Dak's guide to the Sharp Shooter Spec - 2.0

[Island_Jedi]

The sharpshooter spec is an amazing tree for gunslingers it has great burst, great sustained and Moderate AOE Potential. When you play the sharpshooter tree you have to understand that the rotation is static and does not change. The rotation is built around a few key moves and then moves into a cycle that you simply repeat. The gunslinger, hence becomes one of the easier classes to attain great numbers with, at least in the sharpshooter spec.

 

One very nice thing to remember about Sharpshooter DPS is that the proc's are all going to work 100 percent of the time (no need to make split second decisions on what you need to do next, the rotation does not change). This greatly simplifies your rotation in a fight and it becomes more a factor of memorizing the rotation.

 

Important Proc's and Skills

 

Smoking Barrels - This proc makes your next two charged burst's cost 15 energy instead of 25. Important for energy management and one of the reasons you always start your fights with Speed Shot. Firing Speed Shot in your opener, will allow you to fire an early Trick Shot, which proc's "smoking barrels".

 

Recoil Control - This proc allows you to fire a Trick Shot after two Charged Bursts are used in a row, Aimed Shot is fired, or Speed Shot is fired (if you interrupt the channel time on Speed Shot, the proc sometimes wont activate). This skill is the foundation of your rotation and is what holds everything together, seeing how important Trick Shot is to your DPS.

 

Charged Aim - This Skill will lower the activation time of Aimed Shot (by .5 seconds) for every Charged Burst fired upto a maximum of one sec. This proc is what makes your Aimed Shot viable in your rotation and a bit better then general filler.

 

Burst Volley - This ability is what makes your XS flyby viable in a single target rotation, should you choose to use it that way. Burst Volley increases energy regen by 2 and increases alacrity by 10% for 15 sec. It also finishes the cooldown on Speed Shot, allowing you to burst mobs down quickly and increasing your overall DPS. (using this in conjunction with flyby, will negate the high cost of flyby and some of the cast time associated with it)

 

First things first, you need to have a good understanding of what your hardest hitting abilities are and how best to use them.

 

Highest Damaging abilities

 

These abilities should be used as often as possible, except Flyby (that one you need to know how to use)

 

Freighter Flyby

Speed shot

Quick draw

Trick Shot

 

How these abilities should be used

 

XS freighter Flyby - This ability hits like a freight train and will make up 10 percent of your overall damage, if its used on cool down. On a dummy this will give you better numbers, in raid it will behave differently. This ability should ONLY ever be used in a single target rotation if it comes shortly after a Burst Volley. If used in your rotation without a burst volley, your energy management will suffer quite a bit. Only use this ability in your single target rotation, if and only if it wont be needed for adds or there is a window where it will come off cool down before its needed for adds. (examples. for Dashroode you will need to be careful how you use it, because its often needed to deal with the xuvas and womp rats) - (The titan 6 fight is different if you use it very close to the start of the fight, Flyby will be off cool down when you need it for the adds phase). Use of Flyby, becomes something of an art and knowing when to use it will show you have moderate skill with a gunslinger.

 

Speed Shot - This ability is the first high damaging ability in your opener, will proc your first Trick shot; which in turn will proc "smoking barrels". Its also a great ability to fire first to get some good burst damage on mobs you need to kill quickly. (example. The Terror fight and killing the adds that target the tanks)

 

Quickdraw - This ability is your third hardest hitting ability, and should be used on cooldown. Once the enemy drops below 30 percent, it becomes available. This ability will come in second only to a Trick Shot in terms of priority. Remember Quickdraw also proc's your TrickShot.

 

Trick Shot - This ability Hits hard and is proc'd by many of your other abilities, use it as often as it procs. Charged bursts, aimed shot, quickdraw, and speed shot all proc this ability. This ability does come in fourth in terms of raw damage, but its ability to proc very often is what makes up for it. (if this ability is up, use it no matter what. Trick Shot is your highest priority ability) Not using this ability for any reason, is a waste and will lower your overall DPS.

