Converted Justcae's guide for Powertech Tank

[cymonguk]

I converted this from the Vanguard guide. I couldnt do the on the fly ability conversion so have updated with the powertech skills. If there are things wrong, let me know and I will update.

 

Hi Guys! I'm Cae! As of the date of this post I've successfully cleared all in game published content. I've cleared this content on my main which just so happens to be my Powertech. I've noticed that there have been alot of questions about how to gear. Futhermore I've noticed there being some basic misunderstandings of the fundamentals of tanking. This is my effort to correct such things and try to provide you with the information you need to go forward in this game.

 

Basics!

 

That being said what are the basics of being a tank? At the very least what you need to strive to do is hold the attention/aggro/threat of the most damaging NPC's in the game. At the same time not falling apart like a hardcore game of drunken jenga. As you progress you will learn how to more effectively hold more, and survive longer.

 

The key to growing these is to be aware of what your class can do, how to gear your character, and developing an overall awareness to the content you are doing at that moment. Knowing what is going to happen when you pull a group of beasties is essential to long life, and group happiness.

 

Terminology and What They Do?

 

So lets break down the very basic tenents and terminology of being a tank.

 

Threat - Threat is literally what your group both lives by and dies by. If you have it the group lives, if your group has it your group dies at an alarming rate. When you engage in combat with any NPC is has a list of the people in combat with it. Based on the actions of the people in your group they move and fall on this list. Typically the person on the top of this list is the person whom this NPC is going to attack. Threat is gained by attacks done to the NPC by both you and the DPS, as well as the healers keeping you all standing.

 

Taunting - You as a Powertech have two abilities which will automatically give you the attention of an NPC, unless of course it is immune to taunting. A taunt will make you the NPC's primary target, as well as force them to attack you for a number of seconds. If you did nothing to further build threat on these NPC's after that time has passed they may well turn away from you. Luckily when you taunted the NPC what the game did is give you the amount of threat required to pull the creatures attention off of whatever it was on before. You can even use taunts to increase your own threat on creatures already on you. Advanced tanking, and end game raiding requires you to do this.

 

For more on the details of threat and tanking click below.

 

 

 

Threat Basics

 

1) Every point of damage you or your allies put out causes a threat value to that particular creature. This value may be modified by outside factors. ex) Ion stance gives you 100% threat. While in Ion stance, every point of threat you deal through damage is doubled. Typically 1 point of damage = 1 point of threat.

 

2) Every point of healing you or your allies put out causes an amount of threat to -everything- in combat. Luckily the amount of threat is relatively small. But because it affects every single NPC in combat it can lead to healers gaining aggro.

 

3) Some abilities are noted as "High Threat". This is a very lose term. Some of these abilities deal damage, and that damage is further modified by percentage. Other abilities like our Grapple deal a set amount of threat that the devs felt was significant. For the record, Grapple used to (have checked to see if this was changed) deal about the same amount of threat as a Rocket Punch, it applies whether or not you can actually pull the NPC to you.

 

ZOMG Where Did The Aggro Go?

 

In order to pull threat in this game one character must exceed the currently aggro'ed targets threat by a certain percentage. There are two categories for this.

 

1) Melee. Melee targets threat must only exceed the currently aggro'ed target by 10%. If you have 1000 threat on a creature, and they gain 1100 or above, they will be the new target. In order to regain aggro on that target you will need to break 110% of their threat.

 

2) Range. Range targets threat must exceed the currently aggro'ed targets by 30%. If you have 1000 threat on a creature, and they gain 1300 or above, they will be the new target. If you were to attack that creature at range, you too would need to exceed their current threat by the same percentage.

 

Where the heck do taunts come in?

 

A taunt has two functions.

 

1) A taunt will force a target affected by it to attack you for 6s. Regardless of whatever else has occurred with threat for 6s, it's yours.

 

2) Whomever is the current highest on threat, it will take their threat and multiply it by the amount needed to pull aggro from them, and give that value to you. This value can be massive. Currently in game all taunts appear to be calculated as if from range. That's right. It gives you 130% of the highest threat on the mob currently. This is huge and follows into the next part.

