Gunslingers are the hidden PvP god class of SWTOR.

[Krozis]

I guess I'll go back to Sab as I am very close to 50 on my 'Slinger.

 

The thing about Sharp Shooter is I like the insta-procs, the extra knockback is nice, and as mentioned the cooldown on Hunder Down is pretty darn essential considering this is: Stun Wars: the Slowed Republic.

 

In the 50 bracket I have noticed some very skilled Dirty Fighters.... easily identified by the Hemmoraging Blast. What a fun animation that is... fun playstyle, I just don't seem to hit hard enough with it, but some people do at 50 I can tell you that much.

 

Back to Sab: I think the tree descriptions are a little weird.... misleading. Putting it together in a combo is not really intuitive as a result. As an example I'm still foggy on how the skill 'Sabotage' interacts with 'Shock Charge'.

 

Also as someone mentioned the game has become all burst intensive. Not sure how Sab fits into that in the current meta.

 

Still not 50 though, so I appreciate any and all insight.

[Tamanous]

 

Operatives are my kryptonite

 

 

I found this funny as my main is an Op (leveling a sniper right now too ... love them both for different reasons) and I feel the same way about well play sniper/gunslingers. Every time I engage one the battle is one hell of a pain in the ***.

 

I see a hell of a lot of crap versions of them but every once in a while I meet one who actually makes me work at trying to kill them ... and even then I don't always win. Not by a long shot.

Edited December 16, 2012 by Tamanous

[thekidpow]

Just got up to level 11/12 and PVP'd for the first time. 3 games. First game was AH, which has borked defender medals and is a little bit tough for squishy ranged classes. I did okay, but it was my first try with a GS so I gave myself a mulligan.

 

Next two games were Novare Coast and Huttball. 10 medals, 12 medals. Did 153k and 33 kills in Huttball and I'm probably a tad undergeared. Getting a second root/stun so early is a godsend. Great class, fun to play.

[Tamanous]

Ya played with my noob sniper in several guild pre-50 runs. Had a blast (even when facing each other). We lost 1 Huttball and I was on losing side of a Huttball facing each other but I believe I topped every single round in damage and was amazed that at level 16 (thank god I got my knockback!) I even broke 200k damage one round. Had very few deaths.

 

I am enjoying the hell out of the sniper.

 

The greatest joy is that after 50 levels of Operative pvp (I still love my Op so don't get me wrong) I could actually knock people into acid/fire/off bridges!!!!!!!!!!!

 

/HAPPYHAPPYJOYJOY!

 

Oh god how I loved my revenge on all those force users. I think I killed nearly 10 with knockbacks in half as many matches. The most memorable one was a female force user of some sorts (hell I don't really care what they are. I only check to see if they are tanky or not) on Voidstar who ran at me, force pushed something or other me, I moved back about 3 feet from it and then I knocked her flying off the bridge about 30 feet. I just wish I had a /Who'smahB*****? emote.

Edited December 22, 2012 by Tamanous

[Thrangbrand]

Gunslingers are definitely a dark horse in PVP. Although at first they are a bit squishy later levels give them skills for when they get ambushed in close quarters.

 

However they are most effective in a tactical position pumping out huge DPS. If not detected from their hidden assault point they can take out a good 5 or more people in a row. Getting a good nest point is crucial.

 

I usually come in the top three maybe not so much with medals all the time but with enemy kills. They have to be the biggest DPS class in the game. Insane damage especially with crits. I have lots of people ***** about Gunslingers in PVP because of close combat fights but from even level 10 they have rocked for me in PVP. I love em.

[Vysas]

No, that would be a missile launcher, not a gunslinger.

 

 

 

hehe. good one. i am still laughing:p

[Vysas]

I found this funny as my main is an Op (leveling a sniper right now too ... love them both for different reasons) and I feel the same way about well play sniper/gunslingers. Every time I engage one the battle is one hell of a pain in the ***.

 

I see a hell of a lot of crap versions of them but every once in a while I meet one who actually makes me work at trying to kill them ... and even then I don't always win. Not by a long shot.

 

when an operative engage you in combat with first strike, then you are allmost dead as gunslinger. if you got the chance to get out of the "stun-parade" , you can only try to escape. fighting when you are allmost dead and without any help is suicide and has nothing to do wie "skill" or "crap-versions".

 

funny that you mentioned you suck on both sides egain your kryptonite counterpart.

[Vysas]

servers are back.

 

see you guys in battle

[Ashuranrx]

A year later, this class is still a god class to those who adapted to the changes and found improved ways to play it.

 

The new roll we got is insane. This negates a lot of the mobility weakness that we previously had.

 

This class now has the highest on demand burst, even surpasses Combat Sentinels. Combat can still potential burst higher but it is heavily dependent on RNG and procs. LoS is still our weakness though. But if a target is taught unaware, I can drop that target in less than 10 seconds.

 

Sharpshooter - Single target burst is insane. Mobility is insane. CC is insane. Roll + movement speed increase with root immunity = no one escapes from me and I can escape anyone. I don't even run out of energy in this spec anymore, like ever.

 

Sabotage - Single target damage was buffed significantly (althought still below Sharpshooter), while retaining the same awesome AoE power and survivability. Energy efficiency was increased significantly.

 

Dirty Fighting - I feel now this is the weakest spec of the three, and is inferior to the other two in both PvP and PvE. It does not parse as high in DPS in comparison to the other two. And I actually feel that it got left behind in mobiity in comparison to Sharpshooter and other classes. Troopers got baseline "Hold the Line", Scroundrels got roll, Sages and Shadows got improved Force Speed, Focus Jedi Knights got free snare with Zealous Leap, Sharpshooter got sprint... etc. DF got no mobility buff and was left behind. DF gets owned the easiest by stealth DPS, and the bleeds can't seem to scale as well as everyone's HP pool, making it feel like that the damage is lacking.

