Vanguard aggro on group

[sir_bert]

Hi,

 

After being a little bored on my full geared sage healer, i leveled a vanguard tank.

 

Im loving it, the playstyle i so nice.

Doing HM FP mainly at the moment, and it goes well, most of the time.

 

When i have to tank a single target or boss there is no problem.

When i have to tank a group of adds i dont seem to get whole the group to attack me.

I can keep 1 or 2 adds on me from the start, the rest is most of the time attacking the healer, then i have to AOE taunt to get them back.

I think im doing something wrong with the start of the fight.

How do you guys open a group fight?

[TACeMossie]

My typical opener for trash mobs is:

 

[load shoulder cannon pre-fight]

 

Combat Focus

Storm

Spam Shoulder Cannon

Explosive Surge x2

Pulse Cannon (into adds)

fall back to 12 meters while spamming hammer shots (if possible)

AoE taunt (puts at top of threat table and gives 30% more threat)

High Impact Bolt

 

That typically holds any adds group ever. For bosses its much more simple

 

Combat Focus

Storm

Shoulder Cannon (spam it)

Explosive surge

Stockstrike

Explosive Surge

High Impact Bolt

[rotation]

 

And if you ever do The Dread Fortress, my rotation on the droid trash there is simple

 

1. Stand inside Ranged DPS

2. Spam Hammer Shots

3. Wait till a droid drops below 25%

4. Harpoon

 

Edited March 9, 2014 by TACeMossie

[venomlash]

and if you ever do the dread fortress, my rotation on the droid trash there is simple

 

1. Stand inside ranged dps

2. Spam hammer shots

3. Wait till a droid drops below 25%

4. Harpoon

 

 

YOU MONSTER

[TACeMossie]

YOU MONSTER

 

My record is currently 9. It would have been 10 but it glitched up and I somehow survived.

[SirRobinII]

My record is currently 9. It would have been 10 but it glitched up and I somehow survived.

 

my record is 14 on my powertech during a pug raid. They were pretty mad on me XD

 

OT: I also try to use mortar and explosive round in some situations.

[Gelgaroth]

On larger groups, at least on the mirror class, powertech (idk names of the vanguard skills yet, so using pt) I start with death from above. Then i usually run in with flamethrower, and rotate a little to catch them all. Then flame burst, then a few rapid shots on one mob, to proc dot from my ion gas cylinder, which in turn allows for Rail Shot which, when talented, is also an aoe, on up to 5 total mobs (target, plus 4 within like 5m). Rarely do I ever have to use any taunts. Then again, I haven't leveled a pt tank high enough for hm fps. XD

[MGNMTTRN]

See my guide, scroll down to section 7.1: AOE threat for trash and adds

[Kaos_KidSWTOR]

My record is currently 9. It would have been 10 but it glitched up and I somehow survived.

 

I had a guy wipe an entire 16 man Raid with those droid adds, it was really funny. I wonder if you can bypass the explosion with Force Shroud or Evasion...

[Gelgaroth]

Also, at 32 plus, I've found that I now prefer opening with storm, using harpoon to pull that outlier mob to me, then double explosive surge (free casts from storm proc). Then back up a little, pulse cannon, then sticky grenade, hammer shots (to proc HiB aoe), then HiB (is really damage, but still an extra bit of damage for more threat). About the only time I use mortar volley now is on strong/gold/boss single targets, or groups of trash that I kill with one mortar volley.

 

Adding more to this, since I've leveled a fair bit. I still usually open with storm, pull any outlier mobs with harpoon (usually only one), then I use pulse cannon, then my 2 surges, then stockstrike (to proc HiB), then I use HiB (high impact bolt) because that sends out a low damage explosion, doesn't break cc, and helps with aggro. Usually, somewhere in there though, if it procs, I throw in a second pulse cannon. It usually procs after the 2 surges, if not, then usually after HiB. everything's usually dead by then for normal questing, if not earlier. On groups in heroics and fps though, I still usually open with mortar volley, unless they're too spread apart, then i use mortar after that initial rotation. Most strongs will be dead, then it's just golds.

