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Arsenal Mercenary Guide: 1.3 Updated!


Aerro

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i said its good for starting mercs and it is the basic rotation is there.

 

The secret to playing this class well is figure out position tricks and aoe secrets like flamethrower VS Sweeping

or figuring out how much unload you can use before running out of red circles

 

I am full BiS.

 

I have logs of me doing 1800-1900 DPS on fights such as HM Zorn and Toth and HM Firebrand/Stormcaller.

 

If I am wrong, please correct me in a well conducted manner.

 

 

As for the well written response a few posts up: I will clarify a few things that may have been misinterpreted due to my inability to coherently write appropriately occasionally.

 

The TSO+Fusion Missile does put out the most damage. When I was saying "situational", I meant sometimes when movement is high and based on cooldown availability, TSO+HSM is more viability. Like I said, some things are pure situational.

 

About the "HSM and Rail Shot only at 5 stacks", I say that because rarely ever will you see your stacks drop off of the boss. If you're in a boss encounter, you will nearly always have 5 stacks on the boss, and if you're not dead you will always have 5 stacks of Tracer Lock every 15sec.

 

My guide was meant for those who are trying to succeed. I'm sure there are a few changes I need to make- thats why I openly posted this trying to get fixes for things I misunderstood or completely forgot.

 

I do use Fusion Missile with TSO and that is not written in my guide. Mostly because I literally copied over my guide I made 6 months ago.

Edited by Aerro
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i said its good for starting mercs and it is the basic rotation is there.

 

The secret to playing this class well is figure out position tricks and aoe secrets like flamethrower VS Sweeping

or figuring out how much unload you can use before running out of red circles

 

Where can we read this advanced guide of yours?

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The TSO+Fusion Missile does put out the most damage. When I was saying "situational", I meant sometimes when movement is high and based on cooldown availability, TSO+HSM is more viability. Like I said, some things are pure situational.

 

Sure agreed. I'll also use TSO on HSM sometimes when moving. Sometimes I'll use TSO/PS/FM but again it's situatoinal as in many fights PS is already used for repositioning that can't be done inside the usual HSM/RS breaks.

 

My guide was meant for those who are trying to succeed. I'm sure there are a few changes I need to make- thats why I openly posted this trying to get fixes for things I misunderstood or completely forgot.

 

Yep. It's easy to sit back and nitpick as I have. The hard work is creating the guides in the first place and getting the eyeballs on it that you have. And of course once you do that everyone hits you with questions and requests for personalised advice. Good luck with that :)

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Sure agreed. I'll also use TSO on HSM sometimes when moving. Sometimes I'll use TSO/PS/FM but again it's situatoinal as in many fights PS is already used for repositioning that can't be done inside the usual HSM/RS breaks.

 

I thought of giving examples, but some examples I had were things that only happened once! As much as "online dragon slaying" is repetitive, sometimes RNG and situations throw you a curveball. I didn't want to list everything that has happened to me because it would be way too drawn out, boring and prone to errors.

 

Yep. It's easy to sit back and nitpick as I have. The hard work is creating the guides in the first place and getting the eyeballs on it that you have. And of course once you do that everyone hits you with questions and requests for personalised advice. Good luck with that :)

 

I actually don't mind helping people. That is why I'm doing it! I noticed I have a lot of free time since I sit around Fleet when I'm on. I browse forums and read things, but helping others gives me something to do and its enjoyable. Unfortunately you have 'haters' where ever you go or whatever you do, but its part of the process.

 

Also, you should see my inbox ;) My brother was here earlier and told me what I'm doing is almost like a second job and that I'm stupid for wasting my time. Hehe.

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There's a surprising amount of hate in here for what is primarily a good accurate guide that has probably helped thousands of Mercs improve their DPS. Even on the points where I disagree with Aerro, the difference in DPS from changes I'd suggest are small. Mercs who follow this guide will do well.

