[A Better Assault Change?]

Using Rail Shot or HIB with Partical Accelerator and Ionic Accelerator buff additionally procs "Overheat" debuff. Lasts 9 seconds and stacks up to two. Rail Shot and HIB cannot be used with 2 a two stack; Ionic Accelerator and Partical Accelerator can still proc.

 

 

What do you guys think?

[Why the proposed 1.2 Pyrotech changes are poorly thought out]

Exactly.

 

Concerning your post on the Vanguard forums, I'll be honest in that I don't have much experience with the Tactics tree. However, should these changes go through I will definitely be trying Tactics out. That Pulse Cannon buff is looking quite cool and I feel like it will add another dimension to the spec.

 

So, I spent about 5 minute brainstorming between queues last night and came up with a solution you didn't put up there but that you and others might like that completely addresses the extended lucky streak of RNG burst.

 

Using Rail Shot or HIB with Partical Accelerator and Ionic Accelerator buff additionally procs "Overheat" debuff. Lasts 9 seconds and stacks up to two. Rail Shot and HIB cannot be used with 2 a two stack; Ionic Accelerator and Partical Accelerator can still proc.

 

Super RNG burst eliminated, spec functionality largely maintained.

[Tactics viable for PvE Endgame?]

Ion pulse critting for over 2k is a lot of fun.

 

Oh come on, it's not nearly as fun as 3k.

[The 30% nerf to Operatives wasn't enough? Who the hell is in charge of balance?]

I remember when I first started PvPing and I got opened up on out of stealth by a Scoundral in Huttball. I was thinking- "Damn, I wish I had a combat log so I could see how bad I just got wrecked." Most of the time these days... it's "why is the healer DPSing me... oh, that's not a healer."

[Tactics viable for PvE Endgame?]

that is true.. that leaves HiB, and that isteself while good damage is not enough to spend the itemization on it when you can go full out power.

 

Yea, I'm actually really curious about the autocrit. It should, at the least, push shield chance off for PvP. My tank friend logged has early work and couldn't let me beat on him. Lazy tanks.

[Tactics viable for PvE Endgame?]

but stock stike still has to hit, and an autocrit can be dodged. You have to have accuracy unless you are ok with an 9% chance to miss on half of your attacks. I personally am no ok with any missi or dodges.

 

Stock Strike is Tech. It's a good bit less than half of our attacks. It only affects Hammer Shot and HIB. Hammer Shot is a filler ability that does minimal damage. I'm about to test the autocrit.

[Tactics viable for PvE Endgame?]

why do you say accuracy is meaningless you have toh it your target

 

It's all Tech attacks with the exception of Hammer Shot and HIB. The latter you would only use when its crit proc is up, and I'm pretty sure that the autocrit makes it an autohit. I'm going to see if I can test that tonight.

 

Assault is completely dependent on HIB for damage. It also makes more use out of Hammer Shot with its inferior ammo regen and has increased damage on Hammer Shot from Rain of Fire.

[Why the proposed 1.2 Pyrotech changes are poorly thought out]

I wasn't stating the probability of 3 Rail Shots in a row, I was stating the chance of 3 PPA procs in a row. However, I still definitely agree that our current burst capabilities our much too high. I am not against nerfing our burst, I am against the method they are using to nerf it.

 

I agree. I think it completely destroys the spec. The problem is that it didn't just nerf burst. It destroyed key components of the build- outside the burst.

 

In the middle of combat, the chances of two Rail Shots in a row is = to the chances of two PPA procs in a row, which is 0.45 * 0.30 or 13.5% of the time (assuming 1 Flame Burst and 1 Rocket Punch), or 0.30 * 0.30 or 9% of the time (assuming 2 Flame Bursts). Therefore in the middle of combat, the chances of two Rail Shot procs in a row is not exactly "a very high probability".

