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Sniper 2.0 PTS!


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LIVE PVE 2.0 Full Engineering sniper http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=609256

 

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Click to jump to player findings on the PTS[/jumpto]

Star Wars™: The Old Republic™

Game Update 2.0 PTS Patch Notes

The patch notes published for the Public Test Server are not final and are subject to change. The Public Test Server Patch Notes will be provided in English. The final release notes will be provided in English, French, and German when the content is moved to live servers.

 

Ref: http://www.swtor.com/community/devtracker.php

 

Last Updated: 3/7/13

March - 3rd update NEW!!

 

GENERAL

  • The abilities Covered Escape and Exfiltrate no longer cause players to roll in place.
  • Using Covered Escape or Exfiltrate while knocked down will no longer cause the Imperial Agent's position to rubberband back and forth
  • Energy regeneration rates will now display values rounded to two decimal places (e.g. x.xx).

 

MARKSMANSHIP

  • Reactive Shots has been replaced by Zeroing Shots. Firing Snipe zeroes in your sights, reducing the activation time of your next Ambush by 10% per point and stacks up to 2 times.

 

ENGINEERING

  • Electrified Blast is a new 2 point skill which gives Snipe and Overload Shot a 50% chance per point to apply 1 stack of Electrified Railgun to the target.
  • Vital Regulators and Engineer's Tool Belt have swapped positions in the skill tree.
  • Vital Regulators has been redesigned and now heals Engineers for 0.5% of max health per point every 3 seconds while in cover.
  • Explosive Engineering now specifically affects Explosive Probe, Fragmentation Grenade, Scatter Bombs, Orbital Strike, Cluster Bombs, Plasma Probe, and Suppressive Fire.
  • EMP Discharge has been redesigned. This ability no longer requires a target and now has a one minute and 15-second cooldown. Activating this ability now finishes the cooldowns on Shield Probe, Adrenaline Probe, Covered Escape, and Entrench.
  • EMP Recycler now reduces the cooldown of EMP Discharge by 7.5 seconds per point. Additionally, activating EMP Discharge now immediately heals the player for 2.5% of max health per point.
  • Electrified Railgun is now a 1point skill that lasts 6 seconds and stacks up to 3 times (down from 4).

 

March - 2nd update

Marksmanship

  • Reactive Shots has been replaced by Zeroing Shots. This passive ability stacks up to 2 times. Now, firing Snipe zeroes in your sights, reducing the activation time of your next Aimed Shot by 10% per point.
    ☑ But he is correct its 10% per point stacking 2 times, which will come back to 1.5 seconds. So we wil just have to use ambush after a series of snipes and not just always have a 1.5 sec blanket ambush.
     

 

Engineering BUFFS!

  • Added Electrified Blast, a new 2-point skill that gives Charged Burst and Quick Shot a 50% chance per point to apply 1 stack of Burning Speed to the target.
  • Vital Regulators has been redesigned. This ability now heals for 0.5% of maximum health per point every 3 seconds while in cover.
  • Vital Regulators and Engineer's Tool Belt have swapped positions in the skill tree.
  • Explosive Engineering now specifically affects Explosive Probe, Fragmentation Grenade, Scatter Bombs, Orbital Strike, Cluster Bombs, Plasma Probe, and Suppressive Fire. NERF TO HYBRID!!
  • EMP Discharge has been redesigned. This ability no longer requires a target and now has a one minute and 15-second cooldown. Activating EMP Discharge now finishes the cooldowns on Shield Probe, Adrenaline Probe, Covered Escape, and Entrench.
  • EMP Recycler now reduces the cooldown of EMP Discharge by 7.5 seconds per point. Additionally, activating EMP Discharge now immediately heals the player for 2.5% of your max health per point.
  • Electrified Railgun is now a 1-point skill. It now lasts 6 seconds and stacks up to 3 times (down from 4).

February - 1st update

 

NEW ABILITIES

  • A new ability, Covered Escape, has been added. Covered Escape will roll players forward up to 18 meters, landing crouched in cover. While rolling, defense is greatly increased and any movement-impairing effects are broken. The ability has a 20 second cooldown

  • A new passive ability, Spotter, has been added. Spotter increases stealth detection while in cover, building up to 30 additional levels of stealth detection over 30 seconds. The effect ends when leaving cover.

    ☑ 30 stacks means you can see a stealthed player without any buffs to stealth from 30 meters away. When stealth is increased by 15 (Ie sneak) you can only see from 15 meters. Passive adons to stealth, like +5 perma, means without sneak you can see from 25 and with its 10 meters

 

ABILITY CHANGES:

Marksmanship

  • Sniper Volley now lasts 15 seconds. BUFF!

 

  • Followthrough now costs 5 energy (down from 10) and deals slightly less damage as a result. Followthrough can now be triggered from a complete Series of Shots. REBALANCED!!

 

Engineering

  • Interrogation Probe now costs 15 energy (down from 20) and does not have a cooldown, but only one Interrogation Probe can be active at a time. BUFF!

  • Ballistic Shield no longer requires cover. The ability now lasts 20 seconds (up from 15), deploys at the player's current position, remaining there for the duration. BUFF!

  • Advanced Targeting now additionally increases the range of all ranged attacks by 5 meters. BUFF!

 

Lethality (Sniper)

  • Damage dealt by the weaker versions of Corrosive Dart or Corrosive Grenade which are created by Lingering Toxins will no longer break the target out of stealth. QoL BUFF!

 

GENERAL

  • Using cover while jumping will now issue an appropriate error message.
  • Explosive Probe now costs 25 Energy and deals slightly more damage.
  • Corrosive Dart now costs 16 Energy. BUFF!
  • Evasion now removes all hostile removable effects without requiring Avoidance Training. PVP BUFF!
  • Headshot has been removed from the game.
  • Eviscerate has been removed from the game.

