2/32/7 Vigilance DPS build

[JefferyClark]

I put this together to test last night and it seems to work pretty well 1v1, or in dps'ing in a group.

 

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#5000MZIMrRMuddMRZGb.1

 

I omitted Zen Strike because I mainly focus on pvp, where Master Strike isn't used much, and I've already reduced its cooldown with the talent in the Focus Tree.

 

Any thoughts?

[Sabredance]

Solid build.

 

Personally i don´t like to play without Momentum as it makes my focus management so much more fluent.

Thats 6 Focus you save in a one-on-one situation.

But than there is no Second Wind (which also gives you a chance for the 2.5k heal medal in Wz if thats what you are after and might arguably give you an edge in a 1 vs 1 situation over Momentum due to a higher health pool)

 

 

I´d also put the points from Master Focus into Stagger.Stagger is awesome.

One more second on a root which doesn´t increase resolve?Hell yes.

Thats 2 seconds more in a one-on-one situation where Master Focus won´t help you at all and good to nail people in the fire in Huttball.

Edited February 2, 2012 by Sabredance

[bamsmacked]

I put this together to test last night and it seems to work pretty well 1v1, or in dps'ing in a group.

 

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#5000MZIMrRMuddMRZGb.1

 

I omitted Zen Strike because I mainly focus on pvp, where Master Strike isn't used much, and I've already reduced its cooldown with the talent in the Focus Tree.

 

Any thoughts?

 

Master Strike should be used quite often in PvP. With them rooted or stunned I can always get 2 attacks in and sometimes a 3rd.

 

People in PvP aren't as smart as you think, they're always in melee range especially if it's another melee class. Sometimes they will move on the last hit, but will come running back in range before the attack is over and still take the dmg. Master Strike should be used in your rotation, especially when low on focus and when waiting on cool downs.

 

I've respecced about 6 times on my guardian, experimenting with this and that and I can just go ahead and tell you that until the Devs fix Plasma Brand and our weak DoT talents a Vigilance Guardian will never be able to do sustainable dmg in PvP.

 

Don't get me wrong, I can do a lot of damage but I'm looking to break 300k in WZs, and right now I'm doing about 200-250k dmg. If you're in a good group, someone can heal you and guard you Vigilance guardians can be really good by utilizing Gather Strength, You get rooted, you get healed, you got a tank taking dmg for you get 5 stacks of of GS and you have a 50% bonus to your next attack. I've had OS hit people for 4k with 5 stacks of Gather Strength, but it's just not consistent enough and I usually die soon after I get 5 stacks - so having a good team is necessary... Using 4 talents to get like 600 DoT dmg in 6 seconds from 2 separate attacks just seems too much, and even with Brand DoT rolling with them the overall damage of the dots isn't that much in an PvP environment where people have 16k+ health.

 

The 12 second DoT is an eternity in PvP (With all 3 dots running you can get about 1200 elemental in 12 seconds, if it was 9 seconds it'd be alright I'd say.), and compared to most other top tier talents PB is an epic fail. Its mediocre damage, flawed DoT (The dot is 12 seconds when the cool down is 9 seconds, so really you're not getting the full DoT effects when it's ready to be used again which is dumb.), costly resource cost, and sundering armor perquisite make Plasma Brand mehhh. Maybe if it costed 1 less focus it wouldn't be so bad but as a Vigilance heavy guardian Focus is an issue.

 

Until the Vigilance tree is fixed, I don't think it's worth putting 31 talents in just to get Plasma Brand. It's disappointing because Vigilance has several great talents just for PvP and I believe the tree itself gives the class potential to do great sustainable damage.

 

I'm considering rolling this Vigilance/Focus Hybrid build. Exchanging the 4% health buff, the DoTs, Plasma Brand and slightly less focus conservation for a more focused Force Sweep, another closing gap ability in Zealous Leap, stronger Slash, and a litttttle bit more utility.

 

1/23/17

 

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#5000zZIMroMudzZGr0rkb.1

Edited February 2, 2012 by bamsmacked

[VertisReaper]

In the end you will realize how critical the high tier talents in the Vigilance tree are. Plasma brand may seem boring and looks like it doesn't hit hard, but it is actually a large portion of our damage and core to any vigilance spec.

