Which spec...

[KidPunkStar]

Just hitting 50, I've leveled as Anni and love it. I don't plan on PvP'ing too much, so don't really care about it. So for PvE mainly, which spec is 'the best'?

 

I love anni, mainly because of the utility of it. But, I've been reading and tried out Rage, I love the big numbers, but don't like that I don't bring much if any utility to the group. I had tried Carnage back in 1.3 and just didn't like it as much...

 

So, I want to get others opinions, mainly for ops groups, which spec brings more to the group? Should I just stay anni because I enjoy it or will that hinder the group?

[AsiriusNazriel]

Just hitting 50, I've leveled as Anni and love it. I don't plan on PvP'ing too much, so don't really care about it. So for PvE mainly, which spec is 'the best'?

 

I love anni, mainly because of the utility of it. But, I've been reading and tried out Rage, I love the big numbers, but don't like that I don't bring much if any utility to the group. I had tried Carnage back in 1.3 and just didn't like it as much...

 

So, I want to get others opinions, mainly for ops groups, which spec brings more to the group? Should I just stay anni because I enjoy it or will that hinder the group?

 

Rage is more suitable for PVP because of it's AOE burst.

 

For PVE stick with Annihilation or Carnage. Both work great. Annihlation has better survivability, Carnage is just plain cool. With that said, play around with both and then use whatever you prefer. Both are super viable for PVE.

[Kaos_KidSWTOR]

Carnage TEARS UP the battlefield in PvE and PvP. Gore is a GODSEND because of its 100% armor penetration the Ataru Form attacks are nice and the extra movespeed in combat is very helpfull (it moves your speed up to nonsprint speed in combat) and the extra rage gen from Blood Frenzy is nice too (though im just saying from what ive seen from other's my mara is only 23) Anni is nice for utility as youve said but its too DOT reliant for any nice damage in OP's

[AsiriusNazriel]

Carnage TEARS UP the battlefield in PvE and PvP. Gore is a GODSEND because of its 100% armor penetration the Ataru Form attacks are nice and the extra movespeed in combat is very helpfull (it moves your speed up to nonsprint speed in combat) and the extra rage gen from Blood Frenzy is nice too (though im just saying from what ive seen from other's my mara is only 23) Anni is nice for utility as youve said but its too DOT reliant for any nice damage in OP's

 

So what you're saying is that Annihilation's DOT nature is bad for OPs? Are you commenting on other Maras or just your level 23?

 

I couldn't disagree with you more with regards to Annihilation. IMO, the dot nature of the spec is what allows it to excel and exceed other classes as far as overall DPS is concerned.

[verfallen]

From parsing both annihilation and carnage, both pull similar numbers.

 

Annihilation is noticeably trickier to pull well (its reputation of an hard to play spec is well earned) since messing up your rotation can quickly make a 100 dps delta in tionese-grade equipement (my mara currently has armoring and hilt 23).

 

Carnage lower ressource cost vs annihilation (gore 1 rage, scream 2 rage, massacre 3 rage for activation, 2 rage cost vs deadly saber 3 rage and annihilate 5 rage activation/4 rage cost)mean a misplanning of your ressource is hard to correct unless battering assault is off cd for annihilation. Carnage just need to sneak an assault to keep going, making it the easier spec imo. Proof is I pulled similar number when I hadn't played the spec to 31 before, something nearly impossible for a new-comer to annihilation.

 

There is also no similar proc to annihilator that are critical to lose for carnage.

 

Additionnaly, carnage burst is direct-in-your face damage, which is easier to switch target with. Some fight, like Soa, will give an advantage to carnage mechanics.

 

Now why play annihilation then? Its harder, changing target is not always easy. Well the kicker comes in utility to berserk and self-heals. Annihilation self-heal beat the tank assassin's by a mile, my 15k health mara pulls 50 hps more than my 22k health assassin, and once every 30 sec you also heal your team.

