Marksman Sniper
Last Updated: 5/31/21
Table of Contents
Overview
About the Class
Marksman is the burst DPS specialization for the Sniper. It has historically had among the lowest sustained DPS performance in the game, though in the hands of a skilled player it is more than sufficient to meet the DPS checks of any Hard Mode content in the game.
Survivability
Snipers have incredible survivability due to having arguably the best collection of defensive cooldowns in the game, along with their positioning as a ranged DPS allowing them to avoid many damage mechanics that endanger melee DPS. Shield Probe (should be buffed via utilities) provides moderate and frequent damage absorption, Evasion can entirely avoid melee/ranged attacks over a short duration and with a relatively short cooldown, Covered Escape can be used to cheese a wide range of mechanics, Entrench provides incredible AoE damage reduction (with proper utilities), Ballistic Shield provides the entire raid with a 20% damage reduction for 20 seconds, and Imperial Preparation can be used to immediately reset the cooldown on all these defensives save for Ballistic Shield. Furthermore, skilled players can utilize Ballistic Dampers to get nearly continuous 30% damage absorption on all incoming attacks. Combined with limited self heal capabilities, Snipers should need much less healing than most other DPS classes.
Utility and Mobility
Snipers provide great utility via being arguably the best ranged DPS in the game and their Ballistic Shield can be immensely helpful on certain boss encounters (e.g., final burn phase of Dread Council HM/NiM). Snipers all struggle with mobility due to the need to remain in cover as much as possible and most abilities unable to be cast on the move. Skilled players can mitigate this handicap through utilities and by being proactive about positioning (i.e., if you know the team will need to move East on the map, try to set up as far East as possible to minimize movement).
6.0 Impact on Discipline
Sniper moved into 6.0 very smoothly and maintained their position as a very strong ranged DPS and the premier “turret” DPS class. The class got two good options for set bonuses, with Precise Targeter offering mobility and situational burst while Established Foothold offers superior energy management and overall DPS at the cost of becoming an immovable turret as often as possible. With respect to tactical items, the class and all its disciplines received some great options, so great in fact that several of them have been nerfed several times and the class still sits very high in DPS rankings.
Marksman in particular got some very nice buffs to overall sustained DPS. The discipline ranked very near the bottom of the DPS charts in 5.x with a very large gulf between the bottom and middle tiers. Thanks to the Agitating Energies tactical, the discipline can apply its Corrosive Dart DoT once and then continually refresh and tick its damage via the rotation. As a result, the discipline’s sustained DPS is higher and its energy management is easier as well.
Role in Operations
Marksman suffers no drop off in DPS when swapping targets so they should take priority for any add DPS or swapping between bosses in multiple boss encounters (e.g., Zorn/Toth, Dread Council, Aivela/Esne, etc.).
Utilities
I usually take some combination of the following Utilities, though the optimal combination can change from fight to fight. As of 6.0, the tiers have been reorganized.
Skillfull Tier
You must take 3 to advanced to Masterful.
Ballistic Dampers: Entering covers grants 3 charges of Ballistic Dampers. Each charge absorbs 30% of the damage dealt by incoming attacks. Cannot occur more than once every 1.5 seconds, and this ability can only be granted every 6 seconds.
This utility grants sizable nearly continuous damage reduction by making sure to exit and re-enter cover every 6 seconds. I highly recommend it assuming the player can remember to take advantage of its benefits by periodically exiting and re-entering cover.
Snap Shot: Entering cover makes the next Snipe or Lethal Shot activate instantly, and can occur once every 6 seconds.
This utility is situational to some degree but useful most of the time. Being able to instant cast Snipe or Lethal Shot makes it easier to DPS on the move by entering cover, instant casting Snipe or Lethal Shot , then resuming moving. This can also be used to front-load the energy cost of Snipe or Lethal Shot if you would otherwise cap on energy.
Calculated Pursuit: You gain 4 charges of Calculated Pursuit by exiting cover, which allow Snipe or Lethal Shot to be activated while moving. The charges last for 15 seconds and can be gained every 20 seconds. Reentering cover removes the effect.
I find this utility very useful in movement heavy fights, as with this you can DPS on the move for 4 consecutive GCDs, which is otherwise nearly impossible for any Gunslinger.
Vital Regulators: While in cover, you heal for 2% of your total health every 3 seconds.
I always take his utility for any fight where Snap Shot and Calculated Pursuit are not beneficial due to minimal movement. Most of this healing is typically wasted, but over the course of a 6 minute encounter, this utility will cumulatively heal you for up to 240% of your total health over time. Even if it is only 20-30% effective, that is still equivalent to a 50% heal which can be helpful.
Imperial Efficiency: Increases the damage dealt by Suppressive Fire by 25%.
I typically do not recommend this utility, as spamming Suppressive Fire can quickly destroy a Marksman’s energy level, and Virulence and Engineering already have impressive AoE capability. As such, I find movement and survivability utilities to provide greater benefit for all fights except those requiring exceptionally high AoE DPS (e.g., Hive Queen in Hard Mode).
Masterful Tier
You must take 6 between Heroic and Masterful.
Augmented Shields: Increases the amount of damage absorbed by Shield Probe by 30%.
Shield Probe has a 30s cooldown so should be used up to 10 times per fight, so a 30% boost makes this a much better defensive cooldown.
Hold Your Ground: Reduces the cooldown of Shield Probe and Cover Pulse by 5 seconds, and Escape by 30 seconds. In addition, when you exit cover you gain a Cover Screen that increases your ranged defense by 20% for 6 seconds.
I like this utility as it provides a range of survivability benefits. The Cover Screen is fairly limited as it only applies ranged defense but the reduction in cooldown to Shield Probe is very helpful and synergizes with Augmented Shields.
Stroke of Genius: Activating Cover Pulse makes the next Snipe activate instantly and increases your chance to resist Force/Tech attacks by 20% for 6 seconds.
This utility is theoretically useful as another way to make Snipe instant (and improve mobility) while also providing a defensive cooldown. That said, I feel like Snap Shot is a better utility given it’s much shorter cooldown on use and the defensive buff is marginal given Sniper’s already very powerful damage mitigation.
Reestablish Range: Purges all movement-impairing effects when activated and grants Reestablish Range, increasing your movement speed by 75% for 6 seconds. Also, the final shot of Penetrating Blasts knocks back the target if they are within 10 meters.
Similar to Heads Up, this can be useful in certain limited circumstances but generally is more of a PVP utility.
Heroic Tier
A maximum of 3 utilities
Siege Bunker: Entrench reduces all AoE damage by 60%.
Nearly every fight has notable AoE damage, and with this utility and the buffed Shield Probe from Augmented Shields, Snipers can ignore a wide variety of AoE damage phases in order to increase DPS. For example, this utility is hugely beneficial in the final burn phase of Dread Council fight in the Dread Palace operation.
Pillbox Sniper: Reduces the cooldown of Entrench by 15 seconds and Cover Pulse knocks back targets an additional 5 meters.
For any fights where Entrench will be useful, this is typically a good pickup for better uptime of the AOE damage reduction provided by Holed Up / Siege Bunker.
Deployed Shields: Reduces all damage taken while in cover by 5% and reduces the cooldown of Ballistic Shield by 30 seconds.
This is a vanilla buff to damage reduction while in cover (and you should always be in cover unless required to move for a mechanic). Always take.
Tactical Retreat: Covered Escape heals you for 10% of your maximum health. Additionally, the duration of Evasion is increased by 2 seconds.
This is a situational utility but any areas where healing is challenging this utility can be helpful to ease the burden on your healers.
Over-prepared: Reduces the cooldown of Imperial Preparation by 45 seconds and increases your damage reduction by 15% for 15 seconds after activating Imperial Preparation.
This is also a strong utility and what I take for any fights where I don’t think Covered Escape will be useful. I find this utility is helpful for fights with multiple heal-intensive burn phases, as with the CD reduction on Imperial Preparation it becomes easier to use the ability twice per fight instead of more typically once per fight.
Example Utility Build
Here is what I run for most encounters, though I frequently take other situational utilities for specific fights.
Key Passives
Zeroing Shots - Snipe reduces the activation time of your next Ambush by 0.25 seconds, and can stack up to two times.
