SWTOR 4.0 Vigilance Guardian DPS guide written by Rydarus of The Ebon Hawk.
NOTE TO JUGGERNAUTS: Vengeance guide isn’t up yet due to finagling with the tables.
[toc]
Introduction to the Vigilance Guardian
Hey, Rydarus here, rewriting this guide for another go around. You’ll notice a lot of information remains the same, but I’ve adjusted a lot of crucial points that I feel I failed to bring up in prior versions of the guide, and solidified my mentality in running the spec.
A few notes:
I’m now focusing full time on an “Alacrity” based guide. It may very well be not the only way to run this Discipline, but it’s the way I do it, and it’s what I’m going to teach. Guardians have transitioned from being a very decent Melee dps in 3.0, to being more of a Focus Sentinel during the 2.0 tier. We have amazing AOE, but weak single target and higher immobility. We have mediocre burst and mediocre sustained DPS, but again, we have very strong AOE. The spec is still immensely fun to play however, and with a bit of upkeep and work, you too can bring it into HM and NiM raiding.
Defensive Cooldowns
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Challenging Call (Commanding Awe)
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Discipline Utilities
Utilities can vary, but these are a few recommended basic builds. You will never need a build outside of these. None of the new 4.0 utilities are useful at all for PVE. Not a single one.
Skillful / Masterful / Heroic
Traditional Build (Sparky, Malaphar, Sword Squadron, Revanite Commanders, Underlurker SM, Master Blaster, Revan SM, Coratanni SM)
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Republic: Battlefield Command, Unremitting, Narrowed Focus, Trailblazer / Purifying Sweep / Through Peace, True Harmony
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Empire: Warmonger, Unstoppable, Deadly Reprisal, Pathcarver / Crushing Fist / Through Passion, Through Power
The Reflector (Bulo, Torque, Karraga The Unyielding)
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Republic: Battlefield Command, Unremitting, Narrowed Focus, Trailblazer / Purifying Sweep / Daunting Presence, True Harmony
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Empire: Warmonger, Unstoppable, Deadly Reprisal, Pathcarver / Crushing Fist / Intimidating Presence, Through Power
The Slayer of the Ruined World (Colossal Monolith)
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Republic: Battlefield Command, Unremitting, Narrowed Focus, Second Wind / Purifying Sweep / Daunting Presence, True Harmony
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Empire: Warmonger, Unstoppable, Deadly Reprisal, Payback / Crushing Fist / Intimidating Presence, Through Power
Avenger (Underlurker HM)
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Republic: Battlefield Command, Unremitting, Narrowed Focus, Trailblazer / Purifying Sweep, Gather Strength / True Harmony
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Empire: Warmonger, Unstoppable, Deadly Reprisal, Pathcarver / Crushing Fist, Pooled Hatred / Through Power
Revanchist (Revan HM)
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Republic: Battlefield Command, Unremitting, Narrowed Focus, Defiance / Purifying Sweep, Gather Strength / True Harmony
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Empire: Warmonger, Unstoppable, Deadly Reprisal, Unyielding / Crushing Fist, Pooled Hatred / Through Power
Rating
- Single Target Dps: 6
- AoE Damage: 10
- Group Utility: 6
- Rotation Difficulty: 7.5
- RNG Dependant: Somewhat on a few abilities.
- Burst: 6
- Sub 30% Talent or Ability Buffs: No (Execute available before 30% and execute very marginal in increase of damage)
Gearing Methodology:
My gearing method is upon which my guide is based. I make no claims that it is optimal, it’s just how I play. (However I highly suspect it’s close to optimal if it isn’t already.)
- 6PC VINDICATOR Set Bonus from 4.0 (The old bonus is NOT WORTH KEEPING). No other set bonus is superior, keep it, love it.
- 684 Accuracy is the cap, not 682. 685 gets you to 100.01% Accuracy.
- I dislike going under the accuracy cap because it’s not raid realistic, as such I do not use Bant’s numbers. (Though otherwise I think they are fine.) Note that one lucky crit will more than make up for the difference between Bant’s numbers and my numbers, but my gear gets you raid security.
- This gear is for RAIDING, not DUMMY PARSING. I don’t give two shits if your gear gets you 8k DPS, if you can’t pull good numbers in a raid, that dummy parse is meaningless to me. Capeche?
- No Alacrity isn’t bad, yes, Mastery Augments are shit. No I’m not doing a Basic gearing build this time around.
- Crit isn’t bad. Seriously. It’s amazing. No Power or Mastery Augments.
- Please no defense mods. Should be self explanatory but people ask me these things. All mods are power. Plz.
- Unlettered Lethal Mods, Adept, Initiative, and Quick Savant Enhancements are all the modifications you should ever have. If you have ANYTHING else, you’re doing it wrong.
- About the Suggested Setup: Only the 224 and the 220 are actually optimal, the goal is to get you to the optimal gear ASAP with minimal hairpulling and pain on your part. If you get different drops and stuff, adjust your gear accordingly, but as long as you are approximate to these ratings, you’re fine. (except for accuracy, that needs to be what it is in the guide).
