It doesn't need tuning down, but it is defenately harder than the other lvl 50 hardmodes. The other lvl 50 hm's are a joke compared to LI, even with the tuning down. I've tanked them all and this one is the only one that I can't sleep walk through. I think they should bring it back up to full and put it with the lvl 55 HM's for gf'r because it is more on par with those HM's than it is with the level 50's.

It sounds right to me. In gerneral, fps' reward is only the drops you get and completing the mission gives you xp and maybe some credits. You need to use group finder or your weekly mission rewards to receive more for completing a fp.

At low levels, I would stay in Vigilence. It gives the most bang for your skill points.

Is it the high end gear that is causing you such high repair bills? I have been doing the Gree event in BH/Rakata and earned over 700,000 credits, even with the repair bills. That includes several wipes per day. What am I missing?

Strength is the key stat for JKs. Until you are at lvl 50, that is the stat you should be looking for.

I would prioritize MS when off cooldown even in PvE. It is your heaviest hitting move as a Vig. Plus you will waste the reset if you use OH and PB while MS is off cooldown.

Viligence is the best build for DPS in PvE, even post 50. For PvP, general consensus is that Focus is the best build.

Being a guardian tank, you need to control the field of battle by using all of your resourses. First, have your party members use their long stuns to reduce the number of mobs you have to agro. Then use your two hard stuns (hilt strike and staisis) to control two other mobs. Then hit the two or three gold or silver mobs to gain agro on them. You can use your force push situationally to buy some time on a non boss mob. Use your sweep if it is appropriate and doesn't break the cc's. Otherwise you can now use your aoe taunt to hold agro a little longer. You don't need told agro on all of the mobs forever, just long enough for the dps (which has to go from weak mobs to strong mobs) to kill their mobs, which shouldn't be too long if they know what they are doing. Like others have said, don't use you aoe taunt until you have damaged each mob. Otherwise the agro generated wont last past the 6 secs and the healer will pick up some strays. Focus defense can be used situationally in long boss fights as an added defensive cool down (use it with endure which will add some effectiveness). But you have to use a taunt right afterwards or you will lose threat quickly bc FD has a threat drop. If you are losing agro on mobs after doing the above, it means your dps is attacking in the wrong order or not killing fast enough. DPS should never be starting on the strongest mob. They should kill weak to strong and by the time they get to the strong, you should have such a threat lead that they can't catch up. If they start on strong, tell them to stop or they have to eat that mob on their own. For one boss mobs, tell the dps to give you a few seconds to work through a rotation and then attack. If you have a better geared dps, put gaurd on them. Save your taunts for if you lose agro or if the boss has a threat drop mechanic. Let me know if you have any questions. If you do the above, you shouldn't have too much trouble holding agro except where there is a huge gear disparity with the dps. Guardians have to do more "work" to gain and hold agro over the other two, but they hold agro just fine if you work it right.

If you know how to tank, even HM FPS are not that hard to do, as long as you are at least in recruit. The big thing that might draw ire, is that you won't know how to skip trash. Just follow one of the other players and generally you will be ok. Be upfront at the beginning of a boss fight that you don't know the fight and someone usually will clue you in to what you need to do. In flashpoints where you start with a cutscene, you can use that time to let everyone know you are new. In ones that don't, it's probably best to just run with the group until the first major fight. That way, you aren't miles behind those ADD players who run off immediately while you are typing. Make sure you use your guard function on a DPS if they are pulling agro from you. It is a great way to equalize dps that have much better gear. Most players are fine. I can count a handful of times where I had to deal with a jerk. If someone is a jerk, just /ignore them. They won't be able to que with you again and they have just added to their cue time.

A little off topic, but if the wait time is sooo long for a DPS, roll up a tank. I switched my guardian from dps to tank and now I get gf'r hits immediately or no later than a few minutes after cueing. I have done enough fps to have both tank and dps gear pretty quickly. Do everyone a favor (including yourself) and roll or respec to a tank.

I am ok with watching the cut scenes, except for essels (20 min fp turns into over an hour with all the convos). However, I would appreciate the courtesy of a player asking to watch the cut scenes so I am not skipping them like a madman only to get the "waiting for other players" notice. That sucks. I will kill anything because at worst it give me xp towards my legacy. Again, it is nice to talk about that before so everyone's expectation is on the same page.

