Gearing for Kinetic/Balance hybrid tank

[trakata]

So my Shadow is currently level 36 and I've tested out both the "standard" kinetic build and the balance DPS build. I'd like to work towards the Kinetic/Balance hybrid tank (23/0/18) for good soloing utility, PVPing, and FP tanking. It seems like it will handle most of those situations reasonably well, and even offtank for endgame raids.

 

My question is, how do you gear for the Kinetic/Balance hybrid? Willpower/Endurance armoring mods and Defense/Shield/Absorb sound like a given. After that though, do you want a bit of Crit Strike rating? Seems like that would make the Force Strike proc for Mind Crush come up faster. Other options are Surge and Power. Am I spreading too thin here?

Edited January 10, 2012 by trakata

[MithrilSoul]

Can't really go wrong with any of those, and I am not sure in the big picture if it is going to make a huge amount of difference one way or the other.

 

Since a lot of our synergies are based on crits, I think I would probably favor crit rating the most out of the options you listed. Though as a more general principle, unless you are a burst-damage specialist (which a KC/Balance hybrid definitely is NOT), I prefer something like Power which is going to increase the damage of all our attacks.

 

I think while leveling, before you get the point of getting that free Mind Crush talent, Power might be even more useful. Once you are at or near level cap and have the free Mind Crush option, maybe stacking more towards Crit would be the way to go.

 

Since I'm only in my mid-30's, I can't say for sure.

[Hydurz]

At level 50, I want to get my telekinetic throw to channel VERY FAST

 

 

 

as a full balance i see myself getting Sage Gear PvP which has Alcarcity/Power

 

Iam most likely going to get that gear until my 4/4 bonus -[Mind Crush heals!, Longer range on project also]

 

then im going to gear up +accuracy

 

 

crit is already at 24~ % and i got the crit trinket so i can force it up to ~36%

 

 

Im not focusing just on alcarcity though… Im aiming Crit/Willpower/Alcarcity/ raw +power

 

with Potency you can PUSH out crits if you need to

 

 

+power only effects how hard you crit

 

 

Willpower effects Crit/Power/Crit Mod.

Edited January 10, 2012 by Hydurz

[Arbegla]

If your tanking, you want to actually get as much defense/shield/absorb, then focus on accuracy so you can hit things. After that, your prime stat is endurance/willpower (depending on what you want, there's a thread going over the pros and cons)

 

Anything after that is probably power (as that boost the most) and crit is kinda iffy, as the only time you want to use project is with PA up, and critting with force powers (PA) should boost your melee crit enough to trigger mind crush without having to stack more crit.

 

Surge may be the best thing to increase after you cover everything else, as crit seems to be almost a given.

[trakata]

Does Accuracy really matter for tanks outside of PVP?

 

Everything else seems to check in. Defense/Shield/Absorb, Willpower/Endurance, and Power. Crit to spare if possible, though not truly necessary.

Edited January 10, 2012 by trakata

[Spacekasekat]

I have leveled from 1 to 45 (so far) using the goal of the end tanking build that you are interested in using. Basically, I went my first 12 points into Kinetic Combat for Kinetic Ward and Particle Acceleration, then my next 16 points into Balance to get Force Strike. After that I have been doing Kinetic.

 

Frankly, I found it easiest to go full tank, even when I solo (I solo in Kinetic), and I just use Tharan as my companion. Sure, I do not kill quite as quick as some others, but on the flip side almost nothing can kill me. I solo "rares" and hard elites almost without issues. I can even go and solo most Heroic 2's. My best solo to date was a rare champion in Hoth (mob and I were both level 42), and she had 146K health. Took me a few minutes, but I got her on the first try (and two pieces of customizable gear dropped).

 

For gear, I have stuck with the defensive stats always when given a chance. I do not have a single piece of gear with crit on it. I do have some accuracy, but mostly because they came on my tank pieces. My suggestion would be to stick with the defensive gear and just grind up with that. It works great. As a side benefit, if you intend to raid in this spec, which I plan to do, by soloing in the spec you will know it extremely well and thus perform well in your raid role.

 

I hope that helps.

Edited January 10, 2012 by Spacekasekat

[Arbegla]

Does Accuracy really matter for tanks outside of PVP?

 

Everything else seems to check in. Defense/Shield/Absorb, Willpower/Endurance, and Power. Crit to spare if possible, though not truly necessary.

 

If you can't hit your target, you can't build threat.. so after you get your mitigation down, you'll need accuracy to hit the boss.

[MithrilSoul]

At level 50, I want to get my telekinetic throw to channel VERY FAST

 

as a full balance i see myself getting Sage Gear PvP which has Alcarcity/Power

 

 

It is my understanding that alacrity does NOT speed up Telekinetic Throw at all. It is a worthless stat for shadows. Alacrity increases skills with cast times (induction times), but not skills that are channeled skills. Telekinetic Throw is a channeled skill, and thus not helped by alacrity.

 

The only skills with cast times that shadows have, as far as I can recall, are Force Lift and Mind Crush. And depending upon your talent spec, you could have Force Lift as an instant-cast. So that leaves only Mind Crush.

 

So I would suggest you revise your plans about getting alacrity gear.

Edited January 11, 2012 by MithrilSoul

[isast]

He said he was full balance, so his mind crush is also instant cast.

That being said, from what I've read and previous experience with Haste (that other game's version of Alacrity), it does effect Channel times, and also speeds up DoT ticks.

If he wants to turn balance into a bit more of a burst role, I could see trying to get all of the dots ticking faster. Not what I would go for, but to each his own

[MithrilSoul]

He said he was full balance, so his mind crush is also instant cast.

That being said, from what I've read and previous experience with Haste (that other game's version of Alacrity), it does effect Channel times, and also speeds up DoT ticks.

If he wants to turn balance into a bit more of a burst role, I could see trying to get all of the dots ticking faster. Not what I would go for, but to each his own

 

What that other game does is 100% irrelevant for this game. And others (at least in beta) specifically tested whether Alacrity increases Telekinetic Throw and the result was a resounding "no." It does not.

 

Now perhaps that has changed between beta and live. Or perhaps the people testing it didn't know what they were doing. All things are possible, I suppose. But I think it is absolutely foolhardy for anyone to spend any amount of time/effort getting Alacrity gear to speed up TT when others have tested this and stated that Alacrity does speed up induction skills but doesn't speed up channeled skills like TT. And to contradict those tests by bringing in a different mechanism (haste) from a different game (WoW, I presume) doesn't help the situation at all, but simply makes things more confusing to people.

 

If you've gone into the game, loaded up your character with gobs of alacrity gear, sat down with a stopwatch and timed how quickly your skills work, and can say that you have tested it and Alacrity does something with TT...then fine, run the test, record your numbers, and share those with the community. But if you haven't done that, don't make wild baseless claims that contradict what others have tested and shown to be true.

[isast]

I was going off the findings of other posters on this forum, and used WoW as a reference to help understand, not an end-all be-all. There have been a few people with numbers since official release that did, in fact, say channeled spells were effected. I don't have said numbers, and never tested them myself, so I am not offended if you don't believe me.