Build and gear critique thread

[Bilirubin]

I didn't see anywhere where folks could plumb the collective knowledge of this group, so I thought I would start. Based on what I have been learning here as I am getting more seriously into tanking again, I have made a few changes and my survivability has really shot up. I am now looking for other relatively easy tweeks I can make to up my mitigation further.

 

My current build.

 

Hope you don't find this lazy of me, but a lot of common knowledge is so "common" that it hasn't been discussed in some time and it makes it harder to locate for those of us who are newly in the tanking forum/back after some time away. I am just trying to narrow down my search for ways to improve.

 

Edit: numbers don't perfectly match what I see in game so I might have missed some slight detail, and I was going from memory on the datachrons. Still, its ballpark.

Edited April 10, 2014 by Bilirubin

[Moradeth]

Not bad. There are some things I would tweak if you either have/get the ultimate comms (or if you get the drops).

 

• If you can stand to PvP, switch to the Obroan/Brutalizer relics of Reactive Warding and Fortunate Redoubt.
  
• If you have the ultimate comms, get the 78 OH. You don't really need to worry about your dps, but it helps.
  
• Replacing your earpiece with the Veracity is optional. It's worth an additional 39 mitigation, but at some point, balancing against your mainstat is helpful for maintain agro (plus additional heals from Overcharged Saber from the extra endurance).
  
• Bulwark and Bastion 30s enhancements are better for mitigation than Vigilant 31s. So if you have Bastion or Bulwark 30s, I'd suggest replacing those Vigilant ones. Or upgrading the Vigilant 31s to Vigilant 34s
  
• Alternatively, if you're running HM/NiM S&V/TFB, you could switch Bastion/Bulwark 30s/Vigilant 31s for crafted Immunity/Sturdiness 28s.
  
• Move your bracer defense mod to another item if that's going to be part of your baseline. Then carry an extra pair of bracers/belt that you can swap between more defense for heavy M/R fights (Nefra, Draxus, etc).
  

 

It really depends on what you're running and what kind of spikes you can take.

Edited April 10, 2014 by Moradeth

[Bilirubin]

Thanks Moradeth.

 

I have 3 immunity 28s being crafted as we speak (type?). I am also in the process of getting more Bulwark 30s. (And I also need to get your in game contact info for a veracity ear, but we'll see how my crafting and schematic fishing trip goes and I really appreciate your honest comment about its real need).

 

I have 120 ultimates, and the off hand is scheduled to be purchased as soon as I hit 130. I think I have 125 or so elites.

 

I am starting out in HM S&V and TfB, to build up my set bonus to 72. I appreciate your comment about a second set of bracers. Eventually we will move on to HM DF/DP, then NiM. Knock wood.

 

RE PvP: this character is valor 55 so I have done but not a lot since returning to the game. Frankly, figuring out what is best between bolster and my old War Hero/Battlemaster sets is too much of a pain given my limited play hours and current PvE focus. But I will keep it in mind.

Edited April 10, 2014 by Bilirubin

[Moradeth]

...(And I also need to get your in game contact info for a veracity ear, but we'll see how my crafting and schematic fishing trip goes but I really appreciate your honest comment about its real need).

 

...

 

I am starting out in HM S&V and TfB, to build up my set bonus to 72. I appreciate your comment about a second set of bracers. Eventually we will move on to HM DF/DP, then NiM. Knock wood.

 

RE PvP: this character is valor 55 so I have done but not a lot since returning to the game. Frankly, figuring out what is best between bolster and my old War Hero/Battlemaster sets is too much of a pain given my limited play hours and current PvE focus. But I will keep it in mind.

 

It's mostly a personal preference. The veracity is a better item, but I like the Oriconian one as it gives a large enough mainstat boost to increase my threat gen (and bonus heals for Juggs), and enough mitigation to balance the loss. Shoot me an in-game mail to Moradeth imp side or Mor'din pub side.

 

If you're running S&V and TFB, you can really don't need a huge HP pool, the only things that hit really hard are going to be Terminate and Huge Grenade.

 

Don't worry about the old sets, they removed the expertise from them anyway. I'm sure there's a proper way of working the bolster system, but I'm too lazy to figure it out But if you don't plan on PvPing for those relics, you could finish the story quest for SM DF+DP and get the Arkanian Relic of Reactive Warding.

Edited April 10, 2014 by Moradeth

[cxten]

Veracity vs Oriconian MK-1: +39 mitigation, -79 willpower, -136 endurance. At some ratio, endurance is worth more than mitigation (even from a total-healing-required-over-the-whole-fight perspective*). Here the ratio endurance:mitigation is 3.5, which is such a high ratio that I'd stick with oriconian on most fights. The extra willpower for threat/dps is gravy.

