Sith Assasin Tanking help, what am i doing wrong?!

[Alecgog]

I tried to tank on my sith assassin the other day, and i figured it wouldn't be so hard as i have tanked well in MMO's before. But, i found it quite hard to keep everything on me. It wasn't so much the "skill" you need to tank that was getting me. I just couldn't hold the required aggro on trash pulls. Even with discharge from dark charge hitting 4 or 5 mobs and even having to use overload sometimes (even though it ruins aoe DPS), i still couldn't hold aggro. Is this purely because i don't have wither? Or am i doing the wrong thing?

[RhadamanthNemes]

- make sure youre the one to initiate combat

- use force pull if you have it

- get the skill that boosts shock's threat

- use the individual and area mind control skills (forget what theyre called) constantly.

 

I havent had too much trouble holding aggro, and i dont even have wither yet.

[Fredbob]

Discharge is aoe but isn't a huge threat boost, it's simply all you have at that point and debuffs them ofc.

 

If you pick wither or even death field it'll help, wither particularly as it has a threat boost. One whiff of that and they'll stick to you .

 

That said, speccing into Wither isn't considered the best tank at 50 spec by many, but it's up to you . Edit: should say that I've tried both, wither felt like it made threat easy, but I prefer death field/claws of decay and disliked Harness Darkness immensely.

Edited December 26, 2011 by Fredbob

[Alecgog]

- make sure youre the one to initiate combat

- use force pull if you have it

- get the skill that boosts shock's threat

- use the individual and area mind control skills (forget what theyre called) constantly.

 

I havent had too much trouble holding aggro, and i dont even have wither yet.

 

Alright Well i am only level 25, so im not really sure if my skills aren't up to par or what, and i am far of wither. Maybe it will get better as i level?

[Alecgog]

Alright Well i am only level 25, so im not really sure if my skills aren't up to par or what, and i am far of wither. Maybe it will get better as i level?

 

Okay, so you are talking about hybrid speccing, i looked at it and it looks great for tanking but i dont know if i can utilize the spec at my current level, 25.

[Annabelle]

Alright Well i am only level 25, so im not really sure if my skills aren't up to par or what, and i am far of wither. Maybe it will get better as i level?

 

It will get better...I tanked fairly well, but did have some threat issues like you described. Now I'm not having many threat issues. You get an AOE taunt, an AOE damage in addition to discharge and force pull that pulls the mob to you and does high threat.

[DivineRepublic]

It isn't you it is the people you play with. They all have this WOW mentality of I can just pop all CD's and AOE before the tank runs in or I can just attack whatever I want. Errr Wrong! In WOW tanks have 500% threat increase. Well in this game we get 50% threat increase and a damage reduction. If people want to be dumb just let them pull off of you and die. If it bothers you that people pull off of you then just tell them when you walk in, hey give me a second before you start to dps or tell them to attack your target.

 

The trash mobs are spread out and a real pain in the ***. I just try to CC as much as I can and tell everyone to kill the non elites first, that way I can make sure the elites are stuck to me. It really doesn't get any better with level. It is not our class it is the other people not understanding how to play.

[Dianoia]

It isn't you it is the people you play with. They all have this WOW mentality of I can just pop all CD's and AOE before the tank runs in or I can just attack whatever I want. Errr Wrong! In WOW tanks have 500% threat increase. Well in this game we get 50% threat increase and a damage reduction. If people want to be dumb just let them pull off of you and die. If it bothers you that people pull off of you then just tell them when you walk in, hey give me a second before you start to dps or tell them to attack your target.

 

The trash mobs are spread out and a real pain in the ***. I just try to CC as much as I can and tell everyone to kill the non elites first, that way I can make sure the elites are stuck to me. It really doesn't get any better with level. It is not our class it is the other people not understanding how to play.

 

He didn't specify DPS was pulling aggro. If he's running with a spammy, struggling healer, that could do it, too.

