Written by Dantiko, Edited by Xam Xam
Last Updated – 24th January 2021 some formatting changes and general editing
Previous Update – 15th February 2020 for Game Update 6.1. Rotations section was rewritten to take into account changes to the Fanged God Form Tactical.
Introduction
Carnage Marauder is currently one of the best burst specs in the game. It is viable for every single fight but shines in some more than others. It provides an armour debuff, insane burst damage if used correctly, and amazing raid utility. Carnage also excels in target swapping better than any other spec in the game. With the right tactical, your sustained DPS is also pretty high compared to how it was before.
Gearing and Stats
Set Bonus
306 Descent of the Fearless 6 Set + 1 Piece Amplified Champion Set
| GEAR | 2 SET | 4 SET | 6 SET |
|---|---|---|---|
| Descent of the Fearless | Mastery +2% | Whenever you gain or use a Furious Power ability charge while in combat, your damage is increased by 10% for 10 seconds | Dealing damage has a 10% chance to build a Furious Power ability charge. Can only occur once every 5 seconds |
| GEAR | EQUIP |
|---|---|
| Amplified Champion | This equipment shell is enhanced with additional powerful Amplifier opportunities |
Amplified Champion: +Additional Damage Amplifier
Amplifiers, Mods and Stats
Amplifiers
| NAME | DESCRIPTION | PERCENTAGE MAX |
|---|---|---|
| Weapon Expertise | Increases the damage dealt by weapon attacks | 1.20% |
9x Weapon Expertise Amplifiers @ 1.2% (gold tier) on Armorings/Hilts + 1 Amplified Champion Weapon Expertise Amplifier @ 0.48% (blue tier)
Stats
Optimizing this spec can be difficult due to the amount of specific enhancements and mods you need for the final build, but the most important thing is to have the correct stat distribution and adjust gear as you get what you need.
The stat distribution for Carnage is as follows:
- Accuracy: 1589
- Alacrity: 2375
- Crit: Whatever is left
It is better to run slightly over these numbers until you can sort your gear out to get the exact stats. The final build will consist of these pieces of gear and augments:
Modifications
- Armourings: Superior Versatile Armoring 80 (x7)
- Hilts: Superior Versatile Hilt 80 (x2)
- Mods: Superior Lethal Mod 80R-2 (x9)
Stat Distribution (new augments):
- Accuracy: Superior Initiative Enhancement 80R-18 (x1) + Superior Initiative Enhancement 80R-19 (x1) + 5 Augments + Proficient Stim
- Alacrity: Superior Nimble Enhancement 80R-14 (x1) + Superior Nimble Enhancement 80R-10 (x4) + 3 Augments
- Critical: Sha’tek Adept Package MK-19 (x2) + Sha’tek Adept Device MK-19 (x1) + 6 Augments + 2 Crystals + Proficient Stim
Relics:
- Sha’tek Relic of Serendipitous Assault + Sha’tek Relic of Focused Retribution (Dxun/new content)
- Sha’tek Relic of the Primeval Fatesealer + Sha’tek Relic of Devastating Vengeance (old content)
Tacticals
| TACTICAL | DESCRIPTION | SOURCE |
|---|---|---|
| Fanged God Form | Using Massacre adds Hyper stacks to you increasing your critical chance by 10% and reducing the cost of your next Massacre by 1 rage per stack. Stacks up to 3 times. Last 10 seconds or until you deal damage from an ability other than Massacre. | Flashpoint Bosses |
You will want Fanged God Form Tactical over every other tactical available. Tome of Unyielding Blades isn’t good at all because you never use smash in Carnage, and the AOE buff to Massacre is only for 1 Massacre. The Prosecution looks good on paper, allowing your biggest hit to get affected by Furious Power, but it doesn’t perform as well as one might think. Overwhelming Offense forces you to use the old 5.0 rotation, which isn’t optimal and will net you a lower DPS result due to wasting GCDs on basic attacks and Dual Saber Throw, which aren’t good abilities to use to sustain DPS. Andeddu’s Malevolence also *seems* good, but again, it forces you into a rotation that is not optimal, on top of lowering the value of your Ferocity (not to mention destroying your Fury management). You can take it for trash and spam Sweeping Slash with it, which will net you a crazy trash parse (poggerz) but it doesn’t help with anything else.
