Hey everyone! I thought I'd make a thread about my Gunslinger involving gear, rotations, specs, and etc. If there is anything you'd like to see added to this thread let me know.

This guide is intended for advanced-level endgame Gunslingers. For learning the basics such as abilities or how energy works, please see the MMO-Mechanics Sniper/Gunslinger boards.

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Table of Contents
1.0 : Specs
2.0 : Gearing

1.0 : Specs

1.1 PvE

• Highest DPS Output Under Specific Circumstances: Saboteur 7/36/3
  
  
  
  • Saboteur provides the highest sustained and burst damage out of any Gunslinger spec. However, this is under the condition that Hightail It is used on cooldown in conjunction with Sabotage and at least three Scatter Bombs are hitting the target. Bosses with large hitboxes, like Titan VI in Scum and Villainy, provide ideal circumstances for allowing three to five bombs hit consistently. Due to the situational need of this playstyle, Saboteur is a high risk-big reward spec as a poorly aimed Hightail It could be detrimental to the user's health.
    
  
  
  
• Goopy's Saboteur: Saboteur 7/36/3
  
  
  
  • Sacrifices Aimed Shot penetration and an energy saver for extra survivability. This spec is my personal preference for Flashpoints and certain Operation bosses. While it technically isn't the most powerful due to the loss of Sharp Aim and can be tricky to use at the lack of Hot Pursuit, Ballistic Dampers and Cool Under Pressure add a significant level of survivability on top of Sabotage's heal and the cooldowns it resets. To make the most of this spec, make sure to re-enter cover once in awhile to refresh Ballistic Dampers.
    
  
  
  
• Dirty Fighting/Saboteur Hybrid: Dirty Fighting/Saboteur Hybrid 5/18/23
  
  
  
  • For high movement fights or enemies with small hitboxes, like Olok the Shadow from Scum and Villainy, this spec proves ideal as most of the damage comes from a single casted ability and DoTs. Burst is excellent but energy management can become an issue if mismanaged. However, this spec only out-performs Dirty Fighting with the on-cooldown use of XS Freighter Flyby. If you're missing your Flybys or the majority of the ticks, then I would defer to using Dirty Fighting as you'll produce more single-target DPS with an easier time of managing energy.
    
  
  
  
• Dirty Fighting: Dirty Fighting 5/5/36
  
  
  
  • This is the only build that utilizes the 4-piece PvE set bonus, and it's required to operate the spec at maximum efficiency. Ideally, Hightail It would be used on the boss for the Incendiary Mine damage, but for some encounters it can be saved to assist with mechanics (e.g. rolling through Heirad's Lightning Strike, returning to the group when lost during Dash'Roode, etc.). This spec is fairly flexible allowing the user to shift points from Holdout Defense to Flash Powder and Concussion to anywhere else.
    
  
  
• Highest Single-Target Sharpshooter: Sharpshooter 36/3/7
  
  
  
  • This build is the most effective for encounters involving rapid target swapping with a single-target priority. I highly recommend this spec for Dread Master Styrak as its easy energy management, little setup, and fast casting XS Freighter Flyby make it ideal for this encounter. If you plan to use it outside of certain Operation encounters, like in Flashpoints, dropping a point from Cover Screen for Diversion is acceptable.
    
  
  
• Highest AOE Sharpshooter: Sharpshooter 36/8/2
  
  
  
  • This build doesn't dummy parse as high as 36/3/7, but still gets over 3k DPS and is better for fights that require, or are made easier with, lots of AOE damage from the additional 15% to XS Frieghter Flyby. This build also boasts additional survivability with Cool Under Pressure, however high-movement fights negate that bonus.
    

1.2 PvP

• Goopy's Saboteur: Saboteur  7/36/3
  
  
  
  • This spec highlights survivability without sacrificing much in the way of damage, but loses the energy cushion of Bravado and Hot Pursuit. However, even without these energy shouldn't be an issue. Trip Shot is great utility in general and helps for setting up Hightail It 5+ Scatter Bomb chains.
    