 

SET BONUS

  • Field Tech's Gear 2pc PVE: Activating Target Acquired restores 10 Energy. BUFF!

 

 

2.0 TALENT TREE CALCULATOR

  • Click here. Awesome find. Thanks Darksabermaster!

 

NEW STAT FORMULAE

  • Main thread on the PTS forums.
  • Alacrity has been redesigned to be a more universally useful stat. Now Alacrity reduces the activation time of all abilities, including instant abilities. If such an ability is reduced below the global cooldown, the global cooldown is reduced as well. Alacrity now also increases resource regeneration for all classes by the same amount that it increases ability activation speed. More info here.
    ☑ I can confirm that Alacrity does, indeed, reduce the GCD of Creeping Terror and other dots. By a pretty significant amount, too. In fact, if it weren't for the fact that it's simultaneously feeding me more Force, I might actually be worried.
    ☑ The answer is that if your alac is 30%, then each of your GCD's takes 1.05 to tick instead of 1.5 seconds. It does not affect cooldowns. If I cast an instant ability in 1.7 I would then wait 1.5 seconds for the GCD to refresh so I could channel my second ability, for example. In 2.0, you will wait 1.05 seconds.

    [/LIst]
     
    VIDEOS

     

     

    [aname=lol]PLAYER FINDINGS ON THE PTS[/aname]

     

    Damage / Parses

    • Kyanrute
    So this is nothing more than a joke parse, since this could be somewhat hard or even impossible to do in real raids. But I thought that this would be worth posting anyway, if only for the reason that now people can complain that even engineering snipers can do 2,7k dps on a dummy.
     
    Scatter Bombs!

 

  • B'oarder NEW!!
Here are some uncropped and cropped parses I just did awhile ago: (all begin from the start) Rakata adrenal, Rakata stim, Companion/Legacy buffs
 
Full Lethality EDIT: 5/5/36! I forgot to respec to 7/3/36... my bad...
 
346 Crit Rating
http://www.torparse.com/a/155325 10 minutes
http://www.torparse.com/a/155334/time/1362625819/1362626119/0/Damage+Dealt
http://www.torparse.com/a/155344/time/1362626446/1362626746/0/Overview
 
0 Crit Rating
http://www.torparse.com/a/155351 9 minutes
http://www.torparse.com/a/155362/time/1362627786/1362628003/0/Damage+Dealt 3 minutes. Messed up after 3 minute mark.
http://www.torparse.com/a/155369/time/1362628213/1362628513/0/Overview
 
Full Marksman without the 2pc PVP Bonus
 
0 Crit Rating
http://www.torparse.com/a/155379/time/1362628996/1362629296/0/Overview
 
Full Marksman EDIT: With the 2pc PVP Bonus
 
0 Crit Rating
http://www.torparse.com/a/151715/time/1362362519/1362362820/0/Overview
 
Hybrid With the 2pc PVP Bonus
 
0 Crit Rating
http://www.torparse.com/a/154408/time/1362558555/1362559010/0/Overview
http://www.torparse.com/a/155419/time/1362631543/1362632022/0/Overview
http://www.torparse.com/a/155419/time/1362632097/1362632399/0/Overview
http://www.torparse.com/a/155443/time/1362633102/1362633582/0/Overview
 
Full Lethality vs Full MM
- OS is and should be part of MM rotation. OS can be squeezed into your single target rotation if you are Lethality spec but requires caution as messing up energy regen will leave you using RS multiple times and that can lower DPS
 
Example: See 3 minutes in graph or 180 seconds.
Lethality (single target no orbital) 2450-2550 http://www.torparse.com/a/155993/time/1362595294/1362595915/0/Overview
Lethality (single target no orbital) 2450-2550 http://www.torparse.com/a/155351/time/1362627136/1362627676/0/Overview
MM single target rotation (WITHOUT orbital)[/color] i dont have a parse but it was somewhere around 2300-2400
MM "single target rotation" (with orbital) 2700 http://www.torparse.com/a/156014/time/1362597347/1362597533/0/Overview
 
edit: ill try to put more MM parses later
On the use of Orbital Strike for parsing on the dummy, it can get a little bit iffy. As MM i noticed it to always increase and bump up DPS by a lot because I use with Sniper Volley. In Hybrid i use it when I have cluster bombs up so i can get energy back quicker and thus continue down my rotation faster. In Full Lethality, using it then spamming RS 2 times brings down my DPS a lot (cast time of orbital followed 2 RS and DPS goes down). I've been experimenting using OS only with TA or AP as Full Lethality for the quick energy regen and that seemed to help in the dummy DPS. (In raids tho it'll be different just use it on those adds as much as you can! lol).
 
 
in my playstyle/experience, i notice lethality to decay fast when i mess up with squeezing in orbital, Hybrid largely depends if you mess something up during squeezing in orbital too. Easiest to sustain and keep up is MM because orbital has a fast cast time and is EASILY part of your single target rotation (same CD as SV).
 
Ofcourse keep SS up, and I use EP when Ambush is on CD or during SV. I noticed that if I break that steady stream of rotation to use EP on cooldown, it brings DPS down a bit (need confirmatin). Also I am specced into 3/3 Engineering with 2/3 Crit chance from Lethality (forgot to add..)
 

Orbital


MM - easily and SHOULD be part of single target rotation, should be used on CD with SV preferrably. MM "single target rotation" should include Orbital Strike
Hybrd / Full Lethaliy - orbital can easily mess up your energy and single target rotation. more caution on orbital use when parsing on the dummy. if successful, you can hit higher numbers. if not, you can end up at the 2400s.. got to be more careful because one mess will lead you to using RS twice in a row even more and that will cost your DPS a lot.
 
