...or at very least tied with Novare. Playing an Assault Vanguard in Huttball has actually made me really enjoy the warzone now. It took me a while to find my niche, but now that I have some practice I'm realizing how powerful we are. I have a ton of flexibility and mobility now. I spend a good amount of time running around the square of ledges in the very center. I taunt the heck out of the melee group, and I keep the catwalks clear of freecasting Snipers, Mercs, and Sorcs. If my team gets the ball and makes a strong push, I'm in position to make myself a good passing target. If their team gets the ball and makes a strong push, I'm in good position to (try to) take it back. If there's a big fight over the ball, or the carrier is in the pit or on the wrong side of the map, I can go back to keeping the center clear. The thing I like most is that I'm capable in any situation from any position. I can melee casters on the ledges and range melee players on the ground or behind hazards. If I get knocked down, I can use range to damage people on the ledges while I run back. However, my number one favorite thing of all is Harpoon. It's good in other warzones, especially Voidstar, but it's not until Huttball that it really shines. Almost every match, I either pull a carrier into fire at their goal line so I can score or pull a carrier into fire at my goal line to prevent a score. I've had several matches where I've prevented a point by throwing myself into the fire for a Harpoon. Sure, it kills me, but it prevents a point and gets me lots of MVP votes. The ability to pull ball-carriers into hazards, or even just off ledges, is incredibly valuable. Harpoon is only tied with Assault Plastique as my favorite skill in the game. I get a small rush of pure joy every time I use it. It's nice being happy when Huttball comes up, rather than groaning.

Fair enough. But I was talking about the best spec for overall DPS, or the one you'd use in a long-duration parse. For PvP, I'd definitely go with HiB. It's all about the AP -> HiB -> SS -> HiB combo in PvP ^^

A good example of a skill with a different effect on players is our taunt. Neural Jolt, for example, has one effect on PvE targets (equalizes threat, forces them to attack you for 6s) and another effect on PvP targets (gives them -30% damage against anyone but you).

You'd actually want to move one point from Brutal Impact over to Intimidation. Elemental damage makes up 50-60% of his damage, but HiB is 22% or less. So 2% Elemental damage would be better than 3% HiB damage. Also, this makes me really curious how Tactics does at 10m. Obviously, they'd be really bad at 30m, but they have strong Ion/Fire Pulse and they'd be able to use Pulse Cannon from 10m.

There has actually been some testing done on this elsewhere. Shield Specialist is horrible at any kind of range, but they have lots of closers and the ability to survive the dangers of melee range, so that's okay. Tactics is crippled at long range, but can actually manage fairly well from mid-range. Some Tactics builds actually focus on 10m attacks and ignore melee attacks. Assault is the most flexible of the three. For Assault: Let's say you can do 1000 DPS at melee (4m) range. Testing shows you could do 900-950 DPS from mid-range (10m), and 600-750 DPS from range (30m). So for PvE, you're going to want to be no further than mid-range, because that's too big of a DPS drop at 30m. However, for PvP it's often okay to stay at 30m, especially if you're defending a node or playing Huttball. You can do really close to max damage while kiting a melee class from 10m away. If you're looking for a ranged trooper, Commando is going to be your best bet. Vanguards are a melee/range hybrid rather than a true ranged damage class. However, if like me you can't stand the comically oversized cannons, Assault Vanguard should work for you. It's definitely a fun class to play.

There is one thing to consider, though. Shield/Absorb will give you more mitigation if you're purely talking about damage reduced. However, with attacks that you avoid, Defense rating gives you an additional benefit: any effects that would have been applied by the parried/evaded attack are no longer applied. So if an avoidable attack would also apply a DoT, stun, slow, or other effect on a hit, Defense rating gives you a chance to avoid the damage and the effect that comes with it. That's why there's no one way to gear. The precise balance between Shield, Absorb, and Defense is up to the individual tank. Each has it's own pros and cons.

No, actually, Players are a whole separate group. There are skills that have specific effects against Players, but not against Elites or any other PvE mobs. It goes: Weak -> Standard -> Strong -> Elite -> Champion -> Boss AND Player They're two separate beings.

