Commando In PvP

[necroticjon]

All I see is people talking about how a Commando is terrible in PvP (even extremely well played ones).. Are they actually THAT bad.. because I really would like to make an assault spec Commando, I have no interested in an assault Vanguard.. if I play him smart will I be able to atleast do decent dps and not get killed every 2 minutes. Also Merc's always talk that they are the worst class in the game, so would that apply to Commando's as well since they are mirrior classes?

 

*sorry about my english*

[Naariss]

About Commando in my point of view

Combat Medic is OK in PvP They have burst heal and High defend with damage reduction barrier and fair DpS This spec is OK fir me

 

Gunnery is High Damage output indeed but very bad they must stand and fire this is a big weakness. Experence player will used line of fire to avoid their shot.

 

Assault Commando is OK too but compare with Assault Vanguard we are disadvantage because Many Damage of Assault spec is an elemental damage Vanguard has ability (from shield spec) can improve Elemental Damage but we don't have

 

Now I play Assault commando

[ArchangelLBC]

If you can stay on the fringes and fire without getting harassed then you can indeed do very good damage as assault. Once someone looks at you harshly though you're gonna fold like a cheap card table.

[xxIncubixx]

Gunnery is good only to ragequit... if a marauder or powertech keeps jumping to you on a warzone... my friend you will ragequit in 1 minute i can guarentee u that.

 

Assault is not awful, but sucks compared to vanguard assault so its kinda silly rolling a commando to play assault.

[TheMB]

Commandos are not as terrible as many people say they are, but realistically Commandos are the only class that can't stand toe-to-toe with most of the other classes in damage or in healing really. When playing a Commando you have to play smart and learn to use the maps to your advantage in order to stay alive most of the times, bear in mind that we have the worst set of utility in the game so Commandos have to learn when to use their abilities at just the right moment. LoS (Line of Sight) will be your best friend in PvP so learn how to do so quickly before 50.

 

If you like the challenge of surviving most of your encounters then keep playing a Commando, if you cannot handle the stress of being picked on most of the time then the Commando isn't for you.

[eavn]

Friends don't let friends commando dps in pvp

 

basically if you want to be a serious pvper and are playing a commando just roll another toon until bioware possibly fixes them

[Iram]

Friends don't let friends commando dps in pvp

 

basically if you want to be a serious pvper and are playing a commando just roll another toon until bioware possibly fixes them

 

Pretty much.

 

Assault spec isn't bad. Against an equally skilled player, you at least have a chance.

Gunnery spec against a player with half a brain (and an interrupt) blows.

[Boufsa]

You are too focused on the interrupt. That's not a big problem. Every time I get interrupted I just use another power, that's all. From my point of view, the biggest problem is all the persons who use los while you are casting your powers, making you lose your time and dps. But we are not the only ones with this problem. Every ranged dps encounter los.

 

I would rather think that commando's bad reputation comes from the fact that most commandos dps pvpers are not very well played. Someone spoke about the marras jumping at you very often, that's a nuisance, but you can deal with it.

 

Everyone (and every class) should just stop hitting the guy who is hitting them (even if it is a double neon guy), and rather focus on the healers first and on the same guy as every other afterwards, and it will go a lot better. If the mara keeps hitting you, it must be that either he is dumb or he thinks that you are the bigger nuisance. Either way just act as a decoy and make your team win.

[ArchangelLBC]

You are too focused on the interrupt. That's not a big problem. Every time I get interrupted I just use another power, that's all. From my point of view, the biggest problem is all the persons who use los while you are casting your powers, making you lose your time and dps. But we are not the only ones with this problem. Every ranged dps encounter los.

 

I would rather think that commando's bad reputation comes from the fact that most commandos dps pvpers are not very well played. Someone spoke about the marras jumping at you very often, that's a nuisance, but you can deal with it.

 

 

I disagree. Personally I feel if you can do well with commando you'll do better with almost any other class. They just have the tools to do what we can't. And yes I'll focus on the interrupt weakness for Gunnery Spec because it's a big deal. The tree depends too much on Grav Round. I'd like a Hold the Line type ability making us immune to leaps and interrupts for 8 seconds with a 30 second cooldown (that's 3 Grav Rounds and a Full Auto), and/or I'd like Tech Override to grant instant casting for the full 12 seconds of it's duration instead of only being usable on one ability. A 2 minute cooldown for ONE instant cast is pretty ridiculous, especially considering the awesomeness that is Battle Focus (Vanguard level 50 ability).