 

Rotation

 

Opener - (the opener is a string of abilities that you will use first, to make your DPS as hard hitting and efficient as possible) This opener allows you to have a great burst; while setting up "smoking barrels" and your Flyby should you choose to use it.

 

The Opening Rotation - Vital Shot, Speed Shot, Trick Shot, Burst Volley, Speed Shot, Trick Shot, XS Flyby. After the channel time ends for Flyby pop your offensive cool-downs which should include the relic, your adrenal, and illegal mods. This opener is very bursty and sets up the core rotation well. (Illegal mods wont benefit your XS Flyby at all, because XS Flyby is all elemental damage which ignores armor anyway. Using it after your Flyby though, ensures that Illegal mods is working for the full duration of the "core rotation", which more fully benefits from Illegal mods)

 

Alternate Opener - XS Flyby, Aimed Shot, Trick Shot, Vital Shot, Pop Offensive Cool-downs, Speed Shot, Trick Shot, Burst Volley, Speed Shot, Trick Shot. (This opener will give you better numbers then the one mentioned above, but to achieve the better numbers you have to pre-cast. This opener requires more coordination from the tank and you)

 

The Core Rotation - Charged burst, 2nd Charged burst, Trick Shot, Vital Shot, Aimed Shot, Trick Shot, Speed Shot, Trick Shot. Learning to use "Snap Shot" well, will make your core rotation cleaner and more efficient; but wont make or break your DPS. In terms of DPS it should be the same whether you use "Snap Shot" or not. This proc does front-load your DPS a little making you slightly more bursty. To execute "Snap Shot" quickly exit and enter cover. It cant be used more than once every six seconds.

 

Now lets put that together and see how the whole rotation lines up

 

Complete Rotation - Vital Shot, Speed Shot, Trick Shot, Burst Volley, Speed Shot, Trick Shot, XS Flyby, pop offensive cooldowns, Charged Burst, 2nd Charged Burst, Trick Shot, Vital Shot, Aimed Shot, Trick Shot, Speed Shot, Trick Shot. From here just repeat the core rotation until Burst Volley and XS flyby come off cool-down, then work them in.

 

Illegal Mods - Increases your tech and ranged accuracy by 30% and improves armor penetration by 15%. This basically means your offhand will hit more often, due its naturally lower accuracy. The armor penetration will only benefit abilities that use weapon damage or are kinetic in nature, most weapon damage is energy based. Use this ability in your rotation during the offensive cooldown phase, then keep it on cooldown.

 

Smugglers Luck - Not an uber important ability, but it should be mixed into your rotation. Makes your next Charged Burst an automatic crit. This ability should be used during your offensive cooldown phase and then kept on cool down.

 

Flourish Shot - Basically here this ability will reduce the targets armor by 20%. If you have a Commando or Guardian in your party don't even worry about this ability ever. Those classes use armor reducers in their basic rotations anyway. The only time this ability will really become a factor is if you don't have those classes with you or want to see the most optimum numbers on a dummy solo. If you want to use this ability, use it as your first ability in your opener and then simply reapply as its about to fall off. (this ability does not stack with "Grav round", "Sundering strike", "Saber throw", or "Force-sweep". The target will only apply the greatest debuff to itself and wont stack the other armor debuffs, even though they show up as icons)

 

Intermittent Combat

 

Throughout a boss fight there will be times when you are moving, doing a mechanic, or plain waiting to get healed or whatever. Whenever you get lost in your rotation and cant remember where your at. Simply start with the opener and use Speed Shot, don't worry about Burst Volley and XS flyby if their on cooldown. If Burst Volley or XS Flyby are up at this point simply work them in, If not don't worry about it.

 

Build

 

Using this build will maximize your DPS and utility, while helping to avoid PVP skills. This build does suffer from a reduced energy pool by not having the skill "bravado". The redeeming factor here is "Mortal Wound" more then makes up for this, with making your Vital Shot much more potent across a six or more minute fight. The build will be 36/3/7

 

Using Cool Head at the right time is also important to make up for the increase in energy burn you will face. The rotations have no room for flurry of bolts, but you can very sparingly use it, to stabilize your energy. Flurry of bolts should not be used much, if at all possible; usually only if you mess up your rotation.