This utility is key to maximizing the DPS of Ambush. With a double stack of Zeroing Shots, Ambush is your highest DPS ability. Thus it is critical that the rotation (1) utilize Ambush on cooldown; and (2) that Snipe always is cast at least twice in between each Ambush to guarantee the short cast time.
Sniper's Nest - Increases energy regeneration rate by 1 per second while in cover.
This utility makes it critical that Marksman remains in cover as much as possible. Notwithstanding movement phases or exiting/re-entering cover to proc Ballistic Dampers or Snap Shot, always stay in cover to maximize energy regen and thus DPS.
Recoil Control - Firing Snipe twice in a row, firing Takedown or Ambush once, or completing Penetrating Blasts now finishes the cooldown on Followthrough.
This utility has the most impact to the rotation. Followthrough only costs 5 energy versus 20 for Snipe (15 after Followthrough itself) and does nearly the same amount of damage prior to other passives. As such, it is hugely beneficial and should be used nearly every time is is available through this passive ability.
Muzzle Fluting - Followthrough reduces the energy cost of your next two Snipes by 5.
This passive further assists with energy regen by making Snipe cheaper. Given how often Followthrough should be used in the rotation (3 times per rotation, every Snipe should receive this buff.
Portable Bunker - Increases the duration of Entrench by 3 seconds. Also, when you enter cover after using Covered Escape, you gain Entrench for 3 seconds.
This passive is not as critical to the Marksman as the others, but is worth noting for the 3 seconds of Entrench after Covered Escape. Combined with the Tactical Retreat utility (10% heal) from the roll, it’s inherent 100% dodge attacks, and the Siege Bunker utility buff to Entrench (60% AOE damage reduction), this makes Covered Escape as immensely useful defensive cooldown either through its inherent ability or through Entrench if that ability is not otherwise available.
Honed Shots - Snipe grants Honed Shots, increasing the critical hit chance and damage of Snipe by 3% for 20 seconds. Can stack up to 3 times.
This passive should always be active to add 9% critical hit chance and damage, further buffing Snipe. Given the entire rotation centers around the cooldowns of Penetrating Blasts and Ambush (12 seconds), there should never be a situation where this falls off except for boss transition phases.
Marksman's Finesse - Snipe grants Marksman's Finesse, increasing the armor penetration and damage dealt by your next Followthrough by 10%. Can stack up to 2 times.
This passive is also helpful to make Followthrough even more powerful.
Finish the Job - Dealing damage with Ambush to a target with less than 30% health grants Finish the Job, increasing the damage of your next Takedown by 20%.
This passive makes Takedown a mandatory filler in the execute rotation each time it is buffed. It is also important as without this buff the execute ability might not have a place in the rotation due to its energy cost.
Gearing in 6.0
Gearing Stat Allocation
Please see my Gearing Guide for a detailed overview of gearing in 6.x in SWTOR. Please also see my Alacrity Guide for a much more in-depth look at alacrity.
For Marksman Sniper, I gear as follows:
Set Bonus: Established Foothold
Tactical: Agitating Energies (Refraction Point for AoE)
Amplifiers: Weapon Expertise
Mods: Unlettered Lethal Mods
Relics: Devastating Vengeance & Primeval Fatesealer (Serendipitous Assault & Focused Retribution for Dxun/PVP)
Stim: Proficient
Adrenal: Critical (Attack for Dxun only)
For Marksman Sniper, I allocate my tertiary stats as follows:
Accuracy: 1,585 - 1,630 (anything outside this approximate range and I usually try to re-optimize by swapping around enhancements and augments)
Alacrity: around 1,600 (at least 1,895 if the Zeal guild perk applies)
Critical: all remaining tertiary points go into Critical
Shield: None
Absorb: None
Set Bonus
Established Foothold
Increased drop rate from conquest.
(2) +2% Mastery
(4) The cooldown of Entrench is reduced by 10 seconds. You gain 2 energy per second while Entrench is active.
(6) While Entrenched, you build stacks of Entrenched Offense, increasing damage by 3% per stack while you remain Entrenched. Stacks up to 5 times. Breaking cover or Entrench being removed removes this.
Analysis: Entrench has a 20s duration and a 45s cooldown prior to any set bonus, assuming one takes Pillbox Sniper (reduces CD from 60s to 45s). Thus, the 4-piece set bonus reduces the cooldown to 35s and makes it possible to have Entrench active for more than half the time and have a very high uptime. Beyond the benefit to DPS via the 6-piece set bonus, the very high uptime of Entrench provides amazing damage mitigation against AoE damage via the Siege Bunker utility.
An easily overlooked feature of the 4-piece set bonus is the energy regeneration. At “fast” regeneration you normally recover 5 energy per second, so the 4-piece set bonus increases energy regeneration 40% while Entrench is active. That buff is so huge that energy management is trivial for all disciplines as long as Entrench is used on cooldown or close to it.
Lastly, the most obvious benefit is the 6-piece set bonus. You gain one stack of Entrenched Offense per second up to a maximum of five stacks and +15% additional damage. Assuming Entrench is used on cooldown that should provide an average damage buff of around 7% net of the downtime while the ability is on cooldown.
Impact on Rotation: No change to the ability rotation for attacking abilities. However, it becomes critical to use Entrench as often as possible and to avoid moving while the cooldown is active. If you simply *have* to move, reenter cover as quickly as possible. The stacks of Entrenched Offense build around one per second, so quick movement can leave sufficient time to rebuild stacks and still deal meaningful DPS.
Otherwise, the key to maximizing the buff from the set bonus is being proactive to position oneself in a way that reduces required movement. If you know a fight involves movement, cheat in that direction as often as possible. In fights with attackers coming from multiple directions (e.g., Draxus adds), try to be set up as centrally as possible.
The other point to consider is when it is okay to delay using Entrench. For fights with periodic movement phases like Gharj, it is okay to delay the cooldown if a movement phase is imminent until after repositioning.
When to Take: Recommended for all encounters.
Precise Targeter
Increased drop rate from conquest.
(2) +2% Mastery
(4) Reduces the cooldown of Targeted Acquired by 15 seconds and activating Target Acquired restores 15 energy.
(6) Laze Target gets 3 charges and its cooldown is reduced by 15 seconds.
Analysis: Prior to alacrity and this set bonus, Target Acquired has a 2 minute cooldown and Laze Target has a 1 minute cooldown. The set bonus allows around one extra use of the former and 2-3 extra uses of the latter per encounter. As such it provides a nice DPS boost.
In comparison to the Established Foothold set bonus, Precise Targeter is nice but noticeably weaker. In terms of DPS boost, it provides a slightly higher burst DPS increase but at the cost of much less uptime of the buff. It also provides a much smaller buff to energy management. Precise Targeter provides 15 energy regeneration once every 105 seconds as compared to 40 energy regeneration every 35 seconds, which means Established Foothold provides EIGHT TIMES the energy regeneration.
Impact on Rotation: No impact but the set bonus will provide additional uses of both key offensive cooldowns per encounter.
When to Take: Not recommended. Established Foothold is strictly better and provides superior buffs to damage and energy management. This set is not bad and may be preferred by players who have a difficult time using Entrench on cooldown and not moving for its full duration.
Ballistic Concentration
Increased drop rate from The Nature of Progress Operation on Master Mode Difficulty, and has a small chance from Unidentified items on the Spoils of War vendors.
(2) +2% Mastery
(4) When you deploy Ballistic Shield, each group member within it grants a stack of Ballistic Concentration, increasing your energy regeneration rate by 1 for 20 seconds. Max 8 stacks.
(6) Each stack of Ballistic Concentration also increases the damage you deal by 5%.
Analysis: An interesting and super situational set bonus. This set bonus makes your Ballistic Shield a very powerful individual offensive cooldown in addition to its group AoE defensive buffs (up to +40% damage and +8 energy regen). The challenge is that the ability has such a long cooldown that it pales in comparison to Established Foothold that provides more than enough energy regen and a +15% damage buff with more than 50% uptime. See above discussion on Established Foothold and Precise Targeter for more analysis on energy regen.
This set bonus could be useful for super stressful and tight soft enrage phases (where both the damage and mitigation are desirable) but on balance I still prefer Established Foothold especially given it being far easier to acquire.
