I want to start Tanking SM Operations, but I don’t want to start until I’m prepared.

What is a decent benchmark of gear that I will need to start Tanking SMs?

 

The average item level of my current gear is probably 162. I purchased all of the Elite com pieces that don’t have Alacrity in them. The rest of my gear is made up of ½ drops from HM FPs and ½ basic comms purchases.

To improve my gear and start earning Ultimate comms, what is the best course of action? Should I farm more Elite Comms and rip out alacrity mods for the basic comm mods? Should I farm credits and buy mods and implants/Ear/Relics? Should I PUG the easiest SMs?

 

Also – Is there a site that is good for learning the strats for Operation Bosses?

Get microfil implants then your good to go.

You can go in 66 armorings to SM TFB/S&V but it's so easy to get 69/72 you may as well be in them instead. I would say DF/DP SM you would want at least 69 armorings. Do NOT use alacrity mods or enhancements. The only classes in the game that use alacrity are healers. Bioware just puts Alacrity in some pieces for whatever reason. I guess because they like making Tanks cry(still getting Accuracy enhancements in top tier Dread Forged tanking gear good grief...).

I would say check the GTN and look for ear and implants called Veracity and filter by your mainstat. They look like this and can be found with Strength, Willpower, or Aim for your class. Don't let the low endurance fool you though, they generally have the 2nd best mitigation out of any tanking implant/ear in the game just below Dread Forged so they should last you until then and shouldn't cost too much for all 3 pieces.

 

As for strategies, http://dulfy.net/category/swtor/operations/ is a great place to look.

Edited March 3, 2014 by OMGITSJAD

The implants are veracity experimental (reaction, response, resistance). I'd definitely recommend picking up a pair of them. On my server they can usually be picked up in the 40-50K range a piece, so roughly the cost of a set of dailies.

 

If you can, save yourself some credits down the road and try to pick up an already-augmented set, since you'll hold onto them long enough to want to augment them eventually. There's a huge arbitrage where the augmented ones usually go for 60-70K a piece, or 20K more, while actually augmenting them yourself will cost you 90-100K.

All you need is 66 / 69 gear, fully augmented with veracity implants / earpiece to be able to tank sm ops. Especailyl the 16man sm ops which most of the time, have overgeared haelers and dps in them anyway.

 

Also... the 66 proper enhancements are better than the skewed ones you get from comm gear. The first upgrade is from hm snv / tfb drops (or underworld gear). Til then, 55 immunity and sturdiness are the way to go.

 

If you add

defense rating + shield rating + absorb rating, you get yor mitigation pool.

 

For hm fp's, it should be 1600

for sm raids it should be 1900

for hm tfb / snv 2100

for hm df 2300

for hm dp 2400

 

that would be comfortable tanking levels where you dont feel like you are letting your group down a lot.

 

2100 is more or less full 69/72 with augments

2300 is half 78 comm gear, half 72 comm comm gear (or drops)

2450 is full 78 comm gear (enh + mod) and veracity implants / earpiece

 

fully augmented ofcourse, augments gives you +392 or +448 more mitigation.

 

Also, i would STRONGLY suggest to pick up a 4 piece armor bonus, even if it is just 69 armorings for your tank, when you start hm df / dp. 69 set bonus armorings are better than 78 non-set bonus armorings by far. The only class that "might" get away with it, would be a powertech, but even then, it is still a slight downgrade by skipping the setbonus.

If you haven't already, I'd recommend you join a guild where you can co-tank with someone who's experienced. Learning with someone who knows the content and can help you through it will always trump gearing. 66s are enough to start doing TC and EV HM/NiM to help get a feel for working with an Ops group and to grab some easy Comms, and TfB and S&V are more than doable in this as well, especially with a knowledgeable and geared group.

 

As mentioned, you can buy much of the 66 mitigation mod, enhancement, and implant/earpiece suite you'd want, as well as even buying Arkanian Relics if you have the creds to spare and want to fudge things a little.

