WZs is shield tech help a team more than Pyro?

[TheMove]

Im only a level 27 PT. Ive been Pyro since level 10 and put up around 200k dmg per WZ. Pyro does really good dps and even though its boring because all I do is run into the fight do as much dps as possible die and run back asap and rinse and repeat. 50% of the time im top damage in the WZ and if not im top 3. Don't get alot of MVP votes though. I rolled PT for shield tech. But I felt its not worth specing into to a higher level and around where I would get jet charge.

 

Anyway I switched to shield tech today did abot 20 WZs today so far. I feel like im a fake player as shield tech. Ive been putting up about 75-100k dmg and around 30k protection. Im getting 4+ mvp votes in almost every WZ. Is really 30k protection worth doing half the dps in a WZ? I feel like protection is just fake. So im protecting someone whoopdie doo. I guarntee whoeever im protecting doesn't put out the dps I would if I was pyro spec.

 

Why do people think doing like 30k protection is such a big thing and factor. If I was pyro spec instead the person im protecting prob would of took 50% less damage bc I would of killed them twice as fast.

 

I neutral dart everytime its off CD and i use it on the class that can dish the most dmg. Me doing that all WZ gets unnoticed. A pyro can spam neutal dart. I bet neutral dart alone takes off alotmore damage than protection would. Anyway just wanted to post my thoughts. Im about to spec back to Pyro.

[TheMove]

I feel like I can bust me butt off in a WZ and have top dmg and kills and nobody even notices me or throws me a MVP vote. Even though I spam neutral dart everytime its off CD as well. But I barley even put the same effort in as Shield tech and just throw out protection and do horrible dps and everyone votes me MVP and notices me.

[Agooz]

I think "played right" a Pyro is better. But that's just me. I can protect my healer just as good as a shield tech. Between taunts, pulls, CCs, they cant kill my healer, while I melt them away. And with 18sec Energy Shield + Energy Rebounder, grouped with a healer, I am unstoppable. Not just doing damage, but medals, protection, winning objectives, defending, the whole bit.

[wraithaur]

you are missing the point. Its not all about damage or even how many protection points you get. Playing shield tech, (which i do) is about making it so the team can achieve its goals and you make life really hard for the enemy.

 

Its about guarding the ball carrier in huttball, guarding the healer keeping people alive at a node or door. Its about taunting constantly to reduce enemy dmg output. Its about interupting the flow of combat for the enemy every chance you can. You should be Jet Packing onto people and peeling them off your team mates. Look in combat for an ally getting smashed and peel the enemy off with grappling hook.

I don't ever top damage, i average between 100 and 150k with 30-60k protection. But i regularly get 10-13 medals and usually at least 1 MVP vote.

I'm playing at lvl 38 currently so my experience with the spec is pretty close to yours. I did play pyrotech for a long time, but since i moved to Shield Tech i just can't go back. The mobility is awesome. Strong survivability and the ability to provide a real value to your team. People don't respect spamming damage, they respect the difference you make in the game.

[mycroftward]

Shield tech is better for huttball

Everywhere else it comes down to group composition. You generally don't want more tanks than you have healers

[Agooz]

you are missing the point. Its not all about damage or even how many protection points you get. Playing shield tech, (which i do) is about making it so the team can achieve its goals and you make life really hard for the enemy.

 

Its about guarding the ball carrier in huttball, guarding the healer keeping people alive at a node or door. Its about taunting constantly to reduce enemy dmg output. Its about interupting the flow of combat for the enemy every chance you can. You should be Jet Packing onto people and peeling them off your team mates. Look in combat for an ally getting smashed and peel the enemy off with grappling hook.

I don't ever top damage, i average between 100 and 150k with 30-60k protection. But i regularly get 10-13 medals and usually at least 1 MVP vote.

