inb4 "who cares" "Dead game" "pve ***" etc

 

tl;dr version right off the bat:

 

ARSENAL:

109.93% Accuracy (730 rating)

16.3% Alacrity (approx. 1500 rating + 3 percent passive)

Approx. 2000 Critical Rating

 

http://parsely.io/parser/view/334220/0

 

(This was the build I used for my 10k arsenal parse, which took me 3 tries to get. I averaged 9800 DPS over 10 parses, but this was with the ghost set bonus so it would probably be about 500 DPS lower now.)

 

EDIT: On Christmas Eve (well after the ghost set bonus nerf) I parsed 3 times with this build and averaged 9480 dps with a peak of 9560.

 

IO:

109.93% Accuracy

11.74% Alacrity (1281 rating)

2142 Critical Rating

 

http://parsely.io/parser/view/339711/0 (sloppy; could've easily been 100-200 higher with better execution)

 

(This was the build for two of my three 10.3k parses last night, one of which I achieved on my first try using the Marisi-Fascinate rotation. These parses were done after the ghost set bonus nerf last week. I averaged 9850 DPS over 10 parses using a mix of rotations.)

 

------------------------------------

 

A few interesting findings after a round of ten IO parses tonight:

 

For Bounty Hunter classes, high alacrity builds that reach the next rounding tier (15.5 percent) are very resource-intensive. Nevertheless, you want to hit the higher tier of alacrity for Arsenal (15.5 percent) plus a little extra because it smooths out the barrage procs, which are the backbone of the Arsenal rotation. Moreover, you can afford to waste more GCDs on Rapid Shot in Arsenal spec; the difference in DPS between Tracer Missile and Rapid Shots is far smaller than that of Thermal Detonator and Rapid Shots. In other words, you can afford to overheat a bit more as Arsenal, as it's much easier to recover and far less of a DPS loss.

 

For IO, you don't want to be at one of the alacrity rounding tiers (720 rating or 1860 rating). Why? For resource-intensive specs that rely heavily on alacrity for resource replenishment (such as IO), you want an alacrity rating somewhere between 720 and 1860, because you'll get a higher resource generation rate relative to your GCD activation time. In other words, you get heat back faster than you can activate abilities over the long run.

 

Let me lay it out:

 

Alacrity rating: 711

 

GCD activation time: 1.4 seconds

Resource replenishment rate: 5.4/sec

 

Alacrity rating: 1281

GCD activation time: 1.4 seconds

Resource replenishment rate: 5.6/sec

 

 

With the bottom setup, you will be using fewer filler moves (such as Rapid Shots), replacing them with hard-hitting but resource-intensive abilities like Thermal Detonator. It seems to be a net positive DPS gain, and it makes the rotation far more forgiving.

 

Some more details: the top IO parser (pre-setbonus nerf) runs 1281 alacrity as IO, and so do I. I tested his rotation (as well as the Marisi/Fascinate and Chernova rotations) and I found myself using five additional Rapid Shots when my alacrity rating was at the usual 720 or 1860 tiers: a total of three fewer Thermal Detonators and two rapid shots replacing an Unload. By switching to an alacrity rating halfway between these tiers, my resources replenished faster than my GCDs activated, giving me extra heat to work with over the course of the parse and allowing me to emulate his rotation without issue.

 

With a more forgiving resource replenishment rate, it will be far easier to recover from a mistake during a raid. Forgot to use Thermal Sensor Override on Unload, for instance? No big deal: use it on Thermal Detonator, carry on as normal, and you'll only have to use one or two Rapid Shots to recover down the line (as opposed to three or four with an alacrity rating that's close to the rounding tier).

 

As far as crit goes, I've had the best success running around 2k for both specs (remember that you don't need to stack alacrity as arsenal because of the passive 3 percent alacrity bonus, which will take you to the next rounding tier by default). You want higher crit as a Merc DPS due to the Advanced Targeting passive.

 

Your accuracy rating should be 109.93 percent (5 superior accuracy augments). Anything more is a waste and anything less is a bit risky. With this setup, you won't waste tertiary stat (by over-compensating above the 110 percent accuracy threshold) and you'll only miss 7 out of every 10,000 attacks.

