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Gunslinger/Sniper Advanced Class Guide
Welcome to the Gunslinger/Sniper Advanced Class Guide! This is the go-to compendium of knowledge for The Fanatical Swordsman on the Gunslinger and Sniper advanced classes.
LAST UPDATE: Updating to 3.0.1, please pardon our dust
Note from Geldarion: The Gunslinger is my main, and I find it an extremely fun playstyle, especially if you like ranged DPS. While difficult to play well in PvP, the Gunslinger/Sniper can be a potent force if played correctly. For readability sake, since it is my main, I will use the term Gunslinger as the overall descriptor of this class-type, especially for things that are true of both classes, such as discussions of general tactics. However, I will refer to the specializations by both their names, and I will show builds for both the Smuggler and the Agent, and I will refer to skills in a manner as such: Smuggler skill name/Agent skill name.
PvP Talent Build: DoTs and Bleeds Gunslinger 0/6/35
LAST UPDATE: Update 1.2
This is a PvP build for the Gunslinger. This will mainly utilize the Dirty Fighting specialization.
Note: This build was created with the Darth Hater Talent Calculator. The link to view this build is here. The parallel Sniper build is here.
Class: Gunslinger
Primary Focus: Dirty Fighting
Secondary Focus: Saboteur
Purpose: PvP
Goal: The answer to the question “How do I get more DoTs?” is right here. Vital Shot gets better, we unlock Shrap Bomb, which is a AoE DoT bomb that slows targets for a while, we make our DoTs hurt more, and we gain an attack that injures our target the more DoTs that are on him.
General Strategies
Attacking: Start with Shrap Bomb, then Vital Shot. Look for clusters of enemies for Shrap Bomb, to put its AoE nature to good use. After you have the two bleeds on a target, use Hemorrhaging Shot to amplify the effects of the bleeds. Follow up with Wounding Shots, and with a light or medium armor target with no heals or shields, hit Quick Draw and watch your enemy fall to the last few ticks of your DoTs. Also, Thermal Grenade is a very powerful, short cooldown skill in this build. Great for throwing at large groups of enemies. Make sure that you manage your energy carefully, as all of these skills are pretty high in energy cost. A high crit chance will help immensely, as crits on DoTs will return energy in this build.
Defending: Run, use line-of-sight after DoTing up your target. You really don’t have any special defensive abilities, so use the fact that your DoTs do damage even while you are out of line-of-sight.
PvP Talent Build: DPS Commando- 8/31/2
LAST UPDATE: Update 1.1.5
This is a PvP build for the Commando. This will mainly utilize the Gunnery specialization, but it adds some bare-bones healing abilities from Combat Medic.
Note: This build was created with the Darth Hater Talent Calculator. The link to view this build is here, and the associated Mercenary build is here.
Class: Commando
Primary Focus: Gunnery
Secondary Focus: Combat Medic
Purpose: PvP
Goal: This build is about maximizing DPS while able to shoot some heals, should a situation demand it.
General Strategies
Attacking: Generally, on a fresh target, you will want to use Grav Round at least twice before doing anything else. This will stack 4 Gravity Vortices on the target, effectively reducing their armor by 16%. The two uses of Grav Round will also give you two charges of Charged Barrel (which will grant 12% extra damage on High Impact Bolt at this time) and two charges of Charged Barrier (for a total of 4% incoming damage reduction). At this point, if you have triggered a Curtain of Fire (Full Auto buff, little red icon), I would use Full Auto. Otherwise, hit another Grav Round, producing a full 5 stacks of Gravity Vortices, for 20% armor reduction on the target. Keep spamming Grav Round until you hit 5 stacks of both Charged Barrier and Charged Barrel. If at any point you get the Curtain of Fire buff, use Full Auto, otherwise keep spamming Grav Round. Once you have a full 5 stacks of Charged Barrel, fire off High Impact Bolt, as it will have a 30% damage bonus now. This will consume the Charged Barrel stacks. Eventually, once High Impact Bolt is on cooldown, you will want to swap in Charged Bolts for Grav Round, as it does more damage. Also, this will all be draining on your ammo, so make sure that you use Hammer Shot occasionally to help the regeneration. Keep above 60% ammo for good maintenance.
