4.0 Vanguard Tank Guide

[GhOsTPrOz]

Hi there! I originally wrote this guide in early 4.0 for a friend of mine who was developing a new website for swtor guides and wanted it to help his guild learn their classes and get into operations. I figured I may as well post it here as well and try to help others out too.

 

Note: I don't claim to be a pro or that any of this is the 100% absolute undisputed best stuff ever but its enough to help newer players learn and maybe teach some people a few things they didn't know! Hope you enjoy

 

 

 

 

 

4.0 Vanguard Tanking Guide by Zoomz

 

I. Introduction to tanking

II. Sheild Specialist Overview

III. Rotations, Openers and Threat

IV. Gearing

V. Advanced Tacitcs and Tips

VI. About the author.

 

Welcome to my Tanking guide! If you are newer to Tanking start from Section I, if you more or less know about the basics of tanking and

your core abilties skip to Section III.

 

I. Introduction to Tanking.

 

Greetings! If you are reading this guide that means you have chosen a Vanguard Tank! As the raids tank you have many

responsibilities and must be very raid aware. The Tank is the defensive role that focuses on maintaining threat or "aggro"

on the boss/bosses. A tank does not have to worry about being a big damamge dealer like the dps however much like the

healers the tank is largely responsible for keeping the raid alive. While you can not pyshically heal the raid you are able

to use raid wide cooldowns and your knowledge of your class and fights to help maximize dps, minimize damage taken and

keep the raid going smoothly. A good tank has the power to control every aspect of a pull. As the role of tank you will

often be blamed for wipes, do not get discouraged seek to learn about all the fights in each operation. I personally

reccomend you study up on mechanics before hand via boss guides or youtube videos. It is good to know every aspect of a

fight and understand what mechanics you must preform as well as those your fellow raid members (healers and dps) must

also preform. Having a vast understanding of this will allow you to know when the best time to use DcDs is among other

things such as raid cooldowns. Tanking can seem like a grueling task at first which turns many away from it but a tank

can be very rewarding and a good tank is the most sought after role in the game as well as most MMOs.

 

Notes and basic points:

 

* Tanking is a tough job but someone has to do it, dont get discouraged or let others put you down.

 

* Always be willing to accept advice and learn something new about your role, class, and spec.

 

*Knowledge of fights and knowing what your team is doing is key.

 

*Side note: Communication is very important but we will touch upon this a bit later*

 

II. Sheild Specialist Overview

 

The first thing to learn about the spec itself is what utilities are the most useful and in what situations. You are able

to use 3 Utilities in tier 1 (SKillful) 2 in tier 2 (Masterful) and 2 in tier 3 (Heroic)

 

Tier 1 Utilities: Skillful

 

Battlefeild Training - Increases movement speed by 15%

 

Paralytic Combat Stims -You recharge 10 energy cells when stunned, immobilized, knocked down or otherwise incapacitated.

 

Reflective Armor- When into the fray is triggered it will also deal 1672 elemenetal damage to the attacker if the attacker

is withing 10 meters.

 

Entangling Tools - Tactical Surge, Ion Pulse, and Explosive Surve reduce the movement speed of affected targets by 30% for

3 seconds.

 

Muzzle Augs - Increases the range of Ion Pulse and Tactical surge by 2 meters and the radius of Explosive Surge by 1 meter.

 

Shrap Satchel - Increases Explosive Surge damage by 25%

 

Iron Will - Reduces the cooldown of Tenacity by 30 Seconds and the cooldown of Hold the Line by 10 seconds.

 

Neural Delay - Neural Jolt slows the target by 50% for 6 seconds.

 

Tier 2 Utilities: Masterful

 

Defensive Measures - Harpoon immobilizes the target for 3 seconds. In addition, the cooldown of Stealth Scan is reduced by 5

seconds, and any targets it reveals are immobilized for 3 seconds.

 

Electro Sheild - When activated, your Reactive Sheild charges with electricity, zapping attackers for 954 damage when they deal

direct damamge to you. This effect cannot occur more than once each second.

 

Advance the Line - Increases the duration of Hold the Line by 4 seconds.

 

Accelerated Reel - Reduces the cooldown of Harpoon by 15 seconds.

 

Sonic Rebounder -Sonic Round protects all friendly targets in its area of impact, excluding you, granting Sonic Rebounder, which

reflects the next direct, single targert attack back at the attacker

 

Containment Tactics - Reduces the cooldown of Cyro Grenade by 10 seconds.