 

Please note that any Arsenal or IO parse between November 28th and December 18th (or thereabouts) is going to be about 200-500 dps higher than now due to the bugged set bonus. In full 248 BiS gear with new augments, you should be averaging around 9350 DPS as Arsenal and 9800 DPS as IO. Your high-crit parses should be around 9500 for Arsenal and 10k for IO.

 

"When do I use adrenals?!?!?!?!"

You will have the ability to use two adrenals during a typical parse/boss fight. Use them as follows:

 

ARSENAL:

(1) Opener, right before electro net.

(2) During electro net, supercharge, vent heat, and an autocrit heatseeker. This scenario usually appears halfway through the parse/fight, or the third electro net.

 

IO:

(1) Opener, right before electro net and supercharge.

(2) During the execute range (sub-30 percent HP) when electro net, missile blast procs, and supercharge are available. It must be in execute range because your dots will be ticking harder due to skill tree passives; you want to capitalize on this extra damage potential. This kind of logic applies to most dot specs.

Edited December 26, 2017 by Hoppinswtor

I have not played this game in a while and am a bit behind on min-maxing these things since the new augments hit. But I noticed you have a pretty high sorc parse up - what are your general observations on best results with the sorc specs? you can post that on the sorc forum though. I have not crunched the exact math but knowing that the new augments give extra alacrity and crit it is probably possible to push the dot sorc spec up to the next alacrity level without sacrificing an unnecassery amount of crit - and there is no resource issues there unlike with io merc.

I have not played this game in a while and am a bit behind on min-maxing these things since the new augments hit. But I noticed you have a pretty high sorc parse up - what are your general observations on best results with the sorc specs? you can post that on the sorc forum though. I have not crunched the exact math but knowing that the new augments give extra alacrity and crit it is probably possible to push the dot sorc spec up to the next alacrity level without sacrificing an unnecassery amount of crit - and there is no resource issues there unlike with io merc.

 

I'll post quickly here. For Madness, I'm sitting at just over 1860 alacrity - just enough to reach the next rounding tier. Like Fury Marauder, this alacrity level facilitates a rather fluid and static rotation, much like the old one from 3.0. I'm running about 1630 crit, and of course 109.93 percent accuracy. For Lightning, I drop a few pieces of alacrity (the equivalent of about 5 percent since you get a stacking alacrity buff in the rotation) and replace them with crit. I end up with something like 2k crit as lightning.

 

I use all new augments and full 248 gear. Queue group ranked for mats; I was able to augment 3 toons fully after about 100 matches with decent pug groups (and 75 wins or so due to all the bads queuing), plus command crate drops. The elo system is generally working due to the high volume of teams in queue; if you are just farming mats, you'll generally get up against mats farmers only (or bad "serious" teams).

Edited December 24, 2017 by Hoppinswtor

Can't say for Arsenal, but for IO, we use around 1280 alacrity for a reason. If you use more than that, you will break your procs, your dots will burn faster than you can renew them and you will screw your rotation in the end.

IO has a very precise rotation and stats, really annoying to mess with. I've tested a lot of new things over the years, and right now, the best stats I've came up with are around 1800crit and 1280 alacrity (1300max).

 

About the rotation, I've made some adjustments over the years as well and I've a kinda of unique way of doing it now, for a few parts of it.

Marise rotation relies on dividing everything into 3 parts basically, Opener, High rotation (2 pwr shots, thermal), Low rotation (2 rapid shots for GCD as fillers).

It works really well, but the problem with this is, in certain situations it can be a problem, as you have too many casts to do and as a result, less mobility in a fight with too much movement. Also higher risk to overheat if not executed well.

What I did was, I broke it down to just 1 part instead of 2 (High and low). More stable and mobile. I replaced 2 power shots for just 1 power shot and 1 rapid shot. Every GCD I'm able to use thermal and keep up the pace, manage heat better and keep moving more easily as I've only 2 cast skills instead of 3. As a result, I find that it can perform slightly better with this rotation, whether it's in a dummy or in a real fight. At least for me. Well, you can see the results at parsely over the months.

