Sniper PvP Guide by Express

[anwg]

I'm pretty sure seismic grenade goes through force shroud.

 

Edit, just tested and I was wrong.

Edited January 22, 2013 by anwg

[ZipZep]

Not sure where Seismic Grenades came into the discussion, but even so im pretty sure they dont. Havent tested it, but I see Assassins picking up ball in huttball in rated every day popping shroud whilst everybody else is lieing on the floor due to grenades. (except me in entrench ofc)

 

Tested using SoS then during channel Assassin uses Force Shroud. The DoT are still applied, but since the DoT's are only for a 4 sec duration from the first hit of SoS (as far as I can tell anyway) a usually shroud will outlast it. Especially if assassin has the 1 sec extended duration.

 

I

Edited January 23, 2013 by ZipZep

[Asvarduil]

Great guide - why is it not stickied?

[seefouruno]

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#700bsrbdRsRGRZbI.2

MUCH better AoE damage, and i think that 3 seconds less on leg shot is not game breaking at all, so i like my increased sabo charge burst as well as 3.5-4k XS Freighter Flyby Ticks. Also, 3% crit isn't as useful as 10 energy and HERE IS WHY: with an increased energy pool you have more burst potential if you need to burn the energy pool, however I still wear the field tech set because I like the bonuses better. I can kill pretty much any healer if i have a full energy pool, spam charged burst and do aimed and sabo, as well as fluorish shot, and they can't really survive.

Also, as Engineering if you want to avoid roots being dispelled cast poision dart and the interrogation probe and then leg shot, and chances are it will take the DoTs instead of leg shot.

[NoTomorrow]

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#700bsrbdRsRGRZbI.2

MUCH better AoE damage, and i think that 3 seconds less on leg shot is not game breaking at all, so i like my increased sabo charge burst as well as 3.5-4k XS Freighter Flyby Ticks. Also, 3% crit isn't as useful as 10 energy and HERE IS WHY: with an increased energy pool you have more burst potential if you need to burn the energy pool, however I still wear the field tech set because I like the bonuses better. I can kill pretty much any healer if i have a full energy pool, spam charged burst and do aimed and sabo, as well as fluorish shot, and they can't really survive.

Also, as Engineering if you want to avoid roots being dispelled cast poision dart and the interrogation probe and then leg shot, and chances are it will take the DoTs instead of leg shot.

 

Thanks you for your input.

The legshot root is currently one of the most powerful roots in the game. It's 35m range, 5 seconds. I am not aware if any other class currently has something like this. Creeping terror is 2s, carnage roots are melee range or 10m, sever tendon concealment is 10m, lightning overload is not a long root either. It usually fails against targets with high defense (tanks), when you dont have target acquired on. But outside of that it is has tremendous utility for snipers.

 

In MM the legshot CD reduction synergizes well with rapid fire CD reduction, having a root every ambush or every second followthrough is huge. As i said before that extra AoE damage will not scarry anybody, especially when you dont have extra 30% surge on aoe talent taken and many AC take their respective AoE damage reduction talents because of the plethora of smashers in PvP.

 

I believe that lower CD on legshot is of a greater use to Marksmanship than a few extra hundred damage for AoE attacks.

 

As for extra +10 energy, you have plenty of energy anyway as MM in PvP. If you will not be able to kill somebody with 100 energy + all energy regenerated during that time (including +1 from cover) + energy regen from sniper volley, they you will not kill him even with +10 energy. Burst in PvP is something different than burst in PvE. Given the efficiency of MM attacks your only way to run out of energy is if you immediately snipe/frag grenade after casting orbital strike. Outside of that, the attacks that are responssible for that burst, are not so energy expensive.

 

This is Marksmanship, not Concealment where you cannot even keep your rotation for too long without running out of energy.

 

And the +3 crit chance, it's 3% crit chance, not much but still valuable: extra crit: more chance to proc reactive shot, more chance penetrate shields (crit ignore shields). And the difference between an normal ambush/takedown and a crit one is well worth the investment in crit.

