Introduction

Aggrodesiac here! Recently made a change from my original main of Stalker to give the world of Spell Slinging a try! I have really enjoyed the class thus far and the mix of interesting ability interactions, utility, mobility and damage potential were the reasons behind my change to Spellslinger for the launch of Wildstar! The build I have come up with below is essentially a pure Physical DPS build focusing on a mix of high damage and mobility. In this guide I will focus on the abilities I have chosen and how I use them. Feel free to comment below with any tips, additions or comments regarding my build. Thanks for reading!

Assault

Tier 8 Quick Draw is the bread and butter filler ability for Spellslingers. It is what we spam in between cooldowns and procs. However, once you reach the Tier 8 upgrade this ability becomes an even more integral part of the SS loadout. The T8 Empower (10% assault power increase) is incredible! To maintain, and maximize, optimal DPS you must be diligent in staying on top of the uptime for Quick Draw, and if you do you will see some huge increases in your damage potential. This will truly be a huge key to any Spellslinger's damage as this ability will need to be weaved in and out of your rotation early, and often.
Tier 8 True Shot is going to be one of your main nuke DPS abilities. I have chosen the T8 version because it maxes out its damage, has an increase to 50% armor pierce and with T8 it has an additional charge of the ability with an instant cast. The end result is one of our hardest hitting abilities having FOUR casts. If you can manage the very precise telegraph you will be able to crank out some incredible numbers with this nuke ability hitting four times. Has a high skillcap due to the multi-tap and the very small telegraph but if you can use it effectively then you are spell slinging the right way!
Tier 3 Wild Barrage is essentially a filler ability with multiple hits and great mobility. A great way to mow down trash/adds and also a near guaranteed critical with the amount of hits (which in turns benefits our crit proc ability illustrated below). A great way to keep up solid DPS while on the move utilizing its mobility and relatively large and efficient telegraph.
Tier 3 Rapid Fire is another hard hitting multi-tap ability in the Spellslinger arsenal. The downside is each of this ability's taps have to be cast while stationary. You are able to move between taps, but the damage itself has to be dealt while in place. So to maximize this damage you have to know that you have time to channel each of the abilities four taps. If you're able to effectively fit this into your rotation it will prove to be yet another high damage option in your loadout.
Tier 2 Flame Burst is a crit-based proc ability, and the only magic damage in my loadout. A great instant cast filler ability that will no doubt be available every single time it is off cooldown. As soon as you see that proc, be ready to drop that wide telegraph on the 5 enemies you want to burn the most!
Tier 4 Assassinate is not only a solid filler option between cooldowns, on the move, etc, but it is an amazing execute ability. Hits for decent damage early in the fight, but once you reach the 30% health range you're looking at nearly a double damage increase for a ridiculously hard hitting execute spam ability. I have chosen to upgrade this ability to Tier 4 to allow for stacking of 3 charges. This isn't a huge upgrade, but will yield a pretty decent DPS increases for nearly any encounter. Once you hit that 30% health range, let your enemies feel the pain!

Possible changes for certain encounters: The only real switch I could see with this build would be for a high add fight with lots of mobs and/or trash to face-melt. If that happens, I would switch the Tier 4 Assassinate for Tier 4 Wild Barrage, as the T4 Wild Barrage hits up to 10 targets. What that means is that high mobility and high damage will vaporize 10 targets, up from 5. Therefore you will become a trash/add killing machine!

To recap: This DPS loadout utilizes a mix of mobility and hard hitting nukes to crank out as much damage as possible. Relatively high skill cap required due to the sporadic rotation and sometimes difficult to handle telegraphs, but I think if you can manage it you'll find that Spellsinger will be more than capable of cranking out very competitive DPS for nearly any encounter!

Utility

Tier 1 Gate is your go-to for mowing down interrupt armors and/or getting off that important stun. It can also be used in select cases as a gap-closer or an ability to quickly get out of a jam as it is essentially a dash along the length of the telegraph. Pretty standard ability that illustrates just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to SS Utility.
Tier 1 Void Slip is my final ability choice, and useful to me for one huge reason: I am an Aggrodesiac! With such a bursty class you may find yourself pulling threat on some pesky adds, or even a boss if you're not careful. This is a "Get Out of Jail Free Card" essentially allowing you to blow money fast and morph into the void to drop all threat. Can also be used to avoid certain boss mechanics, but for me I use it when I do my aggro thing and need a threat drop.

