SWTOR 3.0 Scoundrel DPS guide written by Raulos.
Contents
Although it will take some time to see how the overall class balance ends up, Scoundrel DPS is probably slightly weaker now relative to the other classes, although it plays somewhat similar to its previous iterations across both Disciplines. The most difficult part of Scoundrel DPS in 3.0 is that ranged classes and/or Bounty Hunters are particularly strong for all fights, and almost every other melee DPS brings a bit better utility. Off healing is objectively weaker for Scoundrels than in 2.x, while stealth rez is just as relevant. However it is slightly harder to stealth rez in the average 3.0 fight, in my view. While Scoundrel DPS will be viable, only very strong players will easily keep up with other classes on difficult fights in Hardmode/Nightmare. However, I find it still very rewarding to play.
Also, while Scoundrel DPS have always been used to limited AOE, long time players of Scoundrel DPS will have to get used to the slight reduction in moveset. Sabotage Charge and Freighter Flyby are no longer available for any Disciplines and Shoot First has been rolled into Backblast/Point Blank Shot. There are a few more Discipline specific changes that will be described shortly.
The biggest change in some sense is that Upper Hand (UH) no longer gives any damage or healing bonus to Scoundrels. So not only should you feel free to use up all of your UH stacks, but you should be encouraged to, when possible, as the optimal choice of filler. This reduces some of the skill in holding a UH stack at all times, but may increase skill in that it opens a few opportunities for more energy intensive choices in the rotation since you do not need to always Flurry of Bolts (basic attack) just to hold onto 1 UH. Flurry of Bolts instead is used purely for energy management. While the total number of UH will always be limited by Blaster Whip/Bludgeon and Backblast (from stealth), it could be advantageous to use all of the UHs upfront, leaving fewer for the next block in the rotation. It depends if you have to target swap, or reapply DoTs, etc.
Also Scoundrels now have Stack the Deck which provides a 10% flat Critical Rating bonus to the entire raid for 10 seconds. While this is arguably not the best of the offensive raid bonuses, at least it’s something. In addition, since it only costs one UH (and 0 energy!), it is a very minor DPS loss so use freely. I even use it in some parses by simply using Pugnacity to gain an extra UH in the opener.
While there are strong indications that Scrapper is slightly weaker sustained single target DPS than Ruffian in 3.0, Scrapper is viable on most fights in Hardmode, although I frequently recommend Ruffian since any target switching is less important than overall DPS in at least half of the fights. Scrapper remains one of the premier burst specs and has better control with skills like Blood Boiler, a version of Shoot First that can be used on cooldown. Also, Flechette Round has been removed as an active ability from Scrapper and made into a passive. This has the bonus of simplifying the use of Flechette Round (since you can no longer pre-load it before phases to conserve energy, and generally don’t have to think about it at all). At the same time, Shoot First is now Backblast (when used from stealth), so there is no concern about how to time Shoot First in order to be able to afford it.
Note that Bludgeon now replaces Blaster Whip, offering slightly more damage. Apart from this, Scrapper’s new move in 3.0 is Blood Boiler, although it can be viewed as a replacement to Explosive Probe which has been removed for all Scoundrels. Blood Boiler is placed on a target and remains for a number of seconds until triggered by a DoT tick (Flechette Round or Vital Shot). This move is particularly useful because it also counts a periodic effect itself, which allows you to use the UH regrant from the Round Two talent without Flechette Round or Vital Shot at all. While you will most likely aim to have either Flechette Round or Vital Shot on the target, full uptime on Vital Shot while using Blood Boiler on cooldown is very difficult on energy. This gives you a way to continue using 2 Sucker Punches every other Bludgeon no matter what happens.
One of the major downsides to Scrapper is that the strict 4m range with little AOE is punishing on some fights, since most other classes have either more range options, more AOE, or both. However, Scrapper still has essentially everything that made it fun and useful before, it is just a bit weaker in relative terms compared to the other options available in 3.0.
The biggest difference for Ruffian in 3.0 is that it is now a completely viable Discipline DPS wise and in full 198 gear, I expect it to be competitive with other high-end DoT specs like Assault Vanguard and Watchman Sentinel. Whereas in 2.x, Ruffian Scoundrel was one of the weakest specs, this is simply no longer the case. The primary proc, Unfair Advantage, which makes the next Brutal Shots (formerly Wounding Shots) regrant UH and cost no energy, now is guaranteed from Blaster Whip once every 10 seconds. Period. That major source of RNG is gone which makes for a much more consistent rotation and higher DPS overall. However, energy regen from DoT crits is still one source of RNG and slightly affects the rotation.
Ruffian did not get a new move in 3.0, but rather one of the “replacement” moves. Point Blank Shot replaces Backblast and not only functions in the exact same way for the same cost, but provides higher damage which comes in the form of some kinetic damage and internal damage regardless of stealth. This is in opposition to Backblast which is only kinetic damage unless used from stealth. Point Blank Shot can also be used from any direction unlike Backblast, which makes Ruffian entirely independent of position. In other words, Scrapper is the only positional Discipline for Scoundrel DPS now.
