7.8 Ruffian / Lethality SWTOR Guide

As stated above, we can only hold 2 Upper Hands.  It can be wise to hold onto one of those charges, or be ready to immediately regenerate one, as having 1 UH increases our Critical Chance by 5%.  Always try to keep UH up on your buff bar for this reason.

Using Point Blank Shot from stealth will build one Upper Hand.  Keep this in mind during combat, as using Disappearing Act, then point-blank shot will also generate an UH

Pugnacity is a huge Offensive/Defensive Cool Down as well as a self-heal.  It increases our Alacrity by 10% for 20" heals us for 5% health every 3" (about 30% HP) as well as a Damage Reduction of 20%.  Oh, and of course it generates an Upper Hand.

Sanguinary Shot gains increased damage as well as helps with energy regeneration from our choice of tactical.  This ability also makes our bleeds (DoTs) tick harder for the duration of the debuff it puts on the target.  It also generates an Upper Hand.

Blaster Whip builds one Upper Hand for us, but is also unique in that it makes our Next Brutal Shots not consume an UH and cost no energy.  It can only do this once every 10".  Blaster Whip has a 5" cool down, so this means roughly every other will proc this effect.

Our Gap Closer generates an Upper Hand.  I use this frequently when other UH generating abilities are on cool down and I want to continue or start hitting Brutal Shots for fillers.

Last on the list is Brutal Shots itself.  While typically it eats an UH, If Brutal shots consumes the final UH in the stack, it refunds it (cannot occur more than once every 10") as such I always try to make sure if I am eating all UHs, I use Brutal shots to do it.

This is your normal go to for spamming high dps fillers to consume your upper hands.  You should always try to use Brutal shots to consume your last charge of Upper Hand to gain the Refund and a second use of the ability from your Upper Hand.  More uses of Brutal shots typically means higher DPS.

This ability can be substituted in for any Brutal Shots in the rotation.  Bushwhack spreads Vital shot.  Keep In mind that bushwhack does not benefit from the "if you use it, and it would consume the final UH that it does not consume it" perk, so try to use Bushwhack when you have 2 Upper Hands.

Our Raid Buff.  Raid Buffs when used provides all friendly players in your ops group within 40 meters of you the benefit of the Buff.  Stack the Deck increases Critical Chance by 10% for 10".  Unlike the Sage or Commando, we do not have to pick our Raid Buff from a list of skill points.  We have it by default and have to make no decisions to lose something to take it.  Ideally, if there is a Scoundrel Healer in the group, they should be the one using the Raid Buff, as they generate Upper Hands far easier than we do.  If the Ruffian uses the Raid Buff, it is a minor DPS loss.

We consume a charge of our Upper Hand and rebuild it with Sanguinary Shot to get our last DoT ticking.  Sanguinary Shot should be used as close to cool down as possible from here on out in your rotation.

As you proceed through your rotation, keep in mind that you can use your stealth out, Disappearing Act to enter stealth and use Point Blank Shot for an Upper Hand as well.  Using Trick move in place also works to help build an Upper hand and keep those Brutal Shots firing.

Over Dot'ing can lead to an energy burn out.  Cool Head gives you one free get out of energy jail free card.  Be sure to only reapply DoTs every OTHER point-blank shot, and take care to DoT spread to targets and only multidot when your energy management allows.

A strong defensive ability.  This increases your chance to dodge (not take damage) melee and ranged damage by 200% for 7 seconds.  It also acts as a self-cleanse.

This ability puts an absorb screen on us, that absorbs 32k damage.  Stays active for 10 seconds or until the damage threshold is reached.  Gives us a 15% for 6" DR when it collapses.

This ability makes the scoundrel very fast on its feet.  Effectively able to "roll out" of AoE circles quickly.  I use this practically on cool down when on the move.  While rolling, your chance to dodge melee and ranged attacks is increased by 30%.

Pugnacity is a huge Offensive/Defensive Cool Down as well as a self-heal.  It increases our Alacrity by 10% for 20" heals us for 5% health every 3" (about 30% HP) as well as a Damage Reduction of 20%.  Using Pugnacity as a Defensive cool down is sometimes needed due to the class's lack of great defensives.  It is a DPS loss to do so, but so is dying ;)

When we pop scamper, we gain the Scurry buff (once every 10").  This buff makes use of Kolto Pack free and instant, giving us a nice Self-heal on a short cool down Timer for those times our HP is shrinking.  This can make the Ruffian very resilient to damage, but at a loss to dps.  It is optimal to use this in transition phases when the boss has disengaged, and you have nothing to shoot.  Scamper and heal!