Impact on Rotation: No impact. You should already be using Ballistic Shield during high damage burn phases so it will simply provide a powerful offensive boost in addition to its significant group defensive benefit.
When to Take: Not recommended. Established Foothold is strictly better and provides superior buffs to damage and energy management. This set is not bad and may be preferred by players who have a difficult time using Entrench on cooldown and not moving for its full duration.
Tactical Items
Agitating Energies
Increased drop rate from operations.
Corrosive Dart deals more damage and dealing damage with Followthrough and Penetrating Blast refreshes its bleed effect on its target and ticks its damage.
Analysis: Corrosive Dart is a huge part of dealing great DPS for Marksman and keepin high uptime is the most frequently overlooked aspect of the rotation. This tactical greatly simplifies the rotation by converting Corrosive Dart into a “fire and forget” DoT similar to Affliction for Lightning Sorcerer. The DoT ticks rather hard and as internal/elemental damage it bypasses boss armor so deals comparatively more of its damage than most other abilities of the discipline. Buffing it even more are the frequent “bonus ticks” that provide even more sustained damage.
Impact on Rotation: As discussed further below regarding the rotation, the rotation should apply Corrosive Dart early on. With this tactical, it should no longer be necessary to reapply it as it should be frequently refreshed and ticked for damage via the normal rotation. This essentially means that the rotation becomes Penetrating Blast, x2 Snipe, and Ambush with a Followthrough in between each and an extra Snipe as an extra filler. Given the buffs to Snipe, the change becomes favorable from an energy perspective and provides additional damage from the “bonus ability” as well as extra ticks of damage.
When to Take: Recommend tactical for most encounters.
B-0 Differential Targeting System
Increased drop rate from flashpoints.
Activating Covered Escape or returning to your marker with Hololocate makes your next Ambush activate instantly and deal 30% more damage.
Analysis: This tactical is helpful in PVP. Often players do not have time to cast multiple Snipe to get a low cooldown Ambush, so using this tactical can be very helpful to get instant casts with buffed damage.
Impact on Rotation: Make sure to place Hololocate before pulling. Use Covered Escape as the first opener to get an instant initial cast of Ambush, then double cast Penetrating Blast via the Sniper Volley cooldown. Mixed in with Followthrough in between each big hitting ability, this combination usually does not allow time for 2 Snipes to get a low cooldown Ambush. As such, you can use Hololocate to get a second buffed instant Ambush within the opener window (i.e., buffed by adrenals, raid buffs, etc.)
When to Take: PVP, I do not recommend for any PVE encounters as the discipline already has strong burst so any sustained options will typically be much better.
Refraction Point
Increased drop rate from flashpoints.
Penetrating Blast does splash damage to targets around the primary target and causes your next Followthrough to deal splash damage as well.
Analysis: The biggest weakness of Marksman in comparison to Virulence and Engineering is the MUCH weaker AoE DPS. The discipline can use Orbital Strike on cooldown and spam channeled AoE attacks but that very quickly destroys energy for Sharpshooter / Marksman.
This tactical provides some notable rotational AoE. In a typical 9 GCD rotation, 5-6 GCDs should be used by 1 Penetrating Blast and 3-4 Followthrough. Thus this tactical provides some nice uptime and frequent AoE. Combined with periodic use of dedicated AoE abilities puts the discipline in a place where it can hold its own in AoE situations.
Impact on Rotation: No change to rotation normally. If necessary, the “extra” GCD in the rotation normally devoted to either refreshing Corrosive Dart or an extra Snipe can be devoted to casting Orbital Strike for more AoE DPS.
When to Take: Any VERY heavy AoE encounters, such as Hive Queen, several encounters in Nature of Progress, etc.
Amplifiers
Weapon Expertise
Marksman’s abilities are primarily Weapon damage except for Tech damage resulting from Corrosive Dart and Orbital Strike. As such, Weapon Expertise provides a significantly stronger DPS boost than other options.
If the player is wanting to build a gear set to optimize DPS across all Sniper disciplines, Weapon Expertise is not necessarily a great choice. Virulence and Engineering are DoT-based disciplines and so benefit greatly from Periodic Intensity and very little from Weapon Expertise (as they deal primarily Tech-based DoT damage). I recommend gearing towards the discipline you play the most and going with either Weapon Expertise for Marksman or Periodic Intensity for the other disciplines.
Key Abilities
Holo-locate (0.5s cast, free, 120s cooldown) NEW IN 6.0 - Activating this ability marks your current location for 10 minutes. When this ability is activated again, if you are within 60 meters of the marked location, you instantly return to the marked location. Holo-locate goes on cooldown for 120 seconds when used to return to the marked location.
The Sniper received their own Phase Walk in 6.0. It should be placed as needed before the fight to a location you will need to go during the fight, or during the fight at a location you will need to return to. Either way, take advantage of it to minimize movement time.
Crouch (instant, free, no cooldown) - Crouches in place to take cover. Enables certain cover-only abilities.
The defining trait of the Sniper in all disciplines is the need to be in cover as often as possible. This makes the class very much a “turret DPS” class as there are many passive abilities that improve DPS, damage mitigation, self healing and energy regeneration when in cover. Put simply, try to be in cover anytime you do not need to move.
Ambush (2s cast, 15 energy, 12s cooldown) - Fires a high powered shot that deals high weapon damage.
Your highest DPS ability assuming that it benefits from 2 stacks of Zeroing Shots to reduce the cast time from 2s to 1.5s (so from 1.33 GCDs to 1.0 GCD). The biggest priority from a rotation perspective is ensuring 2 Snipes are cast prior to each use of Ambush to ensure every cast is only 1 GCD.
Penetrating Blasts (2s channel, 20 energy, 12s cooldown) - A channeled attack that deals high weapon damage and sunders the target (reduces armor rating by 20% for 45s).
Your next highest DPS ability, it should also be used on cooldown.
Snipe (20 energy, no cooldown) - Shoots a target for medium weapon damage.
The spammable filler of the Marksman discipline, its periodic use applies buffs to itself and other abilities and is also buffed itself by other abilities. In general, it should be used twice per rotation to proc Followthrough, to maintain the Honed Shots buff (+9% critical hit chance, damage), and to ensure each cast of Ambush benefits from two stacks of Zeroing Shots to have its cast time as low as possible. It is also the filler ability to use when nothing else takes higher priority.
Followthrough (Instant, 5 energy, 9s cooldown) - Fires a follow up shot at the target and deals moderate weapon damage. Is only usable within the 5 seconds immediately following Snipe, Ambush, Takedown or a complete channel Penetrating Blasts.
The key to maximizing Marksman DPS is frequent use of Followthrough due to its strong damage (comparable to Snipe) at a very low 5 energy cost.
Takedown (instant, 15 energy, 12s cooldown) - Execute ability that deals high weapon damage and can normally only be used on enemies below 30% of maximum health.
A powerful execute ability, it should generally be used in a filler spot in the rotation any time it is buffed by Ambush via the Finish the Job passive ability (i.e., any time it is glowing). Outside this buff, it should generally not be used in the rotation.
Corrosive Dart (instant, 15 energy, no cooldown) - Applies a DoT that deals moderate internal damage over 18 seconds.
Corrosive Dart is the only DoT for this discipline. The fact that it deals internal damage makes it considerably more damaging due to bypassing enemy armor, making it the top overall filler ability for the discipline.
Rifle Shot (basic attack, instant, free, no cooldown) - Your basic attack that consumes no energy and has no cooldown.
Basic attack should only be used very infrequently. As noted in the rotation guide below, there is one filler slot per rotation cycle. In my experience, a basic attack needs to be used around every 3rd or so rotation cycle whenever Target Acquired (recovers some energy via the Precise Targeter set bonus) or Adrenaline Probe are not available.
Orbital Strike (2s cast, 20 energy, 45s cooldown) - Pre casts an AoE attack that deals high elemental damage over several seconds to up to 8 enemies within the targeted area. Can only be used from cover.
A high damage ability that should be used in the opener if possible. Outside of the opener, it has no place in the single target rotation as it deals insufficient damage due to its cast time to be worthwhile. In any sustained AoE DPS situation, it should take top priority.
Suppressive FIre (4.5s channel, no cooldown) - Channelled AoE attack that deals high weapon damage over its duration. Can only be used from cover.