The only other major changes are that both DoTs are 24 seconds, which is a refreshingly long duration, as well as the changes to Sanguinary Shot (formerly Hemorrhaging Blast). Like for the Dirty Fighting Gunslinger’s Hemorrhaging Blast, Sanguinary Shot no longer consists of stacks on the target which are consumed by DoTs or Brutal Shots. Instead, Sanguinary Shot provides a 10 second debuff on the target in which any additional DoTs or Brutal Shots on the target will proc extra weapon damage. In addition, Sanguinary Shot now grants a UH, making it a very effective replacement for Blaster Whip if Unfair Advantage’s internal cooldown has not expired.
The consistent Unfair Advantage proc, together with the reduced cost of Point Blank Shot, which is also a slightly more important filler than in 2.x, makes energy management extremely generous in this Discipline. In a very good parse, you will find that you hardly have to use Flurry of Bolts at all.
Compared to some other classes, the best PvE Scoundrel DPS utilities change very little from fight to fight. The bolded utilities indicate those which I believe have primary preference.
Skillful
Masterful
Heroic
Skillful utilities: Smuggled Get-up is a must. Scar Tissue is also nice for survivability. Let Loose is not that useful since Blaster Volley is hard to use and AOE is not a big source of damage for Scoundrels, but in certain cases, such as on Revanite Commanders or ToS trash, you might find it powerful. Otherwise, I usually prefer either Holdout Defense or Sneaky for movement speed bonuses. I tend to find Holdout Defense slightly better since I prefer more movement speed for a shorter duration rather than a small amount of increase all the time, especially since I have Scamper for movement if I am away from any targets.
Masterful utilities: Both Keep Cool and Flee the Scene are essential for maximum DPS. In very limited scenarios, I could see taking Med Shield instead.
Heroic utilities: Generally I find Surprise Comeback and Hotwired Defenses to be the superior option, although like many others, I’m not much of a fan of using Pugnacity as a defensive cooldown since it is a somewhat important offensive one as well. However, in a pinch, or for fights with large predictable hits, Pugnacity is still excellent for being a lot more survivable. If you’re a Scrapper Scoundrel, this is slightly less important since it would only be used for general defensive capacity in a burn situation; Scrapper Scoundrels have Scamper for any predictable damage. Note Smuggled Defenses could also be an acceptable choice, but the reduction on Shield Probe cooldown is the only truly useful PvE aspect, so I’d rather have stronger defensives than a slightly more frequent one. Note that while Scramble is very good (and I might take it for some fights), it requires a lot of consistent damage, as well as an actual use for Dodge, in order to be useful.
The old set bonuses for Scoundrel are not that great, so I recommend that you upgrade as soon as possible to the full new 6 piece.
Old 2 piece (+15% crit bonus to Blaster Whip): While Ruffian Scoundrels can still use the critical bonus to Blaster Whip, Blaster Whip is a relatively low amount of damage for that Discipline. For 192 gear, Ruffian Scoundrels could easily justify keeping this. However, 198 gear not only gives a significant stat upgrade but the 6 piece bonus is not too bad, so I recommend upgrading by then. On the other hand, Scrapper Scoundrels use Bludgeon, not Blaster Whip, so they do not benefit at all, and should upgrade immediately without question.
Old 4 piece (+5 energy): Scoundrels can still benefit from a bonus like this for energy management, especially in Scrapper. However, this is useless in Ruffian, which does not need it. In addition, -2 energy off Backblast/Point Blank Shot from the new 4 piece is a much stronger benefit in my opinion, so there’s no reason to keep the old 4 piece.
Bludgeon (Blu): Generates a stack of Upper Hand and deals a modest amount of damage. The total damage is slightly less than Sucker Punch and a moderate amount lower than Backblast. The main purpose of this move is generate UHs so that you can spend them on Sucker Punch. 6 second cooldown, replaces Blaster Whip and costs 15 energy.
Sucker Punch (SP): Sucker Punch is your primary, powerful filler attack. No cooldown, costs a UH and 10 energy but regrants 2.
Backblast (BB): Backblast is a strong ability that does a slightly more damage compared to Sucker Punch when Collateral Strike from Sucker Punch and the Flechette Round DoT from Backblast are factored in. However, the most important aspect of Backblast is the 30% armor penetration buff provided which lasts for 15 seconds. Note the cooldown is slightly less than the duration of this buff, so while you want to try to use Backblast consistently on cooldown, you can technically let it slide up to two extra GCDs. 12 second cooldown, costs 10 energy (8 with new 4 piece Enforcer’s set bonus).
Blood Boiler (Blood): Blood Boiler can be placed on a target and left on for up to 15 seconds. Upon periodic damage on the target, it explodes for massive damage (buffed by +35% surge and +5% damage bonus). This move counts as a periodic effect for UH regrant from Sucker Punch. It can be viewed either a replacement to Explosive Probe or a frontloaded, slightly more powerful version of Vital Shot. Note it is available every 18 seconds like Vital Shot so this is a reasonable comparison. 18 second cooldown, costs 15 energy.
Vital Shot (VS): A strong DoT, Vital Shot is relatively expensive to use in comparison to mainstays like Backblast and Sucker Punch, but should be worked in as often as energy allows. It also provides the easiest means of forcing a UH regrant when Sucker Punch is used, since this is the longest DoT available to put on a target. No cooldown, 18s duration, 15 energy.
