Juggernaut Vengeance Spec, Abilities Breakdown

After spending my time playing Rage PvP, I decided to try WZ as Vengeance. My spec is 3/31/7, I don’t really know if it’s the best but as I was in a rush to kill some reps I decided to go with this anyway.

My server is quite dead and I had a long queue so I decided to try the PvP dummy. My PvP gear is quite lame, mostly of Champion parts and not customized, with low critical and surge rating. That means that my dps was quite low but when I used my parser to analyze my damage, I got some really interesting results.

FORCE SCREAM, IMPALE, SHATTER. WHICH IS THE STRONGEST?

As you can see, the order is Force Scream>Impale>Ravage>Shatter from higher to lower. Bad thing with the parsers right now, is that all 3 bleeding dots that are results of Force Scream, Impale and Shatter have the same name but different ability ID. That means that they are measured differently but cannot say which one is which. Looking through the talents I know that all three abilities have a 9sec CD and that Shatter has the strongest dot. So I would say that Bleeding #3 is Shatter, Bleeding #1 is Impale and Bleeding #2 is Force Scream.

That means that the order changes to Shatter>Ravage>Impale>Force Scream.  I already use Shatter and Impale first, to get a standard critical Force Scream and I use Ravage on CD. Ravage is 3 sec casting ability but the 2/3 of its damage is done at the first 1.5sec of its duration with the final blow landed at the end.

I’ll play my Juggernaut more this week, I’ll try new builds and I would try to gear up a little. So expect more details and more abilities breakdowns in near future.

Sith Juggernaut Rage Spec Burst DPS Guide/Tutorial

After spending some time with my family and friends, I'm back in game and I'm pushing myself through the 1.2 content. With the introduction of dummies, I decided to make a video guide about jugg's rage spec burst damage. Through the next days, my old guides would be updated and new ones would be posted. Also expect more and more videos on youtube so, I recommend you to subscribe in my channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/kingofkalamos/

Hope you'll like the guide and I'm looking forward for your thoughts and comments

Changes in Juggernauts/Guardians that makes me happy

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:

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.

PvP Juggernaut Rage built!

PvP Juggernaut Rage

Yo, fellow SWTORians!


For the past few day I have focused my play time to Jugg PvP. I used to be specced up to Vengeance tree for PvE. After checking the two DPS tree I decided to go Rage.

SPEC

This is the spec that I use now: 0/10/31


Now, let's break it down. I didn't take Strangulate as the pushback for a channelling ability that stuns for a melee class is not a priority for me. I didn't take Unbreakable Rage as Ravage in general is not mandatory to your dps rotation. I would come to this later. I put to Interceptor just one point just for filler. My other option was Brutality but I rarely use Vicious Slash and I think of it as a waste of rage in most situations. Interceptor is not to mandatory to juggs as the class is very mobile.


For my final 2 points at Vengeance tree I was in a dilemma. Playing Rage you'll find yourselves with less rage than playing Vengeance (pun intended). Unyielding would be my original choice but as to right now, geared half centurion, half champion I don't have enough accuracy to reach 100%. For that reason I decided to put my last 2 points to Accurecy. If you have enough accuracy choose Unyielding.

ABILITIES

DPS ABILITIES




Retaliation. hit it as soon as it procs.


Assault. Builds 2 rage, weak but mandatory


Sundering Assault. Use it to build 2 rage and stack 4% armor reduction up to 5 times


Vicious Throw. Our finisher move. Only usable on target's at or below 20% max health. Deadly indeed.


Smash. Main AoE ability hits up to 5 enemies STRONGEST ABILITY for Rage Juggs 


Force Scream. Hitting like a truck and has 10m range.


Force Crush. Our point 31 talent, slows our enemies, puts a DoT that last  seconds and at the end, deals more damage.


Ravage. 3 secs channel ability. Interrupted when moving or pressing another attack.


Vicious Slash. Use it as filler when you got rage to dumb and all of your main abilities are on cd.


Obliterate. Small charge (only 10m) costs 3 rage. Mostly a dps ability, use it with a snare to catch up ranged opponents that try to get away.


Saber Throw. You generate 3 rage, use it before you charge.


Sweeping Slash. AoE damage in a front cone a la Chuck Norris roundhouse kick. Still, pretty weak.


Enrage. Generates 6 rage. Use it after your burst and when you are under 6 rage.




STUNS AND SLOWING ABILITIES




Chilling Scream. Slow AoE ability.


Disruption. Use it to interrupt your target and lock their interrupted ability for 4 secs. In comparison to WoW, SWTOR's interrupts don't lock school abilities. That means, only the ability that you interrupt is locked.


Unleash. Removes all of your incapacitating and movement-impairing effects.


Force Choke. 3 sec channel ability. To stun and generate rage.


Intimidating Roar. 6 secs AoE fear




MOBILITY ABILITIES




Force Push and then use charge.


Force Charge. No description.


Intercede. Use it on friendly player to jump to him.




FORMS AND DEFENSIVE ABILITIES




Shii-Cho Form Dps form,


Soresu Form Tanking form. Use it only when you know that a lot of damage is incoming and you can't be on target to dps. Also, soresu form is needed to use Guard. Switching forms resets your rage to zero!