Snipers have a great advantage in that their channelled AoE attack does incredibly high damage, but at the cost of being very energy expensive. Marksman has by far the weakest AoE of the Sniper disciplines, so care should be taken in an AoE context not to over-use this ability and destroy your energy.
Fragmentation Grenade (instant, 20 energy, 6s cooldown) - Deals moderate kinetic damage to the target and nearby standard/weak enemies (also knocks down standard/weak enemies).
A filler ability that is not used outside rare instances where it will deal AoE damage or where DPS on the move is needed.
Laze Target (60s cooldown) - Increases the critical chance of your next Ambush, Explosive Probe or Cull by 100%.
One of three offensive cooldowns, it buffs your most powerful DPS ability by guaranteeing a critical hit. Make sure to use well in advance of the opening pull so that your opener is as high as possible and so it is off cooldown earlier in the encounter, then use on cooldown.
Target Acquired (10s duration, 120s cooldown) - Increases ranged/tech accuracy by 30% and critical chance by 15%.
A powerful offensive cooldown that also restores energy with the Precise Targeter set bonus, it should be used in the opener and nearly on cooldown afterwards. Make sure to time its use so that Ambush and Penetrating Blasts are both used within its duration. Also it can be beneficial to delay it slightly to align with use of Sniper Volley to get a second Penetrating Blasts into the buff window.
Sniper Volley (15s duration, 45s cooldown) - Immediately finishes the cooldown of Penetrating Blasts, increases energy regeneration by 2 per second, and increases alacrity by 10%.
A multi-purpose offensive cooldown that enables an extra use of a heavy hitting ability, buffs energy regen and increases your APM by buffing alacrity. Care should be taken to time its use right after Penetrating Blasts is used (thereby maximizing the cooldown “saved” via the ability) and within the window of an adrenal, raid buff, and/or Target Acquired if any will be on cooldown within 5-10s of it coming off cooldown itself.
Entrench (20s duration, 60s cooldown that can be reduced to 35s with ) - Entrenches you into cover, becoming immune to all controlling effects. Only grants protection while in cover.
An extremely powerful defensive cooldown for Snipers with many helpful utilities, Entrench also becomes a critical offensive cooldown if running the Established Foothold set due to its stacking damage buff while the ability is active. See below for more discussion.
Imperial Preparation (180s cooldown, 135s with utility) - Immediately finishes the active cooldowns on Evasion, Countermeasures, Shield Probe, Cover Pulse and Entrench.
An incredibly powerful ability, Imperial Preparation lets Snipers reset the cooldown on nearly all these defensive abilities.
Rotation
Opener
1
3
5
7
9
11
13
15
17
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
Laze Target OFF GCD - Always want to use this early to ensure your first two Ambush casts are auto-crits.
Pre-cast Orbital Strike 3s before pulling boss - Using this is dependent on the tanks giving you a consistent 3, 2, 1 countdown before pulling. Just remember all you have to do is move to cancel the cast. Ideally you want the cast to finish about 1s before the tank pulls the boss (assuming you have confidence that you won’t pull aggro).
Ambush (full cast) - Assuming you get a 3, 2, 1 countdown from the tank before pulling, I would start the cast at “1” so that it hits about a half-GCD after he pulls. Between that (an auto-crit due to Laze Target) and the pre-cast Orbital Strike, that provides a HUGE opening burst.
Corrosive Dart - Applied here before we use any offensive cooldowns to get it started ticking as we roll into the big hitters. Practically speaking, I also find that using this GCD with relatively low DPS helps even out the initial burst to avoid pulling aggro while also contributing to higher overall DPS in your complete opener.
Target Acquired OFF GCD - Used here after we apply the DoT because we are about to start the core rotation burst.
Entrench OFF GCD - Used here to begin applying our damage bonus from Established Foothold as we begin to deal heavy damage in our opener. This can be applied prior to hard casting Ambush in #3 if preferred so that the damage buff will apply there, but since the hard cast is so long and the application of Corrosive Dart does little immediate damage I feel it is more efficient to use here so more damage abilities are used within its duration.
Adrenal OFF GCD - Delayed until here due to its longer duration than Target Acquired should enable a more optimal timing to fit more Ambush and/or Penetrating Blasts casts into its buff window.
Penetrating Blasts - Using our next big hitter now that all the set up is completed and we used our procced Followthrough.
Sniper Volley OFF GCD - Used here enable a 2nd channelled attack during the Target Acquired buff window and to get as much of the alacrity boost into the adrenal / raid buff window as well.
Penetrating Blasts - Used here immediately after the cooldown so it fits into the cooldown window.
Imperial Preparation OFF GCD - I try to activate this ability as quickly as possible after Entrench to reset Entrench's cooldown and gets its cooldown ticking.
Followthrough - High damage and very low energy cost filler
Snipe - Normally we would use Followthrough first since it was procced by Penetrating Blasts. However, doing so would delay use of Ambush, so we skip it and go into our x2 Snipe combo.
Snipe - Used a second time to proc Followthrough and to ensure our next Ambush is reduced to 1 GCD cast time.
Followthrough - High damage and very low energy cost filler
Ambush - Should be off cooldown during the previous GCD so use immediately.
Followthrough - High damage and very low energy cost filler
[End of opener, continue rotation as discussed below beginning with Penetrating Blasts]
Rotation (Core)
Note that you can re-arrange this rotation to start with Penetrating Blasts, the x2 Snipe combo, or Ambush. It doesn’t matter a ton, the key is the approximate order and that each is used within a rotation block. We usually want Penetrating Blasts and Ambush to be used back-to-back to ensure any time you use Target Acquired or an adrenal that both fit into the cooldown window and may even get 2 uses into an adrenal window if used right before their first use.
The Filler can float around through the rotation. I have it here as ability #6 for convenience. The only major consideration is to avoid using 3 Snipes in between uses of Followthrough as the buff applied by each Snipe to the next Followthrough maxes out at 2 stacks.
6.0 NOTE - This rotation assumes the player has equipped the Established Foothold 6-piece set bonus and the Agitating Energies tactical and that Corrosive Dart has already been applied. See below for discussion of how the rotation varies without these items.
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Penetrating Blasts - Used on cooldown. Main point to note is that this channel needs to finish for it to proc Followthrough, so be careful not to clip the cast by moving.
FILLER / Snipe - We have an extra GCD in the rotation so should generally use Snipe. See Filler Priority below for additional discussion.
Followthrough - It bears repeating that Followthrough does great damage and is the most critical part of the overall rotation due to how it affects energy management. It is super cheap (5 energy, so you net positive energy each GCD you use it) and it buffs Snipe to be 5 energy cheaper as well. If you don’t use Followthrough consistently then your energy may fall apart.
Snipe - Used twice here to maintain buffs on Snipe via the Honed Shots passive, to buff the next Followthrough via the Marksman’s Finesse passive, and finally to shorten the cast time on Ambush via the Zeroing Shots passive.
Snipe - Used twice here as noted above to proc Followthrough.
Followthrough - Buffed by Snipe x2.
Ambush - Used on cooldown.
Followthrough
[Repeat]
Rotation (Sniper Volley)
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Penetrating Blasts
Sniper Volley (OFF GCD) + Penetrating Blasts - We want to use Sniper Volley right after a use of Penetrating Blasts so we can immediately channel it a second time. This keeps the rotation really smooth and avoids having to delay its use in the next rotation.
Followthrough - It bears repeating that Followthrough does great damage and is the most critical part of the overall rotation due to how it affects energy management. It is super cheap (5 energy, so you net positive energy each GCD you use it) and it buffs Snipe to be 5 energy cheaper as well. If you don’t use Followthrough three times per rotation cycle (the sole exception being in a Sniper Volley rotation cycle) then your energy will fall apart.
Snipe - Used twice here to maintain buffs on Snipe via the Honed Shots passive, to buff the next Followthrough via the Marksman’s Finesse passive, and finally to shorten the cast time on Ambush via the Zeroing Shots passive.
Snipe - Used twice here as noted above to proc Followthrough.
Followthrough - Buffed by Snipe x2.
Ambush - Used on cooldown.
Followthrough
Note that the only change here is we use Sniper Volley to enable a back-to-back use of Penetrating Blasts in the filler spot instead of Snipe.
