With the 1.2 changes to gs/snipers what do you guys think will be some of the better specs, I was thinking like a 25/16 ss/sab hybrid will work pretty good my gs is pretty low level but I want to level him up since hes fun. If I was at home and not on my phone I could up a calculator but I can't atm. What's your guys's ideas.

Probably 23/18/0:

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#700rkrbdRkRZrIbbRo.1

Note Hot Pursuit will be up where Pandemonium is. I need to see how what the proc chance and energy gain on 1 point in Burst Volley is though. If not worth it, I'll move that 1 point into Accuracy.

I think people underestimate the 60% aoe damage reduction skill. Especially with the focus tree on knights becoming viable, I think we will see far more aoe smash knights running around. They will be so useless against us with that skill.

I think people underestimate the 60% aoe damage reduction skill. Especially with the focus tree on knights becoming viable, I think we will see far more aoe smash knights running around. They will be so useless against us with that skill.

 

Wait what? What am I missing here?

hunker down with speced i think gives 60% aoe damage reduction

does it stack with our AoE damage reduction?

does it stack with our AoE damage reduction?

 

We can assume so.

does it stack with our AoE damage reduction?

 

Riiiight I forgot about that sorry dude. Good point with the focus tree buffs, too.

 

As much as I'd love to mess with new Hot Pursuit + Contingency charges, full SS is going to be extremely tantalizing.

so does a full DF spec.

 

No more energy costs on hemorrhaging blast. Wounding shots down to 25 energy cost, instead of 30. SO that is already saving you 90 energy per minute! Its damage will be reduced a bit, but the total energy save will make more than up for it.

I'm curious what Sharpshooters are going to do with the new "No Holds Barred", it's only 3% crit total now.

I'm curious what Sharpshooters are going to do with the new "No Holds Barred", it's only 3% crit total now.

 

It's not a huge loss, and those points almost certainly go into Pandemonium, which is more interesting than it seems. The fix to not being able to take cover while rooted is a massive buff for SS against melee as it is, but the opening damage on them is going to be stupid.

 

Mara charges.

You take cover.

Instant Charged Burst.

Trickshot.

Pulse Detonator.

Instant Charged Burst.

 

And Pandemonium will be nice for Dirty Fighting. Charged Burst just feels better when it's instant.

Edited March 26, 2012 by Saccmaster

It's not a huge loss, and those points almost certainly go into Pandemonium, which is more interesting than it seems. The fix to not being able to take cover while rooted is a massive buff for SS against melee as it is, but the opening damage on them is going to be stupid.

 

Mara charges.

You take cover.

Instant Charged Burst.

Trickshot.

Pulse Detonator.

Instant Charged Burst.

 

And Pandemonium will be nice for Dirty Fighting. Charged Burst just feels better when it's instant.

 

Instant CB is extremely overrated since the global cooldown is roughly the same as its channeling time, the only difference is that you get 1s of energy recovery and slightly more frontloaded damage.

 

The smart money will be on No Holds Barred vs. Independent Anarchy, depending on how much AOE you think you will be doing, Anarchy might be better - but we do get more synergy from +crit and it offers a more consistent boost to our damage.

Instant CB is extremely overrated since the global cooldown is roughly the same as its channeling time, the only difference is that you get 1s of energy recovery and slightly more frontloaded damage.

 

Agreed to an extent. It is definitely overrated by a lot of people, but it has some pretty significant uses. Snap shot is useful for getting a finishing blow off on a runner/pillar-humper or while on the move outranging a melee. I'm not sure whether Pandemonium will be worth it for SS. If the buff gets changed to carry over when leaving and re-entering cover, it will probably be yes. Otherwise...eh. Probably better things to be taking.

Edited March 26, 2012 by Synavix

Talking about rated, i guess good players knowing how other classes work, SS is out of discussion. DF with the changes is by far better.

 

However im thinking about a Sab build. I wanna know the numbers of Incendiary Grenade first. If the buff is nice, sounds so, i think Sab will work very well. Excelent AoE, some Quick Shots with no energy cost etcetc. And a very fun specc too.

 

Buffing Sab and DF 31 points, i dont think hybrids speccs will be better but SS for pvp like right now. But who knows.

SS got buffed though and good players in rateds will cleanse, doesn't that negate df's effectiveness

SS got buffed though and good players in rateds will cleanse, doesn't that negate df's effectiveness

 

There are so many debuffs and the best cleanse can only cleanse 2 at once. Their chance to dispell your DoT's when they are focused by other guys too is just like winning in the lottery.

