I am running a Commando as dps can anyone help me with what kind of skill set i should use?

 

Also for DPS what kind of rotation should i use?

 

Is there an idiots guide to commandos out there? i could use it.

I have tried searching for guides and the only one i can find are from the guy who sell them... Is there any free ones?

 

I know someone out there can help me... I just want to be the best commando that i can be, and have fun doing it...

 

Thanks for the help!

at the most basic level, your rotation as gunnery would follow as this.

 

Full auto[first to make use of the proc]

3*grav round

FA proc if up.

Demo round [as you'll have 5 stacks of armor]

2*Grav round

High impact bolt at full stack of armor debuff

 

After that opening, you will FILL time with auto attack and grav round, FA procs before all else, hib second, demo

 

Remember, that as you use abilities, ammo goes down, and regens more slowly. So for ammo regen for time and talents, my rotation in game play on longer lasting boss fights will be.

 

FA

Hammershot

Grav

Hammer

Grav

Grav

Hammer

Demo

grav

demo

and repeat as so, you want to keep your ammo as close to the .6 regen mark as long as possible, hope this helps.

The idiots guide is press grav round button.

The guide posted above is really good though. Its exactly what I use, I'm not sure how to make it better.

Full auto[first to make use of the proc].

 

What proc?

Curtain of fire. It refreshes auto fire cooldown and gives it a damage boost.

Yeah, but FA doesn't proc CoF, GR or CB does, so why fire FA first? I prefer to do 3x GR-FA-DR-HIB. I keep the GR debuff up and fire FA when it procs. I like getting the debuff up first so that the rest of my attacks are taking advantage of it right off the bat.

I'll clarify, the reason to start with FA, is that because you'll be using grav round 3 times constant after, and at 30% chance, there is a highly probable chance that atleast one of them will proc Cof, giving you two or more FA's in the time that you'd have one. The other advantage is that with the known delay, you can actully spin up the gun and begin combat before the tank pulls if you time it right, and actually lose no dps time or threat time, meaning, you've gained a free attack,then you go into the rotation.

This is really good - exactly what I use.

What aspec thing does everyone use? I'm thinking the armor pen one?

What aspec thing does everyone use? I'm thinking the armor pen one?

 

Each ammo cell is linked to a tree. You should use the one appropriate to the tree you're climbing.

 

Combat Medic - Combat Support

Gunnery - Armor Piercing

Assault - Plasma

The only thing I'd add is to keep Recharge Cells basically on cooldown. Being at .6 ammo/second is useful when Recharge Cells isn't up, but when it is, burn down to 2 ammo, and then pop recharge cells. The ammo boost, and the increased ammo regeneration will allow you to maintain your damage cycle without having to use as many hammer shots (which would actually lower your DPS)

 

Also, Full Auto is almost ammo neutral, especially if it crits. Which is why you want to use it as much as possible, because it hits like a mack truck, and doesn't cost very much ammo at all. The more crit you have, the most ammo you will have, so at higher levels, try to stack as much crit as possible (once you get 110-115% acc, so you'll hardly ever miss) and top off with surge/power. Haste (alacrity) isn't as useful, and actually hurts your ammo regeneration, so you don't want to use very much of it (quicker Full Autos may seem awesome, but you'll regenerate less ammo during the time, thus making Full Auto cost more)

 

Also only use HIB with the charged barrel damage boost (which i'm not sure if HIB consumes, i haven't gotten that high yet) and only use demo round with 5 gravity vortex on the target, that way your getting the most damage for your ammo costs.

So.. just to clarify, Gunnery is definitely the best dps for commando as of right now? I haven't messed with assault at all and am just curious as to how it performs. And to touch on OP guide, very nice starter... I also agree to FA first off

In my opinion, Full Auto is worthless without the CoF proc.

 

I'm not wasting ammo on it when I could be shooting a Grav Round off.

Don't start with Full auto though. Wait fort the curtain of fire proc first. It's not as efficient as Grav or CB w/o the procs.

In my opinion, Full Auto is worthless without the CoF proc.

 

I'm not wasting ammo on it when I could be shooting a Grav Round off.

 

actually that you dont waste ammo while using FA is the one thing why its an useful skill. it pretty much regenerates its cost during the cast time.

I always try to get my 5 stacks of armor debuff on any target as soon as i can (it helps your group to get it up fast).

 

without hurting my ammo regen too much, I typically start out with:

 

-Grav Round

-Grav Round

-Hammer Shot

-Grav Round

-Demo Round

 

This leaves me generally still with a good ammo regen.

I then will usually go to a Full Auto or another Hammer Shot, depending on the fight.

 

Usually after that point, I Grav Round and hammer shot until Full Auto is proc'd (while making sure my ammo regen stays at a good rate).

Edited January 15, 2012 by socman

FA is way better dps then a gravity round it does more damage over less time and it costs less ammo doing so (if you don't believe me do the math calculating the same amount of time on both abilities then lining up the damage) as such even without a proc FA is still the better skill to use. Starting off with Grav however is marginally better cause the armor debuff will also effect your FA generally getting 2 grav rounds off will have the armor debuff stacked high enough so FA will do enough extra damage to make it worth the ammo to use it when you start the ramp up. Additionally this will allow a 2nd FA if you proc it after the 1st 2 grav rounds or it will make your 1st FA also a procced one. Generally troopers have less of a rotation then a prio list:

 

1: get armor debuff up grav round (5 or 4 charges generally I find 4 to be effective enough but the choice is yours)

2: Use FA on cooldown or procc

3: use demo round (when armor debuff is stacked)

