Vanguard Tank Spec advice 17/21/3

[Budnarg]

Lots of posts on various specs but what I would like opinion on before I get murderated on next ops run is feedback on viability of a 17/21/3 build.

 

My reasoning is so many Bosses have a regular-ish timed knockback/stun/etc and I wanted to see if I could incorporate Hold the Line in any way.

 

This build sacrifices Storm but maintains most of my shielding abilities and adds Hold the line. I like 3 points in Assault just for the 3% more Hit points. The added plus is on short enrage timers some of the tactics skills will boost my threat and add a little DPS.

 

Thoughts before I waste cash respeccing and testing/irritating my raid leader if I try to tank with this build?

 

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#801G0hrd0MZMsbrorczZ0c.1

 

Thanks in advance.

[bglodt]

You should go to the BH Powertech forums, they have a thread with a spread sheet that tells your mitigation and threat generation with certain builds and stats. Thats you best bet to see if this will work... at least on paper.

 

That said your sacrificing a lot to get hold the line. The extra interrupts are nice though. Gut is not that great of a dps tool. You put 2 points in the cell generator which only works in HEC, which you will not be using as a tank. without charge the faster cool down on harpoon is nice, but still prolly not worth it. You took a skill to get free stock strikes, but you dont have the other talents in shield or assault that make stockstrike hit very hard. Also if you have 21,000 hp, the three points to increase your endurance only gives you 630 more HP. I think that is a waste of 3 talent points.

 

This spec is definately not going to be that great if you are going to pvp. you miss out on a ton of the great abilities in both trees and your dps will be quite limited with very little burst.

 

Its an interesting thought, dont get me wrong, i just dont see it being viable. then again you might find a way to make it work. I personally dont think so, but thats my opinion. Good luck whichever way you decide to go!

[Wallsie]

You'd get trucked in the new pve content, and old hard modes would even pose a challenge with a spec like that. You lose 6% shield chance and 8% absorb which is huge for VG. Our whole gimmick is absorbing as many hits as possible to even out damage over time.

 

Plus you lose out on the majority of your big dps increases which would make you even less viable (Ion Overload, Supercharged Ion Cell, Static Shield, Static Surge). The little bit of dps you gain through Gut and its increases will not offset this since it is a Kinetic ability and ost of what you get increases Elemental damage. Also taking Soldier's Endurance instead of Heavy Stock is bad. Even more dps loss. Won't even mention losing out on Energy Blast.

 

You're completely wasting 2 points in Cell Generator since you'd be in Ion Cell the whole time, the points in Tactical Tools should be in Frontline Offense since you don't use Harpoon often enough in pve and using Pulse Cannon that often would make your ammo expenditures such that you would do less dps in the long run from having to fire off more Hammer Shots to keep from going into a deficit.

 

This spec would work well in no phase of the game except leveling, and even that would be more difficult than it has to be. If that's fun for you, don't let anyone tell you differently. But if you're in a group with a spec like this you're just holding them back.

 

Edit: bglodit actually hit most of these points. I skipped past his post when I saw him mention BH forums. I will say however that even decreased interrupt CD is of no benefit to a raiding VG since you can't interrupt bosses anyway.

Edited April 28, 2012 by Wallsie