SWTOR 5.0 Scrapper Scoundrel PvP Guide by Saya
SWTOR 5.0 Scrapper Scoundrel PvP Guide by Saya.
Contents
Intro to Scrapper Scoundrel
For PvP the Scrapper Scoundrel is a niche spec; its damage output is too low to be competitive in mid fights where a DPS spec has to contend with either targets being healed/guarded, or the healers/tanks themselves. However, the amount of survivability Scrapper has coupled with surprising on-demand burst does allow this spec to perform well in capable hands. In this guide I shall be looking at overall warzone strategies, dueling strategies, arena strategies, utility choices for the previously mentioned, and explaining my reasoning and choices behind said strategies and utilities, as well as gearing and stat allocation.
Gearing
The following are my stats when under the effects of bolster. Bolster gives me a small amount of alacrity despite not having any slotted. Currently I am not subbed, meaning that I am incapable of updating my level 65 ranked PvP gear with the current level 70 gear. Because of this my stats are obviously going to be far lower than they should be when not in a bolstered environment. However the stat allocations still hold true. For Scrapper you want unlettered Lethal mods and Adept enhancements, as these give the optimal amount of Power and Critical Rating. Additionally you want to gear with Versatile Armorings/Barrels. For augments I would recommend full purple Overkill augments. Scrapper has a large amount of passive crit chance baked into either passives or self buffs (Rolling Punches) that adding more crit via augments is largely a waste, as you will be approaching or already in diminishing returns territory. Because of this it is a much better option to use Power augments in order to increase your base damage, which will make those crits hit harder.
Below is my UI setup. My target frame is directly to the right of my Disappearing Act, so that it is aligned with my character portrait. As for my bar setup, everything that has a cooldown that I need to watch is on the four bars directly next to my character portrait and target frame. This allows allows me to keep my eyes on the battle and only have to move them extremely slightly to look at self/enemy buffs/debuffs or to check the timers on my cooldowns.The two bars at the bottom of my screen are for either skills with no cooldown or skills that aren’t going to be used nearly often enough for their cooldown to come into play (such as Thermal Grenade).
Key Abilities
Defensive Abilities
Offensive Abilities
Utilities
General WZ Queue
- Skillful – Holdout Defense, Dirty Escape
- Masterful – Supplemented Medpac, Anatomy Lessons
- Heroic – Scramble, Dirty Trickster, K.O.
- Legendary – Surprise Comeback
Alternate General WZ Queue
- Skillful – Holdout Defense, Dirty Escape
- Masterful – Supplemented Medpac, Anatomy Lessons
- Heroic – Scramble, Dirty Trickster
- Legendary – Surprise Comeback, Hotwired Defenses
I usually run the first of those setups, although if I feel I’m dealing with heavy focus too often I’ll drop K.O. for Surprise Comeback. I’m sure a lot of people are going to wonder why I take K.O., so I’ll explain. Up until 5.0 it was a worthless utility as you could only benefit from it once every 2 minutes. 5.0 gave the Hot and Ready passive, however, which causes Backblast to be treated as if you were in stealth. Because of this passive it allows you to make use of K.O. much more often, making you more effective at locking targets down with its 3 second root. Another point worth noting is that many people underestimate the buffed Defense Screen. It may be weaker than Sage bubble but with Hotwired Defenses it can absorb an extremely high amount of damage and should not be counted off. Finally, I don’t take Scar Tissue because I feel the 5% damage mitigation isn’t worth as much as the kiting/anti-kiting potential of Holdout Defense, however that is mostly my personal preference.
Ranked Utilities
- Skillful – Scar Tissue, Dirty Escape
- Masterful – Supplemented Medpac, Med Screen
- Heroic – Scramble, Dirty Trickster
- Legendary – Surprise Comeback, Hotwired Defenses
For ranked you want to take purely defensive utilities. Most players in ranked will be aware of the fact that if they force the Scoundrel to play defensively that he will be nearly completely unable to deal any amount of damage. This effectively turns it into a 3v4 in the enemy team’s favor. To attempt to counter this you need as much defense in your utility layout to give you as much breathing room to do damage in between your GCDs spent on staying alive.
Ranked Anti-Ranged Utilities
- Skillful – Holdout Defense, Dirty Escape
- Masterful – Supplemented Medpac, Anatomy Lessons
- Heroic – Scramble, Dirty Trickster
- Legendary – Surprise Comeback, Hotwired Defenses
For times when a large number of ranged DPS are in queue and you feel confident in your ability to survive with a somewhat less defensive utility layout, trade Scar Tissue for Holdout Defense, and Med Screen for Anatomy Lessons. These utility swaps will give you a higher uptime on the enemy, however should you become the target of focus fire you will be somewhat more squishy due to the lack of an additional 5% damage mitigation and not having a 5% heal upon Defense Screen’s collapse.