 

I know how tempting is it to go for skills that improve explosive probe, but don't do that if you are Marksmanship. EP should be kept for special situations: being obfuscated, all sort of ranged defense abilities, and setting up a burst on a rooted target by your legshot.

 

Give a try to 35/3/3 , it;s powerful. You don't loose much single target damage, but you can perform extremely well.

 

Great guide - why is it not stickied?

 

Unfortunately this thread will never be stickied because "Bioware does not want to endorse a specific style of play". They are afraid that players would consider my guide as the way how sniper is meant to be played by Bioware.

 

They will sticky usually general stuff like a describing an individual spec, but not some gameplay and tactic suggestions for an entire class.

 

Sooner or later this guide will slowly be lost among the pages. I will try to update it once in a while. i Still got to write assassin and juggernaut sections.

Edited January 25, 2013 by NoTomorrow

[seefouruno]

Hmm yeah I do understand the utility of legshot (see my post http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=589701) so i think i might move points around, or just play sabo again (i usually use the forbidden http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#400bsrZrIbbRobRrs.2 spec)

[NoTomorrow]

try to abuse legshots a few matches. I promise you will like it.

Look for anyone with full resolve (especially melee).

Try to burst sorcs with Legshot -> EP -> Ambush -> FT. This will take a huge chunk of their health.

The only problem are laggy matches on huttball when you cannot time your roots with somebody crossing the firepit, not always working.

[seefouruno]

Leg Shot, which is an immobilize, allows for a healer to get away and get heals off for a couple of seconds, and the melee (especially maras/sents/juggernauts/guardians) can't leap to the target! f one just got leg shot and now has to take a combo of aimed shot/sabo charge/instant charged burst

Direct quotes from my post, I understand the utility of legshot, but i think it is also a partially situation dependent ability, as in ancient hypergates and even civil war I think it is more important to take increase damage capability, so I will often use field respec and change to the appropriate spec, and i also understand its uses in DPS situations. I just find that 3 seconds is not really that much of a difference, unless there are a lot of melee or it is in a warzone with a lot of LoS.

Edited January 26, 2013 by seefouruno
more information needed

[NoTomorrow]

Leg Shot, which is an immobilize, allows for a healer to get away and get heals off for a couple of seconds, and the melee (especially maras/sents/juggernauts/guardians) can't leap to the target! f one just got leg shot and now has to take a combo of aimed shot/sabo charge/instant charged burst

Direct quotes from my post, I understand the utility of legshot, but i think it is also a partially situation dependent ability, as in ancient hypergates and even civil war I think it is more important to take increase damage capability, so I will often use field respec and change to the appropriate spec, and i also understand its uses in DPS situations. I just find that 3 seconds is not really that much of a difference, unless there are a lot of melee or it is in a warzone with a lot of LoS.

 

You will not kill good healers anyway, they all can remove your physical root, and hide out of your line of sight. And even if they couldn't they would not die so fast.

[Ovan_Oh-One]

Best tip I can throw at you at the moment (still *********** tired), during an Unstoppable / Unremitting, there is a small (very small) window of opportunity to CC them. Unstoppable lasts 4s, yes, but the time it takes for you to reach your target reduces that. If you watch carefully on the buff bar say... during a Ravage / Master Strike, you'll see Unstoppable end quicker than 4s, this is your chance to CC, use your knockback, etc.

 

I do this on my gunslinger to other fellow guardians / juggernauts. :3

 

This all comes in to play of course if you get pushed out of cover and don't have Hunker Down running.

Edited January 26, 2013 by Ovan_Oh-One

[NoTomorrow]

My problem is that i have trouble recognizing the unremitting buff visually. I just assume that the jug has it..

[ambitiousapple]

As you can see in my sig., i have extensive experience with the Sniper/Slinger AC.

