Hey guys,

I just wanted to put up this post since I'm getting started on a new project. I know the game hasn't been around very long but as a Tank I seem to always have trouble finding (videos particularly) of people being tanks. To that end I've started my own project called SW-T-TOR (Star Wars: Tanking The Old Republic). You can find my blog here: http://swttor.blogspot.com ...

There is an operation specific area here: http://swttor.blogspot.com/p/operations.html

I've also started a World Boss listing with strats and videos here: http://swttor.blogspot.com/p/world-bosses.html

Hard Mode Flashpoint Section is here: http://www.tankingtor.com/p/flashpoints.html

This is going to be focused at those of you who play tank characters, but more specifically melee tanks since that's all I have to work with at this point. If there are any ranged tanks out there that want to help and contribute don't be shy, I'm definitely looking for more input.

The operations posts will include general strategies for the rest of you, but the tips and tricks area will be from my point of view and experience. I'll also be putting up general tanking guidelines and overviews with tricks on how to hold group threat and other cool stuff that us Tanks get to deal with on a daily basis.

I don't claim to be the ultimate authority of everything, everything I write is from my point of view and just what I have accomplished on my own by trying out things and getting the feel for what works and what doesn't.

We are 4/5 Nightmare EV and 5/5 NM Kragga's. I have a bunch of videos from our EV and KP runs just waiting to be put together, so that is my project for the next few days.

I'll continue to update this post with new topics covering everything as I get it up, so make sure you check back.

EDIT:

All KP And EV stuff is up. EC 3/4.

Started in on Datacrons and world bosses.

Hard Mode Flashpoints are mostly done (republic and shared)

Also been doing some more PvP focused stuff.

Tanking Specific Intervivew with Bioware Here:

http://www.tankingtor.com/2012/05/swtor-tanking-specific-interview-with.html

Ranged tanks are a myth. Troopers and BH's still do the dirty work up close.

Not to knock your work - just pointing it out as it will make your knowledge more applicable to those classes.

Ranged tanks are a myth. Troopers and BH's still do the dirty work up close.

 

Not to knock your work - just pointing it out as it will make your knowledge more applicable to those classes.

I was using it as more of a Ranged class that uses guns kind of thing rather than ranged skills. But thank you for the clarification.

Mostly what I was looking for was talent rotations and any tips and tricks that might be specific to those classes. I'm sure the core mechanics are pretty much the same.

Not entirely true. Vanguards/Powertechs can somewhat tank at ranged by cycling taunts + spamming HIB/Energy Blast/Stick Grenade/Hammer Shot/Explosive Round/Ion Pulse. It's not ideal for threat but entirely doable for stuff that punishes melee tanking (e.g. Esseles first boss).

Exactly stuff like that - some fights really punish melee tanking and if it is possible to ranged tank them, that would be a great tip for a BH/Trooper tank.

Starting stuff for EV is up:

Turret Encounter: http://swttor.blogspot.com/2012/01/swtor-pve-eternity-vault-turrets.html

Annihilation Droid: http://swttor.blogspot.com/2012/01/swtor-pve-eternity-vault-annihilation.html

First set of Trash: http://swttor.blogspot.com/2012/01/swtor-pve-eternity-vault-trash-clearing.html

I heard multiple tank/dd classes can stack their sunder debuff.

Maybe you have gained some experience with this.

Is it true?

I heard multiple tank/dd classes can stack their sunder debuff.

Maybe you have gained some experience with this.

Is it true?

100% true. If you watch the vids you'll see two stacks of sunders from me and the other tank, and 3 trooper type debuffs on at pretty much all times.

What that actually means for numbers and what it does to the boss is anyone's guess, without a log it's hard to parse real numbers to know if they're all WAI or just showing up and not doing anything.

We do notice that we kill things faster when we're all focused and taking advantage of stacked debuffs - but that's about all I can verify.

I really welcome this site and the information it provided. It has been helpful for me already as I am just about to start the EV runs.

Keep it coming.

I really welcome this site and the information it provided. It has been helpful for me already as I am just about to start the EV runs.

 

 

Keep it coming.

Thanks for letting me know - I'm really glad people are finding this helpful. I'm hoping to have the rest of the EV stuff up tonight and tomorrow.

For now I've got the next 3 written, videos coming as they get encoded and uploaded:

Gharj: http://swttor.blogspot.com/2012/01/swtor-pve-eternity-vault-gharj.html

Ancient Pylons: http://swttor.blogspot.com/2012/01/swtor-pve-eternity-vault-ancient-pylons.html

Infernal Council: http://swttor.blogspot.com/2012/01/swtor-pve-eternity-vault-infernal.html

Our main jug tank runs a twitch.tv stream for nightmare modes on Tuesday nights. It can be seen at http://www.twitch.tv/zmarg

Thanks for the link - that's also our primary raiding night

Rest of the written stuff is up for EV, will have more videos up tonight.

