Saboteur spec is all about AoE. This spec is great for what I call actively defending. By actively defending, I mean responding to attacks on your controlled objectives. Sitting on defense at an uncontested node is a waste of your abilities (some exceptions). You can deal twice the damage, in almost half the time, with less kills, by actively defending. This is a support/utility spec, not a beast damage spec. It is mainly to complement a group, not run solo. Sharpshooter is the single target, high damage spec. You can still put up comparable numbers catching enemies with this spec when they stack together.

 

Updated for 2.0!

 

GEAR

 

Armor: Before 55, anything will do thanks to the bolster system. Once you hit 55, you will want the Field Tech or Professionals PvP sets. Mixing the sets for the stats you want is also viable. You will need to buy Partisan first. Conqueror gear requires the corresponding part of Partisan gear for the purchase.

 

Accessories:Again, Field Tech, Professional's, or a mix. The others are also acceptable based on what stats you need, but are generally meant for Scoundrels.

 

For more information on Field Tech versus Professional's gear, read here.

 

Relics: Relic of Serendipitous Assault and either Relic of Elemental Transcendence or Relic of Cerulean Nova.

 

STATS

 

This is the stat priority you want to go by:

 

1. Accuracy - You need 100% for special attacks(90% basic - mouse over your character sheet to see the difference).
   
2. Critical - You need 30% unbuffed.
   
3. Surge - You need 75%.
   
4. Power - No limit/whatever is left.
   

 

Cunning may also be viable, but does have diminishing returns after a certain point.

 

PvP Spec

 

Here's my build link, and here's why:

*Choices in bold are considered mandatory.

 

SABOTEUR TREE

 

 

DIRTY FIGHTING TREE

 

 

SHARPSHOOTER TREE

 

 

STRATEGY

 

 

• Keep in cover as much as possible to prevent classes from jumping to you.
  
• Use range to your advantage by letting enemies come to you.
  
• Two is the magic number you generally want to use to determine whether to use an AoE ability.
  
• Flourish Shot reduces healing on the target, so make it your second or third shot.
  
• Use your CC to keep enemies at a distance, or stun them when they get close so you can readjust your position.
  
• Ready For Anything gives you amazing stealth detection when behind cover. Keep your back to a wall when guarding.
  

 

 

Crowd Control (CC)

1. 
    
   
2. Flash Grenade - Stuns targets, but deals no damage. Any damage breaks the effect, including any player's DoTs. Careful of other players tunneling. Good as an interrupt too.
   
3. Dirty Kick - Stun that you can run from, or burn them down through. Not affected by damage.
   
4. Leg Shot - Roots people regardless of resolve. Damage breaks the root.
   
5. Shock Charge/Incendiary Grenade - You can use this strategically. Drop a Shock Charge on the target to start the damage, then drop your Incendiary Grenade on top of them when you're ready for the stun. You can attack during this stun also.
   
6. Pulse Detonator - Knocks enemies back, potentially off ledges or into traps.
   

 

Defensive Cooldowns

 

1. 
   As a medium armored class, you can consider yourself a delicate flower and not suited to take damage. Use your defensive cooldowns, they mitigate an amazing amount of damage and are on pretty short cooldown timers.
   
2. Defense Screen - Absorbs moderate amount of incoming damage for 15 seconds.
   
3. Dodge - Dodges all ranged and melee attacks for 3 seconds. Not to be confused with special attacks. Also cleanses harmful effects.
   
4. Scrambling Field - Puts up a huge shield over you and any allies nearby. Reduces damage to all of you by 20% for 15 seconds. You can move, but the shield stays in place.
   

 

Here's a video to demonstrate some of these strategies.

 

Warzones:

 

Huttball - Stay on the uppermost catwalks and shoot down while out of harms way. Use Pulse Detonator to knock enemies off the catwalks (or into traps). Lots of opportunities to be LoSed here, so use your Wounding Shot, Speed Shot, and Shock Charge DoTs to keep the damage going when you don't have a clear shot. Pass the ball, do not run it unless there is no other option unless you are near the end zone. High Tail It makes you nearly unstoppable near the end zone.

Alderaan - Use your AoE to your advantage. As enemies stack up close on the platform, it's a great opportunity for your AoEs to overwhelm healers. You can also use your AoE to interrupt an enemy capping a console, by attacking another enemy close by. When you see enemies approaching, move to the front of the platform so you can begin attacking the instant they are in range.

Voidstar - You can use your AoE to interrupt multiple enemies planting the bomb. Try to stay between the pillars and the door when defending. Stay beyond the pillars when attacking. Your Flash Grenade is amazing for catching an entire wave of rezzers returning to battle, buying you precious seconds for a plant.

Novare Coast - Use your AoE to interrupt multiple enemies capping a bunker. Always keep the bunker interior within your LoS when defending, and stay inside the sandbags. When attacking a bunker, stay outside them.

