3.0 Mercenary/DPS guide by Fascinate & Marisi

[Ardarell_Solo]

Zoltan and Ryu have you actually tried to follow Marisi's and Fasc's rotation exactly with your gear and compared? Or Fasc and Marisi have you parsed through the alternate versions and checked? It's kinda hard to tell which one is stronger, if everyone only sticks to their version only. That way we never get parses with the same gear to compare...

 

Personally I think that keeping Dots together is generally very beneficial for raiding, as it's always better on Dot classes to do that for phase transitions, interruptions, target switching etc. If you know your fights well enough, you can plan ahead and not lose like half a Dot cycle. On the other hand I see how you would want to keep TD on CD and make room for MB, but though it may (as I said we'd need parses from both sides with their own gear) be good for Dummy parsing, I think for raiding keeping the Dots together will beat it.

 

Marisi and Fasc, I posted some questions over at Dulfy but just in case I'll repost them here, would be great if you could explain:

 

1. Where does Supercharged Cell go in the regular rotation? After Full Auto like in the opener or simply on cooldown right after the Charged Bolts that give the 10th stack?

It doesn't boost alacrity (anymore), so it can't mess up (internal) cooldowns like Recharge Cells right?

 

2. Where would you put Supercharged Celerity, if it's supposed to be activated right in the beginning of a fight? Simply instead of Supercharged Cell right after Full Auto, so Cooldown of Electro Net is reduced? (I'm guessing in that case IA's Cooldown isn't messed with as it was triggered by Full Auto and won't be reduced retroactively?)

Any harm in activating it right after Serrated Bold/Incendiary Round precast?

 

3. You're writing FA + RPC in the Burning Ammo part, I assume Reserve Power Cell is supposed to be activated BEFORE Full Auto, like you said in your introduction?

 

Either way thanks everyone for sharing your stuff and once again, Fasc and Marisi thanks for the detailed info over at Dulfy! :-)

[Kinslayer]

Well I'm not on my gaming PC, but w/e, good enough for ability breakdown: http://puu.sh/dJTEZ/73fb67ac83.png

 

Here you go Tac, do with it what you will http://puu.sh/dJTJj/8db324239d.png

 

Perfect, thank you. I will run some analyses on it when I get off work. The biggest difference I can see from a cursory glance is the considerable difference in APM but I will withhold judgement until after.

[cs_zoltan]

Perfect, thank you. I will run some analyses on it when I get off work. The biggest difference I can see from a cursory glance is the considerable difference in APM but I will withhold judgement until after.

 

Yeah that's due to part me and part my PC, I bet you or Fasci can get more out of it.

 

The only difference in APM between ANY rotation is how fast you generate SCG stacks, but that shouldn't be more than 0.1-0.3 (just a guesstimate).

 

APM of the basic rotation: 36 APM

APM of TSO + VH on cd: 1.3* APM

+ alacrity %

+ SCG/minute

 

PS: I just changed my rotation again (don't laugh there's room for improvement for everyone ), if you want to try it for parsing reasons now it's this:

[uL->Filler->MS->IM->]

[PS->Filler->TD->MS->SS->]

Edited December 26, 2014 by cs_zoltan

[cs_zoltan]

Zoltan and Ryu have you actually tried to follow Marisi's and Fasc's rotation exactly with your gear and compared? Or Fasc and Marisi have you parsed through the alternate versions and checked? It's kinda hard to tell which one is stronger, if everyone only sticks to their version only. That way we never get parses with the same gear to compare...

 

Yes I did, that's actually when it hit me that I'm delaying TD for PS (results with both rotation was in the same ballpark though)

What *I* am arguing about is quite basic, obejctive, math based and easy to double check. I'll sum it up in a few points:

• PS + SCG vs TD
  
• 1 filler vs 2 filler (if we count TD as main attack)
  
• 24 heat-negative execute phase vs 9 heat-negative execute phase
  

 

Everyone can parse, do math, flip a coin or w/e and decide whichever he perfers.

