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3.0 Mercenary/Commando DPS by Hotwired


Gyronamics

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Various people have wondered where my hat is so I'll throw it into the ring today :)

 

Click the spoiler button for the Mercenary guide:

 

 

Version 3.0 has come and with it comes some tinkering with the Mercenary class

 

If mercenaries are not familiar to you, they are the imperial faction heavy armoured ranged class. They are somewhat lacking in active defences but their high passive damage reduction on top of attacking from range and in 3.0 gaining a large amount of mobility while attacking gives them substantial survivability through a combination of reduced damage taken and the ability to frankly run away while still doing considerable damage.

 

For the existing Mercs among us there are a few baseline changes in 3.0

 

We get the new passive/cooldown ability of Supercharge taken from Bodyguard spec and reinvented with DPS and healing flavours.

 

Offhealing becomes less sustainable outside Bodyguard spec with the AOE heal Kolto Missile removed and replaced with the instant single target heal Emergency Scan. Rapid Scan is replaced with Healing Scan which has a longer cast, more healing and a cooldown. Rapid Shots no longer heals when you equip Combat Support Cylinder, instead you have a totally separate ability called Kolto Shot which can be used with the same effect in all cylinders. Of note is that using Kolto Shot will build stacks for Supercharge outside combat.

 

Virtually all defensive upgrades for the class are now in Utility points with only minor defensive boosts available in the specialist trees. On the other hand almost all the nice upgrades are available to all specs plus a number of new useful ones. And some terrible ones too.

 

Looking at the damage specs, if you played Arsenal before then you can still play Arsenal now. Almost exactly the same playstyle. If you played Pyrotech before then your experience is mostly worthless now. Also it's been renamed Innovative Ordinance.

 

To broadly look at each specialisation in 3.0:

 

Arsenal

 

A very unrestricted spec, packed with instant damage, high levels of armour penetration and a higher resource regeneration system than other mercenary specs. Your resources are hard to waste since there is minimal delay between using abilities and damaging the target. While there are attack priorities there is no severe penalty if you have to use them out of the correct order or swap between single/AOE damage.

 

The AOE bonus this spec gains is +15% critical chance and +30% critical damage on Sweeping Blasters. Technically it gains another bonus to almost all AOE damage since High Velocity Gas Cylinder grants 35% armour penetration so Death From Above, Sweeping Blasters, Explosive Dart, Missile Blast and part of Fusion Missile will lose less damage vs armoured targets compared to other mercenary specs.

 

To offset the burst and relentlessness it doesn't have a very high sustained damage ceiling. This is unlikely to put many off using the spec since for simplicity of mechanics and ease of use this is the spec of choice.

 

In stark contrast then is the revamped Pyrotech specialisation which will from now be known as Innovative Ordinance:

 

Innovative Ordinance

 

You don't specialise in this tree for daily missions, you don't do it for dealing with adds in operations and you don't do it because you know how the old Pyro spec played (because that's now worthless knowledge). You do it because it sets the bar for single target sustained damage over all other classes and you're happy to deal with the hassle involved to get those results.

 

Dealing about half its output in armour bypassing elemental and internal DoT it relies on a strict rotation with little flexibility. Resources are tight normally and on a knife edge if you go for maximum damage. Using certain abilities out of order can be quite harsh to recover from. Target swapping at short notice or targets which die too quickly also interferes with rotation and resource control.

 

While major AOE work is not recommended for this spec it does have substantial AOE potential. As Arsenal is all instant damage so Innovative Ordinance is delayed damage even on the AOE bonus. Each of its two main DoT abilities can be spread to 8 targets using combo attacks. Over the 15 seconds each DoT ability lasts this can be major damage but it is quite slow. Of course it still has access to the baseline mercenary AOE abilities but the nice thing about this AOE bonus is that it can be used while continuing rotation on the primary target, merely mixing in the combo abilities to spread damage to nearby targets.

 

Mobility is unusually high for this specialisation, the neutral rotation I will illustrate further on is 90% mobile over the course of 15 seconds (which is a whole rotation). This is particularly important to master to get the main benefit of this specialisation in a fight.

 

 

Passives

 

Upgraded Arsenal: Reduces the pushback suffered while activating Power Shot, Tracer Missile, Concussion Missile, Fusion Missile and Serrated Shot by 75% and increases the effects of your cylinders while active:

 

Combustible Gas Cylinder: Increases ranged critical chance by 5%

 

High Velocity Gas Cylinder: Reduces the heat generated by Rail Shot by 10.

 

Advanced Targeting: Unload, Blazing Bolts, Rail Shot and Mag Shot ignore 30% of the target's armour. In addition, the critical chance of Healing Scan and Emergency Scan are increased by 5% and critical results with damage and healing abilities increase damage and healing by 10% for 6 seconds.

 

Supercharge: Activating Rapid Shots, Kolto Shot, Power Shot, Tracer Missile or Rapid Scan generates a stack of Supercharge. Each stack increases all damage and healing done by 0.1%. Stacks up to 10 times and lasts 60 seconds. Requires an active cylinder.

 

 

Offensive Cooldowns

 

Supercharged Gas: Requires and converts 10 stacks of Supercharge to vent 10 heat and empower your active cylinder:

 

 

  • Combustible Gas Cylinder: Increases periodic damage dealt by 10% for 10 seconds and causes the next successful ranged attack on a target affected by your Incendiary Missiles burn to apply Supercharged Burn to the target which deals ~5000 elemental damage in 192 gear over 5 seconds.
  • High Velocity Gas Cylinder: Increases armour penetration by 10% for 10 seconds. While active, damage dealt by Tracer Missile, Heatseeker Missiles, Blazing Bolts and Priming Shot grants Supercharged Velocity which increases alacrity by 1%. This effect cannot occur more than once per second and can stack up to 3 times. The Arsenal talent of Burst Mode at level 44 increases penetration to 15%, alacrity boosts to 2% and maximum alacrity boost to 6%

 

Thermal Sensor Override: Your next ability generates no heat.

 

Power Surge: Next cast ability activates instantly and then grants interrupt immunity for 6 seconds.

 

Vent Heat: Rapidly vents 50 heat over 3 seconds.

Utility Improved Vents causes this to vent an extra 15 heat instantly and grant 10% alacrity for 6 seconds.

 

 

Utilities - Skilful

 

Gyroscopic Alignment Jets: Vent 10 heat when stunned, immobilised, knocked down or otherwise incapacitated.

Situational - CC heavy fight with low damage otherwise you'd take Power Barrier

 

Improved Vents: Vent Heat vents 15 extra heat instantly and grants 10% alacrity for 6 seconds.

Essential - more resources, faster casting

 

Power Barrier: Power Shot, Tracer Missile and Rapid Scan generate a Power Barrier that increases damage reduction by 1% for 15 seconds. Stacks up to 5 times.

Recommended - 5% damage reduction reduces your risk and healing demand

 

Jet Escape: Reduces the cooldown of Jet Boost by 5 seconds and Determination by 30 seconds.

Situational - some special fight needing faster CC breaks or knockbacks

 

Afterburners: Rocket Punch immobilises the target for 4 seconds. Direct damage caused after 2 seconds ends the effect. In addition, Jet Boosts knockback effect is stronger and pushes enemies 4 meters further away.

Situational - the extra knockback range not the melee root, that's just crazy if it ever has to be used in an operation

 

Custom Enviro Suit: Increases Endurance by 3% and all healing received by 3%.

Recommended - over 1500 more hp in 192's and lowering your healing demand

 

Boresights: Increases the damage dealt by Sweeping Blasters by 25%.

Situational - Sweeping Blasters isn't that great but if you're Arsenal you gain damage bonuses to it plus you have the automatic regen and armour penetration to best use this spammable AOE.

 

 

Utilities - Masterful

 

Torque Boosters: Increases the duration of Hydraulic Overrides by 4 seconds.

Situational - no you don't always need it to last 10 seconds

 

Suit FOE: When you activate Cure on yourself, a Foreign Object Excisor reduces all periodic damage taken by 30% for 12 seconds.

Situational - for when you cant cleanse it, your healers can't cleanse it and it does high damage. Fairly rare in PVE really.

 

Protective Field: Increases all healing received by 20% while Energy Shield is active.

Recommended - You pop shield when you anticipate damage, healing boost helps healers keep you up. Good stuff.

