We don't have a combat log, but yeah, the difference is maybe not as far as tank vs. dps in WoW, but it's not *that* close either. Anecdotally, I can tell you that one of my guildmates who is a sentinel and another who a dps spec sage can kill single targets at least 20 or 30% faster than I can as a Guardian tank. It's the talents, and it's also the itemization of the gear. The better your gear gets, the more your itemization takes you away from maximum dps while theirs takes them toward it.
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BeezelThere was no agreement little morsel..Registered Userregular
I'm leveling as a defense build JK. ended up taking biochem for the medpacks and stims. Should I have gone synthweaving or should I be shooting for quest/pvp gear for heavy armor?
PSN: Waybackkidd
"...only mights and maybes."
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AegisFear My DanceOvershot Toronto, Landed in OttawaRegistered Userregular
edited January 2012
I've gone synthweaving on my Guardian and it was nice while levelling to craft stuff for myself, although you'll have to face the reality that you will get a lot of Orange gear from quests and flashpoints that you might like the look of and it's trivial to keep it updated with appropriate mods while levelling.
That being said, I've just now (level 45) gotten to the point where the Artifact level stuff I'm REing (particularly Tier 2 Prefix Artifacts) is of vastly better quality than Modded Oranges I could get at the same and higher levels, particularly in areas of Shield & Defense that I focus on. But it costs a metric fuckton of money to craft and RE this stuff and pray I crit for the augment slot for my wearable items.
If you have the patience and the pocketbook for REing, go for Synthweaving. Biochem itself is useful in that you'll never have to pay for medkits and stims once you've crafted the resuable stuff you want, so it does have its charms to it too.
I'm leveling as a defense build JK. ended up taking biochem for the medpacks and stims. Should I have gone synthweaving or should I be shooting for quest/pvp gear for heavy armor?
Biochem is basically the crew skill in the game, because unlimited medpack/stimpack/adrenal is sick as hell. That being said, you just do what you like. I'm Synthweaving on my 48 Jedi Guardian, and the only piece of gear I'm wearing that I crafted is my bracers. My head/chest/belt/legs/boots are all oranges that I got in Flashpoints and I've kept up to date modded. The game is just designed for this to be the way to go, since you get free mods with commendations after every planet.
At 50 I'll craft some awesome purples for myself, but they'll be replaced by raid gear as soon as I can get it so there's that too. It's possible that the BoP purple stuff I can make myself will last for a while, but I doubt that too. I don't regret taking Synthweaving because I like being an armorcrafter, and they will likely update all of them as time goes on and what not, but you definitely didn't make a wrong choice.
For gear, your best bet is to run each flashpoint at level to get the drops, then when you hit 40 spend ~900 warzone commendations and get the orange set of gear from those. It's purely pve itemized, looks awesome, and you can update the mods all the way to 50.
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BeezelThere was no agreement little morsel..Registered Userregular
I'm leveling as a defense build JK. ended up taking biochem for the medpacks and stims. Should I have gone synthweaving or should I be shooting for quest/pvp gear for heavy armor?
Biochem is basically the crew skill in the game, because unlimited medpack/stimpack/adrenal is sick as hell. That being said, you just do what you like. I'm Synthweaving on my 48 Jedi Guardian, and the only piece of gear I'm wearing that I crafted is my bracers. My head/chest/belt/legs/boots are all oranges that I got in Flashpoints and I've kept up to date modded. The game is just designed for this to be the way to go, since you get free mods with commendations after every planet.
At 50 I'll craft some awesome purples for myself, but they'll be replaced by raid gear as soon as I can get it so there's that too. It's possible that the BoP purple stuff I can make myself will last for a while, but I doubt that too. I don't regret taking Synthweaving because I like being an armorcrafter, and they will likely update all of them as time goes on and what not, but you definitely didn't make a wrong choice.
For gear, your best bet is to run each flashpoint at level to get the drops, then when you hit 40 spend ~900 warzone commendations and get the orange set of gear from those. It's purely pve itemized, looks awesome, and you can update the mods all the way to 50.