 

Taunt Boosting

 

Your character while tanking is obviously on this threat table. Whomever has the highest value of threat on a mob is used for the threat added calculation. In most cases this person is you. That means if you are tanking a boss, and you are the highest person on threat, and you have still not lost aggro to someone but you hit your taunt anyways you will actually boost from yourself.

 

Every time you hit your taunt, take ALL of the threat you've generated on that mob. Add an additional 30% threat to what you've already done. Been fighting an NPC for 30s? Yeah by pressing that button that functions of GCD, you've just gained an addition 10s of threat magically.

 

Your taunt, regardless of if aggro has been pulled from you does this every single time you hit it. Your two taunts are your biggest aggro generating abilities in this game. Bar none.

 

 

 

Guard - Guard is an ability found in the Powertech tab of your ability panel.

 

"While active, the guarded player takes 5% less damage and generates 25% less threat. In addition, so long as you remain within 15 meters of the guarded player, 50% of all incoming damage from enemy players is redirected to you."

 

The key for PvE is the first sentance of the text. If you are playing in a group and are consistently losing or battling for threat that person is the candidate for your guard. It will as the text says lower their threat by 25%. If they do pull from you, they'll take 5% less damage until you get it back. The second line of text is specifically for PvP and has no bearing in PvE.

 

Cooldown - Most abilities in SWTOR have some sort of internal cooldown after being used. That is not what this is referring to. Cooldowns in general are those abilities which are so defensively powerful they have a long cooldown. Its key to learn when to use these abilities. If you know they attacks you are going to be facing it becomes easier and easier to survive formerly difficult moments. Simply by using your cooldowns you can limit the damage to you, and to the the group by thousands and thousands of points of damage.

 

Stats

 

The bonus of being a tank is that stat balancing becomes a lot less complicated than other roles. We can get rid of several stats right off the get go. Those stats which would aid DPS or heals? Get rid of them. Alacrity, accuracy, and surge have no business being on your character. Bioware does indeed put them on some of your class sets. However, Bioware does not min/max your gear and hopefully you will. Those three specifically increase DPS, which though it would increase your threat generation, are not needed at all. Especially after you've mastered taunt boosting.

 

Defense (dodge) - This stat has improved for Powertechs in 2.0. When you initially hit 55 the fastest way you can increase your survivability is to stack this number. It gives you the most return for your stats early. It does however drop off, and is not needed past a certain point. Beyond that defense is only used in attacks against you that are classified as "Melee" or "Range." If it is not one of these categories you will not be able to defend against them with this stat.

 

 

I currently have 752 defense rating. This gives me 20.61% defense chance. I will not put any further points directly into this. its a very strong base to work off of. I would happily lower my defense to a flat 20% as I min/max.

 

 

Shield - Shield was significantly buffed in its role in 2.0. Before shield was exactly like defense in that it only worked on abilities classifed as "Melee" or "Range." Now however your shield will work those but also any ability that does kinetic, or energy. Most boss NPC's in this game have several hard hitting abilities. Almost all those abilities deal one of those two types of damage and are shieldable. This is huge for shield. It also makes out lives a little more complicated as far as balancing stats. As shield and defense still both work on what they did before, but now shield works on more it can complicate your stat balancing a little bit. Luckily for you, aside from augments and relics, shield does not compete with defense for points. Shield only competes with all those stats we previously pointed out we didn't want. Namely alacrity, accuracy, and surge.

 

 

I currently have 939 shield rating. This gives me a 39.87% shield chance. This stat will only be affected further by how many high shield vs high endurance enhancements I wishto use. For all intensive purposes this will remain my shield chance end game.

 

 

Absorb - Absorb works hand in hand with shield. It is also the fastest climbing of all the defensive stats because of this. Absorb means nothing without shield, and shield means nothing without absorb. Absorb is the percentage of damage that will be reduces by a shielded attack. Absorb and defense fight directly for points on your gear. A defensive mod or enhancement will either have absorb or defense. It will not have both. Luckily because your shield is going to be naturally high due to you being able to stack it, absorb benefits.

 

 

I currently have 380 absorb rating. This gives me 33.66% absorb. This stat will be increased as I fill out my gear and am able to drop my defense chance to a flat 20%.

