A lot can be said for an AoE knockback. I use it often on my sorc healer. The main problem with this spec though, for me is that it doesn't have a charge. I'm used to having a sprint which is amazing, but I kinda want to play with charge. The "quad" charges of a Guardian means it's very difficult to kite the tank. You make a very excellent point here. He is in fact playing a scoundrel (operative). That ... that just sounds almost too awesome. If only Shadow had charge... Gah. I may have to level them both up just to have some fun with this. I'm certainly intrigued. This makes sense. With as much as I respec, I'm sure I'll play around with it. Based on what you said, I think I'll mirror your build but with a single point in Heavy Handed (out of Blade Barricade). I'll start removing points out of Lash Out one at a time if I'm having excess rage. Blade Barricade just seems weak to me in a PvP setting. Obviously it's essential in PvE. I can't see me doing a 31 build rager. What draws me to this class is the utility and many CCs. The rage build loses some of this. Plus, I want a very sturdy tank. I'm okay with sacrificing some dps to achieve this.

Wow, really? I've played as a sorc healer with a tank guarding me quite often. I've never lost a 1 vs 2. Never. Heck no dps has even come close. With taunts + guard + bubble + cc + harpoon + knockback...if you are targeting me then you are not doing any damage. You are squishy as a sent and die fairly quickly to tank + healer damage.

I'm a little confused about this comment. Guardians have 3 leaps (assuming you use a spec like Auhful suggested). Force Leap, Zealous Leap, and Guardian Leap. Force Leap even refreshes on 'choking' an enemy. That to me is incredible mobility. Am I missing something here? Do these share a cooldown or something? Also Malissant, why do you choose a "pure" tank spec over a hybrid build? I'm actually liking what I see on a Vanguard and Guardian, but I think I'm going to go with the greater utility and better cooldowns of a guardian. Though I will say there is nothing more pleasing as a healer than seeing a sith leap you and having a vanguard or shadow harpoon him away. Ooh well. Auhful, I'm planning on using a spec very similar to yours but I had a few questions on it. You have no points in Enraged Sunder. Is Sundering Assault rarely used at higher levels? Or is the extra generation just not needed? It looks like a number of the higher up Rage Talents build up your Smash for a massive hit. Would it make sense to take 2 points out of Lash Out and 1 point out of Blade Barricade and put them into Heavy Handed to get +15% damage on Smash? Is Retaliation proc'd often enough to warrant a cost reduction on it? From a theory perspective, I'd imagine I'd be focusing on healers and other ranged, or protecting my guard target most of the time. Those targets either aren't going to be attacking me or aren't going to attack with something I can parry.

Coming from a sorc healer...I'm targeted extremely often. When I'm not targeted your guard on others makes my life a little easier, but I still should be able to keep everyone alive fairly easily. If I'm being targeted, then sometimes only the guard (plus taunts, cc) will allow me to continue doing my job. I would suggest erroring on the side of guarding the healer. Losing a dps is never good but you aren't too bad off. However, losing a healer can cause everyone to die. We are high priority targets for a reason.

Extremely helpful. Thank you for your input. Can someone who plays a Bodyguard and Sith Darkness also respond?

Very interesting. What type of hit did you use to test this? Was this simple melee strikes or some type of special attack? I may have to do my own tests when I get home. Either way, I know from experience that guard makes a huge difference in healer survivability and in turn my own survivability so I know I'm wanting it (even more than taunt).

According to http://www.sithwarrior.com someone had asked Georg Zoeller. He said that the tank does mitigate the damage, however it's unclear as to how much of that damage the tank actually mitigates (all or only half). Granted most of the tank's mitigation is pointless, but I'm sure their cooldowns are still quite helpful. Source: http://sithwarrior.com/forums/Thread-Tank-Healer-combo When I'm a healer, any tank who puts guard on me not only gets my vote, but they will almost never die so long as they stay near me. Guard + healer makes it incredibly difficult to kill the healer. And the healer keeps the tank alive because they love guard. Regardless, this is off topic. I'd be fine with a dps spec so long as I'm able to utilize guard. I just want to be able to do the following: Guard my healer. Protect my healer with good cc or effects like harpoon. (in addition to taunt/AOEtaunt/guard) Kill or severely hinder opposing healers. Do good dps (not great). I'm just trying to see how effective the 3 different tank classes can do this.