 

So good work Aerro, here's my feedback:

Heatseeker Missiles (5 or more stacks of Heat Signature)

-Unload (with Barrage Proc)

-Rail Shot (5 stacks ONLY)

-Tracer Missile

 

You don't need to watch your Heat Signature stacks or Tracer Lock stacks even your Barrage procs, you get just as much DPS ignoring them and firing attacks on cooldown (with the exception that Heat Signatures improve Raid DPS if it's the only armor debuff going up, and is worth doing first under that condition). Simulation Craft even says that ignoring the stacks and proc improve DPS slightly.

Most importantly, simpler priorities are easier to use and therefore produce more DPS for all but the most skilled players.

 

I like to prioritize both Rail Shot and Heatseeker Missile before Unload because you're not really using Unload on cooldown, you're using it on Barrage's internal cooldown. So it doesn't really matter when you cast Unload so long as it's finished within 6 seconds of Barrage procing....and since you can cast a HSM + RS + Unload in less than 6 seconds, it makes sense to fire HSM and RS first...if they're ready.

 

 

I like to recommend this priority to people unless they're clearly very skilled, as it's very effective and simple to understand:

Over 23 heat: Rail Shot > Fusion Missile with Thermal Sensor Override > Rapid Shots.

23 heat or less: Heetseeker Missiles > Unload > Tracer Missile

 

That does about 98% of the DPS of the best priority I can math out, and couldn't get much simpler.

Edited by acnoj
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A few points of clarification.

 

1) (i expanded this after reading some of your posts on the issue) Fusion Missile is by far the best damage when heat is not considered so using it with TSO is far better than say HSM or anything else. The only time you would use TSO on something else is if the target will die or otherwise negate the 6 second duration. Your claim that if one is using fusion missile they are doing it wrong, is wrong. I suspect the reason you have reached the wrong conclusion there is you compare DPH, when the whole point of TSO is it takes H out of the equation. But even if you use DPE or DPET you're calculating it wrong.

 

Here's why. Because you will use HSM on cooldown regardless, you need to compare the damage difference between FM and rapidshots, versus the damage difference between tracer missile and rapid shots. Crazy, isn't it?

 

I can even demonstrate this clearly in the sim. If I set HSM to hit for 10k and crit for 20k, it's still better to use TSO on fusion missile. Why? Because using it on HSM won't increase the HSM count in that fight. It effectively just lets another TM be used instead of rapidshots. But using it on FM adds a FM into the fight where there otherwise would have been a rapidshots.

 

2) using Power Surge on Tracer Missile is a dps loss. Given you have points in System Calibrations and are guaranteed to have a cast time of 1.4x seconds casting it will allow you to use your next ability 1.4x seconds later, versus 1.5s if you use Power Surge and make it instant since the GCD triggered by instants is not reduced by alacrity.

 

3) Barrage is no more likely to proc from TSO+FM PS+TM than it is from any other TM. It certainly doesn't "nearly always" proc after that. Talented it remains 45%, which is "usually not" if we're translating to general terms.

 

4) I agree with you, that throwing out a sim link with no argument is not a very useful contribution. But you may also want to weigh that you have thrown out numbers without any evidence. In comparison, the sim provides mountainous evidence for it's conclusions which anyone is free to assess review and confirm for themselves. and in fact it has been constantly reviewed by leaders in the swtor theory community. In comparison, we can't review your numbers because you supply no evidence.

 

5) Your suggestion to only use rail shot on 5 stacks, only use HSM on 5 stacks and only use unload on barrage procs is demonstrably wrong. They should be used on cooldown, as even without their bonuses they do more damage than tracer missile which is the alternative. The question then comes down to is the dps difference worth delaying getting their cooldown ticking, and the answer is no. That is even more evident with unload given a barrage proc resets the cooldown. Points like these that increase dps while decreasing complexity are worth paying attention to.

 

Of course, all of those are relatively minor points and the guide is otherwise very useful and will get people performing near maximum, and these points are more the difference between first and second place in the olympics, rather than the difference between first and not qualifying. It's a great addition to the merc community. Bravo.

 

Trying to tell Aerro he is wrong is a complete waste of time. The guy's ego is laughably huge. Here is what will happen.

 

#1) "I am right because my guild is one of the top world!"