Enhancements and Augment Setup to get to BiS in 224s:
208 Goal
2 Initiative Enhancements + 6 Accuracy Augments = 712 Accuracy Rating
3 Quick Savant Enhancements + 6 Alacrity Augments= 849 Alacrity Rating
5 Adept Enhancements + 2 Critical Augments = 831 Critical Rating
216 Goal
2 Initiative Enhancements+ 6 Accuracy Augments = 742 Accuracy Rating
3 Quick Savant Enhancements + 6 Alacrity Augments = 894 Alacrity Rating
5 Adept Enhancements + 2 Critical Augments = 902 Critical
220 goal
2 Initiative Enhancements + 5 Accuracy Augments =685 Accuracy Rating
3 Quick Savant Enhancements + 5 Alacrity Augments =845 Alacrity Rating
5 Adept Enhancements + 4 Critical Augments = 1092 Critical Rating
224 goal
2 Initiative Enhancements + 5 Accuracy Augments = 701 Accuracy Rating
3 Quick Savant Enhancements + 6 Alacrity Augments = 869 Alacrity
5 Adept Enhancements + 2 Critical Augments = 1132 Critical Rating
What you need to know beforehand
Before we begin to learn the rotation of the Vigilance rotation itself, you first have to commit to memory the various “Procs” that generate various outcomes and abilities in Vigilance. There are 4 Major Procs and Passive Effects in Vigilance and 1 Minor Proc.
Major Procs and Passive Effects
Zen Strike: Plasma Brand has a 100% chance to reset the cooldown on Blade Dance. |
Force Rush: Grants 50% critical chance increase to Blade Storm. Force Rush is generated by Overhead Slash, Plasma Brand, Vigilant Thrust, and Dispatch and stacks up to two times. Lasts 15 seconds. |
Keening: Periodic Damaging Effects and Blade Dance both have a 30% chance to generate Keening. Keening allows Dispatch to be free and usable on a target regardless of health level. Can occur only once every 20 seconds. |
Burning Storm: Vigilant Thrust spreads your periodic damaging effects, provided that at least one victim of Vigilant Thrust is affected by your damage over time effects. However, if the target affected by your damage over time effects dies from Vigilant Thrust, your Damage over Time effects will not be spread to the other victims. |
Abilities (Not a priority system. Cooldowns are an approximation and ARE AFFECTED by Alacrity)
The Rotation
This section features openers, priority, rotation strategy, clipping master strike, tips and tricks, and AoE priority
Openers
Since 2.6 and the major Vigilance improvements, plus the changes made in 3.0, the Vigilance rotation is far more set in stone. Vigilance has very little RNG besides crits, but most players have an inaccurate or simplified rotation. The general BiSRAID opener in Vigilance is:
You can always do this opener of you experience downtime, provided they are all off cooldown, so for example if you have downtime on the boss, afterwards, you want to use some combination of the pre Overhead Slash abilities, generate enough focus, then Overhead Slash, Master Strike, Plasma Brand, etc.
After the opener, you then flow into the priority system.
Priority System
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5: Saber Throw is your Secondary Filler/Ranged Move |
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6: Combat Focus should be used when you absolutely need focus and Sundering Strike is on CD or you don’t have another GCD to spare. |
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8: Force Push mediocre filler but has a range, also useable as a knockback. Good when topped out on focus and Vigilant Thrust is NOT AVAILABLE. |
Full Boar AoE Priority (3+, preferably 4+)
AOE in Vigilance is fairly simplistic, and contrary to popular belief, is NOT based on a priority system, NOR a set rotation. This system is designed to swap all damage towards AOE. The principle behind this is to increase your cyclone slash / sweeping slash damage using your DoTs, and keeping at least one DoT on all encountered enemies at once.
As Plasma Brand / Shatter is your longest DoT, you use Plasma Brand / Shatter to maintain the Cyclone Slash / Sweeping Slash Damage Buff. Alternate with Plasma Brand / Shatter with Overhead Slash / Impale to maintain the debuff the entire time, use Vigilant Thrust / Vengeful Slam on cooldown, and Cyclone / Sweeping spam for days. It’s important NOT to delay Vigilant Thrust / Vengeful Slam for Plasma Brand / Shatter, as this lowers your aoe, this is why you cycle Overhead Slash in to cover the alternate DoT cycle, because Vigilant Thrust / Vengeful Slam does not actually refresh DoTs, only spreads them if they are not already present.
Rotation Strategy
The Vigilance / Vengeance Rotation lasts 11 seconds for a minor rotation, and every Major Rotation is 32.616 seconds long, and a full circuit is 65.232 seconds assuming the rotation is carried out perfectly. Every major rotation, the DoT’s realign in a way similar to the opener for another pass at the rotation.
In every Vigilance/Vengeance minor rotation, you will perform:
1 Plasma Brand/Shatter
1.3 Overhead Slashes/Impales (The decimal is because the cooldown for Overhead Slash / Impale and Blade Storm ‘/ Force Scream is 75% of the CD of Plasma Brand / Shatter, every few Plasma Brands / Shatters there is an extra Overhead Slash / Impale and Blade Storm / Force Scream inside the cooldown of Plasma Brand.
1.3 Blade Storms/Force Screams
1 Master Strikes/Ravages
1-3 filler GCDs, 1 of them being Dispatch/Vicious Throw when it procs. Due to the nature of Dispatch drifting in the rotation, SOMETIMES you will use it, sometimes you will not. The reason for the variable number of filler GCDs is due to the way Overhead Slash / Impale and Blade Storm / Force Scream drifting inside the CD of Plasma Brand
In addition, every 11 seconds of a Vigilance / Vengeance rotation requires 8 Focus/Rage throughout the entire cycle. 8 is the magic Vigilance / Vengeance number. Usually, a Sundering Strike/Sundering Assault or Combat Focus/Enrage with a Force Sweep/Smash or Saber Throw will fulfill this purpose. Combat Focus/Enrage can also be used while using an ability (besides Master Strike/Ravage) so that a filler in the filler window can consume resource rather than burning it.
Also, every 32.3 seconds or so, there’s a double Overhead Slash window and a double Blade Storm window. These windows are far more resource intensive, and the latter window spends 2 more Force Rush than they normally do.
Hitting a Boss (Tips and tricks)
Many players, especially players who aren’t raiding in bleeding edge content, are told that “Dead DPS do no damage.” This is WHOLLY TRUE. However, there is one caveat: A DPS that is not doing as much effective damage as he or she can, is less than optimal.