 

I spent over 130 valor levels in MM/SS 31/7/3, 31/8/2 or 31/10/0 (as you gear up, you can drop the crit chance and move to damage slotting). Please stop using this tree; damage output in crucial situations can be nullified by good players due to the heavy reliance on LOS and weapon damage burst. If you're crazy about reduced snare CD (think huttball and voidy) you can always run a half-*** hybrid and pick it up running primarily in Engi/Sab

 

I spent a month or two in Leth/DF (post 1.4) only to realise how useless that tree is for high end pvp. If you want to be a scoreboard hero, sure, play Leth/DF - players who spec in 3/7/31, 3/5/33 or 7/3/31 can put out stronger numbers especially in heavy zergs than smash/sweep specs (DoT nades + DoT spam against smash-heavy/melee heavy teams will result in 900+ dps if you have a high crit chance). Unfortunately, with the increased popularity of bubble sorcs post 1.4, most of that heavy dot spam will be mitigated by bubbles, and if it isn't, they're just going to be cleansed by capable Ops/Scounds + Mercs/Mandos anyway . Stop using Leth/DF.

 

I spent all of my later pvp'ing in Engi/Sab (30 high-end valor levels). Far and away the only choice for serious pvp'ers looking to get into heavy Ranked Wz exposure. Denial of Area is outrageous (your healers love defensive OS/Flyby + PP/IG stacking, your dps love offensive OS/Flyby + PP/IG stacking, your utility-players love OS/Flyby + PP/IG stacking over nodes + doors), burst is slightly less than MM/SS but way more reliable, and the damage reduction utility in zergs is something that your team can rely on (note: Bal Shield and also Denial of Area above).

 

My spec, 7/34/0 variant: http://swtor.askmrrobot.com/skills/Sniper#23c-9e8c88e2ld-0

My toon, Prooxxii of MD'N: http://swtor.askmrrobot.com/character/f7c187cc-599b-41d1-8ef1-0a592c90b893 (bit outdated now)

 

Some snipers that are making guides on these forums appear to know what they're talking about in terms of "knowledge and information", but I question whether any of them can perform to a high level outside of freecasting, premade environments and other idealistic situations. My questions to them; are you really putting yourself in a position to DECIDE the outcome of a WZ? Are you the biggest threat to the other team (including your healers, your tanks, your objective guarders)? Do the players pitted against you RECOGNISE that you are their biggest threat? Are they REACTING to it? If you answered no to any of the above questions, please only ever list guides in an back-to-basics, informative manner, rather than a manner built around high-end performance in competitive situations.

[NoTomorrow]

Wow, careful, you risk sounding almost too serious. I wish you've been there and inspired our enemy sabslingers seeing how they don't share your optimism after eating diversion Every. Single. Time. when they try to pop entrench. It is good that you have high valor, you probably had a few good games here and there, that's commendable.

 

I understand where your zealous adherence to engineering comes from. I went through that period on my sniping months as well. I know exactly how you feel, but no matter how hard you try to push for it there is currently no consensus about snipers having only 1 universally useful spec for RWZ, just as well as there is no one single specific role the sniper is capable to fullfill in RWZ as you are trying to say here.

 

I prefer to stay impartial towards individual specs, i'd rather use whatever spec I see more fitting for the specific role, for a specific warzone map and team composition. If you only see yourself as an objective spamming AoE machine, enemy zerg aggro, i don't blame you. It's difficult to convince your RWZ team leader that you can contribute with a skillfull use of Marksmanship in actually bursting targets down. Your Engineering damage is just as "reliable" as MM damage: all sort of AoE mitigation talents, moving out of AoE, tech damage reduction and so on. Your burst is unable to put sustained pressure being so reliant on EP with its 30s CD.

 

Can you provide us with a link to your Sniper RWZ guide? I would gladly read from somebody who claims to be as experienced as you are.

 

Peace.

Edited February 1, 2013 by NoTomorrow

[islander]

gets popcorn

[ambitiousapple]

Wow, careful, you risk sounding almost too serious. I wish you've been there and inspired our enemy sabslingers seeing how they don't share your optimism after eating diversion Every. Single. Time. when they try to pop entrench.

