I neglected to say thank you for the very informative post Torvai. It's great info and the advice is appreciated. I've got my guardian geared and augmented quite well and more or less have the hang of it now. It still doesn't feel as fluid to me as my assassin tank does, since she always has powers available and relies on her lengthy cooldowns less. I still find I have an uncomfortable gap when warding strike, guardian slash, blade storm, riposte and master strike are all on CD simultaneously. I'm using basic attacks as filler (when I don't opt for hilt strike, force push or stasis) and it's a bit smoother. Many thanks again.

Hi all, I had some questions about Guardian tanking whose answers I'm unable to find despite many searches on Google, Dulfy and these forums. I'm going to hit 60 shortly and had some questions about gear, stats and the rotation. - Regarding gear...I've read different threads and opinions about the value of strength/power relative to endurance. One theme seems to be that using Might Armourings and Hilt over Guardian ones is a good option since it benefits DPS (and thereby threat), Blade Barrier and Focused Defence. I also wonder about how good the PvP 2-piece set bonus might be for a PvE tank. I have tons of Ziost/Basic comms so don't mind buying whatever is needed. My idea currently to aim for is: - Might Hilt 186, Hawkeye crystals, PvP Belt/Bracer Armouring 174, Other 5 Might Armourings 190 and tank mods/enhancements. I'll be using PvP 174 Relics, 190 Implants, 192 Earpiece and Shield. - Tying into a question about augments, what final stats are good for HM FPs and beginning SM raids? I can't find an answer to this, just references to KeyboardNinja and stat pools and such. I just wanted to know should a Guardian tank be rocking 20% defence, 25%? 40% shield and absorb? What are the final percentages for def, shield and absorb to aim for? - Regarding augments, should all be used for defensive stats, or is some Might Augments okay? - The rotation: I'm having a bit of trouble getting something fluid together. I can keep an eye on buffs and debuffs and threat, but I have gaps in the rotation where everything is on CD with 2-3 seconds of nothing to do (I've removed the basic two attacks from hotbar...are those necessary?). With many thanks in advance for any advice.

I greatly appreciate all the replies, despite that in general they suggest the idea to be unviable. I'm currently 35 on my Vanguard, finishing off on Balmorra and have invested 7/3/16. I appreciate that the original idea may not be useful for endgame operations, and won't top any DPS charts, but my hope is that at least until that point, I can have fun soloing, Warzones and Flashpoints. I run Plasma Cell, not Ion Cell. The thing is that the only particularly great skills that I can see being missed out on in Assault are assault plastique and rapid recharge, the latter of which I find I don't have to use that often anyway. There are two useful survivability skills up there too but there are some useful skills in Sheild Spec too, that would otherwise be missed out on. Namely: Static Field - Perma damage debuff Overcharged Cell Cap - Dmg boost for Incendiary Round, Plasma Cell, Ion Pulse Rebraced Armour - 16% armour boost (3% DR at lvl 35) Static Shield, Static Surge, Defensive Measures & Riot Gas are all useful skills with boosts to Stock Strike, Explosive Surge and so on. Ion Shield and Shield Cycler (3 points invested) are the only really wasted points, and even they can be useful for example for a backup tank in a Flashpoint, for example. So yes there are some lost crit chance/dmg and circumstantial dmg boosts lost at the top of assault tree but quite a few gains to be had too. I'm managing well in PvP so far and having a lot of fun with it, which I suspect storm will add to greatly. HiB has very high armour penetration and is free almost every 6 seconds, stockstrike is very powerful, slows and DoTs trigger all over the place and in the future, damage debuff, higher crit chance and more mobility. I'll try it out until the higher levels anyway but it's fun and survivable (albeit repetitive) for now.