Example: See 3 minutes in graph or 180 seconds.
Lethality (single target no orbital) 2450-2550 http://www.torparse.com/a/155993/time/1362595294/1362595915/0/Overview
Lethality (single target no orbital) 2450-2550 http://www.torparse.com/a/155351/time/1362627136/1362627676/0/Overview
MM "single target rotation" (with orbital) 2700 http://www.torparse.com/a/156014/time/1362597347/1362597533/0/Overview

L55 ship dummy, using pure POWER build on Hybrid and Marks parses
 
Lethality/Engi
2715 DPS Hybrid: http://www.torparse.com/a/152035/tim...453/0/Overview
 
NOTE: Before the nerf to Hybrid via 3/3 Explosive Engineering
2777 DPS http://www.torparse.com/a/147843/time/1362041782/1362042082/0/Overview
2686 DPS http://www.torparse.com/a/147783/time/1362123945/1362124245/0/Overview
 
Marks
2627 DPS http://www.torparse.com/a/151715/tim...820/0/Overview
 
Lethality
 

  • Ronin
Went and did some testing on the PTS dummy.
 
1st, the MM spec using the 13.5s Ambush rotation
 
http://www.torparse.com/a/145234/3/0/Overview
 
Not really optimized either. Around 2400 dps if you ignore the last few seconds when I'm waiting to exit combat. I'm sure that as I fiddle around with my gear and perfect the rotation, it'll get even better.
 
And for my 'bread and butter' 5/18/23 Leth/Eng build
 
http://www.torparse.com/a/145234/5/0/Overview
 
Made a few mistake in the rotation in regard to energy, but still come out over 2500 dps most of the time.
 
The two specs are now really close to each another. On live, my MM parses only 1800, while my Leth/Eng parses 2100. They are now within 5% of each another.

 

  • Ontee
I also did some parsing
 
Full MM 36/5/5 did ~2000 dps
Full Lethality 5/5/36 did ~2100 dps
Leth/Eng Hybrid 5/16/25 did ~2200dps
 
I "missed" 2-3 FT in MM rotation so it might come little higher.
All builds were impossible to run low in energy, for me at least.
Seems that all specs are very close on each other, which is nice.
 
Gear is same in all builds, did use lvl 50 ship dummy

  • Bbare
Using a 7/3/36 lethality build with extra ambush armor penetration, extra accuracy. Stat allocation is All Power, No crit, Only surge was on earpiece and Pvp Relic. (This is not my main so I don't have DG Relic) Alacrity is 216, accuracy is 99.97% ranged with companion buff. All buffs, No stim, Only augments in relics, random armor penetration due to mercs coming in and out, in a rather laggy fleet.
 
http://www.torparse.com/a/141311
 
2nd from top
 
Using a 5/18/23 hybrid build. I obviously screwed up on the build. I know 7/16/23 would be better. Testing that tomorrow. Stats are constant. Still random merc heat signatures and random lag
 
Last from bottom
 
http://www.torparse.com/a/141331

On Abilities

  • Chuixupu
- Yay, we have different icons for weak poisons. Very nice. In addition to the debuff scaling, this will make life easier.
I would still like an option to disable/change debuffs from other players.
Adding debuffs to the target's name plates would also be a nice touch for the future.
 
- I really like the visual effect for Lethal Takedown. We neeed more very apparent procs for stuff like that.
 
- I like the changes to Ballistic Shield. Not being able to move after activating it was always a pain (especially in fights where I would suddenly get a damage circle put under me immediately after)
 
That's all for the moment until I get some real combat experience. Energy management feels a lot smoother than it used to, maybe because of alacrity, but that might not hold true dealing with multiple targets.

  • Covered Escape
Small tests on Covered Escape and would like some feeback to see if im right.
 
1. If you use covered escape and jump almoost at the same time (but jump always after covered escape) you will roll in the air and drop around the same spot. I've managed to do that a few times not sure if it was caused by lag (had around 130ms to 200ms at that moment, if confirmed is a way to drop all 5 charges from Engineer in the same spot for a nice bang ;)
 
2. This one I will still test but a guild member was NOT taking any fall damage on Soa phase transitions when using covered escape and dropping out of the plataforms. I have yet to test on falls as big as those but it seems that when you use Covered Escape you will take none/less fall damage. Need confirmation on that.
I can verify the covered escape roll forward causes no damage when rolling from the top into the pit off huttball. I can also confirm you can roll through fire with no damage....though the first couple of tries I wasn't quite close enough and turned into Crispy Chiss.
Hmm i found that i took fire damage as i rolled through the fire and acid pits... Can someone else confirm the above?
 
Also, if you haven't figured it out yet (haven't read all posts in this thread), covered escape roll direction is based on your camera direction, not your characters direction or your movement direction.
 
Furthermore, strafing to the side and trying to roll seems to cause a "movementless" roll, which will be good for stacking your cluster-bomb trail when talented in the Engi tree
It's entirely possible the couple times I rolled through the fire I just got lucky. I'll see if I can make it more repeatable. I do, however, take damage from the acid.
 
In other PvP updates, the mine the lethality tree leaves behind when doing covered escape is pretty epic. I was going 1v1 vs. an assassin (I think) with a lot of defensives still on cool down, so I lost but it took a long time. Being able to scamper away ever 20 seconds is nice.

