noob generator/shield question

[tommion]

can someone please explain for a gaming novice the vanguard off hand generator/shield please. I`m assuming equipping shield for defence and tanking and generator for more dps and going more offensive, likewise the companion.

I am currently using shield and levelling fine with all points in defence. (level15)

thanks

[Ralos]

You have to be using Ion Cell for your shield to work.

 

Your absorb rating is the percentage of damage that will be reduced if your shield is triggered.

 

You shield rating is the chance that you will absorb some damage.

 

When you shield an attack, the attack CANNOT be a critical hit.

 

You can increase you shield and absorb rating with the talent tree and weapons/armor.

[fatduck]

When you shield an attack, the attack CANNOT be a critical hit.

while technically correct, your phrasing is a little misleading. if an attack crits, it will not be shielded, no matter how high your shield % is. the way you said it makes it sound like a shield proc can turn a crit into a normal hit.

[stayonboard]

You have to be using Ion Cell for your shield to work.

 

Your absorb rating is the percentage of damage that will be reduced if your shield is triggered.

 

You shield rating is the chance that you will absorb some damage.

 

When you shield an attack, the attack CANNOT be a critical hit.

 

You can increase you shield and absorb rating with the talent tree and weapons/armor.

 

Thanks - I was wondering about this myself. Still a noob Vanguard :X

[doctor_atomic]

As a new VG I have the choice of a shield (explained above) or a generator. What does the generator do?

[Astares]

As a new VG I have the choice of a shield (explained above) or a generator. What does the generator do?

 

Power Generator is simply for DPS/Heals, it is itemized for DPS/Heals focused stats compared to Shield Generator. For example for same level generators, the Power might get Aim and Crit over the Shields Endurance and Defense.

Edited January 2, 2012 by Astares

[Riulassher]

while technically correct, your phrasing is a little misleading. if an attack crits, it will not be shielded, no matter how high your shield % is. the way you said it makes it sound like a shield proc can turn a crit into a normal hit.

 

This is what makes me worried. The most dangerous thing that can happen to us is a chain of crits and the whole shielding mechanic will be completely ignored.

[Asolar]

while technically correct, your phrasing is a little misleading. if an attack crits, it will not be shielded, no matter how high your shield % is. the way you said it makes it sound like a shield proc can turn a crit into a normal hit.

 

Im pretty(95%) sure its the other way around. There are 2 rolls, first to see if we block the attack and if not, then to see if its a crit.

So if we block there wil not be a crit.

[Chasted]

You have to be using Ion Cell for your shield to work

 

Actually there is a base 5% chance of your shield "proccing" without Ion Cell being activated. This was changed in the beta because a Trooper learns Ion Cell at level 14 and thus the shield off-hand they recived when deciding to be a Vanguard would have been useless for 4 levels.

 

It wouldn't have been so much of a problem if it wasn't for the fact that you would be "tanking" in Essles at level 10 and some newbies might be using the shield not knowing it does nothing for them.

 

Im pretty(95%) sure its the other way around. There are 2 rolls, first to see if we block the attack and if not, then to see if its a crit.

So if we block there wil not be a crit.

 

Yeah; but shields are an entirely different mechanic. To "Block" an attack means your Defense Chance is kicking in; not your shield chance.

 

So if a monster had 90% chance to hit (90% accuracy), 5% chance to crit

You have a 20% chance to shield and a 5% chance to "dodge" the attack (Taken from "Defense Chance")

 

The First roll is between a certain range of 1 and 100 where the number is lower than ACCURACY minus DEFENSE CHANCE

So in this case:

90% - 5% = 85% (The monster will hit 85% of the time)

A roll of:

0 to 85 would proceed to the "Hit" table

86 to 100 would miss

 

If the monster succeeds the roll will go forward to decide the type of hit:

5% Crit, 20% shield

These could be viewed as if it was broken up into tiers:

Tier 1 - Critical Hit (5%)

Tier 2 - Normal Hit (75%)

Tier 3 - Shielded Hit (20%)

A roll of:

95 to 100 would achieve a Critical Hit

20 to 94 would achieve a normal hit

0 to 19 would achieve a shielded hit

 

There is currently no way to become "Uncrittable" in this current system.

Edited January 2, 2012 by Chasted

[Sandzibar]

so ignoring def and speccing shied rating and absorb mainly for pvp is actually a terrible idea - whereas i thought it would be good as it would maximise sheild proc rate.. thus triggering free stockstrikes and energy cells from the shielding tree.

 

Crits will bypass the sheild? making it useless... and as 90% of the classes seem to be stacking crit and surge in their gear no wonder i feel squishy as hell in PvP.