Hi all, I've not played SWTOR in a little over a year and even then was playing mostly Agent healer or Inquisitor tank. Now I'm playing republic side for a change and am around lvl 17 with my Vanguard. Part of me wishes I'd opted for the assault canon, but I've kinda had a specific idea in mind since a year ago and am now playing with the talent calc. I realise that there have been numerous updates in this time and don't know what has changed. My aim was to have a Hybrid DPS Vanguard for levelling, a little PvP and Flashpoints and hope that it would be competitive in the endgame with hard modes/Ops. This build idea is what I've put together so far. I realise too that no build can be all things. I've seen something similar played and liked the playstyle. The main aim was to be DPS, but with Storm in the build (did they move it on the tree? I could swear it was a lower tier). The main abilities used would be some rotation of Stock Strike, Imcendiary Round, High Impact Bolt, Ion Pulse and Explosive Surge with Plasma Cell active. Most of the talents chosen seem to improve these in terms of damage, crit chance and can proc instant cooldowns, DoTs, energy bonuses and other effects. It obviously has slightly better survivability than straight up DPS but at the cost of at least 3 (or arguably, 5) wasted skill points. I'd love to hear any feedback about this build, particularly any shortcomings or things I've overlooked. Many thanks in advance.

If you're tank spec, take Talos with you for the first few outtings and experiment. I have endgame pve gear and all the dailies are quite straightforward to solo. I'm fairly sure that switching to DPS gear, or swapping Talos for Andronikos/Ashara (whichever you have better geared) should not present that much more challenge but speed things up considerably. Stealth and mind control are obviously the main staple of questing to allow bypassing trash mobs. I don't think it's worthwhile to go into strategies for individual missions, you'll work those out, and fastest routes etc. quite quickly. If you're DPS spec and get geared up to tionese level, I would imagine switching to Dark Charge and using Talos should be enough for all but Lights Out & Poisonous Strategy. Don't forget to use Heroic Moment on the boss fights as well.

Really? Telling it precisely how it is does not help? Ally pulls on the ball carrier in hutball thoroughly dominate beyond the ability of probably anything but a pre-made or an opposing team with more sorcerers. That is not truth, or opinion but plain, easily observable and irrefutable *fact*. Calling it sorcerer-ball is extremely accurate way of describing that WZ right now. And I did suggest an alternative. Let me pick which WZ i enter so I never have to play sorcerer-ball. I would have no problem with never doing that WZ again and letting sorcerers continue as they are, unchanged.

No, there is no issue with the other powers. They all depend on the opposing team, except in the case of jugg/guardian which I also have no issue with as it has a cooldown. At the moment, 2 sorcerers can fling the ball carrier from the centre of the WZ practically to the goal line, bypassing every trap, ramp, obstacle and enemy player. The WZ practically every time boils down to who has the most sorcerers and where they're standing. ***/PT/Vans can only affect enemies, not their own ball carrier. Force speed doesn't bypass ramps/traps in any way. Force leap targets enemies. These are all fun and interesting and mix up the warzone, offering tactical advantages to passing the ball between classes. Sorcerers bypass everything. It is NOT fun. Look how many there are whenever you play next time.

Half way strategic? There is no strategy. It boils down to whichever team has the most sorcerers each and every bloody time without fail. It is not fun, it ruins the experience for other players. It is unbalanced that sorcerer-ball is so thoroughly dominated by a single class. If they won't debuff the ball carrier to disable ally pulls on him, then give players the damn choice of which arena to join so I never have to do hutball again. The only time it's fun, challenging and rewards strategy and teamwork is when there are no sorcerers in the WZ. It all goes out the window when the ball carrier becomes a damned frisbee. Alternatively, give every single class a gap closer/force jump type ability, a knockback, an ally or enemy pull ability or take away sorcerers shields so at least they aren't frikkin invincible.

