They aren't using a shield. They're using a power generator. They're trading a lot of armor to do that damage vs an actual tank (I play a vengeance Juggernaut, the difference in protection from my armor between non-tank stance, where I can do great damage, and tank stance is 20%) Their defenses are arguably weaker than other a few other DPS classes - 30% health on a minute cool down and saber ward on a three minute cool down. I agree though that non-taunted DPS is a bit too high across the board.

It's not true mitigation. It's a damage split. It's 5% mitigation / split the remainder between two people. Both players take 47.5% of the damage after factoring in the guarded targets relevant mitigation stats. 50% mitigation would be awesome, though. It might be a matter of definition that I'm tripping people up on. For me, mitigation means damage prevented. When you guard a target, you're only preventing 5% of the damage. 95% of the damage is still done, just split between two people. http://www.torhead.com/ability/fkDOyAL/guard

You had time to almost cast something?

Damage is too high at the moment across the board. Hopefully the surge nerf will fix some of it. Also, mitigation stats aren't really preventing damage in the way most people think they would. A lot of attacks out right ignore them.

Like I pointed out, there's nothing to stop a DPS juggernaut (in my example) from switching to the tanking stance and throwing guard on someone when needed. They'd still be more valuable to the team due to the damage they'd still be able to deal. Also, the mitigation is 5%. I thank everyone for their replies, and my question has been answered. There isn't a reason to go down a tanking tree over the DPS tree in PVP until tank mitigation in PVP is adjusted, taunts/guard are more effective for tanks, or any combination of other solutions. Until then it's better to go DPS spec, keep your defensive stance hotkeyed, and be prepared to use guard in situations that warrant it.

But that's the thing, as a DPS spec it seems I can have my cake and eat it to. The talents in vengeance provide for better mitigating (20% damage reduction after every force charge/intercept). You can still taunt at the same efficiency as a tank. Thus, you're reducing more damage than a tank from what I've been able to gather. In addition to all of this, you're still a DPS and able to put out great numbers. As a tank, you gain less mitigation in PVP. Yes, you can guard, but again that is not mitigation outside the 5%. If I charge in as Vengeance and taunt, and then someone hits my buddy for 1000, that'd be 700 after the taunt. If I charge in as Immortal while having my friend guarded and taunt someone that is about to hit for 1000, that's 700(0.95) to each of us, which is 332.5 each. Still 665 damage done. Now if I charge in on my vengeance spec and taunt just before someone AoE's my friend: 1000 * (1 - 0.3) = 700 to my buddy 1000 * (1 - 0.3) = 700 (1 - 0.2) = 560 to me. ---- Tol = 1260 For immortal: 1000 (1 - 0.3) = 700 (1 - 0.05) = 665/2 = 332.5 to my buddy 1000 (1 - 0.3) = 700 + 332.5 = 1032.5 to me ---- Tol = 1365 With only a 20 second cool down on charge/intercept, seems like that it'd mitigate a lot. Add in the +8% heal from 4 piece bonus on DPS gear and it just seems like there isn't a point to being a tank spec in PVP. Also, what's to stop a vengeance juggernaut from using soresu form? I'd bet they'd still deal more damage than the Immortal spec, and they'd be able to guard.

Oh, I know. I just don't feel like the amount I can mitigate warrants the damage I'm giving up though. You don't actually prevent any more damage than you could as a DPS (since taunt is the only thing that actually reduces damage, guard just moves it around outside of the 5% damage reduction) That's what's getting to me though. Guard isn't actually mitigation. It's just splitting damage between two targets. They have no effect on it. They did in Warhammer which used a similar system, but don't here. In fact, your defensive stats don't even reduce damage on you it seems.. http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=258502 Regardless, thank you everyone for the replies. I really wanted to tank but I'm just not sold on it in PVP. I'd rather do 300k damage and protect 50k than do 75k damage/75k protection while dieing faster.

Simple melee attack. If I recall correctly it was sundering strike from a rage specced juggernaut.