 

http://pts.swtor-spy.com/skill-tree-calculator/gunslinger/226/?build=223002202020211121220320111001000003000000000000000000000000000002300020000000000000000000000000&ver=20

 

Utility

 

Sharpshooter spec'd gunslingers have the best "hightail it" in the game and also some of the best AOE damage resistance. The sharpshooter spec is not very mobile, but experienced gunslingers will make them look like agile pumas. There is a rhythm to the way you need to move in this spec; and knowing when to move and when not to move is key to maximizing your DPS in this build.

 

Your ability to minimize the damage you take, by use of various skills will take your raiding with the gunslinger to the next level. Putting out good numbers is great, but if you take a ton of damage it will damper others perception of your ability. Gunslingers use medium armor and as such take a bit more damage then some of the tougher classes, but use of "defense screen" and "holed up" will go a long way in making your gunslinger, much more resilient.

 

Key Utility Skills

 

Hunker Down - Negates all negative controllable effects on you, making you immune to snares, roots, knockbacks, and stuns. This ability in the sharpshooter spec benefits from a reduced cooldown (45sec) further enhancing an already great ability.This ability has so many applications, experiment with it and see what situations work best for it.

 

Holed up - This ability makes most AOE damage phases in boss fights trivial. The applications of this ability are very far reaching and can be used in many boss fights. Holed up reduces all incoming AOE damage by 60%, when the player is using Hunker Down, that's incredible. When this ability is used in conjunction with Defense screen you become a nearly impervious wall to AOE damage.

 

Stay low - Interesting skill that will make your "hunkerdown" last three seconds longer and gives "hightail it" the benefits of "hunkerdown" for three seconds. This in it self does not really sound that good, but when you combo this with "Heads up". It becomes an amazing skill that will buff your "hightail it", in such a way that you can pretty much escape any sticky situation you find yourself in.

 

Fox hole - Increases energy regen by 1 per second. This is a very nice skill, that greatly helps with energy management. This ability is one reason, staying in cover is so good, only exit cover to execute your "Snap Shot" or make a tactical move (getting in range of enemy or avoiding damage).

 

Scrambling Field - Erects a force-field of sorts that reduces all incoming damage by 20% to you and your group. Once the field is up, you can move freely without ending the effect. Skilled gunslingers will use this ability at key times to help take the edge off certain boss fights and pulls.

 

Gearing

 

Gearing DPS in general has been greatly simplified post 2.0. Power has become much more valuable then crit, this is true to such a degree very few good raiders go over 150 critical rating and most take even less critical rating.

 

Armoring's - Very straight forward, just pick the ones with heavy main-stat.

 

Mods - Simply stack the mod that gives you the total best damaging stats. This means the main-stat, plus the power equal more then any other mod your considering. Artful mods with a balance of main-stat and power, with lower endurance will give you the better returns.

 

Enhancements - Require a little planning, but again are very straight forward. You can only stack accuracy and power or accuracy and crit. This also applies to surge and power or surge and crit. Typically you will go for the power enhancements, again looking for the ones that have lower endurance.

 

Earpieces and implants - These should simply fill out your stats and complete what you need. Its usually easier to get your earpieces and implants sorted first, then worry about enhancements you need to balance out your stats.

