Tanks already are wearing the same gear stats with no variation because there is no variation. Essentially KeyboardNinja posts his ideal stat distribution and nearly everyone follows it cause he is a comp programmer and knows how mmo mechanics work and how to get the most mitigation out of your stat budget. Might as well make it easier by removing fluff stats from the gear.

All we need is shield/absorb to be merged into one stat and I am happy.

Since DPS are having crit/surge merged into one stat, how about merging shield/absorb for tanks. The reason I would like this idea is because shield/absorb are useless on there own, they need there coefficient stat to be of any use. All the absorb in the world is useless if you have poor shield and vice versa. It would also make gearing a tank much easier come 4.0. I know some people won't like the idea of every tank having the exact same stats on their gear, yet that is exactly how the game is now anyways. Thoughts?

Anyone else interested in having Kylo Renn's lightsaber in a future cartel pack? Post below. If you don't know who Kylo Renn is, he is the new big bad in Episode 7 with the crossguarded lightsaber.

Didn't saber throw used to have the "deals high threat" attribute on it before 2.0? I could swear it was one of the higher threat abilities. As a tank juggernaught I am tired of how much harder it is for me to not just keep aggro in a pve environment, but having ZERO ranged threat abilites just sucks. The worst thing that can happen to a jugger tank is that u get punted back by mobbs (those 30m punts are pathetic they really are as they often contain a slow as well) and u might as well forget it. The only way juggers can aoe tank in swtor is aoe taunt + sabre reflect. We have no other ranged threat abilites period. This needs to change we need some more mid - long range abilities or failing that cc immunity after we leap (unshakeable from vengeance tree would work nice here). The old 50 hm fps are a perfect example of Leap in *BOOM* immediatly knocked back/stunned/slowed/rooted. Both saber throw and force charge need to lose there distance requirement its just completly unneccesary.

What if concealment operatives had a proc in there tree to reset the cd on hidden strike and make it useable outside of stealth? It would prob be something like shiv, lacerate and bacstab had a 10-25% chance to add this proc. I have recently jumped back into my concealment operative and there dps is okay, but nowhere near as epic as it used to be. I am also seeing parsers of around 2-400 pts lower dps for concealment vs lethality.

Yeah this guy was just a dooche. He has, what I like to call, LWS or Little Willy Syndrome. Give a dude with a small Willy a little bit of power, and it goes to his head.

And I shudder to think that your mentality of "switch to soresu and equip a shield generator in dps spec so u take less damage" will do if anyone is STUPID enough to take your advice. Your previous statements where so fkn stupid they FLOORED me. Do us a favour mate, uninstall the game, quit your sub and ****. I have NEVER heard such a load of hogwash in nearly 10years of MMO play.

^Is this guy for real? The stupidity of your comment has just FLOORED me. Concealment is NOT a melee spec? This is like saying Advanced Prototype Powertechs are "not melee". All the operatives hard hitting abilities are up close. I suppose you are one of "those" operatives that sits in cover and spams snipe then i take it?

It may have to do with the fact that tanking on a juggernaught/guardian early on is an absolute PAIN IN THE *** due to our lack of aoe threat generating abilities apart from smash for nearly 30+ lvls. There single target threat is aweful untill u get backhand. The long cd's on our taunts dont help matters much either (especially the aoe taunt). I have leveled all three tanks to 55 in tank spec and can say that juggers are the hardest tanks to tank on, though they are much better now then they where at launch. My second toon was a jugger tank (pre 1.4 patch where the 200% threat boost was added) and it was not an enjoyable experience. Once i got sweeping slash life got better, but it was still relatively easy for dps to pull add packs off me especially when the idiots open with aoe abilities like Death From Above/Death Field/Orbital Strike etc.

Well aren't you special?

