This is all wonderful and good... But I don't see any actual answers to 2 and 3... EN under Supercharge? Or don't bother waiting for supercharge? Keep popping Supercharge after applying dots for best effect or is there a better time? I'm presuming not due to having to reapply them during the Supercharge window might miss ticks on them.

So I've been slowly learning the IO rotation and I'm having a few issues and I have some questions. 1. How/When exactly should I go from the General rotation into the Heat Ramping? Should I have both VH & TSO off CD prior? Or should I start up the heat ramping once I have ~20 seconds left on the VH cooldown? 2. Within the General rotation, where should Supercharge go? I generally use it right after applying both dots so the PS that procs MS also procs the supercharge burn and the 10% buff exists for the near full duration of both dots, should I keep doing this? 3. Should I be super concerned with getting an EN within the Supercharge window?

This will be a long post, Sin-tank is basically my main and my pride and joy at this stage. So since Mr. Musco is asking for feedback, I am going to provide a lot of feedback. Alright time for more than my 2 cents on the matter of the Sin set bonus for Darkness. I will precede this by saying the following about myself (as I know I'm a semi-unknown on the forums, I lurk a lot); I have been tanking on a Sin since a few months before 2.0 went live. I have tanked the Dread Ops in their Nightmare release state and I have been tanking the current content through Revan (to floor 3 of Revan, have not killed). So I do consider myself somewhat of a knowledgeable Sin tank player, I may not be the best but I am average if not above average in my opinion. Alright onto my takes; Current Two piece; 2% DR on Wither that lasts for 3 seconds on an ability that has roughly a 9 second CD, you spend roughly a third of a boss fight with this up. Personally, its fine. As a Sin I know that if I’m expecting a big hit, for example Mega Blast for Sword One, I can delay Wither for a second or two and cast it as I see Mega Blast charging up, and take 2% less damage. Same with like the cross on Underlurker, I can get an extra 2% DR for that hit from the cross. I could list a lot of other situations where this would also be doable, without causing issues with keeping Protection stacks up. This is also mirrored by the other tanks, so it should be left alone or changed for all 3. Current Four piece; I’ll be honest. I don’t use it. Flat out. I see no reason in any of these operations to actually need a faster taunt. Only reason is taunt fluffing for insane threat numbers, which between two tanks and how often the tank swaps have to happen in these bosses. It makes taunt fluffing nearly useless as you need your taunt for something coming up in a few seconds. Plus there is another issue with this that I will address in a moment. But keep this where it is as the other two tanks have a mirror of this, meaning if it gets changed for 1 it needs to be changed for all three. Current Six piece; Again, I’ll be honest. I don’t use this at all. To me it is absolutely garbage and when you take 2 things into account, it feels like Sin’s got the short end of the stick. Personally, I have a habit of pressing my Dark Ward button, even when I’m not tanking. It is like a tick I developed from tanking for so long on a Sin. I always seem to press it just as it falls off, or within a second of it falling off. And with this set I feel like, it is not needed. I can honestly count on my hands how many bosses have caused me to lose my dark ward stacks (the default amount of them). And most of them are very rapid fire or add heavy fights. I also feel like the six piece is the short end of the stick. I would like to bring your attention to the following Bioware & Mr. Musco. Mind you, these are quotes from your current topics going up in every section; Alright, every tank and even non-tanks should be well familiar with these set bonuses. I have to ask this, and I seriously hope I can get an answer as this has been bugging me since it was mentioned. Why was the 6 piece Sin tanking set not something from the lvl 55 tanking set? The Jugg tank 6-piece is not only a word for word copy of their 180/186 tier 2 piece, but an improved version of it (.5 seconds on Blade Turning and a full second to Invincible). The PT tank 6-piece is an increase of their old 2 piece as well, adding 1 second to both Oil slick and shield. Yet the Sin 6-piece is totally off the rails, it affects dark ward in a totally different way than before. It gives it stacks and duration to dark ward. Yet both Jugg & PT sets are a mirror of their old set and improved versions of it. I would like to see the 6-piece redesigned to be worth it, as it stands now it is really not worth it. I will say, I have a full 6-piece set just encase I needed to run the reduced CD on taunts because of mechanics. But I never put a premium on getting it for the 6 piece. One way I see to fix the 6-piece is to make it a combination of the old 2 piece and the old 4 piece as that is what a majority of Sin tanks that I know of run. I personally run it because it means I get 41.89% DR & 64% shield chance w/ dark ward (mind you it’s a 20% boost for me). When I go to full 198 armoring w/ new set bonus I get 40.73% DR and 59% shield chance. Sin tanks are already on the lower end for flat damage reduction (Juggs get baseline ~47% and PTs get ~50%) which means in theory without any shield involved we take more damage than the other tanks. So giving my Sin the 2% DR bonus from the old set bonus with the flat base DR of 198 it would give me a 0.84% DR increase over what I have now. Given that my Sin is in min/maxed gear at this stage (full 198s and 204 MH) I am defiantly at the top end of the spectrum for DR values, I do not think that this would majorly impact the “We don’t want the tank set bonuses to increase tank survivability by more than 5%” philosophy that you guys and gals are aiming for. If the idea of continuing with the trend set by PT and Jugg tank sets, then increasing each of the numbers by 1% would be 3% DR and 6% shield chance, bringing the DR value increase to 1.84% and at least 1% more shield chance (65% for my example above). Again, I’m not sure how much this goes against your intended statement. As I personally am not very sure how much the current Sin tank set affects the survivability value of Sin’s according to the desired 5% number. So any proposed change is hard to say, but I defiantly think the first idea of just replacing the current 6-piece with the old set-bonuses (both 5% to dark ward and 2% Damage reduction) is a very favorable idea. It is a minimal increase of damage reduction and to many an unnoticed change of shield chance. I hope that we can get a response to this, and I am looking forward to seeing if anything comes of this. ~Zen For those that may want the tl;dr version; 2 & 4 piece are fine, ether change them for all 3 tanks or leave them. The 6 piece needs a major rework, I propose to remove it and replace it with the old 2 piece AND 4 piece. It will on a min/max 198 armoring Sin cause a 0.84% increase of DR presuming said Sin is already running old 4 w/ 186s and a 198 head, chest, or legs armoring along with 198 belt/bracer.

