A new ability, Saber Reflect, has been added. Saber Reflect reflects all direct, single target ranged, Force, and Tech damage back to the attacker for 3 seconds. This ability is trainable at level 51.

A new passive ability, Visionary, has been added. Visionary builds 1 Focus when attacked. This effect cannot occur more than once every 6 seconds.

Guard: Crowd control effects that break on damage will no longer break from damage redirected through Guard. For example, a blinded guarder will no longer be broken out of the blind from damage dealt to a guarded target within guard range.

Guard: Effects that are triggered through dealing damage which affect a target who is guarded will no longer also affect the guarder.

Sundering Strike has been redesigned. This ability now has a 15-second cooldown, applies 20% armor reduction for 45 seconds, and builds 5 Focus. The armor reduction it applies no longer stacks.

Soresu Form no longer generates Focus when attacked.

 

Vigilance

Shien Form no longer generates Focus when attacked.

Plasma Brand now has a 12-second cooldown and deals slightly more damage and no longer requires an armor reduction effect to be present.

 

Defense

Guardian Slash has been redesigned. This ability now deals high damage to the target, and if the target is affected by armor reduction this attack will strike up to 4 additional nearby enemies. Using Guardian Slash enables Riposte and increases all damage reduction by 3% for 20 seconds.

 

Focus (Guardian)

Force Exhaustion now slows targets from 50% (down from 60%) to 5% movement speed and deals damage over 3 seconds.

Focused Resonance now affects all types of damage.

I feel saber reflect will be extremely useful during burn phases. Note that it won't work against melee damage.

When first seeing vissionary, I thought oh goodies, 2 focus every 6 seconds, but no forms will build focus now.

The Sundering strike changes seem to give us our own Zealous Strike. This is good for burst now that our stacks (err... stack, now) gets us the full DR, but this really ruins the simplicity of many rotations.

The Plasma brand I feel is a nerf, since it deals only slightly more damage, I can no longer proc Masterstike or Force Rush as often. I liked how both overhead slash and PB were on 9 sec CDs with the proc for masterstrike.

Obviously buff for tanks, Now it does more damage with an increase in defense and even more with blade barrier from reposte.

The movement speed for Exhaustion is so small I feel it makes little difference, but obvious buff.

Resonance will be broken imo, it will now be 30% surge to everything. I understand that they're a 1 trick pony, but all other specs that run around with lots of resource like vigilance and advanced prototype don't do big hitters. I really hope the new Resonance does not make live update.

What are your thoughts on all this

So I had a guildmate on the PTS read some of the vigilance guardian changes in the tree.

Key points not in the Darth Hater or patch notes

Preperation reduces the cooldown by 100% on the affected abilities.

Keening gives a 3% increase per point to your burns in addition to the Dispatch chance.

So I had a guildmate on the PTS read some of the vigilance guardian changes in the tree.

 

Key points not in the Darth Hater or patch notes

 

Preperation reduces the cooldown by 100% on the affected abilities.

 

Keening gives a 3% increase per point to your burns in addition to the Dispatch chance.

Is preparation the one that allows dispatch on any target? People need to upload videos of each skill tree and hovering over each point for a few seconds.

Is preparation the one that allows dispatch on any target? People need to upload videos of each skill tree and hovering over each point for a few seconds.

No Keening does that in addition to the burn damage increase.

Preperation is the one that resets Leap, Combat Focus, and Throw at the end of combat. (Think those are the skills, doing it from memory).

No Keening does that in addition to the burn damage increase.

 

Preperation is the one that resets Leap, Combat Focus, and Throw at the end of combat. (Think those are the skills, doing it from memory).

It sounds like preparation could be a nice buff for PvP then, kill a target and instantly have all your Focus generators available again. Won't really matter in PvE.

It sounds like preparation could be a nice buff for PvP then, kill a target and instantly have all your Focus generators available again. Won't really matter in PvE.

Yeah that was my thought as well. Vigilance did need a little boost PvP wise now that the specs burst has been nerfed by the Force Rush changes. From what my guildmate said Gather Strength looked the same so don't be expecting much there. It seems Preperation + Saber Redirect are the main improvements for Vig Guardians.

