5.0 Class Guides/ SWTOR

SWTOR 5.0 Tactics Vanguard PvE Guide by Jaymis

Jaymis 22 Comments Jan 2, 2017

SWTOR 5.0 Tactics Vanguard PvE Guide by Jaymis.

Intro to 5.0 Tactics Vanguard

Tactics is a high burst melee DPS discipline that offers some of the best burst in game.

Ratings

Single Target Damage: 5/10

Though nothing has changed to our discipline in 5.0, our damage isn’t quite what it was in the previous tiers compared to other disciplines. But if you throw in the fact that we have 10 meter range on 4/6 of our core rotational abilities, as well as Reflective Armor and Electro Shield, we are still more than capable of keeping up with higher parsing specs in a raid.

AoE Damage: 5/10

Our AoE damage was never the best, but with 5.0 it got a little bit worse with new gimped replacements for Death from Above (Artillery Blitz) and Pulse Cannon (Ion Wave). We do however get a new replacement to Sticky Grenade (Flak Shell) which is our new highest damaging AoE ability, and can be used on 2 or more targets without having to sacrifice our single target rotation.

Burst Damage: 10/10

Tactics still has some of the best burst currently in game due to off the global cooldown Shoulder Cannons, combined with Battle Focus and an auto crit on Cell Burst every minute (with the 6 piece set bonus), as far as damage goes, this is the #1 thing you are bringing into a raiding environment.

Raid Utility: 9/10

With Reflexive Shield and 30% AoE/Stun damage reduction, Tactics is more than qualified for off tanking if the situation calls for it. Combine that with Sonic Rebounders, and the Sundered and Susceptible debuffs and we’re neck and neck with Sentinels as far as utility goes. Also as of 5.0 we are now able to Guard so it’s not much but it’s a little something extra.

Survivability: 9/10

With Heavy Armor, Reflexive Shield absorbing damage and reducing the cooldown on Reactive Shield, Sonic Defense proc from Sonic Missile AND 30% AoE/Stun damage reduction, Tactics is capable of taking a beating where other disciplines would pop like a balloon.

Gearing

The following numbers are taken from Bant’s Optimal Stats For All 24 Disciplines, KoTET Edition forum post on the SWToR website. For reference E = Enhancement (this includes Implants and Earpieces); A = Augment; C = Crystal.

Eternal Commander MK-3 Tier 1: Artifact (230 ilvl): 7660+-359 DPS @ 50.2 APM

• 7167 Endurance
• 5901 Mastery (Stim)
• 3183 Power
• 1447 Critical (7xE, 2xC)
• 1152 Alacrity (12xA)
• 735 Accuracy (3xE, 2xA)

Eternal Commander MK-13, Tier 2: Artifact (234 ilvl): 7955+-380 DPS @ 50.2 APM

• 7440 Endurance
• 6128 Mastery (Stim)
• 3337 Power
• 1518 Critical (6xE, 2xA, 2xC)
• 1152 Alacrity (12xA)
• 760 Accuracy (4xE)

Eternal Commander MK-15, Tier 2: Legendary (236 ilvl): 8383+-409 DPS @ 51 APM

• 7741 Endurance
• 6259 Mastery (1xA, 1xC)
• 3424 Power
• 1626 Critical (4xE, 6xA, 1xC)
• 1376 Alacrity (4xE, 6xA)
• 736 Accuracy (2xE, 1xA, Stim)

Iokath MK-3, Tier 3: Artifact (240 ilvl): 8654+-429 DPS @ 51.1 APM

• 7881 Endurance
• 6342 Mastery (1xA)
• 3506 Power
• 1678 Critical (3xE, 8xA, 2xC)
• 1422 Alacrity (6xE, 2xA)
• 733 Accuracy (1xE, 3xA, Stim)

Iokath MK-5, Tier 3: Legendary (242 ilvl): 9013+-455 DPS @ 51.3 APM

• 8205 Endurance
• 6579 Mastery (2xC)
• 3694 Power
• 1724 Critical (7xE)
• 1486 Alacrity (2xE, 11xA)
• 743 Accuracy (1xE, 3xA, Stim)

The most important part about gearing is getting as close to the 736 accuracy cap as you can, the rest of the stats can be played around with a bit, as long as you don’t go over the top with it. As far as relics go you will still want to use the Focused Retribution and Serendipitous Assault ones. For Set bonus you will want the 6 piece Combat Tech set bonus to maximize DPS potential.

