What this guide is meant to achieve:

Getting you ex-hybrids out of bad habits

Teaching Vanguards who are sick of tanking the best Vanguard DPS spec currently out there

Providing a starting ground for anyone wanting to learn assault

 

What this guide doesnt cover:

Hard Mode Raids, NiM Raids, and gearing that comes with it

PvP

 

So now we got that out of the way, where do we start?

 

I'd say, with gearing. The first thing to note, is im gonna cover gearing, up until the highest point covered by SM raids (mix of underworld and Oriconian gear)

 

Fresh to Level 55:

 

 

 

So, from that gearing, where to next? Well, next up is the PvPing. With gear like that you should have the bolster you need. "But why am I PvPing?" Because the best relics outside of the HM Raids are obtained from there. Prepare yourself, this is gonna get grindy.

 

What relics am I talking about? The Obroan Serindipitous Assault and Focused Retribution relics. So, once you get through the PvP grind for these 2 relics (should take 1-2 weeks if you have the valor for buying ranked tokens, 3 without it - and dont ever trade ranked comms for unranked ones), you move on to SM Ops. I'd recommend SM SnV/TFB

 

So, Part 2 of the Gearing Guide: Entry Level Raid Gear

 

 

 

 

Finally, we now have a nice gear level for constant SM raids, and if you feel lucky, HM SnV/TFB. HM DF/DP is still out of your league though. Now, next up is underworld gear.

 

NOTE: UNDERWORLD TOKENS DROP RANDOMLY IN THE LAST 2 BOSSES OF SM DF and DP. USE THESE TO YOUR ADVANTAGE

 

HM DF/DP and NiM SnV/TFB Prepped Gear:

 

 

 

Now if you look at the gear more closely, you will notice that this is the spec that is being used. This spec has been determined to be the optimal spec for an assault vanguard (I know this due to trying 7/3/36 for a bit, though I definately missed all that crit I get from 4/6/46):

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#801hzZMsZfhbrzRrffdz.3

 

A closer look at the skills:

 

 

 

 

Ok, so the Gearing and the Spec have been looked at. Next up, is the Actual moves.

 

The first thing to know about the Assault Spec, is that any attempt at making a rotation is gonna be hurt by bad RNG. I've tried. A lot. Its when you give up the idea of a rotation and instead move on to priorities that things start working properly.

 

So what is the priority?

 

ATTACK PRIORITY:

 

 

 

 

Damage/Percent:

 

High Impact Bolt: 25.56%

Ion Pulse: 21.55%

Assault Plastique: 14.46%

Stock Strike: 12.77%

Incendiary Round: 10.26%

Plasma Cell: 9.19%

Hammer Shots: 3.53%

Shoulder Cannon: 2.68%

 

BASIC TIPS:

 

 

 

 

This guide is now going to end with a parse. The gear for this parse is pretty similar, to optimised underworld, just without a LOT of the 78s, and using an arkanian chestpiece in order to get the set bonus:

 

http://www.torparse.com/a/542949

 

As you can see, in non-optimised 72s its possible to hit over 3k damage - and getting to optimized 72s will probably give you 3.3k on a dummy.

 

TO STILL COME:

Tips for each Individual Boss

Dread Forged Gearing

PvP tips to get those Obroan Relics faster

Better explanation of offensive and defensive cooldowns, as well as each standard ability

Edited January 20, 2014 by TACeMossie

I think this is a pretty good outline for what a nice Assault rotation should be.

 

A few thoughts/personal opinions as to how I think about the class.

 

1. Assault, being invested deeply in RNG proc generation, cannot really have a rotation. To me it will always be a priority list.

 

2. You may know exactly what you mean while you created your list (because you made it) but it took me a couple minutes to figure out what you meant by the cooldown tab. At first I thought you were implying that you would use a particular CD (RC/RPC) and not that you were basically creating a priority list of attacks for each possibility.

