Sniper
THESE RESOURCES ARE FOR PRE-7.0 GAME CONTENT AND ARE NO LONGER UP TO DATE.
Discipline Guides
Advanced Class Set Bonuses
Established Foothold
Increased drop rate from operations.
(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.
Comments: The BIS tactical when utilized correctly by far. The downside is the tactical plays heavily into class's image as a turret DPS, such that signficant movement can dramatically weaken its buff unless player correctly. The 4-piece set bonus provides more than 50% uptime of Entrench, so if the player can utilize more of that time to avoid moving they get massive DPS buffs. The 4-piece buff to energy regen makes all 3 discipline rotations laughably easy to manage energy, and no/limited movement provides very high uptime on the 15% DPS buff.
Precise Targeter
Increased drop rate from conquest.
(2) +2% Mastery
(4) Reduces the cooldown of Target 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.
Comments: This tactical is a safe choice to provide increased uptime of burst windows via Target Acquired and helpful energy management. However, it provides noticeably worse DPS and energy management buffs compared to Established Foothold. I only recommend this set for players unable or unwilling to commit to minimizing movement as is necesary to take full advantage of the Established Foothold set.
Repositioning
Increased drop rate from PVP.
(2) +2% Alacrity rating
(4) Reduces the cooldown of Cover Pulse by 5 seconds.
(6) Evasion finishes the cooldown of Covered Escape and increases you and your allies' movement speed by 50% for 6 seconds.
Comments: A great utility set for PVP by enabling more frequent use of Cover Pulse and Covered Escape, both of which are great for kiting melee DPS and for defensive mitigation of high damage abilities.
Outlaw's Parlay
Increased drop rate from Dxun / Nature of Progress operation.
(2) +2% Mastery
(4) The energy cost of Takedown is reduced by 3.
(6) Killing an enemy within 3 seconds of damaging them with Takedown resets the cooldown of Takedown and gives you a 5% damage buff. This stacks up to 3 times and lasts 10 seconds.
Comments: The tactical sounds interesting with its ability to enable rapid spam of Takedown and its energy cost is nice. However, the 3s window for the reset is a little too tight. The set pales in comparison to Established Foothold for both damage and energy regeneration.
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%.
Comments: An interesting and super situationally useful 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. 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.
Advanced Class Tacticals
CS-3 Velocity Holo-Dampener
Increased drop rate from PVP.
Hololocate increases your damage reduction by 15% for 10 seconds when you return.
Comments: An interesting tactical but not very useful given the long cooldown on Hololocate.
Kolto Bombardment
Increased drop rate from Conquest.
Orbital Strike heals allies in the area whenever it ticks.
Comments: Early testing suggests this Tactical causes Orbital to heal for about as much as a Operative Kolto Waves. Could have some use in progression for Engineering due to their reduced CD and rotational use of Orbital for heal-intensive fights. That said, it does not provide any increase to DPS so would rarely be useful.
Sniper Siege
Increased drop rate from Daily Missions.
Enemies take 10% more damage while under Suppressive Fire. Does not affect Operation bosses.
Comments: This would be broken if allowed to affect Operation bosses. It has some situational use for very high AoE sustained DPS encounters, as it effectively provides the entire team a 10% damage buff.
Technical Debt
Crafted by Artifice.
Shatter Shot applies Tech Debt to its target. Whenever the target is healed, so are you for a small amount.
Comments: An interesting and very highly situational tactical item for PVP. If you faced a team with a healer while your team was missing a healer, this would be a handy tactical to help offset some of the healing deficit.