Mercenary Arsenal/Pyro DPS Guide 2.x (PVE) by ODawgg

[Ahopa]

Thanks for the update! The tips are very helpful. I noticed myself that I am hitting 32-33 APM and need to figure out what I can do to bring them up (sometimes my latency shoots up and my FA seems to freak out and not work even when I pressed it).

 

I like the idea of having two options within the dps posts!

Edited October 14, 2013 by Ahopa

[odawgg]

Quick question. From the guide:

 

 

 

What are the power mods being referred to here? The linked BIS image shows all Adv Agile Mods?

 

Thanks!

 

Hello, correct the agile mod 34 you can get from oricon belt /bracers for 80 Ultimate commendations

[odawgg]

Thanks for the update! The tips are very helpful. I noticed myself that I am hitting 32-33 APM and need to figure out what I can do to bring them up (sometimes my latency shoots up and my FA seems to freak out and not work even when I pressed it).

 

I like the idea of having two options within the dps posts!

 

Latency can definitely bring APMs down, don't know how to help you there lol, tough battle to fight

[LordKantner]

I need to start doing 8m ops, because this would have been much higher. Within 30 dps of yours with my hybrid though, and I'm still rocking a 72 MH.

 

http://www.torparse.com/a/459200/16/0/Damage+Dealt

 

Nice to see those high parses were in pyro though.

Edited October 16, 2013 by LordKantner

[odawgg]

Added some mobility to the Guide, also shrunk it a little, had some unnecessary info, combined some things too just overall shorten it up a bit...gonna continue to build upon it over the coming weeks!

[AMightyKnight]

Thanks odawgg

 

But the sad thing is, its not realy needed at the moment. Current content is so easy compared to the nightmare stuff, its a joke. You can down all bosses without even trying to come up with better dps numbers. And it will only get worse since more and more players outgear current content with 78 comm stuff.

It'll be a fun day when they drop nightmare on us, just like the last time. I foresee lots of thats impossible post on the forums...

 

On top of that, class changes are coming fairly soon (December i guess since it should be 2.5). So i say save your energy for later when we really need you

 

And dont post anything about Pyro, i hate Pyro. I dont want to play Pyro.

Edited October 16, 2013 by AMightyKnight

[odawgg]

Added DP HM & a dummy parse

 

Thanks odawgg

 

But the sad thing is, its not realy needed at the moment. Current content is so easy compared to the nightmare stuff, its a joke. You can down all bosses without even trying to come up with better dps numbers. And it will only get worse since more and more players outgear current content with 78 comm stuff.

It'll be a fun day when they drop nightmare on us, just like the last time. I foresee lots of thats impossible post on the forums...

 

On top of that, class changes are coming fairly soon (December i guess since it should be 2.5). So i say save your energy for later when we really need you

 

And dont post anything about Pyro, i hate Pyro. I dont want to play Pyro.

 

Why you no like Pyro? Don't you get sick of playing the same spec all the time? haha. One thing I've always been jelly about snipers is they get all these specs to play with, at least now we have more options

 

But yeah I know dps means squat right now as far as ops go, but I'm laying the groundwork going forward. It needed a major overhaul, the format hadn't been touched in like 6 months...it's 1 hour & done raids for a while now, will be BiS before we know what hit us. Oh well, get to play some other toons before NiMs maybe!

 

Edit: And it's not like you need this guide anyway Knight

Edited October 17, 2013 by odawgg

[AMightyKnight]

I go to war with the biggest gun possible, why should i have to burn my enemies with it?

I’ve tried to play it and I definitely see its advantages but I just don’t like the style. Keeping dots up while using HIB on cd Is no fun. I don’t want more mobility, I suck at movement lol

And its bugged anyways, putting us Commandos on the disadvantage again. Why bother?

 

Don’t ever mention my forum name. I started to play as a Guardian at launch but it was a complete disaster. Truth is, I suck at everything except Gunnery in this game. And even that is debatable

[odawgg]

To each his own I suppose Assault, even though not bugged, still good... If/when Pyro is fixed I will switch back to Arsenal for some fights but my days of solely rolling arsenal are behind me unless they eff it up to pre-2.0 levels again, which could happen at the drop of a hat, so I'm just enjoying while I can!

[AMightyKnight]

Well I'll start caring about Pyro if we hit enrage on a boss on which Pyro has at least a 200 dps advantage.

I doubt that will ever happen since Arsenal will hopefully get buffed as well with 2.5

 

Edit

or not

*** Bioware

Edited October 17, 2013 by AMightyKnight

[odawgg]

So sad... And why you knocking Blizz!?

[Doomkazar]

Btw pizza how hard do you suspect the fix of RS will hit the pyro dps?

 

cause atm my pyro is around 150-200 higher than my arsenal (although my arsenal is very "rusty" and im not that good wiht it) http://www.torparse.com/a/463202/45/0/Damage+Dealt here is my arsenal btw (gear is average 2775 aim with stimm) but i still think it should be higher even wiht my gear. is there anything im doing wrong in that or?

