Rather than have a fancy intro, im just gonna say that Vanguards are one of the best DPS classes in the game right now, if not the best. While they do lack in the 4.5k parses of balance shadows, they make up for it with loads of utility and a usable amount of AoE capabilities, especially in tactics where their AoE is one of, if not the best, in the game.

Offensive Cooldowns

Vanguards have 2 baseline offensive cooldowns. These are:

SHOULDER CANNON: Loads up 4 missiles that can be used off the GCD to deal extra damage. You get extra missiles when specced tactics.

BATTLE FOCUS: Increases your critical hit chance by 25% for 15 seconds. Its cooldown synchs up with Shoulder Cannon, making it optimal to use these 2 together.

Defensive Cooldowns

ENERGY SHIELD

Increases Damage Reduction by 25% for 15 seconds. This stacks with armor

ADRENALINE RUSH

When below 35% health, will rapidly heal you back up to 35% health. Lasts 8 seconds. It can be talented to also reduce damage by 30% while active (Assault Specialist)

TENACITY

Breaks all roots, stuns and slows

DIVERSION (Talented)

Assault Specialist only, increases your chance to resist any damage by 25% for the next 6 seconds.

Utility Cooldowns

GRAPPLE

Pulls the target towards you

HOLD THE LINE

Provides 6 seconds of physics immunity and increases in-combat speed by 30% while active. Can be talented to 10 seconds in the Tactics tree.

NEURAL JOLT

Puts yourself on top of the threat table on the current target (by 10-30% depending on range), and causes it to attack you for the next 6 seconds.

SONIC ROUND

Applies the Neural Jolt effect on all enemies within 15 meters of the target

RIOT STRIKE

Interrupts the targets current action, preventing it from being used for the next 4 seconds.

NEURAL SURGE

Stuns up to 5 enemies within 8 meters for 2.5 seconds.

CRYO GRENADE

Stuns the target for 4 seconds.

In addition to all of these, you also have the passive ability Into the Fray, which causes you to recieve healing and energy whenever you are hit by an AoE attack.

8/36/2

http://i.imgur.com/XSb4At2.png

1.1 Ratings

Single Target: 5

AoE: 10

Burst: 8

Execute: No

Difficulty: 3

Utility: 7

RNG Dependency: No

Recommended Fights: The Writhing Horror, Dash'roode, Titan 6, Gate Commander Draxus, Corruptor Zero, Dread Master Bestia

1.2 Gearing and Stats Priority

Optimal Dread Masters gear (Single Target) - Add an extra crit mod for AoE fights.

First off, you want to have 100% accuracy. And by that, I mean 100% accuracy, 110% special ranged accuracy, and 110% Tech Accuracy. This is usually achieved with a combination of:

1. The 3 points in Focused Impact (+3% accuracy)

2. Getting a melee tank companion through every conversation (+1% accuracy)

3. Getting just over 435 accuracy rating.

You dont HAVE to get exactly 435 accuracy rating, you can be anywhere between 420 and 470 and you'll be fine. Though the closer to 435, the better.

After that, you want to replace all of your alacrity with surge. This is because until high levels of alacrity, all it is doing is increasing your burst damage capabilities as opposed to increasing your sustained damage capabilities.

Once we've got those covered, we get to Crit vs Power. Now crit vs power is typically personal preference, but I found optimal value is dependant on 3 things:

1. Gear level

2. Amount of Surge

3. How stable you want your damage.

Optimal crit will always be about +- 50 from the value given, so heres some numbers:

Arkanian Gear: 0 Crit

Underworld Gear: 0 Crit

Kel Dragon Gear: 50 Crit

Dread Forged Gear: 100 Crit

Dread Masters Gear: 200 crit

After that, every enhancement for surge after the first 4 adds 50 crit rating. So if, for example, you're running Dread Masters gear with 6 surge pieces, you would want between 250 and 350 crit rating.