#2) "I am right because I said so and that makes me right cause I am always right"

#3) /innocent "This is my very own made up thread designed solely to help people. Stop telling me I'm wrong because thats just rude"

#4) "My gear is better than yours and I do more DPS so everything I say must be right"

 

People look at his stuff because he has a general grasp of how to play a mercenary, but don't ever tell him he is wrong...complete waste of breath.

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Trying to tell Aerro he is wrong is a complete waste of time. The guy's ego is laughably huge. Here is what will happen.

 

#1) "I am right because my guild is one of the top world!"

#2) "I am right because I said so and that makes me right cause I am always right"

#3) /innocent "This is my very own made up thread designed solely to help people. Stop telling me I'm wrong because thats just rude"

#4) "My gear is better than yours and I do more DPS so everything I say must be right"

 

People look at his stuff because he has a general grasp of how to play a mercenary, but don't ever tell him he is wrong...complete waste of breath.

 

My ego? I made a guide to help people. The fact that you had to come into this thread to attempt to put me down shows that I must have proved you wrong in some way or degree a while ago. If you are hurt, get over it. Its a game. I give people advice, and believe it or not- they appreciate it. Do I sit around advertising about myself? No. I merely write a guide and respond to questions. I don't stream. I don't make a website around myself. Heck, I don't even advertise my guild on these forums.

 

The fact remains that all of my work is done for the benefit of others. If you haven't noticed, I even asked for criticism so I could make the guide better. I even asked Acnoj if I could quote some of his information and give him credit for it in my guide.

 

If you don't like, don't bother reading it. I still perform at a top level. I am still in a top guild. Do I care what YOU think right now? No, because you clearly are acting childish.

 

Edit: I also went through your history of posts and everything you have said was either negative or hateful. Knock it off.

Edited by Aerro
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Been trying to get to over 1100 dps on EC HM (let's say the first 2 fights).

Looking at my parses it seems I have some lulls where do NO damage (maybe during the movement phases?)

Can anyone provide any tricks or advice on how to dps properly during movement phases or leaping phases

like the Zorn/Toth fight and the Tank fight?

 

Zorn/Toth - I usually have to stay with the same mob the whole fight due to melee dps following Toth.

 

Firebrand/Stormcaller - I am usually on stormcaller and try to have him throw me in to the bubbles (wherever they are). I probably have some issues doing DPS right after the bubble phase and getting back on Stormcaller.

 

My current thinking is:

Fight 1:

- Time the leaps perfectly in order to use an AOE on both bosses

- Time leaps perfectly in order to cast explosive dart and have it hit both bosses

- Time circle-phase perfectly and fire off a Fusion Missile just before needing to move

 

my last parse (you can see when not moving i can sustain ~1300-1500 dps, just not at all times):

http://www.torparse.com/a/6176

 

thanks for the help.

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I actually toss an explosive dart and rapid shots while moving. It doesn't do that much sustained DPS, but by the time the GCD is up on TM, I am able to begin casting it. Your heat also dissipates without you having to cast so you won't be gaining any extra heat when using Explosive Dart.
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Been trying to get to over 1100 dps on EC HM (let's say the first 2 fights).

Looking at my parses it seems I have some lulls where do NO damage (maybe during the movement phases?)

Can anyone provide any tricks or advice on how to dps properly during movement phases or leaping phases

like the Zorn/Toth fight and the Tank fight?

 

Zorn/Toth - I usually have to stay with the same mob the whole fight due to melee dps following Toth.

 

Firebrand/Stormcaller - I am usually on stormcaller and try to have him throw me in to the bubbles (wherever they are). I probably have some issues doing DPS right after the bubble phase and getting back on Stormcaller.

 

My current thinking is:

Fight 1:

- Time the leaps perfectly in order to use an AOE on both bosses

- Time leaps perfectly in order to cast explosive dart and have it hit both bosses

- Time circle-phase perfectly and fire off a Fusion Missile just before needing to move

 

my last parse (you can see when not moving i can sustain ~1300-1500 dps, just not at all times):

http://www.torparse.com/a/6176

 

thanks for the help.

