Commando Gunnery PVE Guide

[Siedler]

I found PVE hard until I learned, so I'll share.

 

Problem with us is that we have low hp, and need HP or someone who takes the dmg for us.

 

As a start I had Jorgan and we did fairly good, but at most bosses got destroyed. Then I got the girl healer and didn't know she was a healer so I neglected her. Finaly I got 4X and thought my problems where over, but a High DPS Boss would finish us easily... 4X just doesnt take dmg well.

 

So I searched for the best companion/style of PVE play and found everyone screaming HEALING Companion!

 

I tried and it works wonders, with some tweeaks.

Style of play is this:

Stand still and deliver, take all the aggro and finish of weaker oponents first then move on to strong and elite, use concussive round to stun the Elite initially to make it super easy.

 

Weak and Strong NPC is no problem with a healer and provides the least "down time"

On to Elite and bosses. You will find problems with Melee and DPS bosses.

The solution:

Stand next to a object and deliver. When the boss starts a charging/channeling ability you stun or step behind the cover to break the ability then jump out and continue with your own High dps Abilities.

 

My favorite Rotation for DPS and substainability at LVL 50 is:

Plasma Grenade -> Full Auto -> Grav round -> Grav round -> Grav round -> High Impact Bolt -> Demolition round -> Full auto.

 

At full auto the rotation is complete and you restart the rotation.

Use Reserve cell and that other ability when you are low on ammo, mix in hammer shots when you get low on everything.

 

This Style/companion/rotation has pulled me through the entire story and all the pvp matches with ease.

 

A quick guide for anyone new to the Commander, gunnery.

Edited December 30, 2011 by Siedler

[DarthTapion]

Thank you.. this is exactly what i've been looking for!!

[Fight]

 

My favorite Rotation for DPS and substainability at LVL 50 is:

Plasma Grenade -> Full Auto -> Grav round -> Grav round -> Grav round -> High Impact Bolt -> Demolition round -> Full auto.

 

At full auto the rotation is complete and you restart the rotation.

Use Reserve cell and that other ability when you are low on ammo, mix in hammer shots when you get low on everything.

 

This Style/companion/rotation has pulled me through the entire story and all the pvp matches with ease.

 

A quick guide for anyone new to the Commander, gunnery.

 

I would consider stacking your gravs as an opener, then use cryo to get your full auto off without pushback - on single targets of course. The grav stack will increase the full auto's effectiveness and the cryo will make sure all three shots get in. Use hammers, sticky and demo as fillers until you need to re-apply grav and use your cryo again for full auto.

 

Also I wouldn't advise letting your ammo get below 60% as you will be punished with regen issues. Use your pushbacks as interrupts on enemy long cast spells (they generally do large or sustained damage) if there is no terrain to take advantage of.

 

Also put Elara on heal mode (two shaking hands on the bar) and turn off all of her damage abilities so that she concentrates on keeping you alive instead of putting out damage. This really makes a huge difference to your survivability.

[ArmageddonX]

This is the rotation I use:

 

Grav Round -> High Impact Bolt -> Grav Round "spam" ->

 

If you have stacked 3 to 5 Gravity Vortexes -> Demolition Round

If curtain of fire procs -> Full Auto

 

If everything is off cool-down, rinse & repeat. If not, then Grav Round spam until you can repeat the rotation. Also, High Impact Bolt should be used at every opportunity possible & if Curtain of Fire procs then the same goes for Full Auto.

 

For AoE I do:

 

Plasma Grenade -> Sticky Grenade -> Pulse Cannon (Close Range) or Hail of Bolts (Ranged)

or

Mortar Volley -> Pulse Cannon (Close Range) or Hail of Bolts (Ranged)

 

Also, remember to try to keep you ammo regeneration high for long fights. Don't burn through too much Ammo initially for long boss fights or you'll be Ammo starved half way through. You can pad your Grav Round spam with Hammer Shot to help with this.

