PT Shield Tech Spec Leveling Rotation

[Jaedaddy]

Hey guys,

 

I am new back to SWTOR, just leveled my Sorc to 47 and thought I would take a quick break to level a BH PT. I am really enjoying it, and only at level 13!!! However, I am not sure on what my rotation should be? Also, is there a site that someone could go to for leveling specs and rotations? or maybe a specific post for PTs?

 

My current rotation:

Explosive dart

Flame burst

Flame Thrower

Unload

Rocket Punch

Using Rail Shot on CD when I can

Then spam Missile Blast and Rapid Shots while those are on CD

 

Any suggestions for this level and beyond?

 

BTW I am doing shield spec as I plan on tanking a bunch of FPs to grind up. I also heard it makes for easy/fun leveling.

[TACeMossie]

Shield spec is one of those specs where the leveling aspect is just a case of "Use whatever you damn well feel like using. So long as it isn't unload or Missile Blast, you should be fine"

 

Similarly, talent distribution is whatever you damn well feel like until you hit 55. The Shield Spec Powertech has the incredibly unfair advantage over the other 2 tanks where its mitigation is almost completely independent of what you are doing (ok, maybe prioritizing rapid shots over flame burst sometimes for increased heat screen procs can help, but thats it), so you just gotta focus on using the big hits (Flamethrower, Rocket Punch, Rail Shot, flame burst every 6 cooldowns/9 seconds) on cooldown and spamming taunt won't hurt either

 

Now that I gave the levelling build, time to fix up your rotation!

 

Hey guys,

 

I am new back to SWTOR, just leveled my Sorc to 47 and thought I would take a quick break to level a BH PT. I am really enjoying it, and only at level 13!!! However, I am not sure on what my rotation should be? Also, is there a site that someone could go to for leveling specs and rotations? or maybe a specific post for PTs?

 

My current rotation:

Explosive dart

Flame burst

Flame Thrower

Unload

Rocket Punch

Using Rail Shot on CD when I can

Then spam Missile Blast and Rapid Shots while those are on CD

 

Any suggestions for this level and beyond?

 

BTW I am doing shield spec as I plan on tanking a bunch of FPs to grind up. I also heard it makes for easy/fun leveling.

 

Explosive Dart when closing in - some people like it, some don't. I'd do it if you engage from 30 meters and IMMEDIATELY hit Jet Charge so you hit the boss with that before the explosive dart does.

 

Flame Burst in the Opener - Come level ~35, you'll have free flame sweep x2 after a jet charge. This ends up having a huge threat boost in talents, so its good to get into habit of using up those freebies. It also gives the damage reduction that flame burst does from the target. So for now, use it, but when you hit 55, swap out the first flame burst for a flame sweep.

 

Flame Thrower - Good choice, but come 45 you're gonna start wanting to keep Heat Blast off cooldown when possible. I Personally delay this till after Rocket Punch + Rail shot, but its personal preference.

 

Unload - BAD BOY! REMOVE FROM ROTATION! AUTO ATTACK IS BETTER!

In all seriousness though, Unload suffers from 100% pushback. Meaning if you take damage while casting, you lose 0.5 seconds from the channel. Taking damage twice knocks 50% of the damage off it. And as a tank, you should be taking all the damage.

 

Rocket Punch/Rail Shot on cooldown - This would be good to do every time... if you could. Rocket Punch ends up having about a 6 second cooldown with all the procs and stuff in the shield spec tree, so dont be surprised if you can't do this every time.

 

Alternating Missile Blast/Rapid Shots while everything else is on cooldown - Bad idea. Due to Flame Burst doing Elemental Damage, it is a lot stronger than it seems. Missile blast not only costs 25 heat (thats a lot of heat), but also deals Kinetic Damage, which receives a 30% damage reduction on targets that have been hit with the armor reduction.

 

Final Notes: You obviously aren't at 51 yet, which adds in Shoulder Cannon + Explosive Fuel with each other on cooldown, so you can't get the rotation completely finalized yet. However, this is what I'd do as a tank levelling. If a move doesn't exist in your rotation yet, ignore it. Also its not a rotation, its a priority list. Use the moves on the top off cooldown, everything else when it happens.

 

OPENER - This doesn't worry about the priority list... yet. Square Brackets ( [ ] ) are off the Global Cooldown and dont interfere with anything but pulse cannon.

