Rage Juggernaut PVP Guide (SWTOR Patch 7.4.1)
A PVP Guide to the Rage Juggernaut Combat Style for Star Wars: The Old Republic. Including the best gear and stats, builds for 8v8 Warzones & Arenas, as well as gameplay tips and tricks.
This is up-to-date for Patch 7.5.
The video version of this guide is available on my YouTube channel here:
About the class
Rage is a melee DPS class that offers some of the best sustained single-target damage in the game. On top of that, it is one of the best classes for supporting your teammates and keeping healers alive with your taunts, intercede, force choke, and push. Rage is a classic builder-spender combat style, which revolves around your auto-crit Raging Burst and the key fillers that reduce its cooldown.
Tactical
Cauterized Coronary is a Marauder Tactical that also works on Rage Juggernaut. It boosts your single-target DPS, by adding a DoT to Furious Strike. While this tactical is not as impactful for your overall damage output as some tacticals for other classes (looking at Vengeance Jugg’s Cut to Pieces), since single-target is the biggest strength of Rage, so I prefer running Cauterized Coronary over Enrage Crush.
The Grit Teeth crafted tactical will reduce the cooldown of Saber Ward by 2 seconds when you get attacked. In combination with the Nimble Master Package, this can be a viable option if you want to boost your survivability.
Legendary Implants
The best legendary implant is Champion’s Precision, which grants you an extra 20% critical hit chance for 8 seconds after using Enrage. With the build we are running (explained below), you will have this buff active very frequently, which means you should expect to crit between 60 and 70% of your total attacks.
For your second legendary, I recommend running Fearless Victor. The 10% extra melee damage can make for some juicy crits on Furious Strike and Vicious Throw. And since it activates on any rage spending ability, you can always have this up.
Nimble Master is a good choice if you need some extra mobility. The 100% extra movement speed means you can run away from a bad situation or chase after a Sorcerer or Sniper while your Saber Ward is active. It synergizes well with the Grit Teeth tactical and can be your best option when you are being targeted first both in Warzones and Arenas. When running Nimble Master, you replace Fearless Victor because Champion’s Precision adds more to your overall DPS.
Gear & Stats
Critical: 4814
Alacrity: 2158
Accuracy: 1113
You want to get your alacrity rating to around 2150. That's three alacrity enhancements (or two, if running Nimble Master) and three superior (golden) alacrity augments.
Since some of your biggest hitters are white damage, we will be running 5% accuracy. To reach that, equip one accuracy enhancement, two augments, and the Advanced Kyrprax Proficient Stim.
Once you have that, you want to get your critical rating to around 4800. Your high critical hit chance makes the bonus critical damage you get from critical rating even more valuable. On top of that, Rage gets 15% extra critical damage from the level 15 passive called Shii-Cho Mastery. As if we needed more reasons to stack massive amounts of crit!
Builds
Warzone Build
Level 23: you want to pick up Dark Synergy at level 23 for an extra 15% critical hit chance for 6 seconds after using Raging Burst. This synergizes well with your Champion’s Precision Implant and 4,8k critical rating and is the overall best option for sustained DPS. I don’t run Subjugate, since it nerfs single-target dps and Smash is still better for AoE in most scenarios.
Level 27: Projected Scream is a little more AoE and 50% slow, but Overwhelming Slashes gives you a 3-second root on Ravage, which comes in handy when locking down an enemy healer or ranged DPS.
Level 39: Rage Engine reduces the cooldown of Enrage by 3 seconds, which means higher uptime on Champion’s Precision and higher DPS.
Level 43: In my opinion, Domination is by far the best option for PVP at level 43. It makes it, so critical hits with Force attacks (every yellow damage hit except for the Bleed from Cauterized Coronary) reduces the cooldown of Enrage by 1 second. More importantly, it enables Enrage to purge movement-impairing effects, of which there are plenty in PVP. For this reason alone, Domination is already the better choice over Indignant Rumination. You can’t do damage if you are rooted or slowed. But on top of that, Domination also boosts your burst damage by allowing the Domination proc effect, which is the auto-crit buff you get after Force Charge or Obliterate to stack twice. This means that combining Force Charge + Enrage + Raging Burst or Obliterate + Enrage + Raging burst gives you a super-crit of more than 100k (even more in the right conditions).
Level 51: Warmonger lets you use Vicious Throw after every Force Charge and reduces the cooldown of Force Charge when you get hit.
Level 64: War Master makes you immune to CC and grants you a 20% damage reduction for 4 seconds after Force Charge. Really strong and has a great synergy with Warmonger.
Level 68: At level 68, I prefer Mad Dash for extra mobility but you can take Saber Reflect if you are being targeted a lot.
