Jedi Guardian: Defense Compendium

[Deleted]

[This Compendium has several outdated sections, though it will still give you a good look into how the Guardian works - for a updated sithwarrior.com version click here]

Jedi Guardian: Defense Compendium

For those playing Empire, all stats and mechanics are the same.

For a list of mirrored Sith Warrior vs Jedi knight Abilties – check out http://sithwarrior.com/forums/Thread...ogy-Dictionary
Replace any Republic talent or ability with the Empires – and you can use this compendium just as well.

Content:
Facts.
Introduction to Guardian core tanking abilities.
Talents.
Stats.
[UPDATE: New Section - 08/12/11]Gearing and Stat Ratings.
Stat weight discussion.
Priority system and threat mechanics.


Quick Jedi Guardian Facts:
 Wields a single light saber.
 Can take on two different roles: Tank and Damage dealer.
 Uses focus as resource.
 Wears heavy armor.
 Uses strength as main stat.

Playable races:

Human

Miralian

Zabrak

Twi’lek

The choice of race has no impact on your performance in raids or PvP – so you can pick whatever race you think matches your personal taste the best.

Companions:

While you level your Jedi you will meet new companions that can aid you in combat in many different ways.
Even though you have a companion that is primarily a tank – you can still change their combat “forms” and have them deal damage instead. Your companions will learn new abilities as you level.
They do not need to be trained. You can find the new abilities under the companion tab when opening the skills pane (P).

Buff:

The Jedi Knight provides Force Might.

Introduction: Defense (tank)

The Jedi Guardian: Defense is the tank spec of the Jedi Guardian. Even though The Jedi Guardian isn’t known for its many snap threat abilities, they are a very sturdy class that can take an immense amount of damage before they are defeated. To understand how a Jedi Guardian: Defense works; there are three things you must get comfortable with first.

Focus generating abilities, Focus consuming abilities and defensive cooldowns/abilities.

Focus generating Abilities:

When tanking, as you may already know, your main objective is to hold aggro and maintain maximum survivability; to be able to do that, you need focus.

You have 3 main focus generating abilities:

These three abilities are your bread and butter.
Note that Sundering Strike has a 4.5 second cooldown.
While other classes only need to use their non resource spending abilities to regenerate, you will need to use Sundering Strike and Strike quite often.
Soresu Form must always be activated.
Since most of your Focus consuming abilities will cost 3 + focus you will need to have a steady flow of incoming focus at all times.
When Soresu form is activated, Sundering Strike and Strike will generate one less focus every time you use it; so if you are fighting a NPC with slow hit timers, you will obviously need to use your focus generating abilities more.

Secondary Focus generating abilities:

Force leap has a 15 second cooldown. Cannot be used in melee range. If talented, this ability will provide you with a free Blade storm (see focus consuming abilities or Talent tree section) which provides some snap threat and survivability,



Combat focus has a 1 minute cooldown and is very useful for snap threat when ads spawn or during a burn phase where you need to dump as much damage as possible. Talented correctly this ability will be useable more than once per minute.



Saber Throw has a 30 second cooldown and is a nice tool to keep some extra threat on ranged targets, or simply as an extra focus generator. Be advised that this ability cannot be used in melee range (> 10 meter to be precise).



Force stasis has a 1 minute cooldown. If talented this ability is a free semi-taunt/ breathing room for smaller ads and a nice focus/threat generator versus bosses. Even though the target is immune to stun, it will still take damage and provide you with focus.

Core Focus Consuming abilities:

When it comes to your focus consuming abilities, there are some that are more useful for threat and others for survival; ideally we will use abilities that do both.

Force sweep has a 15 second cooldown(talented: 12 second cooldown) and costs 3 focus and if talented correctly, it provides a debuff giving a 5% miss chance for 18 seconds.



Bladestorm has a 12 second cooldown and costs 4 focus. Talented correctly, activating this ability will also provide you with a shield that absorbs a decent amount of damage.



Riposte has a 6 second cooldown. Talented correctly this ability costs 1 focus and increases your defense by 6% for 6 seconds when used.



Guardian Slash has a 15 second cooldown and replaces Slash; it does more damage and is the threat boosted version of slash. It costs 4 focus.



Hilt strike has a 1 minute cooldown and costs 3 focus (untalented).



Cyclone slash has no cooldown and costs 3 focus. It is your bread and butter ability when AE tanking.



Has no cooldown and does a decent amount of damage, this ability should only be used when all other core abilities are on cooldown and you need to dump focus.

Secondary Focous consuming abilities:

Force kick has an 8 second cooldown and costs 1 focus. Use this whenever possible to avoid incoming damage.



Dispatch has a 6 second cooldown and costs 3 focus. Fit this into your rotation as best as possible without negating survivability.



