General Discussion
Answer Me This: Who’s the tank?
Force Junkies:
For those of you unaware, Star Wars: The Old Republic has an interesting take on the class system common to just about every other MMO in existence today. Some exceptions do exist, but those are largely non-roleplaying MMOs or very much sandbox games that give total freedom to the player. In The Old Republic, each class has a choice of one of two advanced classes. It is from these advanced classes that the player can choose a particular role they wish to fulfill in player-versus-environment situations: tank, damage, or healer.
Now, Bioware is offering some fairly interesting choices for tanks in SWTOR. The game has the very traditional tanks that wear heavy armor and stays in melee range the whole time, but has two other tanks types that have unique styles.
Jedi Guardian/Sith Juggernaut
The Guardian and the Juggernaut are your traditional RPG tanks and will easily fill the role. They wear heavy armor and in general stand next to the boss to maintain threat and interrupt bosses if need be. These Jedi/Sith advanced class only get one lightsaber to use, but this is balanced with the ability to carry shield generators. These shield generators are basically a chance on hit to absorb a certain amount of damage from a hit. All the tanks in this game use a shield generator and a tank without one will feel fairly squishy. One thing to note about the Guardian and Juggernaut is they do need to build up Focus or Rage in order to use a good portion of abilities such as cleave attacks and a few damage mitigation abilities.
Trooper Vanguard/Bounty Hunter Powertech
The Vanguard and the Powertech are the other heavy armor wearing class in the game, but unlike the Guardian and Juggernaut they are both ranged tanks. Their particular advanced class does get them a lot of very melee/close range abilities but can be fairly effective kite tanks. The Vanguard uses a blaster rifle as a primary weapon and the Powertech uses a blaster pistol; both have the ability to carry a shield generator. Some major differences between the two are that the Vanguard uses abilities that have a variety of lightning effects. The Powertech on the other hand uses flamethrower attacks. For resources, the Vanguard uses ammo and the Powertech builds up heat and at zero ammo or 100% heat they can no longer use abilities. This means they can front-load abilities much better than the Guardian or Juggernaut, but will need to manage their resources carefully as the fight progresses so that they do not run out.
Jedi Shadow/Sith Assassin
The last advanced classes capable of tanking are the Jedi Consular Shadow and the Sith Inquisitor Assassin. These two classes get to use double-bladed lightsabers and use shield generators like the other two classes, but only get to wear light armor. Instead, they rely on talents and personal auras to increase shield chance and give massive boosts to armor. Also, unlike the Guardian and Juggernaut, the Shadow and Assassin do not need to build up force power, but have a ready reserve; however, they will still need to properly manage force power so that they do not run out of energy to keep up their shield boosting abilities. Another very unique thing is that as part of the advanced class, the Shadow and Assassin get stealth ability.
Now, what marks the major differences besides weapon choices and the like? Something that makes a little bit of difference is the Shadow/Assassin do not have a strong closing ability like the Guardian/Juggernaut or Vanguard/Powertech have; the Guardian/Juggernaut have Force Leap, and the Vanguard/Powertech can spec into a charge ability. Closing ability is very important to tanks because they need to be the first to the boss so they can quickly build threat before the damage dealers begin unloading. Stealth may help with this, but a majority of bosses have stealth detections, so the limited selection of ranged abilities the Shadow/Assassin has is about all they have to start that early threat generation.
For those of you unaware, Star Wars: The Old Republic has an interesting take on the class system common to just about every other MMO in existence today. Some exceptions do exist, but those are largely non-roleplaying MMOs or very much sandbox games that give total freedom to the player. In The Old Republic, each class has a choice of one of two advanced classes. It is from these advanced classes that the player can choose a particular role they wish to fulfill in player-versus-environment situations: tank, damage, or healer.
Now, Bioware is offering some fairly interesting choices for tanks in SWTOR. The game has the very traditional tanks that wear heavy armor and stays in melee range the whole time, but has two other tanks types that have unique styles.
Jedi Guardian/Sith Juggernaut
The Guardian and the Juggernaut are your traditional RPG tanks and will easily fill the role. They wear heavy armor and in general stand next to the boss to maintain threat and interrupt bosses if need be. These Jedi/Sith advanced class only get one lightsaber to use, but this is balanced with the ability to carry shield generators. These shield generators are basically a chance on hit to absorb a certain amount of damage from a hit. All the tanks in this game use a shield generator and a tank without one will feel fairly squishy. One thing to note about the Guardian and Juggernaut is they do need to build up Focus or Rage in order to use a good portion of abilities such as cleave attacks and a few damage mitigation abilities.
Trooper Vanguard/Bounty Hunter Powertech
The Vanguard and the Powertech are the other heavy armor wearing class in the game, but unlike the Guardian and Juggernaut they are both ranged tanks. Their particular advanced class does get them a lot of very melee/close range abilities but can be fairly effective kite tanks. The Vanguard uses a blaster rifle as a primary weapon and the Powertech uses a blaster pistol; both have the ability to carry a shield generator. Some major differences between the two are that the Vanguard uses abilities that have a variety of lightning effects. The Powertech on the other hand uses flamethrower attacks. For resources, the Vanguard uses ammo and the Powertech builds up heat and at zero ammo or 100% heat they can no longer use abilities. This means they can front-load abilities much better than the Guardian or Juggernaut, but will need to manage their resources carefully as the fight progresses so that they do not run out.
Jedi Shadow/Sith Assassin
The last advanced classes capable of tanking are the Jedi Consular Shadow and the Sith Inquisitor Assassin. These two classes get to use double-bladed lightsabers and use shield generators like the other two classes, but only get to wear light armor. Instead, they rely on talents and personal auras to increase shield chance and give massive boosts to armor. Also, unlike the Guardian and Juggernaut, the Shadow and Assassin do not need to build up force power, but have a ready reserve; however, they will still need to properly manage force power so that they do not run out of energy to keep up their shield boosting abilities. Another very unique thing is that as part of the advanced class, the Shadow and Assassin get stealth ability.
Now, what marks the major differences besides weapon choices and the like? Something that makes a little bit of difference is the Shadow/Assassin do not have a strong closing ability like the Guardian/Juggernaut or Vanguard/Powertech have; the Guardian/Juggernaut have Force Leap, and the Vanguard/Powertech can spec into a charge ability. Closing ability is very important to tanks because they need to be the first to the boss so they can quickly build threat before the damage dealers begin unloading. Stealth may help with this, but a majority of bosses have stealth detections, so the limited selection of ranged abilities the Shadow/Assassin has is about all they have to start that early threat generation.
