I thought attack resolution worked like this: 1. is it a hit? (totally based on accuracy, 100% or more means every attack hits (unless accuracy has been reduced)). If not a hit, stop. 1a. If it was a hit, was it a crit? 2. if it did hit, target gets a chance to defend. This is Defense Chance. It can be reduced by attacker accuracy above 100%. If successfully defended against, stop. 3. if it's not Defended against, it might hit the shield and the damage going forward be reduced 4. here the damage hits the Damage Reduction (from armor and other sources) 5. any remaining damage is scored against targets hit points. I think crits skip step 2 and 3? hmmm... this looks accurate... http://taugrim.com/2012/01/19/understanding-swtors-avoidance-and-mitigation-mechanics-for-tanks-in-pvp/

Say I've got 4 Guardians each with Dust Storm fully spec'ed... Can they get a total 20% accuracy reduction going? ... and would it also stack with Vangaurd's Smoke Grenade? ... and Shadow's Combat Technique Force Breach?

are you letting the mobs pound on Doc? You got to keep them off him. Use his healer stance, and guard him. Taunt. Use Awe (it stuns everything around you, allowing you to focus on targets. don't break Awe's CC with a Force Sweep or cyclone slash). Master Strike ever chance you get. don't worry too much about your stats for now, they're "ok" - have a stim going (get biochem if you can), attack might be better than endurance for you. Talent-wise, you probably want to get to 31 in one so you can have the top talent. Plasma Brand is nice. Or go 31+ Def. try this: http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#500GMGzuzrdfzZcMMZzM.1 and riposte, blade storm and sweep also become high priority abilities to use every chance. also, 31 vigilance guardians are a very flexible class, you can switch from good dps to good tank with just a stance & stim and/or gear swap. much more adaptive than many classes. or this if you want to go hybrid defensive... http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#500GMGzuzMdZcGMMMZMM.1

Wall of Light remains a strong Republic server

The Secret to Guardian Tanking... is a good healer. Anyway, it's a fallacy that you have to hold ALL threat from everything. You start at the top, pickup the biggest baddest and a couple more high danger enemies, let the healer and the DPS hold off for 2-3 global cool-downs or so and DPS works up from the weakest to strongest.

not true, many of the crafting skills have Bind on Pickup recipes that will therefor only be used by the person who built them. A good thing is to start with artifice, build yourself 2-3 of the nice rakata relics (which you can crit on and get relics with augment slots) then switch to synthweaving, build yourself the rakata belt and bracers (both war leader and vindicator types), then switch to biochem for good.

here's my recommendation... This works great in PvP, PvE, and if you switch to war leader gear (from vindicator) and soresu (from shien) you can tank too and even without gear swap, you'll be a good off-tank at all times. Ideally, you're biochem400 and can swap from rakata attack to endurance stims as needed too. "the vigilant leader" right now for PvE, I recommend swapping columi vindicator mods into old Champion or battlemaster armor for the better PvP set bonus. (8% self heal every 15sec with a guardian leap, and +10% damage after force leap).

you want weaponsmaster implants and ear, but vindicator armor. the weaponsmaster armor is medium, for sents.

more POWER

random is NOT just random. there are MANY ways to implement a random function. IT IS NOT THAT HARD to have it setup to prevent pernicious statistical conspicuities like 12 all smuggler drops in a row. What the OP (and others) are reporting is highly highly unlikely. until 1.2, I can only suggest one possible piece of voodoo that might have some effect, try doing the ops at a different time of day.

of course, isn't everyone? The red things I kill in PvP are just AI right?

hah I've had to sort that out for three different people as people join and leave the group. It seems EVERY new person we invited had never done it before. You need to start with the flashpoint courier, which is CONVENIENTLY UNLABELLED, (thanks for THINKING about your multimillion dollar game design BW (or not)) Start at P-2XN in the GTN area of Carrick station, then off to the Gav. Then they'll have to go into the room behind the droid, where they'll get the "[GROUP] Directive 7" mission, then that can be dropped and the hard mode version picked up from the droid outside the room. if you change group members, you'll need to be careful to avoid loosing your progress. We were just doing it, about FOUR hours in, on the last boss, and changed one party member, after working the replacement through the whole rigamarole we found the damn FP had reset. Theoretically this could have been prevented had one party member remained in instance.

since we're getting this stun (probably) are we sure the leap will still even have a root and an interrupt? or are the devs thinking, instead of giving two things, "we'll just make them a stun which does both..." Personally I don't like this one bit, I don't remotely see the POINT of it.

portrait from Tython...

I've seen this too, but I assumed the damage went though anyway, can this be tested in a duel by people please... BW should state if this is intended or not...