Freezing force has no cooldown and costs 2 focus (untalented). A nice tool when handling melee ads that tend to stray.

non-focus ability worth mentioning:



Master strike has a 30 second cooldown and costs no focus. You can still deflect and parry while channeling this ability.
A high damage ability that is useful as situational filler if your other abilities are on cooldown or if you are stacking focus.

Defensive Abilities:

The defensive cooldowns is where the Jedi Guardians really shine. With 3 major cooldowns, the Jedi Guardian has the capability of being a first class progress tank. Time the use of these well, with other external cooldowns, proper gearing and you will be near un-killable



This ability has a 3 minute cooldown and costs no focus to activate.



This ability has a 3 minute cooldown and costs no focus to activate.



This ability has a 3 minute cooldown and costs no focus to activate.



20 second cooldown, does not generates nor consume any focus. A solid defensive cooldown that should be used on CD on the other tank when you’re not in the line of fire.

Defensive buffs from procs and abilities

Provides 6 % defense when fully talented. This buff is gained whenever you activate Riposte.



Unknown amount absorped. Scales with your level.

Taunts:

15 second cooldown



45 second cooldown.

Use your taunts wisely, and make sure to follow up with some damage afterwards to keep the mob on you.

Talents:

When it comes to choosing which talents you want, it will always be subject to discussion. So instead of trying to tell people what to do with their talents, since swtor has indeed opened a lot of hybrid solutions, I will try and explain what talents I find mandatory and what talents are more or less free to choose from.
This is the spec I currently use.
Link: http://www.torhead.com/calculator/sk...GcubrouRZhMM.1
I divided each ”class” of talents into 3 colors.

Green is mandatory.
Orange is recommended.
Yellow is optional – Since they are a reflection on my personal play style and does not provide any noticeable threat or survivability factors.

Tier 1(Defense):
Dust storm (Mandatory): Force Sweep applies the aforementioned debuff.
Victory Rush(Mandatory): Soresu form causes Strike and Sundering Strike to generate 1 less focus, this upgrade is needed if you want to keep up with threat.
Momentum (Recommended): When maxed out, this talent ensures you a free Blade Storm, straight after Force Leap. I strongly recommend this talent, so you can apply the Dust Storm debuff and gain the Blade barrier effect as fast as possible after engaging combat. This will give you a nice headstart on maximizing your survivability and is equal to 4 free focus every time you use force leap. Force leap still generates 3 focus when used.

Tier 2(Defense):
Guard Stance (Mandatory): +6 % melee and ranged defense – nuff said.
Lunge (Mandatory): Reduces the focus cost of Riposte by 2, meaning riposte now only costs 1 focus. Riposte should be used on cooldown!
Solidified Force (Optional): While this talent offers only reduced focus costs to situational/long CD abilities, it provides nice features for some AE CC and a cheap threat burst ability (hilt strike). I chose it because I use Hilt strike on cd when fighting a boss and I like being able to slow packs when tanking. This or these talents can easily be moved to other talents without any major penalty.

Tier 3(Defense):
Blade Barricade (Mandatory): 6% increased Melee and ranged defense when Riposte is used.
Warding Call (Mandatory): 40 % damage reduction for 10 seconds.
Profound resolution: This talent is of course optional, but if you choose to max out this talent, you would have to take Second Wind(Tier 2) from the Focus Tree, meaning you have spent 4 talents for the sole purpose of having a 10% heal every 1.5 minute. In my opinion is that way too expensive compared to what you get in the Vigilance tree.
Pacification (Recommended): Increases the damage you deal with Hilt Strike (more burst threat) Force sweep (part of you rotation) and increases the damage you do with Cyclone Slash. Now you don’t use Cyclone slash that often, however. Jedi Guardians requires a lot of attention when it comes to AE tanking. Since we only really have two AE abilities: Cyclone slash and Force Sweep, therefore I strongly suggest you take this talent over any other optional talent!

Tier 4(Defense):
Shield Specialization (Mandatory): increases Shield chance by 4%.
Courage (Mandatory): 50% chance to reduce the cost of Blade storm or force sweep whenever you parry or deflect. Stacks up to 3 times. When you level your Jedi Guardian, this talent will make you feel a huge difference and will make your job keeping up the debuff and shield a lot easier, providing room for more pure threat smash. The better defensive stats you have, the more this will proc, meaning that defensive stats also becomes a threat increase.
Command: This talent is of course optional aswell, however the Force push ability has a 1 minute cooldown and generates no focus. It is awesome using, but not worth two talent points. The Challenging Call (AE Taunt) is only on a 45 second standard cooldown, so if you need to use it more than that, then either are you or the dps doing something wrong. Not worth 2 talent points in my opinion.

