SWTOR 7.7 Gunslinger Best Solo Builds

This guide explains the best builds for Dirty Fighting, Saboteur and Marksman Gunslinger disciplines that are optimized to perform extremely well in solo content. They enable you to have a far more enjoyable experience fighting trash mobs than you would with a sustained DPS build since you’ll be utilizing effects designed specifically for use against trash mobs!

Why solo builds are worth using in SWTOR

For almost the entirety of SWTOR’s history, fighting trash wasn’t fun because the combat system didn’t support it. Trash mob encounters rarely last more than a few seconds while boss fights and PvP typically last at least a few minutes, requiring you to make use of far more abilities.

In solo content, you’re mostly fighting trash mobs that have so little health that the majority of enemies won’t be able to survive for more than 2-3 abilities and you often can’t even get through a whole rotation before that combat encounter is over.

Stronger single enemies like elites (golds) where you would be able to stretch your rotational legs are rare enough that you can trivialize them with proper use of offensive cooldowns (OCDs) so even they don’t always survive a full rotation cycle.

I believe this disconnect was responsible for making skipping trash via stealth and cheese such a popular approach to playing PvE in SWTOR. BioWare clearly understood this and (mostly) solved it by introducing extremely powerful new ability tree buffs and legendary implants that synergize with existing tactical items.

These ridiculously potent effects form the basis of the solo builds and are able to exist without causing (too many) balance issues in group content because they are short-lived and only reliably trigger off of combat events that are fairly unique to and common when fighting trash mobs.

Dirty Fighting Gunslinger

In this section, I’ll be covering the ability tree build and solo ability priority for Dirty Fighting Gunslinger. Please refer to the 7.0 Dirty Fighting Gunslinger PvE Guide if you want more detailed information, especially on topics pertaining to gearing, abilities, and ability tree choices.

Dirty Fighting Solo Content Ability Tree Build

The Build Essentials are what I consider to be the core components that make the build viable. Without them, the build no longer accomplishes its primary function.

The ability tree buffs, implants, and tacticals that aren’t listed as Build Essentials can be changed as needed without compromising the integrity of the build. However, I have included a full set of default choices that will be most consistently helpful in accomplishing what the build sets out to do.

This build enables you to draw blood from every enemy in the immediate vicinity with Vital Shot -> Hemorrhaging Blast -> Shrap Bomb and then pick off each target with a partial channel of Wounding Shots with each death creating a bloody explosion.

Shrap Bomb only has a 5m radius, so it’s hard to get the entire group with 1 throw, so you might need to lob multiple grenades to spread your bleeds to the whole group. Hopefully, BioWare buffs the radius of Shrap Bomb to 8m, but the ability has been this way for the entire lifetime of the game, so it probably won’t happen.

Since Dividing Shot only resets the cooldown of Wounding Shots if you kill during Wounding Shots, you want to start with targets that have the lowest health and work your way up to the ones with the highest health. If there’s a Strong (silver) or Elite (gold) enemy in the group, be sure to activate Blood Sights and Illegal Mods (if applicable) as soon as you apply Hemorrhaging Blast. If you don’t think you’ll be able to snuff the life out of the target by the time Wounding Shots is over, throw in 1-2 Dirty Blasts first.

I recommend switching between Bombing Run and Hideout as needed. Hideout is great to teleport back if you just need to get into one area to click on something and then go back the way you came while Bombing Run can be used in the meantime as a potent AoE attack since Hideout has a 2 min cooldown.

How to use this build

This is the general rotation you’ll be using your abilities in against each group of trash in order to maximize your damage output.

