New Lvl 50 Vanguard looking for some help.

[Xemini]

Hey guys, I'm looking for some tips to help maximize my tanking for my guild runs. We are starting to hit some of the lvl 49-50 Flashpoints and the Hard Modes. My questions are as follows:

 

#1. Im currently running this build http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#801RMRrdRrogZMsr0o.1 and have done fine tanking all Flashpoints so far up to Red Reaper. Is this build viable and if not, can you suggest one that will be viable. I am planning to only do PvE at this time, and plan to make a PvP build once dual spec comes out.

 

#2. My stats are as follow, wanting to know how close (or far) I am from ideal for where I am in the game.

 

Accuracy - 94.57%

Crit - 13.73%

Crit Mult - 50%

Health - 16,224 (buffed), 14530 (unbuffed)

Armor - 7309

Dmg Reduction - 49.36

Defense - 18.58 (buffed), 17.69 (unbuffed)

Shield - 48.11

Shield Absorb - 35.60

 

As far as gear goes, all of my moddable gear I am working on getting Purple Armor/Mods/Enhancements for, and my gear that isnt modded is lvl 126 epic gear.

 

Thanks in advance for any help given, I appreciate your time and input.

[PatchesOfPlenox]

Hey guys, I'm looking for some tips to help maximize my tanking for my guild runs. We are starting to hit some of the lvl 49-50 Flashpoints and the Hard Modes. My questions are as follows:

 

#1. Im currently running this build http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#801RMRrdRrogZMsr0o.1 and have done fine tanking all Flashpoints so far up to Red Reaper. Is this build viable and if not, can you suggest one that will be viable. I am planning to only do PvE at this time, and plan to make a PvP build once dual spec comes out.

 

#2. My stats are as follow, wanting to know how close (or far) I am from ideal for where I am in the game.

 

Accuracy - 94.57%

Crit - 13.73%

Crit Mult - 50%

Health - 16,224 (buffed), 14530 (unbuffed)

Armor - 7309

Dmg Reduction - 49.36

Defense - 18.58 (buffed), 17.69 (unbuffed)

Shield - 48.11

Shield Absorb - 35.60

 

As far as gear goes, all of my moddable gear I am working on getting Purple Armor/Mods/Enhancements for, and my gear that isnt modded is lvl 126 epic gear.

 

Thanks in advance for any help given, I appreciate your time and input.

 

Hey there ^_^

 

Seems you're going in the right direction (stacking shield stats rather than defense chances) with your mitigation, you could have slightly more accuracy, but you're doing just fine on it. As far as your health goes, when you say "unbuffed" do you mean stims, etc? You should always have your 5% up, so I'm curious if you mean you have 14.5k with the 5% or you mean just naked (literally no buffs).

 

Also, as for your spec, there is no reason to take gut what-so-ever. If anything, that 1 point (I'd prefer two, it's what I do) should be in either the Stockstrike damage buff in the first tier of the assault tree, or in Energy Blast.

 

As far as my experience anyway, you seem to be on the right track besides gut, and are doing plenty well with stat allocation.

 

What kind of gear are you in, set wise? How much of the set? All this information is useful

 

Also, intoxicated from the night before, and no sleep. Sorry for poor grammar.

[Xemini]

Hey there ^_^

 

Seems you're going in the right direction (stacking shield stats rather than defense chances) with your mitigation, you could have slightly more accuracy, but you're doing just fine on it. As far as your health goes, when you say "unbuffed" do you mean stims, etc? You should always have your 5% up, so I'm curious if you mean you have 14.5k with the 5% or you mean just naked (literally no buffs).

 

Also, as for your spec, there is no reason to take gut what-so-ever. If anything, that 1 point (I'd prefer two, it's what I do) should be in either the Stockstrike damage buff in the first tier of the assault tree, or in Energy Blast.

 

As far as my experience anyway, you seem to be on the right track besides gut, and are doing plenty well with stat allocation.

 

What kind of gear are you in, set wise? How much of the set? All this information is useful

 

Also, intoxicated from the night before, and no sleep. Sorry for poor grammar.

 

 

By "unbuffed" I mean without the 5% buff and no stims. I normally run with the 5% buff and the lvl 48 fortitude stim.

 

Also, was wondering if "Defensive Measures" has any viability in PvE at all, or if its more useful for PvP.. i remember I picked it up for some PvP action early on. Was thinking of also removing that and moving those points into either Steely Resolve and Intimidation along with what u had suggested above removing Gut. Its funny I have been using Gut for so long, it seems weird to get rid of it lol.

