This is the most accurate/ best guide you will find for a Marksman/Sharpshooter Sniper/Gunslinger!

ROTATION:

SINGLE TARGET:

(Marksman) (Sharpshooter )

- Penetrating Blast - Penetrating Rounds

- Sniper Volley - Burst Volley

- Followthrough - Trickshot

- Penetrating Blast - Penetrating Rounds

- Followthrough - Trickshot

- Snipe - Charged Burst

- Snipe - Charged Burst

- Followthrough - Trickshot

- Laze Target - Smuggler's Luck

- Target Acquired - Illegal Mod's

- Ambush - Aimed Shot

- Followthrough - Trickshot

- (If <30% health) Takedown - (If <30% health) Quickdraw

- Followthough - Trickshot

-Repeat - Repeat

(Use Corrosive Dart/Vital Shot First for 5% dmg increase at the start of the rotation if you are really trying to burst someone down)(It can be a waste of a GCD if the enemy can cleanse it or if they die instantly, which I why I rarely use it.)

AOE:

- Suppressive Fire/Sweeping Gunfire (use this aoe ability and only this aoe ability when there are 3 or more people)

- Use Ambush/Aimed Shot on Cooldown on an unguarded target, otherwise just spam Suppressive Fire/Sweeping Gunfire .

(Please note that this aoe "rotation" will help you to get the highest possible dps but it is not necessarily good dps, meaning that while you do get a high dps overall it's not helping your team play objectively or burst someone down or apply much pressure.)

UTILITIES:

Skillfull:

- Ballistic Dampers / Ballistic Dampers

- Snap Shot / Snap Shot

- Imperial Efficiency / Efficient Ammo

Masterful:

- Augmented Shields / Hotwired Defences

- Seek Cover / Heads Up

- Pillbox Sniper / Lay Low

Heroic:

- Deployed Shields / Riot Screen

This is my personal setup but you MUST also consider:

- Seek Cover/Heads Up is good when the other team has a Sniper/Gunslinger or oil slick.

- Sometimes I won't get Snap Shot and will get Pulse Screen instead.

- Snap Shot isn't that great against assassain/shadow tanks or Powertechs/Vanguards.

- Pulse Screen is good against Powertechs/Vanguards.

- I always take Imperial Efficiency/ Efficient Ammo.

- If I am not the target in ranked I will not take Augmented Shields/ Hotwired Defences and instead get Crippling Diversion.

FOR SOLO RANKED:

- Ballistic Dampers , Snap Shot , Pulse Screen , Augmented Shield/Hotwired Defences , Seek Cover/ Heads Up, Deployed Shields/ Riot Screen, Over-prepared/ Perfect Scheme.

- you MUST be ready to get globalled

GEAR:

THIS IS WHAT YOU NEED:

- 12 power augments

- 2 crit augments

- 2 accuracy enchancements (to hit 104.99% accuracy)

- 5 crit/power enhancements

- All mods must be power heavy

- Mastery and Power Relics

- Crit / Power implants / earpiece

- All Datacrons

DEFENSIVE ABILITIES:

- Unfortunately these are all situational and can only be mastered with practice and understanding of other classes but I will list the basics:

- Evasion/Dodge : Use to aviod White Ranged and Melee Damage Attacks I.E. Ravage,Rail shot, All sniper attacks, etc..

- Shield Probe/Defensive Screen : Use as your first defensive abilities when taking a lot of damage.

- Entrenched/Hunker Down : Should be used the moment you become targeted to avoid stuns.

- Ballistic Shield/Scrambling Shield : Use as your second defensive ability when you or team are taking a lot of damage.

- Cover Pulse/Pulse Detonator: Use to create breathing room between you and a melee attacker OR to soak up YELLOW damage if you spec'd into the utility Pulse Screen.

- Covered Escape/Hightail It: Use right before a timed burst ability like thermal detonator goes off or ambush, etc.. to avoid the damage of that ability as Covered Escape/ nullify it.

- Imperial Preparation/Bag of Tricks: Simply use when all other defensives are on cooldown.

- Leg Shot: Try to use in conjunction with Cover Pulse/Pulse Detonator.

- Diversion: Best used on other Snipers/Gunslingers as it stops then from taking cover. Throw it on yourself if a melee attacker is on you or at a ranged attacker.

-Hard/Soft stuns are to be used whenever you feel necessary. (For ranked I'd suggest saving Flash Bang/ for the enemy healer if they are not the focus target.)

