Assault Specialist and Tactics Vanguard DPS [Guide]

[paowee]

Vanguards

 

Raid DPS parses for 8man http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=711350

Raid DPS parses for 16man http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=691926

 

are a melee class with ranged capabilities and wear heavy armor. Most of their attacks are instant cast and can be used on the move so expect a very mobile playstyle. Aside from wearing heavy armor which makes them very durable, they also have great defensive cooldowns that can help mitigate a lot of damage and heal you up a certain percent of your HP as well. They have excellent AoE burst due to Mortar Volley and are a strong contender for DPS. Vanguard DPS can specialize in two trees, Tactics which excels in dealing AoE damage and Assault Specialist which specializes in sustained damage over time.

 

Guide -> http://swtorboard.org/2014/01/11/assault-specialist-tactics-vanguard-dps-guide/

 

BiS Stats for Vanguards and Powertechs by TACeMossie

 

Assault / Pyrotech

 

Accuracy %: Goal is to get 100/110% or as close to it as you can

Accuracy: 470 = 5 x Initiative enhancements (puts you at 100.XX% Accuracy)

Surge: 470 = 5 x Adept enhancements

Crit: 260 Crit

Source

Power: Use Agile mods, enhancements and armorings with high power and low endurance

Set bonus: 4-piece Combat Tech

Augments: Reflex augments

BiS Relics: BiS is currently Focused Ret. and Serendipitous Assault,

 

Tactics/AP

Same as Assault/Pyro but with 0 Crit

 

DPS AMR profiles → http://swtorboard.org/2013/12/30/swtor-dps-bis-gear/

 

Assault

 

4/6/36 http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#801hzZMsZfhbrzRrffdz.3

 

Abilities and Skills

 

Assault Plastique – is the capstone talent of this tree. It applies a debuff for a few seconds which deals damage after that timer runs out. The initial explosion is kinetic energy which can be mitigated, while the following DoT is elemental which deals its full damage. It will also “stun” standard and weak enemies for the duration of the first debuff, and are knocked down when the bomb detonates

• Assault Trooper -increases its critical strike damage
  
• Riot Augs - increases its damage
  

Incendiary Round – is a very strong DoT. The initial damage is small but the damage over time that follows is your strongest DoT as a Vanguard.

• Burnout - increased damage to targets under 30%
  
• Riot Augs - increases Incendiary Round’s damage
  

 

High Impact Bolt – is your hardest hitting ability and will deal the bulk of your damage. As of Patch 2.5, this ability is one of the hardest critting abilities in the game, which can crit for up to 10,000 damage on boss targets in full Dread Forged gear. Not to mention that the Assault tree has a myriad of talents that increases your crit chance, so enjoy whenever you see this ability Crit. Talented by multiple skills in the Assault tree:

• High Friction Bolts - armor penetration
  
• Ionic Accelerator - makes your next High Impact Bolt free as well as refunding you 8 extra energy
  
• Rain of Fire - increases it damage
  
• Assault Trooper -increases its critical strike damage
  

 

Ion Pulse – Expect to spam this a lot. Ion Pulse sis your bread and butter ability and its DPS is second only to High Impact Bolt. Ion Pulse is going to be your main spammable ability and is talented by the following skills:

• Ionic Accelerator - resets the cooldown on High Impact Bolt
  
• Ionized Ignition - triggers your Plasma Cell on your target
  

 

Stockstrike - is one of your filler abilities and should be used to reset your High Impact Bolt. It deals more damage than Ion Pulse, but the cooldown limit means it does less DPS.

• Heavy Stock – increases Stockstrike’s damage
  
• Riot Augs - increases Stockstrike’s damage
  

 

Hammer Shot – is your auto-attack ability that deals several hits of damage in rapid succession. Be careful when fighting a mob with damage reflect abilities. Think of Hammer Shot as your basic ammo regen ability

 

Plasma Cell - Loads your rifle with a plasma powercell, giving all of your rifle attacks a 25% chance to deal 666 additional elemental damage over 6 seconds. Only one cell can be active at a time. This is your “stance” and allows you to proc Ionic Accelerator which is the core of your DPS rotation.

• Superheated Plasma - increases its damage and trigger chance
  
• Blaster Augs (Tactics tree) – increases your critical hit chance
  

 

Explosive Surge - not worth it for the cost. I understand its talented in this spec but that is optional. Those points can be put into the endurance talent for more survivability. Talented by

• Hyper Assault Cell - reduces cost and place a dot on all enemies hit,
  

 

=============================

Offensive cooldowns

 

Shoulder Cannon – is a new Vanguard ability introduced in Patch 2.0. The ability requires initial activation and generates “stacks” of Rockets every 4 seconds. Hitting the ability again will launch 1 missile and can be used in rapid succession for a big burst of damage. Shoulder cannon does not respect the global cooldown and can be used on top of your other abilities as long as they are not channeled.

 

Mortar Volley - is a channeled abilty and is one of the best burst AoE DPS abilities in the game. It can be used to help mitigate incoming damage if used on standard and weak enemies which are knocked down for the duration of the channel.

 

Battle Focus - is a very strong offensive cooldown and buffs your critical chance by a huge 25% for 15 seconds. The cooldown slightly aligns with Shoulder Cannon and generates a huge burst of DPS when with your other abilities.

 

Defensive abilities and cooldowns

 

Hold the Line - a great PvP AND PvE cooldown. There are a lot of mechanics in end-game PvE that involves knock-back, knock-up and stuns and this should be used to negate these mechanics when possible in order to maximize DPS. Examples are Grob’thok’s knock-up and Raptus conal knock-back (which you shouldn’t get hit by in the first place!) The movement speed bonus only applies when you are in combat and works great when you need to reposition quickly around the map

 

Reactive Shield - a flat damage reduction cooldown that lasts for 12 seconds. This can be used in conjunction with Adrenaline Rush in dangerous situations. Unless you are going to get hit by a huge amount of damage, Reactive Shield with Adrenaline Rush is a life saver most of the time.

 

Electro Shield - can be talented in the Assault tree to reflect damage to attackers.

 

CAN BE USED FOR DPS: Flame shield, for Assault can be a very powerful source of dps if used properly. In full 78s, mine does about 1000 dps and can crit.

 

The trick, of course, is knowing when and how to use it. Probably the most common use I've seen is to pop it during unavoidable damage phases to lash back at your attacker (Titan 6, for example), but you can use it on trash in add fights, as well. For example, if a dread larva is attacking a healer during Bestia, I'll taunt the little bugger, pop it and all my offensive cooldowns, then do upward of 4,000 single target dps to the larva, obliterating it in seconds.

 

Adrenaline Rush - the self-heal from Adrenaline Rush works great against frequent and small hits. The buff lasts a long time and can make you “unkillable” as long as the damage you receive is less than the speed at which the buff heals you. The ability caps out at 35% of your maximum HP and won’t be healed further than that.

 

Diversion - your threat dump ability is a good defensive cooldown as well. You won’t need to use your Adrenaline Rush or Reactive Shield if you are not getting hit (by the boss or mobs) in the first place. The best use of your threat dump is after you see the Taunt debuff on your target. Taunt increases your tank’s threat, and using Diversion will reduce yours thus moving you a long way down the creature’s threat list.

