Star Wars: The Old Republic Guide: Powertech PvE Player Guide

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Where the Mercenary is the Bounty Hunter’s DPS orientated advanced class, sporting duel pistols and making you feel just a little like Clint Eastwood, Powertech slots either a Shield Generator or Power Generator to turn you into a walking, talking tank. Both classes offer plenty in the multiple ways to kill people department, with the main difference being that the Mercenary heals the damage you take whereas the Powertech stops it happening in the first place.

Powertech is the mirror to the Republic's Vanguard class with the obvious difference being that as a Bounty Hunter you don't really feel all that guilty killing groups of humans. If there are credits to be made then leave the feelings for guys with the pretty white armour.

Shield Tech - Aimed at reducing damage taken and providing bonuses for when you get up close and personal with your target
Advanced Prototype – A curious DPS tree with a mix of ability bonuses, slight crowd control and elemental damage perks
Pyrotech – Shared with the Mercenary centred around heat reduction and self preservation

Playing as a Shield Tech

The main abilities you will be focusing on as a Shield Tech are:

Jet Charge - Jumps to a distant target, dealing 447 kinetic damage, interrupting the target's current action and immobilizing the target for 3 seconds. Cannot be used against targets in cover
Grapple - Fires a grapple line that pulls the target to the Bounty Hunter and generates a high amount of threat. Cannot be used on targets in cover.
Heat Blast - Discharges 8 heat into a fiery blast, dealing 443 elemental damage.
Rebraced Armour - Increases armour rating by 8/16%.
Ion Gas Cylinder - Loads your blaster with ion-charged gas, giving ranged attacks a 15% chance to deal 253 additional energy damage. While this cylinder is active, threat generated is increased by 50%. Increases armour by 60%, decreases all damage taken by 5%, and increases shield chance by 15%. Only one cylinder can be active at a time. Ion Jolts can only occur once every 1.5 seconds.
Kolto Overload - Restores 15% of maximum health over 10 seconds.
Rocket Punch - Engages the jetpack, allowing you to strike the target with a heavy punch that deals 2205 - 2415 kinetic damage.
Flame sweep - Torches up to 5 targets within 5 meters for 437 - 561 elemental damage.
Neural Dart - Fires a neural dart that taunts the target to attack for 6 seconds. Player targets deal 30% less damage when attacking anyone other than you. Effect lasts 6 seconds.
Sonic Missile - Fires a missile at taunting enemies and nearby enemies to attack for 6 seconds. Enemy players have their damage reduced for 6 seconds unless they attack you.
Guard - Guards the target while it remains within 15 meters. While active, the target takes 5% less damage and generates 25% less threat. In addition, 50% of all incoming damage from enemies is transferred back to you. Requires Ion Gas Cylinder.
Carbonize - Encases up to 5 enemies within 8 meters in carbonite, stunning them for 2.5 seconds.
Flame Burst - Fires a burst of flame at the target that deals 558 - 622 elemental damage.
Oil Slick - Sprays the immediate area with oil. Nearby enemies become unbalanced and their accuracy of ranged and melee attacks is lowered by 20% for 18 seconds.
Energy Shield - Reduces all damage taken by 25% for 12 seconds.

As you can see Shield Tech is a very busy class. You can easily take on 6+ mobs three levels above you no problem, even Elites cause little problem and if you can get a Champion one and one it becomes a battle of attrition rather than a fight. Contrary to everything you may have learned with other DPS/Ranged classes Shield Tech works just as well up close to your target as it does purely ranged. In many cases it is even preferable to bring your target within melee range.

Shield Tech is strange in that while it is very much Tank focused it does not let you just sit back and take damage like you may be used to. Rather it is a constant shuffle of abilities aimed at keeping your defences up while dealing damage in-between. For example it is generally the case that Tanks have very high damage reduction and very nice 'Panic Buttons' they can hammer if they wade in too deeply. This is turned on its head somewhat with Shield Tech in that you need to trigger these abilities before things go wrong to get any use out of them.

