SWTOR 3.0 Sharpshooter Gunslinger Guide by Shulk of Harbinger.
Contents
“Armed with the steely fortitude required to set up the perfect shot, the Sharpshooter is the Gunslinger at its most devious. Aiming from distant cover, the Sharpshooter goes for a devastating opening salvo, following up with vicious trick shots and penetrating rounds, putting a definitive end to the fight they started.” – Sharpshooter Lore 3.0
Sharpshooter in 3.0 has gotten better than its 2.0 iteration. The best target switching spec in the game has been augmented with Penetrating Rounds and Honed Shots. Our single target DPS has improved its sustainability in raids, making us ideal choices in terms of raid compositions. Also, Sweeping Gunfire becomes our best AoE ability to use in add heavy fights with Accurized Blasters and Efficient Ammo (overall utility), putting XS Freighter Flyby in utter shame (hehe).
I follow five areas: DPS, Surviability, Raid Viability, Rotation Difficulty, and Utility. Scores are rated between 1-10 followed by a brief but analytical explanation.(In all areas, 1 being the Worst, 10 being the Best. In Rotation Difficulty, 1 being the Easiest, 10 being the Hardest).
DPS Balancing: 8/10
Explanation: Our DPS balancing has improved from 2.0’s iteration, especially when all changes are centered to augment our single-target rotation specifically. With no more reliance from XS Freighter Flyby and Sabotage Charge, those fillers are replaced by Charged Burst. Charged Burst becomes your 2nd/3rd highest damaging ability in your average parse. Moreover, Penetrating Rounds w/ Armor Sunder bonus is all the more reason Sharpshooter Gunslingers are very viable in a raid setting. It really isn’t better DPS than currently Tactics Vanguard and a Telekinetics Sage, but the target swapping and burst make up for it.
Survivability: 7/10
Explanation: Our survivability relies on cover, Defense Screen, Dodge, Hightail It, and Diversion. Our defensives are somewhat limited compared to other classes’s defensives. Fortunately, some of our defensives are very strong if used efficiently. Defense Screen is used to mitigate moderate damage while Dodge (in cover) is used to mitigate massive spike damage. Hightail It is your anti-mechanic ability. If timed right, you can resist incoming damage 100% of the time. Lastly, Diversion can mitigate some damage from adds that are aggro’d on you for some time.
Raid Viability: 9/10
Explanation: Gunslingers have been heavily prized for raids, and the devs even acknowledge their popularity. With Diversion, Hightail It, and especially Scrambling Field, Gunslingers are perhaps the best ranged DPS to take in most of the raiding scenarios, and this still holds true in 3.0. You’d still almost always want to take one Gunslinger in every progression session.
Rotation Difficulty: 2/10 (for beginners). 6/10 (for advanced)
Explanation: For beginners trying out this spec, Sharpshooter is very simple and straightforward. Anyone learning about this class would almost always try Sharpshooter as their very first spec to pick. Great for leveling, and convenient to use in friendly casual raiding.
For advanced players who seek to maximize the potential of Sharpshooter, it is slightly difficult when it comes to dummy parsing. Players who wish to make a name for themselves in the leaderboards would need to countlessly parse day and night to time their cooldowns (resource, offensive CDs, etc.) right. It isn’t as challenging as a Combat Sentinel but it’s not as faceroll easy as a Balance Sage.
Utility: 9/10
Explanation: All utilities help our Gunslinger become a defensive turret. Some of the utilities are centered around augmenting Hunker Down capabilities with 60% AoE Reduction, 50% Speed Boost, and reduced CD. Other utilities are centered around increasing Shield Probe damage absorption, cover defensives, and Ballistic Dampers. Efficient Ammo is almost a must have to take for Sharpshooter due to AoE talents associated with Sweeping Gunfire.
1.) Bravado: Increases maximum energy by 10.
This is now one of the Gunslinger passives. A nice addition to our resource management.
2.) Steady Shots: Increases the damage dealt by Charged Burst, Dirty Blast, Speed Shot, and Penetrating Rounds by 5%.
A great passive that globally increases our core skills in all of our specs. In this case for Sharpshooter, Charged Burst and Penetrating Rounds get the most benefit.
3.) Hold Position: While in cover, ranged defense is increased by 20%, you cannot be leaped to or pulled, and you are immune to interrupts and ability activation pushback. In addition, Dodge reduces the damage you take from Force and tech attacks by 75% while in cover.