Finally, the 100 crit range is narrowed down by a choice between consistancy (more crit) vs capability (more power). I personally use the more crit option, because I like reliability, but if you're fishing for crits on a dummy for high scores, go for less crit.

With that out of the way, make sure all your augments are Reflex Augments (though you can get up to 2 Accuracy ones to get your accuracy to a respectable level), and the 4-piece Combat Tech's set bonus. Set your cell to High Energy Cell, and choose 2 of the following 3 relics (put in order of best to worst):

Focused Retribution Relic (Dread Masters -> Dread Forged -> Brutalizer -> Obroan)

Serendipitous Assault Relic (Dread Masters -> ... yeah same as above, but add the other tiers as well)

Boundless Ages (See Serendipitous Assault)

In other words, if you dont PvP, and can't get a Dread Forged or Dread Masters relic, use a Serendipitous Assault + Boundless Ages combo, otherwise use a Focused Retribution + Serendipitous Assault combo. FR + BA combo can also be used if you want more controlled burst in a boss fight.

If you dont like words though, here's some graphs! I've taken the time to highlight any area that is between 99.5% and 100% of the optimal DPS with red.

ARTIFACT GEAR LEVEL (100% accuracy, 1 accuracy augment, 13 reflex augments, no Relics. 1 Piece of crit is forced in the earpiece)

http://i.imgur.com/qlcVs2x.png

ARKANIAN GEAR LEVEL (100% accuracy, 14 reflex augments, Obroan Relics. Set bonus, low endurance gear)

http://i.imgur.com/FSBlldf.png

UNDERWORLD GEAR LEVEL (100% accuracy, 1 accuracy augment, 13 reflex augments, Obroan Relics. Set bonus, low endurance gear)

http://i.imgur.com/II59uG9.png

DREAD FORGED GEAR LEVEL (100% accuracy, 2 accuracy augments, 12 reflex augments, Dread Forged Relics. Set bonus, low endurance gear)

http://i.imgur.com/Xkt4gba.png

DREAD MASTER GEAR LEVEL (100% accuracy, 1 accuracy augment, 13 reflex augments, Dread Master Relics. Set bonus, low endurance gear)

http://i.imgur.com/CokaPZM.png

1.3 Gearing Overview

Getting your accuracy into the given range should always be top priority. You can't do damage when you are missing attacks!

Because of the Auto-crit in the spec, having crit rating below the Kel Dragon tier of gear tends to have less benefitial returns.

As mentioned in the relics section, the FR + SA Combo should be prioritised, but dont hesitate to use the BA over the SA if you like the control it adds to your burst phases.

When picking out enhancements, you should always use the low endurance, high stat varieties. The difference is so significant that crafted Mk 28 enhancements of that variety are better than the enhancements that come in Elite Commendations gear.

And of course, use Unlettered mods (e.g. Advanced Agile Mod 34 instead of an Advanced Agile Mod 34A). You can find these on the Belts and Bracers from the respective Commendations Vendor of the appropriate level. A lettered mod can be used if its 2 versions higher though (e.g. Advanced Agile Mod 36a vs Advanced Agile Mod 34)

1.4 Procs Explanations

Tactics has 3 procs it has to track:

Pulse Generator

Pulse Generator is the most important of them to track. It significantly increases damage dealt by Pulse Cannon while reducing its cost.

Battering Ram

Battering Ram is another important proc to track. It will be incredibly important for resource management, as it makes stockstrike free.

Combat Tactics

You should never use High Impact Bolt without Combat Tactics, as it causes an Auto-crit.

With that out of the way, on to abilities!

