Thread: Tanking in TOR

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  1. #1
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    Tanking in TOR

    I did quite a bit of paladin tanking through WotLK and CATA and got quite bored of just being a meatbag so i went dps for more fun in BG's etc during my time in wow. So i thought when i started TOR it would be best to level a dps character so i got my operative to 50, got him geared up, did pvp til BM and decided id try going back to tanking and see if the tanking is more interesting in TOR

    and wow, im loving it, i rerolled on tomb of freedon nadd, (decided to goto the busiest server) and went republic as the balance is pretty good on that server reps/imps. My Vanguard(powertech equivalent) is level 32 now and ive had sooo much fun tanking with him in FP's and WZ's.

    Tanks actually do decent damage in this game and have the mobility and survival to make them extremmely interesting to play.

    So far loving the game, im not getting that compelling feeling im losing out if i dont spend every available second online and when i am online im having alot more fun than i used to in wow. The only thing i miss is the competitive endgame. If they would only give us a damage/healing meter that would appease me for now. I think the endgame is ok for now but not having any way to judge my performance and try and improve upon it quantitatively is annoying me slightly. I like the UI mods coming, scaling and moving parts of the UI about but think we need more customisation than that. Wish we could use addons like wow...

    Ive gotta say leveling is so awesome....endgame at 50 with bm and having done all ops content apart from a few bosses on nightmare was starting to drag a little, but leveling an alt is keeping me busy just now. Im levelling a Vanguard and my brother is leveling a commando, were both 32 and questing together, doing FP's together and its so much fun. Playing with someone you know in enjoyable content is just great. I cant say ive ever had this much fun with WoW and i was a gm in wow of a semi-hardcore guild raiding 4nights/week 3hrs and killing progression bosses although satisfying were not as much fun as what im having now..ive got to say. Anyway back on topic, Are oyu tanks out there having alot of fun with the tanking in TOR?

  2. #2
    Brewmaster soulcrusher's Avatar
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    hey, i did the same thing, rerolled from a way OTT imp server Bloodworthy to a more balanced server ToFN. Parked my sorceror and rolled a vanguard. Currently 38 and loving it. PVP with a tanks great, can usually get top 3 with taunts and guards etc and still kill people. the bonus of hapooning them into flames, poison, drops still makes me laugh. Im levelling together with my wifes sage and friends marauder and we have 3 manned plus a pet everything so far.

    the biggest trouble ive found is in picking an alt. of all the rep classes I only really like the trooper but dont fancy going through the class qs again. Rep jedi look rubbish imo compared to sith.

  3. #3
    Scarab Lord Leih's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Dynamite View Post
    Tanks actually do decent damage in this game and have the mobility and survival to make them extremmely interesting to play.
    Only if you play a Vanguard/Powertech.

  4. #4
    Brewmaster soulcrusher's Avatar
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    is the difference between the tanks that big? Ive not tried the others yet although was contemplating a guardian.

  5. #5
    You will eventually feel like a "meatbag" in TOR. I remember when I first started tanking in WoW, it was awesome, then as the years went on, it got tedious...

  6. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by Kae View Post
    Only if you play a Vanguard/Powertech.
    I do pretty good damage as a Tankassin. I do see what you're saying though and Warrior/Guardian tanks are a bit weak right now.

  7. #7
    Brewmaster soulcrusher's Avatar
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    ive played tanks in "other games" and your reference isnt that relevant tbh. in swtor i can put a shield on someone in trouble and spam and aoe taunt tp greatly reduce their incoming damage IE in swtor a tank is useful for more than just ball/flag carrying. ofc youll always be a meatbag but you bring far more of value than just that.

  8. #8
    Actually, I find its btr as a tank to guard a ball carrier in huttball than to actually carry the ball. Reason being, you put your guard up on the ball carrier, reducing their damage received, protecting them. If you are carrying the ball, and put your guard up on the healer, well, no as they beat the crap out of your healer, theyre hurting you too, the one who needs to make it to the goal with the ball. It's more effecient to guard a ball carrier than to be one, especially if the ball carrier is another tank, or someone who can take a hit (maybe dps guard/jugg or powetech/vanguard).

