I messed around a little when the game was first released but never really got into it. Now coming back because Im sick of WoW. Id like to roll a tanking class but I dont want one that requires me to have 6 hands and 3 keyboards just to play correctly. I played all 4 tanks in WoW so Im used to managing cooldowns and using simple rotations.

 

Just wondering what the rotations look like for a Assassin and also a Powertech? Been trying to read through the forums but I cant really find anything. I guess people are still relearning their classes after the latest patch? Just want the one with an easy flow to it thats pretty forgiving if I dont use something at the right time.

I think Powertech but I have no experience with playing an Assassin.

Both are good. PowerTechs are pretty amazing. Assassin will give you a broader range of options though. But for pure tanking nothing will beat a tank spec Juggernaut. Powertech is probably next, followed by assassin.

Both are good. PowerTechs are pretty amazing. Assassin will give you a broader range of options though. But for pure tanking nothing will beat a tank spec Juggernaut. Powertech is probably next, followed by assassin.

 

What are their rotations like?

Both are good. PowerTechs are pretty amazing. Assassin will give you a broader range of options though. But for pure tanking nothing will beat a tank spec Juggernaut. Powertech is probably next, followed by assassin.

 

I'm dying to know what it is you think makes juggernauts head and shoulders above the other two tanks, because my experience says the opposite.

If you are looking for a tank class that's more forgiving of mistakes I would recommend a power tech They are by no means easy though, just easier than the other two tanks. You don't get the flashiness of the light saber but they are a lot of fun to play.

For flashpoints/operations and heroics, I say definately Juggernaut. For solo PvE and Pvp, I'd go Assassin(though I prefer Assassin because I find it most fun), I've only gotten a Powertech to level 18, so I can't really judge them.

 

 

Btw, awesome signature Darth_Doodle.

For flashpoints/operations and heroics, I say definately Juggernaut. For solo PvE and Pvp, I'd go Assassin(though I prefer Assassin because I find it most fun), I've only gotten a Powertech to level 18, so I can't really judge them.

 

 

Btw, awesome signature Darth_Doodle.

 

Thanks, wrote it several days before release and figured it was a funny play on several things combined. I see a few people around the forums copying it already. Imitation is the mos t sincerest form of flattery right?

 

Sorry for the brief derail to feed my ego...

I messed around a little when the game was first released but never really got into it. Now coming back because Im sick of WoW. Id like to roll a tanking class but I dont want one that requires me to have 6 hands and 3 keyboards just to play correctly. I played all 4 tanks in WoW so Im used to managing cooldowns and using simple rotations.

 

Just wondering what the rotations look like for a Assassin and also a Powertech? Been trying to read through the forums but I cant really find anything. I guess people are still relearning their classes after the latest patch? Just want the one with an easy flow to it thats pretty forgiving if I dont use something at the right time.

 

I don't have much experience with Powertechs/Vanguards yet, but I'll try to answer to the best of my abilities:

 

Guardian/Juggernaut: clearly the worst of the three before 1.2, though the differences were lower than expressed by popular opinion. After 1.2, the class is solid, with good defenses, decent aggro generation, decent damage. Your usual aggro assortment is two taunts (which all three tanks have), something like 7 actively used abilities, three defensive cooldowns and a few situational abilities. All in all, perfectly manageable, similar to WoW warrior. Somewhat worse at AoE threat, but due to taunt mechanics' active threat generation, that's no biggy. I just wish sometimes I'd have a pull. Yeah, Shadows and Vanguards spoiled me

 

Shadow/Assassin: the closest comparison in WoW would be the druid or death knight, though Shadow feels different than either of those. Excellent AoE threat generation, self healing, short range abilities, decent dps, decent CC, but with one drawback - unlike the other two tanks, this one depends on a charge based shield mechanic. On a single target, that makes no difference whatsoever (which makes Shadows/Assassins remarkably strong boss tanks), but on trash, that shield can run out FAST, making AoE tanking new content a bit riskier than with the other two. Again, the differences are in a few percent. The class has one less defensive cooldown than Guardian/Juggernaut, but can heal himself for a bit far more often than others can defend themselves. Overall, a good, solid tank.

 

One other thing: whereas Guardian/Juggernaut depends on AoE centered around the tank for reducing incoming damage, the Shadow has an attack that's centered on the target. If they're standing close to CC, you can't really use it and need to creatively pull the mobs away, whereas a Guardian can just reposition himself. Since Force Pull has a minimum range, this can get quite annoying, but you get used to it.

