Commando - Assault Spec Hybrid 2.0 PVE Guide

[Gyronamics]

Assault gains nothing over Gunnery in terms of AOE, I'd even say it's worse.

 

HoB gains 9% damage if targets are on fire yet Assault has no capability to set up to 5 targets alight without extreme cost.

 

External grenades on a long CD being the only means to do so are not ideal.

 

On the other hand MV and HoB gain 35% armour penetration on all targets when in Gunnery.

 

Also nothing stopping Gunnery also using grenades for extra damage.

Edited July 31, 2013 by Gyronamics

[LordKantner]

Assault gains nothing over Gunnery in terms of AOE, I'd even say it's worse.

 

HoB gains 9% damage if targets are on fire yet Assault has no capability to set up to 5 targets alight without extreme cost.

 

External grenades on a long CD being the only means to do so are not ideal.

 

On the other hand MV and HoB gain 35% armour penetration on all targets when in Gunnery.

 

Also nothing stopping Gunnery also using grenades for extra damage.

 

If the targets are burning, the 9% is added. Pyro Grenades Burn And each of those Hail of Bolts ticks can apply the Plasma Cell.

 

Whichever spec is better is going to depend on the health of the adds.

 

Honestly, all commandos should be using those grenades until we get an infinite target AoE or an instant one.

[Gyronamics]

If the targets are burning, the 9% is added. Pyro Grenades Burn And each of those Hail of Bolts ticks can apply the Plasma Cell.

 

Whichever spec is better is going to depend on the health of the adds.

 

Honestly, all commandos should be using those grenades until we get an infinite target AoE or an instant one.

 

That first part is what I just said.

 

Second part, HoB can't apply more than one Plasma Cell dot in total.

 

One DoT can be applied with cannon fire and is locked from happening again for 6s

The other can be applied with explosive round and is locked from happening again for 6s

 

Both those lockouts are extremely irritating, meanwhile VG can proc Plasma Cell on all targets with their much cheaper Explosive Surge.

 

Finally the pyro grenades don't get the sub30 boost so health is fairly irrelevant for that.

 

That's why I say Assault has nothing going for it in terms of AOE over Gunnery which has armour penetration on its versions.

[SW_display_name]

In fact I'm still practicing and finding new ways to improve this spec.

This is why I'm enjoying Pyro. Most other DPS specs in this game are very, very straightforward and it's a binary Right/Wrong style which is very obvious. You really just hit things as they light up and that's it, you're doing great.

 

There's a lot of different ways to approach Pyro since primarily you just want to hit PPA every 6 seconds and then do "something" in between. It feels like every time I play it, I'm figuring out new tricks and solutions. Instead of, say, Madness Sorceror where it's just an AFK treadmill every time.

[LordKantner]

 

One DoT can be applied with cannon fire and is locked from happening again for 6s

The other can be applied with explosive round and is locked from happening again for 6s

 

Nothing on Plasma Cell itself says anything about a 6 second cooldown. So if you were to only hammer shot a target, each shot would have a 34% chance to refresh the cell, regardless of time limit.

 

I'm going to do some testing, but I'm very certain I have had multiple targets receive plasma cell from one Hail of Bolts.

[Gyronamics]

Nothing on Plasma Cell itself says anything about a 6 second cooldown. So if you were to only hammer shot a target, each shot would have a 34% chance to refresh the cell, regardless of time limit.

 

I'm going to do some testing, but I'm very certain I have had multiple targets receive plasma cell from one Hail of Bolts.

 

It's an invisible internal CD which I frankly despise.

 

It means thats if you kill a target while in that dead zone and you hammer shot the next target the proc won't happen, you've just wasted a GCD and you still need to apply a DoT for all your other attacks to benefit.

 

A cannon loaded with incendiary rounds should absolutely have a 100% chance to proc the plasma cell dot on every target it hits not a once every 6 second chance.

 

The chance by the way is 94.5% (34% on 7 hits of hammer shot, calculator for this kind of thing here). Almost a guaranteed proc so when you try this out on multiple targets its horribly clear that it's blocked for 6s after each proc.

Edited July 31, 2013 by Gyronamics

[LordKantner]

It seems you're right, plasma cell is broken. They need to fix that, maybe have hammer shot count as 1 attack so it isn't a near 100% possible chance so it wouldn't buff us ridiculously.

 

It'd good to know that even if you don't get the HiB in time to refresh the effect, the bolt itself has a good chance to simply apply to cell anyway.

Edited July 31, 2013 by LordKantner

[LordKantner]

Finished the Tips and Tricks section. Not much to add without repeating things already in the guide. Feel free to post stuff you think I've missed.

[Lendish]

Secret Bosses:

The Dreadful Entity: 1892

The Hateful Entity: Have not yet cleared

Dread Grandmaster Revan: Have not yet cleared

 

Hey, what Secret Boss is "Dread Grandmaster Revan"? I never heard of him.

 

Thanks in advance

 

Tianna

[odawgg]

After seeing you doctored your parses I simply can't believe anything you say anymore... Sorry bud, unsubscribing

[LordKantner]

Hey, what Secret Boss is "Dread Grandmaster Revan"? I never heard of him.

 

Thanks in advance

 

Tianna

 

I can't exactly comment on the matter

[odawgg]

So I cut this right after Horror went down (8 man NiM), but pretty happy about this parse testing out pyro: 3066 dps

 

We were running 2 Sins so no adds spawned all fight until near the end where I fluffed my parse a bit with a DFA but other than that this is solely single target encounter with of course his burrows being the only downtime. Had another merc for Armor Debuff.

 

I'm gonna revisit the 'hybrid' spec ignoring Thermal Det but with the testing I've done I just do better with full Pyro so I dunno what's up with that exactly.

