Mainstat (PVE NMEC)

[gabigool]

Our PT is losing threat while tanking NM tanks - there is a Pyro on the side he starts on.... Both in full 63's.

 

Subject came up last night of him adjusting a couple mods to boost Aim a bit - right now he's min/maxxed for mitigation.

 

We have no other PT tanks at this progression level yet so wanted to ask here what other PT's who are at this stage currently have for Aim and if anyone else has tweaked gear a bit to raise it.

[SgtKlavier]

Our PT is losing threat while tanking NM tanks - there is a Pyro on the side he starts on.... Both in full 63's.

 

Subject came up last night of him adjusting a couple mods to boost Aim a bit - right now he's min/maxxed for mitigation.

 

We have no other PT tanks at this progression level yet so wanted to ask here what other PT's who are at this stage currently have for Aim and if anyone else has tweaked gear a bit to raise it.

 

My PT currently has 1759 aim with a mix of 61/63 gear. Losing threat to a pyro is a common thing, but once you get passed the initial part of the fight taunts should take care of everything. You could simply have that pyro wait a bit before start dpsing. If you do want the tank to do more damage, you could have him replace the high endurance armorings with high aim ones, provided his hp doesn't drop too low. However, I wouldn't say that getting pulled off of on this one fight is enough to necessitate a change in gear beyond what tanks should have.

[ScytheEleven]

Like the other poster said, have the Pyro wait a second before DPS'ing.

 

What I would suggest doing is having your tank do is the following opening rotation:

 

Jet Charge > Flame Burst x 2 > Rocket Punch > Rail Shot > TAUNT

 

The taunt works as a multiplier of your current threat level (this is what another geared 63 tank told me, I really have no data to back it up), so you want to taunt after using high threat movies. Since I've followed this idea, I've had no problems holding threat with my Juggernaut.

Edited March 7, 2013 by ScytheEleven

[bbare]

Our PT is losing threat while tanking NM tanks - there is a Pyro on the side he starts on.... Both in full 63's.

 

Subject came up last night of him adjusting a couple mods to boost Aim a bit - right now he's min/maxxed for mitigation.

 

We have no other PT tanks at this progression level yet so wanted to ask here what other PT's who are at this stage currently have for Aim and if anyone else has tweaked gear a bit to raise it.

 

1. Is your Tank guarding the Pyro PT? Tanks should be guarding a dps, specifically one who can pull threat most easily.

 

2. What is your Tank's rotation?

Edited March 7, 2013 by bbare

[Marb]

Grapple generates 2.5k threat, for comparison flame burst is about the same. I would advise against wasting a global cooldown on grapple to generate threat.

 

Keep in mind that your flamethrower and death from above are your highest dps/threat attacks even on single targets. You should be pairing those with explosive fuel during your opening sequence. Ensure that you're taunt boosting with the single target taunt first, letting the taunt debuff drop off completely before following it with an aoe taunt. Never clip your taunt debuffs if you're trying to taunt boost yourself.

 

Your rocket punch wont proc and you will have the extra pressure of heat creeping up on stormcaller if that's the tank you're on, so you will have to taunt boost at some point if that pyro is even halfway competent.

 

Also if you're over 25k health with a stim, you can drop a few of your commando armorings for reflex (high aim) ones, and maybe look at a reflex barrel. If you're only doing 8man nimc, any health you have over 25k is wasted potential threat, as long as your healer is on the ball and you're using your energy shield correctly. But regardless, If you have a strong opener with a well timed taunt you should be fine without dropping your endurance, (considering a deeper health pool has value when tanking stormcaller) but its something to keep in mind as an alternative.

 

EDIT: Before dropping endurance on your gear, spec out of integrated cardio package if you have it, and put those points into iron fist. Take 1 point out of flamesurge and drop supercharged iron gas for 2/2 rail loaders. Also take a point out of prototype cylinders and put it in hot iron: http://swtor.askmrrobot.com/skills/powertech#8j6e0dek2k-d32-c

 

If you want to be really anal about it, taking the point in hot iron and putting it into advanced tools will edge out more damage by a flies arse assuming you use flamethrower on cooldown every time.

Edited March 7, 2013 by Marb

[bbare]

My bad, I assumed grapple was pretty much the same as the assassin's force pull. The tooltips are very similar. Never played a PT tank, only an assassin. I'll remove that. Edited March 7, 2013 by bbare

[Marb]

My bad, I assumed grapple was pretty much the same as the assassin's force pull. The tooltips are very similar. Never played a PT tank, only an assassin. I'll remove that.

Its a very common assumption, with terrible tooltips on biowares part being mostly to blame.

Edited March 7, 2013 by Marb

[SalBasss]

Like the other poster said, have the Pyro wait a second before DPS'ing.

 

What I would suggest doing is having your tank do is the following opening rotation:

 

Jet Charge > Flame Burst x 2 > Rocket Punch > Rail Shot > TAUNT

 

The taunt works as a multiplier of your current threat level (this is what another geared 63 tank told me, I really have no data to back it up), so you want to taunt after using high threat movies. Since I've followed this idea, I've had no problems holding threat with my Juggernaut.

 

I'd throw in a off-GCD Heat Blast somewhere in there before the taunt as well. You can always AOE taunt along with your single taunt to boost threat even faster (or just to make sure you hold the boss for 12 seconds while you gain threat).