 

Vanguards are also one of the most mobile tanks after getting storm, because they have a talent that increases movespeed by 30% for 4 secs after using storm, but getting attacked refreshes the duration, so it usually lasts all fight. Also, if i'm fighting a ranged mob, i'll back up to 10m, just to storm back in and use 2 free surges, or if melee, i stun said melee mob and back up, storm, 2 free surges. Only times I use explosive surge are after storm (since they're free) though, due to the 25 energy cost.

Edited May 25, 2014 by Gelgaroth

[space_mechanic]

Mortar Volley might be a bit tricky to apply its full strength.

Mobs can leap to you or just start moving while you are channel.

Stable way of basically every AOE pull is to start with

Sticky Grenade, Storm to biggest mob -> SS -> HIB -> AOE Taunt. Then follow with 2 ES and Pulse Cannon.

[PlayLoud]

Holding a full group is fun on a Vanguard.

 

What I like to do...

 

 

If Mortar Volley is up...

1. Mortar Volley

2. Storm to toughest mob.

3. If there is a ranged mob who didn't run in to hit me, harpoon him.

4. Explosive Surge x2 (or more until Pulse Engine procs)

5. Pulse Cannon

6. Sticky Grenade

7. High Impact Bolt (can be used earlier if up)

8. AoE Taunt (can be used earlier if needed)

 

If Mortar Volley is down...

1. Sticky Grenade

2. Storm to toughest mob.

3. If there is a ranged mob who didn't run in to hit me, harpoon him.

4. Explosive Surge x2 (or more until Pulse Engine procs)

5. Pulse Cannon

6. High Impact Bolt (can be used earlier if up)

7. AoE Taunt (can be used earlier if needed)

 

I find that I would (as a tank), sometimes lead the damage parse on AoE trash during operations.

 

I love this class!

[Taleek]

I know this isn't exactly related to what you've talked about so far, but if this is your first time tanking in this game, I do want to give you one tip, you do not have to hold aggro on everything, and should not try, generally it will either get you killed from too much incoming dps or your threat will be spread too thin. Of course, the whole getting killed part mostly applies to group content, not solo play. Pick up elites first if you can, they have higher health, and any dps will burn down strongs very quickly unless some other factor is interfering.

 

Anyway, I wouldn't worry too much, elara can handle herself against a few npcs, just make sure you've got most of them. Use mortar volley to pull, make sure to position it to hit as many things as possible, storm in, use your two free explosive surges (you will get a talent for this later), drop a sticky bomb on an enemy that's right in the middle of everything, and line yourself up for a pulse cannon. And of course, use stockstrike on everything ever and put the ion pulse debuff on whoever is putting out the most damage.

 

Later on, you will get an AWESOME talent called pulse engine that will make your next pulse cannon free, finish its cooldown instantly, and make it channel and tick twice as fast. This is going to be your primary AoE threat generator.

 

Basically, with tanking, and especially vanguard tanking since you have both a pull and a leap, you need to look at the group before you pull and figure out which enemies you need to prioritze, and how best to group as many of them as you can for AoE. Check who's melee and who's ranged, generally use your harpoon on a ranged, melee are nice because they are very eager to clump themselves up for AoE for you. Use your taunts when you need to, generally to pull off of healers or to quickly grab a group that's gotten out of your control.

 

It's also important to note, and never stated anywhere in game, that taunting generates aggro by setting your threat to the same number of whoever has top threat right now, and then a certain percentage extra depending on how far away you are (taunting from longer range gives you a higher percentage), this also applies even if you're the one who has threat, so if you know you'll mostly just be on a single enemy the whole time you can feel free to use your single taunt whenever it comes off CD. Be careful when you do this though since things can change very quickly.

 

The reason Elara pulls off you on groups is because healing aggro is calculated by taking the aggro generated by the heal and then dividing it by the number of enemies involved in the fight, and distributes it evenly to all enemies in combat with the healer. Thus, on especially large pulls you will need to let the dps pick up the slack and keep a few off the healer. Anyway I've gotten carried away so I'll shush now and just respond to any questions.

Edited June 15, 2014 by Taleek