Kogarvandalin Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 Which tank has the easiest rotation? I'm only ever going to tank Pugs. I'm looking for a tank with the easiest and least amount of buttons to press. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KeyboardNinja Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 Depends on what you define as easy. The shadow tanking rotation has the least buttons and the lowest APM, but it is also the most punishing in terms of mitigation if you screw it up. Also, the shadow tanking rotation has the most complex priority-based decisions (three things to do, which one next?). It also requires some attentiveness to mechanics to ensure that you can maintain your active mitigation in the face of specific fight constraints, though this element is less pronounced than it used to be. At the other end of the spectrum, the vanguard rotation has a few more buttons and nearly 10 more APM, but the priority queue is very simple and essentially never in conflict. Also, messing up the rotation is only punishing in that you might run out of ammo. The active mitigation mostly manages itself, and it is very difficult to play sub optimally in that respect (though, I've seen people manage to do it). The guardian rotation has the most buttons by far, and an APM which is between vanguards and shadows. It is the hardest rotation to execute in terms of resources, and there are some subtle decision points based on available resources and upcoming cooldowns. For the most part though, the guardian rotation can be defined as "use your stuff on cooldown" once you get outside the opener, which is fairly involved. Guardians have the hardest time holding threat, but they are certainly no less viable in that respect when played correctly. Their active mitigation is generally trivial to maintain, though optimal use of the self heal can be difficult on a fight with highly dynamic mechanics. I think all of the tanking rotations have things that are easy and things that are difficult. Take your pick! In general, most people seem to find that the vanguard rotation is the easiest, with the guardian rotation following very closely behind and the shadow rotation representing the hardest of the three. That's just a general consensus though, I'm not sure if I would agree with its accuracy (especially given some of the subtler resource-related priorities that guardians need to juggle). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kogarvandalin Posted January 13, 2014 Author Share Posted January 13, 2014 Right now I'm playing an assassin and I'm having a tough time with remembering to push everything. I often don't have dark ward up or remember to use maul. I can stay with about 5 buttons for a basic threat generators (rotation). 4 buttons for long term defense cooldowns. 1 button for AE I have a really hard time remembering to use short cooldowns. Will any of the tanks work for me or should I just stick with DPS? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dipstik Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 i think assassin is the closest to what u specify. dark ward, discharge and force lightning are slightly annoying because u have to watch your buffs, but you really only have 1 more ability to use on aoe. the most nuanced things are prolly phase walk, and force pull... which are about as demanding as guarding a dps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rebel_Guy Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 (edited) vanguard/powertech I would reccomend to anybody looking for easy rotation to put it simply . Aoe for the most part just ends up using flame sweep over and over. Cooldowns generally just use oil slick on cooldown... Kolto overload as a panic button, and energy shield as your one cooldown that you can depend on for any situation. Very easy on a beginner, but effective at every level of play and in my opinion fairly fun. I would describe it as more relaxing than my assassin, but I can simply do more with my assassin by timing cooldowns perfectly rather than having most of the mitigation as passive (or simply use it and forget about it as would be in powertechs case). If simplicity is your selling point I would HIGHLY reccomend powertech over an assassin. Edited January 13, 2014 by Rebel_Guy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nuald Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 Tanking is not only about pressing the correct buttons, but also observing the situation and attacking correct mobs. From my personal experience when I have to move a lot (any melee class) it breaks my rotation and pretty much messes my gameplay. Unfortunately, all tanks in swtor are close-range classes, but VG/PT have a little advantage for range attacks, so it's a little bit easier to play if you are not comfortable with moving a lot. However, the number of buttons to "push" is virtually equals for all tanks, so if you're trying to have the easiest rotation, it would be better to stick with the dps skill trees. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KeyboardNinja Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 Right now I'm playing an assassin and I'm having a tough time with remembering to push everything. I often don't have dark ward up or remember to use maul. I can stay with about 5 buttons for a basic threat generators (rotation). 4 buttons for long term defense cooldowns. 1 button for AE I have a really hard time remembering to use short cooldowns. Will any of the tanks work for me or should I just stick with DPS? Start by pushing Dark Ward on cooldown. Position the ability somewhere that you can see it easily, and when it lights up, hit the button right away. That should give you 100% uptime, though substantially less than optimal Dark Bulwark usage (you can refine that later). Regarding your button list: 5 buttons: Shock (1), Wither (2), Discharge (3), Thrash (4), Force Lighting (5) 1 AoE button: Lacerate (but honestly Wither and Discharge are almost enough) 4 long term defensive CDs: Shroud (1), Deflection (2), Overcharge (3), Cloak (4) You need to add Dark Ward to the above, but it didn't fit into any of your categories. With Dark Ward used on cooldown + the above, you can be a mostly-ok assassin tank. Obviously, I'm not listing your stun breaker or your interrupt, since those are baseline required abilities on every class. Refining the class to a higher degree will gain you a measurably significant amount of mitigation and threat, and really just involves adding the following abilities: Maul (6), Assassinate (7), Saber Strike (8), Force Pull (9), Phase Walk (10), Recklessness (11) Refinements beyond that will involve the following situational abilities: Overload (12), Spike (13), Whirlwind (14), Electrocute (15) You'll also notice that I haven't yet counted your taunts in any way. This is sort of unavoidable, since taunts don't fall into any category you listed. You will need to be able to use both your single and your AoE taunt on any tanking class. Anyway, all of the above is important stuff, but you can certainly start with the 5/1/4 abilities I listed and do mostly alright. My advice would be to try to train yourself to balance and maintain more and more things simultaneously. Baseline assassin tanking is easy and tolerably decent, though you will be much harder to heal than a baseline powertech or juggernaut. Advanced assassin tanking is much harder, and brings you to a level that is roughly on par with mid-range tanks of the other two classes. Masterful assassin tanking is intensely difficult and probably the hardest of the three classes, and it brings you to perfect parity (slightly ahead on some bosses) with the best of the best in the other two classes. Honestly, you're not going to find a single class in the game which lets you get away with only 10 abilities while playing at any sort of middling-to-high level. The minimum I can think of for any class is 13, while some classes have as many as 19 abilities that they have to juggle in any given fight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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