Breaking Down the Different Specs (Part 2)

So first off, to finish up yesterday's post, I'd like to go into the reasons I went Vanguard over Guardian.  I struggled with the decision pretty much until the day before official release.  Even though I had found the Vanguard as the funner class to play, I had a Warrior I really enjoyed PvP'ing with in the Burning Crusade era that I was kind of hoping to recapture the magic with.  To put it in it's simplest terms, the reason I've been playing the Vanguard over the Guardian has been simply the fun factor of the class.  The class feels very complete and has a lot of versatile specs.  Even Assault is beginning to pique my curiosity and that's saying quite a lot considering I don't typically play ranged DPS classes.  The Guardian specs  stances don't seem different with the various specs.  You choose a stance to specialize in and that stance offers a resource generation bonus and maybe guard.  The Vanguard has you make choices such as mobility and high resource regeneration or guard and a somewhat consistent snare or a consistent mobility snare with good DOT damage.

The thing is though, most people won't take fun as a reason to choose a class either.  So let's get into some more tangible reasons:

• Resource Pool:  Melee PvP is full of what I call "Jousting".  A kind of hit and run where two characters will run into each other, drop their damage cooldowns and try and outposition each other.  The Vanguard with it's resource pool is at an immense advantage in these types of fights.  The passive resource regen ensures that the Vanguard will be able to take advantage of the engagement of each of these jousts.  The Guardian will have to spend a few precious globals on attacks that build resource but don't do a lot of damage.  That's not even considering the:
• Range Advantage:  Let's face it, this isn't World of Warcraft.  There are quite a lot of guns in this game and they don't have minimum range.  The Vanguard has this great array of mobility and control skills to make sure you always have some options against classes.  Is that Sniper in cover blowing you up and you can't Storm or Harpoon?  Cryo Grenade has 30m range and will pull him out of cover.  
• Great Concept:  I feel like I'm playing a Vanguard from Mass Effect 2.  Awesome mobility, fun shotgun play and tough as nails survivability.  It says a lot when you can capture that feeling in an MMO.  Perhaps it's bias but the Vanguard combat from Mass Effect 2 has been one of the most enjoyable single player experiences I've ever had.  

So let's talk some specs.  There are really two specs I plan on playing and which one I play I think will depend on what classes I run with when running around in World PvP.  This is excluding the ShieldGuard spec I posted earlier.  That is a spec I will be trying for a while also, but today I want to talk about Tactics specs.

Tactics with Ion Cell

Tactics with Plasma Cell

I know it's nothing groundbreaking and I'm guessing quite a few people have come up with identical builds.  I think the first spec will be THE goto DPS spec if you're playing with a healer.  Guard, mobility and shortened cooldowns on CryoNade, Harpoon AND Riot Strike.  The main lacking thing is a no cooldown snare but a healer partner makes it a bit more forgiving on these things in small scale skirmishes.  I think this spec will also work well with a squishy melee DPS like a Jedi Shadow or Sentinel that provides consistent movement control but will also stay in Guard range with you.  Though there is also a strong argument for a ShieldGuard build with those classes, especially the Shadow.

So where does the second spec come in?  I think Tactics with Plasma Cell will play well with ranged DPS like a Gunnery Commando.  Consistent no cooldown snare, peeling abilities, very dangerous burst damage and if any class does close the gap to the Commando, you'll still have your taunt and AE taunts for "guardlike" damage protection.  

I am VERY excited to try this spec with my Commando friend and will definitely be reporting back to you guys with my findings.  I won't be posting again until Monday since it's Christmas Eve but I'll be coming back with some gameplay and keybinding tips.

Happy Holidays Everyone!

Havoc Squad Out!