Rotation (sub-30%)
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Penetrating Blasts - Used on cooldown. Main point to note is that this channel needs to finish for it to proc Followthrough, so be careful not to clip the cast by moving.
Takedown - In the execute phase we can use Takedown once per rotation with its buff applied from Ambush.
Followthrough - It bears repeating that Followthrough does great damage and is the most critical part of the overall rotation due to how it affects energy management. It is super cheap (5 energy, so you net positive energy each GCD you use it) and it buffs Snipe to be 5 energy cheaper as well. If you don’t use Followthrough three times per rotation cycle (the sole exception being in a Sniper Volley rotation cycle) then your energy will fall apart.
Snipe - Used twice here to maintain buffs on Snipe via the Honed Shots passive, to buff the next Followthrough via the Marksman’s Finesse passive, and finally to shorten the cast time on Ambush via the Zeroing Shots passive.
Snipe - Used twice here as noted above to proc Followthrough.
Followthrough - Buffed by Snipe x2.
Ambush - Used on cooldown.
Followthrough
Note the only change here from the Core Rotation is we used Takedown in the filler slot right after Penetrating Blasts. I feel this aligns out heavy burst nicely with Ambush / Followthrough / Penetrating Blasts / Takedown so that during buff windows we are more likely to get all of them together.
Filler Priority
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Corrosive Dart - Your top overall priority filler, your DoT does much heavier damage than the tool tip indicates due to its internal damage profile. That ignores enemy armor so typically will do around 50% more DPS than a comparable non-internal/elemental damage ability (like Snipe). Keeping 100% uptime of the DoT is a huge DPS increase for the discipline. Unfortunately, it’s cooldown does not align with the length of your rotation cycle, so to keep it up you will need to float the filler ability through the rotation. That isn’t a big deal but takes some time to get used to it.
In 6.0 and if taking the Agitating Energies tactical, this DoT only needs to be applied once then will be automatically refreshed by Penetrating Blast and Followthrough. As such, it no longer needs to be reapplied unless there is downtime or target swapping.Penetrating Blasts (w/ Sniper Volley) - Normally a core rotation ability, the Sniper Volley cooldown lets us add a second use of Penetrating Blasts in the filler slot as noted above.
Takedown (buffed) - Your execute is buffed by the cast of Ambush via the Finish the Job passive. It should only be used when glowing. That works out anyway since the rotation only has one filler spot so there would not be a sustainable way to use it more often in any case.
Snipe - Your remaining filler above 30% boss health any time Corrosive Dart is already ticking.
Rifle Shot - Should only be used very infrequently. If taking the Established Foothold set bonus, the additional energy regeneration should be sufficient to never need to use a basic attack.
Rotation w/o Established Foothold and/or Agitating Energies
As discussed above in the rotation and gearing sections, the Established Foothold (EF) set bonus and Agitating Energies tactical are mandatory for nearly all PVE encounters. The only exception to this is taking the Refraction Point tactical for fights where you need much higher AoE DPS. The Established Foothold set bonus is optimal for all encounters in my opinion.
However, players still gearing up may be stuck playing with another set bonus or an incomplete set bonus. There are a few tips to keep in mind if you are missing a complete gearing set, as it will impact your rotation in a few important ways.
Get the Agitating Energies tactical before EF gear. This makes sense since it is one item versus six items but there is more to it than that. The biggest drawback to now having the Established Foothold set is the greatly reduced energy generation. The damage boost from Entrench is amazing but does not really impact your rotation as significantly. Agitating Energies lets you apply Corrosive Dart once and then forget about it, which is in itself a HUGE energy savings.
Without the EF 4-piece, use Rifle Shot frequently as a filler. The rotation above depends heavily on the energy regeneration of the EF 4-piece set bonus and high uptime on Entrench. The rotation is energy negative using Snipe as a filler without these benefits. If you have Agitating Energies equipped then I would suggest using Rifle Shot as your filler unless you have Adrenaline Probe available or are above 85% energy. If you do not have the Agitating Energies tactical yet then the same rules apply except your filler use should prioritize applying Corrosive Dart over Snipe as discussed above.
Without the EF 6-piece, Entrench does not need to be used on cooldown. The EF 6-piece gives the huge damage buff and leads to the goal of using Entrench on cooldown. If you lack the 6-piece set then Entrench can be used situationally to avoid knockback mechanics and/or to mitigate predictable AoE damage, and you may be able to re-allocate utilities accordingly.
With all that said, I strongly recommend getting the full set bonus and tactical as quickly as you can since it is hugely beneficial to the discipline. EF drops from conquest so simply reaching conquest on as many Gunslinger or Sniper characters as possible will quickly reward you with a full EF set. Agitating Energies drops from operations but its chances of dropping in a group setting is fairly low. Between the lower odds of getting it free and its greater utility, I would suggest making Agitating Energies your first/only purchase from the Tech Frag vendor.
Applying DoTs to Multiple Targets
Marksman is not a very strong AoE class like Engineering and does not have a DoT spread ability like Virulence, so it can struggle compared to the other Sniper disciplines in multi-target fights. Fortunately, it has a big advantage in that it has a DoT in Corrosive Dart that can be applied to multiple targets and can become a "fire and forget" DoT on multiple targets with careful target swapping.
To briefly refresh, the Agitating Energies tactical enables Penetrating Blasts and Followthrough to tick and refresh the duration of Corrosive Dart on a target. Prior to alacrity, Corrosive Dart has an 18 second duration prior to alacrity and the core rotation takes 12.5 seconds, in which Penetrating Blasts is used at least once and Followthrough is used three times. Thus the core rotation provides at least four ability uses that can tick/refresh Corrosive Dart on multiple targets.
The basic concept to this strategy is to rely on Penetrating Blasts to tick/refresh Corrosive Dart on your main target and swap targets for one GCD only to use any of the Followthroughs on the secondary target to tick/refresh on them as well. Penetrating Blasts does a lot of damage and should tick Corrosive Dart five times versus Followthrough ticking it once, so keeping Penetrating Blasts on your main target will keep the majority of damage on your main target.
A super helpful way to accomplish this strategy with no/minimal loss of uptime is Focus Target. The default keybind for Focus Target is Alt+F, which sets your focus target and when used a second time will swap your focus target and current primary target. Apply Corrosive Dart to both targets and continue with your rotation on the main target, then before a use of Followthrough hit [Alt+F] / Followthrough / [Alt+F]. This key combination will swap targets to the secondary target, use Followthrough to deal damage and refresh/tick Corrosive Dart, then swap back to your main target.
A player could potentially keep Corrosive Dart up to three additional targets at once by using multiple Followthroughs for this purpose. However, I do not recommend it since the Focus Target strategy will only work for one secondary target. Manually tab targeting or click targeting is almost guaranteed to lose valuable uptime.or one GCD only to use any of the Followthroughs on the secondary target to tick/refresh on them as well.
Downtime & Restarting the Rotation
Many fights involve downtime for transitions in boss encounters or for various reasons can cause the rotation to get a bit lost when swapping targets or DPS'ing while on the move.
Any time the boss is shielded I suggest starting with the opener to pre-cast Orbital Strike and hard cast Ambush as outlined in the opener, then proceed into the normal rotation.
If you are unable to precast any abilities then I suggest beginning your rotation with applying Corrosive Dart if it has fallen off, then begin with the regular rotation at Penetrating Blasts. Ambush hits really hard but without the shortened cast it is much less of a DPS benefit and falls way behind Penetrating Blasts and its 5 ticks of Corrosive Dart.
Offensive Cooldowns
Laze Target (60s cooldown prior to alacrity) - Increases the critical chance of your next Ambush, Explosive Probe or Cull by 100%.
Laze Target should be used on cooldown in most instances. The buff it applies lasts for 20 seconds. The pre-alacrity cooldown of Ambush is 12 seconds or about 8 GCD's, so the duration of the buff should be enough for for the next Ambush.
The cooldown can be saved for specific burn phases when necessary though given its relatively short cooldown make sure to use it as often as you can before/after any hard burn phases.
Target Acquired (10s duration, 120s cooldown) - Increases ranged/tech accuracy by 30% and critical chance by 15%.
