I recently returned to SWTOR and play (& played) mostly PvP.

Rage and Vengeance Jugg feels really poor to me and I read that Skank is the only thing rn.

Do you have some rotations/stats/tips/advices/etc... for me?

Which dps equipment should I get? Vengeance or Rage?

thanks. cu

I recently returned to SWTOR and play (& played) mostly PvP.

Rage and Vengeance Jugg feels really poor to me and I read that Skank is the only thing rn.

Do you have some rotations/stats/tips/advices/etc... for me?

Which dps equipment should I get? Vengeance or Rage?

thanks. cu

I main a skank guardian in PvP. If you're one of the re-rollers who have bought into the "skanks do more damage than dps and dps is too squishy, I'm swapping" please stay dps. If you actually care to learn to PvP tank, I'll offer advice.

I run with the tank set bonus and high endurance dps everything else. So lethal b mods/high endurance low power enhancements with fortitude augments. Endurance is king for PvP tanking.

PvP tanking is first and foremost about keeping your team alive and being as annoying to the enemy as possible. This is not, contrary to popular belief, either standing in a corner with a healer or running around pretending to be a dps. Guard whoever is dying most (if multiple are dying obviously your healer takes priority), interrupt, and CC away. Then you can try to help kill. As a skank guardian I have topped the damage board only while node cap preventing with 4-8 people trying to kill me and my healer buddy while the rest of my team slowly picked them off.

I main a skank guardian in PvP. If you're one of the re-rollers who have bought into the "skanks do more damage than dps and dps is too squishy, I'm swapping" please stay dps. If you actually care to learn to PvP tank, I'll offer advice.

 

I run with the tank set bonus and high endurance dps everything else. So lethal b mods/high endurance low power enhancements with fortitude augments. Endurance is king for PvP tanking.

 

PvP tanking is first and foremost about keeping your team alive and being as annoying to the enemy as possible. This is not, contrary to popular belief, either standing in a corner with a healer or running around pretending to be a dps. Guard whoever is dying most (if multiple are dying obviously your healer takes priority), interrupt, and CC away. Then you can try to help kill. As a skank guardian I have topped the damage board only while node cap preventing with 4-8 people trying to kill me and my healer buddy while the rest of my team slowly picked them off.

Thank you for your answer. I played that years ago and I loved it, but I played as full tank and I want do atleast a little bit dmg. Could we talk on Teamspeak or Discord?

I main a skank guardian in PvP. If you're one of the re-rollers who have bought into the "skanks do more damage than dps and dps is too squishy, I'm swapping" please stay dps. If you actually care to learn to PvP tank, I'll offer advice.

 

I run with the tank set bonus and high endurance dps everything else. So lethal b mods/high endurance low power enhancements with fortitude augments. Endurance is king for PvP tanking.

 

PvP tanking is first and foremost about keeping your team alive and being as annoying to the enemy as possible. This is not, contrary to popular belief, either standing in a corner with a healer or running around pretending to be a dps. Guard whoever is dying most (if multiple are dying obviously your healer takes priority), interrupt, and CC away. Then you can try to help kill. As a skank guardian I have topped the damage board only while node cap preventing with 4-8 people trying to kill me and my healer buddy while the rest of my team slowly picked them off.

KendraP thanks!!

I have seen you posted numerous places for Skanks and I appreciate all you share. Could you by chance share your build and what you chose and why?

Thanks again!!

Hi,

To summarize what you need :

Gear-wise:

- 6 tank armorings for the set bonus (and only the armorings) +1 dps armoring

- dps lightsaber hilt

- tank shield

- DPS relics (Serendipitious Assault and Focused Retribution)

- DPS earrings/implants (crit or alacrity depending on how your stats are set up).

Regarding mods/enhancements, you have two options, they're all DPS mods/enh:

- high endurance (and low damage) (246)

- high damage (and low endurance) (248)

If you don't have multiple lvl 300 chars feeding you 248 mods and enhancements, you probably want to start with high endurance, which is 100% crafted (lethal B mods and discipline enh). Fortitude augments once your stats are set up.

Be aware that being in a high endurance gear will severely gimp your damage compared to 248 dps mods/enh (like 30% less damage), for only about 25k more HP. This is fine for starting and learning the class though. Plus even when you have a 248 set, you can keep high HP set for warzones like voidstar defense and huttball.