Well, without at least the points in Ion Overload, you don't have a reliable way to trigger HiB, so Brutal Impact wouldn't really be worth it. But the usefulness of Supercharged Ion Cell is very much debatable, especially since you'll frequently re-apply the DoT before those three seconds would help.

Okay, let's dumb this down a bit. The skill says "Does ___ damage to [Enemy Type A] and [Enemy Type B], or ___ damage to [Enemy Type C]." If your enemy isn't type A, B, or C, it's clearly not going to do anything. It specifically calls out the exact three types of enemies that it will hurt and how much damage it will do, and "Player" is not one of those types.

There's no way to know exactly. Here's the problem with DPS parsing: There is no "best" class in this game. There simply isn't. There is, however, a best class/spec for any given player. That would be the spec that most closely fits how you like to play, the one that feels most natural and smooth to you. You will always perform best if you use that class/spec, regardless of what other people insist is "best". So if we have someone who is a natural Assault player who parses both Assault and Tactics, he's going to come to the conclusion that Assault is better. This might be because Assault really is, but it also might be because the Assault rotation comes more naturally to him. Even slight rotation problems can lead to significant DPS drops. The only thing we can say with any surety is that Assault and Tactics are really close. Let's say that Assault was hypothetically better by a small margin (<5% DPS). It would still be better for you to play Tactics if that's what feels natural to you. So don't go by which supposedly has better DPS, go by what feels best when you play it. TL;DR: They're the same. Play the one that feels most natural to you.

NECRO'D! I'd be curious to see this parse redone now that Plasma Cell is fixed. I suspect that it would push the 10m DPS even closer to melee damage. My reasoning is that Ion Pulse's damage contribution has been significantly boosted. Before the PC fix, Ion Pulse would actually deprive you of a tick of PC by resetting the DoT. Now, every Ion Pulse has a tick of PC, so it does significantly more damage. I'd be willing to bet Ion Pulse's damage is extremely close to Stockstrike now, if you count the first tick of PC as part of Ion Pulse's damage. This means that the only advantage to being in melee range would be getting IA procs slightly more often. I wouldn't be surprised if we can pull 95% or more from 10m away. Would anyone be willing to parse their DPS from melee (4m) and from mid-range (10m) to see how they compare? I'd do it myself, but I don't have all my talents yet and that would skew the numbers. When I hit 50, I'll parse it no one else wants to.

Why is it that some Companions have a base attack, while their mirrors for other classes do not? For example, my Trooper's companion M1-4X (Ranged Tank) has a skill called Turret Fire. It's a no-cost, no-cooldown, weak 30m ranged attack. However, my Consular's companion Felix Iresso has no mirror skill, and no skill that replaces it. This makes M1-4X far better at tanking from range than Iresso. I've noticed the same disparity with Healing companions (Tharan Cedrax and Elara Dorne).

Before you put points in other trees, I'd consider how badly you want the top-tier Assault talents. The T5 talents are a large boost to your DPS. Focused Impact gives you at most 20% more damage from HiB. Rain of Fire gives 9% from HiB, and also from Hammer Shot, Stock Strike, and Full Auto. And Assault Trooper gives you +30% crit multiplier to a lot of skill, which means some really big crits. It might be worth focusing on Assault until you get those. Also, I PvP a lot, and I really really really want Assault Plastique. It's such an interesting skill, and hopefully I'll finally be able to burst down healing Ops. I struggle to take them down when they have stacked HoTs and they're spamming the free heal on themselves. Hopefully, AP -> HiB -> SS -> HiB should do the trick. No matter how you decide to build your character (and it's a personal choice), I would really strongly recommend that you stay in Assault only until lvl 27. Ionic Accelerator will help your DPS (both burst and sustained) far more than any talents you can get in other trees. After 27, it's your choice whether you want to stay in Assault for the top-tier talents, or take your secondary talents in other trees.

Just FYI, Vanguards (if specced Assault) are decent at range. We do their maximum DPS at melee range. Attacking from 10m away, we do 90-95% of max DPS. From 30m away, we pull 70-80% of max DPS. We're not commandos, but we can still DPS well from range. We have the option to be far away without being at a disadvantage if enemies are near us. An Assault Vanguard is probably better ranged DPS than a Commando with a rifle. If you're looking for a great melee/ranged hybrid, Vanguard is the way to go. But if you're looking for a ranged class and don't care about being able to heal, I'd strongly recommend going Gunslinger. They have an edge over Commandos in damage and utility, at the expense of being unable to heal.