Tier 5(Defense):
Stasis Mastery (Optional): This talent allows you to cast Force stasis while you can keep on using abilties. I really like this talent for flashpoints and boss fights because I can FS a target that is going astray or because I feel like it, without having to worry about not hitting the other mobs. During boss fights I use it on cooldown to maximize my focus gain without having to channel it. This talent point can easily be moved with no penalty.
Hilt Strike (Mandatory): Even though this talent is mandatory, you could survive without it if you could justify another more needed talent. However I find this very handy. It’s almost an extra taunt, and with taunt being on a 15 second cooldown I find snap threat for stray mobs extremely valuable. The high TPS value from this ability makes the talent point all worth it.
Force Clap: This is mainly a pvp talent since it only stuns 1 target; if it made FL stun all targets around you when you landed I would consider taking this talent.
Blade Barrier (Mandatory): Provides you with a absorbing shield whenever you use Blade storm.

Tier 6(Defense):
Inner Peace (Mandatory): Besides from the Jedi Consular buff, this is the only extra Elemental and internal damage reduction we get! Plus 5 seconds longer duration of Enure. Definetly mandatory.
Cyclonic Sweeps (Mandatory): Increases the frequency we can generate focus with Soresu form and on top of that whenever we use slash/cyclone slash the cooldown of Combat Focus is reduced by 3 seconds. Even though Slash isn’t really a part of the single target rotation, you really want to be able to use Combat Focus whenever possible when tanking adds – since you don’t have any AE abilities that generate focus (Really hope we get that though!)

Tier 7(Defense):
Guardian Slash (Recommended): This ability does a massive amount of damage when you got 5 stacks of sunder on your target and is our main TPS ability. Use this ability on cooldown and you shouldn’t have any trouble keeping aggro on a single target boss/mob. You can live without it – but I wouldn’t.

Tier 1(Vigilance):
Improved Sundering Strike (Mandatory if you have Guardian Slash): means you only have to use 3 Sundering Strikes before your Guardian Slash will start hitting like a truck. Plus it increases the base threat from Sundering Strike.
Swelling Winds (Mandatory/Recommended): Decreases the cooldown and increases damage on force Sweep – which makes it nice for extra threat, both AE and single target, while keeping up the´debuff. The decreased cooldown makes it easier to mash FS into the priority system.

Tier 2(Vigilance):
Defiance: A nice talent, but a little too situational to my taste. Very nice against Flashpoint adds. Note that this talent does not provide you with focus when you are knockbacked. This is one of the reasons I didn’t take it.
Perseverance (Recommended): Even though strength does not give you any defensive attributes, Jedi Guardians are in abit of a bad spot at the moment when it comes to threat compared to other tank classes. So make sure to grab anything that can increase your threat. 6% strength is pretty nice for 2 talent points (I’m sure the Dps folks will agree with me on that aswell )
Accuracy (Optional/Mandatory): Actually up until now my build has had this talent maxed out. But until I have trouble with my accuracy I won’t bother with it and I still have a lot of research to do on how accuracy rating scales with force and melee hit chance. Definitely a talent worth looking into but be sure to check what talents you miss when taking this. If accuracy becomes an issue – this talent will overrule perseverance.

Stats:

Primary Stats

Strength:
Increases damage done by melee and force attacks, the chance to score a critical hit with melee weapons, and is the primary stat for JKs/SWs.

Endurance:
Increases your total health and your out of combat health regen.

Secondary stats.

Presence: Increases the health, damage, and healing of your companions.

Crit: Increases your chance to score a critical hit with damage or healing abilities.

Accuracy: Increases your chance to hit with attacks. All accuracy past 100% will reduce the players damage reduction in melee and their resistance to force attacks.

Surge: Increases the critical damage or healing bonus applied when you score a crit.

Alacrity: (Haste) Causes the cast time of abilities to be faster. This stat does not reduce the GCD.

Power: Increases the damage of your abilities (note: Haven't found out wether it affects both force and physical damage - It is 100 % certain that it increases your melee damage)

Defensive stats:

Glance Rating: Increases chance to Shield an incoming attack (equivalent to Block in WoW)

Absorption rating: Increases the amount of damage mitigated by the shield. ( equivalent to Block Value in WoW)

Defense: Increases chance to directly avoid incoming attack – ranged and melee. (Equivalent to Parry and dodge in WoW)

Armor: decreases the damage taken from Kinetic and Energy damage.

