Trying to decided between two specs for PVE Gunsligner

[Capwill]

Hey Guys and Gals,

I was wondering if you guys could please help me out by helping me decided between two PVE DPS Gunslinger specs, I have been using Dirty Fighting for a long time but it seems to be lacking in killing power lately. So I decided to change to either Sharpshooter or Sabortage, which one has the max killing power now a days for things like doing quests and heroics and possibly Flashpoints and OPS runs. I am grateful for any help and advice you can give me.

:)

[Toraak]

in the 3.0 cycle I was Dirty Fighting, but have mainly switched to sabo in 4.0. Sharpshooter took a large nerf hit fairly recently, and is now one of the worst PvE damage specs. Both DF, and Sabo are the 2 main specs to use for end game PvE content (Operations).

 

Dirty Fighting can still pull very good DPS on boss fights, so you can still use that if you want to.

Edited June 10, 2016 by Toraak

[RikuvonDrake]

Honestly, unless you are doing Nightmare, it doesn't matter which spec you play for in terms of damage output, however for quick killing of multiple adds in heroics, target swapping a lot in flashpoints as they die quickly I would recommend Sharpshooter. Sabortage is also a great spec but is best at killing multiple targets due to massive AoE Damage potential, single target isn't bad but for the content you are describing Sharpshooter would likely be better.

[sumquy]

sharpshooter is arguably the weakest pve spec in the game right now. dirty fighting is fine for all ops including nim. if you are wanting to learn another spec just to learn it, then i would recommend saboteur over sharpshooter.

[LordTurin]

Here is my take:

 

Doing heroics, anything is fine. Sharpshooter will kill champion mobs the fastest (has easily the highest single target burst for the HP levels we're talking about for heroics), Sabo will probably do the best for killing big groups of adds (so if you want to kite 15 groups of enemies at once and then burn them all at the same time, Sabo is the way to go).

 

FPs: Probably the same as above, with the caveat that Dirty Fighting will probably do better against the FP bosses then Sharpshooter, and about the same as Sabo, as long as the boss doesn't move too much (if the boss jumps all over the place, sabo is terrible)

 

For Ops, DF is generally speaking going to be your best bet (I know you want to try something else, but it really is probably the best right now). As a previous poster mentioned, Sharpshooter got nerfed really bad, and while it is still good during burst phases (Calphyaus, Styrack, a couple others it may be helpful for, at least in SM/HM) it's overall damage potential is so limited that it is not really viable for a lot of the harder fights. Sabo is good as long as the boss does not move too much, or you are very good at predicting where the boss will go when the aoes come up in your rotation.

 

All in all, I would say that since you already know DF, Sabo is going to do about the same sustained damage, so you may find it helpful to learn sharpshooter so on the rare occasions where you need burst, you can respec and use it. Not to mention, Sharpshooter has like 5 button rotation, so it is definitely easier to learn than Sabo.

Edited June 14, 2016 by LordTurin

[JKnightJ]

Sadly, SS is a broken spec. I use Sabo/Engineering in all end-game boss fights as the damage output is exemplary and its mobility is the best of all three specs. I've had great success with Sabo. Many will say DF is better and to each their own, but in my opinion, if you want something different, that is quite fun to play, then Sabo it is.