Best PvE DPS Tips

[DocTwister]

I'm looking for some detailed information on your PvE DPS specs. I'd like to compare some numbers with everyone to get an idea of what players are doing to get high levels of dps.

 

Some questions.

 

1. What tree do we believe is the best for DPS output? Some say Watchman, some say Combat.

2. How much Strength do you have? Can you ever have too much Strength?

3. Should you stack power or substitue power for other stats like accuracy, crit or surge?

4. What are the best % to have for Accuracy, Crit Chance and Crit Multiplier?

5. What is the best ability rotation?

6. What is the best form to be in?

 

I don't want to hear "it all depends on your play style..." I get that.. and yes, in 2.0 some of this will change. But I'm looking for your personal experiences and how you are currently setup to get the highest DPS.

 

Thanks.

[TheTbone]

I'm looking for some detailed information on your PvE DPS specs. I'd like to compare some numbers with everyone to get an idea of what players are doing to get high levels of dps.

 

Some questions.

 

1. What tree do we believe is the best for DPS output? Some say Watchman, some say Combat.

2. How much Strength do you have? Can you ever have too much Strength?

3. Should you stack power or substitue power for other stats like accuracy, crit or surge?

4. What are the best % to have for Accuracy, Crit Chance and Crit Multiplier?

5. What is the best ability rotation?

6. What is the best form to be in?

 

I don't want to hear "it all depends on your play style..." I get that.. and yes, in 2.0 some of this will change. But I'm looking for your personal experiences and how you are currently setup to get the highest DPS.

 

Thanks.

 

1. What tree do we believe is the best for DPS output? Watchman

2. How much Strength do you have? Can you ever have too much Strength? Use Strength augments to help get your Crit to 30%. Then you can use more power mods. Aim for crit number, not Strength number. Then switch to power. POST 2.0: Crit is nerfed and isn't worth the investment. Abandon crit for more power.

3. Should you stack power or substitue power for other stats like accuracy, crit or surge? Acc: 110% (I hover about 108), Crit 30%, Surge 75%, then stack power

4. What are the best % to have for Accuracy, Crit Chance and Crit Multiplier? See above.

5. What is the best ability rotation? Force Leap, Overload Saber, Zealous Strike, Cauterize, Merciless Slash, Cauterize (if up again), Slash, Cauterize (if up after slash), Master Strike. Use strike if you need quick focus in between any of that and zealous/force leap isn't back up.

6. What is the best form to be in? Juyo as Watchman. Form is completely dependent on tree. You'll notice that talents in the tree buff that form.

 

I get close to 2000 DPS in tank and spanks (EC NM tanks, for instance). Please note that some of this will change with 2.0, especially the stat goals. The trick is to use Merciless Slash and Slash to keep Cauterize off cooldown. Also keep Merciless Slash stacked and replace Slash with Dispatch if target is below 30%. Always have Overload Saber running. Never be standing around waiting for something to come off cooldown. Always be using something.

Edited March 3, 2013 by TheTbone

[gunte]

I'm looking for some detailed information on your PvE DPS specs. I'd like to compare some numbers with everyone to get an idea of what players are doing to get high levels of dps.

 

Some questions.

 

1. What tree do we believe is the best for DPS output? Some say Watchman, some say Combat.

2. How much Strength do you have? Can you ever have too much Strength?

3. Should you stack power or substitue power for other stats like accuracy, crit or surge?

4. What are the best % to have for Accuracy, Crit Chance and Crit Multiplier?

5. What is the best ability rotation?

6. What is the best form to be in?

 

I don't want to hear "it all depends on your play style..." I get that.. and yes, in 2.0 some of this will change. But I'm looking for your personal experiences and how you are currently setup to get the highest DPS.

 

Thanks.

 

1. Depends a bit on the fight, Combat has higher burst whereas watchman can do slightly better over a longer time and has self heals as well as small group heal to make life a bit easier on the healers, personally i respec mid-raid depending on what fight is comign up, both specs are equally viable.

 

2. technically NO you can not have too much strength, however you should not trade power or crit for a lower amount of strength so do NOT use the lettered mods that have high strength and low power/crit. Use strength augments.

 

3. Power can only be traded for crit, accuracy can only be traded for surge so you cant for example trade power for surge. you want in both specs around 150-160 crit rating (~30% melee crit) then go full power.

 

4. Get accuracy to 100% and then surge to around 75% (about 300 rating each)

 

5. Depends on what spec of course, Watchman is more of a priority system that gets quite complicated but the basics are to start: Force leap - Overload saber - cauterize - merciless slash - master strike - cauterize (if proc'd) and from then on make sure you always:

Have 3 stacks of merciless

Uses Overload Saber on cooldown

Use cauterize on Cooldown (but do NOT use cauterize if its allready on your target)

The rest will come naturally in time as you become more used to the spec, it takes a bit of planning ahead, making sure you have enough focus as abilities comes of cooldown so you can use them right away.

