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FROIDBUSTER

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  1. Full Saboteur shines a little brighter on maps where you can guarantee people are going to congregate. So your Novare coasts where you know an extended fight South is almost inevitable. It lacks some of the all purpose kill power of other specs though. Your stacks of 'Blazing Speed' are easily disrupted, and if people aren't stacking or really focused on one objective its' hard to get mileage out of your AoEs. SS is good if you can plop yourself down in a spot thats' going to remain relevant (especially if your team is winning since you'll be unassailible)... but I find it less desirable in any situation where you might have to move around at all. So while outright its' monster, it starts to fall flat if you have to readjust to work on healers or if you have a determined ranged harassing you while LoSing. http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#700bZbcZhMrkrrRkrsuR.3 The above is my personal favorite every down spec. If your team is getting stomped, you're DF so you can resort to pressuring with DoTs and being mobile without suffering as your team gets pushed around the map. With Dirty Trickster for immobilize breaking, and a Blaster Whip speed boost you have a few more options for dealing with melee who jump you. And unlike Hybrid you don't get ****ed quite as badly by competent LoS/Cleanse happy healers while throwing about normal rotations. Also as far as big finishers go the fact you can prep targets you've dotted with Flashbang, and then following up with Sab Charge > Aimed Shot > Take Down(Applying sab won't break your mez, and besides the animation for Take Down it will hit within less than a global of Aimed Shot). Situational but in terms of damage dealt in the span of 1.5-2~ seconds not even SS or Saboteur can match it, and its' incredibly good for solo killing healers or node guarders. (Granted Sab and SS do have good burst, but even at the height of their rotations the damage doesn't happen as quickly nor are the targets CC'd when it does happen, which sort of miffs the chance you're going to finish someone before they react).
  2. Concussion (allowing you to mez at any time without fear of breaking your own CC), Dirty Trickster (additional snare-break, amazing synergy with High-tail it to roll out of melee initiates), and Holdout defense (good melee filler for breaking 4m range and disrupting enemy melee rotations) are all amazing for survivability and your spec takes none of them. To put it in perspective if you only even Dirty Trickster > Hightail it once in a match to avoid a melee initiate (something you can't do at all or as quickly if you don't have Dirty Trickster specced to break immobolizes), you've already mitigated around 2-5x as much damage as 'Cool under pressure' and 'Underworld Hardships' gives you in total healing/extra health. Sure that's a niche situation but you sacrifice no offensive power to have it availible, and it will out perform other "defense" oriented talents if the right scenario does pop up. And in getting all that supposed defensive stuff you also sacrifice the entire reason you would want that type of Gunslinger in the first place, by being able to live long enough under pressure to deal damage. "Nice try", "Dirty shot" and "Cold blooded" are absolute necessities to even be a threat to most competent healers, without those you won't be dealing much damage as a DF slinger and thus how long you can survive is a moot point. I understand the logic of trying to stack the most universal defense oriented talents in the hope that you can make yourself tankier. But one of the biggest strengths of a Gunslinger is they already have a ******** of cooldowns for taking pressure off themselves, while still being able to continue to pressure with strong DoTs and good focused burst as needed. Your spec skimps out on the DoTs and focused burst in favor of some sketchy cooldowns that really won't add any meaningful amount of saving power.
  3. I would hesitate to call any range a "counter" because if we're talking a purely 1v1 scenario while it might be a wash Sage and Commandos have enough burst to kill us. In an actual game situation where the objective is anything but outright deathmatch. Gunslingers can run laps around opposing ranged with their cooldowns, cc, and instant casts/dots. Shadows are probably the closest thing to a true counter. Simply because: -Through stealth they get a strong opener -They have enough CCs to at least temporarily lock down a Gunslinger to build an advantage with their Opener -The bulk of their attacks are instant cast and self-buffed based (so you can't disrupt their rotation the same way you can Scoundres/Guards/Sentinels by just breaking melee range, cleansing, or using cooldowns for the one big hit) -And Shadow cooldowns actively disrupt Gunslinger dps rotations and force them to start over and reset, rather than just slightly mitigate like other classes cooldowns. Although the downside is obviously, in a real game situation with a Gunslinger plopped down in their teams backline, the Shadow will either be getting lit up by the slingers teammates or the Gunslinger will just start kiting while they continues to DPS the Shadows teammates. Which really is the underlying strength of Gunslingers. Even if they can't outright win every fight they have enough cooldowns/CC to escape from the ones they can't win while just tabbing around and pressuring as many enemies as possible before they eventually get dragged down.