Good points with the commando. Personally, I'd still put my money on the Sniper, but they're definitely on at least even footing. Also, most snipers are bad. I'm still not afraid to go after them in warzones, because I know that they're usually not as good at their class as I am at mine. Especially with cover, a lot of them get pretty bad tunnel vision. Once I get in melee range, suddenly I have the upper hand. However, there are a few Snipers and Gunslingers that I've run into on my server that absolutely rip me apart. They stay in cover, pop CC immunity, and there is literally nothing I can do but LoS and run away. It seems like Snipers have a much harder learning curve, but they're very powerful when well-played. On my Shadow, I would rip most Gunslingers and Snipers apart. However, there was one Gunslinger I dueled that I could not get past 40% for the life of me, even after I did research and practiced against him over and over. It made me realize how bad the majority of Snipers and Gunslingers are.

This... mostly. Snipers are our counter-class, so it's not wise to take them on unless you can stack the odds in your favor. It's best to let stealth classes (which are incredibly well-suited to taking down Snipers, especially Shadows) handle them. However, I do have to argue against using a Mercenary/Commando to counter a Gunslinger/Sniper. The sniper gets +20% ranged defense (which is of limited use, but still helps), a ranged interrupt, and immunity to CC. Additionally, the Sniper is going to have an edge in DPS. In a range v range fight, a Sniper should beat any other class.

Yeah, he's been shelved for now. Balance was pretty close to my ideal class, but Vanguard fits my playstyle perfectly. I thought I did well as Balance, but I'm doing even better on my Assault Vanguard. It's just so much more fun for me than my Shadow. Vanguard is the class for me.

Yeah, non-healing Operatives are a fairly even fight with us. It's the healing operatives who can endlessly spam a free heal on themselves when they hit 30% that can be hard to keep down. The reason you're not dying to Snipers is because many of them are bad players, especially in the lower-level brackets. But if a good one catches you at range, you're going down. Also, neither of them have better cooldowns than us. This part depresses me for all kinds of reasons. I'm going to preface this by saying that I do not have a Marauder or Sentinel; all I know about them comes from research I've done to learn how to kill them (better). You can call them a 3-button class with about as much accuracy as you can call us a 3-button class. A Marauder hitting only 3 buttons is going to do as well as a Vanguard who spams Ion Pulse, Hammer Shot, and Stock Strike. In other words, not well at all. They have a lot of group utility buffs, and even their basic combat rotation is pretty complex. You're drastically overestimating the power of their cooldowns. Obfuscate is actually -90% Accuracy for 6 seconds, and it's incredibly easy to counter when you recognize it. Tech attacks ignore that, which means for 6 seconds you can just cycle through Ion Pulse, Stock Strike, Incendiary Round, and Assault Plastique. As long as you avoid weapon damage skills, you'll do fine. The second cooldown is Saber Ward, which I'll admit is pretty powerful. It gives +50% defense (dodge/parry chance) and -25% tech/force damage, and lasts 12 seconds. This means that they get 25% mitigation against most of our attacks, and have a 50% chance to dodge HiB and Hammer Shot. Our Reactive Shield is nearly as strong (-25% from everything), but we can use it three times as often. So you can't really complain about their cooldowns. I want to stress that Marauders are not going to be an easy fight. It takes skill to take one down. However, it can be done. They're one of the hardest classes to strafe-kite (especially if they spec for 0m leap). However, by keeping moving constantly, you're making it harder for them to kill you. Use your AoE stun to block Ravage, and use your Cryo Grenade to stun them and get some distance when they use Cloak of Pain. Keep them between 5 and 10 meters away, so that you're too far for melee skills but too close for their leap. Learn their skills so you can learn how to beat them.

Yeah, especially if you're Assault, it's a very useful skill. Assault Troopers can use Adrenaline every minute or less. It may be tempting to look at it as a tiny heal, but I like to look at it as "half of a warzone medpac". There's no real reason not to use it, even though it's not the world's strongest ability.