I'm playing at lvl 38 currently so my experience with the spec is pretty close to yours. I did play pyrotech for a long time, but since i moved to Shield Tech i just can't go back. The mobility is awesome. Strong survivability and the ability to provide a real value to your team. People don't respect spamming damage, they respect the difference you make in the game.

 

I understand what you're saying. But from my perspective, the only thing you do that I cant is guard. Everything else a good pyro does just as well. When I run premade with 4, I constantly score in huttball as a pyro. I can take an objective in civil war, often even 2v1, and actually I just got a turret in 3v1. I can hold an objective just as good as a shieldtech. In voidstar, my kill order is healers>marauders, all this while taunting all the time. Novare Coast, always stealing objectives while keeping my healer alive.

I am not telling people not to play shieldtech. It is still very viable, and lots of fun in huttball. All I am saying, as a pyro, and I am sure even as an AP, a powertech can "help" his team extremely well "IF" played right. Now that is a big IF, because from what I see, most dps PTs dont play the class right.

[TheMove]

I do enjoy Shield tech more though. Gives me more to do and Im sure it will get better when I get more abilitys. I switched back to Pyro than right back to shield. Shield is more fun. Feel like I can help the teamin another ways and play more relaxed than just run in and do as much dps as I can before I die.

[Rahh]

I am Shield Tech, since lvl 20 I haven't really owned dps gear because my focus is end-game tanking. Although I do want to get dps gear and attempt to dps once in a while but waiting on dual spec to be able to do that, if they ever do offer it in future patches.

 

I agree that it probably would depend on the group, as to what helps where. Play what you enjoy, at the end of the day thats really what matters when you play a game.

 

I personally enjoy being able to stay alive just long enough to protect an objective from being taken when everyone else is dead and on their way back. Although when I have 1v6 I can melt away fairly quickly without my oh **** skills and healer healing me.

Edited May 9, 2012 by Rahh

[Dajag]

31 spec ST is a fun PvP class is you are of the mind set, protecting is fun and I love being in a support role.

 

Up side is you can hold off melee classes and even kill them 1v1 to include Mauraders, though most will give up on you and flee to easy targets.

 

Down side is you will get spanked by casters quickly because you can not effectively mitigate their damage.

 

Upside is if you run with a healer as a tandem you will be a force of power.

 

Down side is if you dont run with a healer you will get worn down and spend a lot of time looking at that barrier waitting to get back in the match. (most Pug healers heal themselves only they forget about the tank)

 

Upside is if you play the class right you can get a ton of medals (I average 12 - 16) and coms; plus be a real pest in huttball.

 

Downside is you wont have that BAM BAM thrill of the kill, your kills come from wearing folks down and picking off the weak. (grapple and Rocket Charge can be a lot of fun, grabbing or flying to that fleeing foe when he thinks he got away then rocket punching his lights out).

 

This build is best in a premade though I pug a lot too and know who will heal me and gaurd them.

[dardack]

I think "played right" a Pyro is better. But that's just me. I can protect my healer just as good as a shield tech. Between taunts, pulls, CCs, they cant kill my healer, while I melt them away. And with 18sec Energy Shield + Energy Rebounder, grouped with a healer, I am unstoppable. Not just doing damage, but medals, protection, winning objectives, defending, the whole bit.

 

Yeah I went with the PVP armoring only. So only 15 sec Shield but energy rebounder is AMAZING.

 

Also, right now in PvP tanks are useless except when paired with a healer and even then still kinda useless. You'll get blown up by competent dps and you can't put out dps to counter.

 

Only map I see tanks useful is HB and with the change don't get that much anymore.

 

EDIT: Ahh I mean every tank is useless except tankasins. It's the one tank class that has a ton of dps abilities in their tree. Jugg/Pt tanks kinda useless in PvP right now.

Edited May 9, 2012 by dardack

[uzairzaidi]

I used to think shieldtech was good for huttball... till i saw a juggernaught. Since then I have gone Pyro and have never looked back

[Luceus]

I have a lvl 48 PT that I kind of gave up on because it sounds to me like the 'tank' role in pvp is not really as effective as a DPS / pyrotech role. Is that the case?

