karnov Posted January 5, 2012 Share Posted January 5, 2012 Hello fellow vangaurds, I am currently a 37 Vanguard and starting to pick up a few bits of shield and absorb gear, as well as defence, currently I’m trying to work out the best stat or combination of stats to go for in regards to damage reduction and utility. assuming that all three stats are weighted the same on items I'm of the opinion that stacking Shield % over absorb and defence seems the most commons sense way to go initially, shock strike and energy cells both proc off shields (although they both have a time cap which is not difficult to reach on average). Also shield more often should make the healer’s job easier in regards to damage spikes, although obviously the damage hits will be higher, defence will create more misses but has the lowest chance of happening. Any opinions? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pigeye Posted January 5, 2012 Share Posted January 5, 2012 (edited) I focussed on Shield & Absorb from about the same time, mid-30's when the good mods start appearing. Defense isn't much help, it's a dodge value only (we don't get parry), and you'll never get it high enough for it to make much difference, unless you sacrifice shield or absorption. And when you hit your 40's, those procs really come in handy. Stockstrike ftw. Basically, shield & absorb go hand-in-hand - there's not much point being a Shield Specialist without both. Disclaimer: Note that my experience is purely PVE - I've not done any PvP yet. Edited January 5, 2012 by Pigeye Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
derrytest Posted January 5, 2012 Share Posted January 5, 2012 Def is dodge yes, but dont discount it. Shield absorbs dont trigger when you get crit, crits completly go through your shield so having a nice bit of def is good to avoid some of those Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pigeye Posted January 5, 2012 Share Posted January 5, 2012 (edited) Def is dodge yes, but dont discount it. Shield absorbs dont trigger when you get crit, crits completly go through your shield so having a nice bit of def is good to avoid some of those You should probably define what "a nice bit of" is I've about 9.8% Def, which is low enough to shrug at. That's about as much as I can go without turning down good Shield/Abs gear. There's going to be tradeoffs anyway - it's all balanced so you can play no matter which style you spec for (well, it's supposed to be ). But if you're speccing for shields, it makes sense to equip for them to get maximum returns. Edited January 5, 2012 by Pigeye Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guurzak Posted January 5, 2012 Share Posted January 5, 2012 A couple of notes: Per percentage point, you get more net mitigation by improving whichever of shield or absorb is lower: 30% shield and 30% absorb is mathematically better than 25% on one and 35% on the other, either way. However, that doesn't take abilities which proc from shield into account, so if it's close you should probably lean towards shield. However: equipment points are emphatically not equal: X equipment point of absorb equals a much higher percentage value than X equipment points of shield. So if you want the best net mitigation for a given number of equipment points, you must prioritize absorb somewhat. There's no simple "this is always best". Sorry. An optimal build probably has absorb a little higher than shield, but how much is going to be a judgement call based on a lot of things including the quality of your healers and the phase of the moon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pigeye Posted January 5, 2012 Share Posted January 5, 2012 A couple of notes: Per percentage point, you get more net mitigation by improving whichever of shield or absorb is lower: 30% shield and 30% absorb is mathematically better than 25% on one and 35% on the other, either way. However, that doesn't take abilities which proc from shield into account, so if it's close you should probably lean towards shield. However: equipment points are emphatically not equal: X equipment point of absorb equals a much higher percentage value than X equipment points of shield. So if you want the best net mitigation for a given number of equipment points, you must prioritize absorb somewhat. There's no simple "this is always best". Sorry. An optimal build probably has absorb a little higher than shield, but how much is going to be a judgement call based on a lot of things including the quality of your healers and the phase of the moon. All excellent points, particularly the returns per point ratios. All of this said though, I think the Van class is pretty solid so long as you keep your gear up-to-date and generally side towards what keeps you alive whatever your play style - most problems posted in this forum are people thinking they're a DPS class, or under-equipping themselves. By the time we get to 50, from what I hear of 50 gear options, it rather sounds like we'll all end up with similar stats in one direction or the other anyway Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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