Mercenary | Commando DPS Compendium (2.0 Updated)

[GWARRR]

Mercenary | Commando DPS Compendium

If you are in need of a mirror dictionary to go from Arsenal Mercenary to Gunnery Commando and back again, check this out. Alternatively, click the name of the ability, and it will tell you the name of the Trooper equivalent. Nifty, eh?

I. Introduction

In short, as an Arsenal Mercenary or Gunnery Commando, you are an artillery platform. You find a place, you plant there, and you shell the bajeezus out of your target. If that still doesn’t help you get an idea, think of the Artillery and Rocket units in the Advance Wars series. You can’t attack with them the turn you move, but the turn after...bring the hurt, baby (also, if you played it...Grit + Artillery Spam = insta-win). It’s kind of like that. Your DPS output is crazy, but you are on the immobile side.

What distinguishes the Arsenal | Gunnery trees from the Pyrotech | Assault Specialist trees?
The Arsenal and Gunnery trees utilize the tracer/vortex mechanic, where you get extra damage via armor penetration based on how many tracers/vortexes you have on an enemy. It makes for a more interesting game style since you will likely have to weigh getting extra stacks of Tracers and Locks vs. using those or doing other things.

II. Core Abilities

High Velocity Gas Cylinder / Armor-Piercing Cell - This ability/stance/cylinder grants us tons of armor penetration and is required for many of our abilities to be as awesome as they are.

Tracer Missile / Grav Round - The bread and butter of an Arsenal Mercenary. Tracers give armor penetration, Tracer Lock buffs Rail Shot like a champ. Very efficient, and with no cooldown becomes our very very spammable ability...heat allowing.

Heatseeker Missiles / Demolition Round - Another core part of the rotation, it gets a huge damage boost based on the number of Tracers on the target. It's a must-use when you have the Tracers and it's off cooldown.

Rail Shot / High Impact Bolt- A hard-hitting skill that can be used when an enemy has a Tracer from Tracer Missile on them. With Tracer Lock, Rail Shot hits EVEN HARDER. Must-have, must-use.

Unload / Full Auto - This 3s channel has reasonable DPS, but with the Barrage proc, it becomes much better and much more usable. It also receives crit buffs and will proc Terminal Velocity, saving us some heat, meaning that when Barrage procs it becomes a key cog in our rotation.

Rapid Shots / Hammer Shot - Rapid Shots, as it has no Heat Cost, is our basic attack and lets us vent some heat on the free before we get rolling with our rotations again.

III. Skill Trees/The Build

Preferred Spec:
Arsenal 6/36/4 | Gunnery 6/36/4

(more detail regarding choice spec to come)

IV. Rotations

With regards to energy management, Troopers and BH are now finally on equivalent terms. Heat and Ammo both work off of a 100pt system, though they move in opposite directions, as Troopers spend Ammo and BHs build heat. Essentially:

First 40: 5 HPS/APS
Second 40: 3 HPS/APS
Last 20: 2 HPS/APS

As a Mercenary/Commando DPS, you will need to be very mindful of where your Heat or Ammo is at. Dipping into the next bracket may cripple your DPS if you're not careful.

Single Target
For the Arsenal Mercenary, the Rotations work on a priority system rather than a strict A to B to C path:

Opener:
1. Unload / Full Auto
2. Tracer Missile / Grav Round
3. Heatseeker Missiles / Demolition Round
4. Tracer Missile / Grav Round**
7. Tracer Missile / Grav Round**
8. Rail Shot / High Impact Bolt
*If you find yourself at/right by 40 Heat, use Thermal Sensor Override / Reserve Powercell into Death From Above / Mortar Volley. The channel and free cost will do more than enough to put you back to acceptable heat levels. If Death From Above[/tip] / Mortar Volley is not available (CD, range issues), use Fusion Missile / Plasma Grenade. Both have acceptable single-target DPS.
**If Barrage / Curtain of Fire proc, go with Unload / Full Auto instead and continue on to get your Tracer Lock / Barrel Charge stacks.

After this you will be at 0 Tracer Locks/Barrel Charges. Then, consult the following:

1. If you are at 23+ Heat, use Rapid Shots / Hammer Shot.***
2. Use Unload / Full Auto every opportunity you get. This includes non-Barrage procs, though non-Barrage'd Unloads are few and far between.
3. Use Heatseeker Missiles / Demolition Round every opportunity you get.
4. Use Rail Shot / High Impact Bolt at 5x Tracer Locks/Barrel Charges
5. Use Tracer Missile / Grav Round when the above 3 are on cooldown.

***Use Vent Heat / Recharge Cells as much as possible unless you are anticipating boss-unique circumstances i.e. enrage timers, beating boss self-heal periods, requiring you to save Vent Heat for those occasions. Otherwise, use Vent Heat as much as possible, as it allows you to push out as much DPS as possible.
***Use Thermal Sensor Overrides / Reserve Powercell as much as possible, especially if you find yourself gravitating towards 30-40 Heat. TSO/RP + DfA/MV or Fusion Missile/PG will help manage heat and sustain your DPS as much as possible.