 

Also it's taking them some time to cleanse where they can't continue healing. A disabled healer is almost equal to a dead one (except OP/Scoundrel healers with their insane HoT abillities).

 

On my server even those that could basically cleanse often seem to forget about that or they seem to get a tunnelvision while healing other party members. They are mostly dead before they even notice they had DoT's when you do your wounding shots...

SS got buffed though and good players in rateds will cleanse, doesn't that negate df's effectiveness

 

SS got buffed but for pve mostly. SS is the best PVE specc but not the PvP. The 60% AoE reduction is due PvE encounters. A SS guy out of bunkerdown is a cake. And even under that ability, cant resist a decent focus if not moving. And if you move....

All GSs we know this. Is just like right now most of our enemies dont know...yet. We are talking about coordinated groups, not pugs. If you are playing this class, you know what im talking about.

 

And dots can be cleansed, yes. But here healers cant use a tool like decursive. Is all much more manual. And cleanse, for example the Sages, got GCD and 5 secs cooldown. The faster is someone cleansed, GS is doing dots again. And Vital Shots is a non-cooldown skill, internal damage, same as the bomb, a percentaje of Wounding Shots etc.

 

Resuming, would be stupid if Bioware would make SS the best PvE and PvP specc. And they are not.

I'm new to the gs, I'm doing quite well so far at lvl 16 I'm doing about 200k Dmg a game, its fun stuff, more fun that shadow tank, don't care if its op he's just boring. The gs is just a blast to play and will be my main going forward.

 

With that said I was trying to get the feel on how people were going to be specing, I like SS but I know I eat them on my shadow tank. I was just trying to get a feel for some specs people were playing and if in 1.2 people were going to be specing in the top tier talents or if hybrid specs were king. Like I said new slinger but not new player (bm mara)

 

Edit: and I knew SS was not very good in pvp, I just wasn't sure if the buffs was going to help them more in pvp, but their static nature probabaly makes it a moot point. I'm currently 16 atm and I'm SS, when is it viable to level as sab or df

Edited March 26, 2012 by jbuschell

my 2 favourite specs are 2/18/21 and 23/18/0. so the second one is primary based on SS-like PvP.

 

I won't say SS is bad for PvP. It depends on the player AND the situation. In case you just meet tank specced juggernauts / powertech SS won't do any good. In any other situation i find it equal if not superior then DF since there are so many prerequisites you have to get up on the target first as a DF/sab specced slinger.

 

Tank sins or sins in general are my personal nightmare (if they are decent). They can cleanse my DoT's and are immune for them after that for a couple of sec, which gimps my DF playstyle and they have a massive deflect shield which gimps me when i'm SS speced (or when i try to keep them away from me as a DF when they popped their first immun to DoT's CD).

 

That plus the abillity to sprint, pull, 3x stun and knockback makes them the worst class to play against for me.

Instant CB is extremely overrated since the global cooldown is roughly the same as its channeling time, the only difference is that you get 1s of energy recovery and slightly more frontloaded damage.

 

There's a massive difference between launching an attack at the front-end of the GCD and after. It's part of what makes SS a lot more mobile than people think.

I'm curious what Sharpshooters are going to do with the new "No Holds Barred", it's only 3% crit total now.

 

Still worth it.

Still worth it.

 

I'm debating it, with the 70-100% damage bonus from crits, 3% crit equates to roughly 2.25% increase in DPS. Occasionally that extra crit can also synergize with aimed shot to trigger quick aim slightly more often.

 

On the other hand, independent anarchy will give a straight 15% boost to sabotage and all AOE. In games like voidstar where I've got spacer (2s Flyby activation) and Lay Low (-15s CD on Flyby) - I'm often spamming the Flyby whenever its up and dropping thermal grenades more often than usual. If the AoE ends up making up 20% of my DPS then that constitutes a 3% increase in DPS, and it only goes up the more you rely on AOE.

 

On that note, sweeping gunfire is said to trigger burst volley with extreme effectiveness, so that might be worked into our rotation more frequently as well now.

 

I'm still not sure myself, I really don't know if AoE makes up at least 20% of my damage since people are generally smart about avoiding the Flyby and I don't use thermal grenade much since I'd rather focus down 1 target than AoE 3. Also don't forget the sabotage damage bonus, I like throwing out sabo charges for burst damage and a 15% bonus to that adds up to the 20% of damage "sweet spots" that makes independent anarchy superior.