 

Power Shield: Energy Shield now further decreases ability activation pushback by 30% and makes you immune to interrupts.

Recommended - we have only 75% pushback protection on our casts which weakens us in burn phases when taking damage. This takes pushback protection to 100% with your shield up so for 15 seconds your damage won't be weakened by pushback. You probably want the damage reduction from Energy Shield since you're only getting pushback by taking damage but it's forced on you as a bundle even if you don't.

 

Pyro Shield: When activated, your Energy Shield ignites in a blaze, lashing attackers with elemental damage while it remains active. This effect cannot occur more than once each second.

Situational - you're not a tank, how often do you really get attacked for long periods.

 

Heat Damping: Eliminates the heat generated by Jet Boost, Concussion Missile, Cure and Electro Dart.

Almost worthless - this is mostly for Bodyguard Jet Boost healing and Cure

 

Infrared Sensors: Increases stealth detection level by 2, melee and ranged defences by 2% and reduces the cooldown of Stealth Scan by 5 seconds.

Almost worthless - increase your dodge chance from 5% to 7%. Compared to the guaranteed utility effects you can get this is poor.

 

Utilities - Heroic

 

Energy Rebounder: When you take damage, the active cooldown of Energy Shield is reduced by 3 seconds. This effect cannot occur more than once every 1.5 seconds. In addition, when taking damage, you have a 20% chance to emit an Energy Redoubt which absorbs a low amount of damage and lasts 6 seconds. This effect cannot occur more than once every 10 seconds.

Situational - taking lots of single target or DoT all fight? Take this.

 

Jet Rebounder: Increases the damage dealt by Jet Boost by 30%. In addition, taking damage reduces the active cooldown of Jet Boost by 1 second. This effect cannot occur more than once every 1.5 seconds.

Almost worthless - a weak AOE that scatters targets. Take Jet Escape in tier 1 Utilities if you want a shorter cooldown on Jet Boost.

 

Kolto Jets: Jet Boost heals you and up to 7 other allies within range.

Almost worthless - take a defensive heroic and Thrill of the Hunt, leave healing to healers.

 

Thrill of the Hunt: Allows Unload and Blazing Bolts to be activated while moving.

Recommended - helps sustain damage when being forced to move.

 

Stabilized Armor: Reduces damage taken from area effects by 30%. Additionally, while stunned, you take 30% less damage from all sources.

Recommended - AOE is very common and this cuts it by 30% passively. Also saves you from "stun -> brutal damage" mechanics.

 

Supercharged Reserves: Reduces the cooldowns of Cure and Disabling Shot by 3 seconds each. In addition, you build up to 10 stacks of Supercharge over the course of using Recharge and Reload. This effect cannot occur more than once every 30 seconds.

Almost worthless - Ignore the Supercharge effect since you should be stacking Supercharge before a fight using your Kolto Shot which doesn't need a Heroic utility point.

 

Power Overrides: Reduces the cooldowns of Concussion Missile and Power Surge by 15 seconds each. In addition, Power Surge grants a second charge, making your next two abilities with an activation time activate instantly.

Situational - compared to the other options this is unlikely to be used.

 

 

Gearing and Stats Priority

 

Accuracy must be at 100% for PVE. This requires over 750 in the stat which in gearing terms you should be able to do without an accuracy augment with a little less than full 192 gear which is available for Elite comms and as drops from hard mode L60 flashpoints and storymode L60 operations.

 

After that as long as you don't go for tank stats it's almost impossible to gear badly.

 

Crit vs Power: If you can get a higher tier mod of either stat then do it. Once you have the luxury of picking and choosing then look to have anything under 400 crit and the rest in power.

 

Surge vs Alacrity: You have only 3 slots after fulfilling your 100% accuracy requirement. Any combination is totally legitimate.

 

Augments: You'll need 1 Accuracy augment below ~192 gear to be 100% accurate. After that you can pick and choose between Aim (Reflex) or Power (Overkill) augments.

 

Expect to be unoptimised while gearing up but when you can, go for low endurance mods and enhancements.

 

Important note about set bonuses: The old set bonus of 15% crit chance on Power Shot and 8% more damage on Rail Shot is now junk for Innovative Ordinance. Power Shot is no longer a high percentage of our damage output and the 8% Rail Shot damage bonus does not apply to Mag Shot, its replacement in Innovative Ordinance. Make it a top priority to upgrade to the new set bonus which is somewhat different but at least they work and are a dps increase.

 

Relics: The safe bet is Seredipitous Assault (proc power) and Focused Retribution (proc mainstat). The strategic burst path is to swap one out for a Boundless Ages (manual power buff).

 

 

Arsenal Walkthrough

 

Things to remember:

 

 

  • Easy resource management
  • Instant damage
  • High flexibility (target swapping, burst, area damage)

 

Basic attacks you'll use:

 

Rapid Shot

Rail Shot

Unload

Electronet

 

Fully trained you gain these attacks:

 

Tracer Missile

Heatseeker Missiles

Priming Shot

Blazing Bolts

 

Blazing Bolts totally replaces Unload at level 57 and costs 8 less heat. Remove Unload from your bar at 57.

 

You also apply these 45s debuffs everyone can benefit from:

 

-20% armour from Tracer Missile

+5% to ranged damage from Priming Shot

 

Key mechanical points:

 

 

  • Terminal Velocity - High Velocity Gas Cylinder lets you vent 2 heat every 1.5s
  • Priming Shot makes the next Tracer Missile instant if it hits the target
  • Barrage - Tracer Missile can reset Blazing Bolts every 8s and increases damage by 10%
  • Tracer Lock - Tracer Missile builds Tracer Lock stacks, 5 stacks increases Rail Shot damage by 30%
  • Tracer Missile debuffs cause the target to take 25% more damage from Heatseeker Missile
  • Activating Supercharged Gas at 10 stacks with High Velocity Gas Cylinder on grants 10% armour penetration and a stacking alacrity buff when you use your specialised abilities. Lasts 10s. Also vents 10 heat.

 

Set Bonus:

 

2PC - Heatseeker Missile increases all damage by 2% for 15s, limit of once per 30 seconds.

6PC - Blazing Bolts causes the next Heatseeker Missile to autocrit, limit of once per 60 seconds

 

There is no fixed rotation for Arsenal just a short and simple priority list:

 

1) Get the Barrage proc by using Tracer Missile

2) Use the following abilities if they are available:

  • Priming Shot
  • Heatseeker Missiles ONLY on a target with Heat Signature from Tracer Missile
  • Rail Shot ONLY with 5 stacks of Tracer Lock from using Tracer Missile
  • Electronet

3) Use the Barrage buffed Blazing Bolts

4) Use Tracer Missile if heat is available otherwise use Rapid Shots

 

And that's it, I could spin it out for longer but it's really that simple and that's a key reason it's popular.

 

As an opener I like to do Priming Shot -> Electronet + Supercharged Gas + Adrenal -> Blazing Bolts without Barrage proc -> Instant (because of Priming Shot) Tracer Missile. At that point I'm at #1 on the priority list and I go from there.

 

Remember to charge Supercharge to 10 stacks before any fight using Kolto Shot.

 

Your resource cooldowns of

 

 

  • Thermal Sensor Override - 0 heat cost on next ability, best used on Blazing Bolts for the maximum possible loss of heat.
  • Vent Heat - always take the tier 1 utility Improved Vents to instantly dump 15 more heat
  • Supercharged Gas - remember this vents 10 heat

 

Should be used as much as possible to maximise your Tracer Missile spamming when anything better is on cooldown and allow you to use abilities as soon as possible when they come off cooldown rather than waiting for heat to drop.

 

The reason it always is Tracer Missile is because of a few things. Plain damage is one, Tracer Lock stacks is another and 1/10 of every Supercharged Gas you build up is a third. 1 heat vented and 1/10 of the damage bonus of Supercharged Gas is tied in to every Tracer Missile or Rapid Shots.

 

Slightly Advanced Arsenal

 

You have very good automatic regen but to be most efficient you also need to use Blazing Bolts as much as possible since it costs 16 but takes up 3 seconds unlike most other abilities which cost 15 and take up 1.5s.

 

To do that you want to try and reset Blazing Bolts with Tracer Missile as close to the 8s limit as possible. Technically it's a 9s cooldown because abilities work in 1.5s slots .

 

9s is 6 GCD and using Blazing Bolts counts as 2 of those so 4 other abilities between procs.

