Need help from commando community for PVE DPS build!

[Tethyr]

My commando is almost 50, and want to concentrate on PVE dps. I'm liking the Assault Tree better, but dont know much what build is for end raid. Please little help on this, pure assault PVE DPS build and what should I prioritize on on stats. Also looking what is the rotation for Assault spec. Please little help, ty!

[oaceen]

if you're planning on raiding, gunnery is just better because of the 20% armor debuff from grav round that helps everyone

but i do like assault more. gunnery is really boring after a while, and you have a guardian or gunslinger, you won't need grav round debuff

 

 

 

when i do dabble in assault for PVE, i use: http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#800MZMckZfG0bdGurs.2

also, field training, prallactic combat stims, and steadied aim are also all good talents to take.

 

 

i'm still trying to understand the rotation tbh, but here's my basic philosophy about it:

 

basically use assault plastique whenever it's available

try to keep the DoT from incindiery round up at all times

keep an eye on reserve powercell and use it with plasma grenade whenever its reset. every crit lowers the CD, so it's a really fluid rotation

 

hammershot as much as i can to get plasma cell. it has the highest chance of any attack since it's actually 7 individual hits. once it procs, i start trying to reset HiB with charged bolts/full auto so i can reset plasma cell with HiB

 

as soon as i proc plasma cell (with hammer shot or resetting it with HiB) i use 2 charged bolts to reset HiB OR full auto immediately and use HiB immediately if i proc ionic accelerator.

the total rotation:

1 GCD: attack that proc'd plasma cell

2-3 GCD: charged bolts x2 OR full auto

4 GCD: HiB

that's a total of 6s and will keep the plasma cell proc up for ~10.5s and has a large buffer for server lag so i don't miss resetting plasma cell with HiB

 

if i fail to get ionic accelerator with full auto, using charged bolts after will be slightly wasted as plasma cell will fall off before i can reset it with HiB (and vice-versa). so if i don't get the proc, i fire two or three hammershots then try for the other attack

charged bolts is way down on the priority list, but if i've proc'd ionic accelerator and assault plastique is on CD, i use charged bolts in between as the lowest on the priority

 

for AOE pulls i sticky grenade, plasma grenade, pyro grenade (cybertech craftable consumables), mortar volley, then spam hail of bolts

 

also the way the tree is set up, i try to blow through my ammo really fast (which is a lot easier in assault than gunnery) every 1.5m or so and hit recharge cells. i don't really have a good burn rotation since not everything will suddenly be available at the same time, but hitting incindiery round, assault plastique, and a lot of charged bolts, even with full auto and HiB procs will burn ammo pretty quickly

[Tethyr]

any more infos or help on this, greatly appreciate it.

[Tethyr]

sorry Oceaan did not see your reply and I reposted again for spec, But greatly appreciate on the advice sir. Thank you.

[Fauxknight]

My build looks a tad different, primarily taking Field Training over Cell Capacitor.

 

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#8000cZMckZfG0bdGhrs.2

 

No, I don't have ammo issues, not unless engaging multiple hard targets with Incendiary Round back to back. Adrenaline Fueled, Rapid Recharge, and High Friction Bolts usually help more than enough with ammo.

 

My opening rotation on a single target looks like this:

 

Incendiary Round

Assault Plastique

Reserve Powercell + Plasma Grenade

High Impact Bolt

Full Auto

 

Full Auto has solid chance to apply Plasma Cell and a 75% chance to proc Ionic Accelerator, so normally another HIB follows next in the rotation then a couple Charged Bolts waiting for other items to come off cooldown.

 

That is also a priority list, keep Incendiary Round up, use Assault Plastique on cooldown, watch for Reserve Powercell and HIB to come off cooldowns from procs. I don't go to quite the lengths to make sure Plasma Cell is up before firing HIB, but at least make sure the target is one fire. The only oddity here is Full Auto, it has a much higher chance to proc Ionic Accelerator and Plasma Cell than Charged Bolts, but is actually a lower damage ability. Ionic Accelerator has a 6 second cooldown, so if it was procced from using Charged Bolts, then hold off on using Full Auto until you've used a couple of GCDs past that last HIB.

Edited October 12, 2012 by Fauxknight
Listed Skill Tree Wrong

[oaceen]

I don't go to quite the lengths to make sure Plasma Cell is up before firing HIB, but at least make sure the target is one fire.

i don't have much practice with assault as i do gunnery, so it was just a theoretical mindset of how to play it

 

i was just considering a rotation of two GCDs (with a priority list of RP+PG > IR > AP then HIB > HS) followed by FA OR CBx2 then repeat and just let plasma cell procs take care of themselves

[Gyronamics]

You don't need IR up all the time.