 

 

Endurance - Directly affects your health, which consequently determines how much damage is required to defeat your character. A very simple stat that is easily understandable. As you gear your character to how you see fit, you will find a number that you appreciate. There is no right or wrong number for where you end up with this. It will be somewhere in the mid 30k health area.

 

Abilities

 

Bounty Hunter

 

Kolto Overload - "Activating this ability makes you Fired Up for up to 60 seconds, which triggers an Adreniline Rush when your health is reduced to 30% or less. If your health is already below 30%, Kolto Overload triggers immediately. Once triggered Kolto Overload goes on cooldown for three minutes, and rapidly heals you for up to 30% of your max health for 8 seconds, but will not exceed 30% of your max health"

 

This ability can be a life saver. It was much easier to use in its previous incarnation but is far more powerful now. Its further improved in our tree by "Coolant" which allows it to heal you for 2% of your health every second even after its healed you to thirty. They've made it so that you can preemptively use this ability. If you know you are heading into a very damaging part of the fight and you are already wounded you can queue this ability to fire. Very useful ability. It will take you time to learn when best to use this.

 

Electro Dart - Fairly simple. Four second single target stun. Useful for interrupting abilities on NPC's while your interrupt is on CD. Also useful to help your group keep particularly damaging NPC's locked down while being DPS'ed.

 

Diversion - Threat drop. Not particularly useful for a MT. Though could be used in some overly complicated strategies. This is meant more for our DPS'ing fellows.

 

Missile Blast - A very poor ability for the Powertech class. Feel free to not have it on your bar.

 

Unload - An extremely poor ability for the Powertech class. Deals damage very similar to Rapid shots, costs heat, and requires you stay in one place. Do not even train this ability. This is a Commando skill. Do not use. Ever. Ever? Ever.

 

 

Rapid Shots - Your default "auto attack." Very useful due to its range. Does decent damage do to stance procs. Because it fires off several attacks every use you will almost always be gaining some measure of threat.

 

Rail Shot - One of our high damage and thereby high threat abilities. Requires a DoT be on the target. No worries that's what the Ion Gas Cylinder proc is for. Try to use this ability whenever you have the chance. Due to spec later outlined, this will also build a stack of Heat Screen and reduce your cooldown for Heat Blast.

 

Hydraulic Overrides - Formerly found high in the Tactics tree. Now all Powertechs and Commandos may use it. The increased run speed in combat is useful, but what will make it particularly useful to you as a tank is the immunity to all movement impairing, knockdown, and physics. By popping this at the right moment you can avoid most or all of some bosses "Burst phases."

 

An example of this is the bonus boss of Hammerstation. If you use this ability during the channel of his rampage phase he will not be able to knock you down. He'll just stand there looking at you intensely for a moment and then carry on regularly attacking you.

 

Death from Above - Our highest damaging skill. The fact that it's AOE is all the better. Very hard to actually use when you are pressed against a wall with a horrible camera angle. Very strong to use on the beginning of a pull. Both with bosses or just NPC packs.

 

Flame Thrower - Amazing ability. Unfortunately subject to knockbacks so you may have to time it correctly while tanking some bosses. Use it whenever you can. With the proper spec you can actually fire off two almost back to back. FIres a cone extending 10 meters infront of you. Does AOE damage. Really couldn't ask for more. When you are doing the 3 second channel, you will almost recoup all of your heat spent activating the ability originally.

 

Energy Shield - Damage reduction of 25% for X number of seconds. Affected by your 2 piece set bonus. Amazing cooldown. Your very strongest cooldown for mitigating high damage phases of fights. Use it liberally after you know the timing of bosses big hits.

 

Vent Heat - Gives you a portion of your heat back. Huzzah!

 

Thermal Sensor Overload - Makes your next ability free. I typically use this in conjunction with Death from Above at the beginning of fights.

 

Stealth Scan - Reveals stealthed enemies. Some NPC's like Stealth Killers in the raid Explosive Conflict have the ability to steath. By putting this underneath them they will no longer be able to stealth and allow DPS to remain on them.

