Arsenal about to hit 55, amount of crit/alacrity

[mbfhl]

Seventh 55, an Arsenal Merc is about to hit 55. Not gonna be prog raiding on him, just casual HM stuff like all. How much crit should I use? Dulfy says anywhere between 60-260, and the stickied guide at the top says over 300! How much crit does everyone reckon I should use?

 

Also, I've specced into stuff that boosts Jet Boost, which means I have less points for all the stupid endurance/alacrity percent boosts. Which of those is most important? I have 2 points left I need in Arsenal, should I use that to boost Endurance or damage reduction? Or should I stick more than 36 in Arsenal and not bother with all the stupid alacrity boosts.

 

I play Anni Mara, and any alacrity there reduces the time for Master Strike, and considering its damage is done over 3 seconds if it lasts for much shorter than 3s it does less damage? So wouldn't having alacrity do the same for Unload?

[TACeMossie]

Seventh 55, an Arsenal Merc is about to hit 55. Not gonna be prog raiding on him, just casual HM stuff like all. How much crit should I use? Dulfy says anywhere between 60-260, and the stickied guide at the top says over 300! How much crit does everyone reckon I should use?

 

Also, I've specced into stuff that boosts Jet Boost, which means I have less points for all the stupid endurance/alacrity percent boosts. Which of those is most important? I have 2 points left I need in Arsenal, should I use that to boost Endurance or damage reduction? Or should I stick more than 36 in Arsenal and not bother with all the stupid alacrity boosts.

 

I play Anni Mara, and any alacrity there reduces the time for Master Strike, and considering its damage is done over 3 seconds if it lasts for much shorter than 3s it does less damage? So wouldn't having alacrity do the same for Unload?

 

PvP, you want about an 8/2 split of surge to alacrity

PvE, you want 440 accuracy + 510 Surge before thinking about looking at alacrity

 

Crit rating, I'd say its about half way between VG assault and VG Tactics. Going by my guide, it means:

 

156s: 0-100 rating, use 0 crit for optimal

162s: 0-250 rating, use 1 crit crystal for optimal

168s: 0-340 rating, use 2 crit crystals for optimal

180s: 30-540 rating, use ~250 rating for optimal

186s: 50-600 rating, use ~320 rating for optimal

 

Anyway, alacrity doesn't work how your thinking. It speeds up the channel, so in the example of your annihilation marauder it means that ravage gets its damage done quicker. The issue with alacrity is any spec with a proc that is tied to the GCD - E.g. Pyro spec. In this case, the GCD is reduced enough that it adds an extra GCD before the proc can happen, so the reduced time between attacks is counteracted by having the heavy hitters split apart more.

 

In arsenal though, i'd recommend using the 6/36/4 simply because it gets the most stats given to you for free. Your important ICD is on an 8 second cooldown, so it isn't screwed over by alacrity, and also cause its a 3 second channel the alacrity can really help out if you screw up the delay after waiting for unload to finish.

Edited October 1, 2014 by TACeMossie

[DariusCalera]

You do not want to stack alacrity on your gear, at all, for either PvP or PvE. It is simply not worth it.

 

In PvP, the fights occur in surges which means you're going to get a few casts and instants off then either stand around or be running to another node. You will not have the time to sit there and be able to cast to the point where having alacrity is going to make a difference in your numbers.

 

In PvE, you only need the alacrity provided by your skill trees either from a 6/36/4 or 5/36/5

[mastervalkar]

You could do the way the mid/maxed TK Sage/Litghtning Sorc goes, and use just one piece of alacrity (my Sorc uses the vendor Oriconian Power/alacrity earpiece to get the 94 rating in 180s). With the 2% from the trees, that put you right around to 2.5-3% alacrity mark, all while allowing you to maximize your needed Accuracy, Power, Surge, and Crit. That 2.5-3% mark will take about .2 off the cast times, which isnt much, but it's something since Arsenal/Gunnery are so cast happy (not quite TK/Lightning level, but close enough)

[TACeMossie]

In PvP, the fights occur in surges which means you're going to get a few casts and instants off then either stand around or be running to another node. You will not have the time to sit there and be able to cast to the point where having alacrity is going to make a difference in your numbers.

