Vengeance / Vigilance DPS Compendium

Star Wars: The Old Republic

Patch 1.2 “Legacy”

Note: Work in Progress

Greetings and Welcome to my first Guide of the ‘Compendium’ type ever.  I am a frequent blogger and class guide creator in shorter, cheeker, form.  Those guides and blogs can be found at www.zergadins.com

I’m not a Theorycrafter.  I focus on putting my Blade/Blaster to the enemy with the information gained by individuals who excel at Theorycrafting.  That being said, I love to write about the games I enjoy.  This guide is an every player’s roadmap for the Vengeance/Vigilance specilization in SWTOR.  If I miss a fact or figure, please point it out!  I hope that the information gained in this guide will help you hit the ground running and let you have that much more fun playing this class armed with the practicle information about the execution of the games mechanics.

Note:  The talents reflect the 1.2 changes, the final talent breakdown will be added when I can get on 1.2 live and work out the best spec.

The Vengeance/Vigilance (V²) Specialization, for the Juggernaut Advanced Warrior Class, are heavily armored masters of Single Saber Combat.  Using the Shien Form of Saber combat, this Advanced Warrior can control the battle field unlike any other Class in The Old Republic.   A properly played V² spec can effectively take down weak and standard enemies encountered in solo and group play on their own.  They can also occupy an elite level enemy with no survival trouble while the rest of the war party dispatches other priority targets.  The V² spec accomplishes this through a superior one-on-one combat tool kit.  Note: A main advantage of the Juggernaut/Guardian Advanced Class over a Marauder/Sentinel is the option to spec into the Immortal/Defense Tanking Tree.  Marauders and Sentinels are forever locked out of that choice.

Table of Contents

1. Talents, Stats, Abilities, and Class Information

• Rage and Focus
• Forms
• Stats
• Talent Tree

1. Class Abilities

• Offensive
• Defensive
• Utility and Buffs

1. Vengeance/Vigilance Abilities

• Offensive
• Defensive
• Utility and Buffs

1. Leveling Milestones and What to Expect

• Level 10
• Level 20
• Level 30
• Level 40
• Level 50

1. DPS Priorities

• Single Target
• AOE DPS
• Real World DPS Execution
• Role, Responsability, and Respect in Group DPS

1. Gearing Up

• Leveling Gear
• Fresh 50 Gear
• Veteran 50 Gear
• Hard Mode Operations Gear

1. Mods

• Modding as you Level
• Modding at Level 50
• Operations Grade Mods

1. Crew Skills

• Complimentary Juggernaut Crew Skills
• Complimentary Operations Crew Skills
• Complimentary Leveling Crew Skills
• Credit Making Crew Skills
• Efficient Crew Skill Usage

1. TALENTS, STATS, ABILITIES & CLASS INFORMATION

• Rage and Focus

All SWTOR classes have a spendable resource that fuels their abilities.  Re resource for warriors and knights is called Rage/Focus. It starts at 0 and Caps at 12.  You have abilities that generate Rage/Focus and abilities that spend Rage/Focus.  This generation and use is the core mechanic of Warrior/Knight gameplay

• Forms

Warriors and Guardians have three Forms (you might hear them called Stances) of Combat.  Each Form gives bonuses that are linked to specific Advanced Class Specializations.

Juggernaut/Guardian Forms

• Shii-Cho form is a part of your Lvl 1 abilities tool kit.  It is also linked to the Rage Specialization
• Shien From is a part of the Vengeance/Vigilance Specialization, thusly is an important part of the spec.
• Soresu From is gained at Lvl 14 when choosing the Juggernaut Advanced Class.  This is the form you will take when filling the Tank role in groups.

Marauder/Seninel Forms

• Juyo From is gained at Lvl 14 for all Marauders/Sentinels.  Juggernauts/Guardian’s will never have access to this form, Juggernauts/Guardians will never have access to this form.
• Ataru Form is linked to the Carnage/Combat Specialization.  Juggernauts/Guardian’s will never have access to this form.

• Stats

Note:  All stats have tool tips that are triggered with a mouse hover.  Bring your in game cursor over the stat, and you will be given a breakdown of where the stat comes from and what it affects and how it is effected.

The Main stat for Warriors/Knights is Strength (STR).   It is important to remember that STR influences almost every secondary Stat Warriors/Knights have.  The same can be said of other classes’ Main Stats.

Another Stat that is needed for all classes is Endurance (END).  All group roles will only be using the END that comes with the gear they are wearing.  Players filling the role of Tanks will specifically look for secondary ways to augment the END stat.

