My Vanguard PvP Guide

[Zeikai]

Hi everyone, been doing amazing in PvP on my server Iron Citadel, averaging about 10 medals a game, with my highest being 14 and thought I would share my build and rotation here for all to see. If your on Iron Citadel you may know me as Zex, feel free to ask me questions in-game.

 

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#801hRGrdorogzZMcbZb.1

 

Now there has been a discussion lately in the forums about how tanking is bad in PvP, personally I laugh my *** off at those posts. Because there is a very very significant difference in my durability between shield spec and the other two. Also when played properly shield spec can not only give lots of protection points which can lead up to 5 medals but also deal quite a bit of suppression and damage, I average about 250-350k which is generally higher then any dps on my team, which is slightly sad for the dps.

 

Now onto the rotation, the first thing I cannot stress enough is AMMO CONSERVATION.

 

You need to always remain at or above 6 ammo unless you have both energy blast and recharge powercells up but I'll get into that rotation later.

 

The main rotation is kind of free flow but you mostly rely on shockstrike and high impact bolt.

 

Shock Strike > High Impact Bolt > Hammer Shot > Ion Pulse > Energy Blast > Ion Pulse > Hammer Shot > Shock Strike > High Impact Bolt > Energy Blast > Ion Pulse

 

That is my main rotation, you will stay at or above 6 energy cells the entire time while doing amazing damage. I run my super commando pvp set and get around 2.5k crits off of shock strike and high impact bolt, about 1600 crits off of Ion Pulse and energy blast, and hammer shot gives reliable damage due to the burst and dot from Ion Cell.

 

Now the initiation is what also makes or breaks a good vanguard tank, I initiate 1 of 4 ways.

 

1: Sonic Round > Hammer Shot (Until the proc hits) > Ion Pulse > High Impact Bolt > Energy Blast all while moving closer for a shock strike into your main rotation.

2: Harpoon > Main Rotation

3: Mortar Launcher > Storm > Main Rotation

4: Storm > Neural Surge > Pulse Cannon > Main Rotation

 

 

Now that we covered the main rotation and initiation let's cover the more finer jobs of a tank in PvP. What truly makes or breaks a great tank is knowledge. I have over 10 years in mmo experience so this comes easy to me but for others it can be a bit harder to tell who you need to taunt, who you need to cry, who needs the riot strike etc.

 

So a tanks job is to not only hurt people and act as a giant suppression machine but it's also to study the battlefield. You need to learn who does the most damage on the enemy team, who their best healer is, who their weakest link is, and who their tank is as quickly as possible.

 

You want to save your Neural Jolt for their best dps, you need to see when he's about to do his best combo then bam, taunt his *** and watch as it does nothing.

 

You want to make sure to interrupt their healer as core times with your cryo grenade, harpoon, storm, and hammer shots.

 

You want to constantly scare their weakest links by either killing them or sending them running.

 

You want to find their main tank and suppress him with perma slow from ion cell.

 

 

That about sums up my PvP guide for vanguard, I'll add in later things if I think of it, feel free to ask questions down below I'll try to check this at least once an hour.

[Romgaard]

Really.....32 shield spec for PvP?

 

I mean really?

 

R U shure thats the correct spec?

 

Shieldspec?

 

U do realize that.........oh nevermind....guess u r the pro PvP player here..

[Waagabond]

Shield procs on around 20% of all attacks in PVP.

Its not useless, but its definately not useful.

 

The only reason to spec high in shield is to get storm. Which is a great ability, after that, you stop and pick up either tactics or assault. I recomend tactics.

 

If you want to play a Vanguard, do dps and have alot of tools, then this spec is what I personally recomend:

 

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#801ZrsMrobckzZfhMrzh.1

 

Run plasma cell and enjoy the damage, ability to kite, hold the line, self heals, shut down abilities...you have it all in this apart from storm, but thats ok.