Stats wise

- no accuracy because you already have 111% accuracy (+10% tank, +1% companion)

- alacrity is up to playstyle. Personnaly I run 750 Alac to have a 1.4s global cooldown. I also found it helps against very mobile targets.

- crit around 2000

- rest in mastery.

With max gear you'll end up at 8k mastery, 4.5k power, 2k crit, 750 alac.

Talents

Skillful : no choice really : Payback + Warmonger are self explanatory

Masterful : Pooled Hatred (arenas), Unstoppable (regs), Unshackling Rage (all)

Heroic : Through Passion + the new one that reduces dmg by 30% when stunned

Legendary : Through Victory, Piercing Chill, Intimidating Presence (arenas)

Playstyle

- You mitigate damage two ways:

1. directly via aoe taunts, since target taunts, guard and CCs (you have a lot of CCs, be careful about not giving enemies free resolve for no reason)

2. indirectly by applying enough pressure yourself that enemies cannot afford to overextend and have to fall back

Many people forget about 2. and it's the most important part.

- As a jugg tank, most of your damage is AOE. This means you don't apply pressure by going for single targets, you need to go for clusters of enemies. The downside of being nearly fully aoe damage is you'll break a lot of CCs if you're not careful.

IMPORTANT

- UI tricks : use shortcuts for "Set Focused Target" and "Acquire Focus Target's Target". Their use is double:

+ defensively : you focus target the strongest enemy DPS: when you press your keybind for "acquire focus target's target" you'll automatically select the teammate your enemies are currently focusing : you can then directly guardian jump + guard. If the enemy switches target when you guard, you just repeat it. This is a very important (and easy) part of playing tank. Very hard without those two keybinds.

+ offensively: you focus target your team's target caller. When he's pressuring enemies and one of them is low, you can acquire his target's straight away (for example if he calls someone low on voice) and force jump, bash stuff.

Depending on how the fight is going and how much pressure you're applying or facing, you switch between the two modes.

Switch guard often. Guard's range is short, only 15m. If you're on the enemy backline (ranged enemies stacking up on a sniper for example), changes are your guard on your healer is out of range.

Guarding another melee DPS (like a good mara) and you both being on the same target is an incredible amount of pressure. One of the signs of a bad tank is the guy putting guard on his healer at the start and never changing it.

Thank you for your answer. I played that years ago and I loved it, but I played as full tank and I want do atleast a little bit dmg. Could we talk on Teamspeak or Discord?

hey sorry, i didn't hit up the swtor formus yesterday, if you're still interested pm me, and i can send discord info.

KendraP thanks!!

I have seen you posted numerous places for Skanks and I appreciate all you share. Could you by chance share your build and what you chose and why?

Thanks again!!

Are you looking for utilities? if so, here's what i do for PvP:

In the first tier: i tend to take the reduced cooldown and self heal on the CC break and the immobilize on whatever master strike is called now. There is something to be said for the force charge reduced cd as well, if you take it, take it over the immobilize on master strike.

Second tier, i usually go for the immunity to movement impairment after leaps and generally the reduced CD on force stasis, though this second one has some competition, namely from the one that lets combat focus purge movement impairing effects.

Third tier now, no option really. Reduced cd on focused defense and DR on stun.

Fourth tier: definitely want the increase on saber reflect length. i tend to take the dot on freezing force, but i have been missing my immobilize on saber throw. Other competition to the freezing force dot is the purge on blade blitz.

Hi,

 

To summarize what you need :

 

Gear-wise:

- 6 tank armorings for the set bonus (and only the armorings) +1 dps armoring

- dps lightsaber hilt

- tank shield

- DPS relics (Serendipitious Assault and Focused Retribution)

- DPS earrings/implants (crit or alacrity depending on how your stats are set up).

 

Regarding mods/enhancements, you have two options, they're all DPS mods/enh:

- high endurance (and low damage) (246)

- high damage (and low endurance) (248)

 

If you don't have multiple lvl 300 chars feeding you 248 mods and enhancements, you probably want to start with high endurance, which is 100% crafted (lethal B mods and discipline enh). Fortitude augments once your stats are set up.

 

Be aware that being in a high endurance gear will severely gimp your damage compared to 248 dps mods/enh (like 30% less damage), for only about 25k more HP. This is fine for starting and learning the class though. Plus even when you have a 248 set, you can keep high HP set for warzones like voidstar defense and huttball.