2.0 : Gear

• Goopy's AskMrRobot
  
  
  
  
  • The Wish List shows a Gunslinger's ideal gearing, currently. The Gear tab will update as I get time to modify the page to my current gear progress.
    
  
  
  
  
  
• Set Bonus: Dirty Fighting specs should use the 4-piece PvE set bonus, but all other specs must utilize the 2-piece PvE and 2-piece PvP set bonuses. Despite the lower stats of the PvP armorings, the extra tick on Flyby can add up to be a 70DPS gain including the loss of mainstat from the armorings. The PvP 2-piece and the rotational use of Flyby are what makes Sharpshooter and Hybrid stand in front of the other trees.
  
• Augments: Skill augments are still superior to that of Overkill. Cunning provides a good enough mix of power and critical rating in comparison to just stacking power.
  
• Relics: Currently, the Serendipitous Assault and Boundless Ages relic combination are considered best in slot. However, it is speculated that the Elemental and Internal proccing relic will do more DPS overtime than the Boundless Ages, but they are currently bugged to be both scaling on Force Damage so only the Cerulean Nova can be utilized by Tech users. While DOT relics are powerful, they lack the utility of activated relics as the activated allow the user to determine when and what target to focus the damage on. I'd only recommend DOT relics for fights that are mostly single-target (not a lot of adds) and don't have painful burst sequences (e.g not great for Nightmare Styrak).[/u]
  
• Alacrity: Not recommended in PvE, optional in PvP. Due to the reduction of passive alacrity granted by Black Market Mods in the Dirty Fighting tree, it takes a lot of alacrity to notice a difference, let alone make it worthwhile. For me to notice a change in global cooldowns I had to spec into Black Market Mods (2% passive) and then add almost 300 rating to my gear. Increased energy regen went unnoticed, cast times hardly changed, and global cooldowns just helped to give some more breathing room when executing rotation.
  
• Crit Vs. Power: Power currently trumps critical rating point per point, but arguments have been made for stacking some critical to increase the effects of Fighting Spirit. While this is true, with only 44 critical rating and nearly 3.2k Cunning, I don't notice any energy regen problems when playing hybrid if managed correctly. Personally, I use one critical rating enhancement (57 crit rating at Kell Dragon) as it does produce a noticeable benefit among all specs. Any crit rating below 250 is acceptable.
  
• Accuracy: 100% ranged accuracy/110% tech accuracy is critical in PvE as level 55 bosses now have the ability to resist attacks. However, accuracy does not scale as well at level 55 compared to level 50, so a lot of accuracy is needed to achieve the 100% ranged/110% tech accuracy mark. This is why all my PvE builds have the Sharpshooter passive in the Sharpshooter tree, and don't forget to get a ranged tank to max affection and finish their conversations so you can get the 1% accuracy passive. After passives, you'll need ~450 Accuracy rating to achieve the ideal number. Any ranged accuracy between 99.5% and 100% is ideal. For PvP, accuracy only helps a lot when combating tanks. Due to this, I can't recommended stacking a lot of accuracy for PvP unless you're the designated tank buster.
  

http://swtor.askmrrobot.com/character/2e1f9695-ca53-4447-8458-09606584fe6c

Under Wish List would be what I am aiming for in SS spec.
Except swap gloves and boots with Battlemaster for a better bonus.

Okay, I updated my Wish List this morning as I didn't have time last night. I like how Surge and Accuracy perfectly balance out to 300, the exact amount that is recommended for both. However, I'm debating if 100% accuracy is worth it as it's not very important for Dirty fighting, and having another Surge enhancements ups my Crit Multi by 1.46%, a pretty significant margin. Well, when I get to that point and I can always parse to see if my off-hand missing every now and then is a big deal (doubt it's a noticeable difference).

Also Luna, you could drop another Accuracy enhancement for Surge, it'll leave your accuracy at 99.97% and bump your Surge to nearly 79% on your Wish List gear.

Fluttershy wrote:

Okay, I updated my Wish List this morning as I didn't have time last night. I like how Surge and Accuracy perfectly balance out to 300, the exact amount that is recommended for both. However, I'm debating if 100% accuracy is worth it as it's not very important for Dirty fighting, and having another Surge enhancements ups my Crit Multi by 1.46%, a pretty significant margin. Well, when I get to that point and I can always parse to see if my off-hand missing every now and then is a big deal (doubt it's a noticeable difference).

