Just wanted to get some feedback as to how carnage is performing in pvp in 2.0? I have not been able to transfer my mara over to the PTS and was wondering if our single target burst is still top notch even with rage management difficulties.

 

Also why is ravage not affected by beserk..... seems like we should be able to have a 2 sec cast ravage once in awhile......

Personally I like carnage, I really do, however I have noticed that I do not get in as much damage as I do when running rage spec. The aoe from smash can give me 5-7k hits easy, to all players within a group. In addition, I have also noticed a huge damage increase to vicious throw. Again I can get 5-7k hits from that as well.

Now that being said, since the release of 2.0 I have always switched over to carnage when playing a game of huttball. The speed boost to your team is so vital, especially if you build up rage by using focus at the beginning of the match, pop predation, and then pop it again once that runs out. I am popping predation as often as I can for the speed boost, and if you play it well, you can have a lot of speed, and with a good team that passes the ball, you can win matches in a matter of minutes.

The downside to carnage when playing other types of warzones is you are not able to do as much damage. Plus you have ton's of stuns to watch out for, which suck, oh and not to mention the bubbles which make your attacks worthless. That being said, for 1v1 if you time it right you can use force scream and get a 6k hit, followed by vicious throw/smash (yes smash) or ravage to finish em off while you have the armor penetration from gore. Sadly this only last 4.5 seconds so you gotta be quick. Maybe bioware will allow this effect to last longer considering force crush for rage spec last 20 seconds. Sure would be nice wouldn't it.

Anyways to sum up how I feel. I am really enjoying the play style. Sadly the numbers just are not as good as what you get with rage, and I have found that you can be a sitting duck at times, even with all the damage reduction, which is very sad. The rotation I have been using is force charge, battering assault, gore, force scream, and then follow up with another finisher. Sadly most people know to watch out for gore, which means you gotta change how you play. Usually you have to attack second, allowing another teammate to take all the stuns from you guy you are about to attack so they can't be used on you. If you do that then carnage is absolutely awesome, but you gotta have a friend who is willing to take all the damage and stuns, like oh say a tank....

Anyways those are my thoughts on the spec, would love to talk more about it. Hopefully someone else will respond to your post after I have. This is a nice topic for a spec that is really fun to play, I would just like to see more time after using gore (of if the time doesn't increase, imaging being immune to stuns while gore is up)

Prior to 2.0 I was running anhiliation, as rage spec puts out dmg but in actually killing targets it is lacking. I also saw more damage in 2.0 in anhilation due to dots ticking even as players go in and out of melee range.

 

Then 2.0 hit, now from y experience it seems like carnage has overcome the benefit of the healing and the dots Anhilation offered.

 

Go carnage and chew up the healers!

Carnage is quite middle of the road compared to the aoe monkey specson the scoreboard but in my opinion the dmg of the spec (if you focus on the right target) will probably mean more to the team then someone aoeing healed targets. The burst is pretty insane now vicious throw hits like a truck, scream is still very nice.

 

I'm not fully geared yet on my mara but i've seen a 9.4k vicious throw and 8k scream, On guys that have the gears scream averages at 6.5-7k its no smash but combined with other attacks with berserk its a very bursty spec which pressures healers like no other. I'm only full (tho min/maxed for power) partisan with one piece of conqueror and either 0 or lvl 50 augments on gear.. so i'm predicting some major carnage in the future when i get fully augmented and more conqeruror

Edited April 26, 2013 by AngusFTW

Not 55 yet but on my 50+ I still think that rage offers the superior and easy single target burst on anyone including healers and entrenched snipers. You have 30% permanent armor penetration, 6% damage bonus after smash,

8%(?) for 5 seconds after leap. You can execute the first smash before you are cced and with any luck drop aoe mez and force crush setting you up for second smash. If you are not cced then following up a smash and force crush with ravage is precious. There are other options. And who really cares about the scoreboard.

 

In carnage your window for decisive damage is very short and if you don't manage -- well, tough luck. And of course you have the focus issues which rage does not have. Carnage didn't need to be nerfed and rage frankly got better after its "nerfs".

Edited April 27, 2013 by Aelaias

In my experience it seems Carnage is better single target damage IF you're on the ball with the procs and all its micro-management. That being said, the big problem with Carnage (when compared to Rage) is that you can never get reliable damage spikes. If I'm running with some friends and we're working on focusing down an enemy healer I can easily throw my autocrit Smash in with the rest of their damage when we call out for a spike. Carnage CAN have that burst potential, but it's all proc based with very small windows for use and you never know when you're going to have it ready.

 

At the end of the day Rage feels like a much more reliable choice due to its on-demand damage. Carnage definitely offers great utility (and is probably best for Huttball, as one person said), but since burst damage is the name of the game Rage still reigns supreme in that department.

Edited April 29, 2013 by TheHeat

Man, to those who say Carnage is top, can you please elaborate on your rotations and gear? I LOVED carnage pre 2.0, but since then, have been having problems rising above the 300+k mark. I switched to rage to test it out, and fumbling my rotations badly (brand new to the spec), I was hitting 450+k effortlessly. Now, some of that may have been AoE damage, but still. I seemed to burst down targets much better as rage.

