First, I would like to credit Tren for his 5/33/3 DPS Commando build. I was really clueless (SWTOR is my first MMO) when I started playing Commando and the following post, which Tren wrote last month and can be found here, really helped me out:

 

I've revamped my Lvl 50 Gunnery Build from a few posts ago. I'm finding that I'm doing Warzones a lot more than I thought I would & I foresee this continuing at max level. I'm currently Assault Spec but I'll be going back to Gunnery once I'm no longer sinking all my credit earnings into Training. I've switched my target build from 5/31/5 to 5/33/3:

 

5/33/3 DPS/PVP Gunnery Build

 

Pros - All available damage talents taken.

Most available survivability boosters taken (skipped Advanced Tech as it's really a secondary-tree Combat Medic skill & Soldier's Endurance as I prefer Heavy Trooper.)

Kept Cover Fire, Tenacious Defense & Concussive Force for extra battlefield control in PVP for maximum ability to keep enemies away.

 

Cons - Umm..none? Of the two talents I'm missing in the Gunnery tree, I couldn't honestly care less about Advanced Tech & I'm not THAT sold on Reserve Powercell. Between Special Munitions, Muzzle Fluting, Cell Charger & Cell Capacitor, the shot cost: Ammo Regen ratio really doesn't appear to necessitate a free shot 30 sec sooner. None of the 2nd Tier abilities in the Combat Medic or Assault trees really lend themselves to Gunnery gameplay either, aside from possibly Parallactic Combat Stims, which just isn't a good payoff for the point cost.

 

Flexibility - If you have no intention of PVP'ing, there are plenty of points here that you could reallocate elsewhere. Cover Fire, Tenacious Defense & Concussive Force have far diminished usefulness in PVE & could easily be traded out for Reserve Powercell or extra health in Assault.

 

I'm just about to turn level 50. All along the way I was messing around with Tren's build, but now that I'm almost to 50 and have experimented with just about every way to play DPS Commando myself, I have to say that Tren's build really is one of the more efficient builds and should be a template for anyone looking to play Commando with a DPS spec.

 

The issue I have is in regard to my last few points--which I am completely undecided about. Tren put 2 points into Cover Fire and neglected Reserve Round. I can understand how Cover Fire is very useful in PvP, but I don't PvP enough to justify the two points there. I'm either going to put them into Reserve Round (mainly for the shorter cool-down on Reserve Powercell) or Weapon Calibrations in the AS tree for 6 percent more alacrity.

 

My question is this... Is alacrity important enough to a DPS Commando to justify the 2 points in Weapon Calibrations or should I go with Cover Fire or Reserve Round? Obviously, playing gunnery Commando equates to a ton of spamming of abilities. That's why I think alacrity may help, but I've read so many post saying that alacrity is worthless.

 

This is my first build in a MMO and my first post in these forums, so I apologize for being a noob. I welcome any and all constructive criticism and advice.

 

Thank you!

My Opinion:

 

Cover Fire, Tenacious Defense, and Concussive Force have little to no value for PVE (basically PVP skills) You need 2 points across these skills so put them in whatever you feel is the best use, put 2 in reserve power cells, and 2 in either Weapon Calibrations or First Responder (has basically a 100% up time once you get decent crit, primarily the 2 piece PVE set bonus).

 

Alacrity is not important to put on gear since you can always get something better (crit, surge, accuracy, power) but you really don't have any good choices for the last two skill points.

That is a solid build, except for the two points missing in Reserve Round. In my experience, you need every single ammo regen talent you can get your hands on for an endgame gunnery DPS build. I use reserve cell every time it is up and it has really helped my DPS. I can even plan around it by digging a little deeper than normal into my ammo pool knowing that I can get back to the top regen rate on the next free cast.

 

Personally, I would move the two points from Cover Fire into Reserve Round. Also, stay away from any talents that increase alacrity. The current theory is that any amount of alacrity is bad because it does not increase ammo regen and disrupts the sync between cast times and Cell Charger (3 sec downtime). Alacrity may be viable for PvP builds, but it could be detrimental to PvE builds.