Shank Shot (SS): Essentially a stronger version of your basic attack that can only be used from melee range (4m), Shank Shot has a relatively short cooldown so it can be rotated in for Flurry of Bolts every 2 or 3 times. 15 second cooldown, 0 energy.
Flurry of Bolts (FoB): Heat management is rather tight in Scrapper when it is played aggressively so use Flurry of Bolts whenever you need to recover energy and/or all your key moves with cooldowns (Bludgeon, Backblast, Blood Boiler) are not available. No cooldown, 0 energy.
Quick Shot (QS): Extremely situational for Scrapper players in PvE, Quick Shot consumes 15 energy but can be used at 10 meters. This provides a viable ranged alternative to Flurry of Bolts that does significantly more damage. It can also be used in place of Backblast if you have a good amount of energy but cannot get behind the target for whatever reason. Use sparingly, but use it. No cooldown, 15 energy.
Pugnacity: Grants an extra UH and more importantly in 3.0, an Alacrity boost of 10% for 10 seconds. It’s essentially your own personal version of the Merc alacrity buff on a much shorter VS. Yes, a flat 20% alacrity boost when combined with that in a raid! This can be specced via Heroic utility to additionally provide healing and damage reduction for the duration. 2 minute cooldown.
Cool Head (CH): Regrants 50 energy over 3 seconds (ideally 65 with the Masterful utility). You should attempt to stop using your basic attack and play aggressively shortly before this comes off cooldown so that you use as much energy as possible to push your DPS higher. 2 minute cooldown.
Disappearing Act: Immediately forces you to exit combat and drastically increases your stealth level for 10 seconds. This should be used almost exactly on cooldown in order to maximize DPS (use right before Backblast/Point Blank Shot which have significantly increased damage when used from stealth). 2 minute cooldown (1 minute 30 seconds with Masterful talent).
As the unbearable torrent of your pistol whips and punches bears down on the enemy, you move forward with a certain quickness in your step, anticipating your next move. You stealth out of combat, one hand around your blaster, moving around behind him and opening fire with a terrific Shoot First. The combined effect of your Vital Shot and Flechette Round now tick away at him, pressing the assault even in between rapid melee hits. The worst is yet to come. Reaching into your pocket, you inject Blood Boiler into your opponent’s bloodstream with your wrist device. He squirms with discomfort, and you take advantage of the opportunity to punch him in the gut. Then your Blood Boiler reacts with your bleeds and he explodes. Yeah, that’s burst.
In Scrapper, the priority is still to maximize Sucker Punch hits, especially since you grant extra damage from Collateral Strike every single Sucker Punch. This is accomplished by using Bludgeon and Dissapearing Act + Backblast as often as possible to generate UHs, as well as spending all UHs in order to not cap out. After that, your priorities are to use Blood Boiler on cooldown (for massive damage given +35% surge and high base power), maintain the Flechette Round buff for +30% armor penetration, and to finally use Vital Shot if you have the spare energy.
Opener
Attack Adrenal + BB -> Blood -> Blu + Stack the Deck -> SP -> SP + Pugnacity -> SP -> Blu ->
SP -> Dissapearing Act + BB -> SP -> Blu -> VS -> SP -> SP -> Blood -> Blu -> BB -> SS -> SP -> Blu -> SP -> SP -> VS -> Blu
General
Some people like to think of Scrapper in terms of a bunch of fixed block possibilities which you rotate between. It’s possible to analyze the spec this way but I prefer to think in 6 second generic blocks, and within that, work from a priority system. This is superior for a real raid too since it gives you more flexibility. You don’t panic if your Backblast isn’t in, say, the 2nd of the three filler slots every single time. Feel free to work out a particular fixed rotation for maximizing dummy parses (e.g. minimizing any conflict between Bludgeon, Backblast, and Blood Boiler) since this spec has no RNG.
The generic 6 second block is motivated based on the status of Bludgeon as your primary UH generator and its 6 second cooldown.
SB -> Filler -> Filler -> Filler
This is repeated over and over, leaving us merely with the choice of Filler. I use this priority system:
Note that if you end up at 2 UHs, do not just hit Bludgeon. Always extend your window to include a fourth “Filler”, and make that filler Sucker Punch. This does happen very easily and I don’t worry about it; this is a minor error at best. However, hopefully you are not somehow at 2 UHs with your Sucker Punch UH regrant also available. That is a significant error since it causes Bludgeon to be delayed by 2 GCDs since you must include both a fourth AND a fifth “Filler”, which will both be Sucker Punch.
Dissapearing Act
There is one more thing to talk about which is how to use Dissapearing Act to stealth out and gain the damage boost from a stealthed Backblast. Unlike Shoot First from 2.x, the energy cost of performing this manuever is absolutely zero compared to your normal rotation. Therefore, it isn’t hard to do, but there are two things to be wary of:
1) Make sure you spend all your UHs on Sucker Punch in the window before this is due to occur, so that you can use Dissapearing Act + Backblast and then a Bludgeon. You don’t want to start delaying Bludgeon just because you gained a UH from a stealthed Backblast and then capped out with 2 UHs. Otherwise, you’re losing some of the potential DPS gain from the extra UH.
