State of the Game

A short update on where I've been and what I've been doing, my views on the current state of the game for snipers (including notes on the surge nerf), and the upcoming posts and revisions I'll be making to my general guide.

Update on PvE Marksmanship Raid Spec

Still using a variant of 31/7/3 pure Marksmanship. I recommend this particular build for people who already have a significant amount of gear. Although pure Lethality and Engineering builds are both viable in PvE raiding (and I have used both!), I must admit a certain amount of bias or personal preference for the Marksmanship playstyle.

Quorra's Lethality / Engineering AoE Hybrid Build (2/21/18)

Thanks to Quorra (50 Sniper of Vengeful Malice on Keller's Void - PVE-East) for this interesting hybrid build. I am convinced of the build's viability thanks to this screenshot and the solid rationale I received via email. It's focused on maximizing DoT and AoE damage -- a perspective this blog has been lacking! Read on for the outline and a few of my impressions following.

Public Service Announcement: Ability Action Queue

A quick note on Patch 1.1 and the Ability Action Queue (AAQ):

For some people this patch changed the default AAQ setting to 0.5.

This happened to me. My AAQ is normally set to 0.0. It was changed to 0.5 following my patch to 1.1. Another Operative in my guild experienced the same issue. If you have been noticing a strange delay in your abilities following installation of the patch, please check your AAQ setting in the Preferences tab. You may need to change the setting from 0.5 to the number that you prefer.

Lethality Testing: Weakening Blast and Cull

I've had the opportunity to retest some of the Lethality mechanics. Read on.

Keybinding for Snipers

Suggestions for Sniper keybindings has been an often-requested article. I cover which abilities I bind, why and where I bind them, and different systems and concepts important to keybinding. Read on.

Cover and Cull (16/2/23)

This is a viable sustained DPS Sniper build (PvE-oriented with PvP applications). It has arguably the highest "potential" sustained DPS of any Sniper spec in the game. Unfortunately it is also only viable at level 50 and isn't much for survivability. It's a weird build to play. Read on.

Readers Making Me Proud

Getting things like this in the mail makes me happy:

Grats on those tasty numbers, Viscis! Thanks for reading.

08 Lethality

Summary: I consider a full Lethality build to be an energy-intensive, highly mobile spec with great damage potential (in shorter fights). It's strong in PvP but not my first choice in PvE. Read on for details.

Warzone Damage

So you can see how some of my builds and recommendations work in practice:

I'm "Unfit" in this Warzone. "Fentanyl" was deemed an inappropriate drug reference. I'm planning on appealing that decision. Until then? I'll enjoy the fruits of gearing up and using relics/adrenals. I have 317 Expertise (7% damage increase).

And in the Warzone right after:

(In case you don't know what's after Invincible, it's Immortal.)

Screenshots (click for full size images) taken by Sands, since my hand's still broken. I'll have to take a picture of my cast later -- yes, 400k damage in a full hand cast while playing lying down on a couch. That takes a lot of practice.

My build: Marksmanship (31/7/3).

Happy New Year!