It's a bloody joke that The Pit is a sorcerer fest. No other class so destroys the game flow and balance. They already have powers that shileds can't block and can't be resisted, knockbacks and the only weakness, light armor is nullified by their arbsorption shield. They're crazy OP enough as it is, without their ally pull ruining hutball. Disable ally pull abilities on the balll carrier. It's not hard to add it as an effect to the debuff the ball carrier has. It's ludicrous how the Pit plays out the same over and again. Tired of the sorcerer dominated PvP already. Can we move on to the new FotM please?

I don't want to give away too much for risk of spoiling the story, but you do get her back. Just not on Corellia. I'm assuming you're a healer to be using your tank pet. As such, use Scorpio as an alternative. You should be able to gear her up relatively easily at the GTN if you have spare credits. If you're really struggling, and I can't imagine you would be because I didn't...either group up with other players, or alternatively just go straight through the story missions and ignore side quests/heroics. It doesn't take more than an hour or two from the point you're at to complete the story on Corellia and begin the endgame. Kaliyo returns on the final furlong. My greatest frustration was a bug that resulted from Kaliyo's disappearing whereby sending the remaining companions out on crew skills was bugged most of the time and wouldn't work normally.

To get KI down to the level of the GCD you would need enough alacrity to get 25% casting speed decrease. I don't think that is remotely close to realistic. The highest I've seen anyone sporting, an Operative in mostly rakata gear, was around ~15%. Or 0.3s off the cast time. Not enough really to justify stacking alacrity when crit, surge and power are all much more useful. In fact, I've ripped out all my lvl 56 alacrity enhancements in exchange for 50/51 crit/surge ones. If alacrity could get as high as 25%, I'd prob consider stacking it, even if it only benefits one power. Matching infusion healing to injection would make it a useful ability. Then the rotation would be injec -> inf when energy is high, and SP when it is low. At the moment, it's so rubbish that it's not even on my action bar because it serves no purpose whatsoever that isn't better served by either injec. or SP. I don't need to read your post again. The word decent isn't even appropriate. You have to compare each classes utility against that of the others. We have a slow, flashbang, debilitate and sleep dart (which isn't of much use in PvP). Operatives have nowhere near the utility of powertechs, juggs or both inquis classes, not even remotely. I'm not saying we're bad class and i'm certainly not envious of other classes (though I would give a lot for a knockback). The balance is fine, but to say we have utility is a joke. Even DPS ops since the nerf, max out enemies resolve bars after a 1.5s knockdown. Pathetic.

I disagree here on both your summary and solution. It is not great healing, it is average at best. The cast time is however short and one power that would genuinely benefit from the otherwise mediocre alacrity stat. Why? Because it doesn't trigger a GCD, so you can actually fire off a follow up power straight after. Regardless, the solution is not to add utility but to simply bring it up to heal as much as Kolto Injection. The point of this ability should be a quicker, cheaper (energy cost) heal in exchange for one TA that could be used for SP. As it is now it fills no role whatsoever. If I want a big heal, KI. If I want to preserve energy, SP. Currently a pointless skill. Utility in PvP, are you joking mate? Op healers have practically no utility in PvP. We have sleep dart (from stealth and only on targets not in combat), a slow and a 4 sec stun. That is it. No knockbacks, knockdowns, pulls, leaps, gap closers, armour penetration or immobilises. When I see an enemy sorcerer inevitably standing still waiting for the ball carrier to approach so he can pull him, I want to weep for the fact there's nothing I can do about him. But then, I'm wasting my talents if I'm worrying about that instead of keeping teammates alive. Utility in PvP, haha, brilliant.

It only works on NPCs, and then not on Elites/Champions.

Where did you find those? Presumably stripped from another item?

Generally speaking, you either play a healer with a DPS/Tank pet or as anything else with a healer pet. If you're DPS spec, you'll be better off just using Lokin. For me as a healer, I prefer Kaliyo/Scorpio to take aggro while I DPS and heal us both. Can solo Old Enemies like this (though it does take a few mins ;-)). If you want to kill things fast, go DPS and use Lokin. Scorpio is a better companion for a healer/heal-hybrid.