Blueheart's PvE Sharpshooter Guide 1.0

[Thalur]

As for your theory on the talent Bravado. I am pretty sure the regen is %, meaning the regen rate with the talent is NOT 60%-110%, but 66%-110%. Anyway this is an increase by 4 to our energy pool (you should really not be using anything below that unless you want to pop coolhead or really need that burst) increasing it to 44.

 

I came on here to post exactly that. The top speed regen is 60% not 60 energy. Given this, I'm not sure the two points in Bravado are worth it unless you need them to unlock something else in that tree.

 

(P.S. remove the % signs on the numbers; you mean 66-110 energy)

[Baeralas]

Very nice post, thanks.

[Solantharius]

Just wanted to update quick since I haven't mentioned this yet. Once your high enough that you have all the skills I find the best opening rotation to be as follows.

 

1) Hard cast Aimed Shot (Send companion in at half cast if applicable)

2) Flourish Shot (If a gold elite or boss mob only)

3) Trick Shot

4) Speed Shot

5) Charged Burst

6) Trick Shot

 

If done properly when you cast that first charged burst as the 5th ability in your rotation it will still be an instant cast from rolling into cover. I find that using this opening rotation will decimate a grp of 3 regular mobs, or even a strong and regular, without having to use any additional abilities.

 

It can be argued one would be better off opening up with a charged burst using smugglers luck for a guaranteed crit to proc quick aim and thus a quicker aimed shot cast, however when I am solo I prefer to open up with my longer cast time ability to initiate combat rather than an instant. Instant attack = instant aggro and even with Quick Aim up that's still an in combat cast time if aimed shot isn't used first. When it comes to grouping opening with the charged burst crit like that is pretty much going to guarantee pulling aggro unless you wait a few seconds to let your tank get the target situated so why not use that few second casting that initial aimed shot rather than just sitting there waiting to use an instant.

 

Beyond that on boss fights and such will simply watch cooldowns to follow the priority list as follows.

 

Flourish Shot

Speed Shot

Aimed Shot

Trick Shot

Quickdraw if applicable

Charged Burst

 

Personally I only use Vital Shot when on the move, otherwise its never a part of my standard rotation. Trick Shot should ALWAYS be used when able, its by far our best shot given the huge damage and low energy cost and cd when fully talented. I will also throw in a saboteur charge if i get down the list to a charged burst trick shot combo at any point and speed or aimed shot are not off of cd yet.

Edited December 24, 2011 by Solantharius

[knarral]

I just wanted to put my 2 credits in about burst volley. I took a look at the gear offered from the PvE vendors, and there's a metric crap ton of crit on it. In end game, I'm sure that, unless the RNG gods REALLY hate you, you'll likely be getting charged burst crits at least once or twice every 15 seconds, and charged burst is already under 1.5 seconds, which means that the only thing that can benefit from the extra 9% haste is speedshot. Now, at level 30, I don't have it yet, but I doubt that it's good enough to make us want alacrity, since it should theoretically be useless almost everywhere else in the sharpshooter tree. Which makes me wonder: should we bother to get 3/3 burst volley, or should we just go for some extra utility just in case?

[naexus]

Nice write up, my 2cred on a few of the issues/problems/queries people have been having.

 

in later ops/instances, AoE is really quite useful, don't gloss this part over

 

Burst volley costs too much energy to maintain. you activate it with AS then you all but have to spam CB in order to keep it up which is a massive energy sink

 

VS - CB. Charged burst wins out, procs trickshot, benefits from weapon damage and "fires both blaster if dual wielding" it is just a flat out better use of energy.

 

 

I moved the points from Burst Volley into spacer, the extra distance between you and a mob is handy, being able to control adds is useful and there are a few fights that need this and the flyby activation time is useful as well.

 

moved points from black market mods to independent anarchy, sab charge is one of the highest sources of damage and the 10% additional AoE damage off flyby and sweeping gunfire make a big difference.

[knarral]

I just did some fooling around on tatooine, and I can confirm exactly ONE thing about burst volley: It is physically impossible to keep it up forever. Not just due to energy wasting, but also due to the fact that it DOES NOT refresh at 3 stacks, meaning that, once you hit 3 stacks, you have +9% alacrity for EXACTLY 6 seconds, and not a second more.