With the Fanged God Form tactical, your rotation from 5.0 changes significantly. You no longer have to use Assault or Dual Saber Throw in your rotation, which is a huge DPS increase.
Utilities
Skilful
| NAME | DESCRIPTION | COMMENT |
|---|---|---|
| Cloak of Carnage | Increases the damage dealt by Cloak of Pain by 15% and increases its duration by 4 seconds | A very useful utility, as Cloak of Pain, has a very short CD (can be reduced further by other utilities), as well as providing extra damage whenever you take damage. I will always take this utility. |
| Inexorable | You generate 4 Rage when stunned, immobilized, put to sleep, or knocked around. Additionally, the cooldown of Unleash is reduced by 30 seconds | I don’t like this one much for PvE personally, as I always have enough rage to deal with in every spec. The CDR on your CC break is nice, but I find that other utilities in this tree are better. |
| Path Carver | Sweeping Slash deals 25% more damage | A useful utility for fights that require AOE damage and Sweeping Slash spam, but not useful otherwise. As the Carnage spec, this utility is vital for Dxun in the 3rd encounter. Other specs can get away with using this utility in the same situation if DR isn’t needed with the group comp/ strat. |
| Overwhelm | Ravage immobilizes the target for 3 seconds | Absolutely useless in PVE, and very very rare/situational in PVP even. I never take this utility personally, but it can be useful in PVP in the right situation. Roots are annoying. |
| Brazen | Increases your damage reduction by 2%, and you build 2 Fury when attacked. This Fury building effect cannot occur more than once every 1.5 seconds | This utility is very nice for multiple reasons. The increased DR is fantastic, and it’s the reason I take this utility in almost every build I do in every spec. The Fury building isn’t very great for Carnage or Fury specs because of the strict rotation those specs have, but having extra Fury as Annihilation is godlike because of Berserk giving your dots more damage. Either way, I almost always take this one. |
| 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 | This utility is kinda “meh” for me 99% of the time. In Carnage and Fury, you won’t ever need the extra Rage because of the strict rotation. For Annihilation, however, this utility can be nice, but isn’t useful most of the time in actual fights. I personally do not take this one unless I cannot take anything more useful. |
| Interceptor | Force Charge, Force Rend, Devastating Blast, and Obliterate snare the target, reducing its movement speed by 50% for 6 seconds | This utility is entirely useless for PVE, and only has situational applications for PVP. Even then, I personally prefer other utilities. |
| Defensive Roll | Reduces damage taken from area effects by 30% and increases internal and elemental damage reduction by 3% | I will always take this utility. The extra damage reduction is insane for PVE in almost every fight, and it also helps survivability in PVP a LOT. |
Masterful
| NAME | DESCRIPTION | COMMENT |
|---|---|---|
| Subjugation | Reduces the cooldown of Obfuscate by 15 seconds, and increases its range by 6 meters. In addition, the cooldown of Disruption is reduced by 2 seconds, and Cloak of Pain can be used while stunned | This utility is nice for PVP because of everything listed helping you. In PVE, the only real use of this is taking the extra CDR for your interrupt in some fights that require a lot of interrupts. Even then, I personally think other utilities are more useful, as your interrupt cooldown is one of the lowest in the game already. |
| 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 | In some fights, this utility is god. Fights where Predation cannot be used, or is preferred not to be used, the extra self-movement speed is very nice for you to have (Tyrans, Council, etc). I take this one for those fights for sure, as well as most other fights. In PVP, it depends on who is in q and how many slows you are expecting to encounter. It can help you with those, but even then, Predation buffs are better for that application. |
| Relentless | Predation no longer requires or consumes Fury, but will go on cooldown for 30 seconds when activated | I will almost always take this in every situation except for those listed above in the “Phantom” utility section. Predation buffs are super useful for raid utility as well as helps in PVP for getting around or even reducing slows (can also break roots/slows if you take the other Predation utility, see “Unbound” in the Heroic section). |
| Strangulate | Reduces the cooldown of Force Choke by 15 seconds | This utility is useless in PvE, but can be useful for ranked PVP or regs depending on who’s in the queue. I don’t take this utility 99% of the time. |
| Maiming Reach | Increases the range of Crippling Slash to 10 meters. Additionally, Crippling Slash now consumes 2 less Rage and immobilizes the target for 3 seconds. This immobilizing effect cannot be applied to the same target more than once every 10 seconds | This utility isn’t useful at all for PVE. For PVP, I can see it being useful situationally, but it’s not a good one to have for general purposes. |
| Expunging Camouflage | Force Camouflage removes all cleansable effects when activated | This utility is super nice for PVP for disabling roots or other cleansable things, and coupled with your Predation buffs, it can be really nasty for getting to targets or staying on them. For PVE, this utility is only useful in fights that require a self-cleanse (Apex in Dxun, Council unless you’re Zorn apparently, Hateful Entity, etc). |
