SWTOR - Ombre Tank (2.5)

Here is a guide for shade in TANK specialization. This is a guide to the Shadow Tank Specialization created with the perspective of my Shadow Tank: Dräkkal. Unfortunately, I have only done part of the PvE content for Star Wars The Old Republic, but I want to share my way of playing with you. I advise you to read the entire guide to form an opinion. Do not just look at a specific point in this guide, a guide is created according to a way of playing so it should be seen as a whole.

I will approach the specialization under several axes:

• Introduction
• Skill tree
• Statistics
• Equipment
• Threat cycle
• Defensive powers
• tips

Then I end with a conclusion. There is one very important thing to know before reading this guide: it is a guide adapted to a playstyle, so some points may either be misunderstood or be discussed by players. You can also download the PDF version.

 

Introduction

Among the four classes of the Republic, that of the Jedi Consular gives access to two specializations: that of the Scholar and that of the Shadow. So we're going to talk about the Shadow. Shadow is a light armor class that uses willpower as its primary stat. The shadow that specializes in tanks has the role of taking damage and having all the enemies on him, to allow the damage classes to do their job without a hitch.

The tank is a specialization that is oriented towards group gameplay and not individual. A good tank is a tank that respects the principle of tanking (taking damage and attracting enemies) but it is also a tank that is organized to increase the effectiveness of the group or the raid.

For example: managing the placement of mobs to have a higher damage yield, which results in enemies grouped together in damage zones. For this the grip, a well placed bump on distant enemies or a broken line of sight to force them to come closer and form a pack can be very effective.

For those who choose to be tanked, it should be understood that it is very different from other specializations (Damage / Healing).

 

Skill tree

Here is my skill tree: 38/4/4

Now I will explain my choices and explain the usefulness of each skill point taken. The number of talent points put into each characteristic is shown in the picture.

• Kinetic combat
• Infiltration
• Balance

 Double Bladed Lightsaber Defense: Very useful passive power to be able to manage your strength for a recovery of 2% of maximum Strength. There is also a 4% defense increase which is not negligible.
 Mastery of Techniques: Passive power useful as it increases damage reduction by 9%, so it is essential for a tank.
 Elusion: Passive power that increases the armor rating granted by combat technique by 20% i.e. now combat technique grants 150% instead of 130%.
 Rapid Recovery: This is the passive power that complements the "Double Bladed Lightsaber Defense" with a 2% increase in the amount of Force regained so in total this is 4% Force Recovered. It also grants another very useful perk which is: when parrying, deflecting or protecting yourself, the cooldown of resilience decreases by 1 second. Knowing that resilience is one of the most powerful CD (defensive cooldown) in the game it's very important to take it.
 Mental Bravery: Increases stamina by 3%, thus granting bonus life. Useful.
 Kinetic Guard: The first power in this skill tree. When activated, it grants 15 charges that increase your chance to trigger a shield by 15% for 20s. Whenever a shield triggers, you lose 1 charge. This is the main power of the shadow tank.
 Seen from the shadows: passive power which is essentially used to have 2% more defense.
 Particle Acceleration: Double Attack, Shadow Strike, Whirlwind Strike, and Spinning Strike have a 30% chance to negate the cooldown of the throw and critically hit it. It's a fairly useful passive power because projection is a spell that generates a lot of threat, so if we can have it a little more often, we're not going to say no.
 Mind over matter: the speed of force removes the negative effects on your movement. This is useful when the tank has to go from point A to point B and has reduced displacement. Second useful effect, resilience lasts 2 seconds longer.
 Impact Control: Increases your shield absorption by 4%. These are significant skill points. Additionally, when you activate Readiness to Fight, to gain 25% damage reduction bonus.
 Unity with Strength: This passive power increases your strength regain rate by 30%. It is a very important talent not to be constantly short of strength.
 Kinetic Bulwark: Whenever a Kinetic Bulwark charge is broken, you gain 1% shield absorption bonus. You can only trigger 8 absorption charges. A charge lasts 20 seconds or until the Kinetic Bulwark is reactivated. It is on these charges that the shadow tanking is oriented.
 Force Pull: This is one of the very useful powers of the Shadow Tank. This is the grip! In addition to moving an enemy to the CaC, it generates a high amount of threat (+/- 8.5K threat).
 Bombing: The projection generates 30% more threat and this passive power reduces its cost in force by 30 points.
 Force Breach: This passive power increases damage dealt by Force Breach by 15% and slowed down by 30%.
 Relentless Shadows: Throw and Slow Time have a 100% chance to grant Relentless Shadows that make you immune to Interruptions and Knockback. Each stacked effect increases the damage dealt by the next telekinetic throw by 25%. This charge can accumulate 3 times. If the 3 charges are met, you engage dark protection charges. Dark Protection stacks 4 times and increases your damage reduction by 1% (lasts 12 seconds).
 Shadow Shelter: This passive power increases all healing received by 2%. In addition, Phase Walk has a Shadow Shelter effect, increasing healing done by characters within 5 yards of Phase Movement by 5%. It is in this spec that the phase march is useful for the Raid. In DPS, phase running has no effect on RAID.
 Shadow Envelope: When you exit stealth mode, you gain 4 units of Dark Protection. This is very important in the engagement gameplay of a fight. In addition, the Double Attack and Rotating Strike have a 70% chance to grant Shadow Envelope, reducing the Force cost of your next Shadow Strike by 50% and in addition, it allows you to grant it. 'use in front of the mob.
 Martial Prowess: This passive ability allows the spinning kick to be used outside of stealth mode. This talent point is a choice specific to my gameplay. It allows me to be able to control a mob which can be very useful in a lot of situations.
 Slow time: this is the last power in the "kinetic combat" skill tree. It is a spell that allows you to hit a maximum of 5 targets. It decreases the damage inflicted by targets by 5% and slows them by 30%. Does not deal damage to stunned enemies (very handy). Importantly, this power generates a high amount of threat on targets hit.