Ah! this is excellent advice. I'll stay the course then.
4/5 of war leaders set after tanking Hard EV last night.
So now have the 4 piece set bonus, 20% more absorbed by sonic/blade barrier. Buffed, I am now just over 20k HP, still some growing room... I'm just lazy about doing dailies for the implants/earpiece.
Just need the helmet now and I'll be a full terminator looking thingie.
I'm leveling as a defense build JK. ended up taking biochem for the medpacks and stims. Should I have gone synthweaving or should I be shooting for quest/pvp gear for heavy armor?
Biochem is basically the crew skill in the game, because unlimited medpack/stimpack/adrenal is sick as hell. That being said, you just do what you like. I'm Synthweaving on my 48 Jedi Guardian, and the only piece of gear I'm wearing that I crafted is my bracers. My head/chest/belt/legs/boots are all oranges that I got in Flashpoints and I've kept up to date modded. The game is just designed for this to be the way to go, since you get free mods with commendations after every planet.
At 50 I'll craft some awesome purples for myself, but they'll be replaced by raid gear as soon as I can get it so there's that too. It's possible that the BoP purple stuff I can make myself will last for a while, but I doubt that too. I don't regret taking Synthweaving because I like being an armorcrafter, and they will likely update all of them as time goes on and what not, but you definitely didn't make a wrong choice.
For gear, your best bet is to run each flashpoint at level to get the drops, then when you hit 40 spend ~900 warzone commendations and get the orange set of gear from those. It's purely pve itemized, looks awesome, and you can update the mods all the way to 50.
Ah! this is excellent advice. I'll stay the course then.
Should also be noted that some crating recipies (and mats) drop only on operations and world bosses, and that the items crafted with them are both extremely rare and comparable to operation gear.
Plus, you can craft gear for your companions too. As an amormech on my Powertech, it is very awesome that I have every one of my companions fully decked in the best gear I can make (that they can wear) and can bring any one of them out at a whim and not have to worry about their gear being up to spec. If I remember right, JK has two companions that use Sythweaving gear, so that two characters you can keep up to date without spending any quest rewards/commendations on them outside of earpieces, implants or weapons.
Foefaller on
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BeezelThere was no agreement little morsel..Registered Userregular
leveling up as a JK guardian (tank) do I want to never leave the defensive stance once I get it?
PSN: Waybackkidd
"...only mights and maybes."
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AegisFear My DanceOvershot Toronto, Landed in OttawaRegistered Userregular
edited January 2012
There's absolutely no reason to ever not be in Soresu, no. It even persists through death so you don't even need it on your bar, really.
There's absolutely no reason to ever not be in Soresu, no. It even persists through death so you don't even need it on your bar, really.
Pretty much true for any tank stance in this game.
In fact, with every class that has stances (Jedi Knights, Sith Warriors, Bounty Hunters, Troopers, and the Jedi Shadow and Sith Assassin ACs) each tree is dedicated to a single stance, and since you pretty much have no reason ever to leave that stance after level 20-25 or so, there is no reason to have any form/cell/cylinder/technique/charge on your quickbars.
I swap between Combat and Force stance still at level 18. Generally use Force for the bit of extra damage when I'm just out questing, and bust out the Combat for Elites.
Yeah, I really should just take my two charges off my bar. I think at this point I have pressed my charges accidently more than anything.
I would only recommend keeping it on the bars if you are not tank-specced because you might be able to buy healers a few seconds with a taunt. But I will say that charges cost half your force, and I bet other stances are similarly pricey.
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AegisFear My DanceOvershot Toronto, Landed in OttawaRegistered Userregular
edited January 2012
Anyone have a baseline for Armour Reduction we should be aiming for/able to meet? Levelling to 47 now and I seem to be stuck hovering in the 40-42% range without much variation either above or below. Or does it just essentially take care of itself as you gain level-appropriate gear?
Anyone have a baseline for Armour Reduction we should be aiming for/able to meet? Levelling to 47 now and I seem to be stuck hovering in the 40-42% range without much variation either above or below. Or does it just essentially take care of itself as you gain level-appropriate gear?
