Ves' Trooper Guide (Work in progress)

[CanWolfShadow]

As a newbie to the Commando class, thanks for the work on the guide. It is greatly appreciated.

 

<3 Grav Rounds. Just hit level 21 and LOLZ.

[silvrstein]

No, just no. Alacrity is one of our weakest stats. The way haste interacts with our ammo causes us to spend ammo faster. There are numerous threads discussing how alacrity is one of our weakest stats. There are plenty of other talents that could be taken that are more beneficial than alacrity based talents.

 

You clearly missed my point. In the world of min-maxing as every mmo has and as a dps you want to sqeeze out as much as possible you might as well put the 2 points and gain the additional 1% alacrity.

[ArchangelLBC]

I think his point is that you shouldn't put skill points into either.

 

 

A note on the rotation info for gunnery commando from a 45 gunnery commando.

 

The only part I disagree with is the end where you go HIB > Demo Round mostly because of Charged Barrel. While you can get the most out of Demo Round after only 3 Grav Rounds, it takes 5 Grav Rounds to get the max buff for HiB and since its 6% per stack thats 12% dmg you're missing so I usually do FA > Grav Round x3 > CoF FA if its up > Demo Round > Grav Round x2 > HiB.

 

 

Of course this is for stuff worth fighting. On a silver mob with friends I might grav round the trash down to get Charged Barrel 2 free charges before taking the silver. On single silver mobs their HP is so low by Demo Round that I sometimes just go ahead and fire off the HiB, so they're really more HP reliant as even with Elara most silvers just won't survive the full rotation and I'll replace the 5th grav round with HiB to finish it off that much quicker. On any mob that requires mutliple rotations though, charged barrel is your friend if you want to make those HiBs count. I know its annoying to hold off on that HiB that late, but be patient, and then after that you should have more than enough time to get 5 grav rounds off before HiB's cooldown is ready. Again though its situation dependent. Never kill a mob with a grav round if HiB is up to do it for you.

 

As far as mortar volley goes, use it on weak mob packs when its up and then I usually do Plasma > Sticky > Hail of Bolts (hopefully before the sticky detonates) when its not up. Currently I'm running into an issue on Belsavis where a Mortar Volley just doesn't have the oomph to always completely kill a mob pack. I'm wondering if it might be my gun though I have about the best barrel I can put in it atm, but noticed I'm a good bit behind purple cannons on the GTN. Be that as it may my solution is to follow up Mortar Volley with Hail of Bolts just to be sure and sticky any outliers since Hail of Bolts has a smaller radius.

[Futak]

bump.

[Calanya]

Daeson has a great thread ongoing here http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=117042 that discusses in more depth on the issues with alacrity. I would suggest going here to review the information, rather than flooding this thread with redundancies.

 

That's not a good thread at all and brings nothing new to the Alacrity discussion. It's basically his own personal opinion based on nothing but theory based on nothing.

 

The fact is if you are going combat medic for PVP having enough alacrity to get your medical probe down to 1.5 seconds. is vital. Being able to heal quickly and on the move is far better than having to be a static healer dishing out slow big heals. As for pve, I suppose that depends on whether or not you're good at playing the class. Of course there are benefits to large heals, but a tank dying because your big heal landed half a second too late isn't a good heal, I'm going to work on the basis of being able to knock out emergency heals to individual targets faster.

 

In the same instance I will be using alacrity for my DPS Commando PvP Gunnery build, simply because standing still is just asking for trouble. being able to get off a charged ability and then move, makes you far less of a target. I'd rather be able to offload damage fast and move (If you're on the move it makes it more difficult for them to pin you down) Over some guy who has to stand there praying he kills something before they look at him and start interrupting his casts.

 

Of course in pve Alacrity for a DPS Commando is totally wasted because it defeats the purpose of keeping your ammo up in the top tier of regen, you're better off having the bigger numbers over the ability to fire of faster damage.

 

Of course all of the above is personal opinion and alot of it boils down to play style/ability and what you want to get out of your class!!!!

 

My real advice would be to try everything yourself, everyman and his dog will try and force a rotation/spec/build down your throat. But not everyone is of the same mindset. I'm not the kind of person to spam GR all day long just because I can and it's supposedly the best ability. Until you've messed around with everything the class has to offer yuorself you wil never know. After all, the second someone discovers something that's better everyone else will change to suit it

 

Nice idea pulling it all together like this!!! Keep it up.

Edited January 10, 2012 by Calanya

[Exkrion]

It's been talked about so many places and it's been a pretty much accepted fact that it's FA > Grav round x3(to 5 stacks with talent) > CoF procs > HIB > Demo round.

 

If this is the accepted priority queue then allow me to ask a question.

 

I'm not sure if I just missed something, or maybe I'm not thinking it all the way through, but when in this are you supposed to use hammer shot?

 

I know with my current gear, even though I am level 40, I don't have enough crit for Cell Charger to keep my ammo regen rate from dropping.

 

I've been using FA > Grav Round x3 > Hammer shot > CoF procs> HiB > Demo Round > Hammer Shot.

 

Basically I Hammer Shot after Grav Rounds if I need ammo, and after Demo round, because I find that going HiB > Demo Round then into either CoF or Grav Round leaves me missing huge chunks of ammo. The longer sustained the queue is the more I have to start using hammer shot, I end up using it after every Grav Round when waiting on HiB and Demo round to come off cool down to keep my ammo up around max so I can spam them when they do come off of cool down.

 

Am I doing something wrong not being able to manage my ammo? Any insight on this would be greatly appreciated.

Edited January 10, 2012 by Exkrion

[Jeditheos]

What abilities can we use for CoF procs? Like a sticky? or cryo?

[Bluetickone]

Alacrity is bascially useless for a combat medic. they only talent it affects is the basic probe; better to get surge and affect all heals.