 

Example 1:

 

GCD0 Tracer Missile (procs Barrage at the end of the cast)

GCD1 Rapid Shots

GCD2 Rapid Shots

GCD3 Rapid Shots

GCD4 Blazing Bolts

GCD5 Blazing Bolts (continued, remember it's 2 GCD)

GCD6 Tracer Missile (procs Barrage at the end of the cast)

 

Example 2:

 

GCD0 Tracer Missile (procs Barrage at the end of the cast)

GCD1 Rapid Shots

GCD2 Rapid Shots

GCD3 Rapid Shots

GCD4 Blazing Bolts

GCD5 Blazing Bolts (continued, remember it's 2 GCD)

GCD6 Priming Shot (making the next Tracer Missile instant)

GCD7 Tracer Missile (procs Barrage instantly)

 

Example 3:

 

GCD0 Priming Shot (making the next Tracer Missile instant)

GCD1 Tracer Missile (procs Barrage instantly)

GCD2 Rapid Shots

GCD3 Rapid Shots

GCD4 Blazing Bolts

GCD5 Blazing Bolts (continued, remember it's 2 GCD)

GCD6 Tracer Missile (procs Barrage at the end of the cast)

 

 

Arsenal AOE

 

The primary reason Arsenal is better than Innovative Ordinance at handling trash is that the bonus regen it gets is totally free and automatic. You get it from doing nothing. This is huge when you can't expect to stay on a target for more than a few seconds.

 

It also applies to sustained periods AOE which of course are not rotational.

 

As mentioned very early on all kinetic/energy AOE attacks performed by Arsenal benefit from the 35% armour penetration of High Velocity Gas Cylinder which is a significant edge.

 

Anyway on top of the basic level AOE which all mercs get there's the AOE bonus from the tree:

 

Blazing Barrels: Sweeping Blasters gains 15% crit and 30% crit damage

 

Combine that with 25% more damage from the tier 1 utility Boresights to get a decent spammable ranged AOE. I'd say it's not as good at the best that Sorc or Sniper can offer but it's the best that merc can offer and that's not bad.

 

 

General Arsenal Notes

 

If ever in doubt about how to play a fight or when playing with people you don't have much experience with it's a really safe spec to go with. You can handle anything from adds to the boss and easily spare your attention from your abilities to learn fight mechanics or keep an eye on the group you're with.

 

 

Innovative Ordinance walkthrough

 

Things to remember:

 

 

  • Complex rotation and resource management
  • Damage over Time (burning and bleeding) based
  • High single target damage

 

Basic attacks you will use:

 

Rapid Shot

Power Shot

Unload

Rail Shot

Electronet

Missile Blast

 

Fully trained you will gain these attacks:

 

Incendiary Missile

Thermal Detonator

Serrated Shot

Mag Shot

 

Mag Shot fully replaces Rail Shot at level 57. Remove Rail Shot from your bar at level 57.

 

You also apply these 45s debuffs everyone can benefit from:

 

+7% to internal/elemental damage from Incendiary Missile

+5% to ranged damage from Serrated Shot

 

Key mechanical points:

 

 

  • Speed to Burn - Mag Shot can make Power Shot/Serrated Shot instant every 15s
  • Innovative Particle Accelerator - Power Shot, Unload and Sweeping Blasters can reset the cooldown on Mag Shot and make it free to use every 7.5s
  • Superheated Shot - Mag Shot vents 5 heat if used on a burning target
  • Superheated Shot - Mag Shot triggers your Combustible Gas Cylinder DoT
  • Volatile Warhead - Missile Blast gains 75% damage and costs 10 less heat if a target under 30% has your DoT on them. 15s limit.
  • Relentless Ordnance - 30% more DoT on targets below 30%
  • Incendiary Missile is a 15s elemental DoT
  • Serrated Shot is a 15s internal DoT and increases elemental damage while its up (Flaming Wound).
  • Thermal Detonator has a 15s CD
  • Unload is on a 12s CD (after specialising)
  • Activating Supercharged Gas at 10 stacks with Combustible Gas Cylinder on will trigger a high damage 5s DoT if you use ranged damage on a target that has your Incendiary Missile burn and increase all DoT by 10% for 10s. You also vent 10 heat.

 

Set Bonus:

 

2PC - Serrated Shot increases all damage by 2% for 15s, limit of once per 30 seconds.

6PC - Unload causes the next Mag Shot to autocrit, limit of once per 60 seconds

 

Rotation Notes:

 

The most important thing about Innovative Ordinance is that you only get bonus heat venting if you use free Mag Shots on burning targets.

 

You only get free Mag Shots by using Power Shot, Unload or Sweeping Blasters every 7.5s.

 

And the burning targets will only be guaranteed by using Incendiary Missile every 15s to keep it up.

 

Also need to mix in Thermal Detonator, Unload and Serrated Shot because they do quite a lot of damage.

 

Unfortunately this means a very strict rotation core but around that we can fill in all the other abilities we want to increase damage.

 

Only two abilities are worth using as resets during a rotation, Power Shot and Unload.

 

Power Shot has no CD but is less efficient therefore we want to use Unload with its better damage and resource efficiency as much as possible. You can only use Unload once per 15s and in 15s you get two chances of free Mag Shots. So one triggered by Power Shot and one by Unload.

 

Here then is an example of an effective rotation I created which is infinitely repeatable. Of particular note is that you can do almost everything on the move except the Serrated Shot cast which nevertheless can be forced instant with your Power Surge.

 

Before any fight or during fight downtime remember to charge your Supercharge to 10 using Kolto Shot and for the basic rotation you consider it as an adrenal to increase damage. Advanced use looks at it slightly differently.

 

GCD01 Incendiary Missile (debuffing the target and applying the elemental DoT)

GCD02 Mag Shot (making next Power Shot instant)

GCD03 Power Shot (making next Mag Shot free)

GCD04 Mag Shot (venting 5 heat)

GCD05 Serrated Shot (debuffing the target and applying internal DoT)

GCD06 Thermal Detonator

GCD07 ------ Filler Slot

GCD08 Unload (making next Mag Shot free)

GCD09 Unload continued

GCD10 ------ Filler Slot

 

That would then continue

 

GCD01 Incendiary Missile (reapplying the elemental DoT)

GCD02 Mag Shot (venting 5 heat and making next Power Shot instant)

GCD03 Power Shot (making next Mag Shot free)

GCD04 Mag Shot (venting 5 heat)

GCD05 Serrated Shot (reapplying internal DoT)

GCD06 Thermal Detonator

GCD07 ------ Filler Slot

GCD08 Unload (making next Mag Shot free)

GCD09 Unload continued

GCD10 ------ Filler Slot

 

Filler slots will be Rapid Shots and Electronet when available for an unstressful rotation.

 

 

Advanced Innovative Ordinance

 

To hit the big numbers you cannot merely cruise with a neutral rotation, we need to be taking advantage of our resource cooldowns and instead of using Rapid Shots as a filler we need to be using something with more punch.

 

The ability we will use to generate more damage in the filler slots instead of Rapid Shots is Power Shot.

 

Like Rapid Shots it generates 1 stack of Supercharge, that means 1 of the 10 heat vented by Supercharged Gas can be counted against the cost of Power Shot making it in theory cost 14 heat.

 

Also 1/10 of the damage and damage boost of Supercharged Gas can be considered as part of what you get as damage from using Power Shot.

 

There is one other ability you can replace Rapid Shots with and that is Missile Blast. Any target with any DoT of yours that falls under 30% will proc Volatile Warhead (with a limit of 15s). The damage increase and the heat decrease makes Missile Blast hit as hard as Thermal Detonator but for only 10 heat.

 

Of course unlike Rapid Shots these come with a cost.

 

To counter this we need to use our three resource cooldowns which are NOT necessary with my basic rotation using 2 Rapid Shots.

 

 

  • Thermal Sensor Override - 0 heat cost on next ability, best used on Unload for the maximum possible loss of heat.
  • Vent Heat - always take the tier 1 utility Improved Vents to instantly dump 15 more heat
  • Supercharged Gas - remember this vents 10 heat

 

In brief you want to use Thermal Sensor Override and Supercharged Gas to counter small heat rises and do this as frequently as possible.

 

Vent Heat removes so much heat that it demands that you perform heavily filled rotations before using it, this may or may not be something you do as part of your normal rotation or something you hold back on for a heavier damage period.