DPS Myths:
Myth 1: You will never be able to translate your dummy DPS to boss. FALSE. Every iota of damage you do on a dummy is POSSIBLE on a boss. Every DPS should do as much damage as possible without endangering the health of the group, and on most boss fights you should be losing very little DPS when compared to dummy, and if there are adds, you should be GAINING DPS!!!
Myth 2: Melee DPS useless FALSE. Melee are disadvantaged, however, we are fully capable of doing competitive damage. Great MDPS can match or exceed their RDPS cousins, it’s all in the uptime. Uptime must be seized and taken advantage of. Every DPS must learn how to stick to the target, adjust to the circumstance, and flow back into combat smoothly and seamlessly.
“You must be shapeless, formless, like water. When you pour water in a cup, it becomes the cup. When you pour water in a bottle, it becomes the bottle. When you pour water in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Water can drip and it can crash. Become like water my friend.”
– Bruce Lee
Ask yourself:
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When leaping to kill an add like the Jealous Male in TFB, how often do you Force Push and leap back to boss to keep your uptime seamless? (Sometimes Guardian Leap is better, NEVER USE ON A TANK. Healer is best)
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When DPSING, do you often have points in time where you don’t know what to do? ALWAYS. BE. PUSHING. BUTTONS.
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Know your abilities and their ranges and cooldowns, and use these abilities to get around faster.
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Do you know when to Guardian Leap out of AOE’s? (NEVER USE IT ON A TANK)
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Do you know when to use Blade Storm/Force Scream at two stacks or forgo it and use 1 stack?
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Do you know that a basic attack is better than no attack, DPS is always better than nothing.
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Do you know when to ignore your own DPS and use utility talents? (Taunt the boss when tank dies or guardian leap to a dps with threat or use stasis to stun an add?)
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Do you know when AOE is better than Single Target?
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Don’t be a Rydarus, don’t stand in cleaves
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Use your aggro drop when you get threat(Challenging Call/Threatening Scream ONLY in Shien and Shii-Cho Stance in 2.7)
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Use Focused Defense/Enraged Defense as your first defensive CD in these situations: Heavy AOE, Dots, etc. Think of it as a trauma probe, if you are taking damage in the next 15 seconds, this CD is the bomb.
- Uptime is the absolute most important thing about this build. You must learn to think in combinations and DPS bosses with low downtime, if you perform singular attacks, the benefits of alacrity are wasted. Always chain abilities together. EVERY BOSS BECOMES ALL ABOUT HOW MUCH UPTIME YOU CAN GET. APM. IS. LIFE.
- Blade Dance has a shorter channel with Alacrity. TAKE ADVANTAGE.
Saber Reflect Tips and Tricks:
- Malaphar: Red Circle
- Revanite Commanders: Purple Circle
- Revan: Heave, Core, Overcharge Saber
- Bulo: Mass Barrage, Scatter Blaster
- Torque: Turrets, Shoots Lasers, Dangerous Fire Devices
- Master & Blaster: Rain of Pain
- Karraga: Everything fire related, Exploding Mouse Droids
- Foreman Crusher: Circles
Parsing
How to analyze a parse?
For those who have problems with Vigilance and the hallmarks of a good parse, I have included a list of simplistic equations to determine how to know whether your Vigilance Rotation is good:
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Convert the length of your parse into seconds (5 minutes is 300 seconds)
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Be in the Damage dealt tab of parsec and be looking at “Damage Dealt Broken Down By Target”
Time Conversion equations (Outdated, just use Parsely’s Ability Usage Tool)
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D= Duration of Parse
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A=Abilities amount of times used
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G=Gap Between Use
Equation for detection of abilities usage per second:
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D/A=G
Example: Ability A was used 34 times in 300 seconds. Using D/A=G we end up with: 300/34=8.8235 second gap between ability activation.
Master Strike/Ravage/other 3 tick ability Specific equation:
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D/(1/3*A)=G
In this case, if D=300 and A=99, the equation would be 300/ (1/3*99)=9.09 second gap between ability activations.
What to Check For?
(Note that it is impossible to actually meet these numbers due to lag, but getting within .1 seconds is a good target)
- Plasma Brand / Shatter every 11 seconds
- Overhead Slash / Impale and Blade Storm / Force Scream every 8.3 seconds
- Master Strike every 11 seconds
- APM at 39-39.5
How to Practice?
The former highest skill Vigilance/Vengeance Guardian, Westfall, claims to parse for the duration of the “Today Show.” This generally means he parses for a grand total of 20 minutes a day in one straight parse.
“In order to fully commit your rotation to memory for usage on a boss, you must first learn every single way to screw up your rotation” (Credit to Antonica/Daharel)
This means you go through with every parse you have regardless of mistakes to learn your rotation inside out. Vigilance is an easy to learn but hard to master spec, and the rotation SEEMS easy to pick up but has some of the most ruthless dot reapplication rotations in the entire game.
Sample Parse (Analyzed and highest)
Sample Parse (Note: Gear used was optimized 216 and 220s with 216 left side and a Revanite Relic. I also had a 224 offhand.
(Note2: I have a higher parse available, but as dissecting each parse I put up, which is relatively frequent, for a parse analysis is fairly inefficient, I will always analyze a parse of my own every month, but keep a link or image of my ABSOLUTE MOST RECENT parse.)
Note 3: Parsely can misround a lot, don’t be shocked if there’s .1 or .2 seconds off in your usages.
