This video covers the 4/6/31 “all-out” DPS PVP spec for the Bounty Hunter Powertech and Trooper Vanguard advanced classes in Star Wars: The Old Republic (SWTOR). Vanguard and Powertech are mirrors so this video is applicable to players of both classes.
This spec synergizes around the strong offensive capabilities of the Pyrotech (Assault Specialist) tree, in particular the mechanics for Rail Shot (High Impact Bolt) and Elemental damage.
I queued solo for the Alderaan match in the video as a 52 Valor Rank Vanguard with 8 pieces of Champion gear.
For more information about Powertech / Vanguard PVP, please refer to my free in-depth Guide.
To see me PVP’ing live, check out my TwitchTV channel. My stream features real-time commentary – and to the extent possible interaction with the Chat Room.
For more information about Powertech / Vanguard PVP, please refer to my free in-depth Guide.
To see me PVP’ing live, check out my TwitchTV channel. My stream features real-time commentary – and to the extent possible interaction with the Chat Room.
Empire players camping your base in Ilum got you down? Watch how I deal with them on my 50 Trooper Vanguard.
This is my first “Daily” video. I’ll be publishing these shorts regularly for educational and entertainment purposes. Daily videos will cover SWTOR and other future games, e.g. GW2.
In this video I am using my “Iron Fist” 25/14/2 PVP tank spec:
For more information about Powertech / Vanguard PVP, please refer to my free in-depth Guide.
To see me PVP’ing live, check out my TwitchTV channel. My stream features real-time commentary – and to the extent possible interaction with the Chat Room.
This video covers my “Iron Fist” 25/14/2 PVP tank spec for the Bounty Hunter Powertech and Trooper Vanguard advanced classes in Star Wars: The Old Republic (SWTOR). Vanguard and Powertech are mirrors so this video is applicable to players of both classes.
I designed the spec after discerning the limitations of the Defense (avoidance) and Shield (block) mechanics for tanks in PVP. Mitigation is king in SWTOR, and therefore the spec provides a significant amount of flat mitigation against all damage types. Mitigation is king in SWTOR PVP. The two 2% mitigation talents and 5% mitigation from the tanking stance stack additively to provide 9% mitigation against all damage types (i.e. Elemental, Energy, Internal, and Kinetic) – you can see this by mousing over Damage Reduction on your Character window.
The 4-pc Tech set bonus, Flame Shield (Static Shield) talent, and Flame Surge (Static Surge) talent synergize to generate a high frequency of high-damage Rocket Punch (Stockstrike) crits.
The “Iron Fist” spec has been very effective for me in PVP, both group play and solo. It’s designed to support aggressive close-quarters combat gameplay: you can tank and burn down MDPS and pressure and shutdown casters and healers, while retaining Guard, charge, and debuff capability.
For more information about Powertech / Vanguard PVP, please refer to my free in-depth Guide.
I queued solo for the Huttball match shown in the video.
Comments / Errata:
I had an incorrect Relic bound on my Quickslot bar. The point made in the video still stands: the level 50 Crit buff stacks with a Relic
UPDATE (2012/01/28): people asked about the pros and cons of Carolina Parakeet (21/2/18) and Iron Fist. Here’s my brief take…
Here is what you gain with Carolina Parakeet:
+ improved ranged capability
+ better burst mechanics when Prototype Particle Accelerator (Ionic Accelerator) procs multiple times in a short time window
Here is what you gain with Iron Fist:
+ better mitigation and CC capability
+ no wasted talent points or set bonuses
They are both excellent specs – which you choose depends on your preferred capabilities.
UPDATE (2012/01/29): to clarify why mitigation matters and how it stacks, consider the following…
Talents such as Power Armor are not affected by diminishing returns, and mitigation becomes more valuable the more you have.
Without points in the two 2% mitigation talents, my mitigation against Energy and Kinetic attacks is 45.5% from Armor and the tanking stance, so I suffer 54.5 points of damage out of every 100.
With Iron Fist, the mitigation increases to 49.5%, so I suffer 50.5 points of damage out of every 100.
Which means that a non-IF tank spec is going to take 7.9% (4 / 50.5) more damage than an IF build. The difference is significant and very noticeable in PVP.
By the same token, the damage that a non-IF spec takes from Elemental and Internal damage compared to an IF spec is > 4%.
I.e. non-IF in tank stance has 5% mitigation against those damage types, and IF has 9%. So 95 damage taken vs 91 damage taken, or an increase of 4.4%.
When you factor in the +10% mitigation buff from Sorcs / Sages, the gap between non-IF and IF tank specs widens to 4.9% (4 / 81).
And the above percentages again increase when you factor in our 4% damage debuff.
UPDATE (2012/02/02): people have been asking about gear for this spec. Here’s what you want to get:
Supercommando Shield offhand: to leverage the free +15% Shield Chance buff you get from the tanking stance. While I don’t believe the Shield Chance stat is worth stacking for PVP, the +15% benefit is worth leveraging
Combat Tech 4-pc set: for the awesome +15% Crit Chance to Rocket Punch (Stockstrike). Alternatively, if you prefer the Supercommando set bonuses, you can go 4-pc Supercommando and swap out the mods for DPS ones
Go for DPS stats for the remaining slots: this means Eliminator, Combat Tech, and in some cases Combat Medic. The priority for the stats is what I documented in the Stats and Gear section of my Powertech / Vanguard Guide
UPDATE (2012/02/17): with the nerf to Surge Rating in 1.1.3, burst damage is down significantly for all players and time-to-kill has increased. An implication is that “mana” management has become more important.
As such, I moved the point in Oil Slick (Smoke Grenade) over to the second point in Shield Vents (Shield Cycler). The idea here is to get your internal cooldown on the Heat vent (Ammo regen) proc from SV (SC) ticking as fast as possible.
To see me PVP’ing live, check out my TwitchTV channel. My stream features real-time commentary – and to the extent possible interaction with the Chat Room.
This video covers four PVP specs at level 50 for the Bounty Hunter Powertech and Trooper Vanguard advanced classes in Star Wars: The Old Republic. Vanguard and Powertech are mirrors so this video is applicable to players of both classes.
The video provides detailed commentary on the following specs:
To see me PVP’ing live, check out my TwitchTV channel. My stream features real-time narration and commentary – and to the extent possible interaction with the Chat Room.