 

This definitely moves me to say that this talent is nearly worthless, because the ONLY thing it can benefit is speed shot, since Aimed Shot won't be off CD to make use of the extra alacrity. I'm saying keep off this talent and put some points in some utility, I don't think burst volley is worth the points.

[Vengeful_Deity]

I've dropped Burst Volley from my build and picked up Ballistic Dampeners. I just can't justify putting points in an Alacrity talent.

[Gassygunslinger]

Yep, Burst Volley is complete and utter crap. For 3 points, it will save you .3 seconds in casting time on Charged Burst, every 30 seconds. Just not worth it. And as the above poster notes, it does NOT work on Aimed Shot because it will always be on Cooldown when this procs. Absolutely not worth it. Avoid it like the plague. Were it available, and given the choice, I'd rather spend my 3 points in boxes that gave +1 Willpower.

[Formulka]

after reading this thread this build feels best for me:

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#700dsrbdRoRgzZMfZh.1

i started as a saboteur and really liked how fast you can clean up the trash with buffed up nades ... although im not sure i need the cooldown reduction, is bravado worth it with just 4 energy bonus?

 

it feels like there are too many crappy talents in sharpshooter to fill it up to the top

- trip shot, seriously who kites as a gunslinger?

- there seems to be a consensus that burst volley is worthless

- GS tends to be in cover 99% of the time, so cover screen seems worthless as well

- i dont really know what to think about Spacer, seems like doing almost nothing just taking space

- even lay low is debatable

 

thats like 7-10 good for nothing talents that could be something much better or at least useful

Edited December 30, 2011 by Formulka

[knarral]

after reading this thread this build feels best for me:

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#700dsrbdRoRgzZMfZh.1

i started as a saboteur and really liked how fast you can clean up the trash with buffed up nades ... although im not sure i need the cooldown reduction, is bravado worth it with just 4 energy bonus?

 

it feels like there are too many crappy talents in sharpshooter to fill it up to the top

- trip shot, seriously who kites as a gunslinger?

- there seems to be a consensus that burst volley is worthless

- GS tends to be in cover 99% of the time, so cover screen seems worthless as well

- i dont really know what to think about Spacer, seems like doing almost nothing just taking space

- even lay low is debatable

 

thats like 7-10 good for nothing talents that could be something much better or at least useful

 

From what I've heard, from about 36 onward sharpshooter is a bit better than sabo for killing things. TBH, I've been leveling as SS and now that I'm level 33, things just drop dead very quickly (thanks to trickshot). I just thought that the extra non-dps talents were just utility talents that you had options with, and SS was balanced around having utility talents.

 

Edit: Trip shot is useful in PvP and in PvE when you need an extra few seconds on that melee mob. Also, SS can be a bit mobile when not casting aimed shot, actually, due to the combination of having trickshot, flourish (just to reapply a debuff, but it's still instant), and the once ever 4.5 seconds or so instant charged burst.

 

Burst volley is very lackluster and useless, though, so that one is spot on. Actually, since the extra alacrity doesn't help us get aimed shot off faster, I'd say it IS actually detrimental to our dps, because that charged burst goes off .1 seconds faster than normal, meaning we'd eat the 20 energy BEFORE the energy recharge tick, meaning we'd only regenerate 4 energy instead of 6. Therefore, it's a good idea (at least for me) to avoid burst volley like the plague, since it's only gonna hurt us.

 

And XS flyby is actually an amazing AoE skill, don't knock it till you try it.

 

Edit 2: spacer is there to make XS flyby instant, if I'm not mistaken, and to give pulse detonator that extra "umph" to push idiots off the bridge in voidstar.

 

Edit 3: yeah, Bravado's worth it. For a couple reasons:

1. It's better than SUB, since thermal detonator doesn't do as much damage as sweeping fire does, even though thermal detonator is instant, making that half of the talent pretty useless (I will admit that the thermal detonator IS quite good for node defense, if for no other reason than it's instant with a radius big enough to hit everybody trying to cap the node).

2. I can't tell you how many times an extra 4 energy would have made that energy regen tick for 6 rather than 4, making that at least useful in the sense that you have an extra 4 energy of breathing room.

