Blueheart's PvE Sharpshooter Guide 1.0

[knarral]

Nothing new at all here, as I'm sure you're all too familiar with too. All too often in MMO's you have the red-headed child spec or tier of gear where the "recommended" gear has horrible itemization for the way the class actually works "best". You see it all the time in WoW where classes have to take 2 or 4 pieces of a set to get their set bonus, then they avoid the rest of the set like the plague because their "offspec" gear is better itemized or more customizable. Not surprising, really, especially with newer games, but I hope its something that gets addressed. Especially in a game like this where each class is fairly distinct, and you can't simply address the issue like you could in WoW where you could simply say "Well druid sets suck, so we'll just use off-set rogue gear".

 

Yep. 4.3 heroic dungeons in WoW with hunter gear: EVERYTHING HAS HIT ON IT! OMG AJHFDGKAJHDSFGJKASHFGDJKASHDFGAJKDSHGF! It really pissed me off because at one point I was actually sitting on 12% hit that I just could not get rid of, even if I reforged out of every single bit of hit possible. Got it down to 10%. Got better when I got rid of my old trinket, though. Then it was a more reasonable 9%, but there was still that 1% that I couldn't get rid of. I never finished my set, though, because I just rerolled rogue and then TOR launched.

 

At least our gear doesn't have alacrity on it, though.

 

In any case, I'm not too sure how good accuracy is past the 10% needed to make flurry always hit, and I'm not too sure of how good a stat power actually is.

Edited January 5, 2012 by knarral

[flem]

I haven't run the numbers, but I believe accuracy ups the chance the offhand hits for a number of big powers, making it too a form of crit.

[knarral]

I haven't run the numbers, but I believe accuracy ups the chance the offhand hits for a number of big powers, making it too a form of crit.

 

It does, but offhand damage is really small, and also has a base 60% chance to hit, making it nigh impossible to make offhand attacks always hit. It's just a lot of accuracy that's needed for little gain.

 

As always, evidence is needed before we can begin to theorize, because inevitably one would begin to twist facts to suit theories instead of theories to suit facts.

 

Yes, I just referenced Sherlock Holmes, it was an amazing movie. Deal with it (or like it, if you don't have a problem with it ).

 

OT: Does anybody else ever mentally play that music when they are bored doing something?

Edited January 6, 2012 by knarral

[Fearheart]

Just cleared eternity vault last night and a few things are very apparent to me.

 

 

1. Aggro is a huge problem for us.

a) On the last boss (Soa) I would pretty much have to pop surrender to drop threat on every phase.

b) I really hope they add a threat meter and target of target soon. Soa in phase 1 and 2 only uses ranged attacks so the only indicator I had aggro was if my health bar started dropping fast. This caused me to die a couple times. Our tank is very well geared and has good threat output. I end up dieing a lot because of threat problems.

 

2. Gearing:

1- Stack accuracy until you hit cap your main hand weapon.

2- When possible I am going to try and maintain a 35% - 40% chance to crit (self buffed)

3- Past that crit chance I will stack surge wherever I can. We will have a high chance to crit so this stat will greatly increase our dps.

4- If its not possible to get surge then take power.

 

(Avoid alacrity on gear)

 

I am very happy with the talent build I am currently using (The one linked in my guide). It seems the strongest for our dps.

 

 

-----------------

 

How I configured my bars: I orignally didn't like the idea of having a seperate cover bar but as I got my abilities I had to start using it. Why take up space on your regular bar for abilities you can't use? It does take some getting used to and I am constently moving things around to find where I like them better.

 

My main bar is bound like this:

 

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | Ctrl+mouse5 | Mouse5 | E | ` | G |

 

I use this bar for my main abilities. I bind the first 5 keys and the last 5 keys to things I need often and its harder for me to hit 6, 7 so I use those for less used.

 

The bottom center bar is bound like this:

 

R | Shift+R | x | shift+x | z | shift+z | T | Shift+T | Shift+f | Shift+g

 

I use R, X, Z, T for abilities I use often and the shift+key abilities for less often things. The game doesn't seem to respond quickly to modifier keys for some reason.