In 3.0, we get some nice QoL buffs for Hold Position. This adds another layer of benefit for Dodge which is all the more reason for a Gunslinger to be in cover at all times within burn phases.
4.) Crack Shot: Increases the range of Quick Shot, Flash Grenade, and Distraction to 30 meters, and additionally increases the range of all blaster, grenade, and charge attacks by 5 meters. In addition, Vital Shot marks its target for 45 seconds. Marked targets take 5% more damage from ranged weapon attacks.
This passive defines the Gunslinger class in a way our abilities can hit 35 meters as opposed to the traditional 30 meters from other classes. It also allows Vital Shot to be used more efficiently because it has a 5% increase in ranged attacks. In Sharpshooter, you will be using Vital Shot a lot in your rotations, so hence this is a better change for this discipline.
5.) Ready for Anything: Upon entering cover, your stealth detection level begins to increase gradually, reaching up to 30 additional levels of stealth detection over the following 30 seconds. This effect ends when you leave cover.
This passive is the best passive for PvP in case you need to track down stealth-based classes in warzones and ranked arena play. In PvE, this is somewhat useless to a degree unless you encounter NPCs with stealth.
1.) Smuggler’s Luck: Increases the critical hit chance of your next Aimed Shot, Sabotage Charge, or Wounding Shots by 100%. Lasts 20 seconds. (Cooldown: 1 minute)
This is one of your core offensive cooldowns in generally your Gunslinger rotations. In this case for Sharpshooter, this buffs Aimed Shot’s critical hit chance by 100%. For this, it is mandatory to pop Smuggler’s Luck before opening up with Aimed Shot in your MAX DPS rotations. With the 6-piece set bonus, Smuggler’s Luck gives your two opportunities to crit Aimed Shot which is definitely a plus.
2.) Illegal Mods: Increases ranged and tech accuracy by 30% and armor penetration by 15% for 10 seconds.
Another great offensive cooldown. Typically, you would only use with in conjunction with Burst Volley (double Penetrating Rounds). With the set bonus, you will have more options to use Illegal Mods in terms of energy management.
3.) Cool Head: Keeps a cool head, recovering 50 energy over 3 seconds.
A resource gain cooldown that lets you gradually gain back 50 energy over time. Very good cooldown in a couple of scenarios:
1.) Defence Screen: Projects a defense field around yourself, which absorbs a moderate amount of incoming damage for 10 seconds. Does not break stealth. (Cooldown: 30 seconds)
This defensive cooldown is great for mitigating small to moderate incoming damage, regardless of any damage type. Only use this when you can predict miniscule damage, and be very efficient with it.
2.) Dodge: Increases your chance to dodge melee and ranged attacks by 200% for 3 seconds. Does not break stealth. (Cooldown: 1 minute)
With Hold Position, Dodge gains the benefit of mitigating Force and tech attacks by 75%. Therefore, it is imperative that you use it only for massive incoming damage as well as staying in cover for maximum potential.
3.) Scrambling Field: Deploys an acquired scrambling field that disrupts the energy signature of conventional weapons. The field spans 10 meters around you, reducing the damage taken by all allies that remain inside by 20%. Lasts 20 seconds. (Cooldown: 3 minutes // 2 minutes 30 seconds if specced into Riot Screen)
Your raid wide cooldown for your operations group. A very situational, but powerful defensive. You would ideally save this for burn phases where damage gradually takes a toll on your group, and making healers’ lives easier.
4.) Hunker Down: Hunkers you down into cover, becoming immune to all controlling effects. Only grants protection while in cover. Lasts 23 seconds (Cooldown: 1 minute // 45 seconds if specced into Lay Low)
Hunker Down is your jack-of-all-trades cooldown with a myriad of utilities to support it. Immune to crowd control, movement-impairing effects, and physics, this cooldown is one of the best defensives a Gunslinger can have. There are plenty of utilities to list from:
Your main threat dropping ability. You would want to use it immediately after you perform your MAX DPS Opening Rotation or if you somehow pull threat from your tanks. Really, don’t be a hero and expect to pull threat from tanks. Use it immediately.