3. Alacrity is controversial: it could actually be pretty detrimental to us, because it makes us use up our energy faster, and nobody has mathed out if the detriment is larger than the bonus, and in any case SS only has one ability that is actually buffed by alacrity (that ability being speed shot, aimed shot should always be 1.5s cast time because of the crit chance at 50 being easily 42%, and charged burst is already 1.5s, and anything under 1.5s is useless because 1.5s is the GCD, meaning the +alacrity talent for DF can be considered worthless at best or even harmful at worst.

4. Blaster whip is useless.

5. The only other places to put the points are utility talents, which aren't DPS buffs.

Edited December 30, 2011 by knarral

[Morteeny]

Excellent guide, bookmarked. Thanks!

[Reinar]

some quick points here:

 

1. no speed shot in rotation. how come? this is pretty much guaranteed to crit during its channel and lower your next aim shot and its pretty big damage. (i read on a bit and now see you don't have it, recommend updating your title to reflect your level)

 

2. xs freighter flyby. does over 3k dmg for 30 energy to a single target(to each target in its aoe). may be worth sticking this bad boy in a single target rotation.

 

3. alacrity. more alacrity = less energy efficiency. crit, accuracy and surge are probably going to be better stats, once you drop out of your 6 energy per second range your gonna be losing dps, illegal mods will be good to use for burst followed by a coolhead to get that energy back.

 

4. i seem to keep a nice steady energy income by using this rotation

 

1. charged burst

2. trickshot

3. speedshot

4. aimed shot

5. trickshot

6. charged burst

7. flurry of bolts.

 

then repeating a charged burst trickshot/flurry of bolts weave until speedshot is off cd

 

i haven't had a chance yet to try a rotation with xs freighter flyby in there but when i do i'll let you know how it goes

 

ofc i keep flourish bolt up and when on the move a nice vital shot to fill does well.

 

here is the spec i have atm

 

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#700bsrbdRsRgzZbcZh.1

 

you'll notice i picked up bravado, that extra 10 energy pads your regen a bit to help prevent dropping out of the 6 per second. i have well over 30% passive crit with extra crit on speedshot, charged burst and trickshot.

 

if anyone has any points or questions let me know. improvements always welcome but backup your arguments please.

Edited December 31, 2011 by Reinar

[knarral]

some quick points here:

 

1. no speed shot in rotation. how come? this is pretty much guaranteed to crit during its channel and lower your next aim shot and its pretty big damage. (i read on a bit and now see you don't have it, recommend updating your title to reflect your level)

 

2. xs freighter flyby. does over 3k dmg for 30 energy to a single target(to each target in its aoe). may be worth sticking this bad boy in a single target rotation.

 

3. alacrity. more alacrity = less energy efficiency. crit, accuracy and surge are probably going to be better stats, once you drop out of your 6 energy per second range your gonna be losing dps, illegal mods will be good to use for burst followed by a coolhead to get that energy back.

 

4. i seem to keep a nice steady energy income by using this rotation

 

1. charged burst

2. trickshot

3. speedshot

4. aimed shot

5. trickshot

6. charged burst

7. flurry of bolts.

 

then repeating a charged burst trickshot/flurry of bolts weave until speedshot is off cd

 

i haven't had a chance yet to try a rotation with xs freighter flyby in there but when i do i'll let you know how it goes

 

ofc i keep flourish bolt up and when on the move a nice vital shot to fill does well.

 

here is the spec i have atm

 

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#700bsrbdRsRgzZbcZh.1

 

you'll notice i picked up bravado, that extra 10 energy pads your regen a bit to help prevent dropping out of the 6 per second. i have well over 30% passive crit with extra crit on speedshot, charged burst and trickshot.

 

if anyone has any points or questions let me know. improvements always welcome but backup your arguments please.

 

How useful do you find burst volley, given that:

1. It provides alacrity, logically mostly useless and partially detrimental to our DPS

2. It is absolutely impossible to use it for an Aimed Shot, given that, once you have 3 stacks of it, you have exactly 6 seconds of +9% alacrity since it doesn't refresh at 3 stacks.

 

I dropped it in favor of a slightly different build.