 

I have a well geared Marauder, so if I want to dps, I'll play him, but was considering beefing up my PT to be a nice defensive pvp tank, however is it not even worth it?

 

Another question, if I do, is it better to have full defensive gear as well? I see some who like the defensive spec / offensive gear, but I kind of want to be 100% pure tank. However, not really sure if the absorption, etc will help me live longer than if I had some crit/surge and killed a person quicker.

 

Any suggestions?

[dardack]

I have a lvl 48 PT that I kind of gave up on because it sounds to me like the 'tank' role in pvp is not really as effective as a DPS / pyrotech role. Is that the case?

 

I have a well geared Marauder, so if I want to dps, I'll play him, but was considering beefing up my PT to be a nice defensive pvp tank, however is it not even worth it?

 

Another question, if I do, is it better to have full defensive gear as well? I see some who like the defensive spec / offensive gear, but I kind of want to be 100% pure tank. However, not really sure if the absorption, etc will help me live longer than if I had some crit/surge and killed a person quicker.

 

Any suggestions?

 

Jugger's in HB as tanks are good, any oher map kinda useless. Tankasins because of their mechanics/damage as a tank are viable as tanks in dps gear. PT tanks are useless even in dps gear. Go pyro and blow people up.

 

Mara's are good, I just love my PT.

 

Shielding in PvP only works on white attacks so mara/sniper.jugg is about it. Other classes wno't get shielded and you'll die pretty fast.

 

Plus you don't have the mechanics a jugg has to mitigate more damage and such. Tanks can't put out the damage (besides tankasins) against same geared DPS to kill the dps before the dps kills the tank. Again while I feel Pt/Jugg tanks are useless.

[Luceus]

Jugger's in HB as tanks are good, any oher map kinda useless. Tankasins because of their mechanics/damage as a tank are viable as tanks in dps gear. PT tanks are useless even in dps gear. Go pyro and blow people up.

 

Mara's are good, I just love my PT.

 

Shielding in PvP only works on white attacks so mara/sniper.jugg is about it. Other classes wno't get shielded and you'll die pretty fast.

 

Plus you don't have the mechanics a jugg has to mitigate more damage and such. Tanks can't put out the damage (besides tankasins) against same geared DPS to kill the dps before the dps kills the tank. Again while I feel Pt/Jugg tanks are useless.

 

Thanks for the reply. Yea, I took a look at the Jugg tank tree and it's pretty solid, a lot of nice options. I've always been a little disappointed with the ST tree. To be fair, I'm still a noob and don't completely understand the differences in defensive abilities. I'm seeing Armor and Damage Reduction almost completely for Energy and Kinetic, which I assume are melee attacks (the white text like you said). I'm not sure what the rest is, but if we can't really defend well against ranged / nukes, that makes tank spec terrible in matches like voidstar, etc where sorcerers sit back and chain lightning.

 

So even with absorption and defensive gear, the class is still weak against ranged?

 

I guess I'll stick with my sorcerer healer I'm slowly leveling up as my side option to pvp. I chose PT because I wanted to tank pvp matches, but I guess I can't do that effectively. (don't care about doing pve)

[Githanis]

So even with absorption and defensive gear, the class is still weak against ranged?

 

I guess I'll stick with my sorcerer healer I'm slowly leveling up as my side option to pvp. I chose PT because I wanted to tank pvp matches, but I guess I can't do that effectively. (don't care about doing pve)

 

Tryout the "Iron Fist" build...It's actually a lot of fun if played correctly! I'm usually top medal earner, top 3 in damage, #1 in protection, top 1-2 in objectives and most importantly.....#1 in pissing people off!

[dardack]

Tryout the "Iron Fist" build...It's actually a lot of fun if played correctly! I'm usually top medal earner, top 3 in damage, #1 in protection, top 1-2 in objectives and most importantly.....#1 in pissing people off!

