PvE Defense Spec Tank and Blade Storm

[SWTOR_TnT]

I've been looking through my spec, rotation and gear lately trying to find a solution to the threat problems I've been having. Sure you can be just fine if you taunt every time taunt is up, but I would prefer a more direct aggro approach by increasing my dps.

 

What i've found is that i use blade storm in my rotation because I have a 4 peice set bonus and 2 pts in blade barrier for my spec, but im not quite sure why. My blade storm's base dmg is about 1447, costing 4 focus (less with courage procs but those can be used with sweep) with the bonus of being a 10m range spell and granting me blade barrier, which I saw in another thread is about 59 dmg resist/second, 71 dr/s with the set bonus.

 

However, I have also found that because I use blade storm in my rotation, I don't have a lot of time to use Slash or Cylone slash. Slash's base dmg is about 1225, costs 3 focus, is melee range but has the benefit of lowering combat focus's cool down by 3 seconds (which would allow for even more focus dumping).

 

In some quick target dummy testing, I found that swapping blade storm out of my rotation entirely and using slash in its place to dump focus caused me to have a noticeable dps increase. This would also allow you to take 2 pts off of blade barrier and put them into a cooldown of resolute (not a great option for pve, I know, but its all I have left). It would also allow you more flexibility in gearing by only requiring the 2 piece pve set bonus.

 

Just wanted to know if anyone else had tried this out or had opinions on the matter. Any input is appreciated. If people are interested I can try doing some more in depth testing later on actual dps increase with just swapping rotations alone, and not changing gear or spec, but don't have the time do it tonight.

 

Related thread of blade barrier protection and the 4 piece set bonus:

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=448261

Edited May 9, 2012 by SWTOR_TnT