 

Did a 10 min parse just now with very high dps and only fired 14 IR, the rest of the time I'm bouncing along on my Plasma Cell. There's no cookies for having more than one DoT at a time especially since IR does less damage per ammo than a Charged Bolts. I only fire it on reserve powercell.

 

It's easy enough to keep attacks buffed between IR burns, I chain together fixed combos of casts and hammer shots which coincide with the 6 second lockout on HiB.

 

The idea is the casts proc HiB, Hammer Shots ignite a fresh plasma cell and then I can throw a grenade or another cast then refresh the plasma cell with the free (and ammo back) HiB.

 

I do a disgusting number of Hammer Shots, use it about once every 6 seconds, very important for ammo control and for keeping the plasma cell burn going.

[Fauxknight]

You don't need IR up all the time.

 

...IR does less damage per ammo than a Charged Bolts.

 

Incorrect, taking into account armor, IR does significantly more damage per ammo than Charged Bolts. IR does after all do elemental damage. Just make sure the IR dot drops off before you refresh it, overlapping the dot is ammo intensive and a loss of damage.

 

I only fire it on reserve powercell.

 

Plasma Grenade does a bit more damage than IR, so try to use reserve powercell for Plasma Grenade instead. In this case Plasma Grenade is not more ammo efficient (single target of course), so if you have to spend the ammo IR is the better option, but when Reserve Powercell is up, Plasma Grenade is almost always the better option.

 

I do a disgusting number of Hammer Shots, use it about once every 6 seconds, very important for ammo control and for keeping the plasma cell burn going.

 

I do use Hammer Shots, but I find in many situations if Recharge Cells and Reserve Power Cell are used at the right times that I can go for quite lengthy periods of time without needing to Hammer Shots. This is of course somewhat proc based, between High Friction Bolts and Adrenaline Fueled, but that is what the spec is all about.

Edited October 13, 2012 by Fauxknight

[Gyronamics]

Incorrect, taking into account armor, IR does significantly more damage per ammo than Charged Bolts. IR does after all do elemental damage. Just make sure the IR dot drops off before you refresh it, overlapping the dot is ammo intensive and a loss of damage.

 

Plasma Grenade does a bit more damage than IR, so try to use reserve powercell for Plasma Grenade instead. In this case Plasma Grenade is not more ammo efficient (single target of course), so if you have to spend the ammo IR is the better option, but when Reserve Powercell is up, Plasma Grenade is almost always the better option.

 

And I don't see it that way.

 

Over 2/3 of my HiB are procced, the procs rely primarily on my CB casts, if I cast less I have more chance of missing the 6 second lockout as it unlocks. Best way to do that id to divert more ammo to IR.

 

Because Ionic Accelerator is reliant on CB I consider that an extension of the damage that CB does for its cost.

 

Now if I already have a flame from Plasma Cell, IR is irrelevant, It's still up half the time because I can use it without ammo that much and having it at all means less hassle in keeping a plasma cell DoT going for long periods when RNG might screw me.

 

Same goes for Plasma Grenade, you think it does more damage if you look at it by itself, yes it does but that short burn doesn't help me at all and I'll have to prop up my plasma cell for much longer. Which means more hammer shots because I have explained why I don't use IR off reserve.

 

I mean it's that or casting without a flame buff. That's unacceptable since CB loses 200 damage on every cast without a buff

 

I do use Hammer Shots, but I find in many situations if Recharge Cells and Reserve Power Cell are used at the right times that I can go for quite lengthy periods of time without needing to Hammer Shots. This is of course somewhat proc based, between High Friction Bolts and Adrenaline Fueled, but that is what the spec is all about.

 

Well I can go for over 10 mins+ on my method in 61 gear doing 1700dps+ without an armour debuff, 1850dps if there is one.

 

I'm not using Hammer Shots because I'm screwing my ammo and there's nothing else to use, I'm using it deliberately as part of the rotation.

 

Very rare to actually use Recharge Cells, it has such a long CD I just keep it free to prevent RNG screwing with me.

Edited October 13, 2012 by Gyronamics

[Fauxknight]

Because Ionic Accelerator is reliant on CB I consider that an extension of the damage that CB does for its cost.

 

While FA does less damage than two CBs, it is more likely to set off Ionic Accelerator, Plasma Cell, and Adrenaline Fueled (even taking into account set bonuses). It does about the same damage per ammo as Charged Bolts, but uses less ammo. So, while it is a lower damage ability, in the interest of setting off procs and conserving ammo over the long term it is my primary source or proccing Ionic Accelerator.

