Raising absorption

[Gustomucho]

So, I am having a hard time to raise my absorption rating, it seems all the mods and enhancement with aim on it have little absorption on it. JK get a great mod with +25 absorption and we get one with +8. I find it very hard to keep a good balance of shield rating vs absorption. I have 41 shield chance and 37 absorption, that is with the gimp +25 absorb from 1 JK gear meaning I have gimped myself out of aim for absorb.

 

I also have 14% defense rating. Anyone else have this problem ? Should I worry more about def rating instead of absorb?

[grandmasterub]

defense > shield > absorption imo.

 

however the gain per point spent will be exactly the opposite.

[Gertbeefrobe]

defense > shield > absorption imo.

 

however the gain per point spent will be exactly the opposite.

 

Wrizong. Vanguards are better built around shield and absorb.

[Mozivicus]

So, I am having a hard time to raise my absorption rating, it seems all the mods and enhancement with aim on it have little absorption on it. JK get a great mod with +25 absorption and we get one with +8. I find it very hard to keep a good balance of shield rating vs absorption. I have 41 shield chance and 37 absorption, that is with the gimp +25 absorb from 1 JK gear meaning I have gimped myself out of aim for absorb.

 

I also have 14% defense rating. Anyone else have this problem ? Should I worry more about def rating instead of absorb?

 

Have you tried getting equipment with augment slots? You could then use augments with absorption ratings to boost your absorption total. just an idea.

[Gustomucho]

Have you tried getting equipment with augment slots? You could then use augments with absorption ratings to boost your absorption total. just an idea.

 

Most my equipment is slotted, but my grip is the fact that enhancement and mods with AIM comes with little to no absorption. Shield rating is high up on mods, but there is no point of having 70% chance of shield if I only shield 30% of damage. Best balance is having close to equal shield and absorb.

 

BTW I got lucky and found a belt this evening with +15 absorb, now sitting at 39.48% and 41.45% of shield chance.

[grandmasterub]

Wrizong. Vanguards are better built around shield and absorb.

 

a chance to completely avoid damage is always greater than a chance to reduce it : /

[Guurzak]

a chance to completely avoid damage is always greater than a chance to reduce it : /

 

Nonsense. A 1% chance to avoid 100% of damage is not nearly as good as a 99% chance to reduce 99% of damage. You have to look at all the numbers.

 

Also, a 25% chance to avoid 100% of damage is not as good as a 50% chance to avoid 50% of damage even though they have the same average mitigation, because your damage profile will be much spikier and your healers may not be able to keep up if you get a bad string of rolls.

[grandmasterub]

alright lets look at the mit per point spent.

 

100 points total

 

abs = 1% per 1 point

shield = 1% per 2 points

defense = 1% per 4 points

 

caps are all 75%

 

so if you do 100 to abs you get 75% absorption but your shield chance is the base of 5% so 4.125% damage reduction

 

100 to shield = 50% chance to absorb 20% damage = 10% damage reduction

 

100 to defense = 25% damage reduction

 

now if troopers already have high shield chance from their talents then it makes even more sense to stack defense.

 

Now as for the spiking argument i'll concede the point. I come from mmo's where avoid trumps all pretty much.

 

PS forgive my highly innaccurate napkin math. just emphasizing a point.

Edited January 20, 2012 by grandmasterub

[Nadasdy]

Ive tanked EV and Palace in Defensive and Shield/Absorb Mods and gear on both Normal and Hard mode. My healers find me so much easier to heal on about everything when im in my Shielding and Absorb gear. You just dont take the spikes nearly as often or as hard by running shield/absorb.

 

Defense is so much harder to raise than the other two so getting a higher percentage is so much easier. I sit around 15% defense, 48% shield and, 50% absorb with about 19khp and 54% damage mit.

[Fdzzaigl]

Absorption is cool, but I find it to be more effective against some mobs in PvE than others.

 

Mobs that cast a lot of "special" abilities like lightning and force attacks and other elemental type attacks like flamethrower seem to bypass it very quickly.

 

I'd still go for absorption and shield chance though, simply because our tank tree itself is also build around that. Though you shouldn't neglect defense of course, especially once you've got a decent amount of shield chance and absorb.

 

Doing that, I found myself easily tanking most instances while leveling, some groups of mobs didn't even seem to do much of any damage at all, while other tanks I saw that depended on defence were struggling against them. For other groups of mobs, you'll have trouble and the healer will need to spam heal you.

 

The same is true in PvP, but amplified. Many abilities that are thrown around by players seem to bypass shields. Which sucks not only damage wise, but also because stockstrike depends on shielding.

[origional]

The defense -vs- absorbtion is interesting and needs to be looked at further but to answer the op, there are enhancements that give you an increase in shield rating and absorbtion rating. I forget what they are called but I have a couple.

[Orhall]

Maximum mitigation is all fine and dandy, but I say for PvE shield+absorb is better.

 

Getting to this conclusion following proven tanking logic.

1. Tank is always being healed

2. Less spikes, easier the healing

3. Can't tank when dead

(4. Too much mitigation makes healers fall asleep and miss healing you when dice fails)

 

Also, for ss vanguard, higher shield proc rating steadier ammo income when spec'd for it.

