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Marksman - an underperforming spec that was left out of 7.1 balancing changes


joshrva

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Of the four overwhelmingly underperforming DPS specs in 7.0, Arsenal, Innovative Ordinance, Marksman, and Carnage, Marksman was the only one to not receive any form of buffs in 7.1. Currently, Marksman is slated to be the dps spec with the worst output, it and Arsenal (still) will lag far behind all other classes, ranged and melee included. Full disclosure, Marksman is not the worst spec currently, it still is better than Arsenal and both Operative specs simply due to having better defensive cooldowns. But defensive cooldowns are an entirely different subject. And there does of course have to be a worst DPS spec, but Arsenal and Marksman will continue to be the worst by a lot.

 

Here's a quick and simple buff that would bring Marksman in line to other specs, and make Marksman enjoyable to play. It is not my idea, credit goes to someone in the Theorycrafters discord. I just wanted to share it.

 

Ballistic Redistribution - Critically hitting with a weapon attack restores 2 energy. In addition, Laze Target increases critical chance on all weapon attacks by 100% for 7 seconds.

 

This should provide a ~9% damage increase, bringing Marksman in line with the other Sniper specs, and it will give Marksman a proper burst window.

Edited by joshrva
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THANK YOU for addressing this. Very frustrating as someone who has played Marksman/Sharpshooter for years to see us repeatedly get shafted. Here are some other changes I've thought of that would make the spec more viable IMO:

 

1) Entrench/Hunker Down purges all cleansable effects. It is absolutely criminal that Snipers/Slingers are the only class without a cleanse. It made it very rough (and honestly embarrassing) to grind Nim Nefra, relying on the charity of healers to not instantly die. Healers should be focusing on the tanks, not a DPS who struggles to pass its checks. Between this and the Meticulous Preparation/Bag of Tricks DCD, we'd only need help on every 3rd cleanse, in-line with many other specs.

 

2) Zeroing Shots/Charged Aim (passive that reduces the cast time of Ambush/Aimed Shots when firing Snipe/Charged Burst twice) makes your next Ambush/Aimed Shots insta-cast; critically hitting with Ambush/Aimed Shots automatically resets the cooldown of Penetrating Blasts/Penetrating Rounds. I notice that our biggest DPS drop is in the end of the rotation while waiting for Ambush/Aimed shots to cast. This would not only negate the DPS drop, but increase our DPS with more sustained burst. I included the reset on Penetrating Blasts/Penetrating Rounds to address rotation gap issues. I feel the limiting factors on this being OP is A) Laze Target/Smuggler's Luck only gives guaranteed crits for the first 3-4 rotations and B) energy management (which currently isn't a concern at all, even with all the energy depleting utility choices) will become a greater challenge.

 

3) Target Acquired/Illegal Mods now gives its boost to the entire group, not just you. In addition to having no cleanse, Snipers/Slingers don't have a true raid buff (other than our shield, which is only a non-essential luxury in certain burn phases of certain fights.) While not increasing our damage per se, having a real raid buff would increase our viability and attractiveness to raid groups.

Edited by IAJAKI
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This is my favorite spec. It has been an underperformer for quite a long time. I mostly run it in solo content where it doesn’t come up and I can just enjoy it. But knowing it isn’t viable for top level content is depressing, made even more so when they release a set of balance changes and do nothing whatsoever to address it.

 

I will say, I think MM/SS has by far the easiest rotation in the game. And maybe that plays into their thinking here. You can absent-mindedly run this spec pretty well because for the majority of any fight you apply a dot once that never has to be reapplied thanks to your tactical, then you use four different skills. Ambush, Follow Through, Penetrating Blast, Follow Through, Snipe, Snipe, Follow Through, repeat ad nauseam. Add in Takedown at 30 percent boss health and an extra Penetrating Blast when your cooldown comes up, and that’s it. Compared to specs where you have to dot track and time a bunch of procs to maximize damage, this spec has an incredibly easy rotation. It’s true that movement complicates things because the spec is crap for mobility. But I just wonder if that is part of why they get penalized.

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This whole discussion is like a bunch of cars that do 0-60 in 6 seconds, but one is 'under performing' because it does it in 6.1 seconds. 😂

 

Bro, the difference between the top performing spec and MM is literally 10k DPS, roughly 30% delta. There should be AT MOST a 1-3k DPS difference between any two specs, not 10k. That's just MMO balancing 101. Also, MM doesn't have any self-heals, it doesn't have a cleanse, it doesn't have a true raid buff, its DCD's got nerfed or locked behind impossible choices in 7.0, and its best Legendary Implant is bugged and can't be upgraded past 330! It's just ridiculous at this point!

 

I will say, I think MM/SS has by far the easiest rotation in the game. And maybe that plays into their thinking here.

 

Even if some people consider it an easier rotation, that doesn't mean it should be unviable when played to its max potential with top level gear. Like I told the other guy, no two DPS specs should have a 30% difference in output!

 

Absolutely absurd that after mastering an "easy" spec, I can switch loadouts to Concealment Operative or get on my Shadow/Sentinel alt and just button mash my way to equal or greater DPS. Also, what's my alternative for greater skill:reward? It's not like Engineering is setting the world on fire and with the recent nerfs to Virulence, the entire Sniper class has seemingly been chucked in the dumpster.

Edited by IAJAKI
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A lot of people are playing this game for the content, and occasionaly: frag someone so skilled, so performant, but playing with disabilities, so they can laugh at the end regardless of how they spammed ONE button and outperfomed some genius.

 

As a beta tester of SWtor, this is the harsh truth. It will never change.

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A lot of people are playing this game for the content, and occasionaly: frag someone so skilled, so performant, but playing with disabilities, so they can laugh at the end regardless of how they spammed ONE button and outperfomed some genius.

 

As a beta tester of SWtor, this is the harsh truth. It will never change.

 

Okay, but I'm not disabled. This isn't exactly a relevant point when we have objective quantifiable statistics and the MAXIMUM DPS capable on a MM/SS is about the same DPS for the bottom quartile of Plasmatech/Pyrotech, Focus/Rage, Concentration/Fury, Tactics/Advanced Prototype, Serenity/hatred and Watchman/Annihilation on the same exact boss of NM operations where (conceivably) everyone has at least a base rotation and decent gear.

Edited by IAJAKI
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