Gut (Gut)

Gut does decent damage over a 15 second period, with almost all of it being internal damage. It is affected by the following talents:

High Energy Cell - Bleed increased by 6%

Frontline Offense - Increases Damage by 6%

Serrated Blades - Increased Bleed Damage by 15%

Havoc Training - Surge increased by 30%

Also, since Gut applies a bleed effect, it causes a 3% increase to all damage dealt due to Triumph

Pulse Cannon (PC)

Pulse Cannon does a huge amount of damage over a 3 second period, all of it AoE Elemental damage. It is affected by the following talents:

High Energy Cell - Damage increased by 6%

Overcharged Cell Capacitor - Damage increased by 6%

Demolition - Critical Chance increased by 6%

Tactical Tools - Cooldown reduced by 3 seconds

Pulse Generator - Damage increased by 20%, and Ammo cost reduced by 2, for every stack of it.

Havoc Training - Surge increased by 30%

Mortar Volley (MV)

Mortar Volley requires precise aiming to get off, but does about as much damage as Pulse Cannon. It is not affected by any talents other than Triumph though

Fire Pulse (FP)

Fire Pulse does a large amount of elemental damage to a single target. It is affected by the following talents:

High Energy Cell - Damage increased by 6%

Overcharged Cell Capacitor - Damage increased by 6%

Demolition - Critical Chance increased by 6%

Battering Ram - Has a 100% chance to make your next stockstrike free

Pulse Generator - Has a 100% chance to build 1 stack

Havoc Training - Surge increased by 30%

Stockstrike (SS)

Stockstrike does a decent amount of kinetic damage to a single target. It is affected by the following talents:

Heavy Stock - Damage increased by 8%

Battering Ram - When active, Stockstrike is free.

Combat Tactics - Grants the buff when High Energy Cell is active, making High Impact Bolt an auto-crit.

Havoc Training - Surge increased by 30%

Charged Loaders - Critical Chance increased by 6%

High Impact Bolt (HiB)

High Impact Bolt requires either a DoT or a Gravity Vortex on the target to be used, and does a decent amount of kinetic damage. It is affected by the following talents:

Brutal Impact: Damage Increased by 6%

Focused Impact: Armor Penetration increased to 45%

Combat Tactics: Critical Chance increased to 100% while active

Ion Pulse (IP)

Ion Pulse does a fairly low amount of damage, however due to it being elemental and still significantly more damage than hammer shots, as well as all the effects it can proc, it makes it the optimal filler. It is affected by the following talents:

High Energy Cell - Damage increased by 6%

Overcharged Cell Capacitor - Damage increased by 6%

Demolition - Critical Chance increased by 6%

Frontline Offense - Damage Increased by 6%

Battering Ram - Has a 30% chance to make your next stockstrike free

Pulse Generator - Has a 100% chance to build 1 stack

Hammer Shots (HS)

Hammer shots is the last resort filler, for when you need ammo. It is not affected by any talents other than Triumph

Note that every ability is boosted by Triumph, which increases damage dealt by 3% when the target is bleeding. You do not have to supply the bleed for this to work.

And while it is not included in the standard rotation, Shoulder Cannon (SC) also receives a decent buff in the spec, via Charged Loaders giving +15% damage and +3 missiles to it.

1.5 Rotation

Tactics works off a 4-block rotation. Each block consists of 10 GCDs. You use an offensive cooldown for every second block. This rotation can be summed up by the following block, with adjustments depending on which cooldowns are available:

Gut -> PC -> PC -> [FILLER] -> [FILLER] -> FP -> [FILLER] -> HiB -> IP -> [FILLER]

The opener is as follows:

http://i.imgur.com/WnA8s5h.png

While the rotation is as follows:

http://i.imgur.com/GWPB8Sw.png

You should make every second rotation finish with offensive cooldowns used in the last row, similar to how the opener uses them. You should preload shoulder cannon when it comes off cooldown though.

The thing that makes tactics difficult is not following the rotation, but rather hitting multiple targets with every pulse cannon and every mortar volley, as doing so is a decent DPS increase for AoE fights.

Note: Delaying the Battle Focus/Shoulder Cannon combo to every 2 minutes is a DPS increase unless the fight is 22+ minutes long, and as far as I'm aware no fight in the game goes that long unless you are severely undermanning certain bosses.