 

I picked up trip shot for a little bit more utility as far as kiting goes and hot pursuit for a bit more mobility

[Reinar]

I think burst volley will be a hotly debated talent. Personally i've taken it because the other points options are more utility based than dps based and i fire off a vital shot and flurry of bolts out of cover. My regen just about covers the alacrity gain and aslong as i can keep my energy above 60% then its always gonna be a dps increase, however slight it may be. Remember if you are forced out of cover and don't need o move for a second then xs freighter flyby can be used if off cd.

 

If i were to drop points out of it i'd be picking up independant anarchy as a 10% increase to xsffb would be quite nice.

Edited December 31, 2011 by Reinar

[knarral]

I think burst volley will be a hotly debated talent. Personally i've taken it because the other points options are more utility based than dps based and i fire off a vital shot and flurry of bolts out of cover. My regen just about covers the alacrity gain and aslong as i can keep my energy above 60% then its always gonna be a dps increase, however slight it may be. Remember if you are forced out of cover and don't need o move for a second then xs freighter flyby can be used if off cd.

 

If i were to drop points out of it i'd be picking up independant anarchy as a 10% increase to xsffb would be quite nice.

 

The way I see it, the only thing that could possibly benefit from burst volley is speed shot. Other than that, there's no DPS boost because charged burst has a cast time = the GCD, meaning of course that there's no possible way to get another shot off faster, meaning that you'd still end up doing the same damage in 6 seconds (assuming we're excluding speed shot) as if we didn't have it at all.

Edited December 31, 2011 by knarral

[Reinar]

My Charged bursts drop to 1.4 secs when at 3 stacks. I can only assume at this point that the GCD also drops with increased alacrity but would need confirmation of this. Over a long fight it will make a very slight difference provided it doesn't cause your energy to drop below 60%.

 

I think more to the question is whether or not its a higher dps increase over something like independant anarchy. Consider it this way, every 30secs (duration of cd on initial burst volley stack) i save 0.1 secs of 2 charged bursts at 3 stacks (as at this point i'm doing a charged burst trickshot/flurry of bolts weave) so thats 0.2 secs every 30 secs(also assuming than other GCD's have not been reduced other than charged burst). Now lets assume we have a 10min fight(completely arbitrary duration), at 0.4 secs per minute you get 4 secs of dps which would equate to maybe an extra 3-4k damage?(at a guess)

 

so like i said its a very slight dps increase and probably very neglegible considering it takes 3 points to get this. However, looking at the only other viable dps option (independant anarchy) gives 10% on aoe abilities, so for a single target rotation that would prob be xsffb which does approx 3-4k dmg per use. Given that we talent it to reduce its CD to 45secs, we gain 300-400 dmg every 45 secs which over 10 mins is 13 uses so looking at 3.9k - 5.2k more dmg which again is a guess and the numbers would have to be run properly over a few tests.

 

Our problem (provided these guess' off the top of my head are close enough to the mark) is that we're assuming no reduction in the GCD from alacrity which could swing it back in favour of burst volley.

 

If someone out there has done tests or has more accurate damage figures from xsffb then feel free to pitch in here. I'll see if i can run some tests myself and provide more accurate info later on.

Edited January 1, 2012 by Reinar

[knarral]

My Charged bursts drop to 1.4 secs when at 3 stacks. I can only assume at this point that the GCD also drops with increased alacrity but would need confirmation of this. Over a long fight it will make a very slight difference provided it doesn't cause your energy to drop below 60%.

 

I think more to the question is whether or not its a higher dps increase over something like independant anarchy. Consider it this way, every 30secs (duration of cd on initial burst volley stack) i save 0.1 secs of 2 charged bursts at 3 stacks (as at this point i'm doing a charged burst trickshot/flurry of bolts weave) so thats 0.2 secs every 30 secs(also assuming than other GCD's have not been reduced other than charged burst). Now lets assume we have a 10min fight(completely arbitrary duration), at 0.4 secs per minute you get 4 secs of dps which would equate to maybe an extra 3-4k damage?(at a guess)

 

so like i said its a very slight dps increase and probably very neglegible considering it takes 3 points to get this. However, looking at the only other viable dps option (independant anarchy) gives 10% on aoe abilities, so for a single target rotation that would prob be xsffb which does approx 3-4k dmg per use. Given that we talent it to reduce its CD to 45secs, we gain 300-400 dmg every 45 secs which over 10 mins is 13 uses so looking at 3.9k - 5.2k more dmg which again is a guess and the numbers would have to be run properly over a few tests.