 

Frontline Defense - Reduces the cooldown of Riot Strike by 2 seconds.

 

Surveyed Terrain - Stealth Scan increases the movment speed of all allies within the scan area, excluding yourself, by 50% for as

long as they remain within it and for 6 seconds after it expires or they leave the area.

 

Tier 3 Utilities: Heroic

 

Guard Cannon - Damaging a target with your Shoulder Cannon Missiles heals you for 3% of your total health.

 

Paralytic Augs - Increases the stun durations of Cryo Grenade and Neural Surge by 1 second each.

 

Emergency Stims - Allowes Adrenaline Rush to be activated while stunned and causes Adrenaline Rush to purge stunn effects when

activated. This will not work against other types of incapacitating effects or scripted stuns, which are often used by FLashpoint

and Operation bosses or other special non-player characters.

 

Re-Energizers - When Reserve Powercell is activated, it recharges 10 energy cells over the next 5 seconds and immediately increase

threat towards all current enemeies by a small amount if Ion Cell is active, or reduces threat towards all current enemies if Ion

cell is not active.

 

Focus Stims - Battle focus increases damage done by 5% while Ion Cell is active and increases damage reduction by 5% while Ion cell

is not active.

 

Charge the Line - Hold the Line increases movement speed by an additional 45% while active.

 

Efficient Tools - Increase the range of Harpoon and Shoulder Cannon by 10 Meters and eliminates the energy cost of Cyro Grenade and

Neural Surge.

 

Blitz - Activating Storm grants Blitz, increasing movement speed by 30% for 4 seconds. The duration of Blitz is refreshed if attacked

while it is active.

 

Ok so whats all this mean? Well you have 7 points to work with as I mentioned before 3 in first tier 2 in the later two.

Now lets label each utility starting top left to bottom right as numbers 1 to 8 for each.

 

Personally I reccomend this build - Skillful - 1,3,6. Masterful - 2,5. Heroic -1,4/6. That basic set will work for most fights fairly well. I

will leave it up to you on how to alter your utilities to best suite you and your group based on each fight. Remember to change utilities often

based on the fight some other noteable useful ones would be Iron Will, Muzzle augs, Frontline Defense, Focus Stims and Charge the line.

 

A tank must know what his/her utilities add into their arsenal and how they can use them to help themselves as well as the raid for example using

your AoE taunt to sheild heave on revan or underlurkers cross damage. However a tank must also know when NOT to use such abilities such as when

taunting may cause issues/confusion with your co-tank and may cause death due to mechanics such as stacking damage or not being able to tank

swap. Always be sure that using a skill will end up being worth it in the long run.

 

 

Now that you know the ins and outs of utilities and which ones to take lets go over your abilities, what they do and when

is the best time to use them.

 

We will begin with Cooldowns. The vanguard is slightly lacking in the area of cooldowns compared to other tanks but when used

properly they are more than enough to keep alive. There are two types of cooldowns OCDs (Offensive Cooldowns) That will increase

your dps and then there are DCDs (Defensive Cooldowns) That will serve to protect you from big damage.

 

Reactive Sheild - Increases the damage reduction by 25% for 15 Seconds. (Also becomes a OCD too when specc'd into the Electro Sheild

Utility.) (2 minute cooldown.)

 

Battle Focus - Increases ranged and tech critical hit chance by 25% for 15 seconds. While in tank spec it will also increase

Defense by 35% and Force Tech Resist chance by 5%.(2 minute cooldown)

 

Adrenaline Rush - Activating this ability makes you Fired Up for up to 60 seconds, which triggers an Adrenaline Rush when

your health is reduced to 40% or less. If your health is already 40% or less, Adrenaline Rush triggers immediately. Once

triggered Adreinaline Rushs goes on cooldown for 3 minutes and rapidly heals you up to 40% of your max health over 8 seconds.

While in tank spec it will continue to heal you above 40% for as long as its active. (3 minute Cooldown)

 

Riot Gas - Throws down a canister of Riot Gas over the immediate area for 15 seconds. Enemies that enter and reamin within the riot

gas are slowed by 70% and suffer a 30% melee and ranged accuracy loss. (1 minute cooldown) (Works on all enemies in game)

 

Shoulder Cannon - Deploys a shoulder cannon that gradually loads 4 missiles over time. once loaded, the shoulder cannon can be triggered

again to fire against an enemy target within 10 meters, launching 1 missle that deals 1952-2113 kinetic damage. A missle can be launched

up to once per 1.5 seconds. Loading and Launching the shoulder cannon does not respect the global cooldown and can be done while controlled.

