3.1.1 Vanguard/Powertech PvE DPS Guides

[TAMISUE]

last question and ill leave you alone. will it matter how i reach these numbers through the augs and enhancements? i ask this because i have been using the 6 accuracy enhancements with 2 accuracy augs. Is this still the way to go with this build?

[TACeMossie]

last question and ill leave you alone. will it matter how i reach these numbers through the augs and enhancements? i ask this because i have been using the 6 accuracy enhancements with 2 accuracy augs. Is this still the way to go with this build?

 

If you can do it with that set up, sure. Just know, its pretty much impossible to hit 555 alacrity without using 5 alacrity pieces...

 

Of course, getting within +- 50 points of these will result in pretty much the same DPS, and it shouldn't be that noticable. So get as close to that as possible with augments.

[TAMISUE]

thanks you

[Lt_Awoke]

Hi Kwerty,

 

I'm curious...I am currently running Plasmatech and was wondering if any of the items/setup below would change now that 3.1.1 has been released and 3.2 is coming in the next three weeks:

 

192 Gearing

Tactics

309 crit = 1 crystal + 2 mods + 2 augments

274 surge = 2 of Enhancements, earpiece, implants, +1 Augment

600 Alacrity = 4 of Enhancements, earpiece, implants, 3 augments

 

Plasmatech

104 crit = 2 augments

274 surge = 2 of Enhancements, earpiece, implants, +1 Augment

600 Alacrity = 4 of Enhancements, earpiece, implants + 3 augments

 

198 Gearing

Tactics

415 crit = 1 Earpiece/Implant + 2 Enhancements + 2 Crystals

276 surge = 1 Enhancement/earpiece/implants + 3 augments

636 Alacrity = 4 Enhancements/earpiece/implants + 3 augments

 

Plasmatech

156 crit = 3 augments

328 surge = 1 Enhancement/Earpiece/Implant + 4 Augments

688 alacrity = 4 Enhancements/Earpiece/Implants + 4 Augments

 

Thanks for your help. It is greatly appreciated

 

-Ekowa

[Zoom_VI]

Don't you want 5% accuracy so HIB/RS doesn't miss?

 

While having HiB missing sucks, it's not a end all be all, and since HiB is the only ability we have that can miss (barring if you get hit with a sniper's diversion) it's typically not worth investing in accuracy, especially given the number of enhancments you would need to get 95% accuracy.

 

The thing to remember is that most of PvP happens is really short peroids of uptime. Not only that but PTs are a burst class (since I hope you ain't inflicting plasmatech on yourself in PvP) which means that our killing window is short, and in really short damage windows things like accuracy and to a lesser extent crit are devalued since it is highly unlikely you will see any effect from those stats.

 

Also if you are to the point that you are looking at accuracy, it's honestly better to go with alacrity.

[TACeMossie]

Hi Kwerty,

 

I'm curious...I am currently running Plasmatech and was wondering if any of the items/setup below would change now that 3.1.1 has been released and 3.2 is coming in the next three weeks:

 

192 Gearing

 

 

198 Gearing

 

 

Thanks for your help. It is greatly appreciated

 

-Ekowa

 

Tactics was updated Recently (see post #25 for Tactics). Plasmatech also changed due to no longer having as many Ion Pulses and having more surge on Plasmatize and other things.

 

These numbers are going to change again with 3.2, so I'll just say when 3.2 hits you'll want (Note that above or below these numbers by up to 100 rating is perfectly fine):

 

192s

 

104 Crit

267 Surge

600 Alacrity

 

198s

 

174 Crit

292 Surge

720 Alacrity

 

Also note I screwed up with the numbers on the website currently, as for 3.1.1 I altered the code slightly so that it wouldn't bother with Aim/Alac/Surge augments because I didn't have any at the time, so those graphs assume only Power or Accuracy augments. Though it is only +- 52 from optimal amounts anyway, which means <5DPS average difference.

