Huttball, but Huttball's a whole other animal.

[Nyssavadude]

While leveling, is there any benefit to the level 20 and level 40 orange PvP gear? I don't recall seeing expertise on the gear.

 

Do you need to keep a separate set of PvP gear while playing PvE?

[Animaras]

While leveling, is there any benefit to the level 20 and level 40 orange PvP gear? I don't recall seeing expertise on the gear.

 

Do you need to keep a separate set of PvP gear while playing PvE?

 

Starting out as a fresh 40 with the entire 40 PvP set is supah nice. I got an instant 1.5k hp (approximately) increase along with great stat increases. Very noticeable in PvP AND PvE. But no, it works awesome in PvE as well. There is some expertise on it (the lvl 40 one), but it's not enough to make a difference imo.

[Blloodbane]

If you are carnage... You need healing... plain and simple... without healing, you are going have to do hit and run tactics.... UR can be used offensively or defensively....Force Camo i use to get out of dodge if the heat is too much... Saberward to help pad the time between UR and Cloak of Pain....

 

The gist of it all has been said by others here....

 

Learn the maps, learn about LOS, Learn different rotations for your abiltiies and adapt accordingly, Know your combat awarness of others around that you are fighting...and learn keybinding.... If you are in recruit gear and running against premades or just really strogn groups...just take your licks and be greatful you can still make gains even losing...

[aRtFuL]

Right. I still want the Marauder community to have the right mentality about those moves though. Annihilation is the ONLY spec I feel can use UR offensively, and ONLY during Berserk when you can count on the crit-heals. The other two specs MUST use UR to escape or they more or less WILL die. The only other use for UR I can think of is running past fire in Huttball, but Huttball's a whole other animal.

 

Good point. Because of the lack of self heals, I definitely hardly ever use UR offensively as carnage.

 

Force camo I might, but after I popped that it is pretty much an all-in move.

 

Additionally, I've done all 3 specs fairly extensively, and Carnage is the weakest in terms of damage and survivability. You can still do well, but Annihilation is probably the best for a new 50.

 

That is definitely false. I know that carnage damage is low on wz scores but wz scores only represent what's happening when someone is doing damage to a lot of people at once.

 

Carnage is a lot more dangerous on a single target. Adn the rate of damage a lot of times is NOT reflected in the final scores (Carnage probably got a far higher rate than any other specs first 10-15 secs of a pvp fight). Also, carnage is likely to be far more gear dependent in terms of main-offhand damage, since the main attack is spammable Massacre and has significant off-hand damage buffs and reliances.

Edited May 21, 2012 by aRtFuL