2) If Dissapearing Act is 1 GCD away when Backblast is available, I like to delay Backblast to use it immediately with Dissapearing Act and thus get Dissapearing Act on cooldown earlier. Definitely do not delay Backblast more than this since it’s a very minor benefit. If you are uncomfortable doing this, it’s not at all terrible to just wait another 12 seconds for your next Backblast.
Pugnacity
The best use of Pugnacity is as follows: run down your UHs to 0 in prior windows, and then do something like Bludgeon + Pugnacity to reset to 2 UHs. This gives you plenty of time to make sure you’re at 1 UH by your next Bludgeon. If you use Pugnacity only a GCD before Bludgeon, and you realize you need to use, say, Blood Boiler, you’re going to delay Bludgeon without question.
Pugnacity can also be thought of dynamically in terms of Sucker Punches. In such case, it should be used either for a third Sucker Punch in a window (Sucker Punch -> Sucker Punch + Pugnacity -> Sucker Punch) with two Sucker Punches or more commonly, a second Sucker Punch in a window with a single Sucker Punch (Filler -> Sucker Punch + Pugnacity -> Sucker Punch). Be wary not to try to use it if you have a window with both Backblast and Blood Boiler, since this forces you to delay Bludgeon.
Cool Head
Cool Head usage is very simple in this spec. It’s not hard at all to run your energy down below 60 and there is no RNG factored in. So when you see 10-15 seconds left before Cool Head, stop using Flurry of Bolts, and possibly abandon Shank Shot as well, favoring Vital Shot and more Sucker Punches instead. Use Cool Head at around 35 energy for maximum benefit. Recall the extra 15 energy from the Masterful utility is restored immediately, followed by 50 energy over 3 seconds. So if used immediately when the GCD is triggered, you will regain 40 energy by the time you activate your next ability. Approximately 75 energy is sufficient for any move you wish to use in Scrapper without dipping back below 60.
Scrapper is a very good spec for target swapping, but it’s still important to review the practice of it. Where possible, you ought to swap targets on Backblast, so that you can immediately benefit from the Flechette Round. 3.0 gives us a new possibility, however. If you swap on Blood Boiler, you add a significant amount of burst and Sucker Punch will now regrant UH under Blood Boiler, not only Flechette Round and Vital Shot. So this gives you a lot you can do after putting on Blood Boiler, and usually Backblast will follow only a few GCDs later to detonate it. If neither of these is immediately available, consider if the target swapping is urgent. If it is, swap anyway and make the best of it, continuing to use UHs on Sucker Punch between Bludgeons and wait for Backblast or Blood Boiler, at which point you may want to swap back to your main target, or continue on your new target using those moves. If it’s not urgent, you can just wait until you have Backblast or Blood Boiler available.
A bit more theory: if you just used Backblast a GCD or two ago, and Blood Boiler is available, you can actually open with Vital Shot -> Blood Boiler on your new target, then continue your rotation, most likely with something like Shank Shot -> Sucker Punch -> Bludgeon -> Sucker Punch -> Sucker Punch. Since Vital Shot + Blood Boiler is an expensive combination, you have to be careful with this one and make sure you will at least get some uptime on your new target.
If you choose to play Scrapper in a raid, Slippery Devil is an excellent talent. It mitigates all incoming damage for 1.5 seconds after using Scamper. Remember every time you do this that it costs you a GCD to Scamper so it will slightly lower your DPS, but this talent is one of the primary reasons to play Scrapper other than the high burst and target swapping capacity. Here is a list of some places that you might consider using it:
I don’t have any real gear yet for my Scoundrel in 3.0 so take the overall parse number with a grain of salt. I’ll update this section if I can when I get a full amount of 192 or 198 gear for DPS. My current gear is old set bonuses (which are virtually useless) with all 186s and 198 offhand. The highest amount of your damage should always be Sucker Punch (Laceration), followed by almost all of the rest of your abilities at 10-20% a piece. One thing to pay attention to in particular is how many Flurry of Bolts (Rifle Shot) used in relation to Shank Shots (Crippling Slice). Very good parses will have a high ratio of Shank Shot to Flurry of Bolts. My ratio is 1:1 in this parse which is definitely worse than it ought to be, however I used this parse since everything else fell out mostly correctly and the corresponding video was a good representation of the spec overall.
Note at the time of writing this guide, Ruffian Scoundrel is bugged to hit for 5 ticks of Sanguinary Shot (Toxic Blast) per Brutal Shots (Corrosive Assault), as opposed to the likely correct value of 3 ticks that the Operative receives. This has been reported to Bioware and will either be patched to bring the Ruffian down or bring Lethality up. Hopefully it will be the latter, since buffing Lethality like that will bring its single target DPS closer in line with where it should be. Until then, Concealment and Lethality do virtually identical DPS for Operatives, but this is not the case for Scoundrels.
Ruffian has undergone a number of changes including:
Blaster Whip (S): Generates a stack of Upper Hand and deals a modest amount of damage. The total damage is significantly less than Brutal Shots and Point Blank Shot. The main purpose of this move is generate UHs so that you can spend them on Brutal Shots. In addition, every 10 seconds you can use it to proc Unfair Advantage, which causes your next Brutal Shots to immediately regrant a UH and cost no energy. This significantly helps DPS by essentially providing more UHs and aiding greatly with energy management. 6 second cooldown and costs 15 energy.