 

Engineering in the new patch

  • CJNJ
alright, so i somehow accidentally parsed Engineering for 17+ minutes just now.
my stats were like 27.XX crit chance, 109.84% accuracy, 64.XX% surge, 2% alacrity(the skill points) and 1192 bonus tech damage. Only used an adrenal once and shatter shot twice, and was missing the warrior buff.
 
cool part is in the whole 17 minutes i only used rifle shot 55 times, and probably much less
 
SoS is now energy positive in the spec and everything else is super cheap, not to mention the scatter bombs are also free. I tried to spec into the Calculated pirsuit for another free move because when you use covered escape you are out of cover for a short time and you have enough time to get another move in before covering, but saddly it would just put the internal cooldown on the move and not give me the proc. I need to start to remember to not save AP for when EMP off cooldown now, because energy is so nice you can use it whenever really, and i probably could have had much less than 55 rifle shots. saddly it looks like im still missing some things as I only parsed 2250ish when you take off the last dot so unless Warrior buff + SS + Adrenal, and maybe some stat chsnges then im probably still missing some stuff
 
edit: here is the parse http://www.torparse.com/a/150190

 

Player versus Player

  • Islander NEW!!
So I've done about 20 warzones on PTS now - all normals.
 
I'll post my thoughts so far from a MM point of view - don't take them for gospel.
 
1) MM Sniper isn't as OP as folks seem to think, given the context of a warzone/team PvP. My DPS output, I find, is no better (or within a reasonable margin of error, given the variance of warzone roles/situations) then in live.
Now, for dueling purposes, I can see this complaint, specifically because of mobility (see #4)
 
2) What IS different, is burst output. Series of Shots is the real DPS winner, with it's damage output being cranked out over just 2 seconds now...and even quicker after sniper volley ( 1.8 sec). It's also augmented by the new skill that increases critical damage on it by 30% (along with FT and TD).
 
It's a LOT of damage, even factoring in the increased hit point pools (27-33k, I'm at 28k and I'm in a similar setup to live, meaning less endurance, more damage dealing - I have 18.8k in live).
 
Every 45 seconds, you can essentially unload this on a poor unsuspecting victim:
Ambush (assuming you've got at least one snipe of two debuffing the 'cast' time) - FT - SoS - FT - Sniper Volley - SoS #2 - FT - Takedown - FT in about 10 seconds.
 
3) What people aren't seeing - and trust me, I'm on the PTS every night for at least an hour - is how overall DPS output looks when DPS classes of all types are geared. It's very balanced in normals. In fact healing is currently quite potent. Smash is still 90-95% as effective as is...and bubble stuns to combat it are gone save for single characters. I get smashed, without entrench, for 6-7k damage, consistently. Powertechs are still powertechs just like in live.
 
What also contributes to this is the gearing disparity, some people haven't figured out that you can copy your main character an unlimited amount of times and use your legacy gear to transfer yourself new PvP gear to your main. Random guy goes into WZ with 22k health, gets torn about in 12 seconds by a sniper - goes crying on the forum.
 
Trust me when I say this - when you've got a juggernaut with saber ward up, saber reflect available, and 30k health 10 meters away from you, you won't feel quite so OP then. You can win, but it's not the cake walk QQers are serving up over on the PvP forum.
 
4) Where MM did get massively buffed - mobility. Oh yes, this is big and it's not just covered escape. We also got a buff on leg shot - Debilitating shots means you don't just have 2 free seconds after leg shot to hit your victim, you really have 5. Sages/Sorcs are really going to be screwed now. In the open, they'll have to 'ice block' or die.
 
5) Gearing: Now here's the million dollar question. As we all know, this is how the tweaking works:
 
mods: Crit or Power
enhance: Choose 2 from anything
 
Now, in order to get to 100% ranged accuracy, you basically need to burn 5 of your 12 slots on accuracy. Think about that. It means - forget alacrity, still. I have 7.7% alacrity in live, contrary to the conventional wisdom. However half of this comes from two skill points in lethality level 1 - and this skill gets nerfed from 2/4% to 1/2% in 2.0. This, combined with the new debilitating shots talent in 2.0, leaves me no rational choice but to switch improved alacrity skill for imperial demarcation. 12 second CD on a skill that gimps your opponent for 5-7 seconds - Wow.
 
It also means a hit to crit rate/surge. I am running about 420 surge on PTS now, and about 300 crit to reach the values I list at the end of this. I'm having a tough time letting either go much lower, factoring in the MM tree skills that further augment critical damage output (I'm looking at you especially, Series of Shots).
I also can agree what others suggest that at this point, pure power appears to be the best means of consistent dps output in 2.0. - even moreso then main stat, ever so slightly.
 
If you go to 100+% accuracy, and let's say 70% surge, you are going to take a beating on crit rate (not power, errantly mentioned previously, power/acc enhancements still exist..41/64 at conqueror level).
 
At this point, I am running with 97% accuracy, 26.3% crit, 72% surge, 1190 tech power, and 0 alacrity. I'm 40-3-3 Marksman. Yeah, that's buffed values. (edit: I'm going to be experimenting with near 100% accuracy in the near future)
 
http://pts.swtor-spy.com/skill-tree-calculator/sniper/235/?build=223010222120211121220320111201000003000000000000000000000000000000300000000000000000000000000000&ver=20
 
Just my 2 credits
 
 

  • Krayshan
Ok so my buddy read on the forums the the stealth is a cone in front of the sniper, the sides are hindered.
After some testing, the info seems legit.

  • Ambitiousapple
Hmm i found that i took fire damage as i rolled through the fire and acid pits... Can someone else confirm the above?
 
Also, if you haven't figured it out yet (haven't read all posts in this thread), covered escape roll direction is based on your camera direction, not your characters direction or your movement direction.
 
Furthermore, strafing to the side and trying to roll seems to cause a "movementless" roll, which will be good for stacking your cluster-bomb trail when talented in the Engi tree (quite hard to accomplish. needs practice).

On Stats

 

  • Kelderek
Assuming the Accuracy cap is still 10%, you will need accuracy in EVERY item slot if you do not have the skill in the MM tree. I was able to get 110.27% accuracy using enhancement swaps in the Arkanian pieces and using accuracy earpiece and implants. That leaves no room for surge or alacrity on enhancements (at least at this gear level and a lethality spec). With no surge at all, I figure I may as well ditch crit for more power.
So my gearing attempt looks like this: Accuracy + Power until 110% tech accuracy. If I had any room after that I would probably choose Alacrity + Power.
 
