FreddyBeach Posted December 29, 2016 Share Posted December 29, 2016 Any of you "pros" out there able to offer some advice on spec and utilities? I am so confused since the change? I checked Dulfy but things seem outdated. Thanks in advance Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vadess Posted December 29, 2016 Share Posted December 29, 2016 Here's my thread asking similar: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=906521 Though one thing I'll say: For regs and solo ranked, virulence > marksmen > engineering because virulence has greater mobility Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EnzoForMe Posted December 29, 2016 Share Posted December 29, 2016 (edited) I'll share a general list of what I believe to be universally strong utilities. I stick to this, plus or minus one point if I'm looking to take advantage of certain things, but this will put you on the right path... Ideal Marksman Utilities, Regular Warzoneas (with some references to solo ranked, they are mostly the same for me) Skillful- Ballistic Dampers- a key survivavility utility, remember to exit and re-enter cover periodically to reset these Snap Shot- I take this because a.) I've taken it for 4 years and rely on it for the rhythm of the spec and b.) I think what you could take instead, Calculated Pursuit, is great on paper but not in practice. Out of cover you lose your 20% ranged defense bonus and your out-of-cover snipes are susceptible to pushback delay, being lept to, interupt, etc. The only benefit would be staying on a target that's LOSing you, which we'll get to coming up with the series of snares utility. Imperial Efficiency- If you want to put out pressure instead of single target damage, use suppressive fire with this utility on groups of 3 or more. Masterful Reestablish Range- Great utility that will synergize with series of snares, and provide you with a more reliable and effective escape than seek cover, particularly if you are being diversioned. Heroic Pillbox Sniper- The secret to marksman is though our on-paper damage is some of the lowest in the game, we can top damage charts by having the highest uptime of any dps class as well as instantaneous target swapping to the most vulnerable or important target thanks to our 35 meter range. Entrench is the main abillity that enables both factors because it prevents us from being stunned or interrupted. This utility lowers your entrench cool down, and makes your cover pulse (one of our strongest defensives) more potent. This will also synergize with series of snares Series of Snares- If you are marksman, especially in regular warzones and solo ranked, this utility should be a mainstay in your kit. It will help you tremendously at preventing enemies from escaping or LOS'ing you, as well as keeping melee at bay as you kite. Augmented Shields and hold your ground are viable options as well, but the above two are what I most consistently use for regs/solo ranked Legendary Defensive Safeguards- one of the most powerful sniper utilities, and lifted our survivability enormously. Take this always. Deployed Shields- We spend a lot of time in cover as marksman so 5% DR is great, as is reducing the cooldown on ballistic shield, which synergizes with Defensive Safeguards Imperial prep is worth a nod, I rarely take it. The other utilities are not worth it when you look at the cost benefit. The only exception being Tactical Retreat- I take this instead of Deployed Shields for Solo Ranked ---------------------- Minus the explanations: this is what I would take for virulence (marksman is strongest in almost all cases for actually landing kills and in many cases doing more raw damage in pvp if you play it effectively) 1.) Ballistic Dampers, Imperial Efficiency 2.) Reestablish Range + crippling diversion or evacuate 3.) Pillbox Sniper + Augmented Shields or Hold Your Ground 4.) Defensive Safeguards + Tactical Retreat or Deployed Shields Don't play engineering in its current state. Hope this helped! Edited December 29, 2016 by EnzoForMe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
verfallen Posted December 29, 2016 Share Posted December 29, 2016 I'll share a general list of what I believe to be universally strong utilities. I stick to this, plus or minus one point if I'm looking to take advantage of certain things, but this will put you on the right path... Ideal Marksman Utilities, Regular Warzoneas (with some references to solo ranked, they are mostly the same for me) Skillful- Ballistic Dampers- a key survivavility utility, remember to exit and re-enter cover periodically to reset these Snap Shot- I take this because a.) I've taken it for 4 years and rely on it for the rhythm of the spec and b.) I think what you could take instead, Calculated Pursuit, is great on paper but not in practice. Out of cover you lose your 20% ranged defense bonus and your out-of-cover snipes are susceptible to pushback delay, being lept to, interupt, etc. The only benefit would be staying on a target that's LOSing you, which we'll get to coming up with the series of snares utility. Imperial Efficiency- If you want to put out pressure instead of single target damage, use suppressive fire with this utility on groups of 3 or more. Masterful Reestablish Range- Great utility that will synergize with series of snares, and provide you with a more reliable and effective escape than seek cover, particularly if you are being diversioned. Heroic Pillbox Sniper- The secret to marksman is though our on-paper damage is some of the lowest in the game, we can top damage charts