 

It might be the difference between having to run behind the pillar to live in Annihilation droid's phase for exemple, or staying there and HELPING your healers. Additionnaly, if you do your dailies and don't fancy respeccing 3+ times a week, annihilation is vastly superior for solo play.

 

 

My personnal choice is to stick with annihilation because I like the spec and I feel confortable wth it.

 

Annihilation remains one of the best damage spec in the game, mara just happens to have 2 on those for raids.

[verfallen]

Carnage TEARS UP the battlefield in PvE and PvP. Gore is a GODSEND because of its 100% armor penetration the Ataru Form attacks are nice and the extra movespeed in combat is very helpfull (it moves your speed up to nonsprint speed in combat) and the extra rage gen from Blood Frenzy is nice too (though im just saying from what ive seen from other's my mara is only 23) Anni is nice for utility as youve said but its too DOT reliant for any nice damage in OP's

 

I'd like to say THIS is not exactly true.

 

Actually it can be, but the battlefield can also tear YOU up. It also is not as vastly superior to annihlation as you say.

 

Actually, annihilation higher tooltip number makes me wonder...if I'd have a jug apply his armor debuff to the dummy what the new numbers will be. 40% of annihilation damage already comes from internal, but fillers start to be a lot more damaging, however, annihlation's kinetic starts hitting harder 75% of the time.

 

I'd suppose it wouldn't be that much of a difference tough. At any rate, your very biaised point of view and self-admittion of you actually having no idea what the two spec do at end-game ( actually at your level, annihilation is vastly superior, since carnage's two key abilitiez are unlocked at 30 and 40 vs deadly saber beig availaible at 20 for annihilation)

 

Try to keep an objective point of view in such threads.

 

Edit : Ow btw, DoTs are no issue in ops. They actually also bypass armor as mentionned. However, DoTs can be dispelled in PvP, making carnage the best healer killer, since a good healer will cleanse 40% of your damage.

 

For facing any other class tough, annihilation is the best dueling spec.

Edited November 5, 2012 by verfallen

[Kaos_KidSWTOR]

So what you're saying is that Annihilation's DOT nature is bad for OPs? Are you commenting on other Maras or just your level 23?

 

I couldn't disagree with you more with regards to Annihilation. IMO, the dot nature of the spec is what allows it to excel and exceed other classes as far as overall DPS is concerned.

 

I was saying im lvl 23. and ive see the Anni maras shure their dps is comprable to Carnage but the 100% armor piercing IMO is better than dots though gore does have a 15 (i belive)sec CD. and Massacre is a really nice ability and Carnage IMO can keep alot of rage because of Blood Frenzy. Im not saying Anni is terrible im just saying that For OP's Carnage's rage generation and armor penetration can help in a boss. and also other DOT based classes (my conceal/leth build OP, certain Sorcs and Assasins) cant benefit from the DOT's of Anni (like for instance Cull cant benefit from bleeds/poisons of any other class) so if you can do a 100% armor penetration that helps the whole party more than extra DOTs then i would take the 100% armor penetration

 

Edit though with the free respecs all the time for Subs i may just in OP's for trash just go Carnage then spec to Anni for Bosses (that may be a new common strat for DPS is to change spec dependant on bosses vs trash)

Edited November 5, 2012 by Kaos_KidSWTOR

[AsiriusNazriel]

I was saying im lvl 23. and ive see the Anni maras shure their dps is comprable to Carnage but the 100% armor piercing IMO is better than dots though gore does have a 15 (i belive)sec CD. and Massacre is a really nice ability and Carnage IMO can keep alot of rage because of Blood Frenzy. Im not saying Anni is terrible im just saying that For OP's Carnage's rage generation and armor penetration can help in a boss. and also other DOT based classes (my conceal/leth build OP, certain Sorcs and Assasins) cant benefit from the DOT's of Anni (like for instance Cull cant benefit from bleeds/poisons of any other class) so if you can do a 100% armor penetration that helps the whole party more than extra DOTs then i would take the 100% armor penetration

 

Edit though with the free respecs all the time for Subs i may just in OP's for trash just go Carnage then spec to Anni for Bosses (that may be a new common strat for DPS is to change spec dependant on bosses vs trash)

 

I don't know where to start. Don't take offense, but I'll be pretty blunt.