PvE wise.....well my copy of the PTS is still downloading. I'm interested to see what will be the differences when I parse myself on the ops dummy.

Anyone had an opportunity to test the changes?

First of all, you'll be swimming in Focus as Vigilance. As Plasma Brand is now on a 12-sec cooldown you don't use it as often as before; Sundering Strike generates 7 Focus every 12 seconds (with Victory Rush and Improved Sundering Strike); Combat Focus' CD is now a baseline 45 seconds; Zen Strike generates one more Focus; the free Dispatch actually refunds one Focus. Resources are so plentiful that I actually found myself using Slash on the Ops dummy.

Keening is really nice. Plasma Brand's burn can now crit in the 1.3-1.4k range with each tick; Overhead Slash got a damage buff, I hit for 5.7k on the Ops dummy with a mix of Arkanian/Campaign gear but even in my "original", actual gear I hit for close to 5k with it. Without having to spam Sundering Strike the whole experience is just more comfortable and... streamlined. With a 4-36-6 build you can have access to the 7.5% increased crit chance on Slash and Dispatch which is now useful as Dispatch is not an autocrit - if it were, it would be RETARDEDLY OP with Keening. Force Rush now stacks up to two times and the proc is triggered by Dispatch as well as PB and OS - so Blade Storm still gets a 50% increase in crit chance, down from 60%.

In theory that should still make it almost a guaranteed crit - in a 9 minute parse I had 97% crit success with Blade Storm - but crit rating is a bit wonky. Not sure how it's supposed to be but at 275 crit rating I had 21.52% crit chance; I buffed the crit rating to 519 out of curiosity which bumped up the crit chance to... 24.9% if I recall correctly. That's with Smuggler buff, Consular buff, 6% extra Strength, Rakata Might Stim. I know the stat budget is higher at level 55 but THIS higher?

Saber Reflect is really nice in PvP, Preparation... well I barely noticed that since "exiting combat" usually meant death with all the extra damage everyone was dealing with the Expertise changes.

First of all, you'll be swimming in Focus as Vigilance. As Plasma Brand is now on a 12-sec cooldown you don't use it as often as before; Sundering Strike generates 7 Focus every 12 seconds (with Victory Rush and Improved Sundering Strike); Combat Focus' CD is now a baseline 45 seconds; Zen Strike generates one more Focus; the free Dispatch actually refunds one Focus. Resources are so plentiful that I actually found myself using Slash on the Ops dummy.

 

Keening is really nice. Plasma Brand's burn can now crit in the 1.3-1.4k range with each tick; Overhead Slash got a damage buff, I hit for 5.7k on the Ops dummy with a mix of Arkanian/Campaign gear but even in my "original", actual gear I hit for close to 5k with it. Without having to spam Sundering Strike the whole experience is just more comfortable and... streamlined. With a 4-36-6 build you can have access to the 7.5% increased crit chance on Slash and Dispatch which is now useful as Dispatch is not an autocrit - if it were, it would be RETARDEDLY OP with Keening. Force Rush now stacks up to two times and the proc is triggered by Dispatch as well as PB and OS - so Blade Storm still gets a 50% increase in crit chance, down from 60%.

 

In theory that should still make it almost a guaranteed crit - in a 9 minute parse I had 97% crit success with Blade Storm - but crit rating is a bit wonky. Not sure how it's supposed to be but at 275 crit rating I had 21.52% crit chance; I buffed the crit rating to 519 out of curiosity which bumped up the crit chance to... 24.9% if I recall correctly. That's with Smuggler buff, Consular buff, 6% extra Strength, Rakata Might Stim. I know the stat budget is higher at level 55 but THIS higher?

