Vanguard
THESE RESOURCES ARE FOR PRE-7.0 GAME CONTENT AND ARE NO LONGER UP TO DATE.
Discipline Guides
Advanced Class Set Bonuses
Meteor Brawler
Increased drop rate from operations.
(2) +2% Endurance
(4) Shockstrike and Stockstrike's energy cost is reduced by 4. Energy Blast, Shockstrike and Tactical Surge increase damage dealt by 10% for 15 seconds, this effect cannot occur more than once every 30 seconds.
(6) Activating Battle Focus gives you Ionfall for the duration of Battle Focus. During this time, dealing damage with Ion Wave, Ion Pulse, Tactical Surge, Stockstrike or Shockstrike builds up to 7 stacks of Ionfall. When Battle Focus ends, it detonates dealing elemental damage to all enemies around that scale with Ionfall stacks. After it explodes, your energy-using abilities cost 50% less energy for 20 seconds.
Comments: BIS for DPS in most cirumstances. Ionfall was in 6.1 and its damage being reduced, but the set continues to be BIS for Plasmatech and possibly for Tactics depending on the effectiveness of buffs to Veteran Ranger. Apart from the major DPS burst from Ionfall, the energy management benefits of the 4-piece and 6-piece set bonuses are also hugely powerful. The set is also an interesting option for tanks if Emergency Power is not available and Right Price is not desired.
Right Price
Increased drop rate from conquest crates.
(2) +2% Mastery
(4) Battle Focus increases damage done by 20% while Ion Cells is being utilized and increases damage reduction by 10% while Ion Cells is not being utilized.
(6) Each time you take damage while under Power Yield the cooldown of Battle Focus is reduced by 3 seconds. This effect cannot occur more than once every 3 seconds.
Comments: An option for tanks who want to prioritize DPS over mitigation, though it does not provide any mitigation buff for tanks. For DPS, it will likely underperform versus Meteor Brawler on most fights due to the rate limit on the 6 piece set bonus. Even when taking continuous damage as a DPS player, the rate limited cumulative CD reduction on Battle Focus is not super impactful. on any fights with consistent damage taken, as it enables more frequent use of offensive cooldown.
Strategist
Increased drop rate from PVP.
(2) +2% Endurance
(4) Neural Surge's cooldown is reduced by 10 seconds.
(6) Neural Surge vents 5 energy for each enemy it hits.
Comments: A PVP focused set bonus that offers some helpful utility. That said, I don't think it would be beneficial in most circumstances.
Veteran Ranger
Increased drop rate from Dxun Nature of Progress operation. Not available for purchase from Tech vendor.
(2) +2% Mastery
(4) Ion Wave makes all targets vulnerable to Shoulder Cannon for 5 seconds. While Shoulder Cannon loads missiles you restore 2 energy per second.
(6) Each Shoulder Cannon rocket has a 75% chance to trigger an additional rocket. When Shoulder Cannon is put on cooldown, it applies Autocannon to you for 60 seconds, firing a rocket at your current target whenever you deal damage. This additional rocket can fire once every 10 seconds.
Comments: Buffed in 6.1, it is intended to be the BIS set for Tactics for sustained DPS. It is unclear whether it will be strong enough to unseat Meteor Brawler as the BIS set bonus for pretty much all Vanguard players across all disciplines (except for those few tanks lucky enough to get a full Emergency Power tank set bonus).
Emergency Power
Increased drop rate from Dxun Nature of Progress operation. Not available for purchase from Tech vendor.
(2) +2% Endurance
(4) Reactive Shield's duration is increased by 5 seconds.
(6) Activating Power Yield grants a major absorb shield for 3 seconds.
Comments: BIS for tanks as it provides useful buffs to the discipline's two primary defensive abilities, though greatly limited by the difficulty in assembling a full set due to its drop rate only from the Dxun operation, Nature of Progress.
(Note - I do not have a chestpiece from this set so used the Mek-sha armor set for the graphic above as it is similar in appearance.)
Advanced Class Tacticals
Flying Fists
Increased drop rate from Onderon and Mek-sha daily missions.
Stockstrike and Shockstrike now have a range of 10m.
Comments: Very very situational, could have limited use on fights with lots of melee damage or conals.
Neural Trigger
Crafted by Cybertech.
Dealing damage to an enemy affected by your Neural Jolt stuns them for 2 seconds and ends the taunt.
Comments: This tactical could have some niche use in PVP as it would provide a short 2s stun on a very very short cooldown based on your taunt. The advanced class already has lots of control abilities so this could be very useful.
Second Contract
Increased drop rate from PVP.
Harpoon gets two charges and finishes the cooldown of Stockstrike and Shockstrike.
Comments: Resetting the cooldown of a rotational ability sounds nice but is offset by having to spend a GCD to do so. The double pull is moreso helpful for PVP matches to pull healers away from tank guards or in Huttball to kill enemy players via environmental hazards.
Sonic Heal
Increased drop rate from conquest crates.
Sonic Round heals all allies around its target.
Comments: The idea to use your AoE taunt / threat drop to also provide a group heal sounds neat. That said, it just isn't available often enough to provide any meaningful benefit.