1.) Pulse Detonator: Detonates an emergency charge that knocks all nearby targets back several meters and immobilizes them for 5 seconds. Damage dealt after 2 seconds ends the effect prematurely. Only usable in cover. (Cooldown: 30 seconds)
This is your CC defensive in case you want to escape from all NPCs bunching up on you. Very useful for knocking players and NPCs out of the edge into their own timely deaths.
2.) Flash Grenade: Lobs a flash grenade that blinds the target for 8 seconds. Damage causes this effect to end prematurely. (Cooldown: 1 minute)
Your other CC ability that stuns the target for many moons (unless you damage it of course).
3.) Dirty Kick: Stuns the target for 4 seconds and deals X kinetic damage.
Your "hard" CC stun ability ("Hard" means a stun that persists through damage). In certain PvE situations, this is useful. In PvP, this is one of your core CC abilities you want to save this for burning your opponents in ranked.
4.) Leg Shot: Fires a shot that deals X weapon damage and immobilizes the target for 5 seconds. Direct damage dealt after 2 seconds ends the effect prematurely.
Often times, you want to use this to keep NPCs in place to prevent incoming damage or activating mechanics. This has more better use in PvP.
5.) Hightail It: Roll forward 18 meters, purging movement-slowing effects and landing crouched behind cover. While rolling, your chance to dodge attacks is increased by 100%.
Your anti-mechanic ability which allows you to be invulnerable in a short window of rolling. This has the best of both worlds, both PvE and PvP.
6.) Diversion: Reduces the accuracy by 45% and exposes from cover up to 8 enemies within 8 meters for 8 seconds. Cannot be used on Operation bosses.
Diversion has been buffed to become an AoE utility skill, so this is a welcomed change. In certain raid fights with adds, this is a valued cooldown you need to save. In ranked, you should also save this to prevent incoming burn damage from other opponents.
I have broken down these following utilities into PvE and PvP. Please note that I have no experience in Ranked PvP play, but I am looking in getting into it post 3.0! I invite the experienced PvP Marksmanship Snipers to share their input. Do also note that my rating should not affect the way a player proceeds with the utility tree, but rather consider their choices in PvE and PvP situations.
Skillful
1.) Ballistic Dampers: Entering cover grants 3 charges of Ballistic Dampers. Each charge absorbs 30% of the damage dealt by an incoming attack. This effect cannot occur more than once every 1.5 seconds. Ballistic Dampers can only be gained once every 6 seconds.
This utility has the best use in PvE by adding another layer of defensives in Hold Position. You will have the most use of it in many fights, and some moderate use in PvP.
2.) Snap Shot: Entering cover makes the next Charged Burst or Dirty Blast activate instantly. This effect cannot occur more than once every 6 seconds
This utility is pretty situational. Every six seconds, you have the opportunity to gain an instant Charged Burst which is pretty great if you need to kill of an add or boss quicker in burn phases. However, it’s really not that great of an utility. A misconception is an instant channel ability would lead to a DPS increase. This is pretty wrong. It’s really an APM increase. A Charged Burst takes a GCD to cast the ability regardless, so generally, I sort of undervalue this utility.
Still, with Honed Shots, this is, at the most, good enough reason to take this talent, so I would pretty much take it in most (but not all) scenarios. In PvP, this is a slightly better pick as PvP is all about fast-paced control.
3.) Cover Screen: When exiting cover, you increase your ranged defense by 20% for 6 seconds.
It’s a pretty underwhelming utility. While the bonus to 20% ranged defense is nice outside of cover, it’s really lackluster. There really isn’t much variety to this utility in terms of other damage types. If there was such a thing (like reduces Force and Tech damage for example), I would definitely take it. But, as it stands, it’s pretty useless.
4.) Flash Powder: Reduces target’s accuracy by 20% for 8 seconds after Flash Grenade ends.
This utility has little situational use in PvE, so I won’t go too in-depth on that. In PvP though, this is good in terms of duration and accuracy loss. Combine this with Plan B & C, it’s a decent soft stun to hold in ranked PvP. I would pretty much overvalue this utility, but some professional PvPers may disagree.
5.) Cool Under Pressure: While in cover, you heal for 1% of your total health every 3 seconds.
This utility is pretty much bad. Normally, you would spec into this if the glitch still existed. However, this is a pretty pathetic choice to take. 1% of restoring health every 3 seconds bears nothing in PvE and especially PvP.