Getting a 4% total mitigation from CA is much better than a 4% shield chance bonus.

Don't bother with the group finder. Just check out the chat in Black Hole. You will get a group faster that way. Recruit is fine to do the rep side Tovix, so I assume that it works on the Imp side as well. Once you are better geared (columni or better) you probably could two man it. In fact, you might want to run a few flash points first and get a head start on that.

Another tactic for the final fight in Kaon is to start the fight on the side balcony. Because the two other bosses are not ranged, they will have to run up to you. At that point, you can jump off the balcony. That should buy the tank and dps enough time to kill the main boss.

Pug means pick up group. If you pick up the Mk2 recruit gear, you should be fine to do hard mode fps. Make sure you let the group know you are new. That way they can explain the trickier parts. The fps don't really have that difficult mechanics, but its better to learn them right from the start. Most groups are pretty accommodating if you are up front. And if they are not, better to have them drop at the beginning.

I am sick of people cuing up for a pug and bug out on the first moment of adversity. If you want to have a quick instance, cue up with a premade. Don't wast everyone's time cuing up for a pug if you are expecting perfect execution. It's generally not going to happen. I know its 5 whole bh coms, but seriously people need to relax a bit and remember it is just a game. P.S. Do your team a curtesy when skipping and wait for your whole team to pass by a group before charging ahead. It will be quicker if there is an accidental pull and it will save your but if you (gasp) make a mistake and accidentally pull a mob.

Actually, most HM fps are quite easy even without much knowledge of the mechanics. I generally tank them on autopilot, unless we have undergeared or new players along. None of the mechanics were like LI pre 1.4. Unlike other fps, LI requires the DPS to actualy do stuff other than just mash buttons from weak to strong mobs and watch their feet. For pugs, if you have dps (esp mdps) that aren't use to that, its a big challege to get them to be coordinated. It is simply a failing imho of the fp progression system, because for most of the game you can get past most challenges simply by over lvling/ over gearing. But with this nerf, I think (hope?) that pugs will be able to do it easier and I will get my weekly done without resort to grabing guildies.

I was addressing the necro posts complaining about the nerf.

If you want a challenge , do it in an under geared pug. They tuned this down because pugs with mdps couldn't coordinate enough to do the mechanics. For example, with my guild on vent, we managed to one shot it on my first time in this fp with all mdps ( pre 1.4). Post 1.4, I couldn't get a group of pugs to work together on the obvious mechanics. While this is a lol face roll for experienced groups. It is still a challenge for pugs.

Adding these ops in gf helps guilds the most because they can cue up a full group and get the extra BH comms. I am not sure why anyone would be arguing against having them added. If you don't want to pug them, don't. Simply because its hard to have pug groups finish content shouldn't be a reason to keep them off the list. Just tier them separately from KP and EV so people can opt out of these ops.

I played Koan last night and something weird happend. I killed the commander like usual, but I wasn't allow to taunt the other two. They kept chasing the healer and dps the rest of the fight. We managed to kill them, but it was quite disconcerting. I have done the flashpoint like 20 times and I never had that problem before. Thoughts?

I think the issue that the op was stating was that the dps was pulling different mobs. I agree that a dps could and should "tank" a few members of an already agroed mob on a fp, but they shouldn't be agroing a different mob. The tank has to pick the mob and then agro them. The dps then pick a weak member or two of the mob and AOE them or just individually dps them down. DPS pulling non-agroed mobs is a recipe for disaster.

To the OP, join a guild. Most guilds run gearing up ops where a few higher geared players will take a group of people needing gear on an op. You will get gear much faster that way. I have found that fps are better for getting comms rathter than to directly gear up. Also, you can ask guildies to run flashpoints with you, who will be more willing to do all the bosses if you want to do them. Generally, pug groups are motivated towards the fastest way to finish a fp.

DPS has two jobs in the fight (1) kill from weak to strong and (2) pick up any of the mob that the healer happens to pull (if the tank can't). They should never initiate combat with any non-agroed group (i.e. any cc'd or other groups). Communication usually resolves this issue.

Why is it considered harder to dps the fabricator as mdps? I don't have any problem doing it and I have much faster uptime with my highend damage abilities because of focus generation.