Possible changes for certain encounters: Spellslingers have a wide range of very useful utility abilities. If you need an extra interrupt (or two) you have some very viable options. If you want to avoid an annoying disarm or some other boss ability, using Phase Shift allows you to absorb something that would otherwise impede your ability to DPS, move, etc. If you need to be ready and able to cleanse some of your buddies throw Purify in your bar to get rid of that annoying debuff. So many options, so few slots!

To recap: Spellslingers have lots to choose from in the way of utility, but for this loadout I took the bare minimum to maximize DPS but take advantage of a couple of their great utility abilities.

AMPS

When it comes to AMPs, many of the choices are no brainers, but I will briefly go over the choices below.

Tier 1 AMPs: Maxing out in Assault Power, Strikethrough, Armor Pierce, Crit Hit, Crit Severity and Cooldown Reduction are easy choices for the T1 AMPs. With a few left over AMP points I plugged them into Lifesteal as a way to add some extra health regen with so many big hitting AoE abilities at my disposal. A nice way to help out my healers and keep myself up during those high damage phases.
Tier 2 AMPs: Tracking down the elusive Power Surge AMP is incredibly important for Spellslinger DPS, and arguably one of their best AMPs. Adding 8.6% more Assault Power anytime you're in Spell Surge is redonkulous. A must have! Preparation rounds out the A/S Tier 2 tree. The rest of my T2 AMP points are divvied out in the Assault tree. Taking the obvious DPS gain with Deadly Chain, the additional CDR reduction of Trigger Fingers and finally the Spell Power generating Critical Surge AMP finishes up your Tier 2 AMP options.
Tier 3 AMPs: This is an easy choice: You take all three in the Assault tree. Assassinate is obvious as it is one of our main DPS abilities. On top of that you add Gunslinger for highly increased Crit chance throughout a fight and finally Surge Damage is an amazing AMP that will continually Empower you with a 10% damage buff for 4 seconds anytime you use a Spell Surged ability.

To recap: The chosen AMPs, other than Lifesteal, all in some way buff your damage, crit or decrease your time between your long cooldown nuke abilities. Spellslinger AMP choices are, in my opinion, relatively cut and dry but there is some wiggle room here and there depending on the type of mobility and utility you want to utilize in your build. All in all these choices best increase my damage, and therefore my ability to blow fools up! Booyeah!

Rotation

Rotation for Spellslinger is more of a priority system using your Spell Surge ability effectively while weaving between Quick Draws and big nukes with relatively long cooldowns as opposed to a very strict rotation. There are lots of postulation and potential choices regarding the most effecient rotation, but the best success I've seen comes from the priority system illustrated below:
1) Quick Draw as a filler and to maintain the T8 Empower.
2) Flame Burst whenever it procs.
3) SPELL SURGE True Shot. Using True Shot's four taps early and often means that its long cooldown will be spent using other abilities as opposed to relying solely on fillers while waiting to use it again.
4) SPELL SURGE Wild Barrage also has a longer cooldown, and therefore using it after True Shot means that you'll maintain a relatively streamlined Cooldown priority system in between CDs and procs.
5) SPELL SURGE Rapid Fire has a shorter cooldown but takes a while to finish the full casts, therefore you'll tend to have abilities proccing and/or coming off of cooldown by the time you finish the rotation.
6) Assassinate as a filler and as an execute spam below 30%. If below 30%, and Spell Power permitting, I will SPELL SURGE Assassinate as well, typically in place of a SPELL SURGED Wild Barrage.

To recap: The above priority rotation is subject to change following more testing and changes at launch, but for my testing in Beta this is the best way to crank out the mad SS deeps.

In

Spellslinger brings great damage potential utilizing high burst and mobility to compete with the various classes in Wildstar. I believe they have a relatively high skill cap requiring precision, patience, effective use of Spell Surge and timing to maximize their damage on any given encounter. I have enjoyed playing Spellslinger so far and haven't regretted my change to the class. Keep your eyes peeled for any changes to this guide, or changes to the class in general and best of luck as Wildstar's resident Gun Slinger!

Aggro Out.