 

3. Assault VG ammo regen lives and dies by Ionic Accelerator. I agree with your priorities if IA procs, but your "rotation" falls to pieces if it does not proc. Case in point.

4 (any) Ionic Accelerator High Impact Bolt

4 (any) Hammer Shots

5 (any) Assault Plastique

6 (any) Reserve Powercell Ion Pulse

6 (any) Hammer Shots

7 (any) Ion Pulse

8 (any) Ionic Accelerator High Impact Bolt

 

If you find yourself in a situation where you choose the non-IA option for attack 4, Hammer Shots, then AP then IP with RP up, and you happen to proc IA on that IP, it obviously won't be up in time to be procced by IP in attack 7 then be used in a HIB on attack 8.

 

Again, I think this has good formulations for priority list, but lacks contingencies for some bad luck RNG IA proccing. This issue I would be curious to see your opinion about is what you think is optimal if you SS hoping for an IA proc, without success, you then IP, hoping for IA, with no luck, and then you notice your DoTs are about to fall off. Without good RNG and a contingency plan, we can run out of ammo from IP spam very quickly.

 

4. Is this just an ideal rotation for dummy? or do you think this would be sound for a raid situation as well. Abilities like parallactic combat stims provide an additional pathway for ammo regen (granted its only on some fights) that your rotation is not likely to optimally take advantage of.

 

5, Battle Focus can be a awkward offensive cooldown. With the set bonus CD reduction, it can be used every 1min45sec, while the CD on Should Cannon is 1min 30. I personally like to line up SC-->BF-->BA relic pop over the course of ~35sec, but because the CD reduction is equal to its uptime, I can't help but feel that wasting 15sec of potential uptime every 2 min to align with BA CD is not 100% effective, but I can't come up with a better scenario.

 

6. One of the most difficult things I've been trying to establish in ironing out the bugs in my skills is at what time (in sec) do I stop trying to proc IA and simply let the CD of HIB fall off naturally. 8 Energy cell cost HIB are still extremely effective, and almost energy neutral in the high regen regime. Arguably a case could be made that if your HIB CD is below 4-5sec, proccing IA could be seen as a decrease in dps, because its forcing a 6sec ICD onto HIB before you can use it again. But if mechanics are such that you find yourself with 4 or so seconds left on the normal CD of HIB, it could be more beneficial to run a rotation of Filler-Filler-Filler (more than likely at least one of those would be IR or AP)-HIB-SS(IA)-HIB.

 

7. If you're looking to absolutely hit your max dps, the damage done by reactive shield should not be discounted (it's not much, but every little bit helps when it's just to see how high you can go.

 

Overall I think it's a really nice start, and a good resource, but while not a complex spec, Assault doesn't play nicely with a set rotation. I think basically the pointers that should always be followed (and the following certainly isn't exclusive).

a. If HIB is off CD, use it. Don't try proccing IA if you can use HIB as is.

b. 6sec rotation for IA: SS(IA)-HIB-X-X-IP(IA)-Etc.

c. Have contingency values of ammo that you won't go below searching for an IA proc.

d. Always have at least 1 burn on your target (ideally all 3) while using HIB for the ammo return.

e. Don't use an IA procced HIB at full-ish ammo. Once it's procced, you have 3 cooldowns to optimally use it. If it procs and your high on ammo, but you know you're going to need to IR or AP before it procs again, DoT then HIB. IA should be used a CD Reset DPS mechanism and a Ammo regen mechanism. Using HIB at full ammo is minimizing its utility.

 

Of course the above are just my thoughts and opinions, of which I'm sure many people will disagree on at least a few of them.

Edited December 11, 2013 by JMagee

Thanks for the feedback! BTW I actually had the energy values for each GCD written down, but when I put it in here everything got all messy, just know that energy management if you follow this should be incredibly easy, as you never drop below 60 energy.

 

I will, however, update the OP so it looks nicer and the GCD column is explained more..

