Grimoir Posted December 30, 2011 Share Posted December 30, 2011 I was discussing Commando's with a guild mate the other day and he brought up an interesting point about the usage of cells for the Gunnery spec. There's an ability in the tree called 'Special Munitions' that increases the capability of the available combat cells. For both Plasma and Combat Support cells, it gives a 3% increase to your Tech Critical chance. This may not seem like much, but it may be worthwhile considering the number of Tech attacks available to Commando's, not to mention the DoT inflicted when Plasma Cell procs. Pros: +3% Tech Crit, DoT, Slow(when talented) Cons: No 35% armor pierce, 'Cell Charger'(restore 1 ammo on crit while armor piercing cell is active) becomes obsolete, High Impact Bolt doesn't get its ammo cost reduced('Special Munitions') I tried it very briefly on two separate occasions and was completely unimpressed. The first was on Voidstar in an attempt to DoT up the enemies so as to stop bombs being planted/disarmed. It was waaaaaaay too chaotic to keep track of how often the cell procced or how much/often I was critting with my skills. The second was during questing on Belsavis where it was made VERY clear how much I rely on the 35% armor pierce to do the insane burst that Commandos are capable of. Any thoughts from anyone on this? And as a secondary question: Under what circumstances are people finding Charged Bolts to be a good skill to add into their rotation? I haven't come across a single situation where I would use CB over Grav Round. I hear that CB can crit for more at higher levels, but I haven't bothered to cast it a single time since I got Grav Round. Being in the mid 40's I'm wondering if it might be worth sticking back on my bar? /salute Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SirHaggis Posted December 30, 2011 Share Posted December 30, 2011 Hm. Commando might have a lot of tech attacks, but our heavy hitters, hi-impact and full auto are ranged, and almost all our attacks are effected by armor. Plus how unreliable the DoT is without assault talents I can't really see going for it over APC I think Grav round is meant to replace charged bolts. While most of the talents effect both ChBolts and grav round, charged barrel only mentions grav round. Also the gravty vortex only last 15 seconds so it be easy to lose your stack. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hadoken Posted December 30, 2011 Share Posted December 30, 2011 Grav Round replaces Charged Bolts assuming you're going deep into the Gunnery tree. If you're a hybrid with CM, Charged Bolts still has use with Supercharged Cells (Grav Round does not benefit from it). I understand the tooltip on Charged Bolts typically says a larger range than Grav Round but in practice I found Grav Round ALWAYS hit harder. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grimoir Posted December 30, 2011 Author Share Posted December 30, 2011 Mmmk cool, thanks for the thoughts guys. I'd pretty much came to the same conclusion about the Plasma Cell tbh. The DoT is incredibly unreliable and simply cannot beat out the HUGE DPS increase that is Armor-Piercing cell. I can see that being the case for sure. How about crits though? Will Grav Round crit for more than CB every time? I'm purposefully gearing for crit and surge currently, so throwing in a CB to mix it up here and there, especially if it can crit for more, might earn it a place in my rotation. ALSO, in PvP, it might be worth mixing in simply so that Grav Round has a slightly higher chance of not being locked out by an interrupt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
altiris Posted December 30, 2011 Share Posted December 30, 2011 If CB hits for less than Grav Round (and I'm pretty sure it does) then it will also crit for less than Grav Round, barring any (nonexistant) talents which boost its crit multiplier. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hadoken Posted December 30, 2011 Share Posted December 30, 2011 (edited) Mmmk cool, thanks for the thoughts guys. I'd pretty much came to the same conclusion about the Plasma Cell tbh. The DoT is incredibly unreliable and simply cannot beat out the HUGE DPS increase that is Armor-Piercing cell. I can see that being the case for sure. How about crits though? Will Grav Round crit for more than CB every time? I'm purposefully gearing for crit and surge currently, so throwing in a CB to mix it up here and there, especially if it can crit for more, might earn it a place in my rotation. ALSO, in PvP, it might be worth mixing in simply so that Grav Round has a slightly higher chance of not being locked out by an interrupt. There aren't any charged bolts only crit multipliers that I'm aware of, so any crit bonus you get for charged bolts (via gear) applies to grav round as well. I can certainly see the point of a backup ability in case you're locked out, though I would think most of the times you're locked out (melee) you probably shouldn't continue to stand there spamming a cast spell - but get the hell out of there. Edited December 30, 2011 by hadoken Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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