Thread: Guard = love.

So on Dearth Malak everyone and their mother wants to tank, and its always a juggernaut. Hey, that's cool, I have an immortal juggernaut too. Me being the good paternal type that I am, let these guys give it a shot and see how the chips fall.

There's one problem with this. Unfortunately my server is filled to the brim with people who just want to watch things blow up and SAY they're tanking (I'm sure you know the type I'm referring to).

I don't want to spoil all the surprises and put everything in one thread so I'll just allow one heavy discussion at a time.

One important skill every juggernaut should use (but I never see) is Guard. Seriously. This should be a no brainer, but it happens. It wouldn't be such a big deal if these groups knew how to mutitask, but alas.

Guard your healer. They don't need 3 mobs beating them up out of the 4 on the pull due to healing aggro. Large threat reduction, large damage redirection. You cant beat it.

~JD

I am not super fond of tanking, however I know the basics. I thought protecting your group members from aggro was pretty much what 98% of tanking was all about.

Well, it is. I was being rather sarcastic with my post above in how I was explaining things, but you have to keep in mind that this is a very new game. You are going to have one of 4 different kinds of people who are going to try to tank for you, the kind who have tanked in multiple MMO's (or played WoW during vanilla) who have learned to adapt (myself), the kind who have tanked in modern WoW who cry because tanking is too hard because AoE tanking isn't faceroll easy, the kind who have never tanked before, and the kind who have never even played an MMO before. So really, you just have to be patient and if a tank is having a hard time and you know how to help him, try and coach him through it if he will allow it, it will my your job that much easier.

I noticed a lot of people playing swtor are new to mmo's in general. I've been playing with my guardian in teams where the healer or dps would draw first agro.. Or where I was playing with my commando, and the group got wiped because the tank didn't bother to draw the agro away from me.

But yes, Guard is an awesome skill. Besides the juggernaut it's also available to Jedi Guardians and Shadows, Sith Assasins, BH Powertechs and Vanguards, and it can be a lifesaver. The only drawback is the very limiting 15m radius. It does require a decent healer to pay attention and stick close to you. A lot of the healers will stand back, away from the fight, and just blast heals since their heals have a 30m range.

Used it since I got it, Vette can't tank (shes better then me though).

I don't use it on my companions (either Vette or Quinn) due to if they leave the 10 yard radius (90% of the time) it shuts itself off, making it somewhat useless.

Originally Posted by jd-inflames

I don't use it on my companions (either Vette or Quinn) due to if they leave the 10 yard radius (90% of the time) it shuts itself off, making it somewhat useless.

well you are right about them leaving the radius, but I'm too low of a level to really use it on someone else since PvP is hard as hell for me right now, even though I manage to get a decent KD/R

Try and keep in mind that how many kills you get or how much damage you do isn't going to rack you up the trophies / valor in WZ's, unfortunately. Juggernauts simply don't have the damage output (unless properly Rage specced / geared) to keep up with...well...anyone else (something that BW needs to take a quick gander at). You're really going to rack up on the valor by defending nodes (anything non-huttball) or by carrying the ball (huttball) or by defending the ball carrier (via peels and taunts (again, huttball)). Once you get a bit further leveled, you will be nigh invincible while trying to guard, and that's where all the points are going to be. Afterall, you are a tank. It's incredibly nice to get points for the spec you've chosen.

Originally Posted by jd-inflames

Try and keep in mind that how many kills you get or how much damage you do isn't going to rack you up the trophies / valor in WZ's, unfortunately. Juggernauts simply don't have the damage output (unless properly Rage specced / geared) to keep up with...well...anyone else (something that BW needs to take a quick gander at). You're really going to rack up on the valor by defending nodes (anything non-huttball) or by carrying the ball (huttball) or by defending the ball carrier (via peels and taunts (again, huttball)). Once you get a bit further leveled, you will be nigh invincible while trying to guard, and that's where all the points are going to be. Afterall, you are a tank. It's incredibly nice to get points for the spec you've chosen.

something else I need to educate myself with, in runescape we only got awards for killing

Yeah, that's what most people are used to.

In TOR, you're Valor, EXP, and credit reward is based on several things. If your team wins, obviously it's higher than usual. Also, whether you win or lose it's based on awards. There are awards for x amount of damage (possible but not plausible for an Immortal Juggernaut), x amount of healing (never won this one, even though my healing is rarely 0 due to med packs), x amount of defense (easiest one to get, considering we are tanks...you should shoot for this), one on one kills (easy to get), and killing blows (again, easy to get). There's a few others, but I can't quite think of them off the top of my head.

Originally Posted by jd-inflames

Yeah, that's what most people are used to.

In TOR, you're Valor, EXP, and credit reward is based on several things. If your team wins, obviously it's higher than usual. Also, whether you win or lose it's based on awards. There are awards for x amount of damage (possible but not plausible for an Immortal Juggernaut), x amount of healing (never won this one, even though my healing is rarely 0 due to med packs), x amount of defense (easiest one to get, considering we are tanks...you should shoot for this), one on one kills (easy to get), and killing blows (again, easy to get). There's a few others, but I can't quite think of them off the top of my head.

Shielding is one, it's great for the Guard ability, got some good exp today in pvp, so what does Valor do anyway?

It raises your PvP rank. End game PvP gear requires a certain rank to use, plus every 10 valor levels you get a new title.