SWTOR 3.0 Arsenal and Innovative Ordnance DPS guide written by Fascinate and Marisi.
Contents
Mercenary DPS has undergone some changes with the transition to 3.0 but fundamentally the two disciplines function the same as before; Arsenal is suitable for multiple targets and/or frequent target switching whereas Innovative Ordnance is suitable for sustained single target.
This discipline is optimal for fights where target switching is prevalent and/or there are periods where high burst is needed in a short amount of time. The basics of this discipline has not changed with its newest iteration; Barrage (proc for Blazing Bolts, which replaces Unload in this discipline) still procs every 8 seconds and because heat management is extremely light, it makes this discipline very forgiving. A couple of changes have been made that is of importance, Barrage now ONLY procs off of Tracer Missile, whereas before it procced off both Power Shot and Tracer Missile. Another change that is worth noting is the inclusion of Supercharged Gas into the rotation, where the usage of it may either accelerate or hamper your rotation due to the alacrity bonuses you gain from it. A new ability, Priming Shot, which was added into the newest iteration also plays a vital role, as it deals a good amount of damage, and makes the next Tracer Missile activate instantly.
For the most part when you want to use this discipline in operations content has not changed; if there is considerable sustained single target focus or there are multiple targets with relatively high HP pools then this is probably the more optimal spec. This discipline is currently the highest parsing discipline in the game and is thus capable of putting out very high sustained numbers.
The basics of this discipline have not changed too much with its newest iteration; the overall goal still is to proc Innovative Particle Accelerator (IPA) every 7.5 seconds (up from 6) and because the heat management is still quite tight, deviating from your rotation can lead to overheating quite quickly, and unlike Arsenal, this is still quite punishing. One of the larger quality of life changes received is that now IPA has a guaranteed proc with Unload, Power Shot and Sweeping Blasters instead of a pseudo guaranteed chance which frees up the rotational blocks for additional abilities and allows your periodic effects to remain on the target much more than was previously possible.
While Innovative Ordnance is optimal for pure single target fights, two AOE combos have been added which spread your two primary dots to all affected targets; Explosive Dart spreads Serrated Shot and Fusion Missile spreads Incendiary Missile, which means that in fights where there are lots of high hp targets in can be beneficial to focus on AOE instead of single target.
The bolded utilities we feel have an important use in an Operation; with Improved Vents, Power Barrier, Custom Enviro Suit, Torque Boosters, Thrill of the Hunt and Stabilized Armor being taken on almost all fights, if not all, with the seventh one changing depending on the fight; Afterburners is useful in more reliably dealing with blades in Revan and Boresights is great for fights with multiple targets for the increased damage on Sweeping Blasters, particularly for Arsenal, for example.
Skillful
Masterful
Heroic
While Accuracy used to be obtainable in several pieces of Mercenary DPS gear prior to 3.0 it now can only be found in the Chest and the Powertech Main Hand which makes your Implants and Earpiece the primary sources of Accuracy. The accuracy Implants, however, come with crit instead of power which means you only need either a single mod or enhancement to supplement the crit from both Implants to reach the crit target.
In regards to set bonuses, the old 4 piece no longer has much benefit with Innovative Ordnance as Power Shot is no longer used as often as it used to be and Rail Shot is not used at all which makes replacing the old armorings a high priority particularly as you can replace several of them with non-set piece armorings, losing the old 4 piece set bonus in the process of doing so, and gain DPS from the increased Aim you get from the newer ones.
On the other hand, Arsenal still uses both Tracer Missile and Rail Shot frequently in the rotation which means that both set bonuses are still quite useful in increasing damage which puts a higher priority in obtaining the new belt and bracer set piece armorings before replacing the old set bonus.
For the most part Arsenal plays the same now as it did previously but there still are a few changes to how it plays:
Blazing Bolts (BB): Not only your highest damaging ability but it also vents more heat than it costs over the duration and causes your next HSM to crit automatically once every 60 seconds. Replaces Unload and costs 16 heat.
Tracer Missile (TM): Your basic filler attack; builds stacks of Tracer Lock, procs Barrage and builds stacks of Supercharged. Should be used if no other higher priority abilities are available and you have heat available. No cooldown, costs 15 heat.
Heatseeker Missiles (HSM): The highest hitting ability in Arsenal and should only be used if the target is affected by the heat signature from your TM. 15 second cooldown, costs 15 heat.
Rail Shot (RS): Deals a large amount of damage particularly with 5 stacks of Tracer Lock, each of which increases this ability’s damage dealt by 6%. 15 second cooldown, costs 5 heat.Priming Shot (PS): The third highest of Arsenal’s instant abilities, this one also makes your next TM activate instantly. 18 second cooldown, costs 12 heat.
Electro Net (EN): One of the highest damaging abilities per heat cost and should be used as regularly as possible. Due to its lengthy cooldown, however, delaying it for a few GCDs if higher priorities are available is not damaging. 90 second cooldown, costs 10 heat.
Rapid Shot (RS): Heat management overall is much smoother in Arsenal now and while this still does need to be used to effectively manage your heat, it is definitely less than before.