 

I only put vital shot on my non cover bar as I only cast this while on the move. and all my cover abilities plus a few things I cast from cover on my cover bar.

 

My left bar I have both my relics, adrenile and illegal mods stacked next to each other along with smugglers luck. So when I pop my big burst combo I just click Illegal mods, surge relic, adrenal and smugglers luck while I am still casting with my key bindings. I think I will eventually add a section under my guide for key binding tips, but I hop this helps.

[Anelyn]

Very good info from my fellows slingers here. I am deeply in love with the sniper / slinger mechanics - playing a sniper atm on empire, lvl 41, and I am rolling a slinger on republic side as well just to be able to play a gray side character and still kick butts left and right

 

I am aware of some differences - despite supposed to be mirrored classes, regarding your version of explosive probe, the 30s longer CD on flash grenade, and different animations on most skills.

 

Hopefully they are not that major to prevent me from leveling a slinger at same pace I went with my agent.

 

Touching on the dot part, I simply can't fit it in a sustained dps rotation, 20 energy is huge for an instant skill (what you use is what you lose, unlike cast / channels), especially every 15s. I am using it still, but mainly when I have to move, am knocked out of cover and have to move etc as is still dmg, but only if I can't use my cover abilities for a window of time larger than 5s (so I get at least some ticks back on energy regen).

[LenaMarie]

I only have one question. Trick shot vs the basics like Black Market mods, streetwise etc.

 

 

Should one rush ahead to getting trick shot right away or dabble at the bits in the other trees then work their way up the Sharpshooter tree? Im only 31 right now, so I can either get trick shot now at the expense of streetwise, black market mods and such.

 

Thanks for any advice.

[Aiyleen]

Clearly trickshot, it's much more powerful and a fine energy saver.

[knarral]

That and BAM does absolutely nothing for sharpshooters since it's just +6% (I think) alacrity.

[flem]

Don't get Black Market Mods at all. Rush Trickshot, though I like two early points in Bravado.

[PariahMessiah]

Might be late to the party with this but I saw a discussion on Bravado and energy regeneration earlier in the thread. After some quick testing I noticed at the 60 energy mark you go back to fast energy regen even with Bravado

[Fearheart]

Updates to OP:

 

01/09/12- Updated Stat selection, skills section (to reflect my new build), added a key bind tips section.

[crankypunk]

Edit

Figured it out

 

 

.....

 

Thanks for this amazing post

Edited January 10, 2012 by crankypunk

[Nemron]

I can't understand why you ensist on avoiding alacrity..

[NuJedi]

I can't understand why you ensist on avoiding alacrity..

 

because it will speed up your rotation, which will increase the speed you burn energy. which will increase the amount of times you are using your 0 energy attack, which will lower your overall dps. the 'slinger shot priority/rotation is very tricky to be able to do effectively and stay above 60 energy for maximum regen.

Edited January 11, 2012 by NuJedi

[knarral]

That and testing is needed to discover if the GCD in TOR is decreased with alacrity.

 

And it wouldn't help much anyways, because of the fast cast times on the few casted abilities we have and the amount of instants we have. Just some quick math to figure out how much alacrity works on our abilities (assuming alacrity works the way logic says it should):

 

1.5 sec base cast to 1.4 sec base cast:

 

1.5 - 1.5x =NCT (assuming 100% alacrity = instant casts and there are no diminishing returns, and NCT = New Cast Time (one variable), and x=alacrity)

 

This means:

 

1.5-1.5x=1.4

-.1=-1.5x

.1/1.5=x

x=0666 repeating

 

Therefore, .1 second off a 1.5s cast time is approximately 6.67% alacrity, which is a steep price to pay for very minimal gain and even a little bit of a dps loss (due to eating energy faster), which could end up cancelling each other out or even contribute negatively to our DPS. In addition to this, crit+surge+power+accuracy do not ever contribute negatively, and are always very clearly a dps gain.