 

Now I won't say using one CB plus one Hammer Shot is worse than one FA. Damage is very similar, and that combo uses less ammo than FA, is more likely to set off Plasma Cell, and Adrenaline Fueled. The downside is that relying on CB alone to set off Ionic Accelerator is bit more dodgy.

[oaceen]

i just did a single 5m parse each with the first one saving reserve powercell for IR and the second keeping IR up as much as possible.

my rotation was just a general sustatined dps tactic: try to stay at maximum regen. i didn't dip below too much and use recharge cells, adrenals, on-use relics or anything like that.

i tried as much as i could to keep plasma cell active on the first, and didn't worry so much on the second

i had all buffs but JK buff (as i don't have it yet) and no stim.

 

it's just a small sample (and lots of RNG involved), but the latter did ~6% more damage overall.

~395k (~1315 dps) vs ~421k (~1400 dps)

 

 

i felt that the first one had little ammo issues. actually i had too much ammo. after a while i started using sticky grenade when everything else was on cooldown just so i wouldn't waste extra ammo from regenerating waiting for charged bolts to cast.

i could probably have used stockstrike instead, but i don't even have it only my toolbar considering how situational it is for me.

i could probably have squeezed out some more dps by not wasting ammo or maybe just using IR every once in a while without reserve powercell

 

 

the latter method had a few ammo issues, but it wasn't overall too bad. there once instance where i overextended myself and had to use hammershot until i got back up to high ammo regen.

a few times i forgot to reset IR or accidentally reset it too early, but for the most part it was up as much as possible.

 

 

 

 

they both seem to play rather similarly. i'm looking at my toolbar to see when reserve powercell resets so that i can use either plasma grenade or incindiary round, and i had to stare at the debuff bar to either make sure plasma cell stayed up or incendiary round didn't fall off for too long.

they seem well within the boundaries of being comparable to each other, so i suppose it could just go up to personal playstyle.

 

 

 

 

some statistics:

both parses had 7 uses of reserve powercell and 18 assault plastiques

the first run had 26 procs of ionic accelerator and the second had 24

 

damage priority for the first run: CB (24.4%) / Burning (Tech) (9.8% + 7.5% + 5.5%) / HIB (18%) / FA (15.1%) / AP (11.2%) / HS (6.3%) / IR (1.5%) / SG (.6%)

 

damage priority second run: Burning (Tech) (9.6% + 7.7% + 7%) / CB (18.1%) / HIB (18%) / FA (14.1%) / AP (10.1%) / HS (6.1%) / PG (2%) + Radiation Burns (3.8%) / IR 3.1% / SG (.5%)

 

 

i'm not sure which DoTs are which, so i just lumped them all together. in fact, i'm not sure where the third Burning (Tech) is coming from. the DoT from Plasma Grenade is listed as Radiation Burns. i did not use a grenade or anything like that, and i did not have a proc relic equipped (it would have been listed as a different damage ability anyway), so it can't be from any of those.

[Gyronamics]

While FA does less damage than two CBs, it is more likely to set off Ionic Accelerator, Plasma Cell, and Adrenaline Fueled (even taking into account set bonuses). It does about the same damage per ammo as Charged Bolts, but uses less ammo. So, while it is a lower damage ability, in the interest of setting off procs and conserving ammo over the long term it is my primary source or proccing Ionic Accelerator.

 

Now I won't say using one CB plus one Hammer Shot is worse than one FA. Damage is very similar, and that combo uses less ammo than FA, is more likely to set off Plasma Cell, and Adrenaline Fueled. The downside is that relying on CB alone to set off Ionic Accelerator is bit more dodgy.

 

I didn't say only CB, I said primarily.

 

I time a double cast of CB (with a hammer shot queued after that no matter what) to be exactly when the 6 second lockout of IA unlocks.

 

If that fails then I go to Full Auto. Reduces ammo loss if the CB casts fail and doesn't waste the long CD FA for every single attempt.

 

Double CB is a 70% chance to proc IA and only takes 1.4 seconds (the chance is at the end of the cast, you start before the 6 second timer is up)

 

FA locks itself for 15 seconds and is a 3 second cast or a waste of ammo if you break it early.

 

 

 

And yes Oaceen you do have a lot of ammo if its done right, trick is to keep spending it. Another reason I don't like FA, it doesn't use enough ammo, it's almost neutral and its long enough to cause wasted ammo before its done.

Edited October 13, 2012 by Gyronamics

[oaceen]

And yes Oaceen you do have a lot of ammo if its done right, trick is to keep spending it. Another reason I don't like FA, it doesn't use enough ammo, it's almost neutral and its long enough to cause wasted ammo before its done.

 

maybe i'll try it again with less full auto.

 

the 3s cast time really screws up the rotation for me anyway