Hey all,

 

I'm starting a sniper, I love the idea and the damage and I was wondering if marksman or engineering was the way to go?

 

Best in terms of effectiveness and fun.

 

Thanks

Well, I used Marksmanship basically 10-50. Though, at level 40+ I did use Engineering alot. Engineering is basically an AoE + survivability spec. The AoE burns through trash mobs really fast, but in my opinion marksmanship is still the way to go since you barely have any down time, you're constantly casting powerful abilitys.

Both specs are great, I personally love playing Engineering sniper. Engi can put out some nasty burst but MM burst comes up much more often. MM generally is more effective for pve, especially if you have a tank that enjoys moving the boss out of your AOE and laugh at you(my tank kinda a dick...). Best suggestion is to try out the specs yourself and see what you like. If you are looking into pvp you should check out Express's pvp guide

 

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=576490

i'm looking forward to playing and levelling with engineering once i 2/2 get scatter bombs (2.0). the aoe dps of this ability is very strong and is nothing to scoff at but until 2.0 hits, plasma probe and frag grenade spam is more than enough to clear chunks of mobs fast. if you want to level engineering wait until you have enough points to get plasma probe. until then marks is great for 1 shotting mobs. Edited March 15, 2013 by paowee

I personally love my MM sniper. I run with a "pure" MM spec 31/10/0 as it gives me the abilities i want/need from Engi and also gives me 90% of the stuff in MM. When it comes to PvE (my bread and butter if you will) MM is hard to beat. I can consistently do more dps than a full Engi specced sniper and a Lethality can't even come close. Ironically on my serer, Jung Ma, the most recent top dps was a MM specced sniper. As for PvP; I can't really say much. I don't generally PvP but the few times I have, I haven't had any real fun. MM tree has very little survivability rate outside of cover and it doesn't take long to have yourself targeted when you start critting for 4-7k. After that, be prepared to get targeted down and die quickly.

yer, I currently play Engineering in PvP at 50 (leveled 10-50 with MM though from post above) and I love it, looking at the ability changes for 2.0 Engineering looks incredible. Lowered CD on heavy hitters and the trail of mines from the roll is very nice looking.

Level with MM and when you get cluster bombs use eng in PvP!

yer, I currently play Engineering in PvP at 50 (leveled 10-50 with MM though from post above) and I love it, looking at the ability changes for 2.0 Engineering looks incredible. Lowered CD on heavy hitters and the trail of mines from the roll is very nice looking.

 

It is! I'm finishing up my video movie for Full Engineering in 2.0 raids can't wait to get it done and upload it !

I personally prefer Engineering. The survivability is great and will only get better with 2.0. In PvP, contrary to what people say, I outlast and kill the classes that are supposed to be our hard counter (Sins and Operatives) as Engineering. Maybe they just suck, but I doubt that every stealth player I come across is terrible. I just don't seem to have those problems that everyone else seems to have on the boards. I only have those issues when I am MM or Lethality.

 

Anyways. Play what is fun for you. That is what is most important. I've played all three trees in Sniper and Engineering is the one I like and gel with the most.

I personally love my MM sniper. I run with a "pure" MM spec 31/10/0 as it gives me the abilities i want/need from Engi and also gives me 90% of the stuff in MM. When it comes to PvE (my bread and butter if you will) MM is hard to beat. I can consistently do more dps than a full Engi specced sniper and a Lethality can't even come close. Ironically on my serer, Jung Ma, the most recent top dps was a MM specced sniper. As for PvP; I can't really say much. I don't generally PvP but the few times I have, I haven't had any real fun. MM tree has very little survivability rate outside of cover and it doesn't take long to have yourself targeted when you start critting for 4-7k. After that, be prepared to get targeted down and die quickly.

 

1st typical MM builds are 31/5/2 with 3 points to split as you like between exposive engineering, 3/3 on crit and 2% alacrity (so 31/8/2, 31/7/3 or 31/5/5)

 

Going for lower frag grenade cooldown is mostly useless since MM has plenty of quick shots to dispatch thrash.

 

2nd MM damage in PvE is viable, and in 2,0 it gets very nice buff on its playstyle, but its not top damage.

 

Top burst, for sure. That 15 sec solo pve encounter? Its awesome.

 

That big bad ops boss? If you beat an equally gear lethality or leth/eng hybrid, that guy is aweful.

 

Once leth based spec gets going on sustained, they are going to be easily roughly 100-200 dps above you (200 being a well played leth/eng hybrid)

 

MM shines in PvP where maras are going to meet their 1vs1 waterloo against a good MM player.

 

Its "sustained" burst as far as pvp is concerned is right in the sweet spot (15 sec of sustained +500 dps rougly)

 

Leth/eng takes the cake in "spike" burst to take down healers and tanks (basically full DoT setup, EP-> SS->Cull)

 

With cluster bombs, its roughly 4k damage per cull tick+ 2100 DoT on ticks assuming crits but requires your adrenaline probe after. Still had a lot of success taking down geared tanks.

 

If you claim the highest sniper parse currently availaible is MM, I want to see that parse.

Yer, currently in live if you have your defensives off cooldown you can literally 1v1 any class. plasma probe, interrogation probe, poison dart, explosive probe + series of shots with electrified railgun deals serious damage in a few seconds, not to mention it also stuns them for 2 sec while doing damage.

I personally love my MM sniper. I run with a "pure" MM spec 31/10/0 as it gives me the abilities i want/need from Engi and also gives me 90% of the stuff in MM. When it comes to PvE (my bread and butter if you will) MM is hard to beat. I can consistently do more dps than a full Engi specced sniper and a Lethality can't even come close. Ironically on my serer, Jung Ma, the most recent top dps was a MM specced sniper. As for PvP; I can't really say much. I don't generally PvP but the few times I have, I haven't had any real fun. MM tree has very little survivability rate outside of cover and it doesn't take long to have yourself targeted when you start critting for 4-7k. After that, be prepared to get targeted down and die quickly.

 

why on earth would you not take 3 points in Lethality in the Lethality tree?? 3% to your crit chance!! That's 3% of crit rating that you don't need in your gear; so, you can stack more power!!!

 

 

p.s. Eng sniper for the win!!!!!!

Crits taking a major nerf in 2.0. The way its looking at the moment, it looks like power going to be the best stat. Even over Cunning. Alacrity is getting a huge buff and looks to be pretty good for cast time spec like the MM.

Marksmanship looks pretty competitive in the 2.0 parses.

 

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=606110

Yer, currently in live if you have your defensives off cooldown you can literally 1v1 any class. plasma probe, interrogation probe, poison dart, explosive probe + series of shots with electrified railgun deals serious damage in a few seconds, not to mention it also stuns them for 2 sec while doing damage.

 

you cannot 1vs1 deception on 1.7 currently with any sniper spec.

you cannot 1vs1 deception on 1.7 currently with any sniper spec.

 

Assassins are much harder to play to the fullest potential than snipers are.

 

They're also insanely overpowered

Thanks for the help all ,

 

I'm gonna level MM until 50, but then I'm gonna try a 4/16/21

 

is this spec viable for good dps? http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#400rZrI0boRZG0rkrMhz.2

 

Thanks again!

I wouldn't recommand getting started with a hybrid spec, they're pretty much killing them with the exp. They're doing every thing they can to try and force people to follow trees to the top talent.

2/16/23 is the spec you want.

 

8% extra crit on cull has an impact on your energy regen, much more than 2% accuracy does, seeing as most of your attacks are tech.