 

Energy cooldowns

 

Reserve Powercell - for Assault Vanguards this ability is best used with Incendiary Round due to its huge energy cost.

 

Recharge Cells - grants you 50 energy over 3 seconds, you will still regen energy outside of the 50 that recharge Cell grants. Make sure you do not cap out on energy while this buff is present since those will be energy lost

 

Passive Skills

 

Into the Fray - Increases the duration of Reactive Shield by 3 seconds. In addition, suffering direct damage from area attacks generates 2 energy cells and heals you for 2.5% of your total health. This effect cannot occur more than once every 3 seconds.

Flame Suit– take reduced damage from damge over time effects

 

=============================

Opener

=============================

 

Thermal Detonator→TSO→Incendiary Missile→EF→Adrenal/Relic→Shoulder Cannon→Flame Burst→Rail Shot→Flame Burst→Flame Burst→Rocket Punch→Rail Shot→ Threat dump

or

 

Assault Plastique→Reserve Powercells→Incendiary Round→Battle Focus→Adrenal/Relic→Shoulder Cannon→Ion Pulse→High Impact Bolt→Ion Pulse→Ion Pulse→Stockstrike→High Impact Bolt→ Diversion

 

=============================

Rotation

=============================

 

Rotation revolves around proccing Ionic Accelerator every 6 seconds. This is done by using Ion Pulse or Stockstrike every 4 GCDs. 6 seconds is equal to 4 GCDs. One of those GCDs is going to be a High Impact Bolt (from the Ionic Accelertor that you procd). The other 3 is what you need to figure out.

 

GCD 1 → GCD 2 → GCD 3 → GCD 4

 

"A wild Ionic Accelerator has appeared! What will you do?" Once you get an IA proc you have 4 GCDs left before it can proc again. One of those is always going to be HiB as we have mentioned.

 

High Impact Bolt (from IA) → GCD 2 → GCD 3 → GCD 4

 

GCD 4 should always be an Ion Pulse or a Stockstrike because that is the earliest you can proc Ionic Accelerator again. Ion Pulse has a 45% chance while Stockstrike has a 60% chance to proc Ionic Accelerator. Stockstrike costs the same as Ion Pulse and deals more damage so be sure to use Stockstrike if it is up, preferrably in GCD 4

 

High Impact Bolt (from IA) → GCD 2 → GCD 3 → Ion Pulse

 

GCD 2 and GCD 3 is where you want to juggle your abilities

 

Priority list

 

For GCD 2 and GCD 3

 

1. Assault Plastique
   
2. Incendiary Round
   
3. Stockstrike* (preferrably at GCD 4, but if not it's ok)
   
4. Ion Pulse
   

 

I noticed that most of the time i'm doing

 

High Impact Bolt (from IA) → GCD 2 → Ion Pulse → Ion Pulse; with GCD 2 being Assault Plastique or Incendiary Round.

 

Entire priority list

1. 
   
2. Ionic Accelerator
   
3. Assault plastique
   
4. Incendiary Round
   
5. Stockstrike
   
6. High Impact Bolt
   
7. Flame Burst
   
8. Rapid Shots
   

 

=============================

Rotation explained

=============================

 

Coming from the opener above:

 

1. Assault Plastique→TSO→Incendiary Round→EF→Adrenal→SC→Ion Pulse→High Impact Bolt→Ion Pulse→Ion Pulse→Stockstrike→..... (IA proc)

 

2. (IA proc) High Impact Bolt (Diversion) → GCD 2 → GCD 3 → Ion Pulse …

 

Hopefully that last Ion Pulse has proc’d a Prototype Particle Accelerator and you repeat the pattern. If it didn't use Ion Pulse again until Ionic Accelerator shows up.. when it does it's back to

 

3. High Impact Bolt (IA) → GCD 2 → GCD 3 → Ion Pulse …

 

Some things to note:

 

When Stockstrike is up for your 4th GCD use it instead of Ion Pulse for the increased chance proccing Ionic Accelerator. Make sure you use your Assault Plastique on cooldown, keep Incendiary Round up, without hindering

 

4. GCD 1 → GCD 2 → GCD 3 → Ion Pulse …

 

The key to playing this spec is to remember the following:

 

Ionic Accelerator takes priority all the time. If you find Assault Plastique is coming back up and you are in GCD 4, try to proc Ionic Accerator first, and THEN use Assault Plastique. Same goes for Incendiary Round.

 

Hopefully that last Ion Pulse proc’d an Ionic Accelerator. If not use Ion Pulse again or Stockstrike. Most of the time you can keep Ionic Accelerator intervals at 6 seconds but sometimes it might be delayed by 1 GCD because of RNG. When you see Ionic Accelerator proc, remember to count 1→2→3→4 where #4 should always be an Ion Pulse or Stockstrike.

 

When Stockstrike is up for your 4th GCD use it instead of Ion Pulse for the increased chance proccing Ionic Accelerator.

 

Ionic Accelerator takes priority all the time. If you find Assault Plastique is coming back up and you are in GCD 4, try to proc Ionic Accelerator first, and THEN use Assault Plastique. Same goes for Incendiary Round.

 

You don't ALWAYS have to use High Impact Bolt right after Ionic Accelerator. If you will cap your energy bar, you are better off using 1 more GCD to use Ion Pulse (or Assault Plastique or Incendiary Round) , and then using the Ionic Accelerator proc to regen the energy back. -Jmagee

 

Try to keep energy at a point where you dont have to Hammer Shot on Ionic Accelerator Proc points, and time Assault Plastique so it doesn't interrupt with Ionic Accelerator Procs. -Tac

 

Keep yourself at 4 pips of energy regen at all times (above 60 amo, below 40 ammo). Hammer Shot is a fine filler because it can proc/refresh Plasma Cell's dot. Always line up your Battle Focus with Shoulder Cannon as well. -drummerinthesun

 

Try to keep energy at a point where you dont have to rapid shots on Ionic Accelerator Proc points, and time Assault Plastique so it doesn't interrupt with Ionic Accelerator Procs.

 

 

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AoE abilities

 

Mortar Volley - is great damage reduction when used on standard and weak targets due to the knock-down effect

Pulse Cannon - deals damage in a frontal cone and like Mortar Volley is channeled throughout its duration

Sticky Grenade - like Mortar Volley, this ability can “stun” standard and weak targets who have the grenade, and knock-down other standard and weak targets who remain in blast area effect

 

=============================

Cooldown Priority

 

1. Shoulder Cannon spam
   
2. Battle Focus for the critical strike chance (both have similar timers. Most of the time i would delay Shoulder Cannon while i wait for Battle Focus to be up again)
   
3. Mortar Volley (on 2 or more targets)
   

 

Enery cooldown priority

 

1. Recharge Cells - the buff recharges ammo over 3 seconds in addition to your normal ammo dispersion, you may end up at 0 ammo for a prolonged period of time.
   
2. Reserve Powercell - use it on cooldown with Incendiary Round
   

 

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Damage distribution

 

DPS log from in 16-man HM Dread Palace fight. Torparse link here.

