Revadac Posted July 10, 2012 Share Posted July 10, 2012 (edited) Hi all. I'm leveling a Trooper after trying all the other classes and I'm having a lot of fun. Guns and explosions - what's not to love. My questions is what's the deal with Charged Bolt? The damage doesn't seem worth the cast time. It looks like I can fire off a couple Hammer Shots, not worry about a cast bar getting pushed back, and do the same or more damage in the same amount of time. As far as I know Charged Bolt can't be cast on the move either so there's yet another point in favor of Hammer Shot. There may be other skills that are a better of use of a GCD than either, but if so that makes Charged Bolt even worse comparatively. I'm just going off informal visual observation of the enemy's health bar after using either ability - but I just don't see the advantage of using Charged Bolt over Hammer Shot. Am I missing something? I'm only level 20 - do talents make Charged Bolt worth using later on? Thanks! Edited July 10, 2012 by Revadac Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldworldthrill Posted July 10, 2012 Share Posted July 10, 2012 Which spec are you putting your points into when you level? Combat Medic, Gunnery, or Assault? Currently I am playing an Assault commando and I can tell you that no, the damage isn't great. However Charged Bolt (because of ionic Accelerator) has a chance (although Full Autos chance is better) of finishing the cooldown on and making the next one free for High Impact Bolt, one of the harder hitting abilities. I cannot really speak for the advantages of using it (Charged Bolt) while in the other two trees however. Hope this helped. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SweetOldBob Posted July 10, 2012 Share Posted July 10, 2012 ...Charged Bolt (because of ionic Accelerator) has a chance (although Full Autos chance is better) of finishing the cooldown on and making the next one free for High Impact Bolt, one of the harder hitting abilities. I cannot really speak for the advantages of using it (Charged Bolt) while in the other two trees however. Hope this helped. That sure sounds familiar, and my Commando is Gunnery spec'd. I think the buffs for HiB are the same across the specs? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Revadac Posted July 10, 2012 Author Share Posted July 10, 2012 Which spec are you putting your points into when you level? Combat Medic, Gunnery, or Assault? Currently I am playing an Assault commando and I can tell you that no, the damage isn't great. However Charged Bolt (because of ionic Accelerator) has a chance (although Full Autos chance is better) of finishing the cooldown on and making the next one free for High Impact Bolt, one of the harder hitting abilities. I cannot really speak for the advantages of using it (Charged Bolt) while in the other two trees however. Hope this helped. I'm Assault, sorry I should have clarified. So if Charged Bolt is lackluster for Assault what is a better choice? If I can open up a key bind that's just an extra bonus. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MasterFeign Posted July 10, 2012 Share Posted July 10, 2012 In concerns with Combat Medic, Charged Bolt is almost useless. In the CM stance you use hammer shot to get up to 30 stacks of combat medic cells, you can convert those cells using supercharge cells and one of the perks is 1 less ammo cost of charged bolts. However, supercharge cells is also for healing, so I'd be popping that for healing purposes. The only time I'd be using it is if everything else was on cooldown, and I had lots of ammo left, which is pretty rare that both would happen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robocles Posted July 10, 2012 Share Posted July 10, 2012 I can say that it is useless as gunnery as well... for the damage and cast time grav round always places higher on my priority list. I am sure there are some infrequent situations where that may not be true (not level cap yet), but that has been my experience thus far. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Revadac Posted July 10, 2012 Author Share Posted July 10, 2012 Yeah it seems like it's pretty lackluster. Oh well, there's an open key bind; that's never a bad thing in an MMO right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SweetOldBob Posted July 10, 2012 Share Posted July 10, 2012 (edited) Yeah it seems like it's pretty lackluster. Oh well, there's an open key bind; that's never a bad thing in an MMO right? CB is the least-used mapped shot that I've got, but I'm keeping it. Maybe I'm delusional, but I would swear there are times when it is hot and the only alternative is Hammer Shot, and it hits mucho mas harder than Hammer Shot. Edited July 10, 2012 by SweetOldBob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keypek Posted July 10, 2012 Share Posted July 10, 2012 It seems to be a really great ability for gunnery tree between the level 15-21 range... or until you get grav round. As you get reduced pushback, shorter cast time and better damage for rounds up to that pount and it hits pretty good. At level 19 on my commando it is hitting like a truck but looking at the tree it seems like it quickly becomes sub standard to just using grav round and full auto. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gyronamics Posted July 10, 2012 Share Posted July 10, 2012 A lot of things work badly at low levels. Charged Bolts is available to everyone but is only a useful skill in the hands of an Assault Commando. Gunnery gets too many boosts from Grav to use it and Combat Medic has a lousy cast time with it. You cast it before you can be hit then when you get hit you switch to another attack or create distance/stun the target. You do NOT try to cast it at melee range/under heavy fire. Sure you can spec for pushback resistance but frankly that's a dps loss when you consider that you aren't forced to keep casting if someone is hitting you... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TeganKing Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 if you are assault spec cb is only good when you need to use a dps cast ability with tech override and plasma grenade is down... or if FA is down and you want to reset HIB for more burst... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gyronamics Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 if you are assault spec cb is only good when you need to use a dps cast ability with tech override and plasma grenade is down... or if FA is down and you want to reset HIB for more burst... No. Charged Bolts is the core of our damage and our burst damage. Take charged bolts out of this... http://www.fryingtime.com/?filename=combat_2012-07-02_15_48_37_156250.txt and you have what is called crap damage Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArchangelLBC Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 if you are assault spec cb is only good when you need to use a dps cast ability with tech override and plasma grenade is down... or if FA is down and you want to reset HIB for more burst... Why would Tech override ever be up and plasma grenade down? I can understand the opposite problem. Sometimes I use Tech Override to give myself a quick heal with Medical Probe so it acts like a ghetto med pack, but I'd always save Plasma for TO if it was even remotely close to finishing it's cooldown. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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