I am really struggling with understanding why Raptus absolutely destroys me in HM. I have downed Raptus many times but it seems like there are pulls where he just hits really hard on my shadow tank.

To give some context with no buffs (no class buffs or stims) my shadow's gear level is:

Health:39577

Damage Reduction: 40.45%

Defense: 479

Shield Rating: 956

Absorb Rating: 1252

Two DF relics: Shield Amplification, Fortunate Redoubt

Basically my tank is in full DF gear with optimized, imo, mods and enhancements. There are still some moments in DP HM on Raptus where he two shots me. It seems to be a thrusting blow followed by another high damage attack.

Have any other shadow tanks had this problem? Any ideas on what to do to improve my survivability?

well..guardian in my team solo tanked last phase a lot of times while i was crushed with the same combo you see: energy blast+melee= dead. i think it's the melee which will happen at a certain point (like when challenge two ends). lately we do extra swaps(other than tank flying ones and force execution repositionings) to have cds available on MT..

We had to start doing the same thing as well. Our other tank, also guardian, had to pretty much exclusively tank the last phase while i just stand there :/. Might have to start doing extra swaps as you mention to see if I spam my CDs even more might make it possible to live. Is there any indicator that Raptus is about to use Thrusting Blast or whatever its called?

Thanks for the answer by the way.

I am really struggling with understanding why Raptus absolutely destroys me in HM. I have downed Raptus many times but it seems like there are pulls where he just hits really hard on my shadow tank.

 

To give some context with no buffs (no class buffs or stims) my shadow's gear level is:

Health:39577

Damage Reduction: 40.45%

Defense: 479

Shield Rating: 956

Absorb Rating: 1252

Two DF relics: Shield Amplification, Fortunate Redoubt

 

Basically my tank is in full DF gear with optimized, imo, mods and enhancements. There are still some moments in DP HM on Raptus where he two shots me. It seems to be a thrusting blow followed by another high damage attack.

 

Have any other shadow tanks had this problem? Any ideas on what to do to improve my survivability?

This happens to me a lot. Some of it comes down to luck: if I shield the Driving Thrust, I'm fine. If I don't, and a healer has been ported out, and he decides to drop another heavy attack on me in quick succession, I'm toast. It's one of the few cases in the game where a One-Big-Hit mechanic still exists, the other being Tyrans's Thundering Blast. Unfortunately, as far as I can tell, Driving Thrust has no indication it's coming, and so you and your healers have to be ready to respond with as much healing as possible on no notice at all. You may also, if I remember correctly and Driving Thrust is an AOE category move, want to try out the Infiltration Hybrid that picks up Fade.

If you played prior to 2.5, this is reminiscent of our problems as tanks in NiM Ops, where bosses could global us with some unlucky lack of shielding, back when we topped out at 35% DR.

This happens to me a lot. Some of it comes down to luck: if I shield the Driving Thrust, I'm fine. If I don't, and a healer has been ported out, and he decides to drop another heavy attack on me in quick succession, I'm toast. It's one of the few cases in the game where a One-Big-Hit mechanic still exists, the other being Tyrans's Thundering Blast. Unfortunately, as far as I can tell, Driving Thrust has no indication it's coming, and so you and your healers have to be ready to respond with as much healing as possible on no notice at all. You may also, if I remember correctly and Driving Thrust is an AOE category move, want to try out the Infiltration Hybrid that picks up Fade.

 

If you played prior to 2.5, this is reminiscent of our problems as tanks in NiM Ops, where bosses could global us with some unlucky lack of shielding, back when we topped out at 35% DR.

Man, that driving thrust. The infiltration hybrid that was mentioned is awesome for that fight, it's where I learned to use it, and it reduces my dtps by a good clip. Just a question here, but are you pulling raptus to you from a distance here, like say your co-tank gets knocked back with the strong swipe, and runs after him, are you taunting him from max distance, cause I've noticed that sometimes when he jumps to me from a big distance he can hit me pretty hard. Just maybe something t think about. Look into the hybrid spec as well. It works, sometimes ridiculously well.

Man, that driving thrust. The infiltration hybrid that was mentioned is awesome for that fight, it's where I learned to use it, and it reduces my dtps by a good clip. Just a question here, but are you pulling raptus to you from a distance here, like say your co-tank gets knocked back with the strong swipe, and runs after him, are you taunting him from max distance, cause I've noticed that sometimes when he jumps to me from a big distance he can hit me pretty hard. Just maybe something t think about. Look into the hybrid spec as well. It works, sometimes ridiculously well.

DO NOT, EVER taunt him from a distance. It's a good way to get killed. I don't wait until my co-tank gets knocked back by the swipe, ever. If I have any reason to suspect he won't dodge it in time, I immediately taunt, and if I misjudge it, I taunt before Raptus leaps away. This is a fight you have to be very proactive on, or you risk wiping. The whole fight is basically: how ready are you for what's coming next, and how quickly can you react to a bad change. It also helps to have the dps/heals on Raptus's side for when Force Execution comes up, so you can force speed backwards out of it without endangering anyone.