In the Tactics build. I see various posts mentioning how this one melts enemies. ( Around 10k with Crits over the 3 ticks was one suggested damage output)

 

Sadly as of yet I'm not seeing it happen. I'm nearly full War Hero, with just one relic and wrists to complete (Full Combat Tech gear and Elite WH main/offhand) and on average, when 3 stacks of PG are up, my massive impact seems to amount to the following.

 

On average for each tick it hits for about 1.2k, if ticks crit then its around 2k per tick. Hmm, that doesn't feel hot enough to me !

 

Would that be about what would be expected ? In essence it's not really melting enemies as effectively as I would have imagined

 

Stats currently for comparison when fully buffed and with Reflex Stim. Aim 1892, Exp 1318, Power 757 Crit 35.3%, Crit Boost 76.95%,

With 3 stacks of pulse generator, the description of damage on my pulse cannons is around 5.5k so feel free to add any crits. If all ticks crit it is around 10k damage, highiest I have done was around 12k damage on some poor 0 expertise guy with ion pulse hitting that person for 3.3k .

Im fully min maxed though. On my BM/WH powertech alt the damage if all ticks crit is around 8k so still very respectible. From what I see your character is geared like my powertech so you should be able to do 500-700k damage in a good match and your pulse generator should be a force to be reckoned with. If that does not feel hot ... well roll lolsmash sent/mara if you want to be OP.

Edited November 12, 2012 by SajPl

Keep in mind that this ability is an AOE that hits up to 5 enemies I believe. So getting 2.5k ticks on multiple enemies is very nice and makes me feel warm and fuzzy. Melting a chunk of health away from a group of Imps helps your other team members clear them out quicker, which is all good in my book.

Keep in mind that this ability is an AOE that hits up to 5 enemies I believe. So getting 2.5k ticks on multiple enemies is very nice and makes me feel warm and fuzzy. Melting a chunk of health away from a group of Imps helps your other team members clear them out quicker, which is all good in my book.

 

True but still, when you read what the potential damage output is supposed to be from the tool tip, take into consideration that 3 stacks of PG are supposed to add an extra 60% of that and it's all elemental damage,(so ignores all armor etc) it sure doesn't feel good when having successfully channeled the whole 3 seconds on a target, all you seem to be doing on average no matter what zone or opponent, is a maximum of 3k over that channel (that's a meagre 1k per second at most when there are no crits)

 

For what it's worth, roughly over the same period, using mortar volley seems to do much more damage. Range considerations aside, it leaves you feeling its better to forgo the pulse cannon and use mortar volley all the time instead...

 

What can I say, combat logs sometimes don't make very good reading

For what it's worth, roughly over the same period, using mortar volley seems to do much more damage. Range considerations aside, it leaves you feeling its better to forgo the pulse cannon and use mortar volley all the time instead...

 

What can I say, combat logs sometimes don't make very good reading

 

Perception and Reality are too different things in this case. I strongly recommend using a parser to analyze your dps instead of just taking a glance at the numbers. Pulse Cannon is a VERY strong ability with pulse generator. Just looking at my numbers on Karagga, Pulse Cannon was over 30% of my total damage while mortar volley was a meager 5%. And, that's using both abilities as soon as they are available. I'm not saying that mortar volley isn't great, but Pulse Cannon blows it away as tactics spec, especially over long fights. If you blow combat focus, and most of your ticks crit, you are looking at a TON of damage. Just in columi gear, it can be a burst dps of 3k or more.

Well your stat numbers look pretty good and similar to mine. My ticks consistently hit for around 2.5k (i don't believe I've made it to 3k ticks at all yet) My numbers are a little different than yours though. I replaced a decent amount of aim with power and my surge is just below 79%. Out of curiosity are you running with the High Energy Cell? It gives an additional 5% more damage to all Elemental and Internal damage, a must imo. I love the Tactics tree and doubt I'll go back to Assault. Though with the no cost re-spec now I have went Assault for a match or two just to throw out those massive dps numbers

Well your stat numbers look pretty good and similar to mine. My ticks consistently hit for around 2.5k (i don't believe I've made it to 3k ticks at all yet) My numbers are a little different than yours though. I replaced a decent amount of aim with power and my surge is just below 79%. Out of curiosity are you running with the High Energy Cell? It gives an additional 5% more damage to all Elemental and Internal damage, a must imo. I love the Tactics tree and doubt I'll go back to Assault. Though with the no cost re-spec now I have went Assault for a match or two just to throw out those massive dps numbers

 

I assume when you say your ticks are consistent at 2.5k that's critical hit ticks ? If so then that would mirror the criticals on my ticks too pretty closely which tick for on average about 2.1 - 2.2k

 

My crits are probably lower though because of the surge difference and more importantly no, I don't use High Energy Cell so I'm losing that extra 5% (8% in total with Blaster Augs) on Elemental Damage.