 

Our problem (provided these guess' off the top of my head are close enough to the mark) is that we're assuming no reduction in the GCD from alacrity which could swing it back in favour of burst volley.

 

If someone out there has done tests or has more accurate damage figures from xsffb then feel free to pitch in here. I'll see if i can run some tests myself and provide more accurate info later on.

 

That's not how it works. The GCD is 1.5 seconds. No amount of alacrity will ever make the GCD shorter than 1.5 seconds. Alacrity just reduces the cast times of your abilities. The only shot we have that should be affected by alacrity is speedshot, and no matter how good it is, I can't see us stacking alacrity to buff one ability when it's useless for the rest and potentially downright harmful for our energy regen.

 

The GCD exists purely to prevent us from firing off shots one after another and getting carpal tunnel because our fingers have to move so quickly. Nothing short of a mechanic redesign from Bioware will reduce the GCD to less than 1.5 seconds.

 

Edit: and so you know I'm not just talking out of my ***:

 

Proof: Every other Themepark MMO in existence.

 

Edit 2: Even if the GCD was reduced by alacrity, we'd gain, at best, a GCD every 8 burst volley cycles, which amounts to a single GCD every 4 minutes in a non-stop fight. Hardly useful. Then, we'd also have to account for the fact that we'd be using energy faster, which we don't like as a sharpshooter.

 

Point being: Alacrity is useless for sharpshooters, and potentially downright harmful. Avoid it like the plague.

Edited January 1, 2012 by knarral

[Reinar]

ok, you're wrong, the GCD can be reduced to 1 second in other MMO's, i'll need confirmation of it in SWTOR but i suggest you look into it a bit more before telling me thats not how it works when i know full well it does work like that atleast in the MMO's i've played. Also loke i said, there are no other truly viable options for our talent points and so even with such a minor dps gain its better than lowering the cd of leg shot. If our energy can sustain the slight increase in energy usage due to faster casts for that short period of time then it is a dps increase. I wouldn't stack alacrity, but as a proc that is covered by our energy regen it is a dps increase. This is why i'm waiting for more tests to be done before saying yes or no to burst volley. Edited January 1, 2012 by Reinar

[knarral]

ok, you're wrong, the GCD can be reduced to 1 second in other MMO's, i'll need confirmation of it in SWTOR but i suggest you look into it a bit more before telling me thats not how it works when i know full well it does work like that atleast in the MMO's i've played. Also loke i said, there are no other truly viable options for our talent points and so even with such a minor dps gain its better than lowering the cd of leg shot. If our energy can sustain the slight increase in energy usage due to faster casts for that short period of time then it is a dps increase. I wouldn't stack alacrity, but as a proc that is covered by our energy regen it is a dps increase. This is why i'm waiting for more tests to be done before saying yes or no to burst volley.

 

In WoW, Hunters have a 1 second GCD. That is part of their mechanics. Haste does not reduce it. Every other class (I think) has a 1.5s GCD.

 

In LotR, the GCD is 1.4s, and is not reduced by haste (I'm not even sure if that stat exists there, I've never played it, I just know its GCD is 1.4s).

 

Edit: In RIFT, I think the GCD is 1.5s, and is not reduced by haste (I don't even remember if that stat exists. I played it for a little while, but then discovered it kinda sucked, so I left).

 

GCD's aren't reduced by haste stats, they're always stagnant. It's a mechanic to prevent people from casting too many spells in too short of a time frame.

 

Edit: I personally view burst volley as absolutely worthless. If you don't spend 3 points there, you can better your utility (being able to kite better is nice, even if it's not needed, and more so when the alternative is a useless DPS talent) and have 2 more points for wherever you want to put them (I put them in the sabo t2 with the "single charged burst on the run" talent).

Edited January 1, 2012 by knarral

[Reinar]

In WoW, Hunters have a 1 second GCD. That is part of their mechanics. Haste does not reduce it. Every other class (I think) has a 1.5s GCD.

 

In LotR, the GCD is 1.4s, and is not reduced by haste (I'm not even sure if that stat exists there, I've never played it, I just know its GCD is 1.4s).

