So I unfortunately chose a gunslinger as the class I would level. The bugginess with cover made sad but I figured ill stick it out cause it should get better. I tried out all the specs while I was leveling and found myself energy starved as DF and sab in solo pve and getting my face punched in as sharpshooter in pvp.

So after many respecs I stayed sharpshooter because its the most effective for soloing. Now I'm 50 and pvp is horrible, In all honesty I could see huttball being ok as SS because of the ledges but out of 10 matches I never got it once. The other warzones keep you right on even ground with everyone and require lots of movement which is terrible for a gunslinger.

At this point my respec fee is over 120k so I dare not try another spec cause if I dont like it thats another 150k gone.

And no I dont want to start over again while all my friends/guildmates are now 50 and want to do hardmodes. I will say pve groups are ok but does this mean that I can no longer enjoy the game without agroup to instance with.

So I unfortunately chose a gunslinger as the class I would level. The bugginess with cover made sad but I figured ill stick it out cause it should get better. I tried out all the specs while I was leveling and found myself energy starved as DF and sab in solo pve and getting my face punched in as sharpshooter in pvp.

 

So after many respecs I stayed sharpshooter because its the most effective for soloing. Now I'm 50 and pvp is horrible, In all honesty I could see huttball being ok as SS because of the ledges but out of 10 matches I never got it once. The other warzones keep you right on even ground with everyone and require lots of movement which is terrible for a gunslinger.

 

At this point my respec fee is over 120k so I dare not try another spec cause if I dont like it thats another 150k gone.

 

And no I dont want to start over again while all my friends/guildmates are now 50 and want to do hardmodes. I will say pve groups are ok but does this mean that I can no longer enjoy the game without agroup to instance with.

you know you play a mmo hu ?

... and dirty tricks is you friend

Not many people are aware of this, but a level ~24 who is fully geared for 24 and using the +stat stim will have nearly 50% more damage on certain abilities than a 50 who is using a +stat stim, but only has 1st tier pvp gear.

Example:

My level 26 commando has 2k damage listed on the grav icon (did 8.1k in 3 hits with wz buff). most level 50's have around 1.3k before they start gearing up. As I level I know it will decrease and at level 4x-50 I might only feel decent due to demo round.

you know you play a mmo hu ?

 

 

 

 

 

... and dirty tricks is you friend

I wish that the moment I logged on there was a group ready to go but that doesnt happen all the time.

And is DF still decent for pve dps cause when I tried it at earlier levels the energy to damage output isnt that great

So I unfortunately chose a gunslinger as the class I would level. The bugginess with cover made sad but I figured ill stick it out cause it should get better. I tried out all the specs while I was leveling and found myself energy starved as DF and sab in solo pve and getting my face punched in as sharpshooter in pvp.

 

So after many respecs I stayed sharpshooter because its the most effective for soloing. Now I'm 50 and pvp is horrible, In all honesty I could see huttball being ok as SS because of the ledges but out of 10 matches I never got it once. The other warzones keep you right on even ground with everyone and require lots of movement which is terrible for a gunslinger.

 

At this point my respec fee is over 120k so I dare not try another spec cause if I dont like it thats another 150k gone.

 

And no I dont want to start over again while all my friends/guildmates are now 50 and want to do hardmodes. I will say pve groups are ok but does this mean that I can no longer enjoy the game without agroup to instance with.

i have 1 thing to say to you make a new toon and get him on your guild and make it so officers and gm can recrute

you know you play a mmo hu ?

 

 

 

 

 

... and dirty tricks is you friend

this

my alt 28 lvl atm and im very effective in the pvp maybe my damages not uber atm but CC helping to group a lot

I feel the same.. Wish i had gone Scoundrel, i just get destroyed by every class in PVP, its always the same they steam in when your covered stun you, start doing you damage, and by the time your down in cover again your dead.

Just started a new char.. BH.

You do realize that the respec cost resets after a week, right? It tells you the old price, but then after that it tells you that it reset.

are you saying that it will state the old price but not actually charge you that, cause it still says my respec is going to be over 120k and i dont want to be on the bad end of that gamble

I feel the same.. Wish i had gone Scoundrel, i just get destroyed by every class in PVP, its always the same they steam in when your covered stun you, start doing you damage, and by the time your down in cover again your dead.

 

Just started a new char.. BH.

IF you suck as a gunslinger you will also suck as a BH.

It's funny how cocky mercenaries underestimate me and get decimated.