 

It also scales with force damage and cannot be dodged, parried, or shielded.

Edited February 2, 2012 by VertisReaper

[bamsmacked]

In the end you will realize how critical the high tier talents in the Vigilance tree are. Plasma brand may seem boring and looks like it doesn't hit hard, but it is actually a large portion of our damage and core to any vigilance spec.

 

It also scales with force damage and cannot be dodged, parried, or shielded.

 

I beg to defer, I've seen shields absorb Plasma Brand before.

 

5 focus, mediocre damage, and the 12 second dot is just too long.

[VertisReaper]

I beg to defer, I've seen shields absorb Plasma Brand before.

 

5 focus, mediocre damage, and the 12 second dot is just too long.

 

shield as in the tanking defensive stat which reduces damage. if you dont like plasma brand dont take it. you are just gimping yourself of another melee nuke. Plasma brand with shien form actually has the best damage to focus ratio of all our abilities and is the only ability that continues to deal damage when you are not on top of a target. I guess you can spam slash which hits for **** which and can be dodged, parried and shielded.

Edited February 2, 2012 by VertisReaper

[bamsmacked]

shield as in the tanking defensive stat which reduces damage. if you dont like plasma brand dont take it. you are just gimping yourself of another melee nuke. Plasma brand with shien form actually has the best damage to focus ratio of all our abilities and is the only ability that continues to deal damage when you are not on top of a target. I guess you can spam slash which hits for **** which and can be dodged, parried and shielded.

 

I'm talking about the barriers consular/inquisitors use. I thought you were talking about those but I guess you're not, and yes it isn't blockable by parries and such.

 

And where did you get that info that Plasma Brand deals the most dmg to focus ratio of all our abilities? For 4 focus, and the prequisite of Sunder Armor for about 1000 elemental dmg on the spot and then 12 more seconds of elemental dot dmg? I hope you're kidding.

 

Overhead Slash will crit for like 3-4k. Blade Storm will cirt for 2.8-3kish off a Force Rush. Plasma Brand will crit for 1.5k. All have the same cool down, all have burn effects, and Storm, and Slash cost less Focus. But Plasma Brand does more? Overhead Slash beats the hell out of PB by far as far as DPS goes, especially if you have Burning Purpose. That's like 500 elemental dmg over 5 seconds, plus it exhausts and is ready to roll again next cool down unlike PB.

 

Blade Storm has higher damage to focus ratio than Plasma Brand ever will. You don't even get the full damage out of Plasma Brand because it cools down faster, which will likely result in another PB cast which re-stacks the 12 second DoT.

 

12 seconds is just too long in PvP, and I'd rather have Zealous Leap and 100% crit to my Sweep instead. Zealous Leap actually does more damage than Plasma Brand and costs less focus, the only down side is 6 second longer cool down.

 

I don't know how much you rolled a Guardian, but I've been trying to make the best out of PB and the Vigilance tree since the game came out. I've had limited success, partly due to a lacking top tier talent. The tree itself is great, it's just not worth investing into the talents above Overhead Slash.

 

From my experience, even in good gear almost full Champion and I even make my own adv battle enhancements and put them in my gear, for lots of crit rate and crit dmg , a heavy Vigilance spec (31+ talents) does not do sustainable dmg in PvP unless you're in a good group, get good heals, got a guard and whatnot. But unless these conditions aren't met you have 2 primary attacks that do your most damage Overhead Slash and Blade Storm.

Edited February 2, 2012 by bamsmacked

[Marwynne]

Have you considered this, bamsmacked? http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#500ZIMMRMukzZGr0ddbM.1

 

It'll suck not having Commanding Awe, but I picked up Singularity. Gives you the option to burst really high if you ever find yourself casting Force Stasis (on a 50s cd no less). Free Force Sweeps every 12s, which auto-crit after using one of your two Leaps, seems very nifty.

 

Also, it seems Defiance is redundant considering Unremitting will prevent most of the snares and such right after Force Leaping. If Unremitting applied to Zealous Leap as well, it'd be too awesome.

 

Extra burst or extra focus...

