Just came back after a long time away. I am in the process of leveling a couple of alts. One is a shadow and the other is a guardian. I have no interest in tanking. With that said, how is guardian dps wise? Can they hold their own or am I better off leveling my shadow if DPS is going to be my PvE focus?

Thanks!

Just came back after a long time away. I am in the process of leveling a couple of alts. One is a shadow and the other is a guardian. I have no interest in tanking. With that said, how is guardian dps wise? Can they hold their own or am I better off leveling my shadow if DPS is going to be my PvE focus?

 

Thanks!

Vigilance has become quite competitive in PvE. Unless the Shadow receives some strong buffs your Guardian dps aught to preform better.

Vigilance has become quite competitive in PvE. Unless the Shadow receives some strong buffs your Guardian dps aught to preform better.

Shadow did receive some very strong buffs.

Ofc, they were so far behind, that they are still behind. Poor shady dudes.

Shadow did receive some very strong buffs.

 

Ofc, they were so far behind, that they are still behind. Poor shady dudes.

I don't know what strong buffs you're talking about. We got a miniscule increase to damage that we couldn't even properly notice with the addition of the armor debuff module, because that changed our dummy damage so drastically. Tanks received a decent PVE buff, but dps got a bit shafted, because the devs thought they fixed it, and so we're still behind 7 major patches after 2.0.

I don't know what strong buffs you're talking about. We got a miniscule increase to damage that we couldn't even properly notice with the addition of the armor debuff module, because that changed our dummy damage so drastically. Tanks received a decent PVE buff, but dps got a bit shafted, because the devs thought they fixed it, and so we're still behind 7 major patches after 2.0.

The thing is, you were hitting 2.7k. It's now what, something like 3.4-3.5?

Changes seemed miniscule, but buffs were moderate in size.

As I said, you were so frigging far behind to begin with.

The thing is, you were hitting 2.7k. It's now what, something like 3.4-3.5?

 

Changes seemed miniscule, but buffs were moderate in size.

 

As I said, you were so frigging far behind to begin with.

That was mostly due to the dummy change (execute heavy and all). The actual dps change was something like 100.

That was mostly due to the dummy change (execute heavy and all). The actual dps change was something like 100.

I beg to differ with 100. I think it's slightly more. However, more important change was that the spec is not prone to RNG like it was before. Now it's completely reliable.

I beg to differ with 100. I think it's slightly more. However, more important change was that the spec is not prone to RNG like it was before. Now it's completely reliable.

I think they were going on about shadows, not sins. Shadows were doing completely crap and are still doing bad, though 2.7 -> 3.5 is due to a number of things.

Execute being really strong

+9% damage on targets <30% hp

+20% armor reduction on a spec with a lot of kinetic/energy damage.

However, i'd like to point out something I saw in the commando answers about both shadows and vanguards:

We are aware that Gunnery/Arsenal is lagging a bit behind some of the other “ranged turret”, damage-dealing skill trees and bringing its sustained damage up to match that of Assault Specialist/Pyrotech Commandos/Mercenaries is on our “to-do” list. That said, giving Vanguards/Powertechs and Shadows/Assassins at least one skill tree each to provide competitive sustained damage in Operations is currently much higher on our “to-do” list, because Commandos/Mercenaries already have one skill tree that puts out excellent sustained damage in Operations.

And from the PT questions:

From Question 1:

We agree that Powertech/Vanguard sustained damage output currently lags a bit behind some of the better damage dealers in the game right now. We do not currently have any finalized plans to discuss in this regard, but in a future update, we are hoping to increase the sustained damage output of Pyrotech/Assault Specialist Powertechs/Vanguards, likely by giving a boost to the specialization’s periodic damage. Our end goal here is to provide Powertechs/Vanguards with a specialization that can provide competitive sustained damage to their operation groups.

From Question 3:

For the Pyrotech/Assault Specialist, we can probably trade that 2% alacrity in Rapid Venting/Recharge for 2% ranged and tech critical chance in a future update.

So what we can see is of the 3 tank classes, currently only Guardians have a PvE viable spec* in Vigilance. Vanguards currently dont have one outside of AoE heavy fights, and the devs intend to fix this by upping the DoTs in pyro spec and giving it a further +2% ranged and tech crit rate, and shadows currently dont have one but from changes that are being looked at for balance it looks like that tree is going to become the raid-viable spec due to the buffs its gonna get for sages.

*PvE Viable Spec. By this I mean a spec that performs consistantly over 3600dps (ranged) or 3700dps (melee). Currently, all classes besides shadows, vanguards and sages are able to do this, but sages are being given the consistancy in 2.7, leaving shadows and vanguards needing the buff still (they need ~200dps each)

*PvE Viable Spec. By this I mean a spec that performs consistantly over 3600dps (ranged) or 3700dps (melee). Currently, all classes besides shadows, vanguards and sages are able to do this, but sages are being given the consistancy in 2.7, leaving shadows and vanguards needing the buff still (they need ~200dps each)

Sages/Sorcc will have their RNG removed but they will still be behind the other classes in max dps. (and their aoe damage in TK/lighning nerfed by a lot.)

Sages/Sorcc will have their RNG removed but they will still be behind the other classes in max dps. (and their aoe damage in TK/lighning nerfed by a lot.)

Hey, its still above 3600dps, which is what I gave to ranged specs because they dont have to worry about mobility as much. People were hitting almost 3700dps in lightning spec consistantly with dread forged gear, and the madness/lightning hybrid is gonna be insane at AoE come 2.7.

The thing is, you were hitting 2.7k. It's now what, something like 3.4-3.5?

 

Changes seemed miniscule, but buffs were moderate in size.

 

As I said, you were so frigging far behind to begin with.

As was said before, the armor debuff module was a big part of that, as was the increase in gear. I'm not sure if you remember, but when the armor debuff module released, we also got a new tier of gear, and the hp module released too. Between the new gear, and Assassins having by far the best execution range dps increase, what little the buffs did got completely drowned out. It wasn't a big increase in damage, and the top 5 Shadows/Assassins were at 2850+ dps, not 2700, with the top being at 3100 at his best. I'd say we were lucky if the changes gave us a 2-3% dps increase based on spec. That's not exactly a strong buff, when you look at what happened with Vigilance and Scrapper, with their ~6% and ~8% damage increase, respectively (and that was for just the top parse to top parse for Scrapper, not even any individual Scoundrel's increase, which would have been far more), and those classes were doing about as well as we are now when they got their buff.