 

As for shoulder cannon on 15 secs less than Battle Focus for the cooldown, it takes 30 seconds to load the missiles, so if you start loading off cooldown, you can syncronise the use of the missiles with battle focus.

Edited December 11, 2013 by TACeMossie

Thanks for the feedback! BTW I actually had the energy values for each GCD written down, but when I put it in here everything got all messy, just know that energy management if you follow this should be incredibly easy, as you never drop below 60 energy.

 

I will, however, update the OP so it looks nicer and the GCD column is explained more..

 

As for shoulder cannon on 15 secs less than Battle Focus for the cooldown, it takes 30 seconds to load the missiles, so if you start loading off cooldown, you can syncronise the use of the missiles with battle focus.

 

 

To your Battle Focus Shoulder Missile point:

 

I understand that completely, and that, in principle is what how I use it, that 15 sec window for loading lines up nicely with the cooldown. My rambling point was that if you try and line up a Boundless Ages relic proc relic with it as well, which has a 2min CD, it can easily get off CD schedule on long fights and I was wondering aloud if there is a better way to use Battle Focus on cooldown, rather than waiting for other things to come off and line up for even a little more bang for your buck.

To your Battle Focus Shoulder Missile point:

 

I understand that completely, and that, in principle is what how I use it, that 15 sec window for loading lines up nicely with the cooldown. My rambling point was that if you try and line up a Boundless Ages relic proc relic with it as well, which has a 2min CD, it can easily get off CD schedule on long fights and I was wondering aloud if there is a better way to use Battle Focus on cooldown, rather than waiting for other things to come off and line up for even a little more bang for your buck.

 

Well, if it makes you feel any better...

I dont use a boundless ages. I use a PvP Mainstat Proc + A PvP Power Proc (slightly better performance over the long term if you dont have self heals in comparison to underworlds)

 

So my suggestion is get the boundless ages swapped out for a PvP Mainstat proc, or a Dread Forged mainstat proc, as it performs better (its effectively a double power proc, but with added crit as well)

Well, if it makes you feel any better...

I dont use a boundless ages. I use a PvP Mainstat Proc + A PvP Power Proc (slightly better performance over the long term if you dont have self heals in comparison to underworlds)

 

So my suggestion is get the boundless ages swapped out for a PvP Mainstat proc, or a Dread Forged mainstat proc, as it performs better (its effectively a double power proc, but with added crit as well)

 

I'm not trying to suggest your doing something sub-optimal. I'm just more wondering than stating what is the optimal use of Battle Focus, and relic combinations certainly do apply to getting the most out of it. I would agree that a SA and Focused Retribution combo makes SC-BF so much more applicable on cooldown. But I can't get away from the thought that BF-BA relic burst may be a little bit better.

 

Bottom line is I don't personally know if BF-FR or BF-BA works better. Just starting a dialogue and looking for opinions

where's the parses?

 

7-8-31 VG. Missing 78 MH, using matrix cube, and not min/max enhancements, yet. Also, UW ear, Oriconian implants.

 

http://www.torparse.com/a/518670/6/0/Overview

 

Could have prolly broke 3k, didn't blow ammo and use recharge cells on CD...Stayed above 4 ticks until <30%, where I did blow ammo and use recharge cells.

Edited December 11, 2013 by T-Assassin

3362 parse. I'm pretty sure I can do a 3400+ if I sat here and parsed for a while. I kind of screwed myself up mid way through the parse but made it up during the sub30% burn phase. Using DF Boundless ages, Obroan SA, and reusable crit adrenal. I don't have any of the newer relics but if I get some I'll try them out.

3362 parse. I'm pretty sure I can do a 3400+ if I sat here and parsed for a while. I kind of screwed myself up mid way through the parse but made it up during the sub30% burn phase. Using DF Boundless ages, Obroan SA, and reusable crit adrenal. I don't have any of the newer relics but if I get some I'll try them out.

 

YOU!!!