[Zunamii]

Kwerty can you help me rotation wise and gearing. I want to beat my guild who is a sentinel he hit over 3,5k. I am mostly 192, but with some bad accuracy enhancement http://gyazo.com/9163861ea63ce0b4a79d33831969a384 this is my second best. 4425 is my best, after min/maxing trying to get best optimised gear I've lost quite a bit of dps. so now I'm down to like 4,3k-4,2k.

 

So I want to know how to get good enough gear (cheapest way) and the rotation to be able to beat him I don't know what more I can do or what I'm doing wrong

[TACeMossie]

Kwerty can you help me rotation wise and gearing. I want to beat my guild who is a sentinel he hit over 3,5k. I am mostly 192, but with some bad accuracy enhancement http://gyazo.com/9163861ea63ce0b4a79d33831969a384 this is my second best. 4425 is my best, after min/maxing trying to get best optimised gear I've lost quite a bit of dps. so now I'm down to like 4,3k-4,2k.

 

So I want to know how to get good enough gear (cheapest way) and the rotation to be able to beat him I don't know what more I can do or what I'm doing wrong

 

I'm assuming you meant 4.5k for the sent. The first thing to note is if its watchman, expect him to pull bigger numbers on a dummy. Watchman is pretty much as strong as IO - IF it can get its rotation off. But since its a melee DPS spec without passive resource generation, its much more difficult to actually pull the numbers off in a raid.

 

Anyway... I'm having issues opening the picture so I don't know if its your stats or if its your parse. I have no problems with an Imgur pic though (upload to http://www.imgur.com, then click the picture so the link is .jpg or .png, then link it here). For a parse, use Parsely (http://swtor-parser.elasticbeanstalk.com/) to get a parse uploaded to look at.

 

The cheapest way to gear up as well depends on server, and how often you run HM FPs and SM Ops. I would recommend the minimalist gearing method, where you simply choose token options for the fastest gearing possible while prioritizing power after the 6-piece, and finally going for tertiary stats through augments first. Think this way:

 

Earpiece: Eliminators (Power/Accuracy)

Implant 1: Eliminators Mk-X (Power/Alacrity)

Implant 2: Eliminators Mk-X (Power/Alacrity)

Bracer: Combat Tech's (Crit)

Relic 1: Focused Retribution

Relic 2: Serendipitous Assault

Mainhand: Eliminators (Power/Surge)

 

Helmet: Eliminators (Power/Alacrity)

Chest: Combat Tech's (Power/Surge)

Gloves: Combat Tech's (Crit/Alacrity)

Belt: Combat Tech's (Power)

Pants: Combat Tech's (Power/Accuracy)

Boots: Combat Tech's (Crit/Alacrity)

Offhand: Combat Tech's/Combat Medic's (Power/Alacrity)

 

Afterwards, get 10 Accuracy augments and 4 Power ones. You'll be ~30 crit higher than recommended for optimal, but since its in the range of +- 100, it will be perfectly fine.

 

Once you've gotten the parse uploaded to Parsely, I'll give a further response for improving.

[Steefr]

Hey Kwerty, now i know everyone is always asking you a bunch of questions and stuff but yeah i hope you don't mind me joining in. First of all, i'd like to thank you for your guide and all the math you've done; it's pretty awesome.

 

Secondly, i'll post my gear and a good parse (for me). Maybe you can tell me what can be improved ? Would be appreciated.

 

the parse: http://parsely.io/parser/view/19404/5

 

Depending on my crit rate, i'm between 4,3k and 4,5k dps

 

the gear: 600 Alacrity - 283 Surge - 318 crit-765 Accuracy -1857 power

 

This is with stim on. Gear is full 192 ops gear (missing 1 mod), 2 198 mk-2 enhancements

 

Any places where i can improve ? or is this dps normal for my gear lvl

Edited April 8, 2015 by Steefr

[TACeMossie]

Hey Kwerty, now i know everyone is always asking you a bunch of questions and stuff but yeah i hope you don't mind me joining in. First of all, i'd like to thank you for your guide and all the math you've done; it's pretty awesome.