 

I think it's more appropriate to extend out three GCDs and use the probability of not getting at least 1 proc. It takes up the same time frame as a "stars aligning" burst... which btw, I've used that exact phrase to describe that exact same thing.

 

My concern is the elimination of two HIB shots as opposed to the third. I don't think our double HIB is out of line with other classes and a triple HIB is uncommon to say the least. I don't see how the spec is playable without it as I view it as a cornerstone of the build.

 

Edit: This is what I posted in the Vanguard forums. I think you'd agree with a lot of it.

 

Tactics has always had better pressure. It's Ion Pulse hits very hard and, with it's far superior ammo friendliness, requires far fewer Hammer Shots in while pressuring. For clarification, I use pressure to refer to a non-1v1 situation where you are trying to bring a target into a burst range.

 

Assault currently does have the stars alignment RNG burst to burst targets down from high health- but this is rare to say the least. You really want your target to be 50% if equally geared and you need HIB up. This gives you a very strong chance of a kill within a 6.0-7.5 second window.

 

Tactics has pretty strong burst currently, but it is structurally different than Assault's. Burst damage can take many forms. For example, at a range, Assault's burst is largely a short window and back-loaded. Back-loaded burst is very nice because it typically minimizes reaction time- people don't know what's coming until it is too late (although Assault Plastique can give it away). You Incendiary Round, Assault Plastique, Full Auto, HIB. This is like a 3.5ish second window counting HIB travel time. The burst start with the Full Auto and is completed with the HIB (Compared to our more standard combo of something like Assault Plastique, Ion Pulse, HIB, Stock Stroke, Ion Pulse, Ion Pulse, HIB. Here's we're looking at a ~6-7.5 second window of gap burst. The damage is spilt heavily between the front and back (while front has more damage, the back end damage is still strong with the heavier DoT ticks and HIB finisher) of the window with much less damage in the interim. This does give players significantly more response time which is why you need a target to be in your burst range so that you have both properly accounted for a response and allowed yourself flexibility to improvise. You may not get a second HIB proc, Stock Strike + 2 Ion Pulses has a 27% chance of not getting a HIB proc, a third Ion Pulse reduces it to 19%. Your target may get too much healing to kill and cause you to put a delay in your combo to tab CC a healer or interupt a healer, Neural Surge without switching targets, or follow your burst with something like that to buy time to finish off the target. You may get any crits.

 

After 1.2, Assault will have to carry a HIB proc or wait for the CD to come up in order to execute it's normal burst combo. Carrying a proc means that it must burst a target at 4.5 seconds after proc or it loses the ability to execute normal burst or it can no longer pressure as it can't use Ion Pulse. The latter also means it cannot take advantage of the Plasma Cell snare effectively and has reduced target swapping capability as it is not applying the Plasma Cell DoT until after the front end damage of the burst combo, the ammo requirement is higher, and Incendiary Round simply does less damage than Ion Pulse initially, and there is a 4.5 second delay from a proc until the burst combo can be executed. The cumulative effect is very damaging.

 

If they make it so that the 6 second ICD doesn't activate if HIB is up, it will make a very big difference. It'll still be a big nerf, but it might not kill the spec's current functionality.

 

The Tactics burst is very heavily front-loaded and trails off significantly. As such it really doesn't have a window of time. It's Gut, Stick, Grenade, Fire Pulse, Stock Strike, HIB, Ion Pulse, Ion Pulse, Ion Pulse. Sticky Grenade, Fire Pulse, and Stock Strike will all hit at almost the same instant. HIB hits shortly after. This is basically instantaneous burst. The damage spike is typically much sharper but total damage is substantially less. It's better than Assault's burst if there isn't a second HIB largely due to a superior Stock Strike (Tactics gets Stock Strike Surge and is probably using Combat Tech for 15% Stock Strike crit) and the fact that the damage is more condensed as Fire Pulse's delay pushes the start of the damage window back a GCD.

