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Are encounters easy to learn?

STAR WARS: The Old Republic > English > Classes > Roles > Tanking
Are encounters easy to learn?

Dabrixmgp's Avatar

12.25.2012 , 09:56 PM | #1
Been wanting to tank but Im skeptical about everyone knowing me as a fail tank since LFG isnt server wide like it is in other games. I have tanked in other games and done a very good job but only because I found online guides for encounters so I had some idea of what to do when I got there. I havent found much on encounter guides and the ones I did manage to find only have EV and KP and are from like Feb so they have to be outdated. Are they pretty easy to tank, will be rolling a powertech if that matters. Also are there any new updated boss guides because google just brings back stuff from 8+ months ago? Or are they all easy and I dont have to worry about guides?

_gideon's Avatar

12.26.2012 , 07:10 AM | #2
What makes you think that EV and KP have changed since February?

The answer to your original question is yes. For specific boss strats I'd recommend looking on Youtube for kill videos with written or voiceover guides.

Dabrixmgp's Avatar

12.26.2012 , 09:36 AM | #3
Quote: Originally Posted by _gideon View Post
Cause most games tweak and change encounters? I mean it has been like 10 months.

wetslampigduex's Avatar

12.26.2012 , 02:28 PM | #4
what server you on OP?

MantorokTwelve's Avatar

12.27.2012 , 12:23 AM | #5
EV and KP have only gotten easier since then I believe.


Annihilator: keep your back to the wall, jump in after you get knocked back.

Gharj: keep your back to the edge of the platform.

Pylons: lol

Sith Council: lol

Soa: don't stand directly under the pillars.


Rancor: tell everyone to keep target of target on, kill gammorean when he pops up, you can't taunt this boss.

Jarg and Sorno: a DPS and the tank on sorno need to interrupt him, assign one person to unload and the other to the heal. Don't stand in the fire or reticles, kill carbon probes.

Foreman Crusher: move him into the corner, your back to the wall, if you're undergeared then be ready to pop cooldowns for the frenzy (it hurts). Off tank stays with the melee DPS, run/jump to adds when they spawn and pick them up.

Fabricator: DPS/heals will mess with the puzzle, you worry about tank swapping with the other tank. If your puzzle solvers are competent, you can keep the droid on the same platform the whole time. You can stand on the yellow line, but not over it. The fabricator will put up a stack of debuffs on whoever's tanking him, after about 4 or 5 stacks you should taunt off. When the first tank's stacks fall off, he taunts back (this is important for an instance down the road).

Karagga: I never was good at main tanking this. Turn him sideways, mdps will stand on his side. Only real threat to you is a cleave, plus he'll eventually put an oil fire under your feet, which is your signal to move him. You can kind of serpentine him around the room, or just make a circle, just try not to put your DPS in a bad spot.


Toth and Zorn: Back against the wall, no matter which one you're tanking. Zorn will always be on the left, Toth will always be on the right. There's a nook right under the tamer where you should tank Toth, and there's a patch of brown grass for Zorn. Eventually Toth will jump to Zorn, that's when you tab target, taunt, and move into the other tank's position as quickly as possible. In Hard and Nightmare modes, the tank that was on Zorn will have the fearful debuff, which makes any damage that tank does to Zorn or receives from Zorn kill him. So keep an eye on that debuff, it looks like the in combat rez debuff for sorcerors. If you have fearful when you have to switch back to Zorn, let your healer know, and don't do anything to Zorn until your debuff wears off. Pop cooldowns if necessary. In the phase where Toth starts smashing the ground, stay out of the reticles. If you're on Zorn at that time, he will scream at you and stun you. Break out of that immediately, you'll probably get a reticle under you before the stun wears off. If your stun break is on cooldown, yell at your healer to cleanse you.

