[Guide] Vanguard Assault Specialist & Tactics DPS Endgame PvE

[Iwipe]

Hey everyone, recently a couple of my guildies have started writing a series of class guides for my site for every spec/role for PvE endgame. They are designed to be beginner friendly but also carry enough information for players looking to do Nightmare operations. We have just finished up our Vanguard DPS guide and I thought I would share it.

 

Contents

• Overview
  
• Assault Specialist
  
• Tactics
  

 

You can find the following contents inside the guides

• Gearing and Stats priority
  
• Gearing Overview
  
• Ability Explanation
  
• Opening Rotation
  
• Rotation Strategy
  
• AoE rotation priority
  
• Sample Parse Analysis
  
• Tips & Tricks
  

 

If you are interested in the other guides we have written you can find all the healing ones here, all the tanking ones here and all the DPS ones here.

 

Enjoy and let me know if you have any suggestions, criticisms, or critiques in here or in the comments section below the guides!

[TACeMossie]

As much as I appreciate it Dulfy, there were a lot of problems there. E.g. Gearing: Assault needs more crit, while tactics needs less (Assault was mathed to need 260 crit for example, while tactics needs none).

 

In addition to that, there was also them putting assault as a timer on Assault Plastique, and saying "Incendiary round doesn't fit in with the 15 second rotation". You know what else doesn't fit with the 15 second rotation? Stockstrike, Ionic accelerator, ect...

 

Basically, everything. On the other hand, an 18 second rotation (if you even want to use a rotation) can work with everything on cooldown, and even be organised so Assault Plastique doesn't interfere with IA procs.

 

e.g. Take this 'rotation'

 

1. IR

2. AP / HS / AP

3. SS

4. AP / HiB

5. IP / HiB / PC / HS

6. PC / AP / HS (Pulse cannon free rotations only use Ion Pulse here when doing burn phases if AP isn't here)

7. IP

8. HiB / AP

9. SS

10. AP / HiB / IP / HS

11. IP

12. SS / HiB / AP

 

By trying to follow that, you get 100% uptime on: Incendiary round, Assault Plastique, Stockstrike, Ionic Accelerator, ect..., and as such it does much better than just pretending its the hybrid and substituting Pulse Cannon for Assault Plastique. I should know, i've tried everything to get assault to do decent damage. Its possibly why they felt assault was doing poorly as well - except for the fact that Assault, the best single-target spec vanguards have when the hybrid is axed, ties with 2.5 Vigilance Guardians... yeah

 

So yeah, Assault isn't a rotation, but a priority list, because Ionic Accelerator is volatile. Try:

 

1. Ionic Accelerator Proc

2. Incendiary Round DoT

3. Assault Plastique

4. Stock Strike

5. Rapid Shots if not Ionic Accelerator Proc cooldown and energy <= 76

6. Ion Pulse

 

Oh and I keep seeing these guides say its 5 energy regenerated naturally per global cooldown. Its not. Its 7.5 Energy regenerated per global cooldown. They give you the energy/second regenerated on the tooltip.

Edited January 19, 2014 by TACeMossie

[Carlenux]

As much as I appreciate it Dulfy, there were a lot of problems there. E.g. Gearing: Assault needs more crit, while tactics needs less (Assault was mathed to need 260 crit for example, while tactics needs none).

 

In addition to that, there was also them putting assault as a timer on Assault Plastique, and saying "Incendiary round doesn't fit in with the 15 second rotation". You know what else doesn't fit with the 15 second rotation? Stockstrike, Ionic accelerator, ect...

 

Basically, everything. On the other hand, an 18 second rotation (if you even want to use a rotation) can work with everything on cooldown, and even be organised so Assault Plastique doesn't interfere with IA procs.