 

http://swtorboard.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/assaulttorparse1-700x534.jpg

 

High Impact Bolt makes up a huge chunk of your total damage at 26% This reflects the nature of the rotation since you always use it every 6 seconds, ideally. As you can see High Impact Bolt is a very hard critting ability with max crits of up to 10,136 in (78) BiS gear

 

Ion Pulse comes next come next with 23% of your total damage done. These 2 abilities will make up the majority of your damage

 

Burning (Tech) are from Incendiary Round, your Plasma Cell stance, and Assault Plastique’s damage over time effect. All In all these burns account for up to 848 DPS; that is almost the same DPS as High Impact Bolt!

 

Assault Plastique and Incendiary Round‘s damage seem to be low according to his parse, but the damage you see here is just from the initial explosion of Assault Plastique and the initial damage done when applying Incendiary Round. These abilities leave an elemental dot effect which, aside from doing a lot of damage, is not mitigated as well due to being of the elemental damage type.

 

Stockstrike, Shoulder Cannon and Hammer Shot make up the lower part of your damage done. Stockstrike is nonetheless very important since it procs your Ionic Accelerator very reliably with a 60% chance instead of a 45% chance from Ion Pulse.

 

Shoulder Cannon is great extra DPS especially when coupled with Battle Focus and both have a slightly similar cooldown timers. And finally,

 

Hammer Shot, your “energy regen” ability is very crucial in maintainining 4 pips of energy regen

 

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Damage types

 

http://swtorboard.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/assaulttorparsr2-700x497.jpg

 

Elemental Damage is one of the four damage types in SW:TOR. Elemental Damage generally refers to fire based abilities like Ion Pulse, Incendiary Round and Plasma Probe. Elemental Damage, along with Internal Damage, is one of two damage types that Bypass armor. Elemental damage types do not benefit from Armor Penetration.

• Electro Shield (which comes from Reactive Shield’s damage reflect)
  
• Incendiary Round
  
• Burning (Tech) from Plasma Cell, Assault Plastique’s dot and Incendiary Round’s dot.
  
• Ion Pulse
  

 

Energy Damage and Kinetic Damage are two damage types that are mitigated by Armor Rating. These abilities will deal their optimum damage when an armor penetration debuff is present on the target. Armor Penetration can be applied by Guardians/Guardians, Gunslingers/Gunslingers and Arsenal/Gunnery Commandos/Mandoes.

• Hammer Shot
  
• Assault Plastique
  
• Shoulder Cannon
  
• High Impact Bolt
  
• Stockstrike
  
• Basic gearing
  

 

Advanced gearing

 

Check this page which AMR profiles from different people mostly in full 78s. You should definitely have a little crit especially as full Assault. In general, specs with talents that buff critical strike damage and critical hit chance benefit from having some Critical Rating

• Burnout - increases your critical hit chance
  
• Assault Trooper - increases the critical strike damage of some of your abilities
  

 

 

Tactics

 

 

8/36/2 - http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#301hMhZMsMrkrRRoGGzZb.3

 

Abilities

 

Fire Pulse - is your capstone ability and is tied to your Pulse Generator talent. Fire Pulse and Ion Pulse are used to generate stacks of Pulse Generator which buffs your next Pulse Cannon by up to 60%.

• Battering Ram - using Fire Pulse makes your next Stockstrike free
  
• Pulse Generator - one of the key talents that distinguish Tactics from the other trees. This is a talent added to the Tacticsician’s arsenal after Patch 2.0. The damage increase from full 3 stacks is considerable with the added bonus of a 90% slow on all enemies hit (the slow does not work on bosses)
  
• Demolition - increases the critical hit chance of your elmental attacks
  
• Havoc Training – increases critical strike bonus damage of Stockstrike, Pulse Cannon, Gut, and Fire Pulse by 30%
  

 

Pulse Cannon - the key ability for Tactics is Pulse Cannon. Similar to the Focus tree from Guardians and Sentinels, Tactics specializes in strong AoE burst damage because of Pulse Cannon and Pulse Generator.

• Tactical Tools – reduces the cool down of your Pulse Cannon
  
• Demolition - increases the critical hit chance of your elmental attacks (does not work on High Impact Bolt)
  
• Havoc Training - increases critical strike bonus damage of Stockstrike, Pulse Cannon, Gut, and Fire Pulse by 30%
  

 

High Impact Bolt – is one of your hard hitting abilities even as a Tactics Vanguard. Like in the Assault tree, High Impact Bolt is talented by several skills in the Tactics specialization

• Stormd Gauntlets - allows you to have 100% critical hit chance on your High Impact Bolt after using Stockstrike
  
• Focused Impact - also increases your High Impact Bolt with 15% armor penetration
  

 

Gut – your only damage over time ability Gut should always be up on your target in order to maximize DPS. It is talented by several skills that increase its damage and ALL damage you do as long as the target has a bleed effect.

• Blood Tracker & Serrated Blades - increases the damage you do to bleeding targets
  
• Frontline Offense - further increases Gut’s bleed effect
  
• Havoc Training - increases critical strike bonus damage of Stockstrike, Pulse Cannon, Gut, and Fire Pulse by 30%
  

 

Ion Pulse – Expect to spam this a lot. Ion Pulse sis your bread and butter ability and its DPS is second only to High Impact Bolt. Ion Pulse is going to be your main spammable ability and is talented by the following skills:

• Battering Ram - using Ion Pulse has a 60% chance to make your next Stockstrike free
  
• Demolition - increases the damage of your elemental attacks
  
• Pulse Generator - Ion Pulse is used with Fire Pulse to quicky generate stacks of Pulse Generator for your Pulse Cannon. Pulse Generator stacks 3 times and increases the damage of Pulse Cannon by 20% per stack
  

 

Stockstrike - with Battering Ram, Stockstrike is an excellent energy regen ability and makes your next High Impact Bolt an automatic critical hit.

• Heavy Stock – increases Stockstrike’s damage (Assault tree).

 

Battering Ram - an important talent for Tactics. This helps in energy management and allows you to sustain your DPS rotation. The buff is activated by Fire Pulse or Ion Pulse and lasts 15 seconds and should not be wasted or clipped.

• Storm Gauntlets - using Stockstrike gives your next High Impact Bolt a 100% chance to crit as long as you have High Energy Cell on
  
• Havoc Training - increases critical strike bonus damage of Stockstrike, Pulse Cannon, Gut, and Fire Pulse by 30%
  
• Hammer Shot – think of Hammer Shot as your basic ammo regen ability. This auto-attack deals several hits in rapid succession so be careful when fighting a mob with damage reflect abilities.
  

 

High Energy Cell - your stance as a Tactics Vanguard and is required for some of your passive abilities to work. This grants you among other things, better energy regen and faster movement speed when spec’d for it.

• Blaster Augs - further increases your elemental damage
  
• Blaster Augs Ventilation - passive energy regeneration
  

 

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Offensive cooldowns

 

Shoulder Cannon – is a new Vanguard ability introduced in Patch 2.0. The ability requires initial activation and generates “stacks” of Rockets every 4 seconds. Hitting the ability again will launch 1 missile and can be used in rapid succession for a big burst of damage. Shoulder cannon does not respect the global cooldown and can be used on top of your other abilities as long as they are not channeled. Talented by:

 

Storm Loaders – Increases the damage dealt by Shoulder Cannon by 15%, and immediately loads 3 additional missiles. Increases the critical strike chance of Stockstrike by 6%.

