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Zachariah's PvP Tutorial Series for Arsenal Merc and Gunnery Commando (CC available)


Jherad

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Hi all!

 

As I have a couple of videos up now, I thought it was worth making a fresh thread where I can collate them all and add new ones in future. All tutorials will be aimed at PvP for Arsenal Mercs and Gunnery Commandos.

 

Videos so far:

 

 

 

I've added custom Closed Captions for all tutorial videos if you need them. The automatic machine generated captions were pretty awful.

 

Original thread by Lhancelot here, which does contain some useful information:

 

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=864652

 

Many thanks to him for posting my first tutorial vid :D

 

I also occasionally post basic PvP gameplay videos without commentary, which some people find helpful too. Playlist for 4.0 here:

 

 

Any questions, comments or suggestions for new videos gratefully received! Thanks for watching.

Edited by Jherad
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Hi all!

 

As I have a couple of videos up now, I thought it was worth making a fresh thread where I can collate them all and add new ones in future. All tutorials will be aimed at PvP for Arsenal Mercs and Gunnery Commandos.

 

Videos so far:

 

 

 

I've added custom Closed Captions for all tutorial videos if you need them. The automatic machine generated captions were pretty awful.

 

Original thread by Lhancelot here, which does contain some useful information:

 

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=864652

 

Many thanks to him for posting my first tutorial vid :D

 

I also occasionally post basic PvP gameplay videos without commentary, which some people find helpful too. Playlist for 4.0 here:

 

 

Any questions, comments or suggestions for new videos gratefully received! Thanks for watching.

 

Good job man. I will check these out now.

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first of all thanks for the guide and i have been a loyal disciple of the mighty zach :p

zach i want to ask about super gas charge , the super charge is adding 15% armour penetration and combined with our buff 35% armor penetration it would very deadly to armour penettration

 

now my question is

is armour penetration is only useful if we use that on tanks or any other heavy armour class ?

i mean if let say we hit to sorc with light armour and marauder with medium armor will that waste of time if we decide to use it ? since there are no armor to penetrate

 

thanks

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first of all thanks for the guide and i have been a loyal disciple of the mighty zach :p

zach i want to ask about super gas charge , the super charge is adding 15% armour penetration and combined with our buff 35% armor penetration it would very deadly to armour penettration

 

now my question is

is armour penetration is only useful if we use that on tanks or any other heavy armour class ?

i mean if let say we hit to sorc with light armour and marauder with medium armor will that waste of time if we decide to use it ? since there are no armor to penetrate

 

thanks

 

Right, unless something has changed then armor penetration reduces a target's armor rating by the stated percentage (rather than working against a target's damage mitigation or other defenses), so obviously it is going to be most effective against heavy armor.

 

That said though, I think the 15% armor penetration is probably the *least* useful aspect of supercharged gas anyway. I highly recommend picking up the 'supercharged defense' utility for some added defense chance and interrupt immunity. That, combined with the heat reduction you already get are probably the two main reasons to be popping the ability every chance you get.

 

Old dev post explaining how armor penetration works here (though the numbers have changed, the mechanic is still the same I believe):

 

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=4230212#post4230212

Edited by Jherad
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i already told you via youtube that i am a new follower ;)

great job man. as i already said, some arena would be nice to and. you already answered to that. really looking forward to see more vids.

by the way check you youtube inbox. i sent you a nice letter.

cheerio

Edited by Argonie
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I don't think I've ever made such a list, because player ability varies so much and that is in most cases what I'm primarily concerned with (outside of ranked). Also, if I was to rate comprehensively I'd have to do it on multiple scales. Speed to kill? 1v1 potential? Target's damage/burst potential?

 

My love-to-hate list MIGHT go something like this:

 

Sorc

Merc

PT

Sin

Operative

Sniper

Mara

Jugg

 

But I have a much harder time with a Sin if he opens on me from stealth. And harder again if I'm missing a cooldown or two. I'm going to have an easier time with a PT if I engage him at range than if he catches me while I'm otherwise engaged. Snipers can be easily LOS'd, but they'll take me an age to kill if they're good even if you get the jump, whereas a Mara or Jugg can be dogfood if you catch them unawares.

 

And of course, none of them are hard if they're not good (snipers can be annoying due to ranged defense from cover, but not in a 'nerf snipers plz!' way), and all can be horrifying in the right situation and the right hands.

 

But is that helpful? My 'preferred' target is often not a question or how 'easy' I find them, but what threat they pose to the group, and how much of an advantage engaging them on MY terms brings over ignoring them for a moment and risking them choosing the conditions of the fight. PTs and Maras can be great examples of classes that I will deliberately pick out to attack first (if I perceive them as a threat) because if THEY choose the conditions of the engagement, I'm going to seriously regret it. That's earned me some angry whispers, but it's a hard fact that the best way to play a merc is to be proactive rather than reactive.

 

So I'm not sure how useful these kind of lists are. Nothing can make me smash my head on the keyboard in frustration like a well played operative, but a well played Jugg or Mara can wipe the floor with me.

 

In ranked, it really depends on both group comps, and is a decision made by the team.

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  • 3 weeks later...

The 'favourite' for many is pumping crit up to about 40% with crit augs, and then running the rest as power. As I've mentioned previously, the difference between crit, power and mastery augs for total DPS is *tiny* however. Mastery works great for me so that's what I've tended to run with on most of my merc/mando toons across servers - though I do have a commando with power/crit.

 

Long story short, don't sweat it too much. It's kinda hard to go wrong.

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Hey Zach, off-topic a bit, but still involving the merc class... Have you considered making a healing merc vid and instructional? I really want to see what successful healing mercs run with utilities and gears.

 

I know you have great ability at getting the most from a dps merc, so I am sure you'd do a healing merc justice. There simply are no guides on 4.0 healing mercs for PVP.

 

Hopefully you might consider doing this, I really am curious what you'd run on a healing merc.

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I'm afraid you might want to try and persuade someone else - I'd rather eat my own eyelids than heal on my merc again. :p

 

Back in the day, if you ran ranked 8s as a merc dps you had to respec mid-match to heals on certain warzones; Voidstar defensive round for example. I hated it. When they removed the ability to respec in warzones I breathed a sigh of relief and decided I'd never do that again.

 

The best merc/mando healer I know is Donna on Shadowlands. But I haven't seen her in a while, and she hasn't posted on the forums (as Lalainnia) in a month and a half.

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  • 1 month later...
I'm afraid you might want to try and persuade someone else - I'd rather eat my own eyelids than heal on my merc again. :p

 

Back in the day, if you ran ranked 8s as a merc dps you had to respec mid-match to heals on certain warzones; Voidstar defensive round for example. I hated it. When they removed the ability to respec in warzones I breathed a sigh of relief and decided I'd never do that again.

 

The best merc/mando healer I know is Donna on Shadowlands. But I haven't seen her in a while, and she hasn't posted on the forums (as Lalainnia) in a month and a half.

 

LOL. Capped two turrets then spec heals, lost or they capped two turrets respec dps. Mandos and sages were the only two classes that would change during the warzone specs depending on how it went (sometimes the shadow guard also). And we learnt to do it so fast that listening to people nowadays saying I can't be bothered spending time to respec makes me laugh.

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