[Marqhill]

Master Strike should be used quite often in PvP. With them rooted or stunned I can always get 2 attacks in and sometimes a 3rd.

 

People in PvP aren't as smart as you think, they're always in melee range especially if it's another melee class. Sometimes they will move on the last hit, but will come running back in range before the attack is over and still take the dmg. Master Strike should be used in your rotation, especially when low on focus and when waiting on cool downs.

 

I've respecced about 6 times on my guardian, experimenting with this and that and I can just go ahead and tell you that until the Devs fix Plasma Brand and our weak DoT talents a Vigilance Guardian will never be able to do sustainable dmg in PvP.

 

Don't get me wrong, I can do a lot of damage but I'm looking to break 300k in WZs, and right now I'm doing about 200-250k dmg. If you're in a good group, someone can heal you and guard you Vigilance guardians can be really good by utilizing Gather Strength, You get rooted, you get healed, you got a tank taking dmg for you get 5 stacks of of GS and you have a 50% bonus to your next attack. I've had OS hit people for 4k with 5 stacks of Gather Strength, but it's just not consistent enough and I usually die soon after I get 5 stacks - so having a good team is necessary... Using 4 talents to get like 600 DoT dmg in 6 seconds from 2 separate attacks just seems too much, and even with Brand DoT rolling with them the overall damage of the dots isn't that much in an PvP environment where people have 16k+ health.

 

The 12 second DoT is an eternity in PvP (With all 3 dots running you can get about 1200 elemental in 12 seconds, if it was 9 seconds it'd be alright I'd say.), and compared to most other top tier talents PB is an epic fail. Its mediocre damage, flawed DoT (The dot is 12 seconds when the cool down is 9 seconds, so really you're not getting the full DoT effects when it's ready to be used again which is dumb.), costly resource cost, and sundering armor perquisite make Plasma Brand mehhh. Maybe if it costed 1 less focus it wouldn't be so bad but as a Vigilance heavy guardian Focus is an issue.

 

Until the Vigilance tree is fixed, I don't think it's worth putting 31 talents in just to get Plasma Brand. It's disappointing because Vigilance has several great talents just for PvP and I believe the tree itself gives the class potential to do great sustainable damage.

 

I'm considering rolling this Vigilance/Focus Hybrid build. Exchanging the 4% health buff, the DoTs, Plasma Brand and slightly less focus conservation for a more focused Force Sweep, another closing gap ability in Zealous Leap, stronger Slash, and a litttttle bit more utility.

 

1/23/17

 

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#5000zZIMroMudzZGr0rkb.1

 

WOW! Great minds think alike. I did LITERALLY that EXACT spec about 2 weeks ago. I can tell you this. It's good. It's nothing absolutely amazing but it's definitely good. I managed to do around 150,000 - 200,000 damage per warzone. Sometimes a few thousand more sometimes a few thousand less. Keeping in mind I didn't have my Rakata stim at the time and I didn't have most of my pvp gear yet. But it was really good. I hit hard and repeatedly because you really don't ever run out of focus. You have a bunch of auto-critical hit attacks because of Force Rush and Felling Blow. Force Sweep (which is free), Blade Storm and most importantly Dispatch all will pretty much automatically critically hit when used at the right times.

 

However, I did switch to a full Vigilance spec. I disagree with a lot of people on the overall quality of plasma brand. I haven't had it bug out on me at all. It always does the ammount of damage that it's supposed to do. The burn over 12 seconds is kind of long but the cool down on plasma brand is only 9 seconds. So before it's even finished burning you can do it again. So you can constantly keep hitting them with it. And then I constantly get over 3000 damage with my dispatch critical hits while the target is burning from all plasma brand stacked on top of all my other burn effects. I actually do MORE damage in full vigilance spec. That's even before I got the PvP gear that I have now. It's also before having gotten my Rakata stim.

 

That's just been my experience. I enjoy vigilance mostly because I'm new to MMO's and it's got a super easy rotation. But yeah, that spec you're planning on trying is totally viable. Give it a go!

[JefferyClark]

UPDATE:

 

So far, so good. DPS is way up, doing 2-3x what I was. Survivability is still about the same (crap), but Bioware has said that is an issue, and I hope they figure out a way to get a fix for us in 1.1.2 or 1.1.3 at the latest.