Target Acquired is a stronger cooldown with double the cooldown and a defined duration, so it should be timed a bit more carefully. Apart from using it early in the opener for high early damage, it's use should be timed within the rotation when we deal the most damage.
The duration of Target Acquired is slightly less than a full rotation cycle so the main objective in timing its use is making sure it buffs at least one Ambush and Penetrating Blasts, and then synergizing its use with other offensive cooldowns like Sniper Volley and Entrench. I suggest delaying it slightly if necessary to align with the next Sniper Volley cooldown, as the 5 extra ticks of Corrosive Dart and extra base damage from the second Penetrating Blasts will maximize the critical chance buff from the cooldown.
Sniper Volley (15s duration, 45s cooldown) - Immediately finishes the cooldown of Penetrating Blasts, increases energy regeneration by 2 per second, and increases alacrity by 10%.
As discussed above, Sniper Volley should be used as often as possible immediately after a channel of Penetrating Blasts.
Entrench (20s duration, 60s cooldown / 35s with utility + set bonus) - Entrenches you into cover, becoming immune to all controlling effects. Only grants protection while in cover.
Entrench is a very powerful offensive cooldown for all Snipers. Its offensive buffs come from gear:
Seek Cover (Masterful Utility) - When Entrench ends or you leave cover while Entrench is active, you gain Seek Cover, which increases your movement speed by 50% and grants immunity to movement impairing effects for 6 seconds.
Pillbox Sniper (Heroic Utility) - Reduces cooldown of Entrench by 15 seconds.
Siege Bunker (Heroic Utility) - Reduces all area effect damage taken by 60% while Entrench is active.
Established Foothold (4 piece set bonus) - The cooldown of Entrench is reduced by 10 seconds. You gain 2 energy per second while Entrench is active.
Established Foothold (6 piece set bonus) - While Entrenched, you build stacks of Entrenched Offense, increasing damage by 3% per stack while you remain Entrenched. Stacks up to 5 times. Breaking cover or Entrench being removed removes this.
If you are running Established Foothold (and you should be), you should generally use Entrench on cooldown unless you are about to enter a period of downtime or movement.
Defensive Cooldowns
Crouch (no cooldown) - Crouches in place, taking cover if used behind an object that provides cover. Crouching enables the use of cover-only abilities, and so long as you remain behind a cover object, most ranged attackers strike your cover instead.
Crouch provides a LOT of benefits through passive abilities and utilities:
While in cover the player receives +20% ranged defense and is immune to ability activation pushback via the Hold Position passive ability.
Entrench can only be activated while in cover and with utilities and set bonus has very high uptime and provides 60% resistance to AoE damage while active.
Using Evasion while in cover adds 75% damage resistance to Force or Tech attacks via the Hold Position passive ability.
If taking the Ballistic Dampers utility, each time the player enters cover they receive 3 charges of Ballistic Dampers that absorb 30% of the next 3 damaging attacks to the player.
If taking the Vital Regulators utility, while in cover the player will heal 2% of total health every 3 seconds.
If taking the Snap Shot utility, each time the player enters cover they can immediately activate Lethal Shot and can trigger this utility once every 6 seconds.
If taking the Calculated Pursuit utility, by entering cover the player can gain 4 charges of Calculated Pursuit for 15 seconds after exiting cover, which enable the player to cast Lethal Shot on the move.
If taking the Deployed Shields utility, while in cover all damage taken is reduced by 5%.
Snipers are a cover-based ranged damage class and gain many defensive benefits from being in cover and so should be in cover as often as possible.
Entrench (20s duration, 60s cooldown / 35s with utility + set bonus) - Entrenches you into cover, becoming immune to all controlling effects. Only grants protection while in cover.
Entrench is a very powerful defensive cooldown for all Snipers. See above for the complete listing of potential benefits via gear and utilities. The key defensive benefit for Entrench is it's 60% AoE damage reduction. This gives Snipers up to 57% uptime on 60% AoE damage reduction. When combined with the Sniper's other defensive cooldowns, this lets players ignore most AoE damage mechanics if necessary.
Entrench's cooldown can be reset by Imperial Preparation.
Shield Probe (30s cooldown / 25s with utility) - Projects a defense field around yourself for up to 10 seconds, which absorbs moderate damage.
Shield Probe can benefit from the Augmented Shields Masterful utility that increases the damage it absorbs by 30%, and the Hold Your Ground Masterful utility that reduces its cooldown by 5 seconds. The Toxic Regulators passive ability also causes Shield Probe to grant 30% damage resistance for 6 seconds after it ends.
Shield Probe is a great low cooldown defensive ability for any predictable instances of low to moderate damage. Since it projects an absorb shield it is effective against nearly all types of damage mechanics.
Shield Probe's cooldown can be reset by Imperial Preparation.
Evasion (60s cooldown) - Increases your chance to dodge melee and ranged attacks by 200% for 3 seconds.
If Evasion is used while the player is in cover then it also benefits from the Hold Position passive ability, which causes Evasion to reduce damage taken by Force and Tech attacks by 75% for Dodge's duration.
Evasion is a really powerful defensive cooldown is used smartly. It can let Snipers entirely mitigate melee/ranged attacks regardless of whether the player is or is not in cover. If the player can anticipate heavy Force or Tech damage mechanics, the player can enter cover and use Evasion to mitigate 75% of the damage. Combining Shield Probe and Evasion while in cover is frequently enough to survive nearly any damage mechanics outside of "one shot" mechanics.
Evasion's cooldown can be reset by Imperial Preparation.
Covered Escape (20s cooldown) - Roll forward 18 meters, purging movement-impairing effects and landing crouched behind cover. While rolling, your chance to dodge attacks is increased by 100%.
Covered Escape can benefit from the Tactical Retreat Heroic utility that causes Covered Escape to heal you for 10% of your maximum health on activation.
Covered Escape is a situational defensive ability that is more consistently useful as a movement cooldown. I primarily use it to quickly reposition and get back into cover. However, it can be used to completely mitigate most damage mechanics if timed correctly, but it is fairly challenging given the brief window of damage resistance. The keys to success are (1) aim yourself to make sure you don't roll into trouble or off a ledge; and (2) try to time Covered Escape as close as possible to the damage tick.
Covered Escape's cooldown can NOT be reset by Imperial Preparation.
Diversion (60s cooldown) - Reduces the accuracy by 45% and exposes from cover of up to 8 enemies with 8 meters for 8 seconds. Cannot be used on operation bosses.
Diversion can benefit from the Controlled Chaos Heroic utility that applies a +10% armor penetration buff for every additional enemy affected by Diversion (so a maximum of +70% armor penetration) if Diversion affects the maximum of 8 enemies.
Diversion is not usually very useful in operations. I can occasionally be useful on fights with lots of adds to debuff them to deal less damage to the team, and has a niche use in the Thrasher encounter in the Scum and Villainy operation in Veteran or Master Mode to force the snipers on the elevated platform out of cover.
On fights with lots of adds near the boss the Controlled Chaos utility makes Diversion an offensive cooldown. Diversion consumes a global cooldown though so it really needs to affect close to the maximum for the armor penetration buff to make it worthwhile to buff DPS, which is pretty rare in operations outside of trash pulls.
Diversion's cooldown can NOT be reset by Imperial Preparation.
Ballistic Shield (180s cooldown / 150s with utility) - Deploys an acquired scrambling field that disrupts the energy signatures of conventional weapons. The field spawns 10 meters around you, reducing the damage taken by all allies that remain inside by 20%. Lasts 20 seconds.
Ballistic Shield can benefit from the Riot Screen Heroic utility that reduces its cooldown by 30 seconds. I often take this utility but primarily for its other benefit that adds a permanent 5% additional damage reduction while in cover. The cooldown reduction is only useful for fights where you need to use Ballistic Shield more than once and need the 30 second cooldown reduction to time it correctly.
Ballistic Shield is an AMAZING ability and serves as a defensive "raid buff" for Snipers since they do not have an offensive team cooldown. It has a long cooldown so needs to be timed correctly, but can make a massive difference to help teams survive high group damage phases. Some examples include the burn phase in the Dread Council fight in the Dread Palace operation, the burn phase in the Master & Blaster fight in the Ravagers operation and the Red boss fight in the Dxun Nature of Progress operation.