 

Tactics also has a very nice Guard burst technique which becomes MUCH easier to pull off in 1.2. Guard has an inherent weakness to AoE if both the Guarding and Guarded players are caught in it. With Pulse Generator, a Guarding player will take 225% normal Pulse Cannon damage if the player he is Guarding is caught also as opposed to the 150% for players without Pulse Generator. It's a real tank killer. Giving Pulse Cannon a snare and interupt immunity is HUGE. It's an indirect buff to Hold the Line.

[Why the proposed 1.2 Pyrotech changes are poorly thought out]

You're off on the probability of 3 HIB / Rail Shots in short order. The first use doesn't have to be a proc. It's .45 * .3 or .135% for opening with 3 uses rapidly. Anytime you have HIB / Rail Shot up and Rocket Punch / Stock Strike up, you have this chance.

 

The real burst has always revolved around two HIB / Rail Shots in a short window. There's a very high probability of this occuring if you play your cards right. It's a lot of burst, but it's not out of line with what other classes can do. It is better in my opinion at least compared to many of the other classes with the rapidity which you can pull it off on a target swap

[Death of a Tanky-Tank]

I agree with this. Guard uses the defense of the person you are guarding so the more undergeared the guard target is, the more damage the tank takes. I only guard for medals right now as I drop fast when the guarded target is DPS'd.

 

Guard really needs to use the defensive stats of the tank and not the guard target.

 

I agree with you, but I was actually bringing up the fact that if a Tank and his Guarded target are both inside an AoE, the Tank is absolutely obliterated.

[Death of a Tanky-Tank]

Guard is completely overpowered with teamwork, if people ever L2P it will be nerfed, dunno if that will ever happen.

 

Guard is completely underpowered vs. teamwork.

 

Sticky Grenade, Harpoon, Cryo, Pulse Cannon + Force Sweep ---> lawlz 20k burst in 3 seconds on tank.

 

Guard can just as easily be a liabilty.

[Tactics viable for PvE Endgame?]

Viable, yes. Is it Assault damage, No.

 

The catch is though if you, or should I say most Pyro PTs/Assault VGs I run in to, are bad at managing your resource a Tactics build will yield higher DPS as it is MUCH more forgiving on that resource where you don't have to pay attention to procs and a bunch of other things all the time. That is where a tactics build Shines.

 

So figure out where your skillset is in that department on Assault.

 

I've done all nightmare content was both your Tactics and Assault (on my PT that is) and was fine with both, well, I felt anyways considering there were no meters. Nothing enraged so I guess that's a good sign huh?

 

Actually, Tactics is the same or better damage if you regear it properly. Accuracy is meaningless. Ditch it. What are you talking about Tactics doesn't have to pay attention to procs? Tactics has MORE procs to pay attention to than Assault. Assault has one proc to pay attention to and two DoTs (only 1 of which you have to pay attention to and is on a longer CD than Gut). Tactics has 1 DoT and 3 procs to pay attention to. They're about the same currently. The only reason Tactics isn't curb stomping Assault now is the 8% damage on HIB and the lack of a good set bonus for Tactics.

[Play style changes for Assault Vanguards in 1.2]

they are moving stockstrike surge from combat tech to tactics? Oo

this would kill iron fist like builds. could you explain this please?

edit : or do you simply mean the talent already existing in tactics?

 

Both Shield and Tactics have a surge talent for Stock Strike. Assault is the only tree that doesn't have it, and in an Assault build, you are probably running the Eliminator set. With Tactics having innate surge on Stock Strike, 9% more Aim, and 15% crit from Combat Tech set, it's Stock Strike is consistently more damage than Assaults even with Rain of Fire.

[1.2 is a spit in the face of Vanguards, and a buff to the OP sentinels]

K Guy have fun with Force Sweep.

 

I'll be in my "tunnel vision" (check out the quotes bro) wracking up twice as much damage as you, all while being able to 1v1. You know, the job of a Sentinel.

