Sticky: Captain Malv's Guide to Space Pirating (Scoundrel Scrapper DPS)

Welcome to Captain Malv's Guide to Space Pirating: Punching Through a Galaxy Far, Far Away. If you are looking for information on how to hide behind a box while poking your little cowboy hat out every now and then to take a few pot shots at someone, you are in the wrong place. If you are however looking for a guide on how to play a Pistol Whipping, Groin Kicking, Scattergun Toting pirate badass, then welcome aboard. This guide will attempt to give you a complete picture of what the DPS Scoundrel brings to the table in a PvE setting.

At its core, the DPS Scoundrel is a stealth centered melee based advanced class. While some of your abilities including your most basic attack can be used at range, you can only use your most damaging abilities while in melee range. While Scoundrels still have access to cover based abilities you will not be using cover under normal conditions. We are all about being mobile so we can get right up in the enemy's face and punch it off. If you want to use cover, go hide behind a box with the rest of the Gunslingers.

With all that being said, lets get down to business. Below you will hopefully find anything you ever wanted to know about Scoundrel DPS and more. If you have questions, please leave them below and I will do my best to answer them. If you have a problem or any other feedback it would be much appreciated. Thanks again for checking out the guide and enjoy!





A. Energy

Every class in TOR has their own resource system. As a Smuggler, your resource is energy. Energy starts at 100 and is spent to cast your most potent abilities. Energy regenerates every second at an amount based on your current energy level. The general rule is the more energy you have, the faster it regenerates. The energy regeneration 'zones' are as follows:

60-100 Energy: Energy regeneration rate = 5 energy per second
20-60 Energy: Energy regeneration rate = 3 energy per second
0-20 Energy: Energy regeneration rate = 2 energy per second

So what does all this mean for practical purposes? The primary take away message is that you do not want to dip under 60 Energy if you can help it. This will ensure that you are constantly at the highest rate of energy regeneration. Over the course of a fight, a Smuggler staying over 60 Energy will regenerate more energy than one who dumps his entire energy bar all at once.

There are some exceptions to this rule however. First, you will want to dump a good bit of energy before you use Cool Head to make sure you are getting the maximum amount of regeneration from the cooldown. Also, if there is a time where you need to have a quick burst of damage in a short period of time, you are more than alright to blow through your energy supply.

B. Upper Hand

As if managing your Energy wasn't enough to deal with, the Scoundrel has another resource to manage called Upper Hand. When you choose (Like it is really a choice! Ha!) Scoundrel as your AC at level 10, you gain a passive ability called Upper Hand. At first sight, it seems pretty straight forward. Every time you kill something, use Blaster Whip, or use Shoot First, you gain a stack of Upper Hand. Each stack of Upper Hand increases the damage you do by 2% and you can have two stacks of Upper Hand at any time.

Obviously 4% extra damage is a great thing. How could this possibly get complicated? Well, the catch is that Pugnacity, Sucker Punch, and Blaster Volley all cost 1 stack of Upper Hand to use. You will likely be using Sucker Punch and
Pugnacity on cooldown in a single target situation and Blaster Volley and
Pugnacity whenever you are doing AoE. Even though these are highly damaging abilities, you want to have as close to 100% uptime on 2 stacks of Upper Hand as possible to maximize your damage. As you can see, there is an aspect of risk versus reward to both Energy and Upper Hand. This balancing act is, at least in my opinion, the most interesting and rewarding resource system in TOR right now and a big reason why I enjoy playing a Scoundrel.





A. Primary Statistics

Endurance - Provides bonus health. You will not be aiming to pick up extra Endurance as much as you will stumble across increasing amounts as you improve your gear. Obviously more health is never a bad thing, but it will not increase your DPS.

Presence - Increases the Health and Damage of your Companion characters. Since you will not have a Companion in an Operation, it is of very little use.

