Bounty Hunter Powertech

Bounty Hunter PVE Powertech / Vanguard DPS Guide

Boba Fett

PVE Powertech / Vanguard DPS Guide

Client version 1.4

Table of Contents:

1) Heat / Ammo

2) Cylinders

3) Specs

4) Use of Cooldowns

5) Gear

Thanks

This guide will be all about how to maximize DPS. I will dive into advanced prototype as well as Pyrotech, but before we get into the optimization of your role as single target DPS, I want to ensure that everybody has at least a small understanding about the basic resource mechanics.

Please note that I have only been an Imperial and will be happy about any hint towards mistakes I did to translate the corresponding talents and abilities.

1. Heat / Ammo

Bounty Hunters and Troopers share a similar resource mechanic, with a few key differences. Heat, which is specific to Bounty Hunters, starts at 0 and ranges up to 100. Using abilities generates a certain amount of heat, which is then dissipated passively, with talented procs, or manually using certain abilities. In this system, you are unable to activate an ability that would push your heat above 100. Our main source of resource regeneration is passive dissipation, which works on a tiered system; the less heat you have the quicker you’ll dissipate, as noted in the chart below. Heat regenerates one tick every second.

Current Heat Level Dissipation per second

0-39 5

40-79 3

80-100 2

Troopers, on the other hand, use Ammo. Ammo functions nearly identical to Heat, except its inverted. Instead of starting at 0 Ammo, Troopers start with 12 Ammo, which is then consumed by attacks. For all intents and purposes, 1 Ammo is equal to about 8 Heat, and regenerates at the same rates as Bounty Hunters. With this in mind, Trooper Ammo regeneration can be represented as:

Current Ammo Level Regeneration per second

12-7.2 0.625

7.2-2.4 0.375

2.4-0 0.25

Resource regeneration for Powertechs and Vanguards follow these rates at all times, in and out of combat. The passive regeneration rates shown are not affected by any talents or skills, and cannot be slowed or stopped by any external force. Any additional Heat/Ammo regeneration seen in talent trees is added to these numbers.

Using this model for our resources means that we want to always maintain under 40 Heat or over 7.2 Ammo in order to maximize regeneration. This is best done by setting a Heat/Ammo Limit that, once crossed, means you will no longer use any attack that costs resources. The generally accepted Heat/Ammo Limit is 20-25 Heat/2.5-3 Ammo. If you cross this threshold, do not spend any more resources!

One thing to note, however, is the ability Vent Heat / Recharge Cells, which regenerates half of your resources over a 3 second interval. With a cooldown of 120 seconds, this skill is more of a DPS cooldown than a real resource management tool. The regeneration effect granted is in addition to passive regeneration.

2. Cylinders / Cells

Powertechs/Vanguards come equipped with cylinders and cells respectively, acting as self-buff “stances” seen in other MMOs and granting effects based on which buff is currently active. These buffs are:

• Combustible Gas Cylinder / Plasma Cell – Grants a chance for ranged attacks to proc a powerful DoT on the target

• High Energy Gas Cylinder / High Energy Cell – Improves internal/elemental damage done.

• Ion Gas Cylinder / Ion Cell – Tanking cylinder which improves defensive stats and adds a chance for a small shock effect to ranged attacks.

In the current design, each talent tree focuses on a single cylinder to do its damage: Ion Gas for Shield Tech/Specialist, High Energy for Advanced Prototype/Tactics and Combustible Gas for Pyrotech/Assault Specialist. Due to this design, and the fact that changing buffs requires a 1.5 second cast, it is not necessary or viable to ever swap cylinders.

3. Specs

3a. Advanced Prototype / Tactics

This Spec is all about you, your Flame Thrower/Pulse Cannon and 12 seconds to make it strong. This spec is heat/ammo-wise the most forgiving of both skill trees, because of the high amount of passive resource regeneration provided by Prototype Cylinder Ventilation/Cell Generator. There is only one widely-accepted spec for AP/TAC characters to use with 3 points to juggle between some utility:

Bounty Hunter: http://swtor.askmrrobot.com/skills/p...i-9d7fe82292-c

Trooper: http://swtor.askmrrobot.com/skills/v...i-9d7fe82292-c

Powertech 8/31/2 AP Jer'jo

Three points can be shifted around between Stabilized Armor/Shock Absorbers, Power Armor and Hitman / Frontline Defense and Hamstring.

