1. I've been getting mostly Hutt Ball and Voidstar. 2. If you have 2400 ranking than you can get all the pieces and they cost very little. The pieces are pointless though. 3. I agree

Shield works well in pvp. Though I would say a vanguard/powertech tank is simply not as good as a shadow or guardian tank. Those other classes simply have more utility when it comes to tanking in pvp. Though a good tank is absolutely required in high rated games. For rated games it's simply better to go full tank when playing the role of a tank. This requires you to focus on guarding the healers, throwing out taunts and running the ball in huttball. In rated games the best teams will have at least 4 if not more dps players in the best gear coordinating to burn down targets. You just won't be able to defend a node or shield a healer for long against multiple players that are focusing their attacks on you. To be most effective as a tank you simply will have to go all the way by getting all the tanking gear and spec every point for defense. For regular warzones where few people actually coordinate attacks, a hybird spec with dps gear is fine for doing the tanking duties. Not so in rated games. You need to go tanking all the way and forget about dps. I have yet to see a high rank team play without a tank. You just have to know your duties.

This only happens to bad + under geared healers. When I go full assault there are healers on my server that I have trouble killing solo because they play well and are full War Hero. I wouldn't be able to kill them if they had a tank taunting me and a guard up. I'm usually the highest dps in the warzone when I go full assault. My personal best was over 900K in an Alderaan match. Plenty of bad healers out there and tanks that don't use dps gear. If the tank has dps gear on they can easily kill you as full dps vanguards are extremely squishy.

What the hell Bioware. Why couldn't they give us the name of the servers that were going to be able to transfer first? I took a day off work thinking I was going to be able to transfer. How hard could it be to simply list the 4 freaking NA servers that were going to get transfers a week in advance. Seriously, there better be more severs allowed to transfer before the day is up.

You know maybe some people have had better experience and results playing with what they find to be the best fit for them. I'm wondering if you even ever tried these other specs and not just spent one day playing them or reading what other people post. The only one that seems to be screaming and raging is you. I have played and tried specs in all of the trees. In PVE 99% of the time I DPS for my raid. That is what I'm best at. Yet, I don't find using ion cell as being so terrible as to making me completely useless in a warzones like I find all these people screaming about in the forums. I don't have problems killing people. As for the facts, I already posted parses on the dps. I won 17 out of 20 warzones yesterday just solo queing. I also tend to be the one scoring in huttball.

You know maybe some people have had better experience and results playing with what they find to be the best fit for them. I'm wondering if you even ever tried these other specs and not just spent one day playing them or reading what other people post. The only one that seems to be screaming and raging is you. I have played and tried specs in all of the trees. In PVE 99% of the time I DPS for my raid. That is what I'm best at. Yet, I don't find using ion cell as being so terrible as to making me completely useless in a warzones like I find all these people screaming about in the forums. I don't have problems killing people. As for the facts, I already posted parses on the dps. I won 17 out of 20 warzones yesterday just solo queing. I also tend to be the one scoring in huttball.

To be exact you get a 12.5% increase in damage over not having a cell equip. The other cells have a proc to do damage. Even though Ion's damage is very small it's still doing damage.

That's funny because I go straight for the other team's healers on my server in every warzone. I know most of the regulars by name. I can usually kill them solo given enough time. I would love to go against your team and have them ignore me while I sit there and hit and interrupt your healer. Unfortunately the players on my server rarely ignore me. As for the 15% run speed I don't find not having it that big of a problem. I already can use hold the line every 22 seconds plus most classes will hit you with some type of slow or root. Most of all you have to be standing still when channeling PC. I parse the damage for each of the four specs for 3 minutes. I don't have the pvp dummy only the pve dummy so that may effect my numbers a bit. I was wearing mostly war hero gear (combat set) giving me 1837 aim, 29.96% crit and 504.2% bonus damage. The only buff I was missing was the knight buff. I made sure that I had 5 stacks and started with PC when using a tactics spec. Here is what I got. IF = 1050 avg Tactics with Ion = 1110 avg Norse = 1250 avg Assault = 1410 avg (aim is 1788 with 7/3/31 spec) This would be more if I had the eliminator set. If damage as you say is what's most important for vanguards then Assault should be the only spec you should ever run.