[darkonnis]

Wouldn't worry its not you. Trash is a real pain in the *** to gather in this.

Stealth in, start at one side and tab target/thrash each mob you come to.

Once you have them all wither, discharge, lacerate. AOE taunt because snipers and BH's love raining hell from above. Don't think i missed much

 

I wouldnt change the threat generation system though, i like the challenge of holding aggro, the only thing i'm not so keen on is the proc system, the whole class survives on it and if you get unlucky it leaves you high dry and severely lacking.

[Gymnotiformes]

You just need a few more levels before aggro holding becomes easy; lacerate should make you have no problems. Another thing you absolutely need to do if you haven't is have guard on your highest threat character and make sure all the dps are hitting the same target.

[ArcticCataclysm]

Getting lacerate made tanking for me go from being a complet crapfest to something elegant, flowing, and deadly. I love it.

[theonepanda]

Assassins are definately not aoe tanks.

 

They just aren't made for it.

 

Dark Ward, Energize, Thrash all make for incredible single target threat, damage, and mitigation.

 

Throw in mobs and suddenly dark ward gets immediately used up, all our procs are useless, and we turn into a one button spam every 4 seconds.

[Wallekish]

Assassins are definately not aoe tanks.

 

They just aren't made for it.

 

Dark Ward, Energize, Thrash all make for incredible single target threat, damage, and mitigation.

 

Throw in mobs and suddenly dark ward gets immediately used up, all our procs are useless, and we turn into a one button spam every 4 seconds.

 

must say i have a different experience past the time i got lacerate and with whither oh boy am i tanking multiple mobs (on a side note just tank the strong and the elite ones and any weak mobs you get it is not the end of the world if a couple of weak mobs hit a dps tbh mostly that gets them to kill it before the strong or elite 1s even )

Edited December 27, 2011 by Wallekish

[taseuslynx]

Assassins are definately not aoe tanks.

 

They just aren't made for it.

 

Dark Ward, Energize, Thrash all make for incredible single target threat, damage, and mitigation.

 

Throw in mobs and suddenly dark ward gets immediately used up, all our procs are useless, and we turn into a one button spam every 4 seconds.

 

I disagree with this, we are aoe tanks. wither is a HUGE mitigation of damage, also, if your gearing properly with absorption and shield rating dark ward becomes great. wither+discharge makes elites non-elites pretty much. I've not had any mitigation issues... now i have had threat issues with dps sorcs aoe'ing the crap out of everything... but thats not an issue with our class...

[nafzx]

If you've tanked in other MMOs you know how important a good pull is, not only by your side. If you're doing everything right, and use the right abilities + have atleast SOME extra (dps/threat) gear you can look at others before yourself.

[Zilod]

I disagree with this, we are aoe tanks. wither is a HUGE mitigation of damage, also, if your gearing properly with absorption and shield rating dark ward becomes great. wither+discharge makes elites non-elites pretty much. I've not had any mitigation issues... now i have had threat issues with dps sorcs aoe'ing the crap out of everything... but thats not an issue with our class...

 

the problem of dark ward and aoe tanking is that if your shield rating is high you are going to consume it extremely fast vs multiple mobs making ti problematic to keep it up... vs single target mobs instead it works quite well

 

i tend to agree that sin is not so great for "heavy" aoe tanking... he kinda get the aggro tools but dark ward can becomes a liability (?)

 

 

and for the op... if your bh buddy is opening with death from above you have no chances holding aggro, whiter is a good tool for aoe aggro but doesnt do miracles, your best bet is to force taunt but when the effect is over they will go back on your dps, lacerate is not a real option as it is waaaaaaaaaaaay too force inefficent.