 

 

PS: Also I owe an apology to Fasci, sometimes I get carried away (sometimes = 70% of time)

[Ryaja]

When I use the opener of SS-IM-MS-UL-SCG/EN-TD-MS-PS-MS-IM-SS-PS-PS-MG is was finding that the first of my PS's in the end was making the proc for IPA instead of the second PS.

 

I chose Power overrides to be used as my masterful utility instead of Stabilized armour.

 

My opener is now SS-IM-MS-UL-SGC/EN-TD-MS-PS-MG-IS-SURGE/SS-2NDSURGE/PS-PS-MS

 

I am consistently parsing 3-3.3k damage with all 186 and a few 192's. I love the guide but is there a reason why Power Surge was never mentioned in the guide. The ability to insta-cast 2 abilities is very nice IMO.

 

I have not done any math on this and maybe using it creates heat problems idk. However, my parses are looking nice and this has become my main dps toon!

[cs_zoltan]

When I use the opener of SS-IM-MS-UL-SCG/EN-TD-MS-PS-MS-IM-SS-PS-PS-MG is was finding that the first of my PS's in the end was making the proc for IPA instead of the second PS.

 

Working as intended tbh...

[Ryaja]

Working as intended tbh...

 

So the first PS is supposed to proc IPA rather than the second? Curious why you would not use the IPA proc for MS right away then. Is it for CD timing purposes?

 

Would Power surge be the viable option to quickly get in the first PS then hard cast the second to proc IPA?

 

Thank you for the reply and will me watching for your response

[spudik]

So the first PS is supposed to proc IPA rather than the second? Curious why you would not use the IPA proc for MS right away then. Is it for CD timing purposes?

 

Would Power surge be the viable option to quickly get in the first PS then hard cast the second to proc IPA?

 

Thank you for the reply and will me watching for your response

 

Yes exactly, its for timing purpose. If u use the proc right away and not cast the second PS or RS or whatever. Then the Insta PS after Unload won't proc MS.

 

And taking Power Surge Idk, I wouldn't use it around the IPA proc. Thats for sure, because Zorz rotation is so tightly calculated that you have to hard cast the PS that procs IPA. Because casted PS proc in the end, instant at the start.

Power surge is certainly not needed anywhere, once u know the fights. (I'm using Gyros/Zoltan rotation though, never tried Zorz in real fight only on dummy)

 

And btw, tried them both and got same results, dunno if it's fingers or something else

 

P.S. You can hit 4 - 4.1k with that gear on a dummy

Edited December 26, 2014 by spudik

[cs_zoltan]

So the first PS is supposed to proc IPA rather than the second? Curious why you would not use the IPA proc for MS right away then. Is it for CD timing purposes?

 

Would Power surge be the viable option to quickly get in the first PS then hard cast the second to proc IPA?

 

Thank you for the reply and will me watching for your response

 

Well it's not my guide, but I can take an educated guess at why they did it this way.

 

With this rotation: UL, EN/TD/MB/RS, PS (use STB), MS, IM, SS, PS, PS/RS, MS (proc STB)

The 2 MS is as far away from each other as possible. This means 2 things, easier, less fluctuating heat management and better CGC burn uptime (since only MS has guranteed CGC proc)

 

 

Forcing to change procs with Power Surge is a horrible idea because you won't have it up for every 15 seconds so you should rather leave it as is. Power Surge is for mobility, and mobility alone.

Edited December 26, 2014 by cs_zoltan

[Volcan]

Perfect, thank you. I will run some analyses on it when I get off work. The biggest difference I can see from a cursory glance is the considerable difference in APM but I will withhold judgement until after.

 

Something is off with that APM, judging by the ability damage breakdown the parse was done during a ton of lag or some other outside source. I'd wager it should be closer to 38-39 APM. It's really not a good parse and I hope we can get one that is a bit more average... this one seems like an outlier.

 

I've done hours of testing three different rotations--Zorz's, Hotwired's, and mine.

 

I'm at the point where I can pretty much switch between all three with little to no mistakes and I have found all three to be extremely comparable. All have their strengths and weaknesses when it comes to real Ops practicality.