 

Stat totals - This will add up to in 72 gear, to having around 99-100% accuracy, 23-24% critical chance and about 70-71% surge. Try to get as much Main-stat as you can, including augments. (this is due to the skill "Streetwise" which gives you 9% more main-stat)

Edited August 12, 2013 by Island_Jedi

[AngelFluttershy]

This is looking pretty cool so far, but do you have any parses to accompany your suggested rotation? It's a lot different from what I've seen others offer up so I'm curious what it's capable of on a dummy parse. Also, is there a gearing section in the works? Edited July 29, 2013 by AngelFluttershy

[TheHarvester]

This is a very informative writeup. Well written for newcomers to the spec. However, I disagree with your idea that Quickdraw should replace Aimed Shot once it becomes available. With the Charged Aim proc, Aimed Shot channels for the same time as Charged Burst, which you will be using often anyway. I'd say that when the boss is below 30% health, the core rotation should just include Quickdraw over using it to replace Aimed Shot:

 

CB>CB>TS>QD>TS>AS>TS>SS>TS

 

Aimed Shot hits like a truck, especially with Illegal Mods running and the passive 20% armor pen specifically for it from "Sharp Aim" in the skill tree. It should be used as often as possible.

Edited July 29, 2013 by TheHarvester

[Island_Jedi]

This is a very informative writeup. Well written for newcomers to the spec. However, I disagree with your idea that Quickdraw should replace Aimed Shot once it becomes available. With the Charged Aim proc, Aimed Shot channels for the same time as Charged Burst, which you will be using often anyway. I'd say that when the boss is below 30% health, the core rotation should just include Quickdraw over using it to replace Aimed Shot:

 

CB>CB>TS>QD>TS>AS>TS>SS>TS

 

Aimed Shot hits like a truck, especially with Illegal Mods running and the passive 20% armor pen specifically for it from "Sharp Aim" in the skill tree. It should be used as often as possible.

 

You are correct in that Aimed Shot hits like a truck and I respect different opinions. However, you cannot ignore a few things. Aimed Shot has a cast time associated with it, even if its only 1.5 secs with proc. That delay equals one global cooldown, which means your TrickShots come out slower by one global cooldown. It also means your Speed Shot is delayed by one global cooldown for every core rotation over six minutes. If you add up the delays, you'll see that some of your hardest hitting abilities have been delayed by a significant amount.

 

Quickdraw will crit more often due to "Aim High" and also gets a massive surge buff from "deadeye". Quickdraw, Speedshot, and some of your Trick Shot DPS windows will be delayed meaning you waited to use better abilities, because you squeezed in an Aimed Shot. Don't get me wrong Aimed Shot is great. To be honest I don't think the DPS will vary hugely from your theory to mine. I just don't feel it actually ups your DPS if you add it to the core rotation, once you have access to Quick-draw. Thank you for your reply

Edited July 29, 2013 by Island_Jedi

[SamuelAU]

You are correct in that Aimed Shot hits like a truck and I respect different opinions. However, you cannot ignore a few things. Aimed Shot has a cast time associated with it, even if its only 1.5 secs with proc. That delay equals one global cooldown, which means your TrickShots come out slower by one global cooldown. It also means your Speed Shot is delayed by one global cooldown for every core rotation over six minutes. If you add up the delays, you'll see that some of your hardest hitting abilities have been delayed by a significant amount.

Quickdraw will crit more often due to "Aim High" and also gets a massive surge buff from "deadeye". Quickdraw, Speedshot, and some of your Trick Shot DPS windows will be delayed meaning you waited to use better abilities, because you squeezed in an Aimed Shot. Don't get me wrong Aimed Shot is great. To be honest I don't think the DPS will vary hugely from your theory to mine. I just don't feel it actually ups your DPS if you add it to the core rotation, once you have access to Quick-draw. Thank you for your reply

I don't think you're quite understanding the way the GCD operates and how that's going to affect the number of Trickshots you put out. The GCD will last 1.5 seconds from the moment you first click your ability whether it is instant, cast or channeled. Because Aimed Shot casts for 1.5 seconds, which is dead on exact to the length of the GCD, both abilities are actually going to take an equal amount of time to proc Trickshot. With the way alacrity was redesigned in 2.0 the GCD will scale with the cast time so it's the same for if you've taken 2% alacrity in the skill tree.

 

However, since you're going to the effort of buffing Aimed Shot by doing a double Charged Burst it's very wasteful to let the buff drop off and sort of negates doing the charged bursts to begin with. It's my understanding that Quickdraw is designed to just fall into place as #1 priority as soon as it becomes available, and your rotation just continues on as per usual once you've got Quickdraw on cooldown.