Parse Analysis:
6400 on the 1.5 million health dummy.
http://parsely.io/parser/view/81100/10
Ability usages:
Blade Dance/Ravage every 10.86 seconds
Plasma Brand / Shatter every 11.2 seconds
Overhead Slash / Force Scream every 8.392 seconds
Blade Storm / Force Scream every 8.392 seconds
APM at 39.34
Videos
twitch: http://www.twitch.tv/rydarus/profile (3.0)
1.5 mil dummy parse: http://www.twitch.tv/rydarus/v/12856552
HM Underlurker (3.0)
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jHSlDILsCg&w=448&h=252&hd=1]
HM Torque (3.0)
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgkVbgNa_q4&w=448&h=252&hd=1]
About the author (and special thanks)
If you don’t know who I am, I’m Rydarus, AKA “Alácrity.” I was one of the more outspoken proponents of alacrity as a stat in 3.0, and 4.0 has only solidified my obsession with the stat. I’ve perfected and tinkered my approach to Vig/Veng under the principles of DoT uptime, and I hope to spread the “proper” way to run Vigilance/Vengeance to other players. I hope you find the guide useful.
This guide has and will always be written about how I play this spec.
I’d like to thank many people for helping me write this guide:
- Fedara, for carrying me (Those dank rescues in Core Phase).
- Gyrfalcon, for being the first person who saw me raid in Alacrity Augments.
- Mattmonkey, for inspiring me to write a guide all those years ago.
- Westfall/Westfaller from Underworld Alliance, for being to this date the most precise and skilled Vigilance Guardian this game has seen. He may not have cleared much, but for his time he revolutionized the way the spec was run and was the only person I’ve ever met who performed the perfect rotation for Vengeance.
- A’jantis, for /ginviting me and putting me on a raid team.
- Tam/KBN, for being… well… KBN…
- Bioware, for making Alacrity a not useless stat
- PVP, for teaching me to be a better DPS
- Training Dummies, for teaching me to be a better DPS for a longer period of time.
127 replies on “SWTOR 4.0 Vigilance Guardian DPS Guide by Rydarus”
The fact you would actually let Rydarus put a guide up on Dulfy is HILARIOUS!! They guy has an EGO the size of Mount Rushmore to go with no RAID awareness whatsoever.
Thank you for your guide, especially for using pictures with names in the rotations much easier to read.
For those of us who do not raid, but like to know our rotation, where would one use Vigilant thrust, for like say I was doing forged alliance story in solo for SOR and up against a mob with a gold star guy.
DoT up the gold star, pop a vig thrust, make sure it hits the gold star and the secondary targets. Keep in mind if target affected by DoTs dies from Vig thrust then DoTs won’t spread 🙂
DoT up gold, Thrust near gold, make sure to hit gold as well as secondary targets.
Hey! Thx for guide!:)it’s awesome. Just one question. Will u translate it for juggs?:)
Yup
Its happening soonnnnnnn!
I guess doing a master strike before resetting its cooldown for a second master strike is a noob trap?
Pretty much
TLDR, yes 😛
you’re essentially wasting a Master Strike.
Any news when can we expect guide for Shadow/Assassin? 😛
If you have the dread forged or dread master marauder 2pc bonus, is it really worth going for the new 6pc bonus?
8% more dmg on ravage seems so much more useful than one guaranteed crit on impale every minute and some extra mainstat.
Curious about this myself. It feels like old set should be better by fair margin but I don’t have numbers.
It IS better by a small margin (about 100 DPS). I intended the guide to not require one to go back into the old tier, and plus, while I currently run the DF DM Mara 2pc, it’s only for parsing, and I have yet to receive the 6pc. When I do, I will switch to it as I believe it should be more raid practical.
Can we expect Sorc healing guide anytime soon? 🙂
I dont understand Dulfy. Did you lower standard by allowing outdated guide recycled as new?
Half of it is updated mainly skills but second half is from old patch and video is even more older. Rotation i wont even speak about.
Im really really dissapointed Dulfy. I’m visiting your site often as here are all the great advanced classes guides, but this need more fixing.
The gudie is perfect go troll on someone else not dulfy please 😛
Guide* stupid key-bored 🙂
Sry it is not perfect. I am doing different stats and getting a bit higher dps than what it has here.
http://dulfy.net/2014/01/20/swtor-vengeance-and-rage-juggernaut-dps-class-guide/
So, the guide above is almost identical to the link I posted, and by the same author. The only difference is the first guide was written as an update to an old existing guide, rather than being done as a separate entity like they have done for all the guides afterwards.
As far as accuracy, I have been running Juggernaut/Guardian since beta, there is nothing in this guide that I would specifically call out as incorrect. The rotation is about as good as one can describe. If you can think of an actual specific issue in the rotation, and have evidence to support your claim, then please do.
About the authors. Originally, the guild Hatred posted the guides we have all enjoyed for a few year now. Hatred is now defunct, and Dulfy is getting help in the guides from some wonderful people who are taking the time to write accurate, and easy to understand guides to help beginners/intermediates play their toons better. They are not getting paid, and are doing it in the spirit of the game. If you have an issue with that, then seriously, you need to reevaluate your own self worth, and maybe have some appreciation for the people that do what they do to improve the game and the community.
Instead of bitching how about you think of a constructive way to contribute.
The simple fact is that the guides are taking quite a while to update since the old Guides are completely outdated. We’re working on splitting the guides as we speak, as two people updating the same page is highly finagly.
Do remember that some old bookmarks may also be leading to outdated links, I would recommend using Dulfy’s menu to reach the guides (Though Rage juggernaut is not appearing in the menu QUITE yet)
As always I appreciate feedback, especially constructive feedback 🙂
Wheres the sentinel one comooown
this is wrong. they changed zen strike, if you jump+plasma brand+master strike you’ll lose a zen proc, since plasma brand now finishes the cooldown on master strike on it’s own.
That why the opener is Jump – Overhead Slash – Master Strike – Plasma Brand – etc.
