I've finally got the courage to try out a melee class. I've always been range since launch and I wanted to do something different. Firstly I know my performance lacked in objective play & class mechanics. I kept telling myself "..hey what happened to my heat-seeker missile..." then realizing I'm not on my Mercenary. Also I'm not as mobile (turning) to what I'm used to. I do have some questions to those experienced melee players out there:

 

1) Is their a preference/order of the 3 defensive skills (Saber reflect/ward, Enraged Defense)...depending on the situation? When I was being global-ed I didn't bother wasting it unless I was on the verge of killing their heals.

2) I won't be talked out of playing "Rage" tree...so my rotation is this (situational): [[1]] Saber Throw, {Enrage}-Raging Burst, Obliterate, Force Crush, Furious Strike, Viscous Throw, Ravage and Chilling Scream. [[2]] Raging Burst, Obliterate, Sundering Assault, Furious Strike, Retaliation, Force Scream and Chilling Scream. Then back to one starting with "Enrage". Is this good on both PVE & PVP?

3) Besides having my ACC at 110 +/- what would be the ball-park numbers for the other stats?

 

Edited March 13, 2019 by CommunityDroidEN

1) Saber Ward versus mostly white damage, it's less efficient versus yellow. Saber reflect on something big that you know you can reflect, so in PvP it would be Heatseekers, Volatile substance, Ambush etc. In PvE use it against single target ranged skills (so, versus lots of ranged adds that target you or a bigger enemy channeling some plasma beam or unload on you) or against AoE attacks (quite a few ground targeted AoEs in PvE can be reflected, like Fire on Karagga's last boss etc). Enraged defense - pop it only when really low on health (around 20-30%), it heals for so much that you don't want to overheal with it by popping it too early. Ideally, you should have some DoT ticking on you as well, to guarantee the stacks consumption.

 

2) Rotation is more or less solid but don't use Chilling scream in PvE. I am guessing you put it either for PvP purposes to slow people (which is a good idea) or read an old PvE guide that uses the old Chilling Scream's Legendary utility which got nerfed and is not worth it anymore.

 

3) For PvE you want minimum of 1857 alacrity (1859 is the magic number in full 258), can go over it by like ~50 points, just don't go lower. Minimum of 735 accuracy or again, a bit higher. Rest goes into critical rating. If you are consistently playing PvP though, you might want to run the lower alacrity build which is still fine for PvE, in most cases. That would be a minimum of 702 alacrity (Note: 702 and 1857 are the breakpoints for GCD time, anything between those numbers is a waste, so we try to stick as close to them as possible, just don't get below the respective breakpoint), 1900-2000 critical rating, same accuracy and then remaining stats into Mastery. You could just change between accuracy and mastery stims for PvE/PvP, this would put you at around 106% accuracy in PvP which isn't so bad for Rage. Or you could get extra pieces of gear without Accuracy to swap them in for PvP.

Edited March 12, 2019 by Equeliber

Thanks for the feedback guildie....maybe when I feel more confident we can do some duels to see where I'm lacking. I have a jug in your guild. Haven't been able to play much (swing driver FEDEX) due to work. Will try to work in your info...

A little correction to the above post. If going the low alacrity for PvP I would suggest about 2245-2300 for critical. 2245 seems to be the sweet spot.

Thanks....I was thinking about that. Would that be the same thought on a Mercenary? A high Alac felt OK but it felt I wasn't hitting hard enough (PVP)....just wondering...

Thanks....I was thinking about that. Would that be the same thought on a Mercenary? A high Alac felt OK but it felt I wasn't hitting hard enough (PVP)....just wondering...

 

High alacrity is only worth going for if you are 248. Remember too that jugg has no passive alacrity bonuses, so you must reach the full (1860ish) number for the lower gcd.

 

I personally use the same gear for focus i do for vigi, which is high alacrity, dumping the leftover tertiary pool into crit.

Question Kendra... why is high alacrity good on 248? Why not also on 258?

 

I personally did not find the high alacrity that useful and am not putting points into crit. I haven't tested enough to have a sweet spot .

Question Kendra... why is high alacrity good on 248? Why not also on 258?

 

I personally did not find the high alacrity that useful and am not putting points into crit. I haven't tested enough to have a sweet spot .

 

I totally just noticed this question... sorry lol.

 

Im sure high alacrity serves the same purpose for 258 it does in 248 - to shorten the GCD.

 

Lower GCD = more attacks overall = more damage is the logic here. (With the addendum that using an entire attack does more damage generally than a lucky occasional crit).

 

Shorter fights mean less abilites get off anyway, which means you might not notice a big difference.

 

My earlier statement should be interpreted as you should not go for high alacrity at gear lower than 248. Higher than 248, i still would (were i going for gear higher than 248).