by having the highest uptime of any dps class as well as instantaneous target swapping to the most vulnerable or important target thanks to our 35 meter range. Entrench is the main abillity that enables both factors because it prevents us from being stunned or interrupted. This utility lowers your entrench cool down, and makes your cover pulse (one of our strongest defensives) more potent. This will also synergize with series of snares Series of Snares- If you are marksman, especially in regular warzones and solo ranked, this utility should be a mainstay in your kit. It will help you tremendously at preventing enemies from escaping or LOS'ing you, as well as keeping melee at bay as you kite. Augmented Shields and hold your ground are viable options as well, but the above two are what I most consistently use for regs/solo ranked Legendary Defensive Safeguards- one of the most powerful sniper utilities, and lifted our survivability enormously. Take this always. Deployed Shields- We spend a lot of time in cover as marksman so 5% DR is great, as is reducing the cooldown on ballistic shield, which synergizes with Defensive Safeguards Imperial prep is worth a nod, I rarely take it. The other utilities are not worth it when you look at the cost benefit. The only exception being Tactical Retreat- I take this instead of Deployed Shields for Solo Ranked ---------------------- Minus the explanations: this is what I would take for virulence (marksman is strongest in almost all cases for actually landing kills and in many cases doing more raw damage in pvp if you play it effectively) 1.) Ballistic Dampers, Imperial Efficiency 2.) Reestablish Range + crippling diversion or evacuate 3.) Pillbox Sniper + Augmented Shields or Hold Your Ground 4.) Defensive Safeguards + Tactical Retreat or Deployed Shields Don't play engineering in its current state. Hope this helped! I don't use the same utilities exactly. Skillful- Ballistic dampers, totally. But for 2nd choice, vital regulators is a much better choice for pvp, has it does allow you to regen some life out of focus but not out of combat, which done right is going to be quite useful. stacks nicely with defensive safeguard too. Imperial efficiency is just number fluffing, aoe pressure at the expense of focused pressure isnt worth it imo. [uMasterful[/u] Seek cover and Re-establish range. While this 2nd has better control, seek cover is going to be availaible roughly half the time for sniper, + from the covered escape 3 sec of entrench at the end, if MM. Probably seek cover is less interesting for that for viru, has they wont move at all when entrench is active. But still, objectives. The two together gives you great mobility especially in regs where moving around objectives is important, but also to kite or change position fast, as in pvp staying out of cover is never a good idea. Possibly in Solo ranked it can be left aside, as leaving your cover even for a second is an highway to stunlock most of the time. But it does make you immune to snares and roots. But for regs, its definitely to be used I think. its also possible to take Evacuate here, instead of hold your ground in next tier. Its currently what I prefer, as I find good cc is often a better idea, and maim gets a very nice short cooldown for a hard stun, abeit a white (ranged) one that can be parried by tanks or dcds. Heroic Pillbox sniper is a must. No way around that, entrench is your life in WZ. Depending on your choice in previous tier where you may have chose 3, if you didnt I'd say hold your ground is better than augmented shield, but both are worthwhile. but hold your ground gives you your ranged defense if you get exposed from cover by another sniper or slinger, as well as shaving off 1/6th of the cd on shield probe anyway, so better uptime still. Series of snare isn't a bad choice per say, but I do think its less good than Hold your Ground for any spec. Legendary Tactical retreat and Defensive safeguards hands down for me. Tactical retreat can proved some pretty good healing, if you consider when you'll use imperial preparation it means 20% in a short while. But the 2 extra second on evasion are even more precious in many circumstances. Deployed shield has nice synergy with defensive safeguards obviously, but if you think about it, 5% DR isnt really that much, and your tools are mostly about avoiding to be in situations where people are free to hammer you, not facetanking it with 20% ranged defense and your armor. You want to be somewhere you can kb melee, kite/los other ranged, and use ccs to control the focus on you. Also, you use covered escape a lot more than ballistic shield, which often won't be used on cooldown unless you really are constantly in the middle of the big melee brawl. Which isnt the best place for a sniper, and deploying the shield is a big sign that says "sup guys I'm here" when in a discreet vantage point. Overprepared is actually a better idea than Deployed shield for pvp imo. But I still prefer tactical retreat over it. As far as viru vs marks for pvp : marks hand down. It has better burst, and dots tend to prevent ccing of a target by mez, which can be an hindrance (unless it also stop ticking if cced by a teamate, but I think that skill only works for your flashbang). In regs, viru might have better overall dps if you dot spread the brawl, but its not as useful as focused dps on a target. There are some matches full of tank where I do wish I had viru instead because it seem half the team are tanks and the other half got guards, I can't land even a crit-boosted