 

With above spec you will be spamming high impact bolts, ion pulses and stock strikes.

Edited January 17, 2012 by Waagabond

[Zeikai]

Shield procs on around 20% of all attacks in PVP.

Its not useless, but its definately not useful.

 

The only reason to spec high in shield is to get storm. Which is a great ability, after that, you stop and pick up either tactics or assault. I recomend tactics.

 

If you want to play a Vanguard, do dps and have alot of tools, then this spec is what I personally recomend:

 

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#801ZrsMrobckzZfhMrzh.1

 

Run plasma cell and enjoy the damage, ability to kite, hold the line, self heals, shut down abilities...you have it all in this apart from storm, but thats ok.

 

With above spec you will be spamming high impact bolts, ion pulses and stock strikes.

 

Your main damage comes from your high shield chance which lets you proc your shock strike way more often then in any other build and with 2.5k crits (almost always crits) your dealing a significant amount. Also can't guard others with plasma cell on, don't post other builds here just questions kthx.

[Romgaard]

So Static shield has a 50% chance to finish cooldown on stockstrike, cannot occur more than every 4.5 sec.

 

Your shield has roughly 20% chance of working ( mainly shieldchance against # whitedamage# )

 

So thats 50% chance of 20% chance...cannot occur more than every 4.5 sec.....

Does not sound all that great ****** DPS too me.

Have u done the math? ( there is yoyr question)

 

Shuut....give me my Free HIB autocrits anytime over this.

[TheRabbit]

I average about 250-350k which is generally higher then any dps on my team, which is slightly sad for the dps.

It's easy to break 300k in any WZ with a pocket healer as a Vanguard. I have 4 pieces of Champion gear and the Centurion offhand and I easily break 300k when I have my own personal healer.

 

I'm 4/6/31 Assault spec, and I spend my whole time in PVP in Ion Cell. I regularly break 10 medals, and as I said above, I have hardly any tiered pvp gear at all.

 

I had someone that was tactics spec (8/31/2) tell me how amazing their spec was. She was in full Champion gear, had 40% more Aim than I did and nearly 1k more HP. We went into a WZ together (Voidstar), end result? Her: 320k dmg, 18k protection, 2 deaths 12 medals. Me: 280k dmg, 100k protection, 5 deaths 11 medals (missed solo kill and 300k dmg).

 

Anyway, the whole point of this post is that if you're doing good in your spec, you don't have to switch specs, as I've seen people do exceptional in all 3 trees.

 

BTW: I'm also on Iron Citadel, the tactics build was Sem, and my name is Caevis if you ever want to look me up.

[LandPhil]

quick question, are you using the tank gear or the dps gear? I'm lvl 48 in tank gear and I haven't had a crit over 1.7k... ever.

 

I've been thinking about keeping shield spec but picking up dps gear. I'm not sure how that would pan out though.

[Guurzak]

Hi everyone, been doing amazing in PvP on my server Iron Citadel, averaging about 10 medals a game, with my highest being 14 and thought I would share my build and rotation here for all to see. If your on Iron Citadel you may know me as Zex, feel free to ask me questions in-game.

 

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#801hRGrdorogzZMcbZb.1

 

 

Why in the world would you skip Static Field (4% damage reduction against all damage types) in favor of Rebraced Armor (no damage reduction against elemental/internal, roughly 2% against energy/kinetic with endgame armor)?

[IlexGlabra]

Really.....32 shield spec for PvP?

 

I mean really?

 

R U shure thats the correct spec?

 

Shieldspec?

 

U do realize that.........oh nevermind....guess u r the pro PvP player here..

 

Tanks do great in PvP. Paired up with a good healer, I semi-immortal and can defend a point for quite some time even under heavy attack. As shield spec, my DPS probably isn't what it could be in another spec, but I still do quite well with it.

 

There are multiple ways to be effective in PvP. There is room at the table for both DPS-spec and Shield-spec builds.