 

Since the last patch 1.1.1b or whatever it was called, I've noticed more issues with action delay again, and today my lag has really increased, but I can't tell if it was something they did on their end or if it is just my ISP having an off day.

[Ethias]

I did NOT like the hybrid vig/focus build because I felt like gaining the crit sweep and zealous leap was not worth losing the focus generation from 7 points in Defense. Zealous Leap had some nice crits and following them up with a free Sweep was nice, but I found myself taking forever to generate focus outside of my opener and Combat Focus.

[bamsmacked]

Have you considered this, bamsmacked? http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#500ZIMMRMukzZGr0ddbM.1

 

It'll suck not having Commanding Awe, but I picked up Singularity. Gives you the option to burst really high if you ever find yourself casting Force Stasis (on a 50s cd no less). Free Force Sweeps every 12s, which auto-crit after using one of your two Leaps, seems very nifty.

 

Also, it seems Defiance is redundant considering Unremitting will prevent most of the snares and such right after Force Leaping. If Unremitting applied to Zealous Leap as well, it'd be too awesome.

 

Extra burst or extra focus...

 

I have a build similar to that but I'm trying to have good sustainable damage not burst. I don't like doing all my damage in a second and then left with nothing.

 

The Felling Blow just makes my Force Sweep a lot more powerful and it's a healthy exchange in for Plasma Brand. It crits for 2k+ regularly, and with Overhead Slash that already does a lot of damage and more if it crits + Force Rush on my Blade Storm and PLUS a decent Slash that's instant costs 2 focus and crits for like 1.7k I do some pretty good sustainable damage now.

 

Zealous Leap is another good ability that does pretty decent damage, especially in Shien form and it's 2 focus cost after focus reduction.

 

Gotta say I'm liking my new build. I do a lot more damage and it's sustained with my increased critical frequency. I like this build.

 

Also addressing the Defiance talent, you're not always coming off a force leap. Unremitting lasts for 4 seconds, the cool down on leap is 15 seconds. Furthermore you're not always in the range to do a leap. I get stunned, knocked down and slept all the time in PvP so that's why It ook it.

 

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#5000zZIRroMhdzZGr0rkb.1

 

I did NOT like the hybrid vig/focus build because I felt like gaining the crit sweep and zealous leap was not worth losing the focus generation from 7 points in Defense. Zealous Leap had some nice crits and following them up with a free Sweep was nice, but I found myself taking forever to generate focus outside of my opener and Combat Focus.

 

 

I was wondering that myself but I don't have focus issues anymore now that all my abilities only cost 3 or less focus. I was concerned about that too initially, but focus is not an issue with this build.

Edited February 3, 2012 by bamsmacked

[Ethias]

I found Focus was an issue if I could not charge every cooldown or in fights that lasted for like 45 or so seconds (long enough to have already burned my Focus generating CDs but not long enough for them to be up a second time). I also am used to using my AoE snare like a fiend in a group of melee, had to train myself not to do that. Perhaps it was also because I am used to going Overhead Slash -> Bladestorm, and doing that in the hybrid build is a ton of focus without the free Bladestorm. if I try the build again, I'll try a different "rotation"/priority system a little bit.

 

Perhaps it was personal preference, I don't know if it works for you, enjoy it! I found pure Focus just to be better for how I play.

 

They really need to make Zealous Leap a real leap (giving a brief root or snare or something, longer distance?) or not make it set you behind the person like it does, because that aspect means that if you dont have someone snared or rooted and they are moving away from you, you end up a couple yards away from them frequently. Not sure if that's a latency issue or what but it does annoy me.

Edited February 3, 2012 by Ethias

[LordMantequillas]

Looks good except for burning blade, don't know why you wasted two skill points on that trash...

[JefferyClark]

Looks good except for burning blade, don't know why you wasted two skill points on that trash...

 

DoTs in pvp warzones help while guarding objectives and they really annoy people

Edited February 3, 2012 by JefferyClark

[sac-]

Master Strike should be used quite often in PvP. With them rooted or stunned I can always get 2 attacks in and sometimes a 3rd.

