A lot of people overlook this and wonder why they are out of
energy all the time. Then they play a class with a deep resource pool like Sith
Sorcerer and quit Sniper or Operative simply because they didn’t know what they
were getting into and didn’t have good information about resource management.
In exchange for a low resource pool and a variable
regeneration mechanic, Sniper and Operative have relatively low energy costs on
most specs. This means you can pace yourself by using different abilities or
just leaning on your default attack (it’s bound to the “1” hotkey ingame
automatically) while your energy regenerates.
Resource management separates good snipers from great ones.
Most Snipers probably don't think about energy usage beyond the bolded sentence at the top of this page (or they've discovered that some combinations or abilities work better then others, but they haven't yet figured out why).
Rather than tell you how and when and why to use each
ability (bear in mind that some specs are inherently more energy-intensive than others), I’m going to give you some guidelines that you can use while you level
to develop your own “priority list.” Yours may not be the same as mine. I’ve
been level 50 for a while now and sometimes it is hard for me to remember what
the other levels are like.
The Energy Toolbar
Your energy bar is yellow, which makes it really easy to see
on the blue UI frame. Beside the long yellow bar is a shorter area with four
yellow arrows. These arrows represent your level of energy regeneration. Four arrows represents a regeneration rate of 5/sec. If you ever have questions about how fast you are
regenerating energy, you can mouseover these arrows to check the numerical
energy/sec value. In my opinion, the numbers aren’t nearly as important as
getting an intuitive feel for your abilities. We can spend time theorycrafting
after launch.
You will notice that being in “four arrow” territory is the
fastest way to replenish your energy, that it is okay to briefly dip into “three
arrow” and "two arrow" territory as long as you get back to three-four relatively fast (if you are
doing sustained damage), and that the only time you want to get into the hell
that is “one arrow” is when you need a target dead and dead right now, this
instant.
When you get access to Adrenaline Probe, it is sometimes
okay to drain all your energy and then use the probe to refill your bar.
Adrenaline Probe exists in the game as a way for Sniper to strategically burn
energy when necessary without overly punishing them as a DPS class. They wouldn’t
be much good as DPS if they lacked an ability to react to changing situations
around them. One of the key ways Snipers react to combat is deciding how long
they can safely let an opponent live. You are essentially balancing your energy
with your damage output and hitpoints.
The key principle for soloing is opportunity cost. If you
are doing one thing you cannot be doing another. For example, if you are doing
burst DPS you are sacrificing energy regeneration in order to do damage and
preserve your hitpoints. If you are doing sustained DPS you are sacrificing
some damage and hitpoints in order to keep your energy regeneration high.
At higher levels you will
have incentive to maintain sustained damage and use your control abilities until
your opponent hits 30% life, at which point you can decide whether or not you
need to continue doing sustained damage or transition into burst damage in
order to kill an enemy before it can kill you. Knowing when to transition to
which type of damage is key to playing Sniper well (especially if you are
solo).
Ability Priority
My priorities are based on several things: my current energy
level, the cooldowns I have available (and the length of an ability’s cooldown
in general), the energy efficiency of the available abilities, and the way
those abilities use energy. It is easier to develop ability priorities in PvE
because you have time to think about what you’re doing. What you learn about
your class in PvE can help prepare you for pacing your energy usage in PvP
(when you need to be relying on your reflexes).
Energy Level
If I’m about to go from “two arrow” to “three arrow” (or three to four), I
might choose to use a default attack to allow my energy to climb. I also might
use a channeled ability with a front-loaded energy cost because my energy will
continue to regenerate during the channeled damage. It is best to use instant
abilities with a high energy cost while your energy is high. When you have
finished using an instant ability like that, you start immediately at a lower
energy level. It is better for that lower energy level to remain in “three
arrow.” Another ability that can be tricky to use is Ambush. It charges up
(allowing energy to regenerate during the charge), then uses its energy at the
end of the charge. This means that you are better off using Ambush when you are
between 70%-80% energy to allow your energy to regenerate during the charged
part of the ability (so that the high energy cost comes when you are in a high
energy state). Using Ambush at 100% energy is frankly a waste of time in which
your energy (had you already used some!) could be regenerating.
Incidentally, this is why I like to plant Explosive Probe,
use Flash Grenade, and then detonate that probe with Ambush on very difficult
targets (i.e. a fight with a gold elite enemy). Explosive Probe to Ambush is an
extremely efficient PvE opener and can be used to good effect in PvP as well
(but not quite in the same way and not always as an opener; more explanation on
this in Engineering/PvP tactics). If you are Engineering spec, a good followup
to the initial detonation of Explosive Probe is to use Series of Shots to
detonate the multiple probes on your target.
Cooldowns
It’s tricky to describe this. Most often I’d deal in
specific examples and you’ll find a few in the spec-specific sections of this
guide. Basically, you need to be careful about how you use anything with a long
cooldown and you can be a little less careful with any ability that has a short
cooldown. Spend time thinking about where and how you want to use anything that
has a cooldown of 30 seconds or more. Think about whether it will stack well
with another of your abilities (i.e. your defensive cooldowns are very good
when stacked together and if you need one you will probably need to use all of
them). Think about how often an ability can be used in a short fight vs. a long
fight and at what point you would need to use it (beginning, middle, or end).
Think about whether or not an ability uses energy and whether or not it's on the
GCD (many defensive abilities do not require energy to use and do not activate
the GCD). An alternative to spamming a default attack that gobbles up a GCD may
be using a non-damage ability like Marksman’s Diversion to debuff the accuracy
of your target and free up your damage abilities to be used when you feel like
it (and not when the GCD ends).