I'm assuming that at some future higher item level that we could get enough surge on top of the needed accuracy to make swapping out some power for crit more worthwhile.
 
With all dps class buffs, a full set of Arkanian Professional gear straight off the vendor, no relics, no consumables and no augments, using a 2/8/36 spec I pulled about 1850 dps in a very laggy fleet on the 55 target dummy. This set of gear will give you about 104% tech accuracy, 4% alacrity, 27% crit and 70% multiplier.
 
I changed the gear around to remove almost all crit in favor of power, and removed all surge and alacrity rating for accuracy I managed to do 1925 dps. The stats were about 22% crit, 51% multiplier, 2% alacrity, 110.27% tech accuracy and well over 1000 power. So the accuracy does help a lot. Adding in relics, consumables and augments should bump that up a fair bit.
 
Even with such low crit, I still had no energy management issues running the usual full lethality spec.

  • Cyanothis
     
spent a bit of time on the ops dummy in the new 62 gear. I went 36/7/3 and was basically playing around with new skills etc
 
I mucked around with alacrity last night using the 162 rating gear, the 2% from the DF tree and swtiching all enhancements out for +alacrity ones. I managed to get it to 7.78% which resulted in a 1.3 aimed shot cast time when also running burst volley.
 
I averaged 2000 dps (in game with mox running) on the dummy (yeah people will do a lot better) but what I found was that it was very very difficult for me to get below the fast energy regen rate, there is a lot of energy regen in the build and the alacrity changes really helped out.
 
Crit rating and surge take a real beating in this gear though and oddly accuracy needs a bit of work getting to the +10% mark but its not too terrible.
 
So then for a giggle I basically replaced all the enhancements with power and alacrity, giving me alacrity of 432 (7.76%) including taking the 2% bonus from the DF tree.
The difference was really surprising, it was practically impossible for me to run down the energy, hitting Burst Volly for the 10% extra alacrity pushed energy regen up to 8.2/second and freighter flyby down to 1.7 seconds activation, aimed shot was 1.3 second activation.. Stranger still was the increase in DPS even with crit down to 28% and surge to 51% my DPS went up to 2100.
 
I'll run more, proper, tests and see but initial thought suggest alacrity may well be a really useful skill for slingers.
 
logs if you're interested....I admit to not being the best and people will be much better but its a start and here are some numbers for people to look at.
 
http://swtor.askmrrobot.com/combatlog/553db571-7887-4766-a488-b2ad409b86ca/player/1#d=0,f=16,t=1,b=1
 
fight 16 was the 7.7% alacrity and a "clean" run where i hit most cooldowns in game Mox was reporting this as 2108 but changed when i loaded to Mr Robot.
 
Have a look, dont laugh too hard i was trying to muck around with alacrity and it surprised me.
 

Rigsta

  • On Covered Escape, Scatter Bombs, Elec Railgun, Engineering
    practice
     
    Here's a quick rundown of the the more data I gathered on engineering, scatter bombs and covered escape today.
     
    Covered escape:
    • Rolls in the direction the camera is facing.
    • Is currently rather buggy. If you lag when activating it, you roll in place without moving.
    • Lasts for about 1 second.
    • Gives you 200% dodge/resist to ALL kinds of attack while in effect. Evasion - Covered Escape
    • You're not in cover til the end of the roll. This means if you activate it while in cover it cancels entrench & resets spotter but re-grants ballistic dampeners.

     

    Scatter bombs with 2/2 points spent:

    • Passive: Reduces energy cost of frag grenade from 20 to 16 (actually rather nice).
    • Drops 5-6 bombs (hard to tell with the PTS lag).
    • The delay before detonation is short, perhaps 0.5-1 seconds. Impossible to tell with the PTS fleet lag.
    • The bombs have a very small AE radius. At most I could get 2 of them to hit the ops dummy on the fleet.
    • Each bomb deals 1792-1918 kinetic damage. With the same gear & buffs, my Snipe tooltip reads 2655-2848 frag grenade reads 1817-1935, and followthrough is 2737-2936. These numbers are all reduced by armour.

     

    Overall impression of the bombs: Poor chance to hit, poor damage when they hit, buggy when there's lag. I don't feel like it adds much to covered escape, scatter bombs certainly pales in comparison to corrosive mine. If I were to suggest a change it'd be one of these:

    1. Increase the power of the first bomb significantly, and slightly increase the radius of each bomb.
    2. Replace the bombs with proximity mines that detonate when a target is in range. The mines should disarm if: (idea A) Not detonated within 20s or (idea B) Not detonated within [30-60s] or Covered Escape is used again, whichever is sooner. The mines would also disarm if the sniper dies, just like Plasma Probe & OS.

     

    The Electrified Railgun skill now has a graphic effect, which I do not like at all.

    EDIT: That effect of electrified railgun already persists when dpsing the dummies, but does nor show up at anything else. This could be the case on pts as well.
    It looks dumb (apparantly I'm wearing Tesla boots?) and it makes your position blindingly obvious. In the immortal words of Richard Hammond (when describing the 2.0 eco-boost Ford Mustang): "You can keep it, we don't want it."

     

    Engineering's rotation is more interesting now. In 1.7 live I can easily put everything that matters on cooldown and end up spamming snipe or rifle shot. Those 4.5 seconds knocked off the SoS and EP cooldowns coupled with the exisiting energy return from cluster bombs make the rotation deeper; I'm already thinking about when to use EP in order to not waste the energy return but get it on cooldown as soon as possible.