 

If your top 3 in damage done out of 16 your not running with very good DPS. IF in no way can compete with competent with true dps.

[Luceus]

Tryout the "Iron Fist" build...It's actually a lot of fun if played correctly! I'm usually top medal earner, top 3 in damage, #1 in protection, top 1-2 in objectives and most importantly.....#1 in pissing people off!

 

What's the recommended gear? Offensive or the defensive stuff?

[Luceus]

My question can also go to Dardack too, just in case I want to try a pyro spec build. I'd assume crit/surge etc

[Githanis]

If your top 3 in damage done out of 16 your not running with very good DPS. IF in no way can compete with competent with true dps.

 

Top 3 on my team which would be out of 8. Using my offensive cds (optimally) every time they're up and using stims liberally I dish out fairly decent damage when need be. I know I'll never be in the top percentage of damage dealers as an IF spec, nor would I expect that. However, I'm usually top medal earner and the other stats I mentioned out of the entire 16.

[Githanis]

What's the recommended gear? Offensive or the defensive stuff?

 

Shield offhand, DPS stats for the remaining slots. Check out Taugrim's "Iron Fist" guide and have fun!

[Agooz]

Tryout the "Iron Fist" build...It's actually a lot of fun if played correctly! I'm usually top medal earner, top 3 in damage, #1 in protection, top 1-2 in objectives and most importantly.....#1 in pissing people off!

 

No way in hell is a Tank spec PT, which is what an Ironfist is, can be in top 3 dps. In fact, a Full ST might even do more damage, due to better heat management. I am not saying you're lying, but it just means you are running with HORRIBLE dps on the team, or all the people on your team are healers and tanks.

[dardack]

Top 3 on my team which would be out of 8. Using my offensive cds (optimally) every time they're up and using stims liberally I dish out fairly decent damage when need be. I know I'll never be in the top percentage of damage dealers as an IF spec, nor would I expect that. However, I'm usually top medal earner and the other stats I mentioned out of the entire 16.

 

 

First, who cares about medals past 8. Pointless.

 

Again even if your top 3 out of 8, your running with healers/tanks or no competent DPS. I don't care how often your blowing your CD's, cause any competent DPS is doing the same thing. Tank in equal gear against competent dps will loose every time.

 

Again I've said protection for a healer is OK, but again i'd rather run say 6 dps 2 heals no tanks. Tanks gimp your team EXCEPT HB. And even then bring a tankasin to carry, so in other maps he can DPS up there.

[dardack]

My question can also go to Dardack too, just in case I want to try a pyro spec build. I'd assume crit/surge etc

 

Aim>power (until about 2k aim or if the tradeoff is 1.3aim for 1 power, so some mods loose say 13 aim but gain 26 power, so I go with those, but if you want more endurance you have to keep all of this in mind)>surge>crit>accuracy

 

Some will say crit/surge swap, but generally you want to reach about 25% unbuffed crit and 75-78% unbuffed surge.

[Luceus]

Aim>power (until about 2k aim or if the tradeoff is 1.3aim for 1 power, so some mods loose say 13 aim but gain 26 power, so I go with those, but if you want more endurance you have to keep all of this in mind)>surge>crit>accuracy

 

Some will say crit/surge swap, but generally you want to reach about 25% unbuffed crit and 75-78% unbuffed surge.

 

Is this the type of spec you run http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#3010MZMsrrobfkdsZfh.1 ? That one does look a bit interesting and possibly fun. I assume you also go with CGC opposed to HEGC?

[Githanis]

First, who cares about medals past 8. Pointless.

 

I understand that acquiring more then 8 medals in a single WZ match means nothing for a player regarding personal rewards. However, as a statistic, medals are a strong indicator of one's performance and accomplishments in a WZ match. More times then not the team with the most medals wins. So, no, medals past 8 are by no means pointless, statistically speaking.