Dueling Utilities Per Class
Defense/Vigilance/Focus Guardian
- Skillful – Scar Tissue, Dirty Escape
- Masterful – Supplemented Medpac, Anatomy Lessons
- Heroic – Scramble, Dirty Trickster
- Legendary – Surprise Comeback, Hotwired Defenses
Watchman/Concentration Sentinel
- Skillful – Scar Tissue, Dirty Escape
- Masterful – Supplemented Medpac, Anatomy Lessons
- Heroic – Scramble, Dirty Trickster
- Legendary – Surprise Comeback, Hotwired Defenses
Combat Sentinel
- Skillful – Scar Tissue, Dirty Escape
- Masterful – Supplemented Medpac, Med Screen
- Heroic – Scramble, Dirty Trickster
- Legendary – Surprise Comeback, Hotwired Defenses
Kinetic Combat/Serenity Shadow
- Skillful – Scar Tissue, Dirty Escape
- Masterful – Supplemented Medpac, Anatomy Lessons
- Heroic – Scramble, Smuggled Defenses
- Legendary- Surprise Comeback, Hotwired Defenses
Infiltration Shadow
- Skillful – Scar Tissue, Dirty Escape
- Masterful – Supplemented Medpac, Med Screen
- Heroic – Scramble, Smuggled Defenses
- Legendary – Surprise Comeback, Hotwired Defenses
Telekinetics/Balance Sage
- Skillful – Holdout Defense, Dirty Escape
- Masterful – Supplemented Medpac, Anatomy Lessons
- Heroic – Scramble, Dirty Trickster, K.O.
- Legendary – Surprise Comeback
Seer Sage
- Skillful – Holdout Defense, Dirty Escape
- Masterful – Anatomy Lessons, Keep Cool
- Heroic – Get the Bulge, Smuggled Defenses, K.O.
- Legendary – Sleight of Foot
Ruffian/Scrapper Scoundrel
- Skillful – Scar Tissue, Dirty Escape
- Masterful – Supplemented Medpac, Anatomy Lessons
- Heroic – Scramble, Dirty Trickster, K.O.
- Legendary – Surprise Comeback
Sawbones Scoundrel
- Skillful – Holdout Defense, Dirty Escape
- Masterful – Anatomy Lessons, Keep Cool
- Heroic – Get the Bulge, Smuggled Defenses, K.O.
- Legendary – Sleight of Foot
Sharpshooter/Dirty Fighting/Saboteur Gunslinger
- Skillful – Scar Tissue, Dirty Escape
- Masterful – Supplemented Medpac, Med Screen
- Heroic – Scramble, Dirty Trickster
- Legendary – Surprise Comeback, Hotwired Defenses
Gunnery/Assault Specialist Commando
- Skillful – Holdout Defense, Dirty Escape
- Masterful – Supplemented Medpac, Anatomy Lessons
- Heroic – Scramble, Dirty Trickster
- Legendary – Surprise Comeback, Hotwired Defenses
Combat Medic Commando
- Skillful – Holdout Defense, Dirty Escape
- Masterful – Anatomy Lessons, Keep Cool
- Heroic – Get the Bulge, Smuggled Defenses, K.O.
- Legendary – Sleight of Foot
Tactics Vanguard
- Skillful – Scar Tissue, Dirty Escape
- Masterful – Supplemented Medpac, Med Screen
- Heroic – Scramble, Dirty Trickster
- Legendary – Surprise Comeback, Hotwired Defenses
Shield Specialist/Plasmatech Vanguard
- Skillful – Holdout Defense, Dirty Escape
- Masterful – Supplemented Medpac, Anatomy Lessons
- Heroic – Scramble, Dirty Trickster, K.O.