 

At level 23, comparing specs is ignorant at best. I'm not really sure if you're implying that Gore affects the entire OPs group, but Gore only affects the Marauder, not the entire party. Comparing a DOT spec between Marauders, Assassins, and Operatives is like comparing apples, oranges, and pineapples. They're all different and have different theoretical max outputs as well as ease of rotations.

 

Upon rereading your post you do imply that Gore affects the whole party, that's not the case. Gore does not place any debuffs on the target, it only grants you the Gore buff.

 

It seems that you have no idea how Annihilation spec, or Carnage for that matter work. Suffice to say, both are very viable for end-game-content, from PVE to PVP.

[verfallen]

I was saying im lvl 23. and ive see the Anni maras shure their dps is comprable to Carnage but the 100% armor piercing IMO is better than dots though gore does have a 15 (i belive)sec CD. and Massacre is a really nice ability and Carnage IMO can keep alot of rage because of Blood Frenzy. Im not saying Anni is terrible im just saying that For OP's Carnage's rage generation and armor penetration can help in a boss. and also other DOT based classes (my conceal/leth build OP, certain Sorcs and Assasins) cant benefit from the DOT's of Anni (like for instance Cull cant benefit from bleeds/poisons of any other class) so if you can do a 100% armor penetration that helps the whole party more than extra DOTs then i would take the 100% armor penetration

 

Edit though with the free respecs all the time for Subs i may just in OP's for trash just go Carnage then spec to Anni for Bosses (that may be a new common strat for DPS is to change spec dependant on bosses vs trash)

 

What Asirius said about the Gore effect is very true. In a way its a good thing for you, since you can switch target with it on and still benefit from it.

 

Especially nice when you combine it with a Blood frenzied/execute force scream.

 

However I think you can also benefit from a small explanation about damage type, mainly kinetic (weapon falls in this category)/energy damage vs internal/elemental (used by BH Pyro tree, Deception assassin and Madness Inquisitors (both sin and sorc) AND...Annihilation mara).

 

Basically, Internal/elemental damage are NOT mitigated by armor. The inquisitor buff give you a certain mitigation on the stat, but otherwise it goes through unmitigated. Internal/elemental often have lower tooltip values, but are extremely good at busting tanks for exemple. Tech/force internal/elemental are very famous tank-busters, as all that defense, shield, absorb, and armor suddenly is useless.

 

Think of it as the DoT going through with their very own permanent "gore" on them.

 

 

Also a point about rage : Annihilation's rage management is TRICKIER and therefore HARDER not necessarily better. Its just very easy to go dry if you fill in too much vicious slash for exemple.

 

But pretty much, force charge becomes a rage building on cd, since you no longer have a 10 m restriction on it, so you build more but spend more. The bleed tick having a chance to build rage also have a similar rate to Blood frenzy building a rage when it ends (I'd actually need to be very unlucky not to get 1-2 rage every 6 seconds)

 

Carnage build less, but spend less, making a fast assault correction if you **** up much more useful.

 

Its more easy to manage since there is NO random factor, its 1 rage every 6 sec, tyvm.

 

If I see annihilate come off cd in annihilation (especially while building the stack) and I'm under 2 rage with both force charge and battering assault on cd, I'm done for I just lost annihilator (at 3 stack of it, I'll just have a very slow down of dps, but will save it most likely)

 

Carnage is "ow darn I'm going to miss my frenzied scream!!! Assault = wee got it!"

 

Easier, more forgiving.

[Deadbladey]

Anni is best for pve. Edited November 11, 2012 by Deadbladey

[BlznSmri]

Carnage is "ow darn I'm going to miss my frenzied scream!!! Assault = wee got it!"

 

Easier, more forgiving.

 

You obviously don't play carnage enough....