PvE tanking build

[Vicvoss]

I don't usually post on the boards a lot but can someone reference me to a good tanking build for post 1.2 or share some? I haven't seen any lately and I just want to get everything down before I start doing ops hm flashpoints.

[physiology]

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=158355

 

use to be a sticky, idk why they removed it

[qwinnet]

I'm using 31/10/0. Take everything in the Shield tree except the obvious PvP abilities. Take Demolition, Focused Impact, Blaster Augs, Frontline Offense and Power Armor in the Tatics tree. Don't be tempted to take the Soldier's Endurance in the Assualt tree. It is out weighed by the damage and damage reduction taken in the Tatcs tree.

 

My personal opinion is to skip HM FP's unless you have nothing else to do. They are a time sink and your first week of Ops runs will gear you faster than chaining running the HM FP's. 17K HP is a good indicator that you are ready to tank Story Mode ops.

[Fordel]

It's pretty much like the dude above me said, just fill out your ShieldSpec tree to the top and go deep enough into Tactics to grab the PowerArmor talent.

 

There's only like 3-5 floater points and none of them are really going to make or break anything.

[Wallsie]

I'm using 31/10/0. Take everything in the Shield tree except the obvious PvP abilities. Take Demolition, Focused Impact, Blaster Augs, Frontline Offense and Power Armor in the Tatics tree. Don't be tempted to take the Soldier's Endurance in the Assualt tree. It is out weighed by the damage and damage reduction taken in the Tatcs tree.

 

My personal opinion is to skip HM FP's unless you have nothing else to do. They are a time sink and your first week of Ops runs will gear you faster than chaining running the HM FP's. 17K HP is a good indicator that you are ready to tank Story Mode ops.

 

Points in Frontline Offense are wasted if you're not taking Gut, and you have no reason to take it as a PVE tank. In either case, those points will serve you much better in either Heavy Stock (increase damage of your bread and butter attack) or Soldier's Endurance (we need all the health we can get in the new FP and OP). Choose based on your survivability since threat on a single target is almost never an issue due to the way taunts work (and we have two of them). 31/8/2 or you're doing it wrong.

 

There's some decent info in the link provided (and a lot that is missing and is hard to cover in a 'general' tanking thread) above but I feel the need to point out a couple of things:

 

- Energy Blast is now a must-take ability since it has been taken off the GCD. It should be used every time it comes off CD and you should be making sure to be down 2-3 ammo as it becomes ready to make use of the ammo regen. It's free regen and damage, the only way it could be better is if it provided mitigation... oh wait, it also contributes to our new Power Screen so it helps to get that maxed as quickly as possible.

 

- The thread in general seems to be targeting a fresh 50 tank preparing for FPs, but a number of your priorities will change when you enter an OP, so keep that in mind. For example your starting rotation on a boss should include your crit CD (Battle Tactics? something like that) and burn as much ammo as you can then use Recharge Cells/Reserve Ammo/Energy Blast to top yourself back up quickly. You'll need to do this to counteract the fact that your dps are going to pop cooldowns pretty much at the start of the pull so you want to generate a ton of aggro early.

 

- Explosive Surge is garbage except for aoe pulls. Pulse Cannon is great for aggro generation on a boss (just beware of knockbacks).

 

- One of the biggest advantages you have as a VG tank is mobility, since most of our abilities are instant cast and you have a lot of abilities to generate threat from range (this doesn't make you a 'ranged tank' though). Keep it in mind and take advantage.

 

I'm starting to ramble so I'll close by saying I would tend to agree that FPs are a waste of time. In general they are overtuned for the loot they drop and the average leveling-geared group will not clear them in any reasonable amount of time (if at all). Try to get into a guild that has Operations on farm if possible, or start a guild of like-minded people to run them. Or if you're on a really populated server just keep pugging away (you'll get a lot of dudes and more wipes than normal like that though).

Edited April 24, 2012 by Wallsie