DuceHason Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 (edited) How does Vanguard DPS compare to Commando DPS? I rolled commando but not gonna lie, I'm getting tired of that massive hand cannon that keeps me pinned in one place. I'd like to be able to run and gun more. Edited January 11, 2012 by DuceHason Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ururururu Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 (edited) vanguard is a fun 0-30 meter spec. you must be in < 4 meter to use all your abilities, but can go 4-10 meters to kite melee. you've also got a reasonable amount of 30 meter abilities such that you don't have to wade in to danger unless needed.. including a pull and spec'able charge. all three trees are at least somewhat viable in pve & pvp. if you like movement instead of stationary give vanguard a try. Edited January 11, 2012 by ururururu Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hirokinae Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=161399 Refer to my last post about vanguard vs commando dps, hope it helps! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Psionic_X Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 (edited) my commando is 30 now, my vanguard 20. while i cant compare the two at endgame yet, i have very closely watched both while leveling up. so keep in mind im not comparing a 20 with a 30 here, but how they both felt at certain levels. first of all there isnt as many skills that seperate the two at lower levels as one would think, and to be honest even not at higher levels from what i see looking through abilitys lists and skilltrees. at first you trade basically charged bolts for ion pulse, thats about it. so if you wanted you could also run around with a commando, hammershotting, tossing stickys and stockstriking/HiBing away for dps on the move. my commando is gunnery and my vanguard is shield. as of now (i must stress: at low level) the trade in surviability vs. dps is in favour of the commando. the shield spec vanguard definately takes longer to kill weak and strong enemys but doesnt feel a lot more tanky (without heal comp.). ppl say the feel unkillable as vanguard with heal comp. but i can also kill golds and bosses with a gunnery commando with heal comp with ease. the 60% armor buff + 5% dmg reduction is noticable (in pve at least) but not by a large margin. the shield chance is so low, its hardly worth mentioning. of course at low levels you get no equip with def. stats yet. everything basically just has aim/end and maybe power or crit. the chance to actually shield something might go up by a lot at higher levels with def. gear. how much it helps in pve/pvp i dont know, maybe some higher level want to comment on that. in pvp my vanguard more or less has the same ammo issues as my commando, you need to weave in hammer shots or you will run dry fast. now i didnt try assault spec yet on the vanguard because i couldnt pick up inc. round yet, as soon as i can pick it up i will try assault, but it looks rather similar to assault on the commando. i dont enjoy waiting on a 15% proc on hammer shot really, but i will still try it with plasma cell on. now what i still dont get here to be honest: how tanky is a vanguard in full assault ? i dont see how vanguard/commando difer in assault spec when talking dps/suriability. of course the vanguard has harpoon and riot strike, while the commando has knockback an mez, but if you want to leave the utility out for a sec, both look pretty similar. now if this looks like i am bashing the vanguard: i am not ! the vanguard IS more mobile, since it has no 1.5 sec casts and it has an interrupt as well as charge if specced for it. the class is defentately fun to play and your only pick if you want to play a tank tropper anyhow. i was just a little disapointed by how the vanguard trades dps/surviability with the commando, as in not SOO much surviability but a good chunk of dps. after all both classes can and have to run around spamming hammer strike to reserve ammo, its nothing that is reserved to the vanguard. if any higher level players who have played both classes at or near end game might want to comment if things change drastically later on, i would be happy to hear in detail what skills or abilitys bring the drastic changes. Edited January 12, 2012 by Psionic_X Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hirokinae Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 There is simply not enough information due to the lack of a combat log to fully gauge which does more damage. The only thing I can tell you at the moment, is that when comparing our kill speed for the council boss in EV, i beat our gunnery commando by a wide margin consistently, although that could be attributed skill/gear/etc, and is impossible to tell at the moment. I WILL tell you that vanguard dps is VERY viable in raids, and it all comes down to preference at the moment. Vanguard damage is much more melee oriented, this spec simply gives you the option to play at not so melee range at times, as well as almost infinite mobility at short-medium ranges. Gunnery Commando is very stationary, and not very movement friendly, but does not have the range restriction that vanguards do. In the end: dps is viable for both classes vanguard is short range, extremely mobile dps commando is long range immobile dps. Although, i'm sure assault spec commandos will have a little more mobility at the cost of an overall slight dps loss. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Psionic_X Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 well assault is considered the lower dmg tree for commandos. i think vanguards dps in assault will be around the same as commandos. its a valid dps tree, altho not the highest possible dps tree for the trooper. on the other hand vanguards can care less about interrupts. there has been a lot of whining in the commando forum over the past 2 weeks about commandos beeing too squishy, too interruptable and basically just beeing good for pve, and vanguard is the better pvp toon. im not even questioning that atm because of the low level of my toons, im just trying to find out if ppl suffer "the grass is greener" syndrom and a general tendecy to whinery, or if they are right. for that im trying to figure out the real differences. i like both playstyles and both themes. BFG is as aweseome as the bareknuckle-barfight theme of the vanguard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rotm Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 Vanguard has good synergy. Ion pulse assures plasma cell procs and they can be spec'd to proc free stockstrikes both of which chain into free armor ignoring HIBs that gain auto crits from your two melee strikes. All while building damage bonus on Pulse cannon. They also have a lot of alternative %damage increases you can stack if ammo isn't an issue. Just looking over the Commando gunnery tree they seem to lack ammo management and have no periodic effects. Curtain of Fire is too high for them to make a similarly working Ionic accelerator hybrid. APC looks like it would be required for cell charger. I'm not sure about it getting blow away superheated plasma cell but I'm sure it was balanced around its base proc chance instead of being up most of the time with the Vanguards Ionized Ignition. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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