 

Explosive Dart - Very strong ability for its cost. Longe range, delayed damage AOE. Very useful for pulling NPC packs around corners like on Mandalorian Raiders. throw your dart, and start high tailing it behind a corner. The NPC's won't start chasing until the dart actually lands on the targeted NPC allowing you to be out of range and ducked behind a corner. Again, very strong ability.

 

Rocket Punch - Your bread and butter attack. Always use it as soon as it is up. Applies your Ion Gas Cylinder DoT whenever you use it, allowing you to use Rail Shot. Is reset by shielding attacks if specced for it. Very strong ability.

 

Determination - Your crowd control break. Some fights (Titan 6 in Scum and Villany) will require you to use this in order to prevent damage or not be one shot. Must have on your bar.

 

Powertech

 

Explosive Fuel - More of a DPS Powertech skill. But still useful to increasing the threat you do over a period of time. I will typically use it just before firing my Death from Above at the start of a pull. It is improved by "Coolant" but the improvement is very minor.

 

Flame Sweep - Your spammable, if expensive AOE. If you have "Flame Surge" in your tanking tree specialized, and you should, you will be able to use this ability for free twice after using Jet Charge. Very useful for AOE phases of fights, or large packs of NPC's. Applies your Combust debuff lowering those affected by it damage by 5%. Only thing that moderates its use is its high cost in heat.

 

Guard - Noted above.

 

Grapple - Is your pull. A very useful ability for positioning mobs for AoE or just peeling them off someone at range. This skill is noted for being "High threat" but it realy only applies the same amount of threat as one stock strike. Don't expect it to make something change targets. The threat is applied even if the NPC is physics immune.

 

Up Close and Personal (Passive) - New from 2.0. Increases the duration of our Energy Shield (yay!), and while we are in AOE we regen heat and are healed for 2.5% of our health. Now, no one is going to stand in an AOE on purpose because of this. But being that you are the Tank you are going to be targeted by all of the bosses cleaves, as well as be the target of other variously nasty AOE's. This helps mitigate some of that unavoidable damage and gives you more heat to boot. As this is passive you do not need to activate it, you get it for simply being awesome.

 

Flame Burst - Your spammable attack that costs heat. Improved in various ways through your spec. Most noted is the application of Combust which lowers the targets damage by 5%. Use this whenever you have heat to burn and everything else is on cooldown.

 

Neural Dart - Single target taunt. Functions outside of the GCD. Can not miss. Ever.

 

Quell - Your interrupt.

 

Shoulder Cannon - Very difficult ability to master. Loads 4 missiles over 20 seconds starting with the activation of the ability. They will stay loaded for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, or upon use of all 4 missiles the ability goes on cooldown for 90 seconds. Due to (suggested) spec, each missile will heal you for 5% of your max health. This ability functions outside the global cooldown. The missiles are able to be fired even if you are subject to crowd control.

 

I will typically have these loaded before starting a boss, and spam them at the start to increase my threat. In more serious content, I will have them loaded and waiting for parts of increased damage or where healing may have to be focused elsewhere. ex) Lots of Missiles on Titan 6.

 

Sonic Missile - AoE taunt. Functions outside of the GCD. Can not ever miss. Ever.

 

Spec

 

Heat Blast - Altered significantly in 2.0. Still amazing. Regenerates heat, and applies a buff to your absorb by 25%. Functions outside of the global cooldown. Cooldown is lowered by shielding attacks, and proc'ing your Ion Gas Cylinder. There is zero reason to take anything else over this. None. I can say with confidence if you do not have this skill you are doing it wrong.

 

Oil Slick - Also altered significantly in 2.0. Improved the accuracy debuff to 30%. Slows all enemies inside of it by 70%. This accuracy debuff does affect Bosses. It does only affect those attacks classified as "Melee" or "Ranged." You can look at this as increasing your defense (and everyone whom has a NPC attacking them in the gas) by 30%. Not bad.

 

Jet Charge - Your charge/leap/teleport/jump. Whatever you want to call it. Takes your character from where you are, and puts you by that NPC way over there so you can hit them with your gun like a completely sane person would. Side note) This is why Eminem would play a Powertech.

 

Specialization and Why?

 

36/6/??

 

You will have 4 (6) points that you can put wherever you feel necessary. But the points outlined by the following are basically must haves.

 

Shield Tech Tree (36)

 

First Tier

 

Combust 2/2 - Allows your Flame Burst, and Flame Sweep to apply a -5% damage debuff to target. Must have.

 

Steely Resolve 3/3 - 9% aim. Overall threat increase.

 

Second Tier

 

Ion Overload 2/2 - Makes your Stock Strike proc your Ion Gas Cylinder. This will lower your cooldown on Heat Blast, and allow you to use Rail Shot.

 

Overcharged Cell Capacitor 3/3 - Improves all elemental damage by 6%. Abilities affected? Flame Burst, Flame Thrower, Heat Blast and Flame Sweep. All go to moves.

 

Rebraced Armor 2/2 - Increases Armor rating by 16%. Armor affects Kinetic, and Energy damage. Which just so happens to be most of the damage in the game.

 

Third Tier

 

Oil Slick 1/1 - One of your strongest cooldowns. Must have. No excuses.

 

Shield Vents 2/2 - Increases shield chance. In addition when you shield you regenerate heat.

 

Ablative Upgrades 2/2 - Increases absorb by 4%.

 

Fourth Tier

 

Supercharged Ion Gas 1/1 - Makes Rail Shot trigger an AOE blast from Ion Gas Cylinder. Increases Ion Overload damage by 25%. This also makes it so Rail Shot builds a powerscreen, and reduces the cooldown for Heat Blast.

 

Ion Screen 2/2 - Flat 2% damage reduction to all incoming damage.

 

Flame Shield 2/2 - Increases the crit chance of Rocket Punch and Flame Sweep by 16%. But also, shielding an attack resets Rocket Punch. Very important talent.

 

Fifth Tier

 

Jet Charge 1/1 - A fantastic ability required for tank swap ease. No excuse to not take it.

 

Flame Surge 2/2 - After using Jet Charge, two free uses of Flame Sweep.

 

6th Tier

 

Deflective Plating 2/2 - 4% Dodge.

 

Flame Engine 2/2 - Direct damage attacks reset Flame Thrower, and make Flame Thrower tick twice as fast. Second rank makes this proc a 18s cooldown, very important.

 

7th Tier

 

Heat Screen 1/1 - Shielding or Triggering Ion Gas Cylinder gives you a stack of Heat Screen. Heat Screen stacks 3x's. Each stack improves absorb by 1%. At three stacks allows the use of Heat Blast.

 

Shield Cannon 2/2 - Improves Flame Sweep, and Shoulder cannon damage and threat by 5%. Each missile now heals for 5% of your total health.

 

Coolant 2/2 - Your Kolto Overload heals for 2% of your health every second above 30%. Explosive Fuel increases alacrity by 5% (meh).

 

8th Tier

 

Heat Blast - As noted above. No excuse not to take it. Extremely powerful ability.

 

But Cae!? That's only 34 ability points? The points I outlined are the must haves of PvE tanking. I'm leaving you with two points to spend however you wish. Want more Rail Shot damage? Pick up Rail Loaders 2/2. Want to run fast the entire duration of combat? Pick up Jet Speed 2/2. Want your Flame Sweep to snare all those caught by it by 50%? Pick up Sharp Satchel 2/2. None of these are going to make or break your character and are completely up to your individual play style.

 

Tactics

 

First Tier

 

Puncture 3/3 - Improves Accuracy by 3% for Ranged and Tech. Additionally Rail Shot ignores 45% of armor. Because Bosses have resists to Tech now this improves your threat and minimizes their resists.

 

Power Armor 2/2 - Increases damage reduction by 2%.

 

Second Tier

 

Advanced Tools 1/2 - Reduces Flame Thrower by 1.5s.

 

 

Why is this important? If you refer back to your Shield Tech tree you picked up Flame Engine which resets your Flame Thrower and makes it tick twice as fast. Your second point in that skill lowed that cooldown from 24, to 18 seconds. By taking at least one point in this skill you allow yourself to use Flame Thrower back to back. You use Flame Thrower before proccing Flame Engine, after you hit Rapid Shots, which usually procs Flame Engine immediately resetting your ability and letting it tick twice as fast. Now your ability is on a 16.5s cooldown, and the ability to lower it also on a 16.5s cooldown.