 

Bottom line, I recommend you run with a regular group rather than trying to Pug it up. You can, however, learn as you go because all of the top tanks started somewhere, just try and get in with people who are patient enough to progress and are cool with not clearing everything the first time if that's the case. Keep it fun.

Edited March 5, 2014 by Prototypemind

 

Also, i would STRONGLY suggest to pick up a 4 piece armor bonus, even if it is just 69 armorings for your tank, when you start hm df / dp. 69 set bonus armorings are better than 78 non-set bonus armorings by far. The only class that "might" get away with it, would be a powertech, but even then, it is still a slight downgrade by skipping the setbonus.

 

Which type of gear has the set bonus w/ 69 Armorings? Do you mean the lvl 50 classic comms gear?

How does a set bonus work? You can rip out all, but the armoring and you can still keep the set bonus stats? Or can the armorings from set piece gear be ripped out and put into other pieces to effectively get the set bonus?

Which type of gear has the set bonus w/ 69 Armorings? Do you mean the lvl 50 classic comms gear?

How does a set bonus work? You can rip out all, but the armoring and you can still keep the set bonus stats? Or can the armorings from set piece gear be ripped out and put into other pieces to effectively get the set bonus?

 

The way set bonuses work is, the set bonus is attached to the armoring. So if you open up a piece of gear with a set bonus on it and hover over the armoring, you will see the set bonus in addition to the stats of the armoring. You can rip out the armoring and put it in any piece of gear(as long as it's the same slot like chest to chest, boots to boots, etc.) you want to get the set bonus while still being able to put in whatever mods & enhancements that may be higher level as well without losing the set bonus.

 

Also if you are playing a Juggernaut tank I would say that the armoring is more important than the set bonus. If you are playing a Powertech or an Assassin, the set bonuses are way more invaluable than some extra armor rating, however.

Edited March 6, 2014 by OMGITSJAD

The only tank class that benefits from the set bonus from lvl50 vs 69 armorings is the assasin/ shadow. The 2% damage reduction from 4 piece gives you more damage reduction AND the +5% shield chance vs just armorings.

 

What i meant was... pick up the arkanian gear drops asap from raid drops and use those for the set bonuses. Don't upgrade to 78 armorings via ultimate gear over those, since even the arkanian set bonus is better for survival, than the extra armor you get.

 

Sins / shadows go down in DR when they add 78 non-set armors on,

pt / vanguard lose a lot of mitigation that is hard to get

jug / guardian lose their absorbs, which is quite useful but not 100% mandatory. But if your tanking and giving up mitigation for armor rating then... well...

The only tank class that benefits from the set bonus from lvl50 vs 69 armorings is the assasin/ shadow. The 2% damage reduction from 4 piece gives you more damage reduction AND the +5% shield chance vs just armorings.

 

What i meant was... pick up the arkanian gear drops asap from raid drops and use those for the set bonuses. Don't upgrade to 78 armorings via ultimate gear over those, since even the arkanian set bonus is better for survival, than the extra armor you get.

 

Sins / shadows go down in DR when they add 78 non-set armors on,

pt / vanguard lose a lot of mitigation that is hard to get

jug / guardian lose their absorbs, which is quite useful but not 100% mandatory. But if your tanking and giving up mitigation for armor rating then... well...

 

You forget the 20% boost to Sonic Barrier absorption gained by that four piece set bonus. Definitely worth having. That's a huge gain in active mitigation after every Force Scream.

Edited March 6, 2014 by Prototypemind

Equip is not really that important for Sm operations. More mandatory would be knowing the Bosstactics. For that i strongly recommend to switch to dps, join a 16 sm raid and watch the tanks. You cant really wipe in Sm because of bad equipment except when you have less than 1000 defstats. The only reason for wiping would be not knowing the bosstactics.

I want to start Tanking SM Operations, but I don’t want to start until I’m prepared.