- Legendary – Surprise Comeback
Rotation
Primary Burst Opener/Rotation
In your opener it’s all about maxing damage. In order to do that you need to use your raid buff and Pugnacity in order to regrant the Upper Hand that using Stack the Deck costs. Once you’ve finished with your opener it falls into a priority system that levels your UH stacks (and thus Bludgeon), Blood Boiler, and Backblast. Backblast’s Flechette Round and Rolling Punches buffs last for 3 seconds after it comes off cooldown, giving you a bit of leeway there. Blood Boiler should be used on cooldown due to the lengthy wait time (18 seconds) and the setup time (3 seconds), and Bludgeon should be used whenever it is off cooldown if you do not have 2 Upper Hand stacks. The only exception to this rule is if you are attempting to burst someone, as a Sucker Punch will hit harder than a Bludgeon. In those situations the better option is to spend your final UH stack on a Sucker Punch and then regain that stack with a Bludgeon. I know some Scoundrels use Stack the Deck right before they open, however because of how common CC is I disagree with that. More than anything you want that extra crit so that Boiler’s autocrit benefits from 10% extra super crit. Unfortunately many people are extremely CC happy and will CC an Scoundrel the moment he leaves stealth. Because of this it is a safer option to use Stack the Deck right before Boiler triggers, ensuring that you get that extra super crit even if it means losing 10% extra chance for Backblast to crit.
‘Sap’ Burst Opener/Rotation
The sap opener is a favorite of many Scrapper Scoundrels, and for good reason. In a 1v1 (such as at an off node) it provides comparable, if not superior burst to the standard opener all while your foe is incapable of fighting back. Against DPS specs this opener will take a minimum of 50% of their HP, sometimes up to 70% if you get a really good RNG crit chain. Naturally such a large health advantage right as the fight starts gives the Scoundrel a sizable advantage, however there are drawbacks. Using this opener requires using both Pugnacity and Disappearing Act offensively. Due to this you are left rather vulnerable for the following two minutes, as both Surprise Comeback and your vanish will not be available to you. Because of this risk I only recommend this method of opening on a target if you are wholly confident in your ability to survive potential focus fire without Pugnacity and Disappearing Act. Finally, this method obviously cannot be used on any target in combat due to their inability to be affected by Tranquilizer.
Bubble Pop Avoid ‘Rotation’
Please note that when triggering Boiler with Lacerating Blast you MUST be at least 6 meters away from the target to avoid being hit by the bubble flash. Seer Sages are a common sight in PvP due to how powerful that spec currently is, and with that comes the frustratingly common Kinetic Collapse utility, commonly referred to as flash bubble. Blood Boiler is the only skill Scrapper has that can do meaningful damage while the Scoundrel is outside of 4 meter range, and as such if you wish to avoid being put into a mezz by the flash bubble you can use this method of triggering it. Lacerating Blast and Bushwack can both be used, however due to Bushwack’s UH cost it is far inferior and you would be better off using Lacerating Blast. Something to keep in mind is the pitifully small cone on LB, making this skill difficult to land on a highly mobile target. If you find that you are having difficulty landing Lacerating Blast on said targets then I recommend using Sevor Tendon (with Anatomy Lessons) to root the target in place before using LB to trigger Boiler. Remember; this is a situational method to trigger your Boiler and will grant you inferior burst to a standard burst rotation, however it is the better option than sitting in a 3 second blind from the bubble breaking on top of you
Strategies
Warzone Strategies
Most of the time in WZs an Scoundrel, especially if you are the only stealth player on the team, will be asked to guard his team’s node. This is because Scrapper is easily the best spec to guard a node due to the fact that it is a stealth class and the spec’s amazing survivability. However, in situations where you have someone else willing to guard or simply another stealth class who can do so, Scrapper will find much use by going to the enemy team’s off node. In these situations you can either kill or sap cap to take the node from the defender. Or, in situations where there are multiple people at the node, hold them off for a long enough time that your team gets the advantage. Aside from these two scenarios you should be at mid picking off the squishy targets in the enemy group before the healer can realize what’s happening and react.
Ranked Strategies
In a ranked environment Scrapper has one of two roles; bursting down a squishy target or off healing the squishy on your team. This is much less of a black and white scenario than regs are, as it will rely heavily on your own ability to read the situation and act accordingly. Being able to predict when the enemy team will burst and/or swap targets will go a long way to making your setup on off heals more effective and, thus, giving your heal target a higher chance of surviving. If you yourself become the target of focus fire then damage becomes your last concern. Rather, you need to focus on surviving. If the enemy team is dead set on killing you and ignores your own team’s DPS you can give your team the advantage by utilizing everything in your kit to avoid death and stay alive. In these situations you will need to make smart use of Surrender and Escape in order to prevent being locked down and bursted in return.
