Best Focus build for guardian PVP (a version where you aren't focus starved)

[madeiracam]

I believe 1.1.3. is when certain recalculations regarding surge hit.

 

Oh, I see. That will certainly change things.

[nanohana]

Generally speaking there is no "best" build.

And if there was, it definitly wouldn't be this one.

 

While in the end everything comes down to personal preference there are some major flaws in the OP's build.

 

Second Wind is bad. Period.

If you are lucky you can get the 2.5 healing medal and that's it. The heal itself is beyond weak and half of the time you will be using Resolute when at max health anyway.

 

Whether or not Solidified Force is a good investment is arguable.

Personally I'd rather get 2/2 Improved Sunder. I always can find spare focus to use Freezing Force with a Focus spec.

The argumentation that a 9sec FF would make Solidified Force more mandatory than for the (bugged) 6sec FF is totally off too, considering you will be using FF less when it lasts longer.

 

At last Slash is good.

You can't be serious when advising not to use it. Picking Swift Slash and Saber Strength is not a must (although I'd do so), however there are moments when you are loaded with focus your important moves are on cd. Then you can just stand there doing nothing or you can be useful and cast Slash.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not advising to spam Slash all day long, just saying there are moments when you want to use it.

 

Outside of these issues it's a Focus spec similar to what everyone is running around with anyway, by no means the best.

[mornival]

I am curious to know, if guardians arent suppose to be using slash- (a non GCD DD skill)-- how in the world do you keep up any dps and force without waiting for your GCDs?

 

Seems like you miss out of even more dps.

Edited February 12, 2012 by mornival

[Jonlo]

I am curious to know, if guardians arent suppose to be using slash- (a non GCD DD skill)-- how in the world do you keep up any dps and force without waiting for your GCDs?

 

Seems like you miss out of even more dps.

 

Slash is on the GCD...

[Ethias]

haha if slash was off the gcd, holy crap...

 

despite that, there are points where you will may use slash.

[AndantePhist]

haha if slash was off the gcd, holy crap...

 

despite that, there are points where you will may use slash.

 

True there are one or two points in a warzone where I have to use slash, even then it's rare.

 

But there is absolutely no reason to spend 4 talent points to buff slash damage 6% and 15% to crit on slash... it's a waste to spend talent points to make a crappy ability into a mediocre one that you almost never use.

[Ethias]

True there are one or two points in a warzone where I have to use slash, even then it's rare.

 

But there is absolutely no reason to spend 4 talent points to buff slash damage 6% and 15% to crit on slash... it's a waste to spend talent points to make a crappy ability into a mediocre one that you almost never use.

 

Yeah I agree. No reason to spend the points there. Even if Second Wind seems awful, you're going to likely get far more use out of the healing from it than you will from a bit of extra damage on Slash.

Edited February 12, 2012 by Ethias

[Smashbrother]

With the amount of CC in this game, defiance is extremely useful. While a free BS after leaps is useful, defiance is better because it gives you 4 focus which can be used towards anything (even if it's a BS). It's also 2 points vs. 3 points.

 

The 6% str is also very nice.

[VictoriousSinner]

I'm curious why we wouldn't want the 6% strength increase from Perseverance in the Vigilance tree.

 

Edit: Plus, any thoughts on this build (doesn't have that 6% strength)?

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#500cMZhMZGrR0ddMdGR.1

Edited February 14, 2012 by VictoriousSinner

[AndantePhist]

I'm curious why we wouldn't want the 6% strength increase from Perseverance in the Vigilance tree.

 

Edit: Plus, any thoughts on this build (doesn't have that 6% strength)?

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#500cMZhMZGrR0ddMdGR.1

 

because you give up way to much to get the 6% strength.

 

6% strength DOES NOT equal 6% damage increase.

 

it equals roughly extra .5-.6% crit, and your attacks hit for roughly 2% harder.

 

So 6% strength is roughly a 3% dps overall increase... not worth it for giving up either momentum or victory rush.