Secondary Stats that are available for all players are:

• Accuracy – Everyone starts with 90% accuracy, which means on average 9 out of 10 swings/shots will hit the enemy.  You can inprove your accuracy by using gear that has the secondary stat accuracy on it.  When you reach 100% accuracy all your swings/shots will connect.  There is still a chance the enemy will dodge/parry/deflect your attack, but you’ll never just wiff.  Accuracy above 100% will make it harder for the enemy to dodge/parry/deflect attacks.  As a DPS Ops member you must have Accuracy at or above 100%.  Accuracy is the first stat to gear for at Lvl 50, because if you con’t connect you don’t do damage.
• Power – This secondary stat makes all abilities stronger.  It is an across the board damage/tech/healing boost for all classes.  For some classes Power is better than Crit Chance because they have abilities that will have a garauntee crit/damage boost because of talents.  The Vengeance/Vigilance Spec has the talent Savagrey/Force Rush that adds a 60% Crit Chance to Force Scream/Blade Storm.  Adding more Crit Chance will bump that chance up further.  At this time there is not talent/ability that garauntees a critical hit from the V/V spec.  Gearing for Power, therfore, is acceptable because you will increase all your damage by gearing for it.
• Critical Chance – The chance to critically hit with an ability.
• Surge – This secondary stat raises the damage of critical hits above 50%.  If your class/spec (or playstyle)  is built around Critical hits, you would want to stack this secondary stat.
• Alacrity – This secondary stat makes your abilities activate/cast faster is they have a cast time.  Alacrity is of little significance for the V/V spec because 99% of our attacks are instants.
• Presence – The stat boosts your companions abilities accross the board.  If you are more focused on solo play and solo survivablity then gearing for this stat is acceptable.  If you are an Ops member this stat does not increase your performace at all.

Note:  Secondary Stats are just that, Secondary.  Most players will gain secondary stats on the gear collected and leave it as is.  This is a perfectly acceptable play mechanic.  Min/Max players will Theorycraft the absolute best combination of Main and Secondary stats.  Many players will look to this information as a direction to lean towards, but will not feel the need to attain the said Min/Max levels of gear.  If a player geared for their class’ Main Stat and never augmented the Secondary Stats on that gear, they could still enjoy all available content the game has to offer.

Non Warrior/Knight Stats

• Aim – Heavy armor with Aim is not for you!
• Cunning – Do not use Cunning gear.
• Willpower – Do not use Willpower gear.

• Talent Tree

There are a handful of useable cookie cutter builds that a Vengeance/Vigilance Warrior could use.  Here is the link to the base set of Talents you’ll need to take.  From this build you can pick talents that will accomidate your preferred playstyle.

I’d like to say that while all talents in the SWTOR trees have uses some could be considered useless.  When choosing a talent ask your self, “Is this useful 100% of the time?”  If the answer is no, ask yourself “Is this going to help me level quicker?”  If the answere is no again, there is probably a better option for you to choose.

0/31/0 Base Talent Build

1st Tier Talent Options

• Single Saber Mastery – Must Have 3/3 – Straight up Damage increase using Shien Form.
• Stagger/?????? – Personal Choice – While leveling this is a good talent choice, at end game you won’t see much beneift from it in Ops.  Use it till Lvl 50, then when you respec pick up Imroved Sundering Assult which is always adding Sunder stacks and increasing damage.
• Improved Sundering Assault/Strike – Optimal Damage Choice 2/2 – If you are the only Ops member applying this debuff you might want to take it.

2nd Tier Talent Options

• Accuracy – Situational – If you can get the required Accuracy from gear this talent might be moot.  Note:  While leveling this will always provide needed Accuracy, so take it up till 50 when you start gearing for accuracy.
• Dreadnaught/Persaverance – Must Have 2/2 – More Strength, need I say more?
• Unyielding/Defiance – Personal Choice – This can have PvP applications or help you gain DPS back after being taken out of PvE group fight with more rage to spend.

3rd Tier Talent Options (Earliest Access Level 20)

• Draining Scream/Burning Blade – Must Have 2/2 – Adds a Bleed Effect to Force Scream.
• Shien From – Must Have 1/1 – Defining Vengeance/Vigilance Saber Form.
• Unstoppable/Unremitting – Must Have 2/2 – This talent kicks in on 95% of every pull in the game.
• Pooled Hatred/Gather Strength – Personal choice – Another talent, like Unyielding, that will grant you more Rage/Focus to spend after you take a movement imparing effect.  Note: This is a very situational and playstyle choice.  It’s best to skip this one untill you can evaluate it at Lvl 50.