  4. They have arguably the best cooldowns and utility of any of the pure DPS classes. And its' only arguable because Gunslinger/Sniper are right up there as well and need some nerfs just as badly. In PvE other classes simply can't compete with the inherent mitigation Sentinels get from their cooldowns. I mean a long with Gunslingers they're really the only DPS class that can waltz into NiM level fights on bosses like Terror and completely ignore 15-20~ worth of otherwise 1 hit kill mechanics (see: Phase 2 Tentacle slams, and any red circle or boss cleave mechanic) just purely from using cooldowns at the right time. Which gives a pretty big advantage in harder content because not only do you make it easier for Healers to raid heal (and thus make it more favorable to stack a Ops with Sents/Slingers, but you also increase your dps uptime when you can ignore mechanics). In PvP Sentinels have easily usurped, other melee just by virtue of the fact they had a get out of jail free card for 5~ seconds out of every 45 seconds on top of all the rest of their utility/defensive cooldowns. In the current healer heavy PvP meta this was a problem, since even "tanky" classes like Guardian or Shadow can't tout that kind of damage immunity even when they spec hybrid or use a shield. In 1.7 Commandos may have been the kings of PvE dps, with Guardians holding down the PvP side of things. But for the better part of half a year since 2.0 it has been all Sentinel/Gunslinger once the masses caught on, I don't mind some minor tweaks so much at this point, we had our fun in the sun, both of the classes are kind of imbalanced.
  5. I don't think anyone reads anything he types. He's either shouting nonsense in general chat, saying nonsense to the other team during a WZ, or my personal favorite not playing in a WZ and losing his **** in team chat about how people don't have 2018 expertise and that's the exact single reason his team isn't winning. The last one is especially moronic because I don't think 2018 expertise has ever been truly BiS anyways, so its' not even something worth pouting about.
  6. The biggest gripe I had against Balance initially was how even with ability queue set to 1 second, it was hard to chain your DoTs/Channel without clipping your abilities and ghosting your globals. In raid situations that always seemed to either outright lower my dps because I was wasting globals or force me to stifle my APM and slow down my rotaiton thus lowering my damage. The last patch supposedly fixed that issue, but compared to TK with ability queue it seems like its' much easier to push 30+ APM rotations get out more abilities and subsequently deal more dps than it is with Balance.
  7. In all honesty its' just a flaw with "Light Armor". Insofar as the fact that Sage/Sorcs already don't have cooldowns to augment their own casts, on top of their lower armor rating. Case in a point, A Sniper/Marauder/etc gets marked with something nasty, he'll pop his own shield/dmg reduction cooldown and get the healer buffs (armor buff, static barrier, etc.), on top of the fact they'll have medium armor. A Sorc/Sage gets a really bad debuff... they get to force barrier 1 time every 3 minutes. Since most raids have a Sorc/Sage healer anyways there's no inherent extra bonus to Static Barrier since everyone will be getting that anyways. When you consider that the Marauder/Merc damage reduction, or Sniper shield cooldowns are already mitigating an extra 5~k+ damage on top of their higher armor values, it often easily puts the Sorc/Sage into a 7~k damage disadvantage when it comes to mitigating an effect. So while not truly detrimental to any single raid, since obviously Sorc/Sage healers and dps are still useful and put up good numbers, they are inherently gimped when it comes to mitigating damage. And when you factor in the fact that Shadow/Assassin tanks are in the same ****** situation because of their armor rating, you could probably chalk up most the blame onto Armor ratings being inherently imbalanced or skewed.