Hunker down 20 seconds immunity of cc, gg. Most classes try to cc you and blow their CD's on it. Don't worry you're in cover still, which also gives you +20% defense(dodge)and 3 stacks of absorbed dmg. You can also pop dodge(100% miss) and defense screen. All will help. Nut kick for 4 seconds stun to use speedshot, after that it is aimed shot: 20% armor bybass and pushback if enemy is within 10 yards. 2+ melees on you? Press Pulse Detonator will push them back a ****tons of meters and they are stuck for 5 seconds.

cocky Operatives? Sure they stun you and get you down to 60% hp(or 30% if you suck and have bad gear), after that they better run!.

I'm always top dmg.

Oh and yeah if you are being pounded by several enemies you will die without backup, that counts for every class. Tanks will hold out longer, bu tthat's the only difference.

Just don't pvp with your gunslinger before hitting 50. I felt gimped at lower levels.

tl;dr l2play.

I don't get how GS are bad, I roll a GS and I wreck in PVP. Not sure if you know this but GS are on par with TOP DPS. The reason why your getting targeted alot in pvp is because people know that GS are hard hitters, even against tanks I can still manage to reek havok on them.

I have a rotation I go with that gives me the best possible DPS as possible.

all I have to say about dying alot is to stay in cover, not sure if you know this but your defense goes up with you being in cover, so its a bad idea to start running at the first sign of trouble. Turn on your defense screen and dodge. you'll be invincible for 3 seconds, in which you can kick the other person's *** in that time and if you have it turn illegal mods on as well to increase your casting time between attacks, which makes getting a crit with charged shot alot easier, making your aimed shot alot shorter, to about 1.2 sec.

you just have to know how to play your cards right with GS, its a gamble with that class,

reason why it has cover is that its one of the hardest hitters in pvp than any other classes.

The problem with gunslinger right now is not that we suck its just that we have a hard time comparing to a sage / commando in PvP.

As the OP stated SS isn't really that functional in PvP. With the mobile nature of a lot of the warzones, the bugs and lag with the cover system, and in my experience the fact that gunslingers are the first target of any decent premade. ((since we are the squishiest, its pretty well known now that the sorc channeled slow breaks a lot of our cover abilities, and that we do not have the escape tools other classes have))

So you typically end up in a more mobile sabo / DF spec, which you can actually do quite well it.

The issues is though that the dot spec's for commando / merc and sage / sorc are pretty much exactly the same. 2-3 dots with similar damage, in the case of sorcs there dots actually do slightly better damage. We get the same damage types internal / elemental and the ability rotations work pretty much the same way. Stack 2-3 dots maybe a debuff, and then use a channel. With a few abilities for instant burst.

The key differences relate to the fact that the hybrids have better access to their CC. If your running and gunning as a gunslinger in a DF spec and an OPerative jumps on you. If you want to use your knock back you have to enter cover, and then use the ability. That takes 1-2 seconds. If your a sage or commando you just hit the button and they go flying instantly. Sage / commando also get a ranged stun vs a melee stun, and the run speed buff on sage is simply great utility in any warzone or pvp situation.

But the big overwhelming issue we have is that offspec healing is just to good in pvp. Its way to effective and beneficial to team play.

A sage or commando is going to do pretty much exactly what I do if they are in their dot specs. You dot people up, stay mobile, try to LoS to avoid FF, and you pop out and use your channel and a few instants to burst people down. In my case I try to drop into cover whenever possible. But if it gets into a situation where I am heavily dotted up and being focused hard and I need to break LoS, if I am out of LoS of my healer I'm dead on a gunslinger. The dots will finish me off. If I am on a commando or sage I can self heal up and my healer can focus on other people. Additionally if my healer starts to get some nasty focus, if an OPerative jumps on them. I'm pretty much limited to tossing out a CC and dps'ing them on my gunslinger. Root them, stun them, and wait for my healer to get away. If I am on a sage or commando. I can run up knock them back, stun them and slow them just like on my gunslinger, and I can pop an alacrity adrenal or relic, and start spam healing them for 4-5k per crit, 2k base heal. Dps stats double for healing stats. Its really easy to get 300-400k damage and 100-200k healing. Tieing on damage with a gunslinger, who has to break LoS and wait to be healed back up, rather than healing himself back up.

So our one dps tree that has a real advantage over the others, the one that gives us a lot of the really nice burst dps, has some real issue when it comes to mobility, namely stemming from the issues / bugs with the cover system. Abilities firing off but not doing damage. Being CC'd with the CC immunity up, cover lagging out when you enter and exit it. Odd lag when you try to use abilities like the knock back and damage reducer, and the fact that you have to be in LoS of enemies, immobile to do damage. Even if your popping up and down and just doing quick charged burst / trick shot rotations, your still going to be LoS'd in a lot of warzones like voidstar and civil war.

