New to Tanking in TOR - Looking for some advice

[Ocho-Quatro]

So... I've tanked in other MMOs, but until most recently when I rolled a Vanguard alt to 50, I have never tanked in SWTOR.

 

Well, I hit 50 a week ago, and legacy-transfered a bunch of gear from my main to my new tank, and did as much as I could do this week with Ops/FPs/Dailies/PvP/Etc to try to maximize the best gear I could get as quickly as possible.

 

After a week at 50, here is my current AskMrRobot profile:

http://swtor.askmrrobot.com/character/6c777966-fc37-4b34-bf52-2f23aedfd807

 

Also, here is my current skill tree setup.. (I know I've bypassed the 3% endurance boost, and you'll note that I have opted to not use any fortitude augments in my gear. I decided to go for mitigation 1st - HP 2nd):

http://swtor.askmrrobot.com/skills/Vanguard#8i6e6dek2k-c92-c

 

For those who don't/can't click the link: (with class buffs and a Rakata Fort Stim)

 

Aim: 1,637

Endurance: 2,118

Defense: 380

Shield: 751

Absorb: 414

 

Health: 23,678.5

Armor Rating: 8624.7

Damage Reduction: 53.40%

Defense Chance: 18.22%

Shield Chance: 58.63%

Shield Absorption: 54.26%

 

I know that I am not "best-in-slot" on my Relics at the moment. I am not sure if I should PvP the War Hero or not, it if a minimal upgrade, and this character (unlike my Sage main) isn't one I've done much PvP on, so I would likely queue into a 50 warzone as a noob-tank, so I am not 100% sure what I will do there. That raises a question... Are 2 PvP Passive Relics BiS for a tank? Or do I want one passive & one dread guard proc? (still about 60 daily coms away from affording a Dread Guard relic.)

 

I was a bit confused by the Black Hole Implants... They are an Aim increase, Endurance Decrease, Shield Increase and have Absorb instead of Defense (compared to the Rakata)... I had thought that I would possibly use TWO of them, and then also use TWO PvP defense passive relics to make up for the lost Defense, which would boost my overall Shield chance and my absorb rating? Is that the right thinking here? Otherwise, my defense is gonna dip down a few percentage points, and from what I read, I want to be between 15-20, but closer to the 20 as much as I can without sacrificing other stats???

 

A few upgrades are self-explanatory... I still have Columi armorings in my Belt/Bracers, as well as needing to upgade my Rakata Armoring in my Offhand, and replacing the Columi barrel in my mainhand.

 

SO those few things aside... any thoughts? Critiques? Suggestions? (I know that I am using a bunch of WH Mods/Enh, and while they technically are not BiS, if you do the math, at the end of the day it will equate to less than half of a percent of Shield/Absorb and as a fresh 50, with alts that have a lot of warzone coms stacked up, using those mods/enhs through legacy transfer was a heck of a lot easier/faster than grinding the hundreds of black hole coms that I would need to itemize with PvE mods.)

 

Lastly... I am learning the mechanics of Threat building and Aggro management... Tanked an SM EC the other night and did pretty well on the Toth/Zorn swaps (with one exception where I derp'd and didn't have my single target taunt up when I needed it, so I just had to wait a few seconds.. ) regardless, we one-shotted it, so no one minded. I can maintain aggro when I focus on it, and time my taunts and high threat attacks, that isn't really the problem... the problem is that I feel that my DPS is very low. I realized it on both SM and HM EV at the Infernal Council. I was the last person done killing my "buddy" in both runs. (Which is not something I am used to, with my main being a sage healer who rips his target down in around 30 seconds, and my other being a Sentinel who is usually 2nd or at the least 3rd...) so I am wondering, what is the optimal "dps" rotation for a tank vanguard?

 

I'd appreciate any suggestions/advice from the community... I might be a decently geared tank, but the guy at the keyboard is still learning how to be a GOOD tank. (yes, there is a difference between a geared tank, and a good tank...)

