Do snipers or Commandos have better dps right now lads?

[CommanderKeeva]

Recharge cells can be used as an ammo replenisher, but if you're good at maintaining ammo then it can (also) be used as an Offensive cooldown (of sorts). Recharge Cells will allow you to burst DPS like a madman (i.e. spamming grav round till Curtain of Fire pops up). Burst after your opener, throw in a Plasma Grenade, Recharge Cells, Hammer shot, continue your rotation.

 

Maybe I'm bad at maintaining my Ammo, but any extended fight in my experience is a real Ammo nightmare. If there aren't short breaks in the fight, then it's an uphill battle as you watch your resources slowly dwindle. And when I run out, I use Recharge Cells and try to survive somehow for 2 minutes again until it comes off cooldown. It's not so bad if you can use Hammer Shots regularly to get back to 4 ticks whenever you go below it, but some of the Hard and Nightmare fights are really tight on DPS and you can't really afford to fire lots of Hammer Shots. Mind you this mostly happens due to the unreliable CoF proc, when you have to fire Grav Round after Grav Round to no effect.

 

The main difference between Adrenaline Probe and Recharge Cells is that Adrenaline Probe isn't really built into your rotations. You just keep it at hand in case you need it for whatever reason. But in any extended fight, you cannot afford not to use Recharge Cells. (Well, I cannot anyway, like I said, maybe I'm just bad at managing my Ammo.)

[CommanderKeeva]

And recharge cells, if you generally don’t use it as an offensive cooldown you shouldn’t play NM IMO. But as others have said, almost every class has something like this.

 

I very much agree with everything you said inb4 but I don't get this part. Using Recharge Cells is a great way to bring additional burst but it feels like a huge waste to me when you're already full on Ammo. Managing energy, especially on Nightmare is difficult enough without throwing Recharge Cells away.

 

I love burst but is it worth it when it means that at some point you will likely run out of Ammo and left nothing but Hammer Shots?

[AMightyKnight]

You shouldnt run out of ammo. You only run out of ammo if you make one or two mistakes in your rotation. If you cant keep your rotation straight (especially with the 63 set bonus which is totally adequate for NM content) you shouldn’t do Nightmare Ops.

I always use Recharge Cells on cooldown (just like Reserve Powercell and TSO) or save it if a mandatory burst phase is coming up. I don’t think it’s a waste to be honest. Using Recharge Cells means max dps without any Hammershots in the rotation and that’s a definite dps gain. If I have it coming up, I burn thorugh my ammo. I often using Mortar Volley and Plasma Grenade as well since it’s a challenge to burn your ammo with the old setbonus…

 

With regards to ammo management in general, I understand where youre coming from. The new set bonus is hard to play over longer periods of time without any dps stops.

Two things:

First, consider going back to the old set bonus if you are not drowning in 75 set items. Yes, you will lose some mainstat but the old set bonus still works very well compared to the new one when it comes to dps. To my knowledge even odwagg is still using the old bonus and he once said that he would prefer the 63 set to a full 75 set. I play both versions with two Commandos (both min max 72) and I do noticeably more dps with the old bonus. If you are struggling with your rotation, using the old bonus will help your dps output.

Second, you need to develop a feeling for your energy level to never drop below the magic 60 energy into negative regeneration. Its too late if you use Hammershots once you have allready screwed up your rotation. You need to use HS in order to avoid negative regeneration. Mercenarys have an advantage there since they have a percentage display of their heat. We don’t, so you need to get good at guessing it or use a different solution to indicate critical energy levels. Wont go into this further here though.

Edited August 12, 2013 by AMightyKnight

[CommanderKeeva]

You shouldnt run out of ammo. You only run out of ammo if you make one or two mistakes in your rotation. If you cant keep your rotation straight (especially with the 63 set bonus which is totally adequate for NM content) you shouldn’t do Nightmare Ops.

I always use Recharge Cells on cooldown (just like Reserve Powercell and TSO) or save it if a mandatory burst phase is coming up. I don’t think it’s a waste to be honest. Using Recharge Cells means max dps without any Hammershots in the rotation and that’s a definite dps gain. If I have it coming up, I burn thorugh my ammo. I often using Mortar Volley and Plasma Grenade as well since it’s a challenge to burn your ammo with the old setbonus…

 

With regards to ammo management in general, I understand where youre coming from. The new set bonus is hard to play over longer periods of time without any dps stops.

