I am just wondering what are a few of the best range dps in pvp.. I was thinking Lethality Snipers/DF Smugglers are at the top, or are those spec's better geared towards pve.. I am sure there are others, so if anyone could suggest any to me I would appreciate it. Edited August 30, 2012 by Blazinviper

All 3 specs of sniper are in a pretty good place atm I believe. Sorcs are decent but you need to be good to use their tricks effectively. I'd steer clear of merc at this time.

Gunslinger and Sniper have the same tree's so that is personal preference... people have told me to stay clear of a Commando so the same I guess could be said about a Merc... I dunno about the rest

I am just wondering what are a few of the best range dps in pvp.. I was thinking Lethality Snipers/DF Smugglers are at the top, or are those spec's better geared towards pve.. I am sure there are others, so if anyone could suggest any to me I would appreciate it.

 

If you want the top ranged Dps in PVP sniper/gunslinger is your AC...they have a great tool set to handle melee and can pump out the dmg. Avoid Merc and commando like the plague they are garbage in comparison.

 

Tip: don't take cover next to a wall or pillar...glow bats will wedge themselves against them and pound your face.

Edited September 3, 2012 by Soljin

leth/df is top dps in pvp due to the nature of dot spam, not saying they're bad, just pointing out that their damage numbers are inflated. they're also the best kiters of the snipeslingers, but the other trees have less need to kite. generally id say mm/ss is the most fluid spec, the ultimate turret, good burst and consistent high damage on one target at a time with one of the best defensive talents in the game with diversion, although it' mostly used to grief other snipeslingers. sab/engineering has high utility when played correctly and imo the best burst of the trees, but longer cooldowns on its most important talents than the other trees, much less forgiving to bad planning. df/leth is again king for dps numbers, and also has one of the most painful attacks in game in cull/wounding shots, although it requires 3 other effects to be applied first for it to be so.

 

mercs are weird and sorcs are squishy

The sniper subclass is probably the most robust ranged dps at this time. Partly this is because the sniper subclass has the best toolset to deal with melee dps. And melee dps are the most common dps in warzones at the moment. The Merc/Commando ranged dps is supposed to have the advantage vs. snipers, but the reality is that they suck so badly vs. every other subclass, that they are pointless to bring into a wz. The sage/sorc dps actually has a higher damage output than the sniper does. Top sage/sorc players can exceed 1 million damage in a static Voidstar match, while getting nearly 100k in healing. That easily exceeds the combined productivity of any other ranged dps. But sage/sorcs are squishy. That's the trade off.

Not sure why arsenal mercs are looked at so poorly these days, if the match is competitive I see them consistently among the top 3 medal winners. If they are on a bad team and constantly harassed they will not score well but it left alone to dps they will top the damage charts. Having their knock back taken away changes things though.

Not sure why arsenal mercs are looked at so poorly these days, if the match is competitive I see them consistently among the top 3 medal winners. If they are on a bad team and constantly harassed they will not score well but it left alone to dps they will top the damage charts. Having their knock back taken away changes things though.

 

We are great against scrubs, but get shut down by anyone who has more than two braincells to rub together. Unlike snipers/slingers in cover, we are easily interrupted, which kills our dps. In high end ranked PvP, there is really no space for a dps merc/commando.

We are great against scrubs, but get shut down by anyone who has more than two braincells to rub together. Unlike snipers/slingers in cover, we are easily interrupted, which kills our dps. In high end ranked PvP, there is really no space for a dps merc/commando.

^ This. Assault is a better dps spec for Commandos in PvP and does comparable damage. Gunnery only does well if left alone, and cannot hold a node 1v1 against *any* class. But I think Assault spec is the only case of a shared tree being different between the two ACs of a given class. Consensus seems to be that Assault Commandos are still short-changed beside Assault Vanguards due to lack of spammable elemental attack buffed by talents (hence the difference in the shared tree).