Aim - This is essentially your minor stat. While Aim is not better than Cunning in terms of increasing your overall damage, it does provide an increase to your ranged damage abilities. If you have an opportunity to increase your Aim for free (i.e. Datacrons and Buffs) you should do so. However, since gear comes with Endurance plus another Primary stat, you will not actively look stack Aim.

Cunning - Cunning is the most important stat for a Scoundrel. It provides both Tech and Ranged Damage as well as giving you a small amount of crit. You will want as much Cunning as you can get.

Strength - Increases your melee damage abilities. While some of your skills appear to be melee abilities, they are considered to be Tech abilities and are therefore not increased by Strength.

Willpower - Boots your Force abilities. Can you use the Force? No? Totally useless for us.


B. Secondary Statistics

Alacrity - Lowers the activation time of abilities. As of right now, it does not lower the 1.5 second Global Cooldown. This makes it pretty unattractive for Scoundrels as almost all of our abilities are instant use.

Accuracy - Even though you start with a 100% base accuracy for your special attacks, every bit you go over 100% reduces the defense chance of your target. Right now, it looks like same level enemies have a 10% defense chance, meaning you would need 110% accuracy to guarantee your abilities will land. Whether hitting this cap will be beneficial for Operations is yet to be seen.

Critical Strike - Increases the chance for your attacks to critically hit. It is closely tied with Surge. Probably will be alright to pick up, but only if Accuracy and Power are not available for some reason.

Surge - Increases the damage done by a critical hit. Base critical hits do 50% bonus damage. Surge increases this percentage. Obviously has a close relationship with Critical Strike and your desire for Surge will probably change in relation to how much Crit you have.

Power - This is looking to be your best Secondary stat after the Accuracy cap is reached. This makes all of your abilities hit harder. Anytime you can grab a little more Power, you should go for it.





A. Miscellaneous Abilities

Upper Hand - See the Upper Hand Section for in-depth discussion.

Lucky Shots - Our class buff, it grants you and everyone in your party 5% critical hit.

Recuperate - Your Smuggler recovers both health and energy over 15 seconds. You also throw a coin in the air and shoot it with your blaster. Yes, that makes you a badass.

Heartrigger Patch - A handy in-combat resurrection ability. This lets you pick up that guy who stood in the fire once every 5 minutes.

Distraction - This is the Smuggler version of the standard interrupt. Interrupts the current cast and locks the target out of casting for 4 second. On a 12 second cooldown.

Blasters Blazing - This passive increases the damage done by Quick Shot by 15%.


B. Single Target DPS Abilities

Flurry of Bolts - This is as basic as it gets. A no cost, no cooldown ability that fires your blaster

Blaster Whip - A last resort for our...less aggressive Gunslinger brothers and sisters, this is part of the Scoundrel's bread and butter. The concept is simple. You take your blaster and slap the target across the face. This is your primary way to generate Upper Hand stacks.

Vital Shot - This is your basic single target Damage over Time (DoT) ability. You will want to be sure to use it on anything that will live longer than the 15 seconds it takes to deal full damage.

Quick Shot - Deals a bit more damage than Flurry of Bolts at the cost of energy. More or less an energy dump for a Scoundrel with no other better options.

Cheap Shot - Deals heavy damage to standard and weak targets and moderate damage to strong targets for no cost and on a 45 second cooldown. It is only usable on incapacitated targets, so don't plan on getting to go crazy with it on a boss.

Headshot - The ranged version of Cheap Shot.

Back Blast - Now for some fun! Your first and main Scattergun ability, this lets you shoot a point blank package of pain into your target. The only thing that will disappoint you is the 9 second cooldown. Use it once and you will be hooked.


C. Area of Effect (AoE) DPS Abilities

Thermal Grenade - Hits 5 targets (your original target plus up to 4 surrounding targets) for a moderate amount of damage.

Blaster Volley - Hits 5 targets in a 10 meter cone for heavy damage. This is your main AoE DPS ability as a Scoundrel.

XS Freighter Flyby - Calls in an orbital strike from your ship dealing moderate damage to all enemies in an area over 9 seconds. Has a 3 second activation and a 1 minute cooldown.