This! The look of MOST of the gear in this game is appalling, personally reckon BiowEAr need to fire their art team and start fresh. Anyone who doesn't believe me, just look at the sorcerer endgame pve/pvp armor! Disgusting..... and the Warrior gear is not much better. BiowEAr then has the gall to finally put some DECENT looking gear in the game but we have to now PAY for it. We have to PAY to look slightly decent in an mmo? Not cool . Apart from that I love the game =P

Nearly all the enhancements in the new 78 tanking gear are useless too. Waaaay to endurance heavy, and bugger all absorption. NONE of them have defense, yet plenty of alacrity and accuracy *sigh*. You will be better with the 72 crafted enhancements if u can afford to buy them off the gtn or hopefully get lucky with a "free with mats" crafter.

This, so much this. What allot of people do not understand however is that 10points into ANY main stat (Str, will, cunning, aim) will increase your base damage by 1 point. So if u pick up all +40 main stat datacrons its like another 10-20 damage or something. In a nutshell? Not worth the effort, unless u want the codex entries i suppose.

Having played all three tanks through endgame content i can give u a bit of advice: 1. Powertechs/Vanguards are probably the most simple of the three tanks when it comes from playstyle/rotation and gearing. They have the highest base mitigations compared to the other 2 tanks with very solid absorption via heat screen, which is pretty much a constant buff. Also have high shield and decent defence via traiting and set bonus . Plus they are a ranged/melee hybrid perfectly able of keeping threat at any range. They also have an aoe sludge puddle (thats what i like to call it anyhow) that is a 30% accuracy and 70% movement speed debuff, nothing super major but you will be surprised how usefull it is to keep mob packs under controll. 2. Assassins/Shadows are definatly the worst in terms of mitigations due to there low armor rating and there overreliance on shield/absorb. While they have self heals and a few cds there the only tanks i have played that can drop dead before u realise *** is hapening, especially in NIM content. An assasins armor rating is a solid 10-12% lower than an equivalently geared pt/juggernaught. However they do have a stealth cc, outstanding aoe threat gen and hands down the best dps of all the tanks, as well as a combat drop/stealth to res downded party members when they are the offtank in a raid to allow the heals to keep those alive, well, alive. 3, Juggernaughts/Guardians are hands down the most resilient of the 3 tanks due to there defensive cds. While a powertech will have better base mitigations, Juggernaughts are more able to adjust on the fly to a situation as they will always have a defensive cd to pop when something happens in a raid. There only weakness is there opening threat is lower than the other 2 tanks and there aoe threat can feel absolutely pathetic at times, also they need to be in melee range to deal threat so if u have a dps/healer on your team that is stupidly fond of there aoe knockbacks u will be tearing your hair out when stuff gets knocked out of your melee range, and you promtly loose aggro. When it comes to the leveling experience i had the easiest time with my shadow followed by my powertech. However you will feel completly useless as a juggernaught tank early on when running fps/heroics as there threat gen is a serious issue untill the 30's as apart from sweep, you have no other aoe, which has a solid cd. You are a single target tank only till the late 30's. In terms of dps shadows reign supreme followed by juggernaughts then powertechs. I had the feeling of **** is it DEAD yet on my pt, took a while for stuff to die. May just be my playstyle though. Now onto the resources of the three tanks. 1. Powertechs/Vanguards use heat/ammo. This mechanic is a pain in the butt to get a handle of, and when the sh*t hits the fan in an ops/fp you can feel the restrictions of this resource pool especially when trying to keep aoe threat. 2.Assassins/Shadows use force which is simple to manage as it refills at a consistant rate and is allmost impossible to run out of, plus u get extra regen bonus in your traits. 3. Juggernaughts/Guardians use rage/focus. This is by far the simplest resource to build as simply being attacked in soresu form generates the resource, as well as multiple abilities that also deal solid threat. Can be a pain if your not being attacked but is easilly built up. Juggernaughts folow the mentality of build and burn with there resource whereas the other 2 tanks follow the use and conserve mentality, constantly keeping an eye on the lvl of your resource so that it doesnt get too low as the lower it is the slower it regens (technically its Higher for heat, as more heat = less heat dissipation - its complicated =P) Juggernaughts have no such problems. I hope I have been able to help you out with a choice. Also if u need any help with gearing there is an excellent post by keyboardninja on the tanking forums with numbers regarding def/shield/absorb for each of the three tanks.