Item Set notes:
-Note that the PvE set is just a straight DPS increase. With 2.0 we lost our nifty -8 to Rail Shot / HiB cost and got a flat +8% damage boost to it. Which is cool, but RS/HiB is no longer a free GCD.
-Rotation doesn't change as you accumulate set pieces. Fire away.

Multi-Target

There are four major AoE abilities in the Mercenary's arsenal:

1. Death From Above / Mortar Volley: The big kahuna of the tree, this packs a wallop.
2. Fusion Missile / Plasma Grenade: This ability provides a DoT burn effect, which is pretty nice. As an activation time ability, remember you are charged with Heat on the back end.
3. Sweeping Blasters / Hail of Bolts: Without a cooldown, this is our "spammable" AoE, but keep in mind its heat cost.
4. Explosive Dart / Sticky Grenade: Small damage up front with a lot more in the caboose. Relatively short cooldown.

Generally, as long as you are sure your tank has the requisite threat, you can lead off with Death From Above / Mortar Volley (since its damage output is so high, you will aggro very, very fast if you're not careful and not coordinating with your tank). After that, use whatever is not on cooldown, but be sure to intersperse your single-target rotation and/or Rapid Shots / Hammer Shot to ensure that you still regenerate heat at a reasonable rate.

V. Gear - Stat Priorities

Pretty much every piece of gear comes with at least +Aim and +Endurance. Since those are important stats...sounds good. At this point, we mostly need to start looking for secondary stats. Secondary stats of importance are:

+Accuracy (110%)
+Crit Chance (up to approximately 20-25%)
+Surge (up to approximately 70%)
+Tech Power/Power
+Alacrity

Some quick explanations on the suggested sweet spots:
Accuracy: 110% to push off the 10% base defense chance that bosses have.
Crit Chance: Anything past 25% is not useful as the diminishing marginal returns are far too steep to keep stacking it.
Surge: Like Crit Chance, stacking past 70% Surge is far too prohibitive for what you give up
Tech Power/Power: I don't list a value here because Tech Power/Power does not exhibit diminishing marginal returns. Therefore, once you have enough of the previous three stats as they are more important to grab, you can go ahead and start looking for the gear with the best +Power/Tech Power.

NOTE: A BiS list will be determined when more about itemization and/or equipment set stats are revealed.

VI. Companions, Crew Skills

Bounty Hunter
(1) Mako (female Human)
Planet: Hutta
Companion type: Healer
Crew Skills Bonuses: +15 Slicing, +5 Cybertech

(2) Gault (male Devaronian)
Planet: Tatooine
Companion Type: Ranged Damage
Crew Skills Bonuses: +10 Underworld Trading, +2 Critical Biochem

(3) Torian Cadera (male Human, Mandalorian)
Planet: Taris
Companion type: Melee DPS
Crew Skills Bonuses: +10 Research, +2 Critical Bioanalysis

(4) Blizz (Jawa)
Planet: Hoth
Companion type: Ranged Tank
Crew Skills Bonuses: +15 Armormech, +1 Critical Armstech

(5) Skadge (male Houk)
Planet: Belsavis
Companion type: Melee Tank
Crew Skills Bonuses: +10 Scavenging, +2 Critical Treasure Hunting

Trooper
(1) Aric Jorgan (male Cathar)
Planet: Ord Mantell
Companion Type: Ranged DPS
Crew Skills Bonuses: +10 Armstech, +2 Diplomacy Crit

(2) Elara Dorne (female Human)
Planet: Taris (Republic)
Companion Type: Healer
Crew Skills Bonuses: +10 Biochem, +10 Bioanalysis

(3) M1-4X ("male" Droid)
Planet: Nar Shaddaa
Companion Type: Ranged Tank
Crew Skills Bonuses: +5 Cybertech, +5 Scavenging Crit

(4) Tanno Vik (male Weequay)
Planet: Balmorra (Republic)
Companion Type: Melee Tank
Crew Skills Bonuses: +5 Armormech Crit, +1 Underworld Trading Crit

(5) Yuun (male Gand)
Planet: Hoth
Companion Type: Melee DPS
Crew Skills Bonus: Slicing +10, Investigation +10

Crew Skills
With Mercenaries, there are really four main options for crafting: Biochem, Armstech, Armormech, Cybertech. One will make you stat stims, implants, and healing items, one will make you weapons, and one will make you armor, and the last will make over/inlays, grenades, and the like. It's up to you which one you take. Which one you take, however, will likely determine the other two crafting skills you take:

Biochem will require Bioanalysis and Diplomacy
Armstech will require Scavenging and Underworld Trading/Investigation
Armormech will require Scavenging and Underworld Trading
Cybertech will require Scavenging and Underworld Trading

This does not mention Slicing because this is for endgame crafting. When you level, DEFINITELY take Slicing, or else you'll end up a po' boy at lvl50.