 

You have fun being a movement speed buff for your team, it's basically all you are good for besides the occasional AoE.

 

1.) I play a Trooper now.

 

2.) You haven't hit 1100k damage.

 

3.) You don't do twice as much damage regardless. The fact that you think you do demonstrates very clearly you incompetence of running Focus.

 

Are you done yet bad? You should go back to the Sentinel Kiddie Board and pat yourself on the back for being terrible now.

[Are you what I'm looking for?]

I largely agree with this but want to just throw in a couple comments.

 

How reliant on melee are you? 90%. If I am not in melee range I cannot use Stock Strike and more reliably reset my HIB (heavy hitter).

 

Do you have to be within 10m, or can you still do full DPS from 30m away?

If I'm not within 10m it's not full DPS. Our interrupt is melee range, so trying to kill a healer or a Tracer Missile turret requires getting your boots dirty.

 

We can do very well from a 10m range without ever closing. It's probably better than 80% effective in most situations. I think of this as an advantage in that we can better engagement options. And as a note, this is very likely to change 1.2.

 

How do you do in 1v1s?

Assuming all things are equal (skill, gear, level), do you tend to win or lose? Which classes are you better/worse against?

We can kite melee with snare, and shut down ranged with interrupts and stuns. Classes that can immune tech, or get white damage immunity cooldowns will give us trouble. It's possible to outplay marauders, and DPS-race-burn Assassins. I am having a hard time with a specific scoundrel whom I've helped learn how to beat PTs.

 

If you are getting the jump on someone you should be winning 90% of your fights, assuming a reasonable RNG proc rate.

 

Environmentally dependent here. I normally completely dominate any and all classes if you give me a pillar or obstuction to LOS. My favorite spot is on the sides of the endzones in Huttball. There's these little concrete looking road block I use to work people over. The stairs on Civil War are great on the sides. Void Star has some good pillars.

 

How is your overall DPS output?

Are you competitive with, say, Commandos or Shadows? I know that Sentinels and Gunslingers are going to beat you (as it should be), but can you still do good DPS if you're built for it?

As an Assault Vanguard you should be very capable of being at the top of the "damage done" list in every single warzone. I would say that sentinel only beat us in Damage Done when there are no deaths on the other side. In a marathon DPS race, when we can't break a second to regain some ammo, the sentinel will outpace us as they generate resources by performing some attacks. When the race is a series of sprints we can compete on an equal footing and can put out significant burst by dumping our resource. Gunslingers have a much harder time attacking higher defense ratings and shields, where our DPS us almost unaffected by armor, and only HIB can be deflected or shielded, though it penetrates enemy armor by 90%, and thus us still worth using against a tank. I would say gunslingers beat everyone when it comes time to drop the AoE. They are in a class of their own, due to the fire-and-forget nature of Orbital Strike and the ability to use other attacks during their AE.

 

This is spec dependent too, but I rarely was beaten by any glow stick when I was going for damage. If you go Tactics, you are probably going to top just about every time if you can effectively use Pulse Cannon- it's abusive AoE.

 

(This is anecdotal and may not apply to all Assault Vanguards)

I regularly find myself at the top of the Damage Done list, sometimes 100k or 150k ahead of the next DPS on the list in warzones. If I group a watchman sentinel I find him to get very close to the same damage I deal, however I end up with around 50% more DBs. This leads me to believe that we are better burst damage dealers than the watchmen.

 

 

 

Watchman have a better burst and have a monumental burst advantage if they carry Overload Saber a full cooldown. However, they have very minimal target swapping ability. If you watch a lot of Sentinels and Marauders, they will sit there and tunnel vision on someone forever because they don't want to "waste" the DoTs. I was in a Void Star once where I was literally attacked by a Maruader for over 2 minutes. It was actually kind of sad. I was ignoring him and killing his team. He just followed me around like a little puppy on my Plasma Cell snare leash that I'd tab target put on every 6-7 seconds.