It takes care of itself. You also start to hit pretty serious DR around the 40-42% range. At 50, with 6500 armor, I am still just a tad over 42%.
You know, it takes some of the magic out of Star Wars to think that Luke wasn't actually strong with the Force, he just got a +50 Force Power bonus from his Black Robes of Brooding and Constructed Lightsaber
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GnomeTankWhat the what?Portland, OregonRegistered Userregular
You know, it takes some of the magic out of Star Wars to think that Luke wasn't actually strong with the Force, he just got a +50 Force Power bonus from his Black Robes of Brooding and Constructed Lightsaber
My Force Power bonus from my lightsaber is ~540 right now. My lightsaber puts the lotion on the skin for Midi-chlorians it seems.
How the hell do you have your buttons laid out? I'm completely overwhelmed with them. I don't want to disable my companion hotkeys (Ctrl-1, ctrl-2, etc) but it's looking like I might have to. I already have a second row of alt-1 through =, although my hands naturally focus on 1-5 or so and going beyond feels... awkward.
Just hit level 30, so I have Force Pull and Mass Mind Control now, so in theory I can tank a bit better, but finding Flashpoint or even Heroic groups is kinda a pain in the arse. Would like to practice a bit.
How the hell do you have your buttons laid out? I'm completely overwhelmed with them. I don't want to disable my companion hotkeys (Ctrl-1, ctrl-2, etc) but it's looking like I might have to. I already have a second row of alt-1 through =, although my hands naturally focus on 1-5 or so and going beyond feels... awkward.
Just hit level 30, so I have Force Pull and Mass Mind Control now, so in theory I can tank a bit better, but finding Flashpoint or even Heroic groups is kinda a pain in the arse. Would like to practice a bit.
I can't speak for others, and I'm a Guardian, but I do have 25 bound hotkeys I use regularly. The main ones are 1-7, q,w,e,r,t,y,v, then a whole bunch with shift modifiers, like shift-e, d, f. I also use z, x, and c for defensive type cooldowns. I have a very particular setup, but I can hit all 25 without any trouble and in an instant.
Shit, I've been in the 34% forever now (44). Well, 36% with talents.
Are you Shadow/Assassin? Because that's the same for me. I'm only in mainly blue 48 mods at 50 though. I do, however, have nearly 50% shield chance with Kinetic Ward up. I think they're relying on Shadows/Assassins to use shield chance and shield absorb rather than defense and armor, but I somehow doubt it's even.
First bottom bar: 1-6 then alt + 1 - alt+6
second bottom bar: F1 - F12
Left Bar: Shift + F1 - f5, then B, R, F, H, X, Q, E
Right Bar: skip 2 for misc stuff (like mission items that I actually have to click), then Ctrl + 1 - 2, ctrl + f1 - f4, t, shift + t, ctrl + t, alt + t
I have a logitech 6500 mouse, so one extra button is my companion attack target command and one is autorun.