 

Explosive Dart @ 30 meters

Jet Charge

[Explosive Fuel]

[shoulder Cannon]

Flame Sweep

[shoulder Cannon]

[shoulder Cannon]

Rocket Punch

 

[Taunt]

 

[shoulder Cannon]

Rail Shot

Flame Sweep

[Heat Blast]

Flamethrower

Flame Burst

(Procced) Flamethrower

 

[AoE Taunt]

 

PRIORITY LIST:

 

Heat Blast (off the GCD)

Taunt (if fight lacks a tank swap or threat drop mechanic)

Rocket Punch

Rail Shot

Flamethrower (on cooldown regardless of proc)

Shoulder Cannon (off the GCD)

Flame Burst (if debuff is going to fall off or don't need to get Heat Blast up)

Rapid Shots

Edited May 1, 2014 by TACeMossie

[Jaedaddy]

@TACeMossie - You Rock Man!!! I've read so many post but nothing comes close to the information you gave me here!!!

 

I changed up my rotation and now I can actually KILL mobs and NOT overheat every fight! I took Missile Blast and Unload out of my rotation, and now PRIORITIZE my Rocket Punch + Rail Shot combo. Then Flamethrower. Then Rapid shots if I am getting hot or everything is on CD.

 

If you will indulge me a few follow-up questions?

1) With the Power Tech spec I am using a Shield (as I have on Ion Gas Cylinder for the Ion Overload talent). Is this correct or should I be using a Generator with Combustible Gas Cylinder?

 

2) Should I just spam Flame Burst if I am not overheating, or if the target has the damage debuff then spam Rapid Shots?

 

I may have more as I get smarter in the class, I am level 18 now and am hoping to be in the 40s after this double XP weekend.

 

Thanks again! - Jae

[TACeMossie]

@TACeMossie - You Rock Man!!! I've read so many post but nothing comes close to the information you gave me here!!!

 

I changed up my rotation and now I can actually KILL mobs and NOT overheat every fight! I took Missile Blast and Unload out of my rotation, and now PRIORITIZE my Rocket Punch + Rail Shot combo. Then Flamethrower. Then Rapid shots if I am getting hot or everything is on CD.

 

If you will indulge me a few follow-up questions?

1) With the Power Tech spec I am using a Shield (as I have on Ion Gas Cylinder for the Ion Overload talent). Is this correct or should I be using a Generator with Combustible Gas Cylinder?

 

2) Should I just spam Flame Burst if I am not overheating, or if the target has the damage debuff then spam Rapid Shots?

 

I may have more as I get smarter in the class, I am level 18 now and am hoping to be in the 40s after this double XP weekend.

 

Thanks again! - Jae

 

If you plan on tanking, the Optimal use is Ion Gas Cylinder with a shield, while if you are DPSing, 2.8 is bringing a huge boost to the Pyrotech tree (far right), which is a Generator with Combusible Gas Cylinder. But as you said you are currently tanking, Go with the Ion Gas Cylinder + Shield.

 

This is mainly because a Shield will reduce the damage taken from most sources of damage some of the time, and Ion Cylinder will not only boost your armor rating (reducing damage taken) but also increases damage reduction from all sources by 5%, and increases your chance to shield attacks by 15%. In addition, a few of your talents specifically require shielding an attack to happen, such as the cooldown reset for Rocket Punch, and the heat venting for shielding an attack. And while these are having defending an attack added in 2.8, a ~50% chance of doing something is a lot better than a ~15% chance of doing it, which is a generator + defense stat.

 

As for the second question - Up until level 40, where you pick up the talent "Heat Shields" and then again at level 45, where you get "Heat Blast", Ion Pulse has a higher priority than rapid shots when you have the heat for it. These talents activate on shielding an attack, or activating Ion Cylinder, and improve your survivability - making Rapid Shots more favorable in situations where the extra damage isn't needed, but you want to give your healers less strain for keeping you alive. From level 40-44, Rapid Shots is slightly higher on the priority list if you dont have 3 stacks of heat shield up, and from 45 onwards (when you have heat blast), Rapid Shots is more important for survivability as each Ion Cylinder activation reduces the cooldown on Heat Blast, which boosts your absorb rating by 25% (absorb rating is the damage absorbed when an attack is shielded)

[Jaedaddy]

As for the second question - Up until level 40, where you pick up the talent "Heat Shields" and then again at level 45, where you get "Heat Blast", Ion Pulse has a higher priority than rapid shots when you have the heat for it.

