Spec Changes for Ops?

[diamondpretzel]

Hey, so I'm an avid SharpShooter player, but with HM progression creeping up, I feel certain that SharpShooter will not work for Bulo and Sword Squadron. The question is, can this be expanded further? Which spec performs the best on each boss for the HM's? (Note: If possible, I would like to use SharpShooter as much as possible. I just like it more )

[Kaos_KidSWTOR]

You will want to use Marksmanship for these fights

 

Ravagers: Sparky, Torque, Corratani

ToS: Sword Squadron, Underlurker, Revanite Commanders*

 

(Note: You CAN use Engineering with Revanite Commanders, if the adds stack on eachother, then you can get them all to get hit with your Plasma Probe and Covered Escape, which are large AOE damage sources)

 

For Virulence

 

Ravagers: Bulo, Master and Blaster

ToS: Massassi Boss, Revan

 

Engineering can be used on Bulo, but I think the rate at which he jumps between places in the room is a bit high for what Engineering's 18s Rotation is, but i'm not sure. I've never personally used my Sniper in the HM versions of these raids, but in SM, This is my general usage guide. If you were doing old ops, or are looking for a 4.0 guide to what to use.

 

Marksmanship: Any boss with adds AND high movement from Boss/Adds.

Virulence: Any boss WITHOUT adds AND WITH High Movement from Boss.

Engineering: Any boss WITH adds AND WITHOUT high movement from boss/adds.

 

That's my general guideline. Some bosses have an exception like the Withering Horror isn't great for Engineering, even though the boss doesn't move too often, the adds do move often.

[Whojoo]

I'd like to add that if you are the only one in your team with the armor debuff, then you are a greater asset as Sharpshooter than any of our other specs.

 

Think my Virulence/Dirty Fighting dps drops by ~400 without the armor debuff which makes it just slightly better than my regular Sharpshooter/Marksmanship damage. And that is just for one person and there are 4 dps (10 in 16m teams) so the overall dps gain is more than what you would've 'lost'.

[Losh]

You will want to use Marksmanship for these fights

 

Ravagers: Sparky, Torque, Corratani

ToS: Sword Squadron, Underlurker, Revanite Commanders*

 

Not sure why you lumped Coratanni and Sword Squadron with Marksmanship. Seems to me that DF/Viru is superior to SS/MM in both fights (assuming you have someone who can put the armor debuff on the bosses of course... if you don't, then you're serving the raid better with your utility than potentially higher DPS).

[Kaos_KidSWTOR]

Not sure why you lumped Coratanni and Sword Squadron with Marksmanship. Seems to me that DF/Viru is superior to SS/MM in both fights (assuming you have someone who can put the armor debuff on the bosses of course... if you don't, then you're serving the raid better with your utility than potentially higher DPS).

 

Well, Cora and Sword Squadron both have semi-fast changes between two targets, but DF/Viru is viable if you want to deal with swapping, and the damage loss if you have to swap while you aren't in the part of your 3 Cull Rotation where you DoT refresh. If you are fine with that then by all means play DF/Viru. But currently in my group, I'm the only one of two with the Armor Penetration Buff (our DPS is a Sorc, Me [Merc 1], Merc 2, and Random Pickup in Guild [We don't have a solid 4th DPS as our previous leader decided to leave the game forcing our 3rd merc to swap to Tank]) But, when 4.0 drops, i'm switching to either Sniper or Fury Marauder since we don't have all 4 Raid Buffs anymore (our DPS sorc was a Marauder)

[wadecounty]

Well, Cora and Sword Squadron both have semi-fast changes between two targets, but DF/Viru is viable if you want to deal with swapping, and the damage loss if you have to swap while you aren't in the part of your 3 Cull Rotation where you DoT refresh. If you are fine with that then by all means play DF/Viru. But currently in my group, I'm the only one of two with the Armor Penetration Buff (our DPS is a Sorc, Me [Merc 1], Merc 2, and Random Pickup in Guild [We don't have a solid 4th DPS as our previous leader decided to leave the game forcing our 3rd merc to swap to Tank]) But, when 4.0 drops, i'm switching to either Sniper or Fury Marauder since we don't have all 4 Raid Buffs anymore (our DPS sorc was a Marauder)

 

What target swaps on Coratanni? Do you guys actually burn the bird and Cora equally? Otherwise Virulence all the way for that fight, better damage and almost as important, dot DR, which is big in a fight where dots play an important role in both phases.