Gearing and Stat Ratings:

Base armor on gear is still being crunched. From I’ve deducted until now, your Armor modification will increase the armor on the gear according to mod rating and armor type, i.e. light, medium and heavy.
Most ratings have a cap in Swtor and any stats added beyond that point is useless. However those cap’s are practically unreachable.
Talent bonuses, procs and buffs do not count towards your rating cap.
Info datamined from swtor_main_gamedata_1.tor, Formulas made by Mathwizards @ www.sithwarrior.com

Modifications:
We have 12 modification slots where we can use defensive stats.
They are spread across 6 items, providing us with 2 modifications (for pure defensive usage) slots pr item:
Weapon, Legs, Head, Chest, Hands, Feet
The highest amount of defensive stats available on any one modification is +41(as of now), which gives us 492 stat points to allocate.

I.E.

This item, with its current modifications, will provide you with a total of 57 defense rating, which is equal to 2% (2.0689 …. %) defense chance.

Remeber that you can change the stats as you wish by using a different modifications.


Augments:
Most high-end artifact’s, legendary’s and some critical crafts from Crew Skills will have augmentation slots.
1 Augment slot can maximum yield +34 statpoints (as of now).

I.E.

Augments can be found in all your gear.

That gives us a total of 14 augment slots, which is equal to 476 statpoints.

All in all your maximum available statpoints is 968, provided you have the best modifcations, gear and Augments.

On top of that - High-end raiding gear will have additional stats beyond the modifications, which will bolster you even further

Gearing Pre-Raid (Raid BiS coming):

Most of the listed items can be acquired with commendations or with crew skills. Until Torhead is fully updated, I won’t leave any descriptions on how to obtain the gear.

All listed gear has an available Augment Slot, which will be discussed later in this section.

BiS list for pre-raid. You can start acquiring some of these items from level 48.
Only endurance, Accuracy and defensive stats are listed below the links due consistency if strength on gear and the irrelevance of it, seen from a tanking perspective.

Relics, Implants and Ear:

Relic:Matrix Cube M7-G0: http://www.torhead.com/item/1rQhEI2
Relic:Matrix Cube M7-Y3: http://www.torhead.com/item/bQBd2p2#reward-from
Total stats: 110 Endurance; 18 Defense Rating.

Ear:Ultratech War Leader’s Module: http://www.torhead.com/item/deaY8bH
Stats: 81 Endurance; 28 Glance Rating; 23 Defense Rating

Implant:Ultratech War Leader’s Implant: http://www.torhead.com/item/4xstwjB
Implant:Advanced Reaction D-Implant: http://www.torhead.com/item/34pdd6Z
Total stats: 164 Endurance; 52 Defense Rating; 27 Glance Rating; 33 Accuracy Rating

Shield generator and Weapon:

Shield:Ultratech War Leader’s Shield Generator: http://www.torhead.com/item/7c6rL0J
Stats: 102 Endurance; 33 Accuracy Rating; 25 Defense Rating

Weapon (no alignment req): Defender’s Mettle: http://www.torhead.com/item/d9ahIRa
Stats: 115 Endurance; 40 Defense Rating; 37 Glance Rating


Main Gear Slots:

Head: Primeval Paragon’s Headgear: http://www.torhead.com/item/6ezslp8
Total stats: 82 Endurance; 32 Glance Rating; 24 Defense Rating

Legs: Primeval Paragon’s Greaves: http://www.torhead.com/item/7EySsq
Total stats: 82 Endurance; 32 Accuracy Rating; 24 Absorption Rating

Chest: Primeval Paragon’s Body Armor: http://www.torhead.com/item/fzGnaO8
Total stats: 80 Endurance; 37 Defense Rating; 34 Glance Rating

Feet: Primeval Paragon’s Boots: http://www.torhead.com/item/g87FIbN
Total stats: 80 Endurance; 37 Defense Rating; 34 Glance Rating

Hands: Primeval Paragon’s Gloves: http://www.torhead.com/item/1jWaBZh
Total stats: 80 Endurance; 37 Defense Rating; 34 Glance Rating

Waist: Primeval Paragon’s Belt: http://www.torhead.com/item/eGEmx8z
Total stats: 60 Endurance; 18 Defense Rating

Wrists: Primeval Paragons Armguards: http://www.torhead.com/item/hrFbsp4#sold-by
Total stats: 52 Endurance; 16 Defense Rating.

Stats from gear:

1088 Endurance: = 10880 Health -> Total Health: 13380

327 Defense Rating: = 9,95 % Defense Chance -> Total: 20,95%

226 Glance Rating: = 12,41% Shield Chance -> Total: 36,41%

24 Absorb Rating: = 2,62 % Absorption -> Total: 22,62%

98 Accuracy Rating: = 3,41 % Accuracy -> Total: 93,41%



Augments: (14 in total):

Since only 4 of the pieces had modifications, the Augments is where you can really push your stats in the right direction.