D. Stealth Abilities

Stealth - A core Scoundrel skill, it makes you next to invisible at the cost of 15% move speed.

Shoot First - This is just like Back Blast, except it hits a good deal harder and can only be used while in stealth. Generates a stack of
Upper Hand.

Sneak - Gives you a supercharged stealth for 8 seconds.


E. Cover Abilities

Take Cover - Rolls you into the nearest cover point and grant you the benefits of cover (allows use of cover only abilities and provides extra defense).

Crouch - Causes your Smuggler to kneel down in place. If there is no cover around or you don't want to go rolling all over the place, this is your alternative. Note that it does not grant you extra defense unless you are behind cover.

Sabotage Charge - Applies a charge to your target that detonates when the target takes damage. It hits like a truck, but the high energy cost and cover requirements will likely discourage use by Scoundrels.

Charged Burst - A 1.5 second activation ability that shoots off a charged burst of blaster bolts from cover. Great for leveling from 1-10. Almost useless thereafter.


F. Crowd Control Abilities

Tendon Blast - Blasts the target with you Scattergun to do some damage and slow the target by 50%.

Tranquilizer - Puts a non droid target to sleep for up to 1 minute. Only useable from stealth.

Slice Droid - Incapacitates a droid for 1 minute.

Flash Grenade - Blinds up to 5 targets for 8 seconds. Damage will break the effect.

Dirty Kick - Delivers a swift kick to a certain weak point that stuns the target for 4 seconds and deals damage.


G. Cooldowns

Escape - Frees you from all incapacitating and movement impairing effects. 2 minute cooldown for no cost.

Pugnacity - Uses a stack of Upper Hand to give you a bonus 3 energy regeneration every 3 seconds for 45 seconds. It only has a 35 second cooldown so you can theoretically run it 100% of the time.

Cool Head - Your main way to get a lot of energy quickly, this ability generates 50 energy over 3 seconds on a 2 minute cooldown.

Disappearing Act - Need to get back into stealth but in combat? This lets you do just that once every 2 minutes but at the cost of all healing done and received.

Dodge - Gives you a 100% chance to dodge all melee and ranged attacks for 3 seconds on a 1 minute cooldown. The Scoundrel specific Lucky Dodge also causes this ability to remove all hostile effects.

Surrender - Your only way to drop threat without stopping your attacks. 45 second cooldown for no cost.

Defense Screen - Absorbs incoming damage for 15 seconds on a 45 second cooldown.

Smuggle - So I don't want to talk too much about Gunslingers, but I think it says something that Scoundrels are the only Smugglers who can actually use Smuggle. This gives you and your party members within 10 meters stealth for 15 seconds. The one downside is you cannot use it in combat.





A. Suggested Builds

Build 1 - Standard Build with Extra Crowd Control

Build 2 - Standard Build with Extra Survivability


B. Scrapper Tree

Tier 1

Element of Surprise (2/2) Must Have - Increases the critical hit chance of Back Blast and Shoot First by 16%. More crits on both of these abilities can only be a good thing.

Browbeater (3/3) Must Have - Increases the damage dealt by Vital Shot by 18% and Flechette Round by 3%. You will be keeping both of these abilities running as much as possible so more damage on them is a good idea.

Survivor's Scars (3/3) Situational - Increases all healing done by 3% and all healing received by 3%. A good place to put points for added survivability when you cannot use the CC from Stopping Power or K.O..

Tier 2

Scrappy (2/2) Must Have - Increases the damage dealt by Blaster Whip, Quick Shot, and Back Blast by 4%. Again, more damage on abilities you often use is a good thing.

Sneaky (3/3) Must Have - Increases movement speed by 15% and effective stealth level by 1. Faster movement is handy in almost every situation and making stealth 1 level better is a nice bonus.

Brawler's Grit (3/3) Situational - Increases endurance by 6%. A good survivability talent in cases where you do not need the CC utility from Stopping Power and K.O..