 

Saber Reflect is really nice in PvP, Preparation... well I barely noticed that since "exiting combat" usually meant death with all the extra damage everyone was dealing with the Expertise changes.

actually with the way it is currently on the pts if you do your rotation right its 50% stacking up to 2 times so it ends up being 100% crit chance (a buff technically) as long as you use at least 2 of plasma brand over head slash or dispatch before hand.

actually with the way it is currently on the pts if you do your rotation right its 50% stacking up to 2 times so it ends up being 100% crit chance (a buff technically) as long as you use at least 2 of plasma brand over head slash or dispatch before hand.

Oh, cool. Then I screwed up somewhere, not really a surprise

actually with the way it is currently on the pts if you do your rotation right its 50% stacking up to 2 times so it ends up being 100% crit chance (a buff technically) as long as you use at least 2 of plasma brand over head slash or dispatch before hand.

Thats great news! Some of the changes from the sounds of things had me hesitant at first but this is very reasuring.

It sounds like preparation could be a nice buff for PvP then, kill a target and instantly have all your Focus generators available again. Won't really matter in PvE.

matters the most for solo pve; all of my long cd moves (like leap) are on cd while a master strike and a couple of other moves finish them off in <10 seconds. This allows me to get back into the fray extremely well

Contrarily, in pvp combat usually wont drop because battles will be between large groups at a time. But if you can drop combat, this change is extremely needed and will **** improve focus generation and may even make me use slash!

actually with the way it is currently on the pts if you do your rotation right its 50% stacking up to 2 times so it ends up being 100% crit chance (a buff technically) as long as you use at least 2 of plasma brand over head slash or dispatch before hand.

Wait so rush only afffects blade storm now and not dispatch? Does blade storm consume force rush? If it does, then that sucks, plasma brand's 12 second CD means full rush ever y12 seconds, yet blade storm every 9 . If BS does not consume, then that means in theory, assuming rush is still 9 seconds, that using overhead slash literally every time its on cd should reset the proc if its absolutely perfect (The same goes for energy blast resetting the tanking skill in the vanguard tree - you never need to use ion pulse), though with ability delay it is unlikely.

Force Rush lasts 15 seconds but yes, Blade Storm consumes the stacks. Overhead Slash, Plasma Brand and Dispatch all trigger Force Rush so it's not hard to keep it up all the time.

Okay, good. It looks like vigi is nice again. And this encourages me to restart my whole rotation with these changes; Thanks a bunch! PTS still has a gig left for main assets 1. lol

Okay, good. It looks like vigi is nice again. And this encourages me to restart my whole rotation with these changes; Thanks a bunch! PTS still has a gig left for main assets 1. lol

yeah the force rush actually got a buff to scream, in place of it affecting dispatch. so auto crit on scream + dispatch in all phases + improved bleeds + ravager is exclusive to jugs!! = one viable dps jug/guard

yeah the force rush actually got a buff to scream, in place of it affecting dispatch. so auto crit on scream + dispatch in all phases + improved bleeds + ravager is exclusive to jugs!! = one viable dps jug/guard

I just wish we could get some sort of reason to use ravage in pvp. I really, really, really wish it rooted the target, though that may be a bit op to have (potentially) 3 seconds of root, 9 seconds of walking, 3 seconds of root, etc.

I just wish we could get some sort of reason to use ravage in pvp. I really, really, really wish it rooted the target, though that may be a bit op to have (potentially) 3 seconds of root, 9 seconds of walking, 3 seconds of root, etc.

Are you serious? Just use it after charge, between Unremitting and Stagger they have to burn a cooldown if they don't want to take all 3 hits. It works fine now that way and will still work fine that way with 2.0.

Btw, parsed the new Vigilance... did 2430, I messed up the rotation some and was using the stock 69 gear you get from the vendor without any tweaks (did move it over to my armor so I had some strength augments in). For reference, my friend on his Assault Vanguard, who easily parses over 2k now, was only doing around 2.2-2.3k on bosses in hard mode Hammer Station.

I'm thinking we're going to want the 2 piece Sentinel bonus, as Master Strike still makes up significantly more of our damage than Blade Storm does (22% compared to 14%).

http://www.torparse.com/a/139777/32/0/Overview

Does the Guardian Slash AOE now hit CC'd targets?