Firebrand and Stormcaller: You will be on the front, dps on the sides. When the tank on stormcaller sees double destruction channeling, he walks over to the DPS and stands behind them so that they take it. After that, Firebrand will start casting incinerate on his tank. At this point, both tanks tab target and taunt, and jump to the other tank, because the incinerate that the tank that originally was on firebrand took makes him take a ton of damage from firebrand. During defensive systems, the tank that was last on stormcaller will drop lightning spikes down. Just lay them down in a neat little pattern, you'll get the hang of it pretty quickly, just don't LOS your healer. When you're on firebrand, you get to just fight the adds. In hard and nightmare modes, you need a lot more DPS, the shield generators can be damaged, the location of the shields is random, and in nightmare mode one of the adds explodes on death.

Minefield: Watch a video for the puzzle. If you're doing the puzzle, you'll get a DPS to come up with you at first to kill the first add while you solve the puzzle. Select the lower left corner circle, hopefully it's green. If it's not, go to the one to the right of it until you find a green one. After you find a green one, hit the panel on the right side. You'll be warped down to the minefield, look around until you see a droid. When you find one, stay focused on it for a few seconds to spawn it. When you go back up in the tower, kill the add, then start solving the puzzle. Go in a straight line first, don't get cute trying to get a snake pattern, you want the absolute shortest path possible. When the team down below kills their droid, select the nearest red for them to defuse. If you're on story mode, they can get another mine right after that if they're quick, so flip 2 in a row if possible. If not, or if you're on hard or nightmare mode, find another droid quickly. You'll find you have a lot of free time near the end of the minefield phase. When you get really good and are with a good group, you can minimize downtime by getting the droids very quickly.

When you're down on the ground, you pretty much just DPS the droid. Face him away from the raid in story mode, interrupt EVERYTHING on hard and nightmare mode.

When the puzzle is solved, wait until someone hits the switch before you run through. Be quick, and don't cut ANY corners, the minefield likes to kill you right before you are all the way through. When you're on Vorgath, you really don't have anything to worry about. Taunt him when he switches off of a tank, AOE taunt the turrets if your raid can't CC them. Run away from the raid if you get a reticle.

Kephess: This is a bit complicated. I'm not gonna bother with HM, if you're doing that you should just look up a vid and get a good tank to explain their guild's method. Kill the droids around the walker, you need to divy up resonsibilities in hard and nim modes because there's a lot of interrupting that needs to be done or you will wipe. After the droids are dead (finish with the one on the right), the baradium add will spawn. If he spawns in the corner near the starting door or the other far door, pull him towards the raid. DPS him down (I recommend you temporarily guard whoever gets the bomb), then burn the walker until it gets up. When the 2 droids spawn, wait until the rest of the raid is stacked up on the droid before you stack up, so no one else gets railshotted. Kill the 2 droids, pull the baradium add, DPS walker, then on to trenchgutters. They will spawn first at door 1 (to the right of Kephess), then at door 2 (where you spawn), then 4 (corner to the left of kephess). Tanks AOE taunt as necessary, kill warriors first, strategies vary for this part by guild. Before the baradium add spawns, Kephess will jump down, and one tank will have to pick him up. He'll jump in the air, smash in a reticle, then put a bleed on that tank. At this point tanks need to swap. In the meantime, the raid is killing the walker. When the walker is down, Kephess is pretty much tank and spank until about 60%. At that point he does his huge purple reticle, run out of that. After that, he will punt whatever tank he's on, off tank should taunt off while he's casting breath of the masters after the punt. The tank that was just punted will drop purple reticles around the edge of the room. Don't stand in them too long, or you will die. After your debuff falls off, the other tank will get punted, get BOTM, and off tank will tank him. Face him away from the raid, he has a nasty cleave.


Writhing Horror: Face away from the raid, tank swap when jealous male appears, tank jealous male at that point. Easy fight.