 

you're the #$%$# that is above me in all those SM parses!!

 

you min/max'd with 78 MH?

 

and crit adrenal...hmm. I've always wondered, but never really tried one, even tho I have a reusable crafted.

 

I've got some room for improvement myself. I rarely use recharge cells and keep my ammo above 4 ticks. Just did some quick parsing today to post on server forums

 

Nice parse!

 

My gear is 90% dread forged. I need 3 enhacements, a 2nd relic, and a mainhand before i'm fully 78. You really should dump all of your ammo at the start when you have all of your offensive CDs on. I basically don't use hammer shots at all until I hit about 30 ammo and then pop my recharge cells. I then burn recharge cells on CD with my other offensives. You will break 3k easy if you do that.

edit-----

3390 parse Held my cooldowns for too long at the end. 3400 is soo close.

Edited December 12, 2013 by swgbex
parse

Ok I decided to get some parses in:

 

Here is my current gear and current wishlist - Assuming no runs of HM DF/DP and NiM SnV/TFB

 

http://swtor.askmrrobot.com/character/82da5434-3222-4104-ba7c-1e08d95b0ade

 

And the parses:

http://www.torparse.com/a/519280

 

These are done with a Nano-infused Attack Adrenal, on a armor reduction dummy with 1 million HP

 

Sure its not the 3.39k the other guy was getting, but his gear is a lot better...

 

Also I prefer the +power adrenal to +crit personally.

 

Also goes to show a fully optimized in underworld gear pyro could probably hit 3k dps following this rotation (I stuffed up a little on all of them)

Edited December 12, 2013 by TACeMossie

I ops on my pyro and don't spec into AP at all. Would rather put skills elsewhere and getting off 2-3 IP's in the same time as 1 AP will give me more damage. I easily parse out 3K+ on the training dummy. My gear is very similar to yours. Maybe better in one slot.

 

I'll put together my build in Mr Robot and upload some parses so we can discsuss.

 

I bounce between 7/8/31 and 8/731. Both give me about the same damage.

Edited December 12, 2013 by ZillaElite

I ops on my pyro and don't spec into AP at all. Would rather put skills elsewhere and getting off 2-3 IP's in the same time as 1 AP will give me more damage. I easily parse out 3K+ on the training dummy. My gear is very similar to yours. Maybe better in one slot.

 

I'll put together my build in Mr Robot and upload some parses so we can discsuss.

 

I bounce between 7/8/31 and 8/731. Both give me about the same damage.

 

Yeah I used to do 8/8/30, then I realised that Assault Plastique was hammering them for over 6k damage + Burnout without crits, while a Crit Ion Pulse in my current gear was 5k damage, it then occured to me that Assault Plastique hits like a truck.

 

For reference, we will look at the last parse I linked (5 mins 45 seconds to kill the dummy)

It did 2883.5dps, however with 8/7/31 (Maths proved this to be stronger) it only would have done 2781.59dps, and with 8/8/28 (+2 in a defensive ability e.g. power armor) it would have done 2804.57dps - showing that grabbing assault plastique is a definite increase (up to a 3.6% increase) - and if you dont like it then dont bother going above burnout

 

Oh and one more thing: With my best parse (2883.45dps) I stuffed up energy management in the second minute, and if you cut it out the DPS skyrockets to 2.95k dps - which if it got optimized it should be above 3k dps.

Edited December 14, 2013 by TACeMossie

Are you guys using SS on cooldown? I read somewhere that some people only use it to proc HiB every other time. I've been parsing quite a bit on my Pyro PT and really love the rotation, doing better with it than 2/22/22 hybrid. Another note, here's my opener, and I've hit over 4500 burst damage in full 69 gear.

 

AP>IR>HiB>SS>HiB with cooldowns, adrenals, shoulder cannon spam, etc.

 

Is that how you guys are setting up your dots? I found that using AP first lines up the cooldowns better for reapplying AP and IR. If I use IR then AP, they come off cooldown at the same time and there is downtime for AP's burn.