 

To compare the enhancement choices you're making to this one:

 

Bastion 30 vs Vigilant 31: +10 mitigation, -21 endurance, ratio of 2.1

 

Immunity 28 vs Bastion 30: +8 mitigation, -21 endurance, ratio of 2.6

 

Just another perspective.

 

--------

 

* Some calculations I had in a thread a while ago had the heuristic [at DF/DP HM damage values for most fights] that:

 

#min-between-being-topped-up-with-the-healers-at-ease is (very) approximately the same as #endurance-worth-1-point-of-mitigaion

 

in terms of total healing required over the whole fight.

 

(The idea is to think of endurance as a sort of mitigation in the form of a heal of the amount of increased health in intervals of how often you're topped up while the healers have good resource regen / a break.)

Edited April 10, 2014 by cxten

[Bilirubin]

Interesting, thanks for this perspective. What ratio is the tipping point in deciding one way vs the other in this consideration?

[Moradeth]

I believe it was 2.5 Endurance:Mitigation, but that was back when Shadows/Assassins had self heals, and that was strictly comparing End to Mit.

[Bilirubin]

FWIW two vigilant 31s were replaced with bulwark 30s

[TACeMossie]

Ok I got 1:

 

Guardian Tank: http://swtor.askmrrobot.com/character/42e4e1a5-c613-45a9-b4f0-5fe4541f1f3e

 

This was put together mainly for fights more than 4 minutes long (so everything not called nefra), though im not at the gear level yet. It accounts for patch 2.7's changes to focused defense. Its gonna happen after I get the billions of credits required for all the mats to craft it, and then the luck of finding a pug run willing to do it, followed by being incredibly lucky and winning 4 set bonus pieces

 

as an added joke, if I got HK51 gear equal to what I put on that guys T7-01, would people flame me for it or be impressed at my dedication?

[Methoxa]

You got Focused retribution relic as a tank, funny

 

here is mine : http://swtor.askmrrobot.com/character/6ef6001c-816f-46fb-af48-495823911045

[TACeMossie]

You got Focused retribution relic as a tank, funny

 

here is mine : http://swtor.askmrrobot.com/character/6ef6001c-816f-46fb-af48-495823911045

 

lol woops. That was meant to be a Fortunate Redoubt (Same initials)

Though to be fair, that does work with guardian tanks as a mitigation relic. Just its not as good as the other mitigation relics. I think.

 

I mathed it to a 6.317 dtps reduction. But then again the reactive warding is a 32.134 dtps reduction so...

 

But then again, theres also focused defense which if activated and consumed during a Focused Retribution window causes an extra 26.8578 heals/second...

 

Haha what do you know! The Focused Retribution relic has the highest potential mitigation on a guardian

 

But for that everything does have to line up properly...

Edited April 11, 2014 by TACeMossie

[Bilirubin]

I have 120 ultimates, and the off hand is scheduled to be purchased as soon as I hit 130. I think I have 125 or so elites.

 

Ran EV and TC last night for comms, go to buy my off hand and...what? 140?!? I only have 138 NOOOOOOOOOOO

 

Gonna have to wait until after our DP HM run tonight. I wanted it before though.

[Bilirubin]

lol woops. That was meant to be a Fortunate Redoubt (Same initials)

Though to be fair, that does work with guardian tanks as a mitigation relic. Just its not as good as the other mitigation relics. I think.

 

I mathed it to a 6.317 dtps reduction. But then again the reactive warding is a 32.134 dtps reduction so...

 

But then again, theres also focused defense which if activated and consumed during a Focused Retribution window causes an extra 26.8578 heals/second...

 

Haha what do you know! The Focused Retribution relic has the highest potential mitigation on a guardian

 

But for that everything does have to line up properly...

 

Glad to see others making use of the thread! I hate accidentally buying the wrong items because they are similarly named and I am not paying close enough attention/am too tired/etc

[TACeMossie]

Glad to see others making use of the thread! I hate accidentally buying the wrong items because they are similarly named and I am not paying close enough attention/am too tired/etc

 

Haha. Well im gonna see what the best survivability is for a guardian without a shield now

 

Why? Just because I felt like it. And its gonna be funny to see how good you can get without a shield.

[Methoxa]

But then again the reactive warding is a 32.134 dtps reduction

if activated and consumed during a Focused Retribution window causes an extra 26.8578 heals/second...

