rydgaze Posted March 8, 2012 Share Posted March 8, 2012 Hi All, Curious on what rotation do you guys use as a full Assault specced Vanguard (or any other spec is good too). I am currently leveling my Vanguard and he is at level 42 and focusing primarly on PvP only. I have a level 50 sage but I find the vanguard way more fun and would want to make this my main and use the sage as a healbot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mozivicus Posted March 8, 2012 Share Posted March 8, 2012 I've been tweaking mine lately...and I think I'm close to getting it at optimal. Why do I think that? Because the guild tank is telling me he's having to taunt my targets back to him more often So, here's what I do : Relic 1 (crit , surge) Incendiary round battle focus Assault plastique HIB Hammmer shot (as I close in) AOE stun Ion pulse Stockstrike HIB Ion Pulse Cryo grenade Pulse cannon I'll throw the 2nd relic in there too, if I have an another enemy around. This is usually a sure fire kill on an enemy though. If you're looking to make more or a sustainable rotation (this one depletes my ammo and I have to use recharge cells) I'd just spatter some hammer shot through there...BUT, that will take away from the relic's and battle focus' worth. It's all about the "surge"...even though they say they nerfed it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rydgaze Posted March 8, 2012 Author Share Posted March 8, 2012 Thanks! At my current level, I am missing on few of those. currently I do Adrenal, Incendiary, Hib, <close in + pulse canon until I proc a free HIB/SS>, SS The problem is I run out of ammo and I am running around with hammer shot in PvP.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hethroin Posted March 8, 2012 Share Posted March 8, 2012 (edited) My Assault Vanguard Burst Rotation: Plastique Incindiary Round *cooldowns - all of them. Relic (Power), Stim (Power), Crit. SS if close enough else Ion Pulse else harpoon or hammer shot as situation calls. HiB. (should hit around the same time as Plastique) SS if close enough else Ion Pulse. HiB if it proced else (SS if close enough else Ion Pulse). Insert stuns and interrupts as needed. I am a little more conservative with my stuns, and use them when the target is in the lower 30-40% region. I automatically interrupt anything that is a heal, if it's being used I don't want to finish casting. Our interrupt CD is short enough to be less conservative here. WARNING: This is not a sustainable rotation, unless your 30%/45% proc rate is generating a proc 50% of the time. For maximum sustained DPS use hammer shot (when fighting a Sheild spec Powertech use /lol, /dance, /notdroids or /clubdance instead, you can clearly see an ion gas cylinder icon on them) whenever you get down below 4 arrows recharge rate. Reserve power cell and rapid recharge as needed. You can chose to run in Ion cell, for example, if you are asked ,or suddenly decide on your own accord, to guard your only healer, or run the ball, or if you want to trick people into thinking that you're a tank and emote you instead of using their white-damage attacks on you. Be aware that if you are not in Plasma Cell your Ion Pulse effective DPS is cut by ~45%, and you must use Incendiary Round on every target to get the "burning target = free cell" proc on HIB. Your HIBs will still hit like a truck with a jet on it. Edited March 8, 2012 by Hethroin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mozivicus Posted March 8, 2012 Share Posted March 8, 2012 Good point on the sustainability, my maximum burst rotation is also definitely NOT sustainable. This is where the CCs can help you a bit. When you CC someone, or a team mate CCs someone, it's a good spot to mix in some hammer shot...IMO anyways. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coramac Posted March 8, 2012 Share Posted March 8, 2012 My Assault Vanguard Burst Rotation: Plastique Incindiary Round *cooldowns - all of them. Relic (Power), Stim (Power), Crit. SS if close enough else Ion Pulse else harpoon or hammer shot as situation calls. HiB. (should hit around the same time as Plastique) SS if close enough else Ion Pulse. HiB if it proced else (SS if close enough else Ion Pulse). You should use should never use Stock Strike or Ion Pulse when HIB is available. It'd be better to throw in a Hammer Shot after the Incendiary if you are trying to get the HIB and Plastique to hit at the same time. Alternatively, if you have HIB up depending on the distance, you can use Incendiary first, then Plastique, then Full Auto to the HIB. It's decent burst (the damage is a bit back loaded to work with the animation which makes it more burst friendly) at range and very ammo friendly. You can normally execute it close to the 10m range, but if you get much closer you start running a strong risk of interupts. With the exception of the Stock Strike placement, this is pretty much what I do and think the real power of Assault is. A Stock Strike and 2 Ion Pulses or just 3 Ion Pulses gives you a very good shot at a reset and solid burst. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gyronamics Posted March 9, 2012 Share Posted March 9, 2012 I've been tweaking mine lately...and I think I'm close to getting it at optimal. Why do I think that? Because the guild tank is telling me he's having to taunt my targets back to him more often It's never a good thing when you're doing KP - Jarg and Sorno - and the carbonite drones decide you're higher threat than a tank. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rydgaze Posted March 9, 2012 Author Share Posted March 9, 2012 Do you guys run with ion or plasma for these rotations? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hethroin Posted March 9, 2012 Share Posted March 9, 2012 Plasma cell nearly doubles the total damage on Ion Pulse (when speced to trigger 100% of the time). It also places "burning" on the target for HiB cell refund talent, without this you are forced to Incendiary Round every target to open them for HIB and get cells refunded (you run out of ammo quickly as IR costs 3). If your job is to do damage you run plasma, no question. If damage dealing is a secondary objective (you are running the ball or are needed on guard duty), then by all means swap to Ion Cell and mitigate more damage and guard people. When running Ion cell I end up doing about 80% of our sentinel's damage, when I run plasma I do about 120% of his damage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rydgaze Posted March 9, 2012 Author Share Posted March 9, 2012 Thanks for the info. I will go full assault / plasma cell ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
va_wanderer Posted March 9, 2012 Share Posted March 9, 2012 It really does depend. PvP, it's not a bad thing to run Ion Cell- less efficient perhaps, but you live longer and still can deliver good burst damage. And that's what matters in PvP. Plasma is, IMHO better for being a PvE DPS type. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rydgaze Posted March 13, 2012 Author Share Posted March 13, 2012 With plasma cell and ionized ignition, is there a reason to even use IR? For example, I could go with this rotation <all offensive cooldowns> Assault plastique while closing in ion pulse HIB stockstrike ion pulse <until HIB procs> HIB Assault plastique (by this time the target is toast) FYI: I am only talking about PVP. I am not even trying to any PVE so burst with ammo efficiency is most important . Currently at level 45, it almost feels like god mode in warzones with assault, just the ammo efficiency is the issue and if I can live without IR, I would be set Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hethroin Posted March 13, 2012 Share Posted March 13, 2012 With plasma cell and ionized ignition, is there a reason to even use IR? ... Currently at level 45, it almost feels like god mode in warzones with assault, just the ammo efficiency is the issue and if I can live without IR, I would be set The reason for using IR is to help outpace any stacked heals on the target, as well as help prevent the target from going into a "fully cleansed" state which prevents HIB from firing. If enemy heals and cleanses are low and slow, you could reserve the use of IR for "tanky-tank" exclusively. I use IR on sorcs, and follow with Plastique and hammer shot. This is a good setup as it reduces the existing sorc-bubble to almost nothing without fully transmitting to the socr's healer that the sorc is about to get lit up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rydgaze Posted March 13, 2012 Author Share Posted March 13, 2012 The reason for using IR is to help outpace any stacked heals on the target, as well as help prevent the target from going into a "fully cleansed" state which prevents HIB from firing. If enemy heals and cleanses are low and slow, you could reserve the use of IR for "tanky-tank" exclusively. I use IR on sorcs, and follow with Plastique and hammer shot. This is a good setup as it reduces the existing sorc-bubble to almost nothing without fully transmitting to the socr's healer that the sorc is about to get lit up. Thanks ! That makes sense. So far in sub 50, typically the enemies are not yet in complete control of their toons, so I dont see too many cleanses, but I can see it changing at 50 bracket . I am just surprised that not many are not playing VG in pub side given the awesomeness of this class. I was sick of running around as sage and wanted to play something different stumbled on this and I gotta say that this class is a blast. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Akash Posted March 16, 2012 Share Posted March 16, 2012 I've been tweaking mine lately...and I think I'm close to getting it at optimal. Why do I think that? Because the guild tank is telling me he's having to taunt my targets back to him more often So, here's what I do : Relic 1 (crit , surge) Incendiary round battle focus Assault plastique HIB Hammmer shot (as I close in) AOE stun Ion pulse Stockstrike HIB Ion Pulse Cryo grenade Pulse cannon I'll throw the 2nd relic in there too, if I have an another enemy around. This is usually a sure fire kill on an enemy though. If you're looking to make more or a sustainable rotation (this one depletes my ammo and I have to use recharge cells) I'd just spatter some hammer shot through there...BUT, that will take away from the relic's and battle focus' worth. It's all about the "surge"...even though they say they nerfed it To help with the error of pulling aggro off the tank, you might save that relic till later in the rotation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
va_wanderer Posted March 16, 2012 Share Posted March 16, 2012 To help with the error of pulling aggro off the tank, you might save that relic till later in the rotation. That. You're opening with a really high burst on the rotation, and that's going to have good and bad to it. The bad part is the tank has to taunt it back. The good news is your burst + his taunt probably pushed him to 130% of your threat level (if he used it at any range, else it's 110%) and that'll be way ahead of everyone else. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coramac Posted March 16, 2012 Share Posted March 16, 2012 (edited) The reason for using IR is to help outpace any stacked heals on the target, as well as help prevent the target from going into a "fully cleansed" state which prevents HIB from firing. If enemy heals and cleanses are low and slow, you could reserve the use of IR for "tanky-tank" exclusively. I second this and will expand on other uses. One of the primary advantages it has is the 30m range. This is outstanding for engaging a target at range. For example, you see a healer on the outside of a combat area. Typically in a tense fight, a healer who is unhindered will heal others before himself especially if he's at a decent health level. In a non-solo situation, the Incendiary Round is extremely unlikely to be cleansed. You Assault Plastique then HIB. This will probably clue the target into what you are doing, but the damage is delayed a good bit with the HIB travel time. The likely reaction is a self heal which will be interupted by a Harpoon (if he runs it doesn't matter). Then follow with Stock Strike and HIB / Ion Pulses. I duo queue a lot with a Focus Guardian which makes this substantially more deadly as I have the ability to pull the target into juiced up Sweep. It's also very good to use to "prep" burst. Incendiary Round is low damage and lasts for 18 seconds. Healers are not likely to cleanse this on a high health target if there are other things going on, such as you attacking someone else causing them to heal your target. This can be particularly effective against healer heavy groups as your kill window closes rapidly. There's ~a 13.5 second window of being able to burst on that target factoring in the GCD on engaging. Basically, if that target ever gets close to what you consider to be a kill range, you can Harpoon him out of LOS and open up immediately. This allows you to open at a range up up to 30m allowing you to have already positioned yourself to be ready for an LOS pull. You could HIB after a LOS, but that will take an IP before hand which means you must be out of position or use it after the Harpoon which, as we don't have a root it, gives the target significantly more time to return to healer LOS. You could IR then HIB then Harpoon. This will work but it increases the ammo requirement you need to execute. Here IR gives us a definitive advantage over IP in terms of the suddenness of our damage. By prepositioning and having a predotted target, we gain a several second advantage. There are some other good uses for it, but those two are my favorite. Edited March 16, 2012 by Coramac Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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