 

One thing I do, also, is I have ToRassist cue me audibly 2 GCDs before IR drops so I can prepare my resources accordingly.

Are you guys using SS on cooldown? I read somewhere that some people only use it to proc HiB every other time. I've been parsing quite a bit on my Pyro PT and really love the rotation, doing better with it than 2/22/22 hybrid. Another note, here's my opener, and I've hit over 4500 burst damage in full 69 gear.

 

AP>IR>HiB>SS>HiB with cooldowns, adrenals, shoulder cannon spam, etc.

 

Is that how you guys are setting up your dots? I found that using AP first lines up the cooldowns better for reapplying AP and IR. If I use IR then AP, they come off cooldown at the same time and there is downtime for AP's burn.

 

One thing I do, also, is I have ToRassist cue me audibly 2 GCDs before IR drops so I can prepare my resources accordingly.

 

Regarding SS, personally, yes and no.

 

It's obviously circumstantial, but RNG tends to generally be about ~45% on IP and feel closer to 75% for SS. So if I know I have an IA window coming up and SS coming off cooldown, I'll wait, but no more than 1-2GCDs. If it falls off of CD immediately after IA is procced (by IP) I personally don't hold it until the IA window opens up again, I'll just use it during the filler GCDs, if ammo allows.

 

More or less I'd agree with that DoT set up. It really depends where I am when the fight starts to figure out what my exact order is. If the fight has a some periods of downtime or adds, I'll always try and re-DoT before the downtime starts. Also, on fights like Op IX and Calphayus last phase, I try and pre-DoT 1-2 GCDs before they become vulnerable, so I can start bursting that much sooner.

 

The only issue with worrying about keeping your DoTs up non-stop, is it can wreak havoc on IA windows and thus your ammo management. If I know AP and IA are coming off CD on the same GCD, I'll try and proc IA before reapplying AP. Falling behind of IA ammo regen to DoT management can become unforgiving quickly. One crit tick of a DoT does ~1200damage, which isn't worth falling into the doldrums of 1-2ticks ammo regen.

 

But just things to be mindful of, working with proc windows and DoT timers can't be as cut and dry as 100% uptime

Edited December 16, 2013 by JMagee

I found that I have fine heat management without being too careful about the IA procs. I never use a hard hitter when I'm over 24 heat (all skills are 16 heat and 40 is the threshold for best heat dissipation for PTs) but I haven't focused on getting the proc before throwing the dots back up. I'm coming from many long hours of parsing Vengeance, so I'm used to getting the dots up before using the big hitters (Ravage or in this case HiB), but I guess most of our dps comes from HiB and using that every 6 seconds on average (proccing it every 6 seconds, that is) and delaying the dots by 1 or 2 GCDS is better overall? I'll have to play around with focusing on the proc first for a while and see how that holds up. Thanks for the quick reply. I enjoy playing the underdog specs and seeing how well I can do with them, and this thread has been very helpful.

I found that I have fine heat management without being too careful about the IA procs. I never use a hard hitter when I'm over 24 heat (all skills are 16 heat and 40 is the threshold for best heat dissipation for PTs) but I haven't focused on getting the proc before throwing the dots back up. I'm coming from many long hours of parsing Vengeance, so I'm used to getting the dots up before using the big hitters (Ravage or in this case HiB), but I guess most of our dps comes from HiB and using that every 6 seconds on average (proccing it every 6 seconds, that is) and delaying the dots by 1 or 2 GCDS is better overall? I'll have to play around with focusing on the proc first for a while and see how that holds up. Thanks for the quick reply. I enjoy playing the underdog specs and seeing how well I can do with them, and this thread has been very helpful.

 

Of course, to start DoT'ing up won't leave you ammo starved at all. Regarding IA vs. DoTs I don't have conclusive evidence to state which is a definitive priority, and once below 30%, the additional burn damage makes it even a bit more interesting of a discussion.