Ballistic Shield's cooldown can NOT be reset by Imperial Preparation.
Entrench & Imperial Preparation
As discussed above, Entrench provides a really strong boost to damage when you have the Established Foothold set bonus equipped. Except during downtime or when downtime is imminent, players should try to activate Entrench on cooldown to get the maximum benefit of the damage buff. Players can further optimize the buffs from Established Foothold via the Imperial Preparation ability.
When Entrench is activated, it builds stacks of Entrenched Offense that increase damage by 3% per stack. Entrenched Offense builds 1 stack every second, so it takes 5 seconds to build from 0 stacks to the maximum of 5 stacks. So instead of receiving 20 seconds of +15% damage, instead we have +3-12% damage for 5 seconds and +15% damage for 15 seconds.
Imperial Preparation resets the cooldown on various abilities including Entrench. This means we can squeeze in some extra uses of Entrench during a fight, as long as we do not expect to need Imperial Preparation to enable extra uses of other applicable abilities.
With all applicable utilities taken, Entrench has a 20 second duration with a 35 second cooldown, while Bag of Tricks can be used every 150 seconds with a utility. Without using Imperial Preparation for extra Entrench uses and ignoring downtime, we can achieve 20s / 35s = 57% uptime on Entrench. Over the course of a 6 minute fight we can potentially use Imperial Preparation 3 times to get 3 extra uses of Entrench, which would increase our overall uptime on Entrench to around 67%. Getting +10% more uptime on a +15% damage buff should equate to around a 1.5-2.5% increase in overall damage. (The math indicates +1.5% but we should be looking to use offensive cooldowns, burst windows in our rotation and synergizing with group raid buffs to increase the benefit of this additional uptime.)
An advanced option for Imperial Preparation is to use it to bridge together two uses of Entrench. This strategy involves using Imperial Preparation right after Entrench is used initially, the activating the second Entrench just before the first expires. If we execute this strategy correctly, we can carry over our 5 stacks of Entrenched Offense for the second full duration instead of building back up from 0 to 5 stacks.
Movement as a Sniper
Snipers are a cover-based class by design, so we want to avoid movement whenever we can and minimize it when it is unavoidable.
Let's first discuss relevant abilities, passives and utilities that can help Snipers quickly relocate from position to position, then go over some strategic considerations and how those can apply in operations encounters that involve lots of movement.
Hololocate (0.5s cast, free, 120s cooldown) - Activating this ability marks your current location for 10 minutes. When this ability is activated again, if you are within 60 meters of the marked location, you instantly return to the marked location. Hololocate goes on cooldown for 120 seconds when used to return to the marked location.
Hololocate is a great ability for any fight where you will have to move to a pre-determined location. Place it before the fight if possible. You can also place it mid-fight if you run past an area you will need to return to later in the fight.
Covered Escape (20s cooldown) - Roll forward 18 meters, purging movement-impairing effects and landing crouched behind cover. While rolling, your chance to dodge attacks is increased by 100%.
I primarily use Covered Escape for relocation, as most of the time moving 18 meters is sufficient to get into the class' 35m range on most abilities.
Calculated Pursuit (Skillful Utility) - You gain 4 charges of Calculated Pursuit by exiting cover, which allow Snipe or Lethal Shot to be activated while moving. The charges last for 15 seconds and can be gained every 20 seconds. Reentering cover removes the effect.
I always take Calculated Pursuit. A bunch of other abilities and utilities are great for momentary relocation but Calculated Pursuit is the only way to let you hard cast your filler while moving. For any operations that may include sustained movement phases I have found Calculated Pursuit to be an amazing utility.
Reestablish Range (Masterful Utility) - Surrender purges all movement-impairing effects when activated and grants Reestablish Range, increasing your movement speed by 75% for 6 seconds. Also, the final shot of Series of Shots knocks back the target if they are within 10 meters.
Reestablish Range is a situational utility that can be taken when you need periodic but infrequent big bursts of speed. Diversion has a 45 second cooldown so can provide quite a few on-demand speed boosts in a fight. The Master and Blaster fight is a good example for this utility, where if you are running in phase 1 this utility can help you quickly relocate.
Snap Shot (Skillful Utility): Entering cover makes the next Snipe or Lethal Shot activate instantly, and can occur once every 6 seconds.
I find Calculated Pursuit to be more useful for mobility but Snap Shot can be helpful to "stick and move" to get an extra instant cast in while moving.
As discussed above, the key to maximizing Sniper DPS is to stay in cover (and Entrench) as often as possible. When you have to move you should try to move as quickly as possible and pre-position yourself to minimize the travel distance.
Here are some quick tips for each operation encounter to maximize your DPS uptime as a Sniper:
Eternity Vault
XRR-3 Annihilation Droid - Enter cover 20m from boss to avoid stun/knockback then Covered Escape under the boss for AoE healing, then Covered Escape back out when it comes off cooldown.
Gharj - Calculated Pursuit and Reestablish Range are great to get a speed boost and mobile DPS each time an island collapses.
Ancient Pylons - Enter cover next to the consoles so you can click while in cover. No movement necessary.
Infernal Council - Enter cover next to your assigned boss. No movement necessary.
Soa - Enter cover on the west side of the room and stay there. Use Covered Escape and Calculated Pursuit to reposition if needed to DPS mind traps.
Karagga's Palace
Bonethrasher - Try to set up a little out of the middle but far enough from the edge to be safe, and reposition any time you get knocked back by the boss. If you avoid moving to maximize uptime on DPS, make sure to use defensives prior to boss cleaving in your direction.
Jarg & Sorno - Set up near max range from boss starting position but out of the middle to avoid damage when bosses leap to middle. The fight should not involve any movement except dodging purple circles.
Foreman Crusher - Set up in the middle of the room within range of the door. The fight should not involve any movement except dodging red circles.
G4-B3 Heavy Fabricator - Set up close to max range away from team members to avoid splash damage from grenade. No movement necessary.
Karagga the Unyielding - Set up in the middle of the room to avoid boss cleave attacks. Re-position as needed if you get pulled by the gravity mechanic.
Explosive Conflict
Zorn & Toth - Try to set up >28m from both bosses to avoid taking damage from bosses. Reposition if needed due to boss movement. Should be minimal movement unless you get targeted by boss' throw mechanic.
Firebrand & Stormcaller - Set up on the side of the tanks and only move during defensive systems. Try to avoid being the runner on the ground if possible since your DPS will suffer a lot more than other ranged DPS.
Colonel Vorgath - This fight involves a lot of periodic movement, so time your Entrenches as each probe droid is summoned and move with the group.
Warlord Kephess - Try to set up near but not underneath the big walker. You can often reach every enemy from this position with minimal movement. You still need to run under the pulsar droids though.
Terror From Beyond
Writhing Horror - Set up in the middle of the room near but not on top of the flowers. Only move if you need to stand in a flower to pacify adds.
Dread Guards - Set up in the middle of the room to maintain range on your targets. You are much more at risk to stand in green circles when they spawn under you while attacking Ciphas, so keep a close eye on your feet for the green swirls and move out of green circles. Apart from green circles or if you get marked for death by Kel'sara, the fight should involve minimal movement.
Operator IX - Use speed buffs and Hololocate to move from side to side when attacking cores. During phase 2, time your use of Entrench so if is on cooldown when you need to run around standing in colored circles or for color deletion.
Kephess the Undying - Set up a bit out of the middle of the room so you can maintain range on Kephess but avoid lightning puddles. Try to be aware of when you can safely be mobile in your rotation and Entrench is on cooldown, and use that time to reposition to be near Kephess in case you need to stand near the pillar.
Terror from Beyond - This fight involves a lot of movement in both phases. The key thing to consider in phase 2 is whether you can safely survive tentacle slams to avoid jumping off the platform. As long as Entrench is active and through other defensives you usually can do so safely.
Scum and Villainy
Dash'roode - Calculated Pursuit and Snap Shot are great for filler cast DPS on the move while moving the generator. The Restablish Range utility speed boost along with the Covered Escape and Cover Pulse abilities are great for knocking back the adds if you get lost and quickly getting back to the group.