 

Powertech/Vanguard: as I said, I don't have much experience with this one yet. From what I gathered so far, Vanguard combines the other two - it has both pull and charge, some semi-ranged abilities, two defensive cooldowns, some crown controls and very powerful AoE burst threat. Overall, I'd say about the same amount of actively used abilities as the other classes.

 

Additional note: if you intend to tank seriously, I strongly recommend going Biochem. The power of permanent Adrenal, Medpack and Stim cannot possibly be stressed enough for the purposes of tanking. You want it, you need it, you should have it.

Edited April 16, 2012 by tufy

I'll throw in my two cents, but be warned. I have not touched either my Jug or Vanguard since 1.2 hit.

 

 

My first was a Jugg, leveled as Tank spec loved it.

 

It plays and feels quite a bit just like you'd expect a Warrior tank in WoW or Warrior arch-types in other mmos.

 

The Rage mechanic lends itself to a slow start, but fairly easy resource management once things are under control. The first 5-10 seconds are the most hectic in Ops or FPs, but after that, the flow is very easy.

 

I won't go into the abilities or rotations, because there are plenty of those guides and stickies up in each respective class.

 

 

My second was a Vanguard (friends wanted me to tank for them from previous guild on different server).

 

This class just felt too easy. If you did your research and knew how to gear/mod yourself, content you were able to push was at a faster pace than a Jug. I'd actually say though, because of the ammo and the regen system, it takes a bit more effort NOT to screw up. I wouldn't say it is more difficult than Jug tanking, but it lends itself easier to accidentally burn up your resources too quickly, and if you do that, it can hurt in regaining control of the situation.

 

I've been working on a Shadow on a different server as well, and leveling it as Infiltration (dps), but already, just seeing the abilities and the talents (as well as experience tanking nightmare ops on my vanguard pre 1.2), the first thoughts that came to mind were...oh, this is basically a Paladin-Rogue-Shaman-Deathknight all roled into one.

 

So you have the energy resource management of a rogue, earth sheilds of a shaman, proc based dmg of paladins and some self healing of a death knight.

 

Oh yes they can stealth too.

 

The above is a huge simplification of a Shadow/Sin tank, and of course, does not come from experience as tanking as a shadow, but if you look at the talents/tree you'll come to similar conclusion.

 

So as for your general question of flow...or easy rotation. Tanking in WoW has been a joke since Wrath, pure and simple. Be it due to easy addons and all the talents and abilities that say "hey look im a tank you'll attack me if i just face roll". So really tanking in wow came down to positioning and cooldown management (which addons told you when to do it really). Swtor isn't that much of a difference, other than the lack of addons, and the free perma agro.

 

Personal opinion aside, most of the tanking in SWTOR is easy, if you like tanking, you already probably have the key attributes to excel at tanking in SWTOR, you'll just work slightly harder for it, and recognize early on, that you don't get all the freebies WoW tanking gives you.

 

Not really the answer you were looking for, other than...all the rotations are fairly doable, some have super easy mode resource management, some not.

Think Im gonna go with an assassin. Seems like all tanks play the same. Use a few abilities drop cooldowns when **** hits the fan. Although I dont like the fact that Assassins dont get their healer companion until very far into the game (high 30s from what i read). I mean seems kind of useless because all classes should get their healer companion as their first one to help with leveling. Do I just use Khem Val to level with like I did my sorcerer? Edited April 16, 2012 by Dabrixmgp

Use khem Untill you get andronikus, I always find it better when leveling a tank its better to roll with a dps on normal quests, once you get champ move and heroic quests pull out the heals

Assassins : Static regenerating resource.. priority based system of large amounts of buffs/debuffs to maintain and watch (wither, harnessed darkness, overcharge saber, dark ward, energize, discharge, recklessness). Middle of the road for both shield chance and defense with most of its shield chance being tied to dark ward which as a previous poster mentioned suffers when being hit by multiple attacks

 

Juggernauts : Player controlled resource generation with attacks generating and costing rage. Highest defense of all tank classes and largest cooldowns. Because of the focus on defense bad RNG streaks can and will happen (which is where those big cooldowns come into play) and the fact that you have to generate your resource before you can spend it makes it difficult to change up mid rotation.