Hope this guide helped!

A special thanks to One'Damage for helping me put part of this together.

My Personal Best: https://imgur.com/69SCUQC

One'Damages Personal Best: http://i.imgur.com/GlblB8r.jpg / http://i.imgur.com/RL2U2gK.jpg

Not arguing, but I do have questions.

1. Why use power augs, when all the math shows that rating augs are clearly superior from a damage perspective?
   
2. Why not use alacrity augs once you hit ~1400 crit? It helps really increase your DPS.
   
3. Why do you need 5% hit?
   
4. For an AoE situation, why not use Orbital Strike?
   

Not arguing, but I do have questions.

 

1. Why use power augs, when all the math shows that rating augs are clearly superior from a damage perspective?
   
2. Why not use alacrity augs once you hit ~1400 crit? It helps really increase your DPS.
   
3. Why do you need 5% hit?
   
4. For an AoE situation, why not use Orbital Strike?
   

1. I don't know what math you've used but power is 100% better. Maybe PvE but then I don't play PvE. Main Stat Augments used to be the way to go before expansion, but with the changes with Main stat, now mastery, Power is better for damage.

2. I've spent millions of credits theory crafting and spent hrs debating alacrity augs and what it shows is that say a 3% alacrity is a 3% burst increase but a -3% damage decrease. I have run 10% alacrity and got 4000dps but that was because it was an arena and I used every single GCD. You will definitely get less dmg in 8v8 warzones as you wont makes use of every GCD. While it CAN work for arenas you're better off going crit over alac as it is better all around. I also believe that bigger hits are better for grouped ranked as you time swaps and abilities.

3.You need 5% accuracy from enhancements because every class has 5% default defence and sorcs. juggs. sins have 10% default defence and you will find without this accuracy you will tend to miss a bit, and there is nothing more depressing than missing an Ambush. We don't get 110% accuracy because would you work out to be a dps loss.

4. Because orbital strike does no damage compared to Suppressive Fire, It can't be repositioned and could therefore be a waste of a GCD and do no damage.

Great call on selecting 3 masterful utilities in your basic build. I had been forgoing augmented shields in favor of the heroic talent crippling diversion, but now I think the beefier shield probe would be more versatile and have more applications than a 1min CD slow.

Just a couple extra thoughts/suggestions on your defensive CD section:

A. Remember that evasion grants 75% force and tech damage reduction, from the "hold position" passive. So I tend to use evasion as burst mitigation regardless of damage type.

B. Like you said, use of each CD is highly situational, but here's an outline of what I TRY to do, especially in arenas:

1) shield probe at first sign of incoming damage

2) covered escape to mitigate burst, like a powertech's grenades

3) ballistic shield at my new location to reduce all incoming damage. I use it after my first covered escape so I don't roll out of it unless I absolutely have to.

4) evasion to mitigate a second round of burst. If the incoming damage has lessened, great, continue firing away, use shield probe and covered escape as needed when off CD. However, I find people are persistent in wanting to kill their focus target, so if incoming damage continues...

5) imperial preparation, resetting CD's

6) shield probe

7) covered escape for more incoming burst, better to miss the last few seconds of ballistic shield than to eat more burst

8) evasion, by this time I am probably running low on health, remember to pop medpac and adrenal at some point

9) hope I take a couple foes down with me before I die

C. I use cover pulse as needed, weaved in between all the above. I use diversion as needed, sometimes on ranged, sometimes on self for melee. Lastly, I try to save stuns for offensive use i.e. trying to land an ambush on that concealment operative rolling around constantly lol. But if I am going to drop, might as well use stuns to get a couple extra shots off.

@xver,

Thanks for your detailed response! The math I was referencing was stuff like this post:

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=8558158

The DPS works out higher using alacrity than power or mastery augs. I can understand why in PvP you'd want to go straight crit/power, but seems like even when you aren't able to use every GCD, the added benefit of faster snipes/ambush/penetrating blast and shorter CDs would outweight the extra damage from a single ability in favor of a more potent... "salvo". Still though, I defer to people with more experience (like yourself), I just wanted to double check.

A few things to add from my experience.

I'm currently running with no heroic disciplines, the build I'm testing is:

Ballistic Dampners

Snap Shot

Pulse Screen

Heads Up

Lay Low

Hotwired Defenses

Lumbering Impact

Reason for snap shot-I will generally jump in and out of cover even when not moving to reset Dampners, instant charged burst is a nice bonus and gives me rotation options.