Gharj: http://swttor.blogspot.com/2012/01/swtor-pve-eternity-vault-gharj.html

Pylons: http://swttor.blogspot.com/2012/01/swtor-pve-eternity-vault-ancient-pylons.html

Council: http://swttor.blogspot.com/2012/01/swtor-pve-eternity-vault-infernal.html

Soa: http://swttor.blogspot.com/2012/01/swtor-pve-eternity-vault-soa.html

Nice, i have your page bookmarked.

I am always looking for pages with new strats.

On the sunder case:

I hope we will get more data someday.

What i ask my self, is if its working as intended.

I mean, there are multiple ways to sunder armor.

If you have 5 classes that could sunder, the boss would have his armor reduced by 100%.

Thats a bit crazy...

I have a question about the opening encounter in EV:

In the video your first tank dies immediately then you make your leap stick first time. I get how you are holding aggro on the first turret, but the second one is staying on you as well and it doesn't appear you do anything to taunt it.

Was that normal mode and your healers don't have to do much? I know it says nightmare but I'm not seeing how the thing wasn't just blasting healers or even dps instead of you.

Went into EV on Tuesday and the turrets at the start both had CC immunity.

For Garj, in reference to this quote:

When the Boss does his AOE knockback only the Tank doesn't go flying. Everyone else should get back into position as fast as possible (the lava has a stacking DOT). Melee dps should be position in such a way that they are only thrown a short way into the lava (if at all).

Just have everyone move into Melee range after the Pounce and no one will go into the lava.

Nice, i have your page bookmarked.

I am always looking for pages with new strats.

 

On the sunder case:

I hope we will get more data someday.

What i ask my self, is if its working as intended.

I mean, there are multiple ways to sunder armor.

If you have 5 classes that could sunder, the boss would have his armor reduced by 100%.

Thats a bit crazy...

I'm glad you found it helpful.

I'm sure eventually we'll get some type of combat log. My gut assumption (since this is how other stuff works) is that it's a sequential filter. So, the initial sunder reduces the armor X amount. Then the next stack reduces it X amount of the currently reduced amount (making it less effective). And on and on from there.

I have a question about the opening encounter in EV:

 

In the video your first tank dies immediately then you make your leap stick first time. I get how you are holding aggro on the first turret, but the second one is staying on you as well and it doesn't appear you do anything to taunt it.

 

Was that normal mode and your healers don't have to do much? I know it says nightmare but I'm not seeing how the thing wasn't just blasting healers or even dps instead of you.

You are correct, I wasn't doing anything to it at all, but neither was anyone else. I also wasn't getting any heals, so it was just continuing to attack me. Its the same kind of situation of if you jump into a group of enemies they all attack you, and don't stop until you're dead unless someone comes to help.

You'll see that shortly it moves to a different target after they attack it.

I thought I was dead for sure because no one was healing me - I think I was in the perfect spot and that turret I was on bugged and couldn't hit me, because I didn't seem to take any damage from it at all.

Went into EV on Tuesday and the turrets at the start both had CC immunity.

 

For Garj, in reference to this quote:

 

Just have everyone move into Melee range after the Pounce and no one will go into the lava.

Thanks for the confirmation, what difficulty was that? I love when the patch notes aren't actually patch notes and they change stuff without telling you.

I'll add that to the strategies. It's not after every pounce that he does the knockback, is there another way to prep for it? Or does he do something indicating he's about to slam everyone?

Thanks for the confirmation, what difficulty was that? I love when the patch notes aren't actually patch notes and they change stuff without telling you.

 

I'll add that to the strategies. It's not after every pounce that he does the knockback, is there another way to prep for it? Or does he do something indicating he's about to slam everyone?

The turrets were in normal mode. Did it before the 1.1 patch and we could CC them, went in again after it and they had boss immunity.

Don't know if it's a difficulty difference, but when we've killed Gharj in normal he always does the knockback after the pounce. The knockback has a cast bar but it's only like 1 second so if he starts doing it randomly then I guess there's no way to do anything about it.

The turrets were in normal mode. Did it before the 1.1 patch and we could CC them, went in again after it and they had boss immunity.

 

Don't know if it's a difficulty difference, but when we've killed Gharj in normal he always does the knockback after the pounce. The knockback has a cast bar but it's only like 1 second so if he starts doing it randomly then I guess there's no way to do anything about it.