     

    Speaking of energy, it's not much of an issue right now but **IMPORTANT** this is on a laggy PTS so we're not using our abilities as quickly as we can on live. If energy remains a near-non-issue in lag-free situations then Adrenalin Probe & EMP need to be reworked, preferably into some survivability or mobility utility to make up for the loss of Augmented Shields.

     

    Also: Each tick of Orbital Strike can crit for 5149 with engi and my thrown-together Arkanian set. No relics atm.

     

     

    I'll be posting a detailed sniper 2.0 critique in the PTS forum in the next week or so, hopefully.

     

Edited by paowee
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It's interesting that Ballistic Shield not needing cover is listed under Engineering. I wonder if that's a change they made to "Deployed Shields".

 

I'm also LOVING the stealth detection in cover. As an engineer, guarding nodes will be awesome. No more spamming plasma probe. The obvious counter is to knock us back, so I'm assuming a strategy is to keep entrench up every time it's off cooldown. Then again, we'll see the enemy approach at ten meters, so maybe able to drop entrench against a stealthed mob, but ranged knockback/stuns will still be effective.

 

I'm kinda "meh" about the roll forward escape, except it seems that it may be another cc breaker, which is cool. I can also see some use in other warzones where you need to get to a node quickly to defend, or maybe even in huttball, roll to the end zone for a pass.

 

Spammable interrogation probe is also interesting, at least if I understand it right, only one probe can be active at a time, I'm assuming that's per target. Or maybe not, and since the the duration is 18 seconds, cooldown was 18 seconds, removing the cooldown made sense. Also, if someone purges it, we can immediately re-apply it, I guess.

 

I'm wondering if the engineering targeting skill is a new one, the +5 meter increase in range will be awesome.

 

Overall, interesting changes. It will be interesting to see how they play out.

Edited by Jekan
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It's interesting that Ballistic Shield not needing cover is listed under Engineering. I wonder if that's a change they made to "Deployed Shields".

 

I'm also LOVING the stealth detection in cover. As an engineer, guarding nodes will be awesome. No more spamming plasma probe. The obvious counter is to knock us back, so I'm assuming a strategy is to keep entrench up every time it's off cooldown. Then again, we'll see the enemy approach at ten meters, so maybe able to drop entrench against a stealthed mob, but ranged knockback/stuns will still be effective.

 

I'm kinda "meh" about the roll forward escape, except it seems that it may be another cc breaker, which is cool. I can also see some use in other warzones where you need to get to a node quickly to defend, or maybe even in huttball, roll to the end zone for a pass.

 

Spammable interrogation probe is also interesting, at least if I understand it right, only one probe can be active at a time, I'm assuming that's per target. Or maybe not, and since the the duration is 18 seconds, cooldown was 18 seconds, removing the cooldown made sense. Also, if someone purges it, we can immediately re-apply it, I guess.

 

I'm wondering if the engineering targeting skill is a new one, the +5 meter increase in range will be awesome.

 

Overall, interesting changes. It will be interesting to see how they play out.

 

A lot of the new abilities they gave out to AC's are PvP oriented it seems.

 

The roll forward is a welcome addition against what Marauders will get. We have an extra way of running away from them for when we get charged, or ganked or they decide to pop all their CDs to get close lol (talking from an open world and normal wz pvp experience only).

 

Marauder: A new ability, Dual Saber Throw has been added. Dual Saber throw throws both Lightsabers at a target up to 30 meters away, striking everything within its path and slows the movement speed of affected targets by 50% for 6 seconds.

 

Sniper: A new ability, Covered Escape, has been added. Covered Escape will roll players forward up to 18 meters, landing crouched in cover. While rolling, defense is greatly increased and any movement-impairing effects are broken.

 

Juggernauts on the other hand will get a new ability, Saber Reflect. Saber Reflect reflects all direct, single target ranged, Force, and Tech damage back to the attacker, lasts 3 seconds. Better be careful with those Ambushes!

 

From what I understand, Sniper Bubble can now be "dropped" on a patch of ground, IF you are an Engineer. Run to Voidstar Door, drop Ballistic Shields, run out :D

 

I hope we can see more going on for Lethality down the line of this PTS >_<

Edited by paowee
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I missed a few ones. Added them to the OP. All these are pending and may be changed/removed/altered while on the PTS!

 

General

  • Using cover while jumping will now issue an appropriate error message.
  • Explosive Probe now costs 25 Energy and deals slightly more damage.
  • Corrosive Dart now costs 16 Energy.
  • Evasion now removes all hostile removable effects without requiring Avoidance Training..
  • Headshot has been removed from the game.
  • Eviscerate has been removed from the game

.

Edited by paowee
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One interesting change in general was the buff to alacrity to also buff energy regen and reduce the GCD on abilities like instant snipe. I'm thinking this might end up being a useful stat to Marksman, but until it's toyed around with no way to be sure.
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Saber Reflect will also wreck Lethality during the WB/Cull phase as well, yeah?

 

I'm also glad they're getting rid of all the stupid "only on incapacitated target" skills like tumult, eviscerate and headshot. I never use those, sometimes I remember I have them, but they're so beyond useless it's not funny.

Edited by Jekan
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One interesting change in general was the buff to alacrity to also buff energy regen and reduce the GCD on abilities like instant snipe. I'm thinking this might end up being a useful stat to Marksman, but until it's toyed around with no way to be sure.

 

Nice find! Thanks Synavix.

 

Iirc BW wants to diminish the use of Hybrid builds (unfortunately I have no anecdote for that..). I wonder if they specifically had Sniper Hybrid in mind and it would be curious to see what they have in store for us. I can confidently say they have already abolished the Hybrid tanking tree for Juggernauts (I have a Jugg MT and in live, Hybrid > Tank tree in terms of mitigating damage).