Dueling Guardians
This is an endurance fight, especially against tanks. However neither Defense nor Vigilance have the damage output to push through your defense and healing. So for those two specs you simply need to Flash Grenade/Tranquilizer away the Focused Defense and then take your time killing them. Take it slow and whittle them down. Dodge the Guardian Slash on Defense and the DoTs on Vigilance. For Focus you’re going to need to roll Focused Burst and Concentrated Slice as often as possible. When you can’t, use Defense Screen on them and Dodge on Concentrated Slice. A good Focus Guardian has extremely high burst and can put a tremendous amount of pressure on you, so you’ll want to kill them as quickly as you can without putting yourself in danger.
Dueling Sentinels
Sentinels are much like Focus Guardian in how you approach dueling them; you’ll want to roll Clashing Blast and Dispatch as much as possible, as well as using Dodge on Dispatch and Lance. For those that you can’t roll or Dodge use Defense Screen on. Keep in mind that when Precision is down Combat’s damage is mostly Blade Rush spam. Concentration is almost the exact same as dueling Focus except you have to watch out for their CC immunity on Force Exhaustion. As for Watchman, this is a standard melee DoT spec approach. Wait until all of their DoTs are up and Dodge them off, Roll Merciless Slash or Defense Screen it if you can’t. Do all of that right and your damage intake will be extremely low and you can burst them down at your leisure.
Dueling Sages
I’m not going to go into dueling a healer because, frankly, a heal spec will never lose a 1v1 given equal skill. For DPS you need to keep the squishiness in mind. A Sage DPS is very easy to blow up with your burst combos. However they have a high potential for kiting and healing. Because of this you need to keep a balance between rolling for mobility and rolling for optimal mitigation, as well as using Trick Move to mitigate kiting when you either can’t roll or can’t afford to. The biggest thing to keep in mind is the resolve bar. You want to make sure that the Sage isn’t whitebarred when they use Force Barrier, that way you can Flash Grenade them the moment the barrier ends and prevent them from taking advantage of Enduring Bastion. Finally, don’t be surprised if a Sage Force Speeds out of your Shank Shot or Tendon Blast, as most will have the Egress utility.
Dueling Shadows
Shadows, especially Infiltration, is an extremely difficult fight for Scrapper. Because of their high burst combined with CC potential Infiltration is quite capable of locking a Scrapper Scoundrel down and preventing you from dragging out the fight. For this match up you need to roll Low Slash as much as possible, and if you cannot roll it use Dodge to ignore it. Keep Slow Release Medpac up at all times for the damage reduction and Defense Screen the Discharge, as rolling it will not consume their stacks and they can simply use it in the next GCD. You’re going to have to utilize the environment here; LoS the Shadow and heal when you need to. It’s simply how the match up is; Infiltration’s damage is high enough that a skilled Shadow is going to be extremely difficult to beat as Scrapper. For Serenity, however, it’s much easier. Dodge once all the DoTs are on you, roll the Serenity Strike to deny their healing, and Surrender the Sever Force root. Whereas Infiltration is a nightmarishly hard fight, Serenity is a breeze of a matchup that the Scoundrel should win with ease.
Dueling Vanguards
Both Shield Specialist and Plasmatech have extremely low damage output. While you should never go ‘easy’ just because of spec, you generally don’t have to worry too much about those specs. Simply roll the Plasma Flare and Dodge the DoTs away and you’ll be fine. Tactics is a different story. Tactics has great burst and minimal survivability. You’ll want to roll the Assault Plastique and Cell Burst as much as possible, Dodge the High Impact Bolt, and Defense Screen the Cell Burst/Assault Plastique that you can’t roll. You’re going to have a lot of pressure on you in this fight but the PT doesn’t have very good DCDs which is your advantage. Keep pressure on him and he’ll burn through his DCDs extremely quickly.
Dueling Commandos
With 5.0 Commando dueling, especially Gunnery, became a much more difficult fight. Because of recent buffs to DCDs Commandos are comparable defense wise to even an Defense Guardian, yet has extremely high burst damage and is capable of locking you out of Scamper for 9 seconds with Electro Net. Because of this you have a hard fight ahead. Absolutely do not CC break the Electro Net; you need to use Surrender to remove the slow and increase your speed, but do not break it. Instead; once you have Net on you pop Pugnacity for Surprise Comeback and try to make sure your Defense Screen is up, and activate that if it’s ready. Your goal during Electro Net is simply to survive. Stand still if you’re on high health and can afford it, otherwise Surrender and try to find LoS. Save your Breaker for the instant-cast Concussion Missile ideally to prevent the Commando from Medical Probe healing once you’ve finally burnt through his two H2F DCDs and waited out his reflect. Finally; roll Demolition Round and Defense Screen those that you can’t, roll Vortex Bolt to deny the instant Grav Round, Dodge Boltstorm. If you play your defensive game well and avoid hitting into his reflect you’ll be fine.