4: Grav round itself as a damage tool

5: use HIB when you get 5 + damage stacks by using grav round

6: weave in hammer shots to maintain a high ammo rating

 

rotation will look something like this(based on your preference as someone earlier stated its perfectly decent dps to start with FA without the armor debuff then start grav rounds and hope for an xtra procc):

 

1st part(ramp up): grav round, grav round, FA, grav round, demo round, grav round, grav round, HIB

2nd part(burst phase): as long as you have recharge cells you can burn trough all your ammo with the nxt highest ability on the prio list then end off with recharge cells

3th part(sustain phase): in between each grav round weave in 1 or 2 hammer shots to maintain your ammo still using the other skills on their respective cycle(FA gets off cooldown at the same time as demo round use em both) if your ammo falls underneath 50% start using 2 hammer shots for a while instead of 1 BUT never let your armor debuff and damage reduction fall(from grav round) of (its tricky not to overextend your ammo but its very doable)

4th part (burst again): as soon as recharge cells is back go back to a burst phase as in phase 2

 

 

This is so far as my testing has allowed it the highest dps (mind you my testing has been based on timers using various rotations and since I have no accurate way of measuring dps ingame I'm open to anyone with any other data)

Edited January 23, 2012 by Ele-mental

Grav Round, Grav Round, Grav Round, Grav Round. Sure mixing in HIB is smart but this video shows a player need only beat on the GR key to be effective:

 

 

 

Until logging hits and a detailed analysis can be performed this "technique" is effective, dead simple and ridiculously boring.

Edited January 23, 2012 by Straegen

In my opinion, Full Auto is worthless without the CoF proc.

 

I'm not wasting ammo on it when I could be shooting a Grav Round off.

 

Without Curtain of Fire, Full Auto on 2 ticks will out damage grav rounds and on 3 will significantly out damage. This damage disparity increases if you crit with full auto and decreases if you miss. CoF is just gravy on your already better ability.

 

Look at damage to ammo ratios when comparing skills. Grav round 3 times and then demo, full auto, 2 more times and then HIB. If you have the 4 piece PvE bonus, then HIB whenever it comes up, not when charged barrel hits 5 because HIB is zero ammo and affords you .9 ammo return, 1.8 if you cast grav round.

Grav Round, Grav Round, Grav Round, Grav Round. Sure mixing in HIB is smart but this video shows a player need only beat on the GR key to be effective:

 

 

Until logging hits and a detailed analysis can be performed this "technique" is effective, dead simple and ridiculously boring.

 

Don't post that stupid video. Now that we have the 50s bracket you can't just spam that and be effective.

Grav Round, Grav Round, Grav Round, Grav Round. Sure mixing in HIB is smart but this video shows a player need only beat on the GR key to be effective:

 

 

Until logging hits and a detailed analysis can be performed this "technique" is effective, dead simple and ridiculously boring.

 

For PvP.. maybe.. but in PvE.. you want to use FA, HiB and demo round as much as possible, due to higher damage values, and less ammo usage (HiB costs 1 ammo, FA is almost ammo neutral, especially if it crits, and demo round hits like a mack truck)

A grav round followed immediately by demo round will take down a lot of weak mobs. If both crit (40% crit chance with smuggler buff) I can get 7.5k in instant damage. If just one crits it is still close to the 4k needed to take down a weak enemy. This is one of my personal faves when playing my trooper: watching health bars disappear on weak enemies.

 

On boss fights the important skill to learn is knowing when to burn your ammo. This will take some practice, but if you time it right you should be out of ammo the second that recharge comes off cd and you should end fights with nearly zero ammo. However, you do run the risk of the other dps wiping just before the boss dies leaving you with just hammer shots. If you trust the other DPS in your group go for the deep ammo burn, it's a blast.

I have the columni set bonus 4/5 of having high impact bolt cost nothing, just as a heads up.

my rotation goes a little something like this:

grav round

grav round

grav round (stacks all 5 armor debuffs)

demo round

full auto (should crit once and recharge an ammo slot)

grav round

grav round

high impact bolt

 

repeat

 

This is cost-efficient and a very simple way to do serious damage in a boss fight.

i also work sticky grenade in there when its off cooldown.

If you find yourself losing ammo, stop spamming grav round. you shouldn't use it more than 3x in a row at any given time. if you do use it three times again and demo round isnt off cooldown, either full auto and utilize the extra ammo cell generated or hammer shot if you have to, but i don't even need hammer shot in my rotation

I have the columni set bonus 4/5 of having high impact bolt cost nothing, just as a heads up.

 

You also have the 15% increased crit on grav round. If you stacked crit and surge that should put your crit chance (with raid buffs) at ~55% for grav round which refunds one ammo (limit once every 3 seconds). That means just 3 ammo for every 2 grav rounds, on average.

Edited January 24, 2012 by Hiro-Protagonist

A tip for ammo regen: Use hammer shot in-between every 2-3 abilities that use ammo (not including FA). This should keep your ammo right around the .6 ammo/sec regen mark.

 

As stated earlier, every time your recharge cells is up you should dump all your ammo into the target and then hit recharge cells. It should never be off cd on a fight. The ability that causes your enxt attack to use no ammo (I forget what it is called) is useful as well, I try to use that on cd.

 

As far as rotation goes what people have stated above is what I agree with as well. Seems like the only point of contention is whether to start with FA or GR... I can see the benefits to both. Starting with FA ensures that your CoF proc is actually useful, starting with GR allows you to stack the debuff faster and also means that your FA benefits from the debuff. I personally lean towards opening with FA, however it seems hard to really say for certain what is better without a combat log.