| Undying | Increases the duration of Undying Rage by 2 seconds and reduces its cooldown by 30 seconds | Useless in PVE unless you’re a marauder tank for most of the fight (sarcasm). I’ve had some disgustingly good plays with this utility in ranked PVP before, and I recommend it over others in that situation, but won’t take it otherwise. |
| Cloak of Annihilation | Each use of Assault, Battering Assault, and Crippling Slash reduces the active cooldown of Cloak of Pain by 3 seconds | I find this utility not very good for most specs. You will never use Assault ever in Fury or Carnage unless you really screw up, and you don’t use Assault or Battering Assault rotationally in Annihilation either, but is more useful in Annihilation than the other 2 because of having to occasionally use Assault for a few Rage in your rotation to keep it constant. On top of those downsides, you realistically only get about 6 seconds off of Cloak of Pain before it’s up again, which isn’t a lot considering it lasts as long as 30 seconds when you’re taking damage, and its cooldown is already very low (1 minute). With that being said, I still end up taking it because there’s a lack of anything better for a lot of fights. |
Heroic
| NAME | DESCRIPTION | COMMENT |
|---|---|---|
| Unbound | When Predation is applied or refreshed, it purges movement-impairing effects. Additionally, the movement speed bonus of Predation is increased by 30% | I only take this one if I’m also going to take the “Relentless” utility in Masterful tree. This utility is only useful if you have that one as well, and helps a lot in most fights (god tier for Brontes NiM or other fights requiring a lot of group movement). |
| Brooding | Reduces the cooldown of Intimidating Roar by 15 seconds. In addition, you build 30 Fury over the course of using Channel Hatred. This effect cannot occur more than once every 30 seconds | This utility is only really useful for the Fury building mechanic. What I do is spam meme utilities until I can select this one, and then reset utilities after I get my 30 stacks of Fury to take a more useful utility for actual fights. |
| Through Victory | Mad Dash can be used while immobilized, purges movement-impairing effects when activated, and deals 50% more damage. Additionally, the cooldown of Mad Dash is reduced by 10 seconds | I don’t take this utility. It seems nice having an extra root break, but you have so many other utilities that already cover that aspect of the game. |
| Blood Ward | Activating Saber Ward grants immunity to stun, sleep, lift, and incapacitating effects for 6 seconds, and getting attacked while Saber Ward is active heals you for 3% of your maximum health. This healing effect cannot occur more than once every second | I really like this utility for many reasons. The immunity to stuns is extremely useful for PVP, but also in PVE on certain fights. On top of that, you heal for taking damage while Saber Ward is active, which helps reduce stress on healers as well as makes your HPS reach over 4k. |
| Thirst for Rage | Bloodthirst generates 12 Rage when activated, and you heal for 1% of your maximum health whenever you activate an ability that consumes rage | This utility is very good as well. The healing is very nice for survivability, and you also get free max rage when you hit your raid buff, which can help in your opener (for only Annihilation in 6.0, really). You used to always take this utility before for Carnage when you parse due to having the rage you gain from this make your opener transfer into your core in 1 less GCD, but with the “Fanged God Form” tactical that you’re supposed to take, it negates the need for this utility in that situation. I still take this in every situation because of the self-healing whenever you use an ability that consumes rage (or is supposed to consume rage under normal circumstances). |
| 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, reducing the damage you take from Force and tech attacks by 75% for 6 seconds | This utility is useless for PVE because you cannot use Obfuscate on bosses. In PVP, however, the DR you get from this is absurd, on top of being able to use Vicious Throw outside of execute. I would still not take this utility in Carnage due to the “Slaughter” proc you get rotationally that does the same thing as this minus giving the DR. |
| 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 | This utility is what’s called the “Parse Hero” utility, and you never take it in any situation outside of cheesing parses for a very very slight bit of extra damage (basically only 8% on your next melee ability if used optimally). |
| Interloper | Force Charge gets an additional charge | This utility can be useful in certain situations in both PVE and PVP for Carnage and Annihilation. For Fury, I would never take this because of Obliterate. I personally do not like this utility much, but some people like to be able to use Force Charge twice (it’s a playstyle preference). |
Utility Builds
Now that I’ve gone over every utility at your disposal, I can give a few basic builds that work great for me. These are just suggestions, and you can feel free to change these up based off of play style or preference.