[harpoon is so much fun in huttball]

Flat out wrong.

 

SSVG is the best ball carrier there is. I score a minimum of 2x per match, and its not uncommon for me to score all 6 points per game. High HP, great damage reduction, reactive shield, reliec shield & defense, and storm. No other ball carrier comes close to a SSVG.

 

Tank spec Guardians do it better.

 

Guardian Leap to Force Leap to Force Push to Force Leap to cap.

[harpoon is so much fun in huttball]

Yanking them into the fire. With the huttball.

 

Yanking the ball carrier into the fire from a zerg that just killed your ball carrier and then capping behind their entire team.

[1.2 is a spit in the face of Vanguards, and a buff to the OP sentinels]

Awesome, cause neither did I.

 

You said Focus was a bad spec for bad players while not understanding any of the tree.

 

I'm just replying to your hurp durp self that felt the need to insult me for literally no reason, because what I said was true - Focus isn't getting a huge buff in 1.2 and it's just going to be the same Force Sweep -> Blade Storm spamming.

 

That's lots of fun man. And you talk to me about "tunnel vision"... lol

 

Don't put tunnel vision in quotations. This makes you look like a garbage PvE hero. Everyone who PvPs legitimately knows what tunnel vision is. By the way, your use of tunnel vision does not fit making it likely you don't know what it means and therefore I can't take anything you say regarding PvP seriously.

 

What point are you trying to get across with this "tunnel vision" thing? We are a single-target, dot applying, consistant damage specced class. The class is essentially designed around focusing 1 person down, until they are around 10% health left/dispatched.

 

As I said, a child's spec. Granted, it's a very powerful child's spec.

 

I think you are just butt hurt that I didn't agree with you on Focus and how it'll still be a gimmicky 2-3 ability spamming build.

 

Actually, players like you proved my predictions about the Sentinel class correct.

 

Great you and your group can run with 50% speed increase, while I can still do the same with my Transcendence being activated every 30 seconds due to Zen being up basically 24/7.

 

No, you can't. You even stated you couldn't in this sentence. Activating every 30 seconds does not equal 24/7. Focus can activate Transcendence every 15 seconds. This is 24/7. I do not understand how this confuses you unless, of course, you do not have a clue as to the mechanics of the spec you are criticizing. Furthermore, you must actively engage in combat while Focus does not have this requirement. This makes it far superior on Void Star break aways, getting back into position in Huttball, and moving between nodes in Civil War.

 

So high-five you have a speed buff. My spec can do that as well, yet add way more to the table (did I mention Watchman is getting slight buffs too? )

 

All you have shown is that you are another clueless, bad Sentinel.

[Play style changes for Assault Vanguards in 1.2]

Coramac,

 

Thanks for the great explanation above.

 

Could you possibly post a torhead link of the 8/31/2 spec you are referring to, with the understanding that it would refer to skill tree changes coming in 1.2? I tried tactics for a couple weeks running HEC (with Battlefield Training and Cell Generator) and I just couldn't get into it. Your post and the current upcoming 1.2 changes, however, have resparked my interest.

 

Tactics is awkward coming from the other specs in my opinion, especially with Pulse Cannon. It's a tricky ability to use. On Assault, I'm at 10m range. I enter melee involuntarily or to move in for a kill for a increased chance to get a HIB reset. I use Full Auto a fair bit and open up on people at the 30m range. Playing Tactics now, all of that has changed. I'm much more frequently in the middle of things and in melee range for Stock Strike and to set up a Pulse Cannon. There's a lot of ways to deal with healers. You can tunnel on them, overwhelming healing with focus fire, harass them, CC them, or you can deal 20k+ to their team in 3 seconds and leaving them trying to figure out how to heal it.