From what i have seen we have different ideas of what a tank in PvP should be. Which is perfectly acceptable, as we can all have our own playstyle, certainly.

For gear, I prefer more health. So i do high endurance everywhere possible. I also tend to spend a lot of time being focused or having my guarded target focused and have survived with very single digit health percentages. So I have lived where I would have died with less health, and this ability to survive has helped me and my team hold a node and win the match. I'm running at about 150k health. Any damage I do is purely secondary to my primary objective of helping my team survive and harass the enemy team to the utmost. I outlined my gearing method earlier and don't feel like typing it all again.

- You mitigate damage two ways:

1. directly via aoe taunts, since target taunts, guard and CCs (you have a lot of CCs, be careful about not giving enemies free resolve for no reason)

2. indirectly by applying enough pressure yourself that enemies cannot afford to overextend and have to fall back

 

Many people forget about 2. and it's the most important part.

 

- As a jugg tank, most of your damage is AOE. This means you don't apply pressure by going for single targets, you need to go for clusters of enemies. The downside of being nearly fully aoe damage is you'll break a lot of CCs if you're not careful.

To me, damage mitigation include guarding and guard swapping, all forms of taunting and CCing, and the pressure aspect comes in far more effectively by you allowing your team to fully perform it's function. For example, if a dps is taking so much focus he's having to run away and pop DCD constantly, his dps is probably hurting. With a guard and staying in proper range of him, he can probably do damage again, and put on far better single target pressure than any variety of tank is capable. Because let's be honest for a second, a skank is really nothing more than a PvP tank given the near-uselessness of def/shield/absorb in PvP. Furthermore, in addition to AoE breaking CC constantly, you will also be doing near pure fluff damage. I have topped damage boards in PvP... By standing in a group of like 6 people node cap preventing. Guess what? They didn't die.

Switch guard often. Guard's range is short, only 15m. If you're on the enemy backline (ranged enemies stacking up on a sniper for example), changes are your guard on your healer is out of range.

 

Guarding another melee DPS (like a good mara) and you both being on the same target is an incredible amount of pressure. One of the signs of a bad tank is the guy putting guard on his healer at the start and never changing it.

The correct answer to guard is that it should go to whoever is both most important to the team AND most likely to die. As a tank, keeping the guard in range is primarily your responsibility, especially if you do not have a voice comm to tell whoever you are calling to stay in range. This will normally be whoever the enemy team is focusing. Fundamentally, guarding someone who is not actively taking damage does little to help your team. Proper guard swapping can be team saving and thereby match winning. It require some skill; not simply guard whoever you're standing close too.

Personally, the way I see it, if my healer dies, we all die, so if he's being focused at all, my guard is probably on him.

That said, if he can handle any incoming damage on him, that opens me up to go guard someone who IS actively taking damage and struggling to stay alive. This is the importance of tanking; you literally contribute to who on your team lives and who dies.

From what i have seen we have different ideas of what a tank in PvP should be. Which is perfectly acceptable, as we can all have our own playstyle, certainly.

For gear, I prefer more health. So i do high endurance everywhere possible. I also tend to spend a lot of time being focused or having my guarded target focused and have survived with very single digit health percentages. So I have lived where I would have died with less health, and this ability to survive has helped me and my team hold a node and win the match. I'm running at about 150k health. Any damage I do is purely secondary to my primary objective of helping my team survive and harass the enemy team to the utmost. I outlined my gearing method earlier and don't feel like typing it all again.

Sure! I also started with high HP set. I however believe it's inferior to full 248 dmg mods/enh.

There are, as you say, situations where having 25k more HP would make the difference, I totally agree.

However, to say it differently, every second that you spend at above 25k HP, your HP set is strictly worse. So high HP set would be better, what, 2-4% of the time?

I'd rather sacrifice those few percent for a significant damage increase the rest of the time.

Still, both styles are certainly viable, and they clearly play out differently.

Well Kendra and Korrii have basically just written a guide for Skank.

Thank you... /bow.

I will spend a few days playing with some of the concepts and look here if I have any follow up questions .

Veng is weak.

Although admittedly it may have had a slight change with the receny bugfix the underlying issue (terrible survivability) remains the same. Mercs and snipers still have too much on them.