So its not that we suck. We can do quite well. Its just that the hybrid classes have a real advantage at the moment. While the cover system is semi crippled due to buggyness, and the offspec heals just so awesome we are rather stuck. We are lacking something to really use to compete against those offspec heals with.

I'm thinking that if they can make the cover system work more reliably, move some of those core CC abilities, off the cover system, and perhaps give us a little bit extra utility, something to counter that offspec healing. Kind of like how sentinel / mara get a heal debuff. We'd be more comparable.

It's just at the moment sage / sorc, and commando / merc are so awesome from a group perspective in PvP there really isn't much of a reason to bring a gunslinger along.

There's a reason you see 5-6 sage / sorc and commando / merc per warzone, or at least on my server you do. 50-75% of every premade!

There's a reason you see 5-6 sage / sorc and commando / merc per warzone, or at least on my server you do. 50-75% of every premade!

Theres more of a reason why you see more commandos than gunslingers and its not related to the dot specs only. However people here will be in such denial about it that I wont post the detailed post with numbers. The sniper community have at least catched on to it.

Give you a hint. Compare all gunslinger sharpshooter main shots (trick shot, aimed shot, charged burst, speed shot) to gunnery commando abilities. Take into account

• Lowest mitigation stats in pvp are a sorc who has 10% defense and 20% armor mitigation.
  
• Gunnery commando main damage ignores 48% armor, 100% defense, 100% shield
  
• Sharpshooter gunslinger main damage ignores 20% armor (flourish shot), 0% defense and 0% shield.
  
• Majority of players have much higher defensive stats than a lowbie sorc.
  

Theres more of a reason why you see more commandos than gunslingers and its not related to the dot specs only. However people here will be in such denial about it that I wont post the detailed post with numbers. The sniper community have at least catched on to it.

 

Give you a hint. Compare all gunslinger sharpshooter main shots (trick shot, aimed shot, charged burst, speed shot) to gunnery commando abilities. Take into account

• Lowest mitigation stats in pvp are a sorc who has 10% defense and 20% armor mitigation.
  
• Gunnery commando main damage ignores 48% armor, 100% defense, 100% shield
  
• Sharpshooter gunslinger main damage ignores 20% armor (flourish shot), 0% defense and 0% shield.
  
• Majority of players have much higher defensive stats than a lowbie sorc.
  

Yeah but my post was already a wall of text so I decided to go at it from a group role / play style perspective! Its a bit silly that when cover actually works properly it only helps us against our mirror and CC from JK / SW cc like force leap.

You sound very bitter and obviously didn't understand what class you chose when you chose him.

At the moment the only thing that makes gunslingers struggle in pvp are the bugs. The ability delays, the canceled abilities, the cover being so slow and glitchy.

The class itself though is fantastic. You just need to learn how to be mobile, how to know where the enemies are, and when to hunker down.

In just about every WZ I'm in, I do the most damage, the top 2 or 3 kills, and always the least deaths. Usually solo too, not grouped.

If you think your problems will suddenly vanish because you reroll a BH, you are deluding yourself.

I feel the same.. Wish i had gone Scoundrel, i just get destroyed by every class in PVP, its always the same they steam in when your covered stun you, start doing you damage, and by the time your down in cover again your dead.

 

Just started a new char.. BH.

You'll get rolled as a BH too if you didn't realize you had hunker down as a gunslinger (20 seconds of immunity to CC and pushes and gunslinger alone gives you interrupt immunity).

Sabo = Flourish->Sabo Charge->Shock Charge->Vital->Shrap bomb if you go hybrid. That's the setup, you now have 20% armor penetration, 4k or so in dots and the sabo charge + additional charges. Set it off with either aimed->speed shot->quick draw or speed-shot->quick draw depending on whether they have heavy armor or less. 9/10 people are dead at this point.

If they start coming towards you, hunker down. Dirty kick if you need to slow them down. Interrupt tracer spam. Leg shot marauders and juggs. Cool down/sabotage to reset cooldown as necessary and sabotage to increase your burst against healers.

Anyway, sabo/bomber hybrid is *very, very* strong in PVP. Not to mention shrap bomb, vital and shock charge all own face in Alderaan and Voidstar and you should really focus on just killing whoever you can and spamming pulse detonate in Huttball.

I'm level 32, Sharpshooter spec, and like others have said GS has tons of tools, you just need to use them, all the time, don't save them. If I think anyone is targeting me I throw up Hunker down and the shield. If they come for me so what, I'm not going anywhere. I don't care if 3 of them come you have a better chance trying to kill one than running and killing nothing. The only time I run is if I can pulse grenade and take off quickly, but it usually leads to death. In 1v1 I will move and fire leg shot if needed but 90% of the time I will just stay put, especially if hunker down is up.

