The Fanatical Swordsman

LAST UDPATE: Update 1.1.5

This is a leveling build for the Gunslinger. This will be balanced between Sharpshooter and Saboteur.

Note: This build was created with the TorHead Skill Calculator. The link to view this build is here, and the associated Sniper build is here.

Class: Gunslinger
Primary Focus: Sharpshooter
Secondary Focus: Saboteur
Purpose: Leveling/PvE
Goal: This build is about AoE damage, survivability, and getting through mobs quickly. This build is all about leveling. These are all in order in when you should get them as well.

Get moving to that next planet, spacer.

All points allocated are the maximum allowed for each ability, unless otherwise noted.

Sharpshooter (23)

Steady Shots (2/2) – Increases the damage of Charged Burst, Speed Shot, and Wounding Shot by 6%. You will use these skills a lot, so any straight up damage boost is good.

Sharpshooter (3/3) – Increases accuracy, which unless you are capped in accuracy, means more DPS.

Ballistic Dampers (2/2) – This grants 3 charges of a 30% damage-absorbing shield upon entering Cover, which means that you will take less damage. This can help with AoE’s and tough Elites when using the Dampers Defense Method.

Sharp Aim (2/2)  – Aimed Shot ignores 20% of your enemies’ armor, which means your hard hits hit harder.

Trip Shot (1/2) – This lowers the cooldown of your root, which means that you can use it more often in a fight to gain distance on hard landscape bosses.

Snap Shot (2/2) – Entering cover makes Charged Burst able to be activated instantly, which means Cover = instant damage to your enemy.

Quick Aim (2/2) – On crits, Charged Burst and Speed Shot reduce your next Aimed Shot’s activation time by 1 second. This means faster deliverance of death.

Diversion (1/1) – Reduces accuracy of the target by 45% and pops them out of Cover. This is useful for survival.

Slick Shooter (2/2) – Increases critical hit chance of Charged Burst, Speed Shot, and Trickshot by 4%.

Spacer (1/1) – Increases knockback distance of Pulse Detonator, which is good, but it also reduces cooldown of XS Flyby, which is much better for fast response times to waves of adds.

Foxhole (1/1) – Increases energy regeneration by 1 per second while in Cover. Great for sustaining the DPS.

Trip Shot (2nd point) – This gets you up to 20 points so you can get Trickshot now.

Trickshot (1/1)  – Gives a high-DPS skill that is only usable within  4.5 seconds of Charged Burst or Aimed Shot. Should always be on cooldown.

Recoil Control (2/2) – Reduces energy consumption and cooldown of Trickshot, a key skill for DPS.

Saboteur (18)

Saboteur’s Utility Belt (2/2) – Decreases cooldown on Thermal Grenade, which is great for clearing out trash, and Flash Grenade, which is great for helping you stay alive.

Bravado (2/2) – Increases max energy by 10. This helps you DPS more move faster with better regen time.

Streetwise (1/3) – Why only take one point? Because you don’t have a lot of Cunning yet as you are leveling, and so the extra 6% won’t make as much difference as it does at endgame.

Independent Anarchy (3/3) – Sabotage Charge and area effects are boosted by 15%. This is exactly what we want, faster kills of multiple mobs.

Cool Under Pressure (2/2) – Gives 6% health back upon use of Cool Head. This will help us in those long fights with Elites that we sometimes can’t outlast. The only problem is this will now become a heal as well as an energy return, so we will use Contingency Charges and the talent Insurrection later to gain energy instead of using Cool Head.

Contingency Charges (2/2) – When Sabotage Charge is detonated, it drops 2 Contingency Charges on the target (1 per point spent). These Contingency Charges detonate upon blaster fire (including Flurry of Bolts).

Dealer’s Discount (2/2) – Reduces energy cost on Sabotage Charge, Shock Charge, and Incendiary Grenade, two of which we’ll use quite a bit in this spec.

Shock Charge (1/1) – One of the best parts of this spec. This active skill is a 21 second bleed.

Insurrection (1/1) – Increases Contingency Charges dropped by Sabotage Charge by 1, which is good, but the reason this really rocks in my opinion is it returns 5 energy when each Contingency Charge detonates, which makes Sabotage Charge costs only 1 net energy when all said and done (20 – 4 from Dealer’s Discount – 3 * 5 from each Contingency Charge).

Arsonist (2/2) – Increases critical damage of AoEs by 30% fully spent.

Last Updated: 4/10/12 for Update 1.1.5

Be sure to check out the Gunslinger/Sniper Advanced Class Guide.

For past builds, see the following links:

Saboteur

Survival Gunslinger

Sharpshooter

Sustained Gunslinger

Focused Sharpshooter

On-the-run Sharpshooter

Dirty Fighting

DoTs and Bleeds Gunslinger