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[SW:TOR] Tanks like spanking.
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It's the other pieces that will greatly differ, they'll have endurance, defense and shield rating/absorb while the dps version will have power, crit, surge and accuracy. There's really no reason for to sacrifice any of the defense stats for power, critical or surge (at least until there's a combat log for us to see what the trade off actually is).
I figured if each ones dps won't be utterly atrocious, they can take turns tanking and the other one can just dps in their other stance. Assassin seems like the tank with the most dps capability, but that's just me looking at the talents.
Candymancer Forums
I'll second this.
Anecdotal evidence that may or may not have bearing on your situation:
We tried a guild run of Hard Mode Directive 7, with me (tank specc'd guard) and a vanguard (also tank specc'd). We had a Sentinel as our lone true dps. The Vanguard has a full kit of very nice dps gear so we thought we'd be fine with him in dps stance. And we mostly were, completeing the run all the way up until Bulwark. We got nowhere near beating the enrage timer.
Summary: for leveling, you'd likely be fine, but in the HMs when enrage timers get tight, you might be in trouble.
I've seen some tank builds where half of their talent points went into the Vigilence tree and half in the Defence tree. I've seen other builds that are almost purely defense.
Anyone have any opinions on which is more viable?
Well I'm jugg, but its all mirrored so I assume you are talking about the middle tree's talent for being CC immune and 20% damage reduction after each force leap.
In the guardian tree its called unremitting. I really haven't found a reason not to go with that build, you don't get the top talent for guardian slash, if someone has single target aggro issues they might need that ability? It takes one extra sunder to get max stacks since you dont have the 3 stack skill... not exactly a big deal considering what the middle tree gives you in utility and mitigation.
So something like this: http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#500crGbuMrkzMZhGM0M.1
Basically it makes intercept/guardian leap even more useful, because you will want to leap to a team mate which puts you at leap range of the enemy and that leap procs unstoppable/unremitting. Depending on the fight I'm using leap/intercept on almost every cooldown.... not if it will screw up boss positioning of course, but all the time otherwise. For example the twins in KP, the fire guy is ranged and you can leap to the off-tank to mitigate him while also gaining that mitigation when you leap back to the other boss. On trash that likes to CC the tank, it means you simply wont be CC'ed... very useful.
my unofficial autobio will be accompanied with tips on how to smile
cause I've found that when they don't see you frown, they never know that you're a threat
and they don't sweat you when you came around
I'd say that sums up a decent aspect of it. BH/Trooper tanks also seem to rule over anything with AoE threat, while Jedi tanks are kind of screwed currently in that department
This is very helpful, thanks!
Jedi/Sith warrior is a great single target tank, and the tank cooldowns they get are far more powerful than the other tanks. However, their AoE tanking is terrible. My main is a Guardian and while he's awesome, so are the other 2 tanking types.
As for AoE, I wouldn't say Jedi tanks are screwed, just knights. Shadow/Assassin AoE is very strong.
IMO, having played all 3 to a certain extent, and a Guardian at 50 in raids, I like the other two tanks more because they have a resource that actually has to be paid attention to. Guardian is just spend all your focus, build back some focus, but you never have any hard decisions. Just hit the best thing available at all times. The other two tanks are a little more involved in their own resource.
my unofficial autobio will be accompanied with tips on how to smile
cause I've found that when they don't see you frown, they never know that you're a threat
and they don't sweat you when you came around
Note that as he goes up in levels, he's going to gain more abilities too. So if you haven't looked in awhile, he may have new ones you're unaware of.
Does anyone have any info on the "why" of these particular numbers or is it all internet voodoo?
Probably dimishing returns. If you overstack one stat, you're not going to get much benefit out of it.
That said, I have full columni and my stats are a little bit higher than that (Assassin Tank).
"There is not a man of us who does not at times need a helping hand to be stretched out to him, and then shame upon him who will not stretch out the helping hand to his brother."