20% is not going to give you double the damage. I can get 400K+ with ion cell on. You're also forgetting about carrying the ball in hutt ball. If the best spec is the one that gives you the best dps then none of the tactics specs should even be bought up. Everyone should just play Assault as that is the spec that has the best damage and burst. Personally, I find that being able to switch between tank and dps very helpful. There is a very well geared operative on my server that I can not beat one on one while using a dps spec if he gets the opener. I never lost to him when I dueled him with the Iron Fist spec post 1.2. I haven't tried with Ion cell and tactics yet.

HEC gives 8% more due to a point in blaster augs. The one ammo regen every 6 seconds from cell generator is also a big increase to dps as it keeps your ammo up and can even help bring you back up if you spend too many ammo points while fighting. I would say if you're the type that likes to switch between Ion Cell and HEC on a regular basis while in a warzone then take 2 points out of power armor and put it into cell generator. http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#801G0hZMsMrorfkdsZb.1

My priority goes: 1. Pulse Cannon with 5 stacks 2. Fire Pulse 3. Stock strike (free) 4. HIB (if proc) 5. Gut 6. Stock Strike 7. Ion Pulse Typical opener for me: Sticky grenade while running in -> Fire Pulse ->Stock Strike -> Gut -> HIB -> Ion Pulse (till 5 staks) - Pulse Cannon. I prefer to use HIB unlike those that prefer the Norse build. Reasons are it's 30 meters and it's guaranteed to crit with proc. Don't worry too much about using HIB without the proc. This spec isn't like the DPS build where you can just spam out pulse cannon every 12 seconds. Plus I rarely if ever get a warzone where I can use PC every 12 seconds because either people near me die/move or I die. I also rather have HIB with a proc for guaranteed hit then a PC that can be stunned/knocked back or even miss by people easily running out of it's range due to no slow effect. The gut slow is not very good but, it's better than nothing when trying to set up a PC. Nothing worst then having 5 stacks and hitting nothing but air. People who prefer NORSE builds say NORSE is much easier since it one less ability you have to worry about in your rotation. That's fine but, I already find Vanguards one of the easiest classes to play as it is. I mean the rotation I have up there only requires 6 abilities. If you need to shorten that down to 5 abilities to play well then you really need to work on your game mechanics. Even if you add in all of the other abilities Vanguard needs to bind it's no where near what I use for my Sentinel.

Wouldn't say ion cell is worthless. It's still good for hutt ball as well as defending nodes in certain situations. Plus with the spec listed you can switch in and out of it.

I wouldn't say it's halfway between IF and DPS builds because IF only has ion shield as an extra defense ability which will give you 2% more. 2% from a 20,000 hp pool is merely 400 hps. The tactics tree on the other hand gives you a 20% damage reduction while stunned. If anything the two specs are equal in defense. You do lose out on the mobility from not having storm though. That's really the main lost. Wish they would of just make storm a given ability instead of having to spec into the shield tree to get it.

