I believe that people that have been to this blog and my youtube before, know that my first character is a Sith Juggernaut. It was my first character at SWTOR and I've spent a lot of time doing end game PvP and playing some PvE. As I've experienced most of the end game, I really wanted to try some other classes and after a while, I changed server and faction. I haven't played my Juggernaut since then and the thing is, I'm not really looking forward to do it. Focusing mostly in PvP, I was a little disappointed from the class. Juggs are a melee class that is missing a healing ability and even though they have great mobility, people could kite them easily. AoE tanking was a challenge, Vengeance has ok dps but more fitting for PvE and Rage's dps output relies on one strong hit. I'm not saying that the class is underpowered, I'm just feeling that it has a moderate performance in all fields.
Hopefully, 1.2 will make me play my Juggernaut again. Lots of changes for Juggernauts; they change and increase the dps rotations of all dps specs, better AoE for all three trees and finally, some self healing. So, let's analyse the new additions:
CRASH: You get this passive ability at level 10 and will cause Force Charge to stun your opponent for 2sec. This effect cannot occur more than once every 12sec. That will help a lot, as it can be combined with a Force Choke or Chilling Scream to pin your opponent after closing the gap. Don't know if and how much resolve it cause but definitely, a great tool for a melee class.
ENRAGE DEFENCE: The Juggernaut spend rage to lower threat and while active, one point of rage is spent each time damage is taken, heals the Juggernaut for a small amount. This ability is usable while stunned and is doesn't respect the global cooldown. AWESOME! Much needed, Juggernauts of all tree specs can use it and combined with Soresu Form and Saber Ward would make them un-killable. Enrage is mandatory for this skill as lot's of rage is needed and Vengeance specced would be more benefited, as they generate almost unlimited rage from Shien Form.
On top of those changes, some talents are relocated in different tier of their tree and some other have their effect change. The most important are:
Single Saber Mastery: Now benefits all the three Forms.
Stagger: Now in the Tier 1 of the Vengeance tree. Good filler choice for all PvPers.
Rampage: Also generates 2 rage when is triggered.
Not a lot of changes on Vengeance, after all it was a decent spec, with a proper rotation. Still not the best for PvP but more viable now, very reliable in PvE.
Hopefully, 1.2 will make me play my Juggernaut again. Lots of changes for Juggernauts; they change and increase the dps rotations of all dps specs, better AoE for all three trees and finally, some self healing. So, let's analyse the new additions:
CRASH: You get this passive ability at level 10 and will cause Force Charge to stun your opponent for 2sec. This effect cannot occur more than once every 12sec. That will help a lot, as it can be combined with a Force Choke or Chilling Scream to pin your opponent after closing the gap. Don't know if and how much resolve it cause but definitely, a great tool for a melee class.
ENRAGE DEFENCE: The Juggernaut spend rage to lower threat and while active, one point of rage is spent each time damage is taken, heals the Juggernaut for a small amount. This ability is usable while stunned and is doesn't respect the global cooldown. AWESOME! Much needed, Juggernauts of all tree specs can use it and combined with Soresu Form and Saber Ward would make them un-killable. Enrage is mandatory for this skill as lot's of rage is needed and Vengeance specced would be more benefited, as they generate almost unlimited rage from Shien Form.
On top of those changes, some talents are relocated in different tier of their tree and some other have their effect change. The most important are:
VENGEANCE TREE
Single Saber Mastery: Now benefits all the three Forms.
Stagger: Now in the Tier 1 of the Vengeance tree. Good filler choice for all PvPers.
Rampage: Also generates 2 rage when is triggered.
Not a lot of changes on Vengeance, after all it was a decent spec, with a proper rotation. Still not the best for PvP but more viable now, very reliable in PvE.
RAGE TREE
Decimate: Is now relocated in Tier 1 of the Rage tree, a great filler choice for all speccs that need more AoE damage.
Force Alacrity is now gone. Good riddance I say as it's replaced by OVERPOWER, a new ability that would make Vicious Slash to generate to rage when it criticals hits. Much needed.
Force Crush: It's CD is reduced to 18sec from 21sec. COOL!
Obliterate also immobilizes the target for 1 sec that means it makes it a mini Force Charge.
Relentless Fury is now gone and it's replaced by EMPOWERING RAGE. Empowering Rages requires 2 points in Shockwave skill to be unlocked causes Enrage to immediately grant 2 stacks of Shockwave for each point spent on the talent. Another Smash is good.