 

 

But Cae I have 4 points left over?! I know. You can place those points however you see fit. I have them in Prototype Burn Enhancers 2/2, and Iron Fist 2/2. But that isn't going to change how I tank any different than how you tank if you pick up Integrated Cardio Package 3/3. Would I spend those points there? Clearly not, but you aren't wrong for putting them there, or any other place you wish.

Edited July 2, 2013 by cymonguk
Suggestions

[Sardonyyx]

You should never use TSO at the start of a fight, that's wasting it.

Also, the main class is a Bounty Hunter, and the powertech passive ability is called "Up close and Personal"

Kolto overload places a health monitor on the target, it doesn't make them "fired up"

[cymonguk]

You should never use TSO at the start of a fight, that's wasting it. Care to expand so others can learn?

Also, the main class is a Bounty Hunter, and the powertech passive ability is called "Up close and Personal" Done

Kolto overload places a health monitor on the target, it doesn't make them "fired up" Care to expand so others can learn?

 

Edited above, add further comments if you can help please.

[cymonguk]

Rotation/Priority System

There are typically two ways to open a fight as a Powertech. Those two ways are entirely dependent on whether or not this single skill is on cooldown or not.

 

1. Death from Above -> Jet Charge -> Flame Sweep -> Rocket Punch -> Rail Shot -> (Heat Blast) -> (Flame Thrower)

 

Death from Above is your strongest skill and its a pain in the *** to place while tanking. However you should take full advantage of it any pull you can. Every boss fight starts with my Death from Above as it gives you such a huge threat base to start off of. Jet Charge to close and give you the two Flame Sweep procs. Rocket Punch to get its reset cooldown rolling and proc your Ion Gas Cylinder. Your Rail Shot is now open due to your DoT from Ion Gas Cylinder. Between Rail Shot and Rocket Punch you now should have two stacks of Flame Screen. As soon shield one attack you will have your three stacks required for Heat Blast which will always be fired on cooldown. Flame Thrower is almost always procced by now, but even if it isn't you should use it. Its a very high damage skill even without the proc.

 

2. Explosive Dart -> Jet Charge -> As Above.

 

If Death from Above is on cooldown, use Explosive Dart as your opener. Because it's a doubly delayed (Travel time + delayed damage) the NPC's won't react until your already flying through the air from Jet Charge. They'll start closing around you, your Flame Sweep will give you a threat base, followed very shortly by your delayed blast from explosive dart.

 

Priority System

 

1. Heat Blast

 

2. Rocket Punch

 

3. Rail Shot

 

4. Combust debuff (which should be maintained at all times)

 

5. Flame Thrower

 

6. If all of the above are on cooldown, or you are heat starved, Rapid Shots.

 

Other notes

1. Shoulder Cannon is a very difficult skill to make use of effectively. You either have to look at it as extra threat, or healing. At the start of a boss fight I'll use it as extra threat, spamming the missiles during the opening rotation. As they function off cooldown they are not noted above. All other times I'll use it for the self heal. Make sure you load it as soon as its off cooldown for that reason. If there is a big hit or set of attacks coming my way I'll want to have 4/4 missiles readied. Because I'm using it most often for the 20% health over 2s, I can not tell you when you should use it otherwise.

 

2. Make sure every rotation, especially in the opening stages, you effectively taunt boost(see previous post). I'll use neural dart on cooldown if the fight allows from the 5th skill pressed on. Only holding it in reserve if there is a tank swap, or threat drop. No one will touch your threat

[cymonguk]

This is according to some of the vanguard forums the most tanky build for the class:

 

http://www.swtor-spy.com/skill-tree-calculator/powertech/16/?build=023202322012012200120012021200100223100000000000000000000000000000200000000000000000000000000000&ver=20

[Sardonyyx]

Ok, Kolto overload places a health monitor on the target that lasts for 1 minute, while its active in tank spec supposedly (I say that because I've never seen it happen) it heals you for 1% of your health over the duration. Kinda crappy really considering the only time you use that "defensive cd" is when you're about to wipe anyway.