Once all missiles have been loaded, depleting all missiles puts the shoulder cannon on cooldown for 1.5 minutes.

 

Energy Blast = Fires a shot that consumes all power Screens to deal 1910 - 2071 elemental damage, regenerate 10 energy cells, and increase

sheild absorption by 25% for 6 seconds. This ability is only useable with 3 Power Screens, generates 25% additional threat and does not respect

the global cooldown. It is also a AOE ability.

 

The meaning of - does not respect the global cooldown is that any ability that is "off the gcd" can be used combo'd with something else

for example you can use Energy blast with a Stockstrike or shoulder cannon while you are using other moves, the exception being anything

that must be channeled.

 

That pretty much sums up your cooldowns as a vanguard tank, you can also use a Medpac and Absorption Adrenal if you feel you need to, which

I highly reccomend for HM and NiM content. As for when to use your cooldowns? My goal when I am tanking is to always have a cooldown up

just incase of a emergency. So when do you want to use your cooldowns? If you know that you will be the off tank for a extended period of

time or that you will not be taking big damage feel free to use some of your cooldowns offensively (reactive sheild and or battle focus)

to help the dps. Never pop more than 2 cooldowns at once unless you are enraged on a boss. I like to combo my cooldowns if I know I will

take big damage. Here are some good combos

 

Battle focus + Riot gas - this serves as a "ghetto resilience" which is a shadow ability which nearly negates all damage. With these two

popped you will take very little damage and can occasionally resist stack applying mechanics. Rememeber that Riot gas has a 1 min cd so it

can be popped once more before battle focus is up again to do this combo with.

 

Reactive Sheild and Adrenaline Rush - Probably the best combo if you know you will be taking big direct damage such as that of Terror in

the operation Terror from Beyond. This combo allows you to take huge amounts of damage and tide you over for a short amount of time while

the healers catch up on your health. It also "smoothens" things out and makes big predictable hits be less of a issue.

 

Other than that, you should always be using shoulder cannons on cooldown if not for the heals for the threat and extra off the gcd damage they do

you also want to be proccing Energy Blast off cooldown as it is a essential part of Vanguards mitigation. Riot gas should be used when

useful to yourself and or the raid as it will directly reduce the dps of the boss for a short time.

 

Now that you know how to use your cooldowns lets look at the core abilities that make up the Sheild Specialist!

 

Abilities:

 

Key Rotational abilities:

 

Hammer Shot - Fires a series of hammering shots that deals 1902 - 2241 weapon damage to the target. Only use this ability when you are

low on cells or can not reach your target for a extended period of time. Range: 30m

 

 

Stockstrike - Strikes the target with the butt of the rifle, dealing 4389 - 4568 kinetic damage. It also has a chance to trigger ion cell

and apply a 6 second dot. Also builds your Sheild enhancers which increase sheild by 1% per stack stacks 3 times. As well as builds power

screen. Power Screen increases absorption 1%. At 3 stacks of power screen Energy Blast is useable. Cost: 13 Cells Cooldown: 9s

Range: 4m

 

Ion Pulse - Fires an ion pulse at the target, dealing 2072 - 2233 elemental damage Also procs Ion Storm (good filler) Cost: 15 Cells

Range: 10m

 

High Impact Bolt - Fires a very powerful round at the target, dealing 4030 - 4474 weapon damage. Only useable against incapactiated

targets and targets suffering from periodic damage (Basically use stockstrike first) Cost: 15 cells Cooldown: 15s Range: 10m

 

Useful Abilities: (Openers, far away threatand mechanics)

 

Storm - Storms a distant target, dealing 1814 - 1975 kinetic damage, interupting the targets current action. Cannot be used against targets

in cover. Cooldown: 15s Range: 10 to 30m away from target.

 

Harpoon - Fires a harpoon line that pulls the target to your location and generates a high amount of threat. Cannot be used on targets in

cover. Cooldown: 45 seconds Range 10-30m away from target. (Good ability to use while far away to keep threat or to start the pull of a boss battle.

