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Sniper Marksmanship Guide (Transcribed to Sniper from SamuelAU's Gunslinger guide)

Metinsith

By Metinsith
in Gunslinger / Sniper

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Metinsith

Metinsith

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Since 2.0 dropped, 36/5/5 has looked to be the standard spec for SOS sniper / MM snipers, with some dabbling in 36/8/5 (+15% damage on Orbital Strike) with the PvP set bonuses for extra ticks on orbital strike.

 

Recently, with some parses for proof, it's been looking like 36/3/7 is the best single-target DPS skill point distribution for all specs in all fights.

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#400dcrbdRkRMfkdzZ0cZG0b.3

 

The major change is that 2 points have been taken out of Energy Tanks (+10 energy) and put into Mortal Wound (Corrosive Dart has a 25% chance to tick twice). This change averages out to an increase of about 60 DPS, depending on your RNG.

 

Some Abbreviations and Sniper Terminologies

• FT: Followthrough

• SOS: Series of Shots

• OS: Orbital Strike

• SNIPE:

• AMBUSH: Ambush

• CORDOT: Corrosive Dart

• SS: Shatter Shot

• TD: Takedown

• SV: Sniper Volley

• EP: Explosive Probe

 

Quick Gearing Rundown

• 100% ranged accuracy and 70% surge (approximately) are ideal BiS. Focus on accuracy before surge.

• Avoid critical rating, ideally less than ~110. Take power everywhere in mods and enhancemenFT.

• Augment cunning with Advanced Skill Augment 28.

 

Set Bonus

For maximum DPS output, the 2-pc PvE set bonus and 2-pc PvP set bonuses are the best.

• PvE (2): Reduces the cooldown of Target Acquired or Illegal Mods by 15 seconds, and activating either ability restores 15 energy.

• PvP (2): Increases duration of Orbital Strike or Orbital Strike by 3 seconds.

 

If energy management troubles plague you when bosses are <30% and you start needing to use TD on cooldown it would be best for you to take the 4-pc PvE set bonus, which reduces the energy cost of TD by 7. Ideally, though the 2/2 split is best.

 

Rotation

When you're running 36/3/7 it's almost essential to keep CORDOT up as much as possible, with clipping being less detrimental than letting it fall off for more than 3 or 4 globals.

 

Like most DPS classes, the 36/3/7 sniper has an opening rotation which is a little bit different from the standard rotation throughout the boss fight. The purpose of the opening rotation is essentially to do as much damage as possible right off the bat in your opener.

 

OS -> AMBUSH -> FT -> SS -> SOS -> FT -> CORDOT -> SV -> SOS -> FT -> EP -> SNIPE -> SNIPE -> FT

 

You want to use your cooldowns (adrenal, relic, illegal mods) right before the first SOS, so you can at least catch one tick of OS with all your cooldowns up. Picking up from where that rotation left off...

 

AMBUSH -> FT -> CORDOT -> SOS -> FT -> SNIPE -> SNIPE -> FT

 

This rotation only changes when Orbital Strike comes off cooldown.

 

OS -> AMBUSH -> FT -> SOS -> SV-> FT -> CORDOT -> SOS -> FT -> EP -> SNIPE -> SNIPE -> FT

 

Note that this is only a rough guide; I can't speak on energy management for everyone, but at times it can be a bit tough. Ambush such you need to be able to think on your feet, in terms of delaying an ability by 1 or 2 GCORDOTs or using a flurry of bolts because you know that if you don't, you'll bottom out of energy. This comes with experience and practice. It can be a little hard to explain in text, so check out this excellent video by Paowee for a demonstration. A good place to refresh SS is just before AMBUSH, so, SNIPE -> SNIPE -> FT -> SS. Ambush long Ambush both debuffs are up consistently, though, it isn't super important and you can refresh SS where it feels most comfortable and natural for you.

 

 

• Avoid EP if you're dipping down in energy a bit, either throwing in a flurry of bolFT or moving straight on to SNIPE.

• Use [Laze Target] every time it's available.

• [Adrenaline Probe] is always going to be available if you **** up your energy.

• Do NOT use SS if you have a juggernaut or arsenal merc attacking the same target Ambush you. Armor debuff is their class mechanic so using SS is a wasted global.

 

A Little Bit on Priority and Movement

So few bosses in this game are a straight "tank and spank", so no doubt at some point you're going to have to move. A good example is Titan-6 during Launch. Because sharpshooter's buffs are attached to you, if they run out due to DPS downtime you can't pick up where you left off. In situations like these, here's a priority list so you know where you pick up your rotation.

 

FT (if buff hasn't fallen off) > TD > SOS > CORDOT (if it's fallen off) > AMBUSH (if buff hasn't fallen off) > SNIPE

 

If you look at a damage distribution pie chart for sharpshooter, FT easily comes out on top (~25%) followed closely by SOS. These abilities are so high on the priority list because combined they make up close to 50% of your total damage output, therefore using them every time they're available is beneficial.

 

TD is listed at a higher priority than SOS because, in a full-length single target boss fight, TD will make up ~6-7% of your total damage output, which makes it even more useful than SOS granted than you've only used it for 30% of the fight. It also procs FT quicker than SOS would so you're throwing out more uses of FT if you prioritize TD over SOS recovering from movement near the end of a boss fight.

 

As well as the reasons above, all 3 of these abilities benefit from crit and surge buffs in the skill tree.

• SOS: +19% crit chance, +30% crit multiplier.

• FT: +4% crit chance, +30% crit multiplier.

• TD: +19% crit chance, +30% crit multipler.

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AtomicXC

AtomicXC

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Hi, thank you a lot for guide. I just come back to play after long brake like two days ago and I tried to do a war zone, and I was shocked that lvl 50 commando did over 600k dps and I did 300k with my old pvp gear BM. I understand that I need to look more in specs rotation and some other stuff but still... So my question is sniper stil one of the top RDD in pvp , and is any good guides for 2.5.1 . I searched toady for couple hours and cant find any good info on dmg calculation specs etc for pvp. Would appreciate any info , thank you.
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Llama-Eight

Llama-Eight

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Your old BM gear would have been very bad to take into PvP now, due to the way the bolster system works (all gear, except PvP gear, below a certain quality level is boosted up to a minimum), get out of that BM gear & into something else, probably anything else TBH, would help quite a bit.
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Aerilas

Aerilas

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best spec in pvp is 36/10/0

 

4% health is better than 2% crit chance by far.

 

corrosive dart is quite meaningless, unless you want to keep a stealther dotted

 

PVE thread :)

 

ALso, 36/10/0? I go with 36/7/3. Where do you put the 3 points instead of increased critical chance then?

Edited by Aerilas
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