Roxax Posted October 14, 2014 Share Posted October 14, 2014 As the title states this is more or less going to be my first Vanguard and I'll admit to say I'm clueless about the class in general. While I plan on having what I mainly need to know for endgame figured out by the time I get there, I'm not sure as to what would be the best path to take in terms of leveling, be it spec, rotation, or which companion to use. So I was hoping my senior vanguards/powertechs could offer me some pointers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terimac Posted October 14, 2014 Share Posted October 14, 2014 (edited) If you are going to lvl as a rank (left tree) then use a dps companion. Otherwise use a healing companion as a dps specc. I levled to 55 with the right tree because i love to be mobile and use rail shot The middle tree is also good, in fact its a better aoe specc since it focus on your pulse ability, its only abit less mobile since you have to stand still and channel it. If you wanna try the middle tree i would use this build, btw the last three points is up to you where you wanna spend them. http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#801hMZMsMMRrRRkGGzZb.3 Right tree, http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#801bMZMsZfhrbzRrffdz.3 Its up to you if you want 3% more aim or 3% more crit. Edited October 14, 2014 by Terimac Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TACeMossie Posted October 15, 2014 Share Posted October 15, 2014 Ok, there are 3 options: I put them in spoiler tags to condense the post, also there are very, very minor spoilers in them too TANK TREE Ah the tank tree. I personally used this to level, because at the time I was planning on making a tank. That ended well I started off grabbing any talents that would increase survivability in the tank tree, afterwards I would grab mobility and finally DPS (some exceptions). I tended to leave out the CC options though. My personal levelling tree: 10-14 http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#801G.3 15-19 http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#801G0RM.3 20-24 http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#801G0Rrd.3 25-29 http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#801G0Rrdor.3 30-34 http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#801G0RrdorRM.3 35-39 http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#801G0GrdorRMd.3 40-44 http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#801G0GrdorRMdRM.3 45-49 http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#801G0GrdorRMdRRZbM.3 50-54 http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#801G0GrdorRMdRRZbcZoc.3 For it, I would keep Elara Dorn geared up in a set of gear I ended up using as a DPS set whenever the occasion rose up. It really helped that she shared gear with me, however if I did it again and had access to treek, I'd ditch elara in a heartbeat (shared mainhand FTW!) In tank spec, its mainly a priority of keep the debuff on, and then use the big hitters on cooldown. The big hitters are: Mortar Volley Pulse Cannon Stockstrike High Impact Bolt If you aren't using one of them or keeping the debuff up, only use hammer shots, otherwise your resources will be obliterated. Once you pass level 45, you do get to mix in the ability Energy Blast as well though, which helps with resource management, and lets you be a little more liberal in your use of resource-using moves (e.g. Ion Pulse) Explosive Surge should be used over Ion Pulse if you have the buff making it free (when you need the debuff up) Gear wise, until level ~30 you dont get tank stats, so until then just stack as much power and aim as possible. Once you pass level ~30 and tank stats start showing up on your gear, just use the highest level shield/absorb or shield/defense enhancements you can reasonably get your hands on, as well as the best mods you can get as well. Upon hitting ~53, start looking at Keyboardninja's thread in the "Roles" subforum for an idea of what numbers you want your gear on. As this is a basic guide, i'll leave reading that thread and figuring out what it means till later. TACTICS TREE I did not level in this tree, however I'll do what I can to make a nice levelling guide for it. When taking skills, prioritise new abilities first, followed by resource management, followed by stat boosts (Accuracy > Crit chance BTW for 10-14), then finally utility (e.g. move speed, defense, ect...) Level 10-14 http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#801ZMc.3 Level 15-19 http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#801ZMsMM.3 Level 20-24 http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#801ZMsMMRM.3 Level 25-29 http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#801ZMsMMRrR.3 Level 30-34 http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#801ZRsMMRrRRo.3 Level 35-39 http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#801ZRsMMRrRRoG.3 Level 40-44 http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#801ZRsMMRrRRoGG.3 Level 45-49 http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#801hzZRsMMRrRRoGGz.3 Level 50-54 http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#801hMhZRsMMRrRRoGGzZo.3 Rotationally, you dont get one till level 31, and its not really good till ~45 (damn lack of resources!) Until level 20, its: Hammer shots to put plasma cell on target High Impact Bolt Stockstrike Hammer Shots till full ammo Pulse Cannon alternate hammer shots and Ion Pulse, unless another ability comes off cooldown Upon hitting 20, its: Gut Pulse Cannon Hammer Shots Ion Pulse Hammer Shots Stockstrike Hammer Shots High Impact Bolt Hammer Shots When you hit level 31 and get pulse generator, it changes again: Gut -> HS -> IP -> IP -> SS -> HiB -> IP -> PC -> HS -> Repeat