Not only are you getting the 5% melee damage debuff on the target before a Master, but you are using Brand to reset Master in the correct fashion.
heya, i was wondering if it makes sense to grab a couple of alacrity mods / enhancements to compensate for serverlag, and get a more “fluid” rotation
If you need to compensate for Server Lag, that’s EXACTLY the worst time to run alacrity. Alacrity gets worse the more lag you have simply because you could gain more performance equivalent to having alacrity by just hitting things faster.
Everyone keeps forgetting Purifying Sweep lowers your target’s armor by 20%, which means your Master Strike will hit that much harder.
So the rotation I think should be Leap > Sweep > Overhead Slash > Master Strike > Plasma Brand > Master Strike
the opening rotation consists of saber throw, which already sunders the target, lvl 40 passive ability in the vigilance skill tree
So Saber Throw does more damage than Vigilant Thrust?
thats not what i said ;e
what i said was, it’s part of the opening rotation. which means, the armor debuff is already on the target when you get to the master strike part
vigilant thrust isnt in the rotation, if you can squeeze it in when more important abilities are on cooldown, thats a bonus
why is it better to use Saber Throw instead of Vigilant Thrust? Leap > VT > OS > MS > PB > MS > SS > VT > OS > PB > MS. That is my rotation. Is it bad?
forgot about Dispatch after second MS 🙂
Well saber throw procs an autocrit overhead slash, that’s probably the main reason, it also generates more focus.
just tested on dummy opening rotations. if you do it ur way, you wont have enough focus for the rotation for the 3rd [maybe 2nd, cant remember] plasma brand. that’s also before combat focus comes off cooldown, so you end up having to use strike, or wait for sundering strike cooldown
Hey Rydarus tywm for nice gude. Just wanted to know if there is allready final decision about auguments. Art said in focus guide that for most classes gona be better to have power auguments but i still don’t know. I personaly like more mainstat auguments but i don’t have time to make relevant testing what is better…
I also have another question and it’s about crit/power. I made many tests pre 3.0 and at most situations worked better full power with 0 crit for me, but i still don’t know what now. If i look to new tiers of gear i see freakin much crits and alacrity event on warrior gear which is leading my mind to some thinking about what BW means with that and how important for dps gona be crit…
Do you have any answers to that?
tywm
Just wondering if Riposte has a place within the rotation, or is it now a move you should avoid using?
It’s good Spike DPS, issue is, the rotation can be tight for Rage/Focus so it shouldn’t be abused.
it barely procs now as opposed to before 3.0 and that was with 100% accuracy before 3.0 its proced way more then it does now in 3.0 and 95% accuracy. the skill is all but useless now imo what good is skill does more damage then before but barely proc proc with 95% when it proc alot more with 100% with pre 3.0?
At 100% it probably wont proc. when i see it proc i dont even use half the time simple cause it not worth gcd at this point
It seems to me that it’s worth using now that it’s been taken off of GCD.
thanks so much for this, would absolutely love an imperial version for us veangeance juggs!
It should be there, I sent something to dulfy, until then I’ll post an archive link above.
i personally disagree with your opener in some cases..
as i would not use SA when u do as it kills opening dps too much.. after the first Blade storm I’d immediately go into ravage , clip @ 2.7 over head slash , dispatch, slam, and another blade storm.. by that time Saber throw is back up again and does more dmg then sunder assault.. rince repeat only using sundering strike when absolutely needed.. if you use it too much u drastically decrease your DPS
Sundering Assault is a necessary filler because of the amount of Focus it generates, neither Saber Throw OR SA are used for their damage, only resource regeneration.
Hello Rydarus¨
first of all ty for guide. But i have one question about crit ratig. My guildie made some testing and calculations about how much crit rate you shlould use and he told me that there is almost no dps increase when you have above 200 crit rate but your optimal values are all above this number. He has optimised 186/192 gear and 198 OH. We both ran full power last patch and now we trying add some crit but dunno how much crit use. I have similar gear to him and using might augs. Can you tell me your sugestion and how did you come to that 230 – 330 crit rate?
tywm
The math is not that clear cut. Crit rating is a multiplicative stat, and honestly running a 0 crit build means that when you get lucky, you can get high numbers, and running a moderate crit build means that you will get lucky more often, but your spikes are potentially lower. I believe that a moderate crit build is more realistic, although on average, I doubt you will see any variation over say, 50 parses, between the two sets.
I have a crit build. I stripped my strength augments to power and lost around 5% crit I believe since I am at work and can’t see the actual numbers but what I can tell you is with strength>power my dps went up 170 just replacing 6 strength with power augments. I ran a 9 minute with power and 11 minutes with strength both consistant but more damage with strength and crit. I sit at 33.4 crit%
Thanks for the guide!
I find rather hard to choose a good implant, the ones from comm vendors literally have no crit rate or accuracy rating, so i was thinking about Hawkeye Anodyne Might Package MK-2 with augment on crit rate. Can you help me with this?
Now i have 30% of crit chance with calss buff, it was the desired value in pre-makeb era, and i dont know how about now. But it seems to me that 200-300 crit rate will be too low
30% is too high, pre makeb era used that much crit so we could get a guaranteed autocrit on Dispatch. DR for crit is too crappy for anything more than 200-300 (though with that much and Might Augs you will be at 26% crit roughly, dependent on gear.)
(Some use Sundering Assault instead of Enrage, I disagree simply because it is not raid practical in the sense that the buff is generally insignificant, is part of your rotation anyway and therefore you are guaranteed use it later on, and also you cap out on Rage, and are using THREE low damage abilities in a row. It also means that if the Relics Proc on Saber Throw, only Impale gets the buff from your relics.)
pretty sure this is jugg lingo 😛 is impale overhead slash or plasma brand ? and im guessing enrage is combat focus ?