 

Expect to have to practice this a lot before it can be considered consistent in a fight.

 

Start with the basic rotation, be able to kill a dummy of any health without crashing out and progress to filling with heavier damage abilities and working in your resource cooldowns to balance the heat.

 

However if you overheat after using your resource cooldowns the rotation suffers enormously. Your bonus regen relies on your rotation continuing.

 

In that scenario you're doomed to making fast decisions on what you can drop.

 

The skeleton rotation:

 

GCD01 Incendiary Missile (reapplying the elemental DoT)

GCD02 Mag Shot (venting 5 heat and making next Power Shot instant)

GCD03 Power Shot (making next Mag Shot free)

GCD04 Mag Shot (venting 5 heat)

GCD05 ------ Filler Slot

GCD06 ------ Filler Slot

GCD07 ------ Filler Slot

GCD08 Unload (making next Mag Shot free)

GCD09 Unload continued

GCD10 ------ Filler Slot

 

And in this case all fillers would be Rapid Shots.

 

You save 30 heat by dropping Serrated Shot and Thermal Detonator but that's what you can claw back by spending minimal resources if you are in a bad spot with heat but it's not quite bad enough to suffer spamming Rapid Shots for an eternity.

 

 

Innovative Ordinance AOE

 

I mentioned earlier that AOE and adds are really not the thing you bring this spec for. However it is not totally useless at it.

 

Explosive Dart spreads your Serrated Shot DoT to all 8 targets it hits

Fusion Missile spreads your Incendiary Missile DoT to all 8 targets it hits

 

That then requires the targets to do the decent thing and live for 15s so your DoT banks some decent damage on them.

 

To effectively use this in the traditional boss + adds fights requires two main tactics:

 

a) encourage adds to be around the primary target so you can drop in the combo abilities to splash them

 

or

 

b) swap targets to perform the AOE combos during filler slots then back to the main target

 

If there is no primary target then frankly you are in the wrong spec and should be in Arsenal but you still have your base level mercenary AOE abilities and your combo AOE to use. You'll do less than any other ranged DPS spec but it's something.

 

 

General Innovative Ordinance Notes

 

One of the most important things you must know when taking IO into an operation or a HM flashpoint is that you're going to need to communicate your particular strengths and your weaknesses.

 

If you're about to be lumped with adds, aoe or anything that isn't primary target focusing then make your case that you can be more useful doing boss damage. If you can't get that then suck it up and play Arsenal because IO on fiddly low health targets is pathetic. Of course if you do get the green light you need to have mastered the spec enough to be worth it. It is a single target monster only if you can play it well enough.

 

Edited by Gyronamics
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Click the spoiler button for the Commando guide:

 

 

Version 3.0 has come and with it comes some tinkering with the Commando class

 

If commandos are not familiar to you, they are the republic faction heavy armoured ranged class. They are somewhat lacking in active defences but their high passive damage reduction on top of attacking from range and in 3.0 gaining a large amount of mobility while attacking gives them substantial survivability through a combination of reduced damage taken and the ability to frankly run away while still doing considerable damage.

 

For the existing Commandos among us there are a few baseline changes in 3.0

 

We get the new passive/cooldown ability of Supercharge taken from Combat Medic spec and reinvented with DPS and healing flavours.

 

Offhealing becomes less sustainable outside Combat Medic spec with the AOE heal Kolto Bomb removed and replaced with the instant single target heal Bacta Infusion. Medical Probe is replaced with Advanced Medical Probe which has a longer cast, more healing and a cooldown. Hammer Shot no longer heals when you equip Combat Support Cell, instead you have a totally separate ability called Med Shot which can be used with the same effect in all cells. Of note is that using Med Shot will build stacks for Supercharge outside combat.

 

Virtually all defensive upgrades for the class are now in Utility points with only minor defensive boosts available in the specialist trees. On the other hand almost all the nice upgrades are available to all specs plus a number of new useful ones. And some terrible ones too.

 

Looking at the damage specs, if you played Gunnery before then you can still play Gunnery now. Almost exactly the same playstyle. If you played Assault before then your experience is mostly worthless now.

 

To broadly look at each specialisation in 3.0:

 

Gunnery

 

A very unrestricted spec, packed with instant damage, high levels of armour penetration and a higher resource regeneration system than other commando specs. Your resources are hard to waste since there is minimal delay between using abilities and damaging the target. While there are attack priorities there is no severe penalty if you have to use them out of the correct order or swap between single/AOE damage.

 

The AOE bonus this spec gains is +15% critical chance and +30% critical damage on Hail of Bolts. Technically it gains another bonus to almost all AOE damage since Armour-piercing Cell grants 35% armour penetration so Mortar Volley, Hail of Bolts, Sticky Grenade, Explosive Round and part of Plasma Grenade will lose less damage vs armoured targets compared to other commando specs.

 

To offset the burst and relentlessness it doesn't have a very high sustained damage ceiling. This is unlikely to put many off using the spec since for simplicity of mechanics and ease of use this is the spec of choice.

 

In stark contrast then is the revamped Assault specialisation:

 

Assault

 

You don't specialise in this tree for daily missions, you don't do it for dealing with adds in operations and you don't do it because you know how the old Assault spec played (because that's now worthless knowledge). You do it because it sets the bar for single target sustained damage over all other classes and you're happy to deal with the hassle involved to get those results.

 

Dealing about half its output in armour bypassing elemental and internal DoT it relies on a strict rotation with little flexibility. Resources are tight normally and on a knife edge if you go for maximum damage. Using certain abilities out of order can be quite harsh to recover from. Target swapping at short notice or targets which die too quickly also interferes with rotation and resource control.

 

While major AOE work is not recommended for this spec it does have substantial AOE potential. As Gunnery is all instant damage so Assault is delayed damage even on the AOE bonus. Each of its two main DoT abilities can be spread to 8 targets using combo attacks. Over the 15 seconds each DoT ability lasts this can be major damage but it is quite slow. Of course it still has access to the baseline commando AOE abilities but the nice thing about this AOE bonus is that it can be used while continuing rotation on the primary target, merely mixing in the combo abilities to spread damage to nearby targets.

 

Mobility is unusually high for this specialisation, the neutral rotation I will illustrate further on is 90% mobile over the course of 15 seconds (which is a whole rotation). This is particularly important to master to get the main benefit of this specialisation in a fight.

 

 

Passives

 

Special Munitions: Reduces the pushback suffered while activating Charged Bolts, Grav Round, Concussion Round, Plasma Grenade and Serrated bolt by 75% and increases the effects of your cells while active:

 

Plasma Cell: Increases ranged critical chance by 5%

 

Armour-piercing Cell: Reduces the cost of High Impact Bolt by 10.

 

Target Lock: Full Auto, Boltstorm, High Impact Bolt and Mag Bolt ignore 30% of the target's armour. In addition, the critical chance of Advanced Medical Probe and Bacta Infusion are increased by 5% and critical results with damage and healing abilities increase damage and healing by 10% for 6 seconds.

 

Supercharge: Activating Hammer Shot, Med shot, Charged Bolts, Grav Round or Medical Probe generates a stack of Supercharge. Each stack increases all damage and healing done by 0.1%. Stacks up to 10 times and lasts 60 seconds. Requires an active cell.

 

 

Offensive Cooldowns

 

Supercharged Cell: Requires and converts 10 stacks of Supercharge to generate 10 energy and empower your active cell:

 

 

  • Plasma cell: Increases periodic damage dealt by 10% for 10 seconds and causes the next successful ranged attack on a target affected by your Incendiary Round burn to apply Supercharged Burn to the target which deals ~5000 elemental damage in 192 gear over 5 seconds.
  • Armour-piercing Cell: Increases armour penetration by 10% for 10 seconds. While active, damage dealt by Grav Round, Demo Round, Boltstorm and Vortex Bolt grants Supercharged Velocity which increases alacrity by 1%. This effect cannot occur more than once per second and can stack up to 3 times. The Gunnery talent of Burst Mode at level 44 increases penetration to 15%, alacrity boosts to 2% and maximum alacrity boost to 6%

 

Reserve Powercell: Your next ability has no cost.

 

Tech Override: Next cast ability activates instantly and then grants interrupt immunity for 6 seconds.

 

Recharge Cells: Rapidly generates 50 energy over 3 seconds.

Utility Cell Capacitor causes this to generate an extra 15 energy instantly and grant 10% alacrity for 6 seconds.