Supercharged Gas (SCG): Requires and consumes 10 stacks of Supercharged to increase armor penetration by 15%. Additionally, damage dealt by HSM, TM, BB and PS temporarily increase alacrity by 2% for the duration with a maximum alacrity boost of 6%.
Thermal Sensor Override (TSO): Your next ability generates no heat. Should be used with Unload where possible simply because it costs the most heat. 90 second cooldown.
The rotation for Arsenal does not have a static rotation compared to Innovative Ordnance. However, it follows a simple priority system that should be followed for the highest possible dps. Additionally, the bonus alacrity that is given when Supercharged Gas is procced plays into the rotation and alters the timing of Barrage, depending on where you popped Supercharged Gas. Depending on the timing of when you used Supercharged Gas, either before or after Barrage was procced, the bonus alacrity may omit the usage of 1 additional GCD to proc Barrage, circumventing the non-integer 8 sec proc timer. Below is the opener where you can see that popping Supercharged Gas right after Barrage is procced gives you enough alacrity with the following skills so that the proc timer is as close to 8 seconds as possible, instead of 9 seconds. Additionally, since heat management is extremely light, the priority list can be followed for quite some time before Vent Heat is required.
Opener
(pre-cast) TM, SCG + Adrenal + HSM, EN, PS, BB, TM, BB, TM, RS, HSM, TM, BB….
From there it follows this priority list:
The key to maximizing your damage in Arsenal is following the priority system. If you have to delay the usage of such abilities like Heatseeker Missiles or Rail Shot to proc Blazing Bolts, do so, and just use those abilities the gcd after Barrage is procced. The usage of Rapid Shots is EXTREMELY light, and the only time you will be using Rapid Shots is when the two next subsequent gcds will put you over 40 heat while maintaining the rotation, this would only truly apply for a Tracer Missile to a Heatseeker Missiles because it builds the most heat within 2 gcds in this discipline. However, with low heat costs to most abilities and the amount of talents and skills that benefit heat management, the amount of Rapid Shots you will have is minimal.
One thing to note about Priming Shot is that since it makes the next Tracer Missile cast instantly, if that Tracer Missile procs Barrage, you must keep in mind that the proc occurred at the START of the gcd, not at the end of it. In other words, hard casting Tracer Missile to proc Barrage will be at the end of that gcd, while an instant Tracer Missile, either instant by Priming Shot or by using Power Surge, will be at the start of the gcd.
Another important thing to note is that, while highly unlikely, Advanced Targeting (10% surge bonus) may fall off due to bad crits. While Innovative Ordnance does not suffer from this due to constant dot uptime, the single tick damage of many abilities in Arsenal may cause Advanced Targeting to not be up, or cause it fall off due to bad rng.
The last important thing is the usage of Vent Heat in the rotation. Ideally, Vent Heat should be popped one gcd before Barrage is procced, and/or used in conjunction with Supercharged Gas. This way, even if you cap on heat, using both Vent Heat and Supercharged Gas while channeling Blazing Bolts would vent nearly all your heat.
For this part, two parses will be analyzed due to certain inconsistencies. The main differences in these two parses is the APM for both of them. There is a difference of about 1.6 APM between both parses and it highly impacts the results of the parse. The parse that should have been higher is the one with higher APM, but due to crits, the lower APM parse was higher.
As you can see though, both parses follow the priority system for maximum damage, and minimal heat management. These numbers were achieved with a mix of 192/198 gear, and 2 186 acc/pow enhancements.
Innovative Ordnance has undergone a number of changes including:
Mag Shot (MS): Does high weapon damage, vents 5 heat if it hits a burning target and is free with IPA. Replaces Rail Shot.
Unload (UL): Costs more than previously at 24 heat but also does more damage and also causes your next MS to crit automatically once every 60 seconds. 12 second cooldown.
Power Shot (PS): Due to IPA not requiring 2 PS or UL/PS in one block this ability is no longer used as often but due to it building stacks of Supercharged should still be used fairly regularly. No cooldown, costs 15 heat.
Serrated Shot (SS): The stronger of your primary dots and also increases all ranged damage done by 5% for 45 seconds. Should be kept on the target at all times where possible. Costs 15 heat.
Incendiary Missile (IM): The weaker of the primary dots and increases all elemental and internal damage done by 7% for 45 seconds. Should be kept on the target at all times where possible. Costs 15 heat.
Thermal Detonator (TD): It no longer has a dot attached but the damage has been increased accordingly. Use it as often as your heat allows as a filler. 15 second cooldown, costs 15 heat.
Electro Net (EN): One of the highest damaging abilities per heat cost and should be used as regularly as possible. Due to its lengthy cooldown, however, delaying it for a few GCDs to fit better into the rotation or for Supercharged is not damaging. 90 second cooldown, costs 10 heat.
Missile Blast (MB): Sub 30% this ability’s heat cost is halved and the damage increased by 75% every 15 seconds. Should be used as often as your heat allows as a filler. Costs 10 heat.