I guess I could do where my abilities are located at (this is as a JK guardian tank):
Left bar:
s + f1: strength relic
s + f2: strength stim
s + f3: empty
s + f4: empty
s + f5: empty
B : challenging call
R : taunt
F : force leap
H : hilt strike
X : aoe slow
Q : saber throw
E : force kick
1st bottom bar:
1: strike
2: sundering strike
3: blade storm
4: guardian slash
5: slash
6: cyclone slash
alt + 1: master strike
a + 2: riposte
a + 3: back hand
a + 4: pommel strike
a + 5: the instant force builder
a + 6: status effect cleanse
2nd bottom bar:
f1: force sweep
f2: force stasis
f3: force push
f4: empty
f5: empty
f6: empty
f7: enure
f8: blade ward
f9: the defensive tree 3 min buff
f10: introspection
f11: companion + self healing dot (20min cd)
f12: force might
Right bar:
empty
empty
c + 1: Aclarity relic
c + 2: medpac
c + f1: soresu
c + f2: shicho
c + f3: guard
c + f4: sprint
t: mount
s + t: empty
c + t: fleet pass
a + t: bind travel
1 Saber Strike
2 Shock
3 Recklessness
4 Whirlwind
5 Mind Control
Shift1 Adrenal
Shift2 Spike
Shift3 Wither
Shift4 Medpac
F Thrash
x Maul
C Force Lightning
R Overload
Q Jolt
E Electrocute
V Unbreakable Will
ShiftF Assassinate
ShiftX Dark Ward
ShiftC Force Speed
ShiftR Discharge
ShiftQ Crushing Darkness
ShiftE Force Slow
ShiftV Deflection
CtrlF Force Grip
CtrlC Mass Mind Control
CtrlX Overcharge Saber
CtrlR Lacerate
CtrlQ Tumult
CtrlE Mind Trap
CtrlV Channel the Force
Mid Mouse Stealth
Shift + Mid Mouse Blackout
Ctrl + Mid Mouse Force Cloak
Mouse 4 Guard
Shift + Mouse 4 Force Shroud
Ctrl + Mouse 4 Pass Hutt Ball
F5 (bound to G5 on keyboard) Seethe
F6 (bound to G6 on keyboard) Speeder
Any tips for level 30ish Vanguard. Trying to find a nice natural run for my abilities. Can't settle on anything comfortable at the mo. Using mainly 1-6 and shift+1-6 comfortably.
Vanguard is kind of like a wow Paladin, in that if you just turn your keyboard face down and press down over and over you will win.
Seriously though, I use 1-6, qwerty, zxcv, and a bunch of other stuff that's really natural for me to hit with my left hand. Everybody has their own thing though.
I expanded to the right of my ASDW, using E/R/T/F as different buttons, and shift E/R/T/F (where E, shift+E, R, shift+R are the 4 defensive cooldowns). I turned off keyboard turning and made A/S strafe, and remapped Q to target nearest enemy. (Which often works better especially with bigger monsters, who can occupy a giant part of your screen to click if your not awesome with zooming out, top down, camera management). Reaching beyond 6 is a pain for me, I have only long cooldowns there.
Steam: SanderJK Origin: SanderJK
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Dr_KeenbeanDumb as a buttPlanet Express ShipRegistered Userregular
edited January 2012
I just grabbed a Razer Naga (the wired one, I'm not made of money) and after a few days with it I can safely say it's pretty fucking great. The mobility and situational awareness granted by having 24 abilities (12 buttons and alt+12 buttons) on your thumb is just amazing.
My only gripe is that now I'm actually focused on the center of the screen and I still have to look down to verify cooldowns and my rage meter. Can't wait for UI mods.
Main combat abilities, i.e. things I'm going to use several times in a fight, are on the top middle bar, with the most frequently used being 1-6.
Main support abilities, which are ususaly on long CDs or uncommonly used, but things either need to be activated asap (like interrupts and the CC breakers) or are tedious to activate via clicking (like targetable AoEs) or on the bottom bar, and assigned shift+# keys, with the most frequently used being Shift+1-6.
Everything else... I click... and I've yet to have a situation where I went "Damn, we would have beaten that guy if [insert ability I don't have within easy keybound reach here] wasn't something I clicked!" Even in WoW raids and pretty much every MMO's PvP I've played.
I just grabbed a Razer Naga (the wired one, I'm not made of money) and after a few days with it I can safely say it's pretty fucking great. The mobility and situational awareness granted by having 24 abilities (12 buttons and alt+12 buttons) on your thumb is just amazing.
My only gripe is that now I'm actually focused on the center of the screen and I still have to look down to verify cooldowns and my rage meter. Can't wait for UI mods.
I really have to teach myself to use my naga. My wife and I both bought them, and have yet to put the extra buttons to use. It's so hard for me to give up using my left hand to hit everything after a decade and a half of PC gaming that way, but I really want to, because that's the whole reason we bought them.