 

That's why most knowledgeable gunslingers (and when I say knowledgeable, I mean about the mechanics of gunslingers and of what stats do and approximately what a stat gives) recommend avoiding alacrity like the plague.

[Lightning_]

I think rushing to Trickshot and its energy reducing talent is essential - not only because Trickshot is so powerful, but also there are some super-needed talents on the way - like Foxhole.

 

The only problem is that since many decide to skip Burst Volley now, there are two points which are required to open tier 5 - and you have to use them for Spacer, Cover Screen or Trip Shot. I rarely use Leg Shot in PvE, so I decided to put one into Spacer and one into Cover Screen for now - being defensive never hurts.

[Nemron]

Well I understand what you say about adding extra alacrity point on your gear but I have Black Market Mods and Burst Volley on my built and yesterday on EV I remember using Cool Head once or twice in Boss fights. That's why I think there is not such a big deal about it.

 

Thus I could understand avoiding Black Market Mods and using Independent anarchy instead but I think that Burst Volley is a must and way more worth it over Trip Shot and Lay Low.

Edited January 11, 2012 by Nemron

[Nemron]

Well reading again and again the guide I have some questions based mainly on the rotations.

 

• When you say Charged Bolt you mean Charged Burst right?
   
   
  
• At opening rotation, at step 3 you say "..then cast Charged bolt. (autocrit+instant cast)". Assuming that Charged Bolt = Charged Burst, the autocrit comes from Smuggler's Luck. The instant cast how comes? Illegal Mods give you an alacrity boost of 20%. That doesn't make it instant cast though.
   
   
  
• Energized Attack Adrenal are made by biochems like Exotech Skill Stim?
   
   
  
• If you never use Sabotage Charge and you avoid Black Market Mods, why go for Independent Anacry and not any other tier2 Saboteur ability? Especially Hot Pursuit, as in many cases you have to move during boss encounters, so this way you get the option to cast 2 extra instant attacks, Charged Burst + Trickshot, while moving around.

 

Nevermind No2! I forgot about Snap Shot!

Edited January 11, 2012 by Nemron

[knarral]

Well I understand what you say about adding extra alacrity point on your gear but I have Black Market Mods and Burst Volley on my built and yesterday on EV I remember using Cool Head once or twice in Boss fights. That's why I think there is not such a big deal about it.

 

Thus I could understand avoiding Black Market Mods and using Independent anarchy instead but I think that Burst Volley is a must and way more worth it over Trip Shot and Lay Low.

 

No, alacrity is pretty useless, and as math proved (if it works like I think it does), 3/3 BMM doesn't even reduce the cast time of CB by .1s, and BV is useless except for speed shot (which, due to energy constraints, we need to be 3s anyways).

 

Even then, 9% would only reduce it to about 2.75 seconds anyways.

[knarral]

Well reading again and again the guide I have some questions based mainly on the rotations.

 

• When you say Charged Bolt you mean Charged Burst right?
   
   
  
• At opening rotation, at step 3 you say "..then cast Charged bolt. (autocrit+instant cast)". Assuming that Charged Bolt = Charged Burst, the autocrit comes from Smuggler's Luck. The instant cast how comes? Illegal Mods give you an alacrity boost of 20%. That doesn't make it instant cast though.
   
   
  
• Energized Attack Adrenal are made by biochems like Exotech Skill Stim?
   
   
  
• If you never use Sabotage Charge and you avoid Black Market Mods, why go for Independent Anacry and not any other tier2 Saboteur ability? Especially Hot Pursuit, as in many cases you have to move during boss encounters, so this way you get the option to cast 2 extra instant attacks, Charged Burst + Trickshot, while moving around.

 

Nevermind No2! I forgot about Snap Shot!

 

Hot pursuit doesn't work as I previously believed, and requires you to stand still anyways, when cover + snapshot is arguably faster. Independent Anarchy increases the damage of all AoE abilities including XSFB (our highest damage ability).

