2.2 UPDATED~ Arsenal Bounty Hunter: Are YOU Doing It Right?

[Forsedar]

I am really sorry to hear this as I really enjoyed reading all of this information. Would anyone know by chance another website that has up to date information like this that I can continue to gather information from?

Thanks!

The official SWTOR forums has Odawggs thread for Arsenal Merc (which has a link to where its at). Its extremely up to date and I endorse it.

[MattiasV]

are you out of date or something? they are doing fine since 2.0 - they may be not the strongest - but for 8 man they the best ressource of armor reduce buff with decent enough damage

You mean after snipers and jugg tanks there?

[Keren]

You mean after snipers and jugg tanks there?

it depends on your setup. most guilds I know who hunt fpr progression dont use juggs - simply as that. for a sniper its sometimes bothersome to maintain arm pen debuff. As a arsenal you do it anyway -> profit

[naternin]

hey man new to star wars lvling my first character, arsenal BH of course but I have a question. Why in the heck do we use fusion missile in our rotation at all? it seems meaning less, and a rail shot w/o 5 stacks I don't think is viable either
start off with a instant tracer then to an unload to HSM then another instant tracer to a cast tracer to a 5 stack rail shot rinse and repeat

[Keren]

because we did all the math. trust us - united we know better

[naternin]

so what is the rotation exactly?

[Aroa]

It is different when you are levelling compared to end game. You can not use a rotation or priority list for end game and use it when levelling.

[Leefty]

Check out this discussion a few pages back:

http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...t-Right/page58

It explains a lot of staff (e.g. why and when you should use Fusion Missile, detailed rotation explanations, damage values for each main ability, etc.)

[MattiasV]

For MM snipers keeping the buff up is very easy. They have a pure rotation with one filler attack in it per round, and throwing in shatter shot there is no big deal. And I'm pretty sure both lethality and the hybrid spec have filler slots as well.

As for jugg tanks... They are so much better than both other tanks right now it's not even funny. I suppose assassins can compete slightly due to having some fairly awesome cooldowns, butt juggs aren't far behind (if at all even) and are much better in the actual tanking department.

So we're trailing behind snipers and marauders, both damage and utility wise. We're good enough that we can put up the numbers required, but I wouldn't say we're a high pick for raiding atm. In my optimal group there would be no room for a merc, which saddens me to no end because I love my merc. Of course player skill trumps all. The highest dps in my team is a merc (competing with a mara) and the sniper that's a part of our team is trailing a fair bit. But this has everything to do with player skill, the merc is a much better player.

[odawgg]

Yeah snipers only lose about 20 dps or so by throwing shatter shot into their rotation. Ideal group would be full of snipers and maras, there's always going to be an ideal raid group that excludes most classes, just gotta do what you do well and you can get in a progression group.

- - - Updated - - -

Oh snap, Aerro you taking another break?! sorry to hear the game isn't doing it for ya, but definitely understand...best wishes to whatever you do next and maybe see ya back again sometime!

[Deleted]

Hey man!

I just have a Quick question. U said we should come as Close to 100% accuracy as possible without extending it over 100% right? In my 72-gear i currently have 99.60% so if i put in Another enhancment i will get over 100%. (I have 402 rating in accuracy atm) Is that smth i should do? Also i see you play with all out Power instead of crit. Does that work? I asked the ppl in my Guild and they are suspicous to say the least. On my mara i play all out Power and no crit obviously and it would be great if that worked for mercs aswell. I just started playing my merc on nightmare since after i got bored with my mara. in boss fights i do really well pending the top but i still dont put out nearly as much dps as i do on my mara, and when i try to parse on the dummys... well lets just say that that is Epic fail, i never get over 2.6k on them. Any idea what kind of errors i might be doing? Also i saw a guide that says BiS relics are boundless ages and serendipitous while Another said we should use Another relic that procs dmg ever 1.5 or what its called?

Thx!

[Leefty]

Gear-wise Accuracy competes only with Surge, so if you invest too much in Accuracy you are missing out on your Critical Multiplier. For full 72-level gear BiS is to have 395 of each (Accuracy and Surge), that would give you Surge => 71.08% and Tech Accuracy => 109.51%. At that level of Accuracy you should only see misses on your Unload and Rapid Shots.

As regards Power vs Crit, it has been a major discussion for all classes since 2.0. I personally run with 0 Crit, which is also considered by most people to be BiS up to level 72. On the dummy, in full 72s, you should be constantly getting more than 2.6K, maybe you should check your rotation.

