Assault is a sack of garbage

[Gyronamics]

So from a lousy start lets see what it can do despite being deficient in utility, control and defensive abilities in both PVE and PVP.

 

By sacrificing pushback resistance, doubling the 15% crit set bonus and scheming on how to maximise damage I can pull this off on a dummy:

 

http://www.torparse.com/a/242329/time/1369102518/1369102861/0/Damage+Dealt

 

2637 DPS on a dummy without an armour debuff can't be directly compared to Gunnery which has its own armour debuff.

 

But if someone happened to work it out for the various attacks (two of which have individual armour pen values) then they might find a number like 2819dps.

 

Then if someone happened to work in the 30% bonus to DoT for the last 30% of health they might find an overall value like 2857dps.

 

Then if someone happened to realise that spending ammo on DoT to self buff is a waste of ammo* compared to using it on more CB they'd make sure the Assault commando was teamed with a player who could apply a armour debuff and another who applied DoT in their own attacks so the commando could get buffed from both, save ammo on DoT and cast more CB with a 60% critrate and 200% damage on crit.

 

That would increase it a bit more.

 

 

But is any of that worth the effort and teamwork to get a similar number to a SOLO Gunnery** when the defensive side of the build is so utterly rubbish and you had to give up pushback*** to get there?

 

 

I think not.

 

 

 

*Damage/ammo is about 250 for IR vs 254 for a CB WITH armour debuff and the CB also procs HiB which regens ammo.

**Technically the theoretical damage is notably higher since in the same gear I was managing in the 2700+ bracket as Gunnery

***burn phase and taking AOE = gigantic cast time

Edited May 22, 2013 by Gyronamics

[oaceen]

have you not tried full assault yet?

[Gyronamics]

Tried full assault on PTS since before they changed PC from a 2K dot to a 1K dot and AP from a 6k critter to a 4k critter plus a long 2k dot, thereby flushing burst damage and mobile damage down the toilet and creating new interesting ways to get damage crippled in PVP and feel like a fool when trying to kill a healer who chain cleanses all your weak little dots and only needs to interrupt charged bolts to know that your ammo regen is crippled and your burst is pathetic.

 

It will parse similarly to a conventionally played non-AP.

 

But I'm not playing conventionally and IMO its allowing higher parses. The key point is the gigantic CB sector:

 

http://www.torparse.com/a/244094/time/1369261159/1369261469/0/Overview

http://www.torparse.com/a/244150/time/1369262235/1369262536/0/Damage+Dealt

 

I still won't do a serious ops with it or PVP at ALL with it because Gunnery has:

 

Healing bonus

5% damage reduction

Energy Redoubt to absorb damage of any kind

Fast CD on shield

Diversion totally absorbing next hit you take

4s longer HTL

A root

A really useful snare

 

The only time I've found Assaults extra snare break useful was vs General Ortol and now I'm fully aware of the snare mechanic I don't even need it for that.

Edited May 23, 2013 by Gyronamics

[Gyronamics]

Loaded a Plasma Cell for the simplest fight in SV HM which in a nutshell is everyone on one target after the other til they all die and minimal hazards.

 

Ideal conditions for a class which leeches off other classes debuffs and is nothing special when solo.

 

Although non-freaky-damage-mod fights with single targets give lower DPS than a dummy, the armour debuff on each focused target counters that for Assault and causes it to increase as explained before.

 

http://www.torparse.com/a/245808/30/0/Damage+Dealt

 

Then later on the ship I stripped everything trivial out of the damage options and just used 4 attacks and one accidental FA.

 

http://www.torparse.com/a/246524/time/1369275361/1369275745/0/Damage+Dealt

 

Could not be simpler. 84% ranged damage with the other 16% being my buffing DoT.

 

But I'll still be using Gunnery in any fight I want to be reliable in.

Edited May 24, 2013 by Gyronamics