One of Star Wars: The Old Republic‘s best aspects is the extent to which players can customize their characters. Among these avenues of customization, advanced classes and character builds are some with quite a bit of depth to them. It’s fun to experiment with which builds and specializations, however for (new players especially) it can be equally difficult to know where to start. We’ve crafted this guide to give a list of some of the best builds for Sith Juggernaut players.
Those who walk the path of this lightsaber-wielding Dark Side force user won’t be left high and dry today. Here, we’ll explore a top quality build for each of the Juggernaut’s 3 specializations. Each specialization has their own roles and abilities, so pick whichever sounds most appealing to you! In recent updates, the developers have made experimentation far easier. You can now change your combat style anytime (provided you’re in a rest area), so no need to stress over which style to choose!
Vengeance Juggernaut
Role
DPS, Damage over Time – DPS is the simplest role to explain, as well as the easiest to learn and play. Damage over Time (DoT) is just what it says on the tin. You won’t be doing a ton of damage per strike, rather you’ll be focusing on keeping a sustained stream of damage that gradually adds up.
Main Abilities
Icon | Ability |
---|---|
Shatter – This is your primary DoT ability. When you activate it, it deals a respectable amount of damage, followed by an extremely damaging DoT lasting 12 seconds. | |
Force Scream – Your secondary DoT. Vengeance’s force scream applies a respectable amount of damage. It’s the midway point between your three DoTs. Its sustained damage is stronger than Skewering Strike but its upfront is weaker. As a vengeance, the more DoTs you have in your wheelhouse, the better. | |
Skewering Strike – Your third and final primary DoT. This one puts a lot more focus on upfront damage than the other two. Its sustain is both short and weak, meaning this ability isn’t great on its own and really only comes into use when synergizing with your other abilities. That said, sustain DPS users tend not to have a lot of strong upfront damage options. This, combined with getting just a bit more cover for your DoTs, makes Skewering Strike a pretty important piece of your rotation. | |
Sundering Assault – Sundering Assault is your primary Rage builder. You’ll want to start off pretty much all encounters with it. It quickly builds up a lot of Rage, but can only be used when you have less than half of your stock remaining. Therefore, this is good both as an opener and to use whenever your Rage starts dipping down. Always use this on cooldown when your rage gets low. | |
Ravage – This will be your primary filler. Fillers are a basic concept. They just fill in the gaps to make sure you’re constantly dealing damage. | |
Vengeful Slam – By far your best AoE option. In addition to the Aoe, it also spreads your sustains around to nearby enemies, which is great for when you get surrounded. | |
Bloodrage – This ability detonates your DoTs, making them deal a massive amount of damage in exchange for resetting them. It’s the final piece that makes Vengeance a truly great sustain DPS class at the highest levels of play. It also gives you 6 Rage, which is nice. Sprinkle this into your rotation whenever you need a damage boost, but only when all 3 of your DoTs are active at once. In crowds, use Vengeful Slam before this to affect as many enemies as possible. |
Additional Abilities to Consider
Icon | Ability |
---|---|
Endure Pain, Saber Ward, and Enraged Defense – Your main defensive abilities. Endure Pain gives you +30% health and +12% damage reduction for 20 seconds, then makes you lose them when the effect wears off. This is very useful for near-death situations or to take high-damage attacks from enemies. Additionally, it can be used for situations in which your Healer needs just a bit extra time before healing you. Saber Ward, upon activation, gives you +50% defense for a bit. Defense is your chance to avoid an attack. This means that when using Saber Ward, (on average) you’ll only take half damage for a while. Very good for situations in which the enemy is dishing out a lot of attacks, or for conserving your health. Enraged Defense gives you 12 stacks of an effect by the same name. This effect is depleted by 1 each time you take a hit and allows you to absorb a bit of health when you take damage. It can only be used when under 70% of your max health. | |
Hew – Deals comparable damage to Skewering Strike’s upfront hit. However, its full usefulness is held back by the fact that it has a much longer cooldown time. It’s still a great ability, and you should use it when you can, but you won’t be using it that often. | |
Saber Throw – This ability does a pretty good amount of damage and generated 3 Rage. Pretty simple, just a good filler ability. | |
Force Charge – Force Charge is a good general opener. You should use this ability to begin fights almost always. It deals poor damage, but it closes gaps quickly and generates 3 rage, allowing you to get the jump on your enemies and start building Threat faster than your allies. |
Rotation
Rotation | Icon | Ability |
---|---|---|
1 | Beginning the encounter, use Force Charge followed by Sundering Assault to close the gap and immediately start building Rage. If you have a melee Tank on your team, make sure they activate their Charge(s) first so you don’t attract as much enemy attention. | |
2 | Activate your DoTs in this order: Shatter -> Force Scream -> Skewering Strike. These should always be active, use them in this order whenever you can. | |
3 | Use Vengeful Slam and Ravage for fillers. | |
4 | Use Sundering Assault if you need Rage, Hew if the ability is highlighted in gold, Retaliation if it’s available, Saber Throw if it’s available, or Slash if you have no other option (this should rarely ever happen). | |
5 | Use Bloodrage, Saber Ward, and Enraged Defense as needed |
Repeat this process as needed
There’s a lot of room for experimentation here, this simple rotation is more intended to be a starting point.