 

As a ranged you are probably on zorn the whole fight right? ( apart from kills etc)

 

If you stand 29.5m( off towards the cliff wall) away, you will not get fearful from the jump....and you will be able to keep sustained dps on Zorn...

 

As for red circles , HSM, Railshot when not on cooldown, rapid shots, unload if you dare

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Aerro's guide has become my bible and i am always checking for ways to improve my merc as i gear it up. Even after the nerfs from previous patches i was glad to see that someone was able to show the class is still strong and viable.
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Aerro's guide has become my bible and i am always checking for ways to improve my merc as i gear it up. Even after the nerfs from previous patches i was glad to see that someone was able to show the class is still strong and viable.

 

Didn't you know, apparently I don't know what I'm talking about ;)

 

Anyways, thanks for the support! I don't understand why people feel the need to bash me or whisper me in-game telling me to stop being bad >.>

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Trying to tell Aerro he is wrong is a complete waste of time. The guy's ego is laughably huge. Here is what will happen.

 

#1) "I am right because my guild is one of the top world!"

#2) "I am right because I said so and that makes me right cause I am always right"

#3) /innocent "This is my very own made up thread designed solely to help people. Stop telling me I'm wrong because thats just rude"

#4) "My gear is better than yours and I do more DPS so everything I say must be right"

 

People look at his stuff because he has a general grasp of how to play a mercenary, but don't ever tell him he is wrong...complete waste of breath.

 

 

Look 2-3 posts ahead of your post and see where Aerro likes a suggestion and wants to use it in his guide. I do not know Aerro other than seeing his posts trying to help others in a constructive way. I have seen nothing to indicate he does not consider other ideas in min/max/theorycrafting. Additionally, I like the fact that he lists in his guide that he is in a leading guild. That lets me know he is probably not just some hack writing up a useless guide after clearing their first SM EV.

 

No need for such hating of someone who has helped so many.

Edited by Tobradex
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The guide is a good start. But is incorrect in a few areas.

 

Time for some math. The below is about what i do for damage.

 

Unload=7200 average damage total/3=2400dps

HSM=3500 average damage total/1.5=2333dps

RS=3300 average damage total/1.5=2200dps

TM=2400 average damage total/1.5=1600dps

Rapid Shots=900 average damage total/1.5=600dps

 

As you can see Unload comes out on top followed by HSM then RS then TM. With TM doing not so good dps. Also must weave some Rapid Shots in and that's some terrible dps there.

 

Railshot on 5 stacks only-This is wrong. We have 3 abilities which do great damage. Unload, Heat Seeker Missles and Railshot. Rotation is based on the cooldowns of HSM and RS while squeezing in a couple Unloads. Increasing the rotation to 16.5 seconds because you say you need a 5 stack instead of a 4 stack is a dps loss. So let's math the timeline. For some reason you couldn't get a 5 stack. Let's assume you were running or a halt was called for dps. I'll go with the running out of the red circle thingie twice.

 

16.5 seconds because you delayed RS to get a 5 stack

HSM+UL+TM+Rapid+UL+TM+Rapid+TM+RS

3500+7200+2400+900+7200+2400+900+2400+3300/16.5=1830dps

 

15 seconds and hit RS with a 4 stack instead of a 5 stack

HSM+UL+TM+Rapid+UL+TM+Rapid+RS

3500+7200+2400+900+7200+2400+900+(3113)/15=1841dps

 

Advantage goes to NOT delaying Railshot. If you have a 4 stack and RS is off cooldown you use it.

 

-Unload (with Barrage Proc)-This is incorrect as well. Why would you delay using your hardest hitting ability. You would if the damage difference between a Barrage proc and a non barrage proc made it to where you should delay it. However recall that the 25% extra damage is really only an 18% increase in damage as it's additive and not muliplicative.

