Tanking in SWTOR

[Mykeadam]

Hey folks.

 

I'm a verteran of MMORPGs and after a long break from playing WoW(which I don't intend on going back to) I decided to dive into SWTOR. My preference of play is tanking. I'm going Powertech Bounty Hunter so I'm curious as to how the tanking works in SWTOR as the only basis to go by is what I learned during my 5 years of WoW playing.

[Otembe]

If you tanked in WoW, you won't have to start learning how to tank from scratch in SWTOR. I think you'll find that the option, in Preferences, to make your character automatically turn to face the target is a godsend, as is the ability to level as a tank with a DPS companion, so you can practice pulling, taunting, and timing your defensive cooldowns while doing solo content.

 

I was a WoW player for six years; it was SWTOR, though, that taught me to love tanking.

Edited October 26, 2012 by Otembe

[Mykeadam]

Ah nice.

 

In terms of gear, what do Bounty Hunter tanks aim for?

[Oggthebase]

hello, welcome to SWTOR!

 

I tanked in Wow and I am tanking in SWTOR now, and here are the few differences I know of:

 

1- taunt multiplies the current aggro by 1.3 (30%), regardless of who holds the aggro, even the tank. This means that:

- you can taunt when you already have aggro to increase the threat threshold by 30%. This is part of your "rotation", although sometimes you're better off waiting for a dps to grab aggro and taunt from him so you immediately get a 30% jumpstart. Depends on your style.

- early in combat you can loose agro, but unless the mob has a threat reset/dump, the longer the combat lasts, the less chance any dps will catch up with the +30% every 15 sec.

 

2- tanking in flashpoints is a little different as the ennemies are rarely packed together (more ennemies shoot from a distance) so depending on your class you may have difficulty tanking everything. Since you mention 5 years experience in Wow, I would say the tanking in swtor is more like the vanilla-TBC era of tanking versus the wotlk paladin aoe snoozefest tanking. This means:

- you should tank as many as you can, but if not, your order of priority would be the champion (golden+silver) and elite (gold) and strong (silver). Leave the normal and weak mobs for the dps to burn in priority as they will fall fast.

- you should ask for CC if you can. Some pulls are hard (not TBC "shattered halls" hard though )

 

I think that's about it. In the end it's about the same in swtor as in wow.

[Mykeadam]

Cool, thanks for the info.

 

Not to digress, but I remember dpsing in TBC Shattered Halls(didn't switch to tanking until Wrath sadly) and that was some good fun .

 

What stats should I be aiming for as a Tank in SWTOR?

[Otembe]

At low levels, Endurance and your class-specific primary stat will do. That's Aim for Bounty Hunters and Troopers, Strength for Sith Warriors and Jedi Knights, and Willpower for Jedi Consulars and Sith Inquisitor.

 

When secondary stats like Defense (chance to dodge/parry), Shield Rating (chance to block), and Absorption Rating (amount of damage blocked) become available at higher levels, the exact balance you want between those stats will depend on which tanking class you are. There are folks in the class specific forums who can give you more detailed answers than I can.

[Mykeadam]

Powertech is what I'll be going.

[Vacarius]

Generally as a powertech tank you should be aiming for shield chance and shield absorbtion as you are more of a mitigation than avoidance tank. I don't play one myself, but I think a lot of my mates ran something along the lines of:

 

45% shield and absorption ->20% defense chance -> stack endurance

 

This is me trying to remember what they said, so not entirely accurate. Generally, don't worry about these stats until you reach 50, pre 50 stuff isn't that hard (a bit can help though). Once you reach 50, focus on getting the shield related stats up before worying about anything else.

 

Gear in SWTOR is based on the armouring, mod, and enchancement in it, so for tanking focus on getting what's called the 'high endurance' versions (usually have higher endurance than aim). Google/class forum will have better guides, so use those if you're interestd in high level tanking.

Edited October 26, 2012 by Vacarius

[Mykeadam]

Cool, thanks very much .

[Oggthebase]

What Vacarius wrote above for the gearing is good advice.

 

I forgot another difference with tanking in Wow (this is something I have not verified myself, but remember reading in the forums from other tanks):

 

your avoidance (defense) and mitigation (shield rating) is not positional, meaning you can turn your back on the boss to taunt something else or run away to kite him, and still block and dodge.

In Wow as a tank you always had to face the mobs you were tanking, but not in SWTOR.

[Otembe]

For Force-using tanks, it's almost worth turning around just for the behind-the-back lightsaber parry. It never gets old.

[happysister]

it was SWTOR, though, that taught me to love tanking.

this. i don't think i've ever had as much tanking in other games as i do in this game. it almost feels like i never actually tanked in other games. i like it so much, i made one of each type of tank (guardian, powertech, and shadow) and took them all to level 50.