 

Edit: In RIFT, I think the GCD is 1.5s, and is not reduced by haste (I don't even remember if that stat exists. I played it for a little while, but then discovered it kinda sucked, so I left).

 

GCD's aren't reduced by haste stats, they're always stagnant. It's a mechanic to prevent people from casting too many spells in too short of a time frame.

 

Edit: I personally view burst volley as absolutely worthless. If you don't spend 3 points there, you can better your utility (being able to kite better is nice, even if it's not needed, and more so when the alternative is a useless DPS talent) and have 2 more points for wherever you want to put them (I put them in the sabo t2 with the "single charged burst on the run" talent).

 

I think you'll find that in WoW haste did reduce the GCD for spellcasters but would go no lower than 1 second (its was 1.5secs with no haste). I've ticketed a GM about alacrity anyway, just wating for a response. I've seen some suggestions that in SWTOR the GCD of skills that are channeled or have activation times can go below 1.5secs but that instant cast abilities remain unaffected.

[knarral]

I think you'll find that in WoW haste did reduce the GCD for spellcasters but would go no lower than 1 second (its was 1.5secs with no haste). I've ticketed a GM about alacrity anyway, just wating for a response. I've seen some suggestions that in SWTOR the GCD of skills that are channeled or have activation times can go below 1.5secs but that instant cast abilities remain unaffected.

 

That's where you're wrong. The Globa Cool Down is not reduced by haste. The haste hard cap for mages was when their primary nuke hit 1.5 seconds, because they gained literally nothing from haste from that point onward, because it is only possible to use 1 spell every 1.5 seconds, because he GCD was 1.5s. Cooldowns are not modified by haste (unless you are a Paladin, in which case CS's CD is modified by haste.

 

The reason instant shots aren't modified by alacrity is because it has no cast time. You can only fire one shot every 1.5s, and never any faster than that, because the GCD prevents it.

 

Edit: spelling errors, I'm posting from a phone, Damnit!

Edited January 2, 2012 by knarral

[Reinar]

That's where you're wrong. The Globa Cool Down is not reduced by haste. The haste hard cap for mages was when their primary nuke hit 1.5 seconds, because they gained literally nothing from haste from that point onward, because it is only possible to use 1 spell every 1.5 seconds, because he GCD was 1.5s. Cooldowns are not modified by haste (unless you are a Paladin, in which case CS's CD is modified by haste.

 

The reason instant shots aren't modified by alacrity is because it has no cast time. You can only fire one shot every 1.5s, and never any faster than that, because the GCD prevents it.

 

Edit: spelling errors, I'm posting from a phone, Damnit!

 

OK, then maybe you can explain why my shaman could throw a healing surge in 1.1 secs without having a delay between casts?

 

Need more proof? Read here http://www.wowwiki.com/Casting_Speed

Edited January 2, 2012 by Reinar

[Synavix]

That's where you're wrong. The Globa Cool Down is not reduced by haste. The haste hard cap for mages was when their primary nuke hit 1.5 seconds, because they gained literally nothing from haste from that point onward, because it is only possible to use 1 spell every 1.5 seconds, because he GCD was 1.5s. Cooldowns are not modified by haste (unless you are a Paladin, in which case CS's CD is modified by haste.

 

You're wrong about haste not reducing the global cooldown in WoW (and I thought it might have had an affect in Rift, but since I only played that game for a month or so myself, don't know nearly enough to comment on it -- nor do I care to look it up, so I'm sure you're right if you have). Many caster classes endgame gearing has revolved around lowering their GCD for certain abilities to become spell cast. Namely, in my case (at one point), lowering the GCD to bubble spam as a disc priest.

 

The global cooldown for casters with no haste is 1.5 seconds. Haste reduces the global cooldown according to the general formula for haste:

 

NewCastTime = BaseCastTime * ( ( 1 + HasteRating / ( RatingConversion * 100 ) ) ^ -1 )

 

You can find tons of literature on the topic. What haste doesnt affect -- at least last time I played -- was the GCD for melee classes and/or abilities.

