Hey guys new player I’ve started the gear grind and am at 300 with the aggravating energies utility. I’ve have some questions regarding where to go from here.

 

1. Since lvl 1 I’ve played marksman and like the rotation. I’ve steered clear of ops because I want to be geared / useful before I participate. Or at least have my set bonus. I’ve been looking through guides which suggest outside of a few select ops virulence is always preferred. Do marksman get kicked out for that? Or is a single marksman warranted for penetrating blasts debuff? It seems for the majority of flashpoint play burst damage is preferred as outside of bosses you can take down bad guys quick and I’m curious if the damage gap is super huge. I also prefer to know why something works better rather than just a guide telling me it does.

 

2. When playing marksman I never have an energy issue unless spamming suppressive fire. Guides suggest acquiring the entrenched sniper set. One of its main things is the reduced entrench / extra energy gain but energy is never a problem. How does the 5 stacks of damage work do they just accrue each time you shoot? So 5 shots in and you’re at 15% damage while entrenched? I make deliberate use of both laze and acquire targeting and found the precise targeter set interesting for reducing cooldowns / making stacks of those. But I guess the 15% damage boost from entrenched is pretty substantial and enough to outweigh the benefits of the precise targeter set?

 

3. At roughly how much time on target does virulence bear out the burst damage of marksman?

 

Thanks for the help I do enjoy the rotation of marksman and just want to see if it’s viable for the long term. I haven’t dabbled in pvp but it seems there’s a consensus snipers in general are bad for pvp. I’ll be spending those tech shards soon and don’t want as much knowledge on the subject before I start spending.

Edited March 8, 2020 by kaischris

Hey guys new player I’ve started the gear grind and am at 300 with the aggravating energies utility. I’ve have some questions regarding where to go from here.

 

1. Since lvl 1 I’ve played marksman and like the rotation. I’ve steered clear of ops because I want to be geared / useful before I participate. Or at least have my set bonus. I’ve been looking through guides which suggest outside of a few select ops virulence is always preferred. Do marksman get kicked out for that? Or is a single marksman warranted for penetrating blasts debuff? It seems for the majority of flashpoint play burst damage is preferred as outside of bosses you can take down bad guys quick and I’m curious if the damage gap is super huge. I also prefer to know why something works better rather than just a guide telling me it does.

 

2. When playing marksman I never have an energy issue unless spamming suppressive fire. Guides suggest acquiring the entrenched sniper set. One of its main things is the reduced entrench / extra energy gain but energy is never a problem. How does the 5 stacks of damage work do they just accrue each time you shoot? So 5 shots in and you’re at 15% damage while entrenched? I make deliberate use of both laze and acquire targeting and found the precise targeter set interesting for reducing cooldowns / making stacks of those. But I guess the 15% damage boost from entrenched is pretty substantial and enough to outweigh the benefits of the precise targeter set?

 

3. At roughly how much time on target does virulence bear out the burst damage of marksman?

 

Thanks for the help I do enjoy the rotation of marksman and just want to see if it’s viable for the long term. I haven’t dabbled in pvp but it seems there’s a consensus snipers in general are bad for pvp. I’ll be spending those tech shards soon and don’t want as much knowledge on the subject before I start spending.

 

1. markman is still a very good class spec and sure virulence is better because ops have longer time to finish so any sustain spec will be higher damage wise

 

2. establish foothold set bonus is it stack the damage 3% while you entrench so upto 15% so as long as you in cover while entrench all damage +15% but once you out of cover it reset to 0

 

while the precise targeter is a boost damage on ambush but you need to roll and sometime you cant roll on ops situation so i think ef set is better

 

3. for virulence you need to set up quite abit , 1st the vital shot then grenade then weakening

and then cull , while markman more strait forward

Don't choose your spec based on what other players say. Play what you like. If that is Marksmanship, then so be it. As you progress and learn more about fights, spec, other players involved, feel free to experiment with other two specs as well. Sniper has that diversity no other class really has, it can be single target burst, DoT or mix of all.