How about removing the threat drop from Focused Defense for Guards in Soresu so it can frickin be used by tanks? Please?!?

How about removing the threat drop from Focused Defense for Guards in Soresu so it can frickin be used by tanks? Please?!?

Guardians are getting Saber Reflect. That's *more* than enough CD based ******ness.

Does the Guardian Slash AOE now hit CC'd targets?

 

How about removing the threat drop from Focused Defense for Guards in Soresu so it can frickin be used by tanks? Please?!?

No it doesn't, however there's a bug where it doesn't apply the AOE effect if it kills the target you initially attack.

For your second question, why? We have Saber Reflect now, arguably the best defensive cooldown in the entire game for any tank on only a 1 minute cooldown, AND Saber Ward and Invincible have had their cooldowns reduced by 30 seconds each. I know its early, but I'm already thinking Guardians are potentially the best tanks with all the changes taken into account to this point.

Does the Guardian Slash AOE now hit CC'd targets?

 

How about removing the threat drop from Focused Defense for Guards in Soresu so it can frickin be used by tanks? Please?!?

Yeah I think that Soresu should remove Focused Defense's threat drop.

Are you serious? Just use it after charge, between Unremitting and Stagger they have to burn a cooldown if they don't want to take all 3 hits. It works fine now that way and will still work fine that way with 2.0.

 

Btw, parsed the new Vigilance... did 2430, I messed up the rotation some and was using the stock 69 gear you get from the vendor without any tweaks (did move it over to my armor so I had some strength augments in). For reference, my friend on his Assault Vanguard, who easily parses over 2k now, was only doing around 2.2-2.3k on bosses in hard mode Hammer Station.

 

I'm thinking we're going to want the 2 piece Sentinel bonus, as Master Strike still makes up significantly more of our damage than Blade Storm does (22% compared to 14%).

 

http://www.torparse.com/a/139777/32/0/Overview

Actually, I meant anytime after the first one. I feel that vigi needs to parse the absolute most unconditionally when using master strike since we are a (Trying to say this with a straight face IRL) an immobile caster melee lmao

Actually, I meant anytime after the first one. I feel that vigi needs to parse the absolute most unconditionally when using master strike since we are a (Trying to say this with a straight face IRL) an immobile caster melee lmao

Assuming you mean in PvP, its not a big deal, leaps cooldown is 15 seconds, meaning unless Zen Strike procs for you, you're going to be using leap again before your 2nd Master Strike anyways, OR you can use Force Push to get another leap in as well.

And if you take Preparation for PvP (which you should), you'll have everything off cooldown everytime you finish off a target anyways, fantastic if you're picking off a ranged DPS in the back who isn't being supported by his teammates.

Still downloading test client, so I just looked at the updated defense talent tree http://pts.swtor-spy.com/skill-tree-calculator/guardian/225/ and have some questions/comments:

Battlefield Command might be useful if it reduced the minimum range of force Leap to 5/0 with 1/2 points invested.

What's the point of Purifying Sweeps now that Sundering Strike gives you your 5 stacks of armor debuff? Is it a separate and stacking armor debuff? Is it the same 20% debuff?

Other than that, I'm actually pleased with the changes to Defense Tree

Still downloading test client, so I just looked at the updated defense talent tree http://pts.swtor-spy.com/skill-tree-calculator/guardian/225/ and have some questions/comments:

 

Battlefield Command might be useful if it reduced the minimum range of force Leap to 5/0 with 1/2 points invested.

 

What's the point of Purifying Sweeps now that Sundering Strike gives you your 5 stacks of armor debuff? Is it a separate and stacking armor debuff? Is it the same 20% debuff?

 

Other than that, I'm actually pleased with the changes to Defense Tree

The point of Purifying Sweeps is to put the sunder debuff on multiple targets at once, helps your DPS and makes more of them susceptible to the AOE effect of Guardian Slash. I suppose on a single target boss fight it'd be unnecessary but if you look at the tree, it makes perfect sense to spec for it in PvE for normal situations at least.

Battlefield command is basically a PvP talent, although it can be nice for speed running a flashpoint or dailies as well.