7.4 Scrapper / Concealment SWTOR Guide
Scrapper is the burst target spec of the scoundrel and is able to dish out some impressive sustained burst DPS in fights. Its simple rotation and quick movement make it able to dash quickly around the battlefield. It requires a bit of a warm-up time as it needs to reapply blood boiler to a target for maximum effectiveness. As such, target swapping to an add with low HP isn't the greatest plan for a scrapper. They are best suited to maintain uptime on a single primary target. They add some fantastic utility to a raid team, providing the susceptible (+5% tech damage) and assailable debuffs (7% bonus Internal/elemental). Making them a great pairing with sages, vanguards and gunslinger classes.
Gearing up for Defense
Below are the gear selections, legendary implants, tactical and skill point choices I recommend for this class.
For more on gearing, visit the pages under gearing your character in the basic training tab. Gearing to 340.
Gaining the Upper hand
The following abilities, or ability combos, will build your stack of Upper Hand. Keep in mind that you can only have a max of 2 Stacks. So spend them as you generate them.
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.
If used from stealth, back blast generates an upper hand. As such, we use this as our first ability in our opener to come out of stealth with an upper hand already generated.
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.
From our passive skills, Sucker punch will generate an upper hand from the flying fist passive. We have to have a bleed active on the target when we use sucker punch. Cannot occur more than once every 10".
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.
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.
As you can see above, there are many ways to Generate Upper Hands, and it is easy to overdo it and waste potential. Keep an eye on your Upper hand stacks and use Brutal Shots as needed to keep from over generating them. Generally speaking, abilities that give upper hands are low dps and abilities that use your upper hands have higher dps. Always press towards a balance.
Using your Upper Hands
Two abilities consume your generated upper hands. Sucker Punch is your default go to for spending them. Stack the Deck is our Raid Buff.
Sucker punch is our main filler and sole need of our upper hands. We should make it a priority anytime we are hitting 2 upper hands as to not waste them.
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.
The Opener
Priority System
From here, the class follows a priority system for which ability to use.
Highest Priority
When blood boiler is up, use this sequence as a priority 2 to back blast.
FILLER
(from this priority list)
Lowest Priority
Tips
These abilities are off the GCD and can be used anytime you are not at 2 Upper hands and will be able to use a sucker punch before generating more upper hands.
Cool Head gives you one free get out of energy jail free card. If we are not using Flurry of Bolts in our priority system to help with energy regeneration, or not using Pugnacity as close to on cool down as possible, we may suffer from some energy issues.
The Scrapper's Defensive Abilities
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 100% as a scrapper, making this very effective at dodging high damaging attacks if timed correctly.
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 excellent defensives. It is a DPS loss to do so, but so is dying ;)
Legendary Implants and Tactical
Skill Points