Novare Coast - Use your AoE to interrupt multiple enemies capping a bunker. Always keep the bunker interior within your LoS when defending, and stay inside the sandbags. When attacking a bunker, stay outside them.

Ancient Hypergate - Your AoE is perfect for clearing out the orb room. With stealth detection, you also make an amazing guard for the pylon.

 

CONCLUSION

 

This guide is only meant to cover what you need to know to get started. My intention is to get people running as fast and easily as possible. I don't throw in every detail because I don't want to overwhelm or confuse people. I plan to continually update the guide with more in the future. This guide is always a work in progress, so please feel free to post your questions, suggestions, or what you'd like to see in future updates. You can also post on my blog where I have the main guide posted.

Edited May 10, 2013 by JeepWithGuy

Good guide, lots of good tips in there, but I noticed two mistakes with the abilities for the sabateur tree.

 

1st, insurrection is a 1 point ability, not 2

 

And 2nd, you left out pandemonium which allows us to activate a instant charged burst after pulse detonator.

 

Also, as another tip to all saboteurs, incendiary grenade will stop capping for its entire duration, which offer 18 seconds of a guaranteed no capping. A very valuable asset

Edited July 23, 2012 by currann

Thanks. Many, many attempts at formatting my posts ate the Pandemonium line. And I just plain missed out on the insurrection. Much obliged.

Your welcome glad to have helped

Just read your guide and adjusted my play style/spec accordingly and have seen drastic improvements just in the past few warzones in terms of damage done, and overall utility/ability to hold and defend nodes. Thanks for the guide, keep it up!

Great! That's exactly why I made this guide. I wanted people to have something they could take and dive right in with. Thanks.

I just wanted to say I was SS and respec to sab. I LOVE it, especially sense i hit level 40. did some pvp and did over 200k damage and got the top of the list. Lovin it, love how you DOT and AOE keeps large amount of groups from being able to take a node, door or point. Great spec

Lovin it, love how you DOT and AOE keeps large amount of groups from being able to take a node, door or point. Great spec

 

That's exactly why I love it too. Make sure you guys report this post for a sticky if it was helpful please. I'd appreciate it. Also if you have any questions, feel free to ask. If I don't know the answer, i'll gladly research it and report back to you.

I was wondering what you have for rotation?

It depends on a lot of factors. Here are a few situations I can give an example of:

 

1. If I know the player will run away when I open (I'm unreachable on a catwalk for example) I will open with Speed Shot, then Vital Shot, then Shock Charge. Shock Charge will slow them too, so you may have an opportunity to chase.

 

2. If they are CCd or not paying attention, I'll use Aim Shot, then Speed Shot, Charged Bust. Then a Flurry of Shots to recoup some energy, then Shock Charge, Charged Burst, Flurry of Bolts, etc.

 

3. If I am low on health, or don't have my CC breaker up, or the enemy group is heading for me and I need to defend my position, I'll open with Charged Burst/Vital Shot, then pop Hunker Down. After that I'll follow #2 starting at Speed Shot. The idea is to get the damage rolling, but have hunker down up before you get their undivided attention. This is also good if you are dangerously close to a hazard like in huttball.

 

My strategy for attack order revolves around 3 things:

1. Using Speed Shot so that it can cool down.
   
2. Mixing Flurry of Bolts every 3-4 attacks, roughly.
   
3. Do I need to move where I am? (low health,out of range,etc)
   

 

I try to save Sabotage for someone at about 30-40%. It has amazing burst damage, even if you have to use Flurry of Bolts to activate it.

 

Does this help? If not, is there another question maybe that would help?

 

Also make sure to report this post for sticky if it helped you. I'll be working on some more videos and more information to expand this guide over the following week. Feel free to drop by my website and leave a comment too!

Edited August 6, 2012 by JeepWithGuy

Not a bad guide, our builds differ for sure. In 1v1 scenario's I love to open with sab charge, flourish shot, speedshot. It has 2 effects. 1 it lets you know if you are going against and undergeared or geared player. If its an undergeared player, fight is pretty much over right there.

 

If its a geared player, you just put a healthy burst into them, sometimes they panic, sometimes they dont. If they do panic from that burst you have mentally already won the fight. If they dont panic, you still have plenty of options to go from there.

 

Also depending on the class Im facing against leg shot before sab charge puts fear into them.

Edited August 6, 2012 by Brool

Would you mind sharing what build you are using? The only other build I've seen goes into the Marksman tree for the Ballistic Dampers. I'm curious to see if there are any other builds out there to look at. Thanks!

Would you mind sharing what build you are using? The only other build I've seen goes into the Marksman tree for the Ballistic Dampers. I'm curious to see if there are any other builds out there to look at. Thanks!

 

Dont mind at all, I've tinkered with this build for a couple months and have found that I preform at my highest level with this build. Not trying to be a braggart or anything, just trying to give you an idea of its potential. Rarely am I outside of the top 3 in dps (unless our whole team gets facerolled, and even then Im tops on our team).

