5.0 Class Guides/ SWTOR

SWTOR 5.0 Carnage Marauder PvE Guide by Nestle

Nestle 60 Comments Jan 20, 2017

SWTOR 5.0 Carnage Marauder PvE Guide written by Nestle.

Intro to 5.0 Carnage Marauder

Hi! My name’s Nestlé and I’m a one-trick marauder who enjoys doing Nim(Master) content.Catch me on twitch here; I stream almost all of my runs if you ever need a POV. My goal with writing this guide is to help those who are currently walking down the same path I did just months ago. For those of you who don’t know me, I started playing this game January 1st, 2016. Marauder was the second character I made and I quickly fell in love with it. My raiding experience started mid-late January and I was accepted to Failure by late February.

I wanted to get better and better so I found the best marauders I was able to. Under Fadoodle(Dongo), Beastfury, and Mac’simus’(mac) wings I learned to mara(shoutout to Steiner!). In 4.0 I cleared all Nim content and achieved all timed runs with top parses on a few fights. Come 5.0 I’ve cleared all Master mode(nim) bosses with just a few timed runs left. Thanks to Oofalongs annihilation guide, those previously mentioned, my friends from Failure/It’s Lit, and Sevenfaced am I able to bring you this guide today.

Carnage is great for every fight. It can keep up with or beat everything with a small exception for the reflect abusers. Annihilation is better for fights where you’re able to get a lot of uptime without frequent target switching. The clipping rotation is still doable without the double stance bug!

I aim this guide at more experienced players. If you’re very new to the game and would like more basic tips and explanations here’s a good resource.

Gearing

Refer to this for any and all gearing, https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1GtgkOZDgcA3dlBjdoLUzg02zNl9_5fvCU48iY-P0vv0/edit#gid=517290764. My ending gear after all of our clears is 6412 mastery, 7881 endurance, 3626 power, 1721 crit, 1211 alac, 746 accuracy. We started in all 224s and 208 augments so gearing isn’t very important; but it’ll make everything easier on you and your group.

Utilities

	Utility	Description	Comments
	Cloak of Carnage	Increases the damage dealt by Cloak of Pain by 15% and increases its duration by 4 seconds.	Buffs your cloak of pain, good to take if you get a lot of cloak procs.
	Overwhelm	Ravage immobilizes the target for the duration of the ability.	Useless in PvE. I don’t take this in pvp either.
	Cloak of Rage	While Cloak of Pain is active, it generates 1 Rage whenever you are attacked. This effect cannot occur more than once every 2 seconds.	Very good if you get cloak procs throughout the fight.
	Inexorable	You generate 4 Rage when stunned, immobilized, put to sleep, or knocked around. Additionally, the CD of Unleash is reduced by 30s.	Godly utility if you get stunned, immobilized, put to sleep, or knocked around a decent amount through the fight. (revan, and grobthok for example.)
	Brazen	Increases damage reduction by 2%, and you build 2 Fury when attacked. This Fury building effect cannot occur more than once every 1.5 seconds.	Always take this.
	Path Carver	Sweeping Slash deals 25% more damage.	If you’re going to have to aoe in the fight, take this. Your aoe is absolutely insane with this.

Masterful

	Utility	Description	Comments
	Interceptor	Force Charge, Force Rend, Devastating Blast, and Obliterate snare their target, reducing its movement speed by 50% for 6 seconds.	I never use this.
	Relentless	Predation no longer requires or consumes Fury, but will go on CD for 30s when activated.	I always take this.
	Defensive Roll	Reduces damage taken from area effects by 30% and increases internal and elemental damage reduction 5%.	I take this every single fight.
	Subjugation	Reduces the cooldown of Obfuscate by 15 seconds and Disruption by 2 seconds. Increases the range of Obfuscate by 6 meters and allows Cloak of Pain to be used while stunned.	I have only taken this on Draxus. Godly for pvp.(It’s even questionable for draxus.)
	Strangulate	Reduces the cooldown of Force Choke by 15 seconds.	I never use this outside of ranked teams.
	Phantom	Increases your movement speed by 15% and the movement speed bonus of Force Camouflage by 20%. Additionally, increases the duration of Force Camouflage by 2 seconds.	I only use this on thrasher/raptus for the movement speed.

