I've not done the math, but I've seen some testing that showed power proc> damage proc > power onn use. However, the on use relic is hard to calculate. You'll generally use it with other cool downs (not really a point in favor onguardian) or when a sent pops inspiration, or in phases of a fight where burst is needed. There really aren't too many fights with explicit burn phases though. Also, as vengeance, elemental proc will be better than cerulean nova, but it's like a 5% difference of the proc damage or something, lol.

This is only true for focus spec, which has armor pen in tree. Also, kinetic and internal work off of tech crit. Energy and elemental are force crit. So vigi wants elemental and focus wants energy.

Taunts and off heals provide marginal utility in very specific settings. In most cases, a taunt will get you flattened and an offheal will kill your resources(unless lightning sorc) and be worse than bringing a good healer anyway. They're good in PvP, sure, but in most pve encounters, bloodthirst and ballistic shield provide more utility in an ops group.

Play sniper, go marksman, get a sniper rifle that looks kinda like a blaster rifle.

This is only applicable for the PvP benefit of guard(the damage transfer). The threat reduction and 5% damage reduction work at any range. This can be easily proven using an exhaustion zone and combat logs. In any case, only bad tanks put guard on healers in PvE outside of specific scenarios, and only bad healers demand guard from their tanks in PvE.

I can't speak for PvP, but in PvE, hybrid VG (2/22/22) is competitive and perfectly viable. It really only lacks a bit of defenses and maybe just a touch of mobility, though it does bring very good aoe for the fights that need it. Full tactics gets the defenses and movement speed at the cost of a bit of DPS. There's not much reason to go full assault these days.

Well yeah, if the healer is regenning resources, I'll do the same, rather than making him spend them again. That goes without saying. But being a primadonna because "I don't heal unless we're in combat" when he has the resources and ability to do so while the group is on the move is another matter entirely. (The primadonna term also applies to DPS/tanks refusing to heal while the healer is using his regency ability) Anyway, let's get back to the hilarious point of this thread.

Healing FPs should not be so much of a strain on your resources that you can't keep the tank up. When I bother to tankiI only use the out of combat heal if I need to lower my heat. And when I heal on my sorc its only a challenge because of gathering between pulls, and still very rarely have problems keeping the tank up without ************ at him to stop moving and do something that I can easily do.

I just came back a few weeks ago and had absolutely zero problems hopping right into 55 HM FPs as DPS on my ptech and sorc(heals as well on the sorc). Check your spec, look through some guides and brush up your attack priority/rotation. This will be more helpful than upgrading from 61/63 to 66 gear.

A fair bit. But in focus, slash is your auto attack, not strike.

Try Hawkeye Advanced Dethless Relay for earpiece. Has power and accuracy (though does include a bit of alacrity). Go expert instead of Hawkeye for surge instead of alac) Not sure of implant name, but put hawkeye or expert in search field, specify lvl 51+, implant, and willpower stat. Not sure if it'll be available on your server, but biochem is pretty popular.

It 100% depends on your current gear. Follow the link in the post above your last one, click the vanguard section, and input your total stat values to find the ideal distribution.

Agree. Stop saying this crap about how everyone should be lower than snipers and marauders. The revs have said there is no intention of a "hybrid tax". When I spec full DPS on my ptech and wear, I'm not able to tank an operations boss. I have a taunt, but that's very rarely anything other than the ability to get killed first on a wipe. Hybrid "utility" is the ability to toss a taunt or the occasional bad heal, which, except in rare occasions, doesn't comparewith the utility and defensive ccooldowns brought by maras and snipers. When those classes also bring the best DPS in addition to the best raid utility, is when there's a problem.

IMO what AP needs is a buff to high energy cylinder, which would remove the incentive to go 22 points into AP and then use combust cylinder and talents that affect it. Full AP is not really far behind hybrid in PvE dps, and the defensives make it worth it for me on some fights, though I enjoy it less. Pyro needs some more meat in the top of the tree. TD hasn't been worth speccing into for PvE DPS in over a year.