6 x Shield Augment 25: http://www.torhead.com/item/DJpHo1
= 180 glance rating (11,25% shield chance)

8 x Accuracy Augment 25: http://www.torhead.com/item/6ZoXPl3
= 240 Accuracy rating (7,68 % accuracy)

Total defensive stats and percentages:

327 defense rating = 9,95% Defense chance
(total: 20,95 % (-> 26,95 % defense rating with Blade barricade proc))

406 Glance Rating = 20,05%
(Total: 44,05 % Shield Chance)

24 Absorption rating = 2,62
(Total: 22,62 % absorption)

338 Accuracy Rating = 10,22 % accuracy
(Total: 100,22 % accuracy)

You can change the modifications on some of the gear pieces aswell - however, be sure to keep your accuracy at 100%
The reason for the small amount of Absorption Rating is to make sure you get as high shield chance as possible to avoid being crittet. Once you get better gear, your Absorption Rating will increae because you need to use less Augments on Accuracy and Glance Rating.

You can choose to spend 3 talents in Accuracy if you want to use 3 more augments on defensive stats - however, as you will obtain new gear pretty fast, where the amount of accuracy is substantially more - I suggest to just wait it out.

The main objective of these stats is to make sure your incoming damage is as fluent as possible. No healer likes a spikey tank.

This setup with a high shield chance and a quite decent amount of defense, will make sure you can take on any Flashpoints and starter raids.

Stat weigth discussion:

Since I have don’t have all combat ratings available – making a solid list of stat priorities is near impossible without assuming too much.
But this is what i've deducted from playing around with gear and combat

Your base defensive bonuses (talented and with a shield generator equipped):
Kinetic damage reduction: 6 %
Energy damage reduction: 6%
Elemental damage reduction : 6 %
Internal damage reduction: 6%
24 % shield chance
20 % absorption rating
11 % Defense chance.

Remember Endurance and Strength comes with all of your gear – so you don’t have to worry too much about those stats in terms of stat weighing.
Generally defense gear/mods have more endurance than dps.


Stat weight:

Primary stats:

Endurance>strength

Secondary stats:

Accuracy >>> Power >> Crit > Surge >>>> Alacrity >> Presence

Accuracy is by far your most valuable secondary stat, if we do not have perfect Accuracy (which seems likely), then Accuracy Rating will be the most valuable stat on gear until we reach the breakpoint, as it reduces the possibility for our threat-generating attacks to have no effect due to not hitting the enemy.

Your base accuracy is 90%.
From a PvE Point of view we only want to hit roughly 100 % - Since the base defensive stats of bosses is still unknown.
Accuracy rating cap at 30 % - so you could get 120 % and thereby negating 20 % of the targets defenses/restistances. However you are most likely to never hit that cap.

The game will treat your defensive stats as secondary aswell, but for compendium purposes dividing them is the easiest to do.

Power is superior to Crit and surge and definitely Alacrity, since strength already provides you with crit, the more power you can squeeze in the better. Power = threat.
Crit, Surge and Alacrity are in that order your least desirable stats.

Since Alacrity does not reduce the GCD, and even if it did it would still be way too expensive to go for it as a tank, this stat is on par with presence.


Defensive stats:


Glance Rating > Defense Rating > Shield Absorption


Glance Rating (Shield chance, really prefer that term) and shield mitigation goes hand in hand – since stacking shield chance like a champ, but not having any absorption rating would negate the effectiveness drastically. The same goes the other way around.

As a rule of thumb go 2 Glance Rating for every 1 Absorption Rating and Defense Rating

Note:
Swtor uses a two roll system for incoming attacks. The first roll will determine wether it is a hit or a miss, in a accuracy versus defense roll.
if it is a hit then the next roll will determine wether the attack will be shielded or crit. It is done in a crit versus shield chance roll.

A critical hit can never be shielded.
AkA - High shield Chance = Less crits on you

There is no stat in Swtor that directly makes you crit immune.

So until we know the base crit chance of bosses, a "crit immunity" is going to be hard to put some solid numbers on. However we know that Glance Rating is a cheaper stat than defense rating, and defense chance hits its cap faster. So keeping defense and shield chance stats on a 1:2 (or 1:1) basis will decrease the likelyhood of you being crittet.

The reason you dont skip defense rating and only stack Glance rating, is because of the first mentioned roll. Winning that roll is obviously the best.


NOTE: This is subject to change and will be updated accordingly as I get hold of more solid numbers and I can get some solid tries in a raiding environment.

Priority system – Threat and Survivability:

The Jedi Guardian priority system is divided into two parts, the focus generating and the consuming.
The most important thing is to never cap your focus (using focus generating abilities while at 11-12 focus) and to never go below 1-2 focus.
The reason for this is that you must always be able to use Riposte or Force kick (8 second cooldown, costs 1 focus);
Riposte does not respect the GCD and is a major survivability factor.