Mmm I'd question the ability of slingers who are opposing you if they're really having that much trouble with the effects of Diversion. I could go into a variety of hypotheticals explaining how I would deal with a sniper hitting me with Diversion during different situations, but it's probably just better for you to explain to me how you are using it to such a detrimental effect against other players, which will then allow me to explain where the players you a versing are going wrong and thus being outplayed by what is, in my opinion, a useful but unnecessary tool.

 

It is good that you have high valor, you probably had a few good games here and there, that's commendable.

I think many top players will admit that valor ranking isn't a great indicator of ability these days. I personally list my valor as a sort of "bait" to which I can hook other readers into reading my long posts.

 

I understand where your zealous adherence to engineering comes from. I went through that period on my sniping months as well. I know exactly how you feel, but no matter how hard you try to push for it there is currently no consensus about snipers having only 1 universally useful spec for RWZ, just as well as there is no one single specific role the sniper is capable to fullfill in RWZ as you are trying to say here.

I am suggesting there is one tree which is considerably more viable for Ranked WZ environments as a Sniper. At the end of the day, while MM/SS may have the (or close to the) best burst available for dropping targets assuming no defensive's are used, there are other classes in this game at the moment that go above-and-beyond MM/SS specs in terms of aggregate damage output and dps output, all the while offering more than sufficient burst damage and very effective team utility. In my opinion, the role of a sniper in RWZ's is different to the role in which you play your sniper in.

 

I prefer to stay impartial towards individual specs, i'd rather use whatever spec I see more fitting for the specific role, for a specific warzone map and team composition. If you only see yourself as an objective spamming AoE machine, enemy zerg aggro, i don't blame you.

I see myself as a player which denies areas of key importance through AoE attacks which are going to have massive repercussions for any opposing player willing to try and fight through them, while offering considerable on demand damage to help with focus fire efforts at the same time.

 

It's difficult to convince your RWZ team leader that you can contribute with a skillfull use of Marksmanship in actually bursting targets down.

Mmm i don't really see this as a difficulty. If you work well in a team and communicate well, any target is going to drop when it needs to. This has never been a problem for my ranked WZ team/s.

 

Your Engineering damage is just as "reliable" as MM damage: all sort of AoE mitigation talents, moving out of AoE, tech damage reduction and so on. Your burst is unable to put sustained pressure being so reliant on EP with its 30s CD.

While i concede that a Engi spec may have trouble landing all AoE ticks on multiple targets, there is a significant increase in the amount of tech damage being produced alongside weapon damage. I find opposing players spec'ing into AoE damage reduction tallents are quite rare (at least on my server) whereas most weapon damage mitigation skills are acquired through leveling. Although EP is on a 30s CD, I still find I can contribute considerable burst to my heavy bursting teammates with Ambush, Crit Snipe, SoS and Cluster Bombs. As you mentioned way back in your first post, TA's accuracy buff also effects tech attacks, so my tech AoE's can hit for quite large numbers too.

 

Can you provide us with a link to your Sniper RWZ guide? I would gladly read from somebody who claims to be as experienced as you are.

I had a feeling this would come up. If i make a return to this game when the APAC server issues are addressed by BW, i would happily write up some documentation regarding Snipers in Ranked WZs. Until then, if you have any specific queries, feel free to reply to my posts and I'll do my best to reply to them in due course.

 

Cheers

 

(Sorry for any typo's; it's quite a long post.)

Edited February 3, 2013 by ambitiousapple

[NoTomorrow]

Our server RWZ has gentleman agreement which everyone respects about limiting power classes, you can have

(1 rage spec + 1 PT pyro max) OR (2 PT pyro) and no bubblestuns. Since the other DPS is usually a carnage mara, Sniper becomes a very vital DPS component in bursting targets down.

