theothersteve Posted January 10, 2012 Share Posted January 10, 2012 (edited) So I'm a long time WoW tank and reasonably hardcore theorycrafter. I'm coming to this game for a variety of reasons. I came to this board, though, and I became rather worried about the community. I'm going to attempt to clear up many issues I'm seeing on these forums. Enure, Hilt Strike, and Stasis are very valuable moves. I'll cover these one at a time. Enure is the TOR answer to Warcraft's "Last Stand". Anyone who has ever done progression tanking will tell you that Last Stand and similar abilities are incredibly valuable. I was skeptical when I was freshly at level cap, just as you are. Once you've been tanking for a month you'll understand the nature of burst damage, healing, and the true value of cooldowns. That, or you'll be left behind. Hilt Strike is burst threat. It deals a large amount of threat on a long cooldown. That makes it incredibly valuable. 90% of the threat game comes from players who are trying to establish threat on an enemy. Think about it; of the times when someone has pulled threat from you, how many of them were after you have been fighting for thirty seconds? How many have been right at the beginning? Frontloading your burst threat abilities on enemies is the first skill every tank should learn. Stasis, when talented, is valuable for a few reasons. The damage is decent. It generates more Focus than even Sundering Strike does. And it's an interrupt. This ability is strictly superior to Strike by quite a bit, and using it on cooldown (which you should!) helps your focus regeneration substantially. Our rotation is a wonderful, complicated, beautiful thing. This is at least partially my opinion. If you'd rather have only three or four buttons to worry about so you can focus on other mechanics, I don't blame you. But it's the complexity of our rotation that has me falling in love with this class. Here is our full priority. Not rotation, mind you. Every GCD you should start at the top and work your way downward. Off GCD (always hit these)1. Combat Focus [low on focus]2. Force Kick [target is casting]3. Riposte Opportunity Hits (generally worthless)4. Pommel Strike [valid target]5. Opportune Strike [valid target] Ranged Attacks (use when possible)6. Saber Throw [target is distant, focus not full]7. Force Leap [target is distant] Generators (keep these two on cooldown!)8. Sundering Strike [focus <= 9]9. Force Stasis [focus <= 10] Core Consumers (high priority, low cooldown)10. Force Sweep [multiple targets]11. Blade Storm12. Force Sweep [single target]13. Cyclone Slash [multiple targets]14. Guardian Slash15. Dispatch Auxilliary Consumers (filler)16. Hilt Strike17. Slash [focus nearly capped]18. Master Strike [no movement, nothing to do next GCD]19. Force Push [Force Leap off cooldown and you're bored]20. Slash21. Strike Yes, it's a lot to remember if you're new. As a general rule, you should try to keep as many abilities on cooldown as possible. I currently use Strike only rarely, and I imagine my threat is substantially higher than most people's. One caveat is to not use Combat Focus when pulling. Open with Saber Throw, then Force Leap, then Sundering Strike, and you'll have all the focus you need. Thanks you for reading this far. I would like to add that there are many problems with the current stickied thread, and it needs to be either unstickied or rewritten. It's misinforming the playerbase. Thank you. Edited January 10, 2012 by theothersteve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zarthorn Posted January 10, 2012 Share Posted January 10, 2012 As useful as those tips are, one problem... Blade barrier is tied to a glitchy skill that is known to stutter and even fail to trigger, now if Blade storm wasn't so glitchy you would have nothing but agreement from me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theothersteve Posted January 10, 2012 Author Share Posted January 10, 2012 Yes, well, I haven't had problems with it 95% of the time, and I figure that a 5% nerf to it still leaves a good skill. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drakks Posted January 10, 2012 Share Posted January 10, 2012 (edited) This post is far more of a how things should be than how they are. Right now you can tank with 11-14 in defense, generate better threat (proven in multiple threads ad nauseam), and only lose blade barrier -- which is only slightly better than unremitting, and worse if you pair up protector with it and are willing to bounce around. The upper shield tree is currently terrible, and nothing in it is a "must have" for aspiring tank -- which is odd, since it's, you know, our tanking tree. Edited January 10, 2012 by Drakks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yngwe Posted January 10, 2012 Share Posted January 10, 2012 Steve: Posted in the other thread, but also placing it here to grab your attention. Below is my planned build, with a focus on end-game tanking. Any thoughts would be appreciated. As mentioned previously, my chief question at this point is whether to move the points from Perseverance and Command to Accuracy. Thanks! http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#500fMGcudrouRZhMM.1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kuriostone Posted January 10, 2012 Share Posted January 10, 2012 Steve: Posted in the other thread, but also placing it here to grab your attention. Below is my planned build, with a focus on end-game tanking. Any thoughts would be appreciated. As mentioned previously, my chief question at this point is whether to move the points from Perseverance and Command to Accuracy. Thanks! http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#500fMGcudrouRZhMM.1 I'm not Steve, but I think taking strength over hit in vigilance is a mistake. The rest looks about right for a pve defense tank. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yngwe Posted January 10, 2012 Share Posted January 10, 2012 Thanks! I think I will be dropping some points out of Momentum as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theothersteve Posted January 10, 2012 Author Share Posted January 10, 2012 This post is far more of a how things should be than how they are. Right now you can tank with 11-14 in defense, generate better threat (proven in multiple threads ad nauseam), and only lose blade barrier -- which is only slightly better than unremitting, and worse if you pair up protector with it and are willing to bounce around. The upper shield tree is currently terrible, and nothing in it is a "must have" for aspiring tank -- which is odd, since it's, you know, our tanking tree. I had been looking at a 39/12 build as the hybrid rather than the 13/28 you describe. And if you don't take Shien Form... I see where you're coming from. You're also missing out of Shield Specialization, but that's not a great talent anyway... especially if you pick up Commanding Awe. I'm going to remove the bit about the spec from my OP until I have more data on this. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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