1. Bombing Run (pre-cast, if applicable)
2. Enter Cover
3. Dirty Blast (pre-cast, situational)
4. Vital Shot (DoT)
5. Hemorrhaging Blast (DoT boost)
6. Blood Sights (makes DoTs autocrit)
7. Shrap Bomb (AoE DoT and spread)
8. Dirty Blast (only when you don’t expect to finish anything off with Wounding Shots)
9. Wounding Shots (finisher, repeat as needed)

Bombing Run’s usage is dependent on whether you have the ability available and/or want to use it on that set of trash mobs. I’d recommend saving it for groups that have a stronger enemy. Dirty Blast is in a similar boat. I’d hold off on using it unless there’s an enemy in the group that you think will need a bit more damage to take down. A lot of regular trash can be taken out with just the DoT spread + individual Wounding Shots channels.

Make sure you use Hemorrhaging Blast and Blood Sights before Shrap Bomb so that you can spread the Hemorrhaging Blast debuff and get the duration increase on Smuggler’s Chems from Improvised Tech.

Once you’re done with the opener in solo content, you’ll continue to Wounding Shots each enemy one by one until the whole group is dead. Remember to DoT spread from the target that is most central to the group so you hit the most targets, but when using Wounding Shots against enemies, start from the enemy with the lowest HP and work your way up, so you may end up using Wounding Shots against a different target than you threw Shrap Bomb at.

If you don’t think you’ll be able to defeat the next enemy by the time the Wounding Shots channel has ended, spam Dirty Blast instead. In heroics and FPs, you might be able to get away with using Wounding Shots first and it will come off cooldown by the time you’re done with Dirty Blasts.

Saboteur Gunslinger

In this section, I’ll be covering the ability tree build and solo ability priority for Saboteur Gunslinger. Please refer to the 7.0 Saboteur Gunslinger PvE Guide if you want more detailed information, especially on topics pertaining to gearing, abilities, and ability tree choices.

Saboteur Solo Content Ability Tree Build

The Build Essentials are what I consider to be the core components that make the build viable. Without them, the build no longer accomplishes its primary function.

The ability tree buffs, implants, and tacticals that aren’t listed as Build Essentials can be changed as needed without compromising the integrity of the build. However, I have included a full set of default choices that will be most consistently helpful in accomplishing what the build sets out to do.

Hard Reset and Kill Streak work together to ensure that you get to reuse an autocrit Explosive Charge against each enemy with Incendiary Grenade triggering the detonations.

I prefer using Ruthless Interrogation because you don’t need the small amount of extra AoE from MG-2 Polygrade Dispersal Caps on weaker enemies and you’ll have to use Shock Charge and Speed Shot on stronger enemies anyway and Shock Charge will help you take those beefier enemies down.

Shocking Blast offers a more consistent damage boost against stronger targets and makes the ability feel more punchy.

How to use this build

You only need a couple of abilities to take out standard and weak enemies, but the process is a bit more complex for stronger ones.

Standard and Weak Enemies Rotation (Regular Trash)

1. Incendiary Grenade
2. Target Hack ► Explosive Charge (repeat on each target)

Against Standard and Weak Enemies, you’ll want to apply Incendiary Grenade first and then Target Hack + Explosive Charge to pop each enemy. Incendiary Grenade will detonate Explosive Charge while killing the enemy will reset the cooldowns on Target Hack and Explosive Charge.

You should be able to finish off a full set of trash under one Incendiary Grenade, but reapply it if that’s not the case.

Strong and Elite Enemies Rotation (mostly Heroics and Flashpoints)

1. Bombing Run (pre-cast, if necessary)
2. Enter Cover
3. Incendiary Grenade (AoE DoT)
4. Shock Charge (single-target DoT)
5. Target Hack ► Explosive Charge (single-target burst)
6. Speed Shot (single-target channel)
7. Sabotage (only if necessary, AoE burst)
8. Thermal Grenade (if necessary, small AoE)

Against stronger enemies, you’ll want to apply Shock Charge first and follow up Explosive Charge with Speed Shot, and then, if necessary, Sabotage and Thermal Grenade. Incendiary Grenade should have fallen off right after you do Sabotage, but in order to actually sustain this, you’ll occasionally need to use Thermal Grenade to finish everything off.