I just grabbed a Razer Naga (the wired one, I'm not made of money) and after a few days with it I can safely say it's pretty fucking great. The mobility and situational awareness granted by having 24 abilities (12 buttons and alt+12 buttons) on your thumb is just amazing.
My only gripe is that now I'm actually focused on the center of the screen and I still have to look down to verify cooldowns and my rage meter. Can't wait for UI mods.
You must learn the sacred Eastern Art of Zen Screen. Let your focus go, grasshopper, until you are seeing all things at once. Only then will you progress to the title of Master.
(Seriously, this phenomena is the only reason I was able to beat Megaman X as a kid.)
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Dr_KeenbeanDumb as a buttPlanet Express ShipRegistered Userregular
I just grabbed a Razer Naga (the wired one, I'm not made of money) and after a few days with it I can safely say it's pretty fucking great. The mobility and situational awareness granted by having 24 abilities (12 buttons and alt+12 buttons) on your thumb is just amazing.
My only gripe is that now I'm actually focused on the center of the screen and I still have to look down to verify cooldowns and my rage meter. Can't wait for UI mods.
You must learn the sacred Eastern Art of Zen Screen. Let your focus go, grasshopper, until you are seeing all things at once. Only then will you progress to the title of Master.
(Seriously, this phenomena is the only reason I was able to beat Megaman X as a kid.)
Actually I'm already there. I just get mesmerized by the slick animation of my character going in dry on every enemy to which he leaps.
I question how useful it would be for a class with a lot of cast time/channeled abilities, though.
Just to keep the conversation moving, but I am really loving the ranged tanking aspect of the powertech (although I'm still having a hard time making the mental switch).
Last night we were trying to 3-man Field Commander Anhur, a boss in one of the Belsavis heroic dailies. He's mostly stationary, doing a bunch of explosive shots and orbital strikes and the aoe was pretty much just raping us. So after two or three tries of trying to straight up tank him and run out of the circles, I finally wised up and tried the ranged approach. Jet pack in, rocket punch, flame burst a couple times, then run back out to about 20 yards or so and unload. Whenever he put a circle on the ground under me, I either strafe out of it or (much better) jet pack in and whack him a few times, then run out again.
Our marauder dps was able to stay on him the whole time without having to worry about the aoe, and the healer wasn't running all over the place trying to keep up. Plus it just feels so much more active and controlled than your typical 'stare directly at the bosses crotch' for the whole fight. To top it all off, he dropped a purple lvl 50 implant with tank stats. Good times!
Mechanics question:
I read somewhere that damage reduction tops out at 75%. Does this count shield absorbs? For instance, I'm currently at 51% from armor/talents, and 40% absorb, which would make a ~70% reduction on absorbed hits. It's not unfeasable to push that up further, half my gear is still l50 blues/purples. Since the 2min CD is a straight up +25% bonus on your direct reduction, it'd mean that during that my shield absorb would already do nothing.
Good question, as I am already at 35% or so absorb as a fresh 50.
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GnomeTankWhat the what?Portland, OregonRegistered Userregular
Pretty sure it's that ARMOR REDUCTION tops out at 75%, which is almost unattainable because of DR. It would take nearly infinite armor to reach that much absorb (it's like a black hole of game mechanics).
The damage calculation, from what we can tell, goes like this:
Defense. If you defend, it all stops here.
Talent Shields. If you have a talent shield (Sonic Barrier, et al), this happens here. This could short circuit out if it's a complete absorb.
Shield. If you shield, absorb X% damage.
Armor. Whatever is left is reduced by armor.
Since shield is a chance based thing, it's not additive to your armor. It's a pre-step, before the damage ever reaches your armor reduction.
I've been wondering about that, since it feels like my talented shield absorbs fuckall and goes away in one hit against anything elite+.
The other stats reduce by a percentage; the shield is probably a static amount. Possibly stat-derived.
It seems to be static amount, yes. It's Power Word: Shield Lite, rather than Block. It absorbs a set amount and then falters, but while it has buffer, it absorbs 100%.
I've been wondering about that, since it feels like my talented shield absorbs fuckall and goes away in one hit against anything elite+.
