Is Rocket Punch useless now for new Pyrotech? and is new AP better than new pyro?

[BladeAX]

I'm a lvl 55 PT and I haven't played in about a month, just got on for the first time since 3.0 update to try out the new discipline system, and I was 'pyro' spec before the update. I'm trying the new 'pyro' now, and I've only just been practicing with it on my ship training dummy and dueling with a bud of mine. It seems with addition of Flaming Fist that I never use Rocket Punch anymore. Reasons- they share a cooldown, my FF does 3427 dmg and additional 1033 elemental dmg, my RP does 3235 dmg, FF 'roots" the target for 2 seconds and RP does not, FF makes next Railshot automatic critical hit, Rain of Fire makes FF do 10% dmg to burning targets, and Firebug increases FF crit bonus dmg by 30%. I've quickly noticed I simply don't use RP at all, I just use FF instead. Is there something I'm missing about RP? Any opinions/feedback from more experienced PT's would be greatly appreciated.

 

My other question, from what I've read on here the new AP spec plays more like the old pyro spec. I gotta admit I miss Thermal Detonator and I read it has increased range. Again would like opinions/feedback from experienced PT's on whether they prefer new AP spec or new Pyro spec for both PvP and PvE, I normally do about 65% PvP and 35% PvE.

[Allegos]

I can't comment on which spec is "better" now, as ideally they're pretty close, but Flaming Fist does, indeed, replace Rocket Punch for Pyros. In developer blogs about the class changes just before the expansion launch, they said that they wanted to be able to remove baseline class abilities from your menu when a new, spec defining, advanced class move replaces them in your rotation, but they're still working out how to do that in the game's code. Hence the shared cooldown as a stand-in solution. Edited December 4, 2014 by Allegos

[TACeMossie]

Pyro is doing better damage in less optimized gear. Though with that in mind, Pyro pretty much has a flat damage output over the fight, while AP is very bursty, so depending on what you are up against AP could definately be better.

 

Especially in PvP