Heroic

	Utility	Description	Comments
	Unbound	When Predation is applied or refreshed, it purges movement-impairing effects. Additionally, the movement speed bonus of Predation is increased by 30%.	Very good when you and your group need a little extra mobility. Will cleanse roots and the dot from Horic in Cartel Warlords.
	Expunging Camouflage	Force Camouflage removes all cleansable effects when activated.	I use this on Zorn and Toth(Mental Anguish) and Dread Council(Death marks).
	Cloak of Annihilation	Each use of Assault, Battering Assault, and Crippling Slash reduces the active cooldown of Cloak of Pain by 3 seconds.	Good utility if you want more cloak of pain procs and have an extra utility point. (Revan core, brontes burn for example)
	Maiming Reach	Crippling Slash immobilizes that target for 3 seconds. This immobilizing effect cannot be applied to the same target more than once every 10 seconds. Increases the range of Crippling Slash to 10m. Additionally, Crippling Slash consumes 2 less rage	Not used in PvE at all for me. Very good pvp utility though.
	Undying	Increases the duration of Undying Rage by 2 seconds. Reduces the cooldown of Undying Rage by 30 seconds.	I use this on Master blaster(eating the ion cutter), and terror(slams in 2nd phase).
	Brooding	Reduces the cooldown of Intimidating Roar by 15 seconds. In addition, you build up to 30 Fury over the course of using Channel Hatred. This effect cannot occur more than once every 30 seconds.	Pre-stack 30 fury stacks before the fight and respec on your groups ready check.

Legendary

	Utility	Description	Comments
	Thirst for Rage	Bloodthirst generates 12 rage when activated, and you heal for 1% of your maximum health when you consume rage.	Great utility usually take this every fight if I’m the only marauder in the group.
	Blood Ward	Getting attacked while Saber Ward is active heals you for 3% of your maximum health. This effect cannot occur more than once every 1.5 seconds.While Saber Ward is active, you are immune to stun, sleep, lift and incapacitating effects for 6s.	I really only take this in solo ranked pvp. If you’ve an extra utility to spare and need some healing this isn’t terrible. CC ignore works for brontes! However you’ll still be knocked.
	Through Victory	Mad Dash can be used while immobilized and purges movement-impairing effects when activated. Lowers cooldown on Mad Dash by 10s and buff it’s damage by 50%.	Could see this in pvp, however I never take it.
	Interloper	Force charge grants interloper, allowing you to activate Force Charge a second time. Interloper lasts up to 7.5 seconds and is removed if Force Charge is reused. If Interloper is not utilized by the end of its duration, Force Charge is placed on a 7.5 second cooldown. Additionally, Force Charge now builds 2 Fury.	I have only used this on Revanite Commanders.
	Hidden Savagery	While Force Camouflage is active, you gain a charge of Hidden Savagery every 0.5 seconds. Each charge of Hidden Savagery increases the damage dealt by your next melee attack by 4%. Stacks up to 12 charges and lasts for up to 6 seconds after exiting Force Camouflage.	Pretty bad, useful for being a parse warrior though.
	Ruthless Aggressor	Vicious Throw refunds 2 Rage when used on a target affected by your Obfuscate and can be used on any target affected by your Obfuscate, regardless of remaining health. Additionally, activating Obfuscate grants Ruthless Aggressor, increasing your Force and Tech resistance by 75% for 6 seconds.	Absolute must in pvp. Resist electro nets all day.

Important Passives

	Ataru Form – Old Carnage stance, now in discipline tree. Increases Alacrity by 3% and grants a 20% chance for your attacks to trigger a 2nd strike.(Can double proc giving you 6% alacrity. Check if you’ve received 6% alacrity from skills and buffs here.
	Fury – Activating an attack that uses resources, builds Fury up to 30 stacks. At this point Berserk, Predation and Bloodthirst can be used. Alternatively Frenzy (granted at lvl 48) can instantly build 30 Fury.
	Enraged Slash – A free passive the Marauder learns from a class trainer. It boosts the main focus building ability Battering Assault and adds a damage boost to all melee attacks.
	Disembowel – A passive boost to the new ability Gore, added with Patch 5.0 – sunders the target for 45 seconds and reduces their armor rating by 20%.
	Execute – A buff for one of your main damaging abilities Force Scream. Each Ataru form strike grants Execute buff, which increases Force Scream (Devastating Blast after lvl 58) with a 5% damage increase. This is a noticeable buff on your buff-bar, pay attention for when this icon appears.Moving on to lvl 40 and lvl 44 you will receive 2 more passives that boost Force Scream and Devastating Blast even further by allowing the ability to build 1 rage when used with Execute and increase the critical chance of Force Scream and Devastating Blast by 100%.
	Slaughter – When an Ataru form strike occurs, Slaughter buff appears on your buff-bar, which finishes the Cooldown of Vicious Throw and allows it to be used without using any resources on any target, regardless of their HP. This can happen once every 20 seconds.
	Force Vigor – Changes the way Dual Saber Throw works. After lvl 60 it will grant 2 rage.
	Efficient Strikes – While Berserk is active, Massacre (main spammable Single Target ability) and Sweeping Slash (main spammable AoE ability) to consume 1 less focus.
	Ataru Savvy – Sweeping Slash procs Ataru Form on every target it hits.