Mortar Volley - is a channeled abilty and is one of the best burst AoE DPS abilities in the game. It can be used to help mitigate incoming damage if used on standard and weak enemies which are knocked down for the duration of the channel.

 

Battle Focus - is a very strong offensive cooldown and buffs your critical chance by a huge 25% for 15 seconds. The cooldown slightly aligns with Shoulder Cannon and generates a huge burst of DPS when with your other abilities.

 

Defensive cooldowns

 

Hold the Line - a great PvP AND PvE cooldown. There are a lot of mechanics in end-game PvE that involves knock-back, knock-up and stuns and this should be used to negate these mechanics when possible in order to maximize DPS. Examples are Grob’thok’s knock-up and Raptus conal knock-back (which you shouldn’t get hit by in the first place!) The movement speed bonus only applies when you are in combat and works great when you need to reposition quickly around the map

• Torque Boosters - the longer duration of Hold the Line is more important in PvP but can also be useful for PvE. The movement speed only works when in combat.
  

 

Reactive Shield - a flat damage reduction cooldown that lasts for 12 seconds. This can be used in conjunction with Adrenaline Rush in dangerous situations. Unless you are going to get hit by a huge amount of damage, Reactive Shield with Adrenaline Rush is a life saver most of the time.

• Into the Fray - Increases the duration of Reactive Shield by 3 seconds.
  

 

Reflexive Shield - most PvE fights involve a great deal of both single and AoE raid wide damage. Tactics Vanguard have this great talent for damage mitigation that actively reduces the cooldown of Reactive Shield as well

 

Adrenaline Rush - the self-heal from Adrenaline Rush works great against frequent and small hits. The buff lasts a long time and can make you “unkillable” as long as the damage you receive is less than the speed at which the buff heals you. The ability caps out at 35% of your maximum HP and won’t be healed further than that.

 

Diversion - your threat dump ability is a good defensive cooldown as well. You won’t need to use your Adrenaline Rush or Reactive Shield if you are not getting hit (by the boss or mobs) in the first place. The best use of your threat dump is after you see the Taunt debuff on your target. Taunt increases your tank’s threat, and using Diversion will reduce yours thus moving you a long way down the creature’s threat list.

 

Energy cooldowns

 

Reserve Powercell - Tactics already has good energy regen due to passive abilities and the low ammo cost of their abilities. Use it to prevent yourself from going below optimum energy levels or use it with Mortar Volley which is the most expensive ability you will have when spec’d in Tactics.

 

Recharge Cells - grants you 50 energy over 3 seconds. This allows you to go into more energy intensive rotations (or Ion Pulse spam) and can be treated as an offensive cooldown

 

Passive skills

• Passive healing and ammo dispersion when hit by an aoe attack
  
• Blaster Augs Ventilation - passive energy regeneration when using High Energy Cell
  Shock Absorbers - on top of wearing heavy armor, Tactics Vanguards become tankier because of their 30% AoE damage reduction

 

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Abbreviations:

Gut = Gut

Stockstrike = Stockstrike

High Impact Bolt = High Impact Bolt

Ion Pulse = Ion Pulse

Battle Focus = EF

Shoulder Cannon = SC

Pulse Cannon = Pulse Cannon

FP - Fire Pulse

 

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Opener

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Guide here

 

Gut→Fire Pulse→Stockstrike→High Impact Bolt→Ion Pulse→Ion Pulse→Adrenal/Relic→Battle Focus→Shoulder Cannon→Pulse Cannon …

 

Rotation

 

Unlike the Assault tree, Tactics feels more "rotational" rather than a spec that depends on procs. Apply Gut first for the debuff followed by Fire Pulse which leads to a free (100% chance) Stockstrike, which leads to 100% crit on your High Impact Bolt. By now you have 1 stack of Pulse Generator from Fire Pulse. Use Ion Pulse 2 times to get 3 stacks then channel Pulse Cannon. After that is around 2 GCDs to wait while waiting for Gut’s dot effect to run out and then repeat.

 

Gut→Fire Pulse→Stockstrike→High Impact Bolt→Ion Pulse→Ion Pulse→Pulse Cannon→Filler → Filler ... repeat

 

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Priorities

=============================

 

Since Stockstrike is on a 9 sec cooldown it will not align with your Gut, Fire Pulse, High Impact Bolt and Pulse Cannon which ALL have a 15 sec cooldown (Gut bleed effects lasts for 15 seconds). Because of that Stockstrike’s position will constantly change in your rotation. As always your first priority is to maintain 4 pips of energy regen, so make sure you use Hammer Shot to keep your regen and sustained DPS up.

 

 

 

1. Hammer Shot if using an ability will bring you below 4 pips of regen
   
2. Gut for the Triumph buff
   
3. Pulse Cannon with 3 stacks of Pulse Generator
   
4. High Impact Bolt with Stormd Gauntlets
   
5. Fire Pulse to get a stack of Pulse Generator
   
6. Ion Pulse to finish 3 stacks of Pulse Generator
   
7. Stockstrike
   
8. Ion Pulse
   

 

Gut, Fire Pulse, and High Impact Bolt are generally used on “cooldown” and i use them 1 after the other for general QoL. After these abilities juggle between Hammer Shot, Stockstrike and 2 Ion Pulse while you wait for Pulse Cannon to come off cooldown. After channeling Pulse Cannon you should have 2 more GCDs before you have to reapply Gut again.

 

Some thing to note:

 

High Impact Bolt requires a damage over time effect on your target to be activated and Gut is your only bleed effect as Tactics. A minor nuisance is when you are forced to switch to a target and forced to reapply your Gut again (when no one else has a bleed debuff). More often than not though you will have plenty of people who can apply their bleed effects for you in a raid but it is something to take note of.

 

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Aoe rotation

• Pulse Cannon with 3 stacks of Pulse Generator
  
• Mortar Volley
  
• Sticky Grenade
  

 

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Priority for cooldowns (DPS)

• Shoulder Cannon you get a lot of missile stacks from Shoulder Cannon in the Tactics spec. Spam and spend all your missiles for the extra DPS
  
• Battle Focus lasts for 15 seconds. Your rotation is built around a 15 second timer so this should fit perfectly, starting from Gut all the way down to Pulse Cannon
  
• Mortar Volley (on 3 or more targets)
  

 

Priority for cooldowns (Energy)

• recharge ammo - grants you 50 energy over 3 seconds, you will still regen energy outside of the 50 that recharge Cell grants. Make sure you do not cap out on energy while this buff is present since those will be energy lost
  
• Reserve Powercell – your next ability is free of cost
  
• If you are able to maintain your energy pretty well, recharge ammo is a good offensive cooldown you can use to spam Ion Pulse during your filler stage. Tactics should be easy enough on energy tho thanks to the talents for High Energy Cell.
  

 

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Damage distribution

 

http://swtorboard.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/tacticsdmg-700x503.jpg

 

(Pulse Cannon) makes up a huge chunk of your damage compared to your other abilities when used on cooldown. This deals AoE frontal so expect for Pulse Cannon to do even more when hitting multiple targets. Pulse Cannon AoE is capped at 5 targets.