 

========================================================================================

 

Below are my personal observations on the rotations I've spent a lot of time with. I'll start by explaining my rotation I built the first week of 3.0 before the Zorz and Hotwired rotations were available:

 

(I have since changed the opener to the Zorz opener, because it was better )

 

Opener

 

SB > IR > (Adren) + MB > FA > (Supercharge) + EN > AP > MB > CB > MB > (Begin 'Ammo Burning')

 

Ammo Burning:

 

CB > IR > SB > FA > CB > MB > AP > CB > MB >

 

Ammo Conservation:

 

filler (a) > IR > SB > FA > filler (b) > MB > filler © > CB > MB

 

(a): CB, HS, EN, ER (sub 30%), (AP-- only if a 'c' filler emergency was used)

(b): CB, HS, EN, ER (sub 30%), (AP-- only if a 'c' filler emergency was used)

©: AP, (HS only in emergencies)

=====================================================================

 

Comparing the three rotations:

 

Zorz:

1. Less mobile (No Unload IPA proc), periods of 4 seconds of casting during their 'Heat Ramping' phases

(SS > PS > PS >).

2. I noticed a slight dps increase with this rotation, but at the cost of mobility.

3. only room for 2 maximum fillers. One of which is AP/TD.

4. DOTs paired.

 

Hotwired:

1. Mobile (Unload IPA Proc) .

2. Split DOTs (can be a bit rough in a real Ops environment).

3. Three maximum fillers. One of which is AP/TD.

4. Concentrated DPS spikes in rotation (MB > CB > MB) which can be a negative for rotation interrupts.

5. More forgiving in emergencies.

 

Mine:

1. Mobile (Unload IPA Proc).

2. DOTs are paired.

3. Three maximum fillers. One of which is AP/TD.

4. Strong/Burst Zorz opener that works with a Unload IPA Proc rotation.

5. More forgiving in emergencies.

 

======================================================================================

 

What it comes down to for me is personal preference. Do you want a slight dps increase under perfect circumstances that Zorz offers? Or do you want flexibility during emergencies and increased mobility that Hotwired/My rotations offer? Most of my testing show that all three rotations are about equal in DPS, the increase from the Zorz rotation seems to be a touch more, but it's really not by much.

 

Personally I have not tried the Zorz rotation in a real OP yet, I'm going to for the next week or so just to give it a test run. But there is a lot of mobility in these new Ops and I personally think in the end the increased mobility rotations are going to be putting up more damage in actual fights.

 

=================================================================================

 

Anyways, I think we can all agree that the DEVS really threw quite a spec at us this go around. A lot of room for debate. Maybe I'll compile some parses of all three rotations; however, I'm not super eager to go run off parsing after the hours and hours I've already put in.

 

Please feel free to critique and let me know your thoughts, I'm always open to changing my mind and hopefully someone will be able to shed some more light on IO/Assault.

Edited December 26, 2014 by Volcan

[Citruzz]

i'm looking for some numerical data to calculate ability damage. Are there some current formulas around? Especially weapon based and bonus- or Techdamage based multipliers.

[Kinslayer]

Well I'm not on my gaming PC, but w/e, good enough for ability breakdown: http://puu.sh/dJTEZ/73fb67ac83.png

 

Ok so I've done a bit of work analysing this and comparing it to one of mine. First I want to reiterate that the APM is much lower than either Fascinate or I are used to which might contribute to the difference in damage output my calculations provided but this APM difference isn't anything new when comparing the two rotations.

 

I took a parse of mine, which was 5081 for the record so it had pretty high crits, calculated the average hit/average crit for every ability used, including offhand attacks, and then applied that to your distribution to get a rough idea of what might be possible using that with my gear. For the record, I used the crit %s I received as well.

 

I found that with this information all of the above would've done ~1135000 damage over 245s which is a DPS of 4,633. Of course, this is only a rough estimate because not only would the parse have ended considerably sooner but you would've entered the execute phase quicker too which would change the distribution as well, but I don't think it would change it by enough to make the difference in numbers any less significant.

 

 

People question why Fascinate and I do things as we do and that's a good thing as it fosters discussion and thought. Obviously as well people are free to do whatever rotation works best for them (this is a guide after all) and we ourselves found that the outlined rotation produced the best results for us. This conclusion wasn't arrived at lightly (nor are we too proud to admit that an alternative method is superior if that's what we concluded) but was found through many many hours of testing, experimentation and discussion.