 

For walkers, Virulence will still outperform Marksman typically, but for the reason of wasting dot damage I actually favor Engineering on that fight, as 1 dot lasts only 9 seconds and the other one isn't THAT strong to begin with. Also if you keep track in your head or use timers it isn't too difficult to know when the shield on 1 is going up and to not bother refreshing dots.

[Steefr]

What target swaps on Coratanni? Do you guys actually burn the bird and Cora equally? Otherwise Virulence all the way for that fight, better damage and almost as important, dot DR, which is big in a fight where dots play an important role in both phases.

 

For walkers, Virulence will still outperform Marksman typically, but for the reason of wasting dot damage I actually favor Engineering on that fight, as 1 dot lasts only 9 seconds and the other one isn't THAT strong to begin with. Also if you keep track in your head or use timers it isn't too difficult to know when the shield on 1 is going up and to not bother refreshing dots.

 

Well for one thing he was saying he hasn't done those fights on hm yet on his sniper so he wouldn't know that on cora you straight burn cora first without touching pearl. Secondly, fights with 2 bosses=virulence multidotting ftw. Hm walkers is the fight where i stick out in dps compared to rest of raidgroup. Same with m&b, multidotting is just a nice dps increase since your dots are among your highest dmg abilities. Assuming there's someone else that can provide armor debuff, i run marksman on torque and commanders, engi on lurker and viru on everything else.

[diamondpretzel]

Thanks for the feedback! (I didn't want to be that guy who died because he was channeling his ability )

 

On a side note, can you still cheese Rage Storm in HM by speccing into and using Defense Screen+Hunker Down(Entrench)?

[Camelpockets]

Engi viable on Revan. Confirmed.

 

Now on topic:

On a side note, can you still cheese Rage Storm in HM by speccing into and using Defense Screen+Hunker Down(Entrench)?

 

I'll admit I've never really tried it, but it's not totally necessary either. I use HD so I don't get knocked back at the end and just run from one side of the rock to the other casting instants as I go just before the channel finishes.

 

You will want to use Marksmanship for these fights

 

Ravagers: Sparky, Torque, Corratani

ToS: Sword Squadron, Underlurker, Revanite Commanders*

 

(Note: You CAN use Engineering with Revanite Commanders, if the adds stack on eachother, then you can get them all to get hit with your Plasma Probe and Covered Escape, which are large AOE damage sources)

 

For Virulence

 

Ravagers: Bulo, Master and Blaster

ToS: Massassi Boss, Revan

 

Engineering can be used on Bulo, but I think the rate at which he jumps between places in the room is a bit high for what Engineering's 18s Rotation is, but i'm not sure. I've never personally used my Sniper in the HM versions of these raids, but in SM, This is my general usage guide. If you were doing old ops, or are looking for a 4.0 guide to what to use.

 

Marksmanship: Any boss with adds AND high movement from Boss/Adds.

Virulence: Any boss WITHOUT adds AND WITH High Movement from Boss.

Engineering: Any boss WITH adds AND WITHOUT high movement from boss/adds.

 

That's my general guideline. Some bosses have an exception like the Withering Horror isn't great for Engineering, even though the boss doesn't move too often, the adds do move often.

 

Every single spec is viable on every single boss if the player knows how to do so accordingly. That and if the tanks are being nice enough . This is of course from the guy that refuses to do anything but Saboteur. In any case, with an exception to Sword Squadron, I'd recommend doing the fights in these recommended specs first to get a feel for how things flow. Once you get comfortable, and have a little extra dps coming from the rest of the team, then you can feel free to experiment. Saboteur for instance is viable for every fight. It may not be the BEST parsing one for each, however, a good Saboteur/Engi Slinger/Sniper should be able to compete with another sniper/slinger with equal skill. I'll mention a couple of things about sabo for each fight:

 

Sparky: Boss moves a ****-ton. Adds love to move too. The best plan of attack is, as long as someone is on adds with you, use Fly-by and Incendiary Grenade on groups of 2 adds, then continue a single target rotation on Sparky. If 3+ are up, keep Shock Charge up on Sparky, then AoE the adds with Sweeping Gunfire (after using the other two first)

 

Bulo: One of the best bosses for Saboteur. Just be aware, if you misplace an IG, just continue on with the rotation (unless you just applied it, then it's better to reapply it). The mobility is very handy here.

 

Torque: The hardest spec for saboteur, but also the highest potential if you are the only one on turret duty. Place the 2 heavy AoE's where the boss is, hopefully hitting up to 4ish targets with it, then Sweeping Gunfire down the other side. Be very careful with energy though. It's VERY easy to go sub 60%.

