Hey there. I've recently done some testing and caculations on a pure assault spec which has Assault plastique, vs an assault hybrid spec which focuses on refreshing and using high impact bolt. My findings are here:

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=2691241#post2691241

to sum it up, The final results of my little investigation show that the hybrid spec barely edges out the assault plastique spec when ammo is not taken into consideration, and assuming a perfect rotation. I believe this is due to the fact that assault plastique is so heavily affected by armor, that as sustained damage, it is simply not as effective as a rotation which allows you to use high impact bolt more. In addition, the greater damage output from all of your other abilities from being being able to pick up other talents makes the 4/6/31 build slightly inferior.

Another very important fact to note, is that the assault plastique spec is much more ammo intensive then the hybrid, because the ammo saved from using more free high impact bolts, vs. spending 2 ammo on Assault plastique is tremendous, especially in the assault's ammo hungry build.

The advantage that I would see with the AP build, is that the burst is of course higher than the hybrids, and the fact that it is slightly less RNG dependant.

All in all, in terms of PURE DAMAGE, the two are pretty even, and one doesn't completely trump the other.

I suppose it comes down to preference. The two main differences between the specs is that one has much more burst potential and less RNG, while the other is much less ammo intensive, which might lead to higher sustained damage because the ammo saved can go into using main abilities instead of hammershot.

Like always, I am just trying to find out which spec is the best, and provide those all of you out there with something tangible to help guide you on your path. In the future, i plan to use a similar method in order to compare this hybrid to a mostly tactics one, and then a full tactics spec, although as you can imagine, that would be slightly more difficult.

Please share your thoughts and concerns, and I hope you all find my work of help to you in your min-maxing endeavours. =)

Well, it all seems fine and dandy. all in all a good read.

What i like about AP, is the fact that when u have burned an enemy down to about 10-15% and suspect they will go into stealth/ stun u and run away..stuff like that...u throw AP and u can be pretty sure that u will hve the last laugh.

My AP hits on an average for about 2k.

I concur. AP is a burst damage tool, and it means that for a PvPer, x/x/31 is a better deal since you can 1-2-3 with AP + Pulse/Inc. Round + HiB for a killing level of burst damage.

On the other hand, HiB-focused builds keep up a solid DPS over time, since as mentioned they're more able to keep a stable energy level going. I'm PvE assault at 41, and it's nice being able to keep up a steady and effective pummeling on whatever I'm shooting up at the time. I'm keeping up with the rest of the DPS in groups, and if I'm not careful I'm actually peeling the mob off tanks (which being a Vanguard, I can at least hit my Reactive and throttle back a bit to let the tank get control again.).

Very good read OP. Very very good read. And as stated above, the hybrid seems much more like a sustained DPS type build with focus on PvE. But it could do well in PvP! Just depends on the player's skill level at hand.

But I still prefer the burst of AP with my PvP experience. Its hard to live without it after using it a few times. The evil chuckle you can enjoy as you see the damage hit between 2k-4K on one target depending on a critical that is.

Either way, GREAT JOB ON THE THREAD POST! Its really useful to see how the numbers roll out.

You can use the spreadsheets on sithwarrior.com to come up with more consistent numbers. According to them (I didn't test this, just going off of what their spread sheets say), losing Assault Plastique is a DPS loss.

Also, is there some reason you felt the need to start a new thread about this? Adding this to your existing post would have consolidated this info a lot more.

Looks like the hybrid spec uses Ion Pulse a lot more, which imposes a higher reliance on being in close range to your target. In a PvP environment this is often not possible to maintain, especially if your priorities are not to maximize damage but to further objectives, stay within guarding range etc. For instance, what do you use when you are 10m+ from your target and you've already used IR + HIB once? The situation presents itself quite often in my experience.

Conversely, are you forced to use AP once in range? I think an interesting comparison would be the pure vs hybrid builds using the same Ion Pulse reliant rotation that attempts to maximize damage through HIB. Then we'd know what the cost for purely the option to have AP is and learn also whether the pure build should regulate its use of AP more depending on range.

Looks like the hybrid spec uses Ion Pulse a lot more, which imposes a higher reliance on being in close range to your target. In a PvP environment this is often not possible to maintain, especially if your priorities are not to maximize damage but to further objectives, stay within guarding range etc. For instance, what do you use when you are 10m+ from your target and you've already used IR + HIB once? The situation presents itself quite often in my experience.

 

Conversely, are you forced to use AP once in range? I think an interesting comparison would be the pure vs hybrid builds using the same Ion Pulse reliant rotation that attempts to maximize damage through HIB. Then we'd know what the cost for purely the option to have AP is and learn also whether the pure build should regulate its use of AP more depending on range.

I'd like to note that this comparison was made with purely PVE in mind, as i believe the assault plastique spec trumps the hybrid for pvp burst purposes without a doubt.

On a second note, the hybrid spec DOES focus on maximizing HIB damage as much as possible, and is reliant on having HIB procs to make up for the loss of assault plastique.

I'm not sure about your second question though. Both specs generally use the same rotation, except the AP one has assault plastique used on cooldown, so if you were to compare the two builds with assault plastique as a backburner, it'd be almost the same exact rotation except the 4/6/31 would have lower numbers overall because you dont have the talent points the hybrid gets to pick up.