Who said anything about dying? Lol. I've long ago developed fast reflexes on reactive shield, medpack and the ****** heal thing. I open every fight with RB - pop cooldowns- RS - FB(proc and cylinder dot) - RS - 3stack FT. Usually pop threat reduction right before or after FT. No problems with threat in guild runs, but it's fun in pugs.

I like the wording on both of these questions for a PvE perspective. I also like the idea of 1 PvE DPS, 1 PvP DPS and 1 tanking question(which would hopefully address PvP and PvE.

Moments like this make it almost worth it to lose the ability to top charts with 4 buttons. Pullin' agro through guard like it ain't no thang.

I have a ptech and a sorc dps , both at 55, the mirrors for vanguard and sage. Both are geared about the same. DPS in a raid environment is similar, with the powertech (hybrid spec) pulling ahead of the sorc(lightning or madness) on dps numbers alone. However the sorc gets a bit of an advantage on being ranged (and thus ignoring melee mechanics) and having better defensive cooldowns. Both are viable if you aren't bad.

Hybrid is all about using pulse cannon on cool down (with 3 stacks), using HiB every 6 seconds (or as close as proc allow, all while keeping up dots (IR not as important as gut but still good to use) and maintaining ammo. 2/22/22 is nice for aoe, 8/22/16 is marginally better on single target, and has less importance on IR I think.

I like the cut of your jib, good sir.

Sweep/smash is still only like 25% of total damage. (Though weighted heavier for PvP as it's the big burst) Autocrit every couple minute abilities, such as laze target and recklessness are not really statistically significant.

You bean the extra buff that you should always have and therefore should take into account? I'd take 2% crit over 5 bonus damage every time. However it should be noted, that this is a bit different for healers. For DPS it's .20 vs .23. For heals it's .14 vs .17. The .03 difference is a more substantial percentage difference for bonus heals, and thus power is a bit more comparatively strong. However merc and operative heals both have 9% mainstay talent I believe, and both classes have surge boosts on heals making crit a bit stronger. Sorc has 6% mainstatand bubbles cannot crit.

Hybrid has a bit better aoe (in my experience at least) due to cell dot and cheaper cost on explosive surge. I've been switching back and forth a bit lately, and putting up similar numbers in both specs. I still like hybrid a bit better though, but I enjoy the 6 second "rotation" play style rather than the more fixed priority in tactics. I also get decent luck on HiB price, to where I end up having trouble getting 3 stacks for each pulse cannon sometimes. (I play powertech, sorry if any terms are incorrect.

Most movement is short term and predictable. Use rail shot and rapid/explosive dart w/ overrides. Rapid shots w/cgc is one of the best spam able on the run abilities (less so since the nerf to cgc admittedly). I certainly wouldn't complain with making charge baseline and putting grapple in the tank tree, but I can live without it. Ijust tthink focusing on full tree effectiveness, survivability (especially pyro), and maybe tanking cool downs would be a better use of our questions. If we want to continue discussing, let's make a new thread and keep this one clean for the questions.

The most (pve) viable ptech builds give up the top tier talents in both specs to take prototype flamethrower and prototype particle accelerator. This is largely due (IMO) to upper-tier pyro being barren of useful talents for pyro, and high energy cylinder being boring for AP (making it more attractive for ap to make use of cgc and ppa). Are there any plans to make full pyro and full ap more attractive for DPS? I would like to see one question similar to the above, one focused on PvP (maybe survivability in anything other than full AP which has no burst?), and one focused on tanking which would benefit PvP and PvE tanks. I'll leave the exact formatting to people more versed in those roles. Personally im not as concerned about a gap closer in pve. The only fight that has been at all problematic for me has been dread guard, and that one only really for ciphas charging during flamethrower, which is overcome by not casting flamethrower while he is about to charge.