ElevenBfour Posted May 16, 2015 Share Posted May 16, 2015 Hey folks. Rolling a dps alt for my guild as we have three tanks and sometimes I wouldn't mind sitting my tank and rolling dps for a night. So we're melee heavy and wanting to go dps. The most attractive to me are the Sage and Commando. Is there anyway someone could give me a basic run down on these classes? How they play, raid/group utility, etc. I haven't played a dps in this game, let alone in MMO's period for quite a few years. I think 2008 was the last time I played a dps in PVE so I'll be learning a lot again. Thanks ahead of time for the replies, advice and suggestions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akisgood Posted May 16, 2015 Share Posted May 16, 2015 (edited) First thing to say is relative strengths of dps classes vary hugely over time (Bioware always go ham with the nerf bat).. I'm afraid I only play imperial side so you'll have to translate to pubspeak Similarities -Both are similar for raid utility, each providing a raid buff, although the sorc one (giving extra mainstat and health) is more sought after than the merc one (giving alacrity). -Both can offheal -Both are fairly mobile but lightning and IO both have points in their rotatoins where they most stand still for optimum dps. Sorc Pros: -Extremely forgiving on resources - even offhealing heavily or AoEing it takes some time to run out of force in lightning spec, and madness is also forgiving. -Easier to play in terms of rotation simplicity. -Probably slightly more situational mobility than commando with force speed, although they both have good mobility. -God bubble is fantastic and can cheese things like Master's laser on the Master Blaster fight, letting you take all the stacks when it's available. -Able to help the healers with offhealing more effectively than commando (due to resources and lower cooldowns on offheals, plus the strength of static barrier in certain situations). -Lightning has great burst and strong AoE even after the nerf, and tends to be well suited to a range of fights. -Can pull an ally with extricate. Great fun and occasionally useful too. Cons: -Right now, sorc has much lower sustained damage than commando (madness<arsenal<lightning<IO for sustained or thereabouts). You can still do all the current fights on it, especially after the nerf, but IO is one of the highest parsing specs whereas lightning and madness certainly aren't. -Sorc tends to take more damage than most classes. They have a free instant self heal that makes up for this most of the time. Occasionally this can be a problem if something can potential one or two shot you unless you're careful, e.g. the mouse droids on coratanni or the heave on the revan core at high stacks. This can be worked around with static barrier, suppresion and god bubble, but it is a weakness. -Relative lack of defensives, see above. Merc Pros: -Significantly more sustained damage with IO. -Low damage taken with heavy armor and 30% AoE reduction -Decent defensives. -Hydraulic overrides(Hold the line) - extremely useful on the previous content in tos and rav (ignoring some CCs), making this the joint most popular dps back in HM Rav/ToS progression pre 3.2. Cons: -Less forgiving on resources. -IO is somewhat clunky on some fights and arsenal is a weaker bust spec than lightning. Overall, bear in mind that bioware will probably change these specs a lot in the coming months so pick your class for fun and make something else later if it becomes unusable. For this reason I would also suggest considering sniper, which has 3 dps specs and thus is less likely to be hurt by nerfs (as well as great raid utility with the bubble reducing damage by 20% for a while, and good defensives). Edited May 16, 2015 by akisgood Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ElevenBfour Posted May 16, 2015 Author Share Posted May 16, 2015 First thing to say is relative strengths of dps classes vary hugely over time (Bioware always go ham with the nerf bat).. I'm afraid I only play imperial side so you'll have to translate to pubspeak Similarities -Both are similar for raid utility, each providing a raid buff, although the sorc one (giving extra mainstat and health) is more sought after than the merc one (giving alacrity). -Both can offheal -Both are fairly mobile but lightning and IO both have points in their rotatoins where they most stand still for optimum dps. Sorc Pros: -Extremely forgiving on resources - even offhealing heavily or AoEing it takes some time to run out of force in lightning spec, and madness is also forgiving. -Easier to play in terms of rotation simplicity. -Probably slightly more situational mobility than commando with force speed, although they both have good mobility. -God bubble is fantastic and can cheese things like Master's laser on the Master Blaster fight, letting you take all the stacks when it's available. -Able to help the healers with offhealing more effectively than commando (due to resources and lower cooldowns on offheals, plus the strength of static barrier in certain situations). -Lightning has great burst and strong AoE even after the nerf, and tends to be well suited to a range of fights. -Can pull an ally with extricate. Great fun and occasionally useful too. Cons: -Right now, sorc has much lower sustained damage than commando (madness<arsenal<lightning<IO for sustained or thereabouts). You can still do all the current fights on it, especially after the nerf, but IO is one of the highest parsing specs whereas lightning and madness certainly aren't. -Sorc tends to take more damage than most classes. They have a free instant self heal that makes up for this most of the time. Occasionally this can be a problem if something can potential one or two shot you unless you're careful, e.g. the mouse droids on coratanni or the heave on the revan core at high stacks. This can be worked around with static barrier, suppresion and god bubble, but it is a weakness. -Relative lack of defensives, see above. Merc Pros: -Significantly more sustained damage with IO. -Low damage taken with heavy armor and 30% AoE reduction -Decent defensives. -Hydraulic overrides(Hold the line) - extremely useful on the previous content in tos and rav (ignoring some CCs), making this the joint most popular dps back in HM Rav/ToS progression pre 3.2. Cons: -Less forgiving on resources. -IO is somewhat clunky on some fights and arsenal is a weaker bust spec than lightning. Overall, bear in mind that bioware will probably change these specs a lot in the coming months so pick your class for fun and make something else later if it becomes unusable. For this reason I would also suggest considering sniper, which has 3 dps specs and thus is less likely to be hurt by nerfs (as well as great raid utility with the bubble reducing damage by 20% for a while, and good defensives). Wow, you went above and beyond. Thank you so much for this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akisgood Posted May 16, 2015 Share Posted May 16, 2015 Wow, you went above and beyond. Thank you so much for this. welcome probably missed stuff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Letsjet Posted May 18, 2015 Share Posted May 18, 2015 Tyty! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlrikFassbauer Posted May 23, 2015 Share Posted May 23, 2015 If you produce too much aggro because of too good DPS, then you need to use your skill to reduce aggro. Every damage oriented class has one, as far as I know. This is the most fundamental difference to tanking that I know of - because in tanking you need to hold aggro as much and as long as possible. As a damage class it is also your role to keep the Healers and fellow DDs free from Adds. Especially Healers, as they often have the weakest damage mitigation (at least for Sages this is true). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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