 

Ironicly, this post enforces how good alacrity is for PvP: As the fights aren't long enough for the alacrity to screw with your cooldowns, and the only high crit rate attack in PvP is Rail Shot (for Arsenal), Alacrity will cause the fight to end sooner because you will squeeze more GCDs into it - e.g. if you have 144 alacrity, thats 6.06%-9.06% alacrity, causing the GCDs to come 6.06-9.06% quicker. This means that if a fight were going to take 10 GCDs, it goes from 14.42/14.02 seconds to 14.14/13.75 seconds for the kill - about ~1.972% quicker for a sacrifice of 1.98% surge (which equates to approximately 0.5% less DPS before looking at alacrity)

Edited October 3, 2014 by TACeMossie

[DariusCalera]

Ironicly, this post enforces how good alacrity is for PvP: As the fights aren't long enough for the alacrity to screw with your cooldowns, and the only high crit rate attack in PvP is Rail Shot (for Arsenal), Alacrity will cause the fight to end sooner because you will squeeze more GCDs into it - e.g. if you have 144 alacrity, thats 6.06%-9.06% alacrity, causing the GCDs to come 6.06-9.06% quicker. This means that if a fight were going to take 10 GCDs, it goes from 14.42/14.02 seconds to 14.14/13.75 seconds for the kill - about ~1.972% quicker for a sacrifice of 1.98% surge (which equates to approximately 0.5% less DPS before looking at alacrity)

 

Against a boss where the fight lasts for several minutes, then having the alacrity provided by the skill trees is preferable because, over the length of the fight, that alacrity eventually allows for a DPS increase.

 

In PvP for a dps merc/mando, you aren't going to pick up the alacrity talents in the skill trees because other talents are more beneficial and stacking it on your gear, to the point where it becomes beneficial, takes away from better dps stats.

[capsales]

Ironicly, this post enforces how good alacrity is for PvP: As the fights aren't long enough for the alacrity to screw with your cooldowns, and the only high crit rate attack in PvP is Rail Shot (for Arsenal), Alacrity will cause the fight to end sooner because you will squeeze more GCDs into it - e.g. if you have 144 alacrity, thats 6.06%-9.06% alacrity, causing the GCDs to come 6.06-9.06% quicker. This means that if a fight were going to take 10 GCDs, it goes from 14.42/14.02 seconds to 14.14/13.75 seconds for the kill - about ~1.972% quicker for a sacrifice of 1.98% surge (which equates to approximately 0.5% less DPS before looking at alacrity)

I could have give up some surge to get some alacrity but thinking of 144 blows my mind, are you getting that from augments because now we are discussing dropping main stat for alacrity.

 

In answer to the OP on Crit, I am pretty set with 186 gear (a few A mods) but if I venture much above or below 200 crit , my 1mil dummy dps drops off considerably. I am currently running 197 crit, all surge (about 580) no alacrity, and I keep my accuracy at 400 (pub side doesn't have offhand weapon, stay 440 on imp) and get 3500's consistently with gunnery. As I leveled up to my current gear, I never added any crit at all until I had all underworld gear. and then maybe a crystal. Once at all 180 I went to 197 crit.

[TACeMossie]

I could have give up some surge to get some alacrity but thinking of 144 blows my mind, are you getting that from augments because now we are discussing dropping main stat for alacrity.

 

In answer to the OP on Crit, I am pretty set with 186 gear (a few A mods) but if I venture much above or below 200 crit , my 1mil dummy dps drops off considerably. I am currently running 197 crit, all surge (about 580) no alacrity, and I keep my accuracy at 400 (pub side doesn't have offhand weapon, stay 440 on imp) and get 3500's consistently with gunnery. As I leveled up to my current gear, I never added any crit at all until I had all underworld gear. and then maybe a crystal. Once at all 180 I went to 197 crit.

 

144 alacrity = 2 pieces. With 2 pieces of alacrity, you still have a surge of 75.03% (as opposed to 77.01%) if you dont take any accuracy. If you are taking accuracy, pull it out of the alacrity budget.

 

This post assumes PvP gear

Edited October 4, 2014 by TACeMossie