The silly part, is I'm in 100% rakata gear... and those numbers cannot be reached without remodding a lot of it. It comes with far to much accuracy and the silly surge rating. Remodding it though and those are about the stats one would get, +/- a few % depending on what mods you managed to get. Those numbers also differ between tank types, as jugg/guard I can get more defense than say a trooper/bh who end up with more shield.
http://sithwarrior.com/forums/Thread-The-Shield-Tech-Shield-Spec-Compendium#Stats
You can jump off to other more detailed resources from that thread.
my unofficial autobio will be accompanied with tips on how to smile
cause I've found that when they don't see you frown, they never know that you're a threat
and they don't sweat you when you came around
My own stats are pretty close to that, but I'm going to have to do some remodding like @Badwrong suggests to hit it. (Mostly Columi with a few Rakata pieces and one or two slots I haven't been lucky on.)
Do I prefer +10 defense rating or +10 absorption rating? (Only doing PvE, btw)
Twitter: busfahrer -- Quake Live: busfahrer -- StarCraft II: busfahrer.184 (EU)
For a Guardian, I would say defence should be the first think you look for, at least until you hit the soft cap of ~24%, since a lot of your talents proc off seccessful parries and deflects.
The real "why" is that some guy made a formula to model incoming damage, put it in a spreadsheet, and those were the optimal values (or possibly the optimal ratio of values) that it spit out.
In the actual game the noticeable difference between a tank at 25/40/40 and a tank (for example) at joshmvii's 33/44/25 is likely to be small-to-nonexistent and probably impossible to identify definitively without analyzing actual logs (which we can't do yet.) The most effective distribution of stats will probably also change from fight to fight based on specific mechanics. The main takeaway at this point is don't stack defense to the sky, because it's DR become murderous at a much lower level than other stats'.
my unofficial autobio will be accompanied with tips on how to smile
cause I've found that when they don't see you frown, they never know that you're a threat
and they don't sweat you when you came around
A few things with that build:
First you need dust storm for a tanking build, there are a few places you could grab the 2 points for it without reducing survivability.
Second, there are two insanely good tanking talents at the top of the vigilance tree, commanding awe and protector, which I think leads to the following build as an option:
http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#500dMG0uZGGMMMhzdMM.1
You basically give up 4% shield, 4% shield, and a small self shield for 4% resist all damage, 4% endurance, and another on demand 30% damage shield.
For PvE tanks-
You want: Defense, Shield Rating, Absorption (for survival).
You don't want: Alacrity. That's mostly a healer thing.
All the others (Accuracy, Crit, Power, Surge) will kind of depend on if you're doing a lot of grouping or soloing.
Well, to be more specific, it does nothing to the all Force sorc/sage and half Tech Mec/Commando all dread and fear, as well as the mostly Tech Powertech/Vanguard and Sentinel/Operative.
You'll be laughing at the puny attempts of Guards/Juggs, Sentinels/Marauders and Gunslingers/Snipers trying to kill you with thier mostly melee and ranged-type attacks while you stand there with high defence/shield/absorb though.
...and I have never lost to a Guardian/Jugg or Gunslinger 1on1. Saber Ward and Dodge are worthless vs. a class that is 80% tech and ele damage, and most Guardians find themselves poping Enure to stay alive when I still have over half health.
It's that Elemental damage that's the real killer. It basically ignores all armor, defenses, shields, what have yous, so we're basically fighting you naked.
Powertechs are in a world of their own when it comes to tanks in pvp. Your tank spec will handle other class/specs to a degree that other tanks can't even approach, really.
In my own experience (Jedi Guardian) Marauders/Sentinels will tear me apart, more than almost any other class. I can stunlock Sorcs and sometimes even Snipers into oblivion, but Marauders are bad news.
Usually if I get the first couple swings in before they react, I kill somebody. Conversely, if I get caught unawares, or am fighting my camera under a scaffold in Huttball, I probably lose that fight!
And apart from situations like that... I hardly ever notice one on one fights happening.