EP + SoS in engineering does more total damage\GCD, but outside of EP CD, the burst trails behind

MM until the next EP is available.

 

The utility that enginering provides is amazing, and it doesn't take too long until teams start to realize that they have to come up with a plan to actually reduce the enemy engineering sniper effectiveness. We figured that switching to MM would be and adequate counter because i was able to deny every enemy ballistic shield, while still being able to maintain ours, when needed. Despite having many abilities usable out of cover, diversion is still a crippling blow to engineers, it allowed us to focus them down more effectively. The 6% DR in cover is of course gone. And with their death all the aoe placed are terminated.

 

Siege bunker and Diversion puts me into a very decent position against 2 of their DPS: the engineer and the rage.

From my experience everytime there is an engineer in enemy team, MM is very much a necessary spec. As long as they dont have a deception sin in their team, i have allthe tools to stand my ground against the other 2 DPS with only carnage being better against me if my stun, evasion and cover pulse is on CD (but i do try to save these for them)

Edited February 2, 2013 by NoTomorrow

[ambitiousapple]

Our server RWZ has gentleman agreement which everyone respects about limiting power classes, you can have (1 rage spec + 1 PT pyro max) OR (2 PT pyro) and no bubblestuns. Since the other DPS is usually a carnage mara, Sniper becomes a very vital DPS component in bursting targets down.

We have no such agreement on our server. If these rules were enforced on our server, of course things would be different and stronger burst 'may' be needed to make up for reduced aggregate on-demand burst that the central DPS units would be providing (hard to tell without actually trying it). All prior posts I have made have been posted under the assumption that I was operating in an unrestricted Ranked PvP environment as the game currently stands, and in that environment, I strongly back Engi as the best spec for Snipers.

 

EP + SoS in engineering does more total damage\GCD, but outside of EP CD, the burst trails behind MM until the next EP is available.

This extra burst you have mentioned has never been required (see above). I also strongly believe that both inside and outside pressured (non-freecasting) environments, Engi is capable of stronger dps and is much more resilient to enemy focus fire.

 

The utility that enginering provides is amazing, and it doesn't take too long until teams start to realize that they have to come up with a plan to actually reduce the enemy engineering sniper effectiveness.

Support is not based solely around Bal Shield like you mention below, it is based mostly around the specs ability to control a firefight through area denial, which can be easily maintained by effective use of a MM Snipers biggest weakness; LOS.

 

We figured that switching to MM would be and adequate counter because i was able to deny every enemy ballistic shield, while still being able to maintain ours, when needed. Despite having many abilities usable out of cover, diversion is still a crippling blow to engineers, it allowed us to focus them down more effectively. The 6% DR in cover is of course gone. And with their death all the aoe placed are terminated.

Sure, you can deny Bal Shield for a considerable portion of a firefight by cycling through your 1min Diversion CD, and yes, you will be able to keep your Bal Shield up too if u pop Entrench at the same time. A couple of points though; you're assuming you have LOS on me as I pop Bal Shield - prime example of when this will not be the case (unless you over-commit / break cover to relocate (the later will mostly result in a grapple + focus down)) is when I'm hiding behind a back corner pillar in CW, or if I'm pushed hard against the CW mid-ramp wall (this can and will be done at the expense of producing damage for my team if my healers are really under enough pressure to require Bal Shield, which doesnt happen very often).

 

Furthermore, stacking Entrench along with your Bal Shield is a great way to indicate to my team that in a few seconds you're going to be open to a chained double Smash, after-which they will bait your Dodge pop with a Ravage (also pop Obfuscate to reduce ambush knockback chance) so a PT's Railshot connects etc. etc. etc. The point is by popping those two big defensive's you have in order to secure a prime 20sec window, you're indicating to my team that a burst phase is going to be on. This can't really be avoided by you or any other player really, I'm just stating that the defensive advantage you give to your team for 20secs is going to be met by an equally punishing offensive force afterwards, probably so much force that you'll be heading to spawn to allow me to get off a Entrench + BS combo off myself without having to stress about Diversion interference.