 

I'm curious what your opinion is between running HEC (typically regarded as subpar on these forums) or Ion Cell (for Guard utility and damage reduction) and what talents you feel are strongest/best among:

 

HEC gets a bad rep due to Cell Generator's wording in my opinion. If it said "increases ammo regeneration by 25%, 50%, or 67% depending on current ammo regeneration," more people would probably like it. The 8% increase damage is very noticiable and so is the movement speed increase, but the latter only situally. The primary instance where the movement speed will be noticed is in traveling while in combat when not snared. I think snares eliminate movement modifiers. I'm not 100% sure, but when I'm snared, I can't notice the increase. If I've tagged someone at range with Hammer Shot, I catch up to them very quickly. I notice I can swap doors on Void Star much faster and cannons in Civil War (there's something really quirky about getting out of combat in this game).

 

That being said, Tactics has garbage survivability. Assault has far superior kiting ability (snare and Degauss) and Reflexive Shield is awesome. It's ranged (even 10m is still ranged) playstyle lets you position yourself out of harms way significantly easier; Tactics, not so much. If you have a good healer, you can easily run HEC and I do. Otherwise, it depends. It's not too bad though. Tactics runs Ion Cell far better than Assault.

 

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#801G0hZMsMMRrfkdsZb.1

 

This is the build I'm running currently. I do frequently use Ion Cell.

 

Containment Tactics

 

It's a "nice" talent, but there are few builds I'd run it in. It's my opinion judicial use of Cryo is better than trying to use it more frequently. There are going to be few times this is a talent you miss having, but there are times you will wish you'd taken it.

 

Blaster Augs

 

Awesome ability for 1 point.

 

Power Armor vs. Tactical Tools

 

Currently, I'm running with Tactical Tools. I do like Power Armor. It's even better when you run Ion Cell due to additive stacking. That being said, CDR on Pulse Cannon with Pulse Generator is critical. You also want a faster Harpoon for more frequently making the other team involuntarily volunteer to sit in a Pulse Cannon.

 

Battlefield Training

 

I like it and run it. It's not critical. I find it more frequently beneficial than what I could get otherwise.

 

Cell Generator

 

Is awesome.

 

Frontline Defense

 

I hate this talent. I wouldn't run it in any build with the possible exception of Iron Fist. It is a talent that looks great on paper but in practice if far less useful than would be expected. It's not that good against healers. There are far too many instants and the CDs + cast times of important casted heals do not sync well with this reduction. If it was 1.5 seconds per point, it's a completely different story. It is fantastic against Tracer spam. It's useless against Assassins and Shadows as they're uninteruptable when using their channel because that's the current FOTM. Mercenaries and Commandos have 15 second immunity to interupts on a CD. You can get peeled, escaped from, CC'd, and so forth which really minimizes the number of times this talent is going to be effective especially considering that against healers, you can't lock out a primary heal any better than without the talent. If it was a school lock, it's a completely different story.

[1.2 is a spit in the face of Vanguards, and a buff to the OP sentinels]

Have fun running around me while you die from my burns/dispatch/stasis.

 

Bads gunna be bad.

 

I didn't say that Focus was the best spec. However, it is a great spec. Watchman is a good solo build. Combat is a far better PvP spec with gear. It's not even close. The addition of two roots is a tremendous assest to a group. It's extremely powerful on a swap. Watchman has straight up Tunnel Vision damage. You're probably playing it because you are bad and can't comprehend how to effectively play the other specs (not that the spec is bad).

 

Oh, have fun getting roasted in Pulse Cannon.

[1.2 is a spit in the face of Vanguards, and a buff to the OP sentinels]

So true. That's what the rogue community became. They felt entitled to win all 1v1s and when a class gave them problems they demanded to be buffed or for that class to be nerfed.

 

Vanilla WoW Rogue Nostalgia for any interested.

 

 

That was a great video man. Loved the Luffa usage. You know how I know you were good? 9:26 Evasion vs. Warriors. OMG! So many idiot Rogues would tell me they couldn't use Evasion against a Warrior because of Overpower. No, if you don't use Evasion, you eat the Mortal Strike, Whirl Wind, autoattacks, and then get Overpowered from Spamstring.