Fury Stacking (pre-fight Fury building):
- Skillful: all except 1
- Heroic: Brooding
Normal PVE:
- Skillful: Cloak of Carnage, Brazen (can be replaced with Path Carver in AOE fights if playing Carnage), Defensive Roll
- Masterful: Phantom (can be replaced with Expunging Camouflage for self-cleanse), Relentless, Cloak of Annihilation
- Heroic: Unbound, Thirst for Rage, Blood Ward
No Predation Required:
- Skillful: Cloak of Carnage, Brazen, Defensive Roll, Cloak of Rage
- Masterful: Phantom, Cloak of Annihilation
- Heroic: Thirst for Rage, Blood Ward, Interloper (or Through Victory, Interloper preferred for Annihilation and Carnage)
Ranked PVP:
- Skillful: Cloak of Carnage, Brazen, Defensive Roll
- Masterful: Expunging Camouflage, Undying, Relentless
- Heroic: Unbound, Thirst for Rage, Blood Ward
As I said, these are just suggestions for builds. Everyone prefers different things, and the only way to find out what works for you is to experiment for yourself.
Abilities and Passives
Sith Warrior Abilities
| ABILITY | DESCRIPTION |
|---|---|
| Battering Assault | Strikes the target multiple times with both lightsabers, dealing X weapon damage and building 6 rage. Requires two lightsabers. |
| Berserk | Requires and converts 30 stacks of Fury to go Berserk, granting 30% alacrity. Lasts for 6 charges, with each attack consuming 1 charge. An additional stack of Ferocity is granted if Ferocityis used while Berserk is active. |
| Bloodthirst | Requires and converts 30 stacks of Fury to issue Blooodthirst to you and your Operation group members within 40 meters, increasing all damage and healing done by 10% for 10 seconds. |
| Cloak of Pain | Reduces all damage taken by 20% and deal 483 energy damage to attackers. This effect cannot occur more than once every second. Lasts 10 seconds. Cloak of Pain refreshes to its full duration when attacked, but this effect cannot last more than 30 seconds in total. |
| Crippling Slash | Slashes the target for X weapon damage, slowing its movement speed by 50% for 10 seconds and reducing the healing it receives by 20 for 10 seconds. Requires two lightsabers. |
| Devastating Blast | Unleashes a powerful blast of Force energy at the target, dealing 3517-3987 energy damage. The blast stuns standard and weak enemies for 5 seconds. Replaces Force Scream. |
| Dual Saber Throw | Throws both lightsabers in a straight line towards the target, dealing X weapon damage to up to 8 enemies directly in front of you up to 30 meters away. Affected enemies are slowed by 50% for 6 seconds. Requires two lightsabers. |
| Ferocity | Gain two stacks of Ferocity, lasting up o 10 seconds. Devastating Blast, Gore, Vicious Throw, Ravage, Massacre, Smash, and Sweeping lash all gain 100% armour penetration while Ferocity is active, and using any of these abilities consumes one stack of Ferocity. Requires two lightsabers. |
| Force Camouflage | Obscures yourself with the Force, becoming difficult to detect, reducing your threat towards all enemies, reducing all damage taken by 50%, granting immunity to controlling effects, and increasing movement speed by 30%. Lasts 4 seconds. Dealing direct damage ends the effect prematurely. |
| Frenzy | Enters a furious frenzy, immediately building 30 stacks of Fury. |
| Gore | Impales the target with both lightsabers, dealing X weapon damage and hindering the target for 1.5 seconds, preventing the use of high mobility actions and escapes. Requires two lightsabers. |
| Massacre | Strikes the target with both weapons for X weapon damage and automatically triggers an Ataru Form strike, bypassing Ataru Form’s rate limit. For 6 seconds after using Massacre, your Ataru Form has an extra 30% chance to be triggered. Requires two lightsabers. Replaces Vicious Slash. |
| Obfuscate | Obscures the target’s vision, reducing its melee and ranged accuracy by 90% for 6 seconds. Cannot be used on Operation bosses. This ability does not respect the global cooldown. |
| Predation | Requires and converts 30 stacks of Fury to issue Predation to you and your Operation group members within 40 meters, increasing movement speed by 50% and melee and ranged defence by 10%. Lasts 10 seconds. |
| Undying Rage | Reduces the damage you take by 99% for 4 seconds. |
Marauder Abilities
| ABILITY | DESCRIPTION |
|---|---|
| Battering Assault | Strikes the target multiple times with both lightsabers, dealing X weapon damage and building 6 rage. Requires two lightsabers. |
| Berserk | Requires and converts 30 stacks of Fury to go Berserk, granting 30% alacrity. Lasts for 6 charges, with each attack consuming 1 charge. An additional stack of Ferocity is granted if Ferocityis used while Berserk is active. |
| Bloodthirst | Requires and converts 30 stacks of Fury to issue Blooodthirst to you and your Operation group members within 40 meters, increasing all damage and healing done by 10% for 10 seconds. |
| Cloak of Pain | Reduces all damage taken by 20% and deal 483 energy damage to attackers. This effect cannot occur more than once every second. Lasts 10 seconds. Cloak of Pain refreshes to its full duration when attacked, but this effect cannot last more than 30 seconds in total. |
| Crippling Slash | Slashes the target for X weapon damage, slowing its movement speed by 50% for 10 seconds and reducing the healing it receives by 20 for 10 seconds. Requires two lightsabers. |
| Devastating Blast | Unleashes a powerful blast of Force energy at the target, dealing 3517-3987 energy damage. The blast stuns standard and weak enemies for 5 seconds. Replaces Force Scream. |
| Dual Saber Throw | Throws both lightsabers in a straight line towards the target, dealing X weapon damage to up to 8 enemies directly in front of you up to 30 meters away. Affected enemies are slowed by 50% for 6 seconds. Requires two lightsabers. |
| Ferocity | Gain two stacks of Ferocity, lasting up o 10 seconds. Devastating Blast, Gore, Vicious Throw, Ravage, Massacre, Smash, and Sweeping lash all gain 100% armour penetration while Ferocity is active, and using any of these abilities consumes one stack of Ferocity. Requires two lightsabers. |
| Force Camouflage | Obscures yourself with the Force, becoming difficult to detect, reducing your threat towards all enemies, reducing all damage taken by 50%, granting immunity to controlling effects, and increasing movement speed by 30%. Lasts 4 seconds. Dealing direct damage ends the effect prematurely. |
| Frenzy | Enters a furious frenzy, immediately building 30 stacks of Fury. |
| Gore | Impales the target with both lightsabers, dealing X weapon damage and hindering the target for 1.5 seconds, preventing the use of high mobility actions and escapes. Requires two lightsabers. |
| Massacre | Strikes the target with both weapons for X weapon damage and automatically triggers an Ataru Form strike, bypassing Ataru Form’s rate limit. For 6 seconds after using Massacre, your Ataru Form has an extra 30% chance to be triggered. Requires two lightsabers. Replaces Vicious Slash. |
| Obfuscate | Obscures the target’s vision, reducing its melee and ranged accuracy by 90% for 6 seconds. Cannot be used on Operation bosses. This ability does not respect the global cooldown. |
| Predation | Requires and converts 30 stacks of Fury to issue Predation to you and your Operation group members within 40 meters, increasing movement speed by 50% and melee and ranged defence by 10%. Lasts 10 seconds. |
| Undying Rage | Reduces the damage you take by 99% for 4 seconds. |
Marauder Passives
| ABILITY NAME | DESCRIPTION |
|---|---|
| Enraged Slash | Vicious Slash, Sweeping Slash, Vicious Throw, Massacre, Annihilate, and Furious Strike refund 1 rage when used. In addition, Battering Assault beats down its target for 45 seconds. Beat Down targets take 5% more damage from melee attacks. |
| Fury | Activating an attack that spends rage and defeating opponents builds Fury. When 30 stacks of Fury are built, you become Furious, enabling the use of Berserk, Predation, and Bloodlust. |
| Short Fuse | Increases the amount of Fury built by 2 when activating abilities that consume rage, and reduces the cooldown of Frenzy by 30 seconds. |
Rotations
With the change to the “Fanged God Form” tactical, I have written up a new rotation that takes advantage of the Hyper stacks only falling off after using a damaging ability. Before patch 6.1, the stacks fell off after using any ability other than Massacre. This is no longer the case, thus we can use that extra 30% crit chance (converted to the multiplier on autocrits, ie Devastating Blast) to do more damage in our burst windows.
The rotation is as follows:
Opener with Thirst for Rage Utility:
(Pre-cast Channel Hatred for 30 Fury Stacks) Force Charge > Battering Assault > (Berserk) Massacre > Massacre > (Adrenal + Frenzy + Furious Power) Massacre > (Bloodthirst + Ferocity) Vicious Throw > Devastating Blast > Gore > Massacre > Massacre > Massacre > Massacre > (Ferocity) Devastating Blast > Battering Assault > Ravage > (Furious Power if available) Massacre > Massacre > Massacre > Massacre > Massacre > [Core]
Opener without Thirst for Rage Utility:
(Pre-cast Channel Hatred for 30 Fury Stacks) Force Charge > Battering Assault > (Berserk) Dual Saber Throw > (Adrenal + Frenzy + Furious Power) Massacre > (Bloodthirst + Ferocity) Vicious Throw > Devastating Blast > Gore > Massacre > Massacre > Massacre > Massacre > (Ferocity) Devastating Blast > Battering Assault > Ravage > (Furious Power if available) Massacre > Massacre > Massacre > Massacre > Massacre > [Core]
Core:
(Berserk + Ferocity + Furious Power) Vicious Throw > Devastating Blast > Battering Assault > Gore > Massacre > Massacre > Massacre > (Ferocity) Devastating Blast > Ravage > Battering Assault > (Furious Power if available) Massacre > Massacre > Massacre > Massacre > Massacre > [Repeat Core Indefinitely]
When you get to 30% hp on the target, you can swap Ravage out for another Vicious Throw in your 2-stack Ferocity window. You will have more than enough Rage to use a non-procc’d Vicious Throw by this time. Vicious Throw will hit harder than Ravage, thus making it a better ability to use under Ferocity. The sub-30% rotation is as follows:
Sub-30% Core:
(Berserk + Ferocity + Furious Power) Vicious Throw > Devastating Blast > Battering Assault > Gore > Massacre > Massacre > Massacre > (Ferocity + Furious Power if available) Vicious Throw > Devastating Blast > Battering Assault > Massacre > Massacre > Massacre > Massacre > Massacre > [Repeat Sub-30% Core Indefinitely]
I would like to thank Reshari for helping me hash out this new rotation and giving me possible ideas. We definitely over-complicated it at first, but we eventually were able to figure out that this one works and works extremely well without changing much from how it was before. I’d also like to thank Luna for fixing the opener I originally had to be even better.
About the Author
Hello everyone, I am Dantiko (or more commonly known as just “Dan”). I have played and mained Marauder since the launch of the game, but I did not get into any hardcore raiding until late 4.0 and 5.0+. I am currently 26/26 for old NiM since 5.0 and am in the process of getting a team together for 6.0 NiM clears.
If you have any questions or concerns over anything in this guide, feel free to send me a message in Discord @Dantiko#0639