RAID SPECIFIC BONUS'S

During a raid, you also get extra ammo due to the passive "Into the Fray". If the fight has enough AoE, you should replace one of the earlier instances of hammer shots with an extra ion pulse every 60 seconds, as the energy returns will recover it over a minute. Its not much, but its something.

Also, if you have a Gunslinger or a Scoundrel, their DoTs will provide the Triumph buff.

1.6 Parse Analysis

Tactics is one of those specs where a parse doesn't show max potential, however even there you can use parses to get an approximation for how well you are doing. Originally, I was gonna just whack a dummy and get a nice good-looking and not-intimidating parse for this, but lag hit and so instead im using my record parse for tactics (someone with mostly dread masters gear beat it. Please...)

UPDATE - I beat it myself

Oh well. Can't be bothered rewriting it.

The parse is found here

http://i.imgur.com/dwB4AJT.png

When we look at it, we can make the following observations about tactics:

Pulse Cannon will definately be your highest damage ability, in both single target and AoE fights, as it does about 28% of your damage normally. In an AoE fight, this will go even higher because you'll be hitting more people with it

Second is a tie between Ion Pulse, Gut, Stockstrike, Fire Pulse and High Impact bolt - All 5 of them doing about 12% of your damage. Dont ask how it happened, it just does

Next up is Mortar Volley + Shoulder Cannon, doing about 5% of your damage each.

Finally is hammer shots, at 2% of your damage.

Things to note:

SHOULDER CANNON + MORTAR VOLLEY: Both will have very high crit rates, as Shoulder Cannon should always be used under combat focus, while every second Mortar Volley will be used under it.

GUT, FIRE PULSE, HIGH IMPACT BOLT: These abilities should have the same number of hits. ION PULSE should have twice as many hits as each of these abilities, while STOCKSTRIKE should have 50% more.

PULSE CANNON should have a lower range than I have, however I screwed up ammo management and at one point used a 2-stack pulse cannon instead of a 3-stack one. The range between minimum and maximum hit for Pulse Cannon should be at most 240% (so if the minimum is a 1k, the max would be a 2.4k), which accounts for relic procs and crits. Any more than that, and you probably had a 2-stack Pulse Cannon in there. It should do twice as many hits as Ion Pulse in a single target fight.

APM should be at about 40 APM, as all the mortar volleys and pulse cannons that reduce it are counteracted by Recharge Cells, Reserve Powercell, Shoulder Cannon and Battle Focus (as well as possible attack adrenals and relics)

1.7 Tips and Tricks

You have an amazing Passive ability in INTO THE FRAY. This ability will activate on taking AoE damage with a rate limiter of 3 seconds, and heals you for 2.5% of your health as well as venting 2 heat. Because of this ability, you can safely maintain rotations in a raid with excessive uses of Ion Pulse and Stockstrike without dipping into low ammo zones of regen. You still need a hammer shots every minute or so though.

Mortar Volley can be placed 5 meters away and still hit a target directly in front of you, though the targetting can be quite annoying, and its better to take a step back to fire it off.

If you are 5 or more meters away from a target, you can double tap the mortar volley key to auto-target it.

Gut is your highest Damage/GCD ability in rotation - If you are going against adds and Mortar Volley/Pulse Cannon are on cooldown, fill the filler blocks with Gut on different targets to get maximum damage output.

Load up pulse cannon before the fight starts by spamming explosive surge. Just make sure the fight doesn't start while you're at low ammo (tell the raid what you are doing)

4/6/36

http://i.imgur.com/IQUPFqK.png

2.1 Ratings

Single Target DPS: 10

AoE Damage: 5

Burst: 7

Execute: Yes

Difficulty: 6

Utility: 6

RNG Dependancy: Yes

2.2 Gearing and Stats priority

Optimal Dread Masters Gear

First off, you want to have 100% accuracy. And by that, I mean 100% accuracy, 110% special ranged accuracy, and 110% Tech Accuracy. This is usually achieved with a combination of:

1. The 3 points in Focused Impact (+3% accuracy)

2. Getting a melee tank companion through every conversation (+1% accuracy)

3. Getting just over 435 accuracy rating.

You dont HAVE to get exactly 435 accuracy rating, you can be anywhere between 420 and 470 and you'll be fine. Though the closer to 435, the better.