 

Edited to reflect my changes.

Edited December 30, 2011 by ArmageddonX

[Fight]

Why are you guys opening with full auto? I dont see the benefit, is there something I am missing?

[Sylanaris]

I guess if you open with FA, there is no time for the mobs to attack and produce pushback.

 

Personally I would Open with a Plasma Grenade to activate HIB right away

[hadoken]

Why are you guys opening with full auto? I dont see the benefit, is there something I am missing?

 

I think they may be thinking that curtain of fire doesn't proc if full auto is off cooldown (which is incorrect).

[ArmageddonX]

I guess if you open with FA, there is no time for the mobs to attack and produce pushback.

 

Personally I would Open with a Plasma Grenade to activate HIB right away

 

Very often I will open with Grav Round. I admit it. I don't see a huge difference between opening with Grav Round vs Full Auto. But at least if you open with GR you get a Gravity Vortex applied straight away, so GR might actually be the better opener.

 

But... if you do open with FA it does a lot of damage & stuns the enemy for the duration usually allowing me to setup what I'm going to do next. You can time it just right and use HIB at the end of FA if the enemy has been stunned by FA.

 

I don't use Plasma Grenade unless it's an AoE situation because of its high ammo cost vs damage. For single target DPS there are better abilities as far as ammo to damage ratios go. If I wanted to open early with HIB I would go Grav Round -> HIB and not PG -> HIB. Or FA (stun) and HIB right before the end of channeling.

 

In theory, if Full Auto does more damage than Grav Round then you should open with FA. Vice versa if Grav Round does more damage than Full Auto.

Edited December 30, 2011 by ArmageddonX

[Siedler]

I would consider stacking your gravs as an opener, then use cryo to get your full auto off without pushback - on single targets of course. The grav stack will increase the full auto's effectiveness and the cryo will make sure all three shots get in. Use hammers, sticky and demo as fillers until you need to re-apply grav and use your cryo again for full auto.

 

Also I wouldn't advise letting your ammo get below 60% as you will be punished with regen issues. Use your pushbacks as interrupts on enemy long cast spells (they generally do large or sustained damage) if there is no terrain to take advantage of.

 

Also put Elara on heal mode (two shaking hands on the bar) and turn off all of her damage abilities so that she concentrates on keeping you alive instead of putting out damage. This really makes a huge difference to your survivability.

 

Cryo I use if the auto is on a strong or elite, as you say, to make full auto do all dmg.

 

My regen cell is so op now that when I have 20% I pop it and ammo goes to 100%, no real need to worry about ammo first rotation around, and one of those rotations kills a Strong NPC, equllent to 12-15k hp.

 

Ammo is never a issue at 50, and that is great.

 

Elara is on heal mode, but will look in to the turn off dmg abilities.

 

 

 

 

 

Why are you guys opening with full auto? I dont see the benefit, is there something I am missing?

 

Well, I want grav round and curtain of fire.

 

So if I start with Full auto I havent wasted anything really.

 

After the stacks it will hopefully be a curtain of fire and I can apply full auto again. Now alot more dmg to it.

Edited December 30, 2011 by Siedler

[MetallicaRulez]

Plasma Grenade is VERY inefficient on 1 target. I wouldn't use it on fewer than 3, honestly. Of course you can use your free ability cooldown for it every 90s, but meh.

 

Your goal as Gunnery is to stay above 7 ammo, keep 5 stacks of Gravity Vortex up on your target, and keep Full Auto and Demo Round on cooldown. Use HIB as you get 5 stacks of Charged Barrel, and not before.

 

I generally weave a Hammer Shot in between abilities every time and then every other time, so it looks like Grav Grav Hammer Grav Hammer Demo Full Auto Hammer Grav Hammer Grav HIB Hammer etc... Your mileage may vary. Just stay above 7 ammo whenever possible.

[Rohanshot]

Just wondering, does Grav Round make Charged Bolts redundant. More people seem to prefer it as the spammable ability.