I'm a long time player of Taugrim's Iron fist though I have tried just about all the specs listed on the forums. Close to full war hero with combat tech set. I took the suggestion of one of the posters here and have been playing full tactics with ion cell. 8/31/2 http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#801G0hZMsrrobfkdsZb.1 After playing for over a week now I find tactics with ion cell is simply better than the iron fist spec for those that want to do more damage while still being able to guard. First thing you will notice is that there are no points in ion cell. The reason behind this is quite simple. Ion cell has been bugged since beta where the first hit only does around 200 damage. Putting points in to ion cell to hit harder is simply a waste. The slow effect for 2 seconds is also very lack luster. What you gain from going 31 points into the tactics tree is Fire Pulse. Fire Pulse hits hard and gives you a free stock strike. This ability makes the spec better at regenerating ammo than iron fist. The only way to regen ammo in iron fist is to shield an attack (requires you to equip a shield offhand). This is a very unreliable way to gain one ammo every 6 seconds from an attack due to your shield chance being very low. It also requires you being hit. Tech and force attacks which usually make up the bulk of the damage that you will be receiving can't be shielded. If you're using tank gear and a shield in pvp you're better off going as a full tank anyway. With Fire Pulse you're guaranteed a free stock strike every 15 seconds which is basically 2 free ammo. Ion Pulse will crit for 30% more damage and that is really the main ability for a vanguard. Ion Pulse also has a 30% chance to make your next stock strike free. Your aoe will be much stronger with 5 stacks. You will also get a 100% chance to crit with HIB upon proc. Now of course people are going to say why not use HEC instead of Ion Cell for more ammo regen (Norse). That is fine if you want to go full dps. The spec here is simply a better tank spec with all of the utility of Iron Fist while doing more dps than Iron fist as well as better ammo regen. But, here is the best part. Say, you're in a warzone and you feel your team needs more dps. All you have to do is change the cell you're using. HEC will work great with this spec too. So you can change out in a warzone without having to respec. Can't do that with assault and iron fist. Say you need to defend a door or node then just switch your cell back to ion to be hard to kill. The only thing you will lose out on is storm. While storm is a great ability most of the shield tree is just wasted points. The points in ion cell are wasted. All of the shield and absorption stuff should be skipped for pvp. This may change if ion cell is ever fixed but, as of right now if you want to play as a tank and still do decent dps you're better off with full tactics and ion cell.

Well, the thing with that is plasma cell was always working fine for pyrotechs on the Sith side. If it's indeed a way to control dps they would have never of fixed it. Plus, dps in this game is no where near balanced between the classes. I'm not sure if the sith version of ion cell is working. Wouldn't surprise me if it did.

Ion cell hasn't worked since beta. Plenty of people have bug reported and posted it in the forums. Plasma cell was also broken since beta and it took them up till about a month ago to fix it. Trooper bugs just seem very low in priority for Bioware.

Not bad but, there is a thread with an assault vanguard that did over a million and he wasn't full war hero. He didn't even use the eliminator set. He had the combat set on because he mostly plays tank.

Not a fan of the Norse build. Main problem is that the slow effect is not working for PG. Against bad players that keyboard turn and back peddle Norse will do well but, against good players the other two specs are just better. Iron fist gives you tons of utility with being able to stun with grappling hook and stealth scan. You can carry the ball in hutt ball and guard healers. Plus storm is one of the best abilities for a vanguard. You want to use all dps gear. This will keep your dps very high and when combine with all the stuns and interrupts you will be a pain for any class that depends on abilities with a cast time. This spec shines best when you guard and work together with a good healer. Assault gives you the best dps. The range dps is also very good even at 30 meters. HIB unlike PG can be used right away without building up stacks. You also don't need to be standing still for 3 seconds up close to use it. Players can also easily stun you if they see you using Pulse Generator and thus causing you to waste your 5 stacks. No such problems with HIB. Full assault has been proven to be better dps than any tactics build. The norse build isn't even the highest dps spec for tactics. Not saying Norse is a bad spec because Hold the Line is definitely a great ability but, they really need to fix the slow effect on PG for it to be at least come close to the other two specs. Even then I don't see how it can be better.

If you want to pvp as a tank vanguard your best option is 25/14/2. Taugrim's iron fist spec. Use the combat tech dps gear and don't use a shield. Force and tech attacks can't be shielded. Having tons of shield and absorption will only prevent maybe 5-10% damage. If you instead use the dps gear your dps will more than double. You will also get 6 second interrupts, stealth scan that stuns and your grappling hook also stuns players. Storm also interrupts casting and doesn't fill their resolve bar. So with that spec you get good damage mitigation, tons of utility to stun enemy healers as well as doing the job of a tank by guarding your team's healer. I can consistently do 300k - 400K+ damage in voidstar with that spec and I'm not full war hero. My stock strike has a 75% to crit at all times and does around 3k - 4k per hit. My High Impact Bolt crits for 3k+ damage. Storm -> Stock Strike -> High impact bolt is very good burst. If everything crits you can do 6-10k damage. Key is to stack power. You don't need much crit due to gear bonus (+15% SS crit) and spec (+30% SS crit). You also don't need much accuracy because most of your attacks are tech base.