 

Secondly, i'll post my gear and a good parse (for me). Maybe you can tell me what can be improved ? Would be appreciated.

 

the parse: http://parsely.io/parser/view/19404/5

 

Depending on my crit rate, i'm between 4,3k and 4,5k dps

 

the gear: 600 Alacrity - 283 Surge - 318 crit-765 Accuracy -1857 power

 

This is with stim on. Gear is full 192 ops gear (missing 1 mod), 2 198 mk-2 enhancements

 

Any places where i can improve ? or is this dps normal for my gear lvl

 

While the gear is fine, the rotation could use a lot of work.

 

For one, You're delaying Rocket Punch + Thermal Detonator for Rail Shot, but at the same time you had a few cases of delaying the proc on rail shot for Thermal Detonator. While you want to reset the cooldown on rail shot every 6 seconds (4 GCDs), you dont have to use it every 4 GCDs - Once the cooldown is reset, you can use it in any of the followup GCDs - you don't have to use it immediately.

 

Secondly, the opener is quite far off. Personally, the way I do it is:

 

Pre-load Shoulder Cannon, use flame sweep to proc PPA, wait for 0 heat, then begin

 

TD -> RB -> RS -> RP -> MB -> (Attack Adrenal) EB -> (Explosive Fuel, Shoulder Cannon Spam) RS -> MB -> RS -> Priority List

Why do I delay the OCDs so much? Because that way they are under the 2-piece set bonus (+2% damage), and that results in even more damage. The explosive fuel is delayed until after the EB since its a crit chance boost, and EB will be auto-critting anyway.

 

Once that happens, do the following without compromise:

 

1. Thermal Detonator on cooldown

2. Rocket Punch on cooldown

3. Proc PPA every 6 seconds

 

Note you can do all 3 of these without it interfering with anything.

 

After that, its:

 

4. Energy Burst at 4 stacks of energy lodes

5. Magnetic Blast @ >90 energy

6. Rail Shot

7. Magnetic Blast so long as you have the resources for it

8. Rapid Shots

 

The difficulty is knowing when you have resources for magnetic blast. But if you time the resource cooldowns right, then you don't need any uses of rapid shots for the first ~60 seconds. Use recharge cells first so that way you know when to start the burn of resources again (TD -> RS -> MB/EB -> RP (proc) -> RS -> Rapid Shots -> Ignore rapid shots for the next ~50 seconds)

[Steefr]

First off all thanks alot for the advice/help

 

Your suggestions make alot of sense and i've been trying to incorporate them. Been doing a bit better tho still room for improvement.

 

Latest parse: http://parsely.io/parser/view/20203/3

[xxSHOONYxx]

So kwerty, right now I'm sitting at 907 alacrity is that too much?

[TACeMossie]

So kwerty, right now I'm sitting at 907 alacrity is that too much?

 

Well I'd have stopped 200 alacrity ago if I were you

 

Though ~900 alacrity would be about as good as ~500 alacrity... Just its gonna start giving up other stats to get there.

[fyakyou]

So you don't find that having that much alacrity throws off the proc rate for high impact bolt, like it can for an IO merc?

[TACeMossie]

So you don't find that having that much alacrity throws off the proc rate for high impact bolt, like it can for an IO merc?