 

e.g. Take this 'rotation'

 

1. IR

2. AP / HS / AP

3. SS

4. AP / HiB

5. IP / HiB / PC / HS

6. PC / AP / HS (Pulse cannon free rotations only use Ion Pulse here when doing burn phases if AP isn't here)

7. IP

8. HiB / AP

9. SS

10. AP / HiB / IP / HS

11. IP

12. SS / HiB / AP

 

By trying to follow that, you get 100% uptime on: Incendiary round, Assault Plastique, Stockstrike, Ionic Accelerator, ect..., and as such it does much better than just pretending its the hybrid and substituting Pulse Cannon for Assault Plastique. I should know, i've tried everything to get assault to do decent damage. Its possibly why they felt assault was doing poorly as well - except for the fact that Assault, the best single-target spec vanguards have when the hybrid is axed, ties with 2.5 Vigilance Guardians... yeah

 

So yeah, Assault isn't a rotation, but a priority list, because Ionic Accelerator is volatile. Try:

 

1. Ionic Accelerator Proc

2. Incendiary Round DoT

3. Assault Plastique

4. Stock Strike

5. Rapid Shots if not Ionic Accelerator Proc cooldown and energy <= 76

6. Ion Pulse

 

Oh and I keep seeing these guides say its 5 energy regenerated naturally per global cooldown. Its not. Its 7.5 Energy regenerated per global cooldown. They give you the energy/second regenerated on the tooltip.

 

the 18 second rotations are just "example" of situational rotations, for example if you watch it closely instead of just saying its wrong, the purpose of it its explaining how would a rotation work with a PPA proc + TD off CD and without TD on Cooldown AKA delaying rail shot / HiB for a higher priority ability during PPA internal Cooldown, there is no rotation in any class that has a "perfect setup" or a way to explain in 2 rotations how to do it perfectly... thats where the "priority list" + Ability explanation, anyone that reads the guide completely would understand which has and doesnt have priority above other as well as the explanation itself explain which ability is usually delayed by which during same CD timeframes, so reading a guide just going to a "generic Overall 18 second situational rotation" instead of reading the whole thing would lead to this . the guide is a full guide, not just a part, it is not a "let me put 10 different rotations without explanation just so people follow it like a robot" so you cant just read that part and forget the rest.

 

the guide goes:

 

Abliity priority, which is more important than other

Explanation: why does this has more important above other, important notes on the abilities plus important talents that affect them.

Opener: how to properly start your rotation.

Situational Rotations trying to demonstrate important Scenarios explained in the Ability priority / explanation.

Video Guide that should show majority of this cases in place on an easy to understand / follow (clicked) dummy Rotation.

 

if you read just 1 of all those points, it is incomplete unfortunately... your priority list up there is exactly explained in our ability explanation, nothing different... All rotations are a priority list, the thing is ones rely on RNG and others not, but saying this "rotation" is in facta priority list, is a mistake... because they all are, MM sniper, one of the most steady and simple rotations, is a priority list... if you have SoS and Ambush off CD, which one you use? priority list, should i FT or Ambush right after SoS? priority list, whats more important 1 sniper or using Cdart clipping last tick to keep a 100% uptime and not delay SoS + Ambush? priority list... so the concept where people say "this is a priority list not a rotation" is false, all rotations are priority list, this just happen to be bound to RNG to complicate things up.

 

your last statement is wrong too, each GCD is 5 energy in general, just by the fact that you get it PER SECOND, 5+5+5+5... you dont get 5 (1 second) + 2.5 ( 1.5 seconds) + 2.5 (2 seconds) so it is not 7.5... in average every 3 GCD + 0.5 seconds = 7.5 Energy, but each GCD is not 7.5 Energy thats a mistake... second 0 +5 / 1 second +5 / 1.5 + 0 (2nd GCD) / 2 Second +5 / 3 Second +5 (start of 3rd GCD = Second 0) / 4 second +5 / 5 Second +5 (4 th GCD = Second 2) and keep going... this doesnt mean Each GCD = 7.5, nop thats false, this means Each 3 GCD you will have 10 energy regen > 5 making it: 5 + 5 + 10= 20 = 4 seconds +5 in first GCD, +5 during 2nd GCD, +5 at start of third, +5 at end of third GCD = 20 energy on 4 seconds., but unfortunately you can not keep the GCD count during a whole fight to track these :S. if you go saying each GCD is 7.5 u will be Overheated just by the fact that 7.5 + 7.5 + 7.5 = 22.5.. while in reality 3 GCD = 4.5 seconds is 5 +5 +5 5 = 20

