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End v Abs v Def


Dawginole

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Any threads on this that explain play style and the appropriate stat you should be stacking based on that playstyle?

 

 

SgtKlavier was kind enough to provide the possible min/max mods/enhancements to use for pve endgame here:

http://www.swtor.com/community/showpost.php?p=5780161&postcount=3

 

For mods you have four choices:

Advanced Weighted Mod 27 (low End, high Abs)

Advanced Weighted Mod 27B (high End, low Abs)

Advanced Deflecting Mod 27 (low End, high Def)

Advanced Deflecting Mod 27B (high End, low Abs)

 

For enhancements you only have two options:

Advanced Bastion Enhancement 27 (Def) <-- also has analog "steadfast"

Advanced Bulwark Enhancement 27 (Abs)

 

I don't really understand the glance stat, and I'm wondering why I would choose to stack Abs over Def or vice versa, or going for a high End stack. I'm sure this has to do with playstyle. So I'm wondering what these playstyles look like and what stat should be stacked for each of those styles.

 

Thanks in advance!

Edited by Dawginole
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  • 2 weeks later...

The biggest problem with the Vanguard and defense is that when your defense chance happens it interrupts anything you're doing. From channels to even a simple attack like Hammer Shot or Gut. I've experienced some ridiculous things like Full Auto where I dodged for about 2.5 seconds, and only got off .5 seconds worth of damage from it. It doesn't stop the channel when you're channeling it simply stops you from doing your attack. The absolute worst thing that has happened to me was during a gut. The animation goes, pull out knife, then swipe. I pulled out my knife, dodged and I never got the swipe, so I lost 2 ammo and did nothing. On the other hand I've also experienced awesomeness with dodge, where I'd have taken a hit that would've done 7k on me, and I dodged it 2 times in a row (I'm low on hp for the tough end game content as a vanguard, I'm slightly above 21k, where I should be more like 25K).

 

This is why Vanguards stack Shield, Absorb over Defense. The numbers most prescribed are no more than 15% defense, as for shield chance and absorb chance I've no idea I'm still not quite sure. I've heard people say at least 50% of each I've heard people say get closer to 60% for both.

Edited by unluckyperson
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I've never once seen a dodge cause a change in attacking on my powertech. I usually run close to 20% defense on him when I tank.

 

Also, gut is bad for tanking. Don't use it. Get energy blast instead.

 

As for the powertech I will admit I've only 2 characters (vanguard and sage) so I don't know what it's like playing other characters.

 

About gut, I'll be honest in that I like it, I've been reading about how it's horrible for vanguard tanks and Energy Blast is better. I personally haven't decided. On paper Gut should do more damage because of the dot, and the main reason I went with it originally was because it was there next to Frontline Defense, which I found extremely useful in flashpoints and PvP. I run without Energy blast and seem to do fine in HM EV/KP and I've also tanked most of HM TFB (group split up when we got to the tentacles because one of the healers was too pissed off with the other tank). Again I'm not saying I know everything, I did try Energy Blast at one point and found I didn't really like it much, but ammunition management was a lot better with Energy Blast than it is with Gut. I will admit maintaining the screens is a little easier with Energy Blast, but I feel like I get by okay.

Edited by unluckyperson
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On paper Gut should do more damage because of the dot

 

That's not even remotely true. Energy Blast is off of the GCD so it is, quite literally, free DPS. Gut is on the GCD so, if you're actually comparing worst cast, it's Gut v. Hammer Shot + Energy Blast for combined damage. Energy Blast + Hammer Shot actually deal *more* damage than Gut, and that's completely ignoring 2 major aspects of it: Gut is a Dot, so it's *delayed* damage rather than up front damage (delayed damage is worse for a tank because you want threat right away) and Gut ends up costing 3 more Ammo than Hammer Shot + EB (since EB returns 1 ammo and Gust costs 2).

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That's not even remotely true. Energy Blast is off of the GCD so it is, quite literally, free DPS. Gut is on the GCD so, if you're actually comparing worst cast, it's Gut v. Hammer Shot + Energy Blast for combined damage. Energy Blast + Hammer Shot actually deal *more* damage than Gut, and that's completely ignoring 2 major aspects of it: Gut is a Dot, so it's *delayed* damage rather than up front damage (delayed damage is worse for a tank because you want threat right away) and Gut ends up costing 3 more Ammo than Hammer Shot + EB (since EB returns 1 ammo and Gust costs 2).

 

You know . . . on paper it does do more damage, when I load into swtor this is what I see:

 

Energy Blast does 786-803 elemental damage with a 15 second cooldown, it's instant cast.

 

Gut does 695-759 up front, and then 877 internal over 15 seconds, no cooldown, instant cast as well.

 

The total damage from Gut over the 15 second period is over 1k. Though I finally understand what you're getting at, because EB is off the global cooldown you can use it inbetween or in conjunction with some other ability like hammer shot or something else. Where as Gut doesn't have that luxury and if you add in the extra damage from whatever secondary ability you use overall Energy Blast should be getting you more damage in practice especially when you factor in the +1 ammo it gives you.

 

 

side note: Though I've come to the conclusion that EB comes at the cost of 6 second cd interrupt . . . I think that's why I didn't like it at first. I guess I'll have to give it a try. Thank you Kitru.

Edited by unluckyperson
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