They come for you: Aim knocks them back, pulse sends them back, leg shot immobilizes them, kick them in the nuts, pulse grenade, and dodge. Level 50's give me trouble because of their expertise damage reduction, but I mow through 40's pretty easily, even if they are up in my face and got the jump on me. Just get back into cover, hunker down, unleash all of your tools. Sorc's are fun to kill because we can also interrupt their lightning and healing which gives us an advantage on top of all of our other tools.

One level 40 assassin was so tired of me killing him last night that he just ignored the huttball action and came for me every time. In 8 battles he got the jump on me from stealth every time, and I still killed him in 5 of those 8 battles. I don't think he killed me a single time while I had hunker down up. When the enemy pulls you out of cover and you can't get back in it quickly (choke, whirlwind, Op knockdown, etc.), that's when it's bad news. I don't know of any other skill that ignores all forms of CC besides Unremitting which is a talent for Jedi Guardians that they must spend points to get.

GS has NO problems in PVP. I play a SS and have since I started the character. I recently got my full set of champion gear, but even before that I owned in PVP. The more gear I got the less deaths I got. Like another poster mentioned its quite easy to hit top 1-3 damage and kills in a map and only have a few deaths.

The main thing about the GS is, you have tons of abilities that are situational. You have to learn to use them in the right situations. But first and foremost you need to learn the maps, where to stand, and hang out at. Don't go out in the open, and dont be a hero and rush a group by yourself. As a SS you can drain health down SO FAST! You want to try and take out the squishy dps first in my opinion. That way you start to change the course of the fight as fast as possible. This game is all about numbers. You need to burn theirs down.

GS has so many instant cast attacks. That with speed shot=MURDER. Hunker down is amazing! Learn to use it. Also dirty kick, and leg shot. Pulse detonator in conjunction with leg shot is your friend on melee.

We have the longest range in the game. So if your smart about your positioning you will always get the first shot. Which is followed by instant shots, and maybe even speed shot. People just cant stay alive to that crazy burst damage.

Also, anyone who is big into PVP, I woudl recomend going into Biochem. Actually I would say its a must for PVP'ers. You can get an additional item to use like a relic, stims to put on at all times (even reusable), and reusable medpacks. Having all of that with the other abilities makes the GS even more beast.

Again my experience is only with the SS. I cant comment on the other builds. But SS is bad ***. I specced to get the reduced cooldown on dirty kick. I love the extra speed and the lower cool down for my CC. That extra speed helps to get out of alot of sticky situations.

All in all, I think its just a L2P issue. Know your maps, stay with your team, and most importantly, learn when to use your abilities. This class OWNS!!!

P.S. If you havn't set your cover abilite in the preferences section. Dont use the ability command. Aslo change your abilities from queing up to 1 in a row. I did and it seems to help use my abilities a bit faster. Good Luck!

My current experience as a level 50 Gunslinger:

• 300k-500k damage in every warzone.
  
• Can 1v1 every single class - only tanks are sometimes an issue.
  
• Successfully 1v2d a pair of level 50 Sorcerors last night. And it wasn't close.
  
• No energy issues whatsoever.
  
• TONS of CC.
  
• Hunker Down.
  

Not sure it's the class as much as it's the player. I have zero issues as a Gunslinger, and the above items only take PvP into account. If there's an easier class to play in Flashpoints and PvE in general, I'd love to see an argument made on its behalf.

That being said, take some time to learn your skills. Stop respeccing so much - the differences between SS, Sabo, and DF are enough to throw consistency out the window. Pick something and stick with it. If you're having issues with energy and damage output, SS is your best bet.

I also do not understand the gunslinger QQ.

This class is extremely powerful and probably has the highest damage potential of any class when not focused. when you are focused you have plenty of tools for getting away alive. Yes operatives and scoundrels hurt and can nearly kill you in a knockdown duration but once you get up you have about 4 ways to get the off of you and they will die if they dont vanish.

Been playing this class since launch been 50 for 2 weeks. i've hit 500k damage in wz's. 90% of the time i'm in the top 3 damage very often number 1.

Theis class is not easy, we are squishy just understand that you are not meant to tank damage, you are meant to avoid it by using LoS, range and the plenty of tricks you have to create range.

My gunslinger is champ/cent geared, valor 53, specced for dirty fighting, and i love him.

edited: "kockdown" to knockdown.

unfortunately if you lag atm the only "fix" is to upgrade what you can or get a better computer

Oh, so it's out computers? It's our computers with well powerful processors and video cards that makes us SOMETIMES have horrible ability delay in pvp, but never in pve? That's quite a special selective poorly upgraded computer we all have.