The other stats reduce by a percentage; the shield is probably a static amount. Possibly stat-derived.
It seems to be static amount, yes. It's Power Word: Shield Lite, rather than Block. It absorbs a set amount and then falters, but while it has buffer, it absorbs 100%.
Are you saying even if the shield is only like 2000 damage, if you use it before a 10k hit it'll absorb all 10k? Because if so, that's going to get nerfed. I would love if that's how it works as a Guard tank, but it would just be too strong as a tool if you can predict a big incoming hit.
Posts
"...only mights and maybes."
That being said, I've just now (level 45) gotten to the point where the Artifact level stuff I'm REing (particularly Tier 2 Prefix Artifacts) is of vastly better quality than Modded Oranges I could get at the same and higher levels, particularly in areas of Shield & Defense that I focus on. But it costs a metric fuckton of money to craft and RE this stuff and pray I crit for the augment slot for my wearable items.
If you have the patience and the pocketbook for REing, go for Synthweaving. Biochem itself is useful in that you'll never have to pay for medkits and stims once you've crafted the resuable stuff you want, so it does have its charms to it too.
Currently DMing: None
Characters
[5e] Dural Melairkyn - AC 18 | HP 40 | Melee +5/1d8+3 | Spell +4/DC 12
Biochem is basically the crew skill in the game, because unlimited medpack/stimpack/adrenal is sick as hell. That being said, you just do what you like. I'm Synthweaving on my 48 Jedi Guardian, and the only piece of gear I'm wearing that I crafted is my bracers. My head/chest/belt/legs/boots are all oranges that I got in Flashpoints and I've kept up to date modded. The game is just designed for this to be the way to go, since you get free mods with commendations after every planet.
At 50 I'll craft some awesome purples for myself, but they'll be replaced by raid gear as soon as I can get it so there's that too. It's possible that the BoP purple stuff I can make myself will last for a while, but I doubt that too. I don't regret taking Synthweaving because I like being an armorcrafter, and they will likely update all of them as time goes on and what not, but you definitely didn't make a wrong choice.
For gear, your best bet is to run each flashpoint at level to get the drops, then when you hit 40 spend ~900 warzone commendations and get the orange set of gear from those. It's purely pve itemized, looks awesome, and you can update the mods all the way to 50.
Ah! this is excellent advice. I'll stay the course then.
"...only mights and maybes."
So now have the 4 piece set bonus, 20% more absorbed by sonic/blade barrier. Buffed, I am now just over 20k HP, still some growing room... I'm just lazy about doing dailies for the implants/earpiece.
Just need the helmet now and I'll be a full terminator looking thingie.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Should also be noted that some crating recipies (and mats) drop only on operations and world bosses, and that the items crafted with them are both extremely rare and comparable to operation gear.
Plus, you can craft gear for your companions too. As an amormech on my Powertech, it is very awesome that I have every one of my companions fully decked in the best gear I can make (that they can wear) and can bring any one of them out at a whim and not have to worry about their gear being up to spec. If I remember right, JK has two companions that use Sythweaving gear, so that two characters you can keep up to date without spending any quest rewards/commendations on them outside of earpieces, implants or weapons.
"...only mights and maybes."
Currently DMing: None
Characters
[5e] Dural Melairkyn - AC 18 | HP 40 | Melee +5/1d8+3 | Spell +4/DC 12
Pretty much true for any tank stance in this game.
In fact, with every class that has stances (Jedi Knights, Sith Warriors, Bounty Hunters, Troopers, and the Jedi Shadow and Sith Assassin ACs) each tree is dedicated to a single stance, and since you pretty much have no reason ever to leave that stance after level 20-25 or so, there is no reason to have any form/cell/cylinder/technique/charge on your quickbars.
Right now my assassin just jumped to 16k health, 24% defense, 39% chance to shield and 32% absorb.
I would only recommend keeping it on the bars if you are not tank-specced because you might be able to buy healers a few seconds with a taunt. But I will say that charges cost half your force, and I bet other stances are similarly pricey.