Brutal Shots (BS): This is your primary UH spender and filler in the Ruffian rotation. It deals a moderate amount weapon damage, plus additional internal damage hits for each bleed on the target. This means that if both Vital Shot and Shrap Bomb are up, this move will deal three separate hits to the target for a combined large amount of damage. No cooldown, costs 15 energy (0 with Unfair Advantage) and 1 UH.
Sanguinary Shot (SS): Sanguinary Shot grants a UH and puts a 10 second debuff on the target which causes all periodic damage effects (Vital Shot, Shrap Bomb, and Brutal Shots) to tick for extra damage when used. Note this does not actually buff those moves but counts as a different category of damage (Sanguinary Shot damage). So this can be thought of as its own DoT. Note this works a little different from Weakening Blast in Rise of the Hutt Cartel. 15 second cooldown, costs 0 energy.
Point Blank Shot (PBS): Deals a large amount of damage split between kinetic and internal damage, with more damage if performed from stealth. Additionally, it triggers Cheap Shots, a talent which buffs all damage from your Vital Shot and Shrap Bomb for 20% on all targets for 6 seconds. Replaces Backblast, 12 second cooldown and costs 10 heat (8 with 4 piece Enforcer’s set bonus).
Vital Shot (VS): The stronger of the two primary DoTs, Vital Shot is single target only and more expensive than its cousin Shrap Bomb. However, in Ruffian spec it has a 6 second longer duration. Vital Shot can also be spread by Blaster Volley to multiple targets. No cooldown, 24s duration, 15 energy. No cooldown, 24s duration, costs 15 heat.
Shrap Bomb (SB): The weaker of the primary dots, Shrap Bomb not only applies the assailable debuff but also functions as a 5 meter AOE. No cooldown, 24s duration, costs 10 heat.
Flurry of Bolts (FoB): Heat management is fairly easy in Ruffian since the Unfair Advantage proc offers a free Brutal Shots every 10 seconds, 2 energy is regranted for every dot crit, Point Blank Shot has a very low cost with the set bonus, and Sanguinary Shot still costs 0 energy and additionally grants a UH. However, you will still need to occasionally fill with Flurry of Bolts if there is nothing to do but you cannot afford Quick Shot (see below). No cooldown and 0 energy.
Quick Shot (QS): Since Ruffian does not have a new filler move like Shank Shot, this is the main energy-consuming higher damage alternative to your basic attack (Flurry of Bolts), although it only has a 10 meter range. Use this whenever Point Blank Shot is not available as filler, but you have plenty of energy (>80 energy). No cooldown, 15 energy.
Pugnacity: Grants an extra UH and more importantly in 3.0, an Alacrity boost of 10% for 10 seconds. It’s essentially your own personal version of the Merc alacrity buff on a much shorter VS. Yes, a flat 20% alacrity boost when combined with that in a raid! This can be specced via Heroic utility to additionally provide healing and damage reduction for the duration. Also, this ability regrants 10 energy in Ruffian spec so it should be used roughly when at 85 energy or below together with an energy-consuming ability (typically Brutal Shots). 2 minute cooldown.
Cool Head (CH): Regrants 50 energy over 3 seconds (ideally 65 with the Masterful utility). In Ruffian, this has a reduced cooldown by 15 seconds. You should attempt to stop using your basic attack and play aggressively shortly before this comes off cooldown so that you use as much energy as possible to push your DPS higher. 1 minute 45 second cooldown.
Disappearing Act: Immediately forces you to exit combat and drastically increases your stealth level for 10 seconds. This should be used almost exactly on cooldown in order to maximize DPS (use right before Backblast/Point Blank Shot which have significantly increased damage when used from stealth). 2 minute cooldown (1 minute 30 seconds with Masterful talent).
At first the enemy laughs. You’re barely dealing 2000 DPS. The Tactics Vanguard next to you has already pulled aggro from the main tank. You’re not just at the bottom of the DPS board, some of the tanks and healers may be beating you too. But then your multiple bleeds, now lingering, eat away at your opponent, slowly suffocating him as his life drains away. You swing your pistol around and it connects, first once, then you open fire, and all of your bleeds begin to cripple him further. Your Sanguinary Shot begins to tick away now too, essentially doubling the impact of your bleeds for the next ten seconds. Just when the magnitude of this barrage is setting in, you unleash multiple Brutal Shots, dealing massive burst damage for each of your bleeds on the target. Now you’re in business. Sound fun? Read on.
In order to do maximum damage in Ruffian, your goal is to maintain both primary DoTs (Vital Shot and Shrap Bomb) and use Sanguinary Shot on cooldown to add an extra bleed from your DoT and Brutal Shots ticks. Spend UHs with Brutal Shots whenever possible, pushing as many as possible in when Sanguinary Shot is up on the target. You want to ensure that you waste as little time as possible doing anything but Brutal Shots when Sanguinary Shot is active. Also, you need to ensure you work in Blaster Whip at least every 10 seconds to gain a free Brutal Shots and UH regrant. Every other Blaster Whip is guaranteed to gain you this bonus since Blaster Whip is on a 6 second cooldown. Point Blank Shot, Quick Shot, and Flurry of Bolts are fillers which depend on your current energy.