Utility

Recommended utilities are in bold

Skillful

	Iron Will	Reduces the cooldown of Tenacity by 30 seconds and the cooldown of Hold the Line by 10 seconds.	Reduced cooldown on Hold the Line is good for both mobility and completely ignoring mechanics. Reduced cooldown on Tenacity is more of a PvP thing.
	Parallactic Combat Stims	You recharge 20 Energy Cells when stunned, immobilized, knocked down or otherwise incapacitated. Additionally your next Tech ability deals 10% extra damage or healing.	Situational, but good on fights where you get stunned a lot like Brontes, or the Drouks in Explosive Conflict.  Take this over Battlefield Training if that is the case.
	Reflective Armor	When Into the Fray is triggered, it will also deal X elemental damage to the attacker if the attacker is within 10 meters.	100% mandatory to have, as there is usually some sort of AoE damage going out on almost all fights, and it’s free elemental damage each time you get hit.
	Entangling Tools	Tactical Surge, Ion Pulse and Explosive Surge reduce the movement speed of affected targets by 25% for 3 seconds. Additionally, Neural Jolt slows the target by 50% for 6 seconds.	PvP utility
	Muzzle Augs	Increases the range of Ion Pulse and Tactical Surge by 2 meters and the radius of Explosive Surge by 1 meter	Worthless, 2 meter increase? LUL
	Shrap Satchel	Increases Explosive Surge damage by 25%	Take this if you are in a fight with a lot of adds.

Masterful

	Battlefield Training	Increases movement speed by 15%. (only works while in combat)	Only taken as there’s not much else for PvE, but 15% extra movement speed is always good.
	Electro Shield	When activated, your Reactive Shield charges with electricity, zapping attackers for elemental damage when they deal direct damage to you. This effect cannot occur more than once each second.	100% mandatory, free elemental damage when getting hit while Reactive Shield is active.
	Accelerated Reel	Reduces the cooldown of Harpoon by 10 seconds.	PvP utility
	Sonic Rebounder	Sonic Round protects all friendly targets in its area of impact, excluding you, granting Sonic Rebounder, which reflects the next direct, single-target attack back at the attacker.	100% mandatory, helps out the healers and DPS checks. This is one of the best utilities we bring so use it!
	Containment Tactics	Reduces the cooldown of Cryo Grenade by 15 seconds.	PvP utility
	Frontline Defense	Reduces the cooldown of Riot Strike by 2 seconds.	PvP Utility

Heroic

	Strategic Supremacy	Harpoon immobilizes the target for 3 seconds. In addition the cooldown of Stealth Scan is reduced by 5 seconds, and any target it reveals is immobilized for 3 seconds and increases the movement speed of all allies within the scan area, excluding yourself, by 50% for as long as they remain within it and for 6 seconds after it expires or they leave the area.	PvP utility
	Advance the Line	Increases the duration of Hold the Line by 4 seconds.	Good for increased mobility and being able to ignore some mechanics.
	Smothering Slag	Flak Shell reduces the movement speed of all affected targets by 75%. This effect can only occur once every 30 seconds.	PvP utility
	Paralytic Augs	Increases the durations of Cryo Grenade by 1 second and Neural Surge by .5 seconds.	PvP utility
	Re-energizers	When Reserve Powecell is activated, it recharges 10 energy cells over the next 5 seconds and immediately increases threat towards all current enemies by a small amount if Ion Cell is active, or reduces threat towards all current enemies if Ion Cell is not active.	Gives an extra 10 energy cells to play around with, take it.
	Efficient Tools	Allows Adrenaline Rush to be activated while stunned and causes Adrenaline Rush to purge stun effects when activated. This will not work against other types of incapacitating effects or scripted stuns, which are often used by Flashpoint and Operation bosses or other special non-player characters. In addition, increases the range of Harpoon and Shoulder Cannon by 10 meters and eliminates the heat generated by Cryo Grenade and Neural Surge.	PvP utility