 

Gear-wise, the majority of my gear is moddable gear at lvl 124 and above, except my bracers which are at 118. I have no set gear as of yet, since I have mostly been playing just the main storyline and not many of the new Flashpoints (have played up to Red Reaper). I am also currently doing dailies on Ilum and Belsavis for commendation points and doing the heroics to pick up nice Enhancements and what not.

[Daekarus]

I share your pain about Gut. I leveled with it, but once I switched to energy blast I could never go back. It's not that it does a lot of damage, but the ammo benefits are awesome. I have had people in pugs ask me how I manage to keep aggro and manage my ammo so well, it's that big a difference.

[Xemini]

I share your pain about Gut. I leveled with it, but once I switched to energy blast I could never go back. It's not that it does a lot of damage, but the ammo benefits are awesome. I have had people in pugs ask me how I manage to keep aggro and manage my ammo so well, it's that big a difference.

 

Do you mind throwing down your rotation using Energy Blast?

[Mozivicus]

Good job so far.... and by that I mean good job making due with orange gear until better becomes available. If you do the dailies on Ilum and Belsalvis, you can pick up a nice defnsive mod for the orange gear (heroic daily on belsalvis) and a nice defensive enhancement on Ilum (heroic daily). Also, on Ilum, you'll be able to purchase armoring (mods, not a chest piece or anything) from the daily commendations vendor.

 

The 3 of those, once installed into your orange gear, will make its rating 126... and that will be as good of a rating as the Tionese or centurion gear. AFAIK, this setup will produce more endurance than the Tionese set. I could be wrong on a piece or two since I'm not a tank at the moment. But I do remember the guild tank being very surprised/impressed with my mod'd orange gear compared to his epic PVE gear....fwiw.

 

Anyways, enjoy the gear grind that is the post 50 game

[Myxam]

Your stats are looking good, a little high on the defense and low on absorb but that's likely due to some bad drops or itemization (>.<!) of our gear.

Work on getting that Absorption Rating up to match your shield chance, in the long run it'll do more than the defense will.

 

As for Defensive Measures, it has no use in PvE since very few mobs actually stealth and harpooning something usually gets it's attention (and pop-ups aren't hidden, they're triggered spawns ). So Steely Resolve pays off more for those two points.

 

And you asked for a rotation using Energy Blast rather than Gut.

 

Priority Rotation:

Stockstrike, Ion Pulse, High Impact Bolt, Hammer Shot, Energy Blast

( for a RIFT Junkie like myself the Macro would look like this )

 

cast Stockstrike

cast High Impact Bolt

cast Energy Blast

cast Sticky Grenade

cast Full Auto

cast Ion Pulse

(leave Hammer Shot on bar)

 

 

 

So basically my hotkeys look like this.

 

1 (Neural Jolt) 2 (Hammer Shot) 3 (Ion Pulse) 4 (Stockstrike) 5 (High Impact Bolt) 6 (Energy Blast)

 

I hope I don't need to explain that later.

But the best way to maintain your ammo and threat output is to weave Hammer Shot between your abilities (Like Hunters in WoW with Steady Shot).

 

(I am not making game comparisons simply referencing similar situations)

 

<3 Myxam

Edited March 13, 2012 by Myxam

[Xemini]

Thank you everyone for your replies. It's nice to get real, helpful answers and not trolling.

[PatchesOfPlenox]

Your stats are looking good, a little high on the defense and low on absorb but that's likely due to some bad drops or itemization (>.<!) of our gear.

Work on getting that Absorption Rating up to match your shield chance, in the long run it'll do more than the defense will.

 

As for Defensive Measures, it has no use in PvE since very few mobs actually stealth and harpooning something usually gets it's attention (and pop-ups aren't hidden, they're triggered spawns ). So Steely Resolve pays off more for those two points.

 

And you asked for a rotation using Energy Blast rather than Gut.

 

Priority Rotation:

Stockstrike, Ion Pulse, High Impact Bolt, Hammer Shot, Energy Blast

( for a RIFT Junkie like myself the Macro would look like this )

 

cast Stockstrike

cast High Impact Bolt

cast Energy Blast

cast Sticky Grenade

cast Full Auto

cast Ion Pulse

(leave Hammer Shot on bar)

 

 

 

So basically my hotkeys look like this.

 

1 (Neural Jolt) 2 (Hammer Shot) 3 (Ion Pulse) 4 (Stockstrike) 5 (High Impact Bolt) 6 (Energy Blast)

 

I hope I don't need to explain that later.

But the best way to maintain your ammo and threat output is to weave Hammer Shot between your abilities (Like Hunters in WoW with Steady Shot).

 

(I am not making game comparisons simply referencing similar situations)

 

<3 Myxam

 

Full Auto should not be in your rotation as a tank, ever. You dont' get a full cast, and is therefore less damage than basically anything else you can use.