 

Riot Strike - Interrupts the target's current action and prevents that ability from being used for the next 4 seconds. COoldown: 12 seconds

Range: 4m

 

AoE abilities:

 

Sticky Grenade - Throws a sticky Grenade that will detonate after 3.5 Seconds. Standard and weak enemies enter a state of panic when the

grenade is active. The explosion deals 1878 - 2039 kinetic damage to up to 8 enemies when it detonates. Standard and weak targets are

knocked down from the blast. (Good filler or AOE Move or keeping threat while far from the boss) Cost: 15 Cells Cooldown: 15 seconds Range: 30m

 

Ion Storm - Sprays waves of ionizing energy in a 10 meter cone depleting 28 energy cells and dealing 8481 elemental damage to 8 enemies

over the duration. Affected targets are impaired for 45 seconds, reducing the force tech damage they deal by 5%. (Replaces Pulse Cannon.)

Cooldown: 17 Seconds. (When proc'd channel time is halfed from 3.0 Seconds to 1.5 seconds.) Key ability in rotation as well as keeping threat

that should be used on cooldown

when proc'd. Generates high amounts of threat.(No cells taken when proc'd)(AoE)

 

Explosive Surge - Emits an explosive Surge, dealing 1513 - 1701 elemental damage to up to 8 enmies within 5 meters. Cost: 15 cells

 

 

Mortar Volley - Launches a volley of martar shells at the target area dealing 5435-6399 kinetic damage to up to 8 enemies within 5 meters over the

duration. Stander and weak targets are knocked down by the blasts. Cooldown: 45 seconds Range: 30m Cost: 30 cells

 

Stuns:

 

Neural Surge - Deals 496-576 internal damage to up to 8 enemies within 8 meters stunning them for 2.5 seconds.

Cost: 5 cells Cooldown: 45 seconds Range: 8m around circle around you

 

Cryo Grenade - Hurls a cryo grenade that freezes the target, dealing 992-1153 energy damage and stunning it for 4 seconds.

Cost: 5 cells Cooldown: 60 seconds Range: 10m

 

Tank related abilties:

 

So firstly, whats a taunt?

 

A taunt is something used by tanks (and some times dps for various mechanics) to ensure you have threat or "aggro" on the boss for 6 seconds

the way a taunt works is it takes 10% of threat from the second highest target and gives it to you. You and your co tank can do something

called "Taunt fluffing" on most bosses to help ensure threat, this is the act of taunting back and forth rapidly to build aggro off each

others taunts. There is also a 3 taunt opener that can be used to ensure threat for 18 seconds without fail, and likely will help you build

enough threat to keep it afterwards too which we will get into soon. It is important as a tank to always have a taunt up incase you need

it but remeber they come back pretty quickly so dont hold on to them so preciously.

 

Neural Jolt: (Taunt) - Shocks the target at long range taunting it to attack. Player targets deal 30% less damage when attacking anyone

other than you. Effect lasts 6 seconds

Cooldown: 15 Seconds Range: 30m (Off the gcd)

 

Sonic Round: (AoE Taunt) - Fires a sonic round that taunts your target and all nearby enemies, forcing them to attack you for 6 seconds,

if Ion cell is active. If Ion cell is not active, threat towards all current enemeies is immediately reduced. Enemy players have their

damage reduced by 30% for 6 secounds unless they attack you. Cooldown: 45 seconds Range: 30m

 

(With the 4 pc Shield Specialist set bonus all taunts on cooldown have that cooldown reduced by 1.5 seconds every time stock strike is

used making using stock strike on cooldown vital to your rotation)

 

Guard: While active, the guarded player takes 5% less damage and generates 25% less threat.

Range: 30m (Generally used on Healers for damage heavy fights or DPS to ensure they dont steal threat from you)

 

Transpose - Swaps places with a group member and bestow a benign presence upon them for up to 6 seconds. Targets with a benign presence are

ignored by most enemies, cannot be leapt to or pulled, and are immune to interupts and ability activation pushback until they use an agressive

or healing ability. This ability is immune to activation pushback and only works on other players.

Range: 5-30m Cooldown: 1m 30 seconds.

 

(Transpose is useful in PvP but generally useless in PvE, there will be occasional moment where it can be a perfect save to the raid

but those are rare, few and far apart, its still good to keep on your bar, you may only use it once or twice ever but it has the potential

to save a pull or cheese mechanics if done properly.

