-Blasto- Posted March 5, 2015 Share Posted March 5, 2015 So, I currently level an Assassin in tank spec, mostly for the story, simply because it let's me run Flashpoints whenever I like it. I already levelled the other two tank classes up to around 50 (finished story) and didn't have much trouble. Now with the Assassin I'm currently on Tatooine at level 30 and while I don't exactly struggle to do the content I have considerable downtime between each encounter, especially with silver enemies. A single silver plus one or two normals easily drop me to 50 to 60% HP. I never got so low on my Guardian or Bounty Hunter except when I soloed some heroic content or sometimes on the later planets (Hoth, etc.) I'm currently using Andronikus due to story reasons and higher damage. Now the thing is, when I change AC to Hatred I end up with the same or even more HP in comparable encounters even when I'm not using Khem Val and tank myself. (Deception is usually worse without Khem) Shouldn't i receive considerable less damage as a tank? And before someone asks, yes Dark Ward is allways active, although i'm questioning why it isn't some form of passive. Yes Wither and Discharge are on CD and I'm in tank stance. The problem also exists in Flashpoints, without a decent healer I drop really low on some of the fights. So what is it? Am I just bad? Are the other tank classes are just that much superior? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Exosasa Posted March 5, 2015 Share Posted March 5, 2015 I haven't had to deal with a lowbie assassin myself in years, but I'd imagine it's because you don't have crucial passive yet. Does the gear you're wearing have high endurance, some shield, and some absorb? For leveling, get some tanks stats. It doesn't matter if you're "min maxed", it's leveling. Does that gear exist at 30? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aelanis Posted March 5, 2015 Share Posted March 5, 2015 I haven't had to deal with a lowbie assassin myself in years, but I'd imagine it's because you don't have crucial passive yet. Does the gear you're wearing have high endurance, some shield, and some absorb? For leveling, get some tanks stats. It doesn't matter if you're "min maxed", it's leveling. Does that gear exist at 30? Tanking gear starts popping up at the 30-32 range, if I remember correctly. Haven't leveled a toon since 12x XP, and I'm not sure that counts as leveling so much as creating a new level 55. Either way: no, he shouldn't have much tank gear, so that's certainly not helping. Assassin tanks have been a little squishy while leveling since the removal of self heals. That's just how it's been, unfortunately. Things got better at higher levels, but you need tank gear, which only comes shortly after 30. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
llayles Posted March 5, 2015 Share Posted March 5, 2015 Well you see your first mistake is playing through the leveling content as a tank. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cotlu-Hunlon Posted March 6, 2015 Share Posted March 6, 2015 Tanking as a theory at low levels only works in the sense that, in a 4 person group, it is much easier for the healer to only have to heal one person compared to trying to heal all 4 members; so a low level tank's job is simply to hold threat on all mobs. Any extra mitigation is just a bonus. Where this falls down is the solo levelling. By actively being a good tank and getting all the mobs attacking you, you're actually going to take more damage overall since there's not the mitigation to back you up. Shadow further suffers in the low levels by having roughly 10% less damage reduction than the other two. Following on from this, taking a healer companion makes for very slow pack clearing so the time you saved from not having to regen after the fight is simply reshuffled into combat time. But even with you taking Andronikus for damage, he takes no damage while you lose a large amount of health - this leads to, let's say, 5-7 seconds regen - whereas if you swapped roles (dps player + tank companion) you could just mount/demount or rocket boots to refill the tank comp's health pool in a fraction if the time and move on straight away. However, in my opinion at least, tanking while going through the planets and tanking the flashpoints and H4s is probably the best way to learn that class and slowly layer up your skill and knowledge for its mechanics, so as you did with your other two tanks, just keep at it (Sorry if I went slightly off boresight here, I start writing about tanking and get very wordy) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SacredTbag Posted March 6, 2015 Share Posted March 6, 2015 Well you see your first mistake is playing through the leveling content as a tank. Not really, you're practically invulnerable leveling this way. I just came back to the game and am working on a Shadow tank. I'm level 28, just hit Tattoine and have had no issues so far. I've been using dps gear and keeping everything up to date with comms (and doing all the fp's I can, although queue's are pretty slow these days). As of right now all my mods are Willpower heavy, I get my Endurance from the +41 crystals in my saber and shield. Before picking up Doc I kept Qyzen in tank mode and taunt swapped if I had a fight that was a little tough (which is rare). Now that I have Doc I know I'll never have a problem with any content, most likely I'll play like I used to (this is my 3rd Shadow) and solo all the heroics, probably end up soloing fp's as well since it takes so long to get in one these days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TACeMossie Posted March 6, 2015 Share Posted March 6, 2015 (edited) Protip: You dont get a healer till hoth, so either take the noobs way out and buy treek, or do what the awesome people do and gear up 2VR8 In all seriousness, as a tank, it is far easier to level with a healer companion. Also note they screwed up silver mobs in 3.0, so you will take quite a bit more damage than is comfortable - Starting at Quesh (Hence why you should buy treek or gear up the ship droid) Edited March 6, 2015 by TACeMossie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lhuv Posted March 7, 2015 Share Posted March 7, 2015 (edited) Leveling, as it has been said before, is far more easy / faster if you play as DPS. In most cases you can also take a DPS comp. (I personally prefer Ashara in that role) with you. It will work until you finish Makeb. Edited March 7, 2015 by Lhuv Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts