Skill Combos - Tips & Tricks Guide.
First of all, let's see how the damage calculation works. What happens is that the second skill is casted twice (eg. in Ripper, the target would receive approximately 2x Lurch damage) without cooldown or additional mana consumption.
Fairly simple, right? As you can see the combo opener doesn't directly affect the combo's damage but it does however affect the overall damage done to the target. Now let's see the requirements and explain some stuff in detail:
Back Breaker
(any skill that knocks down) + Back Breaker (Comm)
This is the dominant combo in game both due to how often it can be performed and the convenience of the combo opener. Any skill that knocks down would mean this combo can actually occur after: Singularity's explosion, Neutron Stomp, Pain's explosion, Lurch's knockdown. Plus, commandos can do this combo on their own, something that no other class can.
Ripper
Graviton Slam (Comm) + Lurch (Oper)
This one is the second most useful but like the rest of them, it needs cooperation between two players. Graviton Slam is the AoE slowdown skill, for those that can't remember names. The great thing about this skill is that (as mentioned in the Commando Guide) it's the only combo that can be performed on any and all targets including bosses.
Backlash
Psychic Lash (Oper) + Transference (Eng)
This one would be fairly good if it wasn't bugged. When the engineer casts Transference after Psychic Lash, everyone in the party receives damage before the heal. Very dangerous since it can kill unsuspecting teammates <40-50% HP if something lowers them to 10-20% HP before the combo (since it hits them but since it kills them they don't heal). Especially when leveling lower level players, pay attention to avoid it.
Mezz Breaker
Suppression (Eng) + Force Hammer (Comm)
Unarguably the worst of them due to how badly the Suppression skill is designed. In any sort of party with AoE, the suppression root just doesn't last long enough for the commando to target and hit the target with Force Hammer. Not very powerful, doesn't work on bosses and only one possible skill opener means just think of this as something you will probably never see or have to bother with.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A good tip for those who are interested in peppering their gameplay with combos but are usually in teams with inexperienced players of the other classes is that most if not all of the skills required have similar cooldowns.
Meaning, if for example you're a commando and want to perform Ripper combos on a boss but the operative is not co-operative (see what I did there?) you can simply pay attention to him, watch him cast it, estimate the cooldown and then use Graviton Slam a few seconds before it. After that, since all of those new players have the tendency to spam any and all skills that come out of cooldown, you should have no problem timing it.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
And that concludes the Skill Combos Guide! For any questions, objections or alternative suggestions feel free to post below! :)