 

Im really looking forward to TakeDown procs in Full Lethality from the leaked notes that sprung up in these forums >_<

Edited by paowee
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Also for tanks having shielding be effective against white and yellow damage is huge. It will make being a tank in tank gear in PvP viable. It also means that lethality/engineering specs won't quite be the can openers they once were on heavy armor. Armor debuff and accuracy increase from TA won't do squat against absorb.
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Seems like we got the *******st upgrades. Most of those ability are geared more for PVP. Like the stealth detection...big f'ing deal if u dont pvp. Minor energy changes to some abilities. At least OPs got the inc energy regen passive.

 

Seems like we got screwed.

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Seems like we got the *******st upgrades. Most of those ability are geared more for PVP. Like the stealth detection...big f'ing deal if u dont pvp. Minor energy changes to some abilities. At least OPs got the inc energy regen passive.

 

Seems like we got screwed.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if there's some sort of stealth element in the new operations. While I mainly PvP, and thus love the spotter ability, I hope that there's a PvE use for it as well.

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Saber Reflect will also wreck Lethality during the WB/Cull phase as well, yeah?

 

We won't know until people test it out. The description says it will reflect "all direct, single target ranged, Force, and Tech damage back to the attacker for 3 seconds".

 

Cull's single target ranged attack comes in three hits of white damage (ala SoS). These 3 white damage hits might be the ones reflected back to us (which is pretty weak :) Cull's big damage comes from from the 6 additional yellow damage ticks that happen when Cull hits a target with YOUR CG and CD. Unless we can put CG and CD on ourselves I doubt a reflected Cull will hurt that much. It is however a big damage loss since the Juggernaut just neutered your Cull's burst. Just wait 9 seconds, Covered Escape away and then use Cull again lol :D

 

I'd imagine the Saber Reflect will be more annoying for Marks snipers.

Edited by paowee
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We won't know until people test it out. The description says it will reflect"all direct, single target ranged, Force, and Tech damage back to the attacker for 3 seconds".

 

Cull's single target ranged attack comes in three hits of white damage (ala SoS). These 3 white damage hits might be the ones reflected back at us (which is pretty weak :) The big damage that comes out of Cull is from the 6 additional yellow damage ticks that come out when your Cull hits a target with YOUR CG and CD. Unless we can put CG and CD on ourselves I doubt a reflected Cull will hurt that much. It is however a big loss of DPS since the Juggernaut just neutered your Cull's burst.

 

I'd imagine the Saber Reflect will be more annoying for Marks snipers.

 

Yeah, that's going to suck for MM. By the way, thanks for your lethality guide, I put it to good use a lot :).

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I wouldn't be surprised if there's some sort of stealth element in the new operations. While I mainly PvP, and thus love the spotter ability, I hope that there's a PvE use for it as well.

 

Whats even more ridiculous is as an OP, energy is NEVER an issue. You get energy back so quickly its ridiculous.

 

Makes me wonder if BW even plays their own game.

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It's interesting that Ballistic Shield not needing cover is listed under Engineering. I wonder if that's a change they made to "Deployed Shields".

Nah, they said at the top of the patch notes to log in to the PTS and check the skill tree for skill-specific changes. They also list advanced targetting under engineering, which is the passive we get at level 10 when we choose sniper as our advanced class. The change is that the 5-meter range increase now applies to "all ranged attacks" (I'm hoping this includes grenades, dart, probes etc.)

 

I'm also LOVING the stealth detection in cover.

Better than a kick in the eye I guess. I do hate stealthers in warzones, but I'm not sure whether I like this passive or not. It takes a long time to build up and we lose it as soon as we move. So on the one hand it's really powerful but on the other hand it's really limited by the build-up time, requirement to stay in cover for the duration, and the situational nature of stealth detection.

 

If it detects combat-stealth, then I'll smirk every time I break someone out of it but I'll also feel a bit sorry for them. Except maras. Stealth classes have a bit of a niche role in PVP as it is.

 

I'm kinda "meh" about the roll forward escape, except it seems that it may be another cc breaker, which is cool. I can also see some use in other warzones where you need to get to a node quickly to defend, or maybe even in huttball, roll to the end zone for a pass.

It breaks snares & roots, lets us move 18 meters very quickly, gives us a big defense buff while it's active, and puts us directly into cover at the end.

 

What's not to like??! It's a very versatile ability on a short 20-second cooldown. Any CC, snare or root > Covered Escape = advantage sniper. As well as being an escape ability it's a tool to control engagement range, effectively without leaving cover.

 

Spammable interrogation probe is also interesting, at least if I understand it right, only one probe can be active at a time, I'm assuming that's per target[...]

Nah it's 1 total - the wording is the same as commando's trauma probe. This change is just to allow us to switch targets more efficiently. Which is very welcome.

 

Can't wait for the PTS client to finish downloading. It'd be nice if my character copy would actually work too :|

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Here is a list of pre-emptive conclusions i made:

 

 

  • Sniper vs Stealthers match-up can suffer some serious changes, there is a high risk of massive sin forum whining asking for the nerf. This can potentially deny stealthers completely the ability to open on us from stealth while we are in cover leaving us only vulnerable when relocating.
  • Alacrity changes will force us to reevaluate entire sniper gearing optimisation. PvE analysts will have a massive work to do.
  • Bounty hunters receiveing hydraulic overrides: we will lose on our previous dominance over PTs and especially Pyrotech. You will be unable to root powertech or knock them back. Most of them will save this ability to deal with us, snipers.
  • New tanking shields changes will make engineering weaker vs tanks. Explosive Probe, Interrogation Probe, Frag Grenades will now be absorbed by shields.
  • Jug saber reflect = potentially reflecting an ambush back at us. quite dangerous
  • Evasion self cleanse = pure awesomeness. Once every minute we will be able to rid ourself of all the debuffs. The implications of this will be MASSIVE.
  • It looks like MM is slowly moving away from Snipe as well, now that FT will proc after SoS as well.
  • New charge ability = incredible room for sniper skill. The amount of uses this will grant us, will be crazy.