We do this order because we want the DoTs to have as much time to tick as possible, have Explosive Charge drop its Contingency Charges early, and be able to deal AoE damage with Sabotage, which is only usable against targets that are affected by Shock Charge (the EMP is emitted by the probe) and only deals AoE damage if they’ve been electrified by your Electrified Railgun.

Thermal Grenade happens to be free and deal a bit of AoE damage, so you might only need to use it on the first enemy you take down.

Sharpshooter Gunslinger

In this section, I’ll be covering the ability tree build and solo ability priority for Sharpshooter Gunslinger. Please refer to the 7.0 Sharpshooter Gunslinger PvE Guide if you want more detailed information, especially on topics pertaining to gearing, abilities, and ability tree choices.

Sharpshooter Solo Content Ability Tree Build

The Build Essentials are what I consider to be the core components that make the build viable. Without them, the build no longer accomplishes its primary function.

The ability tree buffs, implants, and tacticals that aren’t listed as Build Essentials can be changed as needed without compromising the integrity of the build. However, I have included a full set of default choices that will be most consistently helpful in accomplishing what the build sets out to do.

This build is super fun for solo content since it enables you to one-hit kill standard and weak enemies with Aimed Shot autocrits, making you really feel like a Charged Burst. However, on higher-level planets, you will need to follow your autocrit Aimed Shot up with Quickdraw or Trickshot since Aimed Shot won’t quite be enough on its own.

In groups with higher-health enemies like you’ll find in Heroics, you can make use of the Refraction Point tactical, allowing Penetrating Rounds and its subsequent Trickshot to deal a ton of damage to multiple nearby targets. A single Penetrating Rounds channel + Trickshot can be enough to defeat Standard enemies even on max-level planets, though you might have to finish some off with Quickdraw.

Energy Barrels provides the greatest damage increase to Penetrating Rounds, and even though it makes the attack cost more Energy, it doesn’t matter because pulls are so short and you can rely on Cool Head and Burst Volley to manage your Energy.

If you don’t want to worry about Energy at all, I recommend using Energy Regulators as your second implant. Alternatively, you can use Second Wind for increased survivability and mobility, or Improved Targeting if you want more reliably available Smuggler’s Lucks. Locked and Loaded is also fine, but the effect is minimal.

How to use this build

I think it makes the most sense to think about Sharpshooter in terms of the different ability sequences you can do since your most powerful abilities can have their cooldowns reset. Against stronger enemies on higher-level planets, you will need to chain these sequences together, meaning you have to put some thought into how to approach a given trash mob in order to maximize the amount of damage dealt.

Finishers: Aimed Shot and Quickdraw Spam

1. Enter Cover
2. Smuggler’s Luck ► Aimed Shot
3. Trickshot or Quickdraw (if necessary)

The cooldowns on Aimed Shot and Smuggler’s Luck are reset if you defeat whatever you hit with it within 3s (so 2 attacks if you’re fast) so long as Aimed Shot critically hit, and it will autocrit if you use Smuggler’s Luck.

Conversely, Quickdraw’s cooldown is only reset if your target is defeated specifically by Quickdraw, there’s no wiggle room. You will typically only need to use Quickdraw on max-level planets due to the absence of level sync. You can use Trickshot instead of Quickdraw as well, though Quickdraw hits harder and gives a damage boost, but Trickshot feels more fluid to use because you don’t need to wait for Aimed Shot to land.

I recommend only using this combo if the enemy has less than ~100k HP. Otherwise, you won’t deal enough damage to finish them off and won’t get those juicy cooldown resets.

Sustained AoE: Penetrating Rounds and Trickshot

1. Enter Cover
2. Bombing Run (pre-cast, if necessary)
3. Penetrating Rounds
4. Trickshot
5. Quickdraw
6. Burst Volley (if necessary)
7. Penetrating Rounds (if necessary)
8. Trickshot (if necessary)

Against higher-HP enemies like you’ll find in heroics, you’ll need to use Penetrating Rounds and Trickshot to deal damage to multiple targets at the same time. These abilities deal AoE damage because of the Refraction Point tactical, though Trickshot only deals AoE damage if you manage to finish the channel on Penetrating Rounds and get the Refraction Point proc.