 

The problem with theory about quickdraw is you can't test it on a dummy, you have to actually fight a boss and there are so many factors in a boss fight which won't affect you on a dummy, not to mention the weekly lockout which limits your sample size and can be troublesome if you have a particularly lucky or unlucky attempt.

[TheHarvester]

^ What he said. Also, by removing Aimed Shot from the rotation, one would essentially miss out on an Aimed Shot-Trickshot combo, which would be a loss of around (6k+4k) damage over 2 GCDs, assuming they DON'T crit. The last 30% of the boss is essentially when DPS needs to be as high as possible due to the approaching enrage and burn-phase mechanics. Ignoring that ~10k damage over 3 seconds is a waste of one of the bread and butter abilities of the spec. Neither Saboteur nor Dirty Fighting uses Aimed Shot as part of the core rotation. The buffs to it in the SS tree are specifically there to enable its regular use.

 

Bear in mind, I don't mean to come off as calling you ignorant. Just saying that since Aimed Shot is such a vital part of the SS build, it should have a central role in DPS at all times.

[Island_Jedi]

Thank you for your feedback and yes Samuel it can be very hard to actually get a viable parse comparison because of the way quick-draw operates. Appreciate the feedback! Edited July 29, 2013 by Island_Jedi

[paowee]

Offtopic: The same Dak from http://mmo-mechanics.com/swtor/forums/?

 

Also nice looking thread and epxlaining all the key talents and abilities!

Edited July 29, 2013 by paowee

[paowee]

Going through some of your comments on rotations... I was wondering if you have you read through some of the notes on this this Sharpshooter/Sniper guide.

 

I have some comments on:

 

IslandJedi

How these abilities should be used

 

Freighter Flyby - This ability hits like a freight train and will make up 10 percent of your overall damage, if its used on cool down. On a dummy this will give you better numbers, in raid it will behave differently. This ability should ONLY ever be used in a single target rotation if it comes shortly after a Burst Volley. If used in your rotation without a burst volley, your energy management will suffer quite a bit.

The use of the word "ONLY" strikes me quite a bit. I know that using Flyby with Burst Volley results in easier energy management but it CAN be used without Burst Volley. All of my parses in the dummy does not include Flyby within Burst Volley's energy regen range and I think the parses are pretty good. My only comment is that there are other ways to use Flyby and Burst Volley, not just the one you mentioned above. As far as which one is optimal, it's hard to tell but as far as I can tell from the forums, Falver aka Claimed IGN is a good person to ask because he has good results (parses) regarding this specific rotation.

 

A video rotation with no Burst Volley for your Flyby can be seen

The parses for these can be found in this thread.

 

Use of Flyby, becomes something of an art and knowing when to use it will show you have moderate skill with a gunslinger.

This one is QFT

 

Rotation

 

The Opening Rotation - Vital Shot, Speed Shot, Trick Shot, Burst Volley, Speed Shot, Trick Shot, XS Flyby. After the channel time ends for Flyby pop your offensive cool downs which should include the relic, your adrenal, and illegal mods. This opener is very bursty and sets up the core rotation well. (Illegal mods wont benefit your XS Flyby at all, because XS Flyby is all elemental damage which ignores armor anyway. Using it after your Flyby though, ensures that Illegal mods is working for the full duration of the "core rotation" which fully benefits from Illegal mods)

This one includes pre-casting of Flyby right?

 

EDIT. Nvm i missed the part where you use Flyby after BV > SS > TS. Looks interesting and, looking at it right now, a good way to start Flyby early into the fight. It's not as early as actually opening with Flyby but it fits in within your Burst Volley energy regen. This opener is worth a shot.

 

The Core Rotation - Charged burst, 2nd Charged burst (with the "Snap Shot" proc)

A lot of Snipers/Slingers might ask you about this one. I read sometime ago over at mmo-mechanics that this is not a DPS gain. Other snipers/slingers here would tell you the same. Play how you like it though!