 

Cell regen abilties: (For when you are extremely low on cells)

 

Recharge Cells - Recharges 50 energy cells over 3 seconds.

Cooldown: 2 Minutes

 

Reserve Powercell - Your next ability depletes no energy cells. Effect lasts 15 seconds (Heroic Utility Re-energizers allows this ability

to give you 10 additonal cells over 3 seconds and while in Ion cell increases threat by a small amount.

 

Tenacity - Purges all incapacitating and movement impairing effects.

Cooldown: 2 minutes

 

Hold the Line - Grants 6 seconds of immunity from all movement-ompairing effects, knockdowns and physics and increases movmeent spead by

30%

Cooldown: 45 seconds (There are several utilities that make Hold the line have a lesser cooldown, longer duration time and faster movement

speed)

 

Storm- Storm a distant target, dealing 1547-1708 kinetic damage, interupting the target's current action and immobilizing the target for

2 seconds. Cannot be used against targets in cover.

Cooldown: 15 seconds Range: 10-30m

 

Ion cell - Required cell for Tanking. (This should be a given)

 

 

III. Rotations, Openers and Threat

 

So now that we know about all our abilities it is time to put them to good use!

 

Here is several diffrent openers that I like to use depending on the fight. When you see -> it symbolizes 1 gcd

 

Opener 1:

 

Harpoon and Neural Jolt -> Stock Strike > Sticky Grenade or Ion Pulse -> Sonic Round -> High Impact Bolt -> Ion Storm > Ion Pulse and Reserve

power cell ->Hammer shot -> Ion pulse and energy blast -> Neural Jolt (You may use Shoulder cannon on single ability GCDs to further increase threat)

 

The alternate opener is

 

Opener 2:

 

Harpoon and Neural Jolt -> Storm > Stock Strike > Sticky Grenade or Ion Pulse -> Sonic Round -> High Impact Bolt -> Ion Storm > Ion Pulse and Reserve

power cell ->Hammer shot -> Ion pulse and energy blast -> Neural Jolt (You may use Shoulder cannon on single ability GCDs to further increase threat)

 

 

Ideally you would use Opener 1 for any boss that will immediately leap to you upon the start of the fight or requireing delicate positioning

such as Tyrans, Dashroode and Calphyus among others. For most fights however you will be required to use Opener 2 with the Storm to get

in Melee range of the boss quickly and continue with your opener.

 

If executed properly you should rarely ever lose aggro after that unless it is due to a mechanic, accidental taunting or extremely good

DPS.

 

Now onto rotations!

 

Firstly here is a 500k parse of my Vanguard in Tank gear you can use it to see what I did and work off that if it helps

http://parsely.io/parser/view/205399

 

There is no "rotation" really, mostly a priority system that you have to follow

 

Vanguard Tank rotation is fairly simple. You basically want to use Hammer shot, Stock Stike and High Impact Bolt to build stacks of

Power Screen. Power screen stacks up to 3 times and once you have 3 stacks you can use Energy Blast. Energy Blast is the main source

of Vanguard Tank mitigation it gives you 25% increased shield absorption for 6 seconds so you want to be keeping Energy Blast on cooldown

in order to mitigate big hits better. in addition to building Power Screen using Stock stike and High impact bolt also build stacks of

Shield enhancers which stack up to 3 times and build 1% Sheild rating per stack. If done correctly once you have got 3 stacks it is

possible to always keep these stacks up and you should because this is also another good passive to mitigate damage. The "filler" is

Ion Pulse which also procs Ion Storm which builds very high threat and should be kept on cooldown. It also applies a debuff to bosses that

causes reduced force tech damage by 5% for 45 seconds on you and the rest the raid. You can also use Sticky Grenade if you are more then 10m

away from boss or for some extra timed damage that will equate to threat. To make this easier I will make a list

 

Priority System -

 

1- Keep stacks of Sheild Enhancers up

2- Build Stacks of Power Screen and keep Energy Blast on cooldown

3- Use Ion pulse as filler to proc Ion storm and help maintain threat

4- Sticky Grenade

 

So basically you want to maintain 2 things. You want to maintain your 2 mitigation stacks and you want to maintain threat on the boss.