 

(Ion pulse) is your next hard hitting ability making up up to 15%$. The number of Ion Pulses will depend on how well you manage your energy. More Ion Pulses means more DPS. Managing your energy so that you don’t spend a lot of your GCDs spamming Hammer Shot for regen is key to DPSing as Tactics. You can also use your recharge Cells to maximize your uses of Ion Pulse but using it this way means you might not have it available when you mess up your energy and rotation.

 

(Fire Pulse, Gut, High Impact Bolt) Fire Pulse, Gut, High Impact Bolt - as you can see in this parse all 3 abilities we’re used on cool down totaling to 40 times over the period of the fight. Gut (with dot) and High Impact Bolt both dealt 13% of the total damage with Fire Pulse trailing closely behind with 12%.

 

(Stockstrike) trails closely behind in terms of damage. At the moment I can’t be sure if using it on cooldown is better DPS. Because of the 15second cooldown rotation it was really hard finding a permanent spot for Stockstrike so I just used it as a filler when my other priorities are finished: Gut DoT, Fire Pulse and High Impact Bolt on cooldown, and making sure i have 3 stacks for Pulse Cannon.

 

(Shoulder Cannon) is extra DPS and is off the GCD so you should use it whenever you can. It does more damage in Tactics by ~3%*

 

(Hammer Shot) is crucial in maintainining 4 pips of energy regen which is at the very top of our priority list.

 

=============================

Damage types

 

http://swtorboard.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/tacticsdmgtype1-700x527.jpg

 

Tactics deals Elemental damage and These damage types bypass enemy armor and does not require armor penetration to deal its max damage.

• Pulse Cannon
  
• Ion Pulse
  
• Fire Pulse
  

 

Energy Damage and Kinetic Damage are two damage types that are mitigated by armor. These abilities will deal their optimum damage when an armor penetration debuff is present on the target. Armor Penetration can be applied by Guardians/Guardians, Gunslingers/Gunslingers and Arsenal Commandos and Gunnery Commandos.

• High Impact Bolt
  
• Stockstrike
  
• Gut
  
• Shoulder Cannon
  
• Hammer Shot
  

 

=============================

Advanced gearing

 

Patch 2.5 There is not enough player information about Tactics gearing at the moment since Assault and Hybrid Assault is just too strong in PvE. In general though, specs with talents that buff critical strike damage benefit from having some crit

• Havoc Training - increases critical strike bonus damage of Stockstrike, Pulse Cannon, Gut, and Fire Pulse by 30%
  

 

However some would argue that specs with auto-crit talents should use 0 Crit rating and go full Power instead

[*]Storm Gauntlets - using Stockstrikes gives your next High Impact Bolt a 100% chance to crit.

 

 

Utility

 

Harpoon Cooldown: 45s Range: 30 m

Fires a Harpoon line that pulls the target to the Trooper and generates a high amount of threat. Cannot be used on targets in cover. All around a very useful ability both in casual and end-game PvE and can be used as an interrupt on adds that are not immune to physics effects like the Dread Guard Interrogator.

 

Neural Jolt Instant Cooldown: 15s Range: 30 m

Fires a Neural Jolt that Taunts the target to attack for 6 seconds. Player targets deal 30% less damage when attacking anyone other than you. Effect lasts 6 seconds. This effect cannot be resisted. As a last resort you can Taunt mobs hitting a more squishy ally.

 

Neural Surge Instant Energy: 8 Cooldown: 45s

Encases up to 5 enemies within 8 meters in carbonite, stunning them for 2.5 seconds. AoE stun on a relatively short cooldown! *Better animation than the VG version..*

 

Sonic Round Instant Cooldown: 45s Range: 30 m

Fires a Sonic Round that Taunts your target and all nearby enemies, forcing them to attack for 6 seconds. Enemy players have their damage reduced for 6 seconds unless they attack you. This effect cannot be resisted. AoE Taunt which you generally don't want to use in a raid...

 

Damage mitigation: You can help "passively" mitigate damage to your allies by using Harpoon → Neural Surge → Cryo Grenade is a pretty long lasting combo on mobs that can be stunned and pushed/pulled back. Also Tactics is one of the few specs that have access to lower cooldowns on Interrupts.

 

 

 

I currently play a VG DPS as my second main doing 16-m SM and HM raids (main is a Gunslinger). Initially I found VG DPS to be boring because everything is instant cast, mostly everything can be done while on the move. Assault Specialist so far is my favorite spec because of the great mobility of the spec having 3 dots that deal quite a big chunk of damage by themselves. Full Tactics feels lacking so mostly been playing with C-tor's hybrid build (reason why i rolled Vanguard lol) instead. I hope i got most things right >.< .

 

Definitely liking VG DPS the more I play with it and it's exciting to know that the damage potential is very high when fully geared → 16-mam HM DPS Leaderboards http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=691926

 

 

 

REFERENCES:

1. Assault is the shared tree of Vanguards with Commandos and as such will have similarities in their rotations and priorities. The opener in this guide was derived from C-tor's raid parses, the the 4 GCD rule or "High Impact Bolt -> Filler -> Filler -> Ion Pulse" were derived from MVagln's and Odawg's Assault guides.

Edited February 7, 2014 by paowee

[TACeMossie]

Im gonna take a quick guess and say you made this to coincide with the nerf on the hybrid that is removing it? If it is, well its good to have it around. If not, well lucky timing!

 

I was also working on an assault guide that had started over here, and was in the middle of being done (I was just about to math out optimal stats too!). Guess mine can be an "Introductory guide to Assault Vanguard"

 

Something I'd like to point out about your guide though: You state: "High impact bolt is top priority - Always use it off cooldown. This HAS to happen"

 

The thing is, its not using High Impact Bolt that starts the cooldown on Ionic Accelerator, but rather Ionic Accelerator proccing. This means that if your cooldowns look like this:

 

"Just used Ion Pulse, and Assault Plastique is about to come off cooldown, but Ionic Accelerator procced.

USE AP FIRST. HiB IS STILL THERE, AND WILL PROC AGAIN IN 4.5 SECONDS

 

e.g. These are some rotations that I have pulled off mid fight multiple times:

 

IP -> AP -> IR -> HiB -> SS -> HiB

 

or

 

SS -> AP -> HiB

 

or

 

IP -> AP -> SS -> HiB

 

Personally, I think the priority should be:

 

Ionic Accelerator Proc

Incendiary Round

Assault Plastique

Stock Strike

High Impact Bolt

Ion Pulse

Rapid Shots

 

Try to keep energy at a point where you dont have to rapid shots on Ionic Accelerator Proc points, and time Assault Plastique so it doesn't interrupt with Ionic Accelerator Procs.

 

Finally, C-tor's comments about crit were relating to the Hybrid. Doing maths, I came up with the conclusion that in a mix of Underworld and Oriconian gear, the Optimal distribution of crit for an assault vanguard is 261. This is achieved with the earpiece, an implant, and a crystal.

Edited January 11, 2014 by TACeMossie

[paowee]

Im gonna take a quick guess and say you made this to coincide with the nerf on the hybrid that is removing it? If it is, well its good to have it around. If not, well lucky timing!