4th Tier Talent Options

• Deadly Reprisal/Narrowed Focus – Personal Choice – This is not bad choice for Ops DPS players.  Note:  This is a situationl talent.  It’s best to skip this one until you can evaluate its usefulness at Lvl 50.
• Vengeance/Vigilance – Must Have 3/3 – A shorter Cool Down on a Core Ability is always a good thing.
• Ruin/Effluence – Must Have 1/1 – At level 50 Smash is one of your hardest hitting abilities, this talent turns Smash into a Rage/Focus free Ability.  Perfect for when you need to AoE DPS a group or a high movement boss fight.

5th Tier Talent Options (Earliest Access Level 30)

• Savagery/Force Rush – Must Have 2/2 – 60% Crit hit chance increase from Force Scream after you use Impale or Shatter.  Note: You can access this talent only after taking Impale.
• Impale/Overhead Slash – Must Have 1/1 – This is the first of two Vengeance/Vigilance only Abilities that define our core attacks.  Note: this will all but replace Vicious Slash/Slash.
• Eviscerate/Burning Purpose – Must Have 2/2 – Adds a bleed/burn component to Impale.
• Deafening Defense/Commanding Awe – Situational – This is a great leveling talent and Off Tanking choice.  If you are filling a pure DPS Ops role, there are more damage oriented options to select.

6th Tier Talent Options

• Rampage/Zen Strike – Must Have 3/3 – A long debated talent.  Now that Ravage/Master Strike has been buffed 15% in patch 1.2 this is a must have talent.
• Sundering Throw/??????? – Opitimal Ops Choice 2/2 – This talent lowers the cooldown of Saber Throw by 5 seconds when talented.  This is your ranged attack and the quicker up time will give you more options when there is a boss fight with alot of movement or ground effects to be avoided.  That just described most of the boss fights!

7th Tier (Earliest Access Level 40)

• Shatter/Plasma Brand – Must Have 1/1 – This is your big time Bleed/Burn with a nice instant damage component.  The second marque Vengeance/Vigilance Ability.

1. Warrior/Knight Class Abilities

• Offensive

Vicious Slash/Slash – Lvl 1 – This is your first hard hitting ‘Spender’ of Rage/Focus.  The first 20 levels you won’t have many other spending choices.

Force Charge – Lvl 2 – Use the force to propel yourself at the enemy.  It will root the target, and stun if talented!  This is a signature move.  Chances are you are a Warrior/Knight because of this ability!

Smash/Force Sweep – Lvl 3 – Use the force to damage the surrounding enemies.  This does’t have a knockback, but does stun all weak enemies in range.  This is a cornerstone of Warrior/Knight gameplay.  Once talented this ability will decimate the foes around you.

Force Scream/???? – Lvl 6 – A hard hitting attack that is a defining ability in the Warrior/Knight Arsenal.

Ravage/Master Strike – Lvl 8 – Imagine a flourish of attacks made against an enemy, this is the icing attack that you can’t wait to use again.  It starts with a 30 sec cooldown, ends up a 15 sec cooldown with a chance to become availible again before the cool down is over when talented.

Force Choke/????? – Lvl 24 – “I find your lack of Faith disturbing…” /cast Force Choke – Darth Vader

Pommel Strike/????? – Lvl 28 – A skull cracking attack that has a situational requierment.  The target must be incapacitated.  This effect happens alot when your companion has an enemy locked up with of their abilities.  Keep this ability on your action bars, b/c when it does become availible it can hit for over 4k at level 50 with a critical hit!

Sweeping Slash/?????? – Lvl 32 – The Warrior/Knight spammable AoE ability.  Hitting up to 5 enemies with your saber, it can be used as long as you have Rage/Focus to do so.  It’s a great finisher after Force Leaping in and Using Smash.

Savage Kick/????? – Lvl 34 – This is your standard follow up attack after a Force Leap on any Standard or Weak Oppenent.  It has an effect requierment that the enemy be slowed or immobilized.  You have at most if talented a 2 second window to use it.  Be ready.

Vicious Throw/?????? – Lvl 46 – Many players will refer to this ability as an execute or using it when in execute range.  Basicly this attack is availible when the enemy is below 30% health.  It hits hard and can finish off solo enemies with ease or deliver added damage to a boss fight.

• Defensive

Saber Ward – Lvl 4 – A flat 50% Defense stat incrase of 50% and a 25% Force/Tech Damage reduction.  This should be used when you will be hit with alot of incoming damage either solo or in Ops.

Unleash/????? – Lvl 9 – Personal stun/impairment breaker.  Useable every 2 minutes.

Call on the Force – Lvl 15 – AKA Heroic Moment.  All classes get it, and it’s only availible when you have an active companion. It fun and can help you over come solo moments of danger.  This is a major compenent of the 1.2 Legacy System.