With the patch 1.4 following talents got changed:

• Prototype Flame Thrower/Pulse Generator: Each stack now causes 20% additional damage. This can stack up to 3 times.

• Stabilized Armor/Shock Absorbers now additionally reduces damage taken from area effects by 15% per point. Damage reduction while stunned has been increased to 15% per point.

CYLINDER/CELL:

The self-buff you’ll use in this spec is High Energy Gas Cylinder/High Energy Cell. By default you’ll gain +5% Internal/Elemental damage dealt, and when properly specced you’ll activate Prototype Cylinder Ventilation/Cell Generator, an additional 3% damage on top of a constant resource regeneration buff (a key factor to the spec).

PRIORITY LIST:

1) Flame Thrower Pulse Cannon (buffed)

2) Rail Shot High Impact Bolt (procced)

3) Retractable Blade Gut (DoT refresh after the last tick)

4) Rocket Punch Stockstrike (procced)

5) Immolate Fire Pulse

6) Rocket Punch Stockstrike

7) Rail Shot High Impact Bolt

8) Flame Burst Ions Pulse

9) Rapid Shots Hammer Shot

Why did I mention 12 seconds? Easily because that’s the CD of your Flame Thrower/Pulse Cannon. This tree is completely based around this ability. With Patch 1.4, this spec got simplified. Before the goal was to stack the buff through Prototype Flame Thrower/Pulse Generator five times in 12 seconds without getting too much heat. After the latest Patch you will only need 3 Attack to ensure that your next Flame Thrower/Pulse Cannon will do the maximum damage. That’s a huge buff, because you will need fewer attacks and can control your heat/ammo a lot better.

It all comes down to always using the triple buffed Flame Thrower/Pulse Cannon, use procced abilities over the DoT and Immolate, blow out the other CD's you have and fill holes with Flame Burst. Control your Heat with Rapid Shots/Hammer Shot if necessary.

STAT WEIGHTS:

As always, stats weights revolve around your current gear set. Depending on your current rating, you might see different results than someone else. The following statement is focused on high end build with the latest available gear.

1) Aim

2a) Power

2b) Critical

3a) Accuracy - 200-285 rating

3b) Surge

Critical and Surge are somewhat difficult to place in. First, all enhancements have a level 1 stat (power or critical) and a level 2 stat (accuracy, surge, alacrity). Because Powertechs/Vanguards have no need for alacrity, your surge rating will automatically rise after you hit your preferred accuracy rating. Accuracy only effects Rail Shot/High Impact Bolt and Rapid Shots/Hammer Shot. Critical% from Critical Rating has a nasty diminishing return rate, also each critical rating will cost you power in the same slot. After all, you will want to get about 250 rating before diminishing returns pushes power above it.

In Short: Use Aim augmentations, in Long: Augmentation Slots on your gear have no value restriction; theoretically you can use each stat you want. After all, you will get enough accuracy and critical from your already obtained gear that you only want to improve your damage output thus it comes down to Aim vs. Power. Power scales linear with about 0.23 damage per rating. Aim scales lower in direct damage, but gives you +critical in a lower manner as direct critical rating. But this +critical doesn’t follow diminishing returns and strengthens the relative value for aim. The key factor to flip the balance in favor for aim is the talent Steely Resolve (increase your Aim amount by an additional 9%).

NOTES ON THIS SPEC:

Resource management in AP/TAC is almost completely negligible. Due to the low cost of Immolate/Fire Pulse and the passive regeneration granted by Cylinder Ventilation/Cell Generator, you can go an extremely long time without ever having to fire your basic attack. AP/TAC is the “easier” of the two specs, but has much steadier DPS and is nowhere near as proc-reliant. If you find yourself overheating constantly as a Pyro/Assault or want a more reliable output, definitely go with this spec. Only flaw is the channeling of Flame Thrower/Pulse Cannon which never should be canceled by moving.

3b. Pyrotech / Assault

This Spec does focus on DoT and high burst through the possibility to reset the CD on Rail Shot/High Impact Bolt. Overall the heat/ammo management and attack priority needs more attention than AP/TAC. The highest possible DPS build is sacrifices the 31 points talent Thermal Detonator/Assault Plastique:

Bounty Hunter: http://swtor.askmrrobot.com/skills/p...i-32-32ikdccif

Trooper: http://swtor.askmrrobot.com/skills/v...i-32-32ikdccif

Powertech 8/5/28

There again can be 2 points shuffled between Infrared Sensors/Nightvision Scope, Sweltering Heat, Degauss and Integrated Cardio Package/Soldier's Endurance.