 

I was also working on an assault guide that had started over here, and was in the middle of being done (I was just about to math out optimal stats too!). Guess mine can be an "Introductory guide to Assault Vanguard"

 

Something I'd like to point out about your guide though: You state: "High impact bolt is top priority - Always use it off cooldown. This HAS to happen"

 

The thing is, its not using High Impact Bolt that starts the cooldown on Ionic Accelerator, but rather Ionic Accelerator proccing. This means that if your cooldowns look like this:

 

"Just used Ion Pulse, and Assault Plastique is about to come off cooldown, but Ionic Accelerator procced.

USE AP FIRST. HiB IS STILL THERE, AND WILL PROC AGAIN IN 4.5 SECONDS

 

e.g. These are some rotations that I have pulled off mid fight multiple times:

 

IP -> AP -> IR -> HiB -> SS -> HiB

 

or

 

SS -> AP -> HiB

 

or

 

IP -> AP -> SS -> HiB

 

Personally, I think the priority should be:

 

Ionic Accelerator Proc

Incendiary Round

Assault Plastique

Stock Strike

High Impact Bolt

Ion Pulse

Rapid Shots

 

Try to keep energy at a point where you dont have to rapid shots on Ionic Accelerator Proc points, and time Assault Plastique so it doesn't interrupt with Ionic Accelerator Procs.

 

You're right about Ionic Accelerator. Ah yes that could have been written better..

 

"Just used Ion Pulse, and Assault Plastique is about to come off cooldown, but Ionic Accelerator procced.

USE AP FIRST. HiB IS STILL THERE, AND WILL PROC AGAIN IN 4.5 SECONDS

No no that's definitely wrong lol. Let me check...

 

Were you referring to this one?

 

High Impact Bolt takes priority all the time. If you find both Assault Plastique and High Impact Bolt up for example, use your High Impact Bolt first and then Assault Plastique. The same goes for Incendiary Round. In order to maximize DPS, use High Impact Bolt every 6 seconds and this is possible if you use either an Ion Pulse or Stockstrike on the 4th GCD always to proc Ionic Accelerator.

 

That should've been Ionic Accelerator (High Impact bolt proc) is what i meant. How about something like this?

 

Ionic Accelerator takes priority all the time. If you find Assault Plastique is up and you have an Ionic Accelerator proc, use your Ionic Accelerator proc FIRST and then Assault Plastique. The same goes for Ionic Accelerator versus Incendiary Round. In order to maximize DPS, try to proc Ionic Accelerator as early as possible which is every 6 seconds if you ALWAYS use an Ion Pulse or better yet a Stockstrike on the 4th GCD.

 

An easier way of looking at it is by thinking of your High Impact Bolt (proc'd by Ionic Accelerator) as your TIMER. Say you just proc'd Ionic Accelerator. Then you use High Impact Bolt. Count → 1 → 2 → 3.

 

#3 here should and always be an Ion Pulse or a Stockstrike. #3 is the earliest you can proc an Ionic Accelerator (and more often than not, unless RNG is absolutely against you, WILL proc another Ionic Accelerator. Which goes into another High Impact Bolt. And COUNT →1 →2 → 3 again; repeat

 

Regarding the crit rating.. do you have a reference or a link? I've been wondering of a "math-backed" claim on stats for VG. I know there is x-boson's numbers but it'd be nice to have stuff from other people

 

edit:

Ionic Accelerator Proc

Incendiary Round

Assault Plastique

Stock Strike

High Impact Bolt

Ion Pulse

Rapid Shots

and yes that priority list looks better never really been good at these formulating priority lists >_<....

 

Try to keep energy at a point where you dont have to rapid shots on Ionic Accelerator Proc points, and time Assault Plastique so it doesn't interrupt with Ionic Accelerator Procs.

That's a great point to make about Pyro DPS! Will definitely add this one. Often i find these 2 coinciding and i end up delaying Assault Plastique by a GCD...

 

One of the small things that one needs to fine tune.. and will only come with a lot of practice lol

Edited January 11, 2014 by paowee

[TACeMossie]

Regarding the crit rating.. do you have a reference or a link? I've been wondering of a "math-backed" claim on stats for VG. I know there is x-boson's numbers but it'd be nice to have stuff from other people

 

Basically, I did a lot of work on it using stuff from:

 

Torhead: I wrote down the effects of power on each ability

A guide on these forums that was post 2.0, that shows the effects of each stat (e.g. Crit, Power, ect...)

 

I then wrote down a formulae for maximum damage, assuming 100% proc uptime (granted it might be a little over-the-top but still) and plugged it into Python. It got me a max DPS value at crit = 256. Then I noticed my surge value was 100 points too low, and I also noticed that 261 is much more achievable than 256 without augments and stuff like that, and slightly increased the value of crit to accomodate (I actually had to run the formula twice, as by having more than 110 crit I could have extra surge from the Oriconian Implant instead of the Underworld one)

 

However, Torhead did say that the values for some of the skills hadn't been updated since 2.2, so Assault Plastique and High Impact Bolt might have been a little lower than they should have. The numbers did check out with in-game though.

I wouldn't be surprised if optimal crit value was actually 280 or something though - just 261 is so easily obtained... (1 oriconian/underworld earpiece, 1 oriconian/underworld implant, 1 crystal... but then again 289 is 1 earpiece 1 implant 1 mod...)

 

Now when I get around to it ill remake the formulae for optimising Dread Forged gear.

Edited January 11, 2014 by TACeMossie

[paowee]

That'd be great. For now let's put down that number 0-261.

[TACeMossie]

I have another trick for assault vanguards I discovered while raiding tonight:

 

If you spec up tactics till you have the shoulder cannon buff, and completely load shoulder cannons, by respeccing you can keep the 7 missiles. This means you can have that Little bit of extra damage to begin with.

And before you say thats stupid, a ton of Lethality Ops would respec before the fight to coat their blades with acid, so its not that ridiculous.

 

I mean, it is a full 4k extra damage that gets done just cause you took time before the fight to do some shenanigans with respeccing. Thats worth it sometimes.

 

EDIT - Ok I didn't actually get to use it in the raid. Upon actually testing it, when I fired the first missile it used up 3. So I only got 5 missiles. Though still, its an extra ~1.3k damage, so who am I to complain?

Edited January 11, 2014 by TACeMossie

[TACeMossie]

I have now run the numbers on Dread Forged. In fully optimised dread forged, you want:

 

470 Surge

470 Accuracy

260 Crit

1415 Power

 

These numbers will get you a ~3.5k parse should you crit as often as the game tells you that you are going to crit and Ionic Accelerator is being nice to you.

 

So regardless of if you are using Optimised 72s + some oriconian, or if you are using full dread forged, the best crit rate you can hit is 261. However, in dread forged that requires giving up too much. 260, on the other hand, is obtainable with 1 earpiece + 1 implant - so hit 260 when going full dread forged optimised.

 

Also it is possible that more crit is better, but that is only the case if the data I used was from pre 2.4 (aka certain skills didn't hit as hard, so the increased crit rate would have had a lower effect). e.g. the highest assault parse I saw was from someone with 331 crit

Edited January 11, 2014 by TACeMossie

[JMagee]

Very good job, the VG forum has needed something like this for Assault/Tactics for a while.

 

A couple nit-picky things about your guide:

 

1. Your Assault skill tree suggest putting points in Hyper Assault Cell, which lowers the energy cost of Explosive Surge and applies the plasma cell DoT on affected targets. In the guide you don't mention Explosive Surge anywhere.In my opinion explosive surge is a junk ability that has no use. 21 Ammo to do a ~1500damage plus a DoT to some trash?