In other words, not every Trickshot will deal AoE damage. Keep in mind that a single channel of Penetrating Rounds + Trickshot is typically enough to defeat most normal enemies, with the damage being heavily weighted toward Penetrating Rounds

Be careful to fire both at the enemy with the highest HP that is located closest to the center of the group. If you hit an enemy towards the edge of the group, you won’t hit everything. If you hit an enemy with too little HP, the channel will get interrupted and you’ll miss out on dealing AoE damage with the final tick(s) of Penetrating Rounds and Trickshot.

If you’re using Bombing Run, make sure you’re targeting a Strong or Elite (Silver or Gold) enemy or your target will die before the channel on Penetrating Rounds finishes.

Then, you spam Quickdraw to finish off stragglers and can also use Burst Volley to reset the cooldown on Penetrating Rounds if multiple enemies still have a lot of HP left. Remember, Quickdraw only gets reset if you defeat your target with it, so if you aren’t sure if it’ll work, hit something else.

Fillers

If Aimed Shot, Quickdraw, and/or Penetrating Rounds are unavailable or won’t be off cooldown in time for when you’d need to use them, you have some fillers at your disposal to help whittle down your opponents.

• Vital Shot (DoT)
• Charged Burst ► Charged Burst ► Trickshot
• Sweeping Gunfire

You shouldn’t need to use Sweeping Gunfire all that often unless you mess up, but you will need to incorporate Vital Shot, Charged Burst, and single-target Trickshots against stronger enemies, particularly Elites (gold enemies).

Each Charged Burst makes your next Trickshot deal more damage and reduces the cast time on Aimed Shot and 2 activations back-to-back will reset cooldown on Trickshot and enable its use. If your target still has a lot of HP, you should be able to throw in an Aimed Shot and Penetrating Rounds as well, though only use Smuggler’s Luck if you have a spare charge for the finisher.

Major Cooldown Abilities for Gunslingers

These abilities offer some sort of temporary boost to your offense, defense, and/or mobility. They are referred to as cooldowns (CDs) because they usually only last a short time while having a long cooldown.

You may want to group each category together on your bar so you can recognize them more easily, though keep them separate from the attacks I listed above.

Offensive Cooldowns

Offensive cooldowns (OCDs) increase your damage dealt temporarily. Sometimes they’re more generic boosts to everything, other times they only apply to specific abilities. It’s important to make sure you’re being thoughtful about which abilities you use and try to use them as fast as possible while the boost is active to maximize their effectiveness. Use them against stronger enemies to defeat them faster.

Blood Sights, Target Hack, and Smuggler’s Luck

All 3 disciplines have an ability that has a similar core effect of enabling a specific attack to autocrit (Wounding Shots for Dirty Fighting, Explosive Charge for Saboteur, and Aimed Shot for Sharpshooter) and a bonus effect that’s discipline-specific. For Saboteur and Sharpshooter, you want to make sure that you’re pairing this ability with every single activation of Explosive Charge or Aimed Shot respectively since it enables you to one-shot most enemies.

Dirty Fighting is a bit more unique since it doesn’t have a cooldown and the bigger benefit is from the ongoing autocrit to DoT ticks, and you’ll want to use it before Shrap Bomb rather than Wounding Shots.

Illegal Mods (Dirty Fighting only)

Illegal Mods’s most beneficial effect is to reset the cooldown on Blood Sights, though it also boosts your weapon damage from attacks like Hemorrhaging Blast, Wounding Shots, and Dirty Blast. Only use it if Blood Sights is on cooldown and only right before Shrap Bomb.

Defensive Cooldowns

Defensive cooldowns (DCDs) increase your survivability temporarily, making it less likely that you’ll be defeated. Use them whenever you’re taking more damage than you can handle.

Defense Screen

Defense Screen just absorbs a small amount of damage. It’s nice to use to soften the blow if you know you’re about to take a big hit or can’t afford to take another.