 

And like I said before, they fixed the set bonus bug at December 12th with the latest patch, and I don't think it had a 500dps difference, more like 200~300, as we can still reach around 10.4k or with some luck, more, today with IO.

Edited December 24, 2017 by azamba

Can't say for Arsenal, but for IO, we use around 1280 alacrity for a reason. If you use more than that, you will break your procs, your dots will burn faster than you can renew them and you will screw your rotation in the end.

IO has a very precise rotation and stats, really annoying to mess with. I've tested a lot of new things over the years, and right now, the best stats I've came up with are around 1800crit and 1280 alacrity (1300max).

 

About the rotation, I've made some adjustments over the years as well and I've a kinda of unique way of doing it now, for a few parts of it.

Marise rotation relies on dividing everything into 3 parts basically, Opener, High rotation (2 pwr shots, thermal), Low rotation (2 rapid shots for GCD as fillers).

It works really well, but the problem with this is, in certain situations it can be a problem, as you have too many casts to do and as a result, less mobility in a fight with too much movement. Also higher risk to overheat if not executed well.

What I did was, I broke it down to just 1 part instead of 2 (High and low). More stable and mobile. I replaced 2 power shots for just 1 power shot and 1 rapid shot. Every GCD I'm able to use thermal and keep up the pace, manage heat better and keep moving more easily as I've only 2 cast skills instead of 3. As a result, I find that it can perform slightly better with this rotation, whether it's in a dummy or in a real fight. At least for me. Well, you can see the results at parsely over the months.

 

And like I said before, they fixed the set bonus bug at December 12th with the latest patch, and its not a 500dps difference, more like 200~250, as we can still reach 10.4k or with some luck, more, today with IO.

 

Depends on RNG. Could be anywhere from 0-500, since it's a 20 percent crit chance on mag blast. And yeah, high alacrity does mess with the procs (unless you delay a few moves by a tenth of a second, which is flirting with dps loss), but I am now 100 percent convinced that it also streamlines the heat management compared to lower alacrity levels (and arguably higher alacrity levels as well) for the reasons I mentioned. Yet another reason to run lower alac as IO.

 

Your rotation is solid, and seems to be on par with marisi-fascinate currently.

Edited December 24, 2017 by Hoppinswtor

Depends on RNG. Could be anywhere from 0-500, since it's a 20 percent crit chance on mag blast. And yeah, high alacrity does mess with the procs (unless you delay a few moves by a tenth of a second, which is flirting with dps loss), but I am now 100 percent convinced that it also streamlines the heat management compared to lower alacrity levels (and arguably higher alacrity levels as well) for the reasons I mentioned. Yet another reason to run lower alac as IO.

 

Your rotation is solid, and seems to be on par with marisi-fascinate currently.

 

Thanks! And yeah, it could vary a little indeed.

Btw, that new set bonus, I think its more for a nerf than anything else. I really hope they change it before release.

Can't really say for sure without testing it properly, but it doesn't look like a good trade (100% crit chance every minute or 20% crit chance every 30s?...hmmm);

Hey Hoppin, I have a question about your accuracy setup. I have been thinking about running 730 accuracy after the new augments were added but still have my doubts. I made a post on reddit about it and most people said that they'd rather have guaranteed 110% than risk missing for a bit of extra Crit rating.

 

I checked your Arsenal parse and I see that in the whole parse you missed only once - on one tick of Blazing Bolts. So it doesn't seem like a big deal. On the other hand, if you miss on one Rail Shot or Heatseekers that could have crit for 20k... That kind of sucks.

 

So do you really think it is worth going for <110% accuracy? How has it been working for you in real fights?

Hey Hoppin, I have a question about your accuracy setup. I have been thinking about running 730 accuracy after the new augments were added but still have my doubts. I made a post on reddit about it and most people said that they'd rather have guaranteed 110% than risk missing for a bit of extra Crit rating.