After that, you want to replace all of your alacrity with surge. While alacrity does reduce the GCD and increase resource regeneration, it doesn't reduce the cooldown on the 6 second proc of Ionic Accelerator. Because of this, Alacrity is a DPS Decrease until you reach the ludicrous levels of 3x the amount that is currently physically possible.

Once we've got those covered, we get to Crit vs Power. Now crit vs power is typically personal preference, but I found optimal value is dependant on 3 things:

1. Gear level

2. Amount of Surge

3. How stable you want your damage.

Optimal crit will always be about +- 50 from the value given, so heres some numbers:

Arkanian Gear: 100 Crit

Underworld Gear: 150 Crit

Kel Dragon (Not graphed): 200 Crit

Dread Forged Gear: 250 Crit

Dread Masters Gear: 300 crit

After that, every enhancement for surge after the first 4 adds about 50 crit rating. So if, for example, you're running Dread Masters gear with 6 surge pieces, you would want between 350 and 450 crit rating.

Finally, the 100 crit range is narrowed down by a choice between consistancy (more crit) vs capability (more power). I personally use the more crit option, because I like reliability, but if you're fishing for crits on a dummy for high scores, go for less crit.

With that out of the way, make sure all your augments are Reflex Augments (though you can get up to 2 Accuracy ones to get your accuracy to a respectable level), and the 4-piece Combat Tech's set bonus. Set your cell to Plasma Cell, and choose 2 of the following 3 relics (put in order of best to worst):

Focused Retribution Relic (Dread Masters -> Dread Forged -> Brutalizer -> Obroan)

Serendipitous Assault Relic (Dread Masters -> ... yeah same as above, but add the other tiers as well)

Boundless Ages (See Serendipitous Assault)

In other words, if you dont PvP, and can't get a Dread Forged or Dread Masters relic, use a Serendipitous Assault + Boundless Ages combo, otherwise use a Focused Retribution + Serendipitous Assault combo. FR + BA combo can also be used if you want more controlled burst in a boss fight.

If you dont like words though, here's some graphs! I've taken the time to highlight any area that is between 99.5% and 100% of the optimal DPS with red.

ARTIFACT GEAR LEVEL (100% accuracy, 1 accuracy augment, 13 reflex augments, no Relics. 1 Piece of crit is forced in the earpiece)

http://i.imgur.com/as2nfM1.png

ARKANIAN GEAR LEVEL (100% accuracy, 14 reflex augments, Obroan Relics. Set bonus, low endurance gear)

http://i.imgur.com/RdV8RrP.png

UNDERWORLD GEAR LEVEL (100% accuracy, 1 accuracy augment, 13 reflex augments, Obroan Relics. Set bonus, low endurance gear)

http://i.imgur.com/Z7W6r8B.png

DREAD FORGED GEAR LEVEL (100% accuracy, 2 accuracy augments, 12 reflex augments, Dread Forged Relics. Set bonus, low endurance gear)

http://i.imgur.com/6vdKWjv.png

DREAD MASTER GEAR LEVEL (100% accuracy, 1 accuracy augment, 13 reflex augments, Dread Master Relics. Set bonus, low endurance gear)

http://i.imgur.com/bFLISPf.png

As you can see, that 0.5% range is really, really big! The most ludicrous example is for Assault Spec in Dread Forged gear, where its fine to run anywhere between 100 and 700 rating!

2.3 Gearing Overview

Getting your accuracy into the given range should always be top priority. You can't do damage when you are missing attacks!