 

Powertechs : No fancy tools, worst cooldowns of all 3 tanks, highest raw damage reduction (heavy armor, 16% additional armor and talents/debuffs to reduce damage by a further 13%) and shielding (not based on charges as an assassins) makes powertechs have the smoothest damage intake. The heat system is the only thing that really needs to be watched and kept below a certain point to maintain maximum regen while at the same time allows burst to be used when needed with cooldowns available to vent heat. Also has the ability to tank from 10m range with only 1 ability requiring melee range.

Assassins : Static regenerating resource.. priority based system of large amounts of buffs/debuffs to maintain and watch (wither, harnessed darkness, overcharge saber, dark ward, energize, discharge, recklessness). Middle of the road for both shield chance and defense with most of its shield chance being tied to dark ward which as a previous poster mentioned suffers when being hit by multiple attacks

 

Juggernauts : Player controlled resource generation with attacks generating and costing rage. Highest defense of all tank classes and largest cooldowns. Because of the focus on defense bad RNG streaks can and will happen (which is where those big cooldowns come into play) and the fact that you have to generate your resource before you can spend it makes it difficult to change up mid rotation.

 

Powertechs : No fancy tools, worst cooldowns of all 3 tanks, highest raw damage reduction (heavy armor, 16% additional armor and talents/debuffs to reduce damage by a further 13%) and shielding (not based on charges as an assassins) makes powertechs have the smoothest damage intake. The heat system is the only thing that really needs to be watched and kept below a certain point to maintain maximum regen while at the same time allows burst to be used when needed with cooldowns available to vent heat. Also has the ability to tank from 10m range with only 1 ability requiring melee range.

 

what about the pros and cons of a assassin dps compared to a powertech dps

 

deception vs advanced prototype

Edited April 16, 2012 by CrunkShizzle

what about the pros and cons of a assassin dps compared to a powertech dps

 

deception vs advanced prototype

 

Couldn't tell you a whole lot about assassin dps. Both Madness and Deception seem viable though although they do suffer from the problem of being melee in a dress if you ever plan on PvPing. Both follow the same priority based nature of the tanking tree spreading your force over keeping given debuffs and procs active and then a filler attack

 

Powertech dps I know and love Pyrotech is the way to go at the moment however. Advanced prototype does have its viability and it got small QoL buffs this patch but is still behind pyro in almost all situations (pyros are up near the top of the dps pecking order with marauders and mercs). Pyro is a very heat heavy rotation focused on prototype particle accelerator procs where as a standard AP build is a rigid 12s rotation focused on prototype flamethrower usage.

what exactly do you mean by "melee in a dress"

 

in terms of the powertech thing.ive looked at pyro,and ive looked at ap and i just like the playstyle of ap better

Edited April 17, 2012 by CrunkShizzle

Both are good. PowerTechs are pretty amazing. Assassin will give you a broader range of options though. But for pure tanking nothing will beat a tank spec Juggernaut. Powertech is probably next, followed by assassin.

 

Jugg? Really? My Assassin tank in full Columi has better mitigation than my Jugg friend who's in near-full Rakata. Assassins, in my opinion, are the best in the game currently. Their rotation is fun and they have one of the best defensive cooldowns out of all the tanks.

 

Assassins also have the largest health pool out of all tanks.

Edited April 17, 2012 by Chaori

My assassin is freshly level 50 and tank-spec. Assassins are strong but they require a lot of micro-management: watching dark charge, looking for proc-buffs, minding debuffs on enemies, and so on. If the shield drops (which it can in heavy aoe situations) you can rapidly become very squishy very fast. Assassins also have a long start-up time before they even begin to feel "tanky". Overall I do enjoy the Assassin and tend to agree it plays a bit like a paladin-deathknight-rogue combination from WoW.

 

Powertechs have the advantage of feeling very tanky right from the get go - but the big downside here is their defensive cooldowns (level 28 so far) are fairly lackluster in how much of a difference they can make. Their AOEs are pretty strong, but you can build up heat very quickly if you aren't careful. Levelling this guy I can say that in the earlier flashpoints I felt substantially more durable than my assassin did (could be just being more experienced) and I had a much easier time with groups of enemies.

what exactly do you mean by "melee in a dress"

 

in terms of the powertech thing.ive looked at pyro,and ive looked at ap and i just like the playstyle of ap better

 

Melee in a dress being you have light armor... Your a sorcerer who runs up and hits people without the bubble, self heals and range advantage.

 

Deception can still be effective as it has tremendous burst killing potential but you really need to pick your fights and do well cause if you screw up you fall over if sneezed at loudly enough