[ArmageddonX]

Just wondering, does Grav Round make Charged Bolts redundant. More people seem to prefer it as the spammable ability.

The overall consensus is: Yes

[Fight]

Plasma Grenade is VERY inefficient on 1 target. I wouldn't use it on fewer than 3, honestly. Of course you can use your free ability cooldown for it every 90s, but meh.

 

Your goal as Gunnery is to stay above 7 ammo, keep 5 stacks of Gravity Vortex up on your target, and keep Full Auto and Demo Round on cooldown. Use HIB as you get 5 stacks of Charged Barrel, and not before.

 

I generally weave a Hammer Shot in between abilities every time and then every other time, so it looks like Grav Grav Hammer Grav Hammer Demo Full Auto Hammer Grav Hammer Grav HIB Hammer etc... Your mileage may vary. Just stay above 7 ammo whenever possible.

 

This is good advice folks

[benefit]

Plasma Grenade is VERY inefficient on 1 target. I wouldn't use it on fewer than 3, honestly. Of course you can use your free ability cooldown for it every 90s, but meh.

 

Your goal as Gunnery is to stay above 7 ammo, keep 5 stacks of Gravity Vortex up on your target, and keep Full Auto and Demo Round on cooldown. Use HIB as you get 5 stacks of Charged Barrel, and not before.

 

I generally weave a Hammer Shot in between abilities every time and then every other time, so it looks like Grav Grav Hammer Grav Hammer Demo Full Auto Hammer Grav Hammer Grav HIB Hammer etc... Your mileage may vary. Just stay above 7 ammo whenever possible.

 

best post--thread ender!

[Bluetickone]

I found PVE hard until I learned, so I'll share.

 

Problem with us is that we have low hp, and need HP or someone who takes the dmg for us.

 

As a start I had Jorgan and we did fairly good, but at most bosses got destroyed. Then I got the girl healer and didn't know she was a healer so I neglected her. Finaly I got 4X and thought my problems where over, but a High DPS Boss would finish us easily... 4X just doesnt take dmg well.

 

So I searched for the best companion/style of PVE play and found everyone screaming HEALING Companion!

 

I tried and it works wonders, with some tweeaks.

Style of play is this:

Stand still and deliver, take all the aggro and finish of weaker oponents first then move on to strong and elite, use concussive round to stun the Elite initially to make it super easy.

 

Weak and Strong NPC is no problem with a healer and provides the least "down time"

On to Elite and bosses. You will find problems with Melee and DPS bosses.

The solution:

Stand next to a object and deliver. When the boss starts a charging/channeling ability you stun or step behind the cover to break the ability then jump out and continue with your own High dps Abilities.

 

My favorite Rotation for DPS and substainability at LVL 50 is:

Plasma Grenade -> Full Auto -> Grav round -> Grav round -> Grav round -> High Impact Bolt -> Demolition round -> Full auto.

 

At full auto the rotation is complete and you restart the rotation.

Use Reserve cell and that other ability when you are low on ammo, mix in hammer shots when you get low on everything.

 

This Style/companion/rotation has pulled me through the entire story and all the pvp matches with ease.

 

A quick guide for anyone new to the Commander, gunnery.

 

 

Using full auto without curtian is a waste of ammo and dps, better to just grave spam. high impact should never be used without 5 stacks of the buff, also a waste of its dps potential.

[OldMike]

Great post and all good information!

 

Any advice for a lower level player coming up? Currently lvl 24 Commando and can't wait to get to the higher levels. And from the sounds of it, you guys have some tips/tricks to help make the climb easier.

 

Care to share some?

 

Thanks!

Edited January 10, 2012 by OldMike

[LordKivlov]

Plasma grenade costs too much ammo to use unless you use Reserve Powercell with it or are hitting at least 3 targets. It does a little more damage than grav round overall so you may think it would be worth it on 2, but you don't get the 15% crit from PvE set bonus that grav round does, the energy return on crit, the sunder armour stacks or any of the other benefits.

