I don't think that sentence means what you think it means.

 

The words "cost" and "all" are the important ones. Cost would indicate there is a minimum amount you need. All would indicate the minimum is your max focus. You can change stance with zero focus... no cost...

 

If shadows only "lost" their current remaining force then it would be balanced.

I love when DPS guardians say they need to change stances to "protect" a healer.

 

 

1. We have taunts

 

2. We have crowd control push, jump, and guardian leap

 

We will do a much better job dropping the people dropping the healer and throwing taunts than switching forms and guarding the healer!

 

guardian leap to your healer, drop an aoe taunt, push the operative/maurader/jugg punting your healer, jump to a ranged, use force stasis, guardian leap back to healer, drop the AOE sweep you just set up...

 

 

Guarding healers is what hybrid vig/def and def specs can do. You DPS guardians just do yo thang baby.

Edited February 13, 2012 by Invictusthetaru

I'm a Def/Vig Guardian, and its not uncommon for me to hit over 200k protection on Voidstar and Civil War. My highest protection that I recall was over 270k on a Civil War match once.

 

Knowing your role is a big part of being successful in PvP.

If they are not spec'd for tanking they will just die quickly anyway. Your dps as a group will go way down but your healers can live longer. Remember that you can only have one guard on you at a time.

 

It sounds like you could have died slowly or died quickly but you still would have died. Don't think the stance changing (or lack of it) is what lost the match.

Edited February 14, 2012 by Diamaht

The only time I DON'T use guard is when I'm the ball carrier in Huttball.

 

That said, who you guard is pretty important. Keep an eye out for people that are playing heal specs or are making plays for objectives. People that are just DPSing or farming medals generally aren't worth the extra incoming damage. You're better off finding the healer and staying close.

Guarding healers is what hybrid vig/def and def specs can do. You DPS guardians just do yo thang baby.

 

If you do not occasionally guard team members as a Guardian DPS spec, you are either running in a premade with a tank, or you are doing it wrong. There are invariably moments when guard really can turn the tide of a fight, and knowing when those times are is part of what differentiates average players from good players.

 

You are 100% spot on that we do not NEED To guard to protectp layers. As DPS you can easily mitigate a great deal of damage with your own pressure, as well as judicious use of taunts, guardian leaps, peels, and CC. But even with all that, there are times where I need to throw guard in a healer to keep them from dropping, because I know that the key to holding a node is keeping that healer alive through a stun or knockdown when some of my other abilities are on CD.

I feel like the common sense thing to do would be for them to go soresu, and guard the heals. My line of logic goes something like this. In DPS stance they do more damage have greater focus generation etc. however, all the enemies have to do is burst the healers till they go down and everyone else burns the 2 guardians, who no longer have healers, in the matter of a few seconds. So yes, they were throwing out more DPS while alive, however they prolly died a lot more, and spent tons of time in the spawn area (depending what map).

 

Now if they had switched to soresu, and guarded the heals... yes they would have taken severe nerfs to their damage, and focus generation, however they can keep the healers alive, which in turn keep them alive. So while they won't be outputting as much DPS, they will be throwing it out (at reduced levels) for longer.... Dead people dont generate damage... remember that.

Edited February 15, 2012 by Orabus

My premade has a vanguard tank, and even when he is out of the equation I never find the need to guard. My brother is the healer and I can watch his screen whenever I want, maybe that helps, but I can kill 2 melees pounding on him while he keeps himself alive when I keep taunts up.

 

 

Guard more often than not will just drop us both quick, depending on the type of DPS we are up against.

Unless the healer out levels the dps by a few levels... I have a hard time believing that he can out heal the damage... even if you keep taunts up (keep in mind those have a cooldown where the taunt effect doesnt apply). Unless you guys fought the absolute worst dps known to the game... like they both had to be using Strike over and over again

Unless the healer out levels the dps by a few levels... I have a hard time believing that he can out heal the damage... even if you keep taunts up (keep in mind those have a cooldown where the taunt effect doesnt apply). Unless you guys fought the absolute worst dps known to the game... like they both had to be using Strike over and over again

 

You have to understand a well played healer / people talking in vent can easily render 1 person useless long enough to slay the other. He sets up his long stun on player a while I stasis player b, he heals himself, I take out b, a get's unstunned, force push, etc. It's fluid and timing / communication need to be there but we are very much in sync.

 

 

I don't really care, I'm sticking by the fact that guard is hardly worthwhile if you are a DPS spec. You don't have the HP pool or the correct gear / spec as a tank and are just hurting yourself and your team.

 

not to mention he has an aoe knockback root when things get dicey. Target my healer down, see how long you last before you want to scream at your screen or switch targets.

Edited February 16, 2012 by Invictusthetaru

The words "cost" and "all" are the important ones. Cost would indicate there is a minimum amount you need. All would indicate the minimum is your max focus. You can change stance with zero focus... no cost...

 

If shadows only "lost" their current remaining force then it would be balanced.

 

If shadows were limited to a few buttons to press when they started combat and had moves, previously unavailable, that consumed charges the first buttons generated then it would be balanced.

I run Focus spec, but use Soresu. There are two facets to this decision.

 

The more important one for me is that I actually tend to play pvp tank... I do a lot of guarding, taunting, and peeling. I might spec defense, except that doing so does absolutely nothing to boost my tanking ability, just my personal survivability... which isn't really important for pvp tanking.

 

The other facet is that practically, I feel that Soresu is a stronger choice... +60% armor is huge in pvp, I rarely have rage issues because I do so much leaping/lightsaber throwing, and Shii-Cho doesn't offer amazing benefits. Really, the biggest loss to playing pvp tank is that you have to use a shield generator instead of a dps focus, and I only do that because I use Guard so often... if I didn't, I'd use a dps focus in Soresu form.