6.) Reset Engagement: Slapping a target with Blaster Whip grants Reset Engagement, increasing your movement speed by 50% for 3 seconds. Additionally, the final shot of Speed Shot and Penetrating Rounds knocks back the target if they are within 10 meters.
PvE will see little use with Reset Engagement, so I rated a 3. In PvP though, this is a beastly. Ranked arena is generally about CC control, and this takes the cake. Combine this with Compounding Impact, this is almost mandatory to pick both utilities.
7.) Efficient Ammo: Increases the damage dealt by Sweeping Gunfire by 25%.
With the Sharpshooter talent, you have Accurized Blasters which increases the Critical Hit Chance of Sweeping Gunfire by 15% and increases its critical damage by 30%. This is all the more reason for you to spam it in add phases, even more powerful than XS Freighter Flyby. In PvP, this can be quick good to prevent objective captures in Regs, and some great area of affect control in Ranked Arenas.
Masterful
1.) Heads Up: When Hunker Down ends or you leave cover while Hunker Down is active, you gain Heads Up, which increases your movement speed by 50% and grants immunity to movement impairing effects. Lasts 6 seconds.
In some raid scenarios, this utility will allow you to infinitely abuse the Hunker Down’s duration by cover dancing, and resetting the speed boost duration. A pretty powerful utility in PvE. In PvP, you would certainly want to take this in case you need to escape from your opponents burning you down.
2.) Hotwired Defenses: Increases the amount of damage absorbed by Defense Screen by 30%.
This utility allows Defense Screen to absorb even more damage, so at best, this allows the defensive itself to be used for moderate to slightly high damage. Both in PvE and PvP can benefit from this most of the time, so I would take this talent.
3.) Dirty Trickster: Surrender will also purge all movement-impairing effects when activated.
I see this utility as very weak in PvE, so I will leave it at that. In PvP though, this has some decent use. However, I would argue that Heads Up is a better alternative than Dirty Trickster mainly because that utility can also prevent movement-impairing effects during the duration. Still, I would see some use outside of the Hunker Down’s duration, so pick this one if you want to.
4.) Pandemonium: Activating Pulse Detonator makes the next Charged Burst or Dirty Blast activate instantly.
Wow! This utility is pretty garbage. Again, I want to emphasize that an instant GCD really doesn’t make a difference other than short executes. That being said, I would definitely not touch this talent at all in PvE. Otherwise, why are you picking this Gunslinger class? In PvP, this is slightly better as it synergizes pretty well with other utilities with Pulse Detonator benefits, but still much worse than other PvP utility top picks.
5.) Lay Low: Reduces the cooldown of Hunker Down by 15 seconds and Pulse Detonator knocks targets back an additional 4 meters.
This utility is pretty good both PvE and PvP wise. Hunker Down benefits much with its cooldown reduced by 15 seconds, thus allowing even more uptime of its defensives. PvP gets the added benefit of having Pulse Detonator knock back targets by 4 more meters. Thus, it has a slightly higher rating than PvE, but both can benefit from this utility.
6.) Hot Pursuit: You gain 4 charges of Hot Pursuit upon exiting cover, which reduces the energy cost of Quick Shot by 100%. Each use of Quick Shot consumes 1 charge, and consuming the first charge triggers a 20 second rate-limit on this skill. This effect lasts 15 seconds but is also removed by consuming all charges or reentering cover.
Hot Pursuit is a pretty decent utility, mainly because in damage based boss fights, you would want to take this for better damage than Flurry of Bolts as well as a free 4 Quick Shots. In PvE, this is decent if you want to stay mobile in between boss phases. Outside of that though, I personally believe it’s a waste of space. I would value survivability more than damage in HM/NiM fights for the sake of progression. Still, this is a worthy point to invest in.
In PvP, it has a slightly worse value. I can’t comment much how this can make a big difference in PvP, but this utility is more PvE than PvP.
7.) Trip Shot: Reduces the cooldown of Leg Shot by 3 seconds.
Yet again, this utility see rare uses in PvE scenarios. In PvP, this combined with Kneecappin’ is a decent utility to invest in. Outside of that, Leg Shot is sort of underused than other CCs in PvP.
Heroic
1.) Holed Up: Reduces all area effect damage taken by 60% while Hunker Down is active.