 

I checked your Arsenal parse and I see that in the whole parse you missed only once - on one tick of Blazing Bolts. So it doesn't seem like a big deal. On the other hand, if you miss on one Rail Shot or Heatseekers that could have crit for 20k... That kind of sucks.

 

So do you really think it is worth going for <110% accuracy? How has it been working for you in real fights?

 

I quit swtor today, but I was often running 109.65 percent accuracy prior to the new augments without much issue at all. I was still in the 99th percentile for virtually all fights/pulls regardless of spec. If you are unlucky and miss a 20k hit, it's still ultimately only a 50-100 DPS loss (depending on fight duration).

 

Rolling with 109.93 percent accuracy means you will miss 1 out of every 1,428 hits. A 2.5 million dummy parse simulates average fight duration, and for arsenal we're talking 600-650 hits on average during a fight of that duration. Half of those are irrelevant offhand hits, so you're left with like 300 "main hand" hits that are directly affected by your 109.93 percent accuracy. In other words, you'll only miss a single tick once every 4 or 5 fights or so - and the odds of that being one of your heavy hitters is very small at best - remember that only 90 of those 600ish hits will be rail shots/heatseekers/priming shots. The rest are tracers, rapid shot ticks (170 ticks on average per average boss fight/parse!) and blazing bolts ticks, all of which are fairly small hits. In other words, you will only miss a heavy hitter once every 15 fights or so. Even missing an autocrit will only drop your dps by 100...and the two extra crits you'll perform due to higher crit rating will make up for half of that. Gaining 40-50 dps every fight at the cost of losing 50-100 DPS once every 15 fights is hardly an issue, especially since it's very rare that your group will wipe to enrage when the boss is at like 20k health.

 

I'm not sure how accuracy works for offhands, but missing an extra offhand attack once in a while is irrelevant.

Edited December 26, 2017 by Hoppinswtor

What about the revelations about Alacrity?

 

0-702 Alacrity = 1.5 sec GCD

703-1859 Alacrity (7.15+%)= 1.4 sec GCD - (1.39991) [Low Alacrity Build - in Bold]

1860+ Alacrity (15.41%) = 1.3 sec GCD - (1.29971) [High Alacrity Build - in Bold]

 

From what I’ve recently been told and read, any Alacrity equiped that falls outside of these percentages are wasted stats.

 

What about the revelations about Alacrity?

 

0-702 Alacrity = 1.5 sec GCD

703-1859 Alacrity (7.15+%)= 1.4 sec GCD - (1.39991) [Low Alacrity Build - in Bold]

1860+ Alacrity (15.41%) = 1.3 sec GCD - (1.29971) [High Alacrity Build - in Bold]

 

From what I’ve recently been told and read, any Alacrity equiped that falls outside of these percentages are wasted stats.

 

 

OP explained in his original post his rationale for running mid-alacrity. Basically that IO is otherwise too heat intensive and having mid-tier alacrity helps with heat management. And that high alacrity may also throw off the procs.

Edited February 14, 2018 by Jevaruss

Am I the only only to run 1855 (or something) alacrity and have 0 issues with the procs (in IO)?

 

I'm curious however about that heat management theory, I'll have to check the math behind when I have time (probably sometime this week) to see if there is any way to maximize it

After a lot of tests here is the statistical distribution that I use:

it is a video where I doing a parse to 2.5M in Assault / IO and I reach 10kdps:

 

 

My tests were doing on training dummys and boss. I did not take the theoricrafting into consideration. I used a statistical distribution base that I modified during my test sessions. I made 5/6 test with a distribution then with another etc ... In continuation I make an average of the result obtained with each statistical distribution and I concluded with the best distribution which suited my own gameplay and my own quality of internet connection.

 

If this video can help some players I will be happy!

 

Sorry for my bad english i'm french!

 

On boss : http://parsely.io/parser/view/349178/19

It's on Nahut 8VM.

This post is THE most informative post for IO mercs on the ENTIRE INTERNET! Thank you so much for taking the time to post this.... you have revolutionized my LIFE!

 

-7M3