Edited February 10, 2012 by Hiro-Protagonist

This is what I have been using since I turned 50: http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#800McZMIkbRrdRkfzZc.1

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#800McZMIkrRMdokfzZf.1

THIS BUILD IS THE BEST. IT is BEST PVE DPS(since took ALL possibly dps talents)+ a lot of most useful pvp talents for survivability. Really try it out.

Your spec is good for 50... But I'd take reserve power cell, it's a good skill, easy to hit and you can couple it with either a typical round or use it to cast a costly plasma grenade for free. It's worth using even for a regular Grav still cuz you can spam more and ammo manage less.

CHECK MY BUILD IS **** MILLIONS times better than all linked on this forums...how cant you understand it...

CHECK MY BUILD IS **** MILLIONS times better than all linked on this forums...how cant you understand it...

 

Maybe because you've got Weapon Calibrations which for Gunnery pretty much sucks hard. Those points would be better spent nearly anywhere else except First Responder which also grants Alacrity. And also using caps does not make your opinion seem any more important.

 

But anyways, to the OP, I'd recommend following Hiro's advice and get Reserve Round. You'd get the build I am using atm and it works just fine.

Maybe because you've got Weapon Calibrations which for Gunnery pretty much sucks hard. Those points would be better spent nearly anywhere else except First Responder which also grants Alacrity. And also using caps does not make your opinion seem any more important.

 

But anyways, to the OP, I'd recommend following Hiro's advice and get Reserve Round. You'd get the build I am using atm and it works just fine.

 

Those 4% Alacrity buffs Full Auto. Its 0.001% dps BUT STILL DPS INCREASE. As i said in my build you got FULL Possible pve dps with out pvp hurting.

I love the build and even switched cover fire to reserve round. I am liking the extra ammo since much of my challenge now is HM champions. But I'd also like to ask you, how do you balance out your armor mods/enh with this tree?

 

I still feel really weak as a dps gunner and I'm in that conundrum of trying to get better gear to dole better dps but can't deliver enough dps to defeat the champions that drop the better gear. So I have the three rakata fittings that you can get from dailies on Ilum. Except for my belt and bracers, everything I have is Orange and I'm using the highest lvl 22A or 23 mods/enh that I can get. But I think one problem might be the actual mods I'm using. I spent so much time on Accuracy that I'm wondering if I "missed" the correct balance of others like surge/crit/power. Any ideas for optimizing this?

Edited March 27, 2012 by Amun-RA

The best build for pre PVE Gunnery is actually a 7/31/3 build. If you have a high crit % then first responder will almost always be active and has a 5% increase in alacrity compared to the Assault Spec. tree which has a 4% increase. Saving you and extra .1 seconds on cast times for grav round and charged bolts as well as all other 1.5s casts. It will save you .2 seconds on Full Auto cast times and all other 3s casts. During an entire Ops boss fight this can easily save you over 20 seconds of extra cast time which, if geared, can easily boost your total damage output by another 30k. Given proc timers on Relics and Adrenals that 30k can become 50-60k. Overall it's not 100% crucial to put those 2 points in First Responder but it gives you that little extra edge!

The best build for pre PVE Gunnery is actually a 7/31/3 build. If you have a high crit % then first responder will almost always be active and has a 5% increase in alacrity compared to the Assault Spec. tree which has a 4% increase. Saving you and extra .1 seconds on cast times for grav round and charged bolts as well as all other 1.5s casts. It will save you .2 seconds on Full Auto cast times and all other 3s casts. During an entire Ops boss fight this can easily save you over 20 seconds of extra cast time which, if geared, can easily boost your total damage output by another 30k. Given proc timers on Relics and Adrenals that 30k can become 50-60k. Overall it's not 100% crucial to put those 2 points in First Responder but it gives you that little extra edge!

 

I prefer Weapon Calibrations for 100% guaranteed uptime. You won't really notice the 1% missing Alacrity and there ARE times where you get unlucky enough on crits to not refreash First Responder. Also the extra buff on my bar annoyed me.

 

Mostly a matter of preference though. Either build works, and some have experimented with 1 in First Responder and 1 in Weapon Calibrations but that's even more RNG dependent.

i wonder if there was a reason that this post needed to be necro'd considering there's a recent thread on the issue