DPS merc - optimal stats needed for PVP?

[Lhancelot]

For me the utilities are the same in regs and ranked PvP. Only when I switch from Arsenal to IO and back is when I change, but it's only 1 in particular.

 

When I run Arsenal I take the following:

 

Skillful:

- Afterburners (the root is an annoyance to Ops and Maras trying to run away)

- Gyroscopic Alignment Jets

 

 

Masterful:

- Power Barrier

- Torque Boosters (extra seconds on Hydraulic Overrides is SO helpful when kiting to heal and LOS)

 

 

Heroic:

- Trauma Regulations

- Energy Rebounder

 

 

Legendary:

- Kolto Surge

- Thrill of the Hunt (since Blazing Bolts is a key part of Arsenal's rotation, I like being able to kite and chase while using it)

 

When I run IO I take all except for Thrill of the Hunt because Unload is more or less a filler, and I swap that with Power Shield in the Heroic tree because it helps me not be interrupted while having Energy Shield active since IO's key abilities are so prone to being interrupted.

 

 

Man, I feel like I want so many of the utilities we don't have enough choices. So what I was running most recently on my merc dps were these utilities, mostly I did these for added survivability:

 

 

SKILLFUL:

 

Jet Escape: for root break and more frequent Rocket Out.

 

Adhesive Supplement: To snare targets with Tracer Missile.

 

 

MASTERFUL:

 

Power Barrier: 5% nearly constant damage reduction.

 

Threat Sensors: I know this is a unpopular choice, but with a baked in added 3% bonus to defenses and Cure dropping dot damage by 30%, I figured why not try it seeing how many times I run into madness sorcs.

 

 

HEROIC:

 

Energy Rebounder: To refresh Energy Shield as soon as possible, goes great with Trauma Regulators.

 

Trauma Regulators: This is nice because basically it's a heal where you can get up to 40% hps back and it takes no action on your part to get it except for popping Energy Shield.

 

 

 

LEGENDARY:

 

Kolto Surge: Just started using this, I feel cheap picking it which is why I avoided it for the entire last week since playing my merc, but I find many times when facing a sniper, mara, jugg, or other mercs they outlast me with heals and ways to avoid damage, so figured might as well cheese it up and try this to see if it helps.

 

Thrill of the Hunt: I find it impossible not to take this, it's effective and fun channeling this attack while moving.

 

 

 

The utilities I wonder about missing out on are these:

 

Power Shield: I wonder if maybe this would be better than Trauma Regulators... This would enable me to live longer if a healer needs to put heals on me seeing it gives 20% bonus to all heals while Energy Shield is active... It also could be useful just for the added benefit of no interrupts while Energy Shield is active too.

 

Stabilized Armor: 30% DR on AOE damage and when stunned. This seems awesome for adding survivability... Yet, when I do not have it I am not seeing myself die any faster than when I have ran it lol. What gives?

 

 

 

Utilities I also like:

 

Afterburners: I do like this one for the root on Missile Blast. I have ran it often this week and find it nice plus having extra push on my knockback is fun too.

 

Boresights: Sometimes it's fun to be cheesy and in some fights there's lots of opportunities to spam Sweeping Blasters for lots of fluff damage when the enemy bunches up. Also, I sometimes use Sweeping Blasters just to get my Blazing Bolts to proc so even if it's just for the first wave of Sweeping Blasters I figured why not add 25% to the damage that attack does?

 

 

 

Utility I find seems overrated with Arsenal Merc:

Gyroscopic Alignment Jets: I hardly ever run out of power, it's so easy to manage resources on this class it's ridiculous. There are some matches I never even need to use my Vent Heat. Do you find you need this utility? Maybe I am doing something wrong.

[RiChess]

I do:

 

Skillful:

Jet Escape

Afterburners

Adhesive Supplements

 

Masterful:

Power Barrier

 

Heroic:

Trauma Regulators

Power Overrides

 

Legendary:

Kolto Surge

Thrill Of The Hunt (mandatory)

 

Power overrrides isn't a common pick it seems, but I really like it. Helps with mobility and burst. If you get caught in a jam, being able to fire off Escan and x2 Rscans while on the move can be a lifesaver. On a 38s CD it's up constantly too.