 

The Harvester

However, I disagree with your idea that Quickdraw should replace Aimed Shot once it becomes available. With the Charged Aim proc, Aimed Shot channels for the same time as Charged Burst, which you will be using often anyway.

We won't know until someone can post parses (or a sim or program?) Thing is sub 30% hp dummy parses isn't possible to do in the game >.< Edited July 29, 2013 by paowee

[flem]

The problem with theory about quickdraw is you can't test it on a dummy

Yeah, this is really irritating. We should get a wounded boss dummy. Edited July 30, 2013 by flem

[Afieri]

This is Dak from Vindication on Harby.

 

Sad to hear you are leaving the game Dak, From Proteus to Vindi, was great having you good luck with your ventures and all that. And before anyone asks, yes this is the perfect place to say goodbye .

 

Altona

[paowee]

This is Dak from Vindication on Harby.

 

Sad to hear you are leaving the game Dak, From Proteus to Vindi, was great having you good luck with your ventures and all that. And before anyone asks, yes this is the perfect place to say goodbye .

 

Altona

 

Wait what.. do you mean ??

Edited July 30, 2013 by paowee

[Afieri]

Wait what.. do you mean ??

 

Between me and Dak is all , nothing sinister I promise

[ScytheEleven]

The use of the word "ONLY" strikes me quite a bit. I know that using Flyby with Burst Volley results in easier energy management but it CAN be used without Burst Volley. All of my parses in the dummy does not include Flyby within Burst Volley's energy regen range and I think the parses are pretty good. My only comment is that there are other ways to use Flyby and Burst Volley, not just the one you mentioned above. As far as which one is optimal, it's hard to tell but as far as I can tell from the forums, Falver aka Claimed IGN is a good person to ask because he has good results (parses) regarding this specific rotation.

 

A video rotation with no Burst Volley for your Flyby can be seen

The parses for these can be found in this thread.

 

Paowee -

 

I've been dipping my hand into parsing more with 36/3/7. Highest I've gotten was 3097, with the vast, VAST majority of my parses lying in the mid to high 2900's range (i.e. 2940, 2980, etc etc). The one I got 3097 on I was using Flyby inside Burst Volley. This netted me 24 hits of Flyby. I then tried to use Flyby on cooldown (i.e. get 28 ticks). My DPS roughly stayed the same, since I had to work in Flurry of Bolts (Rifle Shot).

 

So I have two questions for you:

 

1) What is, on average, your typical parse on a dummy in 36/3/7? I'm not asking about your biggest ones, but if you were to do ten five-minute parses back to back, what you do feel like your average DPS would be across those ten fights?

 

2) The video you uploaded is great, but is there any chance you could upload a full, uninterpreted video of your dummy fights?

Edited July 30, 2013 by ScytheEleven

[paowee]

That's mostly everything http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=651191

 

Full Underworld. I do not have a single parse with Flyby inside Burst Volley. :|

 

1) The first time i did it it was a DPS loss. Probably because i'm just not used to it yet. When i get the time maybe i can try out/practice that rotation in the dummy.

 

2) The videos... i just recently deleted all of em. Taking too much disk space (my pc is made up of cardboard lol). If i get the chance to record and parse another one ill post it here first thing.

Edited July 30, 2013 by paowee

[ScytheEleven]

That's mostly everything http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=651191

 

Full Underworld. I do not have a single parse with Flyby inside Burst Volley. :|

 

1) The first time i did it it was a DPS loss. Probably because i'm just not used to it yet. When i get the time maybe i can try out/practice that rotation in the dummy.

 

2) The videos... i just recently deleted all of em. Taking too much disk space (my pc is made up of cardboard lol). If i get the chance to record and parse another one ill post it here first thing.

 

Thanks Paowee. I'm very interested to see how you go about using Orbital/Flyby without Burst/Sniper Volley up. Reading it is one thing...watching it happen is another!