 

People in PvP aren't as smart as you think, they're always in melee range especially if it's another melee class. Sometimes they will move on the last hit, but will come running back in range before the attack is over and still take the dmg. Master Strike should be used in your rotation, especially when low on focus and when waiting on cool downs.

 

I've respecced about 6 times on my guardian, experimenting with this and that and I can just go ahead and tell you that until the Devs fix Plasma Brand and our weak DoT talents a Vigilance Guardian will never be able to do sustainable dmg in PvP.

 

Don't get me wrong, I can do a lot of damage but I'm looking to break 300k in WZs, and right now I'm doing about 200-250k dmg. If you're in a good group, someone can heal you and guard you Vigilance guardians can be really good by utilizing Gather Strength, You get rooted, you get healed, you got a tank taking dmg for you get 5 stacks of of GS and you have a 50% bonus to your next attack. I've had OS hit people for 4k with 5 stacks of Gather Strength, but it's just not consistent enough and I usually die soon after I get 5 stacks - so having a good team is necessary... Using 4 talents to get like 600 DoT dmg in 6 seconds from 2 separate attacks just seems too much, and even with Brand DoT rolling with them the overall damage of the dots isn't that much in an PvP environment where people have 16k+ health.

 

The 12 second DoT is an eternity in PvP (With all 3 dots running you can get about 1200 elemental in 12 seconds, if it was 9 seconds it'd be alright I'd say.), and compared to most other top tier talents PB is an epic fail. Its mediocre damage, flawed DoT (The dot is 12 seconds when the cool down is 9 seconds, so really you're not getting the full DoT effects when it's ready to be used again which is dumb.), costly resource cost, and sundering armor perquisite make Plasma Brand mehhh. Maybe if it costed 1 less focus it wouldn't be so bad but as a Vigilance heavy guardian Focus is an issue.

 

Until the Vigilance tree is fixed, I don't think it's worth putting 31 talents in just to get Plasma Brand. It's disappointing because Vigilance has several great talents just for PvP and I believe the tree itself gives the class potential to do great sustainable damage.

 

I'm considering rolling this Vigilance/Focus Hybrid build. Exchanging the 4% health buff, the DoTs, Plasma Brand and slightly less focus conservation for a more focused Force Sweep, another closing gap ability in Zealous Leap, stronger Slash, and a litttttle bit more utility.

 

1/23/17

 

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#5000zZIMroMudzZGr0rkb.1

 

http://i41.tinypic.com/2pu0mqa.jpg

http://i786.photobucket.com/albums/yy146/Butane_Bob/c474cc4e.jpg

 

I'd give you more but I don't take screenshots of every game. I had one with ~360k damage, 80+ kills and 0 deaths and I'm not even battlemaster. How can you say "Vigilance Guardian will never be able to do sustainable dmg in PvP."? Where did you take that from? Your feelings? Yea, from MY feelings, this class/spec is kinda OP.

 

Although I agree the DoT from Plasma Brand should be 9 sec and not 12, would make more sense, none but Bioware knows if the DoTs are stacking or not. NONE. Sometimes I'm not hitting any buttons, not seeing any damage, but my target is losing HP. Stop believing on everything people say in those forums. Also, the damage from Plasma Brand is yellow and elemental. You know what that means right?

 

So please, don't come here telling people that this spec or class is somehow broken and need a fix. That's YOUR opinion.

 

EDIT;

 

Found it:

 

http://i.imgur.com/NZOYI.jpg

Edited February 4, 2012 by sac-

[VertisReaper]

@ bamsmacked

 

Do I have a reason to lie? People hop on these forums with no math to back up their claims, so I have to come in here to clean house.

 

http://i.imgur.com/SFJ6e.jpg

 

As you can see, Plasma Brand is a FAR SUPERIOR ability to everything else we have in our arsenal. Not only does it do the most Damage BEFORE factoring in armor/dodge/shield/parry. The margin increases EVEN MORE after armor reductions. That's 1.4k Topend on OH strike, 1.1k on Slash talented, vs 2.5k on Plasma brand. Even if you overlap Plasma Brand exactly at 9 seconds while its ticking its still 2.1k Damage. Not even a contest.

