Question About Commando Spec Lines

[Evendel]

I just want to make sure I'm understanding the basic operation of Gunnery and Assault Specialist. I'm only lvl 15 with my Commando so I'm still exploring and reading ahead in the skill tree.

 

Assault Specialist's seem to be basically about setting your DoT (Incendiary or Serrated) then spreading the love amongst the enemy and gunning them down with High Impact Bolt/Mag Bolt, Charged Bolts, and Full Auto while maintaining your DoT's.

 

Gunnery focuses on blowing a single target away completely and cycling to the next target, utilizing Grav Round to build up bonuses to make your High Impact Bolt hit like a Wookiee who just lost a game of Dejarik and filling in with Demolition Rounds, Charged Bolts, and Full Auto/Boltstorm.

 

Does that seem about right? Cause I'm still trying to figure out the in's and out's of leveling with Assault Specialist...but I think I may give Gunnery a shot too.

[ForceWelder]

Pretty much covers it.

 

I do Gunery myself. I rape in PVE. But at the same time I get raped in PVP (4 v 4). The class simply lacks a focus break or an escape. In 8 v 8, I can hold my own. And that is simply because more players means more targets for all the CC that is incoming from the opposing team. In 4 v 4, you can expect a lot of focus from the opposing team, and with the wide use of stealth among the PVP player base, you simply won't see the attacks coming until it is too late.

 

So expect some frustration when doing arenas. In fact, expect a lot of frustration when doing arenas as a DPS commando. Your survival time in them will likely be rated in seconds.

 

But with that said, 4 v 4 arenas are about the only weak spot for the class. Leveling was easy, maximizing the companions wasn't difficult either. I would recommend going medical with your companion skill. The medpack and the stim help out in warzones.

[Gyronamics]

Spreading DoT as a commando is "I've had no sleep for 3 days but I'm being forced to work"-clumsy.

 

#1 Cast Serrated Bolt,

#2 Throw Sticky Grenade

#3 Wait for Sticky Grenade to explode

 

or...

 

#1 Fire Incendiary Round

#2 Cast Plasma Grenade

 

Hey guys? Just stand in a tight clump for ooooh about 3GCD while I try to do a Serrated Bolt dotspread on you.

Edited April 1, 2015 by Gyronamics

[Evendel]

Just had a chance to play a little today and hit 16, where I get the Plasma Grenade spread passive...and yeah, getting them to stand near each other in PvE is unlikely it seems. At the very least every time I'd hit one and by the time I threw the grenade at least one melee guy had broken from the group, not to mention the gunner standing more than 8m away from the two guys who were actually clumped together. May toss it around a little longer before trying Gunnery for my PvE frag-fest

[Halinalle]

Just had a chance to play a little today and hit 16, where I get the Plasma Grenade spread passive...and yeah, getting them to stand near each other in PvE is unlikely it seems. At the very least every time I'd hit one and by the time I threw the grenade at least one melee guy had broken from the group, not to mention the gunner standing more than 8m away from the two guys who were actually clumped together. May toss it around a little longer before trying Gunnery for my PvE frag-fest

 

It gets better at least in case of melee guys when you get actual tank companion (4X, Tanno).

[venomlash]

Gunnery is versatile, more capable of target-switching and AoE, and with slightly more forgiving resource management. Assault Specialist has very high DPS when allowed to tunnel a single target, but is a bit squirrely otherwise.

 

Spreading DoT as a commando is "I've had no sleep for 3 days but I'm being forced to work"-clumsy.

 

#1 Cast Serrated Bolt,

#2 Throw Sticky Grenade

#3 Wait for Sticky Grenade to explode

 

or...

 

#1 Fire Incendiary Round

#2 Cast Plasma Grenade

 

Hey guys? Just stand in a tight clump for ooooh about 3GCD while I try to do a Serrated Bolt dotspread on you.

 

I prefer to take advantage of delays inherent to those abilities to streamline the dotspread a little.

 

#1 Throw Sticky Grenade

#2 Cast Serrated Bolt

#3 Sticky Grenade explodes shortly after Serrated Bolt hits

 

or

 

#1 Cast Plasma Grenade

#2 Cast Incendiary Round, which gets there juuust before the grenade does

 

Of course, if there's ANY delay whatsoever in those, the AoE hits before the DoT does, and suddenly you've only got 1 target DoTted up and the AoEs used to spread them are on cooldown. Compare to the ease of Dirty Fighting Gunslinger dotspread.