Ability Tree Choices
Level | Icon | Choice |
---|---|---|
23 | Major Fracture for solo encounters and Shatter Burst for group encounters. | |
27 | Projected Scream – Gives Vengeance some better AoE coverage on a move they utilize to great effect in their rotation. | |
39 | Bleeding Offense – Massively boosts DoT damage. Always nice for a sustain user. | |
43 | Bloodbound – Huge boost to your DPS potential, Vengeance Juggernauts hit criticals almost constantly. | |
51 | Warmonger for solo encounters and Extending Roar for group encounters | |
64 | Hardened Defense – Always nice to have more defensive capabilities as a DPS. | |
68 | Saber Reflect – Again, more defense as DPS is good. Additionally, Saber Reflect is among Juggernaut’s best defensive abilities. | |
73 | Crushing Fist – Allows you to really bring the hurt when it comes to AoE. |
Gear Suggestions
Upon reaching level 80, focus on acquiring as much Gold tier gear at the highest Item Rating possible (currently this number is 336). After all of your ear has reached this level, here are some tips on how to optimize your gear loadouts:
- The best Legendary Implants for a Vengeance Juggernaut are Fearless Victor and Champion’s Precision.
- The best tactical item for a Vengeance Juggernaut is Hemophilic Slash.
Rage Juggernaut
Role
Burst DPS – Burst DPS characters focus on dealing as much damage with each hit as possible. Rage is a great DPS option, but places a lot more focus on single target damage than Vengeance. The difference between the two is both in their flavor of DPS and their abilities for crowd control versus single target damage. Additionally, Rage offers much less room for experimentation than any other Juggernaut discipline.
Main Abilities
Icon | Ability |
---|---|
Force Crush – This ability is best used as a synergy with Raging Burst. It deals delayed damage and makes Raging Burst deal more damage. | |
Raging Burst and Smash – (The only difference between these attacks is that Smash is an AoE attack while Raging Burst is single target). These abilities deal a good amount of damage, but their importance comes from the fact that, when upgraded, they buff all damage you deal for a short time. This sets you up for absolutely devastating combos. | |
Obliterate – Arguably simultaneously Rage Juggernaut’s greatest strength and weakness. It’s a gap closer, similar to Force Charge, which locks you in place for a few seconds. This leaves you very open, however it also guarantees that the next Raging Burst or Smash you activate will crit. Combined with the amount of damage this ability causes on activation, it is absurd the amount of DPS it generates. One of the game’s most risk/reward abilities. | |
Enrage – The Rage Juggernaut’s unique ability, and arguably their most important. It lasts 6 seconds and on activation, it gives you 6 Rage (and grants you 1 more per second), increases damage on your next Smash or Raging Burst, grants +50% movement speed, and can be upgraded to give even more buffs. This single ability is a very versatile tool and can get pretty crazy when worked into a rotation. | |
Furious Strike – This ability deals more damage than any other in the Rage’s wheelhouse. It’s best used to combo alongside Raging Burst and Enrage. |
Additional Abilities to Consider
Icon | Ability |
---|---|
Endure Pain, Saber Ward, and Enraged Defense – Your primary defensive abilities Endure Pain gives you +30% max health and gives you extra temporary health equal to 30% of this boosted max HP, then makes you lose them when the effect wears off. This is very useful for near-death situations or to take high-damage attacks from enemies. Additionally, it can be used for situations in which your Healer needs just a bit extra time before healing you. Saber Ward, upon activation, gives you +50% defense for a bit. Defense is your chance to avoid an attack. This means that when using Saber Ward, (on average) you’ll only take half damage for a while. Very good for situations in which the enemy is dishing out a lot of attacks, or for conserving your health. Enraged Defense gives you 12 stacks of an effect by the same name. This effect is depleted by 1 each time you take a hit and allows you to absorb a bit of health when you take damage. It can only be used when under 70% of your max health. | |