Level 73: Pooled Hatred is very strong. It gives you 50% extra damage on your next rage-consuming ability after being movement-impaired. This will even work on slows, so a Sorcerer channeling Force Lightning will stack it up pretty quickly, which you can then use for some insanely big Raging Burst hits.
Arena Build
For Arenas, you will usually be the first target. Because of that, we are making some changes to the build.
Level 23: Dark Synergy is also good for arenas, but you can consider going for Unrelenting Rage as well. The 15% extra damage on Raging Burst is nice, but the 20% trauma debuff makes it much easier to get that all-important first kill, especially if there is a healer on the enemy team.
Level 39: We pick up Seething Defense. The shield from Obliterate is not huge but since we are going to be the first target, we need every bit of survivability we can get.
Level 68: Saber Reflect makes you immune to single target ranged, Force, and tech attacks for 5 seconds and reflects a part of it at the attacker. This is best if you plan to stand and fight (and eventually die as you run out of cooldowns). If you are planning to use Nimble Master and make a run for it you can instead go for Mad Dash, just as in the Warzone build.
For the final choice, you can try Through Passion, which reduces the cooldown of Enraged Defense from 2:00 to 1:30 minutes. When combined with Grit Teeth that makes it so you can sometimes live until your Enraged Defense comes off cooldown. (Emphasis on CAN and SOMETIMES)
Main Damage Combo
The combo below is how you usually want to start a fight. Of course, you cannot always follow this “rotation” because PVP is dynamic, people kite, they use defensives, etc. so you will need to react and change your combo to counter your opponents.
In general, you want to start the fight with Force Charge to get your Dominate buff as well as the CC immunity and damage reduction from War Master.
Next, pop Enrage and Raging Burst, which will be a massive auto-crit because of two Dominate stacks and the crit buff from Champion’s Precision implant.
Ideally, you always want to use Furious Strike directly after Raging Burst. Both abilities should be off cooldowns at the same time as long as you have something to hit in between to reduce the cooldown of Raging Burst.
Next, we use our Vicious Throw from Warmonger.
Follow that up with Obliterate, which reduces the cooldown of Enrage, and provides a Dominate stack for your next Raging Burst.
Use Force Scream
Only now, you Force Crush to make use of the level 73 Fuming Rage passive, which makes you next Furious Strike free, as long as you use it within the next two GCDs.
So once this combo is done, use the Raging Burst + Furious Strike combo again, and then make sure you use Force Charge/Obliterate and Enrage before the next Raging Burst is available. In general, you always want to use either Enrage or Force Crush before Raging Burst, so it’s good to alternate them.
Gameplay Tips
Intercede can be used as a gap closer and also purges roots.
Enraged defense can be used while stunned.
Mad dash makes you immune to most damage if timed right.
Use Leap often to get the cc immunity, damage reduction, and Dominate buffs. If you are fighting in melee range, you can combo it with Mad Dash, to create the necessary distance.
Easy classes to face
Hatred Assassin: they can’t burst you down, their dots will guarantee that you get all ticks of Enraged Defense and they are so squishy that you can kill them before they even have applied all of their DoTs. Just make sure you don’t Raging Burst into their Shroud. You can counter Deflection with Force Choke since a target cannot defend against attacks when they are stunned. But don’t waste your stun if the Assassin runs the Deflection cc immunity (buff lasts for half the Deflection duration).
Mercenaries: While Electro Net is annoying, they are still easier to stick to compared to Sorcerer and Snipers. You can leap to them which makes you immune to their knockback (many Mercs will waste it into your cc immunity) and then just start wailing on them. You don’t want to hit into their defensive cooldowns, but once they are down, you will win the DPS race.
Hard classes to face
Sorcerers have so many kiting tools, that they can walk you around the warzone like a dog. It is best to open on them with Force Charge to counter the Backlash bubble stun. If they Force Speed away, use Choke to counter it. That should force them to use either cc break or Phasewalk, which means you will have gained an advantage. Nevertheless, you should not be able to ever kill them 1v1 unless they make a mistake.
Similar to Sorcerers, Snipers are hard to face because they will kite you. A good Sniper will always be in cover, which negates your Force Charge. Entrench makes it so you cannot use Force Push or Choke them either. And if they play Engineering, the permanent AoE slow from Plasma Probe is the bane of every melee in the game. Try to outplay them by fake-running away and leaping to them as they leave cover to chase you. Mad Dash and Intercede are your best gap closers. Also, remember to save Enrage for the root break in this matchup.
Synergies
The best classes to play with Rage Juggernaut are any of the healers, since they provide some much-needed sustain, meaning you can stay in combat longer.
Another good combination of classes would be Rage with any of the Marauder specs for a Warrior melee death ball. Predation makes you able to chase down ranged classes and gives you some extra defense chance, which is very welcome.
That’s all for this guide. Have a question? Let me know in the comments below!