Edited October 19, 2013 by Doomkazar

[Doomkazar]

also if your team has no armor debuff should you then go arsenal to help the team or?

[kennethdale]

also if your team has no armor debuff should you then go arsenal to help the team or?

 

The armor debuff is huge but you really don't have a sniper or a jugg in the group?

[LordKantner]

If you have a hard on for Pyro like me, just go 0/13/33. I use that for dummy parses for Armor debuff.

[Hell_Kaiser_Fett]

If you have a hard on for Pyro like me, just go 0/13/33. I use that for dummy parses for Armor debuff.

 

I love pyro too, but I go with 3/7/36.

[odawgg]

Btw pizza how hard do you suspect the fix of RS will hit the pyro dps?

 

cause atm my pyro is around 150-200 higher than my arsenal (although my arsenal is very "rusty" and im not that good wiht it) http://www.torparse.com/a/463202/45/0/Damage+Dealt here is my arsenal btw (gear is average 2775 aim with stimm) but i still think it should be higher even wiht my gear. is there anything im doing wrong in that or?

 

It's hard for me to tell you 100% how much fixing RS will hurt pryo in it's current state...I can tell you that I was putting out about 3.1k with it before 2.4 dropped and my first parse when it dropped was about 3350...so we're probably looking at somewhere between 6-8% nerf when they fix it....just a vaguely educated guess it kinda checks out if you figure you'll have on average of 48 less heat pool every minute...assume that's 4 less Power Shots every minute also equals about 6-8% damage by my calculations. Like I said, hard to tell right now, some math guru could probably give you a better estimate

 

As for your Arsenal Parse....I went ahead and did a long parse so I could compare ours side-by-side, cropped both to 15 minutes: Yours / Mine

 

Ignore the DPS output it doesn't matter. We need to bring them to apples to apples since I used DFA 13 times and you used it only once. We used the same amount of Unloads (btw you clipped some of your Unloads may want to be careful there, could be lag interrupts I dunno).

 

When you get right down to it you're actually doing excellent with your priority discipline. You're APMs are just a tad low. Even though you're at 35+ APM on torparse, you cancelled 7 TMs (count towards APM) coupled with not using DFA, you should be up over 37 if you're maximizing your efforts.

 

Also, I proc'd a 72 barrages to your 64. Some of this is perhaps luck, but I would venture to guess you could improve on timing TMs just right to proc more. I would just re-read the tips/tricks section for help on bringing APMs up and proc'ing barrages since you have your priorities down pat. You are well on ur way, just a few tweaks here and there. Happy Hunting!

 

Edit: Oh and if you don't have a sniper or jugg in group, be a team player and go arsenal...but if you have a sniper who is just lazy, tell him too bad...on most fights, the gain you get from going pyro WELL outweighs the less than 1% dps loss from a sniper using shatter shot in his rotation

Edited October 21, 2013 by odawgg

[kennethdale]

What is the reasoning for going over 100% accuracy as opposed to being just below? For most other DPS afaik it is always better to get as close as possible (typically 99.51%) and let that be enough since the bonuses gained outweigh the lost DPS to misses.

[odawgg]

What is the reasoning for going over 100% accuracy as opposed to being just below? For most other DPS afaik it is always better to get as close as possible (typically 99.51%) and let that be enough since the bonuses gained outweigh the lost DPS to misses.

 

Yup anything from 99.5 and up is good. Full 75 gear though you get to 99.95 and with 78 it's 100.43, no way around it. Using augments to balance results in a dps loss, the loss to main stat outweighs the surge gain u'd get by rearranging

Edited October 22, 2013 by odawgg

[kennethdale]

Yup anything from 99.5 and up is good. Full 75 gear though you get to 99.95 and with 78 it's 100.43, no way around it. Using augments to balance results in a dps loss, the loss to main stat outweighs the surge gain u'd get by rearranging

 

I sort of suspected as much. With mixed 72/75/78 I'm at 99.7 and have been doing a bunch of math trying to figure out how to get it back down without losing anything. Just wanted to be sure As always odawgg, thanks for the reply!

[PennyAnn]

For most of my SWTOR life, I've been a healer. My Merc was a healer also until 2.0, when I switched to Arsenal. Because of that, I don't have Kell Dragon or Dread Forged gear. I have recently acquired the 4-set Arkanian bonus, and am working on moving up the ladder, but I'm late to the party. A couple of quick questions:

 

1) I'm having a hard time coming up with a decent amount of Accuracy without using a fair number of Initiative Enhancements, and many of these are still 28s because of the lack of these on comm gear (need to learn to rig my rolls in Ops so I win more pieces that have this enhancement in them!). What are your suggestions as to gear at lower levels (Arkanian/Underworld) so that I'm at least decently outfitted until I get into some higher raids?

 

2) Why not use a Cerulean Nova or Kinetic Tempest relic? I would think our armor reduction capabilities would lend nicely to the effects these relics provide, but is SA and BA a better combo? If CN or KT is a decent choice, why is force damage better than tech damage? (or vice versa?)

