Hello people, I was at the ops dummy on fleet trying to get a nice parse when I came to stunning realization that I was awful at managing my energy, as en engi spec no less. Granted i did have plenty of lag going on, and many instances where my SoS only detonated 2 of the 4 charges, along with delays on my moves occasionally, taking as long as a guestimated 1 sec to actually start casting a snipe. Can anybody give me any tips on how I should go about my rotation?

 

Here is my torparse of it http://www.torparse.com/a/69998

 

Now I know that being on fleet probably didn't help with the lag and whatnot, and hopefully the next time I try this will be on a ship. But the really messes up thing that I had found was my 1 dodged move. Is that supposed to happen on an ops dummy?!?

 

Oh and also I did not use an adrenal, bloodthirst, or armor pen(I'm lazy). I had 2 Warhero power relics as well

haven't got much time to look into it. Depending on your gear it can be either an awesome DPS execution or a terrible one. FIrst of all, it's engineering and i suspect that it will trail behind MM and Leth in single target DPS (cannot confirm that).

 

Second of all, i saw the first 2-3 parses, and you did not use shatter shot. Your explosive probe, and interrogation probe, snipe, series of shots do kinetic/energy damage, which is mitigated by armor, therefore you need that armor debuff at all time on your target.

 

Second: try to avoid snipe, use it only when laze shot is available or really nothing else is available. I would also consider to check the damage of frag grenades, with all the buffs in Engi tree, they might (not sure again, just expecting) provide you a better damage per energy than snipes.

 

Also do you have the 2set pvp bonus? You need that thing if you are engi. (and any other spec too).

 

PS: amazing how electrified rail gun improves the series of shots DPS.

Edited December 10, 2012 by NoTomorrow

Yeah, I'm more bias to the horrible parses feel, i couldn't seem to manage my energy well. I would use shatter shot but I'm that lazy, and it's not like its in our actual rotation.

A common mindset when it comes to managing energy is:

"Use energy-cost abilities unless they would take me below 60% energy."

 

One thing you might try is to flip that over, just as a way to practice. Try instead:

"Use Rifle Shot unless I will be capped on energy.

 

In practice, you will find youself doing a sort of hybrid of the two:

"Use my important abilities on cooldown unless they would drop me below 60% energy, and then use Rifle Shot in between unless it will cap my energy."

 

As an engineering sniper, I would classify "important" abilities as:

 

• Explosive Probe
  
• Series of Shots
  
• Plasma Probe
  
• Interrogation Probe
  
• Orbital Strike
  
• EMP Discharge (with IP active)

 

You can add things like Ambush, CD, and LT Snipe to the list as you find yourself with more energy to spend.

Tibbel, one question about EMP though: Suppose i don't have any immediate energy problems, i am above >60%, my EMP is available. When it is worth to pop-up my EMP?

 

Lets suppose 3 cases:

1. Adrenaline probe has 30s CD left

2. Adrenaline probe is 1 min CD left

3. Adrenaline probe is 2 min CD left

 

Add another variable to the mix:

1. We have energy overrides

2. We do not have energy overrides

 

Thanks in advance for your reply.

Edited December 10, 2012 by NoTomorrow

Tibbel, one question about EMP though: Suppose i don't have any immediate energy problems, i am above >60%, my EMP is available. When it is worth to pop-up my EMP?

 

What AP does (and by extension, EMP) is allow us to "burst" -- which in my definition means to use abilities which are more time-efficient at the cost of being less energy-efficient -- because we have more energy than we need for just our sustained rotation.

 

So whether it's worth it to use EMP Discharge depends a lot on what energy-cost abilities we have available to use. (For the record, EP doesn't count as energy-costing either. With 2/2 in Cluster Bombs and 2/2 in Efficient Engineering, EP is energy-neutral at worst. Still absolutely worth using at every opportunity.) It's hard to do any sort of analysis on the circumstances you mentioned because the ideal use of EMP is immediately after AP anyway.

 

We want to spend as much energy as we can right away, then use AP as soon we're low enough that it won't cap us, followed immediately by EMP to reset its cooldown. Then we keep bursting until we're low enough where a 2nd AP won't cap us, then use AP again. At this point, we're into our sustained DPS phase, but in less than a minute EMP will be ready to use again, and we'll get another 50 energy of burst. AP shouldn't really ever get to much less than a minute left on its cooldown before it's reset by EMP.

