Potential hybrid build for 2.0

[kelseyatwood]

Spec: http://pts.swtor-spy.com/skill-tree-calculator/mercenary/229/?build=000000000000000000000000000000000223023202120210011103200000000003230310021000100000000000000000&ver=20 (Fillers may be switched up a bit; mainly power overrides for something from bodyguard)

 

Concept: Utilize Barrage by spamming tracer missile, which allows the free unload with increased damage. Then, 75% of the time you'll get a free rail shot from Prototype Particle Accelerator, and the rail shot will do increased damage from all the talents/tracer missile. Combustible & not High Velocity btw.

 

Unfortunately I don't have access to the PTS so I cannot test it. But, it could be a decent alternative to deep arsenal for pve. If anyone is willing to test it out, please do so and post the numbers you're getting.

 

If it flops, oh well. If it works, oh yeah.

Edited March 9, 2013 by kelseyatwood

[Gyronamics]

#1 You can't proc RS with TM

 

#2 Having to wait on every UL proc to get a 75% chance to proc a RS hugely gimps ammo regen, if that UL fails to proc a RS, you are completely screwed.

 

#3 This combo has to do better than the straight 6% damage buff at the top of the arsenal tree and the 15%+ missed out on in the Pyro tree and I'm not seeing how it ever could.

 

#4 All Barrage does is take UL off CD and boost damage. It's not free and that's probably where you got carried away because it would be nice if it was.

 

 

The most "hybrid" you can ever be is 1/12/36 and I don't even call that a hybrid, I call it common sense for a raiding Merc Pyro since the casting talents are in Arsenal not in Pyro and most of the bonuses in Pyro now are to casting.

Edited March 9, 2013 by Gyronamics

[kelseyatwood]

I didn't say TM procs RS. I said it procs unload and unload has a 75% chance for a free RS. And by free unload I had meant the cooldown, and not heat. That was my fault.

 

Essentially, you're trading a rail shot every 6 (75% of the time) seconds or every 12 (25% of the time) seconds (averaged out at every 7.5 seconds) for the 6% damage from arsenal. And since arsenal outdoes pyro for pve dps anyways, it's just in comparison to that.

 

So the differences would be: No heatseeker, no 6% damage boost, rail shot to be used on average every 7.5 seconds (half the cooldown). 6% crit chance, dot from combustible, lose out on 30% armor ignore from hv, but gain 30 for unload and 100 for rail shot (main two moves anyways). Heat could be more difficult to maintain, but with the changes to alacrity it'd probably be fine.

 

Short version:

Gains: 6% crit - RS CD halved - Incendiary for some movement - Combustible DoT - Decent Armor ignorance

Loses: Heatseeker - 6% dmg - Decent armor ignorance - Heat management

 

 

Edit: I forgot about the gcd imposed by rail shot for some reason. RS CD would be cut by 40% on average and not 50%. Still significant.

Edited March 9, 2013 by kelseyatwood

[JimmyTheCannon]

I posted this build on the PTS forum recently myself to see if people would test it.

 

It apparently did *very* poorly due to horrible heat management.

[kelseyatwood]

Hmm...

do you know how bad the heat management was?

the 2 points from power overrides could be switched to improved vents if the heat management isn't too terrible

[JimmyTheCannon]

Hmm...

do you know how bad the heat management was?

the 2 points from power overrides could be switched to improved vents if the heat management isn't too terrible

 

I don't recall exactly, but here's the issues I see:

 

19 heat Tracer Missiles *and* Power Shots.

 

No extra heat venting from Terminal Velocity

 

Free rail shots, yes, but in order to reset them you're dropping back to Power Shot (and thus not getting Tracer Lock/Power Barrier stacks, as well as Heat Signatures on target.) if Unload doesn't proc it. If the rail shot isn't free - it's 16 heat. Alternatively, you're sticking with Tracer Missile to reset the Unload and again hope the Unload procs the Rail Shot, which leaves you spamming TM like a normal Arsenal build but with extra heat cost and no extra passive venting.

 

Your *only* extra venting is coming from a 30% proc chance when your Rail Shot hits a burning target.

 

There's just not enough heat reductions on the ability you need, no passive venting

[Sinsavz]

lose out on 30% armor ignore from hv, but gain 30 for unload and 100 for rail shot (main two moves anyways).

 

Just to pick up on this, Pyro doesn't have 100% armor pen on railshot, it's 30 from Superheated rail and 30 from Advanced Targeting. If you got the 100 from the swtorspy talent calculator then that's because it incorrectly switches numbers around sometimes, it's a bit buggy. It got my hopes up a few times already, haha

 

IFree rail shots, yes, but in order to reset them you're dropping back to Power Shot (and thus not getting Tracer Lock/Power Barrier stacks, as well as Heat Signatures on target.)