  9. #9
    God I hope they offer Twilek troopers in 1.2....that's the only thing I need to level one

  10. #10
    Vanguard Tanking seems to be a bit clunky from time to time, but became FAR better above ~25-30...

    Not having many forms to maintain AOE agro at lower levels made it difficult to attempt to control 3+, and made it VERY difficult to control 5+ "strong" or greater.

    Compared to tanking in other games, TOR will just take a little getting used to (practice).
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  11. #11
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    Tanking in SWTOR feels more like tanking in Wow TBC, as we have to monitor both our health and the aggro on all the mobs around us.

    Although having gone through the hard mode there are no flashpoint where the trash pulls are difficult like in shattered halls or shadow lab. The trash in Kaon under siege are pretty annoying but nothing "wipe-worthy" like I did spend an entire evening in shattered halls when we were still in blues... Gearing is also easier, so it makes the flashpoint easier mechanically as gear improves. The trash in flashpoints feel more like the poor stormtroopers in the Star Wars trilogy. Just there to be cut down for the story.

    All in all, having to fight for aggro and watching my health / defensive cooldowns makes me feel I can differentiate myself from the other tanks if I pull my game together (speaking from a PVE standpoint, as I am not a PVP person).

  12. #12
    I am Murloc! Ravenblade's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by soulcrusher View Post
    is the difference between the tanks that big? Ive not tried the others yet although was contemplating a guardian.
    My Juggernaut has been pretty much maxed out during levelling gear-wise as I always kept tabs on upgrades. He could take a punch especially with Quinn as backup but levelling overall required some stoic and patient approach.
    Although having levelled Paladins and Druids in healing and tank spec and levelled the latter in early vanilla days it didn't really come over as surprise to me.
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  13. #13
    Brewmaster soulcrusher's Avatar
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    Whys that raven? Is their damage lower?

  14. #14
    Guardian felt pretty squishy.

  15. #15
    Quote Originally Posted by soulcrusher View Post
    Whys that raven? Is their damage lower?
    I leveled a Jugg tank and I must say that with Quinn out I could deal with pretty much anything, but it took quite a while to kill anything. I leveled a DK, and Warrior in their tanking trees in Wrath and Cata, respectively, and they both felt like they did more damage than my Jugg, especially after level 40.

    My Sorceress is only on Taris but she blows through stuff much faster than I ever remembered my Jugg doing it, even if I had Jaesa out with my Jugg.

  16. #16
    I am Murloc! Ravenblade's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by soulcrusher View Post
    Whys that raven? Is their damage lower?
    I know it's quite subjective but it felt like I was granted a bare minimum damage was granted to me without any specials. I would even go through two full rotations on strong mobs later (Voss and Corellia) meaning I spent around 30-45s at least on them even with full armor reduction debuff applied. I remember the last time I had this feeling was on my Paladin in tanking spec in TBC
    ---
    As for being squishy. I am probably lacking any reference but I have solo'd my share of instances on my Juggernaut upto lvl47-48 at least where instances become significantly harder and my AoE threat generation and Quinns healing couldn't keep up anymore. No point on trying 4-mans with 6 elite wraids on you taking each 2-3 mins. to kill but effectively less than 45s to kill you together

    And when I tanked actually I've had the feeling that healers had little trouble at least, even got bored in parts and went DPS.
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  17. #17
    i found leveling as a jugg tank pretty easy until belsavis. i started running to quests where i simply didnt have the resources to finish before dying. sometimes you cant rely on companion healers, some npcs did so much damage and even with interupts on constant cooldowns i would find myself losing the battle of attrition.

    bring in one dps friend, and its np at all.

  18. #18
    I am Murloc! Ravenblade's Avatar
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    Yeah, Belsavis was the last planet where I actually solo'd some instances myself and in parts it was really tough even if it were just 2-mans.
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  19. #19
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    That's one of the nice things about the TankSin - self-healing
    Only times where i took out the healer companion is on gold mobs, and even those i could still get just fine sometimes (leveled as full tank spec too)

    My old pvp group was 2 tanks and 2 healers, in huttball i tend to carry the ball because i get to it first due to force speed simply
    Got a Powertech guarding me, and the healers, well, healing. But i believe Juggs are the best carriers, due to both intercede and force leap.