Threat mechanics:

1 damaging ability is equal to 1 threat (100%)
1 healing ability is equal to 0.5 threat (50%)
Soresu form will ad 0.5 (50%).
Abilities with threat modifiers will have a increased threat equal to 0.5 threat (50%)

Meaning that all your abilties with no build in threat modifiers will do 1.5 (150%) threat and an ability such as Hilt strike will do 2.0 threat (200%)

That may sound super overpowered threat wise. But remember that threat is builded and not based on a GCD vs GCD roll.

To aggro a hostile melee npc - you must trumph the current threat holder by 1.1 (110%).
To aggro a ranged hostile npc - you must trumph the current threat holder by 1.3 (130%).

Meaning that to aggro the mob as fast as possible, the current threat holder must stop attacking that mob for 3-4 GCD's in a non taunt situation.

Be aware of this while tanking, always be aware of dps hitting the wrong mob, so you dont get too far behind on threat.

Getting behind on threat on a non kill target is dobbel suicide(provided taunt is on cdor the dps keeps being a retard by not sticking to the kill target). Since while you are trying to aggro the stray mob, youa re most likely to loose aggro on your current kill target mob.

Focus generating priority:



Combat focus >> Sundering Strike >> Strike

Use Sundering strike on cooldown, unless you are dumping focus like a madman. Sundering strike does more damage than strike, more threat and refreshes your stack of Armor reduction on your target, which is a tps increase for you and a dps increase for the dps.
Soresu form is actually your first priority, but it persists through death and is mandatory in every possible way as a tank.

Focus generating priority:
When it comes to focus consuming priority, it is trickier putting it down in a simple flow line.



Riposte > > Blade Storm / Force sweep > Hilt Strike > Guardian Slash > Slash

[Tip]: Activate your free damage abilities whenever you can - i.e. Strong, normal and weak hostile npc’s are eligible to pommel strike while stunned

Use Riposte on proc, every time! No excuses!
Use Blade Storm on cooldown and keep up the Dust Storm storm debuff(Applied by Force Sweep).
With Force Sweep being being on a talented 12 second cooldown – you have a 6 second window to reapply the debuff which will give you plenty of time to generate the focus or gain a stack or 3 of Courage.
Hilt strike is prioritized over Guardian slash because of the threat boost, the focus cost and to get as many out during a fight as possible.
Fit in Guardian Slash whenever you have focus available!
Dump focus with Slash.
If you ever have the time, then use Master Strike and/or apply Force stasis (only if you have the talent) to spice it up.

AoE focus consuming priority:

Use combat focus on cooldown!



Riposte >> Force Sweep / Blade Storm > Cyclone Slash

Riposte on proc as usual! – Keep your shield up with Blade Storm, maintain the hit debuff on targets and use your focus generating abilities on your kill target.

Dump any leftover focus with Cyclone Slash.

When you engage a 2+ mob encounter, make sure to mark a kill target. Jedi Guardians AE threat is ridiculously bad at the moment, so unless you prepare on beforehand -> be ready to eat some comments about your tanking skills.

You can diminish the lackluster factor by making sure to mark and hope that the dps in the group follows the kill order accordingly.

Mash in all non focus consuming abilities possible on your kill target and other single target threat abilities (Hilt Strike, Pommel Strike and Guardian Slash) whenever possible.


I will keep this updated as I venture further into the vast nothingness of space. I hope it was worth reading and that it gave future/possible Jedi Guardians a better grasp of the class.

I am open to any kind of flame, critisism, feedback and discussions.

Thanks to www.sithwarrior.com and their awesome discussions and mad math skills.

/kiss Elobi.

[Deleted]

damn thats well done man

i demand you do one for the trooper aswell ;D

[smokii]

damn, good job elobi, just a shame i probably wont be playing a jedi knight, but i guess it rings true for a sith warrior as well

[Deleted]

Ma mate Traces is working on a Trooper guide as we speak!

Yeah - good point - I will make a convertion section so it is viable for sith aswell.

[HemmerN]

Yeh the abilities/talents are exatly the same for Juggs, just different names

[Raeli]

How did you test stats and things to come to your conclusions? You state that Accuracy is the better simply because Strength provides crit, but don't elaborate any further.

You also state you don't know the amount needed to cap, in which case, how can you possibly know what is best? Just take it in WoW. Hit was the stat to cap first, but in Cataclysm that changed for a lot of classes because they made it so expensive, and intellect became always a better DPS increase (for certain classes as I say), how do you know this isn't the case too if you don't know the number you need to reach?