This adds another layer of defensives in Hunker Down, so with 60% AoE damage reduction, healers will laugh at how little of a damage you’re taking within the duration. Both PvE and PvP can benefit from this utility. I think in ranked Arena, AoE is fairly as common as CCs stuns, so this see’s almost a must-have to take this utility.
2.) Riot Screen: Reduces all damage taken while in cover by 6% and reduces the cooldown of Scrambling Field by 30 seconds.
This further augments your defenses while in cover, so another reason why you should remain in cover as often as possible. A reduced cooldown in Scrambling Field is a welcomed plus in PvE and PvP settings.
3.) Kneecappin’: Increases the Trauma duration of Flourish Shot by 8 seconds. In addition, when Leg Shot’s immobilize effect wears off the target’s movement is slowed by 70% for 3 seconds.
Overly useless in PvE, so therefore it has the lowest rating of 1. In PvP though, Flourish Shot is your primary ability to reduce the amount of healing done to a single player. Given that healing has been nerfed post 3.0, Trauma becomes a deadly ability for healers. An additional effect of Leg Shot’s immobilize is welcomed, and combined with Trip Shot, you can continue to immobilize players at a faster rate.
4.) Hold Your Ground: Reduces the cooldown of Escape by 30 seconds, Defense Screen by 4 seconds and Pulse Detonator by 5 seconds.
Somewhat a decent utility for PvE since Escape and Defense Screen are used often in raids. It has even more value in PvP because of Pulse Detonator too. Stun breaks are very valued in ranked, so hence why it has a higher significance than PvE.
5.) Plan B & C: Reduces the cooldown of Dirty Kick and Flash Grenade by 15 seconds.
In PvE, there is rarely enough targets to CC in raids, so I would give it a four. In PvP, this is your go to utility to invest in. You want to have as much stuns and CCs as quickly as possible, so go with this one.
6.) Compounding Impact: Each shot of Speed Shot and Penetrating Rounds snares the target by 20% for 3 seconds. This effect can stack up to 4 times.
Not much use for stacking slows in PvE.
PvP on the other hand, Penetrating Rounds becomes a deadly ability among other players in ranked. The stacking slows that can total up to 80% of movement impairment for 3 seconds means it’s often a guaranteed death sentence for that slowed player. With Reset Engagement, it synergizes very well for knocking the target 10 meters away from you.
7.) Crippling Diversion: Diversion slows all targets by 50% for as long as they remain in the area.
As with other slow-based utilities, not much use in PvE. In PvP, it adds a bonus to Diversion where it slows all targets within its AoE range (like Kolto Bomb). This is very good in regs. In Ranked, it has a even higher value due to the nature of focuses and CCs.
Key Abilities:
1.) Aimed Shot (LEVEL 10) – Fires a high powered shot that deals X weapon damage.
Aimed Shot is officially a Sharpshooter exclusive skill. Pre 3.0, this has been a global skill to use for all three specs. Now, this is (and has been) one of your primary burst skills in Sharpshooter. Nothing has changed on this skill other than the fact that you will be using this as much often as the Pre 3.0 SS rotation. (Cooldown 12 seconds)
2.) Penetrating Rounds (LEVEL 26) – Fires a number of blasts that deal X weapon damage and sunder the target for 45 seconds. Sundered targets have their armor rating reduced by 20%. Consumes 20 Energy over the duration of the channel. Shares a cooldown with Speed Shot. (Cooldown: 12 seconds)
The advanced "Speed Shot" of Gunslingers, except in Sharpshooter only. A 2.0 second base cast over the course of 5 shots fired, an additional Armor Sunder debuff, and a 12 second CD makes this skill very lethal, and very critical to our rotation. Again, nothing has been changed in terms of priority, but this skill is an obviously replacement for Speed Shot.
3.) Trickshot (LEVEL 41) – Fires a wild follow-up shot at the target that deals X weapon damage. Only usable within the 5 seconds immediately following a Charged Burst, Aimed Shot, Quickdraw, or a complete Penetrating Rounds. (Cooldown: 9 seconds)
A powerful filler skill. This is your 2nd highest damaging ability in your optimal rotation.
4.) Burst Volley (LEVEL 57) – Immediately finishes the cooldown of Penetrating Rounds, increases base energy management rate by 2 per second, and increases Alacrity by 10%. Lasts 15 seconds. (Cooldown: 45 seconds)
The top tier talent ability of Sharpshooter. You will use this all the time in terms of offense and resource management.