Titan 6 - Set up at max range and right next to your assigned rock. As Titan 6 relocates, use your mobility phases in your rotation and Calculated Pursuit to relocate early for the next launch sequence. Setting Hololocate pre-pull can help with one of the relocations.
Thrasher - I suggest setting up near a wall so if you get Firebug then you only have to move when the add gets to you instead of moving to and from the wall. If you have to relocate to DPS adds then try to avoid moving after that unless more adds spawn elsewhere or the boss is out of range. Reestablish Range and Covered Escape are great for rapid relocation at these points or if you go up top to kill adds.
Operations Chief - This fight has a lot of movement but not during battles. On the boss, set up in the middle of the room so everything is in range and you should never have to leave cover.
Olok the Shadow - No movement should be necessary in phase 1 except when you get a token or to move out of fire. During phase 2, move between shield phases and once you reach the boss set up near the middle of the room so you have the boss in range no matter where he appears.
Cartel Warlords - Set up near the bosses starting position and no movement should be necessary except possibly to attack Sunder, for which Covered Escape should be plenty to reposition.
Dread Master Styrak - Set up in the middle of the room where the big ghost spawns and you should only have to move if you need to get into melee range on the little ghosts.
Dread Fortress
Nefra - Set up near max range in case you need to pick up the exploding add. Use Covered Escape to reposition quickly if a red circle spawns under you.
Draxus - Try to set up in the front middle of the room cheating towards which side you are assigned. From this position you should be able to reach Draxus, adds on your side and adds in the back. I also suggest setting up a Hololocate in the back for teleporting there while shields are up, though otherwise Covered Escape should very nearly cover the distance instantly. Make sure to stay out of the middle anytime Guardians are up to avoid their cleave, though Snipers can handle the cleave if Entrench is active plus either Shield Probe or Evasion.
Grob'thok - Set up in the middle of the room and you should have range on the boss and adds as they run in.
Corruptor Zero - Set up in melee range of where the tank will hold Corruptor Zero. If you are asked to stand out for concussion mines, try to set up right at 18-20m range so Hightail It can immediately roll you into melee range. Make sure to watch your position heading into any big laser beam phases.
Dread Master Brontes - In Phase 1, try to set up in the middle of the room where you can reach most enemies without moving. In Phase 2, set up just a bit behind Brontes where you can reach Kephess at all 3 spawn points. Heading into the clockwork lightning phase, I suggest setting up as close to max range of the first add as possible. Once it dies I use Covered Escape and Calculated Pursuit to quickly relocate and DPS on the move to stay ahead of the lightning beam. In the 6 finger phase you should stand near your finger. In burn phase stay near a wall and watch our for purple circles. Entrench is great to avoid the knockback.
Dread Palace
Dread Master Bestia - I suggest setting up near the throne since you can keep the entire room in range apart from weird LoS directly opposite the throne. Be careful though of yellow circles as they clip over/under the ground near and on the throne.
Dread Master Tyrans - Try to set up at max range so you have to move as little as possible to drop platforms or to move out of fire.
Dread Master Calphayus - Set up outside the group with Entrench if you are kiting the big red AoE or stand with the group depending on your strategy. Very little movement is required during any of the active damage phases in this fight.
Dread Master Raptus - Coordinate with your tanks on where they will hold Raptus but make sure you position yourself to naturally avoid all cleave damage. Tanks doing a good job keeping Raptus in place will be huge for your DPS. If Raptus gets too far to one side, use Hightail It to reposition and try to keep Hololcate on the throne for quick returns once the boss gets back to a normal position.
Dread Council - Try to set up very near the holocron in the middle of the room unless you are asked to kite Raptus. If you have to grab any crystals make sure to use all mobility buffs like Covered Escape and Reestablish Range to get your crystal quickly and back down to attack the bosses.
Ravagers
Sparky - Set up in the middle of the room so you can keep Sparky in range no matter how much he punts the tank around.
Quartermaster Bulo - Set up near the back of the room. This helps you drop the burst volley blue AoE near a wall in a safe location and you should still keep Bulo in range. Use Entrench and defensives during mass barrage to stand in 3-4 circles as they stack then move one time out of circles and then get back into cover and resume attacking.
Torque - Set up near the console to summon repair droids so you minimize downtime and reduce your chances of getting fire. This room is really small so range should not be an issue.
Master & Blaster - If you have to run then you will need to make full utilization of mobility abilities and utilities. Hololocate, Covered Escape and Reestablish Range are all great to quickly reposition out of orange circles, while Snap Shot and Calculated Pursuit help you DPS while dodging orange circles or while chasing Master.
Pirate Captains - Set up near the middle of the room in both phases to keep the bosses in range.
Temple of Sacrifice
Malaphar the Savage - Stand inside the red circle to DPS. Try to time your use of Entrench so you reset stacks in between uses of Entrench so you do not have to interrupt it. Watch our for Malaphar's spear throw red AoE.
Sword Squadron - Set up as far back as possible while keeping Unit 1 and Unit 2 in range for easy target swapping. If possible, ask teammates to move away from you if you get the big grenade so you do not lose uptime. For the gravity pull-in mechanic, use Covered Escape or Hololocate to get back into position. You should avoid red circles as often as possible though with Entrench active and another defensive you can periodically eat one in order to maintain uptime (make sure your healers are okay with that first though!)
Underlurker - Set up at a position equidistant from the three adds and near your other ranged DPS and healers for efficient AoE healing. Quickly reposition near a rock and then resume DPS next to it until you need to hide. In Story Mode you can stay out during rage storm with Entrench but do not do so in Veteran Mode. Use Covered Escape and Reestablish Range to quickly get to the boss during the cross mechanic.
Revanite Commanders - Set up near Sano's spawn point but cheat a little towards the middle of the room. Apart from moving out of cleaves or AoEs from adds, this should let you stay inside Sano's shield when he spawns but keep Kurse and Deron in range nearly all the time. Use Covered Escape to chase a boss while Snap Shot is great to quickly move out of a cleave or AoE then resume DPS.
Revan - You should generally set up near max range to kite the lightsabers near an edge and use Cover Pulse to knock them off. That range can also help if you need to break the tether beam, especially if the other player will let you stay in cover and do all the running. If not, Covered Escape can often be enough along with your range to break the beam. During the HK-47 phase on first floor, do not mess around with uptime and get out to drop the grenade damage. On 2nd floor stay with the group and time your use of Entrench carefully. On 3rd floor you can use Entrench on cooldown in Story Mode, but in Veteran Mode you should time your use to cheese each pull-in so you can maximize uptime on the core.
Gods from the Machine
Tyth - Try to set up relatively close to Tyth for inversion, after inversion use Covered Escape to get back close to Tyth for the next one.
Aivela & Esne - Set up on the side of the platform near your Countermeasure for most of the fight so minimal movement is required except to stand between the boss and the Nexus in phase 2 or to dodge wiper beams in phase 3.
Nahut - During Phase 1, try to time your use of Entrench when Nahut is not being moved. During Phase 3, put your back to a generator for the pull in. During Phase 4, make sure to stay ahead of Nahut and move during mobility phases to when you can Entrench you can stay put for its full duration.
Scyva - This fight involves very little movement until the last phase with Scyva. In that phase, try to be very quick in relocating from side to side or between inner and outer rings to dodge purple floors.
Izax - This fight involves a lot of movement at times so all your abilities will be useful, especially during "Master/Blaster" phase late in the fight.
Nature of Progress
Red - Use your mobility abilities while moving Red but hopefully your tank will move the boss in spurts rather than continuously.
Holding Pens - Use all your mobility abilities to damage adds on the move, as this fight is particularly tough for Snipers.
Control Center - Use mobility abilities while moving into the Control Center. Once inside the Control Center you should not have to move much at all the rest of the boss fight.
Trandoshans - Try to set up in the middle of the room to keep all bosses in range. I suggest setting Hololocate near the train terminal if you need to summon a train.
Huntmaster - This fight does not involve a lot of movement except for the yellow fire grenade. I suggest running out to drop the grenade then Covered Escape back into the spotlight.
Apex Vanguard - Apex moves regularly as acid blast puddles are dropped, so time your use of Entrench to avoid clipping it and Covered Escape to relocate as needed as the boss is moved around the room. In Veteran Mode you should time your use of Entrench so you do not have to clip it to move into position to be cleansed.