 

Edited by NoTomorrow
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They dont. Kinetic and Energy is absorbed. Elemental and Internal (Lethality) goes trough tank stats.

 

You're right, I thought I also read force/tech. Well, I'm guessing that makes crit rating more important for MM/Engineering, then, since crit attacks bypass shields.

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You're right, I thought I also read force/tech. Well, I'm guessing that makes crit rating more important for MM/Engineering, then, since crit attacks bypass shields.

 

or it makes Lethality more viable in RBG, because as it stands now, this is the real tankbuster remaining besides Pyros

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While a lot of these changes will affect PvP a lot more than PvE, we didn't really need a lot of buffs in PvE. We'll have a few rotation changes, a little more mobility...but as long as our DPS potential is relatively untouched in comparison to other classes we'll be in good shape. I'll leave discussions about whether we'll be buffed/nerfed in PvP to people who know better than me.

 

As far as the nerfing of hybrids, it's a welcome change in my opinion. I've loved both the MM/Eng and Leth/Eng hybrids for our class, but they're a lot more difficult to balance around and (for the most part) have brought a lot more unbalance to the game from other classes.

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While a lot of these changes will affect PvP a lot more than PvE, we didn't really need a lot of buffs in PvE. We'll have a few rotation changes, a little more mobility...but as long as our DPS potential is relatively untouched in comparison to other classes we'll be in good shape. I'll leave discussions about whether we'll be buffed/nerfed in PvP to people who know better than me.

 

As far as the nerfing of hybrids, it's a welcome change in my opinion. I've loved both the MM/Eng and Leth/Eng hybrids for our class, but they're a lot more difficult to balance around and (for the most part) have brought a lot more unbalance to the game from other classes.

 

Why? Its much harder (in terms of energy management) for optimal DPS. More dots to juggle and just overall more buttons to mash. Why would you NOT reward the better player? Trying lethality again after having played hybrid for months makes lethality seem like something 2nd graders can master.

 

There should be reward for better players, and I think hybrids kinda gives that to us.

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Is anyone else nervous how the damage reduction to TS/FT is going to affect SS/MM dps?

 

With adjustments to other areas of the tree and alacrity I think SS/MM will still have potential, but I'd need to see more before knowing for sure. It's certainly an awkward change though.

 

Why? Its much harder (in terms of energy management) for optimal DPS. More dots to juggle and just overall more buttons to mash. Why would you NOT reward the better player? Trying lethality again after having played hybrid for months makes lethality seem like something 2nd graders can master.

 

There should be reward for better players, and I think hybrids kinda gives that to us.

 

There's really nothing wrong with that line of thought, but I'm looking at it from another way. Like I said, I enjoyed the hybrids for sniper/gunslinger...but they've caused a lot of questionable issues in PvP with sages, guardians, and even early commandos (hybrid grav spam healers). It's difficult to explain why XXX class should have viable hybrids while XXX doesn't, and in the end just makes for a lot of extra balancing for unintended synergies.

 

As far as PvE, I compare it to the PvE balance argument that "every DPS spec is a pure DPS (and classes that can heal shouldn't be punished to have lower DPS)". While it's nice to think that DPS potential should be tied to difficulty in some way, in a "perfect" balance situation every class should be capable of the same DPS and offer varying difficulty skills for different players. Marksman and Lethality snipers already put out some of the highest DPS potential in the game (depending on fight for MM), and to have another sniper spec on top of that that puts out even MORE is a bit much. Better play should always reward better numbers, but not because one spec is "better".

 

There is also the old WoW argument that top tier talents should be something unique to each spec that makes each spec what it is, and when a large portion of a class chooses not to take their top tier talent it means it's poorly designed.

 

All that said though, I think if BW put more time into balancing the game (especially in PvP) and hybrid specs, I am actually a fan of them (in theory). They often reward intelligent gameplay and spec decisions. I just prefer a balanced game with no hybrids than an unbalanced one with.

Edited by Synavix
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While a lot of these changes will affect PvP a lot more than PvE, we didn't really need a lot of buffs in PvE. We'll have a few rotation changes, a little more mobility...but as long as our DPS potential is relatively untouched in comparison to other classes we'll be in good shape. I'll leave discussions about whether we'll be buffed/nerfed in PvP to people who know better than me.

 

In comparison to:

 

Current Marauder 4pc PVE set bonus:

 

  • (2p): Reduces the rage cost of Vicious Throw or Dispatch by 1.
  • (4p): Reduces the cooldown of Frenzy or Valerous Call by 15s.

 

2.0 Marauder set bonus:

 

  • Weaponmaster's Gear 2pc PVE: Now increases Ravage damage dealt by 8%.
  • Weaponmaster's Gear 4pc PvE: Now in addition to reducing the cooldown of Frenzy, also makes activating Berserk increase all damage dealt by 4% for 15 seconds.

 

Sniper PVE set bonus SO FAR remains the same in 2.0:

 

  • Target Acquired energy and
  • Reduced energy cost on Takedown.

 

:eek:

 

From the little information that we have right now (no parses, logs, skill tree changes) it looks like Marauders, our pure DPS melee counterpart has the lead with this one.

 

Marauder - 1

Sniper - 0

 

:confused:

Edited by paowee
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Yeh the spotter ability is sweet.

We tested it today and its pretty simple:

30 stacks means you can see a stealthed player without any buffs to stealth from 30 meters away.

When stealth is increased by 15 (Ie sneak) you can only see from 15 meters.

Passive adons to stealth, like +5 perma, means without sneak you can see from 25 and with its 10 meters...

 

However this isnt a major deal, from 15 meters a scoundrel can roll or a shadow can force speed still making it to their target, it just mainly now stops stealth caps....

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