[Altheran]

I tried Commando in Assault spec, I'm lvl 36 with him for instance, and it seems to kick bottoms. Edited August 22, 2012 by Altheran

[Jherad]

Commando DPS in PvP is for newb killing. Thankfully in standard WZs there are a LOT of bad players, so if you play well you can do some serious damage (although to be honest, if you're that good you could do this with any class).

 

The problem is that as gunnery most other well played classes can shut you down easily (particularly melee classes), and as assault there is nothing you can do better than (or as well as) an assault vanguard. Rated warzones against top teams will have you slamming your head against the wall.

Edited August 22, 2012 by Jherad

[Boufsa]

And yes I'll focus on the interrupt weakness for Gunnery Spec because it's a big deal.

 

For most class the interrupt cooldown is 12s. Which means once they have used it once, I just resort during 4s to FA, HiB or DR, then they cannot use their interrupt on me for 8s. Usually they are dead before they can use it again. When I am facing a guy who don't know me, it happens that he tries to use his interrupt, but soon they understand that it's no use against me. The interruptions are much more effective on the healers who have less fallback solutions. The key of success in pvp is to know the mechanisms of the other classes and to know their weaknesses.

[Jherad]

For most class the interrupt cooldown is 12s. Which means once they have used it once, I just resort during 4s to FA, HiB or DR, then they cannot use their interrupt on me for 8s. Usually they are dead before they can use it again. When I am facing a guy who don't know me, it happens that he tries to use his interrupt, but soon they understand that it's no use against me. The interruptions are much more effective on the healers who have less fallback solutions. The key of success in pvp is to know the mechanisms of the other classes and to know their weaknesses.

 

You need to stop fighting muppets, and try a marauder/op/sin/pt/jugg who knows what the hell he is doing.

Edited August 22, 2012 by Jherad

[Mayeh]

I play a Gunnery Commando almost exclusively in PvP and there are certain people that make my life heck. But on all maps you have to learn where to place yourself to get the most out of your abilities. I almost never fail to get my 8 medals in a warzone. If there is healing available I will pump out a lot of damage, with no healing, yes I will die a lot. If I am not being healed I generally trade one death for one kill over the course of the warzone. I have a blast playing the class in PvP and am currently Valor 78 and will finish my WH set this week.

[Jherad]

There is a huge difference between ranked WZs and fighting scrubs in regulars. Any well played class can roll a bad player - heck, see my PvP videos for plenty of examples.

 

Try that against a decent player. I spend 100% of my game time in SWTOR PvPing. I am valor rank 97 (this is my 3rd lvl 50), and am confident enough to say that I am probably the best PvP dps commando on the server (not that there is much competition). I am in fully augmented War Hero gear (over 1.3k expertise) have just shy of 20k health- and a well played/geared PT can kill me in 10-15 seconds. A top operative can have me down to 1/4 health before I break their stunlock.

 

Commandos have absolutely no answer to the top players of melee classes (including Vanguards/PTs).

[TheMB]

^Agreed. Good players can easily down Commandos if played right. But it is a lot of fun, for me at least, in figuring out ways to survive encounters with actual good players (instead of these FOTM people). LoS is key and the use of your utility at the right time can make a world of difference but still it is a challenge to survive in pvp as a Commando. Edited August 22, 2012 by TheMB

[ArchangelLBC]

For most class the interrupt cooldown is 12s. Which means once they have used it once, I just resort during 4s to FA, HiB or DR, then they cannot use their interrupt on me for 8s. Usually they are dead before they can use it again. When I am facing a guy who don't know me, it happens that he tries to use his interrupt, but soon they understand that it's no use against me. The interruptions are much more effective on the healers who have less fallback solutions. The key of success in pvp is to know the mechanisms of the other classes and to know their weaknesses.

 

Consulars and Smugglers have a 12s ranged interrupt (10m). Vanguards and Knights have an 8s interrupt which sentinels can spec into 6s if they go watchman. The fact that that's 3/7 of the other classes is balanced out by how many MORE Vanguards/PTs and Sents/Maras there are in warzones. I can't speak for smugglers or sages but I know that on my shadow I can still keep you shutdown for long enough after the first interrupt that by the time I'm out of abilities to shut you down and you can finally start your setup I'll be so far ahead it won't matter. On my sentinel the burst is so good that I almost don't care what else you do once I shut down the first grav round. Trading a non-COF Full Auto for a Precision Slash > Master Strike > Autocrit Blade storm is a trade I'm willing to make all day, without a Grav Vortex on you they can't use HiB (unless you blow your stun on them) and DR without those Vortices is pretty lackluster. Similarly vanguards have a lot of abilities to keep you shutdown until they're so far ahead that it doesn't matter. But that's 1v1 and we both know that's not where commando shines. The problem is that commando shines when they can be left alone and that's just one area where we really have no control over our own destiny. We can try to hang back, and of course we want to put ourselves near good real estate if it's available, but once they realize we're there we are too easily taken out of the fight, as opposed to Snipers who can still make you work for it even when you DO know they're there. Honestly our best bet is to just never engage someone unless they're already engaging someone else.