 

Told you I might have follow-ups...

1) Do you recommend I go Pyrotech come 2.8?

2) What is Ion Pulse? I put it in google/torhead and it appears to be a Vangaurd skill...?

 

Thanks again bro!

[TACeMossie]

Told you I might have follow-ups...

1) Do you recommend I go Pyrotech come 2.8?

2) What is Ion Pulse? I put it in google/torhead and it appears to be a Vangaurd skill...?

 

Thanks again bro!

 

Woops, thats my Vanguard coming through

 

Its Flame Burst. Translation errors happen some times.

 

As for when 2.8 comes, its all up to what you want to do. Do you want to be the tank, the Hero who the whole group relies on, who the boss finds to be the biggest threat even though the healer is making it way to hard for the boss to succeed, and the DPS are obliterating him? Or would you prefer to be the dps, the guy who is normally quite discrete in his obliterations of the boss, but somehow is causing the biggest amount of damage to it?

 

I personally found that when I leveled my vanguard main, Shield Spec was easiest to level up in, though once I got to level ~40 I started playing around with Assault (vanguard version of Pyrotech), which by 55 became my go-to spec for solo content (because I have treek who I dumped my tank gear on while doing it). As such, I'd suggest sticking with Shield Specialist until you get Treek or Blizz, who can use your really good tank gear, while playing around with Pyrotech and Advanced Prototype to get the feel of them. Tanks are in higher demand though, and since tanks are always harder to learn than DPS (Pyrotech is literally spam Flame burst, stopping to Rail Shot, Thermal Detonator, Incendiary Round or Stockstrike on cooldown, and rapid shots once every 2 rail shots), and as such leveling a class as a not-tank makes it harder to go back and be a tank.

Edited May 2, 2014 by TACeMossie

[Jaedaddy]

Woops, thats my Vanguard coming through

Its Flame Burst. Translation errors happen some times.

...leveling a class as a not-tank makes it harder to go back and be a tank.

 

I figured you meant Flame Burst. I like the tank leveling for the moment, but I may switch it up later, we'll see.

 

Thanks again man!

[Jaedaddy]

Hey guys! Wanted to follow up with you all. Two weeks after starting my PT BH I am level 55, 450 all crew skills, Mako/Blizz/Torian max affection (their avg item ratings about 130) , with about 1mil in credits, and an average item rating 140+. As this was my first leveled character in Star Wars, I am pleased with my progress and more than that, surprised at how much fun it was. By far the most enjoyable leveling experience I've had in an MMO!

 

I wanted to thank TACeMossie again for the advice here and via private message. His rotation above is exactly what you should do while leveling.

 

A few tips he gave me and some I picked up on my own:

1) Prioritize Aim and Power (then crit/surge)

--> I tried to going absorption/shield/defense for a few levels and killing mobs was painfully slow! Not worth for FP tanking either as I never die even with no defensive stats (changing now that I plan to tank end game content)

--> I got a bunch of Accuracy for a few levels and again was killing slow. My understanding is that as I was leveling in zones 1-3 levels lower than myself Accuracy had little benefit.

 

2) Leveling got really slow around level 30. I switched to Torian and Blizz when I got him and it was much better!

--> I still geared out Mako and used her for most tough elite fights or to solo the 2+ Heroics

-->Torian and Blizz can use your gear as "hand me downs" making gearing them up very easy. I preferred Blizz because he hit just as hard, and could taunt off me (used him with a generator and in offensive mode with both taunts on auto) .

--> When I first switched from Mako I died A LOT! With her you rarely HAVE to use your defensive cooldowns, and you definitive don't have to use the right ones /use them correctly. Once I learned how to alternate tanking with Blizz and was using my defensive CDs correctly, 40—55 was so fast!

--> I had to get used to pausing every two or three packs to heal up, because with Mako I could just pull non stop. However, it was still much faster with a DPS companion.

 

That is all I have for now (and my flight is boarding :-)) If I think of anything else I will update this post.

 

Jae

Edited May 16, 2014 by Jaedaddy