31B would be best because of the healing buffer and on average they benefit you more than unlettered since only 1 fight seems to cross the threshold. But it would be depending on what the tank prefers.

When crafting implants (and other things) there are different schematics you can learn, going from green to blue gives you 3 options and from blue to purple another 5. And the earpiece has a strange distribution with all three stats because it starts with absorbtion/shield as basis then gets more defence + shield. But the general outcome is the same.

It's hard to say since tanks will jump up in health as they get the high endurance 69 gear and then drop down a bit with the 72 gear. I think that you can do all the new content with 35k as long as you use the correct cooldowns, of yours you can have 1 high health tank and 1 high mitigation tank in your raid but lets hope that content won't evolve into that.

You're trading away mitigation at a 1:1.5 ratio with endurance, this is good enough that I believe none of the classes their self-healing abilities make up for. In the process you lose 66 willpower per implant/earpiece. And yes if you're undergeared and your dps do not want to hold back then go for more bonus damage. I was thinking in terms of the implant as a BIS option for tanks and an alternative, why roll on an underworld implant token when you can buy one of these for the material cost of 8 greens and 2 purples mats? Of course "BIS" is relative to what people want to do with it, this is similar to when 48 or 49 purple implants/earpieces were better than rakata ones for tanking, when black hole and dreadguard gear came out those were better. So the next tier of lvl 55 gear will probably make the choice obsolete. Until then you can keep it in mind as an option to gear with.

Hey all, I've noticed that the crafted level 54 purple implants have a pretty good stat distribution for us tanks. On the left is a lvl 54 Voracity crafted purple implant, in the middel the best you can buy with tokens: an underworld MK-X duelist implant and on the right a Verpine Duelist MK-2 implant which drops in HM SV/TFB. 82 Willpower----------148 Willpower-------------145 Willpower 145 Endurance-------199 Endurance-----------210 Endurance 105 Shield--------------79 Shield------------------- 79 Shield 98 Defense--------------88 Absorb------------------79 Absorbtion Differences From crafted to Underworld----------Differences from crafted to Verpine +66 Willpower ----------------------------------- +63 Willpower +54 Endurance ---------------------------------- +65 Endurance -26 Shield ----------------------------------------- - 26 Shield -10 Defence/Absorbtion --------------------------- -19 Defence/absorbtion Crafted lvl 54 purple implants (and earpieces if they follow the same rules) are better than anything that can be dropped on HM SV/TFB or bought with any end game commendations, for tanks at least since we can ignore mainstat. Also, you may only craft shield/defence implants as far as I know, but this doesn't matter since defence switches 1 to 1 with absorbtion on the rest of your gear. Disclaimer: this comparison was made without knowing the full range of Verpine Implants (MK-1/Mk-2/MK-3/MK-4) but browsing through torhead did not give any with a comparable shield + defence/absorbtion stats as the crafted ones. Any toughts on this? Should the underworld ones be buffed? Or do you prefer having your mainstat instead of additional mitigation? Ps. sorry about the - lines but the forums won't let you use spacebar or tab and I'm too lazy to figure out a more elegant way to make a space.

Well.. I guess I've never confirmed shielding it so fair enough. I'll try it this week's HM, too bad that you can ignore the attack altogether once you get into 36-38k health region.

It's partially personal preference. The more shieldable hits you'll take during the 15 seconds use of the adrenal the more likely it is that the new one is better as you will get closer to the average mitigation gains. But if you're only going to take a few hits then it depends more on your luck with shielding and you may get more benefit from the new one than the rakata or you may not. The new one might (as KBN pointed out) interact with your defence and defensive cooldowns, a fellow tank suggested using the new absorb + a shield/absorb relic which is a no go as you will hit higher DR curves, same if you use deflection which increases defence by 50% and lowers the benefit from shield/abs. So go for whichever you want while keeping in mind that the new one is better, I like this choice between an average better mitigation cooldown and a worse but sure mitigation cooldown. And definitely use the rakata one against stuff like Terminate on the Operations Chief (does 34k if you do not shield/defend). I facepalmed when I used deflection and the hit went through after I told my healers that I'll be fine and wouldn't take damage (around 22-23% chance to get hit but I want my invincible deflection back). That all said, I'd argue that the rakata one is better as a tanking cooldown for use during high damage or transition phases which are the ones where you're most likely to die.