[Ketricel]

So I have been working on my Gunslinger since early access and our guild is just now stepping into Hard Modes, World Bosses, and Raids. Without damage meters I don't know "how" my DPS stacks up compared to other classes, but I will point out that things seem to die faster when we have 2-3 SS Gunslingers in a World Boss run, then when we replace those same players with other classes. Burst damage seems to be our bread and butter, but as opposed to most games we can recycle our burst pretty quickly to great effect.

 

The current spec I am using is:

 

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

 

A few things I have found from using this spec is:

 

- Moving every 10-15 seconds to get the instant Charged Burst works well, and in most encounters you will be doing this very naturally

 

- Alacrity is USELESS, I've tried running this spec with BMM and BV and it hasn't done anything noticeable. I am also gearing away from Alacrity as well

 

- Vital Shot, while low overall DPS is a good filler while moving (so is Thermal Grenade)

 

- Illegal Mods + SS + Rapid Fire = a good chunk of DPS every 2 minutes

 

- Surrender and Scrambling Field are your best friend. With SF you can almost single handedly save a group from a wipe/messy pull and your healers will thank you for it.

 

So far though I am really liking my class choice and think that SS is going to be a killer raid spec. The only negatives are that I would really like 1-2 more abilities to use outside of cover and that I wish cover wasn't so wonky in how it stuck you behind/on to certain objects. Sometimes I will be out in the open and it will roll me 10m away into a pack of mobs that I am no where near. I have died a few times because of this haha.

[Fearheart]

I can't understand why you ensist on avoiding alacrity..

 

- I unfortunately have a pretty good amount of alacrity as I am building my set of purples. The purple drops were quite a big upgrade in cunning and a few other stats but had alacrity on it. This upped my dps a lot due to the extra cunning but now I am having big time energy problems. If I am not careful I will be out of energy in 7 GCDs. Before when I didn't have any alacrity on my gear I could pretty much indefinitely maintain 60%+ energy levels without ever firing a flurry of bolts. Now that I have over 100 alacrity on my gear I have to flurry of bolts every 3rd or 4th gcd.

 

In summary you would think alacrity would up our dps, but it screws with our energy regen/rotation so much that it balances out. The one good thing I've noticed about having a little bit of alacrity is I can Aim shot into a speed shot and still get off my trick shot proccd from the aim shot. Speed shot has a base 3s cast channel, but with alacrity its below 3s. Normally you can only cast trickshot within 3s after charged burst or aimed shot, but putting your speed shot below 3s channel means if you aimed shot and your trick shot still is not off of cd you can speed shot and get your trick shot in right after. (just a side note ) still avoid alacrity if you can.

[Fearheart]

Well reading again and again the guide I have some questions based mainly on the rotations.

 

• When you say Charged Bolt you mean Charged Burst right?
   
   
  
• At opening rotation, at step 3 you say "..then cast Charged bolt. (autocrit+instant cast)". Assuming that Charged Bolt = Charged Burst, the autocrit comes from Smuggler's Luck. The instant cast how comes? Illegal Mods give you an alacrity boost of 20%. That doesn't make it instant cast though.
   
   
  
• Energized Attack Adrenal are made by biochems like Exotech Skill Stim?
   
   
  
• If you never use Sabotage Charge and you avoid Black Market Mods, why go for Independent Anacry and not any other tier2 Saboteur ability? Especially Hot Pursuit, as in many cases you have to move during boss encounters, so this way you get the option to cast 2 extra instant attacks, Charged Burst + Trickshot, while moving around.

 

Nevermind No2! I forgot about Snap Shot!

 

 

 

When you say Charged Bolt you mean Charged Burst right?

Typo , will be corrected thanks

 

Energized Attack Adrenal are made by biochems like Exotech Skill Stim?

Correct they are made by biochems

 

If you never use Sabotage Charge and you avoid Black Market Mods, why go for Independent Anacry and not any other tier2 Saboteur ability? Especially Hot Pursuit, as in many cases you have to move during boss encounters, so this way you get the option to cast 2 extra instant attacks, Charged Burst + Trickshot, while moving around.

- My AOE rotation includes sab charge, I will post this soon.