Edited March 27, 2012 by Sogui

SS got buffed but for pve mostly. SS is the best PVE specc but not the PvP. The 60% AoE reduction is due PvE encounters. A SS guy out of bunkerdown is a cake. And even under that ability, cant resist a decent focus if not moving. And if you move....

All GSs we know this. Is just like right now most of our enemies dont know...yet. We are talking about coordinated groups, not pugs. If you are playing this class, you know what im talking about.

 

And dots can be cleansed, yes. But here healers cant use a tool like decursive. Is all much more manual. And cleanse, for example the Sages, got GCD and 5 secs cooldown. The faster is someone cleansed, GS is doing dots again. And Vital Shots is a non-cooldown skill, internal damage, same as the bomb, a percentaje of Wounding Shots etc.

 

Resuming, would be stupid if Bioware would make SS the best PvE and PvP specc. And they are not.

 

Stop exaggerating. SS is as viable as a spec as DF, and with the changes in 1.2, it will be even more viable. You shouldn't try to shame people into agreeing with you by saying "all GSs we know this."

I'm a strict SS slinger, a guildy is a strict DF slinger, and we haven't noticed any glaring problems with each other. Just different ways of bringing the enemy down.

 

And before you try another cheap trick and try to discredit me on my valor level or something silly, I'm currently ranked 77, all in SS. I do have a bit of experience with SS.

Stop exaggerating. SS is as viable as a spec as DF, and with the changes in 1.2, it will be even more viable. You shouldn't try to shame people into agreeing with you by saying "all GSs we know this."

I'm a strict SS slinger, a guildy is a strict DF slinger, and we haven't noticed any glaring problems with each other. Just different ways of bringing the enemy down.

 

And before you try another cheap trick and try to discredit me on my valor level or something silly, I'm currently ranked 77, all in SS. I do have a bit of experience with SS.

 

Yes and not. Noone says is not viable. You can do PvE high end not being SS and is viable too but would not be the best option.

 

I repeat, it would be stupid if, for example, Sab would be the best specc: PvP and PvE. Would be a terrible design.

 

Its hard right now not having parser yet but i ve played SS, SB, DF and hybrid speccs and if doing PvP i would have to face a GS playing another class or my GS even, i would prefer him being SS cos is the easiest to kill. And right now, any Wounding shots build is the best one for pvping, imo. Even there is a nice SS/Wounding Shot build that works very well in PvP too. And i got tons of valor ranks too.

Yes and not. Noone says is not viable. You can do PvE high end not being SS and is viable too but would not be the best option.

 

This isn't saying it's not viable?

 

Talking about rated, i guess good players knowing how other classes work, SS is out of discussion. DF with the changes is by far better.

 

Plenty of people completely discount SS in PvP.

 

 

I repeat, it would be stupid if, for example, Sab would be the best specc: PvP and PvE. Would be a terrible design.

 

Its hard right now not having parser yet but i ve played SS, SB, DF and hybrid speccs and if doing PvP i would have to face a GS playing another class or my GS even, i would prefer him being SS cos is the easiest to kill. And right now, any Wounding shots build is the best one for pvping, imo. Even there is a nice SS/Wounding Shot build that works very well in PvP too. And i got tons of valor ranks too.

 

You're playing bad Sharpshooters. I'm comfortable with several Gunslinger specs, and I never feel gimped when playing SS. I just don't experience a lot of the issues that people commonly cite as SS specific problems.

 

Anyone that thinks Sharpshooters can only turret have no idea what they're talking about.

 

A SS guy out of bunkerdown is a cake. And even under that ability, cant resist a decent focus if not moving. And if you move....

 

This is what I'm talking about.

• Sharpshooters have plenty of ways to protect themselves without Hunker Down
  
• Hunker Down isn't even supposed to save you from focus-fire, which is a weakness all Gunslingers share
  
• Hunker Down is hardly just for defense
  

 

As for rated, I can't believe how many people discount the absolutely ruthless target-switching offered by SS. How is it that SS is "out of the question" for rated warzones, but DF is OK because people will forget to cleanse? Are you kidding me? The same amazing players that are so good that they can LoS Sharpshooters into irrelevance have trouble keeping track of debuffs? And I'm not directing this at you Nyaara, I just see this argument all over the place.

Edited March 27, 2012 by Saccmaster