Vengeance Juggernaut
This is a preliminary guide that provides details on abilities and skill changes and initial recommendations for skill tree choices and an overview on the changes to the rotation. I suggest reading this guide in combination with the 6.0 class guide to understand the previous rotation to then adapt to 7.0 as discussed briefly herein. More detailed guides will be forthcoming after preliminary guides are posted for all disciplines.
Combat Style Abilities & Passive Skills
Discipline Passive Skills
Shien Form
Utilize an offensive lightsaber form, increasing all damage dealt by 6%, melee damage by an additional 5%, damage reduction by 5% and movement speed by 15%. All attacks that consume focus will refund 1 rage when used. Replaces Shii-Cho Form.
Draining Scream
Shatter finishes the active cooldown on Ravage and generates 3 rage. Force Scream causes the target to burn for internal damage over 6 seconds.
Bloodbath
Smash and Vengeful Slam spread your bleed effects to all targets they damage, if at least one of the targets is already affected by your bleeds. In addition, Sweeping Slash deals 25% more damage to bleeding targets.
Eviscerate
Impale causes the target to bleed for internal damage over 6 seconds and beats the target down for 45 seconds. Beat Down targets take 5% more damage from melee attacks.
Brawn
Force Charge grants Brawn, providing immunity to interrupts, stuns, knockdowns and incapacitating effects for 4 seconds. Additionally, during this time, damage reduction is increased by 20%.
Savagery
Shatter, Impale, Hew and Vengeful Slam increase the critical chance of your next Force Scream by 50%. Lasts 15 seconds. Stacks up to 2 times.
Destroyer
Increases the damage dealt by your bleeding effects by 15%. In addition, your Ravage and bleed damage has a 30% chance to trigger Destroyer, which finishes the cooldown on Hew and makes your next Hew consume no rage and usable on a target with any health level. This effect cannot occur more than once every 20 seconds.
Gushing Veins
Increases the critical chance of Shatter, Vengeful Slam and bleeding effects by 10%.
Bloodmaster
For each of your bleeding effects active on an enemy target, you deal 5% more bleed damage, up to a maximum of 15% more bleed damage while Shatter, Draining Scream, and Eviscerate are each bleeding a target.
Discipline Abilities
Force Scream (modified)
Now also causes the target to burn for elemental damage over 6 seconds.
Threatening Scream
45s cooldown. Immediately reduces threat towards all current enemies by a moderate amount. Player targets deal 30% less damage for 6 seconds when attacking anyone other than you.
Force Choke
10m range, 1.5s channel, 60s cooldown. Chokes the target, stunning it for 4 seconds. Deals kinetic damage and builds 3 rage over the duration. This ability can be channeled while moving.
Endure Pain
60s cooldown. Temporarily increases your maximum health by 30% for 20 seconds and removes all cleansable effects. When the effect ends, the health is lost.
Discipline Skill Tree
Recommendations
Level 23
Major Fracture
Major Fracture seems to be the better option for single target damage than Deep Cuts though more testing is needed to verify Deep Cuts is working as intended.
Shatter Burst
Shatter Burst is very powerful for AoE situations and together with Cut to Pieces makes Vengeance even stronger than in 6.x for AoE encounters.
Level 27
Overwhelming Slashes
Overwhelming Slashes is preferred for the extra energy, which is not much but over a fight will add up and lead to more fillers. Projected Scream will be better for AoE though with Shatter Burst and Cut to Pieces Vengeance does not any help in that department.
Level 39
Bleeding Pommel
More testing is necessary. Bleeding Pommel is good for higher guaranteed damage and the energy generation synergizes with Blood Rites to require very few uses of Sundering Assault for energy.
Bleeding Offense
More testing is necessary. Bleeding Offense deals more direct damage so is a safer choice if energy is capping or not being used effectively.
Level 43
Blood Rites
More testing is needed. Blood Rites is powerful to provide burst windows with higher DoT damage and overall fewer uses of Sundering Assault per encounter. The code is inconsistent with the tooltips for Vigilance and Vengeance, so it’s unclear if this is working as intended right now or if it will be optimal. For the moment I feel like this is the better option for single target.
Bloodbound
While it is unclear if Bloodbound will be optimal for single target and I lean towards no, it is very likely to be optimal in multi-target fights to get far more frequent uses of Bloodrage and self heals.
Level 51
Warmonger
All are situational but Warmonger is most likely to be useful for movement purposes.
Level 64
Hardened Defense
Hardened Defense is a great choice since most fights have predictable AoE damage.
War Master
War Master adds a damage buff through extra uses of Dispatch so should be taken anytime you can live without AoE DR and are using Force Charge regularly.
Level 68
Mad Dash
Saber Reflect is situational for damage disciplines as it is typically not needed as a defensive cooldown, so Mad Dash is the better option for movement and wider range of applications to mitigate damage.
Saber Reflect
Saber Reflect should be preferred in encounters where it can be used to increase damage.