 

Master/Blaster: Better to use on Blaster than on Master since he's stationary, but still doable. Regardless, if you are doing the Vanguard tank method, it's just a straight dummy parse on Blaster. On Master, you need to use IG on Blaster as he spews flames and moves, then unload both a Freighter and IG on him as soon as he slows down.

 

Cora: Mobility = King again. Cora and the bird shouldn't move too much, so that should be ok. Just don't kill anyone on Ruugar with IG, or a Speed Shot w/ Contingency Charges.

 

Malaphar: It depends on how the tanks like doing it. Typically what I've seen though is if the boss stays mostly stationary, you can do single target until adds come, then just burn AoE all over them, hopefully without using up all of your energy.

 

Sword Squadron: Mobility = king here as well. Just keep in mind: to Maximize DPS, you need to time your DoTs so they aren't being clipped by the Shield on Walker 1. In addition, this will require slightly more deeps on the rest of the group to compensate for the fact that you won't be unloading all of your DPS on Walker 1 in-between shields. On the other hand, doing this will reduce TTK on the boss, so if enrage is a problem, consider making this modification.

 

Underlurker: I'm actually going to post something from Vaidinah that explained in incredibly good detail about how to do this fight in Saboteur:

For Saboteur on Underlurker, I find the most important way to manage energy on that fight is to try to be near your maximum energy (110) when adds are coming up and have Sabotage Charge cast on the boss if you don't have Cool Head up. Illegal Mods helps with keeping energy up, but it's not enough to use Sweeping Gunfire much at all. What this means during the fight is that I use Thermal Grenade less than I normally do on almost every fight. Since Thermal Grenade is often used once in every 9 second rotation, I cut out the one that isn't free with the use of Sabotage. I tend to throw in more auto-attacks (Rifle Shot, but you can use Quick Shot with the utility) in that space just to maintain my energy near its peak. This is critical because Sweeping Gunfire is ridiculously strong on this fight and it's definitely worth lowering your boss damage by a bit to have the available energy for more Sweeping Gunfires.

 

So ideally, I have used Sabotage recently (for the free Thermal Grenade later), have Sabotage Charge ready to place on the boss as soon as the adds spawn, then I cast Freighter Flyby cast immediately, use Incendiary Grenade, and lastly use Sweeping Gunfire until adds are dead. If the adds are dying slowly, I put in 1 Rifle/Quick Shot in between each Sweeping Gunfire to keep my energy from being destroyed. As I retreat to hide behind a rock, I typically throw out my DoTs if I used Cool Head or use the opportunity to use my free skills (ideally, a free Thermal Grenade from the previously used Sabotage).

 

Once I get behind a rock, I strafe in and out to get more damage on the boss with any non-channeled skills (can typically get 3 skills once the Rage Storm is cast) and use Hunker Down to avoid the knockback. Strafing in and out of the rocks takes some practice, but as long as you don't get greedy for more than one skill used per strafe and you immediately head back to the rock each time after that skill is used, you'll be fine.

 

The only other trick I use sometimes is if I'm confident in the team's survival (i.e. we don't have a bunch of melee who are forced to eat far more damage than range do on that fight), I'll use Dodge at times to get more attacks in on the boss before being forced to retreat to a rock. Dodge gives complete immunity to the boss' Rage Storm as it is considered to be a melee/ranged attack. This means you can afford to stand there and use a Speed Shot on the boss and then still have 3 seconds of invincibility to use instant skills on the way to a rock.

 

Props to him for explaining this so well.

 

Revanite Commanders: I'm only going to focus on the burn phase here, since this should only be the point of difficulty of the fight. The best strat is just to put 2 or 3 single target DPS on Deron, then have you as Saboteur along with one other person on Sano and Kurse to AoE down those two bosses and the adds. It'll be a bit stressful on the healers initially, but less adds = less to heal.

 

Revan:

If you get to this point, congratulations! If you try to do this in Sabo, I really hope you know what you are doing. I think I'm going to go into considerable detail here, in case anyone else wishes to know how to perform Revan on Saboteur.

Note: I'd HIGHLY suggest taking the instant Charged Burst utility point, because you WILL use this ability during the fight, even if you don't want to.