 

It might appear counter intuitive that our method results in higher DPS given the differences in the rotation priorities but that's what our testing showed us. And as far as the decreased mobility goes, it's yet to be an issue for either of us in any of the current HM fights. I realise that's more of a deflection of criticism rather than an actual address but it's still valid.

Edited December 27, 2014 by Kinslayer

[Ryuku-sama]

i'm looking for some numerical data to calculate ability damage. Are there some current formulas around? Especially weapon based and bonus- or Techdamage based multipliers.

 

I have them all for Assault laying around.. The only thing I'M missing is the new constant for the dummy armor.. SO I'm using 55 DR on a 60 model.. Not ideal but not off by a lot.

[Kinslayer]

Marisi and Fasc, I posted some questions over at Dulfy but just in case I'll repost them here, would be great if you could explain:

 

1. Where does Supercharged Cell go in the regular rotation? After Full Auto like in the opener or simply on cooldown right after the Charged Bolts that give the 10th stack?

It doesn't boost alacrity (anymore), so it can't mess up (internal) cooldowns like Recharge Cells right?

 

2. Where would you put Supercharged Celerity, if it's supposed to be activated right in the beginning of a fight? Simply instead of Supercharged Cell right after Full Auto, so Cooldown of Electro Net is reduced? (I'm guessing in that case IA's Cooldown isn't messed with as it was triggered by Full Auto and won't be reduced retroactively?)

Any harm in activating it right after Serrated Bold/Incendiary Round precast?

 

3. You're writing FA + RPC in the Burning Ammo part, I assume Reserve Power Cell is supposed to be activated BEFORE Full Auto, like you said in your introduction?

 

Either way thanks everyone for sharing your stuff and once again, Fasc and Marisi thanks for the detailed info over at Dulfy! :-)

 

1) Essentially, if you know you're going to be attacking for the duration of the buff (or the fight is ending) you can use it as soon as you hit 10 stacks. if your ammo is particularly high and consuming the stacks + the ammo regeneration between then and your next ability will put you at 100 you can delay it to right before your next Charged Bolts so not to waste a stack. Also, if it's a situation like on Blaster where you know an extended downtime like during 'Rain of Pain' is happening you can use it even if you won't get the full duration because you have more than enough time to regain your 10 stacks. And nope, it doesn't affect alacrity in IO.

 

2) Because Celerity is an alacrity boost it's best to do it as your opening ability to lower the cooldown on things like Adrenals, Frenzy, Recklessness, Explosive Fuel etc. which people use in their openers as well. If it's possible, however, having a healer use it instead of you so you can get your regular effect from your stacks is obviously most beneficial.

 

3) You are 100% correct on this.

[TACeMossie]

I have them all for Assault laying around.. The only thing I'M missing is the new constant for the dummy armor.. SO I'm using 55 DR on a 60 model.. Not ideal but not off by a lot.

 

Dummy/Boss base armor rating = 8829

Damage reduction = Armor Rating / (Armor Rating + 15200)

 

There you go

[Ryuku-sama]

Dummy/Boss base armor rating = 8829

Damage reduction = Armor Rating / (Armor Rating + 15200)

 

There you go

 

Thank.

[MiaowZedong]

The armor debuff module applies the same effect IM and SS would apply automatically,

This was just one quick parse trying to show a simple point. The crits may be high, but try it out yourself. I've done this several times in game and on the simulator with the same results. The simulator will even do it thousands of times to rule out the RNG.

I'm not advocating FM as regular use filler. If you end a dummy parse with 9 stacks of Supercharge, you could have used FM a few times for a little more damage. This would be hard to predict live though.

Personally, I would use it once during the initial burn while the adrenal is up, then once when you're about 10 seconds to kill if your Supercharge stacks are low. But, to each their own.

 

It could be that I didn't account for the AoE damage bonus, and you do. The IO Merc doesn't apply that debuff unless I'm mistaken, and I'm not sure it would be applied by any class' single-target rotation (maybe it is, I could be mistaken).