 

Oh, can't they just make Execute proc 100% of the time on Ataru strikes, like it (sort of) used to? If I could have crit Scream on demand, that would make up so much of my burst dps issues I feel like I have on Carnage.

 

EDIT: found some posts detailing the change in rotations. started implementing those. MUCH better damage. first match, did almost 900k. Granted, there was a player on my team that did 950k, another at 890k...turns out, when you have a teammate who does over 1mil healing, and 2 enemies that do over 1mil healing each, plus another pair of healers on the enemy team, lots of damage gets dealt, but no one plants a bomb on any door...

Edited May 2, 2013 by waterboytkd

Carnage is beast for once you get used to it tbh you won't do as big scoreboard numbers as aoe monkey specs but u can be assured the other teams healers will feel the dmg if you play right and stick on them.

http://assets.enjin.com/wall_embed_images/1367352855_Screenshot_2013-04-30_20_59_07_429643.jpg

This isn't even my highest dps with it i think more is possible but i havent had that much time to play (i've hit over 1100 before and i don't think this is particulary impressive think the spec can do way more in right situation).

Edited May 2, 2013 by AngusFTW

Impressive....most impressive

 

The healing on the bottom is even more impressive, 1.2mil

Carnage is beast for once you get used to it tbh you won't do as big scoreboard numbers as aoe monkey specs but u can be assured the other teams healers will feel the dmg if you play right and stick on them.

http://assets.enjin.com/wall_embed_images/1367352855_Screenshot_2013-04-30_20_59_07_429643.jpg

This isn't even my highest dps with it i think more is possible but i havent had that much time to play (i've hit over 1100 before and i don't think this is particulary impressive think the spec can do way more in right situation).

 

 

what was your gear? I am in full partisan and I get the sense I've still screwing up the rotation or I'm under-geared.

min/max for power (0 crit rating) Partisan with conqueror chest and pve 69 weps (will probs change offhand for pvp one for expertise or maybe even both). Relics are partisan power proc and conqueror power proc. I havent got much 55 augments yet cause i suck at credit management so gear isnt really that great yet as u can see from my hp

http://postimg.org/image/iyauz38y9/

 

I'm in partisan. Kept my crit around 21% as I notice it helps a bit with sustained damage. I will hit for less on my bigger stuff but overall I notice a bit of an increase in dps. RNG will of course be more of a factor the higher your crit gets. Really too each his/her own honestly. I wouldn't recommend getting crit much higher than I do, as then the power loss will make you ineffective.

Are you guys using the weapon master set? I'm at a total loss as to why I'm underperforming. I think I'm missing something fundamental I hope it's as simple as I haven't min maxed on switched out my power mods... also are all your items augmented with power augs?

In my opinion, Carnage is the best spec to use for mara and sents. It offers the best single target burst that you need to kill someone along with great utility to help win matches. Pre. and post 2.0 its the best mara / sent spec for pvp. People may say that rage is better but all it does is put up pretty / fluffy numbers. After the 2.0 buffs to carnage it is harder to play because it is a little more proc based and it is harder to manage rage. When you can play it effectively, then its one of the most deadly things on the battle field. The nerfs to bubble stuns helped us out loads along with the gore reset proc. Between those two things, I have been able to melt just about anyone without serious difficulty. I personally would say to stack full power with it. Your getting auto crits every 9 seconds (give or take) so the best way to kill someone is to make that hit as hard as possible. With full power, even if your abilities do not crit, they will still hit hard. When they do crit, peoples health will drop even faster. I remember seeing a thread here before that showed the difference between full power vs full crit. There was almost no difference between the two. This was not factoring in auto crits, so if you would get auto crits, then the sustained damage for full power would, in theory, be higher than a build with crit in it (the burst would also be more reliable because you would not have to rely on the rng for crits to give you good burst). This was all pre 2.0 so things may have changed, but from what I have seen full power is the way to go.

http://assets-cloud.enjin.com/users/1123435/pics/original/1693038.jpg This was with almost min / maxed partisan and a few pieces of conqueror (ear, implants and relic). As you can see, with full power you can still put up some great numbers while being able to kill people. The other team had 3 healers. My guildy (who is a vig guardian) and I were able to kill them much better than anyone else on the team. Because we killed them, we won the fight. Rage would have put up higher numbers for sure, but we probably would not have killed them as easily.

Guys can somebody put a 2.0 Carnage PVP skill tree, and a basic rotation? I'm new on the class but i find it very interesting. Thanks for your time, very useful info here.

Guys can somebody put a 2.0 Carnage PVP skill tree, and a basic rotation? I'm new on the class but i find it very interesting. Thanks for your time, very useful info here.

I just rolled a Combat Sentinel to use as a heal-killer in PvP, and I would love to see what you guys are using as well. Thanks in advance!

What bother me in carnage is that buff/debuff/proc are too smalls and I ersonnaly do not manage too use procs properly with that. I feel more confortable with annihilation. Have you tips to use carnage? How do you manage procs?