Hunker Down

Hunker Down makes you immune to crowd control and reduces the damage you take from AoE attacks by a massive amount. If enemies are knocking you around, try to stun you, or use a ton of AoE abilities, use Hunker Down to ignore it.

Sharpshooter gains 3s of Hunker Down after rolling with

Surrender

Surrender is your most powerful defensive cooldown, but it only lasts a short time, so it really only works against singular attacks. You are guaranteed to avoid the damage from weapon attacks like blasterfire and lightsaber swings while significantly reducing the damage taken from Force and tech attacks.

Bag of Tricks

Bag of Tricks resets the cooldowns on the DCDs I just listed, Defense Screen, Hunker Down, and Surrender, as well as Pulse Detonator. If you feel you need more survivability and are out of cooldowns, don’t hesitate to pop this.

Crowd Control

These abilities have some sort of controlling effect on your opponent that often provide some sort of defensive benefit to you.

Distraction

This ability can interrupt your target’s cast or channel and locks them out of activating that ability again for a short time. Typically the longer or more threatening-sounding the ability is, the more important it is to interrupt.

Pulse Detonator

Pulse Detonator is a 360-degree knockback that roots targets for 5s, though the root breaks on damage. If you’re feeling overwhelmed by a bunch of melee enemies, consider using this, though be careful, as you likely won’t be able to use AoE against the whole group anymore because they’ll all be separated.

Diversion

Diversion causes you to throw a smoke bomb that reduces enemy accuracy significantly, making enemies more likely to miss. Throw this if you’re getting shot by a bunch of enemies in a small area.

Mobility

These cooldowns allow you to move much faster than you would normally be able to go.

Hightail It

Hightail It makes you roll forwards 18m (your max range is 35m) and makes you immune to all damage while rolling. It’s a powerful ability to avoid big hits and get out of dodge, but it can be difficult to time.

You can use Surrender to reset the cooldown of Hightail It thanks to the Dodge Stance ability tree buff.

Escape

This ability breaks you out of any controlling effects. Since it has such a long cooldown, only use it if you are prevented from doing what you want to do. For example, if you’re rooted in place but can still hit your target, there’s no need to break free.

Surrender

Surrender boosts your movement speed significantly for a few seconds, purges movement-impairing effects, and makes you immune to them for the duration. It’s unlikely that you’ll be able to make use of these effects at the same time as the mitigation, so you have to decide how you want to use it.

Gunslinger Solo Gearing and Stats

This section will cover the core elements of gearing and stats for Gunslinger. If you want a more detailed explanation, please refer to the main Dirty Fighting, Saboteur, and Sharpshooter PvE guides. Don’t forget to obtain the legendary implants and tactical items I mentioned when referring to individual disciplines!

Stat Priority

As a DPS, you’ll need to care about 3 different stats: Accuracy, Alacrity, and Critical Rating. There are thresholds associated with Accuracy and Alacrity, so you need to prioritize reaching those thresholds to get the full benefit from each stat point.

1. Accuracy to 110.00% – Accuracy reduces the chance for your attacks to miss.
2. Alacrity to ~7.5% – Alacrity holistically increases the speed at which you can execute your rotation.
3. Critical gets the rest – Critical refers to both your chance to critically hit and the damage multiplier for critical hits. Critical Rating affects both.

Find out which mods to purchase from Hyde and Zeek in SWTOR on the Fleet to minimize spending and optimize your build. The dedicated guide contains tips for all roles in both PvE and PvP.

Individual Pieces

• Augments: Blue 296 augments ([Type] Augment 83 + Augmentation Kit Mk-11)
• Crystals: Advanced Eviscerating (+41 Critical)
• Relics: Relic of Focused Retribution and Relic of Devastating Vengeance (highest iRating you have)
• Biochem: Advanced Kyrprax Medpac, Proficient Stim, and Critical Adrenal

I recommend a Relic and Adrenal that boost your critical chance for solo content because, unlike Power, Critical Rating isn’t capped by level sync.