Annihilation is useless in warzones, has almost zero burst. Plus you don't start doing the big numbers till u have the 4 stacks of annihilate and juyo which wear off quite quick, even the self heals are *meh*. Its a pve spec and shines when your out in the game world killing elites and strongs not trying to kill players in a warzone who can usually either cleanse the dots or simply survive them.

Yes. SWTOR has been this way since launch. The experienced and hardcore players blasted through content in the first few months, got bored, and then quit. This can be said of virtually every mmo, the more casual players sustain the game via subs, with the more elite players coming back with content updates etc. If you aren't having fun and are bored with the game op, take a break and play another mmo. Come back around when updates etc come around (as slow as they are, hell we had to wait nearly 2 years for ROTHC). Its my experience that ALL mmo's become boring at endgame, once the gear/rep/title/etc grind has been completed. If you are looking for a challenge, SWTOR isn't for you.

I remember pre nerf it used to labelled a "4 man ops" =P I kinda miss its difficulty now, but i still wish it wasn't on the daily gf que. I know what to do and how to beat the dungeon, that doesn't mean the rest of the group does......

I have pretty much given up on my shadow tank. Too unpredictable. Hell i had a healer tell me the other day the combat sent who picked up threat after i karked it was easier to heal than me. Fail.

Probably the most important addition for all classes: Learn your rotation BEFORE you enter a hm 50/55. I cannot tell u how many times i have had a dps (or worse a tank) in a hm 55 who doesn't know there rotation and slows the whole run down to a crawl, also causing wipes. The excuse "im still learning this class" is NOT good enough. Do some research on the class forums or ask for some advice on the fleet. Dont jump into a hm 55 fp and expect the rest of the group to put up with your fail. For the most part we just wanna get in, get our shiny stuff and ****. No one does hm 55 fps for "fun".

So far so good, your accuracy is okay for now, I would suggest on working on your crit/surge as combat does rely on a decent crit rate. Apart from that your at the same starting lvl as all of us int he early 66/unoptimesed 69 gear stage. I personally believe accuracy over 100% is a waste, your better off spending points into surge and crit, for evidence on this statement there is a post in the roles forums backing me up here http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=631161. Also if your thinking of making this your raiding toon, biochem is a must. The adrenals and stims will help allot with getting the burst u want and need during burn down phases, especially in TFB and S&V, which are really annoying as melee, as u will spend 90% of the fights chasing stuff down. It gets old quick. Also with augments i reckommend that you go Might augments, as the str will help a bit with your crit, as the crit bonus from your main stat is not calculated by Diminishing Returns like critical rating is. Put it this way i have gone overkill (power) ones on my watch and i don't believe there all there cracked up to be.

Yeah I too am really confused about this change. Why did they nerf the watchman/anihilation spec? Bioware..... THERE NOT THE ONES THAT NEED NERFING FFS!

Just something that my guildmates and I are wondering about is the new Tython lightsaber from the store. Its a great looking lightsaber with a nice unique effect and all, but there is one simple yet huge problem with it. Main hand only..,,,,,, WhyBioware? Did all the sentinels/marauders magically disappear overnight? Why restrict this weapon to a main hand slot? I posted this question in the general chat an the general consensus with the playerbase is the same. Some of us (myself included) have managed to get 2 of them so far, yet one is complely useless. Please bioware, fix this. Its not to much to ask is it?

Same Here. Just lost momentum real quick.

^exactly. LI HM is a fp that is SUPER dependant on 2 things: 1. Gear, - MINIMUM full columi, not half col/tion or half col/bm. FULL. COLUMI. 2. Decent people - not allways the case I know but it does help. Without this gear doesn't count for anything. Hell ive had a full bh geared group wipe on this fp because peeps didn't do what they were supposed to. Yes it is a hard flashpoint, but I don't want it nerfed. It's the only challenge we get in this game, apart from denova, everything else is just *yawn*.