 

You really would take 26hps over 32 dtpsreduction?. Furthermore your focused defense has a cooldown, meaning you would do 26hps / 120 extra ( Dont know the exact cooldown of focused defense) + 6dtps reduction. One side note though: Reactive warding is especially good for tanks because it absorbs all dmg, also elemental/internal damage making it for some bosses even better than fortunate redoubt ( Draxus,Brontes, Warlors, Styrak and so on). Furthermore that elemental/internal dmg can be neglected in Sm but in NM its the dmg type that hurts you the most. Regarding one of my fight logs on draxus NM:

Draxus dps : 651

Dispatcher : 472

Subteroth : 81

Dismantler : 141

Guardian : 181

 

The damage of the Dispatcher is of an elemental type, no defense/shield will help you there. So they do nearly as much dmg as the boss but they are not as often attacking you as the boss because they only spawn in 3 phases. When 3 dispatcher fire at you you'll see what damage they can do.

 

Furthermore using focused defense in the upwindow of focussed retribution proc is kinda impossible. Better concentrate on one's rotation and movement than looking for trinketprocc and spamming focussed defense button in hope one's hp falls underneath the 70% treshold. If you want to increase your healing power for a better focussed defense use on use power relics. They are better controlable and you dont have to wait for it to proc before using focussed defense.

[TACeMossie]

You really would take 26hps over 32 dtpsreduction?. Furthermore your focused defense has a cooldown, meaning you would do 26hps / 120 extra ( Dont know the exact cooldown of focused defense) + 6dtps reduction. One side note though: Reactive warding is especially good for tanks because it absorbs all dmg, also elemental/internal damage making it for some bosses even better than fortunate redoubt ( Draxus,Brontes, Warlors, Styrak and so on). Furthermore that elemental/internal dmg can be neglected in Sm but in NM its the dmg type that hurts you the most. Regarding one of my fight logs on draxus NM:

Draxus dps : 651

Dispatcher : 472

Subteroth : 81

Dismantler : 141

Guardian : 181

 

The damage of the Dispatcher is of an elemental type, no defense/shield will help you there. So they do nearly as much dmg as the boss but they are not as often attacking you as the boss because they only spawn in 3 phases. When 3 dispatcher fire at you you'll see what damage they can do.

 

Furthermore using focused defense in the upwindow of focussed retribution proc is kinda impossible. Better concentrate on one's rotation and movement than looking for trinketprocc and spamming focussed defense button in hope one's hp falls underneath the 70% treshold. If you want to increase your healing power for a better focussed defense use on use power relics. They are better controlable and you dont have to wait for it to proc before using focussed defense.

 

I accounted for the downtime of focused defense with the proc. Also, while the healing from focused defense is lower, the additional health in the barriers from blade storm brings it back up.

 

However, im only gonna use a Focused Retribution on my guardian till I pick up a Dread Forged Reactive Warding. Cause he's DPS first, Tank second, and the Focused Retribution is already there. While it is a joke of a relic for a tank, it actually provides mitigation for a guardian

 

Oh and my maths didn't account for it double proccing (which it does) off self heals, so chances are the second set last 7 or so are gonna get the benefit of 2 procs if you activate it right after it procs and they all get used in 6 seconds.

Edited April 14, 2014 by TACeMossie

[Moradeth]

I accounted for the downtime of focused defense with the proc. Also, while the healing from focused defense is lower, the additional health in the barriers from blade storm brings it back up.

 

However, im only gonna use a Focused Retribution on my guardian till I pick up a Dread Forged Reactive Warding. Cause he's DPS first, Tank second, and the Focused Retribution is already there. While it is a joke of a relic for a tank, it actually provides mitigation for a guardian

 

Oh and my maths didn't account for it double proccing (which it does) off self heals, so chances are the second set last 7 or so are gonna get the benefit of 2 procs if you activate it right after it procs and they all get used in 6 seconds.

 

Well... if focused defense was on a lower CD, I might agree that you could count on double proccing, but the consistency and the chances of having Blade Storm/Force Scream on CD in that 3s window of overlap aren't that high, since... in order to maximize the use of your power/strength bonuses, you're really pushing to make sure that Storm/Scream is always on CD.

 

But if you run hybrid, Focused Retribution might be worth it That might be fun, might have to do that.

[Bilirubin]

Been out of town for the past week, but finally got my 78 off hand. Now I am sitting a little below ideal min-max for damage and absorb, and a bit above in shield. 2300 stats budget. How close to ideal is close enough?

[Moradeth]

Been out of town for the past week, but finally got my 78 off hand. Now I am sitting a little below ideal min-max for damage and absorb, and a bit above in shield. 2300 stats budget. How close to ideal is close enough?

 

23? I dunno that's a pretty arbitrary number. It's really whatever you're comfortable with.

 

One of the most important things to know is what the content you're fighting is, then switching things around for that fight. For example, DF is very M/R heavy for the first three bosses, so your numbers from the ideal might be a little higher on defense, while C0 is mostly F/T so you use a lot more absorb. Brontes is kind of weird and has a lot of M/R that feel like they should be F/T, so you take a difference between first three bosses and C0.

 

Gear to your content, keeping a couple of extra pieces to swap around is going to make your life so much easier.