 

I would definitely use FM at least once near the start of the execute phase, because it will definitely hit harder than more Power Shot spam then (heat allowing, of course).

Edited December 27, 2014 by MiaowZedong

[Ardarell_Solo]

1) Essentially, if you know you're going to be attacking for the duration of the buff (or the fight is ending) you can use it as soon as you hit 10 stacks. if your ammo is particularly high and consuming the stacks + the ammo regeneration between then and your next ability will put you at 100 you can delay it to right before your next Charged Bolts so not to waste a stack. Also, if it's a situation like on Blaster where you know an extended downtime like during 'Rain of Pain' is happening you can use it even if you won't get the full duration because you have more than enough time to regain your 10 stacks. And nope, it doesn't affect alacrity in IO.

 

2) Because Celerity is an alacrity boost it's best to do it as your opening ability to lower the cooldown on things like Adrenals, Frenzy, Recklessness, Explosive Fuel etc. which people use in their openers as well. If it's possible, however, having a healer use it instead of you so you can get your regular effect from your stacks is obviously most beneficial.

 

3) You are 100% correct on this.

 

Thanks a lot for the info, much appreciated. It's inspiring to see the dedication you guys have put into optimizing this.

 

 

I was curious about those rotation variations so I tried parsing myself. I've done 17 parses with Volcan's rotation and 17 with the one from your guide. Guess what: Average for Volcan's rotation was 4144, average with "Zorz rotation" (I like that term) was 4143 (old 2pc set bonus, mostly 180 gear with some random 186 and 192 stuff in it). Best parse with Volcan's was 4359, with Zorz 4267, but the one with Volcan's rotation is a lucky ba**** crit parse that I just didn't happen to get with Zorz rotation.

 

I'm pretty sure though, that I can't perform the Zorz rotation on Zorz level and that I'm probably missing some tiny stuff (although I think I got the stuff mentioned in the guide about right). But it's probably safe to say that the differences between rotations are not too big for players of roughly the same skill level.

 

Volcan's rotation is indeed a bit more forgiving in movement heavy fights (I sometimes run around in my starship while parsing to test that), but that's again a matter of experience I guess.

 

This is to be taken with a grain of salt though, for me not having the new set bonus. I know from Gunslinger testing that rotation and set bonus are interdependent (speaking 2 Cull vs. 3 Cull)...

 

 

On a side note: As much as I appreciate the new movement options that insta PS/CB give you, it's kinda stupid that it messes with your rotation the way it does. Things would be much easier if the ICD/proc also counted from the end of the GCD even if PS/CB has been made instant. It's doable the way it is, yes, but it requires a degree of understanding of things that you can't even see while playing (hence INTERNAL Cooldown) that doesn't seem in line with the general direction of development we've heard Devs wanted to go...

Edited December 27, 2014 by Ardarell_Solo

[Volcan]

Thanks a lot for the info, much appreciated. It's inspiring to see the dedication you guys have put into optimizing this.

 

 

I was curious about those rotation variations so I tried parsing myself. I've done 17 parses with Volcan's rotation and 17 with the one from your guide. Guess what: Average for Volcan's rotation was 4144, average with "Zorz rotation" (I like that term) was 4143 (old 2pc set bonus, mostly 180 gear with some random 186 and 192 stuff in it). Best parse with Volcan's was 4359, with Zorz 4267, but the one with Volcan's rotation is a lucky ba**** crit parse that I just didn't happen to get with Zorz rotation.

 

I'm pretty sure though, that I can't perform the Zorz rotation on Zorz level and that I'm probably missing some tiny stuff (although I think I got the stuff mentioned in the guide about right). But it's probably safe to say that the differences between rotations are not too big for players of roughly the same skill level.

 

Volcan's rotation is indeed a bit more forgiving in movement heavy fights (I sometimes run around in my starship while parsing to test that), but that's again a matter of experience I guess.

 

This is to be taken with a grain of salt though, for me not having the new set bonus. I know from Gunslinger testing that rotation and set bonus are interdependent (speaking 2 Cull vs. 3 Cull)...