 

This seem like a terrible implementation of sheilding.. and tanks that cant tank in pvp?

[Chasted]

When it comes to PvP you can't "tank" something because people are crazy yo'. What you aim for instead is to be an annoying individual (Assumption on my part; I haven't PvPed much). You need to be fluid in your Guard buff, quick on the taunts and even faster at slowing people down.

 

Tank Spec isn't exactly the best PvP spec imo. Your better off going for one of the other two.

[Asolar]

Chasted i dont think that can be correct, since if you got a 55% chance to shield and you meet someone with say a 60% chance to crit, then there is gonna be a big paradox and the world blows up.

I am far from max gear but already got 46%chance to block when i pop my relic for 20 sec, and this wil only get higher when im starting to get shield rating on all my items.

 

Man i really really want a combat log to check all this data myself.

[Guurzak]

Chasted i dont think that can be correct, since if you got a 55% chance to shield and you meet someone with say a 60% chance to crit, then there is gonna be a big paradox and the world blows up.

I am far from max gear but already got 46%chance to block when i pop my relic for 20 sec, and this wil only get higher when im starting to get shield rating on all my items.

 

Man i really really want a combat log to check all this data myself.

 

Crits supposedly take priority over sheilds in the second roll. If your opponent somehow achieved a crit chance of 60% that would push your maximum chance to shield down to 40%. Not sure if there's a hard cap of 50% on critting like there is on shielding; it would make sense for there to be such a cap, which would make this a non-issue.

[Asolar]

Okay if thats true then it "beep" big time, since that means its almost useless in pvp where almost all dpser will focus heavy on crit.

[Borell]

read ur ion cell description, it's not hard... (god i seriously want to slag meatbags that never read their codex or description and stamp a big "READ THE FARKIN MANUAL" to their meatbag's head).

Next time read the question first before acting like Mr. Smart A** himself.

Edited January 4, 2012 by Borell

[BronzeD]

read ur ion cell description, it's not hard... (god i seriously want to slag meatbags that never read their codex or description and stamp a big "READ THE FARKIN MANUAL" to their meatbag's head).

 

the ion cell gives a natural 15% bonus to shield activation chance that stacks with everything else.

 

so assuming u have no shield rating bonus on gears and no other talent tree spec, simply activating ion cell gives u a total of 20% chance (5% base + 15% ion cell).

 

ion cell also gives u bonus to armor rating.

 

nothing on defense last i recall.

 

if u use any other cell then u lose the 15% activation bonus which leaves u with 5% base shield activation chance before other things like shield rating from gears.

 

each tree usually are tailored around their ammo cell type to some extent, using ion cell with the tactics talent specs for example is fairly oxymoron since the main ammo generation mechanism for tactics won't work without the correct ammo cell.

 

You can try to use the shield spec to generate ur ammo instead, but that naturally mean at least 11 points (12 at least more likely) spent on shield talent in order for u to get the ammo generation working, and u'd naturally be less effective at this since in order to maximize it u'd want the late shield spec activation bonus talents.

Edited January 4, 2012 by BronzeD

[bglodt]

so ignoring def and speccing shied rating and absorb mainly for pvp is actually a terrible idea - whereas i thought it would be good as it would maximise sheild proc rate.. thus triggering free stockstrikes and energy cells from the shielding tree.

 

Crits will bypass the sheild? making it useless... and as 90% of the classes seem to be stacking crit and surge in their gear no wonder i feel squishy as hell in PvP.

 

This seem like a terrible implementation of sheilding.. and tanks that cant tank in pvp?

 

 

Sort of.... but dont get ahead of yourself here. You could theoretically stack so much shield and defense that you only get two types of hits on youself. Shielded and Crits. Since no one will have 100% crit chance you still shield the other hits and get procs off of that. The problem with stacking that much defense and shield is that it comes at the expense of your other attributes like power, crit, and surge. You WILL increase your suvivability but you will gimp your damage significantly. At this point you may survive signficantly longer but you will take that much longer to dps anyone down... which makes fighting healers an all day affair. They cant do enough damage to really overcome your shielding and mitigation and you cant do enough damage to overcome their healing... at least neither of you can do it fast enough that another person wont jump in and decide the fight for you. However as someone else posted, you can be a big decider in groups where you spam your taunts, CC, interrupt, and pull foes. I actually like the way it is set up. It keeps us from being overpowered, and forces you to choose your play style, lots of survivability and utility with lower dps, or higher dps with slightly lower survivabilty and equal utility. As always in most good games you have find the best balance. Just my two cents.

 

Interesting conversation.