I bought up this very same topic in another thread. I didn't have this problem till end game with patch 1.2. Especially with all the tank swapping that is required for bosses in the new ops. There are times when I pull aggro without popping a single adrenal or relic. I'm simply going through my rotation. A lot of people won't see this problem until they do fights that require a lot of tank swapping (Basically all the new bosses). The class needs an aggro reduction/drop ability very bad. I believe every other class gets one, even Guardians. The best you can do for now is have a sage in your raid pull you once in awhile as that will reduce your aggro by half. Also, have one of the tanks guard you. Those are basically all the options until they give us an aggro reduction ability like they did with Guardians in a patch.

Have you tried the new raid? You can't just switch to the other target. Tanks can't just spam their taunts. If their taunts are not up during tank swaps especially in the new raid it's going to be a wipe. I only have one sage in my raid and he's the healer. He's already burden enough with having to heal. I have to depend on another class to have to drop my aggro for me when every other class gets an aggro dump? Other classes also bring abilities that help the whole raid. As a dps Vanguard the only thing I bring is DPS and my dps is not going to be as good as classes that can reduce their aggro.

DPS spec Vanguards need an aggro dump ability. I can grab aggro from tanks with just my regular rotations without hitting any cool downs. Every other class gets an aggro dump. I don't see why Vanguards get left out. Range classes get aggro dumps and they aren't even near the mob. I have to occasionally go into melee range. Pulling aggro on some of the bosses at the wrong time ends with me getting one shotted. This is especially bad on bosses that require tank swapping as the tank have little time to build up aggro. They also need to save their taunts for when they do the switch.

How do you know your spreadsheet formula is correct? You're telling me I make a mistake every time I dps the dummy on my ship for just 3 mins? I done it over a 100 times. You're saying I made a mistakes multiple times in everyone of those fights where there is nothing attacking me back. That it's causing me to lose 300 damage per second for 180 seconds... Also, what spreadsheet are you using as most spreadsheets have BIS gear from 1.1 not 1.2. I already have a couple of blackhole pieces and my damage is no where near 1700. The game also has global cool downs. It doesn't take that much to do optimal dps against the dummy target. Kind of crazy you're going to take spreadsheet numbers (none of the formulas have been proven and they also said to have been changed in 1.2) over actual in game numbers. Now as for fully raid buffed I'm missing smugglers buff and knights. Even with those two buffs there is no way I make up 350-450 damage per second. I believe I saw some people claim they did 1350 with dps meters fully raid buff. That sounds reasonable. Not 1700.

Where are you getting 1700-1600 dps. Most people who have run a damage meter show 1200-1300 dps after around 3 mins. I have over 2100 aim and my bonus damage is slightly over 560 and I still get no where near that amount on the PVE dummy on my ship. This is with self buffs and sage buff as assault. Trooper dps is not that high. We have good burst but, sustain dps is average at best. Another problem that I have is we don't have an aggro dump for pve. This makes it even harder to get that 1200-1300 dps on bosses that require tank swapping as the tank doesn't get to build up much aggro before he has to swap. A lot of problems with vanguards for dpsing. Not just with the cell we use for deep tactics.

I agree with this. I would even go farther and say tactics as a whole just needs to be changed. Even if they up the dps on it to be equal to assault I still wouldn't switch. The problem with tactics is the main dps ability is a channeled aoe. This just runs into problems especially with breaking CC. It also forces you to stand still. There are times when certain enemies have reflect shields up and are bunched up with targets you need to single dps down. Hit that group at the wrong time with pulse cannon and you just instantly killed yourself. Now if you don't use pulse cannon then your dps goes way down. Not to mention the dps is already behind assault. That's not the only problem. Considering you are also in melee range bosses some times throw out knock backs and stuns that will stop pulse cannon from finishing. Even if you use the ability "hold the line" you can still get stunned. You also need "hold the line" to not be on a cool down. Why take all those risks when you can just go assault and know that HIB/RS will land every time it's up. All you have to do is pay attention to your ammo. You also have the ability to do decent damage from range and you never have to stand still. You can constantly be on the move without losing any dps. So if a boss goes into a phase where you have to be range you can still keep your dps up. If the boss starts dropping aoes around the room you don't lose any dps by having to move.