Rapid Shot (RS): Heat management is much more costly to manage effectively than prior to 3.0 so unlike previously where you didn’t have to auto attack much or at all to manage heat, this now needs to be used quite often when your heat management abilities are not available.
Supercharged Gas (SCG): Requires and consumes 10 stacks of Supercharged and increases all dot damage for 10 seconds and applies an additional 5 second dot.
Thermal Sensor Override (TSO): Your next ability generates no heat. Should be used with Unload where possible simply because it costs the most heat. 90 second cooldown.
Opener
(pre-cast) SS, IM, Adrenal + MS (proc STB), UL, SCG + EN, TD, MS, PS (use STB), MS, IM, SS, PS, PS, MS (proc STB)
Heat Ramping
UL + TSO, TD, PS (use STB), MS, IM, SS, PS, PS, MS (proc STB), UL, TD, PS (use STB), MS, IM, SS + VH, PS, PS, MS (proc STB)
General
UL, EN/TD/MB/RS, PS (use STB), MS, IM, SS, PS, PS/RS, MS (proc STB)
Essentially the rotation can be outlined as:
It is possible to use Sweeping Blasters on a non-target prior to entering combat to proc IPA and make your first MS free and vent heat but while this makes your starting heat lower, it makes no overall difference to your rotation.
The key to maximizing damage potential in IO is making the most of your available heat through not just knowing what you can and can not use at any given moment but also knowing how long until your heat management abilities are available again and planning around that.
If Supercharged is or will be available after the next PS then you can use an additional TD or MB in place of an RS without worrying about overheating and if TSO is coming off cooldown then you can ignore RS entirely in place of your higher priority abilities as the way the rotation is structured both TSO and VH come off cooldown right when they are needed.
The downside to this approach is that if something goes awry such as using an ability when you don’t have the heat to afford it, it can severely hamper your output as you will need to replace several abilities with RS in order to get your heat in a manageable enough state to continue with your rotation.
You can delay EN to combine it with SGC to maximize its usage but you should not delay SGC unless you know there will be a change in the fight which will cause you to stop DPSing within the 10s window, i.e. Revan phase transitions, Blaster shielding. During these downtimes you should build or maintain your stacks by using Kolto Shot, which comes with the added benefit of healing your target. When SGC becomes available or can be used may differ depending on how many PS / RS you did as well as any external factors in the fight such as the previously mentioned downtimes.
Speed to Burn should be kept on the PS in the UL block wherever possible but it is also possible that it can shift to the 1st half of the rotation because of things like messing up the rotation, getting stunned, interrupted, LoS’d etc., in which case it should be used on Serrated Shot and then you can simply move the 4th GCD filler to anywhere from 1 to 3 and have PS as the 4th to proc IPA and then continuing the UL block as normal.
Care must be taken with VH usage to ensure it is used directly before the ability you are going to use to proc IPA because of the way alacrity works in that it does not adjust cooldowns retroactively and if you use it too soon the combined length of the regular rotational abilities will fall under the remaining time of your IPA cooldown and you will need to use another ability to proc IPA which will affect your overall heat position as well as pushing everything in the rotation by an additional GCD.
Your rotation during the final 10% of the fight can vary considerably depending on your heat going into it. If you have heat available or if you have TSO or VH coming off CD soon, but you won’t be getting 10 stacks of SGC before the target dies, you can swap out the PS from the first block with a MB to maximise both it and TD’s usages during the final portion of the fight. If SGC is nearing 10 you are better continuing to use that space for an additional PS until you reach the 10 stacks.
In order to maximise their damage, your primary dots shouldn’t be reapplied when there is less than 50k HP left on the target per as under this substituting a PS in their place is more effective. This can be extrapolated to 50k per target in an Operation’s fight although this number will vary depending on the composition of your group. EN is slightly different in that it ticks once every second instead of every three like the other two applied dots and therefore should not be applied below 25k.
This parse was done with the exact same gear as Arsenal, mix of 192/198, and 2 186 pow/acc enhancements. As you can see, the three biggest damaging abilities are all your main weapon damaging abilities, where the next three biggest damaging abilities are all your dots. The priority for the parse is to have constant dot uptime, while proccing IPA every 7.5 seconds, and remaining under 40 heat while VH is on cooldown.
Like the previous iteration of Operations content, no one Discipline is ideal for all fights and both have their places.
The Ravagers
Temple of Sacrifice
We are Fascinate and Marisi, both members of <Zorz>, an endgame progression guild that has claimed multiple world-firsts since its creation, including Nightmare Dread Fortress speed title, Nightmare Dread Palace clear and speed title, and most recently, Hard More clears of the two newest Operations: The Ravagers and Temple of Sacrifice.
We both created Mercenaries during early access and have used them as our main progression character through every tier of content and and are always looking to expand on our knowledge of the class and to find new ways of pushing its capabilities as far as they can go through experimentation.
Any comments, questions or concerns you may have about the content of this guide can be asked either here or addressed to our SWTOR forum users, BreakingNews and Kinslayer, respectively.
Thank you for reading our guide!