 

I guess to put it better, there's a disconnect. Why do you recommend putting points into a skill that you make no mention of using. I concede that those two points have to go somewhere (either Hyper Assault Cell, Sweltering Heat or Night Vision Scope) and that there's really not a clear choice. I put the two points in Night Vision Scope only for the melee/ranged defense boost. I'd rather increase my dodge by 2% and maybe take 5k less damage in a fight than be able to slow or DoT trash.

 

Not saying anything about right/wrong but to put points into a talent buffing a skill that is completed omitted from the guide seems strange.

 

2. You mention using Reserve Powercell with Incendiary Round. With the recent Vanguard changes, all 4 main attacks (Ion Pulse, Stock Strike, Incendiary Round and Assault Plastique) each cost 16 Ammo. So there really isn't an ideal ability to cast for free any longer. I think it's more reasonable to use it when you find yourself drifting into a lower ammo regen zone.

 

3. Just to make it clear, Harpoon has a minimum range of 10 meters. It's the ultimate frustration (tongue in cheek) when you try and use it to pull an Interrogator in DP only to realize that since you've been trying to kill him, you're too close to activate it and before you know it you're spinning.

 

4. Semantics argument regarding HiB priority. I agree using HIB every 6 seconds will max your DPS, I disagree that it should always be used immediately. In the example you mention regarding IA procced HiB and AP, HiB->AP would keep you at max DPS, but it won't always give you a maximum return on cells. As mentioned, the CD is between procs, not use, so if I have max ammo and an IA proc, I'm going to use the AP first and then the free + 8 Ammo returning HiB.

Maths:

AP->HiB

Prior: IA proc+AP ready (100 cells)

Time 0: AP used (84 cells)

Time 1.5: HiB (84 cells+5regen+8from HiB= 99 cells)

Time 3: Prior to Ability X (99+5regen=100 cells)

 

HiB->AP

Prior: IA proc +AP ready (100 cells)

Time 0: HiB (100 cells)

Time 1.5: AP (84 cells)

Time 3: Prior to Ability X (84+5regen = 89cells)

 

I think my numbers a right.

[paowee]

I have now run the numbers on Dread Forged. In fully optimised dread forged, you want:

 

470 Surge

470 Accuracy

260 Crit

1415 Power

 

These numbers will get you a ~3.5k parse should you crit as often as the game tells you that you are going to crit and Ionic Accelerator is being nice to you.

 

So regardless of if you are using Optimised 72s + some oriconian, or if you are using full dread forged, the best crit rate you can hit is 261. However, in dread forged that requires giving up too much. 260, on the other hand, is obtainable with 1 earpiece + 1 implant - so hit 260 when going full dread forged optimised.

 

Also it is possible that more crit is better, but that is only the case if the data I used was from pre 2.4 (aka certain skills didn't hit as hard, so the increased crit rate would have had a lower effect). e.g. the highest assault parse I saw was from someone with 331 crit

 

Updated

[paowee]

Very good job, the VG forum has needed something like this for Assault/Tactics for a while.

 

A couple nit-picky things about your guide:

 

1. Your Assault skill tree suggest putting points in Hyper Assault Cell, which lowers the energy cost of Explosive Surge and applies the plasma cell DoT on affected targets. In the guide you don't mention Explosive Surge anywhere.In my opinion explosive surge is a junk ability that has no use. 21 Ammo to do a ~1500damage plus a DoT to some trash?

 

I guess to put it better, there's a disconnect. Why do you recommend putting points into a skill that you make no mention of using. I concede that those two points have to go somewhere (either Hyper Assault Cell, Sweltering Heat or Night Vision Scope) and that there's really not a clear choice. I put the two points in Night Vision Scope only for the melee/ranged defense boost. I'd rather increase my dodge by 2% and maybe take 5k less damage in a fight than be able to slow or DoT trash.

 

Not saying anything about right/wrong but to put points into a talent buffing a skill that is completed omitted from the guide seems strange.

 

2. You mention using Reserve Powercell with Incendiary Round. With the recent Vanguard changes, all 4 main attacks (Ion Pulse, Stock Strike, Incendiary Round and Assault Plastique) each cost 16 Ammo. So there really isn't an ideal ability to cast for free any longer. I think it's more reasonable to use it when you find yourself drifting into a lower ammo regen zone.

 

3. Just to make it clear, Harpoon has a minimum range of 10 meters. It's the ultimate frustration (tongue in cheek) when you try and use it to pull an Interrogator in DP only to realize that since you've been trying to kill him, you're too close to activate it and before you know it you're spinning.

 

4. Semantics argument regarding HiB priority. I agree using HIB every 6 seconds will max your DPS, I disagree that it should always be used immediately. In the example you mention regarding IA procced HiB and AP, HiB->AP would keep you at max DPS, but it won't always give you a maximum return on cells. As mentioned, the CD is between procs, not use, so if I have max ammo and an IA proc, I'm going to use the AP first and then the free + 8 Ammo returning HiB.

Maths:

AP->HiB

Prior: IA proc+AP ready (100 cells)

Time 0: AP used (84 cells)

Time 1.5: HiB (84 cells+5regen+8from HiB= 99 cells)

Time 3: Prior to Ability X (99+5regen=100 cells)

 

HiB->AP

Prior: IA proc +AP ready (100 cells)

Time 0: HiB (100 cells)

Time 1.5: AP (84 cells)

Time 3: Prior to Ability X (84+5regen = 89cells)

 

I think my numbers a right.

 

Updating.. i seem to be getting confused with the wording lol. you are right about #4 especially. I do not use RS immediately after proccing IA. As was mentioned in the PT version, you can use AP in filler 1 and then use HiB in filler 2 to maximize Ammo regen. Then Ion Pulse or SS in GCD 4 to proc PPA again. Something like

 

(IA proc) = GCD 1 → GCD 2 → GCD 3 → Ion Pulse

(IA proc) = AP → HiB proc) → Ion Pulse → Ion Pulse

Edited January 12, 2014 by paowee

[paowee]

Updated with VG and PT thread stuff

[TACeMossie]

Well I just noticed that you took my mathed out values for assault as the optimal values for everything. Sadly, Tactics will probably have different values. I can calculate those up for you as well (and in fact I will, just for you)

 

Ill need a good parse for it though. Got any of those?

 

EDIT - I feel like an idiot - im talking to the guy with all those leaderboards. A tactics one has to be on at least one of them...

 

AAAAAND it occured to me I'd need an AMR to go with it. Time to make up everything all by myself again

 

UPDATE: I finished mathing out everything, and from what I saw, the optimal crit for a Tactics Vanguard is a big fat 0. So 1675 power for that bad boy. It also performs about 10% stronger in my maths than assault did, but then again I could account for burst phases for the tactics run while I couldn't with the assault one (Tactics is a static 15 second rotation with no RNG - so I could push it into 2 minutes worth of hitting the target to get optimal use of adrenals, relics, and energy returning skills), so I wouldn't be surprised if Assault still performs better.

Edited January 15, 2014 by TACeMossie

[paowee]

So far the Assault stats are BiS at least. Tactics.. if its too much work you don't have to. haha. After the hybrid nerf which one do you think will be the go to spec for VGs?

