Which Is the Better Assault / DPS Build for PVP?

[olemanbourbon]

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#8010MZMsMZfhMbdGGMs.1

 

2/8/31: More points in Tactics, for Blaster Augs, Frontline Offense

 

or

 

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#801hMhZ0MZfhMbdGGMs.1

 

8/2/31: More points in Shield, for +Aim

 

Thanks.

Edited May 16, 2012 by olemanbourbon

[Hethroin]

They end up being close (see 4.6.31 vs 7.3.31) .

 

I run 4/6/31 due to the higher rate of crit on AP, Plasma Cell, and IP; with AP and plasma cell getting a 30% crit damage bonus my opinion is that the higher crit rate is superior. Every other warzone I give up my 5k hit medal because my highest HIB only hit for 4.9k, but that's the sacrifice I choose to make to have a 40% crit rate on my spammable and dots.

[Philosomanic]

I'm going with 2/8/31, but not for Frontline Offense. I use Harpoon really often, so that -10s cooldown on Harpoon is really good for me. I pull ranged/healers into melee, and pull melees off my ranged/healers. The ability to position an enemy at will is extremely powerful. It's king in Huttball, and dead useful in the others.

[Hethroin]

I'm going with 2/8/31, but not for Frontline Offense. I use Harpoon really often, so that -10s cooldown on Harpoon is really good for me. I pull ranged/healers into melee, and pull melees off my ranged/healers. The ability to position an enemy at will is extremely powerful. It's king in Huttball, and dead useful in the others.

While no one is going argue with you that harpoon is a great ability, I would tend to disagree with the point allocation you have in your build. Ten seconds reduction on harpoon is only noticeable in huttball; I would not lose a small fraction of overall effectiveness in order to be a better fire-pit-puller.

 

Specifically the 4 points in Night Vision scope and Adrenaline fueled. I've found that Paralitic Combat Stims are a better investment than Night vision. Likewise I would not sacrifice points in Rain Of Fire and Burn out to pick up Adrenaline Fueled. You're giving up too much damage for perceived, not actual, utility.

 

I would call this the base assault spec with 7 points left to play with.

[Philosomanic]

While no one is going argue with you that harpoon is a great ability, I would tend to disagree with the point allocation you have in your build. Ten seconds reduction on harpoon is only noticeable in huttball; I would not lose a small fraction of overall effectiveness in order to be a better fire-pit-puller.

 

Specifically the 4 points in Night Vision scope and Adrenaline fueled. I've found that Paralitic Combat Stims are a better investment than Night vision. Likewise I would not sacrifice points in Rain Of Fire and Burn out to pick up Adrenaline Fueled. You're giving up too much damage for perceived, not actual, utility.

 

I would call this the base assault spec with 7 points left to play with.

 

Maybe I use Harpoon more than other players, but I noticed a huge difference when I got those two points. I use that ability almost on cooldown. I focus on disabling enemy support players. Support players are strong when they have nearby allies to support, but much weaker on their own. Harpoon instantly isolates them from their allies, and gives me plenty of time to take them down. Likewise, it's a great tool for peeling players off of my allies. Whenever I see a Sith Warrior leap at one of my healers, I instantly yank them back away. For most of them, they're unable to leap back and are dead before they can run to the healer.

 

If you're only using it to pull into fire pits, you're really missing out. That's one of the least feasible uses for Harpoon, because it requires the enemy to be in the right spot at the right time. It's all about being able to take enemy players out of their element and put them where you want them.

 

I actually really like Nightvision Scopes. With them available, I almost always spot players in stealth before they can jump me. With the bonus detection, they show up within roughly 8 meters in front of me, which is plenty of time for me to hit them first. The only way they can successfully jump me is to stay completely behind me while they approach, and it's rare for them to pull that off. The lowered cooldown on Stealth Scan is only situationally useful, and the +2% defense is a nice free bonus.

 

And finally, it really bugs me that people can so casually discount Adrenaline Rush as nothing. Let's look at this test build. Unmodded BM gear has 15,982 health. War Hero gear has 16,979 health. War Hero gear gives 997 (6%) more health. In BM gear, AR would heal for 2.4k health. It baffles my mind that anyone will agree War Hero gear is worth getting, but Adrenaline Rush is a worthless heal. I end up using Adrenaline Rush at least 5 times a warzone, and it really adds up. Likewise, I probably get Incendiary Round for free almost 10 times a warzone, and sometimes more. Going for Burnout/Rain of Fire is a viable choice, but so is Adrenaline Fueled.

[Hethroin]

The spec choices that reduce cooldowns on situational abilities are rarely the greatest return on investment, in my opinion.

 

Generally speaking, Nightvision Scope is useless in a war zone full of non-stealth classes. Adrenaline Rush doesn't really do you much good if you're backed by a good healer and are taking more damage per 10 seconds than adrenaline rush can heal for per hour. 2k is one tic of ravage, or one fire pulse; it's really only useful in a 1v1 situation where you extend your life just long enough to kill the other guy. I would take a free cell every time I'm stunned over the 3 cells that using Reserve Power Cell gives me every 60 seconds, as I am fairly certain I am stunned more than 3 times per 60 seconds. Hell, opening up on a lightning sorc gets you mezed, immobolized, and stunned, all within 10 seconds.

 

One thing I wanted to add to Nightvision. Most good stealthers, the reason why you even want to have night vision, will use their 'blackout' (increases stealth level) for moving up to a target. It makes it impossible to spot them in stealth even with nightvision.

 

I want to be clear that I'm not arguing with the choices you've made for your toon or calling you bad for making them, but rather explaining why I made the choices I did. The OP didn't really ask the questions we are debating, it was more of a "Should I get more Aim, or Tech Crit?" sort of thing.

[Philosomanic]

One thing I wanted to add to Nightvision. Most good stealthers, the reason why you even want to have night vision, will use their 'blackout' (increases stealth level) for moving up to a target. It makes it impossible to spot them in stealth even with nightvision.

 

True, I forgot about that. On my Shadow, it was used only as a vital resource regeneration tool, so I don't really think of it as a tool for stealth. I only have empirical evidence to back this up, but I spot multiple stealthers each match that I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have gotten without nightvision. Honestly, neither Paralitic Stims nor Nightvision are particularly impressive.

[olemanbourbon]

Thanks for the feedback. I'm not much of a fan of the skills on the right side of the tree under debate in this thread. I may try the one that offers the ammo return per snare, P Combat Sims. The ranged/melee defense is surely pretty worthless, unless you're proficient with stealth scan, which I am not. Oh, how I wish i could use neither of those (nor the +Endurance on the bottom right).

 

Adrenaline fueled is not useless, I concur, but it seems more like a PvE skill, as it is not very spike-resistant. Since I'm going assault dps (it's really a spike-damage build, not a dps build), I've elected to basically throw everything into buffing my main weapons on offense and hope I can stay out of the line of fire long enough to burn down the enemy.

 

Normally the crit/aim debate is pretty clear, but that +9% aim from shield adds about 120 total aim, which is a lot. I've run both builds, and am currently using the 2/8/31. The crits I'm getting with Ion Pulse are pretty nice. Good finishing skill. On the whole, the two bulids seem *** for tat.

Edited May 16, 2012 by olemanbourbon