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Pinnick · (This post was last modified: 04-17-2012 01:38 AM by Pinnick.)

I've been thinking about adding more Shield/Defense mods as well. Doing HMEC last night and Lost Island this weekend I felt and I believe my healers could feel I'm a tad squishier (after going 49.50% shield to 45%) although my shield absorb was higher (41% pre-1.2 and 49% with full Heat Screen). Additionally, I've never understood how shield absorb can be king b/c to actually absorb anything we have to shield first before anything else.... so IMO, stacking more shield then working on absorb is a better approach.

I could be way off but it's just me thinking logically about the stats and how they work.

Regarding the rotation... I was using something similar as well. Threat still hasn't been too much of an issue which is good. Also, have you noticed that Flame Sweep is hitting harder than before? Still very very inefficient, but hitting a bit harder.

thrakkemarn · 04-17-2012, 05:28 AM

Part of the reason absorb is king is b/c of the way diminishing returns on it work, and the fact that 1 point of absorb rating is worth more mitigation than 1 point of shield or defense up until something stupidly high (don't have the chart in front of me).

After swapping out all of my accuracy enhancements from rakata gear and slotting in 48/51 shield + 19/20 Defense enhancements, I've noticed a significant reduction in damage taken and no difference in my ability to hold threat. I wish I had the funds to experiment more with combat logs, but even with a mere 73 Accuracy rating the only attack that shows misses on bosses in Explosive Conflict (story) or KP NMM is rapid shots. I have yet to see a miss on a rail shot.

Does anyone know if the logs show dodges or parries by bosses? I have yet to see that anywhere.

So with all this shield rating and defense rating from enhancements, I've been stacking absorb everywhere else I can and using the absorb proc relic. When the relic procs I am up at right around 500 absorb rating, and overall the distribution of stats feels pretty good to me.

krosber04 · 04-17-2012, 07:41 AM

with how hard the hard mode bosses are hitting 10-12k on average. i'm going to start trading in some absorb for defense. attempt to avoid more damage, see how it goes.

(04-17-2012 05:28 AM)thrakkemarn Wrote: Part of the reason absorb is king is b/c of the way diminishing returns on it work, and the fact that 1 point of absorb rating is worth more mitigation than 1 point of shield or defense up until something stupidly high (don't have the chart in front of me).

After swapping out all of my accuracy enhancements from rakata gear and slotting in 48/51 shield + 19/20 Defense enhancements, I've noticed a significant reduction in damage taken and no difference in my ability to hold threat. I wish I had the funds to experiment more with combat logs, but even with a mere 73 Accuracy rating the only attack that shows misses on bosses in Explosive Conflict (story) or KP NMM is rapid shots. I have yet to see a miss on a rail shot.

Does anyone know if the logs show dodges or parries by bosses? I have yet to see that anywhere.

So with all this shield rating and defense rating from enhancements, I've been stacking absorb everywhere else I can and using the absorb proc relic. When the relic procs I am up at right around 500 absorb rating, and overall the distribution of stats feels pretty good to me.

Pinnick · 04-17-2012, 08:56 AM

Yeah exactly... I think I'm going to go with putting Shield + Def in slots... previously I've taken hits to my shield to incorporate more absorb in there.

Iluvsodah · (This post was last modified: 04-17-2012 09:58 PM by Iluvsodah.)

Hi guys, I've been reading that post for quite a while now, and registered just now to ask for some info which i did not find.

First off, which is the best augment according to you for PT tank ? The options are pretty clear :
- Endurance/Def/Shield/Absorb but these come with power...
- 18 Aim / 12 Endurance
I'm tempted to go with that Aim/Endurance thing, as in losing some Endurance, but at least the two stats on there are good. Any thoughts ?

Also, now that we can craft augmented orange gear, I'm wondering if the set bonus (2p/4p) is worth it versus 4 more augments. I mean the 4p is 2% defence, and a quick equip/unequip gives me that 2% defence is approx. 90 rating (for my gear), and the 2p just does not seem that big a deal. Now, is 90 def. rating better or worse than 72 aim / 48 endurance (or any other 4x augments) ?
NB : That is, until I get my hands on some campaign gear, with augments AND set boni.

Olos · 04-19-2012, 05:17 AM

(04-14-2012 06:50 AM)thrakkemarn Wrote: So I rolled through HM Lost Island and some story mode EC last night, and found myself altering my rotation quite a bit:

I would open with the usual charge > punch > RS combo, but then I would immediately hit Flame Burst and Heat Blast together, and then follow with 2 more Flame Bursts to stack my avoidance as quickly as possible.

Additionally, with the amount of Absorption the proc relics now give, would it make more sense to stack Shield + Defense enhancements instead of Shield + Absorption? Or slotting in Shield + Power augments instead of Absorb + Power (especially with the lower shield chance we have from skills).