Two things:

First, consider going back to the old set bonus if you are not drowning in 75 set items. Yes, you will lose some mainstat but the old set bonus still works very well compared to the new one when it comes to dps. To my knowledge even odwagg is still using the old bonus and he once said that he would prefer the 63 set to a full 75 set. I play both versions with two Commandos (both min max 72) and I do noticeably more dps with the old bonus. If you are struggling with your rotation, using the old bonus will help your dps output.

Second, you need to develop a feeling for your energy level to never drop below the magic 60 energy into negative regeneration. Its too late if you use Hammershots once you have allready screwed up your rotation. You need to use HS in order to avoid negative regeneration. Mercenarys have an advantage there since they have a percentage display of their heat. We don’t, so you need to get good at guessing it or use a different solution to indicate critical energy levels. Wont go into this further here though.

 

Interesting, thanks for the advice. Now that you mention it, I remember that I rarely had energy issues with the old set bonus and free HiBs. I think I vendored the old armorings, though, unforunately. Is there still a way to obtain the old 63 set bonus?

[AMightyKnight]

Interesting, thanks for the advice. Now that you mention it, I remember that I rarely had energy issues with the old set bonus and free HiBs. I think I vendored the old armorings, though, unforunately. Is there still a way to obtain the old 63 set bonus?

The Classic Commodenation Vendor still has them. You should get the neccessary tokens in Denova. Nightmare i believe, maybe even hard mode. Never tried it since 2.0.

[Gyronamics]

Nice. With 2 points for Tech Override gone your dps will be even worse. You want the burst TO can provide.

 

Even worse? Interesting use of words. I'm sure I disagree.

 

TO and RPC are on the same CD which has the result of a perfect free/instant PG every time RPC comes off CD.

 

Reducing the CD of TO breaks the sync or permanently requires you to slow cast PG since you're using TO on rotation attacks.

[oaceen]

it's weird to me that people are using TO as an offensive cooldown for burn phases.

unless there's some raid-wide damage going out (and thus, pushback), i'm not sure i see how it even does that.

 

more to the point, for me, it's an ability i use to keep using GR during movement phases.

[cashogy_reborn]

it's weird to me that people are using TO as an offensive cooldown for burn phases.

unless there's some raid-wide damage going out (and thus, pushback), i'm not sure i see how it even does that.

 

more to the point, for me, it's an ability i use to keep using GR during movement phases.

 

This. TO doesnt speed up casts (all damage abilities are either instant, channeled or 1.5s casts), and it doesnt provide any % damage modifier. Its purely utility.

[ArchangelLBC]

I'm honestly tempted to spam every single forum until they fix our ammo management. This is ridiculous that we're waiting till mid-september for them to fix such an obvious issue because they're idiotic feckless worthless incompetents.

 

I also disagree with using RC on cooldown just to use it, but you can also use having it available as an excuse to not use hammer shot., including using PG independent of having RP.

 

A note: PG has a standard 1 GCD cast time, so it's not necessary to use it with TO.

[Ravenschild]

Both my sniper and my slinger out dps my commando in wz's

[AMightyKnight]

A note: PG has a standard 1 GCD cast time, so it's not necessary to use it with TO.

If it saves you the cast time why isnt it worth it? The GCD doesnt come into this at all.

[Gyronamics]

I also disagree with using RC on cooldown just to use it, but you can also use having it available as an excuse to not use hammer shot., including using PG independent of having RP.

 

A note: PG has a standard 1 GCD cast time, so it's not necessary to use it with TO.

 

Not necessary but a practical tool for getting PG into a real fight which may involve lots of movement and cast pushback.

[oaceen]

If it saves you the cast time why isnt it worth it? The GCD doesnt come into this at all.

 

it doesn't save you time and therefore isn't necessary unless you're having to move or might get interrupted.

Edited August 14, 2013 by oaceen

[ArchangelLBC]

If it saves you the cast time why isnt it worth it? The GCD doesnt come into this at all.

 

I like to save TO for when I have to move. Most bosses have at least some forced movement phase, so I'd rather save TO for those, but I DON'T wanna save PG for those situations, so I decouple them.