Despite having a significant crit rating boost in the spec (+2% universal, +8% to tech and +14%! to elemental tech), assault works really well with crit rating, as it has a +30% surge boost on 80% of its damage. Just look at those pictures (you need it as early as Arkanian, as opposed to typical cases where its left out until dread forged)

As mentioned in the relics section, the FR + SA Combo should be prioritised, but dont hesitate to use the BA over the SA if you like the control it adds to your burst phases.

When picking out enhancements, you should always use the low endurance, high stat varieties. The difference is so significant that crafted Mk 28 enhancements of that variety are better than the enhancements that come in Elite Commendations gear.

And of course, use Unlettered mods (e.g. Advanced Agile Mod 34 instead of an Advanced Agile Mod 34A). You can find these on the Belts and Bracers from the respective Commendations Vendor of the appropriate level. A lettered mod can be used if its 2 versions higher though (e.g. Advanced Agile Mod 36a vs Advanced Agile Mod 34)

2.4 Ability + Procs Explanations

There is a single proc to track in Assault spec. This proc is the proc Ionic Accelerator, and is quite complex in how it works.

The tooltip states:

"Ion Pulse has a 45% chance and Stockstrike has a 60% chance to reset the cooldown on Ionic Accelerator. This can only happen every 6 seconds and while in Plasma Cell"

Yet, there is an additional behaviour that has been noticed.

Ionic Accelerator has a 100% proc rate from the second attack onwards! But wait! There is more!

So long as you dont have the proc on your bar of buffs (which is easy to notice), ANY Ion Pulse or Stockstrike that fails to proc Ionic Accelerator is considered the first attack. This means you can consistantly proc Ionic Accelerator every 6 seconds so long as you meet the following conditions:

1. High Impact Bolt is used within 2 cooldowns of proccing

2. Ion Pulse or Stockstrike is used as one of the fillers after High Impact Bolt is used.

3. Ion Pulse or Stockstrike is used exactly 4 cooldowns after the initial proc.

For example, the rotation of:

Hammer Shots -> Ion Pulse -> Ion Pulse -> High Impact Bolt

Will work forever. No exceptions. Except if you have alacrity. Get rid of the alacrity.

With that out of the way, onto abilities!

Assault has 6 major abilities to use, with the added utility of constant burns, and the ability to use shoulder cannon. These abilities are:

High Impact Bolt (HiB) - The biggest source of damage for assault, not only does it have a ton of damage up front, but it comes every 6 seconds, ignores a lot of the targets armor, is free, and if the target is on fire generates extra ammo. It even gets a surge bonus!

It is affected by the following talents:

Brutal Impact (1/2): Damage Increased by 3%

Focused Impact: Armor Penetration increased by 45%

High Friction Bolts: Armor Penetration increased by 30%. In addition, hitting a burning target generates 8 energy

Ionic Accelerator: Becomes free and refreshes the cooldown, 6 second lockout.

Assault Trooper: Surge Increased by 30%

Rain of Fire: Damage increased by 9% on burning targets

Ion Pulse (IP) - The next biggest damage source due to its extreme amount of times used, Ion Pulse has a surprisingly small amount of buffs in the tree. Its damage is rather mediocre, however its considered elemental so it ignores armor, and it has a 60% chance to automatically activate plasma cell. It is affected by the following talents:

Demolition: Increased Crit Rate by 6% (Elemental)

Blaster Augs: Increased Crit Rate by 3% (Tech)

Ionized Ignition: Has a 60% chance to activate Plasma Cell

Assault Trooper: Surge increased by 30%

Burnout: Increased Crit Rate by 3% (Tech)

Also procs this talent

Ionic Accelerator: Explained Earlier

Assault Plastique (AP) - The reason the rotation isn't a boring joke, Assault Plastique does the most damage/activation of any ability in Assault Spec. Its initial explosion is almost as powerful as High Impact Bolt, but then it puts a very strong DoT effect on the target afterwards. It is affected by the following talents:

Demolition: Increases the Crit Rate of the burn by 6% (Elemental)

Blaster Augs: Increased Crit Rate by 3% (Tech)

Assault Trooper: Surge increased by 30%

Burnout: Increased Crit Rate by 3% (Tech). In addition, when the target is below 30% health the burn is 30% stronger.