Wow, really that much? I've seen people with 19k HP, but not 22k. (This sounds snarky but it isn't meant to, I don't think I've seen a well geared tank in PVP.) I don't really feel like I do decent damage as a tank. I crit hardly never, my best attack barely cracks 1200. Meanwhile I see DPS criting for 3-4k regularly. Is it the Juggernaut class? I think my gear is pretty decent - not full PVP, but mostly all purples that are level 49+. Due to my experiences, I'd rather be on the team with the 3 DPS and 1 healer.. But again, it's very possible I'm missing something. Taunt doesn't seem to last long at all (both at 6 seconds with much longer cool downs) to make up the difference. Guard doesn't mitigate the damage, just splits it.

I had considered that, but again, being a juggernaut, I can see other specs doing better than me at that. Wouldn't it be better to have a vengeance specced jugg running the ball for the 20% damage decrease after force charge/intercept, in addition to the +% heal from 4 piece? Even if not, would more than one tank be needed? It'd be the only archetype where only one is needed, and after that is pointless (outside of passes) And, again, that's only one warzone.

Guard is the major thing separating tanks from DPS. DPS can still use taunt, but can not use guard while in their DPS 'stance.' I've tested out guard with a couple of friends. A hit that was dealing about 750-850 damage on him was dealing about half (Slightly less, 5% damage reduction on guard) that to both he and I, with no less damage taken by me. Being a jugg, the only cool down I gain over a DPS spec is invincible. 40% less damage taken. Hope that helps.

Since you can still taunt in PVP as a DPS, and guard doesn't really reduce damage - just splits it, bypassing your mitigation stats? What makes up for the massive damage disparity? Speaking as a juggernaut, I really only gain 1 cool down for going tank spec over DPS. In addition, a stun and a non-channeled choke which almost both fill the resolve bar. I'm sure I'm missing something.

Personally I don't feel like there's a point to being a tank in PVP. I've played a Juggernaut as all three specs. DPS can taunt at the same effectiveness as you. Guard is just an invitation to die faster (You take the same damage as the person you guarded, at their mitigation, effectively rendering your mitigation pointless) As an immortal juggernaut, you gain only one extra tanking cool down (40% damage reduction on a long timer) You gain a 4 second stun and don't have the channel force choke. However, both nearly fill up the resolve bar. You deal about 1/5 the damage of the other two specs. (Personally) I felt more survivable as Vengeance due to the reduced damage and healing when charging/intercepting if you want to play a tank in PVP, i recommend just playing as one of the tanking classes but as a DPS spec.

It seems like being a tank in a WZ basically makes you a waste of space. Sure, having one tank can help, but anymore than that and you'd be better off stacking another healer or DPS. To avoid confusion, I'm talking about tank specs - not classes that can also be tanks while running a DPS spec. Tanks deal much, much less damage in PVP environments than DPS. A penalty is acceptable, but I feel like I'm dealing 1/4 the damage on the same character just by switching from a tanking spec to a DPS spec, while still using tanking gear. Being a tank in PVP doesn't make you all that much more survivable than a DPS, and for sure less survivable than a healer. The tanking mechanics can mostly be used by DPS characters and aren't tank specific (Taunt.) Guard isn't that useful unless you you just like dieing really fast. For example, if a juggernaut with rage spec hits me and a buddy with a smash crit for lets say 5k unmitigated, I'm going to take half of the damage my friend takes after his mitigation, and then my amount as well. The damage I take from guarding him isn't checked against any of my tanking stats.

That's extremely disappointing. Honestly, probably one of the biggest gut punches I've read from a developer. I appreciate the time you took to type of the response, I just don't appreciate the content of it. It's perfectly acceptable for there to be bugs, features not fully implemented or simply missing, etc. Those are things common with any game of this scale. When something like higher graphics quality is there, but it's disabled due to not functioning well on lower end PCs, that's just something I can't continue to support.

Your video card, or lack thereof, is actually the problem here. What you're using appears to be either on-board video (from your motherboard) which is off-loaded onto your CPU. A dedicated graphics card would greatly improve your performance.