Some good stuff here, but I'm not really looking for the pros and cons of a tank in pvp. I'm trying to compare the different tank specs. I actually run with a pet tank vanguard all the time and we are basically unstoppable when he's guarding me. I went from level 10 to BM in pvp with him, so I know tanks are good. However, I don't know all of the ends and outs of each tank and how they compare to each other. EDIT: I suppose I should also mention that my tank friend is rolling a healer, so I will have a pet healer that I'll be protecting/guarding.

I've been running as a sorc healer for a long time in warzones and feel that it's time for a change of pace. I've decided on a tank (or at least being able to guard+taunt), but I'm trying to better understand the pros and cons of the tank classes. I'm looking for Survivability, Utility, Damage in Pvp environments. Does anyone have a link to where this is already outlined? Can level 50 tanks speak up as to what they feel they can bring to the table better/worse than other tanks?

I'm a sorc healer and I run with a tank friend. We're in a very close game and things are heating up. He gets the ball and we run the upper ramps with many following us. It's slow but I'm keeping him alive. We get past one fire hazard. Someone does a knockback knocking me to the lower level and my friend off into the death pit below. He's getting swarmed now by 5 Frogdogs. I quickly sprint across the 2nd fire hazard just before it flares up and quickly pull my friend up to me... talk about jumping out of the frying pan into the ... "Watch out for those hazards, Rotworms!!" ...Oops

I dinged 50 a little before the bag change so I feel your pain about getting nothing out of them, however I certainly didn't have too much of an issue with the gear differences. In my first warzones I still made significant contributions to the group. Granted I'm a healer, but you should consider buying gear upgrades off the auction hall, or running a few flashpoints before heading into the warzones. Joining warzones at level 50 isn't much different than joining operations at level 50. You're better off gearing up a little before attempting them. Getting the Hilt and Armor mods or even some purple pieces go a long way towards letting you compete.

I dinged 50 last Saturday with capped valor. As of last night (Wednesday), I was at valor 55 3/4. I'm a sorc healer and do not do Ilum because I just can't stand it yet. Too many issues there. I play quite a bit (~7 hours) when I get home from work and the vast majority of the time I'm running warzones.

It is considered heals. It's not uncommon for me to get the 2.5k medal by just putting bubble on people before the match.

I'll agree here as I constantly run with 1 other person and it's annoying having to regroup after every warzone. However, it's a fair bit more complicated to implement than it first seems. Let's have a good scenario here. You have a group of 4 people. 1 leaves before the warzone is over (they got disconnected). What type of group state is this player in once they reconnect? Will the others just rejoin the group when the warzone is over? What happens if that disconnected player joined a different warzone? What happens if that disconnected player invited someone while the others were not in the group? In all honesty. This is a good idea, but I'd prefer that they work on some of the major bug fixes over this for now. You may consider bringing this up at a later date.

Anyone have a link to this?

I'd suggest making Cybertech upgrades fundamentally different from the vendor upgrades. This would not only break the rather boring linear progression in star ship upgrades, but would also make Cybertech upgrades quite desirable. For example, Cybertech could have some upgrades that do something similar to the following, while the standard upgrades from the vendors remain the same. Cybertech Missile Magazine upgrades - Increases missile count by X and decreases missile reload time by Y Increases missile count by X and increases missile damage by Y Increases missile count by X and increases damage done to shields Increases missile count by X and increases damage done to turrets Increases missile count by X and increases max number of loaded missiles by Y Increases missile count by X and causes damage to nearby enemy crafts Increases missile count by X and increases missile range by Y Unlimited missile count, but increases reload time by Y

I'm not suggesting that they'd change the current content. Our feedback and suggestions will certainly affect future content. We can be sure that they will add both races and classes in the future. I'm hearing a lot of people say they don't like playing the same faction because it's too linear. Well then, if they add a new class and the keep this linear trend, they aren't really gaining anything. So, how should they change what they are doing in future content? What is important? What isn't important.