 

 

On a side note: As much as I appreciate the new movement options that insta PS/CB give you, it's kinda stupid that it messes with your rotation the way it does. Things would be much easier if the ICD/proc also counted from the end of the GCD even if PS/CB has been made instant. It's doable the way it is, yes, but it requires a degree of understanding of things that you can't even see while playing (hence INTERNAL Cooldown) that doesn't seem in line with the general direction of development we've heard Devs wanted to go...

 

First, please call me Greeto.

 

Glad to see you had good results with my rotation (paired with the Zorz opener). I definitely enjoy the play style of it more, last night for fun I did a parse where I was moving 100% of the time and came out with 4.1k. It's definitely liberating to go from a turret class to potentially the most mobile ranged class in the game. Granted there are few to no situations where this is needed (would have LOVED to have this for DP Raptus kiting... /drool) but being able to move out of circles at any time is quite nice. I'm sure I'll find more uses for the mobility in the future.

[Sowdead]

Hi thank you for this guides.

 

I train your rotation a lot but i seems i have an apm issue.

What i do= spamming like a retard during gcd when casting PS/SS or having an instant cast ability, waiting for unload having 0,2 sec remaing casting time (wich with my 68ms never uncast unload) before launching stb+ps, and yet could not reach 40 apm as you have in your parse.

I usually have 36/37 apm with your rotation while i used to have 38/39 with one of my on made wich pretty much (to me) was the same, just moving abilities form there to there.

Wondering what am i doing wrong?

Do you always reach 40 apm?

 

Here is a parse i made today, do not bother EN, was just trying to apm right and i forgot to cast EN

http://i62.tinypic.com/2rhl36p.jpg (dunno if that counts for an apm, but made without adrenals)

 

My stats;

• Aim 4256
  
• Techno dmg bonus 1920
  
• crit 30,59% (381 index)
  
• surge 67,04% (298 index)
  
• alac 2% (0 index) seems like you do not have any too
  

 

Tix

Edited December 29, 2014 by Sowdead

[Gondolindhrim]

Can you do one anyway? I really don't care about the DPS or what gear you're in, but I am interested in your APM and your ability distribution.

I'm obviously not cs_zoltan, but I figured more data would be useful; so I'll submit some of my own to further the discussion.

 

My parse (Sorry for the Commando parse, Merc is my only <55 class)

 

Fascinate's latest parse that I used as comparison, note that our APM is similar

 

Applying his average damage values to my parse, I got 5293 DPS over my parse's ~230s. Please do let me know if I made any mistakes in calculating the average values.

 

Now, this is a difference of only 14 DPS (and as you pointed out earlier it's not a perfect comparison), but I do not consider myself to have mastered the spec at all and am sure I could do better (my 12 Hammer Shots vs Fasc's 6 Rapid Shots is testament to that).

 

 

This is how I've been playing IO so far:

 

Opener

(Pre-cast) Serrated Shot - Incendiary Missile - Electro Net - Supercharge - Mag Shot - Unload - Mag Shot - Thermal Detonator - Power Shot - Power Surge - Power Shot (start rotation block 1)

 

Block 1

Power Shot - Serrated Shot - Mag Shot - Incendiary Missile - Filler

 

Block 2

Unload - Filler - Thermal Detonator - Mag Shot

 

Speed to Burn is triggered by the Mag Shot in block 2 and consumed immediately (by the Power Shot in block 1) for consistency. FWIW my Commando does not have any level 60 set bonus.

 

 

Thoughts?

Edited December 29, 2014 by Gondolindhrim
Corrected rotation blocks

[DoomsDayVirus]

Anyone know if you can clip full auto/unload like the juggernauts can clip ravage and get an extra GCD due to latency?

[Ryuku-sama]

Anyone know if you can clip full auto/unload like the juggernauts can clip ravage and get an extra GCD due to latency?

 

NO.

 

/5char

[DieGhostDie]

Rotation too hard. Buff pls.

[TACeMossie]

Rotation too hard. Buff pls.

 

I see your problem!

 

You used the "Recharge for supercharge stacks" utility! Bad Shulk!

 

(BTW you can just use med shot for supercharge stacks - great for downtime during fights and stuff)

Edited December 30, 2014 by TACeMossie