Defending: Defense comes down to killing the other guy quickly. Reactive Shield is useful, but not necessarily going to be up all the time. Knockbacks (Stockstrike, and more importantly, Concussion Charge) are very useful for keeping people at range which is where we like them. You also have a stun and a mez, Cryo Grenade and Concussive Round, respectively. These are on a relatively short cooldown.
Grav Round - The Gunnery Commando's number one ability
All points allocated are the maximum allowed for each ability, unless otherwise noted. Read more…
Patch 1.2 Video and Gleanings
A very cool high-definition video has been released for Patch 1.2 of Star Wars: The Old Republic, and here are some of the things I saw in it, with additional comments from following the guild summit news.
The video is here.
- New Warzone: Novare Coast (0:32)
- New Operation: Explosive Conflict (0:42)
- New Flashpoint: The Lost Island (0:50)
- Expanded Legacy System (starts at 1:00)
- UI Customization, including Drag-and-Drop feature, profile import and export, and sizing (1:17) Read more…
Outmanned on Ilum
For those of us at the level 50 PvP game, there are only two real options for fun and challenging PvP, Warzones and Ilum.
Warzones are instanced encounters with up to 8 of the opposing faction, or perhaps your faction if you happen to get Huttball.
Ilum is a World PvP area that has five “Assaults” or points that can be captured for Valor buffs. Around the Central Assault, there are also boxes of armaments, which can be picked up in lieu of killing opponents for the PvP daily and weekly for Ilum. Believe me though, you will attract attention just by picking up boxes. The respawn rate is rather low, so you will be competing with everyone there for them.
There is one problem with Ilum that rears its ugly head quite a bit. There is faction imbalance; specifically, there are way more Imperials than Republic players. Just showing your Republic face near Central usually results in getting it smashed in by 5 Imps. You may think that guy is alone, but attack him, and he will call in reinforcements that will make very short work of you. On my server, Lord Praven (which granted is a PvE server), there are about 25 Reps on at peak times, while there are only 8 on at off-peak times. I think there may be 25 Imps on at off-peak times, though I may be exaggerating because that is just how it seems.
From the actual quest text for the Republic Ilum daily, Smashing The Front. I find it highly ironic.
So how can one have fun/get one’s daily done on Ilum? The following tips might help:
- Get in a PvP guild
This can help soothe a lot of pains, as you can get together with friends, and it is as they say, there is strength in numbers. - Go at off-peak hours
Off-peak hours for my server is in the morning, around 9 AM CST. Unfortunately, I don’t get to play at that time very often. - Find out if your server has dueling events
While Bioware can’t balance Ilum quite yet, players have figured out how to. On Lord Praven, we have started Saturday Fight Night, which is where we get together with friends from the Imperial side at Central, and we chat while challenging each other to duels to the death. Healers from both sides rez the fallen, and we learn from each other without the annoyance of running back from the rez. Also, a LOT less lag than with full-on raid vs. raid stuff. No zergs to be seen at all. One thing that should be considered is the Valor buff. The fairest way to do this is to have one side own Central, which is where you are fighting, and the other side owns the other four Assaults. Since the side that owns Central will get a “Defender” Valor buff, the bonuses come out about equal. - Try to pick up an op group on the Fleet
This is much harder to do on a consistent basis than the above tricks, but it can work. If you know some people that you have played Warzones with, then this works even better if you get a group going with some trusted allies, then pick up as many as you can at the Fleet. - Take Assaults to attract attention of random solos
When soloing myself, I tend to move around the map quite a bit, instead of just staying at Central and getting mowed down time after time. I will take an Assault, then wait for someone to come take it back. I will ambush them and stop them from getting the Assault, and then I get a 1v1, which is a lot more fun. Sometimes, they bring friends, but luckily it is rare enough that I don’t usually have to worry about that.
I hope some of these help you on Ilum. With the patch coming tonight with 1.1.5, there might not be much to do on Ilum anymore, but there is still Valor to be had and the fun of World PvP. Good luck, and may the Force be with you.
The Fanatical Swordsman 