The proper rotation for IO is way too fragile and has been this way for an incredibly long time. Any minor disruption in the rotation or short increases in alacrity at the wrong time can completely throw it off, and that includes the Merc's own raid buff and Improved Vents utility. The reason this happens is because of the strict rotation that is required to manage heat and how the Innovative Particle Accelerator (Mag Shot) proc works. If your rotation is disrupted, your DPS either drops like a rock or you end up overheating and then your DPS drops like a rock while you cool down. Whenever alacrity is introduced or the rotation is disrupted at the wrong time, there is a potential for the timing of the proc to get messed up so it doesn't proc at the very specific times in the rotation. It's really painful if it happens when it procs off of Unload because Unload is one of your most damaging abilities, so you can't cancel it to get the proc, and even then you're still always gonna be off by at least a GCD or two so you have to throw in some fillers.

The solution to this problem is to just slightly rework the Innovative Particle Accelerator proc to the following:

"Unload and Thermal Detonator finish the cooldown on Mag Shot and and Rail Shot and make the next Mag Shot or Rail Shot generate no heat"

Since two Power Shots can now get used back to back, it would also be necessary to make it so that Surging Shots is no longer consumed on use or changed to just increase Power Shot's damage by 10% as a passive.

The following rotation would yield optimal DPS:

Incendiary Missile > Serrated Shot > Filler > Unload > Filler > Filler > Mag Shot > Thermal Detonator > Mag Shot > repeat

Though the following would likely end up becoming optimal:

Incendiary Missile > Serrated Shot > Filler > Unload > Mag Shot > Thermal Detonator > Mag Shot > Filler x3 > Repeat

(Filler includes: Power Shot, Rapid Shots, Electro Net, Fusion Missile, and AoE)

This tiny change would make the rotation far more resilient to disruptions and give far more flexibility to the spec in general. Really you can put the fillers wherever you want so long as everything is being done on cooldown. I think this would be a major help to the rotation as well since it still has to deal with the strong vs weak filler unlike

There would be no need to have an internal cooldown on the proc any more since each of those abilities have a 15 second cooldown and are used once per rotation already, so the same number of Mag Shots would be used.

In addition, Supercharged Celerity should not consume the Supercharged Gas stacks since those are far too important to the rotations.

Just learn to use Continuous Fire tac and you'll never have issues again

What you said makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. Continuous fire is a significant DPS loss over Energized Charges. You're basically just saying "play incorrectly and your DPS problems will go away". Also, unless you want to lose even more DPS, if there's any sort of disruption in your rotation, the DoTs fall off and the tactical becomes useless.

The Mag Shot proc needs an actual rework.

Another change I would love to see is Fusion Missile / Plasma Greande granting a stack of Super Charge. It annoys me having to use Power Shot / Charged Bolts as a damaging ability if I want to build stacks. The dot spec should get the adition. Running full Periodic Intensity I try to include FM/PG as much as I can. I personally run the following:

While I have Vent Heat / Thermal Sensor Override up:

Incendiary Missile > Serrated Shot > Fusion Missile > Unload > Filler > Thermal Detonator > Mag Shot > Power Shot > Mag Shot > Repeat

While I dont have Vent Heat / Thermal Sensor Override up:

Incendiary Missile > Serrated Shot > Fusion Missile > Rapid Shots > Unload > Rapid Shots > Thermal Detonator > Mag Shot > Power Shot > Mag Shot > Repeat

I get that the proc on Mag Shot is annoying. I think your change could help, but I don't mind running a spec that is not as brain dead and you have to get used to. Changes I would enjoy is that if the internal proc cooldown would adjust to the increase in alacrity.. so the procs dont get f'd up.

What you said makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. Continuous fire is a significant DPS loss over Energized Charges. You're basically just saying "play incorrectly and your DPS problems will go away". Also, unless you want to lose even more DPS, if there's any sort of disruption in your rotation, the DoTs fall off and the tactical becomes useless.

 

The Mag Shot proc needs an actual rework.

Nope, you just don't know how to use it. And you should be refreshing dots far more often than their duration- there's no risk they fall off. IO just requires more attention than most specs: this is a L2P issue

Nope, you just don't know how to use it. And you should be refreshing dots far more often than their duration- there's no risk they fall off. IO just requires more attention than most specs: this is a L2P issue

No, this isn't a L2P issue. None of the top 10 parses on Parsely use the Continuous Fire tactical (and I'm not sure what the actual record parse is for that tactical, I only checked the top 10 parses), so it is a clear single target DPS loss to use. The only way to fit the DoT refresh abilities into the rotation multiple times is by giving up some Power Shots and having Sweeping Blasters proc IPA. Continuous Fire is definitely better than a lot of other AoE tacticals since it does provide a noticeable single target DPS increase, but it still isn't nearly enough to let it surpass Energized Charges, so my point still stands that IPA needs to be reworked. In addition, that tactical severely harms IO's mobility and makes the spec even more disruptible by incorporating multiple additional 3 second channels during which you can't move.

For the record, I tested that tactical on the dummy and got 19.6k. The rotation I used was: (open w/ DoTs) > Unload > Mag Shot > Thermal Detonator > Filler > Sweeping Blasters > Mag Shot > Filler > Filler > repeat. Filler includes DFA, Sweeping Blasters, Rapid Shots, Missile Blast (sub 30), Electro Net.

If you want to tell me your rotation, I'm happy to test it out, but I highly doubt it will make enough of a difference though considering the top parses still use Energized Charges. It's incredibly unlikely that you know something they don't. I'm also happy to look at one of your parses.

I guess you could break the channel after only a GCD and use Power Shot instead, but then you miss out on the second refresh of the DoTs and if you're using Sweeping Blasters more often than once every 15 seconds, then I would assume it wouldn't be worth it to break the channel. After all, the first GCD isn't any better than the second in terms of damage since it refreshes twice. Breaking the channel also introduces its own problems anyway. It's annoying to do, is somewhat difficult to time, and still gives you extra GCDs where you can't move. Ultimately, Continuous Fire introduces its own problems no matter how you use it. IPA still needs to be reworked.

Nope, you just don't know how to use it. And you should be refreshing dots far more often than their duration- there's no risk they fall off. IO just requires more attention than most specs: this is a L2P issue

What is this bunch of condescending crap? Nobody uses this tactical on a single target. If you are, you are not even close to the top performers of this class and have no idea what you are talking about.

Show us your amazing parse without Energized Charges tactical. Provide some proof instead of idle chatter.