Do the activation times get any better?

 

I'm lvl 21 right now and the activation times make it seem like my DPS is low.

..what?

Activation times won't change unless you raise alacrity.

alacrity may be better at higher levels but once you start gearing in PVP armor it will drop again. So what's the point? You get one skill later that gives you 20% boost to alacrity.

Activation times stay the same, but depending on the talent tree you go with you can get instant Charged Burst (SS tree) after activating cover and if it crits second off from aimed shot (SS tree), popping out of cover and back in just for that is reason enough plus you refresh your Ballistic Dampers (SS tree).

Burst Volley (SS tree) talent gives a nice alacrity buff that activates from Aimed Shot and Black Market Mods (DF tree) passive 4% isnt too shabby aswell.

Also when you get Trickshot (SS tree) with Recoil Control talent it lessens the need for casting to achieve the damage.

 

In Saboteur tree you use more your Clobal Cooldowns (instant cast) to throw all sorts of bells and whistles on the target before you start casting (depending on mob), and if its multiple targets, the aoe abilitys in this tree makes life much easier for faster group kills, but there is no casting time reducing talents.

 

DF tree is all about the dots, aoe or single target, basically goes as Saboteur tree with the play style: throw stuff on the mob and shoot after till its dead, refesh dots if nessesary. No casting time reductions in this tree since its dots that do much of the damage even while you cast other abilities.

Edited January 26, 2012 by Ani-waya

As the last post said, there are skills to use to reduce your cast time. I recommend against stacking alacrity and using burst volley. Instead if you choose to go sharpshooter you should pick up the instant charged burst when you enter cover (this is great when it doesn't bug) and the 1s reduced activation time on aim shot when you crit with charged burst or speedshot. A good rotation I like to use with all my cooldowns is sab charge, smugglers luck while the GCD is still going (it does not consume a GCD), instant charged burst, 1.5s aim shot, trick shot, quickdraw. That's normally a 5 shot kill. Unfortunately that relies on 60s cd abilities! After that you may want to throw in speed shot or hope charge burst crits... or you can suck it up and do a 2.5s aim shot.

Trickshot and Speed Shot will be available at about lvl 30 and 36 respectively, and they have no cast time. Basically that means you won't spend so much casting time anymore.

 

Until then you do have to spam Charged Burst and Aimed Shot, and the only help you get is 1sec-reduced cast time on Aimed Shot sometimes.

once you hit 50 you'll get a skill that will drop all cooldowns by .5 for 20 seconds. (Huge reduction.)

 

 

If you continue specing into sharpshooter you will get several skills that will reduce XS freighter flyby (level 47 AoE) and hunker down by 15 seconds. You also will eventually get a skill that makes charged burst an instant cast for the first 5 seconds after taking cover.

Edited January 27, 2012 by Elyons