 

Not taking Plasma Brand as vigilance is about the DUMBEST thing you can possibly do. Can it work? Maybe, will it be superior in any way to a 31 pt Vig build?

 

Nope, never. Because you are losing such a HUGE portion of your DPS.

 

Go back to school.

Edited February 4, 2012 by VertisReaper

[bamsmacked]

I put this together to test last night and it seems to work pretty well 1v1, or in dps'ing in a group.

 

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#5000MZIMrRMuddMRZGb.1

 

I omitted Zen Strike because I mainly focus on pvp, where Master Strike isn't used much, and I've already reduced its cooldown with the talent in the Focus Tree.

 

Any thoughts?

 

If you're focusing on PvP you need to drop Commanding Awe, Second Wind and Master Focus.

 

Instead you need to put those points in Stagger, Momentum and Accuracy.

 

If your attacks are getting blocked and evaded all the time what good will you be in PvP? You need 100% base accuracy.

 

Finally if you really want to be a PvP build I wouldn't suggest going into Vigilances top talents. The DoTs in the tree and Plasma Brand are really insignificant in Warzones especially when someones got 20k+ HP.

 

If you want to PvP there really is only 2 options, Tank, or Focus. There are some decent hybrids out there but overall the Vigilance tree lacks in PvP because flawed talents.

 

For example we have lots of great PvP talents in the Vigilance tree but we have Protector, Commanding Awe which are not BAD talents they're just more of tanking talents, plus we have a terrible top tier talent along with mediocre dot effects.

 

Vigilance Guardians are just not that great in PvP.

[bamsmacked]

@ bamsmacked

 

Do I have a reason to lie? People hop on these forums with no math to back up their claims, so I have to come in here to clean house.

 

http://i.imgur.com/SFJ6e.jpg

 

As you can see, Plasma Brand is a FAR SUPERIOR ability to everything else we have in our arsenal. Not only does it do the most Damage BEFORE factoring in armor/dodge/shield/parry. The margin increases EVEN MORE after armor reductions. That's 1.4k Topend on OH strike, 1.1k on Slash talented, vs 2.5k on Plasma brand. Even if you overlap Plasma Brand exactly at 9 seconds while its ticking its still 2.1k Damage. Not even a contest.

 

Not taking Plasma Brand as vigilance is about the DUMBEST thing you can possibly do. Can it work? Maybe, will it be superior in any way to a 31 pt Vig build?

 

Nope, never. Because you are losing such a HUGE portion of your DPS.

 

Go back to school.

 

The damage mitigation in this game is all screwed up. Yeah I'm completely aware of that, but different classes have different resistance to elemental damage.

 

I don't care what the math says, in decent gear when my PB doesn't even break 1k damage - what the **** does that tell you? My Plasma Brand NEVER did more than 2k even with CRITICAL HIT in PvP. With 80% Crit DAMAGE??

 

I don't care WHAT those stats say because it's OBVIOUSLY WRONG or the DAMAGE MITIGATION IS BROKE.

 

If the someone had 4% resistance to elemental then why does PB hit for 800 dmg while OS hits for 1300-1500 before a crit even when their resistance is MUCH HIGHER TO KINETIC AND ENERGY?

 

Explain that oh master mathematician. I've respecced, and rerolled my Guardian I don't know how many times and it's from my COUNTLESS HOURS IN PVP AS EXPERIENCE I have concluded that Plasma Brand SUCKS and consistently does less damage then BS and Overhead Slash!

 

I guess I'll respec again and make a video just to prove you wrong, and you'll see the all mighty PB hit for a whooping 800 damage for 4 focus. Really the biggest upside to PB is that it ignores shields and armor, THAT'S IT. But something is wrong with the damage mitigation when it just doesn't do ALL THAT MUCH damage!

Edited February 4, 2012 by bamsmacked

[Ethias]

The answer to your questions has to do with how the ability is scaling (why some abilities hit harder than others despite tooltips), but all that being said...

 

I don't think I ever had an 800 plasma brand, even before I got my champion weapon, except on tanks, and that's only if they had some kind of defensive CD up.

 

I don't think I've seen it below 1k at all since my champ weapon. I've certainly had quite a few 2k+ crits with it.

