SWTOR Gunslinger PvP Tips and Tactics (Sharpshooter)

SWTOR Gunslinger PvP Tips and Tactics (Sharpshooter) by Zedakah

I am not a level 50 expert on pvp, but I have pvp’d enough so far to find out a few useful tricks for this class. Currently, I’m a sharpshooter gunslinger, which isn’t very mobile for pvp, but it still can be deadly if played correctly. I usually end up top 1 or 2 damage every warzone with multiple medals, just by playing smart. In my opinion, gunslinger is one of the easiest classes to pvp successfully, possibly because other players don’t know how deadly we can be. So here are a few tips as a sharpshooter.

Cover placement.

This is probably the most important aspect of a sharpshooter in pvp. You do not want to run into the middle of a melee fight, hit cover and start shooting. Know the warzones, and know a few places to put cover. For example in huttball, place your cover behind the fire or acid. When they come up to you, leg shot them and laugh.

Some people like to be in high cover to get a good overview. The downside of this is that ALL enemy players can see you just as easy (if not more easily) than being low to the ground. Being perched on high, will make you more of a target than being halfway hidden behind a pillar. However, one on one, high cover on a ledge is nice because you can blast people off and continue to dps them. So, there are pros and cons to a high perch.

Know when to break your cover and run. We have a lot of abilities to get away from people, but that doesn’t mean everytime a melee class comes within range you should pick up and flee. If you are alone or on the front line and enemies are charging, then run back to your allies.

However, one on one (sometimes 2 on 1) melee does not always warrant an escape. This is partially because you are much more protected inside cover than outside. Once you lift up your cover, you are exposing yourself to multiple more CCs, slows, jumps all with less defenses. Often, it’s best to hunker down and fight off a melee. With aimed shot knocking people back + leg shot, cheap shot, flash grenade, Pulse Detonate, hunker down, dodge….. You have a lot of abilities to keep people away and reduce your damage taken.

That said, just be smart. You are not invincible in cover, so it’s much better if you pick up and run from an army of sith. If you are with one other person facing 4+ enemies, then you might want to consider running like a coward (maybe take out someone with low health), but running back to your living team members will help your team more than 2 people trying to be heroes. The exception is if you are protecting nodes and prolonging the enemy from capturing. This is where your grenades can be quite annoying to them.

Use Your Crowd Control

When you find a good placement, don’t just start shooting like a madman. If you see one team member fighting 3 sith within your range, throw a flash grenade and help him out. You’d be surprised the damage you and one other dps class can pump out when you are at max range and use crowd control abilities.

Smoke grenade is not just for enemy snipers. It works well against melee too.

Use your interrupt. The worst part about this is the in-game lag that prevents me from using it with the move I want to interrupt. However, in pvp a sorcerer is always casting something, so it’s rarely going to be wasted even if you don’t interrupt the correct move.

Know Your Weakness and Strengths

Although the game has only been out for a few weeks (if you played early), we’re still learning the paper, rock, scissors of the classes.

We have very good protection from stuns in cover, but whichever class rips you out of cover is the class that naturally shines against us. I can’t remember if this is the sorcerer or sith warrior, but once I’m out of cover I’m fresh meat for other stuns, slows, jumps.

A stealth character has a natural jump on our class, because our class is about planning (cover placement, charging aimed shot, line of sight, etc…) as well as being away from allies. However, even if a stealther gets the jump on you, you can still win a 1v1 fight by using your knockbacks and stuns. If you are far away from your team, picking up and running might be worse than staying to fight the stealther. If it’s 2 stealthers against you there’s not much you can do. I generally can take down one stealther of the two by using CC, knockbacks and leg shot.

Bounty Hunters seem to be very balanced with our class. I usually can take them down, but on the chance one gets the jump on me 1v1 and beats me, I usually have him down to under 10% health. I like where we are at vs bounty hunters balance wise.

Other snipers can be taken down quickly if you get the jump. Just throw a smoke grenade and dps as quickly as possible. I think you can run up to a sniper in cover, throw down your cover, aim shot or pulse detonator and knock him away and out of cover; but I’ll double check that tonight. If that’s the case, you can do that and throw your smoke grenade when he tries to go back in cover, preventing him from being in cover for about 10-15 seconds….which is enough time to gain the edge.

Sith Marauders typically are my targets if all enemies are at full health. When in doubt, shoot the one with 2 lightsabers. They have medium armor, can be taken down fairly quick, have trouble getting within melee range of you (especially if you knockback) and do lots of damage if left alone. Healers are also a top priority, but they are actually hard to pick-out until you see them healing, which I do like about this game.

If you are having trouble with energy at low levels, it gets much better. Once you get foxhole and +10 energy, I feel like my energy never comes close to halfway. If it does, then just use cool head and you won’t have another problem for a while.

Random Tips

Be aware of your allies just as much as your enemies.
Just because sith warriors can’t jump to you doesn’t mean you are at a safe distance from them. All they will do is tab an ally next to you, jump, then attack you.

Don’t place your cover on the very edge of a ledge.
Give people room to get between you and a ledge so you can knock them off. I believe there’s also another jump that enables sentinels/sith warriors to jump at you in cover. They will be unable to use this against you on a ledge if you are far enough away from the edge of the ledge. I’m still trying to learn all the moves of the other classes as well as my own, so I apologize for not knowing 100% of these facts.

Use Aim Shot Wisely.
If you see a melee running toward you, charge up your aimed shot and blast him away (knockback within 10 yards), immediately followed by a leg shot. This will put both abilities on cooldown, which is what you want in that situation. This way, the melee will come at you again, so you can use Pulse detonator to send him flying back. Aim shot should be up soon, so this way if you time your moves right, you will have gotten off 2 aimed shots and a few charged blasts (and trickshots) without ever being touched. You still have dirty kick, dodge and other tricks to use, so by the time the melee actually gets to you; he should be close to dead. Of course, if nobody is remotely near you, then use it.