 

 

Utilities - Skilful

 

Parallactic Combat Stims: Generate 10 energy when stunned, immobilised, knocked down or otherwise incapacitated.

Situational - CC heavy fight with low damage otherwise you'd take Charged Barrier

 

Cell Capacitor: Recharge Cells generates an extra 15 energy instantly and grants 10% alacrity for 6 seconds.

Essential - more resources, faster casting

 

Charged Barrier: Charged Bolts, Grav Round and Medical Probe generate a Charged Barrier that increases damage reduction by 1% for 15 seconds. Stacks up to 5 times.

Recommended - 5% damage reduction reduces your risk and healing demand

 

Tenacious Defence: Reduces the cooldown of Concussion Charge by 5 seconds and Tenacity by 30 seconds.

Situational - some special fight needing faster CC breaks or knockbacks

 

Concussive Force: Stockstrike immobilises the target for 4 seconds. Direct damage caused after 2 seconds ends the effect. In addition, Concussion Charge knockback effect is stronger and pushes enemies 4 meters further away.

Situational - the extra knockback range not the melee root, that's just crazy if it ever has to be used in an operation

 

Heavy Trooper: Increases Endurance by 3% and all healing received by 3%.

Recommended - over 1500 more hp in 192's and lowering your healing demand

 

Chain Gunnery: Increases the damage dealt by Hail of Bolts by 25%.

Situational - Hail of Bolts isn't that great but if you're Gunnery you gain damage bonuses to it plus you have the automatic regen and armour penetration to best use this spammable AOE.

 

 

Utilities - Masterful

 

Advance The Line: Increases the duration of Hold The Line by 4 seconds.

Situational - no you don't always need it to last 10 seconds

 

Suit FOE: When you activate Field Aid on yourself, a Foreign Object Excisor reduces all periodic damage taken by 30% for 12 seconds.

Situational - for when you cant cleanse it, your healers can't cleanse it and it does high damage. Fairly rare in PVE really.

 

Med Zone: Increases all healing received by 20% while Reactive Shield is active.

Recommended - You pop shield when you anticipate damage, healing boost helps healers keep you up. Good stuff.

 

Combat Shield: Reactive Shield now further decreases ability activation pushback by 30% and makes you immune to interrupts.

Recommended - we have only 75% pushback protection on our casts which weakens us in burn phases when taking damage. This takes pushback protection to 100% with your shield up so for 15 seconds your damage won't be weakened by pushback. You probably want the damage reduction from Reactive Shield since you're only getting pushback by taking damage but it's forced on you as a bundle even if you don't.

 

Electro Shield: When activated, your Reactive Shield charges with electricity, zapping attackers with elemental damage while it remains active. This effect cannot occur more than once each second.

Situational - you're not a tank, how often do you really get attacked for long periods.

 

Efficient Conversions: Eliminates the cost of Concussion Charge, Concussion Round, Field Aid and Cryo Grenade.

Almost worthless - this is mostly for Combat Medic Concussion Charge healing and Field Aid

 

Nightvision Scope: Increases stealth detection level by 2, melee and ranged defences by 2% and reduces the cooldown of Stealth Scan by 5 seconds.

Almost worthless - increase your dodge chance from 5% to 7%. Compared to the guaranteed utility effects you can get this is poor.

 

Utilities - Heroic

 

Reflexive Shield: When you take damage, the active cooldown of Reactive Shield is reduced by 3 seconds. This effect cannot occur more than once every 1.5 seconds. In addition, when taking damage, you have a 20% chance to emit an Energy Redoubt which absorbs a low amount of damage and lasts 6 seconds. This effect cannot occur more than once every 10 seconds.

Situational - taking lots of single target or DoT all fight? Take this.

 

Reflexive Battery: Increases the damage dealt by Concussion Charge by 30%. In addition, taking damage reduces the active cooldown of Concussion Charge by 1 second. This effect cannot occur more than once every 1.5 seconds.

Almost worthless - a weak AOE that scatters targets. Take Tenacious Defence in tier 1 Utilities if you want a shorter cooldown on Concussion Charge.

 

Kolto Wave: Concussion Charge heals you and up to 7 other allies within range.

Almost worthless - take a defensive heroic and Forced March, leave healing to healers.

 

Forced March: Allows Full Auto and Boltstorm to be activated while moving.

Recommended - helps sustain damage when being forced to move.

 

Shock Absorbers: Reduces damage taken from area effects by 30%. Additionally, while stunned, you take 30% less damage from all sources.

Recommended - AOE is very common and this cuts it by 30% passively. Also saves you from "stun -> brutal damage" mechanics.

 

Supercharged Reserves: Reduces the cooldowns of Field Aid and Disabling Shot by 3 seconds each. In addition, you build up to 10 stacks of Supercharge over the course of using Recharge and Reload. This effect cannot occur more than once every 30 seconds.

Almost worthless - Ignore the Supercharge effect since you should be stacking Supercharge before a fight using your Med Shot which doesn't need a Heroic utility point.

 

Overclock: Reduces the cooldowns of Concussion Round and Tech Override by 15 seconds each. In addition, Tech Override grants a second charge, making your next two abilities with an activation time activate instantly.

Situational - compared to the other options this is unlikely to be used.

 

 

Gearing and Stats Priority

 

Accuracy must be at 100% for PVE. This requires over 750 in the stat which in gearing terms you should be able to do without an accuracy augment with a little less than full 192 gear which is available for Elite comms and as drops from hard mode L60 flashpoints and storymode L60 operations.

 

After that as long as you don't go for tank stats it's almost impossible to gear badly.

 

Crit vs Power: If you can get a higher tier mod of either stat then do it. Once you have the luxury of picking and choosing then look to have anything under 400 crit and the rest in power.

 

Surge vs Alacrity: You have only 3 slots after fulfilling your 100% accuracy requirement. Any combination is totally legitimate.

 

Augments: You'll need 1 Accuracy augment below ~192 gear to be 100% accurate. After that you can pick and choose between Aim (Reflex) or Power (Overkill) augments.

 

Expect to be unoptimised while gearing up but when you can, go for low endurance mods and enhancements.

 

Important note about set bonuses: The old set bonus of 15% crit chance on Charged Bolts and 8% more damage on High Impact Bolt is now junk for Assault. Charged Bolts is no longer a high percentage of our damage output and the 8% High Impact Bolt damage bonus does not apply to Mag Bolt, its replacement in Assault. Make it a top priority to upgrade to the new set bonus which is somewhat different but at least they work and are a dps increase.

 

Relics: The safe bet is Seredipitous Assault (proc power) and Focused Retribution (proc mainstat). The strategic burst path is to swap one out for a Boundless Ages (manual power buff).

 

 

Gunnery Walkthrough

 

Things to remember:

 

 

  • Easy resource management
  • Instant damage
  • High flexibility (target swapping, burst, area damage)

 

Basic attacks you'll use:

 

Hammer Shot

High Impact Bolt

Full Auto

Electronet

 

Fully trained you gain these attacks:

 

Grav Round

Demo Round

Vortex Bolt

Boltstorm

 

Boltstorm totally replaces Full Auto at level 57 and costs 8 less energy. Remove Full Auto from your bar at 57.

 

You also apply these 45s debuffs everyone can benefit from:

 

-20% armour from Grav Round

+5% to ranged damage from Vortex Bolt

 

Key mechanical points:

 

 

  • Terminal Velocity - Armour-piercing Cell lets you generate 2 energy every 1.5s
  • Vortex Bolt makes the next Grav Round instant if it hits the target
  • Curtain of Fire - Grav round can reset Boltstorm every 8s and increases damage by 10%
  • Charged Barrel - Grav round builds Charged Barrel stacks, 5 stacks increases High Impact Bolt damage by 30%
  • Grav Round debuffs cause the target to take 25% more damage from Demo Round
  • Activating Supercharged Cell at 10 stacks with Armour-piercing Cell on grants 10% armour penetration and a stacking alacrity buff when you use your specialised abilities. Lasts 10s. Also generates 10 energy.

 

Set Bonus:

 

2PC - Demo Round increases all damage by 2% for 15s, limit of once per 30 seconds.