 

Power Shot does actually build Power Barrier stacks as well as proccing unload. But no heat sigs or tracer locks.

 

Your *only* extra venting is coming from a 30% proc chance when your Rail Shot hits a burning target.

It's a 100% chance if your target is already burning with combustible, I think you've been tricked by the talent calculator error as well

 

Anyway I'm just being pedantic and I agree with the rest of your post, I can't see this hybrid being viable due to resources. Might try it out for fun in pvp though sometime

Edited March 10, 2013 by Sinsavz

[JimmyTheCannon]

Power Shot does actually build Power Barrier stacks as well as proccing unload. But no heat sigs or tracer locks.

 

It's a 100% chance if your target is already burning with combustible, I think you've been tricked by the talent calculator error as well

 

Anyway I'm just being pedantic and I agree with the rest of your post, I can't see this hybrid being viable due to resources. Might try it out for fun in pvp though sometime

 

Ah, good points. Yeah, I was reading that off the talent calculator because I wasn't logged in, and I had missed that about Power Barrier.

[DaftVaduhhh]

I was playing around with my commando to see if there was a viable hybrid and came up with some very similar, which I feel could work in PvP.

 

http://pts.swtor-spy.com/skill-tree-calculator/mercenary/229/?build=000000000000000000000000000000000223023202120010211103200000000003200320221000100000000000000000&ver=20

 

Basically your spam ability varies between Tracer Missle and Power Shot, with the latter keeping your resources steady the former providing higher damage setup at the cost of sustained damage.

 

The real boon is the slows provided by unload and CGS, plus the immobilise from rocket punch. That and the proc loop that can occur make it pretty handy in PvP for bursts and survivability through kiting, knock back, two stacks of power surge.

 

The only draw back is both trees have uses for the threat dump in PvP, but you can take Decoy if you're finding it suits the play style better than Power Overrides. People should give this a try, bearing in mind the change up between sustained and burn being a switch between your casted spam ability.

Edited March 14, 2013 by DaftVaduhhh

[JimmyTheCannon]

I was playing around with my commando to see if there was a viable hybrid and came up with some very similar, which I feel could work in PvP.

 

http://pts.swtor-spy.com/skill-tree-calculator/mercenary/229/?build=000000000000000000000000000000000223023202120010211103200000000003200320221000100000000000000000&ver=20

 

Basically your spam ability varies between Tracer Missle and Power Shot, with the latter keeping your resources steady the former providing higher damage setup at the cost of sustained damage.

 

The real boon is the slows provided by unload and CGS, plus the immobilise from rocket punch. That and the proc loop that can occur make it pretty handy in PvP for bursts and survivability through kiting, knock back, two stacks of power surge.

 

The only draw back is both trees have uses for the threat dump in PvP, but you can take Decoy if you're finding it suits the play style better than Power Overrides. People should give this a try, bearing in mind the change up between sustained and burn being a switch between your casted spam ability.

 

I'm curious as to how Power Shot is keeping your resources steady, unless you mean by resetting Rail Shot.

[DaftVaduhhh]

Through more procs. Unload is basically a resource neutral move and Rail Shot is free.

 

Tracer Missle hits harder and if procs come up you do more damage, but the real trick is all the slows and immobilises you get.

 

I suspect this is something the Devs may look to implement more for Mandos/Mercs given the introduction of Electro Net (not sure what the Merc version is called sorry). In the mean time, might as well enhance the ability to kite, although it comes at a minor expense of front loaded DPS which, let's face it, is not going to happen to often in good quality PvP.

Edited March 15, 2013 by DaftVaduhhh

[MGNMTTRN]

You lose the 35% armor penetration of the Arsenal tree's stance. The coefficient with the 20% group debuff arpen is kinetic damage*0.7. For kinetic damage with 20% group debuff arpen and 35% from stance stance, this is kinetic damage*0.77 or thereabouts. Which is a 9% difference in damage. So now you're losing 9% on all kinetic damage by being in CGC stance, and you're losing 6% damage on Tracer Missile and Rail Shot. You're also losing 3% ranged/Tech crit by speccing deep into the fire tree.

 

I am on the PTS and I will probably test this. I'd probably still not bother with Power Shot until I had 5 stacks of +damage to Rail Shot from Tracer Missile, since I'll be operating under the assumption that Unload damage >> Rail shot and therefore fishing for Unload procs is more important than fishing for PPA procs.

[MGNMTTRN]

Update: 2294 DPS over 10 minutes with 6/36/4 spec, 1864.99 DPS over 13 minutes with a hybrid spec

 

Link to logs: http://www.torparse.com/a/171139

Link to hybrid spec: http://pts.swtor-spy.com/skill-tree-calculator/commando/223/?build=000200000000000000000000000000000223023202120210011103000000000003200302221000100000000000000000&ver=20