 

In terms of my own survivabilty, I truly don't find Diversion this huge hindrance that you claim it to be; smart positioning by myself will result in my continued AoE presence on a battlefront whilst LOSing your teams force fire attempts for the 6seconds in which i can be pulled etc.. Any considerable threats to myself from leapers will be met with a stun (unless unremitting, in which can i'll just take that damage or pop a SP). I guess what I'm trying to say, is that 6sec window in which i produce less effective damage and must react defensively is not something I find to be a huge factor in my ability to manipulate the zerg.

 

Siege bunker and Diversion puts me into a very decent position against 2 of their DPS: the engineer and the rage. From my experience everytime there is an engineer in enemy team, MM is very much a necessary spec. As long as they dont have a deception sin in their team, i have allthe tools to stand my ground against the other 2 DPS with only carnage being better against me if my stun, evasion and cover pulse is on CD (but i do try to save these for them)

 

Ahh well you play under much different conditions to me so if you say you have all you need as a MM spec then I can't really contest that. I would be keen to see what your opinions are regarding the viability of MM specs in Ranked WZ environments when your "gentleman's agreements" are not withstanding. In my experience of both MM and Engi specs in these much stronger DPS conditions, I still can't see how MM specs are ever going to be viable - what may be surprising to you, is this extra burst you rave about is not actually something I need to bring as a DPS slot due to my teams unrestricted composition, and is something I happily trade in for what I believe is a much more useful and impactful skill-set in heavily contested situations.

 

Cheers

 

(again, sorry for any typos)

[krarom]

Hi!

 

i have a rotation q i a have seen som edifferent answers to regaring raboteur/engineer.

 

Would u recomend the following for single target, if not what would u use?(sorry for using gunslinger terms)

1)shock or sniper equivalent

2) Vital shot ( the 15 sec bleed, some say this is just filler)

3) sabotage sharge ( the bomb that explodes when target takes dmg)

4) Speed shot for detonatiing all small bombs (hink its series of shots as sniper)

some say u should put in flourish shot (the armour debuff on short cd, )here before speedshot/series of shots

 

* Where u put in incenidary grenade/plasma probe? i was thinking after shock?

 

After all targets prob dead or maybe put in ambush/aimed shot.

 

Best regards

 

kraroz

[Jenzali]

Would u recomend the following for single target, if not what would u use?(sorry for using gunslinger terms)

1)shock or sniper equivalent

2) Vital shot ( the 15 sec bleed, some say this is just filler)

3) sabotage sharge ( the bomb that explodes when target takes dmg)

4) Speed shot for detonatiing all small bombs (hink its series of shots as sniper)

some say u should put in flourish shot (the armour debuff on short cd, )here before speedshot/series of shots

 

* Where u put in incenidary grenade/plasma probe? i was thinking after shock?

 

It all depends on how much time you think you'll have to set up your maximum burst sequence. If pressed for time such as focusing what the rest of the team is focusing (so the healing debuff would probably already be applied by the Sentinel), I'll do:

 

Shock Charge

Incendiary Grenade

Sabotage Charge

Speed Shot

 

Under ideal conditions the best is:

Flourish Shot (if not applied yet)

Vital Shot

Shock Charge (if against a melee enemy who is running towards you, use this first since it slows them. Otherwise, I leave it till last so it is least likely to be cleansed by a healer)

Incendiary Grenade

Sabotage Charge

Seped Shot

 

Although you'll rarely have the time/positioning to set this all up.

Edited February 2, 2013 by Jenzali

[CJNJ]

I just have to question one statement that you posted

 

As you mentioned way back in your first post, TA's accuracy buff also effects tech attacks, so my AoE ticks can tick for quite large numbers too.

 

 

Um... Yeah... I'm pretty sure that accuracy doesn't boost your damage or armor pen in any way. Sure it's nice for a GS's offhand but you won't see any boost in damage numbers from the accuracy portion of TA.