 

3) I've heard so much "avoid crit" chatter, but am not 100% up to date on whether or not you want crit rating at all? Again, being at lower tier of gear, I won't have any hope of reaching the numbers in your guide, so I guess I'm just hoping for a more "lowbie" version of your advice until I get to run with the big dogs.

 

Thank you so much for your work on this and your advice! Appreciate it!

 

Edited to add:

I'm currently running with 100% Agile mods (mostly 30, but upgrading to 34 as fast as I can earn the comms).

Enhancements = 2 Adept (4 with Implants), 5 Initiative (plus Accuracy on Implants), only Alacrity is on Earpiece

Aim = 2871 / Power = 1283 / Tech Power = 1872 / Accuracy = 100.31% (Tech Accuracy = 110.31%) / Tech Crit Chance = 17.09% (0 Crit rating) / Surge = 65.81% (243 rating)

Edited October 24, 2013 by PennyAnn

[AMightyKnight]

1) I'm having a hard time coming up with a decent amount of Accuracy without using a fair number of Initiative Enhancements, and many of these are still 28s because of the lack of these on comm gear (need to learn to rig my rolls in Ops so I win more pieces that have this enhancement in them!). What are your suggestions as to gear at lower levels (Arkanian/Underworld) so that I'm at least decently outfitted until I get into some higher raids?

You need 99.something % accuracy, no way around it. If you struggle to come up with the enhancements i suggests you try implants with crit/accuracy. There should be some decent ones available for Elite Coms. You can also look at the GTM for 69 power/accuracy implants but don buy 72 implants since they are ridicoulously overprized with 78 gear available.

BIS enhancements with power/accuracy are very hard to come by these days, for Mercs/Commandos they are harder to get than Armoring with set bonus. At the 78 item level only the offhand has the proper enhancement. Power/Surge or BIS Crit/Surge Enhancements are much easier to find.

So its always a good idea to get all the Accuracy you can get out of Implants, Earpieces and Crit/Accuracy enhancements.

 

2) Why not use a Cerulean Nova or Kinetic Tempest relic? I would think our armor reduction capabilities would lend nicely to the effects these relics provide, but is SA and BA a better combo? If CN or KT is a decent choice, why is force damage better than tech damage? (or vice versa?)

They are still inferior, simple as that. But the difference is negligible at best (we talking about at best 20 dps here) , it will always dissappear in the backround noise that is crit and curtain of fire rng.

So at your item lvl it would be a giant waste of rssources to switch relics around. If you get something better down the line, aim for Serendipitous Assault and Boundless Ages.

 

3) I've heard so much "avoid crit" chatter, but am not 100% up to date on whether or not you want crit rating at all? Again, being at lower tier of gear, I won't have any hope of reaching the numbers in your guide, so I guess I'm just hoping for a more "lowbie" version of your advice until I get to run with the big dogs.

Up until a certain point it just doesnt matter if you use crit or not but some crit is always good. Odwagg and others simulated thousands of fights with some spreadsheet to elminiate the rng factor involved.

Their numbers stand up to ingame realities.

For a 69/72 item level id put the hard cap on crit in the 250 range. Dont build in more than that.

 

I'm currently running with 100% Agile mods (mostly 30, but upgrading to 34 as fast as I can earn the comms).

Enhancements = 2 Adept (4 with Implants), 5 Initiative (plus Accuracy on Implants), only Alacrity is on Earpiece

Aim = 2871 / Power = 1283 / Tech Power = 1872 / Accuracy = 100.31% (Tech Accuracy = 110.31%) / Tech Crit Chance = 17.09% (0 Crit rating) / Surge = 65.81% (243 rating)

Accuracy seems a bit high, see if you can swap one enhancement, if you get 99,something % its fine. You dont want Alacrity in your gear, it just hurts your dps. And as said, you can build in more crit.

[odawgg]

I would echo what that ^ guy above me said but with a hard cap at 200 for crit for 69/72 gear

 

you have 10 pieces of gear for acc/surge/alacrity, split 5 of them for acc and 5 for surge, 0 alacrity. If you can gather some mats you can get the 33 initiative and adept enhancements crafted (or if you got creds). Otherwise you have to wait for loot drops which is fine but will take longer since those enhances are the rarest pieces.

Edited October 25, 2013 by odawgg

[thasensei]

I'm hoping for some tips/advice to improve my gunnery mando. I do alright, but I know there's room for improvement. Any and all help would be very much appreciated!

 

TORParse

AMR

 

On the gear (to save you picking through the AMR), I've nearly got all the upgrades that I can get with comms (no token drops yet). I'm still using a Dread Guard BA relic while I wait for a DF drop. I'm using two 69 and two 72 armorings for my set bonus. I'm using all 69/72 enhancements rather than the high-endurance 78s.

[PennyAnn]

Thank you both for your replies and advice! I really appreciate it!!