Riot Augs: Increased damage by 6%. In addition, the Burn is boosted by a further 35%.

Incendiary Round (IR) - One of those expensive DoTs that you put up because the damage done is definately worth it. Only its not expensive anymore. It does about 18% of its damage as an initial hit, followed up by a burn that is the strongest burn per activation ability for the spec (though its lack of initial damage is why its behind AP) This ability is boosted by the following talents:

Demolition: Increases the Crit Rate by 6% (Elemental)

Blaster Augs: Increased Crit Rate by 3% (Tech)

Assault Trooper: Surge increased by 30%

Burnout: Increased Crit Rate by 3% (Tech). In addition, when the target is below 30% health the burn is 30% stronger.

Riot Augs: Increased damage by 6%. In addition, the Burn is boosted by a further 35%.

Stockstrike (SS) - Does a decent amount of Kinetic damage to the target. Due to talents, it also applies a burn and can activate High Impact Bolt, and should attempt to be used on cooldown. It is affected by the following talents:

Blaster Augs: Increased Crit Rate by 3% (Tech)

Ionized Ignition: Has a 100% chance to activate Plasma Cell

Heavy Stock: Increases Damage by 8%

Rain of Fire: Increases damage to burning targets by 9%

Burnout: Increased Crit Rate by 3% (Tech)

Riot Augs: Increased Damage by 6%

It also procs this talent:

Ionic Accelerator: Explained Earlier

Hammer Shots (HS) - Does a pathetic amount of damage. But hey, its free. It also can activate plasma cell, and does extra damage to burning targets. Use sparingly so you dont overheat. It is affected by the following talents:

Plasma Cell [skill] - Hammer Shots has a 25% chance to activate it with every hit, putting a DoT on the target. Its not listed, but Hammer Shots has a 6 second lockout for this.

Superheated Plasma - Increases the Plasma Cell proc rate for Hammer Shots from 25% to 34%

Rain of Fire - Hammer Shots does 9% more damage to a burning target.

Now while it technically isn't an ability, Plasma Cell (PC) does a decent chunk of damage, so I thought I'd mention it here. It is affected by the following talents:

Demolition - Increased Crit Rate by 6% (Elemental)

Blaster Augs - Increased Crit Rate by 3% (Tech)

Superheated Plasma - Increases the damage dealt by Plasma Cell by 30%

High Friction Bolts - Refreshes if hit by High Impact Bolt

Assault Trooper - Surge increased by 30%

Burnout: Increased Crit Rate by 3% (Tech). In addition, when the target is below 30% health deals 30% more damage.

Riot Augs: Increases damage by 35%

2.5 Rotation

The thing to note about Assault, is you are pretty much guaranteed to steal aggro in the opener. Warn the tanks about this, and get ready to blow all your defensive cooldowns at the start of the fight while the tanks struggle to hold on. This should subside by about the 3rd taunt.

The opener is as follows:

http://i.imgur.com/0TTps00.png

By following that, you'll do so much damage that if the tank taunts afterwards, he has to be doing nothing for the rest of the fight (or have the boss do a threat dump) for him to lose aggro. Something to note though: The stockstrike only has a 60% chance of proccing. If this fails, add in an Ion Pulse, followed by a Hammer Shots, to fix the opener up.The rotation, on the other hand, is a little more complex:

The rotation is made up of blocks of 4 GCDs, which are put in blocks of 3, and then blocks of 5 (basically a 4x3x5 cube where you move along the rows, then the columns, then the depth)

A series of possible rotation blocks are as follows:

http://i.imgur.com/UBfSPOO.png

If you want to take it a step further, Heres a nice picture of all the blocks put in order, though without accounting for failed procs.

http://i.imgur.com/zmv1UGa.png

The reasoning for this is simple: We want IR up as much as possible, and are trying to use AP on cooldown as well as stockstrike. After that, we are trying to guarantee Ionic Accelerator procs for 6 second High Impact Bolts, and using hammer shots in the remaining locations so we dont run out of ammo. Doing so maximises the uptime of all DoTs while somehow managing to remain energy neutral (dont ask me how it works, it just does), which gets the highest possible DPS average as well as peak.