Key Talents:
**NEW**Accurized Blasters (LEVEL 12 PASSIVE): Increases the critical chance of Sweeping Gunfire by 15% and increases its critical damage by 30%.
With this talent, Sweeping Gunfire becomes your most lethal AoE ability in a Sharpshooter Discipline.
**NEW**Percussive Diversion (LEVEL 24 PASSIVE): Targets affected by Diversion continue to be affected for 3 seconds after leaving area of effect.
A nice bonus to Diversion with Sharpshooter discipline.
**NEW**Honed Shots (LEVEL 59 PASSIVE): Charged Burst grants Honed Shots, increasing the critical hit chance and damage done by Charged Burst by 5% for 20 seconds. Stacks up 3 times.
An excellent talent for Sharpshooter. With this, this is more than enough reason to cast more Charged Bursts in your rotation. Charged Burst also becomes your 2nd highest hitting ability in an average parse. This is the reason why Sharpshooter is like playing Annihilation.
Key Abilities:
1.) Diversion:
Diversion is no longer a Sharpshooter Exclusive Utility skill, and this is a good thing. In add heavy fights, you would almost want to use this to benefit your raid group. I will stress that Diversion is like providing a defensive cooldown most for your tanks, but also for your raid group. With its improved effects that can hit up to multiple targets instead of one and its 45% Accuracy Reduction, Diversion is a very powerful utility skill to use.
2.) Sabotage Charge:
Sabotage Charge used to be our core filler skill where we ideally place this in our Burst Volley windows. With 3.0, this ability is now exclusive to the Saboteur Discipline. Although we lost one of our potentially damaging burst abilities, the void is filled by Charged Burst.
3.) XS Freighter Flyby:
Previously our XS Freighter Flyby was able to be casted in a GCD as well as our second viable filler in our rotations. Now with 3.0, this is (finally) redesigned per BioWare’s Stage 2 plan. With the base cast of 2.0 seconds, a 20 energy cost, a 60 second cooldown, and a slight damage buff, they have done an excellent job in discouraging its single target rotational use. With that said, Sharpshooter is stripped of beneficial XS Freighter Flyby talents (now in the Saboteur Discipline), so we can no longer rely on this skill in our single-target rotations. This void is, yet again, filled by Charged Burst.
4.) Vital Shot
Vital Shot has a global effect where it provides the Marked debuff that makes targets susceptible to ranged attacks by 5%. That being said, you really want to provide this debuff as early as possible, not to mention the decent uptime of damage it provides.
5.) Flourish Shot
Flourish Shot is redesigned where it no longer gives its global armor penetration bonus. Instead, it’s changed to simply reduce the amount of healing by 20%. Honestly, this has much better use in PvP than PvE (which is very rare). With Penetrating Rounds taking care of the Armor Debuff, Flourish Shot officially becomes a useless skill.
Key Talents:
1.) Recoil Control: Firing Charged Burst twice in a row, firing Quickdraw or Aimed Shot once, or completing a Penetrating Rounds now finishes the cooldown on Trickshot.
Recoil Control is changed where it no longer provides the 30% Alacrity increase to Speed Shot. Not really much a worthy noting, but it is a major impact to leveling your Gunslinger to a degree.
2.) Charged Aim: Charged Burst gets your blasters charged up, reducing the activation time of your next Aimed Shot by 0.25 seconds. Stacks up to 2 times.
Previously, Charged Aim reduced the activation time of your next Aimed shot by 0.50 seconds per stack. With 3.0, this reduced the amount of seconds by 50%. However, this isn’t really a nerf considering that Aimed Shot is now a 2 second cast for Sharpshooter, so the change is generally negligible.
Order of Priority from Top to Bottom:
1.) Accuracy:
a.) 777 Accuracy (7 iLVL 192 Initiative/Acute Enhancements)
b.) 710 Accuracy (6 iLVL192 Initiative/Acute Enhancements + 1 iLVL186 Accuracy Augment)
2.) Surge:
*a.) 401 Surge Rating (333 Surge Rating (from 3 iLVL192 Adept/Battle Enhancements + 2 iLVL186 Surge Augments) (71%)
(*Disclaimer: I honestly don’t care about Diminishing Returns graphs. I found this setup worked well for me in terms of parsing and raids.)
b.) 333 Surge Rating (68%)
3.) Critical:
200-350 Critical Rating. I recommend a set up of 2 iLVL192 Battle/Acute Enchancements and 2 Eviscerating Crystals as a good place to start (302 Crit Rating).