What is a decent benchmark of gear that I will need to start Tanking SMs?

 

The average item level of my current gear is probably 162. I purchased all of the Elite com pieces that don’t have Alacrity in them. The rest of my gear is made up of ½ drops from HM FPs and ½ basic comms purchases.

To improve my gear and start earning Ultimate comms, what is the best course of action? Should I farm more Elite Comms and rip out alacrity mods for the basic comm mods? Should I farm credits and buy mods and implants/Ear/Relics? Should I PUG the easiest SMs?

 

Also – Is there a site that is good for learning the strats for Operation Bosses?

 

1. Learning the fights:

 

The story modes aren't that taxing in terms of gear as long as you do the mechanics. The possibilities for first doing the fights:

 

a. Join a guild or ask in your guild to set up a run for you to learn the fight. I'd suggest 8 man if this is how you're going as it's cleaner for learning without as many people running around. Hopefully you can get a patient group that's happy to learn with you and with someone in it that knows some of the strategies.

 

b. Join a pug run, which will almost certainly be 16 man (people want the ultimate comms). Here, you'll want to have done your homework, or have a main tank who is willing to explain things nicely and clearly. Preferably both.

 

To learn the fights beforehand, either:

-Join as dps and see how the mechanics work, paying particular attention to what the tanks are doing

-Read a guide (dulfy.net has some; there are also other sites with more complete guides that you can google around for)

-Watch a youtube video or twitch stream of the fight

(Ideally all of the above if you want to be fully prepared)

 

2. Gear:

 

As I was saying above, for tfb and s&v at least, this doesn't matter so much. Your gear is already more than acceptable.

 

Some possibilities if you want to tune your gear more:

 

A. Maximizing your survivability:

 

a. Have relics. Simplest is to buy two tank relics with *different effects* (the effects don't stack if they're the same) from the basic and/or classic commendation vendor. If you pvp, you can also get conqueror or obroan relics.

 

b. Don't have any alacrity or accuracy on your gear.

 

c. Choose items based on maximizing the sum of shield + defense + absorb on them unless the difference in endurance is huge. For enhancements, the best you can get until you use ultimate comms or do operations are the advanced immunity enhancement 28 and advanced sturdiness enhancement 28 (from gtn or crafting). Get used to ripping out and mixing & matching the best armoring/mod/enhancements you have.

 

d. Buy purple level 54 ears and implants with the name veracity [something] and 105 shield and 98 defense. These are available on the gtn for not too much (from crafters). They have tons of mitigation stats, and are better than anything you'll find except in hard mode operations or (for the ones you can buy that have shield on them, not accuracy) for purchase with ultimate comms.

 

e. Augment your gear with a defensive stat (shield, defense, absorb).

 

f. If you have tons of classic comms, use the 61 armorings with a set bonus (only if you can get 2 or 4 pieces) until you get a level 55 set bonus. (Or 78 armorings, which will be slightly better than 61 with set bonus, but worse than 69+ with set bonus, I believe.)

 

g. Look around in this forum for what mix of shield, defense, and absorb. Roughly: all classes want a mix, but with juggs higher on defense, powertechs higher on shield, and assassins higher on absorb.

 

B. Looking good:

 

If you're looking to join a pug, it helps to have people have confidence in you as a tank. They'll let you join at all to begin with, and stay with you longer, if they have some degree of confidence in you. Unfortunately, for most people, this is directly related to your quantity of HP, which is not particularly related to your tankiness.

 

If you feel it's necessary to up your HP to look good: You can use higher endurance mods (the ones from comms are already higher endurance). You can also get microfilament or [artifact] microfilament implant/ear or basic/elite comm ones over the veracity ones. Last resort (only if you really feel it necessary) is to have some of your enhancements be high endurance. Don't augment for endurance.

Edited March 6, 2014 by cxten

You can go in with 63s. That's what I did. HM FPs hit harder than SM OPs I found. So meh.