Tankish.

[Trevor7782]

Howdy all,

Since the Swtor servers are down for maintenance tonite i thought i would come all you fellow mmoians a question regarding Swtor tanks =)

How does each class of tank compare with other mmo tanks - for example Warrior tank from wow etc?

Sith Juggernaut - ?

Shadow Assasin - ?

Powertech - ?

Cheers all!

[Vankrys]

Sith Juggernaut - very similar to WoW Warrior. The ressource works the same, rage is generated using white attack or taking damage. You have some core warrior ability, sunder armor, last stand, shield wall, charge, interviene. That being said, it's not a pure warrior, you have the equivalent of a blood shield of DK's for exemple.

Shadow Assasin - Mix between a druide and DK. Your lack of natural defense is conpensated by self heal and the highest health pool of all tank. you have stealth, CC, sprint, like a druid. the game play is base on energy, like a druid cat. you have short duration (10-20 seconds) buff or debuff that you need to maintain, like a DK. you have grip and AMS of a DK, alltogether awesome force and tech (magic) tank.

Powertech - To me, it comes close to a paladin. Largest armor, lowest defense, very relient on shielding attack. tanking debuff are auto apply from your rotation, you don't need to worry about it. You don't have a self heal. Weakest against force and tech damage but strongest against physical attack. you have a charge and a grip though, very useful. Have multiple attack at long range (30m) unlike the other tanks, but your strongest attack are melee.

[Rellitan]

A pretty apt summation of all three (I have all three), but Powertechs (indeed, all bounty hunters) do indeed have a self-heal via Kolto Overload.

A small point, but important nonetheless.

[Vankrys]

good point, i din't mention it because with 3 minute CD is a defensive cool downmore than a class defining feature

[Ghosty]

good point, i din't mention it because with 3 minute CD is a defensive cool downmore than a class defining feature

It's a 2 minute CD for tanks, and for end game it's virtually worthless. The Vanguard/Powertech could use another defensive CD, but after the Assassin/Shadow tank nerf Vanguards/Powertechs are probably the best tanks in the game according to many sources.

The Powertech/Vanguard are pretty unique tanks IMO, due to their 30m ranged abilities that generally tanks in MMO's don't have. I know their threat generation at range is limited, but being able to toss a sticky grenade or a mortar volley at an add spawn point grabbing instant aggro is pretty neat especially while tanking a boss, and makes a healer's job much easier

[Rellitan]

It's a 2 minute CD for tanks, and for end game it's virtually worthless. The Vanguard/Powertech could use another defensive CD, but after the Assassin/Shadow tank nerf Vanguards/Powertechs are probably the best tanks in the game according to many sources.

The Powertech/Vanguard are pretty unique tanks IMO, due to their 30m ranged abilities that generally tanks in MMO's don't have. I know their threat generation at range is limited, but being able to toss a sticky grenade or a mortar volley at an add spawn point grabbing instant aggro is pretty neat especially while tanking a boss, and makes a healer's job much easier

A somewhat misguided but popular opinion of some tanks is that any one particular ability is "useless," but they're thinking in terms of isolated use. Kolto Overload is very powerful when chained with other available cooldowns. The best tanks learn to chain certain defensive CDs to garner maximum benefit and survivability for intense incoming damage phases. So while on it's own it appears to be pretty weak when compared to the amount of incoming we receive, when combined with shields it's pretty potent and gives healers a little bit of breathing room, which is always welcome.

The same could be same for Oil Slick. Options are good.

[Ghosty]

A somewhat misguided but popular opinion of some tanks is that any one particular ability is "useless," but they're thinking in terms of isolated use. Kolto Overload is very powerful when chained with other available cooldowns. The best tanks learn to chain certain defensive CDs to garner maximum benefit and survivability for intense incoming damage phases. So while on it's own it appears to be pretty weak when compared to the amount of incoming we receive, when combined with shields it's pretty potent and gives healers a little bit of breathing room, which is always welcome.

The same could be same for Oil Slick. Options are good.

I actually find Smoke Grenade/Oil Slick more useful as a defensive cooldown, to mitigate incoming damage.

As a biochem and using shield/rakata med pack/Adrenaline Rush in that order to be pretty good for those "oh shit" moments since the Rakata med pack increases your base endurance to boost the heal from AR, it's not bad. Compared with CD's other tank classes get, KO/AR is weak, a 15% health over time your healer, if they are any good, will not even notice since most Op bosses will take that much with one hit.

[Rellitan]

I actually find Smoke Grenade/Oil Slick more useful as a defensive cooldown, to mitigate incoming damage.

As a biochem and using shield/rakata med pack/Adrenaline Rush in that order to be pretty good for those "oh shit" moments since the Rakata med pack increases your base endurance to boost the heal from AR, it's not bad. Compared with CD's other tank classes get, KO/AR is weak, a 15% health over time your healer, if they are any good, will not even notice since most Op bosses will take that much with one hit.

Even still, that one hit can count for something when you're talking progression. Agreed, 15% HoT isn't much, but it isn't nothing either (at least we don't have to spec into it). I know some PTs don't like the fact that Oil Slick has an element of RNG to it, but from where I stand, if used in conjunction with KO, you can see the edge taken off the hits that do get through when OS is active.

That's the one thing about tanking that's unlike any other role in MMOs, with healing coming a close second. While priority rotations for threat and such are fairly constant (or heals per resource), everyone adapts the classes and philosophies to their playstyle - some tanks prefer avoidance, some prefer mitigation, and while the underlying mechanics don't change (boss hit chances, static avoidance amounts, what have you), depending on the player, their healers, and group comp, people are allowed to have some variance in their opinion on what is effective, and be correct, provided they can back it up with their skill and knowledge of encounters.

Yes, there will always be number crunchers who can, to some degree, unequivocally state that X spec or Y gearing method is the absolute best for one particular class, but that's assuming a skill constant in the playerbase. I've seen tanks who just didn't like avoidance perform admirably well with a great healing team (even though they took verifiably more damage, they were less "spiky" and were better able to synergize with the healers during the tempo of encounters). I've also seen avoidance tanks (who verifiably took less damage than their mitigation-based brethren) perform just as well with healers who preferred and excelled at twitch healing versus "ABC" - always be casting - healers.

It's enough to make your head spin, lol.

[notorious98]

Actually, I use Kolto Overload by itself regularly. I solo tank NM Foreman Crusher using it during his Frenzy along with Oil Slick and then Energy Shield+Oil Slick for the next Frenzy. Kolto Overload is a very underrated defensive CD.

[Deleted]

I'm just putting my grain of salt in here from a PVP perspective as a BH healer (this is a completely different perspective i recognize it):

When i pop my bubble getting 30% added heal + my medpack that gives me more health, then this, i get totally great Ticks from the hot, and this ends up being a great CD for when i'm kiting somone focused on me.