- Original I thought hot pursuit would allow a charged burst to be able to be cast while moving which turned out to not be true. Since you have to stand still to cast it anyway, there is no reason you can't pop portable cover and get an instant cast which is even better than a hot pursuited CB.

- On the move i will vital shot > Portable cover+Instant CB > continue to move and Trick shot into a quick shot or refresh flourish until i can instantCB/trick again.

- Independant anarchy applies to all aoe - I think we have 4, and I almost always use XS Flyby everytime its off CD when there is more than 1 enemy and they will stay still for the duration.

 

 

Hope this helps

[Fearheart]

So I have been working on my Gunslinger since early access and our guild is just now stepping into Hard Modes, World Bosses, and Raids. Without damage meters I don't know "how" my DPS stacks up compared to other classes, but I will point out that things seem to die faster when we have 2-3 SS Gunslingers in a World Boss run, then when we replace those same players with other classes. Burst damage seems to be our bread and butter, but as opposed to most games we can recycle our burst pretty quickly to great effect.

 

The current spec I am using is:

 

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

 

A few things I have found from using this spec is:

 

- Moving every 10-15 seconds to get the instant Charged Burst works well, and in most encounters you will be doing this very naturally

 

- Alacrity is USELESS, I've tried running this spec with BMM and BV and it hasn't done anything noticeable. I am also gearing away from Alacrity as well

 

- Vital Shot, while low overall DPS is a good filler while moving (so is Thermal Grenade)

 

- Illegal Mods + SS + Rapid Fire = a good chunk of DPS every 2 minutes

 

- Surrender and Scrambling Field are your best friend. With SF you can almost single handedly save a group from a wipe/messy pull and your healers will thank you for it.

 

So far though I am really liking my class choice and think that SS is going to be a killer raid spec. The only negatives are that I would really like 1-2 more abilities to use outside of cover and that I wish cover wasn't so wonky in how it stuck you behind/on to certain objects. Sometimes I will be out in the open and it will roll me 10m away into a pack of mobs that I am no where near. I have died a few times because of this haha.

 

Very good input, thanks!

 

The two biggest problems I am having right now is aggro and cover.

 

On the third boss I keep getting knocked back out of cover. It ended up taking me longer to kill my guy than the healer took to kill his haha. It becomes very punishing for a SS on movement heavy fights or any fight that has knockbacks. With ability delay being what it currently is it usually takes me 2 - 8 seconds to get back into cover, even though its suppose to be instant.

 

Cover also bugs out a lot of the time when trying to pop portable cover it won't let you pop on texture seams, when your backed against a wall or sometimes on stairs. Once they get cover all ironed out and ability delay then we will be superstars.

 

I've also noticed quite a few times I try to shoot off a charged burst or aimed shot and the cast will go off but at the end no damage is done, no animation and aimed shot isnt put on CD telling me it never went off when everything else says that it should have fired. The only way i can get it to fire off in this situation is by moving and repopping cover.

Edited January 12, 2012 by Fearheart

[XeroTheta]

I have 3 points invested in Burst Volley(BV) at level 33 and I'm starting to regret it. It could possibly be useful if I stacked alacrity on my equipment. Then the percentage boost would be more noticeable. I think what kills BV the most is that once the charges max out at 3 there is no way to maintain the buff. I had the thought that I would be able to maintain the buff, even if the stacks max out at 3, if I used charged burst every 6 seconds. I was also under the impression that alacrity reduced the cooldown, not GCD, of my abilities such as flash grenade, aimed shot, dirty kick, cool head, etc.

 

In my opinion, this is what needs to happen to make BV a viable choice:

 

BV should be able to be maintained as long as you continue to use Charged Burst(CB) when the buff is active, still max of 3 charges.

 

AND one of these two changes:

 

BV should be reworked to buff accuracy. It could mechanically work the same way. It even makes more sense for it to buff accuracy based on how the skill is procced.

 

or

 

Alacrity needs to reduce the cooldown on abilities. It shouldn't affect the GCD, but it should allow us to activate our large cooldown abilities more frequently. This kind of change would affect all classes though, and not just sharp shooter gunslingers. So this may not be a real option as it affects balance across the board.