Rotation

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/10SGRuvSxZwFqTLn9a0FChRUhBr9UABVDgqy9OoIWpxM/edit#gid=0

Rotation goes as follows: Opener> Vt Floats>Repeatable.

ROTATION IS THE WORK OF BEASTFURY. ALL CREDIT GOES TO HIM HE’S A GOD. Here’s his stream, check him out he’s a cool guy.

Extremely simple and repeatable rotation once you’ve got the clipping down. For clipping I hit as my is hitting the target, and right before I release my . You can check how you’re clipping is doing below(This is in the “log view” in a parse on parsely). Now knowing the rotation is nice but in raid there are many variables that can throw you off.

A few things that you should be aware of:

• Where your needs to go(4 GCDS before including the clip gcd),
• Where you need / barring any rage gained through utilities.(One and in early berserk stacks, one after your berserk window. after each ferocity window.
• What (fury) you should have going into your non-berserked window.(12 with clip, 8 with clip; more is fine just make sure is used at the right time!).
• What you’re looking to put into each window.

Clips are either or . The 4 Berserked GCDs before Ferocity are important for your and the flow of the rotation; so try to use them consistently. With all that said, every GCD left is a .

 

GENERAL ROTATION:

• Opener:  
• Berserked Ferocity window: CLIP–    .
• Build up 1:     (can sometimes skip this if is right, use at your discretion.)
• Non-berserked Ferocity window: CLIP-    .
• Build up 2: (change this to first time around)        ->back to Berserked Window
• DISCLAIMER: is off of the GCD. This is NOT used as a GCD rather it’s used to prepare you next GCD.

This rotation will be more than enough to go 26/26 in Master mode from a DPS standpoint. For execute just sub the out in the Non-berserked Ferocity window for a . Your will float in the windows in which it’s clipped. The rotation has where it needs to float innately. If you wish to know where and why it should float yourself, it’s based off of the Slaughter proc.

I leave a bit to be desired with the rotation because I feel in a raid setting following pre-set blocks is inefficient. What I’ve given above is moldable to each and every situation. Learning it this way will teach you to take a snapshot of where you are and have the ability to know where you need to go. A bit of practice on the dummy and in fights and you’ll acquire a feel for it.

Now there are many ways to push the dps of carnage to another level:

• Every time you try to hit as many targets as you can.
• If you’re able to hit two or more targets does more damage than . Make sure it’s effective DPS though or you’ll hurt your raid group and probably enrage.
• When you’re swimming in rage you may sub out for . Though make sure you’ve enough rage or you’ll ruin your rage and or and have to fix it.
• Keeping buff up as much as possible, which means use the GCD before you clip for your window. The rotation should keep it up 95%~ of the time outside of that as long as you’ve solid uptime and APM.
• When there’s downtime in the fight and there’s nothing to hit you can for stacks to get your ready for when you’ve uptime.(Brontes reaches for example.) If there are useless things to hit a window would be the best way to build quickly.

Priority

Now if you ever get off track in the rotation you should always try to get back on track. In cases where this is not necessary or not possible here is a priority list. (Never use Devastating Blast without execute proc!)

1. (Only to maintain proc)
2. 
3. (never outside of )
4. (never outside of )
5. (never outside of .)
6. (never outside of )
7. 
8. 
9. 
10. 

Aoe rotation

For carnage there are two aoe rotations: one in which single target damage is important and one in which it is not. For the one where single target damage is important, just sub every out for a in the normal rotation. For when single target damage is not needed:

> > > > x6 > > > > x3 > Follow priorities

AoE Rotation Priority

1. 
2. (Clipped)
3. 
4. 
5. (Only with Slaughter, should be clipped)
6. 
7. 

How to be a good marauder-

As a melee class keeping uptime is extremely important as your dps will drop significantly everytime you miss a GCD. It’s key to find a balance in fights between uptime and mechanics. Since there aren’t many fights that require top tier DPS, mechanics always come first. Once you’re able to execute the mechanics do you switch your goal to 100% uptime; you don’t deal damage dead. With this rotation and near 100% uptime you’ll be able to meet every dps check in the game(of what’s required of yourself and some). You’re well on your way to clearing the hardest content the game has to offer. Again, check out my stream for a POV. It’ll teach you more than a guide will about how the class should play and what to do in fights. Here’s my UI for anyone keen.