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tanking in pve guide?


kithsyn

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Where is a good link for a powertech tanking guide?

 

I have a lvl 14 powertech and would like to learn a little more about tanking as I level up. Anyone have some good links?

 

Thanks!

Edited by kithsyn
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Not so much a tanking guide as a general Power Tech guide.

 

http://taugrim.com/2012/01/04/guide-to-bounty-hunter-powertech-trooper-vanguard-mechanics-and-pvp/

 

The only "wrong" thing he has listed for the tanking is stat priority. Shield and Absorb > Endurance > Aim > * is the way it should be for a starting PT. Once you get really good gear you will start to look at defense and other stats.

 

Leveling up the gear will flip stats around on you every tier. So no point to focus on much util you get to 50.

 

Accuracy is a useless stat for PT tanks (imo) as it only effects 3 abilities, only two of which generate heat, and only one of which you will actually use often. (Rail Shot) With 1.3 linking some of our AE threat to Rail Shot, it has become more important, but I still wouldn't bother with Accuracy.

 

The only thing not really covered in the link above is Taunts. Use the single taunt, and user it often. Even if you are top threat, you still get a 110%-130% boost on your aggro. Save the AE taunt for the "oh ****" moments, or when you need to snap some things back to you and single taunt is on cool down.

Edited by Uggliey
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Accuracy is a useless stat for PT tanks (imo) as it only effects 3 abilities, only two of which generate heat, and only one of which you will actually use often. (Rail Shot) With 1.3 linking some of our AE threat to Rail Shot, it has become more important, but I still wouldn't bother with Accuracy.

 

Wanted to clarify on this further for you. With the AE threat to Rail shot, etc, it is only based off the initial hit. If you miss Rail shot on your initial target, Ion isn't spread. However if you hit, there are no accuracy checks for Ion on each individual mob thereafter. It applies a blanket so to speak.

 

As said above, Accuracy is useless. From a spec standpoint, I even took out the 2 points in Iron Fist for endurance. Since they nerfed our DPS anyway as it is not needed for threat, I wanted to see how much of a difference it really was. In the end, not much difference in dmg comparing same fights from 1.2/1.3.

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  • 4 months later...
The only thing not really covered in the link above is Taunts. Use the single taunt, and user it often. Even if you are top threat, you still get a 110%-130% boost on your aggro. Save the AE taunt for the "oh ****" moments, or when you need to snap some things back to you and single taunt is on cool down.

 

Honestly though you do not want to use your taunt that often as it does not increase your initial threat. What the taunt does is place you 130% threat above whoever currently has threat. Which in all honesty you would think it would increase your threat by 130% but since you are already the highest threat on the target it does not.

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Which in all honesty you would think it would increase your threat by 130% but since you are already the highest threat on the target it does not.

And that would be wrong there.

 

Taunting increases your threat to 110% or 130% of the current highest threat holder even if the highest threat was on the same person who taunted.

 

Even if you are the highest threat holder, you should still taunt, as this will put you even more ahead of everyone else on the threat.

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Honestly though you do not want to use your taunt that often as it does not increase your initial threat. What the taunt does is place you 130% threat above whoever currently has threat. Which in all honesty you would think it would increase your threat by 130% but since you are already the highest threat on the target it does not.

 

That was true for World of Warcraft, this game has different taunt mechanics. It works the way other posters pointed out.

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Am I wrong or taunt tooltip clearly says that it has no effect if u already got Agro?

 

Furthermore if u ever loose Agro using taunt on cd (and that will happen on some encounters), ur fellow group member will probably die, cos u will not be able to pull mobs off him.

Edited by Quantasm
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Am I wrong or taunt tooltip clearly says that it has no effect if u already got Agro?

 

Furthermore if u ever loose Agro using taunt on cd (and that will happen on some encounters), ur fellow group member will probably die, cos u will not be able to pull mobs off him.

 

Neural Dart Tooltip:

Fires a neural dart that taunts the target to attack for 6 seconds. Player targets deal 30% less damage when attacking anyone other than you. Effect lasts 6 seconds.

 

The 110%/130% threat increase isn't in the tooltip, but no where does it say that it has no effect if you already have aggro. Also, having your taunt on cd is not necessarily a bad thing as it means you are stepping your threat up by increasingly large margins upon use. Someone might say "I wait for them to pull aggro before I taunt," but by preemptively taunting you can bypass them pulling aggro.

 

One question this brings up that I had not considered before: If I am tanking and the boss is on me, the boss will not switch targets until another dps reaches 130% of my threat level. Say they are at 120% of your threat level at some point and you use a taunt. Does your threat jump to 130% of your current threat level or go up to 130% of that dps that is at 120% of your threat, despite the fact that the boss is still attacking you?

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The answer is in this thread already:

 

Taunting increases your threat to 110% or 130% of the current highest threat holder even if the highest threat was on the same person who taunted.

 

It will give you 110% of the ranged dps threat. Because he is the highest threat holder but he doesnt have aggro yet and because you are in melee range.

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Here's some level appropriate advice for the OP, lol:

 

You're not gonna see any real tank gear with tanking stats for a while. This is ok. As long as you're wearing standard bounty hunter gear with a shield equipped you'll be good for tanking for all the lower levels. I think at around level 30+ the game will start introducing mods and enhancements with +shield, +defense, etc. At that point try to pick those up, but you still don't really need to stress about gearing until you get to endgame, so don't think you can't tank before then if you don't have tank stats in every slot.

 

BHs get some nice AoE moves real early, so threat in those early FPs should not be a big problem. Be sure to watch your heat (ie use Rapid Shots every so often). If heat's a problem, or you're not having fun, you'll get some BIG quality of life improvements once you spec into Flame Shield (vents heat and let's you PUNCH more!), Jet Charge (wheee!), and Flame Surge (heat-less AoEs).

 

And some general tank advice: Do your best to protect your group, but understand some things are out of control and don't let other party members doing dumb stuff stress you out. You'll learn best through experience when and how to use your various abilities, so go have fun :)

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