Jump to content

Advice playing a sith *** tank


ipagex

Recommended Posts

HI all, i'm new to the scene and i have a few questions to which i hope some xperienced players can answer. I have a general idea what path i'm supposed to take playing a sith assassin tank but i wouldn't mind some advice.

 

First of all, these are my stats so far:

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/38/screenshot2012120621511.jpg

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/163/screenshot2012120621523.jpg

 

Are they good for a lvl 31 tank? I noticed some lower level sith assassins take less damage than me and i was wondering what i did wrong...

 

And here are some of my more important questions:

1. Is there any point in getting critical chance on tank?

 

2. Should i focus more on defense chance or on shield absorption?

 

3. What is my role, as a tank, in warzones? I found that i do no damage since all my gear has endurance higher than will. Should i even try to do damage or should i just focus on taunting, interrupting abilities and shielding people? Who should i use guard on, healers or squishy damage dealers?

 

That's all i can think of to ask right now. Any advice is welcome.

 

P.S. Did you guys notice Guard doesn't work? It doesn't send any damage your way.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

stats seem fine there pretty irrelevant at that level anyway,

during pvp pre 50 just guard and taunt pretty much, who you guard is up to you, but a good tank will switch it between who is getting focused at that time, you want no critical chance or surge on a tank they are pointless and offer no survivability what so ever.

 

and finally guard doesnt re direct 50% of damage in PVE only PVP, which even some experienced tanks dont know, guard in pve is used to reduce threat, so generally in a flashpoint/operation during boss fights dps should have a guard to help with agro and healers can have a guard during trash if you are a little worried about tanking a lot of mobs or the dps you are with dont feel like taking out the weaker mobs first

Link to comment
Share on other sites

For that level your stats seem alright, just some advice based on my experience through levelling, if you're primarily doing warzones in lowbie from around level 25+ I find it easier to go full madness in dark charge, just skipping the talents associated with lightning charge, I even do well with this in 50 pvp with a decent healer as your dots heal you with parasitism etc, death field is a nice damage boost as well. :)

 

Guard swap while in madness (with dark charge) or darkness to the people taking the most damage, in general that's a rule for any tank, if your healer isn't taking any damage and a dps is, guard the dps. Throw taunts out constantly in every spec, even if you're dps, taunts still help the team at no hinderence to you.

 

For the stats you should be focusing on, shield and absorb are not as effective in PvP as they are in PvE so focus on defense till you hit the diminishing return (about 28-30% I think), if you're serious about being an Assassin tank through to 50 PvP as well then use my profile as a guide http://swtor.askmrrobot.com/character/14a7b9ab-3f3c-41ea-afbd-4bddabccea0d unfortunately it's not completely BiS for PvP but I'm getting there.

 

If you do use that as a guide and are wondering why I have points in deception over madness, it's because of the reduced cooldown of force speed (Life saver in huttball) and why I'm using Force-Master gear, I find the set bonus better suited to my needs, as I use to have points in parasitism (before 1.4) it helped with minor self heals and I prefer the color scheme better :p.

 

Hope this has helped.

 

P.s. Askmrrobot lie's my defense is at 28% not 24.

Edited by EvilTazz
Grammar mistakes
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

Depends how good/well geared your dps is.

 

Tanking normals, if you can do it, go for it but good dps will burn those fast.

 

Key to tanking group is to have a strategy in mind. Position, cc or not.

 

If your dps derp charge the elite to boost their rotation (like an anni mara stupidly told me once when i asked him to dispatch the thrash before dpsing the elite "but my bleed are wasted on thrash!!!") ask them once to do their job correctly since it impacts yours, if they say no, let them draw aggro from the elite mob they hit, and let them die.

 

Now supposing you have decent dps, quickly check which mobs are melee or ranged, and enter combat like this :

 

Shock the biggest, thrash some some normal on the way if possible and try to pull one of the ranged in a central location. Then wither/discharge to build group threat. That at the very least keep your healer safe.