[TACeMossie]

haha fair enough on the energy thing - though it hasn't really hurt me enough to notice any differences between actual testing and planning out (Before I started going assault I did a ton of maths trying to figure out what the optimal rotation was and... yeah it just fell apart when procs didn't happen)

 

Though if you want to get really technical... You regenerate 5.1 energy/second in full assault because of the alacrity talent

 

Also while your guide does get better as it goes down, when I was reading it I was making the comments alongside it. So as much as the Assault guide ends up being pretty good, it takes a while to get there. Thats basically what I was saying. Oh and as I said I prefer the 18 second way to look at it, which hits energy neutral without worrying about Reserve Powercell, and because if this it does more damage because you can save all your energy cooldowns for when you activate Battle Focus and just do ridiculous burst.

My underworld-geared vanguard for example, hit ~3.05k dps by looking at 18 seconds instead of 15 seconds (1 mill hp dummy, 20% armor reduction) while looking at it like a 15 second rotation couldn't break 2.9k.

EDIT - here was the parse: http://www.torparse.com/a/542949

 

The tactics guide was almost spot-on though, so good job there (Only thing I disagree with is grabbing crit for it, but hey, if you want crit go for it). Well that and you accidentally brought up Ionic Accelerator there (only works for the soon-to-be-debunked hybrid and for assault). And bring up that its 5-10 cells regenerated per cooldown for some of them, because while half the GCDs are 5 seconds, the other half are 10 seconds.

 

Oh and nice to see you fixed up the crit for assault. That was really annoying me (180 crit max on a spec dependent on them really annoyed me for some reason)

Edited January 20, 2014 by TACeMossie

[TACeMossie]

Anyway... I decided to read through the pyrotech guide just because and it turns out that a lot of your issues with Assault Vanguards didn't exist in the Pyrotech Powertech guide. Lost in translation maybe?

 

Yeah thats probably it. Also you didn't bring up electro shield, thats an awesome talent for certain phases of certain bossfights.

[Iwipe]

Anyway... I decided to read through the pyrotech guide just because and it turns out that a lot of your issues with Assault Vanguards didn't exist in the Pyrotech Powertech guide. Lost in translation maybe?

 

.

 

Hmm these should be identical barring any minor differences between the mirror classes on Bioware's part. If there is anything different between the two you spotted please let us know so we can correct it

[battkg]

Can you give an explanation behind the tactics rotation, it seems to recommend doing things that sound like a dps loss without reason. I'm also unsure what is meant by a 15-20 second rotation. The usual rotation is 15 seconds and there is no explanation why a rotation strive to take longer.

 

It recommends to do some things that are impossible without a GCD longer than 1.5 seconds

- Use Fire Pulse in 9 GCDs when it has a 15 second cooldown

 

It recommends to do some things that seem like a dps loss

- Clip the 15 second Gut dot and reapply in 9 GCDs

 

Typically, Tactics is generally explained as a 15 second rotation, every ability except Stockstrike has a 15 second cooldown or has no cooldown. This means that Gut, Pulse Cannon, High Impact Bolt, and Fire Pulse should be used in the same place in the rotation every time. Two of the other GCDs are used for Ion Pulse and the rest are used for Stockstrike, Ion Pulse and Hammer Shots.

 

Typically, that means that the rotation goes like:

Gut -> Pulse Cannon -> Stockstrike -> Ion Pulse -> Fire Pulse -> Hammer Shot -> High Impact Bolt - > Ion Pulse ->Stock Strike

Gut -> Pulse Cannon -> Ion Pulse -> Hammer Shot -> Fire Pulse -> Stockstrike -> High Impact Bolt - >Hammer Shot -> Ion Pulse -> Back To Beginning

[Carlenux]

Can you give an explanation behind the tactics rotation, it seems to recommend doing things that sound like a dps loss without reason. I'm also unsure what is meant by a 15-20 second rotation. The usual rotation is 15 seconds and there is no explanation why a rotation strive to take longer.

