I thought it was already known as 'Specialist'

Lol.

Do you use a tanking offhand or a DPS offhand for this spec?

Shield Generator, so tank.

How viable is this build for levelling? would you recommend this or just the straight Pyrotech build??

Go pyro till 48 or st till 48. This build isn't viable till 48 really.

I'm also a proud member of the CP'teers.

I thought it was already known as 'Specialist'

 

Lol.

That is what Trooper Nerds call it. You dont want to be a Trooper Nerd do you?

Doesn't make sense to call the other build StormGut for us either.

That is what Trooper Nerds call it. You dont want to be a Trooper Nerd do you?

 

Doesn't make sense to call the other build StormGut for us either.

Hey now! I started as a Vanguard in Beta =P I'm not a Trooper Nerd! Just hated a few animation bugs that were never fixed, that and old friend convinced me to go Empire with him.

Hey now! I started as a Vanguard in Beta =P I'm not a Trooper Nerd! Just hated a few animation bugs that were never fixed, that and old friend convinced me to go Empire with him.

I actually like Troopers. Their Act 1 is really well done and a lot of fun imo.

I didn't really care about the animation bugs, what got me was the animations themselves. Not nearly as neat as BH animations.

Can anyone here remark on this as a PvE spec? I understand its merits in PvP and I'm excited to give it a try, but I was wondering how I should approach PvE with this (until dual-speccing is implemented).

I assume I'm correct in thinking I should be tanking with this spec, yes? If so, I should be wearing tank gear to complement the tanking offhand right? Is this spec viable for PvE DPS?

Can anyone here remark on this as a PvE spec? I understand its merits in PvP and I'm excited to give it a try, but I was wondering how I should approach PvE with this (until dual-speccing is implemented).

 

I assume I'm correct in thinking I should be tanking with this spec, yes? If so, I should be wearing tank gear to complement the tanking offhand right? Is this spec viable for PvE DPS?

I have been screwing around with it as both Tank and DPS in Hardmodes. Nothing more serious than that, but some of those Hardmodes are tougher than most of EV imo.

It is an awesome tank, lots more fun than full ST as well. The amount of threat and damage you put out really helps when every damn boss fight is nothing but a race to beat the enrage timer.

Most things don't hit me that hard anyway, so the extra damage is an excellent investment in that tier of content. Unless the stuff is bugged, in which case it'll hand your *** to you when it bugs out no matter what really. Furthermore it seems like most things that do hit hard are Internal or Elemental damage and bypass your Shields and Armor entirely.

As DPS it is still a very solid spec. It feels like it does as much as Adv Proto, but less than Pyro. How significant the differences are I can't really comment to without damage meters, but I still do enough to pull aggro off of any kind of tank (Juggs especially) and I'm starting to wish we had a threat dump ability.

When you manage your Heat aggressively (Redlining aggressively before blowing Vent heat, using TSO well, etc) you can go entire bossfights barely using Rapid Shots, with a little luck you wont use it at all. It doesn't matter how deep you get in Pyro, that is going to be a lot of damage.

If you are going to run the Parakeet as a DPS spec I strongly advise you to ensure you're capable of clearing whatever content you are currently doing as pure Pyro spec first. You should probably also ensure your group wont be missing any of the DPS you will be lacking compared to that full Pyro spec.

On a related Sidenote: Oil Slick kind of helps. It is a fairly unique ability in of the fact that it is a Tanking cooldown (though not a great one) that applies to the enemy rather than yourself. So using this build in either PvP or as PvE DPS keep in mind you essentially have another tanking cooldown that can be used to bail out whoever is being targeted.

So the 21/2/18 is still a "tank" ? I mean what kind of gear this build should use ?

When tanking? Tank gear.

When in PvP use flat DPS gear with a Shield Generator.

I've been doing more and more testing and have come to the conclusion that Shields AND Defense both are entirely bypassed by any attack not labeled as "Weapon Damage" in the tooltip. This is a very small portion of attacks, only 3 for Bounty Hunters for example. 3 for Operatives as well (None of those are what they will use to systematically dismantle most of your HP when they ambush you).

So as far as PvP "tanking" goes, the only real benefits are your Armor (which still mitigates Kinetic and Energy Damage), the flat damage mitigation in the tree and on your cell. Shields/Defense will really play a part in your fights against Knights/Warriors and Snipers/Gunslingers. And of course Guard, which is legitimately pretty great when used properly.

Special thanks go out to my girlfriend who has spent the last half hour on her Operative, buck naked in Dromund Kass, stabbing me in the back while Mako and Dr Loken have a fist fight.

Is it viable to level up the shieldtech tree up till the break point and then level up the Pyro tree or is it solely a viable spec at top level?

No, it only really blossoms at 48+.

ST is a great tree for leveling until from 20 till about 40ish. Pyro is great from the 20's all the way up. Adv Proto will take you from 40-50 very nicely as well. All of our trees don't add much before the 20's, but the class has plenty of tools to do the job until then.

That'll get you to 48.

When tanking? Tank gear.

 

When in PvP use flat DPS gear with a Shield Generator.