 

Regarding proccing IA vs. DoTing...again, just based on how it feels to me. I will always try to proc IA when it's off CD. Especially if SS is off CD as well. If ammo regen is good at that point, there's nothing wrong with proccing, then DoT'ing, then HiB. I think one of the most common "mistakes" with regard to IA/HIB is that you don't have to use it immediately. You can proc IA, then go IR>AP>HIB>SS(IA)>HIB if the situation called for it.

 

But I don't think there's any "correct" answer. It's a spec that works a lot on "feel" with just general sorts of priorities.

I found that I have fine heat management without being too careful about the IA procs. I never use a hard hitter when I'm over 24 heat (all skills are 16 heat and 40 is the threshold for best heat dissipation for PTs) but I haven't focused on getting the proc before throwing the dots back up. I'm coming from many long hours of parsing Vengeance, so I'm used to getting the dots up before using the big hitters (Ravage or in this case HiB), but I guess most of our dps comes from HiB and using that every 6 seconds on average (proccing it every 6 seconds, that is) and delaying the dots by 1 or 2 GCDS is better overall? I'll have to play around with focusing on the proc first for a while and see how that holds up. Thanks for the quick reply. I enjoy playing the underdog specs and seeing how well I can do with them, and this thread has been very helpful.

 

(I noticed you play PT Pyro from your use of the term heat, so this following post was translated)

 

Exactly. If Rail Shot is proccing every 6 seconds, then it makes up 30% of your damage. Same with the Dots.

 

Except Rail Shot will refresh one of the dots, and also assists in your energy management, as using it gives you about -16 heat instead of +8 heat in a GCD, so its much more important.

 

For reference, If you have a parse where you have 100% Proc uptime (as in, it always activates every 4th turn) but the rotation is literally Ion Pulsex3 -> HiB with a hammer shots thrown in every so often and shoulder cannon + Crit boost used on cooldown, you do about 6/7's of the damage the spec can do. So by throwing in those extra dots and using stockstrike on cooldown, you get about 16-20% extra damage (well now that I put it that way it looks like a lot...), but that is going from completely ignoring them to replacing half of the ion pulses/flame bursts with one of the DoT appliers and 2 stockstrikes/rocket punches.

So I've been playing Pyro on my merc lately and came back to my PT to compare the two playstyles. For a while, I decided to capitalize on the 6 second internal cooldown related to HiB and played while counting in my head, "Proc, 2, 3, 4, Proc, 2, 3, 4" etc. I found that I overheated far too often when my failure to proc resulted in an extra IA or SS. I was hitting around 2550 dps where as before I was getting parses as high as 2800 in mostly 69 gear with 72 mods, 10/14 augments. I abandoned the counting approach, which resulted in delaying my procs by 1 or sometimes 2 GCDs in some cases to keep up the dots/manage heat and had a new highest parse of 2835.

 

I like the predictability of Merc Pyro/Assault Mando since you can keep HiB on cd on 6 second intervals, but it seems that PT Pyro/Assault VG is much more volatile with RNG and, at least in my case, getting HiB procs every 6 seconds just isn't possible with good heat management as well. Anyone have any thoughts? I think in full 72 gear I could easily do over 3k.

Updated the OP with my current gear, best parse, and new notes obtained over the last couple of weeks.

So after looking at how KBN wrote out his Combat Sentinel Guide, I have decided that this guide will be rewritten over the next few days, in order to make it a lot more useful for people who are going to be leaving the (rumored to be) doomed hybrid spec and looking for a new DPS spec. Expect a massively re-done front page soon-ish.

 

This will include:

 

Gearing in both Underworld (achievable for any SM Raider) and Dread Forged (Achievable for the HM raiders)

Rotation Priorities

Initial Parse (from me in my SM Gear glory)

Additional tricks

Edited January 10, 2014 by TACeMossie