Legendary

	Aim Extensions	Battle Focus grants Aim Extensions, allowing Ion Pulse, Tactical Surge, Ion Wave, Ion Storm, Flak Shell, Artillery Blitz, Energy Blast, Cell Burst, Plasma Flare, and Plasmatize to be used at 30 meters for 15 seconds.	Useless, looks cool, but that’s about it.
	Guard Cannon	Damaging a target with your Shoulder Cannon Missiles heals you for 3% of your total health.	Might be good for solo content, but worthless in endgame PvE.
	Pull and Pummel	Harpoon deals tech damage to pulled targets and grants Pull and Pummel, causing your next Stock Strike or Shock Strike against the pulled target to deal 20% additional kinetic damage and stun the target for 1.5 seconds. This effect lasts for 6 seconds.	Useful when dummy parsing to replace a Rapid Shots but that’s about it.
	Focus Stims	Battle Focus increases damage done by 5% while Ion Cell is being utilized and increases damage reduction by 5% while Ion Cell is not being utilized.	Worthless
	Charge the Line	Hold the Line increases movement speed by an additional 45% while active.	Good for on demand speed boost.
	Battering Blitz	Using Storm grants Battering Blitz, resetting the cooldown of Storm and increasing movement speed by 30% for 6 seconds. While Battering Blitz is active, Storm may be used once within 10 meters of the target and deals 50% additional damage but does not cause an additional interrupt, immobilize or charge. This effect cannot occur more than once every 15 seconds.	Might be useful for leveling, but other than that, worthless.

Abilities and Passives

Passives

Tactics Passives

	High Energy Cell	Loads your rifle with a high-energy powercell. While active, all energy and kinetic damage is increased by 3%. Replaces Plasma Cell.
	Grenadiership	Reduces the cooldown of Artillery Blitz by 15 seconds and increases the damage it deals by 10%. In addition Flak Shell deals 50% more damage, its cooldown is reduced by 6 second, and damage dealt by it will refresh the duration of your Gut’s bleed on the affected target, if present.
	Serrated Blades	Increases the damage dealt by Gut’s bleed effect by 15% and causes targets damaged by your Stockstrike to become Sundered, reducing their armor by 20% for 45 seconds.
	High Friction Bolts	High Impact Bolt may be fired at targets that are not incapacitated or suffering from periodic damage. In addition, High Impact Bolt ignores 30% of the target’s armor, regenerates 5 energy cells if it hits a bleeding target, and refreshes the duration of your Gut’s bleed effect, if present.
	Shock Absorbers	Reduces damage taken from ara effects by 30%. Additionally, while stunned, you take 30% less damage from all sources.
	Riot Augs	Increases the damage dealt by Rocket Punch, Rail Shot, Magnetic Blast, Flame Sweep, Retractable Blade, Thermal Detonator, and Energy Burst by 5%.
	Tactical Accelerator	While High Energy Cell is active, Stockstrike, Tactical Surge, Flak Shell, and Explosive Surge finish the cooldown of High Impact Bolt and make the next High Impact Bolt deplete no energy cells. This effect cannot occur more than once every 6 seconds.
	Triumph	Increases the damage you deal to bleeding targets by 3% and further increases all energy and kinetic damage dealt by 2%.
	Sonic Defense	Activating Sonic Round increases your defense chance by 30% for 6 seconds.
	Nightvision Scope	Increases your melee and ranged defense chance by 3% and your stealth detection level by 3.
	Havoc Training	Increases the critical strike damage bonus of Stockstrike, High Impact Bolt, Tactical Surge, Gut, Assault Plastique, and Cell Burst by 10%. Additionally when Assault Plastique damages a target, the target will become Susceptible, increasing the damage it takes from tech attacks by 5% for 45 seconds.
	Reflexive Shield	When you take damage, the active cooldown of Reactive Shield is reduced by 3 seconds. This effect cannot occur more than once every 1.5 seconds. In addition, when taking damage, you have a 20% chance to emit an Energy Redoubt, which absorbs a low amount of damage and lasts for 6 seconds. This effect cannot occur more than once every 10 seconds.
	Charged Loaders	Increases the damage dealt by Shoulder Cannon by 15%, and immediately loads 3 additional missiles. Additionally this increases the critical hit chance of Stockstrike and Assault Plastique by 5%.
	Critical Recharge	Increases ranged and tech critical chance by 2% and reduces the cooldowns of Recharge Cells and Reserve Powercell by 30 seconds. In addition, Recharge and Reload builds Energy Lodes.
	Cell Burn	Cell Burst causes the target to burn for X elemental damage over 3 seconds. This effect can stack up to 4 times on the target, and each Energy Lode unleashed generates one stack.