[flem]

Sharpshooter - Single target burst is insane. Mobility is insane. CC is insane. Roll + movement speed increase with root immunity = no one escapes from me and I can escape anyone. I don't even run out of energy in this spec anymore, like ever.

I don't even hit Cool Head unless I'm singlehandedly capstopping in Novare (Sweeping Gunfire ad infinitum until Flyby comes back).

 

Makes me think I might switch from 36/7/3 to some form of 36/3/7 because the extra 10 energy seems redundant now.

[GalnarDegana]

I read this thread from the beginning and thought it was recent until I saw someone mention Battlemaster gear. This was back when Gunslingers were considered the "weak" class, and when I was considered crazy for loving it so much.

 

Two words: Flourish Shot

You are the ideal focus target as a Gunslinger. Armor debuff and healing debuff in the same instant cast skill? You mark a target for death fast than any other class. Combine that with a Spinning Kick from a Shadow and you are in business (since it takes extra damage in stealth spec).

 

Saboteur is my dear love and has been since last March probably. I was exclusively SS, but Sab just rings true now. I love having the longest-range stun in the game, I love the tactical area denial. For the record, I felt 1v1s were very strong pre-2.0, and now they are easy. Stealths that get the drop on us still can wreck havoc, but everything else is pretty straightforward.

 

I even wrote a post on TORWars "in defense of the Gunslinger" because of the bad rap it had been given. Unfortunately, it was taken down with a lot of other old posts because of virus attacks, but I can access the back-end. To sum it up: Hunker Down, Scrambling Field, and Flourish Shot. Three of the most useful utility skills in the game. Here are some quotes from that article, posted July 24th, 2012.

 

Hunker Down

 

Only one class has a tool that is available whenever they need it that gives immunity to CC when used in a prescient manner. Hunker Down lasts for 20 seconds, and in that time, you cannot be pushed, knocked back, stunned, rooted, dazed, or anything else. We are the only class with this kind of availability and uptime on such a useful skill. This skill only has a cooldown of one minute, but it is also on an even lower cooldown of 45 seconds when in Sharpshooter spec from the talent Lay Low.

 

You are the ultimate Huttball-grabber with this skill, as you can defeat one of the most prevalent strategies, which is to stun people waiting in the middle for the Huttball to pop up right after a score. I have won 3 minute, 6-0 games by staying in the middle and grabbing the ball, passing it up to a teammate on the rafter (pass, pass, pass, score!). Hunker Down can really make this strategy work even better by making it so you are definitely the one getting the ball back.

 

Scrambling Field

 

Scrambling Field is one of those tools where the balance of using it too little and too much is on a fine line. On one hand, you could save it "until you really need it" and never use it. On the other hand, it could be on cooldown when you could REALLY need it.

 

My strategy is, if there are more of them than of us, and there are three of us in close proximity to me, then I use this skill. If we outnumber the enemy, it is likely that a bigger rush will come soon where it will be more useful, so I save it. You will be surprised how effective this simple rubric can be.

 

Flourish Shot

 

Flourish Shot is a great tool that is used early in any spec's rotation. It puts a debuff on the target for -20% armor and -20% incoming healing. It is on a very short cooldown, and is not an energy-sink. No other skill of any other class can debuff quite as much in such a short time as this sucker.

 

Here is the number one reason why I think that Gunslingers are potentially excellent in Ranked Warzones. We are ideal Focus Targets, i.e. DPS teammates should be putting the Gunslinger on Focus Target, then use the newly-added "Acquire Focus Target's Target" keybind to help focus-fire enemies (you can find it in your options).

 

"Why the Gunslinger?" you might ask. "Flourish Shot," I answer. I would assume that if you are doing Ranked Warzones, you are using some Voice Chat service like Ventrilo or Teamspeak, which makes it easy to call out targets. As a Gunslinger, if I say "my target" and people switch to my target via the Focus Target system, then the target will ideally be freshly debuffed with Flourish Shot. That means that instantly, without any work, the target is more likely to go down. Add to that the crippling pain of the burst damage the Gunslinger can bring. And note the fact that we are away from the action, making it easier to see, thus making it easier to pick targets and see more quickly when new targets arrive. That is a powerful combination.

[Obviousenuendo]

This is a post for me to scream out how awesome the Gunslinger class is in PvP, because I just need to get it off my chest to share the class’s awesomeness with you all.

 

I played a Jedi Guardian (first character), then a Gunslinger, then a Sith Sorcerer, then a Mercenary

 

dude, that is me right now, First I got a JK guardian knight to 55, made my smuggler, felt exactly as you do now, and then plan to make the following characters in that order..crazy.

and going from guardian to gunslinger...It felt like starting DMC1 on Dante must Die! then switching over to easy mode. everything is just pew pew pew pew pew now.

 

my GS is only 28 but I had to spec out of SS, (I dominated pvp while I was SS though) it seemed nice but looking at all the talents later on, not only did they focus on things I didn't seem to use much, they looked geared towards pve,

then I gandered at the other two trees, saw all the nifty things and benefits and said yes.

I ultimately chose saboteur over DF but I need to test each first before I can truly decide.

 

that and my smuggler is one of the grand fathers to han solo, so I would want a spec that seems appropriate, alittle bit atleast