Impale = Overhead Slash
Shatter = Plasma Brand
Question about Ravage/MS clipping: Where does that extra GCD you tend to have come from? Assuming perfect clips, you’re 0,3secs or 1/5th of a GCD ahead when you activate your next PB/Shatter but that 0,3s doesn’t transfer to the next cycle since it’s gated by the 12s CD on PB/Shatter. So at best, clipping may help you to squeeze another ability inside relic proc/raidbuff/adrenal.
I understand that if the rotation wasn’t gated by CDs, clipping would give a big benefit but as it is, seems to me that the only benefit is a small buffer for movement/lag. And if you fumble the clip and miss the third tick and 50% of the damage, you won’t recoup the loss with perfect clips later.
Or am I looking at this the wrong way? I’m in no way an expert on Vigi/Veng.
The extra GCD doesn’t truly go towards anything specific, it just allows for more time for filler/movement, generally I don’t notice much of a rotational change between clipping and not clipping, except I usually have more time to input a filler such as Sundering Strike closer to on CD.
Rydarus, are you going to make a similar guide for the Vengeance Juggernaut?
You said Vindicator set and dread master but I can’t find any of the second in either cartel market or GTM. Can’t find anything in cartel for vindicator and on he GTM, there are a ton of pieces that have vindicator in them. what am I looking for?
You shoul look for token exchange npc on republic fleet. Dread Master NPC is on Oricon so you need to go there. To buy these sets you need to have tokens which you can obtain by finishing operations (Nightmare Dread Palace and Dread Fortress for 186 and Storymode Ravagers and ToS for 192)
They actually moved those vendors from Oricon to the Fleet Vanguard Vessel.
So, what about the 14!!! alac augments? Does that really work?
Yeah I’m curious too, there’s a distinction between “beginner” and “advanced” builds but what does that even mean? I want to see what’s better and thereby recommended for optimal dps.
Yes, it certainly works. Having done a lot of parses with both strength augments and alacrity i can tell you you’ll get much better results with the alacrity augs.
You do need to know your rotation very well to get the best results.
Hmmm, guess I’ll give it a go then
Rydarus, can I ask what rating your weapon is 192 or 198 and the second question is do you have any crit enhancements and what is your total alacrity please? I am seeing your logs in parsley, latest one may 10.
192 mainhand, rest BiS 198s. My total alacrity is about 798 right now, with 13 alacrity augments, 1 accuracy augment, and 1 alacrity enhancement.
So, I’m still in the process of trying to assemble a fully optimized 192 set. I’ve got the 190 Ziost gear as a baseline, with 192 Chest, Gloves, Belt, and Bracers, all un-optimized and no setbonus. I’ve got a 186 Earpiece and Mainhand (But with a 190 hilt I got from the World Boss.) Fully auged in 178 grade Alacrity augs (Cause the 186s are really damn expensive). Given that I’m parsing 3.6k against the training dummy, how well is that parse holding up? In other words, since I am parsing lower than the optimized 186s, is there something I’m doing wrong, or is that just a matter of that’s with optimized gear and I’m un-optimized?
3.6k is… mediocre. I’d expect it to be higher honestly, also, I explicitly state the alacrity augs aren’t for everyone.
Considering that my parse increased by about 500 DPS just from the alacrity augs, I’d venture that they’re working just fine for me.
quick feedback:
the section “what you need to know beforehand” displayed completely broken to me (images in the middle of sentences, random sentence parts mixed..etc)
Yeah I noticed, the tables completely broke during editing right after I logged off for the night, so I rolled everything back minus the utility section. it’s taking a while to figure out the juggernaut guide right now, so you’ll have to live with this for now 🙁
where is this border, when i start to be advanced ,to use 14 alacrity augments? I am in the middle of gearing my juggernaut with 192 and i would like to know which augments i should take…
Well, I see there is no author @Rydarus or anyone who could help me
When you do 4500 or more without alacrity.
Well I saw Juggernauts/Guardians parsing 4700 and more DPS on Power or Strength augments. What is so great about this alacrity build and why is that called “advanced”?
Quote: “Uptime is the absolute most important thing about this build. You must learn to think in combinations and DPS bosses with low downtime, if you perform singular attacks, the benefits of alacrity are wasted. Always chain abilities together. EVERY BOSS BECOMES ALL ABOUT HOW MUCH UPTIME YOU CAN GET. APM. IS. LIFE.”
Well, I read guide, but I still don’t understand it. Pls don’t quote. I need real answer
Is the old dread master set bonus still prefereable even if you’re in the advanced build?
parse from me using 2 old and 4 new setbonus
http://parsely.io/parser/view/37604/0
full 198 gear apart from 2 mods and I only have a 192 mh. Highest parse I had with 6 set was 4764 so it looks a bit better on dummy parses anyway, not sure about ops. (I have about 700 alacrity)
I just noticed that Vigilance/Vengeance spec doesn’t need Shien Form for the procs to work and just add a overall damage boost. So I’ve been thinking, what if we take on Soresu Form and remove all Accuracy Enhancements/Augments in favor of Alacrity or Power? Has anybody tried this method?
Soresu gives you 100% more threat generation so you would be pain in the your raids tanks asses
Yeah, I thought that, also, I just realized it lowers your damage output by 10%, so it wouldn’t be reliable.
Not to mention that shien grants you back 1 rage everytime you spend rage, using soresu will really make you rage starved.