[Karyx]

With the amount of CC in this game, defiance is extremely useful. While a free BS after leaps is useful, defiance is better because it gives you 4 focus which can be used towards anything (even if it's a BS). It's also 2 points vs. 3 points.

 

The 6% str is also very nice.

 

I agree with this. My experience is that if you take 2/2 Defiance, you will almost never have focus problems. I'd rather take Defiance than Victory Rush.

[AndantePhist]

I agree with this. My experience is that if you take 2/2 Defiance, you will almost never have focus problems. I'd rather take Defiance than Victory Rush.

 

You can't control defiance...

 

You CAN control victory rush.

 

I would rather be in control of my own focus generation than to rely on my enemies.

[Haijin]

Second Wind saved my life more than once and there is, for me, no optional talent in any of the 3 trees with better value. Killing a guy 1v1 and ending up with 1k-3k hp is not that rare...meaning that without the SW heal, I'd be... dead.

 

As for Victory Rush vs Defiance, Rush is better by a wide margin for the reason the previous poster well stated. More control over your class mechanics is better, even when the RNG option is seductively more powerful. Speaking from a standpoint of a guy who opened 16 empty pre-nerf champion bags, F*CK RNG. I get Defiance focus when I'm full of focus every time.

[Marqhill]

To OP. Awesome write up and you have very well reasoned logical arguments. I like it a lot. I've been fooling around with Focus builds on the Torhead skill calculator and some of my builds looked similar to what you're doing but I had some skill points in different places. Basically as you've proven I had my skill points in the WRONG places! haha...

 

I'm used to my Vigilance build where perserverance and single saber mastery are must have skills so I was always taking them in my focus builds because at face value they make sense. But it's not worth losing your free AoE snare or your free blade storm to have those abilities. Also, I never thought about the fact that single saber mastery doesn't affect your force attacks so that's something you'll always need. Also, slash is an ability that gets a lot of bad press. I can see why you would spec out of it in this build. When you're using the focus build it's 3 focus for an attack that really doesn't do much of anything for the focus cost that it has. So you're right again there.

 

I'm going to eventually try a focus bomber build. When I do I think I'll be copying your build exactly. Thanks for the advice.

Edited February 23, 2012 by Marqhill

[Emdix]

My build, PvE build.

 

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#500MZI0MZG0RrdrMkGR.1

[Mitskuni]

Ok so I just pretty much read up here and there on the forums but I want to say I've had quite a bit of experience with my guardian by now, but I could be wrong.

 

Now ive been replacing mods on my columni gear and my champion gear getting rid of crit and surge and replacing it with the proficient mod which gives power and the Adv deft mod 24 (56 verison) which is str end and power.

 

Now we know that surge has huge diminishing returns so we said somewhere around 75-85% is ok and viable but now I understand that our sweep is a force attack but by gauging this surge % are we using our melee crit multiplier or are we using our force multiplier?

 

Ive also been doing some research and noticed that battle master and rakata gear are not speced for us rofl sweep users. I for one will be keeping my champion ear piece for the power since the battle master one is **** and so is the Rakata version.

 

I noticed that the master craft for expert nano optic might package is a great in slot item for our implants giving us a augment slot for str and giving us that extra boost of 40 power although we lose about 30 endurance but a ~20 str and 40 power increase is worth the loss to endurance imo yes no?

 

Ive also been thinking about best in slot for belts too. Currently i have a exceptional rakata belt slotted with a str augment and even then I kind of loathe it I havent done my research for this but replacing it with a orange belt is potentially better? I know str is our main stat but with 58 mods or even 56 can it be better?

 

Lastly for our relic do you think its better to keep both the battle master power relic and the rakata power relic? I know they both share the internal cd but as one comes off internal cd while the other is on trinket cd then you should be able to use the other? Now is that better than have 57str from the matric cube?