Don't get me wrong, it's a nice first guide and introduction to the class, and certainly useful, I would just like to see some evidence to backup these things you claim as fact without showing any proof behind.

You also say: "however Defense is the most expensive stat and is most likely to hit DR earlier than glance and absorption rating." There is diminishing returns in stats? Which stats? All of them, or just tanking ones? How do you know this?

You say: "Tooltip = Nuff said." in regards to Blade Barrier, but it states it absorbs a "moderate" amount of damage. How much is moderate? Does it scale with level?

[Deleted]

Nice guide. 1 small point though, you say the protocol droid has no combat use but my Sith Warrior's one could be used as a healer...

[spleen1015]

Awesome. I plan on running a Guardian tank as my main, so this will be very useful. Thanks for this information. Keep up the good work!!

[Varabently]

Nice guide. 1 small point though, you say the protocol droid has no combat use but my Sith Warrior's one could be used as a healer...

The Knight one specifically says he can't be used in combat. You can't pull him out of the ship, but you can send him to do crew skill stuff.

[Deleted]

nice guide mate

one thing that confuses me, and a bit of a spoiler, so I will be a bit cryptic: That last companion is it right? seems very strange. Dont want to know any story but I am interested if you actually get him or its a mistake :O

The Knight one specifically says he can't be used in combat. You can't pull him out of the ship, but you can send him to do crew skill stuff.

you can though.

[Deleted]

How did you test stats and things to come to your conclusions? You state that Accuracy is the better simply because Strength provides crit, but don't elaborate any further.

First of, I do not state that Accuracy is better than strength because it provides crit. Since Strenght and Accuracy are two different stat catagories.
If I do state that , please tell me where so I can fix it.
The only time I compare Accuracy and strength is under the Talent section.


I stated that Accuracy is your most powerful secondary stat by far, since it's the biggest TPS increase.
Since clearly, if you have a massive amount of strength, Crit or surge etc but almost no accuracy, then you will obviously miss alot and thereby have the value of strength diminished.

I tested the stats quite easily by equipping gear and being in combat. I was sitting at a 90 % hit chance for melee and 92 % hit chance for Force attacks.
Did encounter a miss now and then, but as stated in the talent section aswell - as long as my hit chance didnt diminish my threat, strength would be superior. If you are looking for some hard numbers, I suggest you read the disclaimer in the beginning, and end of the stats section, since I do not have such numbers ready yet.

You also state you don't know the amount needed to cap, in which case, how can you possibly know what is best? Just take it in WoW. Hit was the stat to cap first, but in Cataclysm that changed for a lot of classes because they made it so expensive, and intellect became always a better DPS increase (for certain classes as I say), how do you know this isn't the case too if you don't know the number you need to reach?

Well, I dont
But if we take a look at end-game gear, Accuracy rating isn't one of the most expensive stats, it is available on many mods - also for tanking.

I'm not saying that tanks should go for cap as a first and sole priority, I'm merely saying that when it comes to weighing your secondary stats, accuracy should land on top.

Until the effect of accuracy has been proven more or less worthless, then it's safe to say that it will be superior to any other secondary stat.*

*until cap/soft cap or diminishing return (if it exists <- :P) kicks in.

Don't get me wrong, it's a nice first guide and introduction to the class, and certainly useful, I would just like to see some evidence to backup these things you claim as fact without showing any proof behind.

Thank you and I appreciate the feedback. as I stated clearly in the stats section that it was quite early starting to assume too much, but that I would come with my PoV.

Again, you are looking for numbers, that I already said I do not have ready yet. I assure you you will be the first to know when I get a good hold of combat ratings.

You also say: "however Defense is the most expensive stat and is most likely to hit DR earlier than glance and absorption rating." There is diminishing returns in stats? Which stats? All of them, or just tanking ones? How do you know this?

Again, Well I dont.
But I assume that there will be a diminishing return factor when it comes to defensive and offensive stats, cannot see how they would control them in any other way.

If I had known more about diminishing return factors, I would have posted a whole section on it and have the sheets to support it, there is a reason I called it stat weight discussion and disclaimed that I, basicly, know just a much as you do.

I can see that I did write a mistake, since when it comes to mods, you get the same amount of ratings no matter the defensive stat chosen.

They are all equal - defense "costs" the same as absorption- and glance rating.

You say: "Tooltip = Nuff said." in regards to Blade Barrier, but it states it absorbs a "moderate" amount of damage. How much is moderate? Does it scale with level?

There is also an explanation in the talents section, however you might hit the same question - Since the actual numbers are still unknown.
Yes it does scale with level. The shield lasted roughly the same duration on mobs while lvling. No Ranks on it.

Well, no one knows how much (If you do please tell ). I was thinking about doing some duels for the sole reason of checking it, but didnt get to it - I regret that now.