With the patch 1.4 following talents got changed:

• Sweltering Heat's snare has been reduced to 30%.

• Incendiary Missile's/Incendiary Round's range has been reduced to 10 meters.

• Thermal Detonator's/Assault Plastique's range has been reduced to 10 meters.

• Thermal Detonator's/Assault Plastique's and Explosive Dart/Sticky Grenade no longer share cooldowns

Because Thermal Detonator's/Assault Plastique's range nerfed, there is no reason to spec 31 points anymore into Pyrotech/assault.

CYLINDER/CELL:

The self-buff used by this spec is Combustible Gas Cylinder/Plasma Cell, which has a chance to proc a heavy-hitting DoT effect that ends up doing about a quarter of our overall damage! Talented properly, Flame Burst/Ion Pulse will *always* proc this effect, and Rail Shot/High Impact Bolt will refresh it.

Also note that only with this cylinder/cell activated will your CD on Rail Shot/High Impact Bolt be reset.

PRIORITY LIST:

1) Incendiary Missile Incendiary Round (DoT refresh after the last tick)

2) Rail Shot High Impact Bolt

3) Rocket Punch Stockstrike

4) Flame Burst Ions Pulse

5) Rapid Shots Hammer Shot

Overall it comes down to the above named priority list. But to give a perfect play, Pyrotech/Assault needs to monitor the Prototype Particle Accelerator/Ion Accelerator procs. This effect cannot occur more than every 6 seconds. When the last proc is more than 6 seconds ago, it is more beneficial to give Rocket Punch/Stockstrike and Flame Burst/Ions Pulse priority over Incendiary Missile/Incendiary Round.

When things are moving you can also encounter a moment where your last procs was even later and the cd on Rail Shot/High Impact Bolt is nearly over, it is beneficial again to prioritize Incendiary Missile/Incendiary Round again if the DoT isn't up and maybe use 1 GCD (Global Cooldown) for Rapid Shots/Hammer Shot. This way you will use a non procced Rail Shot/High Impact Bolt but have the chance to proc it immediately after with your next Rocket Punch/Stockstrike or Flame Burst/Ions Pulse.

And to shake things even more, when your target isn't fully armor debuffed Flame Burst/Ions Pulse does more damage than Rocket Punch/Stockstrike. Just look at the current amount of armor debuffs and shift the priority between this two. Without armor debuffs on the target, it’s better to use Rocket Punch/Stockstrike only to benefit of their higher PPA/IA proc chance.

STAT WEIGHTS:

As always, stats weights revolve around your current gear set. Depending on your current rating, you might see different results than someone else. The following statement is focused on a high end build with the latest available gear.

1) Aim

2) 100%/110% Accuracy cap

3) Power

4) Critical

5) Surge

All enhancements have a level 1 stat (power or critical) and a level 2 stat (accuracy, surge, alacrity). Because Powertechs have no need for alacrity, your surge rating will automatically raise after you the accuracy cap. Accuracy effect Rail Shot/High Impact Bolt and Rapid Shots/Hammer Shot, because the former named is your main damage ability, you'll need accuracy cap! You will want to get about 250 critical rating, before diminishing pushes power above.

In Short: Use Aim augmentations, in Long: Augmentation Slots on your gear have no value restriction; theoretically you can use each stat you want. After all, you will get enough Accuracy and Critical rating from your already obtained gear, that you only want to improve your damage output thus it comes down to Aim vs. Power. Power scales linear with about 0.23 damage per rating. Aim scales lower in direct damage, but gives you +critical in a lower manner as direct critical rating. But this +critical doesn’t follow diminishing returns and strengthens the relative value for aim. The key factor to flip the balance in favor for aim is the talent Steely Resolve (increase your Aim amount by an additional 9%).

NOTES ON THIS SPEC:

As Pyrotech/Assault specced player you have a lower passive resource regeneration compared to a AP/TAC specced player and will have to always keep your heat in check. You will use Rapid Shots/Hammer Shot and Rail Shot/High Impact Bolt way more often. Because of this, Accuracy Rating is way more important. This Spec shines through high burst possibilities, no movement restrictions and the possibility to perform 99% of your damage still at 10m range (Yes, Rocket Punch/Stockstrike don't provide much more DPS).