ambush for more than 15k on anyone, but for the most part MM does a better job of quickly switching target and bursting down something than viru does, which is the most important in pvp. Its just all white damage mitigable by armor ;/ So shooting at a tank cuts your dps by quite a bit. Leave the tank nuking to other class for the most part Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FreddyBeach Posted December 29, 2016 Author Share Posted December 29, 2016 Awesome and thank you so much for the DETAILED replies!! I was simply looking for a starting point and have found much more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thaladan Posted December 29, 2016 Share Posted December 29, 2016 (edited) hi OP. i personally play virulence. utilities : skillfull - Ballistic Dampers I tried to play without, now we have 2 choices instead of 3 in this tier, but...NO. it's mandatory. - vital regulators Associated with the 30% dot reduction damage, you are quite resilient against dots and the heal is relevant if you used the 2 other heal utilities with (see after). masterful seek cover* Still interesting in regs for mobility and repositioning. - Reestablish Range nice tool, even for virulence. the extra mobility + purge snares/roots is nice and using serie of shots with the knock back allows you to place a cull, just after, more safely against a melee. - evacuate mandatory for viru !! just take it. Heroic - Pillbox sniper mandatory too. entrench the often the better and the extra ranged bump is good. - Hold your ground* in case you don't play seek cover in virulence. i often switch for these 2 utilities. prefer HyG in arenas and seek cover in regs. Legendary - Defensive Safeguards your best assurance to survive in crisis. and even more in viru with the extra 5 seconds. tactical retreat 10% heal each 20sec (13k average) and extra 2 sec each minute for evasion is really a good add. you can try deployed shield instead but even for viru i prefer tactical retreat by far. ----------- i prefer having at least 9% alacrity to reduce the cooldown of maim and flash grenade more (+ evacuate utility) and see my dots and cull tic faster. have fun Edited December 29, 2016 by Thaladan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EnzoForMe Posted December 29, 2016 Share Posted December 29, 2016 (edited) I don't use the same utilities exactly. Skillful- Ballistic dampers, totally. But for 2nd choice, vital regulators is a much better choice for pvp, has it does allow you to regen some life out of focus but not out of combat, which done right is going to be quite useful. stacks nicely with defensive safeguard too. Imperial efficiency is just number fluffing, aoe pressure at the expense of focused pressure isnt worth it imo. [uMasterful[/u] Seek cover and Re-establish range. While this 2nd has better control, seek cover is going to be availaible roughly half the time for sniper, + from the covered escape 3 sec of entrench at the end, if MM. Probably seek cover is less interesting for that for viru, has they wont move at all when entrench is active. But still, objectives. Heroic Series of snare isn't a bad choice per say, but I do think its less good than Hold your Ground for any spec. Legendary Tactical retreat and Defensive safeguards hands down for me. Vital Regulators is decent, but in the grand scheme of things, that is a very slow heal and I wouldn't give snap shot up for it in any case. Imperial efficiency allows you to do pressure if you need to which is great in some instances, but don't forget suppressive fire also the best ability to use when a jug, merc, or sin is reflecting. It allows us to continue to do damage in addition to corrosive dart, and imperial efficiency boosts that. Seek cover used to be a mainstay in my kit, I don't really think it's necessary anymore but I can definitely see people taking it, it's not bad at all (only for marksman though) Series of snares is one of the most powerful marksman utilities and few people seem to take advantage of it. It solves many issues for us: people trying to LOS, keeping melee at a distance, and it makes your knockback from reestablish range significantly more powerful. For the higher skilled sniper, knocking a player out of guard range and following with series of snares lets your team wail on an unguarded target while they tr;y to get back to their team.. Hold your ground is a very good choice too though, and that's what I take in group ranked when people LOSing me or kiting away from their team isn't as big an issue. I think we both agree virulence is generally weaker than marksman if you are actually trying to kill people. Edited December 29, 2016 by EnzoForMe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BaineOs Posted December 29, 2016 Share Posted December 29, 2016 Series of snares is one of the most powerful marksman utilities and few people seem to take advantage of it. It solves many issues for us: people trying to LOS, keeping melee at a distance, and it makes your knockback from reestablish range significantly more powerful. For the higher skilled sniper, knocking a player out of guard range and following with series of snares lets your team wail on an unguarded target while they tr;y to get back to their team.. Yes...yes...listen to Caprica you shall! Worth noting that it's also useful for engineering as well, it's not just useful for marksman...seems my sub doesn't run out until tomorrow so surprised I could still post. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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