 

Nope. I'm also using a hell of a lot of alacrity on my mando and I'm not finding issues with alacrity + the procs unless I screw up my recharge cells timing, so my guess is those people experiencing issues with alacrity and Ionic Accelerator/Innovative Accelerator have a rotation not designed around avoiding this issue

[Serpenttt]

Afternoon Kwerty, I wonder if you might try to shed some light as to why my dummy numbers are so low. Tactics, the burst phase starts out nice (over 6k), towards the middle and end I drop way way down, not exactly sure why. Appreciate any help. The parse http://parsely.io/parser/view/21693

 

My current stats w/ 192 barrel, 198 offhand, 2 revanite tokens (ear, helm)

 

312 crit

326 surge

444 alacrity

765 accuracy

1708 power

3926 aim

[Arkhonos]

Kwerty can definitely help better than I can, but some things I noticed:

 

By my calculations you miss out on about five rail shots over the duration of the parse by delaying the PPA proc. That's a pretty big problem because it's your highest damaging ability aside from energy burst, and it vents heat for you! Your numbers should rise if you remember to use magnetic blast or rocket punch every 4 GCDs and never delay it.

 

It seems like your opener is inefficient. You should be able to go about twice as long without using vent heat as you did in that parse. I always proc PPA before I parse by using flame sweep to make heat management much easier. Also, make sure you use Thermal Sensor Override on Energy Burst instead of Thermal Detonator -- I saw that in there one time.

 

Sorry for the PT-speak, I don't remember every name on Vanguard. Good luck improving!

[Tirozulu]

So kwerty, right now I'm sitting at 907 alacrity is that too much?

 

The funny thing is my best parse I had 812 Alacrity! From all my parsing though I have settled at 760 alacrity as that seems be the optimal for me. I am in almost full 198 just missing MH and couple Armorings!

 

http://swtor-parser.elasticbeanstalk.com/parser/view/18467/3

[TACeMossie]

Kwerty can definitely help better than I can, but some things I noticed:

 

By my calculations you miss out on about five High Impact Bolts over the duration of the parse by delaying the TA proc. That's a pretty big problem because it's your highest damaging ability aside from cell burst, and it generates ammo for you! Your numbers should rise if you remember to use tactical surge or stockstrike every 4 GCDs and never delay it.

 

It seems like your opener is inefficient. You should be able to go about twice as long without using recharge cells as you did in that parse. I always proc TA before I parse by using explosive surge to make energy management much easier. Also, make sure you use Reserve Powercell on Cell Burst instead of Assault Plastique - I saw that in there one time.

 

I have translated your post for you.

 

Afternoon Kwerty, I wonder if you might try to shed some light as to why my dummy numbers are so low. Tactics, the burst phase starts out nice (over 6k), towards the middle and end I drop way way down, not exactly sure why. Appreciate any help. The parse http://parsely.io/parser/view/21693

 

My current stats w/ 192 barrel, 198 offhand, 2 revanite tokens (ear, helm)

 

312 crit

326 surge

444 alacrity

765 accuracy

1708 power

3926 aim

 

Anyway, mostly what Arkhonos said. I also noticed your APM was low for someone with 444 alacrity, by about 4.6%, and it looked like you were also delaying Stockstrike and AP a couple of times. Though I do normally use Recharge Cells about 30 seconds in the first time, so thats something slightly different to what Arkhonos suggested. Maybe he meant hammer shots, cause you used hammer shots ~20 seconds in whereas I typically dont use it until the 1 minute mark.

 

Finally, unless your healers are struggling, Re-energizers > Guard Cannon. Since you dont need healing on a dummy... Oh and you missed 3 SC missiles cause of timing

Edited April 14, 2015 by TACeMossie

[Arkhonos]

I have translated your post for you.

 

 

 

Anyway, mostly what Arkhonos said. I also noticed your APM was low for someone with 444 alacrity, by about 4.6%, and it looked like you qere also delaying Stockstrike and AP a couple of times. Though I do normally use Recharge Cells about 30 seconds in the first time, so thats something slightly different to what Arkhonos suggested. Myabe he meant rapid shots, cause you used rapid shots ~20 seconds in whereas I typically dont use it until the 1 minute mark.

 

Finally, unless your healers are struggling, Re-energizers > Guard Cannon. Since you dont need healing on a dummy... Oh and you missed 3 SC missiles cause of timing

 

I did indeed mean rapid shots/hammer shot... whoops!