[IlexGlabra]

<duplicate post> Edited January 19, 2012 by IlexGlabra

[Guurzak]

Tanks do great in PVP, and the Shield Specialist tree gives us a solid PVP build. However, the reason for that success is not because of our shields! A PVP shield specialist build should go no higher than 23 in that tree unless you absolutely must have Energy Blast for ammo management, because investing 5 points into shield chance at tier 6 is a bad waste of points in the current PVP environment.

 

Note that shields do not proc against Force or Tech attack types, only against Melee and Ranged attack types. Note that many PVP character builds can go through their whole attack rotation without using a single Melee or Ranged attack, or with very few. If your opponent is not using shieldable attacks, then the points you invest in shield chance are plain old wasted.

[JonDotHcor]

Is it going to stay this way by design, or do you see this being changed/tweaked in the future to make VG shield worthwhile in pvp? I have a 35 vanguard and I do ok, but im sort of indifferent to the class now as It feels a bit broken in that aspect.

 

 

Tanks do great in PVP, and the Shield Specialist tree gives us a solid PVP build. However, the reason for that success is not because of our shields! A PVP shield specialist build should go no higher than 23 in that tree unless you absolutely must have Energy Blast for ammo management, because investing 5 points into shield chance at tier 6 is a bad waste of points in the current PVP environment.

 

Note that shields do not proc against Force or Tech attack types, only against Melee and Ranged attack types. Note that many PVP character builds can go through their whole attack rotation without using a single Melee or Ranged attack, or with very few. If your opponent is not using shieldable attacks, then the points you invest in shield chance are plain old wasted.

[Guurzak]

It's definitely an issue of major concern to the PVP tanking community (not just Vanguards). Bioware has not given us any kind of response on this issue yet.

[marchesq]

1. I enjoy shield spec in pvp. I accept it's not the highest damage, but I'm really hard to kill, and I enjoy that. Example, with shield spec- i seek out and find stealth sith. Any other spec, I run from stealth sith.

 

2. This is basically my rotation. I use pulse cannon where you use energy shot. My damage is not very high, I rarely break 100K. But I consistently place in the top 5 players in WZ.

 

a. I use riot strike and storm much more than you as well.

 

b. sonic round works great. --> Sonicround --> Storm --> Rotation.

 

3. It is very very rare I die in 1on1 match. Although, I have been surprised by sniper players. I roll just about everything else.

[taugrimtaugrim]

Shield procs on around 20% of all attacks in PVP.

 

That is very very very inaccurate.

 

Read this:

http://taugrim.com/2012/01/19/understanding-swtors-avoidance-and-mitigation-mechanics-for-tanks-in-pvp/

[Mallozzi]

Storm just makes huttball so much better

[happyhappyjoy]

Taugrim is the man.

 

If you are going to go shield spec - only go 23 points in shield.

 

Think hard about whether or not you want to wear supercommando gear. The benefit you get from the tank stats like absorbtion, shield and defense in pvp is not commensurate with the benefit you get in pve because of the amount of attacks you will receive that are not subject to defense or shield.

 

If you go 23 points in shield you can then dump 18 points in either tactics or assault. I recommend assault because you can get Ionic Accelerator. Your shield gives you extra shockstrike and your shockstrike gives you extra high impact bolts.

 

I get more medals when I'm spec'ed 23/0/18.

 

Right now I'm spec'ed 7/3/31. I wear all combat tech gear with combat medic thrown in because of the additional crit and surge. I'm spec'ed this way because the large burst potential of having assault plastique, HIB and shockstrike going off about the same time. You can make these attacks subject to trinket and expertise potions. I've been very disappointed with the burst and damage by other repubs. So I decided I would play my tank as dps. I would say that we burst as well as anyone with a full assault spec.

 

This is

 

HAYDUKE

Adjunta Pall

 

So glad you're on my server Taugrim, really enjoyed your posts.