Can't forget holding threat either, but it seems to be easy enough in this game.

Tank also contribute sizable piece of group dps, so can't discount offensive stats.

 

Sweet spot is when you survive with healer time to do some damage and do as much yourself.

 

For PvP, spec % reductions, expertise, endurance (and armor), with as much offensive stats as possible.

 

Then there's minor issue with dodge animation messing up skill usage, but that's probably going to get fixed some day.

[Gustomucho]

Okay, just to add on the debate of absorption, defense and shield rating... All those have diminishing returns. So lets say you have 500 points in gear to allocate. If you put 500 in defense and 0 in shield and 0 in absorption. You will lots of diminishing returns on those 500 points.

 

If you put 300 in defense, 100 in SR, 100 in AR, your 200 points not in defense will make you a lot less squishy. The diminishing returns on those 200 points will be minimal and you will have a lot more return on investment.

 

There is a sheet somewhere here which shows you mean mitigation (total of all damage received) it is in my experience a very good way to know if you have good item allocation.

 

Right now, the vanguard with all his talents improving the shield chance needs a lot of absorption to make up for it. A good balance of the 3 stats is what will make you less spiky and more regular in damage taken.

[Kaigen]

Getting back to the OP's question of how to stack absorb, I haven't found a good way yet. Right now I've been using the Mods which give +8 absorb and slotting +absorb augments into my biochem implants (though I'll lose that when I eventually switch them for Rakata). I've been stacking the Enhancements that give +30 End, +39 Shield, +15 absorb (I think it's Bulwark 22? I'll have to check in-game), as those are the best absorb enhancements I've been able to find. Does Artificing have access to a purple enhancement that gives better absorb and still has another tanking stat for the non-end stat bonus?

 

It doesn't look like we get access to any good absorb mods; the other tanks have versions of the mods which sacrifice some primary and end for significantly more absorb, but we don't. This may be a bug/oversight, as the Advanced Weighted Mod 22(A/B) mods all have the exact same stats, while the Advanced Resilient Mod 22A/B have different stats.

[Manjiyomi_Jun]

It would seem that no one is also factoring in that we have a few talents that proc off shielding as well. To me, shield just seems to be the best stat for Vanguards.

[grandmasterub]

Sorry I guess I argued my position a little to hard.

 

Ofc balancing all three stats is the best. I was just trying to point out that defense technically gives you the greatest damage reduction.

 

Again I primarily played mmos where most healing was based off damage prevention so avoidance was greater than mitigation for me in the past.

Edited January 20, 2012 by grandmasterub

[Gustomucho]

Sorry I guess I argued my position a little to hard.

 

Ofc balancing all three stats is the best. I was just trying to point out that defense technically gives you the greatest damage reduction.

 

Again I primarily played mmos where most healing was based off damage prevention so avoidance was greater than mitigation for me in the past.

 

It is, but like I said, it will cost too much to raise defense by 1% at some point where for the same amount of point allocation you will negate 5% by shielding it. So the point allocation must be distributed or you will gimp yourself.

 

1000 defense < (500 defense + 250sr +250ar) < (350d + 325sr + 325ar)

Edited January 20, 2012 by Gustomucho

[btsager]

Most my equipment is slotted, but my grip is the fact that enhancement and mods with AIM comes with little to no absorption. Shield rating is high up on mods, but there is no point of having 70% chance of shield if I only shield 30% of damage. Best balance is having close to equal shield and absorb.

 

BTW I got lucky and found a belt this evening with +15 absorb, now sitting at 39.48% and 41.45% of shield chance.

 

Your best bet is to go with crafted armor, the stats are much better overall, and you can use augments for even more stats. The slotted Orange armor is very limited when it comes to stats. I make all my own armor, it can be expensive to re-engineer up to purples, but the end result is worth it. Though you can probably just check the market and buy them, but you have to hope someone is selling the ones you need.

[Nadasdy]

Your best bet is to go with crafted armor, the stats are much better overall, and you can use augments for even more stats. The slotted Orange armor is very limited when it comes to stats. I make all my own armor, it can be expensive to re-engineer up to purples, but the end result is worth it. Though you can probably just check the market and buy them, but you have to hope someone is selling the ones you need.

 

Ive actually been modding out my PvP armor since it has a higher base armor than what you can get from Orange armor and any Armoring mods anywhere. Seems to easily be the best until you can get Rakata which is just barely better and definitely better than crafted armor.

[origional]

I lied - the mods were shield and defence not shield and absorb

 

Now im doing more pvp the gear is all defence specced so my absorbtion is dropping with each new piece of kit. Soon there wont be any point in even bothering with a shield.

[Mooby]

According to torhead.com the daily heroic 2+ at Ilum (Darkness on Ilum) gives a +30 End, +39 Shield, +15 Absorb epic Enhancement if that helps.

[Waagabond]

Wrizong. Vanguards are better built around shield and absorb.

 

This.

 

Never build your vanguard for Defence. You have what you have but its not your focus.

 

Also, its much easier for healers to heal an absorb mitigated geared tank then someone going full defence, as WHEN you do take damage if you lack the absorbs, you take a ton of it.