6PC - Boltstorm causes the next Demo Round to autocrit, limit of once per 60 seconds

 

There is no fixed rotation for Gunnery just a short and simple priority list:

 

1) Get the Curtain of Fire proc by using Grav Round

2) Use the following abilities if they are available:

  • Vortex Bolt
  • Demo Round ONLY on a target with Gravity Vortex from Grav Round
  • High Impact Bolt ONLY with 5 stacks of Charged Barrel from using Grav Round
  • Electronet

3) Use the Curtain of Fire buffed Boltstorm

4) Use Grav Round if energy is available otherwise use Hammer Shot

 

And that's it, I could spin it out for longer but it's really that simple and that's a key reason it's popular.

 

As an opener I like to do Vortex Bolt -> Electronet + Supercharged Cell + Adrenal -> Boltstorm without Curtain of Fire proc -> Instant (because of Vortex Bolt) Grav Round. At that point I'm at #1 on the priority list and I go from there.

 

Remember to charge Supercharge to 10 stacks before any fight using Med Shot.

 

Your resource cooldowns of

 

 

  • Reserve Powercell - 0 energy cost on next ability, best used on Boltstorm for the maximum possible energy saving.
  • Recharge Cells - always take the tier 1 utility Improved Generates to instantly gain 15 more energy
  • Supercharged Cell - remember this generates 10 energy

 

Should be used as much as possible to maximise your Grav Round spamming when anything better is on cooldown and allow you to use abilities as soon as possible when they come off cooldown rather than waiting for energy to recover.

 

The reason it always is Grav Round is because of a few things. Plain damage is one, Charged Barrel stacks is another and 1/10 of every Supercharged Cell you build up is a third. 1 energy generated and 1/10 of the damage bonus of Supercharged Cell is tied in to every Grav Round or Hammer Shot.

 

Slightly Advanced Gunnery

 

You have very good automatic regen but to be most efficient you also need to use Boltstorm as much as possible since it costs 16 but takes up 3 seconds unlike most other abilities which cost 15 and take up 1.5s.

 

To do that you want to try and reset Boltstorm with Grav Round as close to the 8s limit as possible. Technically it's a 9s cooldown because abilities work in 1.5s slots .

 

9s is 6 GCD and using Boltstorm counts as 2 of those so 4 other abilities between procs.

 

Example 1:

 

GCD0 Grav Round (procs Curtain of Fire at the end of the cast)

GCD1 Hammer Shot

GCD2 Hammer Shot

GCD3 Hammer Shot

GCD4 Boltstorm

GCD5 Boltstorm (continued, remember it's 2 GCD)

GCD6 Grav Round (procs Curtain of Fire at the end of the cast)

 

Example 2:

 

GCD0 Grav Round (procs Curtain of fire at the end of the cast)

GCD1 Hammer Shot

GCD2 Hammer Shot

GCD3 Hammer Shot

GCD4 Boltstorm

GCD5 Boltstorm (continued, remember it's 2 GCD)

GCD6 Vortex Bolt (making the next Grav Round instant)

GCD7 Grav Round (procs Curtain of Fire instantly)

 

Example 3:

 

GCD0 Vortex Bolt (making the next Grav Round instant)

GCD1 Grav Round (procs Curtain of Fire instantly)

GCD2 Hammer Shot

GCD3 Hammer Shot

GCD4 Boltstorm

GCD5 Boltstorm (continued, remember it's 2 GCD)

GCD6 Grav Round (procs Curtain of Fire at the end of the cast)

 

 

Gunnery AOE

 

The primary reason Gunnery is better than Assault at handling trash is that the bonus regen it gets is totally free and automatic. You get it from doing nothing. This is huge when you can't expect to stay on a target for more than a few seconds.

 

It also applies to sustained periods AOE which of course are not rotational.

 

As mentioned very early on all kinetic/energy AOE attacks performed by Gunnery benefit from the 35% armour penetration of Armour-piercing Cell which is a significant edge.

 

Anyway on top of the basic level AOE which all commandos get there's the AOE bonus from the tree:

 

Blazing Barrel: Hail of Bolts gains 15% crit and 30% crit damage

 

Combine that with 25% more damage from the tier 1 utility Chain Gunnery to get a decent spammable ranged AOE. I'd say it's not as good at the best that Sage or Slinger can offer but it's the best that commando can offer and that's not bad.

 

 

General Gunnery Notes

 

If ever in doubt about how to play a fight or when playing with people you don't have much experience with it's a really safe spec to go with. You can handle anything from adds to the boss and easily spare your attention from your abilities to learn fight mechanics or keep an eye on the group you're with.

 

 

Assault walkthrough

 

Things to remember:

 

 

  • Complex rotation and resource management
  • Damage over Time (burning and bleeding) based
  • High single target damage

 

Basic attacks you will use:

 

Hammer Shot

Charged Bolts

Full Auto

High Impact Bolt

Electronet

Explosive Round

 

Fully trained you will gain these attacks:

 

Incendiary Round

Assault Plastique

Serrated Bolt

Mag Bolt

 

Mag Bolt fully replaces High Impact Bolt at level 57. Remove High Impact Bolt from your bar at level 57.

 

You also apply these 45s debuffs everyone can benefit from:

 

+7% to internal/elemental damage from Incendiary Round

+5% to ranged damage from Serrated Bolt

 

Key mechanical points:

 

 

  • Blazing Celerity - Mag Bolt can make Charged Bolts/Serrated Bolt instant every 15s
  • Ionic Accelerator - Charged Bolts, Full Auto and Hail of Bolts can reset the cooldown on Mag Bolt and make it free to use every 7.5s
  • Scorching Bolts - Mag Bolt generates 5 energy if used on a burning target
  • Scorching Bolts - Mag Bolt triggers your Plasma Cell DoT
  • Hyper Assault Rounds - Explosive Round gains 75% damage and costs 10 less energy if a target under 30% has your DoT on them. 15s limit.
  • Relentless Assault - 30% more DoT on targets below 30%
  • Incendiary Round is a 15s elemental DoT
  • Serrated Bolt is a 15s internal DoT and increases elemental damage while its up (Flaming Wound).
  • Assault Plastique has a 15s CD
  • Full Auto is on a 12s CD (after specialising)
  • Activating Supercharged Cell at 10 stacks with Plasma Cell on will trigger a high damage 5s DoT if you use ranged damage on a target that has your Incendiary Round burn and increase all DoT by 10% for 10s. You also generate 10 energy.

 

Set Bonus:

 

2PC - Serrated Bolt increases all damage by 2% for 15s, limit of once per 30 seconds.

6PC - Full Auto causes the next Mag Bolt to autocrit, limit of once per 60 seconds

 

Rotation Notes:

 

The most important thing about Assault is that you only get bonus energy generation if you use free Mag Bolts on burning targets.

 

You only get free Mag Bolts by using Charged Bolts, Full Auto or Hail of Bolts every 7.5s.

 

And the burning targets will only be guaranteed by using Incendiary Round every 15s to keep it up.

 

Also need to mix in Assault Plastique, Full Auto and Serrated Bolt because they do quite a lot of damage.

 

Unfortunately this means a very strict rotation core but around that we can fill in all the other abilities we want to increase damage.

 

Only two abilities are worth using as resets during a rotation, Charged Bolts and Full Auto.

 

Charged Bolts has no CD but is less efficient therefore we want to use Full Auto with its better damage and resource efficiency as much as possible. You can only use Full Auto once per 15s and in 15s you get two chances of free Mag Bolts. So one triggered by Charged Bolts and one by Full Auto.

 

Here then is an example of an effective rotation I created which is infinitely repeatable. Of particular note is that you can do almost everything on the move except the Serrated Bolt cast which nevertheless can be forced instant with your Tech Override.

 

Before any fight or during fight downtime remember to charge your Supercharge to 10 using Med Shot and for the basic rotation you consider it as an adrenal to increase damage. Advanced use looks at it slightly differently.

 

GCD01 Incendiary Round (debuffing the target and applying the elemental DoT)

GCD02 Mag Bolt (making next Charged Bolts instant)

GCD03 Charged Bolts (making next Mag Bolt free)

GCD04 Mag Bolt (generating 5 energy)

GCD05 Serrated Bolt (debuffing the target and applying internal DoT)

GCD06 Assault Plastique

GCD07 ------ Filler Slot

GCD08 Full Auto (making next Mag Bolt free)

GCD09 Full Auto continued

GCD10 ------ Filler Slot

 

That would then continue

 

GCD01 Incendiary Round (reapplying the elemental DoT)

GCD02 Mag Bolt (generating 5 energy and making next Charged Bolts instant)

GCD03 Charged Bolts (making next Mag Bolt free)

GCD04 Mag Bolt (generating 5 energy)

GCD05 Serrated Bolt (reapplying internal DoT)

GCD06 Assault Plastique

GCD07 ------ Filler Slot

GCD08 Full Auto (making next Mag Bolt free)

GCD09 Full Auto continued

GCD10 ------ Filler Slot

 

Filler slots will be Hammer Shot and Electronet when available for an unstressful rotation.