Reason for lumbering impact-unlike the other two specs, marksman lacks a persistent snare. Leg shot snare breaks on damage and has a long cooldown. Compounding impact snare is too short. While the diversion snare is a good option I prefer adding to flourish shot as it should be part of your rotation for the heal debuff anyway and it has no cooldown.

As for rotation I will try for this, though obviously things change:

Cover

Flourish Shot

Instant CB

Trickshot

Penetrating rounds

Trickshot

Burst Volley

Penetrating Rounds

Trickshot

Out/in cover

Instant CB

Smugglers luck

Illegal mods

Aim shot

Trickshot

Quick draw

Trickshot

...reset if not dead

Our most important window of damage will come with smugglers luck aim shots. In PVE your fights will last longer and crit will give you more sustained damage. In PVP we have maybe a 6 second window to score a kill. Power will maximize the damage potential of smuggler luck/aim shots more than crit. So despite the dps math saying crit is superior, for a short damage window, power is better.

Good review OP, hopefully we'll have a good discussion too.

Also just asking honest questions not arguing:

On gearing:

• Why not alacrity? I ain't talking about regs or damage farm, but hard swap burst damage. I've heard a lot about the magic of 10% alacrity, which allows you to squeeze in one extra GCD during a 4 sec hard swap, hence dramatically increasing your burst damage.
   
  
• Why power over crit? I am currently trying your power heavy build, but I couldn't help but sense doubt in the Force. MM snipe is one of the very few specs that have massive increased crit chance and crit multiplier tied to your rotations, wouldn't crit help more with that? I understand there is a diminishing return on crit after around 1400 points, but is it not worth pursuing even though sniper has so many crit buff?
  

On utility points:

• Why Deployed Shields over Evacuate? I ask this because I see mercs have heavy armor, and still get blown up all the time without a tank. When tank guard swap comes into picture, that 5% hardly matters (merc being proof), and a lower cooldown on an insta CC becomes massively powerful.
  

Still a new sniper under a lot of practice. Please help me understand, thanks.

Also just asking honest questions not arguing:

 

On gearing:

 

• Why not alacrity? I ain't talking about regs or damage farm, but hard swap burst damage. I've heard a lot about the magic of 10% alacrity, which allows you to squeeze in one extra GCD during a 4 sec hard swap, hence dramatically increasing your burst damage.
   
  
• Why power over crit? I am currently trying your power heavy build, but I couldn't help but sense doubt in the Force. MM snipe is one of the very few specs that have massive increased crit chance and crit multiplier tied to your rotations, wouldn't crit help more with that? I understand there is a diminishing return on crit after around 1400 points, but is it not worth pursuing even though sniper has so many crit buff?
  

 

On utility points:

 

• Why Deployed Shields over Evacuate? I ask this because I see mercs have heavy armor, and still get blown up all the time without a tank. When tank guard swap comes into picture, that 5% hardly matters (merc being proof), and a lower cooldown on an insta CC becomes massively powerful.
  

Still a new sniper under a lot of practice. Please help me understand, thanks.

1. I'm not saying alacrity is bad, I did manage to pull 4100 dps with 10% alacrity, all single target damage. You may squeeze out an extra GCD but that damage loss equates to almost about the same amount of dps anyway (alacrity would still do a bit more though) because you are sacrificing bunch of stats for that grand total of 10% alacrity. I dont have all the answers for alacrity unfortunately. Power/Crit just seems to work better all round in regards to playing regs and arenas, although alacrity has the potential to outshine it in single target damage.

2. I haven't personally tried to reach 1400 crit rating due to the fact which you stated that snipers have a massive increased crit chance and crit multiplier tied into the rotation. I can assure you 100% that the numbers crunch of power vs mastery shows that power is definitely better. As for Crit I am not sure but I manage 3000 dps on average give or take 500 so I am content. Don't forget the luck factor aswell

3. You are correct, if you have a really good tank, guard swapping in a nice premade for ranked then yea... of course it makes no difference, but in your general solo ranked or reg warzones every little bit counts as you won't have your friendly neighbourhood tank to save you. Btw, the reason we don't blow up like mercs is because we technically have about 18 defensive abilities to use as well as a 25% defence chance when crouching.