 

Once you get your 4 piece PvE set bonus, you're laughing. High Impact Bolt becomes free so you're essentially rotating between grav round (regenerates ammo), Demo round and full auto (regenerates ammo). It's really easy to sustain top tier with minimal hammershots by using HIB whenever it's up, full autoing whenever it procs (because it's 3 seconds, get double the time for regen) and refreshing grav round in between demo and full autos.

 

We really are a simple class to play once you get your rotation down.

 

And to the comment that says full auto without curtain of fire is a waste... you have no idea what you're talking about at all. It does roughly 3000 damage for 2 ammo (ignoring crit which can bring it up to 6000) over 3 seconds, so you regenerate 1.80 ammo during that time. Pretty much pays for itself, and does so if it crits. It puts it back on cooldown and then you grav round for the proc to use it again.

I read the rest of your post. You're an idiot. Get off my forums with your ****** misinformation. You'll never be able to maintain a proper, ammo efficient (which is better than squeezing out an extra 10% damage on your HIB) by letting **** that is 1 ammo or free (depending on set bonus) sit on cooldown.

 

 

 

As for low level commando. Spam grav rounds... so many grav rounds. You're going to be fairly inefficient without demolition round, curtain of fire, or your set bonuses from level 50 pve gear so just spam your best ability (which is GR).

Edited January 10, 2012 by LordKivlov

[Tren]

I agree that Plasma Grenade is inefficient on single target. Due to the randomness of CoF procs, we have a prioritization (not a true "rotation" a la AS.) As was stated, once you get the hang of what you're looking for, it isn't hard.

 

1. Full Auto - Highest DPS attack for 2 ammo, whether CoF procs or not. Worth opening with and hitting every time (unless you have to move)

2. Stack Grav Well (takes 3 Grav Rounds for 5 stacks when properly talented - as a bonus does great damage, stacks Charged Barrel & chance to proc CoF to boot.)

3. Demo Round - Only use once target has 5 stacks of Gravity Well, then hit every CD (unless CoF procs)

4. High Impact Bolt - Only use with 5 stacks of Charged Barrel (consumes stacks, always restack Charged Barrel to 5 during HIB's cd) & when FA & DR are both on CD.

5. Grav Round - If FA, DR & HIB are all on CD, fill with Grav Round to stack CB & proc CoF.

6. I don't include Hammer Shots, but mix it in if you drop to 7 ammo once Recharge Cells is on CD or if you need to move.

 

If you prefer a diagram:

 

FA (CoF proc or not) > Grav Round (3x to 5 Grav Well) > Demo Round > Grav Round (2x to 5 Charged Barrel) > HIB > Grav Round (Fill)

[LordKivlov]

I disagree about full impact bolt, but mainly because I'm using the 4 piece set bonus. It's free, it uses a global cooldown, use it when it's up since most of the time, you're at 3 charges minimum if your rotation is going smoothly. (Which it usually is because you're getting 1.20 ammo regen and damage + another 1.2 if your next ability is grav round. Rarely ever have to hammershot with this set bonus).

 

But if you don't have the set bonus (which is very easy to get! Do your dailies, chaps) then the above is spot on.

Edited January 10, 2012 by LordKivlov

[Tren]

I disagree about full impact bolt, but mainly because I'm using the 4 piece set bonus. It's free, it uses a global cooldown, use it when it's up since most of the time, you're at 3 charges minimum if your rotation is going smoothly. (Which it usually is because you're getting 1.20 ammo regen and damage + another 1.2 if your next ability is grav round. Rarely ever have to hammershot with this set bonus).

 

But if you don't have the set bonus (which is very easy to get! Do your dailies, chaps) then the above is spot on.

 

Great call, I am still lvl 43 so no set bonus yet. I will keep that in mind when I get to 50 & start hitting Belsavis/Ilum though.

Edited January 10, 2012 by Tren