 

 

Advanced Assault

 

To hit the big numbers you cannot merely cruise with a neutral rotation, we need to be taking advantage of our resource cooldowns and instead of using Hammer Shot as a filler we need to be using something with more punch.

 

The ability we will use to generate more damage in the filler slots instead of Hammer Shot is Charged Bolts.

 

Like Hammer Shot it generates 1 stack of Supercharge, that means 1 of the 10 energy generated by Supercharged Cell can be counted against the cost of Charged Bolts making it in theory cost 14 energy.

 

Also 1/10 of the damage and damage boost of Supercharged Cell can be considered as part of what you get as damage from using Charged Bolts.

 

There is one other ability you can replace Hammer Shot with and that is Explosive Round. Any target with any DoT of yours that falls under 30% will proc Hyper Assault Rounds (with a limit of 15s). The damage increase and the energy decrease makes Explosive Round hit as hard as Assault Plastique but for only 10 energy.

 

Of course unlike Hammer Shot these come with a cost.

 

To counter this we need to use our three resource cooldowns which are NOT necessary with my basic rotation using 2 Hammer Shot.

 

 

  • Reserve Powercell - 0 energy cost on next ability, best used on Full Auto for the maximum possible energy saving.
  • Recharge Cells - always take the tier 1 utility Cell Capacitor to instantly generate 15 more energy
  • Supercharged cell - remember this generates 10 energy

 

In brief you want to use Reserve Powercell and Supercharged Cell to counter small energy drops and do this as frequently as possible.

 

Recharge Cells removes so much energy that it demands that you perform heavily filled rotations before using it, this may or may not be something you do as part of your normal rotation or something you hold back on for a heavier damage period.

 

Expect to have to practice this a lot before it can be considered consistent in a fight.

 

Start with the basic rotation, be able to kill a dummy of any health without crashing out and progress to filling with heavier damage abilities and working in your resource cooldowns to balance the energy.

 

However if you overenergy after using your resource cooldowns the rotation suffers enormously. Your bonus regen relies on your rotation continuing.

 

In that scenario you're doomed to making fast decisions on what you can drop.

 

The skeleton rotation:

 

GCD01 Incendiary Round (reapplying the elemental DoT)

GCD02 Mag Bolt (generating 5 energy and making next Charged Bolts instant)

GCD03 Charged Bolts (making next Mag Bolt free)

GCD04 Mag Bolt (generating 5 energy)

GCD05 ------ Filler Slot

GCD06 ------ Filler Slot

GCD07 ------ Filler Slot

GCD08 Full Auto (making next Mag Bolt free)

GCD09 Full Auto continued

GCD10 ------ Filler Slot

 

And in this case all fillers would be Hammer Shot.

 

You save 30 energy by dropping Serrated Bolt and Assault Plastique but that's what you can claw back by spending minimal resources if you are in a bad spot with energy but it's not quite bad enough to suffer spamming Hammer Shot for an eternity.

 

 

Assault AOE

 

I mentioned earlier that AOE and adds are really not the thing you bring this spec for. However it is not totally useless at it.

 

Sticky Grenade spreads your Serrated Bolt DoT to all 8 targets it hits

Plasma Grenade spreads your Incendiary Round DoT to all 8 targets it hits

 

That then requires the targets to do the decent thing and live for 15s so your DoT banks some decent damage on them.

 

To effectively use this in the traditional boss + adds fights requires two main tactics:

 

a) encourage adds to be around the primary target so you can drop in the combo abilities to splash them

 

or

 

b) swap targets to perform the AOE combos during filler slots then back to the main target

 

If there is no primary target then frankly you are in the wrong spec and should be in Gunnery but you still have your base level commando AOE abilities and your combo AOE to use. You'll do less than any other ranged DPS spec but it's something.

 

 

General Assault Notes

 

One of the most important things you must know when taking Assault into an operation or a HM flashpoint is that you're going to need to communicate your particular strengths and your weaknesses.

 

If you're about to be lumped with adds, aoe or anything that isn't primary target focusing then make your case that you can be more useful doing boss damage. If you can't get that then suck it up and play Gunnery because IO on fiddly low health targets is pathetic. Of course if you do get the green light you need to have mastered the spec enough to be worth it. It is a single target monster only if you can play it well enough.

 

Edited by Gyronamics
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As an old Pyro player my muscle memory has been fighting me whenever I tried IO. Thanks for the guide Gyro...I can now beat some sense in to my fingers and work on getting it right. The sustainable rotation/skeleton was the baseline I needed. I'm looking forward to making this work properly again as it was always my favorite spec.

 

On the flip side Arsenal has been a fun fall back. Definitely an improvement over 2.X.

 

Thanks again!

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Do you find you are able to keep your plasma cell dot up 100% of the time with MagBolt>ChargedBolt >Magbolt? This is mashing your MB's together creating a rather large DPS spike in the rotation and overlapping your guaranteed dot refresh that MB provides. I guess if the other abilities can keep the dot up on their own it does not matter much, but I was wondering if you have looked for that.
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Do you find you are able to keep your plasma cell dot up 100% of the time with MagBolt>ChargedBolt >Magbolt? This is mashing your MB's together creating a rather large DPS spike in the rotation and overlapping your guaranteed dot refresh that MB provides. I guess if the other abilities can keep the dot up on their own it does not matter much, but I was wondering if you have looked for that.

 

I listed a basic rotation (which nevertheless has everything and room for expansion) and the thing about that is it contains two Hammer Shots. Hammer Shots IIRC does 7 hits with 35% chance to proc Plasma Cell which is 95% and there's now a rate limit of only 1.5s so virtually every use will refresh Plasma Cell.

 

So in the basic rotation it's not important, Plasma Cell is going to be up by sheer weight of Hammer shot refreshes.

 

When shooting for the high scores you'll be doing less Hammer Shots and more often using the single hit casts of Charged Bolts which while 35% are clearly not 95% or if not that then Explosive Round which has 0%. This increases the chance of Plasma Cell downtime.

 

So as a safety net what you can do is space out the Mag Bolts by moving the non-fixed other abilities by two GCD.

 

GCD01 Incendiary Missile (reapplying the elemental DoT)

GCD02 Mag Bolt (generating 5 energy and making next Charged Bolts instant)

GCD03 Charged Bolts (making next Mag Bolt free)

GCD04 Serrated Bolt (reapplying internal DoT)

GCD05 Assault Plastique

GCD06 Mag Bolt (generating 5 energy)

GCD07 ------ Filler Slot

GCD08 Full Auto (making next Mag Bolt free)

GCD09 Full Auto continued

GCD10 ------ Filler Slot

 

So that means the Plasma Cell applied by the first Mag Bolt will be falling off by the end of the Assault Plastique GCD and refreshed by the Mag Bolt following.

 

There's then two fillers and Full Autos 4 ticks to have a chance at extending Plasma Cells 6s burn to cover the rest of the 9 seconds til Mag Bolt comes round again.

 

You will always get downtime on Plasma Cell even if Mag Bolt is lined up to perfectly refresh it. Nothing you can do about it, you can only increase your odds and by more evenly spreading out the Mag Bolts you can do that.

 

Also is there any way you could post some parses of this set up as a reference?

 

Yes this is possible. However I'm still gearing up with my raid just like most of us are and while I'm averaging 192 now with full new augments and biochem I don't have new set bonuses or a 198 MH (16m is the new nightmare mode). As I mention in the guide, the old set bonuses are total trash for this spec. This means I'm not in a position to challenge parses set by better geared players if that's what you're looking for.

 

For a similar reason I can't actually carry out the strongest opener as the autocrit you'd use for it is in the 6pc set bonus.

 

Parses to prove it all works are entirely possible.

 

 

 

I will be looking to have the commando translation complete for Christmas :)

Edited by Gyronamics
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Yes this is possible. However I'm still gearing up with my raid just like most of us are and while I'm averaging 192 now with full new augments and biochem I don't have new set bonuses or a 198 MH (16m is the new nightmare mode). As I mention in the guide, the old set bonuses are total trash for this spec. This means I'm not in a position to challenge parses set by better geared players if that's what you're looking for.