First Floor: Know what your tanks are doing. Anticipating Revan's movements is key to maximizing DPS, since Freighter and Incendiary Grenade are the two hardest hitting abilities in the spec. If they miss some ticks, you are losing DPS. Therefore, you want to how to position your AoEs so they have max uptime. If Revan will stay in the duration for either AoE for at least 6 seconds, then the ability will be worth using. But if it will only be in for 5 or less, you have a couple of different options:

1) Check Dots: Since these will be doing damage while you are moving (and since you don't need to physically place them) both Shock Charge and Vital Shot are very high in the priority list for the fight.

2) Thermal Grenade: It's a cheaper alternative to CB, and has a better chance to crit, so just toss is if energy permits.

3) Any free ability for energy recovery.

4) Charged Burst: It might feel weird to use it, but believe me, it is sometimes better to use this than have Revan only eat 1 tick of a Freighter Fly-by. Also, if you take the instant cast after entering cover utility, you can basically cast this on the move, so you now have another instant ability if needed.

 

This means that you may or may not have to edit the rotation allowing IG and XS-Freighter have max uptime. It might get a little weird. All of this is also assuming you are using Speed Shot on cooldown, so unless you are applying either of these abilities, or you are low on energy, this should be on cooldown before proceeding.

 

HK: This one gets fun, but again changes on how everything flows. If you are able to get Droids before the first set of Grenades, then it'll make everyone's lives easier. In either case, you are best off doing the following: Place either IG or Freighter on the main droid, hopefully hitting HK in the process. If Speed Shot is on cooldown, either use Shock Charge > Sabotage or Sabotage Charge with other stuff to kill that center droid. This is if you are interupting a side droid as well. Normally by the end of the 3rd GCD the shield will fall, DPS the main droid while preparing to interrupt one of the droids. After droids go down, just use high damage abilities under the shield as much as possible, and apply dots outside the shield.

 

Second Floor & Third Floor: Same as Revan in the first, just be certain you know exactly how the tanks will move Revan. And of course, worry about those aberrations more than DPS. However, one way to still unload DPS is to continuously move back and forth towards the aberration that is about to explode while using instant GCDs to keep your character pointed towards the aberration.

 

Core: DO NOT LET SWTOR PLACE AOES FOR YOU! You must place them at some point near the inner edge of the platform or else IT WILL NOT HIT THE CORE. Otherwise, do what I said in the previous paragraph and boom Revan Kill! Yay!

 

So yes, as long as you are comfortable with running with the spec you like to play as, you can bring any type of sniper into any fight without DPS difficulties. But just run Sabo. Just do it.

Edited September 9, 2015 by Camelpockets

[Kaos_KidSWTOR]

What target swaps on Coratanni? Do you guys actually burn the bird and Cora equally? Otherwise Virulence all the way for that fight, better damage and almost as important, dot DR, which is big in a fight where dots play an important role in both phases.

 

No, but i'm also only 2/10 on the 60 ops, We burn the Bird to 11%, then Corra to like 25%, Kill the Bird, and wait.

 

For walkers, Virulence will still outperform Marksman typically, but for the reason of wasting dot damage I actually favor Engineering on that fight, as 1 dot lasts only 9 seconds and the other one isn't THAT strong to begin with. Also if you keep track in your head or use timers it isn't too difficult to know when the shield on 1 is going up and to not bother refreshing dots.

 

Yea, but the walkers are on a 1m switch timer, and every 45s is the Gravity Missile in HM. So, that's un-even with the 18s Rotation that Engineering has.

 

 

Bold Replies.

[diamondpretzel]

 

I'll admit I've never really tried it, but it's not totally necessary either. I use HD so I don't get knocked back at the end and just run from one side of the rock to the other casting instants as I go just before the channel finishes.

 

The HD strategy came from me using Sharpshooter, the first time I ran it. We NEEDED all extra dps, so I just sat in the open, popped my cooldowns, and finished my rotation.

I just do it all the time now, since i'd rather hit those buttons and keep shooting than stop what im doing and find a rock.

[Camelpockets]

The HD strategy came from me using Sharpshooter, the first time I ran it. We NEEDED all extra dps, so I just sat in the open, popped my cooldowns, and finished my rotation.

I just do it all the time now, since i'd rather hit those buttons and keep shooting than stop what im doing and find a rock.

 

Ah ok. I just haven't tested it myself to confirm whether it would actually kill you or not. Good to know. Though it sounds like you just need to make sure you don't accidentally LOS the healers

[diamondpretzel]

Ah ok. I just haven't tested it myself to confirm whether it would actually kill you or not. Good to know. Though it sounds like you just need to make sure you don't accidentally LOS the healers

 

I never had an issue on that part b/c in SM with both cooldowns, you actually mitigate ALL damage