 

If there is more than one ranged, you'll want to drag the melees near him, and pull is other ranged buddy.

 

If you got 3 ranged "normal" just thrash one on your way, you'll build about 2k threat on something that has 5k life.

 

Since a dps will pull around 2,5k threat (damage) consider it dealt with.

 

Not all fight can be totally tanked, but you can always use your aoe taunt to give an opportunity window to your dps to kill what you cannot reach.

 

Your taunt, in the same way, can allow you to bring another enemy attention to you.

 

 

But mostly, its in planning and group positionning. You can also use overload to push an enemy toward the other.

 

Once they are close enough, wither/discharge makes keeping them on you cake.

 

I've tanked some without losing threat once with tionese saber/columni offhand, once with a BH/campaign geared mara in the group.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Dps generates threat and I'm not sure but healing might too. That's why all the tank stances generate extra threat and have moves that raise threat levels, so that when the dps is way out deepsing you you'll still maintain aggro if you're in tank stance and using your threat skills.

For assassins we have:

Wither

Discharge (when in tank stance, it won't generate threat if you're not in dark charge)

Dark charge (the tank stance for sins, which creates extra threat by itself and also raises the threat level of discharge)

And lastly dps also creates some threat.

 

So if the sin is in dark charge using discharge and wither a lot, he will always create more threat and keep all the aggro. If he's in lightning charge doing massive dps, he will still generate a lot of threat but the tank using his threat abilities will be doing more, thus keeping aggro. If the tank dies, the lightning charge sin doing massive deeps will probably get aggro next. Someone who is in lightning charge and doing very little dps won't be generating threat at all, so he will never get aggro unless there's nobody else around.

Edited by JP_Legatus
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Threat in a nutshell :

 

For dps - 1 damage = 1 threat

 

For healing - 2 hp healed = 1 threat. Healer trees lowers this amount by 15-30% i think, depending on class. Roughly with the tank's guard specced healer does 3 hp healed = 1 threat on ANY mob currently targeting the target you healed. Hence why even with a low ammount of threat per heal, healer's riding 2nd on any mob not being focused.

 

For tank stances : 1 damage = 2 threat

 

 

Dps far outdamage the tank, damage is still important of course, bit tank stances exist to allow a class to keep the attention on itself without needing to pump actual dps numbers.

 

To this you add ability that have "high threat" which mean they come with a 50% threat buff on them (regardless of charge, wither would do 1 damage = 1,5 threat. With dark charge its actually 1 damage = 3 threat, unless I'm mistaken with how the game handles the math, or the high threat value)

 

A tank needs to keep his threat on top ideally, but at least avoid dps going over 110% of his threat or 125% for ranged if I'm not mistaken.

 

 

As a tank, you build threat on a group to shield healer. Thrash, as said should be killed in 2-3 second by a dps, not worth much more than a passing hit or being caught in your aoe.

 

After that, if a DerPS jumps the elite prematuraly, and pulls, rest is up to you. I normally give 2 chances. Accident happens, even as a tank main I do mistake in my dps toons (mis-tab, misjudge aoe range, burst too high etc) but if the dps just always go for the big one and the other dps, or worse the healer, is stuck killing thrash, I stop taunting and I let the idiot die.

 

The sole one I will do whatever I can for is the healer, unless he is spectacularly failing. Something to remember btw. Tank and healer, with or without dps beat the fight unless there is an enrage timer like boss. As a dps, I value you only up to how good you are in thrash pulls. And even the best dps will be under healer in my value list :) luckily good dps make sure they don't bust up your threat, and follow a logical kill order.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A piece of advice I did not see here is as a tank (of any class really) be the primary interrupter. Always be the person to interrupt the hardest hitting (or healing) move a boss or other difficult mob will use and designate someone as a secondary in case you miss or interrupt the wrong thing. As a SIN tank, your rotation allows you to throw in interrupts with minimal effect on your normal rotation, plus your healers will love you for life.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...