When will Juggernaut version available? I hate looking for names of guardian mirror skills
http://dulfy.net/2014/01/20/swtor-vengeance-and-rage-juggernaut-dps-class-guide/ not sure why it doesn’t pop up under juggernaut dps
Ok, I have a rotation worked out that cast shatter impale f scream and sunder assault on CD but my ravage usage is at 13 seconds.. i would love to see an actual rotation for this spec not just an opener. Thanks
It would be hard to write out an entire rotation, due to the rng involved in vicious throw procs. Just use dots on cd and make sure not to waste any master strike/ravage resets. Sundering assault isn’t quite used on cooldown, but pretty close to it
How much accuracy do you have in advanced build, because 6 198 enhancements are just short of 100% accuracy, while 7 go quite a bit over 100%. Maybe get 6 accuracy enhancements, ditch one alacrity augment for an accuracy one, and get another surge or alacrity enhancement in?
10 accuracy augments + 2 accuracy enhancements will get as close as possible to accuracy cap. It is 760 rating, cap is 758.
Then, assuming you take 3 surge pieces, you can get 4 alacrity augments + 5 alacrity pieces, which nets a total of 808 alacrity. If that’s a little too much alac, one or two augments could be changed to strength/power or possibly even surge.
I just don’t get this exactly, why does the Jedi Guardian, Vigiliance require crit rating at all? there is no passive gained at all that increases crit damage of any kind…none…..I mean there are some classes that have passives that increase crit damage, but some just don’t have any at all, just like This spec and they recommend little to no crit, but this one recommends between 200-400 or so crit……its so confusing…
For a class that doesn’t have increased crit damage like you said, 0-200 crit didn’t make a big difference. Be cause the less crit you make with 0 was balanced by the increased power that you had.
However, if you play a burst class, less crit might be interresting than if you play a dot class.
Let me explain :
– For a burst class, let’s say that during 9 seconds you hit 6 times (1.5s gcd). On these 6 times, you have let’s say 33% chances to crit. You might crit twice but you might crit 0 times aswell. On 6 hits it relies a lot on RNG.
– If you play a dot class, Let’s say you hit 6 times but with 3 dots, like a guardian does. You will have 6 hits + the dots. It might be 15 hits instead of 6 in 9 seconds. You are more likely to get your crits, even in short periods.
Nevertheless, if you do crit with your burst class, you will crit a lot harder than with dots, so it’s just more random.
Personnaly, i like to build my toons the more reliable that is possible. It can be a way to explain why you can see crit here, and not on other guides.
Don’t forget that the main reason is that 0 to 200 crits won’t be that much noticeable on a parse on a class that doesn’t have crit based passives.
But all of that might not apply anymore, now that 4.0 is out and surge given by crit rate.
Hmmm, i plan to try a juggernaut and go a pure power based and see if i do notice any difference between power + crit and just power. Its just i prefer a more reliable damage and having a 25% chance to crit is……..not that high.
Well you won’t be able to switch crit and power anymore with 4.0. Have you tried it ? Because now, every mod have endurance and power, never crit (I am not talking about tank mods though), and on enhancement you have :
– endurance
– power
– either alacrity or accuracy or crit
Surge have been deleted, and now it is crit rating that gives you increased crit damage too.
For instance, with my jugg i had my old 174 gear with massive power/surge, and it became power/crit. So i end up with 7 Power/crit enhancements and the same on implants and ears. That gave me around 33% crit rate and around 64% crit modifier.
However, with autocrits (like force scream) the bonus crit rate is converted to extra crit damage, so it is not usless.
I will try to switch my strength augments to power, since it gives a lit of crit rate to try to get decent crit damage. So the extra crit % given by main stat on augments seems pointless to me.
And i’ll try a parse with alacrity enhancements instead of crit.
What gear do you run for pvp?
I have been Doing the rotation on a “perfect” scale. The highest I got was a 4.7k (full 192 optimised gear) This is with the alacrity build btw, But there is just one thing. I still haven’t been able to get the 39.2 APM (or even close to 39 APM) I linger around the 38.- (sometimes a .1 above or below)
I have checked the parses, checked my own parses, compared them, tried to improve (the only real thing that I need to improve was my MS timing, which seems to need to be cut off at .25 / .3, and yet still I cannot get that APM. I am hammering the keys to get the next skill as fast as I can.
Do note that I am a experienced raider and general MMO player. So please don’t come here with beginner info :)))
This has been really bugging me, as I see other parses with that APM or close to that APM. 38.70/38.9 and so on. I feel like I am missing an alacrity piece but, as the guide states, I have 728 alacrity.
I do understand that latency will affect it. but with my best parse I didn’t even get that magic number I am trying to get. And I noticed a lot less lag. Is it because I actually let master strike go on for too long? Does it have a faster cut off period I need to take into account?
I didnt understand att all what utility skills are good for pve?
I have a problem. On my Sith Juggernaut I have nearly full 192 optimized (miss few mods), 2 enhancements are 198(vendor) and relics are 186 craft with full STR augmentation I most of the time struggle to beat 4050 DPS and higest I got is 4167 when i switched set bonus to 4/2 new/old sent. I’m not doing a rotation at “perfect” scale but I don’t think those few mistakes (wrong priority impale vs shatter) martwe that much. The only thing I don’t get is that when should I delay Vicious Throw and by how much? Is it normal that sometimes I have no skill to use?
Two things :
– 192 optimized Enhancements were better than 198 not optimized.
– 198 not optimized power Mods are almost the same than 192 optimized ones.
But now in 4.0 i didn’t do the maths between 216, 220 and 224 yet, so i can’t tell.
For your information :
– every point of power gives you 0.23 damage bonus
– every point in main stat (now, mastery) gives you 0.2 damage bonus, and a little crit
With that, you should be able to figure out which mods and enhancements are better 😉
will it be updateed for 4.0?
Its strange, i know its outdated, but i don’t get why it needs so much crit, i mean, there isn’t any +30% crit damage bonuses, even in the ingame tree, no passives that increase crit damage at all, so i fail to see any need for crit of any kind on Vengeance/Vigiliance specs….its weird.