Opener
One difficulty with Ruffian is that there is simply more UH generating ability than you can possibly use up given that you need be reapplying your dots. The following is the standard opener and is the best compromise. Note you can skip using Stack the Deck after the first TB and go right into Attack Adrenal + CA. However, you have plenty of UHs and you miss out on some of the 5% tech damage boost (Susceptible) until you do your first Blaster Whip, so this is not highly recommended.
Full standard opener:
Stealth + PBS -> SB -> VS -> SS + Stack the Deck -> Blaster Whip (Unfair Advantage) + Attack Adrenal ->
BS -> BS + Pugnacity -> BS -> Blaster Whip -> BS + Dissapearing Act -> PBS -> BS ->
Blaster Whip (Unfair Advantage) -> BS -> BS -> SS -> BS -> Blaster Whip -> SB -> VS
This achieves the maximum number of Brutal Shots under Sanguinary Shot, Shrap Bomb, and Vital Shot which in general is the strategy for maximum DPS in this Discipline. We could work in Point Blank Shot on VS or always enforce Blaster Whip on VS (note I delay Blaster Whip by 1-2 GCDs several times in this opener). However, this turns out to be suboptimal, especially in the opener.
From here your first goal is to use up any remaining energy and hit Cool Head (ideally not right at the same time as you use up a Unfair Advantage proc, but you may not have much of a choice). At some point (depending on your RNG with DoT crits), you should be able to push your energy down to around 30 and do this, especially if you work in an Quick Shot or two. When I did this opener it took me awhile to use Cool Head because I had the old 4 piece DPS set bonus (+5 maximum energy). This is one reason that old set bonus is very unnecessary is that it makes it difficult to even run out your energy in the first minute of a parse!
General
Ruffian is best explained via a general priority system on single target. This system is taken directly from KeyboardNinja’s guide on the SWTOR forums and cannot really be improved upon in my opinion.
1) Both DoTs. (If not ticking or about to expire and nothing better is up).
2) Sanguinary Shot (If <2 TA)
3) Stealthed Point Blank Shot. (If >80 energy and 2 TA)
4) Blaster Whip. (If <2 TA)
5) Brutal Shots. (If required to drain UH before Sanguinary Shot or Blaster Whip)
6) Brutal Shots (If Unfair Advantage and <80 energy)
7) Point Blank Shot. (If >80 energy)
8) Brutal Shots.
9) Both DoTs. (If < 3 seconds on duration, 0 UH, and >95 energy)
10) Quick Shot. (If 0 UH and >90 energy and Sanguinary Shot coming off VS)
11) Quick Shot. (If 0 UH and >95 energy)
12) Flurry of Bolts.
Note a few things: there is no case for Sanguinary Shot at 2 UH since you should always get to 1 UH before using Sanguinary Shot. Do not waste UHs since this fundamentally wastes Brutal Shots which is your most damaging move by far. It’s painful, yes, but it’s better to delay Sanguinary Shot. The same goes for Stealthed Point Blank Shot. Don’t do it from 2 UHs!
To maximize DPS, you need to manage UH stacks as well as possible. This is almost all that you should be thinking about when selecting your next move. Know in advance when your Blaster Whip and Sanguinary Shot are coming off cooldown (and also your Dissapearing Act + Point Blank Shot), since these moves generate UHs. Don’t be tempted to squeeze in a random Point Blank Shot if you’re sitting at 1 UH and Blaster Whip/Sanguinary Shot are both coming off VS next GCD. In such case, use Brutal Shots to get to 0 UH stacks, then use Sanguinary Shot, then use Blaster Whip, then Brutal Shots away.
So in other words high DPS = using up UHs as much as possible during the fight. Remember there’s no benefit to sitting at 1 UH anymore! In particular, if Sanguinary Shot is on the target, I will use as many UH’s on Brutal Shots as possible. If Sanguinary Shot will only last 1 more GCD on the target, I’ll even delay Blaster Whip by a GCD if I have a spare UH in order to gain as many Sanguinary Shot ticks as possible. If Sanguinary Shot is not on the target and also you do not have Unfair Advantage for a free Brutal Shots, you can be slightly more conservative with Brutal Shots, since that is a good way to bleed energy. In general, if at 80 energy or less, save your energy on full cost Brutal Shots for the next time Sanguinary Shot is up on the target.
Now for some other general comments, which I’ve organized into sections:
DoT Order
It really doesn’t matter, but I like to use Shrap Bomb first. Note that Shrap Bomb before Vital Shot has the advantage of frontloading your damage debuff (Assailable). Many Ruffian players are simply used to this order from past experience so if you are comfortable the other way around, feel free. This might be worth experimenting with more in the future.
Clipping DoTs
Don’t clip your DoTs. It’s tempting to do so since you want to be focused on maximizing Sanguinary Shot and Brutal Shots, but it’s possible to play this spec without clipping. However:
I do take advantage of the fact that Shrap Bomb ticks immediately. So if I refresh Shrap Bomb after the second to last tick (3 seconds from expiry), it is only the slightest of DPS loss. Sometimes this is the best choice of filler, rather than waiting until exactly when Grenade expires, and then realizing you have 3 other things you need to do, such as refreshing your other DoT and using up UHs. In short, you don’t want to end up refreshing too many DoTs at the same time as you need to be putting a powerful move on cooldown like Sanguinary Shot. This is a strategy that was valid in Ruffian in 2.x and continues to be important.