 

For combat you want to make sure you maximize your damage during Precision, the priorities for what to use during precision are:

Precision slash - Master strike - Blade Storm

Precision slash - Master strike - Dispatch

Zen - Precision slash - Blade rush SPAM (3x blade rush, end with Blade Storm)

Precision slash - Any combination of blade rush, blade storm and dispatch

Dont use precision slash for anything else. After hitting zen make sure you spend all your stacks of Zen before hitting other abilities to maximize centering generation. Other than that its about maximizing damage in non-precision phases while making sure you can hit precision on cooldown with high-damage abilities to spend during precision.

 

6. Watchman - Juyo form. Combat - Ataru form

Edited March 7, 2013 by gunte

[Aurojiin]

get your Crit to 30%

I dream of a world where all children are taught about the great fallacy of X% crit chance, and we ostracise those who still believe it from society.

 

For combat you want to make sure you maximize your damage during Precision, the priorities for what to use during precision are:

Precision slash - Master strike - dispatch

Precision slash - Master strike - Blade storm

Zen - Precision slash - Blade rush SPAM

The first two should be the other way around. While Dispatch can crit for more, Blade Storm will do more damage on average due to the Combat Trance autocrit.

 

With Zen, your precision window should be BRx3, Blade Storm, too. Oh the whole your tips are a good summation though.

Edited March 7, 2013 by Aurojiin

[gunte]

I have a dream of a world where all children are taught about the great fallacy of X% crit chance, and we ostracise those who still believe it from society.

 

On the SWTOR official forums? dream on ^^

[gunte]

I dream of a world where all children are taught about the great fallacy of X% crit chance, and we ostracise those who still believe it from society.

 

 

The first two should be the other way around. While Dispatch can crit for more, Blade Storm will do more damage on average due to the Combat Trance autocrit.

 

With Zen, your precision window should be BRx3, Blade Storm, too. Oh the whole your tips are a good summation though.

 

Edited my post with changes, I have not parsed much combat to see whats really what but i guess the differences arent too big.

[Karaya_One]

I dream of a world where all children are taught about the great fallacy of X% crit chance, and we ostracise those who still believe it from society.

 

Are you suggesting it is more appropriate to think of crit in terms of crit rating or rather to not worry about crit at all? Not trying to be facetious -- I'm absolutely awful at theory-crafting.

[SalBasss]

3. Should you stack power or substitue power for other stats like accuracy, crit or surge? Acc: 110% (I hover about 108), Crit 30%, Surge 75%, then stack power[/b].

 

Two things:

 

a. Actually, the only thing you can substitute for power is crit. You can have a power/surge or power/acc enhancement but you cannot have an acc/surge enhancement (or a power/crit either).

 

b. When he says accuracy of 110%, he means special accuracy, not base accuracy.

[verkerk]

30% crit with or without the 5% smuggler buff??

[Punchy]

5. Depends on what spec of course, Watchman is more of a priority system that gets quite complicated but the basics are to start: Force leap - Overload saber - cauterize - merciless slash - master strike - cauterize (if proc'd) and from then on make sure you always:

Have 3 stacks of merciless

Uses Overload Saber on cooldown

Use cauterize on Cooldown (but do NOT use cauterize if its allready on your target)

The rest will come naturally in time as you become more used to the spec, it takes a bit of planning ahead, making sure you have enough focus as abilities comes of cooldown so you can use them right away.

 

One small note: Merciless on cooldown. This is largely dependent on your focus management. As you mentioned, you have to make sure you have the required amount of Focus to use this ability as soon as it comes off cooldown. Personal experience has me typically sitting around the ~8 Focus mark (using Zealous and Leap to recover post Overload/Merciless).

 

Are you suggesting it is more appropriate to think of crit in terms of crit rating or rather to not worry about crit at all? Not trying to be facetious -- I'm absolutely awful at theory-crafting.

 

Yes. That is what he is suggesting. Aiming for a certain crit chance percentage is not an advised thing. This is ultimately because critical chance is primarily made up of two factors: Mainstat and critical rating, both of which have their own *completely separate* diminishing return curves. Stack the former as much as you can without touching lettered mods (the really high mainstat, pitifully low offstat ones), and then go as far into crit rating as you *feel* is needed. Some go up to 250 rating. Others sit around the 150 mark. I personally like mine to be ~200. Having no crit rating is... not the best. Nor is investing ridiculous amounts of points into it. Diminishing returns can be a pain.

 

30% crit with or without the 5% smuggler buff??

 

As mentioned above, don't aim for a crit chance percentage. The Smuggler Buff is *completely* independent of your gearing and should not be factored in as a Sentinel. Consider it more of a lovely bonus.

Edited March 22, 2013 by Punchy