If you've done it pre-2.0 it's easy to get back into farming it. Gear I would say that you need a 50/50 mix of 69 and 61/63 depending on how good your dps is. New augments are not needed. Dps check for this ops is the yellow phase on Operatox IX and the healing/tanking is easy on all bosses, 8 man that is. 16 man I haven't tried yet.

That's basically everything. Other helpful tips are that you can ask your marauder(s) of which you should have at least 1 on 16 man in order to reach the core to spam predation (run speed buff, no idea what it's called on rep side) during the 2nd set of adds, this will help pugs survive who pull aggro. It's good if it goes alright but I've mostly seen people starting with death field on the adds. And if you can try having an assassin/shadow or a powertech/vanguard take the bulk of the adds since it's painful to tank 3-4 of them as a jugg/guardian and kite without losing aggro.

Hmm, All standpoints on this topic have been expressed pretty much. I would say it's best to guard nobody since that will make it easier to practice holding aggro in preparation of 8/16 man ops. And if you want to slack then guard a healer, no amount of guarding will help you against a dps who wants to pull aggro or a tank who doesn't want to do anything but a single aoe taunt on each pack.

Well you can try your best try make 2200 dps on paper into 2500 dps during raids. I tried out a hybrid with the 30% force regen bonus in the tanking tree and everything else in Madness/Balance and got the exact same dps but with more damage (around 850-900 dps) from Thrash/Double Strike instead of the internal damage from Creeping Terror, so that will be boosted a bit with armor debuffs. And we have Assassinate for bosses under 30% health which will increase dps and an extra 9% damage as Madness/Balance on dots/ Deathfield/Force in Balance because those hit for 30% more 30% of the time. Although that's for full Madness/Balance. But yeah they'll probably change something unless Assassins/Shadows scale extremely well compared to other classes once we get 72 gear which isn't likely, and after they buff us everyone will complain that the developers only listen to shadows since both our dps and tanking trees have been buffed >.<

Yep as far as I've seen people are getting around 2.2k parses with either Infiltration/Deception or Balance/Madness, that is if you parse enough to get the same or higher crit% which you see on your stat display. To compare: Balance/Madness Sages/Sorcerers pull 2500 dps and Concealment/Scrapper Operatives/Scoundrels are pulling 2.3k parses. Other classes are usually at 2.5-2.6k. If we don't get changed a bit or if the 72 gear doesn't somehow scale more with us than others we'll be at the bottom and Infiltration/Deception will be best for pve because you don't have a 100% uptime on boss and its burst/ force cooldowns favor that.

Hmmm I have a fun one: http://i47.tinypic.com/jpzu6q.jpg I took over the 10 stacks of Tunneling Tentacles as the maintank on TFB 16 HM, when I right clicked them the boss enraged >.> There are.. a LOT of bugs in this game.. ah well.

I'll wait until it hits live to consider going positive or negative on this spec. First of all, what always annoyed me on live is that Madness specs got rid of their energy so slow without being able to do bursts (Kephess the Undying after a pillar hit, TFB anomalies, Operator between shields, Walker on Kephess) this was both good and bad, good that we had a solid force management and bad that there were few options to do burst dps (Shock would be a loss of dps unless combined with a Force Cloak and Dark Embrace). Anyway, in 2.0 our only tool for energy management is the 2 set PvE bonus on Saber Strike which is well.. not great. Although it seems like we'll do lower dps I'd like to raise some points. First of all the DR curves have been reworked for accuracy/crit/surge, we've recieved a 3% accuracy buff and we will need 110% or close to on Force attacks since ops bosses seem to have a Force/Tech resist chance. Now then, our dps abilities benefit a lot of from increased crit and crit damage chances. Thrash has an increased 24% to crit and if it does crit it does 50% more damage. All dots benefit from 30% crit damage and the lightning charge dot (not discharge!) benefits from a 45% crit bonus. More deathmarks although with an extra dot on each lightning charge tick (every 1.5s) it won't be consumed solely by Discharge/Crushing Darkness. It could be these percentage increases will make up for our lack of damage as we get optimized 72 gear, that's my hope at least since base damage has been increased by a lot which will further increase the surge bonus on certain skills. Also I don't really like the timing of Crushing Darkness, it allows more wiggle room to use priority abilities first (Main 2 dots and Deathfield) but I can't say that it's that great. Anyway, all of this means nothing if we cannot get a meaningful way to track our dots through the UI, without using obscure add-ons, overriding your discharge/ creeping terror is a good way to lose a lot of dps and force.