Another thing to note is that in Assault spec, it is a DPS Loss to delay Shoulder Cannon (outside of 5 seconds after starting to load it, which you should do so you can fit the whole thing in a battle focus), though Battle Focus should not be used any earlier than 5 seconds after starting to load shoulder cannon.

2.6 Parse Analysis

Because im doing something different here, Im going to provide a parse from inside a raid (BLASPHEMY! YOU CANT PROVIDE RAID EVIDENCE IN A GUIDE TEACHING YOU HOW TO RAID IN A SPEC!

Dont worry though. Its Nightmare Nefra .

The parse is found here

http://i.imgur.com/QOHnFeb.png

So why am I using a Nefra parse instead of a dummy parse? I chose nefra because the fight is basically a dummy fight, but lets me show the effects of Into the Fray and Electro Shield on your DPS, as the DoT will trigger Into the Fray and get reflected by electro shield, making a more consistant ratio of damage for raids.

Anyway, to the abilities.

High Impact Bolt will do about 24% of your damage, depending on crits and the proc rate it will usually deviate between 23% and 25%. It will have an average cooldown of 6.22 seconds if you follow the rotation properly and get average procs, though it can drop as low as a 6 second cooldown or get as high as a 6.5 second cooldown

Next up is Ion Pulse, which will do about 16-17% of your damage. This should be used on average about once every 4.8 seconds, though will go as often as every 4.65 seconds or as rare as once ever 5 seconds, with better RNG reducing its frequency.

After that is both the Plasma Cell DoT, and Assault Plastique, both of them doing about 15% of your damage each.

Plasma cell can't be controlled, though Assault Plastique should be between every 15 seconds and every 16.25 seconds, averaging about once every 15.54 seconds.

Incendiary Round will come in next, doing about 11-12% of your DPS. It will be used on average once every 18.65 seconds, though will fluctuate between once every 18 seconds and once every 19.5 seconds depending on how bad your RNG is.

Stockstrike comes in 5th place damage wise, and will do about 9-10% of your damage. It should be used twice as often as Incendiary Round is used, no exceptions.

Finally we have Shoulder Cannon, Electro Shield and Hammer Shot making up your last 6-11% of your damage, depending on how everything decided to crit. Electro Shield wont get much damage off as it has a restriction of 1 hit/second and requires taking damage, Hammer Shots has more uses depending on RNG and Shoulder Cannon tends to have higher contributions to fights of specific lengths due to its very lengthy cooldown.

2.7 Tips and Tricks

Ionic Accelerator resets the cooldown on High Impact Bolt, so you are easily able to hold off using High Impact Bolt for up to 2 cooldowns without it being a DPS drop.

Time Assault Plastique to be used either 1 cooldown after or 3 cooldowns after an Ionic Accelerator proc, as this will make it avoid having conflicts between the 2.

Plasma Cell does damage whenever it activates, as well as 3 seconds after and 6 seconds after, so clipping it results in getting more DPS out of it than should be possible.

Hammer Shots can only activate Plasma Cell once every 6 seconds. Thankfully, we only have to use it once every 12.

Finally, you have an amazing Passive ability in INTO THE FRAY. This ability will activate on taking AoE damage with a rate limiter of 3 seconds, and heals you for 2.5% of your health as well as venting 2 heat. Because of this ability, you can safely maintain the advanced rotation in a raid with 100% proc rates on High Impact Bolt (exception - the pray as you go for an RNG proc because of high-priority abilities sections) without dipping into low ammo zones of regen. You still need a hammer shots every 18 seconds though.