Edited April 14, 2015 by Arkhonos

[Serpenttt]

Well I'm up to about 4.4 changing up a few things that were noted by you guys. Guess I don't really see 4.7 or so unless I get a crit heavy parse with my current gear. Averaging just over 30% crit over 5 or so parses this morning.

[TACeMossie]

Bumping this thread because the 3.2 update is out. This does include the best gear if you throw in a Monolyth mainhand.

[ZiggyTank]

Forgive me, but I'm trying to make sure I have this correct, but with the update in 3.2 we should still be reaching for the following assuming 198's for Tactics/Advanced Prototype:

 

174 Crit

292 Surge

720 Alacrity

 

I just swapped to dps from tanking and want to make sure I buy the correct Earpiece and Implants.

(MK-V Package for Power/Surge)

 

I'm guesing a few Acc/Power Enhancements w/ Crit/Alacrity Enhancements splashed in there or more so on the Power/Alacrity Enhancements with accuracy/alacrity augments?

 

Power, not crit crystals or one of each?

 

I have a bunch of power/surge enhancements and Crit/Alacrity but is a low alacrity build w/ a focus on crit and power put up as many numbers in raid compared to the alacrity build? I'm still learning the ins and outs of gearing this guy so any help would be appreciated, I have a lot of 198s I could cannibalize from my Commando.

Edited June 2, 2015 by ZiggyTank

[TACeMossie]

Forgive me, but I'm trying to make sure I have this correct, but with the update in 3.2 we should still be reaching for the following assuming 198's for Tactics/Advanced Prototype:

 

174 Crit

292 Surge

720 Alacrity

 

I just swapped to dps from tanking and want to make sure I buy the correct Earpiece and Implants.

(MK-V Package for Power/Surge)

 

I'm guesing a few Acc/Power Enhancements w/ Crit/Alacrity Enhancements splashed in there or more so on the Power/Alacrity Enhancements with accuracy/alacrity augments?

 

Power, not crit crystals or one of each?

 

I have a bunch of power/surge enhancements and Crit/Alacrity but is a low alacrity build w/ a focus on crit and power put up as many numbers in raid compared to the alacrity build? I'm still learning the ins and outs of gearing this guy so any help would be appreciated, I have a lot of 198s I could cannibalize from my Commando.

 

Thats the plasmatech numbers

 

You want ~400-450 crit rating in 198s. Similarly, if you can get a 198 mainhand, than its very easy to assume you can get a 204 mainhand, which would mean you want 302 surge as opposed to 292 (as the 204 enhancement in the mainhand is Bind to Mainhand and best in slot)

 

But for earpiece, I'd go Power/Acc and implants I'd go Power/Alac (as the chestpiece and mainhand will provide all the surge pieces you need regardless if you're going for a low alacrity or high alacrity build)

 

The way I did it to gear up ASAP with 198s was:

 

Acc/Power Earpiece

Alac/Power Implants

Mando Mainhand (well, 204 monolith mainhand)

Power/Alac offhand (either works)

Power/Alac Helmet (from the mando)

Combat Tech's in every other slot

 

Gets you 441 crit rating, 720 alacrity, 250 surge (I added a surge augment) and 240 accuracy (I added 10 accuracy augments - I don't like having a 0.01% chance of missing, as that has screwed me over in Dread Fortress nightmare before, but if you're fine with that you can go the 'much longer to gear up' method of 5 acc enhancements/2 surge/3 alac and then get a bunch of alac augments, but its a lot of work for 4 extra alacrity)

 

The last 3 augments are personal preference, I had a ton of power augments lying around so I just went with power, but if you've got aim or whatever lying around feel free to use it.

 

Now if you're going plasmatech, you then have to find a way to dump the crit bracer + either the gloves or boots to have Power instead, but other than that you're fine.

Edited June 3, 2015 by TACeMossie

[ZiggyTank]

How much apm can one expect on the dummy with this set up?