Tier 3

Sawed Off (1/1) Must Have - Reduces the energy cost of Back Blast by 10 and Flechette Round by 2. This makes your Back Blast totally free and knocks 2 energy off the cost of Flechette Round, making the cost of the combination go from 25 energy down to just 13.

Sucker Punch (1/1) Must Have - A key damage ability, it lets you PUNCH YOUR TARGET IN THE FACE for the cost of 1 stack of Upper Hand.

Flying Fists (2/2) Must Have - Gives your Sucker Punch a 50% chance to trigger a follow up punch that deals damage and stuns standard and weak targets. Can only trigger once per 10 seconds.

Surprise Comeback (1/1) Must Have - Pugnacity now restores 2% of total health every 3 seconds. This is a pretty great source of free healing for the cost of just 1 point. Compared to the other options, I think this is a clear winner.

Tier 4

Fight or Flight (1/1) Must Have - Dodging or resisting an attack restores 1 energy. In addition, Disappearing Act no longer reduces healing dealt and received. The extra energy regeneration is nice, but the real value here is in removing the penalty from Disappearing Act, letting you use it without worry of getting yourself killed.

Round Two (2/2) Must Have - Flying Fists has a 100% chance to immediately re-grant Upper Hand when hitting a bleeding target. This lets you regain the stack of Upper Hand spent on Sucker Punch about once every 10 seconds. More Upper Hand stacks are a good thing.

Stopping Power (2/2) Situational - Gives Tendon Blast a 100% chance to immobilize the target for 2 seconds. Useless if no kiting or CC is needed, otherwise very handy.

Tier 5

Turn the Tables (3/3) Must Have - Increases all damage dealt to bleeding targets by 3%. Your target should always be bleeding, so consider this a flat 3% increase to the damage you do.

Flee the Scene (2/2) Must have - Reduces the cooldown of Disappearing Act by 1 minute and increases movement speed by 25% for 6 seconds on activation. Now that you can use Disappearing Act without fear of death, who wouldn't want to use it more often? This knocks the cooldown to 2 minutes and getting a burst of speed.

Tier 6

Underdog (3/3) Must Have - Increases the amount of energy recovered by each tick of Pugnacity by 1.5. Also increases the critical damage dealt by all Scattergun attacks by 10%. This bumps the permanent regen from Pugnacity up to 4.5 energy every 3 seconds. More energy means more DPS, so this is a clear winner.

K.O. (2/2) Situational - Shoot First has a 100% chance to knock the target flat on its face for 3 seconds. This essentially adds a 3 second stun to Shoot First. Again, it is helpful for things that can be knocked down, but for anything immune to knockdowns, it is useless.

Tier 7
Flechette Round (1/1) Must Have - This is a key Scoundrel DPS ability. It is off the GCD (Global Cooldown) timer and can be cast before using Shoot First or Back Blast to add a moderate DoT and more importantly 50% armor penetration for 15 seconds. With Back Blast on only a 9 second cooldown you could in theory keep that 50% armor penetration debuff up full time.


C. Sawbones Tree

Tier 1

Bedside Manner (3/3) Must Have - Increases Cunning by 9%. This skill is pretty incredible considering that it gives you 9% more of your best stat. That type of gain is just way too good to pass up.

Anatomy Lessons (2/2) Must Have - Reduces the energy cost of Vital Shot, Dirty Kick - Delivers a swift kick to a certain weak point that stuns the target for 4 seconds and deals damage., and Tendon Blast by 4. While the reduction to the cost of Dirty Kick - Delivers a swift kick to a certain weak point that stuns the target for 4 seconds and deals damage. and Tendon Blast are nice, the meat here is the reduction on Vital Shot.

Tier 2

Keep Cool (2/2) Situational - Cool Head now instantly restores 16 additional energy. This allows Cool Head restore two-thirds of your energy bar in 3 seconds. I prefer this skill over the additional 4% critical chance from No Holds Barred, but if critical chance proves to be very strong, this may change.


D. Dirty Fighting Tree

Tier 1

No Holds Barred (3/3) Situational - Gives 2% ranged and tech critical chance per point, with a maximum of 6% for all 3 points. If critical chance ends up being very strong, you will want to put 3 points here for sure.

Holdout Defense (2/2) Must Have - Increases the damage dealt by Blaster Whip by 10%. A substantial damage increase to a frequently used ability? Yes please.





A. Single Target DPS

Priority List
Cool Head
Pugnacity
Vital Shot
Shoot First (Flechette Round)
Back Blast (Flechette Round)
Blaster Whip
Sucker Punch
Flurry of Bolts

Discussion

While it looks like a lot to think about, it is actually pretty straight forward. All this means is that you want to use Cool Head every time it comes off of cooldown so that you are getting the maximum amount of Energy regeneration from the ability. You only need to deal with Cool Head once every 2 minutes, so it isn't something you will be constantly thinking about.

The next ability is Pugnacity. Pugnacity, with skills, gives you 1.5 energy per second for the cost of 1 stack of Upper Hand every 45 seconds with a 35 second cooldown. This gives you a 10 second window where you can refresh Pugnacity and maintain your bonus regen. You should be aiming for 100% uptime on Pugnacity.

The next two abilities revolve around keeping two important debuffs on your target. Vital Shot is both a potent DoT as well as a bleed. Your Turn the Tables skill gives you 3% increased damage to bleeding targets, so having a bleed up on your target is very important. Having 100% uptime on Vital Shot is optimal.

You also need to keep the 50% Armor Penetration debuff from Flechette Round on your target. The two ways to do that are through Back Blast and Shoot First. At the start of the fight and anytime your Disappearing Act is up, you will want to use Shoot First to apply the debuff. Every other time, you will want to use Back Blast. The armor debuff lasts for 15 seconds and Back Blast has only a 9 second cooldown, so you should have no issues keeping this up 100% of the time.

Now that you have the mindset of using Cool Head every time it comes up as well as keeping 100% uptime on Pugnacity, Vital Shot, and Flechette Round we can worry about our other abilities Blaster Whip, Sucker Punch, and Flurry of Bolts.

You will want to alternate between using Sucker Punch and Blaster Whip to make sure you remain at 2 stacks of Upper Hand for as long as possible. Assuming you have 2 stacks of Upper Hand, you will want to first use Sucker Punch and then follow it up with Blaster Whip to get back up to 2 stacks. This is not going to be set in stone (you will have to watch for Flying Fists procs and react accordingly) but remember that the goal is to use Blaster Whip and Sucker Punch as much as Energy allows you to.

The last ability you will utilize is Flurry of Bolts. This serves as your filler ability and you will use it while you are waiting on Energy to regenerate. Remember that your other abilities will do a good deal more damage, but using Flurry of Bolts is much better than doing nothing at all.

B. Area of Effect DPS

Priority List
Cool Head
Pugnacity
Blaster Whip
XS Freighter Flyby
Blaster Volley

Discussion
In an AoE situation, things are actually a lot simpler. You will still want to use Cool Head on cooldown and keep Pugnacity running, but you will instead alternate between using Blaster Whip and Blaster Volley for most of your sustained damage. You will also want to start out any large AoE period with XS Freighter Flyby as it does a good amount of damage to every single enemy it hits.




I want to thank everyone in Nexus, especially my fellow Smuggler Smeigz (even though he is a dirty Gunslinger) for our in depth discussions that helped me gather my thoughts for the guide. If you liked this guide, you should also check out some of the other Nexus guides listed below:

Smuggler Gunslinger (PVE End Game Guideline) by Smiegz
Crazy Woßß's Sawbones Field Guide by Wobb
Dr. Wobb's Combat Medic Guide by Wobb
Jedi Seer (PvE End Game Focus) by Wobb
PvE focused Balance Guide by Wobb
How to Watchmen (PvE support Specialist) by Wobb





12/10/11 - Version 1.0 Posted.