Yeah the one ChiQuan put up is what I have been running with for the last 6 weeks or so. Combined with no shield and stalker mods in survivor gear it works well. Deltus Level 50 Shadow Tank The Harbinger

It depends on the style of play you want. Tank or DPS. Either is viable and if you enjoy one more than the other you should probably play that one. From my experience as playing a tank spec (31/0/10) from the beginning, I can say that Shadow tanks are probably one of the stronger specs out there. There is some disagreement on whether to go pure tank or swap some mods to play a tank/dps hybrid (as I did), but regardless, the spec has a high level of utility in all the warzones. Deltus Level 50 Shadow Tank The Harbinger

As a synthweaver, I started making money with it in my mid-30's by selling lower level purples. Before that I was barely sc****** by since I was sinking most of my money into crafting. I was barely able to pay for my rank 1 speeder/training and I didn't train a number of abilities that I didn't use for my advanced class. Now at 50, I probably average about 150k per day selling purples from lvl 9-39. I never tried selling the materials as I always figured I would need them for crafting. Obviously your success will vary based on the particular details of your server (I'm on The Harbinger).

My main is a 50 Shadow tank that took synthweaving from the start. I levelled it up with me and was able to keep myself in the best gear for my level pretty consistently. It was only the occasional drop/reward that was better than what I could make. Now it is a money sink (I could just barely afford rank 1 speeder training) but that started changing around mid-30's as I was able to start selling low level (superior) purples. At 50 I am consistently selling around 100k credits per day of level 9-40 purples. There is a great post in the crew skills forum that describes in detail what you can RE and what versions you get from it. At endgame, unfortunately, synthweaving (and most of the other professions) is not very useful except for equipping lower level toons and making some money. This is something I'm hoping they eventually change. Also, synthweaving is more useful for an inquisitor than a sage because Khem Val also uses force armor and you can keep him (your tank) in the best armor for his level. FYI, there are craftable orange versions of most of the armor sets you can make you just have to find them or but them off the GTN. Deltus Level 50 Shadow Tank

No, I didn't musunderstand it for the 2.5k medal since I get the 2.5k medal several times a day. When I saw it at the end of the match, I was like, wow, how did I get that? Still not sure, but it was there regardless.

I got it for the first time today in a match. Running a standard 31/0/10 tank spec with no special adrenal/buffs and 0 power from gear. Gear is mostly champion level or equivalent.

My shadow (level 50) on the fleet. http://s1165.photobucket.com/albums/q596/luckyknight1/?action=view&current=swtor2012-01-2710-07-02-18.jpg

The major problem with synthweaving (along with most of the other professions) is no viability at endgame. This needs to be fixed/improved. However, for leveling up it's fine. As a shadow tank I consistently had blue armor that was better than the overwhelming majority of armor I could get in other ways. Once I hit around 35-40 I was also able to start crafting and selling purples to the point that I am currently making a nice income from this. So did I sink 6 figures into it on the way up and in getting purples, sure, but I now have ~40 lvl 9-39 purples for sale that bring in a one to two hundred thousand credits every 2 days.