[Play style changes for Assault Vanguards in 1.2]

Can you expand on why you think this, please?

 

Personally I don't see my 4/6/31 spec changing any at all with this patch... at least not at fist glance.

 

Tactics has always had better pressure. It's Ion Pulse hits very hard and, with it's far superior ammo friendliness, requires far fewer Hammer Shots in while pressuring. For clarification, I use pressure to refer to a non-1v1 situation where you are trying to bring a target into a burst range.

 

Assault currently does have the stars alignment RNG burst to burst targets down from high health- but this is rare to say the least. You really want your target to be 50% if equally geared and you need HIB up. This gives you a very strong chance of a kill within a 6.0-7.5 second window.

 

Tactics has pretty strong burst currently, but it is structurally different than Assault's. Burst damage can take many forms. For example, at a range, Assault's burst is largely a short window and back-loaded. Back-loaded burst is very nice because it typically minimizes reaction time- people don't know what's coming until it is too late (although Assault Plastique can give it away). You Incendiary Round, Assault Plastique, Full Auto, HIB. This is like a 3.5ish second window counting HIB travel time. The burst start with the Full Auto and is completed with the HIB (Compared to our more standard combo of something like Assault Plastique, Ion Pulse, HIB, Stock Stroke, Ion Pulse, Ion Pulse, HIB. Here's we're looking at a ~6-7.5 second window of gap burst. The damage is spilt heavily between the front and back (while front has more damage, the back end damage is still strong with the heavier DoT ticks and HIB finisher) of the window with much less damage in the interim. This does give players significantly more response time which is why you need a target to be in your burst range so that you have both properly accounted for a response and allowed yourself flexibility to improvise. You may not get a second HIB proc, Stock Strike + 2 Ion Pulses has a 27% chance of not getting a HIB proc, a third Ion Pulse reduces it to 19%. Your target may get too much healing to kill and cause you to put a delay in your combo to tab CC a healer or interupt a healer, Neural Surge without switching targets, or follow your burst with something like that to buy time to finish off the target. You may get any crits.

 

After 1.2, Assault will have to carry a HIB proc or wait for the CD to come up in order to execute it's normal burst combo. Carrying a proc means that it must burst a target at 4.5 seconds after proc or it loses the ability to execute normal burst or it can no longer pressure as it can't use Ion Pulse. The latter also means it cannot take advantage of the Plasma Cell snare effectively and has reduced target swapping capability as it is not applying the Plasma Cell DoT until after the front end damage of the burst combo, the ammo requirement is higher, and Incendiary Round simply does less damage than Ion Pulse initially, and there is a 4.5 second delay from a proc until the burst combo can be executed. The cumulative effect is very damaging.

 

If they make it so that the 6 second ICD doesn't activate if HIB is up, it will make a very big difference. It'll still be a big nerf, but it might not kill the spec's current functionality.

 

The Tactics burst is very heavily front-loaded and trails off significantly. As such it really doesn't have a window of time. It's Gut, Stick, Grenade, Fire Pulse, Stock Strike, HIB, Ion Pulse, Ion Pulse, Ion Pulse. Sticky Grenade, Fire Pulse, and Stock Strike will all hit at almost the same instant. HIB hits shortly after. This is basically instantaneous burst. The damage spike is typically much sharper but total damage is substantially less. It's better than Assault's burst if there isn't a second HIB largely due to a superior Stock Strike (Tactics gets Stock Strike Surge and is probably using Combat Tech for 15% Stock Strike crit) and the fact that the damage is more condensed as Fire Pulse's delay pushes the start of the damage window back a GCD.