4.) Alacrity:
a.) 111 Alacrity
b.) 222 Alacrity
5.) Augments:
a.) All Mainstat (iLVL186 Skill Augments)
*b.) 12 Mainstat + 2 Surge (iLVL186 Skill and Surge Augments)
*The reason I put 2 Surge Augments is because nearly all of your abilities will Crit half the time (Honed Shots Critical Bonus from Snipe, Laze Target Critical Bonus from Ambush, and Headshot Critical Bonus from Penetrating Blasts). I feel that the extra 108 Cunning is negligible at this point, so I swapped to 2 Surge Augments which boosted my critical damage bonuses from 68% to 71%. Through testing, I found better results than going all mainstat, so I highly recommend going with this route. Otherwise, if you truly value every Mainstat, by all means go with Option A.
I also want to bring out that with this tier’s iteration, despite the same stat formula as 2.0’s, you should not feel restrictive to use whatever augments you want. Experiment them around as you gear out your Sniper more, and realize there is more than one way to be nearly BiS.
Set Pieces: Gunslinger 6-Set Bonus
In Working Progress
1.) Revanite Relic of Focused Retribution (RECCOMENDED)
2.) Revanite Relic of Serendipitous Assault (RECCOMENDED)
3.) Revanite Relic of Boundless Ages (In case you need it for burstier fights)
MAX DPS Opener:
Smuggler’s Luck / XS Freighter Flyby -> Aimed Shot -> Vital Shot / Attack Adrenal -> Trickshot / Illegal Mods -> Penetrating Rounds -> Burst Volley / Trickshot -> Penetrating Rounds –> Trickshot
Now here you have a couple of routes to pick. Remember that without XS Freighter Flyby and Sabotage Charge being reliable fillers, the rotation is more heavily centered around filling those gaps with more Charged Bursts. With that said…
a.) Charged Burst x2 -> Trickshot -> Charged Burst -> Aimed Shot -> Trickshot -> Penetrating Rounds -> Trickshot -> Vital Shot -> Charged Burst x2 -> Trickshot -> Aimed Shot -> Trickshot -> Penetrating Rounds -> Trickshot -> Vital Shot -> Charged Burst x2 -> Trickshot -> Charged Burst -> Aimed Shot -> Trickshot -> Penetrating Rounds -> Trickshot/Burst Volley -> Penetrating Rounds –> Trickshot
b.) Charged Burst x2 -> Trickshot -> Charged Burst x2 -> Aimed Shot -> Trick Shot -> Penetrating Rounds -> Trickshot -> Vital Shot -> Charged Burst x2 -> Trickshot -> Aimed Shot -> Trickshot -> Penetrating Rounds -> Trickshot -> Vital Shot -> Charged Burst x2 -> Trickshot -> Charged Burst -> Aimed Shot -> Trickshot -> Penetrating Rounds -> Trickshot/Burst Volley -> Penetrating Rounds –> Trickshot
Generally, those two voids are filled with two Charged Bursts. The reason is our rotation centers around Honed Shots, which stacks up 3 times in terms of damage and critical chance. You want to increase your frequency of Charged Bursts as often as you can, but not too much or else you will overshot your energy resource and your timing of CDs.
The key thing about Vital Shot placement is you have to do a countless number of parses to know when to place Vital Shot or not in terms of energy management. In fact, though dummy parsing, you have to auto-attack (or Quick Shot if specced to Hot Pursuit) once in order to continue with your flow of rotations. Unless you have Illegal Mods or Cool Head ready to use, do NOT use Vital Shot in the third sequence. Doing so will result in risking your resource management below 60% as well as delaying your rotation a bit.
Unfortunately, dummy rotations do not equal raid rotations since every boss fight doesn’t act like a perfectly static simulation. I’ll leave you with this piece of advice:
MECHANICS > DPS.
If you perfectly apply the dummy rotation to boss fights, nearly 100% of the time, you’re going to fall rock bottom due to mechanics. The developers have stated that the current iteration of operations are going to be harder than the previous tier, so I want to stress this bolded fact.
For this, I have ordered the priority system for all Sharpshooter Gunslingers to look out for.