Oil Slick is indicative of how you will spend the rest of your time as a Shield Tech, it will reduce an AOE accuracy by 20% - while it certainly won't save you stacked with other abilities it can give you that fighting edge you may need to survive the battle. You have to think several steps ahead and strategically consider when to trigger these BOTs (Buffs Over Time) will be the difference between staying alive and dying. It is a tank class without panic buttons but more like you are getting focused to get into your Chuck Norris mode ready to take the punishment for the team.

As a quick honourable mention Mako is going to be your companion of choice for the majority of the game here. Whereas other builds can swap out quite easily Mako's healing is very useful to Shield Tech and later when she gets Electro-Stasis she becomes practically essential.

Playing as an Advanced Prototype

Retractable Blade - Plunges a retractable blade into the target that deals 380 kinetic damage and causes the target to bleed for 459 internal damage over 15 seconds.
Rocket Punch - Engages the jet pack, allowing you to strike the target with a heavy punch that deals 2205 - 2415 kinetic damage.
Flame Burst - Fires a burst of flame at the target that deals 558 - 622 elemental damage.
Immolate - Sprays the target with fuel and ignites it into a fireball that deals elemental damage.
Hydraulic Overrides - Grants 8 seconds of immunity from movement-impairing effects, knock-downs and physics and increases movement speed by 30%.
High Energy Gas Cylinder - Loads your blaster with a high-energy gas cylinder. While active, all internal and elemental damage dealt is increased by 5%. Only one cylinder can be active at a time.
Rail Shot - Fires a very powerful shot at the target that deals 1404 - 1591 weapon damage. Only usable against incapacitated targets and targets suffering from periodic damage.
Prototype Flamethrower - Flame Burst and Flame Sweep have a 50/100% chance to grant Prototype Flame Thrower, increasing the damage dealt by your next Flame Thrower by 10%. Stacks up to 5 times.
Flame Thrower - Torches everything in a 10-meter cone with a flamethrower, dealing 1593 elemental damage over the duration.

Advanced Prototype is the Bounty Hunters' DPS close range build, with some mid range abilities thrown in for good measure. You will want to be running High Energy Gas Cylinder for the internal and elemental damage increase as this build is very much about killing your target before they can hurt you. The main bonus for this is it will increase the damage dealt by Retractable Blade which causes 380 kinetic damage and more importantly at base will cause 459 internal damage over 15 seconds setting you up for a Rail Shot. You will want to follow up with Rocket Punch and at later levels Immolate.

Really important with Advanced Prototype is learning to use your Flame Thrower correctly. Generally it is quite an expensive ability for not all that much damage compared to other abilities in your arsenal. However if take Prototype Flamethrower you can use Flame Burst or Flame Sweep up to five times to stack a damage bonus to Flame Thrower taking you potentially up to 2389 base damage before you take into account any of your other bonuses. Correctly planned this build can take pretty much any mob one on one.

Playing as a Pyrotech

We covered Pyrotech in our Mercenary Guide, but there are a couple of things of note with a Powertech build that are worth taking into account.

Pyrotech sits with both of the other skill trees quite nicely. With Advanced Prototype topping out at Charged Gauntlets and then putting the rest into Superheated Gas and Incendiary Missile will provide very nice group DPS and decent heat management to keep you going.

Stacked the other way with Shield Tech it can take some of the button dancing from the equation and make you slightly more damage orientated. Iron Fist is a nice ability to pick up regardless but if you plan it right to trigger cool down and improve Rail Shot you can finish up your battle in half the time.

Powertech Wrap-up

Whatever route you go down with the Powertech you are going to have nice survivability. I would say that the Powertech is heavily reliant on your companion and which one you choose is going to depend on what skill tree you decide on but ultimately if you will find something that will work for you. However be warned that once you meet your fifth companion all bets are off as he is several flavors of awesome.

Source: mmorpg.com