 Upheaval: I only put 2 points for these skills. It allows to have 30% to make a new projection which will inflict 50% of the normal damage.
 Haste: This power reduces the cooldown of Confused Mind by 2 seconds, Strength of Will by 30 seconds, and Force Speed ​​by 5 seconds. This allows to be able to deground more often, to interrupt more often (optional but I interrupt everything I can in normal times) and to be able to move more often more quickly and to dissipate the negative effects affecting the movement.

 Jedi Resistance: Increases damage reduction by 2%. What more…

 Psychokinesic: This passive power reduces the force cost of Double, Rotary Strike and Clairvoyant Strike by 2 points, as well as the cost of throw by 6 points. This talent allows you to manage your strength more correctly.

Some people take:

 Shadow Respite: While in stealth and for the next 6s after exiting, your strength regain strength is increased by 50%. I find this skill point unsuitable because in opening, I do not suffer from lack of strength.

 

Statistics

My stats: defense = 21.87% / shield = 36.56% / absorption = 45.86%

I will give the headings to reach for the shadow TANK in equipment of index 180 (thus 78). I am not taking an example from my equipment, because I do not have enough good sophistication and not complete 78 equipment. But these are the heights that I am aiming for and they are achievable.

• For the shield absorption cap, a shadow tank must aim for a minimum of 44,5% absorption with NPC sophistication and with the correct sophistication 46.5% at minimum.
• For the shield trigger chance cap, this is a pretty special feature, as this one will inflate naturally with equipment. Typically you will hit the 37-38% proc chance.
• For the course in defense, you have to stay above 20% and the best would be to approach 22.5% in defense.
• For endurance, it increases on its own so… you just have to allow time for time.

 

/! POLEMIC SUBJECT /!

The precision: I made tests on the "parser". I'm not going to report back and forth but I found that putting 148 points of accuracy allows for 7.2% more threat on a 30 second opening. If we want to put precision in the equipment, it will always be against the shield index.

In conclusion of my tests, the precision does have an impact on the generated threat but do you have to remove a little resistance from a tank to have "better handling in aggro"? This is a question that I have worked on at length ... without results.

For the small precision, I do not carry points of precision on my current equipment… (Small play on words beware…)

 

Equipment

I am not going to tell you where to put such and such a point in such a place but to guide you a little. But first we will talk about the net bonus for the shadow tank. Here it is :

This is a bonus to have in priority because the 2 pieces bonus gives a very important bonus of 5% on the kinetic guard which in the end allows to gain a bonus of triggering shield of 20% with the kinetic guard.
The 4 piece bonus is as important as the 2 piece bonus because 2% more damage reduction… it's given.

For the equipment, you will need shielding :

• Force Manipulator armor ** that has higher stamina total than at will.

For modifications :

• Reinforcement module ** (stamina / will / defense)
• Robustness module ** (endurance / will / absorption)

For handle :

• Handle Force Manipulator ** (will / endurance (with more endurance than will))

For sophistications :

## Characteristic strong in points | # low point characteristic

• Sophistication Bastion ** stamina # / shield / defense ##
• Sophistication Vigilance ** endurance ## / shield / absorption #
• Sophistication Aplomb ** endurance # / shield / absorption ##

I do not specify the sophistication with precision.

For Headsets : Tokens headsets recommended but that of the NPC is not bad.

• Headsets -> Stamina / will / shield / defense.

For implants : I mainly recommend only tokens. Survivor type X pack followed by either the Arkanian word or underworld or dread forge. Implant with stamina, willpower, shield and absorption.

For relics : I recommend relics with automatic activation in absorption and defense. For clickable relics, this is often a choice made by the player depending on their gameplay. So on this subject, I will not advise you too much.

For improvements : These will mainly be "28 Absorption upgrades" (20 ability power / 32 absorption) with, if needed, one or two entrenchment 28 upgrades (20 ability power / 32 defense).

