What ops can I tank, given this gear? (Vanguard)

[crazylegoman]

So, my primary alt is a vanguard tank, and his gear is this. I couldn't make it show the set bonuses, but he has the arkanian 4 piece set bonus. Assuming that I am adequately skilled enough at tanking to get through TFB SM, S&V SM, and DF SM, (which I have), which HM ops could I try tanking, given this level of gear?

[HBCentaurion]

The difficulty rating goes TfB HM -> SV HM -> DF HM -> DP HM -> TfB NiM -> SV NiM

 

You are in a mix of 69s / 72s / 78s, as long as you know the mechanics you should be fine to tank TfB / SV HM. Maybe do couple of the first bosses in SV as they are easy mechanics wise before attempting TfB.

Edited December 9, 2013 by HBCentaurion

[ZentheSecond]

The difficulty rating goes TfB HM -> SV HM -> DF HM -> DP HM -> TfB NiM -> SV NiM

 

You are in a mix of 69s / 72s / 78s, as long as you know the mechanics you should be fine to tank TfB / SV HM. Maybe do couple of the first bosses in SV as they are easy mechanics wise before attempting TfB.

 

Wrong yet Correct at the same time.

TfB HM > SV HM > TfB NiM > SV NiM > DF HM > DP HM

This^ is how the gear progresses. You should be in full 69s Arkanian to take on TfB HM & SV HM doing both in the same week killing as many bosses as you can. For example if you can kill up to Kephess in TfB HM good, keep killing up to him every week to gear up more and more people from your guild alongside running HM SV killing as many Bosses in that. It makes each weeks run easier and easier as more and more of your members get geared. You will eventually be able to down Terror and full clear TfB HM more regularly, same with HM SV. Then once in full 72 Underworld you start running TfB and SV NiM and doing the same thing as you did for the HM runs. Thus repeating it again once in full 75s for DF HM and DP HM.

 

 

However, HBC's order is more accurate in a sense of difficulty. The NiM TfB and SV bosses are in terms of mechanics are annoying and the enrage timers on it are really tight, tighter then the HM DF/DP enrages timers. The Warlords are always going to be a tight fight and really annoying with their mechanics (woohoo for Sunder starting with a fixate cast!). Operator IX will always be frustrating as well since you need to kill both cores in a short window and within 10 seconds of one another. Every boss in the current Nightmare content is going to be annoying for a while, even when people doing it are in full 78s it will not give them much wiggle room within the mechanics for mistakes.

 

 

As for your gear, my PT has a full off-set for tanking in 69s and augmented in blue 28 augs. And I was able to tank through HM SV from start to finish without much issue. My suggestion would be to get the Off-hand of 78 and the belt/bracers of 78 and your 4-piece setbonus if you do not have it already, the AMR profile is not clear on that then again it is not clear in general for this purpose.

Edited December 10, 2013 by ZentheSecond

[SithTyre]

Well even though it looks correct to progress in order with TFB/SNV HM then TFB/SNV NiM before HM DF and HM DP, the NiMs are not needed. If you have the HM gear from TFB and SNV you could move directly to DF/DP HM and defeat both. At least we did.

[HBCentaurion]

DF HM / DP HM are easier than TfB NiM / SV NiM and give better gear. There is no point in doing TfB NiM / SV NiM before DF HM / DP HM. DF / DP HM is scaled to 72 gear (you can do it in a mix of 69s / 72s if you have the mechanics down).

[cxten]

Your gear is great for TFB HM and good for S&V HM. If you want to easily improve it a bit for S&V HM, trade some absorb for some defense (but keep it the way it is for TFB HM).

 

Hard modes all have more mechanics than the story modes, and so you'll need to learn the fights and may wipe to mechanics until you get it down. The first two bosses of TFB are reasonably simple; I'd try those first. If you get stuck on Operator IX, try the first few of S&V HM.

 

Your gear may even be fine for the first boss of DF HM (another boss where more defense is good, though). Take 2 tanks, 3 dps, 3 healers and I suspect you'll do fine. If your group knows what it's doing, I bet you can off tank the next two bosses in DF as well (have the 3rd healer switch back to dps of course).

 

In general I agree with the TFB HM < S&V HM < DF HM < DP HM < TFB NIM < S&V NIM difficulty ranking. (The nightmares drop worse loot than but are more "prestigious" than DF/DP HM.) The exception is that the last boss of each in the list is harder than the rest of the next one, for the most part.

Edited December 10, 2013 by cxten