Currently DMing: None
Characters
[5e] Dural Melairkyn - AC 18 | HP 40 | Melee +5/1d8+3 | Spell +4/DC 12
It takes care of itself. You also start to hit pretty serious DR around the 40-42% range. At 50, with 6500 armor, I am still just a tad over 42%.
My Force Power bonus from my lightsaber is ~540 right now. My lightsaber puts the lotion on the skin for Midi-chlorians it seems.
How the hell do you have your buttons laid out? I'm completely overwhelmed with them. I don't want to disable my companion hotkeys (Ctrl-1, ctrl-2, etc) but it's looking like I might have to. I already have a second row of alt-1 through =, although my hands naturally focus on 1-5 or so and going beyond feels... awkward.
Just hit level 30, so I have Force Pull and Mass Mind Control now, so in theory I can tank a bit better, but finding Flashpoint or even Heroic groups is kinda a pain in the arse. Would like to practice a bit.
I can't speak for others, and I'm a Guardian, but I do have 25 bound hotkeys I use regularly. The main ones are 1-7, q,w,e,r,t,y,v, then a whole bunch with shift modifiers, like shift-e, d, f. I also use z, x, and c for defensive type cooldowns. I have a very particular setup, but I can hit all 25 without any trouble and in an instant.
Are you Shadow/Assassin? Because that's the same for me. I'm only in mainly blue 48 mods at 50 though. I do, however, have nearly 50% shield chance with Kinetic Ward up. I think they're relying on Shadows/Assassins to use shield chance and shield absorb rather than defense and armor, but I somehow doubt it's even.
First bottom bar: 1-6 then alt + 1 - alt+6
second bottom bar: F1 - F12
Left Bar: Shift + F1 - f5, then B, R, F, H, X, Q, E
Right Bar: skip 2 for misc stuff (like mission items that I actually have to click), then Ctrl + 1 - 2, ctrl + f1 - f4, t, shift + t, ctrl + t, alt + t
I have a logitech 6500 mouse, so one extra button is my companion attack target command and one is autorun.
I guess I could do where my abilities are located at (this is as a JK guardian tank):
s + f1: strength relic
s + f2: strength stim
s + f3: empty
s + f4: empty
s + f5: empty
B : challenging call
R : taunt
F : force leap
H : hilt strike
X : aoe slow
Q : saber throw
E : force kick
1st bottom bar:
1: strike
2: sundering strike
3: blade storm
4: guardian slash
5: slash
6: cyclone slash
alt + 1: master strike
a + 2: riposte
a + 3: back hand
a + 4: pommel strike
a + 5: the instant force builder
a + 6: status effect cleanse
2nd bottom bar:
f1: force sweep
f2: force stasis
f3: force push
f4: empty
f5: empty
f6: empty
f7: enure
f8: blade ward
f9: the defensive tree 3 min buff
f10: introspection
f11: companion + self healing dot (20min cd)
f12: force might
Right bar:
empty
empty
c + 1: Aclarity relic
c + 2: medpac
c + f1: soresu
c + f2: shicho
c + f3: guard
c + f4: sprint
t: mount
s + t: empty
c + t: fleet pass
a + t: bind travel
2 Shock
3 Recklessness
4 Whirlwind
5 Mind Control
Shift1 Adrenal
Shift2 Spike
Shift3 Wither
Shift4 Medpac
F Thrash
x Maul
C Force Lightning
R Overload
Q Jolt
E Electrocute
V Unbreakable Will
ShiftF Assassinate
ShiftX Dark Ward
ShiftC Force Speed
ShiftR Discharge
ShiftQ Crushing Darkness
ShiftE Force Slow
ShiftV Deflection
CtrlF Force Grip
CtrlC Mass Mind Control
CtrlX Overcharge Saber
CtrlR Lacerate
CtrlQ Tumult
CtrlE Mind Trap
CtrlV Channel the Force
Mid Mouse Stealth
Shift + Mid Mouse Blackout
Ctrl + Mid Mouse Force Cloak
Mouse 4 Guard
Shift + Mouse 4 Force Shroud
Ctrl + Mouse 4 Pass Hutt Ball
F5 (bound to G5 on keyboard) Seethe
F6 (bound to G6 on keyboard) Speeder
Seriously though, I use 1-6, qwerty, zxcv, and a bunch of other stuff that's really natural for me to hit with my left hand. Everybody has their own thing though.