Absorption is generally talked about as the king mitigation stat, but when that relic procs it goes deep into DR. Just wondering if anyone has thought about this (haven't seen much activity in the PT tanking threads) as I am trying to optimize gear before starting HM EC.

Eh not really. With the boost to abs they gave us in 1.2, by the time you start hitting dr's, the abs % is high enough that it makes up for reduction from DR.

Go plug your numbers into the tank stat spreadsheet in mechanics section. Im at 330 def/400 shi/300 abs, it tells me that absorb is my best stat, with def not too far behind. When i plug in the bonus 400 abs from overcharger, value of shield goes up(as each shielded attack means less damage now) and abs goes down but not by all that much. Been playing with the trinket proc too.

thrakkemarn · 04-19-2012, 04:53 PM

(04-17-2012 09:57 PM)Iluvsodah Wrote: First off, which is the best augment according to you for PT tank ? The options are pretty clear :
- Endurance/Def/Shield/Absorb but these come with power...
- 18 Aim / 12 Endurance
I'm tempted to go with that Aim/Endurance thing, as in losing some Endurance, but at least the two stats on there are good. Any thoughts ?

Also, now that we can craft augmented orange gear, I'm wondering if the set bonus (2p/4p) is worth it versus 4 more augments. I mean the 4p is 2% defence, and a quick equip/unequip gives me that 2% defence is approx. 90 rating (for my gear), and the 2p just does not seem that big a deal. Now, is 90 def. rating better or worse than 72 aim / 48 endurance (or any other 4x augments) ?
NB : That is, until I get my hands on some campaign gear, with augments AND set boni.

IMO the
best augment is by far the 18 Absorb still. I wiped out all my accuracy
and stacked shield + defense enhancements and then stacked absorb
everywhere else. I strongly, strongly believe that Mitigation > Endurance everywhere. Power isn't totally useless - helps aggro (and to put out extra damage on tight enrage timers), but Absorb is the best thing to stack.

On HM EC I find that my damage is really smooth, I am rarely crit and the average hit on me is very close to the max hit (meaning that I am not often spiked). I attribute this to my high shield and absorb chances (both ~50%).

The 2-piece Supercommando's bonus is still very useful. On hard content Oil Slick should be used basically on cooldown (especially since it's now outside the GCD - WIN!) and provides a ton of defense, and I usually find myself using Reactive Shield on CD as well for many fights. On fights with bosses that enrage/frenzy they are even more useful. Stacked with the 2% Defense from the 4-piece I think they provide more utility and overall mitigation than slotting in 4 more augments would. (But even if I were slotting more augments they would be Absorb).

Olos · 04-20-2012, 04:23 PM

Ya, go with absorb/shield/defense (whatever you need more of) over aim or endurance or whatever in your augments.

Set bonuses are decent, better than 4 extra augments. (though subbing in one piece is useful) I wouldn't switch that.

Totenfaust · 04-22-2012, 07:01 PM

(04-17-2012 09:57 PM)Iluvsodah Wrote: Hi guys, I've been reading that post for quite a while now, and registered just now to ask for some info which i did not find.

First off, which is the best augment according to you for PT tank ? The options are pretty clear :
- Endurance/Def/Shield/Absorb but these come with power...
- 18 Aim / 12 Endurance
I'm tempted to go with that Aim/Endurance thing, as in losing some Endurance, but at least the two stats on there are good. Any thoughts ?

Also, now that we can craft augmented orange gear, I'm wondering if the set bonus (2p/4p) is worth it versus 4 more augments. I mean the 4p is 2% defence, and a quick equip/unequip gives me that 2% defence is approx. 90 rating (for my gear), and the 2p just does not seem that big a deal. Now, is 90 def. rating better or worse than 72 aim / 48 endurance (or any other 4x augments) ?
NB : That is, until I get my hands on some campaign gear, with augments AND set boni.

I personally went with the Aim/Endurance augments. Having switched to full Campaign/BH gear (my guild has completed all of the new content on hard mode), I still find threat to be a bigger issue than survivability. Especially with the amount of aim you lose upgrading from Rakata, I felt that tossing in those augments in my crit crafted campaign gear was the way to go.

Olos · 04-24-2012, 02:07 AM

Yeah, threat's been fun since the patch, especially on firebrand/stormcaller with our marauder, who is prob our best dpser by a good margin, before taking into account currnent state of maras/sents. Ive been using a crit/surge relic and stacking it with explosive fuel and dps adrenal on the pull to get a boost in the opener when i cant rely on taunts for threat gen.

Havent had too many problems with tank damage thus far. A couple points in toth and zorn hit pretty hard, but that's what cooldowns are for. Will hopefully be getting to warlord tonight though, and the final phase tank damage looks pretty beastly.