 

If I find I'm getting focused more for whatever reason I'll switch up my build to include more defensive picks.

Edited August 23, 2018 by RiChess

[Lhancelot]

I do:

 

Skillful:

Jet Escape

Afterburners

Adhesive Supplements

 

Masterful:

Power Barrier

 

Heroic:

Trauma Regulators

Power Overrides

 

Legendary:

Kolto Surge

Thrill Of The Hunt (mandatory)

 

Power overrrides isn't a common pick it seems, but I really like it. Helps with mobility and burst. If you get caught in a jam, being able to fire off Escan and x2 Rscans while on the move can be a lifesaver. On a 38s CD it's up constantly too.

 

If I find I'm getting focused more for whatever reason I'll switch up my build to include more defensive picks.

 

I have run a build on my healing merc with power overrides, and it actually was viable, at least in regs. It added a different feel to the class no doubt.

[Hoppinswtor]

detailed writeup on utilities here:

 

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=952356

[TrixxieTriss]

detailed writeup on utilities here:

 

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=952356

 

Interesting write up and well explained.

 

Would you suggest this for a arsenal and kiting build for regs

 

Afterburners: 10/10. This utility is one of the best in the entire game and is almost mandatory; it turns Missile Blast into of the best roots in the game, and the extended knockback it provides to Jet Boost is so important for both kiting and peeling.

 

Jet Escape: 8/10. It has amazing synergy with Afterburners by reducing the cooldown on Jet Boost.

It also lowers the cooldown on both your CC Breaker and Rocket Out, which will aid you immensely when tunneled. All in all, a really good value for tier one.

 

Gyroscopic Alignment Jets: 5.5/10. It's actually pretty useful if you tend to get stunned a lot, mainly due to the heat refund. But mercs this patch are more likely to either get straight tunneled or mezed out, limiting the usefulness of this utility. It's superior to other utilities in the tier if (and only if) you're getting hit with random hardstuns and unfocused attention; in other words, it's only useful against bads.

 

Pyro Shield: 9/10. Easily the best utility in the 2nd tier, mainly because of its synergy with the other Energy Shield utilities. When paired with Energy Rebounder, Pyro Shield can easily add close to 1000 dps to a merc that's being tunneled steadily. This is almost mandatory; you really should only be taking one utility in this tier, and the only reason I'd take Power Barrier over this is if I wanted to be extremely tanky.

 

Energy Rebounder: 10/10. One of the best utilities in the game! It will ultimately reduce the cooldown of energy shield by more than half if you are being tunneled.There is not a single situation that will require you to forego this utility. So many great utilities are tied to Energy Shield that you want to make sure you're getting it back as often as possible. As a bonus, you'll passively absorb a bit of damage here and there - always a plus.

 

Trauma Regulators: 9.5/10. It's been nerfed by almost 50 percent, but it's still a must-have in most pvp situations because of its amazing synergy with another utility on this tier. A 40 percent heal every 45 seconds while being tunneled is nothing to laugh about. The only reason I took a half point off is because you can probably pass it up as a healer, especially since Supercharge Defense in the 4th tier is so useful for heals.

 

Kolto Surge: 9/10. This is basically enraged defense for mercs. If players tunnel through this utility, will allow Kolto Overload to heal me for 150-190k over 10 seconds. Pop medpac afterward and you'll be at full health for probably the 3rd time in the round. That is, frankly, a tide turner if used properly (e.g. not overlapped with other dcds if it can be helped). Some people see this as a cheesy panic button due to the long duration of kolto overload's cooldown (3 minutes), and as Bodyguard spec I'd probably pass on it in favor of Power Shield or Stabilized Armor, but for dps it's one of the most broken utilities in the game from a "panic button" perspective. I took a point off because Kolto Overload does have a fairly long cooldown. Savvy players will switch off when they see this popped; if you notice that happening consistently, you may want to consider Supercharge Defense in this tier instead.