 

You are correct about the multiplier. It wlil boost threat by 130% if you are beyond approx. 2.74m (to be safe, say 3.0m), and 100% if closer than that. If you want to get really fancy you could always alleviate the problem by having the Pyro stay between 3-4m away from the boss (if possible given the big hit box in this fight), and/or make sure the tank moves out beyond 3m whenever he taunts.

[OlosBC]

Melee vs ranged is 4m from the center(!) Of the target. On a dummy this works out to 2.74m from edge. Ina raid you're virtually always at "range".

 

On my.pyro, I DPS firebrand and so the taunt switch for incinerate. I virtually always pull before but its no big deal. After the taunt, my sorc healer gives me extricate and no more problems. I go full blast on the first gcd (well, second, first is IM)

[steave]

Like the other poster said, have the Pyro wait a second before DPS'ing.

 

What I would suggest doing is having your tank do is the following opening rotation:

 

Jet Charge > Flame Burst x 2 > Rocket Punch > Rail Shot > TAUNT

 

The taunt works as a multiplier of your current threat level (this is what another geared 63 tank told me, I really have no data to back it up), so you want to taunt after using high threat movies. Since I've followed this idea, I've had no problems holding threat with my Juggernaut.

 

On most fights, that's a decent one (except you should throw in heat blast as mentioned by someone for extra off-GCD damage and heat venting) but on this fight you need your taunt for the tank swap not long after so I wouldn't risk more than 2 attacks (after the charge) before using the single target taunt, then do 4 more attacks and aoe taunt.

[SalBasss]

On most fights, that's a decent one (except you should throw in heat blast as mentioned by someone for extra off-GCD damage and heat venting) but on this fight you need your taunt for the tank swap not long after so I wouldn't risk more than 2 attacks (after the charge) before using the single target taunt, then do 4 more attacks and aoe taunt.

 

Unless of course they aren't even doing a tank swap.

[gabigool]

We do swap in NM.

 

I really wasn't asking "how to tank".

 

I'm wondering if anyone has bumped up their mainstat to assist with threat and if so, what rough level of Aim are they up to (assuming full 63's).

 

For NM tanks, this would seem preferable to asking a DPS to hold back, even minimally, given the tightness of the enrage timer. The threat put out by a well played optimized 63's pyro is no joke especially when a taunt has to be planned for.

 

Seems like from the one or two relevant responses, no one is doing it but might be worth trying a few mod/armoring swaps.

[steave]

Unless of course they aren't even doing a tank swap.

Ty captain obvious.

 

We do swap in NM.

 

I really wasn't asking "how to tank".

 

I'm wondering if anyone has bumped up their mainstat to assist with threat and if so, what rough level of Aim are they up to (assuming full 63's).

 

For NM tanks, this would seem preferable to asking a DPS to hold back, even minimally, given the tightness of the enrage timer. The threat put out by a well played optimized 63's pyro is no joke especially when a taunt has to be planned for.

 

Seems like from the one or two relevant responses, no one is doing it but might be worth trying a few mod/armoring swaps.

 

The point is that if you guard that pyro and use taunts to boost your threat as described here you'll hold aggro no matter what, so no, since I do that I haven't done anything to boost my mainstat.

[Marb]

We do swap in NM.

 

I really wasn't asking "how to tank".

 

I'm wondering if anyone has bumped up their mainstat to assist with threat and if so, what rough level of Aim are they up to (assuming full 63's).

 

For NM tanks, this would seem preferable to asking a DPS to hold back, even minimally, given the tightness of the enrage timer. The threat put out by a well played optimized 63's pyro is no joke especially when a taunt has to be planned for.

 

Seems like from the one or two relevant responses, no one is doing it but might be worth trying a few mod/armoring swaps.

 

Yet you said your PT was having threat issues on stormcaller, which would lead most to assume that they *do* need some tanking tips. They have enough time to boost with their single taunt within the first few GCD's, boosting off that with their aoe taunt before they will need to swap. Rather then force your PT to look into re-gearing outside of what is comfortable for most healers, how about you ensure he/she is playing properly. You never *need* to stack any main stat gear at all to hold threat with a powertech, or any of the tank classes for that matter, due to the way taunt mechanics can be utilised.

 

Before dropping endurance gear, check to see if they are taking the points out of Integrated Cardio Package, and picking up Iron Fist. Assuming full 63's with a stim and a proper spec, you will be *just* inside the 25k health buffer with high endurance everything, which is considered to be the maximum health you would ever want to have inside of 8man content. Now on to choosing high manstat gear over endurance; if your healer doesn't need a buffer zone to assist in reaction time, then yes, the pt can drop endurance for aim. I have tanked NiMC tanks with a 24k health jugg with little risk, so you could look at going down to 22-23k. A large health buffer here is only serving the purpose of saving the tank on storm from a bad pillar kite, or slow healer reaction time.

 

You could also try asking your pyro to not use adrenal, relic and fuel until the first swap. Its not the same as asking for him to hold off for a few GCD's, it will just keep his opening burst down so he doesn't spike over the tank by a massive amount before they can get ahead. A pyro in full 63's opening up with adrenal, explosive fuel and relic is going to give any tank who is not expecting it a real headache like you said. If its a learning experience and progression, then there is even more reason to try this. The enrage timer is a factor, but assuming you're running with competent dps, there is no way that loosing out on that opening adrenal, relic, fuel combo will cost you the kill.

 

The point is that if you guard that pyro and use taunts to boost your threat as described here you'll hold aggro no matter what, so no, since I do that I haven't done anything to boost my mainstat.

 

Yep.

Edited March 11, 2013 by Marb