Edited February 4, 2012 by Ethias

[bamsmacked]

http://i41.tinypic.com/2pu0mqa.jpg

http://i786.photobucket.com/albums/yy146/Butane_Bob/c474cc4e.jpg

 

I'd give you more but I don't take screenshots of every game. I had one with ~360k damage, 80+ kills and 0 deaths and I'm not even battlemaster. How can you say "Vigilance Guardian will never be able to do sustainable dmg in PvP."? Where did you take that from? Your feelings? Yea, from MY feelings, this class/spec is kinda OP.

 

Although I agree the DoT from Plasma Brand should be 9 sec and not 12, would make more sense, none but Bioware knows if the DoTs are stacking or not. NONE. Sometimes I'm not hitting any buttons, not seeing any damage, but my target is losing HP. Stop believing on everything people say in those forums. Also, the damage from Plasma Brand is yellow and elemental. You know what that means right?

 

So please, don't come here telling people that this spec or class is somehow broken and need a fix. That's YOUR opinion.

 

EDIT;

 

Found it:

 

http://i.imgur.com/NZOYI.jpg

 

That person is obviously Focus spec.

 

No way in heck a Vigilance Guardian is doing that much damage in a Warzone, unless they're in a premade group with a dedicated healer and tank -- maybe they can do something like that if they stayed alive long enough to make 5 stacks of Gather Strength worth while.

 

The Focus tree is really powerful in PvP and I've not been saying it sucks I've been saying Vigilance does somewhat. Hell even the tanking for Guardians is lacking since they have more problems than the other classes at keeping aggro... They lose aggro all the time and can't always get it back because their taunts are on cool downs, and even in Soresu and Guarding someone they lose aggro. Plus their attacks don't generate enough aggro on the exception of hilt strike, which again is on a 1 minute cool down. The Guardian needs work period, in both trees.

 

The answer to your questions has to do with how the ability is scaling (why some abilities hit harder than others despite tooltips), but all that being said...

 

I don't think I ever had an 800 plasma brand, even before I got my champion weapon, except on tanks, and that's only if they had some kind of defensive CD up.

 

I don't think I've seen it below 1k at all since my champ weapon. I've certainly had quite a few 2k+ crits with it.

 

I'm in almost full Champ gear with like 9% expertise, I've never had it hit for 2k crits even with Advanced Battle Enhancements in all my gear which gives me like +39 surge rating with +27 Crit rating.

 

http://www.torhead.com/item/aif9Yj2/advanced-battle-enhancement-22

 

The only thing I'm missing for my full Champ is 1 relic, the belt, an implant. I got the armor I just never use it because it looks retarded, I might use it once they fix the chestpiece. But the Jedi Knight has the worst looking PvP gear out of all the classes.

 

But yeah with 82% crit damage coming off a crit PB would do maybe 1.5-1.6k damage for me. Overhead Slash is an easy 2.5k+ depending on their armor.

 

I've had an Overhead Slash hit for like 4k with 5 stacks of Gather Strength on a Sorc before.

 

I don't know what it is, but Plasma Brand is just lacking. Albeit in under level 50 warzones I did TONS of damage, I regularly broke 300k+ in damage. In fact I was almost always at the top of the list as far as damage went, but my gear was superior to everyone else too. I crafted all my Enhancements, crystals, and Hilts to artifact level and spent days skimming market and doing quest for Adv Might armoring, and mods along with getting high quality implants and focuses with augment slots in them.

 

I spent a lot of time and money on my Guardian and I felt like I finally found a diamond in the rough, but once you get to level 50 warzones? Not so good when expertise comes into play. At first it was really bad, of course now it's not so bad because I'm at 9% but Plasma Brand defiantly doesn't work as well now than it did before.

 

Finally when you spend 31 talents in a tree I think the top tier talents should be pretty good to reward the player. I mean look at the other top talents in other trees... They're all pretty good right?? I'm browsing through them now and the top talents for sages, scoundrels, troopers and the alike all have good top tier talents.

 

Plasma Brand is mediocre. It won't be so bad if they took off the Sundering Prerequisite, lowered the DoT duration, and lowered the focus cost by 1.

 

12 seconds is an eternity for a DoT when someone has 18k HP. The Vigilance tree has potential, it has a lot of great talents but the top tier talents are so MEEEH....