 

The 2nd thing I'd like to question is TA boosting the damage of your AOEs.

1. Accuracy still does nothing and

2. PP and OS are elemental damage. So unless you were referring to frag grenade armor pen means nothing to our aoes

[ambitiousapple]

I just have to question one statement that you posted

 

 

Um... Yeah... I'm pretty sure that accuracy doesn't boost your damage or armor pen in any way. Sure it's nice for a GS's offhand but you won't see any boost in damage numbers from the accuracy portion of TA.

 

The 2nd thing I'd like to question is TA boosting the damage of your AOEs.

1. Accuracy still does nothing and

2. PP and OS are elemental damage. So unless you were referring to frag grenade armor pen means nothing to our aoes

 

Ah, i made a typo, what i was supposed to type out was:

 

"As you mentioned way back in your first post, TA's accuracy buff also effects tech attacks, so my tech AoE's can hit for quite large numbers too."

 

I'll edit my original post.

 

Assuming we are talking about tech AoE damage or even weapon AoE damage (Frag Grenade, Suppressive Fire etc.) TA will certainly increase damage dealt if your accuracy is being buffed to X%>100% as that X% will be translated into armor ignorance (no effect with elemental damage due to all elemental damage ignoring all armor, as you brought up).

 

The above statement regarding accuracy and armor penetration conversion is actually listed as a loading screen tip within the swtor game (I'm paraphrasing).

 

Cheers for bringing that up.

Edited February 3, 2013 by ambitiousapple

[ambitiousapple]

I've had as few PM's asking about my spec and my rotation, so in an effort to answer all questions I thought it best to just make a quick post about it (i don't mean to hijack a guide thread, I just don't see the need to start a new thread for one post which in itself could be contained in a guide)

 

Rotations

I don't have a set rotation but as a general guide I would be inclined to hit these abilities in order:

0. Debuff (usually don't need to due to mara's)

1. Intero Probe / Shock Charge - slows, ticks damage, opens up a quick stun oppotunity, enemy may waste a cleanse

2. Plasma Probe / Incen Nade - stun plus great damage, can interupt key attacks, good placement (mutliple enemies effected, cut off a pole-hugging area) will put a enemy healer under pressure early

3. Explosive Probe / Sab Charge (+ Cluster Bombs / Cont Charges) - strong burst, great team assist with the 4x charges

4. Series of Shots / Speed Shot - Great damage, important to use a channeled ability while your energy levels are relatively high

5. Ambush / Aimed Shot - Longer cast time is great for keeping energy up. Adding another 2 auto-attacks after this will bring you right back up to the top energy regen bracket.

 

After this, things will get situational. Orbital Strike / Flyby might be a good option (on yourself, on your healers, on their healers), maybe peel for your healers with knockbacks or mezz, if you've been moving around a bit Plasma Probe might be off cooldown, if you've been taking fire you may want to pop EMP / Sab and reset your Sheild Probe / Cover Screen, you may want to try and build on the damage inflicted through Plasma Probe / Incen Nade by adding a Frag Nade etc. etc. etc.

 

Build Choice

Q: Why do I only take 1/2 in nade spam?

A: I don't find the need to talent 2 points as frag spam isn't usually the best choice in terms of sustaining energy. I also usually find something more useful to do for my team than hit frag nade as often as I am already allowed to. However, I have been willing to drop 1 point out of the endurance buff to acquire a 2nd point in nade spam if i feel my team could gain an advantage in having my AoE mezz on shorter CD (flash nade is one of the most resolve-intensive skills in the game, so I dont really find i use it all that often, especially when i have a AoE heavy team breaking mezz's every 12sec lol)

 

Q: Why no Pandemonium or Calc Pursuit?