 

still i think swtor is not really designed with a strong "aggro lock" in mind, the aggro tools are kinda limited and all the classes have decent defences so they can stand to some beating from trash mobs... we get also plenty of cc... i'm starting to ignore the weaker mobs on trash pulls, focusing on the most dangerous ones anyway it seem the dps can take care of themselves pretty well even vs HM trash

[Eledarr]

I'm lvl 30 atm, and have been tanking pretty successfully since the mid-20's. My tricks:

 

1. Mind Control is your friend. It's got a shorter cooldown than you think it does, and it's absolutely essential, especially in a mixed group that has ranged mobs. When you get Mass Mind Control, it helps even more (but a much longer cooldown).

2. Discharge works well as an opener and Lacerate will help maintain threat against the group, but the #1 trick is to be using Thrash on a specific target and have the group's DPS be focused on the same target.

3. I've gotten far enough up the darkness tree that the high-frequency shock is becoming a viable option for me, and it's very useful. You spec up eventually to a build that looks like this: http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#200dcrokrsoZhGbMZf0M.1 In the meantime, I've just made sure to get Energize and Blood of the Sith, the first of which gets me the more frequent Shock, and the second of which helps to make sure I've got force to cast it. The shock spam works really well, I think, 'cause it's a nice big DMG/Threat burst, and is mid-range castable. Also, don't forget to grab Electrify, which gives your Shock a big boost.

4. I'd like to rephrase what someone else mentioned: Put your guard on the person in the party who is consistently pulling aggro from you. It's going to vary from group to group, so one time you might be guarding the healer, the next group it'll be one of the DPS guys. You just have to pay attention and switch it around as needed.

 

Those are the main things I keep in mind when tanking, and I haven't had too much trouble keeping threat on groups of mobs. I also find it really, really fun. It's very engaging, and I love how active tanking as an SA can be.

 

One final word on your groupmates: They don't know what they are doing.

 

Someone else mentioned it, but I'm going to stress it here: Pay attention to your group, and make sure they have turned off their threat generating abilities and know to back off their DPS if they gain threat. I've grouped with several Bounty Hunters who were in their "threat generating" setup in order to put an unnecessary guard on a player because they didn't know I had the same ability. More importantly, they didn't realize that their ability caused them to generate extra threat -- they only saw it as allowing them to use guard. On a completely different note, I've grouped with more than one SA who didn't know they had the Mind Trap ability. Once that was sorted, Crowd control became infintely easier.

 

Everyone is new to the game, and folks may not realize what they are doing is not helpful, so check in with your teammates and you should be able to sort out the human error factor before it becomes an issue in a run.

[theonepanda]

I said nothing about being able to hold aoe threat.

 

Yes you can spam lacerate all day long. You will hold threat, and do decent damage. But it won't be great damage. It only outdps's thrash at 4+ mobs.

 

No, it is not as exciting as what 90% of our tree is built towards, shock and thrash and assasinate.

 

Dark ward only has a 100% uptime tanking 1 or 2 mobs maximum. Your dark ward will instantly blow up if you're tanking 4 mobs. If it isn't...well that is even worse, because it means you aren't shielding any attacks.

 

Wither's damage is worse than lacerate. Discharge is a joke and there for threat and damage reduction only.

[DarthVoi]

As a veteran tank in WoW, I find ToR tanking to be a little more difficult in the beginning, mostly duet lack of threat skills and teammates holding WoW mentality as others point out. Here are my tips:

 

1) Pull first, tell your teammates to wait.

 

2) Focus threat on the elite enemies. Remember the small fries could be killed very quickly before they do major harm so all you need it early aggro on them and your teammates can kill them off first, give you time to aggro the tough mobs. Even if the smaller enemies turn and start attacking your teammates, they can't do much damage compare to the elites.

 

3) If cc is required, you can pull the dangerous mob away with line of sight, they tend to come right after you around the corner, give your teammates time to crowd control some of them as they move.

 

4) Instruction for your teammates, let them know your spec and style, to reduce confusion. Explain all trickier battle beforehand. Teamwork is most of the tanking, really.