Finally, for relics BiS are: (i) Cerulean Nova, (ii) Boundless Ages (if you are the clicky type) or Serendipitous Assault (as long as 2 damage proc relics can proc together, BW seems to constantly mess this one up in every other patch or so)

[Keren]

BA & SA are BIS, we simmed that already with curent BIS gear.
Kell Dragon BIS: 1390 power, 160 crit, 430 accuracy, 430 surge:
BA & SA: 3595 dps
SA & CN: 3576 dps
CN & BA: 3584 dps

Crit come sinto play when you have nearly actual BIS setup. I recommend to use crit mods when you reach a certain threshhold of power:
~1300 power = 1 crit mod
~1400 power = 3 crit mods

I dont simmed the actual next gear step, but currently its about 1 power = 1 crit when you reached 1300 power rating

[Deleted]

Okey ill try it. i had 1.4k Power so i put in my kell dragon enhancement and mod so now i have alittle above 1.3k Power and 120 in crit.

Could you help me out with a decent rotation to maximize my damage? I start with TSO > FM + EN > Relic/adrenal > TM > TM > Unload > RS > HSM smth like that. and then use TM and then UL,HSM and RS whenever they come off cd.

[Keren]

you should start with: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=624205
also the last 15 pages of this thread should have enough stuff to think about :P

[MattiasV]

One quick note on your starter, using a free ability first is kind of a waste. Since energy regenerates all the time, we don't want to use our free abilities until we have some energy built up to take advantage of the extra regen time it gives us. For the same reason I'd delay energy net a bit as well (since if you get energy pach from our talent, you'll regen more than EN's cost before the next ability is fired).

Also, you really want to get the armor debuff out there as quickly as possible, and HSM on cooldown as fast as possible, so TM + HSM is a fairly standard opening I think.

But yeah, check out odawwg's guide, it's very good.

[Deleted]

How much in APM should we be at? I tryed some parces with a new rotation i found a couple of pages back and my APM was at 30-31 but i still only ended up at 2.5k-2.6k in dmg in full 72?

[Keren]

perfectly played with low latency you could reach about 35-36 APM if perfectly used the spell queue system.
http://www.torparse.com/a/344965 - 36.1 apm with 3113 dps

you are about 5 apm lower, lets use 4 tracer [4x3700] + 1 rapid shots [1400] each minute you loose = 16200 damage / 60 seconds = 270 dps.
Now imagine you're tighter into your rotation, dont delay the casting between abilities and use Unload when its best to use [after Rail and HSM are on cooldown]. thats about the other 200 dps left out.

best regards, keren

[Leefty]

Same thing here. I am almost full 72 and my APM is always on the 30-32 range, my best ever being 31.84. My parses are also in the 2.5K-2.6K range.

My latency stands between 80-100, which is not exactly good, but I do not think that this is the problem. On my best parse (2606) I have managed 69 times to activate an ability within 0.1'' after the GCD of the previous ability has finished. On the other hand, on the same parse, 33 times I have delayed more than 0.5'' to activate my next ability.

This tells me that the gear and rotation I am using (which is the product of the excellent suggestions and discussions in this thread) is just fine. All it takes to go beyond my current numbers is more focus while parsing. I know what to do and how to do it, I just have to do it better.

Then again I do not worry too much about the dummy parses. They are just meant to help you optimize your Merc and discover your full potential. In an actual raid environment things are a lot more different and your contribution to the team is not always measured in damage numbers (as we are a multi-purpose class). We are always using MOX/Torparse in progression raids and, provided I do not have any "special" duties and the fight is not screwed up, my rule for knowing if I am doing things (gear and rotation) right is:
(i) if the boss enrages I have to be 1st or 2nd DPS (on 8-man) otherwise it is most probably me who is falling behind
(ii) if the boss is defeated then I do not care even if I am last DPS as long as I am very close to the rest (so that I know they are not "dragging" me along)

[Keren]

just compare your results to other players of the same specc - torparse has some statistics about best parses. You can actually check what other people achieved and can ask yourself where do you left things drop...
2.5 - 2.6 single target dps results we already achieved in heavy bossfights month ago in 69th gear: (I kick-assed mara and snipers :P )

• 2711 thrasher | 33.88 APM
• 2646 cartel warlords | 32.58 APM
• 2600 dreadmaster styrak | 30.89 APM

You see, those APM are also possible in bossfights - its just training ABC: always be casting

However, depending from boss to boss - as long as you doing more than 2.3k dps in nuke boss fights you shouldn't be drag your group down..