I’m a new subscriber to the game at lvl 58 atm. Sniper guides / forums all state that virulence is higher dps than a MM. I’m sure I’m wrong but looking through the numbers I’m not seeing how? Is it because most damage gets resisted or something? I’ve figured out the rotation with MM making generous use of followthrough. Looking at virulence it seems to do less damage spread out over time as opposed to MM hitting all at once. Can someone explain what I’m missing is there like a set bonus that pushes virulence over the top?

Also, I haven’t played virulence but does the poison damage spread and cause aggro? I’ve been playing with my friend who is a jug tank and MM has been great for aggro management since I stick to single target damage unless fighting a bunch of ads that easily die to suppressive fire anyways.

Thanks!

To put it simply, you do damage in so many small numbers that it adds up to more overall damage than Marksmanship. Marksmanship is a Burst spec, that's why it does damage in big single hits, in "bursts" of damage. Virulence is a DoT spec, so it does a lot of damage over time.

Every point of damage you do generates a point of threat. Including your DoTs, Suppressive Fire, everything.

I’m a new subscriber to the game at lvl 58 atm. Sniper guides / forums all state that virulence is higher dps than a MM. I’m sure I’m wrong but looking through the numbers I’m not seeing how? Is it because most damage gets resisted or something? I’ve figured out the rotation with MM making generous use of followthrough. Looking at virulence it seems to do less damage spread out over time as opposed to MM hitting all at once. Can someone explain what I’m missing is there like a set bonus that pushes virulence over the top?

 

Also, I haven’t played virulence but does the poison damage spread and cause aggro? I’ve been playing with my friend who is a jug tank and MM has been great for aggro management since I stick to single target damage unless fighting a bunch of ads that easily die to suppressive fire anyways.

 

Thanks!

in pvp markman is good bursty up front damage but it have downside when an enemy using dcd that negate white damage then you dont have anything to hit except maybe grenade . for example like jugg with saber ward , you will miss alot while virulence have yellow and white damage mean you still can damage it during saber ward

Thanks for the input! I definitely do enjoy the rotation for MM and don’t plan too much for pvp. Is it still viable for ops? Also, their penetrating shots apply a 20% armor reduction debuff while I don’t see such a debuff on virulence. Is there any evidence that though MM has less dpr than virulence that it could contribute to more overall damage against a single target?

Perfectly viable for ops. Some fights, especially in NiM, might be more difficult than it would be if you use Virulence. As with most everything in this game, it comes down to player skill. If you particularly enjoy a class/spec, then naturally, it follows that you will be more skilled at it.

MM is a very good spec and even viable in nim ops, but you have to play it well, just as viru once you decide to do the hm/nim stuff.

upfront burst is highly desirable in any fight when there are gaps or breaks in damage uptime...and a lot of apex bosses have phases when you need to crank extra damage in a few burst windows so being a burst spec with somewhat lower sustain is actually not a disadvantage. think stuff like Brontes, Styrak even Terror are fights where MM is probably just as good as Viru or can be.

Viru can kind of do it all in terms of both aoe and single target damage all at once while on MM you have to choose wether you want good single target damage from one tactical o rgreat aoe damage from another.,

main problem on MM is that it is a pure white/weapon damage spec and those scale worse than specs with yellow force tech damage in scaled content.