A good tank will be able to do all of this as well as seemlessly weave in raid/self cooldowns in when needed such as Riot Gas or a personal

cooldown, as well as be able to execute whatever mechanics are required in the fight.

 

If your stacks do fall off (they will in some fights for various reasons) It is not the end of the world just be sure to build them back

quickly so you dont take so much damage.

 

Now onto threat!

 

So as a Tank threat is very important. Gaining and Maintaining threat is essential to a good tank.

 

If you followed the previous opener mentioned above and understand how to execute the priority system you should have no issues with threat

but dont be afraid to throw in extra taunts here and there if you know you wont need it very shortly for a tank swap/mechanic. You can

also ask your dps to aggro drop right after you have taunted for maximum threat gained by you and lost by them. The two highest threat

building abilties on Vanguard tank are Energy Blast and Ion Storm in that order. Threat is built based on damage. Generally it is a 1 to 1

scale for most abilties meaning if you do 1 damage you gain 1 threat. Some abilties however like Energy Blast and Ion Storm dont follow

this scale exactly and just generate "a high amount" of threat as does Harpoon.

 

If you have issues keeping threat be sure to guard the strongest dps, ask dps to aggro drop after you have taunted and talk to your other

tank about coordinating taunts or "Taunt fluffing".

 

IV. Gearing

 

So ever since 4.0 and the removal of Absorption mods there has been debates on how to gear "correctly" and to be honest there is no

right or wrong way any more as long as you choose one of these the diffrence will be arguably minimally neglegable unless you plan to do

NiM content then you might want to consult your healers about which they prefer/feel is tankier

 

The following are 4 diffrent general methods. I am not going to insanely indepth with what stats to aim for if you really want to see

precise numbers about stats and math and such look for Tam's (Or anyone elses) Tank stating guide on the forums.

 

Build 1 - Full endurance Stack

 

The basic goal of this build is to get over 100k HP, You run B mods, B enhancements and all Endurance augments. The idea here is that you

will have a ton of health to take big hits with and you still end up with decent stat pool.

 

Build 2 - The "Zoomz" Build

 

I dont claim this is "the best way" at all, infact many people tell me it is stupid but its what works for me and my team.

 

The basic goal of this build is to stack sheild, you want to run all shield enhancements (I think I have about 4 Absorption enhancements)

12 Shield Augments 2 Absorption/Endurance augments (Optional your choice) and I use the old 198 mods with Absorption 7 of them to

be precise and 7 High endurance power mods. (You can have someone craft you the old 192 absorption mods if you werent playing when 198s were a thing

or just didnt save them) The idea behind this build is defense DR's pretty hard and as long as your defense is over 1k you are generally

fine. You want to have about 82k health, Over 2k sheild if possible and atleast 800 absorption. The reason I run power mods is the additional

power helps you do more DPS which helps to make tight DPS checks as well as generate more threat.

 

Build 3 - The Lazy Build

 

This build is pretty simple You pretty much just use every peice of token gear you get and use augments to even out your stats aiming for

about 1500 shield and 1200ish Absorption. The downside of this build is you often fall very short on endurance and end up around 76 to 78k

health which is generally low for some of the HMs and NiMs but is still doable because that is how my co tank geared and she does fine in

NiMs.

 

Build 4 - The Hybrid of other builds build

 

This build basically goes for max mitigation but instead of running the 224 defense mods you run the high endurance 220 ones which basically

ends up giving you about 82-84k health and about 400ish less defense.

 

There is also a debate on what relics to run? - Personally I run the same relics DPS and Healers use for a number of reasons

1. Helps with threat. 2. Helps with DPS 3. The other relics mathmatically speaking...dont do much!

 

So what other options do you have? ( I am not going to sit and list what every relic does you can figure that out on your own)

 

Note: The following is all my opinions, for official math on these cooldowns check out some of Dipstik or Tam's Work.

 

Reactive Warding - Which can be mathmatically proven why having 2 dps relics is more beneficial to reactive warding, basically the health

gained from 2 DPS relics is more health then the little "absorb shield" you get when Reactive warding procs so basically 2 DPS relics = a

permanent reactive warding.

 

Shield Amplification - It can be useful but generally the odds of that 6 second proc happening at a "useful" moment are rather low and

also it scraps the DR a bit.

 

Fortunate Redoubt- Same deal with Shield Amp really, plus with all the defense EVERYWHERE this tier the last thing you need is more of it.