I agree that the 1 leveling path can make multiple play throughs repetitive. But, try to understand the reasoning behind why Bioware designed it like this. The questing is all based around the class quests which in and of itself is a linear progression. This forces all classes to follow a linear progression. However the class quests are extremely well done and make the leveling process quite enjoyable. The class quests all follow the same route. This makes it possible for 2 or more people to level up together throughout the entire leveling experience. I've already done this with a friend. Whenever we were to do class quests they were always close and the rest of the quests were of course the same which is good design as this makes leveling with someone actually doable. Taken that into account, how would you suggest they change the questing scheme? This is assuming they want to keep class quests and keep the ability for people to quest together.

With the hybrid spec you are very limited on healing mana. You have the ability to do the large heals, but you can't sustain them. This is great in a pinch or when you need to heal yourself. Think of this spec as a dps spec with limited but powerful healing. Don't think of this as a healer spec with very good dps or you will be sorely disappointed. And yes, healing trance helps a lot. It is a very force friendly spell. In order to pick up Resplendence though you'll need to drop more than just Force in Balance and Presence of Mind. You'd also need to give up Containment (which is huge) and 2 more points in either the balance or telekinetics tree. The 6 extra talent points in the Seer tree need to come from somewhere.

One thing I was looking forward to in this game believe it or not is the space combat. The system they have is good for a launch. In fact the missions are well done and quite enjoyable, however there is so much room for improvement in this department. Let players: Purchase their own ships (perhaps make certain ships play differently and have different strengths and weaknesses). Upgrade them with different options (current upgrade options are too linear with no customization). Customize the interior and exterior. Have sandbox mode missions (in addition to the current siderail). Have dogfights (both pvp and pve). A similar list could easily be made for: Pod Racing Walkers Capital Ships

I'm a pvp sage healer, but my setup would be similar in PvE, however I don't have the aoe heal. I use my mouse to move so I will very rarely click buttons. ` - Companion Attack ~ - Companion Stop Attack (shift + `) 1 - Mind Crush 2 - Interrupt 3 - Telekinetic Throw 4 - Weaken Mind 5 - Project 6 - Force Slow 7 - Force Quake q - Force Armor w - Healing Trance e - Deliverance r - Rejuvenate R - Restoration (shift + r) a - Force Stun A - Force Lift (shift + a) w - Force Wave e - Noble Sacrifice f - Rescue v - Force of Will F1 - Medpack (F1 = HELP!!! right?) F2 - Force Potency F3 - Adrenal F4 - Relic Mouse "back" button - Force Speed Mouse "forward" button - Auto Run z - strafe left x - strafe right

Reminds me of Master of Disguise. "Turtle! Turtle! Turtle!"

Improved Force Armor is a very strong talent. It makes our bubble our best "heal". As you can see, I do pick it up in mine instead of spending more in balance. It all depends on what you want to do. If you want to be a strong healer with some decent damage, then I would suggest a spec like mine. If you want to be a decent healer (or just strong self heals) and do some good damage with the extra insta-cast whirlwind, then I would suggest a spec like the one DuSStyBottoms posted. We're just concerned that your current spec isn't going to do enough either way.

Highly depends on their gear and skill. There are many times I've been very difficult to take down in pvp. I can drag/kite around 3 dps for a very long time before finally getting away. There are also times where I've died in less than 2 seconds because of 3 skilled/geared dps. For the most part, I feel durable enough to not worry too much about a single dps, but squishy enough that I can't simply ignore them. I dinged 50 4 days ago and have only gotten 2 champion pieces, so my gear is far from good.

I was very close to mentioning that exact spec as it's the one Kor advocates on sithwarrior.com. But, the OP requested commentary on his spec so I chose to go that route. I've used the one you listed myself and it is quite impressive, however I want the healer sustainability so I needed to pick up resplendence. If I want more of a hybrid spec it's definitely the way to go. You have almost all of your healing potential (just can't sustain it in heavy fights). And you retain most of that tree's dps potential.