  8. Pillar hugging Commando/Mercs can be difficult because global for global they can trade with you, with the added advantage or being able to simply line-of-sight as needed. Whereas a Slinger/Sniper will lost most of their inherent advantages if they try the same. Also getting jumped by any type of ranged you're not actively targeting. Especially if you're Dirty-Fighting/Lethality since it will take you 2-3 Globals minimum to get into the meat of your rotation. So if another bursty ranged like a Lightning Sorc or Arsenal Merc starts on you while you're Wounding Shots/Culling someone else you basically only have the option of breaking cover and running. And I mean to be fair Gunslinger/Snipers are still in a good enough place that forcing them to pop a few cooldowns or break cover won't instakill them. But forcing a Gunslinger to break cover and resort to just tab dotting random people while losing or out-ranging the person who is hitting them is in and of itself fairly disruptive. Since it then opens them up to being vulnerable to melee and prevents them from putting out a decent dps rotation. Melee can also be somewhat disruptive, but that mostly depends on whose cooldowns are up and whose aren't. Because if you're in cover in a good position with cooldowns like Hightail-it/Flashbang/Evasion/etc up, even a good stealther opener won't immediately break you. So yeah mostly just smart ranged focusing a Gunslinger from a good position that they can use to LoS the slinger while forcing them to eventually break cover and move is the best way.
  9. Yeah Innervate doesn't need the help from crit, even used in a scenario where you would conceivably want every tic to have a 100% chance to crit, if that much damage was going out you would still want to save Recklessness to bolster the weak part of your rotation. Either to proc Dark Heal crits in between your Innervate or to get a strong Resurgence>Dark Infusion combo out.
  10. Depends on the circumstances I think, I've had times where I was able to strafe out of a smash on my Sniper just with CC-break>normal movement, but I've also had plenty of times where as a Sorc Healer my snare break Force Speed all-in-one wasn't enough to get me out of range.
  11. A good Jugg is going to Force Choke the moment you try to pop that speed, and if at any point you dip low in health they're going to Force Push so they can re-initiate immediately with all the goodies. Many will also save the Saber Reflect until immediately after Unstoppable/Unremitting. Its' not as clear cut as all that obviously, but they do have many good cooldowns for dealing with classes like TK Sorcs, and while those cooldowns are long they're obviously not going to be picking fights where they leap into enemy backlines unless those are up. The 15% is just going to lessen the disparity in those situations where ranged just start max-range dpsing random Juggs who aren't targeting them. Since ironically despite all their cooldowns compared to Marauders/Assassins... Juggs are actually easy to pick on and rip down since they lack the combat breaks and reengaging power of other melees.
  12. This is true, but also many Operative/Scoundrels simply pop Evasion after their first roll if they're getting focused, since it'll then clear their debuffs/slows, mitigate some others, and allow them to then be 24+ meters away from an enemy who in all likelihood has already blown their good range CC/slows (which were cleared with Evasion). That's the real problem, when you start factoring in cooldowns, an Operative is always going to at least one Evasion/CC break/Stealth/Flashbang/Adrenaline Probe available. Which from means most of the time if they want to get away, they'll be able to either through using their energy to brute force rolls, or simply by CC/debuff clearing.
  13. Players formed lines and traded Orb running during the Gree event as well, so the quest could actually be completed. Of course just as often (if not more so) you had players who would each fight other just for the hell of it. The pvpers never really need an excuse to congregate as long as there's other players and the potential for some action. But you're not going to get people involved unless some reward is given, since without the reward for something to be gained there's not much reason to stand around in a zone hoping other people might show up.
  14. The difference being after you disrupt a Sorc force speed, or a Jugg intercede... they can't do it again. They are incredibly potent for traversing the pvp maps, and can be sued to great effect, but they're counterable because of their longish cooldowns. The fact you're willing to even admit Force Speed or Intercede into the conversation as a comparison to a move like Exfiltrate is promising though, since you're at the very least recognizing it to be on the same level as skills with 20~ second cooldowns as far as mobility goes. Maybe eventually that awareness will put you in the camp with the rest of us who think Exfiltrate needs a cooldown instead of a cost.
  15. Its' less about healing and more about how their mobility affects every map. All of the Healers (with Sorc/Sage leading the charge) are incredibly good in pvp at the moment. The difference is even cross-healing can be dealt with and worked around over the natural course of gameplay. Depending on the circumstances of Huttball, Voidstar, Hypergate, etc.. situations arise where Operative/Scoundrels can use their immense mobility for huge gains, with almost no counterplay available to enemies, unless they also have an Operative/Scoundrel. It's very similar to the old bubblestun Sorc/Sage spec. There were ways to somewhat mitigate its' effectiveness, but at the end of the day, the only way you were really going to counteract it was just use a bubblestunner of your own. Which wasn't that fun. (Although Bioware also kept it aorund for 6+ months despite the discussions and complaints around it, so you really shouldn't get your panties in a wad just because people are talking about Operative roll being strong).
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