Keep in mind that the GCD is 1.5 seconds and,
if you are somewhere between 85-95 energy, you could potentially waste some
energy regen by accidentally using your default attack ability even one more
time than you thought you would! This is one area of judging ability priority
that just takes practice.
Energy Efficiency
Some abilities are more efficient than others. The most efficient
abilities also tend to be granted to Sniper around level 30-35, can be unlocked
by using a less efficient ability, and are keystones of any rotation. Not using
your most efficient abilities and making no effort to understand which are more
or less efficient is the fast way to poorly using your resources. It’s good to
balance efficient abilities with inefficient ones (or use them in combination)
because of the variable way in which energy regenerates. Using only efficient
abilities is just as bad as using only inefficient ones that do lots of damage (many people don’t
understand this concept).
If you are using only efficient abilities, you won’t be able
to drain your energy bar at mid-high levels. What works at lower levels is a
really bad thing to do as you progress through the game. It is better to
constantly re-evaluate your energy usage as you level rather than getting into
a set rotation and thinking “that’s it, I now know this class!”
If you are using only abilities that hit hard for high
numbers, but are not efficient, then you will quickly run out of energy and
your damage will drop to zero if you don’t have Adrenaline Probe available.
Using efficient and inefficient abilities in combination
will produce a steady drain on your resources that you can more actively
predict and effectively manage. This is difficult to do well but becomes
important around level 20 and only increases in importance as you level. It is much
easier to develop combinations of abilities in advance while you are quietly PvE
leveling than it is to divine them in the heat of a PvP match (though, no
doubt, you would begin to notice this effect in PvP as well).
Timing of Energy Cost
This is an unusual concept that most people do not talk
about and very few Snipers have probably even considered. I’ve never heard another Sniper discuss this in any capacity, but “when” an ability uses
energy is just as important as how much energy it uses. I am not going to
explain how every sniper ability uses energy, but I am going to give you some
key examples and basic types to look for while you play the game.
Instant (Fragmentation Grenade)
This ability instantly consumes a chunk of energy. I like to
use it when I am already in “three-four arrow” territory and unlikely to drop lower.
These abilities tend to make decent openers or finishers in a fight and I
consider them “burst” in most cases. They can be more or less efficient and on
more or less of a cooldown. Highly efficient instant abilities are a vital part
of a sustained DPS priority/rotation. Those very special abilities are often
unlocked by an additional condition (i.e. you just recently used Snipe, in the
case of Followthrough … or your target is at 30% health, in the case of
Takedown).
Charged (Snipe/Ambush)
These abilities do not consume energy until they fire, only
charge time. They are good to use at slightly lower than optimum energy levels
(for example, if you just dipped into “two or three arrow” regen). Why is this? Your
energy regenerates during the charge and is only consumed at the end. They are
great abilities to use in combination with highly efficient abilities while
trying to maintain sustained DPS.
Channeled (Orbital Strike, Series of Shots)
Many of Sniper’s channeled abilities become usable only in
the mid-late game. Channeled abilities use energy at the beginning of the
channel. During the channel, however, your energy will regen. They can be used
at many different points in an ability priority depending on what your goals
for damage are, how much energy they cost, and whether or not you can
regenerate the energy they have used while they are channeling. I prefer to
use these abilities when I am in mid-low three or four arrow territory. It is not bad
to dip into “three arrow” on the initial cast and then get back to “four” during
the channel.
Conclusion
If you spend any time at all considering the points I’ve outlined,
you will be a better Sniper than someone who hasn’t. You will also better
understand why I tend to say “ability priority” rather than rotation and tend
to use some things at particular times in a fight rather than others. None of
these concepts are easy to master. Combining efficient and inefficient
abilities (in order to achieve a predictable rate of energy regeneration) is
actually a nonintuitive tactic that I developed over months of playing the
class. There’s more to deciding what ability to use and when than just what I’ve
outlined, too. Some of it also has to do with the number and strength of the
enemies you’re fighting.
Briefly, always opening with Explosive Probe and Ambush for
big hits is stupid if your target doesn’t have enough health to justify the
energy expense. For example, if you are facing three standard targets you can usually take them out with one heavy-hitting ability each and save yourself some energy
and cooldown time (I use Series of Shots on one, Ambush on another, and
Explosive Probe/Snipe on the third as a 41+ Engineering spec). Any good DPS knows better than to overkill
their enemies. It is better to do “just enough” and even “slightly less” damage
than it is to overkill an NPC or a player by 1k (the exception to this rule is
at the very end of a fight when both you and your opponent are at low HP:
defeat them using any means necessary or available to you!)
This is one of the most challenging and "finesse" elements of Sniper next to positioning because you have so many options and viable damage abilities. It takes time, patience, and practice to do any of this well.
Permissions: This guide may be reproduced in whole or in
part. If you do, please give me credit and link back to the original content
either here on my blog (imperialsniper.com) or to my stream: http://twitch.tv./fentanyl213 Thanks!
Errata/Corrections (11.25/27.11): I erroneously reported "three" arrows as the maximum regeneration point. This is not the case. Four arrows is the maximum regeneration indicator. It was still correctly reported as 5energy/second. I have changed some of my pacing recommendations to reflect the correct visual indicators. Caught a second incorrect reference in another paragraph (11.27).
Great read. Thanks for the info.
ReplyDeleteAwesome! I hope you continue your posts!
ReplyDelete