Yeah, it's not a massive heal, but it makes a difference. As Assault, a big part of staying alive is learning not to hold onto your cooldowns. We get them back really fast, so it's better to use them early and frequently. I use Adrenaline Rush as soon as I hit 90% health in a fight, unless I know for sure it's going to be over in the next few seconds. You can easily use Adrenaline 5 or 6 times in a single Warzone, which means you self-heal for almost your total health. There's no real reason not to use it.

A well-played Sniper is the hardest class for us to take down. That doesn't mean it's impossible, just tricky. Few things to consider: If you try to fight them range v range, you'll lose. You have to get into melee. However, cover makes them immune to Harpoon, which is our easy gap closer. The trick is to get them to leave cover. The easiest way to do this is by hiding behind a pillar until they get up to move, then harpooning them in. You can also use Cryo Grenade (which breaks cover) and then Harpoon, but I prefer to save my stuns. However, be sure they don't have their CC immunity up. Also, quite a lot of Sniper skills have activation times. If you're good enough, you should be able to hide out of LOS, pop out long enough to use a skill, and then get back in LOS before they can attack you back. This will encourage them to move even more. When you get into melee range, use your AoE stun on a skill called Ambush. It does really high damage and knocks you back. After that, use your second stun whenever seems best to you. You can probably figure out when to time it best.

Yeah... I'm a Vanguard, but using essentially the same rotation as you guys should I don't have issues with Assault ammo regen. Here's the rotation you'd use (as I see it): Incendiary Round -> 9 Reserve Powercell + Assault Plastique -> 9.9 High Impact Bolt -> 9.8 Full Auto -> 9.6 Charged Bolts -> 8.5 High Impact Bolt -> 10.4 Charged Bolts -> 9.3 Charged Bolts -> 8.2 Hammer Shot -> 9.1 High Impact Bolt -> 11 There. Fifteen seconds into the fight, and you still have 11 ammo with only one Hammer Shot. If reserve powercell is down, I'd replace that with a second Hammer Shot. But still, you should be able to keep up a maintainable rotation with Hammer shot every 6-8 seconds. Of course, if you drop below 8 ammo you're going to have big ammo issues, but that's the same as any spec. Going below 8 gives you 40% less ammo regen. By keeping your ammo above 8, even if it means a few Hammer Shots now, you do far more damage in the long run.

Yeah, it's that qualifier that makes it. A highly skilled Sniper that catches you at range is nigh impossible to take down. You can't get close, you can't win a ranged fight, and you can't psych them out of cover. Luckily for us, most Snipers are bad

Vanguard does get better though. You get incredibly short cooldowns on both Adrenaline Rush and Reactive Shield higher up in the tree. Those can get the cooldowns down to 24s for Adrenaline and 40s for Reactive Shield, assuming perfect conditions. That will never happen, but I usually get to use Reactive Shield every 60s (if you're taking damage for 20s every minute) and Adrenaline every 30-40s (if you get 20-30 crits a minute). So any time you find yourself in a hard fight, it's a good bet that you'll have both your cooldowns available. They make a big difference. If you're looking to survive focus fire... go tank spec. No DPS or healer in this game can survive focus fire without a tank and healer keeping them up. If you're PUG-ing, you'll only be able to manage that as a Shield Specialist. We're actually better than many other classes in the game. I can personally testify that Shadows melt twice as fast under any kind of damage. If you find yourself being focused without a tank/healer backing you up, you should probably change your tactics. That works out great if you're in a coordinated team, but as an essentially solo player you'll die quickly and frequently. You'll survive best while still helping your team by playing as a skirmisher. Fight on the edges of battles. If you can Harpoon a healer away from their team and take them down, then intercept them before they can rejoin the fight, you'll give your side a big advantage. You should be using your taunts frequently at range. You can clear out freecasting Snipers, Mercenaries, and Sorcerers who were foolish enough to fall behind. In Huttball, for example, I usually stay on the ramps around the center pit. I taunt the heck out of everyone in the middle, keep the ramps Sniper-free, and still do high damage to the ball-carrier if they come close. Once our team gets the ball, I'm in position to receive and throw a pass. I rarely jump down from the ramps.