Level 73
Pooled Hatred
All are situational. Pooled Hatred can add damage on some fights so it is the default choice for me. Crushing Fist is useful for multi-target fights for the AoE sunder. Through Passion is good for fights with steady group damage.
Skill Tree
Level 15 - Gain 2 Abilities
Shatter
4m range, 10s cooldown, costs 5 rage. Channels the Force into your lightsaber and crushes your target under its weight, instantly dealing internal damage, with further internal damage over 12 seconds.
Bloodrage
45s cooldown. Ignites your bleeds on all targets within 10m of you, dealing a portion of their damage and generating 6 rage.
Level 23 - Pick 1 Upgrade for Plasma Brand
Deep Cuts (passive)
While Shatter is on a target, the critical hit chance of all your bleed attacks on that target are increased by 10%.
Major Fracture (passive)
Increases initial damage of Shatter by 50% and reduces its cooldown by 2 seconds.
Shatter Burst (passive)
Killing a target with direct bleed damage while affected by Shatter causes it to explode, hitting nearby targets.
Level 27 - Pick 1 Ability or Passive Skill
Sweeping Slash (ability)
5m range, costs 2 rage. Slashes up to 8 enemies within 5 meters in front of you for weapon damage and inflicts the targets with Trauma, which reduces the healing received from all sources by 20% for 5 seconds.
Overwhelming Slashes (passive)
Ravage immobilizes the target for 3 seconds and generates 1 rage.
Projected Scream (passive)
Force Scream does damage to additional enemies in a cone in front and slows them by 50% for 6 seconds.
Level 35 - Gain Ability
Impale
4m range, 9s cooldown, costs 4 rage. Executes an acrobatic attack that deals weapon damage.
Level 39 - Pick 1 Upgrade for Overhead Slash
Bleeding Pommel (passive)
Impale deals 10% additional damage and generates 1 rage for each of your periodic bleed effects on the target it hits.
Bleeding Offense (passive)
Impale does additional critical bleed damage when it hits and Impale’s critical hit chance is increased by 20%.
Skewering Strike (ability)
Replaces Impale and triggers any of its effects. Skewering Strike is identical to Impale except with 10m range and immobilizing its target for 3 seconds.
Level 43 - Pick 1 Ability or Passive Skill
Furious Power (ability)
30s cooldown. Consumes all ability charges of Furious Power and applies Furious Power stacks to you. Each stack increases your next direct single target melee attack by 25% and is consumed whenever you deal damage with these attacks. Recharges 1 ability charge every 30 seconds.
Bloodbound (passive)
Critically hitting with a bleed effect reduces the cooldown of your Bloodrage by 1 second. Bloodrage purges movement impairing effects and heals you for 2% of your max health for each bleed effect it triggers, up to 20%.
Blood Rites (passive)
Bloodrage no longer generates rage. Instead, activating Bloodrage grants Blood Rites, increasing the critical hit chance of all your periodic bleed effects by 50% and generating 1 rage each time you critically hit with an internal bleed effect for 20 seconds.
Level 47 - Gain Ability
Hew
30m range, 10s cooldown, costs 3 rage. Hurls the main-hand lightsaber at a target, dealing weapon damage and slowing its movement speed by 50% for 3 seconds. Only usable on targets at or below 30% max health. Replaces Vicious Throw.
Level 51 - Pick 1 Passive Skill
Extending Roar
Increase the range of Force Scream to 30 meters, but Force Scream deals reduced damage beyond 10 meters. Additionally, Force Push deals 20% more damage and grants Extending Roar, allowing your next Force Scream to deal full damage regardless of the distance from the target.
Warmonger
Getting attacked reduces the active cooldown of Force Charge by 1 second. This effect cannot occur more than once every 1.5 seconds.
Unyielding
You generate 4 rage when stunned, immobilized, put to sleep, or knocked around.
Level 60 - Gain Ability
Vengeful Slam
5m range, 9s cooldown. Slams your weapon into the ground, causing a Force-empowered shockwave that deals energy damage to up to 8 enemies within 5 meters. Stuns weak and standard enemies for 3 seconds. Replaces Smash.
Level 64 - Pick 1 Passive Skill
War Master
Force Charge grants Unstoppable, granting immunity to movement-impairing effects and effects that push or pull you around for 4 seconds. In addition, Force Charge enables your next Vicious Throw or Hew to be used against a target with any percentage of health.
Hardened Defense
All damage is reduced by 30% while stunned.
Payback
Reduces the cooldown of Unleash by 30 seconds and causes Unleash to heal you for 10% of your maximum health when used.
Level 68 - Pick 1 Ability
Saber Reflect
60s cooldown. Reflects all single target ranged, Force and tech attacks back to the attacker for 5 seconds. The damage done by each reflect is capped, and the cap rises with each new rank of the ability. In addition, Saber Reflect generates a high amount of threat on all engaged enemies within 30 meters when activated.
Intimidating Roar
60s cooldown. Paralyzes up to 8 nearby enemies, preventing all action for up to 6 seconds. Damage ends the effect prematurely. In addition, targets affected by Intimidating Roar deal 15% less melee and ranged damage for 10 seconds after the confounding effect ends. Targets immune to the confounding effect will immediately suffer from this damage reducing effect.