Trooper passives

	Into the Fray	Increases the duration of Reactive Shield by 3 seconds. In addition, suffering direct damage from area attacks heals you for 2.5% of your total health. This effect cannot occur more than once every 3 seconds.
	Focused Impact	High Impact Bolt ignores 60% of the targets armor and Stockstrike or Shockstrike deals 10% more damage.

Abilities

Rotational Abilities

	Stockstrike	Strike the target with the butt of the rifle, dealing X kinetic damage.Cost: 15 Cells, Cooldown: 9s, Range: 4m
	High Impact Bolt	Fires a very powerful round at the target that deals X weapon damage. Usable on any target in Tactics.Cost: 15 Cells, Cooldown: 15s, Range: 10m
	Gut	Guts the target with a knuckle-plate vibroblade that deals X kinetic damage and causes the target to bleed for X internal damage over 18 seconds.Cost: 15 Cells, Cooldown: None, Range: 4m
	Tactical Surge	Fires a concentrated surge of energy at an enemy target, dealing X energy damage. Replaces Ion Pulse.Cost: 15 Cells, Cooldown: None, Range: 10m
	Assault Plastique	Throws a moldable plastic explosive that adheres to the target, and detonates after several seconds, exploding for X kinetic damage. Standard and weak enemies enter a state of panic when the explosive attaches and are knocked down when it detonates.Cost: 15 Cells, Cooldown: 15s, Range: 30m
	Cell Burst	Unleashes your High Energy Cell’s stored energy to decimate the target, dealing X energy damage. This damage increases based on your current number of Energy Lodes. Energy Lodes build when Rail Shot is used, and up to 4 charges may be stored at once.Cost: 20 Cells, Cooldown: None, Range: 10m
	Hammer Shot	Fires a series of hammering shots that deals X weapon damage to the target.Cost: None, Cooldown: None, Range: 30m

AoE Abilities

	Flak Shell	Fires a high impact shell that instantly explodes on contact with the target, spraying the area with shrapnel shards that deal X kinetic damage to up to 8 enemies within 8 meters of the initial target.Cost: 15 Cells, Cooldown: 15s, Range: 10m
	Artillery Blitz	Call in a strike while unloading your own plasma blitz upon an area dealing X kinetic damage and X elemental damage over the duration to up to 8 enemie. Standard and weak targets are knocked down by the blast. Can be used while moving.Channel Duration: 3s,Cost: , Cooldown: 45s, Range: 10m
	Explosive Surge	Emits an Explosive Surge, dealing X elemental damage to up to 8 targets within 5 meters.Cost: 15 Cells, Cooldown: None, Range: 5m