 

It recommends to do some things that are impossible without a GCD longer than 1.5 seconds

- Use Fire Pulse in 9 GCDs when it has a 15 second cooldown

 

It recommends to do some things that seem like a dps loss

- Clip the 15 second Gut dot and reapply in 9 GCDs

 

Typically, Tactics is generally explained as a 15 second rotation, every ability except Stockstrike has a 15 second cooldown or has no cooldown. This means that Gut, Pulse Cannon, High Impact Bolt, and Fire Pulse should be used in the same place in the rotation every time. Two of the other GCDs are used for Ion Pulse and the rest are used for Stockstrike, Ion Pulse and Hammer Shots.

 

Typically, that means that the rotation goes like:

Gut -> Pulse Cannon -> Stockstrike -> Ion Pulse -> Fire Pulse -> Hammer Shot -> High Impact Bolt - > Ion Pulse ->Stock Strike

Gut -> Pulse Cannon -> Ion Pulse -> Hammer Shot -> Fire Pulse -> Stockstrike -> High Impact Bolt - >Hammer Shot -> Ion Pulse -> Back To Beginning

 

you are right on the Guts... it is 1 Second before it should thanks . and with immolate as well thanks for noticing that

 

it should be :

 

RB + IO + RP + RS + FB + FB + FT + RP + FB + RB + IO + FB + RS + RP .... thanks for the fix!

[Carlenux]

haha fair enough on the energy thing - though it hasn't really hurt me enough to notice any differences between actual testing and planning out (Before I started going assault I did a ton of maths trying to figure out what the optimal rotation was and... yeah it just fell apart when procs didn't happen)

 

Though if you want to get really technical... You regenerate 5.1 energy/second in full assault because of the alacrity talent

 

Also while your guide does get better as it goes down, when I was reading it I was making the comments alongside it. So as much as the Assault guide ends up being pretty good, it takes a while to get there. Thats basically what I was saying. Oh and as I said I prefer the 18 second way to look at it, which hits energy neutral without worrying about Reserve Powercell, and because if this it does more damage because you can save all your energy cooldowns for when you activate Battle Focus and just do ridiculous burst.

My underworld-geared vanguard for example, hit ~3.05k dps by looking at 18 seconds instead of 15 seconds (1 mill hp dummy, 20% armor reduction) while looking at it like a 15 second rotation couldn't break 2.9k.

EDIT - here was the parse: http://www.torparse.com/a/542949

 

The tactics guide was almost spot-on though, so good job there (Only thing I disagree with is grabbing crit for it, but hey, if you want crit go for it). Well that and you accidentally brought up Ionic Accelerator there (only works for the soon-to-be-debunked hybrid and for assault). And bring up that its 5-10 cells regenerated per cooldown for some of them, because while half the GCDs are 5 seconds, the other half are 10 seconds.

 

Oh and nice to see you fixed up the crit for assault. That was really annoying me (180 crit max on a spec dependent on them really annoyed me for some reason)

 

to be fair, yeah it is in fact 5.1 lolol, but hey dealing with 0.1 is just making ourself work harder in the post hahaha.

 

yeah i agree.

 

also like dulfy said if u happen to find a mistake between mirrors let us know and it should just be mirroring abilities.

[battkg]

I still would like to know why the rotation listed is basically 1.5 of a rotation. What do you do during the other 5 GCDs? There isn't much choice. You can't use flame burst again without moving a heat tier (you will have begun to over heat if the 2 flame bursts in a row didn't proc a free rocket punch).

 

RB + IO + RP + RS + FB + FB + FT + RP + FB +

RB + IO + FB + RS + RP + RS + FT + ?? + ??.

 

Why not fill out the rest of the rotation? There are only 2 gcds left, which can be filled with flame burst, rapid shots or death from above depending on heat venting abilities and if the previous flame burst activated the free rocket punch.

Edited January 21, 2014 by battkg