 

For a similar reason I can't actually carry out the strongest opener as the autocrit you'd use for it is in the 6pc set bonus.

 

Parses to prove it all works are entirely possible.

 

 

 

I will be looking to have the commando translation complete for Christmas :)

 

 

That's totally understandable, Im averaging around 4.5k using this rotation on a 1mil dummy with a 2 192 set bonus and mix of 198/192 gear with a few 186 enhancements. Otherwise a very simple rotation and pretty fun to put in practice

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Depends how precise your pull is.

 

If your ops leader doesn't care to have the pull revolving around a 10 second window that lets you save 15 resources then there's little point, you might end up getting a pull too early or late for the proc to help and if its too early it might screw your opener by the internal cooldown not being done by the time you want to unlock the proc again.

 

Really not necessary, more of a dummy trick than something you'll find yourself doing in a fight.

 

However using Hail of Bolts to proc because you failed horribly at timing your Full Auto is an option mid-rotation.

 

Because channels now only charge your resources per tick, you let the first tick happen which will proc then instantly cancel the channel using the escape key or moving. Thus you get an (almost) instant proc for only 8 energy. You will need to stand still to do it.

 

If you're thinking about openers then what you need to think about is the 6pc set bonus which autocrits Mag Bolt after you use Full Auto with a limit of once per minute.

 

Put that in your opener and it's a large banked crit with all the relic procs and your adrenal stacked on it.

 

The large downside is that a 6pc set bonus is a long way to go for most people so until that comes around try stacking dots (electronet counts as a dot), blowing supercharge for another dot and +10% damage on all dots and get the fight going with a yellow text fountain coming off the target. Then into the rotation.

Edited by Gyronamics
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In regards to IO, is your opener the same as the regular rotation?

 

Pretty much.

 

You spike the start with empowered DoT which will kick your damage to about 6000dps roughly half a rotation in:

 

GCD01 Serrated Shot (buffing DoT and 2pc 2% damage increase)

GCD02 Incendiary Missile (required to trigger Supercharged Burn)

GCD03 Electronet + Adrenal + Supercharged Gas

 

And then you roll cleanly into the rotation.

 

This doesn't make use of the 6pc autocrit. The autocrit will instead happen in the second rotation cycle approximately when the proc relics trigger again.

 

The alternative (if you have it) is to use the 6pc set bonus autocrit as the opener:

 

GCD01 Serrated Shot (buffing DoT and 2pc 2% damage increase)

GCD02 Mag Shot + Adrenal

GCD03 Unload (unlocking Mag Shot)

GCD04 Unload (continued)

GCD05 Electronet + Supercharged Gas

GCD06 Incendiary Missile (required to trigger Supercharged Burn)

 

Again this is a clean transition into the rotation but this time that first Mag Shot will autocrit.

 

Note the full cost Mag Shot in there, to neutralise this you need to rely on your raid leader and arrange to pre-proc your Mag Shot using Sweeping Blasters. Having someone ignite the target for you for a "reduced cost" Mag Shot is an alternative but a totally free Mag Shot is the best choice.

 

I could tell you to watch the timer but instead I'll say that you can time it perfectly and open with a free Mag Shot by doing this pre-pull:

 

GCD01 Sweeping Blasters (proc here)

GCD02 Sweeping Blasters (continued)

GCD03 Toggle off then toggle on your Combustible Gas Cylinder

 

The moment your CGC is fully channeled you roll into the Serrated Shot of the opener for the autocrit sequence.

 

Now if the pull is not exactly synchronised, two things can happen:

 

 

  • Early pull: Tough luck, you need to continue the pre-pull sequence and start a little late otherwise the procs will not line up.
  • Late Pull: Two choices, continue autocrit opener with a full cost Mag Shot and use Vent Heat early or fall back to the non-autocrit opener and simply open with heavy DoT.

 

Of course this is no issue at all on a dummy.

 

This is obviously the more advanced rotation style so fill every slot with Power Shot and use Thermal Sensor Override on the first Unload to create 2GCD of passive regen/neutral heat. Keep filling with Power Shot until you're looking at ~70% heat then burn Vent Heat. From that point you use your own judgement to fill and moderate your heat with Supercharged Gas and Thermal Sensor Override until you can overheat with heavy fill and Vent Heat again.

 

 

If anyone would like me to repeat anything in opposite faction terms just mention it otherwise I'm going to reply for the same faction someone asks a question for.

Edited by Gyronamics
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From that point you use your own judgement to fill and moderate your heat with Supercharged Gas and Thermal Sensor Override until you can overheat with heavy fill and Vent Heat again.

 

Haha that's a tough call! I can't seem to correctly time Supercharged Gas / TSO / Vent Heat.

I find that if I trigger SCG incorrectly, heat will blow over and will force me to use TSO,

likewise with a badly timed TSO --> Vent.

And with both 'main' heat reduction abilities on cooldown, you're forced to Rapid Shot for every filler :-(

 

I'm sure there has to be an upper limit on heat, as to the correct times to be using each ability eg.

Heat < 20 = SCG

Rapid Shots + TSO + UL <30-40

Vent < 60

 

I'll have to play around and work it out exactly.

 

Once again though, thanks heaps for the indepth reply, absolutely brilliant!

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Haha that's a tough call! I can't seem to correctly time Supercharged Gas / TSO / Vent Heat.

I find that if I trigger SCG incorrectly, heat will blow over and will force me to use TSO,

likewise with a badly timed TSO --> Vent.

And with both 'main' heat reduction abilities on cooldown, you're forced to Rapid Shot for every filler :-(

 

I'm sure there has to be an upper limit on heat, as to the correct times to be using each ability eg.

Heat < 20 = SCG

Rapid Shots + TSO + UL <30-40

Vent < 60

 

I'll have to play around and work it out exactly.

 

Once again though, thanks heaps for the indepth reply, absolutely brilliant!

 

About Vent. You shouldn't use it before you reach 70-80 heat. Under that and it's a waste.

 

And that's normal. The spec is made to run on a few burn cycle around your CD and on RS and positive rotation when your CD aren't close to be off-CD.

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While using your resource CD have a look out for a Charged Bolt consuming the Reserve Powercell you trigger to use on the Full Auto following it.

 

Seems to be distressingly frequent that the buff for Reserve Powercell will somehow by eaten by the cast BEFORE it if you are "precasting" the Reserve Powercell while the cast is in progress.

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Hey Hotwired thanks for this guide, it makes much more sense than all the other ones for Assault Spec that people have come up with so far.

 

Just looking for a bit of clarity on the opener for Assault Spec since I imagine you wouldn't want to start straight away with the main rotation since it's good to get the Serrated debuff on before you open with any Mag Bolts. How do you solve this seeing as you apply Serrated mid rotation again and clip roughly half of the opener Serrated Shot off?

Edited by Cotlu-Hunlon
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Serrated Bolt has to be your opening move because it increases the damage on everything and increases elemental DoT damage twice.

 

This is in conflict with the fact that both are short openers and thus the initial Serrated Bolt is going to end up clipped by the fixed position refresh as the main rotation rolls on.

 

Can't be helped. Both are so heavily loaded openers that the absence of Serrated Bolt would be terrible. For the inefficiency of clipping the DoT we get what we most need from it.

 

Rotations are totally unimportant in terms of damage, loops HAVE to be 15s and they HAVE to have 1 of every major ability, two Mag Bolts and 1-3 Charged Bolts depending on how heavily you are filling at that cycle. The only thing you can influence is the order you do the abilities in.

 

What you have here are openers created by starting from the desired rotation and working backwards. The other way is to start with a desired opener and have your rotation be a slave to the priorities generated by it.

Edited by Gyronamics
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What you have here are openers created by starting from the desired rotation and working backwards. The other way is to start with a desired opener and have your rotation be a slave to the priorities generated by it.

 

*Hotwired puts on sunglasses and walks into the sunset*

 

Thanks for clearing this up :)

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  • 3 weeks later...

Thank you for your guide!

I'm an old assault spec (away from the game 7 to 8 months.) I always found Full Auto to be a little clunky to me and enjoyed using charged bolt for the HIB reset. Is it possible to have a viable rotation without Full Auto?

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