Dueling Scoundrels
With Infiltration Shadows, Scrapper Scoundrels are the most difficult fight you have. Much of this fight is going to be played by ear, depending on what the other player has done. Interrupt Kolto Pack right before he finishes the cast and roll Backblast as much as you can, as that will force the other player to Vital Shot you to trigger Boiler, which denies him access to Flash Grenade or Tranquilizer.Use Dodge to remove Flechette Round from you for the Backblasts that you can’t roll to deny Boiler, and Defense Screen the Backblast/Boilers that you cannot roll or Dodge out of. The only time you should use Surrender is when you’re rooted by Shank Shot. If you can’t use Surrender consider using Triage to cleanse the root manually. Finally, avoid playing overly defensively or aggressively. Scrapper is a spec that requires the player to shift back and forth between defensive and aggressive as the situation calls for, especially in Scrapper vs. Scrapper duels. To succeed here you’ll need to play better than your opponent; watch for patterns in his actions and bait him into doing what you want.
Dueling Gunslingers
Much like Commandos, Gunslingers got a heavy increase to their survivability with 5.0. The amount of healing they are capable of doing now is arguably superior to what the Scoundrel is capable of. As a general note your best bet in dealing with Scrambling Field (with the healing utility) is simply to LoS and heal. Most Gunslingers will not chase you during this as to do so would be to give up their healing, which allows you freedom to heal yourself back to full HP as well, essentially resetting the fight. For Sharpshooter spec you’ll want to roll/Dodge Aimed Shot ideally. Penetrating Rounds does good damage but the knockback utility will push you away even if you roll/Dodge the last tick, so keep that in mind. Otherwise you need to Defense Screen Aimed Shot/Penetrating Rounds. Do not attack them during Diversion, simply LoS and heal. This is true for all 3 specs. For Dirty Fighting wait until all DoTs are on you and right as the Gunslinger casts Wounding Shots, when he does this use Dodge to remove the DoTs and reduce Wounding Shots’s damage to nearly zero. If you cannot Dodge, roll part of Wounding Shots and Defense Screen the second half. For Saboteur wait until you’re sitting in Incendiary Grenade and you have Shock Charge on you to Dodge SC away. Defense Screen and/or roll the Speed Shot that will likely be used to trigger Explosive Charge, or Dodge it if you absolutely must. With all 3 Gunslinger specs the same remains true; it’s a game of endurance. You have the tools required to out last the Gunslinger and if you use them well you will win.
Acknowledgements
The biggest ‘thank you’s’ that I can give are to my friend Chase, who was the person who originally got me into PvP years ago when I started this game. To Project Mayhem on Ebon Hawk for having such great players in its day that I was able to learn from, and from Hackers of the Round Table for always having people willing to queue and try out new things in PvP.
I would also like to thank Ketara for dueling my Operative in 4.0 on his Assassin and helping me refine my skills in dealing with Deception, Emiri for dueling me on his Sorcerer in both 4.0 and 5.0 to help me test out various ideas I had for DPS Sorcerer dueling, and Taakur/Drakksis for teaching me the trick with Noxious Knives/Toxic Haze and how I could make use of them to trigger Volatile Substance. I’m sure there are others whose names I’m forgetting, so for all of them I’d like to say ‘thank you’ as well.
About Me
I’m an Assassin/Operative main originally from Ebon Hawk.I first started TOR right at 2.0 and very quickly fell in love with both Deception Assassin and Concealment Operative. During my time in this game I’ve spent a majority of my time in PvP, with some dabbling in ranked, and about a year being a raider. In the end, however, PvP remained my biggest love as it was still fun and exciting long after raiding had begun to bore me. Over the years that I’ve played this game since I’ve spent a large amount of time on Jung Ma and Ebon Hawk, with some small amounts of time on PoT5, Bastion, and Shadowlands.I have dabbled in every class and spec in the game to some extent but always found myself drawn back to Concealment and Deception as the stealth burst aspect of these two specs always had a special allure to me. Currently I reside on Begeren Colony as my friend Emiri convinced me to transfer there to play with him. My Scoundrel on BC is named Sáya (0225 on the first a) and my Scoundrel is named Mîna (140 on the i). If you have any questions or wish to talk about Scrapper/Infiltration the easiest way is either to whisper me directly in-game or comment here. Finally, my guild on BC is Misery, so if I’m not online feel free to whisper a guildmate and ask for Sáya. If I’m not around in-game I’m usually online on Discord talking to them and they can ask me to hop on.