 

Zen Strike and Plasma Brand, that's it?? Commanding Awe and Protector are alright talents but are more of tanking talents... The Vigilance tree needs more dmg based talents not tanking talents IMO.. So disappointing.. =(

Edited February 4, 2012 by bamsmacked

[VertisReaper]

The damage mitigation in this game is all screwed up. Yeah I'm completely aware of that, but different classes have different resistance to elemental damage.

 

I don't care what the math says, in decent gear when my PB doesn't even break 1k damage - what the **** does that tell you? My Plasma Brand NEVER did more than 2k even with CRITICAL HIT in PvP. With 80% Crit DAMAGE??

 

I don't care WHAT those stats say because it's OBVIOUSLY WRONG or the DAMAGE MITIGATION IS BROKE.

 

If the someone had 4% resistance to elemental then why does PB hit for 800 dmg while OS hits for 1300-1500 before a crit even when their resistance is MUCH HIGHER TO KINETIC AND ENERGY?

 

Explain that oh master mathematician. I've respecced, and rerolled my Guardian I don't know how many times and it's from my COUNTLESS HOURS IN PVP AS EXPERIENCE I have concluded that Plasma Brand SUCKS and consistently does less damage then BS and Overhead Slash!

 

I guess I'll respec again and make a video just to prove you wrong, and you'll see the all mighty PB hit for a whooping 800 damage for 4 focus. Really the biggest upside to PB is that it ignores shields and armor, THAT'S IT. But something is wrong with the damage mitigation when it just doesn't do ALL THAT MUCH damage!

 

 

so I bring mathematical proof and you're pretty much like **** LOGIC AND MATH, I SEE WITH MY EYES YO.

 

ok. like i said, don't spec it, have fun.

[bamsmacked]

so I bring mathematical proof and you're pretty much like **** LOGIC AND MATH, I SEE WITH MY EYES YO.

 

ok. like i said, don't spec it, have fun.

 

I thought the same thing dude. Elemental damage... Low damage reduction = more damage going through right??

 

Didn't work out that well in level 50 warzones or PvP on Ilum in general. There are plenty of people that will tell you that the damage mitigation system is screwed up in this game ATM.

[Ethias]

It's possible the 2k crits come only when I have the expertise buff and my surge trinket up, but they do happen. I've got

 

I do agree Plasma Brand is lackluster for a 31 point ability but I still think it is better than the alternative of a hybrid build.

 

I actually had the opposite experience to you; I found that at 50 I was much better than before. Then again, I leveled as Focus and hitting 50 finally put everything together because of how I spent my points.

 

I like Vigilance more than Focus because of the mid and top tier talents. dunno. I wish they were better, but I still like them quite a bit.

 

edit: btw, the reason that plasma brand isn't hitting "as hard" at 50 is because it scales at a way lower rate than Overhead Slash. It's one reason I was trying a hybrid build, Zealous Leap was nice, but without the low defense talents I felt like my damage was just too blah.

 

edit2: I've hit 400k as Vig in PvP and I've seen screenshots of Vig guardians doing more than that, and consistently. So I don't think we are that bad at all. I typically am in the top 3 in damage outside of Voidstar and I can top damage there too depending on what the other team is.

Edited February 4, 2012 by Ethias

[VertisReaper]

btw, the reason that plasma brand isn't hitting "as hard" at 50 is because it scales at a way lower rate than Overhead Slash. It's one reason I was trying a hybrid build, Zealous Leap was nice, but without the low defense talents I felt like my damage was just too blah.

 

It doesn't scale off a lower rate, it scales off a higher rate than anything else, test it yourself. Apply a stim, remove a stim.

Didn't work out that well in level 50 warzones or PvP on Ilum in general. There are plenty of people that will tell you that the damage mitigation system is screwed up in this game ATM.

 

Do you know why exactly its screwed up? You don't do you? The reason its messed up at the moment is because Shields do not block special attacks, making tanks much easier to kill than originally intended. The damage reduction values themselves are NOT bugged, I have tested this extensively for hours.

 

Why do people keep spreading misinformation on these forums.

Edited February 5, 2012 by VertisReaper