This continues until ~45, where the rotation changes to the tactics rotation found in my guide. For companions, similar to Tank tree, use Elara or Treek, though with your hand-me-downs this time instead of your off-spec gear. With Treek, you can use her as either a tank or a DPS, up to you if you want the mobs to die quicker or you to take less damage. Though if going Tank spec with Treek, use the Tank sections gearing specifications for her. Gear wise, full power/surge until ~level 55, then get some accuracy (95/105% for dailies, 100/110% for flashpoints and operations) before the surge. As you get into better level 55 gear, you want some crit rating, depending on how much crit you have. Once again, look in my guide for that number. ASSAULT TREE Now for my favourite spec Assault pretty much comes out on its own at level 25, not needing anything else other than to make the rotation much more complicated than usual. I'd actually recommend getting field respec for this though, cause there are multiple times where you are going to grab points in the other trees to avoid useless utility points while leveling, however if you can't do that, ill just link the best bet without it. 10-14 http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#801ZZf.3 - Ionized Ignition first 15-19 http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#801ZZfhb.3 - Superheated plasma first 20-24 http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#801ZZfhbrz.3 - High Friction Bolts -> IR -> Electro Shield 25-29 http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#801ZZfhbrzRM.3 - Ionic Accelerator -> Whatever the hell you want, its useless talents anyway 30-34 http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#801ZZfhbrzRrc.3 - Assault trooper first 35-39 http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#801ZZfhbrzRrfc.3 - Burnout first 40-44 http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#801ZZfhbrzRrffd.3 - Riot Augs -> Critical Recharge -> Adrenaline Fueled 45-49 http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#801ZzcZfhbrzRrffdz.3 - AP -> Accuracy -> Demolition 50-54 http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#801hZMsZfhbrzRrffdz.3 - Demolition -> Blaster Augs -> Steely Resolve Rotation-wise: 10-24 - Alternate abilities that use ammo with hammer shots. IR every 18 seconds, HiB every 15, SS every 9. After level 21 you can use an ammo ability immediately after every second High Impact Bolt because ammo returns 25-44 - IR -> IP -> SS -> HiB -> IP -> HS -> IP -> HiB -> SS -> HS -> IP -> HiB -> Repeat 45+ - Rotation in my guide (WOOHOO!) Companions, once again use Elara or Treek. With Treek, you can use her as either a tank or a DPS, up to you if you want the mobs to die quicker or you to take less damage. Though if going Tank spec with Treek, use the Tank sections gearing specifications for her. Gear wise, Power/Surge till ~53, then get 95/105 accuracy for Dailies and 100/110 accuracy for FPs/Operations before dumping the rest of that budget into surge. Power vs Crit depends on level, and how good your gear is. If you're level 55, you'll find a bunch of pretty graphs showing the average DPS potential (vs the max) of a specific gear level for different crit values, though until then use full Power/Surge. Alacrity hurts the rotation and slows it down until 3.0 comes out, though if it takes that long you want a 50/50 split of surge/alacrity. Thats only if you are still levelling after december though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xxSHOONYxx Posted October 15, 2014 Share Posted October 15, 2014 (edited) Despite what Kwerty says I like AP for leveling mainly because you mostly deal with large groups of weak mobs. Although in my latest (and 5th) powertech I did level mostly in Pyro, and while groups of mobs took longer, golds and bosses went down significantly faster, so it's just a matter of preference. (Although if you level purely through the story, which is now possible, Pyro really shines because you can bypass most groups of weak mobs and you end up fighting lots more golds/bosses) Whatever you decide, use Kwerty's gear and rotations, or if it makes your head hurt (like me) I have a picture book guide For companions, I always run with either HK, 4X (in dps stance), or Elara if I feel like getting *****ed at all the time. The problem with HK or 4X is ...well, droid armor HK has the highest single target dps of any companion, 4X isn't bad plus he can taunt and Elara ... well she heals in between her ************ Edited October 15, 2014 by xxSHOONYxx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DomiSotto Posted October 15, 2014 Share Posted October 15, 2014 I am new as well, so fwiw.... I found that using Lara was starting to feel like a crutch in levelling, even in her higher damage stance. So, I switched back to Aric, and it keeps me more mobile and I always position myself to see Aric the way I would to see the group in group content; keeping him as my Focus at all times, like he was a friendly DPS; plus watch my health bar instead of relying on Lara keeping me at 90% plus relentlessly. It is also faster with a DPS companion. I have a feeling I am going to be the only Trooper in the verse soonish using Yuun as I want to see the way of interacting with a simulated melee DPS. The biggest snug I hit so far was in high twenties with energy management. If you look, you will see the thread where TAC explained me how to deal with it by adjusting rotation. Another thing, I just followed the tanking tree, and after someone asked me at L28 if I had Storm, I made sure I talented that as soon as available, jumping a tier and filling out the lower tier abilities later. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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