VII. Pyrotech / Assault Specialist DPS

Pyrotech / Assault Specialist section coming soon. With 2.0, CGC / PC got eviscerated, meaning that Pyrotech / Assault Specialist is likely to be second fiddle to Arsenal / Gunnery once again.

VIII. Closing, credits, additional resources

Thanks to all the the DPS discussion regulars for their help in formulating rotations and such, Bloodskila, Xyrm, and the like for their work too.

Thanks to the SW.com team for helping out with editing, etc etc etc.

Additional Resources:
Xyrm's Merc Blog
bural's Arsenal DPS Spreadsheet
Torhead DB
Darth Hater DB

May you always hunt harder, hunt better, hunt faster, and hunt stronger.
-DG

[Xyrm]

If any of you find it helpful, these are my stats with (mostly) out of the box Columi + Rakata level gear. The exceptions include that I pulled the red/black crystal (ilvl 56) out of the Rakata offhand and it put into my offhand to replace a 48 purple (since the weapon rating is 126, lower than Columi's 136) and put a rank 25 mod and enhancement (dropped from hard mode bosses) in the customizable boots I have. I also pulled the mods out of a second Columi offhand and put them into my Tionese-level main hand (Fast Credits). The nice thing about the epics having at least some of their mod slots is that even if the item isn't directly usable, the mods inside might be for someone else (give a gun to a Maurader so he can pull out the enhancement and get more accuracy, for example).

http://i.imgur.com/VgyPe.jpg

Also, has anyone else found that Chaff Flare doesn't really help at all, in terms of threat?

[Freehugs]

Got some new info guys, second hand from the PTS:

Tracer Missile
StandardDamageMin: 0.131
StandardDamageMax: 0.211
Coefficient: 1.71
Down ~19%

Heat Seeker Missile
StandardDamageMin: 0.21
StandardDamageMax: 0.31
Coefficient: 2.6
Up 30%

[Kaedis]

Quote:Freehugs, do you have any PTR numbers for Power Shot that you can share please?
I'm almost too afraid to ask ... my poor beloved Pyro spec. :'(

Power Shot 1.1.5
MH StandardHealthPercentMax: 0.199
MH StandardHealthPercentMin: 0.199
MH AmountModifierPercent: 0.33
MH Coefficient: 1.99

OH AmountModifierPercent: 0.33

Power Shot 1.2
MH StandardHealthPercentMax: 0.171
MH StandardHealthPercentMin: 0.171
MH AmountModifierPercent: 0.15
MH Coefficient: 1.71

OH AmountModifierPercent: 0.15

54.5% reduction in weapon scaling, 14.1% reduction in both bonus scaling and base damage.

Net effect is around a 17-18% nerf, depending on the quality disparity between your weapon and the rest of your gear (the worse your weapon is compared to your other gear, the less of a nerf it is).

[Huntsman_]

(03-31-2012 06:24 AM)frmorrison Wrote:  The Nova relic you linked is sold for 200 daily comms in patch 1.2. That is indeed better than anything else listed here. I am not sure if it is crafted as well as sold for comms.

It looks like there are 4 new relics available from 1.2 using daily comms that appear useful to an Arsenal merc:

* Campaign Cerulean Nova: 30% chance of +246 energy damage every 4.5 seconds

* Campaign Elemental Transcendance: 30% chance of +184 elemental damage every 4.5 seconds

* Campaign Dark Radiance: 30% chance of +184 internal damage every 4.5 seconds

* Campaign Boundless Ages: +405 power for 20 seconds (assumably a 2 minute CD)

So, I don't see a kinetic option among the new relics. On the surface, among the "+ damage every 4.5 seconds" the Cerulean Nova relic does seem best which is puzzling unless elemental or internal damage is superior to energy damage. Of course the shiny new Boundless Ages relic looks to be a contender.

Are we confident that the Campaign Cerulean Nova relic will be the way to go?

[frmorrison]

(04-12-2012 12:54 AM)Huntsman_ Wrote:  Are we confident that the Campaign Cerulean Nova relic will be the way to go?

Both energy and kinetic damage is affected by armor, so the Nova relic is the best for Arsenal Mercs. One needs ~30% armor pen for that one to be better, you have that already with the Cylinder.

[Huntsman_]

Thanks!

So I've heard very little discussion related to the Black Hole and Campaign armor. Anyone research how this stuff will stack up vs Rakata for Mercs?

[Freehugs]

What's to discuss? As I understand it, Black Hole is Rakata level gear without the set bonuses (and therefore worse) and Campaign set is higher level so it's better. The higher level gear is always going to be better, because if the stats suck you can swap them with the mods from some other high level gear.

[Rakunvar]

Sorry for a odd question.. Regarding the relics, why is the Energy one better then the Kinetic damage one or do they share cooldowns? Much appreciate the help!

[Freehugs]

(04-12-2012 12:57 PM)Rakunvar Wrote:  Sorry for a odd question.. Regarding the relics, why is the Energy one better then the Kinetic damage one or do they share cooldowns? Much appreciate the help!

There is no Kinetic damage one.