I've heard the debate regarding the Orbital bonus from the PVP gear being better for DPS than trading those 69 armorings for the 78 armorings that would give you 24 more Cunning and 21 more Endurance for each. Smarter people than me have supposedly parsed this and swear the 3 more sec of orbital is more damage if it's used in the rotation.

BUT

What about the PVE set bonus that shaves 15 seconds off the cooldown of Target Acquired? I'd wager that most well-geared snipers are just at or slightly over 100% accuracy. So is shaving 15 seconds off of a skill that boosts your accuracy really better than the 24 cun/21end (x2) you'd get for skipping the set bonuses and just rocking all 78 armorings?

Appreciate any insights if anybody has actually tested this before.

The big bonus from the 2 piece PVE bonus is the 15 energy returned when you activate Target Acquired, not that it shaves 15 seconds off its cooldown.

This makes it much easier to cast Orbital Strike and continue your rotation without having to use a Rifle Shot immediately after Orbital. With Orbital Strike on 45 sec cooldown and Target Acquired on 1min 45 sec cooldown, you can use Target Acquired after every third Orbital Strike to keep your energy in a great place Alternatively, you can delay every other Orbital for 15 seconds to wait for Target Acquired to be ready again.

I've heard the debate regarding the Orbital bonus from the PVP gear being better for DPS than trading those 69 armorings for the 78 armorings that would give you 24 more Cunning and 21 more Endurance for each. Smarter people than me have supposedly parsed this and swear the 3 more sec of orbital is more damage if it's used in the rotation.

 

BUT

 

What about the PVE set bonus that shaves 15 seconds off the cooldown of Target Acquired? I'd wager that most well-geared snipers are just at or slightly over 100% accuracy. So is shaving 15 seconds off of a skill that boosts your accuracy really better than the 24 cun/21end (x2) you'd get for skipping the set bonuses and just rocking all 78 armorings?

 

Appreciate any insights if anybody has actually tested this before.

First of all yes, the extra tick of Orbital is worth the extra cunning which translates to not very much extra bonus damage.

From there the 2 piece PVE set bonus is definitely used in a PVE setting to maximize energy. As said, it's that extra energy which makes the set bonus so useful. If it was just the cooldown reduction you might have a point, but this seems silly since you can get the set bonuses in 78 armorings.