Shockwave: now last 20 secs, up from 15.
As you can see, Rage is getting buffed in next patch. More stuns and control and more burst for this spec that were much needed as Rage still is the best PvP spec.
IMMORTAL TREE
There's only one big change for the Juggernaut tank, Thrown Gauntlet no longer reduces the CD of Threatening Scream. It would change their playstyle but with the Decimate in the first tier of Rage tree, level 50 tanks won't have a problem with AoE tanking anymore.
Overall, 1.2 finally buffs the Juggernauts and makes them stronger and more durable. Having access to parsers and combat log will help us evaluate our DPS and compare it to other classes but most of us knew that this class was kind of weak. Especially the nerfing of the Surge rating reduced the base of Rage juggs dps, effecting them more than almost all classes. I can predict from now that Juggernauts would dominate in rated Warzones. They would finally have enough survivability and damage to do what they were designed to do. Taunting off, controlling the battles with their charges and peel their opponents.
Are you insane? The change to Thrown Gauntlets (for a tier 5 skill!!!!!) is horrifying. Our only aoe benefit over powertechs and assassins, who own us in aoe tanking/threat generation, was that we could shorten the cooldown on our taunt to 30 seconds. With that gone, our group threat generation is downright catastrophic. How does moving decimate to rage help tanking? What we needed was a skill that increased the range of the smash radius.
ReplyDeleteEnraged defense actually reduces our threat. Did you forget to read that part? This makes it utterly useless for tanking. I will admit that the tanking tree got a much needed single target threat/damage buff in the form of changes to single saber mastery and crushing blow, but at the cost of significant nerfs to our aoe threat/damage output.
First of all, I never said Enraged Defense should be used while tanking. That doesn't mean that tanks can't be used. In a boss that needs two tanks, when the other tank taunts, you can use Enraged Defense, lose aggro and then taunt, keeping the healing buff. Certainly, that only applies if aggro is drop instantly, like WoW's hunter ability Feint Death, or decrease your threat for a period of time. I haven't tried level 50 Juggernaut in the PTR yet and I can't say that works but even if my though doesn't apply to the game, I'm sure good tanks would find a way around to use the ability.
ReplyDeleteAlso, Decimate moving to Rage is good, as long as it stays in tier 1. That doesn't mean anything for tanks, as it's the same thing. On the other hand, the talent fits more the Rage tree than the Vengeance tree. Plus, from 1.2 it also increase the damage for Sweeping Slash. As far for the changes overall in jugg's tanking, I don't feel that AoE taunt should be a part of a tanks rotation. It should be used but not be mandatory to keep aggro. Right now, they increased the damage output and thread generated by our attacks and instead of AoE taunting, we got a stronger Sweeping Slash and better single target thread generation. I know that some people prefer the old system and I do agree that it was more powerful but right now, IMHO, juggernaut tanks have a proper tanking rotation
.....except that Rage spec was nerfed, not buffed. Way to not read the patch notes, but I guess having smash damage reduced by 10% and the cooldown on Smash & Scream increased by 3 seconds helps us twiddle our thumbs while healers laugh through our damage.
ReplyDeleteSeriously this is the best troll post about the patch notes I've read thus far. Bravo.
Seriously now, do YOU read the notes?Rage now have more control over the whole shockwave mechanic with the new changes; it has more burst with an extra shockwave every 60secs and Force Crush's CD reduction means that you can Smash almost on CD. The spec was badly nerfed with the changes in the Surge rating as it was very dependable by that attribute. When will both try the class on the live server we'll see the difference from last build
DeleteI stopped reading when you spelled "knew" as "new" and "than" as "then" in the same sentence. Jesus, someone give this kid an English lesson.
ReplyDeleteIm vengence jugg on civil war ill do 400k plus in pvp and constintley pull agro off the tank cause Vengence Jugg is awsome. Solo pvp I can beat anyone, if im soloing a tank i put tank gear on in vengence and wreck them. If a medium to light armour ill thrash them about. maurders ill have 25 percent of my life after a solo fight. Operatives are a close call i only fought one that had 2k more hp than myself and i won by 10 percent. keep in mind shien form is good for sorc, healers, but agaist tanks you need to fight a tank with at leat 300 defense and at that point youll win cause your acc is higher and shorter cooldowns on abilities and stronger abilities more often. i even tank in this form as well. PVP wise best spec is a full vengence and other pts else where for your play style. Lets put it this way my friend in full Rakata and half pvp will die with in 20 sec.
ReplyDelete