 

Using TSO before a fight is useless because you start the fight with 0 heat, making DFA cost 0 heat at the beginning is a waste. Also I would not suggest opening with death from above, three second channel, and it does not immediately build up a bunch of threat like an aoe taunt does, or even Jet charge followed by two FS. The guide seems...meh..I wouldn't really follow it tbh, doesn't give stat breakdown, just information about the spec, some of which is wrong, of course thats the original posters problem. All in all, there are better more comprehensive guides written by better PT tanks, some of those main PT tanks, this seems like the guy who wrote this might have an alt that's a PT tank or something.

Contrary to popular belief DFA is easy to use while tanking, most of the time if you move back a little, but stay in melee range you should be able to place the reticule right outside the boss's feet and he will get hit by it. Don't open with DFA if you are main tank, that's a terrible idea, if you're Main assist then go for it.

The most important thing about PT tanking is use of rocket punch( for dot/absorb stacks), rail shot( same as RP), flame sweep(for extra threat gen), and heat blast( super absorb and threat). Flamethrower should always be on cooldown as well, and use flame engine EVERY chance you get, don't miss it. Shoulder cannon to me is a useless ability as I don't know wether to use it or save it, it should either just heal or just build threat, personally id like it to only build threat, and maybe do a little aoe like RS. Your main problem as a pt tank will be your lack of defensive cooldowns. You rely on the shield way too much (IMO Pyro shield should be in this tree, as well as energy rebounder), oil slick doesn't make sense for a pt to have, but is nice in some situations.

Edited July 2, 2013 by Sardonyyx

[rogue-knight]

Opening with an AOE taunt on a group of mobs is the worst possible way to initiate a pull. Taunts in SWTOR are multiplicative, that is they take the current amount of threat generated by the individual on the top of the agro table and multiply it by a scalar; 1.1 if you are within 4m of the mobs center, 1.3 if you are greater than 4m from the mobs center (for most bosses you will always be greater than 4m from the center due to the physical size of the boss).

 

Therefore if you open with an AOE taunt you are taking the current maximum threat (0 since you have not started combat) and multiply it by 1.3, giving you a grand total of 0 threat, the only thing that the AOE does at this point is force the target to attack you for 6 seconds.

 

Now, if you open with Mortar Volley|Death from Above and then Storm|Jet Charge followed by your two free Explosive Surge|Flame Sweeps and THEN do and AOE taunt you generate a large chunk of additional threat (probably 10% since you will be within 4m on most trash pulls, for bosses you will most likely get 30%). This is due to the fact that the taunt takes the current highest threat (yours as the tank) and multiplies it by the scalar and then assigns it to the issuer of the taunt.

Edited July 2, 2013 by rogue-knight

[Sardonyyx]

No **** Sherlock.

 

I'm aware. And as you can see I was just using that as a for instance, I never said, run in aoe taunt, or to even start the encounter with one. Another example of an aoe taunt would be flame sweep, or discharge both build a high amount of threat, so in a way they can function as an aoe taunt, although flame sweep pales in comparison to discharge the function is essentially the same.

[artikulieren]

Why no accuracy? If bosses have a natural 10% defense chance, won't having accuracy allow for all your attacks to hit and negating the chance for a dodge/resist? I'm not saying build for it, but wouldn't it be nice to have?

[SW_display_name]

Why no accuracy? If bosses have a natural 10% defense chance, won't having accuracy allow for all your attacks to hit and negating the chance for a dodge/resist? I'm not saying build for it, but wouldn't it be nice to have?

You'll still hold threat with zero Accuracy, and it does next-to-nothing for your survivability. This is why other stats are better: they're just more useful and more effective for the job you have signed up for (which is to hold aggro and survive, not maximize DPS).

 

Since you can trade every point of Accuracy for a point of a defensive stat, there's no reason not to unload Accuracy and replace it with something more effective.

 

Even in a hypothetical situation where an ability absolutely has to hit (say, some add must be chain-stunned) you're better off delegating that to DPS who are already geared for it rather than gimping your durability (at no benefit) in every other situation.