[TACeMossie]

So far the Assault stats are BiS at least. Tactics.. if its too much work you don't have to. haha. After the hybrid nerf which one do you think will be the go to spec for VGs?

 

Honestly, it is going to depend on the fight - they both perform pretty similarly.

 

Using dread fortress and dread palace as examples:

 

Nefra: Tactics (You pretty much dont have to move)

Draxus: Tactics (Lots of adds)

Grob'Thok: Tactics (Lots of adds)

Corruptor Zero: Tactics (Lots of adds)

Brontes: Assault (A lot of burst phases, lots of mobility requirements especially in the last phase)

Bestia: Tactics (Lots of adds)

Tyrans: Assault (Lots of mobility requirements)

Calphayus: Tactics (past -> future)/Assault (future -> past) (Past initially has a lot of adds, though the second phase needs more burst)

Raptus: Assault (He moves around. A lot.)

Dread Masters: Assault (Vanguards are the best class for kiting raptus around because of their taunts and getting ~90% of their damage out while moving and 10 meters away. So if you are a vanguard chances are you get raptus duty. Tactics really needs pulse cannon to perform in damage, and thats not recommended...)

 

So I guess Tactics is slightly better by 0.5 fights (Assault has 4.5 fights to the 5.5 of tactics)

 

EDIT

 

And in case you missed it, I had the tactics maths done already, and put the results in the previous post: 0 Crit for it.

Edited January 15, 2014 by TACeMossie

[battkg]

Do you have any dummy parses showing tactics doing better than assault? Ever since dummies had a finite hp amount and an armor debuff, I have consistently been getting better assault numbers compared to tactics.

 

My rotation for tactics is a boring rotation where the first filler is mortar volley, the second filler is stockstrike and hammer shot, the third filler is 2 hammer shots and the last filler is stockstrike and hammer shot before repeating. I believe that is the maximum number of stockstrikes you can insert without delaying the other harder hitting abilities.

[paowee]

Do you have any dummy parses showing tactics doing better than assault? Ever since dummies had a finite hp amount and an armor debuff, I have consistently been getting better assault numbers compared to tactics.

 

My rotation for tactics is a boring rotation where the first filler is mortar volley, the second filler is stockstrike and hammer shot, the third filler is 2 hammer shots and the last filler is stockstrike and hammer shot before repeating. I believe that is the maximum number of stockstrikes you can insert without delaying the other harder hitting abilities.

 

I do not. But it would be great to see yours and see how much your ability activations are.

[battkg]

My best (read as lucky) assault rotation is: http://www.torparse.com/a/550347/23/0/Overview

My example tactics rotation is: http://www.torparse.com/a/553757/1/0/Overview

My gear is: http://swtor.askmrrobot.com/character/19df771e-350c-4435-8749-bdf65597df34

 

I'll be spending what will probably be 2 hours parsing with the tactics rotation over the weekend to see what it is capable of and it would be annoying if there is something I am missing that would make it superior to assault.

[paowee]

Updated with Electro Shield DPS

[paowee]

Any VG with PT alts here? I finally got around to formatting this guide to the Powertech version

[TACeMossie]

My best (read as lucky) assault rotation is: http://www.torparse.com/a/550347/23/0/Overview

My example tactics rotation is: http://www.torparse.com/a/553757/1/0/Overview

My gear is: http://swtor.askmrrobot.com/character/19df771e-350c-4435-8749-bdf65597df34

 

I'll be spending what will probably be 2 hours parsing with the tactics rotation over the weekend to see what it is capable of and it would be annoying if there is something I am missing that would make it superior to assault.

 

Haha Battkg has blown the previous top assault parse out the water, even with half his gear unoptimised. I'd say that this helps prove the optimal crit is 260 crit

 

Also, looking at his parse reminded me of something:

 

If you reach a point in the rotation where its HiB -> IP/HS -> IP/HS -> IP/HS/SS -> (whatever), you can replace the first 2 moves after the HiB with either a pulse cannon or a mortar volley. Examples of opening rotations include:

 

Assault Plastique

Incendiary Round

High Impact Bolt

Stock Strike

High Impact Bolt

Pulse Cannon/Mortar Volley

Ion Pulse

High Impact Bolt (If procs)

 

And by the look of things, doing that gives you a big boost to DPS. Just dont use mortar volley/Pulse Cannon when you are gonna have to AP in one of those 2 cooldowns, and probably dont use them without an energy recharge skill (Reserve Powercell/Recharge Cells)

Edited January 22, 2014 by TACeMossie

[Faudyen]

Does this guide still hold true? Can someone explain if Assault just flat out does more damage than tactics or are they close enough in damage that if you are not someone doing OPS all of the time it does not really matter?

[TACeMossie]

The guide does still hold true, as it was created since 2.4 and doesn't have anything to do with the hybrid.

Things to note: Both trees are technically viable for the HM ops right now - though come NiM You might have to use assault until you get in full NiM gear, unless they buff tactics in 2.8

Put simply, if you like tactics, go tactics. If you like Assault, go assault. Im still learning tactics and as such I suck a lot more with it than I do assault, but its probably cause I dont like being stuck to the ground to channel pulse cannon, and I used assault to DPS when leveling up (though I did mostly use shield spec)

[TACeMossie]

During next server downtime im gonna get the exact values for assault + tactics in both dread forged and in dread masters (or is it dread touched) gear. My previous calculations didn't account properly for the relics + adrenals, and these new ones will.

 

For now:

 

Dread Forged Gear:

 

Assuming Dread Forged Relics, and a non-reusable attack adrenal.

 

Assault.

 

Optimal Crit rating is 310. Obtained with 3 Crit mods, a Crit enhancement and a Crit crystal.

However, any value between 275 crit and 407 crit will get within 0.01% of the DPS of 310 crit, so if you went with the previously calculated and not accounting for relics value of 261 crit, it's not gonna be the end of the world (in fact, its less than 0.02% damage lost from doing it). I can also adjust the value of the threshold using my formula to get a good zone for crit to be in for optimal crit, though for now im just gonna stay at 0.01%.

 

Tactics

 

This is where I call myself a giant idiot as I fix up the previous mistake. Previously, optimal crit for this spec was a big fat 0. Now though...

 

Optimal Crit: 186, obtained with 3 crit enhancements. Values between 144 crit and 227 crit will be within 0.01% of the max DPS average. 0 crit is going to be 0.185% less DPS than optimal.

 

UPDATE: Dread Masters gear is done:

 

Dread Masters Gear:

 

Assuming Dread Masters Relics, and a non-reusable attack adrenal

 

Assault

 

Optimal crit rating is 463, obtained with 2 mods, 4 enhancements and a crystal. Crit rating values between 422 and 504 will be within 0.01% of the max DPS average, and values between 402 and 525 are within 0.02% of the optimal value. Ignoring crit is 1.1432% less than optimal dps.

 

Tactics

 

Optimal crit rating is 327, obtained with 2 mods and 2 enhancements and a crystal. Crit rating values between 286 and 368 will be within 0.01% of the max DPS average, and values between 266 and 388 are within 0.02% of the optimal value. Ignoring crit is 0.5401% less than optimal dps.

Edited April 7, 2014 by TACeMossie