Hey thanks for making this thread. I've recently started playing swtor after many years and atm playing with the Sniper (level 59 atm). Right now I'm not 100% sure what type of Utility I should be taking so I would appreciate your input on this. I agree with your Skillfull abilities, I had Calculated Pursuit instead of Imperial Efficiency but I wasn't really using Overload Shot often so I changed that.

At Masterful I have Reestablish Range and Lumbering Impact. At Heroic I have Series of Snares and Debilitating Shots. Reason for these is I'm trying to be as annoying as I can with a pretty much permanent slow on my targets. I like the talents you picked and will definitely try them out but I kinda like having people slowed at 50%-80% at all times. What do you think of these?

I say again that I'm new (a month at most atm with swtor) and trying to find out how most people play their Snipers.

Hey thanks for making this thread. I've recently started playing swtor after many years and atm playing with the Sniper (level 59 atm). Right now I'm not 100% sure what type of Utility I should be taking so I would appreciate your input on this. I agree with your Skillfull abilities, I had Calculated Pursuit instead of Imperial Efficiency but I wasn't really using Overload Shot often so I changed that.

 

At Masterful I have Reestablish Range and Lumbering Impact. At Heroic I have Series of Snares and Debilitating Shots. Reason for these is I'm trying to be as annoying as I can with a pretty much permanent slow on my targets. I like the talents you picked and will definitely try them out but I kinda like having people slowed at 50%-80% at all times. What do you think of these?

 

I say again that I'm new (a month at most atm with swtor) and trying to find out how most people play their Snipers.

What discipline did you choose?

Me, I have decided to give my newest Gunslinger all available defensive points I could get in the Sharpshooter Discipline.

Because at least in PvP, it is needed.

I don't know about the other disciplines, because I hardly ever play them.

What discipline did you choose?

Marksman. Thinking of trying Virulence as well since I used to play warlock in WoW.

Marksman. Thinking of trying Virulence as well since I used to play warlock in WoW.

This is my typical marksman build:

Skillfull: Balistic Dampners, Snap Shot, Pulse Screen

Masterful: Seek Cover, Pillbox Sniper, Reestablish Range

Heroic: Series of Snares

I use the same build for Engineer as well. For virulence I make changes. Fair warning Virulence is significantly underperforming compared to the other two disciplines. The dot damage is terrible, ramp up time for cull (main attack) is too long, and there is no burst. Of the three it's my favorite, but sadly I've moved to engineer for the time being.

In case you want to try here is what I would recommend changing:

Skillful: same as above

Masterful/Heroic: replace Series of Snares and Reestablish Range with Augmented Shields and Lumbering Impact

Series of Shots is mostly a filler for Virulence, so I don't recommend spending any utility points buffing it. I also don't use any Heroic Utilities as Virulence.

As with everything I suggest you experiment with utilities to find what suits your playstyle. Give it a good time before making changes though.

This is my typical marksman build:

 

Skillfull: Balistic Dampners, Snap Shot, Pulse Screen

Masterful: Seek Cover, Pillbox Sniper, Reestablish Range

Heroic: Series of Snares

 

I use the same build for Engineer as well. For virulence I make changes. Fair warning Virulence is significantly underperforming compared to the other two disciplines. The dot damage is terrible, ramp up time for cull (main attack) is too long, and there is no burst. Of the three it's my favorite, but sadly I've moved to engineer for the time being.

 

In case you want to try here is what I would recommend changing:

 

Skillful: same as above

Masterful/Heroic: replace Series of Snares and Reestablish Range with Augmented Shields and Lumbering Impact

 

Series of Shots is mostly a filler for Virulence, so I don't recommend spending any utility points buffing it. I also don't use any Heroic Utilities as Virulence.

 

As with everything I suggest you experiment with utilities to find what suits your playstyle. Give it a good time before making changes though.

Thank you for the reply. I will try out your builds. It seems that Seek Cover and Pillbox Sniper are kind of must have though I rarely use Entrench. Shame that Virulence seems the lesser of the three though I will try that build as well. Thank you again and have a great weekend.

The reason you take power over crit for some the gear is the same reason you do it for Concentration/Fury Sentinel/Marauder in PvP.

In all cases it is a dps LOSS to use any Mastery and/or Power Augments in comparison to using Alacrity or Critical. This only does not hold true if you leave the best stat in the game, Alacrity, at zero.