Since there is no combat log in swtor. That question can only be properly answered by mr. developer.


Thank you for the heads up, I will update the compendium and make sure to fix the word clusters and disclaimers.

---------- Post added 2011-12-05 at 09:30 PM ----------

The Knight one specifically says he can't be used in combat. You can't pull him out of the ship, but you can send him to do crew skill stuff.

You can summon him to you while derping around - but he won't do you much good, since he is like a ugly vanity pet that can craft.

[Kateryna]

Brilliant post! I was hoping to see something like the Elitist Jerks class guides in SWTOR.

[Deleted]

Really Really good stuff man..
- Been looking for something this detailed since the NDA was removed..
I would like to hear your thoughts, hence Jedi Guardian is primarly a singletarget tank, on the possibility of trashing "Guardian Slash" for "Unremitting" ?
- "unremitting" giving 40 % damage reduction after every "Force Leap"

Thx Awzum post.

[Dasani]

The droid that comes with your ship can be brought with you into combat. He is a healer and talks to much, I experimented with him a bit in beta.

The talent that affects force sweep is a 2 point talent, and at 2 points it's 10% chance to miss, up from 5% at 1 point.

Power definitely increases special abilities/force powers. In fact it almost seems to benefit them even more than your primary stats such as strength in the case of the guardian.

This was as a sith inquisitor rather than a jedi guardian, but I noticed equipping a light saber that had STRENGTH on it instead of CUNNING which was my primary stat as an inquisitor actually increased my damage and healing from all abilities simply because it had a higher power value. The amount of cunning lost was completely overcome by the additional power. I would assume the same is true for guardians, it seems to be a "catch-all" stat to ensure a higher level item is an upgrade even if it is poorly itemized.

[Deleted]

Really Really good stuff man..
- Been looking for something this detailed since the NDA was removed..
I would like to hear your thoughts, hence Jedi Guardian is primarly a singletarget tank, on the possibility of trashing "Guardian Slash" for "Unremitting" ?
- "unremitting" giving 40 % damage reduction after every "Force Leap"

Thx Awzum post.

It's 20 % damage reduction.

I have been looking quite alot into that exact talent - since it is very nice indeed.

However. You would need to pull out 5 talent points from the defense tree to able to get it, and lets face it, its not all bosses you can run away from and jump back in without ruining positioning. It might be worth taking for a fight like Gharj where you use FL so often.

Atm I wouldnt trash GS - might be different later on

[Buckwald]

AND! Sticky!

[Raeli]

First of, I do not state that Accuracy is better than strength because it provides crit. Since Strenght and Accuracy are two different stat catagories.
If I do state that , please tell me where so I can fix it.
The only time I compare Accuracy and strength is under the Talent section.

Sorry my mistake, I meant that you said it was the best of the secondary ones, I am simply wondering how you know this to be true. But you've already explained that it's just your feeling, I didn't see that statement before, I apologise.

As you say though, you don't have the numbers, my main query was just if there were numbers out there that you were basing it on, or if it was just from the feeling you were getting, now I know it is the latter. Of course, as a first guide without numbers it isn't bad, but I was actually more interested in the specifics and was just curious if you had any numbers to share with us

[Deleted]

Sorry my mistake, I meant that you said it was the best of the secondary ones, I am simply wondering how you know this to be true. But you've already explained that it's just your feeling, I didn't see that statement before, I apologise.

As you say though, you don't have the numbers, my main query was just if there were numbers out there that you were basing it on, or if it was just from the feeling you were getting, now I know it is the latter. Of course, as a first guide without numbers it isn't bad, but I was actually more interested in the specifics and was just curious if you had any numbers to share with us

No need to apologize - I would have asked the same.

I wouldn't say it's based on my feeling, but more common sense and my experience with stat mechanics from other mmo's.

See one of the reasons Hit in WoW became a retard stat is because blizzard's stat system was inflated and flawed from the beginning, they said that themselves plenny of times.

If you had to choose bewteen Accarucay and Surge out of the blue f. x ? Wouldn't you take Accuracy by default ?.


I do have some numbers, but it's all still basic and still need to be crunched properly - and until the game goes live and we get a combat log (if we don't ima gonna cry)

I really dislike posting unfinished stuff.

[Hurko]

Excellent post! I'm new to posting here, this thread actually made me look for the "rate the topic" button. (It's in the upper right, it's called Rate This Thread, and I gave you a 5 star rating.)

[Buckwald]

Here's a stupid question. I didn't play a JK past level 10 in the beta (didn't want to ruin it), so I don't know. But are the shields you get activated by an ability you place on the hotbar and stay up for X amount of seconds or are they just a passive defensive stat increase (like shields in WoW)?