4. Use of Cooldowns

ABILITIES

The following are DPS-enhancing cooldowns available to us:

• Explosive Fuel/Battle Focus

• Thermal Sensor Override/Reserve Powercell

• Vent Heat/Recharge Cells

Thermal Sensor Override/Reserve Powercell is best used for your high Heat/Cell consuming CDs from the spec of your choice. As AP/Tactics use it for Flame Thrower/Pulse Cannon and as Pyro/Assault use it for Incendiary Missile/Incendiary Round. This way your will always avoid 25 Heat/3 Ammo and can use more Flame Burst/Ion Pulse instead of Rapid Shots/Hammer Shot.

In order to achieve maximum usage, these abilities should be used in line with each other and adrenals or Bloodthirst/Inspiration whenever possible, and used immediately when available if no combinations are available. During a cooldown phase when you have one or more of these effects active, you’ll want to ignore your resource limit to quickly build up to a high Heat/low Ammo level, at which point use Vent Heat/Recharge Cells to return to normal resource levels and continue with your standard priority list. If Vent Heat/Recharge Cells is not available, do not be tempted to dip into the second tier of resource regeneration while your cooldowns are active… this will lead to an overall DPS loss!

CONSUMABLES

There are two types of DPS-enhancing consumables available in the game right now.

• Stims

Stims are the “flasks” of SWTOR – large stat boosts that last an hour or more, giving you a boost for entire Operations or Flashpoints. Buying stims is the single largest DPS boost you can get from a single item! The type of stims we use are Reflex stims, and give either Aim or both Aim and Power.

The best rank of stim available is the Exotech Reflex Stim (128 aim / 52 power - for 120 min).

• Adrenals

If stims are flasks, then adrenals are potions. You can use one of these every 3 minutes for a temporary huge stat boost, best lined up with other cooldowns. There are 3 types of adrenals available: Attack (Power), Critical (Critical), and Force (Surge). If your critical multiplier is under 60%, definitely go with Force adrenals, otherwise stick with Attack. Remember, Power isn’t hit by diminishing returns, so you’ll benefit from every point.

The best rank of adrenal available is the Exotech Attack/Critical/Force Adrenal (535 rating - for 15 seconds/3m CD). CD is shared with Medpacs.

5. Gear

This askmrrobot.com profile shows the Campaign BIS Pyro/Assault Gear. PVE only is in the Gear Sheet, Total BIS with PVP relics is visible in the Wish List:

http://swtor.askmrrobot.com/characte...5-361a835ab699

I will provide a updated 1.4 BIS in the next weeks.

You can try to maximize your character with the following simulation sheet: http://mmo-mechanics.com/swtor/forum...nt.php?aid=345

Thanks

First off, a huge thank you to the entire community and people over in the Game Mechanics forum who provide us the basis for some serious theory crafting. Also Kray for his awesome work on the first simulation sheet and guide, Kaedis for his global knowledge, Safyra for naming things others didn't think about yet and Forsedar to check my bad English and grammar.

Bounty Hunter - Main Powertech Tanking Build 31/7/3 Jer’jo (Above) v1.2

Grapple in PvP

Quell (Melee Range Interrupt)

Powertech is more mobile. Almost all of its attacks are instant.

The Powertech is more of a melee DPS while the Mercenary is a ranged DPS. Further, the Mercenary is fairly stationary - many of its attacks have activation times, so you'll need to stand still and cast them for extending periods. In contrast the Powertech is more mobile. Almost all of its attacks are instant.

Bounty Hunter - 29/8/2 - Powertech High Aggro Tank Build (Above) v1.2

Firebug (Pyrotech) Builds (updated for 1.3) Maarek

Powertech builds that focus on the Firebug (Pyrotech) tree(DPS tree) will be listed here. This tree is good for end game DPS or PVP. This tree makes heavy use of DOTs for its damage. The DoTs can take a while to mature leaving damage on non-boss fights a little lower than a lot of classes.

5/8/28 - Pyrotech PVE DPS Build - This is a high damage PVE DPS raiding build for pyrotech powertechs. This build does not take Thermal Detinator as this skill top tier talent is a little lack luster. TD does do not bad single target damage but I find the high heat cost and shares its cooldown time with ED.

5/5/31 - Pyrotech PVE DPS Build with TD - This is the full Pyrotech PVE DPS build that includes Thermal Detinator.

Hybrid Builds

Powertech builds that have talents mixed in several powertech trees will be listed here.