I wouldnt reccomend using this relic ever, but I may be biased because I dont like running a lot of defense and prefer low defense builds.

 

Shrouded Crusader - This relic can actually be useful in fights, since it gives you more sheild and absorption and you can PICK when you

want it to activate, for very heavy damage fights this relic can server as a another cooldown and can be very useful though for most fights

the damage isnt insane enough to require such a relic.

 

I personally like the 2 DPS relics though I do switch them out for fights like Dread Guard NiM though my co tank prefers to still run DPS

relics for that fight. SO at the end of the day Pick whichever build you think is right for you and your healers (Or make your own build)

and pick whichever relics you think are right too.

 

If you really want to go indepth with gearing and all the math behind stuff theres plenty of those on the forums Dipstik and Tam have some

pretty good guides up for it or you could check out Bant's work too.

 

V. Advanced Tactics and Tips

 

Not much to add here that wouldnt be too obvious but maybe some of you will get use out of some of these things

 

 

If you are in a fight with relatively low damage output but a tight enrage (or just for very tight enrages) You can use reactive sheild

(When spec'd into Electro sheild utility) and Battle Focus as Offensive cooldowns to help the DPS out.

 

Since vanguards have realtively few "big" cooldowns compared to the other tanks I like to always have Medpacs and Absorption Adrenals on

me to serve as cooldowns and help out my healers.

 

Communication with your co tank is very important, the best co tanks are those that get along well. My co tank and I often play other games

outside of SWTOR and talk almost every day, We have a great relationship and because of this we are able to communicate and operate well.

It is important you tell your co tank what is going on and if you will need a swap and such.

 

Something I like to do on stressful fights (Especially Nims) Is call my cooldowns. What this means is I will say things like "Have a big

cooldown up!" "Low on cooldowns" "Out of cooldowns for 30 seconds" "Only have minor cooldowns left" This lets my co tank and my healers

know what my health situation is looking like and allows them to adapt to it and best handle the situation based on that information.

Just dont be obsessive on calling if someone is calling out mechanics do not call over them. Example: On Core phase of HM revan, dont call

over the abberations caller and such. If done right this can benefit your healers and your co tank and allow them to be able to better

keep you and the rest the raid alive and know where the heals need to go.

 

Try to manage your cooldowns in such a way that you always have one available. You dont constantly need a cooldown up. If it seems that

the healers are struggling or you know a big damage phase is coming up pop a cooldown, if you suddenly take a lot of big damage pop a cooldown

but dont just pop them to pop them when things are going well because you wont have them when things arent going well.

 

If you know a big damage phase is coming and you need to save your cooldowns but your health is low tell your healers "Need some heals sorry

gotta save my big cooldowns for this next phase" Your healers will have to deal with it.

 

On tough DPS checks I also like to use the craftable V9 Power Grenades to help do more damage. You can also use DPS adrenals instead of

tank ones.

 

Hope these tips help.

 

 

 

VI. About the Author

 

 

Hi! I am Zoomz Wolfwood. I started raiding in 2.0 and my first class was a Vanguard Tank. I have loved Tanking ever since I started playing.

I originally began raiding on The Ebon Hawk with <The Army of Light> in NiM DF. After getting 4/5 NiM DF on tier I continued to raid

with them as well as DPSing for <Hates You> for a short time and Healing for another group on Ebon Hawk. I managed to go 9/10 On tier in 3.0

in all three roles. In 4.0 when Army of Light began to die I left to form my own guild <Tragic Heroes> and we are still currently around

and raiding on Ebon Hawk as one of the leading NiM guilds in the community. We are drama free, casual and fun loving and always looking

for new recruits.

 

I enjoy playing SWTOR and have played for almost 4 years now. At this point I can play all 24 specs in varying levels of confidence but my

favorite class and spec by far is Vanguard Tanking. I have enjoyed tanking over the years and hope I was able to teach you a thing or two

thank you for reading my guide!

 

I may not be a "Pro" in some peoples eyes but I believe I have a good knowledge of the game and this class. Once again thank you for

reading my guide. Special thanks to everyone in my guild who helped proof read and encourage me to do this! If you ever have any questions

feel free to mail me on the forums or contact me in game via mail to Zoomz I would be happy to help!

 

Edited September 17, 2016 by GhOsTPrOz

[MixWeidner]

Could you please link page with original guide?