This guide is intended for players new to Nightmare Mode
I present to you today a "guide" on the Franc Tireur. I will not go over the details of the Uses in detail. I wouldn't recap the different offensive and defensive powers either. If you have any doubts, you can refer to Alestorm's very good Sniper Guide (with power matches in this guide).
Summary:
- uses
- Statistics
- Seven bonuses
- Cycle DPS
- Parse
- Interface
- Conclusion
uses
The uses selected are my basics for doing PvE. The Gold / Yellow boxes are possible uses depending on the bosses.
Statistics
Improvements:
- Two influx
- One or two Precision
- The rest in Tip
Quick explanations
The Critique is quite arbitrary. I had my best results on posts and bosses with this critical rate. It is an empirical justification.
The Surge is a little neglected in this discipline because the addition of Alacrity is a real gain in DPS in this discipline.
Alacrity in several points:
- This statistic brings a real gain in DPS. In the DPS Cycle part, I will come back to it.
- I put two pieces in Alacrity due to server lag. Having a slight alacrity rate is enough to make the gain mentioned above. But with the fabulous server lag on Swtor, a second part is needed.
- In addition, the second part will make it possible to increase the energy boost by switching to equipment 198. From 5,1 with one part, we will go to 5,2 with two parts. Thus the presence of two parts is therefore appreciable.
Set bonus
In Sabotage discipline, the 6-piece Franc-Tireur bonus is the only viable one. Combining with the old set bonuses is unnecessary. You get the following set bonuses:
- Activating Saboteur's Charge increases damage dealt by 2% for 15 seconds. This effect is only available every 30 seconds.
- Reduces the cooldown of Illegal Modifications by 15 seconds. Activating this power restores 15 energy points.
- Smuggler's Luck has two charges and its duration is doubled.
The six-piece is essential for this discipline. Indeed, we do 3,4 Saboteur Charges per minute and we have two that do automatic Smuggler's Luck crit.
Cycle DPS
Different objectives are to be achieved in this cycle:
- Prioritize the Double Shot (9 seconds)
- DoTs refresh:
- Incendiary Grenade (9 seconds)
- Electrical charge (18 seconds)
- Decisive Shot (18 seconds)
- Use as much as possible:
- Saboteur's Charge (18 seconds)
- Sabotage coupled to the Thermal Grenade (18 seconds).
- Maintain the "Fiery Speed" DoT set by the Double Shot / Burst Loaded / Thermal Grenade
From the above information, we can identify a very simple cycle over 18 seconds:
La Roulade / Loaded gusts / Opportunism are "fillers" (power which allows to fill a void) in this cycle. The Roulade brings a very powerful gain of DPS on pole. On bosses, the use of roll should be maximized without compromising your survival. A dead DPS is useless.
La Burst Loaded / Opportunism are very energy-intensive (15 points), always have Cold Head ou Illegal Modifications to offset this cost.
Explanation on "Fiery Speed" and on Alacrity:
- 6-second DoT posed by the Double Shot. A quick reminder of Double Shot: 3 second channel and 9 second cooldown. So we have 6 seconds between the end of the Double Shot and the beginning of the second. The DoT ends 0,1 seconds before the next one Double Shot.
- With two pieces of Alacrity, the cooldown drops to 8,7 seconds for a channel duration of 2,9 seconds. Thus the refresh of the "Ardent Speed" will be done at each Double Shot without having to do a refresh via the Burst Loaded ou Thermal grenade.
On the first part of the cycle where the Burst Loaded is not introduced at each cycle, this optimization is justified. On the second part of the cycle, the DoT is refreshed by the Thermal Grenade.
Regarding offensive powers:
- La Smuggler's Luck is to be used as soon as possible. The effect is available for 40 seconds so no worries about using the two accumulations or not.
- The Illegal modifications are to be used as soon as possible too. Whatever happens, you will have a Double Shot under Illegal modifications.
- The dopant should be used as soon as possible. However, the Saboteur's Charge has the effect of this one. Just avoid using it right after a Saboteur's Charge.
Parse Post
The single target DPS of this discipline is very powerful.
Here is a video of a parse with the cycle and optimization of this guide. This is not the perfect parse: I move spells to the end of my parse and cut a Double Shot. However despite his mistakes I get a correct result.
How to analyze it:
The APM of this pole discipline should be around 38. On my best par, I climbed to 38,5 APM. No Sit / Stand or defensive power to inflate the APM.
There is no critical bonus on powers except on Saboteur Charge via Smuggler's Luck. Of my 12 Saboteur Charges sent, there are 8 in automatic critical (4 activation of Luck). On the 4 remaining charges, I have two in criticism hence a certain chance on this power.
On each power, you will therefore have the critical chance of your character (around 27% with my optimization): we see that my Double Shot and my Incendiary Grenade are below the expected critical.
On a pole, we could still maximize the roll. However, this guide is for PvE purposes so I will not develop this aspect further. With this cycle, my DPS record is 4970. The 5k bar is accessible with 192 gear and 4 pieces 198 (my current gear).
Interface
Already excuse me gentlemen full binders. I am a mouse cliker and I fully assume it.
For others who will take advice from me:
- Sort your spells by "blocks":
- Double Shot / Incendiary Grenade
- RC / Electric Charge / Saboteur Charge
- Sabotage / Thermal Grenade / Decisive Fire
- Bind your defensive powers
- Combine your offensive powers to click them quickly.
Conclusion
This is a really very interesting discipline: sustained damage in single target and a natural cleave in multi-target with the Incendiary Grenade. It is less random than Unfair Combat which is based on critical (random) RNG.
Admittedly the cycle is "closed" but for players who want quiet DPS without asking questions, it is rather not bad.