 

1+.33=133%

1+.33+.25=157%

157/133=1.18% so that's an18% increase in damage from 133% to 157%

133/157=85% so that's a 15% decrease in damage from 157% to 133%

7200/3=2400dps as shown previously this is at 157%

7200*.85=6120/3=2040dps this is your damage and dps at 133%

 

Now barrage proc is 45%. That's once every 2 .22 TM's. You must ask yourself this. Do you want to spam TM when it does 1600dps or would you rather use a non barrage proc Unload that does 2040dps. The answer is obvious. The only exception would be if RS is coming off cool down in 4.5 seconds. You know you will be hitting a UL and TM. So may as well hit the TM first as it may proc barrage.

 

FYI always RS before HSM. It's superior doing it this way for venting heat.

Edited by deadandburied
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As for the talent builds. If you use the simulator it actually sims out best with approx 3.5% alacrity. You'd need to increase it to 9% to equal the dps at 3.5%. Now why is this you may ask. It's because of latency which is factored into the simulator. Basically your abilities need to be under 1.5 seconds. So the 5/31/5 build with 4% alacrity achieves this. However this is not accurate at all for me. My server has so much lag my casts average 1.72 seconds. The simulator is terrible at simulating lag. By my math this is what i get based on cast times.

 

1.364-1.50=1900dps

1.501-1.65=1727dps (worse case)

1.651-1.875=1520dps (worse case)

1.876-2.14=1332dps (worse case)

 

My server has an average lag of .230 with latency of 50ms this totals to .280. So my casts with no alacrity average 1.780. This puts me in the worse case scenario of 1520dps. Using the Ops dummy on the fleet with 200 people on the fleet i do from 1525-1575dps. Oddly Denova has about the same amount of lag. To get into the 1727dps range my casts need to be at 1.501-1.65. To achieve this it requires the 6/31/4 7% alacrity build plus 1 alacrity enhancemnt for 9.04% alacrity. I'll be switching to this soonish and do more testing to confirm it works out correctly.

 

So i approve the 6/31/4 build to help ensure you get into the lower cast times and higher damage range. So tired of this lag. It's killing everyones dps in our raids. Oh well at least it'll make Nitemare mode no cake walk.

Edited by deadandburied
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Barrage proc is 45%, but otherwise solid math.

 

Ha thanks for the correction. I always get something wrong. Updated to the correct value. I'm amazed i didn't screw up more than that. Commando here so just getting the ability names correctly for Mercs is difficult enough. While our dps will be slightly different it should still math out pretty close at +or-50dps.

 

You may also want to update your section on accuracy as it's easy to obtain 10%.

 

 

I ran about 50 sims with stats at varying amounts. Current BIS gear and gearing with future hardmode gear this is what i get for where you want your stats at.

 

power=920-1020 (if power is towards the low side then crit should be towards the high side)

accuracy=234-300 (289 is +10% but need as close to 10% as possible and Nitemare mode gear puts you slightly over)

crit=200-308 (if crit is towards the low side then power should be towards the high side)

surge=275-360 (Try not to exceed 300 as surge scales horribly due to DR. However Nitemare gear will force you to exceed 300 if you opt to not have slightly over 10% accuracy. 300 surge and 300 accuracy is optimal btw. Yes slightly over 10% accuracy is better then under 10% and increasing surge)

Edited by deadandburied
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Current BIS gear and gearing with future hardmode gear this is what i get for where you want your stats at.

 

power=920-1020 (if power is towards the low side then crit should be towards the high side)

accuracy=234-300 (289 is +10% but need as close to 10% as possible and Nitemare mode gear puts you slightly over)

crit=200-308 (if crit is towards the low side then power should be towards the high side)

surge=275-360 (Try not to exceed 300 as surge scales horribly due to DR. However Nitemare gear will force you to exceed 300 if you opt to not have slightly over 10% accuracy. 300 surge and 300 accuracy is optimal btw. Yes slightly over 10% accuracy is better then under 10% and increasing surge)

 

I got the same result when looking at what's likely to be on the next tier of gear, increasing Surge and Accuracy equally is optimal even though you go over the Accuracy soft cap. Swapping either stat for Alacrity was a small loss to sustained DPS. In their tier above that we'll probably have to drop both a Surge and an Accuracy enhancement for two Alacrity enhancements, but that's pretty far off.