 

Tactics also has a very nice Guard burst technique which becomes MUCH easier to pull off in 1.2. Guard has an inherent weakness to AoE if both the Guarding and Guarded players are caught in it. With Pulse Generator, a Guarding player will take 225% normal Pulse Cannon damage if the player he is Guarding is caught also as opposed to the 150% for players without Pulse Generator. It's a real tank killer. Giving Pulse Cannon a snare and interupt immunity is HUGE. It's an indirect buff to Hold the Line.

[1.2 is a spit in the face of Vanguards, and a buff to the OP sentinels]

This.

 

Although I tend to disagree with Hizoka's dickish approach - he's correct on this.

 

Great they improved the ONLY thing going for Focus Sents. /clap?

 

Well, you shouldn't agree with Hizoka.

 

Focus Spec for Sents is NOT a one trick pony. This is what bad Sentinels think. Now, let me explain to how to play your class better. This debate was had out by Sentinels back before the mass exodus.

 

Perma 50% run speed buff for your group. Let me say that again because it's absolutely absurd. Perma 50% run speed buff for your group... oh yea, that increases defense. Wow... Yea, right out of the blocks this looks like a gimp spec.

 

/thread. Right there. That's it. It's not a bad spec. No matter what you say at this point, I can trump it with- "Perma +50% run speed buff for your group." I win. You lose.

 

Now, additionally, you get a strong Blade Storm, an awesome Slash, Force Exhaustion (which is an awesome ability), 20% armor ignore, 33%% CDR on the best defensive cooldown in the game bar none which is further amplified with the PvP set bonus and brought to 50% CDR, 7% damage reduction... Oh yea, and then there's that AoE bomb. Focus is a more niche spec... but it is ridiculously powerful in that niche.

 

What more do you want? Sure, it's a bad spec if you consider that isn't not a child's tunnel vision spec like Watchman (which granted is strong enough to let bad tunnel vision players think they're good). When I rerolled on a new server, I told one of my friends I was making a huge mistake rerolling a Trooper instead of a Sentinel because they were the Rogues from WoW- an exceptionally strong class played by the worst players who will complain and get the class buffed to Godhood.

[Play style changes for Assault Vanguards in 1.2]

I'm not interested in reading any more qq. Lets discuss how we're going to adapt and win.

 

What changes will you be making to your spec/rotations to maximise your contributions in 1.2?

 

The correct adaption is 8/31/2.

 

Seriously.

 

Specs have to be judged against each other. Typically, all specs will have some kind of strength or weakness. Now, Tactics will have better burst, better pressure, better ammo management, better target swaps, and a gearing advantage. The gearing advantage comes from having less reliance on HIB (and with an auto-crit proc, I don't think it can miss). This reduces the need for any accuracy on gear at all. It's not that meaningful right now, but my read on 1.2 is that we're getting significantly more gearing flexibility.

[1.2: R.I.P. Assault Specialist]

Remember also that you will still need to fish for procs AFTER the cd is up. Meaning a longterm average of about 1 ammo cell each 10 secs!!! Compare that to the Current amount of attacks expected to proc High Impact Bolt = 3 attacks, meaning Right now you get to gain ammo every 4.5 secs. Bioware just doubled our ammo management problems!

 

You don't gain ammo every 4.5 seconds now. You're substantially overestimating the number of HIB procs you get.

 

In a 15 second period going all out, the average number of procs is ~2.5 or 1 every 6 seconds.

 

The real problems have been identified by other posters above, and it's the rewriting of the proc and the inability to use Ion Pulse if trying to carry a proc past 6 seconds for burst or to open. This has a massive negative impact on our ability to burst, to pressure, and on survivability as kiting and staying at range is where we get our survivability. Another issue that comes up with this change due to the mechanic of the reset is that Assault has gone from having the best target swap capability of Vanguard specs to the worst.

 

Tactics will in all likelyhood have stronger burst, stronger pressure, stronger AoE, and stronger ammo regen. Assault will still have a ranged edge, but without the ability to go for a high probability double HIB, it's burst is butchered.