Offensive Cooldowns

	Combat Focus	Increases ranged and tech critical chance by 25% for 15 seconds.Cooldown: 120s
	Shoulder Cannon	Deploys a Shoulder Cannon that gradually loads 4 missiles over time. Once loaded, the Shoulder Cannon can be triggered again to fire against an enemy target within 10 meters, launching 1 missile that deals X kinetic damage. A missile can be launched up to once per 1.5 seconds. Loading and launching the Shoulder Cannon does not respect the global cooldown and can be done while controlled. Once all missiles have been loaded, depleting all missiles puts the Shoulder Cannon on cooldown for 1.5 minutes.Cooldown: 90s
	Recharge Cells	Recharges 50 energy cells over 3 seconds.Cooldown: 120s
	Reserve Powercell	Your next ability depletes no energy cells. This effect lasts 15 seconds.Cooldown: 120s
	Advanced Polybiotic Attack Adrenal	Increases Power by 870 and reduces all healing done by 20%. Lasts 15 seconds.Cooldown: 180s

Defensive Cooldowns

	Reactive Shield	Increases damage reduction by 25% for 15 seconds.Cooldown: 120s
	Adrenaline Rush	Activating this ability makes you Fired Up for 60 seconds, which triggers an Adrenaline Rush when your health is reduced to 35% or less. If your health is already 35% or less, Adrenaline Rush triggers immediately. Once Triggered Adrenaline Rush goes on cooldown for 3 minutes and rapidly heals you up to 35% of your max health for 8 seconds but will not exceed 35% of you max health.Cooldown: 180s
	Advanced Polybiotic Medpac	Restores 37,225 – 44,545 health and an additional 11,136 health over 15 seconds. Only usable once per fight.Cooldown: 90s

Other Abilities

	Tenacity	Purges all incapacitating and movement-impairing effects.Cooldown: 120s
	Cryo Grenade	Hurls a cryo grenade that freezes the target, dealing X energy damage and stunning it for 4 seconds.Cost: 5 Cells, Cooldown: 60s, Range: 10m
	Neural Surge	Deals X internal damage to up to 8 enemies within 8 meters, stunning them for 2.5 seconds.Cost: 5 Cells, Cooldown: 45s, Range: 8m
	Hold the Line	Grants 6 seconds of immunity from movement-impairing effects, knockdowns and physics and increases movement speed by 30%.Cooldown: 45s
	Stealth Scan	Fires off probes that scan the area for stealthed opponents. Probes last for 10 seconds.Cooldown: 20s, Range: 30m
	Neural Jolt	Fires a neural dart that taunts the target, forcing it to attack you. Player targets deal 30% less damage when attacking anyone other than you. Effect lasts 6 seconds.Cooldown: 15s, Range: 30m
	Sonic Round	Drops threat towards all current enemies. Enemy players have their damage reduced by 30% for 6 seconds unless they attack you.Cooldown: 20s, Range: 30m
	Guard	While active the guarded player takes 5% less damage and generates 25% less threat. In addition so long as you remain within 15 meters of the guarded player, 50% of all incoming damage from enemy players is transferred back to you. Note: as of 5.0 this can be used as a DPS.Range: 30m
	Riot Strike	Interrupts the targets current action and prevents that ability from being used for the next 4 seconds.Cooldown: 12s, Range: 4m
	Harpoon	Fires a Harpoon line that pulls the target to your location and generates a high amount of threat. Cannot be used on targets in cover.Cooldown: 45s, Range: 30m
	Storm	Storm to a distant target, dealing X kinetic damage, interrupting the target’s current action and immobilizing the target for 2 seconds. Cannot be used against targets in cover.Cooldown: 15s, Range: 30m

Rotation & Priorities

Opener

As said before nothing has really changed with the rotation in 5.0, so I found this to still be the best opener. Make sure to have all 7 Shoulder Cannons loaded and all 4 Energy Lodes before pulling. Explosive Surge should also be used before engaging combat as it gives you free 15 energy cells to play around with, try to wait until you energy is at 100 before pulling.