My only gripe is that now I'm actually focused on the center of the screen and I still have to look down to verify cooldowns and my rage meter. Can't wait for UI mods.
3DS: 1650-8480-6786
Switch: SW-0653-8208-4705
Main support abilities, which are ususaly on long CDs or uncommonly used, but things either need to be activated asap (like interrupts and the CC breakers) or are tedious to activate via clicking (like targetable AoEs) or on the bottom bar, and assigned shift+# keys, with the most frequently used being Shift+1-6.
Everything else... I click... and I've yet to have a situation where I went "Damn, we would have beaten that guy if [insert ability I don't have within easy keybound reach here] wasn't something I clicked!" Even in WoW raids and pretty much every MMO's PvP I've played.
I really have to teach myself to use my naga. My wife and I both bought them, and have yet to put the extra buttons to use. It's so hard for me to give up using my left hand to hit everything after a decade and a half of PC gaming that way, but I really want to, because that's the whole reason we bought them.
You must learn the sacred Eastern Art of Zen Screen. Let your focus go, grasshopper, until you are seeing all things at once. Only then will you progress to the title of Master.
(Seriously, this phenomena is the only reason I was able to beat Megaman X as a kid.)
Actually I'm already there. I just get mesmerized by the slick animation of my character going in dry on every enemy to which he leaps.
I question how useful it would be for a class with a lot of cast time/channeled abilities, though.
3DS: 1650-8480-6786
Switch: SW-0653-8208-4705
Last night we were trying to 3-man Field Commander Anhur, a boss in one of the Belsavis heroic dailies. He's mostly stationary, doing a bunch of explosive shots and orbital strikes and the aoe was pretty much just raping us. So after two or three tries of trying to straight up tank him and run out of the circles, I finally wised up and tried the ranged approach. Jet pack in, rocket punch, flame burst a couple times, then run back out to about 20 yards or so and unload. Whenever he put a circle on the ground under me, I either strafe out of it or (much better) jet pack in and whack him a few times, then run out again.
Our marauder dps was able to stay on him the whole time without having to worry about the aoe, and the healer wasn't running all over the place trying to keep up. Plus it just feels so much more active and controlled than your typical 'stare directly at the bosses crotch' for the whole fight. To top it all off, he dropped a purple lvl 50 implant with tank stats. Good times!
I read somewhere that damage reduction tops out at 75%. Does this count shield absorbs? For instance, I'm currently at 51% from armor/talents, and 40% absorb, which would make a ~70% reduction on absorbed hits. It's not unfeasable to push that up further, half my gear is still l50 blues/purples. Since the 2min CD is a straight up +25% bonus on your direct reduction, it'd mean that during that my shield absorb would already do nothing.
The damage calculation, from what we can tell, goes like this:
Defense. If you defend, it all stops here.
Talent Shields. If you have a talent shield (Sonic Barrier, et al), this happens here. This could short circuit out if it's a complete absorb.
Shield. If you shield, absorb X% damage.
Armor. Whatever is left is reduced by armor.
Since shield is a chance based thing, it's not additive to your armor. It's a pre-step, before the damage ever reaches your armor reduction.
The other stats reduce by a percentage; the shield is probably a static amount. Possibly stat-derived.
It seems to be static amount, yes. It's Power Word: Shield Lite, rather than Block. It absorbs a set amount and then falters, but while it has buffer, it absorbs 100%.
Are you saying even if the shield is only like 2000 damage, if you use it before a 10k hit it'll absorb all 10k? Because if so, that's going to get nerfed. I would love if that's how it works as a Guard tank, but it would just be too strong as a tool if you can predict a big incoming hit.