Also Luna, you could drop another Accuracy enhancement for Surge, it'll leave your accuracy at 99.97% and bump your Surge to nearly 79% on your Wish List gear.

If the ranged part of Wounding Shots misses, do the 2 extra hits not happen?
If so I think the 100% is worth it.

EDIT: I hate missing. I'd rather not see my trickshot/AS miss

crazyBE wrote:

Fluttershy wrote:

Okay, I updated my Wish List this morning as I didn't have time last night. I like how Surge and Accuracy perfectly balance out to 300, the exact amount that is recommended for both. However, I'm debating if 100% accuracy is worth it as it's not very important for Dirty fighting, and having another Surge enhancements ups my Crit Multi by 1.46%, a pretty significant margin. Well, when I get to that point and I can always parse to see if my off-hand missing every now and then is a big deal (doubt it's a noticeable difference).

Also Luna, you could drop another Accuracy enhancement for Surge, it'll leave your accuracy at 99.97% and bump your Surge to nearly 79% on your Wish List gear.

If the ranged part of Wounding Shots misses, do the 2 extra hits not happen?
If so I think the 100% is worth it.

EDIT: I hate missing. I'd rather not see my trickshot/AS miss

I'm not sure, I'd think? Also, a valid reason.

Got a new parse with a rotation I like. Upped my DPS by ~70 points.

http://www.torparse.com/a/109362/time/1359082298/1359082658/0/Overview

I'm not perfect at it yet as I had some extra energy, so there is a little refining to be done still.

A rotation would be useful.

Updated the original post with spec and a video/parse accompany piece. Thinking about adding a Saboteur section next unless someone really wants to see a hybrid addition to the guide.

EDIT: Also, going to test with 100% accuracy and without 100% to see if there is a noticeable difference.

Fluttershy wrote:

Updated the original post with spec and a video/parse accompany piece. Thinking about adding a Saboteur section next unless someone really wants to see a hybrid addition to the guide.

EDIT: Also, going to test with 100% accuracy and without 100% to see if there is a noticeable difference.

You'd have to do a 2 hour parse twice to test whether or not such a small amount of accuracy is worth it and even then you might have gotten lucky or unlucky with hits.

crazyBE wrote:

Fluttershy wrote:

Updated the original post with spec and a video/parse accompany piece. Thinking about adding a Saboteur section next unless someone really wants to see a hybrid addition to the guide.

EDIT: Also, going to test with 100% accuracy and without 100% to see if there is a noticeable difference.

You'd have to do a 2 hour parse twice to test whether or not such a small amount of accuracy is worth it and even then you might have gotten lucky or unlucky with hits.

I know, but I have been thinking about it and 100% accuracy may be worth it seeing how Speed Shot does a greater portion of your DPS as the fight progresses.

This is useful for tracking DOTs
http://www.froyosoft.com/torassistant.php

I will update this post two-four weeks after early access begins with the spec and rotation I feel is overall the best (aka the one I'll be playing). Currently, I am leaning towards Saboteur as it has the highest burst, without question, and it is my preferred tree in terms of playstyle. Depends on any changes they made to the skill trees between closing the PTS and opening early access.

Also, this guide will be marked as out of date until further notice. The new proccing Quickdraw in DF, energy costs of abilities, and stat scaling for crit have made this guide obsolete.

Updated OP with current information. I kept it general as I'm still not sure which spec I'd like to focus on. Outdated info is now housed in this post.

Outdated as of April 9th, 2013

Spoiler:

Updated OP with accurate 2.0 information. If requested I can update the AMR profile, but for now I'd rather not worry about it. Think of this guide as a quick-start guide and brief overview. If you need more details on a spec I'd recommend checking the Gunslinger and Sniper forums on the SWTOR forums as there are great guides for every spec. If you'd rather just get one-on-one help. let me know and I can help you work out the rotation of any spec.