Other than this case, however, it is very inadvisable to clip DoTs since you flat out lose damage from doing so if you are maintaining your rotation correctly.
Cheap Shots
Point Blank Shot grants a personal buff called Cheap Shots. The Cheap Shots 20% boost to both Vital Shot and Shrap Bomb is a nice bonus. Unfortunately, it only buffs two ticks of each DoT and the gain isn’t enough to justify moving Point Blank Shot up in the priority order. It is worth keeping in mind that it is more important in the execute phase, however, so consider using Point Blank Shot slightly more < 30%. Here’s the theory for that:
Since your DoTs are 15% more powerful in execute range, it is more important to work in Point Blank Shot during execute, since the 20% bonus from Cheap Shots applies as a multiplicative factor. For instance, my base Shrap Bomb does around 850. With either execute or Cheap Shots, it does around 1000 damage. However, with both, it does not just 1150 damage, but around 1250 damage. Also the crits you can get in execute phase are massive: in my current, mostly 186 gear, I have seen Vital Shot and Shrap Bomb hits of up to 2400, and over 2500 with an Attack Adrenal. Recall my base Shrap Bomb is only around 850!
The lone other exception may be in AOE scenarios where you have your DoTs ticking on 3-4+ targets. In such case, it may be worth using Point Blank Shot over an extra Brutal Shots, since Point Blank Shot does good damage inherently, but your DoTs on all targets will be buffed.
Energy Management
Your primary energy management tools are the Unfair Advantage proc (your next Brutal Shots is free instead of 15 energy and regrants the UH that it spends) and Sanguinary Shot (important to use on VS, grants a UH, but also free). Use these liberally. You should be getting a new Unfair Advantage proc every 12-13.5 seconds depending on whether Blaster Whip has to be delayed by a GCD. Sanguinary Shot should be always used on VS every 15 seconds.
You regain 2 energy every time a DoT crits. So running higher crit in your gear helps energy management, but at some point, you don’t need better energy management (and thus Power in your gear benefits you more, as explained in the Gearing section).
Outside of these, you will probably need to use your basic attack (Flurry of Bolts) an average of around twice per minute. If you are using it more often than this, you should work on your rotation.
Quick Shot is an excellent replacement for Flurry of Bolts, but it is as expensive as a regular Brutal Shots (15 energy) and you almost always have something better to do (reapplying DoTs, using up all UHs on Brutal Shots, etc.) So you will likely only use Quick Shot a few times in a parse, if at all. Practice the spec without Quick Shot until you are very comfortable, and then incorporate it in place of a Flurry of Bolts or three. Crits on Quick Shot will definitely benefit your DPS so this is worth working on.
Pugnacity is also available as needed for +10 energy boost. See below.
Pugnacity
The short story: use Pugnacity on cooldown from 0 UHs.
The long story: In practice, within about 10 seconds of Pugnacity becoming available is fine, since it’s hard to get it precisely on cooldown. UH generation is extremely plentiful in Ruffian so it can be difficult to work in Pugnacity naturally without delaying it much. Pugnacity is on a 30 second shorter cooldown so it is available every minute and a half, which is quite often. One particularly good time is if Stack the Deck comes off cooldown, since this provides a good way to burn that extra UH. Pay attention well in advance (15 seconds) of Pugnacity becoming available so that you can try to get to 0 UHs when Pugnacity is available, and then use Blaster Whip or Sanguinary Shot and start spending UHs again.
The alacrity gain from Pugnacity should not affect your rotation.
One nice bonus of Pugnacity in Ruffian is that it grants 10 energy. So if you really plan ahead well, you can sit barely on 60 energy as you pop Pugnacity, meaning you’re sitting at approximately a comfortable 80 energy around when you execute your next move, assuming Pugnacity is used after the previous move, just as the GCD activates.
Cool Head
The short story: use Cool Head on cooldown from about 35 energy.
The long story: It can actually be quite difficult to use Cool Head in this Discipline because you have some RNG with your energy management and you also have fairly substantial energy swings depending on how your Unfair Advantage proc (and in particular, the moment you consume it) aligns with Sanguinary Shot, which costs 0 energy. When you’re around 15 to 20 seconds away from using Cool Head, stop using your basic attack entirely. Since you are pressing as hard as possible and there is very little room for fillers in general in Ruffian, there’s simply not much more you can do. As soon as you reach approximately 35 energy, pop Cool Head and continue your rotation. In practice, you can actually go slightly lower than this on energy (by around 5-10 energy) if you have a Unfair Advantage proc and/or Sanguinary Shot available to prevent falling back below 60 energy while Cool Head regenerates your pool, but I find 30-40 energy is the sweet spot. Never use Cool Head above 40 energy because this is a flat out DPS loss.
Ruffian is not very good at target swapping so your raid leader should keep you on main boss whenever possible. If you really need to target swap in a fight you should consider playing Scrapper. However, if you absolutely must target swap in Ruffian, the ideal moment is 2-3 GCDs before Sanguinary Shot becomes available again and with your next Blaster Whip guaranteed to proc Unfair Advantage. Sanguinary Shot will grant you a 10 second window of extra damage on your new target, and since it costs 0 energy, it helps your energy management which will offset some of the costs of reapplying DoTs. You want to swap just before Sanguinary Shot actually becomes available so that you do not delay Sanguinary Shot while applying DoTs.