 

Of course, in a different situation, it's situational.

Edited December 11, 2012 by Tibbel

When you're playing Engineering, not having immediate energy problem means you're not pushing yourself hard enough. Still, if EMP is up (and AP is still on CD), you should pop EMP when IP is close to expiring. You don't have to use AP immediately after EMP.

 

Can't tell too much without looking at the stats, however I suspect that the OP have too much power, and not enough crit. You need an obscene amount of power to get 2491 minimum hit on Orbital strike. Even with BiS lvl 63 gear, you should be looking at < 150 in critical rating.

 

If adrenal/relic is up, you should go below 60% energy in order to cramp as much DPS as possible during that window, then use AP to get the energy back.

 

Do not open with Orbital Strike. It takes 3 seconds to cast, and since you're at 100% energy during those 3 seconds, you just wasted 15 energy. It also skews the parsing result because the parse only starts when you enter combat, but you're already started casting OS 3 seconds before.

Don't have the game up now but here is a guestimation of my tech stats currently, as the damage from OS is in question

 

My tech stats(ish)

Crit chance is around 35.2ish%(definitely over 35)

Crit multiplier is around 77%(will get higher, no 63 enhancements yet )

Accuracy is JUST above 110%

And I can't remember the bonus damage, but I'm running +2.3k cunning with all 27 armorings, every mod is either a 61 or 63 high power one(the power unlettered one) and all but 1 enhancement is Power/surge, while the 1enhancement is crit/accuracy

Implants and earpiece are the MK1 black hole ones and for this parse I was still running 2 WH relics

 

So it's bad to open with an orbital and always pop EMP after AP? Alright then, next time I'm on I will try to do another parse again and will post my actual stats

plasma probe is one of the highest priority moves, bad habit to pick up from pvp is to think of it as a quirky little cc thing, but its potential damage is crazy., far better than interrogation probe. also be sure to maintain corrosive dart, its far better than snipe as filler, also it seems youre not keeping ambush on cooldown.

Some general tips on engi before i get into my specific rotation for a stationary boss.

- the pvp 2 set bonus that grants an extra tick on orbital strike is basically a must if you want to have competitive dps to mm or leth

- the pve 2 piece set that grants energy back from target acquired is extremely useful in (my) opening rotation

- dots are your friend, including corrosive dart. Make sure you always have interrogation probe, plasma probe, and corrosive dart up at all times, and you are specced into the extra tick chance on the dart

- if you are biochem (which you probably should be if you are trying for max dps) make sure you time your adrenal with your orbital and all your dots up, along with exp probe and sos

 

My rotation on a typical single target stationary fight: (shatter shot if no one else is debuffing armour) interr probe, corrosive dart, start orbital cast, plasma probe, power adrenal+target acquired, ambush+exp probe, sos, adrenaline probe+emp, refresh interr probe, corrosive dart, laze+snipe

 

Depending on how good your timing is in that rotation, you will be able to reach the adrenaline probe+emp discharge step with about 1 second left on your initial interrogation probe (keep in mind i have the extra alacrity from the skill tree - no alacrity on gear)

 

After that initial heavy energy cost opening you will basically just want to settle into a "rotation" per se that is more of a skill priority use list.

- interr probe, plasma probe, corrosive dart should be up at all times

- i like to use ambush a lot because it is extremely energy efficient

- try to time exp probe+satchel charges with sos to make it energy efficient

- orbital should be used on cooldown with the exception of setting up a burst to coincide with adrenal

 

Typical adrenal burst would be: (shatter shot if necessary), interr probe, corrosive dart, orbital cast, plasma probe, adrenal, laze+snipe+exp probe, sos, (either sniper or ambush depending on time left on adrenal)

 

One last thing to note about the engi spec...your energy should look like a roller coaster at all times!! This is a must to squeeze maximum dps out of the class, by the same token this means you have to be using adrenaline probe once a minute courtesy of emp. Do not be afraid to throw rifle shots in your rotation to detonate stacks of satchel charges that sos misses/doesnt get