 

Edit: oh yeah and I gave it a go with DG but it's probably just lack of practice I was parsing mid 2500s deep into 3rd phase and I finally switched back to arsenal and put up 2700+ so until I can get more practice I'm doing worse on that fight, It's the first phase that screws me in pyro I'm around 2500 max in pyro and 3k ish with arsenal in that first phase...just seems to outweigh any gains from the 2nd and 3rd phase with pyro, I'm probably not doing the first phase properly though.

Edited August 7, 2013 by odawgg

[oaceen]

I'm gonna revisit the 'hybrid' spec ignoring Thermal Det but with the testing I've done I just do better with full Pyro so I dunno what's up with that exactly.

 

i'm doing more damage in full assault as well, 0/10/36

[odawgg]

i'm doing more damage in full assault as well, 0/10/36

 

I went with this spec on DG to cut down on pushback but I went 2/8/36 for TWH and when I'm dummy mashing

[oaceen]

I went with this spec on DG to cut down on pushback but I went 2/8/36 for TWH and when I'm dummy mashing

 

i think i do more as gunnery for the TWH though since i just since in the middle and turret around the whole fight

except when i need a cleanse, damn dot making me move and such.

 

 

but for DG, i think with all that movement and running around, assault is the way to go unless there's not another armor debuff

Edited August 7, 2013 by oaceen

[LordKantner]

Where would you put Assault Plastique in the rotation filler? It seems to work best after a HiB but keeping up with the proc, AP is up and I can't use it for a few seconds, sort of like Full Auto is right now in the rotation.

 

AP could definitely be promising in parsing with that long dot.

[odawgg]

Where would you put Assault Plastique in the rotation filler? It seems to work best after a HiB but keeping up with the proc, AP is up and I can't use it for a few seconds, sort of like Full Auto is right now in the rotation.

 

AP could definitely be promising in parsing with that long dot.

 

I basically have a priority system in between procs (procs being number one priority like you do)...Incendiary (?) > Thermal Det (AP) > UL (FA) > PS (?) > RS (HS) but no more than 2 of these between procs....RAIL (proc) > TD > UL > PS > RAIL (proc) is a popular sub-rotation for me every 12s or so....RS (HS) > Incendiary > PS > Rail (proc) is another.... and yeah sometimes things have to sit off cd for a few seconds to proc a rail shot but it still seems to be putting up good numbers regardless.

Edited August 10, 2013 by odawgg

[oaceen]

I basically have a priority system in between procs (procs being number one priority like you do)...Incendiary (?) > Thermal Det (AP) > UL (FA) > PS (?) > RS (HS) but no more than 2 of these between procs....RAIL (proc) > TD > UL > PS > RAIL (proc) is a popular sub-rotation for me every 12s or so....RS (HS) > Incendiary > PS > Rail (proc) is another.... and yeah sometimes things have to sit off cd for a few seconds to proc a rail shot but it still seems to be putting up good numbers regardless.

 

basically this.

 

i normally throw out AP along with IR refresh (but not always) and in general use full auto a lot less

[LordKantner]

I basically have a priority system in between procs (procs being number one priority like you do)...Incendiary (?) > Thermal Det (AP) > UL (FA) > PS (?) > RS (HS) but no more than 2 of these between procs....RAIL (proc) > TD > UL > PS > RAIL (proc) is a popular sub-rotation for me every 12s or so....RS (HS) > Incendiary > PS > Rail (proc) is another.... and yeah sometimes things have to sit off cd for a few seconds to proc a rail shot but it still seems to be putting up good numbers regardless.

 

Is this with the old or new set bonus, because I am having somewhat ammo issues with AP or Incendiary in every other filler or so.

[Gyronamics]

Is this with the old or new set bonus, because I am having somewhat ammo issues with AP or Incendiary in every other filler or so.

 

Seriously?

 

Free HiB vs More HiB damage on a class which has free HiB....

[odawgg]

Is this with the old or new set bonus, because I am having somewhat ammo issues with AP or Incendiary in every other filler or so.

 

new of course...it's not as easy to play as a spec without AP, meaning yeah you do run into more ammo problems, properly timed hammer shots will be necessary. And just to be clear I don't know if full assault is better than your spec it's just what I've done better on. You seem to put up pretty good numbers without it. It costs 3 points to go up and get it, is it better than 3 points spread around the other trees I dunno, but it hits pretty hard (over 15s) so my gut tells me to go get it.

[Gyronamics]

Playing with or without AP is 1 different key press every 15-20s, everything else is almost identical.

 

Key issue that comes up on a long solo fight is that using AP instead of IR or refreshing PC sometimes leaves you dead without a DoT to use HiB on while AP ticks away.

[odawgg]

Playing with or without AP is 1 different key press every 15-20s, everything else is almost identical.

 

Key issue that comes up on a long solo fight is that using AP instead of IR or refreshing PC sometimes leaves you dead without a DoT to use HiB on while AP ticks away.

 

I've noticed that as well, but I believe the DoT from AP will allow HiB, just not the 3 seconds it takes explode and then the DoT applies

[Gyronamics]

Yes the DoT from AP will allow HiB.

 

I'm talking about when you get the short 6s PC DoT burnt out and instead of IR you used AP because it was up = no DoT til AP explodes or you use another GCD for a different DoT.

[odawgg]

Yes the DoT from AP will allow HiB.

 

I'm talking about when you get the short 6s PC DoT burnt out and instead of IR you used AP because it was up = no DoT til AP explodes or you use another GCD for a different DoT.

 

yup yup, it definitely happens at least once a fight I've noticed, kinda throws me off for a second.