 

I've been doing more and more testing and have come to the conclusion that Shields AND Defense both are entirely bypassed by any attack not labeled as "Weapon Damage" in the tooltip. This is a very small portion of attacks, only 3 for Bounty Hunters for example. 3 for Operatives as well (None of those are what they will use to systematically dismantle most of your HP when they ambush you).

 

So as far as PvP "tanking" goes, the only real benefits are your Armor (which still mitigates Kinetic and Energy Damage), the flat damage mitigation in the tree and on your cell. Shields/Defense will really play a part in your fights against Knights/Warriors and Snipers/Gunslingers. And of course Guard, which is legitimately pretty great when used properly.

 

Special thanks go out to my girlfriend who has spent the last half hour on her Operative, buck naked in Dromund Kass, stabbing me in the back while Mako and Dr Loken have a fist fight.

Damn, so I've awsted my tokens on supercommando gear.

When tanking? Tank gear.

 

When in PvP use flat DPS gear with a Shield Generator.

 

I've been doing more and more testing and have come to the conclusion that Shields AND Defense both are entirely bypassed by any attack not labeled as "Weapon Damage" in the tooltip. This is a very small portion of attacks, only 3 for Bounty Hunters for example. 3 for Operatives as well (None of those are what they will use to systematically dismantle most of your HP when they ambush you).

 

So as far as PvP "tanking" goes, the only real benefits are your Armor (which still mitigates Kinetic and Energy Damage), the flat damage mitigation in the tree and on your cell. Shields/Defense will really play a part in your fights against Knights/Warriors and Snipers/Gunslingers. And of course Guard, which is legitimately pretty great when used properly.

 

Special thanks go out to my girlfriend who has spent the last half hour on her Operative, buck naked in Dromund Kass, stabbing me in the back while Mako and Dr Loken have a fist fight.

Awesome testing. Still looks like many players are still hard into the learning curve of the game. Need some good data mining even if not into elitism.

I just started my powertech alt (testing tankers to go along side my operative healer) and am finding it mechanically more complex than an agent. Quite interesting really (think I like it better than my assassin).

I've played with this a little, and except for a little trouble with heat management (which can be overcome), I liked it.

Do you think it's a viable end game tank spec? I'm not really talking nightmare mode just yet, but EV/Rancor, hard modes, etc.

I've played with this a little, and except for a little trouble with heat management (which can be overcome), I liked it.

 

Do you think it's a viable end game tank spec? I'm not really talking nightmare mode just yet, but EV/Rancor, hard modes, etc.

The heat management takes some getting used to, but overall it is better than Shieldtech due to the discounted Rail Shots and having more access to 8 refunded heat in a 16 second cycle. Definitely takes some getting used to however.

The only time that Heat Blast is superior is if you are trying to hold absolutely every mob in a pack and therefore using a lot of AoEs (Flame Spin, Flamethrower, etc) rather than a stable rotation of Flame Bursts, Rocket Punches, and Rail Shots. My best advice in this situation is not to bother holding everything.

Strongs (silver), Elites (gold), and Champions (silver+gold) are the only mobs you should bother to hold. Your DPS will melt the normals in seconds while controlling them with soft control (such as the stun on Unload or Explosive Dart or knock downs on various other abilities). There's no reason at all to bother trying to wrangle them and it is a nightmare on heat management for both specs.

As for PvE tanking, I haven't done any Nightmare modes yet. My guild isn't willing to recruit for Endgame PvE (just as well, as buggy as everything is) so we're sort of bogged down with content right now waiting on people to level and gear for other things. This build has handled absolutely everything I've thrown it at though.

The heat management takes some getting used to, but overall it is better than Shieldtech due to the discounted Rail Shots and having more access to 8 refunded heat in a 16 second cycle. Definitely takes some getting used to however.

 

The only time that Heat Blast is superior is if you are trying to hold absolutely every mob in a pack and therefore using a lot of AoEs (Flame Spin, Flamethrower, etc) rather than a stable rotation of Flame Bursts, Rocket Punches, and Rail Shots. My best advice in this situation is not to bother holding everything.

 

Strongs (silver), Elites (gold), and Champions (silver+gold) are the only mobs you should bother to hold. Your DPS will melt the normals in seconds while controlling them with soft control (such as the stun on Unload or Explosive Dart or knock downs on various other abilities). There's no reason at all to bother trying to wrangle them and it is a nightmare on heat management for both specs.

 

As for PvE tanking, I haven't done any Nightmare modes yet. My guild isn't willing to recruit for Endgame PvE (just as well, as buggy as everything is) so we're sort of bogged down with content right now waiting on people to level and gear for other things. This build has handled absolutely everything I've thrown it at though.

I second this. Done normal raids/hm 4mans and it's very viable. In fact in 4 mans, things melt much faster, so my healer actually likes it better.

I was hesitant to go CP as I plan to be mostly PvE tanking, but dear lord things in flashpoints and in pvp just melt compared to pure ST.

You wont miss the survivability at all in PvP. Most classes entirely avoid your shielding anyway.

I can't comment on how well shields work in PvE without combat logs.

So I'm guessing we go combat tech for pvp gear? I was really looking forward to that reduction on rocket charge.

Combat Tech or Eliminator. Depends on how worthwhile you think having a valid 2p set bonus is. I think the 15% Rail Shot crit chance outweighs what Combat Tech adds (especially since I don't know how the 2p affects resolve).