 

Thrill of the Hunt: 9/10. This is almost a must-have for Arsenal because it has the potential for nearly 30 percent uptime; blazing bolts is a 3-second cast every 8-9 seconds. I recommend it unless you're using a very tanky build and know how to play Arsenal like a turret. This is the utility you sacrifice if you want to take Stabilized Armor. It's really up to your playstyle; if you can kite really well, this utility will help your team out with extra damage while you're trying to stay alive or chasing a target behind LOS. Plus, blazing bolts snares your enemy: kite away while using this and you can re-establish range fairly quickly. As IO it's less necessary because unload has a fairly lengthy cooldown. As bodyguard it's pretty good, but there are 4 utilities worth taking in tier 3 as heal spec (and one in th)s tier) so this can be sacrificed.

[Lhancelot]

detailed writeup on utilities here:

 

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=952356

 

Nice thanks for this. ^

 

I actually was running 4 from the first tier at one point lol. The second tier of utilities is really underwhelming, but then the 3rd and fourth have tons of stuff I want.

 

I appreciate the info on how the 3% defense bonus of the one utility actually only adds .15 or some useless amount, what is up with that? Are you sure it's still broken like that?

[RiChess]

Nice thanks for this. ^

 

I actually was running 4 from the first tier at one point lol. The second tier of utilities is really underwhelming, but then the 3rd and fourth have tons of stuff I want.

 

I appreciate the info on how the 3% defense bonus of the one utility actually only adds .15 or some useless amount, what is up with that? Are you sure it's still broken like that?

 

Might be intended (would be pretty stupid though). Instead of giving 3% + your base 5% for 8%, it’s 3% OF 5% for .15%. Granted even if it was additive instead of multiplicative, 3% defence is about as worthless as .15%.

[Hoppinswtor]

Might be intended (would be pretty stupid though). Instead of giving 3% + your base 5% for 8%, it’s 3% OF 5% for .15%. Granted even if it was additive instead of multiplicative, 3% defence is about as worthless as .15%.

 

Yeah, it would be far better as just a flat 3 percent damage reduction. Would actually be worth taking at that point, given that the dot damage reduction is pretty decent as well.

Edited August 24, 2018 by Hoppinswtor

[Lhancelot]

Yeah, it would be far better as just a flat 3 percent damage reduction. Would actually be worth taking at that point, given that the dot damage reduction is pretty decent as well.

 

Yeah I was using it just a day ago figuring it might be decent, I actually happened to keep running into madness sorcs so found a little bit of use out of the cure. But if it's broken and adds no defensive bonus I guess i will drop it.

 

Edit: Yeah, that's dumb! I thought I seen a proper boost to defense when I got that utility, and it definitely only raises it .15 lol. What a load of crap.

Edited August 24, 2018 by Lhancelot

[Lhancelot]

Just wanted to update this thread and say I finally got my dps merc geared.

 

Alacrity made the biggest difference of all the things I have done gear-wise. I am going to look into getting alacrity on my healers now seeing how much it helped on my dps.

 

If alacrity impacts my performance in healing as much as my dps, I will be happy. The added alacrity adds so much fluidity to my dps rotation it's crazy. Less wait on cooldowns, and everything just flows better.

 

Thanks again for all the tips and info on utilities and gears everyone.

[TrixxieTriss]

Just wanted to update this thread and say I finally got my dps merc geared.

 

Alacrity made the biggest difference of all the things I have done gear-wise. I am going to look into getting alacrity on my healers now seeing how much it helped on my dps.

 

If alacrity impacts my performance in healing as much as my dps, I will be happy. The added alacrity adds so much fluidity to my dps rotation it's crazy. Less wait on cooldowns, and everything just flows better.

 

Thanks again for all the tips and info on utilities and gears everyone.

 

Which utilities did you end up choosing?

[Lhancelot]

Which utilities did you end up choosing?

 

Tier 1: Jet Escape, Afterburners

Tier 2: Power Barrier, Pyro Shield

Tier 3: Trauma Regulators, Energy Rebounder, Stabilized Armor

Tier 4: Thrill of the Hunt

 

I rather have Stabilized Armor over Kolto Surge just because I don't like the 3 min timer on the DCD and I feel like it's maximum cheese and I feel like the 30% damage reduction when stunned and AoE damage reduction helps me especailly when i end up in arenas and get focused. I feel like it gives me a little more sturdiness.