Ummm wrong guide Dulfy… Put the 4.0 the author sent you 😛
I was wondering why it was showing only 3.0 stuff, likely an honest mistake on Dulfy’s part, likely caused by lack of sleep or something, i am sure it will be fixed soon.
Its first version of his guide before changes he made to it during 3.x. Waiting unpatiently for 4.0 version
Hi! I just sent in the updates, it should update soon, the 3.0 stuff is only here due to a weird bug with updating, probably just lack of sleep on my part, it’ll be up soon, I promise, plus I think Dulfy will be posting it on a new page.
Will Juggernaut version avilable then as well? Quite sad to see pub version only
Eventually, the jugg guide always has had some problems with the tables, I’ll see when Dulfy and I can fix them.
for some reason i picture a midget in a leather bdsm mask cracking a whip yelling type every 30 seconds as you updated the guide lol
Next up, Rydarus’s guide to spamming allies chat with moronic crap.
This does not seem like a 4.0 build at all, but just a mislabeled 3.0 build
I know i should know the equivalents, but i don’t, can guide author pls put Juggernaut equivalent skills / utilities up against Guardians. Just makes life easier 🙂
What’s the point if it’s not even legitimate 4.0 ?
This gear is for RAIDING, not DUMMY PARSING. I don’t give two shits if your gear gets you 8k DPS, if you can’t pull good numbers in a raid, that dummy parse is meaningless to me. Capeche?
this made me laugh really hard agreed just couldnt stop laughing that it needed to be said
I love this guide, nice to see it updated from 3.0 so soon. Thing is, now that power is no longer the absolute best stat ever in all things at all where you can find it, that leaves crystal choice actually open to variation, which i dont see adressed 🙁
im staring at two very expensive (multimillion, owee, but i want them for character purposes) pure-white crystals for artorria and cant really choose between them suddenly – power or crit. 😐
It’s not updated, still 3.0 content with a couple 4.0 references tossed about.
So i dunno, i am not really satisfied with dps of jugg. I am playing with jugg for long time (Vengeance) he,s my mine char, but still have problem to make proper damage. just will say, so have my own rotation made it from my experiences from pvp, pve. Pve gear build have aprox as author described before for 216 (full 216 set pve gear i allready have with 220 hilt) and when i checked my dummy parse, had aprox 5600-5700. I think so it’s really bad o_O (during the fight weren’t used any adrenals)
About my pve gear, because i am not master of making correct stats build and doing a lot of messuring how to max improve my dps so i made my own build (earpiece, 2x implants + offhand with accu n power – 111% accu), (every gear token is augmented – used “208” alacrity so aprox 10,4% but changed it from 14 augments of ala to 12 and 2 augments with critical, critical then i have “914” – 34,90%) In mainhand and offhand using power crystals
So is here something really wrong with me? (Btw, i am fan of alacrity, love when from lazy jugg became fast speedy killer)
Neckbeard….
http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=8558158 check here for stats for gear ratings.
It’s not updated, still 3.0 content with a couple 4.0 references tossed about. There a reason it’s not even in the 4.0 section with the legitimate 4.0 ….. Clickable……
^ clickbait*
5585 with 216 gear on dummy without adrenal what is kinda similar with stats as is described here. How is looking ur stats?
Rydarus, or anyone who plays Guardian Vigilance in Bant’s stats, do you know if rotation he used too assume DPS is good?
“Currently, unless you’re absolutely irrationally dedicated to this spec like I am, turn back and go Watchman.”
I’m confused. Do you mean reroll a Sentinel or did you intend to say ‘Focus’? I’ve returned after a long hiatus and don’t know any of the fights well enough to tank so I’m looking at going DPS on my Guardian.
So i have to ask, why do you run 800+ alacrity with your build? I to have been tinkering with guardians and alacrity since the begining of 3.0. Ive noticed a substantial benefit up to about 750 but after that as far as cooldowns go i see no reduction at 845.
Guide is a joke, and I feel sorry for all the people reading it and believing just because it says 4.0 at the topthat it actually is . This guy is a blatant copy of his 3.0 which he didn’t even bother to repost in the 4.0 section and has very few relevant applicable sections to the 4.0 outside of a few small references there are vast aspects of the new 4.0 guardian vigilance that are not even mentioned in this so-called guide…..
Praise the Emperor you’ve arrived. Please, enlighten us all to these vast new aspects.
lol seriously tho plz let us know b/c really there are pretty much no new aspects to this class its exactly the same as 3.0 save a couple abilities now triggering your crit buff on bladestorm.
on an off topic note, we really need 15% dmg they took away from blade dance back, were currently on the very low end of the list when it comes to top dps classes.
So, what’s your IG name ? What boss have you down ? Where can i find you on Parsely.io and what are you advises ??
Its funny this guide tells you to use 10 Enhancements, otherwise its good 🙂
Why Sundering strike so far in the opener? It generates 5 focus, don’t I need it ASAP?
That’s why they have Combat Focus early on, to generate Focus.
Hi Rydarus .. I am having an issue with the numbers in alacrity ,,
below is what you have suggested :
224 goal
2 Initiative Enhancements + 5 Accuracy Augments = 701 Accuracy Rating
3 Quick Savant Enhancements + 6 Alacrity Augments = 869 Alacrity
5 Adept Enhancements + 2 Critical Augments = 1132 Critical Rating
When i am doing the calculations : Coming as 168 ( 224 enhancement ) +73 + 168 ( 224 enhancement )+73 +168 ( 224 enhancement ) +73 ( just alacrity aug) +73+73+73 = 926 alacrity ( unless i am wrong) and crit is coming to 986 …so just want to get the numbers confirmed for the 224 stats