 

Forgive me if the build is slightly off, not sure if torhead's skill calc is completly up to date, but it looks to be. I went this route not because ballistic dampners but for the additional knockback and 20% armor ignore on aimed shot. I can only imagine how frustrated i would be having to deal with 2 knockbacks, a non resolve root, 2 stuns, and a slow.

 

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#700rkrZMI0rRorRrs.2

 

thats my build I use. Here are a few screenshots of my stats both pve and pvp.

 

pvp

http://elegaming.com/ss/pvptamby.jpg

 

pve

http://elegaming.com/ss/pveptamby.jpg

 

My pve gear is very lacking but works. I pvp more than i pve. I also pve more on my sage healer as well. My pvp setup is full augmented with purple cunning/end mods, except I have 1 random surge augment floating around there. I still have bm headgear, bm blasters x2, and a single champion relic. However, I moved on to capping and gearing out my other toons once I hit the 1200 expertise mark, and honestly I preform so nicely in this setup that any more WH pieces are just fluff honestly. Also I forgot to cancel out my rakata skill stim before taking the screenshots so thats an additional 112 cunning and 48 power. The pvp screen also has the endurance buff, which is nice. Shows that I run around in wz's with a nice fat 20.3k hp for a gunslinger. Makes people think im in pve gear until that first aimed shot hits them in their eye ball.

 

hope that helps, lemme know if you have more questions.

Edited August 6, 2012 by Brool

There is no cooldown on Hot Pursuit. The tooltip says there is one, but there isn't.

 

I'm not sure if that would make it worth taking or not; I'm not arguing either direction.

There is no cooldown on Hot Pursuit. The tooltip says there is one, but there isn't.

 

I'm not sure if that would make it worth taking or not; I'm not arguing either direction.

 

 

correct, however you still have to stand still to use that charged burst.

correct, however you still have to stand still to use that charged burst.

Buh?

 

Hot Pursuit makes Quick Shot free for 6 seconds, which is instant. There's no standing still or Charged Burst involved.

Buh?

 

Hot Pursuit makes Quick Shot free for 6 seconds, which is instant. There's no standing still or Charged Burst involved.

 

bah you are absolutely correct, and forgive me that post was after getting a tooth pulled while still being high on nitrous and doped up on codine. ;p im surprised that post was even as coherent as it is after re-reading it.

 

that being said, hot pursuit one of the staples in my energy management during long fights.

Edited August 6, 2012 by Brool

Does this spec ever use Aimed Shot?

Does this spec ever use Aimed Shot?

 

which spec? Either way, Im sure the answer is yes for his and definitly yes for mine hence why i have the point in knockback with aimed shot and 20% armor pen with aimed shot.

 

Hardest I've ever hit with aimed shot in pvp is 6.3k, but the dude had to be in recruit gear. Avg hit is in the mid 4k's.

Edited August 7, 2012 by Brool

Does this spec ever use Aimed Shot?

 

I use it rarely. I'm not specced into it. Mainly just when I know someone isn't paying attention or CCed for a while.

I would love to see a sustained damage rotation for the saboteur tree. I'm currently SS speced but I'm in the mood to explore new things . Can you guys help out please? Edited August 10, 2012 by LenrocNewDawn

Saboteur isn't meant for sustained damage. AoE attacks are highly energy inefficient. You could skip the AoE attacks, but that would take away a lot of the spec purpose and utility. This is more of a burst/control spec for single targets, or to overwhelm healers with your AoE. Sharpshooter is still your best bet for sustained damage, or maybe Dirty Fighting if you wanted to try something new.

incin grenade is pretty energy efficient.

 

Sweeping gunfire is highly energy inefficient.

 

That being said I have never used a target dummy, ops or pvp wise on any of my builds/toons. I do know how quick targets drop when im involved and when I am not involved.

 

Sabs can put out really good burst on single targets as well, we do(my build) have a small lul in dps while maintaining our energy. This is the time that hot pursuit is used for the free quickshot to let the energy build back up for a quick second. usually about 6 seconds worth of quickshots before I am back into full rotation.

 

edit: The dps loss for energy management to maintain peak rotation can be circumvented by using coolhead then sabatoge and coolhead again. However, you then have a 1 min cooldown on sabatge/coolhead again.

Edited August 10, 2012 by Brool

incin grenade is pretty energy efficient.

 

Incendiary grenade is something i'd rather save for CC or area denial as opposed to keeping it on cooldown in a rotation. Again, my point of view purely from a PvP perspective.

Incendiary grenade is something i'd rather save for CC or area denial as opposed to keeping it on cooldown in a rotation. Again, my point of view purely from a PvP perspective.

 

I completly agree with you, however i usually keep it non stop on a node or door. different for huttball tho.

 

I also take into account i pve as well.