I'm curious as to what point I could start tanking hardmodes as a shadow? I've mostly had to gear up through pvp, seeing as I have yet to find a group for any non-HM flashpoints at 50, so I really don't have any idea as to how well I'd even be able to handle the non-HM's Currently I have 15.9k HP, 38.11%DR, 27.7% Defense, 34.76% shield(without barrier) and 30.20% absorption

I found a nice orange hooded robe in esseles and I've just stuck with that.

I'm only level 31 and I haven't run too many flashpoints, so take this advice with a few grains of salt. From what I understand, willpower is purely a threat stat for us, so if you have trouble holding aggro, get more willpower, if not, then stack endurance. But you also need armor, defense, shield, and absorption rating as well. My instincts tell me that the non-endurance survivability stat priority should be Defense>Shield>absorption, but without hard numbers or formulas to see how those stats scale, you can't really tell for sure.

I managed to pull it off on my second try as a level 30 tank with theran healing. Stun her once before blowing channel the force, interrupt her spells, make sure you keep kinetic barrier up, use your defensive cooldown and medpac early, in case they come off of cooldown later in the fight. Also you can use holiday to interrupt her spells. Use relics if you have them as well.

So, there really isn't a way to effectively play a vangaurd at long range? Everything about the commando playstyle sounds like what I'm looking for, but I REALLY don't like those miniguns >.<

I've begun thinking about rolling a second toon now, and I was wondering if someone could give me some sort of 'cliffs notes' summary of how dps vanguards and commandos differ in play style.