Tactics Vanguard PVP Guide (SWTOR Patch 7.4.1)
A PVP Guide to the Tactics Vanguard 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 guide is up-to-date for Patch 7.5.
The video version of this guide is available on my YouTube channel here:
About the class
Tactics is a medium-range burst class that also offers strong crowd control. In patch 7.4, it has access to the most powerful burst combo in the game, which means you can one-shot any non-tank if they don't react in time.
Tactical
The Overwhelming Offense tactical will give you a damage boost of 5% when fully stacked. And since it's the only tactical that increases both your dps and burst potential, it is our tactical of choice.
Legendary Implants
The best legendary implant is Shock Trooper, which grants you an extra 10% of damage for 15 seconds and reduces the cost of your stockstrike by 4 energy.
For your second legendary, I recommend running Second Wind, especially if you play Solo. The 20% heal and 75% movement speed buff, which triggers when you get a kill or assist will come in handy whether you are running low on hp or chasing down a ranged target.
For Arena, since you will usually be the first target, Supercommando Package gives you 3 seconds of invulnerability, which you can use to avoid burst damage if you time it right.
Gear & Stats
Critical: 4700
Alacrity: 2150
Accuracy: 0
You want to get your alacrity to around 2150. That's one alacrity enhancement, your two legendary implants, and three augments. Since most of the damage on Tactics is yellow, you don't need any accuracy. Keep in mind that even if you miss a high-impact bolt, you will still build an energy lode. So, once you have that, you want to get your critical rating to around 4700 and add Versatile augments to the remaining gear pieces to boost your mastery. For relics, you want to use the Power and Mastery Proc, also known as the Thyrsian Relic of Serendipitous Assault and Focused Retribution. The best stim for PVP is the Advanced Kyrprax Versatile Stim (aka red stim), which boosts your Mastery and Power.
Builds
Warzone Build
Level 23: you want to pick up Ricochet Rounds at level 23 for some extra AOE damage.
Level 27: Storm is a must-have to gap close.
Level 39: High Yield Explosives make your Assault Plastique hit like a truck, so we take that.
Level 43: Advanced Infantry Tactics give you a 15-meter range on most of your key abilities, which means that you can kite other melees and stay out of AOEs while fighting.
Level 51: Parallactic Combat Stims make energy management easier by giving you extra damage and energy when you get controlled.
Level 64: you have options. Go for Reflective Armor if you are facing a lot of melees. However, Entangling Tools is better if your opponents are ranged.
Level 68: there is only one option. Hold the Line is mandatory, it is your best defensive cooldown but of course can also be used offensively or to move between objectives.
Level 73: Efficient Tools are the best choice at Lvl 73. Not only does it give you another stun break on adrenaline rush but it also increases the range of Shoulder Cannon and Harpoon by 10 meters, which means you can pull warriors before they can leap to you. Oh yeah, and it makes Neural Surge cost no energy, so that's good to know.
Arena Build
For Arenas, you will usually be the first target as your main weakness is that once you go in, you don't have a way to reset combat and get out. Because of that, we are making some changes to the build.
Level 23: We go for Serrated Blade because in arena we need to get that all-important first kill so we are boosting our single-target damage.
Level 43, we pick up Suppression Droid. This one provides us with 20% accuracy debuff and a 30% slow on all enemies inside the zone. Really powerful if you need to survive.
Level 51: And finally, since we are going to be the first target and fights will usually not last long enough to make use of Parallactic Combat Stims, we pick up Electro Shield.
Combo & Rotation
Use Gut if you are in melee range. If you are starting the fight from range, skip it and use gut after step 6 assuming that the target is not already dead and you want to keep hitting it.
Assault Plastique, which will detonate after a bit more than 3 seconds, which means you can use two other abilities to buff it before the damage goes off.
Directly afterward, you will pop your main offensive cooldown Battle Focus, and use Cell Burst. Cell Burst will always crit and does great damage on its own and because we took High Yield Explosives, it will buff the damage of Assault Plastique. And yes, this works even if you use Cell Burst after Assault Plastique.
Next, we use Tactical Surge to proc the 10% damage buff from our Shock Trooper Package.
Follow that up with Balmorran Advanced Weaponry for another cell burst
After Assault Plastique explodes, we finish up the combo with a High Impact Bolt.
Remember to spam shoulder cannon while you do this combo to maximize your burst potential. Once this combo is down, you should focus on proccing your High Impact Bolt as often as possible and build up your four Energy Lodes to use Cell Burst.
Gameplay Tips
Easy classes to face
Shadow: two stun breaks to counter their opener, neural surge can sometimes stun them through Force Shroud, and except for stealthing out, they can't really do anything to stop your damage.
Gunslinger: For gunslingers, it's similar. They can't stop your damage because Surrender, their main damage reduction cooldown is currently bugged and doesn’t fully reduce the damage of your Cell Burst. When fighting them just make sure you have hold the line as otherwise, a good gunslinger will kite you into oblivion.
Hard classes to face
Sage and scoundrels because they have powerful defensive cooldowns to counter your burst. Be careful not to waste your burst if a sage has Phase Walk up. You can see that in their buff tray.
For scoundrels, it's best to ignore them because you can one-shot yourself on their reflect and unless they make a mistake they will outlast you in a 1v1.
Synergies
The best classes to play Tactics Vanguard with are any healer, since they provide some much-needed sustain, meaning you can stay in combat longer.
Another good combination of classes would be the Saboteur Gunslinger or Infiltration Shadow for a devastating burst combo that is sure to burst your opponents into oblivion.
That’s all for this guide. Have a question? Let me know in the comments below!