  20. #20
    I've levelled a Vanguard and Shadow to 50, I was going to tank, but I've decided that after doing it for 7 or so years in WoW, I just want to DPS, and Shadows are a lot of fun for DPSing, even if they do have the downside of being melee, however I've had to tank on it a lot since we don't have a replacement tank yet.

    In beta I also levelled a Guardian, and while some things have changed, I have a reasonable understanding of the class too.

    On bosses there isn't a huge difference in survivability, I've tanked everything on hardmode as both my Vanguard and Shadow without any real difference in survivability. However, the real difference comes in threat. I have such an easier time on my Vanguard. I only need to keep up one debuff, and I unload a lot, I can easily keep my energy high, and in a state of high regen while doing most of my hardest hitting abilities, however on my shadow, I do find myself having to use my "auto-attack", Saber Strike, from time to time, there are peaks of high burst and then lows, where as on my Vanguard, unless I constantly spam Ion Pulse, I can maintain high energy regeneration rate pretty much indefinitely.

    The addition of range helps so so much. In this regard, Vanguards feel like Paladins in comparison to Bears and Warrriors. Sure, Warrriors can throw their weapon, but Pallys have several longer range spells in their arsenal, the Vanguard has even more versatility there. Sure, they do need to be up close to get off their best rotation, they can easily move and not go to generating 0 threat - in fact, if you're smart about it, you can move as a vanguard and not loose any GCDs to being out of range. Sure, a Shadow can do the same in some situations with force speed and force potency allowing TK from afar, but it's not the same.

    Outside of raid bosses, Vanguards have a clear advantage in every situation - in PvP both have their advantages and downsides, I'm not going to go there, so I'm only referring to PvE content.

    In packs of CC'd Mobs, a Shadow has to drop 2 spells from their primary "rotation" since they deal aoe damage, it's also these spells that are tied to their two damage reduction debuffs. They have a force pull to either pull a single CC'd mob away from the rest, or to pull a non-cc'd mob out of the pack, but still, a Vanguard can just sit at ranged and easily do enough threat on multiple different targets without breaking CC - that is, enough threat to keep aggro before they die.

    The thing that Shadows really win on though is the AoE threat - they have 3 AoE Abilities, one on a 6 sec cd, one on 15or so, and one with no CD. The two on CD are put on your current target and emanate out from them, the third has you spin around and do damage, sort of like fan of knives, except without shooting knives everywhere. The first two, as such, are pretty powerful, if any of you have tanked 4-5 mobs in this game, you'll know that unlike wow, they don't really care about going behind you, and if they are big, you'll often find them all the way around you. As a Shadow, this is not an issue, you just spam your AoE. As a Vanguard, you have 3 aoe abilities, your two biggest, best ones are channeled, and not only this, but they're position based. The first has you select an area, like Blizzard or Rain of Fire etc. and then you proceed to blast that area to crap, the second has you shoot out an aoe cone in front of you - you can turn while casting this to reposition the cone, but with mobs spreading all around you, you're never going to hit them all with it.

    Basically, Trooper AoE requires a little more planning, and generally sitting with your back against a wall so as many as possible of the enemies are hit, where as the shadow doesn't have those issues.


    So to me it just comes down to to main differences:
    Shadow has an easier time AoEing.
    Vanguard has an easier time with ranged targets and CC'd targets within packs of mobs.


    There is only one final thing - the Murder Droids that spawn from the Hunter-Creeper Droids in Karagga's Palace, they seem to do a TONNE more damage to my Shadow than my Vanguard. I still don't understand why, but on my Vanguard I can tank 3 of them pretty easily, it's only when I get 4 that things start getting hairy, and even then I can aoe stun them and kite them easily enough. My Shadow though, wow. I have to pop everything just to survive against two of these guys.

    Other than that strange anomaly though, I haven't really noticed any difference in tanking on either - in most fights I can hold threat just fine on either, I survive just fine, and while I'm sure there are differences, they aren't enough to make one not viable in comparison to the other.

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