Single Target Rotation
AoE Rotation
It is generally the same breakdown as with my old guide. However, there are new talents and skills I want to stress on.
Quickdraw:
With 3.0, there’s is one change. First, you’ll notice that our set bonus here:
"(4 Piece) Reduces the energy cost of Takedown or Quickdraw by 4."
…no longer exists. While our new 3.0 set bonuses are better, faster, stronger than before, our Execute rotation now loses its "grit" to a degree. In fact, it’s a bit tougher to manage than having that set bonus.
However, let me remind everyone that we had to deal with this back when XS Freighter Flyby did insane damage, and we had to take the 2-pc PvP set bonus (Additional 3 second duration of XSFF) for the sake of maximum XSFF damage output. Therefore, it was somewhat difficult to manage the execute rotation, but the gains were phenomenal at the end.
My point is, stick with replacing Quickdraw with Trickshot if you can. If you have high enough energy to justify that method, use it. Some alternate ways you can do are…
a.) Quickdraw > Trickshot -> Next skill
b.) Trickshot > Quickdraw > Trickshot -> Next Skill
c.) Trickshot > Quickdraw -> Next Skill.
![clip_image002[7]](https://game.lhg100.com/Article/UploadFiles/201512/2015122212015484.jpg "clip_image002[7]")
Generally you want to avoid method ‘b’ unless you’re in too deep with your energy.
Honed Shots:
This talent is a worthy LVL 59 Talent. With 5% Critical Chance and damage per stack, you’ll be dealing a total of +15% Additional damage and 15% Crit chance with every Charged Burst up to 3 stacks. A great Sniper once commented that this is the reason why Marksmanship/Sharpshooter plays like a Marauder’s Annihilation/Sentinel’s Watchman, and this is legitimately true! With 20 seconds to maintain, you have plenty of time in between boss phases to land another Charged Burst in order to maintain the stacks needed. That’s why Charged Bursts fill the voids of the SS rotation where Sabotage Charge and XS Freighter Flyby previously filled.
Charged Burst:
You’ll find yourself using 2 more Charged Bursts than the previous pre 3.0 rotation ever before. Thus, with Honed Shots, Charged Burst will find itself as the 2nd highest hitting ability in many average parses.
Above displays one of the parses I have done. Due to the intermittent lag currently in Harbinger, I wasn’t able to get close as accurate as possible. My APM should be around 41 when the parse above displays 40. Still, this should give you a good idea on how you should use your abilities accordingly.
Note that the parse was done without Cool Under Pressure, and it’s something I don’t recommend you do. Exploitation of additional numbers is something that would leader to unfair balance with other classes, data inaccuracies, and future out crying of this class needing buffs should the devs fix the relic problem. Outside of that, in 192s, Sharpshooter can pull between 4.1k-4.3k and in 198s, I forsee it breaking into 4.5k – 4.6k (god forbid 4.7k).
Introduction
I am Shulk, a member of <Zorz> and a former raider of <Intrepid>. My in-game toon name is Lumyne, my Sniper Imperial Side (or Prompto, my Gunslinger Republic Side). I have cleared 5/5 DF and 4/5 DP with Intrepid Republic Side, and have finished off the Dread Council (as well as obtaining Gate Crasher and Dread Master) with Zorz Imperial Side.
I previously mained a Mercenary since launch, but have re-rolled to my Sniper in 2.2 where I have fallen in love with the Marksmanship spec. Since then, I have learned from the best Marksmanship Snipers of the game, and have gotten to where I wanted to be. I hope this new guide will be of great use for people who are looking to optimize their new rotations in 3.0 or for people who are looking to re-roll to this awesome class.
Fun fact: I was originally from the Bastion server where I enjoyed PvE competition around the time SuckaFish existed. With PvE gradually dying, I’ve decided to transfer to the Harbinger in order to sate my thirst for progression. I am also a fun troll, so look out for me preaching the joys of Chipotle Mexican Grill. 
Credits and Acknowledgements
Fellow Snipers who have shaped my gameplay:
Yolo, Thrax, Zahik, Gomerik, Claimed, Shay’m, Zejim, Aksana.
I also want to thank other contributors who have helped me with additional info for this guide:
Waratte (for translating my guide to Sharpshooter terms)
Kamiinnouuu (for converting my DPS rotations into visual images)
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