Just wanted to chime in. First, I dont think our damage is fluff. I am not the best player but even on solo targets when we debuff and pound on them it is a lot of pressure. I rarely lose a one v one in regs and I have had many 2v1 and even some 3 v1 against bad players. Before someone says Im not protecting my team, this was when I was responding to a call for example in civil war and they are trying to stall me in the middle.

Anyway, a couple of utility changes I like. Now this is not ranked, I like taking the root break on enraged defense because it helps me tremendously kill snipers and mercs. I also love extending roar. I cant tell you the number of times I have stopped a cap with it while netted by a merc with saber throw on cooldown.

For me the number one objective is not protecting the team... That is number 2. Number one is securing the win. Sometimes that means guarding and objective when no one else will. Sometimes that is stalling the pub team with 4 healers from getting their node by drawing them away from mid. Is it optimal no but it seems to work.

I was really worried about giving up the 4 seconds of breakfree on leap but I don't miss it a bit. For me it is no fun and you are just not as effective if you can't move.

One other thing, I don't use a shield. It seems useless and only hurts my damage. I would really like to see someone show me how that is justified. Its 20% chance to shield and 20% absorb on 2 types of damage? That's 4% damage reduction on 2 types of damage? I cant even tell. Remember too part of defense is offence. Pressure them enough and they run.

Finally in my mind 25k HP increase does not just mean 2.5 hits. 25k HP with our defenses is much higher. I notice a difference even at 10k lower HP. It really depends on how much dps the other team has and how good the healers are as to whether I do dps gear vs high health. Getting rid of the shield makes even the high health dangerous imo,.

My skank build is basically endurance stacking. Tank set bonus, 248 preferred. Lethal b mods, 246 crafted. High endurance crit/alacrity enhancement,246 crafted. With fortitude augments (high endurance low power). I'm at 148k health now haha.

 

Run with a healer and watch the enemy cry as they try to kill the two of you.

Took from another thread to consolidate the info.

Thanks again to all!!

One other thing, I don't use a shield. It seems useless and only hurts my damage. I would really like to see someone show me how that is justified. Its 20% chance to shield and 20% absorb on 2 types of damage? That's 4% damage reduction on 2 types of damage? I cant even tell. Remember too part of defense is offence. Pressure them enough and they run.

From star parsing hours of warzones, I can tell you I shield 15% all incoming attacks by having a shield equipped, but with 0 def, 0 shield and 0 absorb.

Here is a simulation of the damage gained by having a focus instead of a shield :

Take the current attack sequence and it's expected damage output :

https://i.imgur.com/Zdno8WB.png

That's 64,438 damage output from this attack sequence (just output, not target defense etc factored in, it's kind of abstract) when having a shield (1604 force attack).

If you switch to a focus (2406 force attack), that expected damage output only rises to 65,429.

That's a 1.5% damage increase only. Riposte is about 4% of your total DPS and you get a free one when you shield an attack (15% of all incoming attacks on average). Just with that you don't lose damage with a shield equipped.

Regarding skill priority in pvp, here is a non standard warzone (a big long dragged out fight at mid on civil war). It's obviously inflated numbers, but it's interesting because it gives a good view of where the damage comes from.

4.8m dmg, 2m prot

https://i.imgur.com/fbDwPjG.jpg

And the parsing of that fight gives interesting stuff (which obviously would depend on how you play) :

https://i.imgur.com/oWzokg8.png

You'll notice :

- DAMAGE:

Your damage is realisticaly 5 skills. But really only one

-HEALING TAKEN

Even on tank, in a big bad fight, you need a strong healer to keep you up.

+ your own cooldows (medpack, skills, etc) amount to 650 HPS which is fairly significant

+ and I still needed another 2k HPS just to stay alive

This is good information. I wonder if it hurts burst though. Juggs do enough damage IMO to pressure even a healer with our debuffs. However I wiil give it another try. It's not uncommon for me to get a 26k hit on a sorc healer. The other thing is rarely do I go down before the healer. Honestly, not sure I need the extra defense. Played 10 games of ranked last night and when we did lose, I was the last to go down. Just stuff to think about. I suppose it would help if I was stalling.

Did you post the 15%? I would really like to see that. It has always confused me a bit. I see the damage just not the defense.