 

I posted it here because the other posts in the forums are less than productive....compared to theorycrafting and why aren't there stickies in this forums.

 

Thanks for productive input ahead of time. Please dont comment on anything unless you have experience or facts to back it up. Ive been a guardian since beta and prelaunch

[AndantePhist]

Now ive been replacing mods on my columni gear and my champion gear getting rid of crit and surge and replacing it with the proficient mod which gives power and the Adv deft mod 24 (56 verison) which is str end and power.

 

Now we know that surge has huge diminishing returns so we said somewhere around 75-85% is ok and viable but now I understand that our sweep is a force attack but by gauging this surge % are we using our melee crit multiplier or are we using our force multiplier?

 

 

You pretty much want about 30%-32% crit, 73-75% surge,and the rest power (maybe a tiny bit accuracy since the first few dozen points give you buttload of returns).

 

Surge affects Both your force and melee multiplier... if you didn't know you can look up your force stats by clicking on the drop down menus on your character screen that give you options Melee, Force, Defense, etc.

 

Crit is pretty good for Focus because of the 30% extra crit bonus talent. Crit gives your bladestorm and Force Exhaustion a huge boost. If all my Force Exhaustion ticks crit, thats pretty much 6k damage right there, making Force Exhaustion one of my biggest damaging attacks.

[Mitskuni]

You pretty much want about 30%-32% crit, 73-75% surge,and the rest power (maybe a tiny bit accuracy since the first few dozen points give you buttload of returns).

 

Surge affects Both your force and melee multiplier... if you didn't know you can look up your force stats by clicking on the drop down menus on your character screen that give you options Melee, Force, Defense, etc.

 

Crit is pretty good for Focus because of the 30% extra crit bonus talent. Crit gives your bladestorm and Force Exhaustion a huge boost. If all my Force Exhaustion ticks crit, thats pretty much 6k damage right there, making Force Exhaustion one of my biggest damaging attacks.

 

See I understand that they are drop down menus and that they are different but when you say surge should be around 73-75% do you mean the critical multiplier for force or melee? because currently my melee is at 70% but my force is at 95%

 

Ive heard mixed people say we dont need much in crit should just stack power and str as much as possible.

 

plus any thoughts about the items i posted?

[Gearsofwarthree]

I like this build however I read a post on here that insight isn't worth the full 3 points since we will auto crit anyways. Wouldnt the other 2 points be better spent boosting zealous leap damage? I was wondering what your opinion on this would be.?

 

Btw sorry if this was already covered on here and I overlooked it.

Edited March 2, 2012 by Gearsofwarthree

[AndantePhist]

I like this build however I read a post on here that insight isn't worth the full 3 points since we will auto crit anyways. Wouldnt the other 2 points be better spent boosting zealous leap damage? I was wondering what your opinion on this would be.?

 

Btw sorry if this was already covered on here and I overlooked it.

 

I never knew we auto crit on bladestorm, force exhaustion, stasis and force push...

Edited March 2, 2012 by AndantePhist

[Gearsofwarthree]

I never knew we auto crit on bladestorm, force exhaustion, stasis and force push...

 

Good point, guess the post was mainly directed at our main damage move which is a auto crit.

[AndantePhist]

Good point, guess the post was mainly directed at our main damage move which is a auto crit.

 

Most people forget that force exhaustion and bladestorm hit HELLA hard especially if they crit.

 

If all my force exhaustion ticks critted on a light armor target... thats about 6k damage right there... Force exhaustion crits are a HUGE part of our burst, because it happens AS we are hitting our other hard hitting abilities.

[Gearsofwarthree]

Most people forget that force exhaustion and bladestorm hit HELLA hard especially if they crit.

 

If all my force exhaustion ticks critted on a light armor target... thats about 6k damage right there... Force exhaustion crits are a HUGE part of our burst, because it happens AS we are hitting our other hard hitting abilities.

 

To be honest I was one of those people thanks for clearing that up. I will defiantly be putting all 3 points into insight.