Alright from what I've tested and experienced so far. Madness lost Duplicity making its damage even lengthier, stuff dies before you can properly damage it. DR's on all stats got changed, not sure if it's a bug or intentional but my pvp gear went like this: lvl 50 on main server - lvl 55 on PTS Accuracy : 99% - 95% (98% with the +3% in our tree) Crit chance: 37% - 26% Surge : 76% - 66% This is a rough sketch, anyway, DR's have been adjusted for 69/72 gear and in order for this gear not to dominate pvp the DR on expertise got removed (start building up EWH gear). Deception has some nice buffs and you can get a lot of mauls in, but yeah, tank will be best. Also, smashes hit for 10-12k on recruits/pve gear.

Karagga's Palace All Story Mode bosses now drop Black Hole gear. All Hard and Nightmare Mode bosses now drop Hazmat gear. Eternity Vault All Story Mode bosses now drop Black Hole gear. All Hard and Nightmare Mode bosses now drop Hazmat gear. Explosive Conflict Explosive Conflict is now available in Group Finder from levels 50-54. The missions New Frontiers and Ancient Allies are now level 55. Players are still eligible for these missions at level 50. All Story Mode bosses now drop Hazmat gear. All Hard and Nightmare Mode bosses now drop Hazmat pieces and Unassembled Dreadguard items. Stabilizer market crashing in 3...2....1....

Mercenary knockback hits me through Force Shroud but the Commando knockback does not. Well, sometimes. It would make sense if it's server lag or it could be delays between damage done on abilities and applied effects (in ????ms and your Force Shroud running out in between those while the visual of Force Shroud/Resilience are still on your character. Only noticed that on TfB tentacle slams or Kephess railshots for pve.

You'll find it easier by using that Thrash and possible Energize proc, you can still use Recklessness with Lightning and the Wither after it, or risk it with Shock. I'll check next time to see if I'm gimping my rotation by using Thrash that much, it depends on the boss I guess to make you shield at least once a second or close to.

I usually use one Thrash/Double Strike after the Discharge and a 2nd one if it doesn't proc the shock, it is possible to lose aggro if you wait for shock to be ready by its natural cooldown. That's usually one of the rare spots for Thrash, I also still try to proc Energize for the 2nd charge on Recklessness like a total noob but I reckon it's better used on Wither. If you can afford it (according to the boss fight) you can start with Force Pull for a base of 5k threat, it's not as much as a procced shock but better than a non proc shock. Anyway, only boss fight where tanks can get into trouble is the TFB on 16 man since it's unfeasible to guard all the dps or have the "best" tank take the best dps like on 8 man. But here you can use the orbs I guess, never tried those on HM, or you can walk 4-5m and taunt. On the note of TPS which I've tested, I presume I can get decent numbers on my assassin as a dps and at 19 sec in the fight I'm sitting at 2.5k dps, 38 sec it's 2.4k dps. This is with using everything for a burst as soon as the fight starts. While tanking I got 45k threat or so at around 20 seconds last time on the tentacles (10% gain from taunts instead of 30% since I keep staying close). So yeah if a dps pulls around 3k dps from the start and keeps it up for more than 20-25 sec (3 taunt rotations + start of the fight) without ever dropping threat they'll probably pull :-( P.S. I forgot what I actually wanted to say when quoting you and remembered: Recklessness won't save you, yes it increases the crit chance by 60% of each FL tick but it's only a 51% increase in damage if they proc, and not all of the ticks proc. So overall it's nice to use but if you would've lost aggro without it, you'll still lose it with. Focus on rotation/ augments (12 power on each) first.