Mad Dash
35s cooldown. Quickly dash forward 20 meters, dealing weapon damage to enemies in your path and increasing your defense chance by 100% while blitzing. Can be used while immobilized and purges movement-impairing effects when activated.
Level 73 - Pick 1 Passive Skill
Pooled Hatred
Whenever your movement is impaired, you gain a 10% damage bonus to your next ability that consumes rage. This effect can stack up to 5 times and lasts 15 seconds.
Crushing Fist
For the Immortal discipline, Smash slows the targets it damages by 60% for 10 seconds. For the Vengeance and Rage disciplines, Smash and Vengeful Slam sunder the targets they damage for 45 seconds. Sundered targets have their armor rating decreased by 20%.
Through Passion
Reduces the cooldown of Enraged Defense by 30 seconds.
Gearing in 7.0
Summary
Please see my initial 7.0 Gearing Guide for more information on gearing.
Preliminary gearing targets for Vengeance Juggernaut should be as follows:
Legendary: Fearless Victor and Champion's Precision
Tactical: Hemophilic Slash (single target), Cut to Pieces (multi-target)
Relics: Focused Retribution and either Serendipitous Assault or Devastating Vengeance
Crystal: Eviscerating or War Hero
Stim: Proficient stim (Versatile works too but Proficient is more convenient for Accuracy)
Adrenal: Critical or Attack adrenal
Regarding Relics and Crystals, Critical Rating will be more valuable in lower tiers of gear or gear that has not yet been augmented. As the player moves through Rakata gear up to item rating 330 and beyond, it is expected that Mastery will be preferred. As such, I'd mostly suggest using whichever is most convenient as the impact on performance will be relatively low.
Tertiary stats and augments should be allocated as follows:
Accuracy Rating: 2,694 (110% accuracy)
Alacrity Rating: 2,250 - 2,400 (1.4s GCD assuming no Zeal perk)
Critical Rating: All remaining tertiary stats
Legendary Implants
Fearless Victor Package
Whenever you use a focus spending damage ability, your melee damage is increased by 10% for 10 seconds. Package contains Critical Rating.
Comments: Fearless Victor is a simpler and better version of the 6.0 Descent of the Fearless 10% damage buff. This bonus is really good and should have very high uptime so is a must take for damage disciplines and tank builds prioritizing damage.
Champion's Precision Package
Activating Combat Focus, Burning Focus or Challenging Call grants Champion’s Precision, increasing your critical hit chance by 20% for 8 seconds. Package contains Critical Rating.
Comments: Champion's Precision is a new gear bonus that adds a new offensive cooldown element to the combat style's energy generation and AoE taunt / threat drop abilities. Good synergy between burst damage windows and this bonus will provide a nice overall damage boost. Great option for damage disciplines.
Tacticals
Hemophilic Slash
Ravage refreshes the duration of Force Scream, Impale and Shatter bleeds on the target and ticks their damage.
Comments: Hemophilic Slash is unchanged from 6.x and has the same impact on the Vengeance rotation where timing the use of Ravage with as many DoTs active as possible will maximize DoT uptime and overall damage.
Cut to Pieces
When a burn critically hits it reduces the cooldown of Vengeful Slam by 1 second.
Comments: Cut to Pieces remains a great option for multi-target fights and lets Vengeance deal very high sustained AoE damage.
Rotation
The core rotation and priority for Vengeance Juggernaut has not significantly changed from 6.x. The core rotation revolves around using Impale, Shatter, Force Scream and Vengeful Slam on cooldown to maximize damage. Hemophilic Slash continues to impact the rotation to time its use to maximize the extra DoT ticks and overall DoT uptime.
The changes to Vengeance in 7.0 relate primarily to changes to Enrage (now Bloodrage), energy generation and potentially making Vengeance even more overpowered in multi-target encounters.
Bloodrage is an upgraded Enrage that still generates energy but also triggers your DoTs to deal damage. It can also be modified to have other effects by Blood Rites, which changes the cooldown to generate energy passively via critical DoT ticks and boosting periodic burn damage. Regardless the goal will be to use Bloodrage nearly on cooldown without wasting energy.
Regardless of passive skill choices, the player will get a lot more energy generation through uses of Bloodrage. The player can then use Sundering Assault less often and use more fillers like Vicious Slash and Retaliation to deal more damage. Choosing Bleeding Pommel and/or Blood Rites will allow for passive energy generation while taking Bloodbound will allow Bloodrage to be used more frequently to actively generate energy.
With Cut to Pieces, Shatter Burst and Bloodbound or Blood Rites, Vengeance is really really REALLY powerful for multi-target encounters. If taking the Bloodbound skill then Vengeance will also be able to use Bloodrage regularly to deal even more group damage and get up to a 20% self heal on a very short cooldown. If taking the Blood Rites skill then Vengeance will be guaranteed crits and be able to spam Vengeful Slam even more easily.