 

You will lose out on 1 Energy Lode by using this opener, but in the end makes things flow a lot smoother as Stockstrike and Assault Plastique won’t interfere with one another by doing this.

Priority System

1. Proccing Tactical Accelerator every 6 seconds.
2. Stockstrike and Assault Plastique on cooldown
3. 4 stack Cell Burst
4. High Impact Bolt
5. Tactical Surge / Hammer Shot

 

Tactical Accelerator must be procced on cooldown as it helps with energy management and ensures that Gut is kept on the target. An easy way to keep track of this is to go into StarParse Timers -> Settings, then setup a timer exactly like this.

Stockstrike and Thermal Assault Plastique are used on cooldown to keep the Sundered and Susceptible debuffs on the target and to keep things flowing smoothly, which one you use first honestly just depends on how close you are to proccing Tactical Accelerator. I only use Assault Plastique 1st over Stockstrike if delaying Stockstrike procs Tactical Accelerator. I see a lot of players not use these 2 abilities on cooldown. If you do not use these on cooldown you end up using more Tactical Surges which is a very poor GCD compared to Stockstrike and Assault Plastique.

4 stack Cell Burst is your hardest hitting ability, but is only limited by Tactical Accelerator procs and doesn’t have an actual cooldown, so that is why it is not prioritized over Stockstrike and Assault Plastique.

High Impact Bolt is procced every 6 seconds through Tactical Accelerator, it is one of your hardest hitting abilities and needs to be used to refresh the Gut DoT.

Flak Shell takes priority over Tactical Surge if 1. The target has Gut ticking on them and 2. You already have your set bonuses procced. The reason this does slightly more dps than Tactical Surge is due to the forced DoT tick from Flak Shell. A helpful tip in knowing when your set bonuses will proc is going into StarParse and setting up a timer for your 2 piece set bonus, and your 6 piece set bonus.

Last is Tactical Surge and Hammer Shot, Hammer Shot should only be used to replace a Tactical Surge that won’t proc your Tactical Accelerator and only if you don’t have either Recharge Cells or Reserve Powercell available.

AoE Rotation

In terms of raw damage the priority for AoE is:

1. Ion Wave
2. Flak Shell
3. Explosive Surge with 25% bonus
4. Artillery Blitz
5. Explosive Surge without 25% bonus

Unless you’re clearing trash in an operation I just recommend following the single target rotation and swapping out Tactical Surges for Flak Shells and Explosive Surges if on 2+ targets. You can also swap out a Cell Burst for an Ion Wave if on 4+ targets.

Double dotting

If you have 2 targets that are relatively close to each other, you can swap out a Tactical Surge that doesn’t proc Tactical Accelerator, with a Gut on another target. To make this worthwhile you need to swap your High Impact Bolts between the 2 targets, or if they are close enough you can use Flak Shell to keep the DoT from Gut rolling on both targets. Examples of fights that I do this on is Sword Squadron in Temple of Sacrifice, 1st Phase Brontes in Dread Fortress, and 2nd Phase of Dread Council in Dread Palace.

Sample Parse and Video

Here is a link to my current highest parse. The parse is done in old 224 set bonuses and left side, 240 mainhand, 234 offhand, and full 240 mods and enhancements.

Acknowledgements

Special thanks to Kevin/Them for giving me a chance to tryout for <Failure> and to Nalia for putting me on a raid team. Shoutout to my current team members: Auro, Aretha, Beast, Blas, Dongo, Mac, Mon, Narwhal, Nestle, and Phreaky. Shoutout to my good friends Veldix and Rhegas. Lastly, thanks to Dulfy for hosting this guide.

About Me

Most people know me as Jay/Jaymis, or by my Marauder’s name Septumis. I have been playing SWTOR since 2.0 but never got into hardcore raiding until late 3.0. I joined <Failure> on the Harbinger in 4.0 and have since then cleared all content this game has to offer in 4.0 including Timed Runs and everything in 5.0 excluding Dragonslayer, Dread Master and Gate Crasher.  You can watch me live on Twitch here.