The upcoming ‘Onslaught’ Expansion will introduce a lot of changes for each Class, including new abilities, Set Bonuses, and Tactical items. To help explain everything, we’re releasing a series of articles featuring each Advanced Class’s new ability, as well as new Set Bonuses and Tactical items. We will also describe various combat scenarios to show how these changes will mesh together, just like in our previous article covering Marauders and Sentinels. In today’s article we’re showcasing the Juggernaut and Guardian Advanced Classes!

Juggernaut





Let’s take a look at the new ability for Juggernauts!

Furious Power - Converts all Furious Power ability charges into stacks to buff your next attack by 25%. Each attack consumes one stack. Furious Power has 4 ability charges and regenerates 1 charge every 30 seconds.

Alongside a new ability, Juggernauts will receive a bevy of Set Bonuses and Tactical items. Set Bonuses are extra effects players can get for equipping a certain armor set. For instance, wearing two, four, or six pieces of a set will grant players progressively more powerful boosts. These can be in the form of increased ability potency or an added effect.

Tacticals are slightly different from Set Bonuses. While Tacticals also change how some abilities function, they come in the form of a new gear type. They don’t have actual stats on them like Power, Mastery, or Critical Rating; instead, they augment how an ability will function. Let’s look at some examples of how a Set Bonus and Tactical combination can alter the gameplay of the three Juggernaut Disciplines: Immortal, Vengeance, and Rage.





Immortal

“As the toughest of the Warriors, the Immortal Juggernaut can withstand even the most brutal assaults. Using the Force to turn nearly invincible for short bursts of time and to deliver crushing blows to the enemy, this Juggernaut is capable of taking a beating and giving one, too.”

The more enemies a tank can manage at once, the faster they can get through a Flashpoint. The balancing act is about getting right up to the line of “too much to handle”: get too ambitious and pull too much, the group may wipe, turning time saved into time lost. To help push that threshold, our Immortal Juggernaut has chosen a Set Bonus and tactical combination that increases their survivability the more enemies they fight.





Set Bonus: " Lord of Pain "

(2 Piece Bonus) +2% Armor

(4 Piece Bonus) Threatening Scream's cooldown is reduced by 5 seconds.

(6 Piece Bonus) Threatening Scream increases your damage reduction by 5% for each enemy you hit. This effect lasts 10 seconds.

Tactical: " Leviathan’s Hide "

Crushing Blow generates stacks of Crushing Defense for every enemy it hits, increasing your damage reduction by 2.5% per stack for 10 seconds.









Ready to lead their group through the Flashpoint, our Immortal Juggernaut starts pulling enemy packs left and right--sometimes multiple packs at once. In order to build enough threat on all eight of the enemies and ensure the damage classes are free to go wild, our Juggernaut uses Threatening Scream. Not only does this taunt every enemy nearby, but thanks to the “Lord of Pain” Set Bonus, our Juggernaut gains a 5% damage reduction per enemy hit. That’s a 40% reduction in total!

To make sure this ambitious plan doesn’t backfire, our Juggernaut uses Aegis Assault, which grants a 3% damage reduction and enables Crushing Blow to hit up to seven additional enemies. This is where the “Leviathan’s Hide” Tactical comes in handy: instead of dealing the usual damage, Crushing Blow will now generate a Crushing Defense stackable buff that increases damage reduction by 2.5% for every enemy it hits. With the 20% generated from Crushing Blow, combined with the 40% generated from Threatening Scream, and the final 3% from Aegis Assault; this brings our Juggernaut’s damage reduction grand total to 63%! Our Juggernaut can pull enemies to their heart's content without feeling overrun.





Vengeance

“When embracing the dark side of the Force, vengeance can be a powerful ally. With sustained and ruthless lightsaber thrusts delivered in the lithe Shien Form, the Vengeance Juggernaut increases damage without sacrificing defense - an ideal combination of tenacity and viciousness.”

PvP matches often result in a player facing down an enemy in a one-on-one battle. Every advantage is necessary to be the last one standing, and our clever Vengeance Juggernaut has found a Set Bonus and Tactical combination that will tip the scales in their favor.





Set Bonus: " Flawless Riposte "

(2 Piece Bonus) +2% Mastery

(4 Piece Bonus) Retaliation has no cooldown.

(6 Piece Bonus) Taking damage during Endure Pain grants Retaliator stacks, increasing the damage of your next Retaliation by 10% per stack.

Tactical: " A Vicious Cycle "

Hew triggers a Retaliation that deals 30% more damage.









Our Vengeance Juggernaut is facing off against an enemy, and both players are the last of their teams. As the fight continues, both players are pretty low on health--right around 30%--a perfect setting for our Vengeance Juggernaut to shine. To play it safe, our Juggernaut uses Endure Pain to take advantage of the “Flawless Riposte” Set Bonus. Endure Pain increases their maximum health by 30% for a brief amount of time, but their Set Bonus adds an offensive twist. Each time our Juggernaut takes damage while under the effect of Endure Pain, they gain a Retaliator stack, which increases the damage of their next Retaliation by 10% per stack! A perfect setup for capitalizing on the “A Vicious Cycle” Tactical.

Typically, Retaliation is usable after successfully defending against a melee or ranged attack, or after one of your melee attacks are parried, dodged, or misses, but “A Vicious Cycle” changes that! Since the enemy is below 30% health, our Juggernaut uses Hew, which activates Retaliation additional damage boost! Combining Hew with the stacking capabilities of the Set Bonus gives our Juggernaut the necessary edge over their opponent.





Rage

“Fueled by extreme rage, a Sith Warrior can reach new heights of destructive power. Furiously striking at one or more foes with bursts of hate and anger, the Rage Juggernaut forges ahead, the dark side of the Force providing ever more opportunities to crush and obliterate the enemy.”

There is a wide variety of combinations for Set Bonuses and Tacticals; some augment the rotations of abilities, while others offer more passive benefits. This raises a question for our Rage Juggernaut: is it possible to forge a combination that offers both a passive and active change to their abilities? Let's find out!





Set Bonus: " Fearless Descent "

(2 Piece Bonus) +2% Critical Rating

(4 Piece Bonus) Whenever you gain or use a Furious Power ability charge while in combat, your damage is increased by 10% for 10 seconds.

(6 Piece Bonus) Dealing damage has a 10% chance to build a Furious Power charge. Can only occur once every 10 seconds.

Tactical: " Joiner’s Pressure "

Activating Force Push on a target affected by Force Crush grants Joiner's Pressure, increasing your damage dealt by 20% for 10 seconds.









Our Rage Juggernaut and their Veteran Mode Flashpoint group is made up entirely of damage dealers. Their goal is to burn through the Flashpoint as quickly as possible, and they’ve already encountered a boss! Our Juggernaut uses their new ability, Furious Power; not only do they gain a damage increase to the next four single-target melee attacks, but the “Fearless Descent” Set Bonus also grants a secondary damage boost! This Set Bonus’s perk will passively occur throughout the rest of the encounter, providing our Juggernaut with a damage increase across the board.

Capitalizing on their damage potency, our Juggernaut combos into Force Crush and Force Push. While most Rage Juggernauts would use Force Crush against a boss, Force Push isn’t an ability typically used in this situation. But using Force Push now triggers the “Joiner’s Pressure” Tactical, giving our Juggernaut an additional 20% damage boost! Our Juggernaut is now poised to do a drastic amount of increased damage, making short work of the boss.



