Spamcaster (Assault optimised for 2.0)

[Llama-Eight]

I had a go with this last night on an S&V SM guild run & was apparently "doing it wrong" (though it was my first time with Assault on a Commando, so that's not unexpected). Here's the parse, I'm in decent gear (missing ~2-3 of the correct accuracy enhancements, lots of power, no crit, using a PvP Serendipitous Assault relic & an old WH Boundless Ages relic, mainly purple +32 aim augments, a few of the blue +28 aim augments). I did notice at times that Reserve Powercell & Recharge Cells were both on cooldown with me being on very low ammo (due to over-extending myself at inappropriate times/noobing out on the rotation), so that wouldn't have helped my DPS.

 

Any suggestions as to what I could/should be doing differently? I'm usually Gunnery spec but it's nice to have a change when I'm not doing our progression raids in nightmare mode TFB.

 

I did wonder whether Assault Plastique would help on the longer boss fights with the dot.

Edited June 24, 2013 by Llama-Eight

[Gyronamics]

Relax the rule on not using FA if you are pushed for ammo, cast a CB immediately after a FA to proc another HiB (and generate more ammo)

 

Because of the removal of the double stacked 15% set bonus it's probably a wash between using and not using FA.

 

AP is good damage for the ammo it costs but AP costs 3 talent (2 wasted) points for 1 attack on a 15s CD and that is why it's crap.

 

Of course there are other wasted points in Assault but those 3 are avoidable.

Edited June 25, 2013 by Gyronamics

[Gyronamics]

This playstyle should be improved greatly when pushback on Charged Bolts becomes 0%.

 

That will mean the only source of pushback in the rotation will be on Plasma Grenade and Full Auto should it ever be used.

 

So while the boss is bashing the whole raid with AOE the DPS hit will be removed and it will be somewhat like slingers being able to carry the same DPS level under fire.

 

Once that's done there's just the last issue between Assault and Gunnery which bothers me.

 

That's the armour debuff. Of all the advanced classes which can do armour debuffs only Commandos have it limited to one branch within a tree.

 

Sure there's an opportunity for the other 5 players in a 8m or the other 11 players in a 16m to have armour debuffs and in general there is a high likelyhood of someone having one since non-armour debuff classes are not that popular in PVE.

 

But nevertheless Commando is the one AC where you have a very core raid ability in the form of an armour debuff but only one DPS branch can apply it and this can be an (annoying) decider in whether you can bring this spec to a raid. The dps loss is significant if the raid has zero or not enough armour debuffs.

 

Can't think of anything else similar for other classes, anything good tends to be available to all specs with tweaks for the various branches.

 

 

As for more recent updates to the spec, AP is still a marginal DPS increase over not using AP and may well be in the margin of error band when it comes to trying to measure a difference between them.

 

Ignoring FA totally except to pick up annoying non-procs after a 6s sequence is still my preferred and extremely sustainable rotation even with random stuff going on all around. Simply can't be put off it.

Edited January 15, 2014 by Gyronamics

[Gyronamics]

Nothing much to say about the original rotation that started this other than it's mostly obsolete.

 

The 6 second rule has gone on beyond that and the changes to IR and AP have brought greater firepower into the mix.

 

For reference, the original was literally to cast CB using just Hammer Shots for filler. Mostly made viable by double stacking 15% CB crit set bonus. Which was disabled shortly after.

 

This is the new "Spamcaster" rotation which is extremely easy to carry out, constantly at high ammo and you can get thrown through a brick wall and not crash your ammo bar while picking it up again.

 

 

http://www.torparse.com/a/588950/time/1392176687/1392176973/0/Damage+Dealt

 

 

Tree is 1/12/33

 

1 point in crit in Combat Medic

Take 30% crit damage on FA in Gunnery

Do not take tier 1 alacrity in Assault

 

To spell it out with two full rotations:

 

IR

HiB

CB

CB < proc

HIB

FA

CB < proc

IR

HiB

CB

CB < proc

HIB

FA

CB < proc

 

In other words, FA is used on CD and you never need to use default attack.

 

Reserve Powercell and Recharge Cells allows for some freestyle action and backup ammo, neither are needed to rotate.

 

I will add that it is not going to top DPS ladders. It's reliable and simple but it caps out at 3600dps

 

 

 

If you want to balance on a tightrope you can take a full 36 tree and whack off that dummy like a boss, it does however mean burning every recovery CD just to keep it going and if a proc fails then have fun with default attack because you don't have ammo to spare for failed procs.

 

Full 36 with no pushback (lol) in exchange for 2% crit in a 2/8/36 tree can get you up to 4kdps on a dummy, it's horribly tight on ammo use to get the highest damage but even slacking off you can get better than the 33 rotation on a dummy or in a fight.

 

I would not recommend using the same 36 rotation and tree used to hit max dps on a dummy in a raid setting.

 

Describing a 36 rotation is a bit difficult because nothing meshes, FA is on a 12s CD, AP is on a 15s CD and Enet is 90s CD. Essentially however it's using IR, AP, Enet as fillers for the classic 2 CB HiB proc until you risk lowering ammo then using FA to idle or Recharge Cells/Reserve Powercell to recover ammo.

 

Still not max 78 gear yet but It's easy to see the damage advantage using full 36 tree.

 

http://www.torparse.com/a/591404/time/1392441357/1392441617/0/Damage+Dealt

Edited February 16, 2014 by Gyronamics

[marchesq]

Your updates and testing is very much appreciated my friend! Thank you!