My name is Chøssette, Tank Ravager from the Frog Guild on Darth Nihilus. Here is a guide drawn from my personal experience with SWTOR, so it will necessarily be subjective. By respecting it, it allowed me to clean all the PVE HL content. It is thus intended for players wishing to venture on the highest level of the game (Nightmare). This guide is therefore not a collection of theorycraft, it simply provides essential information in order to be able to play a Tank Destroyer in very good conditions.
template
It's a 36/9/1 template.
The goal of this template is to get the 36 point skill from the immortality branch. At the same time, we take the opportunity to take the talents obviously increasing our defensive capacity but also those allowing to facilitate our generation of animosity (aggro).
- On the Immortality tree, it will not be the same according to some bosses. Indeed, I tend to put 2 points on “Rule of two” (6th row, 3rd column) when I need to move quickly. This increases my speed by 30% (6sec) if the person I'm guarding is attacked (example: warlod cartels on darvannis).
- On the Vengeance tree, I find it essential to have at least 2% precision because the precision heading has changed a lot since 2.0. The risk of a miss is greater which can cause losses of aggro
- On the Rage tree, I put the last point on "Decimation" to increase the shock by 10% and reduce its use by 1,5s.
- I know that some will prefer to put 3 points in the precision or on the contrary to put 1 point in order to place the last 2 points on decimation to generate more animosity. Indeed, decimation increases the damage of shock and volleying by 20% and reduces the cooldown of shock and extermination by 3 seconds.
Everyone will choose the talents that suit them best between a 36/10/0 or 36/8/2. After doing several tests, I noticed that the 2 precision points were enough! This subject will remain a debate.
Rotations and cooldowns
Before describing this part, I want to clarify that I propose a cycle in combat on the most difficult bosses in the maintenance of our aggro. Example: the tentacles in P1 of the last boss of Asation Nightmare Coming from elsewhere in a nightmare 16 players! To avoid the rage, the DPS must send their maximum and leave us no respite! A resumption of aggro and it's death!
Single target combat opening
Cycle: increase aggro
We open the fight with Enrage and Force charge. We slam Crushing blow which will allow you to increase your tanking by 3% and Reprisals to increase your defense by 5% (10 seconds). We then continue with Backhand because it is free and generates a lot of aggro. The Choc will allow you to inflict an armor reduction debuff (45 seconds) + an accuracy reduction of 5% for 20 seconds ... which is not negligible! To continue to increase your aggro enormously, run Saber Reflection. On some bosses, it will reflect damage back to you if it is ranged, strength, and tech.
All the spells I just mentioned generate animosity (except retaliation)! It is important to slam them from the start of the fight. The order chosen depends on the reload time (CD) and the cost in rage. Indeed, Saber Reflection et Backhand are free but have a larger CD (60 seconds). Crushing blow et Choc cost 3 points and have a cd of 12 and 15 seconds respectively (the shock CD may decrease depending on your talent tree). During the fight, I advise you to cast them with a slight delay so that you always have a spell that generates aggro available. I use my Enrage before the sweater to avoid having to use Fatal assault during my 1st cycle. Volley of blows is also a spell that allows you to generate aggro but to be used in particular on a group of mobs.
If my aggro is good (no miss), I slam Force cry before my taunt. This will absorb an intermediate amount of damage!
Another important point to keep in mind is that you always leave an armor reduction debuff for the boss. This will allow the DPS to do more damage. The spells that allow them to be inflicted are: Fatal assault et Choc.
Cycle: keep aggro!
We arrive in a phase where the boss has the risk of turning on a member of the raid since the DPS will do the most damage (basically we are about 10 seconds after the pull). However, you have already used spells that increase your animosity. This is when you need to launch your mono target taunt to have 10% (30% if you do it at a distance> 3 meters) more aggro. Take the opportunity to slam other spells like force choke, pillage, Assault.
Le taunt of areas is to be used 3 seconds after the END of the target mono taunt to ensure your aggro! Indeed, if we calculate correctly: the mono and zone taunt each last 6 seconds (total 12 seconds). Knowing that mono taunt is available every 15 seconds, you must then wait 3 seconds to have it available again! On the other hand, if you have respected your cycle, you will again have your animosity spells available to be quiet for the rest of the fight. Do not hesitate to slam your taunts regularly, especially in phases where you will have to move and therefore generate less aggro!
- Example in Mono-target (start of the fight)
- Multi-target example
- Enrage (+6 rage points)
- Force Charge (+2 rage points)
- Crushing Blow + Retaliation (Combo. + 3% tanking and + 5% defense)
- Backhand (free)
- Choc
- Saber Reflection (free)
- Fatal Assault (if needed to build rage)
- Force Cry (as soon as it triggers. It absorbs an intermediate amount of damage)
- ****TAUNT MONO CIBLE****
- Force strangulation
- pillage
- Choc
- Chaining Volley of Blows (allows you to generate aggro on all mobs) + Enrage + Fatal Assault (if necessary)
- Taunt of areas
- Saber Reflection
Reload time
- Saber Reflection : It reflects all ranged damage, strength and tech for 5 seconds. In addition, it generates a lot of animosity and it has a 1 minute cd!