 

You're absolutely right though that the key to success in pvp is to understand the mechanics of other classes. That was one of the things that led me to level Sent in the first place, since nothing helps you understand a class like playing it, but that's true of success in pvp in general, not just for commando.

 

On that note, some tips against Sents, and combat sents in particular though.

 

1) If they leap to you while you're on a ledge, like in huttball. knock them back and try to open the distance to greater than 10m. Their leap is on a 15s cooldown, their ranged root (if combat spec) has a 10m range. On flat ground I don't recommend this because of the next tip.

 

2) On any spec but especially combat spec, Master Strike is deadly, and for combat spec in particular Precision Slash > Master Strike > Blade Storm is the super deadly Burst of theirs. Knock them back and indeed consider saving the knockback for this, and then get that 10.01m+ of space so they can't even get their blade storm in. They still have the possibility for high burst with zen > Blade Rush spam, but I can tell you nothing will tick them off more than having their 4.5s of 100% armor penetration wasted by being knock backed and slowed.

 

3) we should all know this but figure out how much burst you can get out of HiB > DR and stun then when their HP is less than that and freaking kill them before they have a change to GBTF/UR. Also have stealth scan somewhere you can use it quickly and try to guess when they're gonna use Force Camo and that will be a nice denialof that run away ability for them.

[foxmob]

For most class the interrupt cooldown is 12s. Which means once they have used it once, I .

 

no. most classes have an interrupt of 12s or less AND two stuns. interrupt. stun. stun. <you MIGHT get one cast off> interrupt. dead. sorry. no dice. can't stand toe to toe with any other dps.

 

unless you're facing a target dummy, you're going to lose. the best a gunnery can do is put pressure on someone or kill a really bad/unaware healer

 

edit: assault can bring down some equally geared dps. a sniper, for instance, can be taken down with a little los'ing. every melee class is still going to wreck you. sorcs *should* also wreck you, but they're fairly squishy too.

Edited August 23, 2012 by foxmob

[Boufsa]

At least I learned some helpful tricks there . I am playing on a RP PVE server, so I am probably not facing the best pvp players of the game. Additionally I don't play ranked WZs with my commando, I'd rather use my sage, which has less survivability, but much more tools to annoy the enemy.

 

Anyway, of course there are a lot of ways for others class to interrupt you, but most of the time it is long cool-downs, and even if it is up, I would rather keep my stuns/bumps for interrupting the healers or preventing enemies to interrupt my comrades while they are tagging a point. That's also the eternal debate on how to face with all your CDs down someone who has all his CDs up.

About how to face a mara/sentinel 1v1... I would bump him down somewhere and avoid the confrontation if I can.

 

When I am facing a commando with my sage, I will rather interrupt its cast, put some dots on him, then get out of his sight, and do something else while he is struggling to close the distance and stay alive.

 

EDIT: Added the last ArchangelLBC quote to the gunnery commando PVP Guide. Thank you for the tips

Edited August 23, 2012 by Boufsa

[Easpeak]

There is a huge difference between ranked WZs and fighting scrubs in regulars. Any well played class can roll a bad player - heck, see my PvP videos for plenty of examples.

 

How can you even play with that camera view, change it to higher view and your battlefield awareness will improve greatly.

Edited August 23, 2012 by Easpeak

[Jherad]

How can you even play with that camera view, change it to higher view and your battlefield awareness will improve greatly.

 

I actually do have the camera set further out for RWZs, I just bring it back in for regular play - makes me nauseated for some reason.

[Easpeak]

I actually do have the camera set further out for RWZs, I just bring it back in for regular play - makes me nauseated for some reason.

 

Hehe, I was like damn. To be honest I cannot play like that at all. I've got to see what's going on, but I'm sure a lot of people play like that and that's why they don't know what and when to CC or do.

[warsaws]

when i see gunnery commando, i put target marker and target em for the entire wz. result in 10+ death for commando. I'm using Mara/ VG assault and view commando as free kill.

 

grav round, 2-3k dmg on crit with 1.5 cast time.

Ion pulse+ 100% plama cell proc, 2.5-3k dmg on crit, instant cast.

 

if grav round is interrupted, it's the end. Full auto, HiB, DR damage will be lesser than it should be with 5 stacks.

 

I dont see any chance for commando to deal any damage when being focused, even with 1 people only.