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The simulator is terrible at simulating lag

 

Actually it's quite good. It's just that the default settings seem to not apply to you.

 

There are numerous lag options you can use:

 

They're documented here:

 

http://code.google.com/p/simulationcraft/wiki/Options#Latency

 

gcd_lag : your basic server latency

 

channel_lag: generally double server latency, and is the delay loop in channel bar updating between client/server

 

queue_lag: how the server queues your action

 

default_world_lag: again basically server latency. This one is used to mimic cooldowns being extended due to server lag. That is, your client won't let you use an ability because it is on cooldown, but on the server the cooldown has already finished and that notification is in transit still.

 

and each of those have a _stddev option to allow the values to be varied during the simulation.

 

strict_gcd_queue basically mimics the queue option in game

 

reaction_time is documented elsewhere. But this is used in .react action lists so you can mimic the time needed to react to an event such as a buff or proc.

 

And as you state, these options can have a noticeable effect on the value of alacrity especially at smaller values.

 

I am sceptical of the values you suggest. I doubt you have a 2 second cast time on your tracer missile if you sit there and spam it. The queue option in the interface should allow for that. I have mine set to 25 since I get very good latency. How have you determined the 0.230 value?

Edited by cortea
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Then i suggest you actually try changing some settings. Change the settings for world lag in the options tab. Try low 100ms, then med 300ms, then high 500ms. Oddly dps increases as world lag increases. How i wish that was true. Now try using the overides tab and inputing the settings you posted. Then get back to me. If you find anything that actually works correctly. And i mean a correct amount of dps loss as i previously showed and not 50 or 80, please get back to me as i'm not overly familiar with the program. Nor am i a coder and may be doing it wrong.

 

I Use SCLR to view my combat log. I also look at the combat log text file as SCLR doesn't show decimals. I also use Torparse log view which does show decimals. I just now picked a random Fleet Ops dummy test combat log. Looking at ability activate for the 1st 3 abilities ie Grav Roundx3 for my commando. I typically spam that at the start of a fight. Time between ability activate 1st and 2nd is 1.746 seconds. Time between 2nd and 3rd is 1.807 seconds. During bad lag spikes this exceeds 2 seconds. On average though it's about 1.720 seconds. Hence my reason for stating .230ms of lag with 50ms latency for .280 seconds added to my casts of 1.44 seconds which equals 1.72 seconds total as i showed in paragraph 1 of my other post.

Edited by deadandburied
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I've used several before and they behaved as expected. I believe Ancoj also has used some and observed they behaved as expected. That is increasing latency decreased dps, and vice versa. I'll run the test you suggested and see if it behaves incorrectly.

 

Your methodology of testing your lag is flawed. Looking at a sample size of 3 hits from combat is going to be heavily subject to variability, not to mention confirmation bias since we all want to blame lag. And otherwise looking at the intervals of hits from actual operation combat is not purely a factor of server lag.

 

One test you could be doing is spamming tracer on a dummy non-stop until you hit a heat cap. Reset and do it again. Do this several times and then take the average time across all 40-50-60 however many you did to see what the real time inbetween attacks is.

 

Also you want to pay attention to what your ability action queue window is set to.

Edited by cortea
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I've already done that. I didn't get my average based on my last post. It's from numerous logs over the last 2 months. I just showed a quick sample. I also stated i tried 0 25 50 and 75 for queing. Trust me i do plenty of testing weekly and sometimes daily. If your server doesn't have lag then count yourself lucky. And yes the lag is extremely variable. But since we raid during prime time this is obviously the worse time for lag. And please refrain from suggesting i'm trying to blame lag that doesn't exist when it in fact does on my server. FYI we did not have this lag on our previous server. It effects all of us during our 16 man hard mode Denova ops. I'm still where i should be on bosses. That's #1 on some fights and 2 or 3 or 4 on others. 9 times out of 10 i'm the guy on the ground running around for Stormcaller/Firebrand fight with a sage being the other. Overall for the nite i'm #1 or #2. Got another commando that's beats me more often than not as he's just slightly better than me. We typically run with 4 dps commandos. Edited by deadandburied
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