A: Pande is a skill based around Snipe, and Snipe is a low-damage-high-energy ability. I probably use Snipe maybe twice in a WZ when Laze Target is off CD. (plus, your Frag Nade is going to hit harder than snipe, and it's going to hit multiple targets). I don't have any issues with people taking Calc Pursuit if they want (think Voidy door rotating), but I try to minimise my time facing targets when out of cover due to the possibility of being pulled+focused (although read below).

 

Q: Why 7 points in MM?

A: Bal Damp is a amazing survivability skill, and can be easily reset if you pay attention to a) which enemies have pulls and grapples, and b) whether these enemies have you as their target.

 

Cheers

Edited February 3, 2013 by ambitiousapple

[roxdsch]

Hi guys,

can anyone tell me how much crit and acc i should aim for when using ENG/MM spec?

Is this gear setup any good?

http://swtor.askmrrobot.com/character/7fbad106-9fd9-4eba-aca1-b84a3f340a06

hope you can give me some advices, so i can improve my gear.

[BaineOs]

Personally I like the way ambitiousapple thinks.

 

the problem is lets face it on the red eclipse there aren't that many snipers/slingers doing ranked warzones and out of those who are how many of them are consistently playing as engineering?

 

The whole gentlemens agreement came about because the best pvp guild on the server (Nostrum) were just comprehensively annihilating everyone with bubble/smash (they still won even when they didn't use it). That had a detremental impact on ranked on the server making a lot of people loose interest. Taking this agreement out of the equation till the times before it, just how many people ran engineering snipers? And again, take it back further to before smash got buffed. How many ranked teams went with engineering snipers?

 

Just a quick note I'm not bashing Nostrum, it's to their credit that they're good team players. They were successful to the point that new teams were not being formed, sure it probably wasn't just them but ti all contributed to this gentlemans agreement.

 

The Red Eclipse has never had many snipers in ranked of any tree, the engineering sniper is a very underused class. We have some good pvp'ers/guilds on our server but honestly (and I genuinely can't say for certain myself) how many of them have run with an engineering sniper?

 

Take Servants of None for example (non TRE players won't recognise the names). Lieandra was the sniper for their ranked team and he was a damn good one but played mm spec. When ranked came out he respeced to lethality due to all the heavy armour players. He'd never used engineering and so they never took advantage of what that tree can do. For the record I believe Lieandra was a much better sniper than I am. My point is that SoN were until the time they left the best pvp guild on the server (with LoTD a close second) and they never saw the point of engineering.

 

There just weren't any engineering snipers around to showcase the tree on our server.

 

In my opinion, and anyone feel free to contradict me, but because there's a shortage of Engineering snipers a lot of people have no idea how to play with one. As ambitiousapple says we are area of denial and that is what the engineering tree excels in. Depending on how you look at it the damage is inconsequential. The way he (or she ) describes how he plays ranks is the way I envisage an engineering sniper being played but I imagine to do that affectively requires the rest of the team to know how to use him.

 

ambitiousapple dude especially feel free to correct me but it sounds like you're saying something similar to what I've thought ever since I began to understand the class in 50 pvp a long time ago. There's more to being a sniper than the damage we produce. For sure we can deal out so good burst to help kill people but that's not the only thing we're good for. You don't have to kill things to help your team out.

Edited February 6, 2013 by BaineOs

[ambitiousapple]

In my opinion, and anyone feel free to contradict me, but because there's a shortage of Engineering snipers a lot of people have no idea how to play with one. As ambitiousapple says we are area of denial and that is what the engineering tree excels in. Depending on how you look at it the damage is inconsequential. The way he (or she ) describes how he plays ranks is the way I envisage an engineering sniper being played but I imagine to do that effectively requires the rest of the team to know how to use him.

 

ambitiousapple dude especially feel free to correct me but it sounds like you're saying something similar to what I've thought ever since I began to understand the class in 50 pvp a long time ago. There's more to being a sniper than the damage we produce. For sure we can deal out so good burst to help kill people but that's not the only thing we're good for. You don't have to kill things to help your team out.

 

Nailed it.

Edited February 6, 2013 by ambitiousapple