Well you'd need testing done and some fights cather to one or the other. Basically I'd say that madness tends to be better unless there are pauses in the fight or if you need to deliver burst dps on specific objectives or phases of the fight. For deception-favored fights I'd go with bosses like the Soa, Operator, Kephess the Undying, all of them have pauses which you can use to regain your force and Kephess takes more damage after Pylons fall on him and I've noticed that I can't get rid of all my force during one of those phases as a madness sin. Altough both madness and deception should be viable for raiding.

Oh ok. Good to know and thanks for the info! So they went from each stack reduces armor by 20% (regardeless if you have 3 stacks of TM , it would still be 60%) to each different stack reduces by 20% and now it's 20% max armor reduction no matter how many stacks you have as long as one of them is maxed out or there's a sniper debuff.

1. Ah yes that's true, a 20% reduction of its armor value will result in a less than 20% reduction of its damage reduction. 2. Strongest effect of a specific armor debuff: 2 stacks of tracer missle will equal one stack, but one stack of tracer missle and one stack of the jugg debuff (sundering armor?) will equal a 40% reduction in armor. As far as I know there are 3 versions of armor debuffs (merc, jugg, sniper) for a maximum of 60% armor value reduction.

One of my best parses on the ops dummy in my ship: 1936.63 dps. http://www.torparse.com/a/121484/time/1359938756/1359939155/0/Overview Yes using an ops dummy isn't a perfect test, using my damage that needs to go through armor if the target would've had 1 stack of armor debuff for 20% total my dps would've gone to 1978. Usually you have 2-3 on a boss. This was also in full 61 gear with one 63 hilt and two 63 armorings since it's my offspec. Anyway, dummy damage isn't ops damage and some classes have it easier during an ops fight. There are no fights where you'll have an 100% uptime so use total damage done to a boss (through programs such as MOX) to compare dps.

Essentially that is correct but dps can pull their weight more properly if they're confident that they won't pull aggro and mess up the fight. As a vanguard it's not terrible but if you believe you can get away with switching endurance/tank stats for aim then go for it. Yes it's more useful to use threat drops and proper guards or a frontloaded tank rotation instead of increasing your main damage stat but it can be considered when switching from 61 to 63 and having already reached optimal ratings on defences.

Well lets look at the reason behind endurance. Endurance is used to reduce the TTK, we can argue that TTK is only of importance during transition phases. Transition phases = when a tank starts to take more average dmg than he was taking previously. There are few/none of these in the tier 1 raids, ec introduced a few with Vorgath and Kephess and TfB continues using transition phases as a mechanic to make a fight harder. Well, I guess that Stormcaller after a mortar phase is also a transition phase for non-shadows/assassins. When does it happen? - tank taunts Ciphas without the other tank taunting Kel'Sara a little bit before that. - tank taking over Kephess the Undying. - tank taking Operator droid boss (forgot name) and 1 regulator. - TfB is pretty linear in dmg so not that many transition phases there plus you have time to warn healers due to a long scream cast. From my own experience as a tank I die and I see other tanks dying during those transition phases. How to prevent this? Coordinate with your healers or second tank. Yes Kephess the Undying on 16m hm is a pain, you also need two healers to preemptively heal the tank taking over, or be ready to. I believe that you can take endurance as it comes without focusing on it, communicate with your healers for tank switching and prepare cooldowns if needed. The damage going around in ops is healable as long as the correct person is healed, this burst damage for transitions is the new mechanic to deal with. Endurance will help but so will other methods. Now some numbers which my healer gave me after I asked him for them. Healing with normal rotation: 1400 hps Normal rotation + high duration cooldowns: 1600-1700 hps Disregard energy/force/heat and full healing : 2100-2200 hps Now I have no idea if these numbers are correct but they're like my healer estimates so I'll trust him. Numbers could be too low/high and they probably vary between classes. Looking at damage taken during a raid it should be possible for healers to heal with their normal rotations and be fine, this doesn't happen because they have to move or transition phases occur, be on top of your healing and it should be doable. Those are my ideas on this.