 

Threat cycle

Kinetic guard

Your resistance is played on this power, that is to say: you must put the kinetic guard to have the absorption charges so you must constantly keep the kinetic guard activated on yourself. It's quite complicated to put a way of playing on paper because the threat cycle varies enormously depending on the situation. By that I mean every fight is approached differently on a threat level so I'll try to give you a cycle that works in most situations.

 

Proposed cycle

I'll make a list of spells to do in order:

1. stealth
2. Force pull
3. Strength content
4. Kinetic guard
5. [ Projection
6. Idle time
7. Force Breach
8. Double attack until triggered
9. If triggering shadow strike and / or projection, do so.
10. Force Breach
11. Idle time
12. Telekinetic throw
13. 13- Kinetic guard

Then you continue from [

I'll give you approximately the threat of pole spells:

• Force Pull: Threat 8.592k.
• Slow motion time: between 4k and 6k threat.
• Projection: between 4k and 7k threat.
• Force Breach: Between 3.3k and 6k Threat.
• Double attack: between 3k and 4k threat.
• Shadow Strike: Between 3.7 and 4.6k threat.
• Telekinetic Throw: Between 8.2k and 11k Threat.

With all the triggers, and in the best case scenario, you will have about 65K threat in a single cycle.

If the aggro fails, you can use your provocations. At the start of the pull, I advise you to do a single target provocation followed by a mass provocation (if the situation allows it) 6-7s later. With that, we won't be able to take the aggro back from you, I think.

In opening (about 30s), you can quite easily reach within 95K of threat on bosses!

 

Defensive powers

The shadow tank has several defensive powers.

Résilience

It's a dispel and power that allows you to increase your resistance by 100% to all tech and force damage. It lasts 4 seconds. 1 minute cooldown. But thanks to your talent tree, its duration is increased by 2s so a total of 6s and if you parry / should or protect you decrease the cooldown by 1s.
This is one of the powers that you will use very often. (See tips)

 

Deflection

It is a power that increases your defense by 50% for 12s. 2min cooldown. This is really the defensive power to use wisely because it only returns every 2 minutes. Use for phases where the tank takes a lot of damage over a very short period of time (like: burst phase on a boss).

 

Readiness to fight

A defensive power which is very practical because it allows us to regenerate 15% of our total health. It also increases the damage dealt by 100% over its duration by all abilities and they also have a 35% more chance to proc. If they trigger they regenerate you +/- 650 health points. Duration: 15s.
It is a defensive power to be used regularly to help healers in a delicate phase.

 

tips

I will give some good tips to take!

Tip # 1: resilience

Resilience can make you immune to a lot of attacks, so you should cast it as often as possible. For example, then from the launch of Titan 06 (Darvannis' second boss) if you slam resilience and project yourself into the energy blast, you take no damage from the blast and stay alive. The same goes for the titan grenade 06 in HardMode, if the resilience is activated during the explosion, you will not take any damage.

Useful resilience to take no damage on bosses / mobs:

• Boss hammer bonus (activate immediately after casting)
• Titan 06 (launch + grenade (HM / NIM))
• Slayer (on her mini enrage)
• On almost any enemy that looks like snipers.
• In many areas created by Mobs.
• And I forget and so on ...

 

Tip # 2: phase walking

In addition to a sizable raid / party bonus, if properly placed, it can allow you to teleport (TP) to a location instantly. For example: the pack of enemies just before Operator IX, you go get it and then put it at the entrance for a practical question. On this pack, you put your walking phase, you go look for them and then you practice. You haven't taken any damage and the enemies are coming. And there are other examples that I wouldn't cite.

 

Tip # 3: force concealment

Force Concealment lets you exit combat instantly. We can do two things with:

• The first is that if you are not at the forefront of tanking you can try to bring to life out of combat a character who died while the others are in combat.
• The second is that if the raid has to die to start the fight again, you can try to hide yourself so you don't die. It's a technique that is quite frowned upon, but hey… not paying for repairs is nice.

 

Tip # 4: Cut and Cut and Cut

In the skill tree, the shadow cut is reduced to 10s, so don't be shy about interrupting spells on mobs! That's less damage! You pay less so you have less chance of dying and the healers have less care to give so everyone is happy!

 

Tip # 5: the stun

Stun allows you to take no damage from enemies so use the spinning kick and force stun whenever possible!

 

Tip # 6: Force Speed

Force Speed ​​is a spell that allows you to move 150% faster and removes negative effects that affect movement. So use it as often as possible.

 

Last tip: the camera height

For those who can handle having a very high camera recoil, do it, it allows you to see the situation as a whole so you can then adapt!

 

Conclusion

The shadow tank is a tank that can be played by anyone and respond to all situations, but you have to play well on the triggers and the skills assigned to it to be able to maintain a suitable resistance.

Personally, I find shadow tanking to be awesome and dynamic tanking where you find a lot of fun.

This guide was produced by Dräkkal from the TaskForce guild of the Mantle of the force server. If you have any remarks and things you don't understand you can wisp In Game or post a comment. I will be happy to answer them.