Threatening Scream. Use it to reduce the damage all enemies around you do to every other except you.


Taunt. Don't use it on PvE! Only in PvP to reduce the targeted enemy damage on every other except you.


Saber Ward. Main defensive cooldown. Increase your defence by 50% for 12sec. The passive ability Blade Turning makes the 2 first secs a 100% defence


Endure Pain. Main defensive cooldown. Increase your healthpool by 30% for 10sec.


Guard. Only usable when Soresu Form is active. I only use it on pvp. 




SECONDARY ABILITIES




Channel Hatred. Your off battle recovery ability.


Sprint. Keep it always on.


Unnatural Might. BUFF UP!

PvP SET BONUSES

• Bonus for 2: Intercede heals you for 8% of your total health.
• Bonus for 4: Increases all damage dealt by 10% for 5 seconds after using Force Charge.

DPS ROTATION AND PRIORITY LIST

To begin with, Rage's dps is based on Smash crits. So, let's analyse Smash.

-Smash is a Force ability

-Smash with the Shockwave skill stacks up it's damage up to 100%

-Smash with the Decimate skill increase it's damage by 30% and decrease it's CD by 3secs

-Smash with the Dominate skill makes your next Smash used within 15 seconds an automatic critical hit.

-Smash with the Dark Resonance increase the critical multiplier for or Force abilities by 30%

-Smash has a 9sec CD if you're specced

That means that with no surge considered your smash will have 100% critical chance (after a charge), 130% stronger (if you have 4 stacks of Decimate) plus 30% increase to the critical multiplayer to the total of 80% (base critical multiplier is 50%). In my warrior, the tooltip says that Smash hits for 1410-1501 kinetic damage. Let's say that my attack is 1450, we will add the 130% of it. That's 3335. Plus we will calculate the critical multiplier of 80% and we have 6003 kinetic damage. Now, add more surge, a relic usage, an adrenal, the expertise buff. Smash can do up to 9k damage easily and it can hit up to 5 people in a 9sec CD. (For each opponent it strikes, different base damage is calculated).

Our rotation must be build around Smash to maximise it's huge crit hits. So our basic rotation goes like this,

Saber Throw ---> Charge ---> Force Crush  ---> Sunder ---> as soon as 4 stacks of shockwave are up Smash ---> Enrage ---> Force Scream ---> Sunder

To be more exact my priority list is:

1. Enrage on CD if you have less than 4 rage

2. Saber Throw

3. Charge

4. Smash if you have 4 stacks of shockwave

5. Vicious Throw

6. Force Crush

7. Sunder Assault

8. Force Choke

9. Force Scream

10. Obliterate

11. Vicious Slash

12. Assault

13. Ravage

So, to sum it up, you goal is build your Smash hit. Get 4 stacks of shockwave by either Force Choke or Force Crush and try to Smash as soon as possible after you Charge or Obliterate. I would suggest to use it after you Charge as Charge will make the next Smash used in the next 15sec a crit, plus your 4 set bonus from your PvP gear give you an extra 10% bonus to your damage. After that, keep your rage high enough to be able to burst.

STATS

You don't have to be a genius to know that Strength and Stamina is your main stats. After that you should check for your secondary stats. Expertise is the strongest stat for PvP. It will increase the damage you deal and decrease the damage you take. Expertise should always be on your gear. After that, go for Surge and Critcal ratings. That way your abilities and especially your Smash will hit harder. My experience tells me not to get more than 40% of either of those two stats as you'll need much more to achieve bigger percentages. After that, go for power. Power is a straight increase to your base damage of your attacks. That includes the base damage that your criticals are calculated.

TIPS

As we talk about PvP, your opponent will try to react to you. That's why you have to be use the correct abilities in the right moment. Here some tips for you:

-Apply your Chilling Scream to slow them for starters. Keep them slowed all the time.

-As you built up your Smash hit, they will hit you as hard as they can. I suggest you pop Saber Ward as soon as the opponent starts to fight back.

-Don't use Unleash (trinket for WoWers) if it's not a really need. More people will increase your Resolve with their knockbacks than their stuns. If your Resolve bar is filled you will be immune in every CC. Unleash will reset your Resolve bar so be careful!

-Have with you relics and adrenals with crit/surge and power. Use them in pairs, pop power relic and crit/surge adrenal and then pop crit/surge relic with power adrenal. That way you more burst damage.

-If your opponent pops his defensive or CDs from the beginning of your battle, try to sabotage his advantage as much as you can. Choke him, Push him, Charge him, Fear him. That way, his burst or his defences would have expired with no benefits for him. Remember, in most cases the one that uses his CDs first, is the one that loses.

-Your set 2 bonus from your PvP gear will make you heal after you use Intercede. To maximise the profit, first use Endure Pain and then Intercede. That way, you'll heal for more.

-Don't interrupt all the time. Your interrupt will lock for the interrupted ability only. For 4secs. Interrupts should only be used on spammed ability like Tracer Missiles and Force Strike or to interrupt the healer from healing himself.

-Beware of your surroundings. Most people will try to knock you back as soon as you charge them. Don't put yourself between your opponent and the edge of the ledge, or the acid pit or the fire.

That's all for now. I will update my guide with more informations and more tips in future. Stay tuned!