- Saber return : It reduces Force and Tech damage by 25% and increases Defense by 50% for 12 seconds. It's a Panic-Button
- Invincibility : this is our biggest defensive CD. Our second Panic-Button! We must keep it when we feel that it will save us death. It reduces all damage taken by 40% for 12 seconds!
- Tolerance to pain : it is a good survival which allows us to increase our life by 30% for a short time. To be used during a critical phase of combat.
- Looseness : As with all classes, this skill negates debilitating effects.
- Force strangulation : interesting on a big mob in order to better control it.
- Intimidating growl : stuns all packs
- Disruption : An extremely important interrupt spell that you must cast if a boss / mob cast is cast.
Rabies management
Always keep at least 5 rage points to ensure you can cast the biggest spells that require to consume 3 rage points! To do this you will have to try to respect as much as possible the rotation of the skills recommended previously and alternate in the middle with Fatal assault and abilities that increase your rage.
- Fatal assault : this ability increases our rage by 6 points. You should use it when you absolutely want to cast an ability that consumes a lot of rage points.
- Enrage : it's a bit like our Joker. It increases our rage by 6 points. It should only be used if you made a mistake in managing your rage or before an aggro burst (eg pulling).
Statistics and Caps
In this part, you have to understand that it is theoretical and that we are never really optimized. To be perfect, it would therefore be necessary to have several pieces of equipment that we would change from one boss to another. And even there, we wouldn't be really optimized because during a fight, the damage changes.
Styrack example: Dragon Kell does internal and elemental damage, so defense will be more recommended and Styrack itself does energy and kinetic damage so shield / absorb will be more recommended for this fight.
For better gear optimization, I recommend maximizing secondary stats rather than stamina. And to keep a certain balance between defense, shield and absorption. It will allow you to be more resistant no matter what boss you have in front of you. In my opinion, here is the order of priority of the stats and the milestones to be reached:
- Bouclier : 40% minimum must be reached. Objective: reach 50%
- Absorption : 35% minimum must be reached. Objective: reach 50%
- Remark : I advise you to mount the shield first because absorption is only useful if the shield is triggered. A 5% difference between shield and absorption is correct.
- Defense : the ravager has a skill which allows him to increase defense by 5% and moreover this statistic has a declining performance unlike the shield / absorption which remains roughly linear. This is why I do not consider defense as a priority! It is not necessary to exceed 18%. In addition, the healer will prefer that you regularly take hits at a smaller dose than to avoid one and take a slap afterwards.
- Precision : by putting 2 points in the talent tree and no precision in the equipment, you will reach 93% which is perfect. Avoid being below because the risk of a miss is greater and therefore your aggro will not increase!
- Endurance : tanks must know how to take rather than being a bag of points of life! Your healers will appreciate your stamina more than your endurance. So this statistic is not a priority contrary to popular belief!
- Vigor : this is not a statistic that we mainly focus on, but it is necessarily important to put some in order to generate as much animosity as possible.
- Will : don't forget to retrieve all the will datacrons because we often forget it but we have spells that use will?
Currently being full 78, here are the statistics achieved:
16.11% defense, 45.10% shield, 40.00% absorption and 41 hp.
And here is my character on Ask Mr Robot.
Equipment
Ravager's set bonus: You absolutely need the 4-piece set bonus, which increases the amount of damage absorbed by the sonic barrier by 20%.
- Colored crystals : +41 Endurance (you choose the color)
- Grips : Advanced Guardian Hilt 34
- Shields : Advanced Guardian Armoring 34
- Modifications :
- Stamina Defense: Advanced Elusive Mod 34
- Vigor Absorption: Advanced Resilient Mod 34
- Sophistications :
- Shield Defense: Advanced Bastion Enhancement 34
- Absorption Shield: Advanced Bulwark Enhancement 34
- Improvement : ++ (recommended)
- Advanced Fortitude Augment 28
- Advanced Absorb Augment 28 ++
- Advanced Redoubt Augment 28
- Advanced Shield Augment 28 ++
I recommend the following relics (1 passive and 1 active):
- Relic of the Stolen Crusader of the Underworld : it increases shield and absorption by 265 points for 30 seconds (i.e. +/- 4% approximately). Very useful since absorption depends on the trigger of the shield. I advise you to activate the absorption dopant at the same time which increases your shield and absorption by 500 points for 15 seconds! By stacking both, you gain roughly 2-9% shield / absorption! This combo becomes a real CD. Useful on some bosses.
Note: I intentionally did not put the new Relics of the Stolen Crusader since the duration of use has decreased by 10 seconds so less interesting!
- Dread Forges Shield Amplification Relic : increases our absorption by 625 points for 6 seconds! Available every 20sec
Since the first relic lasts 30 seconds and the second relic activates every 20 seconds, you are sure that at best for 10 seconds, the absorption index will be accumulated with the 2 relics
Another Relic: A PvP Relic can come in handy (instead of the Relic of the Stolen Underworld Crusader): Relic of the Stolen Crusader Elite War Hero. Unfortunately it no longer exists! So test it if you have kept it. She has 120 shield points. By using, you decrease in life points but you gain almost 1% on the other stats!
Damage distribution table per attack
Conclusion
I hope this guide will help you to understand and optimize this class. If you have any recommendations or questions, please feel free to follow up in the comments, and I'll be there to discuss with you.