Force Charge – Force Charge is a good general opener. You should use this ability to begin fights almost always. It deals poor damage, but it closes gaps quickly and generates 3 rage, allowing you to get the jump on your enemies and start building Threat faster than your allies. |
Rotation
The Rage rotation leaves little to no room for experimentation. Unlike the other disciplines, you need to memorize this rotation thoroughly. Making mistakes with the order will quickly leave you high and dry on resources. If this happens, you can use Assault (the Warrior’s standard attack) to build some rage. However, try your best not to let things come to that.
Rotation | Icon | Ability |
---|---|---|
1 | Beginning the encounter, use Force Charge to close the gap and immediately start building Rage. If you have a melee Tank on your team, make sure they activate their Charge(s) first so you don’t attract as much enemy attention. | |
2 | Start with Force Crush | |
3 | Activate Raging Burst, then quickly use Enrage as soon as its cooldown ends. | |
4 | Use Furious Strike 3 times | |
5 | Use Obliterate | |
6 | Follow with Sundering Assault | |
7 | Pop another Raging Burst | |
8 | Combo with Furious Strike | |
9 | Hit another Obliterate | |
10 | Force Scream to set up Retaliation, then use Retaliation |
Repeat this process as needed
As long as you can memorize this pattern and practice enough to get the rhythm down, you should be golden.
Ability Tree Choices
Level | Icon | Choice |
---|---|---|
23 | Dark Synergy – Provides a nice combo between Raging Burst and Furious Strike which is used as the basis for the given rotation, as well as just being a nice combat synergy. | |
27 | Sweeping Slash – Sith Warrior’s standard AoE attack. Always a reliable pick. | |
39 | Seething Defense – Gaining defensive buffs from offensive skills is really nice for a DPS class. | |
43 | Indignant Rumination – Allows you to use some of your best attacks essentially for free for a short while. Opens up Rage’s best combo opportunity. | |
51 | Warmonger for solo encounters and Extending Roar for group encounters | |
64 | Hardened Defense – Always nice to have more defensive capabilities as a DPS. | |
68 | Saber Reflect – Again, more defense as DPS is good. Additionally, Saber Reflect is among Juggernaut’s best defensive abilities. | |
73 | Crushing Fist – Allows you to really bring the hurt when it comes to AoE. |
Gear Suggestions
Upon reaching level 80, focus on acquiring as much Gold tier gear at the highest Item Rating possible (currently this number is 336). After all of your gear has reached this level, here are some tips on how to optimize your gear loadouts:
- The best tactical items for a Rage Juggernaut are Cauterized Coronary or Enraged Crush (Enraged Crush deals more AoE damage)
- The best Legendary Implants for a Rage Juggernaut are Fearless Victor and Champion’s Precision
Join the High Ground
That’s going wrap it up for our guide on the Best Sith Juggernaut builds in Star Wars: The Old Republic. We hope this article has prepared you to be the strongest, deadliest instrument of the Sith Empire’s might.
Special thanks to SWTORISTA’s vengeance and rage guide and Vulkk’s immortal guide for help with ability tree and rotation choices.
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Happy gaming, and may the Force be with you!
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