Thanks Kai, I appreciate it. I'll go back over my videos to see if it's random in the harder difficulties - if felt random, but going with your gut doesn't always work.

Edit:

After looking through stuff it appears you're right, the only time he misses the knockback is when he frenzies before he can do it. Great tip Kai - credited to you in my strat.

Thank you for this really useful blog

Glad you found it helpful.

First two bosses for Karagga's are up.

Bonethrasher: http://swttor.blogspot.com/2012/01/swtor-pve-karaggas-palace-bonethrasher.html

Jarg and Sorno: http://swttor.blogspot.com/2012/01/swtor-pve-karaggas-palace-jarg-and.html

Rest of Karagga's stuff is up - I've also put in more of the trash clearing since you see lots more trash in KP than in EV.

Trash Area 2: http://swttor.blogspot.com/2012/01/swtor-pve-karaggas-palace-trash.html

Foreman Crusher: http://swttor.blogspot.com/2012/01/swtor-pve-karaggas-palace-foreman.html

Trash Area 3: http://swttor.blogspot.com/2012/01/swtor-pve-karaggas-palace-trash_31.html

G4-B3 Heavy Fabricator: http://swttor.blogspot.com/2012/01/swtor-pve-karaggas-palace-g4-b3-heavy.html

Trash Area 4:http://swttor.blogspot.com/2012/01/swtor-pve-karaggas-palace-trash_6176.html

Karagga the Unyielding: http://swttor.blogspot.com/2012/01/swtor-pve-karaggas-palace-karagga.html

This is more of a brag post, but here you go:

Guild Progression this week - Unyielding title - http://swttor.blogspot.com/2012/02/guild-progression-karaggas-palace.html

Some good work Malissant however a small observation. Noticed your Kragga NM kill picture was with 8 people. Are these guides for 8 man modes? Beacause there are some key differences for certain fights when stepping up from what is relativly easier 8 man content to 16. (i.e. EV 16m NM Pylons needing a 3 man rotation because of lockout debuff etc)

On Karagga, why do you suggest facing him against the wall? That means his butt is pointing at the center of the room. You should have him perpendicular to the wall, and drag him along the wall that way.

For 16m NM. Missile strike hits for 10k+ where his rear fire only hits for 4k+ Alot safer for the raid and easier for the tank to move the boss if hes facing the wall. Missile strike is like a 180 degree frontal strike. Melee dps can still attack from sides safely.

On Karagga, why do you suggest facing him against the wall? That means his butt is pointing at the center of the room. You should have him perpendicular to the wall, and drag him along the wall that way.

It's kind of a 45 degree thing, if you start with him facing the wall and start strafing around the edge you'll find the mostly he repositions himself nicely. The rest of the raid is responsible for not being in his fire cone. Infrequently you'll hear our raid leader call "Reposition" and the tank moves him more to the 45 degree angle. I'll update my strat with that kind of information.

Some good work Malissant however a small observation. Noticed your Kragga NM kill picture was with 8 people. Are these guides for 8 man modes? Beacause there are some key differences for certain fights when stepping up from what is relativly easier 8 man content to 16. (i.e. EV 16m NM Pylons needing a 3 man rotation because of lockout debuff etc)

Yes, currently we are an 8 man guild. I understand that the content does get harder and there will be small differences. At this point in time I believe we are expanding to include a second 8 man group and once they're geared we might attempt some 16s. There is a missing risk/reward step for us though, so we'll see. I should probably update somewhere that we're running these all on 8man unless otherwise stated.

For 16m NM. Missile strike hits for 10k+ where his rear fire only hits for 4k+ Alot safer for the raid and easier for the tank to move the boss if hes facing the wall. Missile strike is like a 180 degree frontal strike. Melee dps can still attack from sides safely.

Similar to this, I think on 8m his flame is 2k or something like that on my tank when I leap through it after getting sucked into the blue ball goop. As I mentioned we usually end up with some kind of 45 degree alternative where he is mostly facing the wall but a bit sideways.

Yes, currently we are an 8 man guild. I understand that the content does get harder and there will be small differences. At this point in time I believe we are expanding to include a second 8 man group and once they're geared we might attempt some 16s. There is a missing risk/reward step for us though, so we'll see. I should probably update somewhere that we're running these all on 8man unless otherwise stated.

There is an increased reward as you get 6 pieces of loot in 16 man rather than the 2 you get in 8 man. You would expect it to double to 4 but the 6 makes for the added value to 16 man.

More importantly the 16man is harder so you get the satisfaction of clearing it