Also look for opportunities to DoT spread: it may be possible to Blaster Volley the primary target and new target(s) at the same time, spreading your Vital Shot and dealing some AOE damage. Do this if there are at least 3 distinct targets in your Blaster Volley, otherwise do not bother since it costs you energy and a UH. If you have just used Sanguinary Shot on the primary target and you cannot afford to wait for it again, then you should just apply DoTs to your new target and use Brutal Shots as many times as possible. Fill with Point Blank Shot, Quick Shot, and Flurry of Bolts as usual. By the time you do this, Sanguinary Shot should be up, at which point you can use that to target swap \emph{back} to the primary target.
Note for adds that will be up 12 seconds or less, you may as well not bother at all with this procedure since the DoT damage will be utterly wasted and you will probably not even get a full Sanguinary Shot off. What you can do alternatively is help your raid group by pushing all your direct damage on to the new target. If there are multiple adds, Shrap Bomb and Thermal Grenade, then use Blaster Volley once or twice. If there is only one add, use Blaster Whip, Point Blank Shot, and Quick Shot, tab back to primary target and use your Brutal Shots, and then Blaster Whip again on the secondary target.
Some of the details of this will depend on how urgent it is to kill an add. Note that if it is very urgent you may just have to spam whatever is available (again skipping Sanguinary Shot if uptime is < 12 seconds). This is sort of a waste but can be done in a pinch.
Scurry is one of the best off-heals in the game so you should know how to use it. Scurry makes your next Kolto Infusion after using Scamper activate instantly with no energy or UH cost. The internal cooldown on this effect is 10 seconds. This is as powerful as the Sage/Sorcerer ability to bubble people, but even better since you don’t even have to worry about conflicting with the healer, and it has the potential to do better than a bubble with crits.
The best time to use Scurry is when rolling between targets if you do not have to use GCDs to reapply DoTs. Even if you do, you should consider using it if the raid is severely low on health and/or your healers are not very strong. It will lower your DPS since it costs a GCD, but you should be willing to sacrifice a little DPS sometimes in a pinch. Remember though that the raid sometimes gets lower on HP, even with good healers, so don’t waste GCDs in a panic off-healing. Only use when it’s crucial or if you have a spare GCD where you’re not within 10 meters of your primary target.
Scurry is also a good way to self-heal if separated from your healers.
I don’t have any real gear yet for my Operative in 3.0 so take the overall parse number with a grain of salt. I’ll update this section if I can when I get a full amount of 192 or 198 gear for DPS. My current gear is old set bonuses (which are virtually useless) with all 186s and 198 offhand.
Notice how much damage comes from Brutal Shots (Corrosive Assault), followed by Sanguinary Shot (Toxic Blast) (ignore my high Blaster Whip amount – this comes from old 15% crit set bonus). Your regular DoT ticks only do a modest amount in comparison, so try to think of your DoTs as a means to an end (high damage from Brutal Shots -> Sanguinary Shot -> Point Blank Shot). Note again that Ruffian Scoundrel will get considerably more Sanguinary Shot (Toxic Blast) ticks than a Lethality Operative Also, the balance of things is slightly off without the new set bonuses since I can afford to use very few overall basic attacks with 105 total energy, but I have to use Point Blank Shot a bit differently since it is more expensive than it ought to be.
In any case: the priority for the parse is to maintain your two DoTs, then maximize Brutal Shots under Sanguinary Shot while using Point Blank Shot as frequently as possible as high-damage filler. Point Blank Shot does not contribute more total DPS than your various other moves like Blaster Whip and your two primary DoTs due to its longer cooldown, but recall that it still has excellent damage per energy (DPE) and buffs your other DoTs via the Cheap Shots talent.
Note: Generally, Ruffian is recommended for extensive single target burns since it has arguably higher sustained DPS when played well. It also has a range and positional advantage over Scrapper. However, Scrapper is fairly strong at target swapping and has a slightly easier rotation to resume if distracted or interrupted.
The Ravagers
Temple of Sacrifice
This guide wouldn’t be complete without very helpful discussions with Thrax (Drop It Like It’s Hoth) and KeyboardNinja (Aisthesis), who helped with perspective on Scrapper and Ruffian, respectively. In addition, KBN has an excellent guide on Ruffian DPS hosted on the SWTOR forums which I have borrowed several major ideas from. Also a special mention to Kesmet and Invinc/Carl, who both originally helped me with Scoundrel DPS in the 2.x content.
I’m Raulos and I’m currently one of the main healers in Zorz, a world progression guild which has achieved most world first clears since the beginning of Dread Fortress Nightmare. In spite of this, I have been playing Scoundrel extensively since prior to 2.0 and I have solid knowledge of all three Disciplines in 3.0. In previous gear cycles, I have held the #1 parses at both Scrapper and Ruffian at different points in time. I have also cleared all previous NiM operations as an Scoundrel DPS.
Please direct any comments or further questions to my forum account (Saenth), or post in the comments below. Thank you!
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