[Kitru]

I am not sure if I should PvP the War Hero or not, it if a minimal upgrade

 

Getting the EWH relic would amount to all of 17 more Shield or Defense (you actually need to be almost right where you're at for Shield for optimal stat distro thanks to all of the shield/absorb goodies that VGs get, so I would say you want the Shield one), so it's up to you whether you think it's worth the effort. For an alt, I would probably say it isn't.

 

Are 2 PvP Passive Relics BiS for a tank? Or do I want one passive & one dread guard proc?

 

It depends entirely on what you prefer to use. For a VG, the absorb proc relic is definitely a must have: the absorb, even reduced by the DR curve, is simply too useful to overlook. As to your second, whether you want a passive PvP relic or a click use relic (Campaign Shield/Absorb is actually the best bet for you both because Shield/Abs is more useful to you than Defense and because it's go a 30 sec duration whereas the Camp Def and both DG use relics have only a 20 sec duration), depend upon your preferences. For fights where you're constantly tanking a boss that deals consistent mitigatable damage, the passive relics are better (there are almost none of these any more except for a few no-swap strats for EC). For fights where you tank swap and end up alternating between taking lots of mitigatable damage and negligible mitigatable damage, the use relics are better. Of course, you could also grab a use relic to use as an additional CD, since VGs only have the one useful survivability CD. Either way, it's largely a wash: choose what fits your playstyle. Use relic if you either want another CD or will use it on CD when appropriate; if you don't want to bother with another button, get a passive relic.

 

They are an Aim increase, Endurance Decrease, Shield Increase and have Absorb instead of Defense (compared to the Rakata)... I had thought that I would possibly use TWO of them, and then also use TWO PvP defense passive relics to make up for the lost Defense, which would boost my overall Shield chance and my absorb rating? Is that the right thinking here? Otherwise, my defense is gonna dip down a few percentage points, and from what I read, I want to be between 15-20, but closer to the 20 as much as I can without sacrificing other stats?

 

You actually want a lot less Defense than many people have been lead to believe. VGs just don't have the necessary native increases to make it a particularly useful stat for minimizing incoming damage while they *do* have a crapton of Shield and Absorb, which makes those ratings incredible.

 

For an 1700 mitigation stat budget (DG/Camp with 1 passive relics), you want ~375 Defense, ~725 Shield, and ~600 Absorb, which means you're doing pretty good for Defense and Shield, but what you really want is more Absorb. Honestly, I wouldn't bother auging or getting relics for your Defense: you'll get all-to-most of what you need from mods and enhs. You'll should only really need to devote 4-5 aug slots to Shield and the rest to Absorb.

 

For a simple optimal "recipe" without ever needing to do anything but spend BH comms and run HM EV/KP, just use all Deflecting 26 mods (cheapest place to get em is the BH Gloves for 50 comms), Bulwark 26 enhancements (cheapest place to get em is the BH Legs for 55 comms), the Camp/DG Absorb relic, a passive PvP Shield relic, and 4 Shield Augs with 10 Absorb augs.

 

what is the optimal "dps" rotation for a tank vanguard?

 

VG tank rotation/priority is *disturbingly* simple: keep Stockstrike, Energy Blast, and HiB on CD; if all of those are on CD, if you have 10-12 ammo, use Ion Pulse, else use Hammer Shot. Essentially, you're just maintaining your ammo in the top tier of regeneration (never letting it drop below 8) while keeping all of your ST DPS CDs on CD and never wasting your ammo regen.

 

It's probably best to keep in mind that tank DPS is always "bad". A good VG tank is going to pull ~700-800 DPS in a boss fight, assuming it's a pure tank and spank. If it requires some switching and/or downtime, like a lot of the EC fights do, you'll probably achieve a lot less. As long as you're not losing aggro, you're doing your job just fine.