 

Still, back on topic, you're completely right about alacrity being crap for us regardless of whether it affects the GCD or not in SWTOR. At best I could see alacrity becoming a viable off-stat in PvP to increase short-term burst, but even then I'd imagine you wouldn't be able to stack it enough to have a more beneficial effect than crit or raw endurance (in addition to the obvious cunning). In PvE it might provide a slight DPS boost in burst trash pulls or for a short fight used in conjunction with Cool Head and any other energy regen boosting abilities or items, but overall it would be a major hindrance to our regen for us with very little benefit.

 

edit: Unless we're all overlooking something pretty big, I'd expect to see a small rework to either one or two of our talents or the way alacrity may affect our class. I'm sure when designing our talent trees the idea of an alacrity talent sounded good -- but once more theorycraft comes out on it and BioWare realizes that we have a nearly useless talent too far up our tree to be of any real use to any other spec (or even any real gimmicky utility spec for GS) they'll rework something. I hope.

 

edit 2: I don't play WoW anymore. I don't care too terribly much for what may or may not be current mechanics in the game outside whether or not haste does/used to/will in the future affect GCD in relation to this topic/game, so take any of my information with a grain of salt.

Edited January 2, 2012 by Synavix

[knarral]

OK, then maybe you can explain why my shaman could throw a healing surge in 1.1 secs without having a delay between casts?

 

Need more proof? Read here http://www.wowwiki.com/Casting_Speed

 

1. Outdated data is outdated.

2. Want proof that the GCD isn't reduced? Without any math done, get 3/3 Burst Volley and stack it, the use Charged Burst and use immediately flurry afterwards. Instead of the animation being instantly cancelled, you will get off a single shot of CB off before the animation cuts to Flurry's.

 

No math done, already proven.

[knarral]

You're wrong about haste not reducing the global cooldown in WoW (and I thought it might have had an affect in Rift, but since I only played that game for a month or so myself, don't know nearly enough to comment on it -- nor do I care to look it up, so I'm sure you're right if you have). Many caster classes endgame gearing has revolved around lowering their GCD for certain abilities to become spell cast. Namely, in my case, lowering the GCD to bubble spam as a disc priest.

 

 

 

You can find tons of literature on the topic. What haste doesnt affect -- at least last time I played -- was the GCD for melee classes and/or abilities.

 

Still, back on topic, you're completely right about alacrity being crap for us regardless of whether it affects the GCD or not in SWTOR. At best I could see alacrity becoming a viable off-stat in PvP to increase short-term burst, but even then I'd imagine you wouldn't be able to stack it enough to have a more beneficial effect than crit or raw endurance (in addition to the obvious cunning). In PvE it might provide a slight DPS boost in burst trash pulls or for a short fight used in conjunction with Cool Head and any other energy regen boosting abilities or items, but overall it would be a major hindrance to our regen for us with very little benefit.

 

edit: Unless we're all overlooking something pretty big, I'd expect to see a small rework to either one or two of our talents or the way alacrity may affect our class. I'm sure when designing our talent trees the idea of an alacrity talent sounded good -- but once more theorycraft comes out on it and BioWare realizes that we have a nearly useless talent too far up our tree to be of any real use to any other spec (or even any real gimmicky utility spec for GS) they'll rework something. I hope.

 

Thanks for clarifying. I mained a hunter throughout Wrath, when the GCD was still 1.5s, and I know back then the haste hard cap was around 12% (I think) because the hunter's GCD was not (and still isn't, though it's 1s passively now) affected by haste. It was a big issue at one point if I remember correctly due to Blizzard's legendarily poor itemization skills.

 

In any case, I did some (ultimately inaccurate yet still useful for showing just how negligible the extra DPS from a 1.4s GCD for 6 seconds every 30 seconds is assuming we somehow have energy for two CB's) calculations in my head.

 

Let's assume, at level 50 with BiS gear, CB hits for 1k because that's an easily divisible number, and not because it's close to correct (not sure what that number is yet, I don't have that gear).

I already stated that it would take 8 cycles (meaning 4 minutes) to get another full GCD from it, so 1000/4=250

60s per min, so 250/60= approximately 4.

 

It amounts to 4 dps assuming ideal for quick math circumstances. 4. A whole 4. That doesn't make up for lost DPS from getting a tick for 4 rather than 6. Even if it did 4 dps isn't worth three points whe you could get some utility and some extra DPS in sabo t2.

Edited January 2, 2012 by knarral