 

However, I more than make up for that loss by using Plasma Cell (with two points in Ionized Ignition from the Assault tree) because the extra amount of damage overall that puts out from the Burning (tech) DoT procs etc by using that cell is far greater than the 8% damage you would get when using HEC.

 

Running two sessions on the WZ dummy demonstrated to me just how much extra damage you can put out using the 'wrong' cell for Tactics. Same rotations (roughly FP>IP>IP>HS Fill>PC>SS>Gut>HIB>HS Fill) and after around 7 minutes worth of that the damage when using Plasma Cell was around 70k to 80k greater than when using High Energy Cell.

 

Fills in both cases because even with HEC's regen buff, a long dummy run does lead to energy dropping if you don't fit some in.

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I assume when you say your ticks are consistent at 2.5k that's critical hit ticks ? If so then that would mirror the criticals on my ticks too pretty closely which tick for on average about 2.1 - 2.2k

 

My crits are probably lower though because of the surge difference and more importantly no, I don't use High Energy Cell so I'm losing that extra 5% (8% in total with Blaster Augs) on Elemental Damage.

 

However, I more than make up for that loss by using Plasma Cell (with two points in Ionized Ignition from the Assault tree) because the extra amount of damage overall that puts out from the Burning (tech) DoT procs etc by using that cell is far greater than the 8% damage you would get when using HEC.

 

Running two sessions on the WZ dummy demonstrated to me just how much extra damage you can put out using the 'wrong' cell for Tactics. Same rotations (roughly FP>IP>IP>HS Fill>PC>SS>Gut>HIB>HS Fill) and after around 7 minutes worth of that the damage when using Plasma Cell was around 70k to 80k greater than when using High Energy Cell.

 

Fills in both cases because even with HEC's regen buff, a long dummy run does lead to energy dropping if you don't fit some in.

.

 

Plug in both on Torparse and let me look at it. I won't believe it unless I see it. Also, I don't use the rotation you listed (mine is completely different). Putting Gut late in your rotation is not a good idea. You are giving up many seconds of bleed damage. Remember that HE Cell adds to Internal damage too - not just elemental damage. It's no wonder the numbers were lower. My rotation is roughly, Gut>FP>SS>HiB>IP>IP>PC

Plug in both on Torparse and let me look at it. I won't believe it unless I see it. Also, I don't use the rotation you listed (mine is completely different). Putting Gut late in your rotation is not a good idea. You are giving up many seconds of bleed damage. Remember that HE Cell adds to Internal damage too - not just elemental damage. It's no wonder the numbers were lower. My rotation is roughly, Gut>FP>SS>HiB>IP>IP>PC

 

Hmmm, I will try to upload the graphs I capped as Jpgs. Can't recall exactly whiich logs they were now, it's a while back !

 

For the purpose of the long dummy test runs though, it didn't matter where Gut was, since it's repeated many time through the run at roughly the same intervals, the only seconds lost of bleed damage were the first few seconds of each run.

 

I didn't believe it either at first but well, the maths do seem to favour Plasma Cell. Whereas HEC adds 8%, Plasma Cell when it procs on Ion Pulse (66% chance with those two points in Ionized Ignition) adds something like an straight extra 1.3k Burn DoT damage. That extra 1.3k on roughly 66% of your IP's (if the 'dice' rolls work out ) is a lot more than the 8% to elemental damage you would get on each IP using the High Energy Cell.

 

(put simply, using HEC, 8% of a 1k IP is an extra 80 damage, versus using Plasma Cell where there is a 66% chance to add another 1300 damage)

 

And you also get a chance to proc that Burn damage on all your rifle shots too.

I definately agree that you'll get more damage overall with plasma cell's dot. It's basically always burning your target. I thought from your OP you were specifically asking about Pulse Cannon damage with the Pulse Generator talent. In that case I'll say that HEC gives you more damage for you Pulse Cannon than Plasma Cell does. Also in HEC my Ion Pulses consistently hit 2k and above, and frequently crit for a little over 3k. I grab the Cell Generator talent so I can spam Ion Pulses when the heavy hitters are on cool down and not have to worry about ammo management. Again, my surge is a bit higher than yours and I stack power which puts my base attacks at 944. It's good to see that you're playing around with the specs to find what works for you. I mostly PvP with my Vanguard now so I can't make any good suggestions for raids.

Oh, and for PvP I always Gut my target first, to get that DOT ticking on them. You can notice the health drop in chunks if they are bleeding from Gut when you hit them with a charged Pulse Cannon. My optimum rotation on a dirty imp is Gut, FP, Free SS( from the FP), HIB(usually a guarantee crit from Gut or SS damage),IP,IP, Pulse Cannon. Of course, more often than not you have a nice AOE meat tray sitting clumped up in front of you, get all excited and let the Pulse Cannon rip, and one of your Sage or Commando teammates comes and knocks everyone out of the damage area, lol.

 

Mortar Volley is a great AOE by the way , just on that blasted 1 min cd.