Dread Lords: Mark Ciphas and Kel'sara. You might tank them in different locations based on preference, but I've found the best is Kel'sara in the upper right corner, Ciphas in the lower right corner for the first phase. In story mode, Kelsara is the only one that puts a stacking DOT on the tank, but in HM both bosses have DOTs. In both difficulties though, Kel'sara hurts a LOT worse. First tank swap should be around when Ciphas jumps in to cast his shield, second one should be after the lightning (in hard mode). But for the most part, just switch off when the tank on Kel'sara has 5 stacks, switch back when those stacks fall off. In phase 2, just be wary of green puddles and keep tank swapping. In phase 3, you don't have much to worry about on story mode. In hard mode, Kel'sara will knock back the main tank and put force leach on you, causing any healing you receive to kill you. Make sure your healers are aware of this, tell them not to put HOTs on you, and let them know when it falls off. When one tank gets force leach, the other tank should taunt. Kill adds when they spawn as you are able, the one that casts an ability will one shot someone otherwise.

Operator: Generally, tanks are on the latter colors, to maximize DPS for those data cubes. Tanking is pretty simple, just keep aggro on the adds, watch out for AOE attacks near the probe droids in hard mode. When the big add spawns, interrupt end line, and hopefully get the other tank to pick up the second one. On the actual operator fight, face him away from the raid, don't run through anyone else's circle, and don't be stupid about the shielding in hard mode.

Kephess: Move him towards the pillar he has lightning going towards. In hard mode, tank swap when he puts lightning on one tank, go to the lightning circle in the middle to cleanse (which is super buggy btw). In hard mode if you pick up a lightning add, you can cleanse it by getting the lightning under your feet, so make sure you get aggro to cleanse that. After the first pillar phase, move him near another pillar for the nanites phase. Make sure no one starts channeling until after he jumps, then get them to channel and break after he lands. Rinse and repeat until the pillars are all gone and he enrages. DPS stack on him, tanks will run out and kite the circles, pop your cooldowns, and pew pew if you want as a powertech.

Terror from Beyond: Easiest boss to tank in the game. First phase, face the tentacle back towards the boss and hold aggro. If you're on the left side (when you come in), watch out in case your raid doesn't kill the add quickly, as it will kill you if it touches you. Coordinate with the other side to make sure you kill your tentacles within 20% of each other. When the tentacles go down, run out towards the water, dodge the adds. If someone aggros the add, do your best to defend them. Otherwise, just rinse and repeat until you get sucked in.

This chart determines where you will stand in the second phase. If you're on the left, you will tank the boss on platform 10 until it gets spat upon, then jump to 2. When the boss is casting scream, the other tank will taunt. When you have the scream debuff on you, you take a ton more damage from the terror. Run back to the home platform to cleanse. The tank on the right will go from 14 to 7, taunt off when he gets screamed at. DPS will jump to 12 to avoid slam. After both tentacles go down, you will have an excruciating phase of...nothing. They removed the anomalies from this boss, so you can pretty much just reposition and sit around while the boss spawns 2 more tentacles in the back. In case they do fix it though, DPS are responsible for killing most of the anomalies, just try to kill 1-2 around where you are, let the raid know if you're cleansing at home and getting the anomaly there. In the second tentacle phase, tanks will lay spit on 11/13, then jump to 10/14 to get screamed at (DPS jump to 16 to avoid slam). After this phase, the tentacles go back to their first location. Only thing to be sure of at this point is make sure the DPS don't kill the last tentacle RIGHT after a tank gets screamed at, or he's as good as dead. But when the last tentacle goes down, one tank will use his taunt, AOE taunt when that goes down, then the other tank will use his 2 taunts, then the first tank will taunt, then the second tank will taunt, and the boss should be dead by then.

And that's about it, all the raid bosses in the game. There's a lot more to it, especially to nightmare EC, but that should get you through a lot of content. Just find a good guild with a good (and patient) tank who doesn't have a problem with answering your questions. And don't be afraid to ask questions, better to sound like an idiot than look like one when you cause a wipe.