[B-rub]

Massive updates coming, been a busy week at work

[TeddyBearSniper]

Plz someone sticky this.

[TeddyBearSniper]

Sticky plz.

[Brento]

How did you throw together and get numbers on that rotation? Because I cannot see how that rotation is viable at all. It's been talked about so many places and it's been a pretty much accepted fact that it's FA > Grav round x3(to 5 stacks with talent) > CoF procs > HIB > Demo round. Charged bolt get's taken off your tool bar once you get grav round, there is absolutely zero reason to use it.

 

I cannot believe that you have advanced tech over cell charger, i have to assume that's some kind of mistake. It's even more important when you have Curtain of fire. Also, charged barrier is an all or nothing skill, it's not worth it to put 1 point in and have 50% chance when you only grav round MAYBE 5 times per fight.

 

This guide needs serious work for the commando section. After playing one to level 50 3 times in 4 builds and participating in end game operations, i can tell you right now that you need to do both A) More research and B) Ask people who have more time into the class about it before you make a guide.

I seriously feel bad for the newbies coming here reading this and looking at the spec you posted thinking that it's the best way to play the dps commando, when it's apparent to anyone who has played one for a long time that you are setting them up for failure.

 

What an unhelpful and condescending post. At least you could point people in the right direction then? And then you have the gall to say, "Sorry if you took offense."

 

Maybe its because your post was offensive?

 

There's a way to give constructive criticism, and showing off your epeen by stating you have 3 level 50 commando's and this guy doesnt know squat is not constructive. How about some links next time?

 

Anyway to the OP, has the guide been updated to reflect some of these changes?

Edited January 14, 2012 by Brento

[Krivilicious]

Thanks for putting this together, just started a trooper and this is very helpful.

[B-rub]

I know I am not supposed to but... BUMP, would loved if i got sticky'd

[TeddyBearSniper]

sticky plz.

[B-rub]

What an unhelpful and condescending post. At least you could point people in the right direction then? And then you have the gall to say, "Sorry if you took offense."

 

Maybe its because your post was offensive?

 

There's a way to give constructive criticism, and showing off your epeen by stating you have 3 level 50 commando's and this guy doesnt know squat is not constructive. How about some links next time?

 

Anyway to the OP, has the guide been updated to reflect some of these changes?

 

Since that post the guide has had extensive updates!

[Neptunius]

Nice looking guide

 

Could you add guide on what companion to use when fighting Sith Sorcs mobs? (not players)

 

Those SOB's can do way to much dmg to us(commando medic's) and our one true interrupt skill isnt fast enough to CD.

 

Im pretty sure, that they can one shot people with that lightning....

Edited January 15, 2012 by Neptunius

[B-rub]

I am working on it, I am still have trouble with a few mobs and companions, I dont post things aymroe that I have not tired, so as soon as I read something and try it out I post it.

[B-rub]

Added a link to a great post on tropper skills, as well as updated info on the CD vs GR debate (under Skills/Roles/Builds section), as well as some info on rotations for Gunnery.

[Daeson]

The one and only glaring issues I see is your build has the points in alacrity, and you have a rotation listed.

 

As gunnery, you need to avoid every single point of alacrity possible, you want 0. at 1.5 cast time grav round with a crit, becomes almost free. If you grav round durring a ammo tick and crit, you now didnt spend any ammo.

 

Rotation. Because of above facts, and cell charger. Rotations are pointless, only priorities.

 

1. Full Auto with CoF proc.

2. Full Auto

3. Demo round at 5 debuff.

4. High Impact bolt with 5 stacks of charged barrel.

5. Grav round if the above are on CD, and above 7 ammo.

6. Hammer shot if at 7 ammo.

 

 

As you're crit begins to climb, you will notice less and less ammo issues, eventually you will 100% of the time proc Cell charger when possible. When this becomes true, your ability to fill time with grav rounds increases, and your need to hammer shot decreases.

 

TL:DR follow the chart for which button to push, as crit goes up the list becomes more important.

 

 

 

Speaking from a raid perspective,my thoughts on Grav vs CB

 

Grav round will keep up your debuff, keep your stacks, and follow the flow, in many fights that require build up time,switching, most things burn down so fast, rarely will you have time to build your debuff and stacks, use everything else, and still have time to swich. More importantly, untill we can parse this stuff or sim, we'll never really know which is better. Just my thoughts.

 

*EDIT* I can't belive this skipped my mind, the big issue being, you can NOT stack barrel with charged barrel, so you will lose out the dps of the highest HIB crits.

Edited January 16, 2012 by Daeson

[B-rub]

Updated sections of the Rotations/Priorities section, to refelct information found and presented, removed some redundancies in my posts, as well as working on making it more legible.

 

On "Rotations"

 

I use the word rotation very loosely, in the sense that, "This is generally the order I have pushed buttons when looking at what is going on at the time." I have no intent on perscribing a this is the only way to do it mentality. I am simply mapping out, via a "rotation" of sorts, how I PERSONALLY press buttons based on what effects are active and inactive, what my ammo status is like, and/or what is an isn't on CD.

[B-rub]

Added some info to cover some of the threads for Combat Medic raging and why they are wrong.

[Seamhainn]

This deserves a sticky!

 

Will you elaborate on Cells sometime?

 

Thanks for the great work!

[Tajz]

One big question:

For combat medic, when we want to dps during supercharged cell buff, we suppose to spam Full assault or Charged bolt or both of them alternatively? Which one bring the best dps?

[B-rub]

This deserves a sticky!

 

Will you elaborate on Cells sometime?

 

Thanks for the great work!

 

Thanks, and yes now that you mention it I will will devote some time to talk about the different cells, somethings just get forgotten when changing things here and there.