@Xzelsius; I'd imagine evasion would work on it, hard to believe that it wouldn't be considered a ranged attack. But admittedly, stranger things have happened and its not without precedent. on topic; Yeah, just gotta heal through it sadly and use defensive cooldowns whenever he targets you, don't envy healers in Phase 1... Least Floor 2 isn't as bad on healers from my PoV (that of a tank).

I relish the chances I get to dps content, its a totally different world of "Don't stand in stupid and shoot the boss" vs "Do this, then that, then the other thing. All the while holding threat off 4 dps that can put out 4k+ each on this fight half paying attention". Totally different situation of laid backness for me to dps over tank. But everyone sees things differently *shrugs*

To address the issue about cross server; Cross Server really only benefits PvP. Because then you can have ppl from any server que up for ranked and actually face a global opponent base versus right now where all they do is clash against the same groups over and over. Whereas, for PvE it won't help. Every server has the same issue from what I've seen. There is a huge amount of dps in the game, which is understandable. Dps don't have to really deal with learning mechanics, they just need to learn a kill order for a majority of the fights in both FPs and Ops. Whereas Healers & Tanks need to learn mechanics, you have to be way more active. And lets face it, this is a game and people are gonna play what they enjoy. So majority play dps, and thus you have 8 dps in que for every 1 tank/healer. It means dps gotta wait, and tanks/healers don't have as long a wait (do we still have one? Yeah, but its not as bad as dps). On the main subject of this thread; I once spit-balled the idea of a reward system with a guildie. Basically when you select your role and the content you want. Once you press que, you get another pop-up that basically says how many of that given role are in the que and shows the rewards you have available. So for example there would be the following options; Deco lockbox (random deco you can get from any FP and any SM Op that you can que for) Credit Box (straight forward) Comm box (contains Ult/Elites/Basic comms at a set ratio) Gear box (open it and you get a CHANCE at a new MK model, MK-3. Which are basically the min/maxed mods/enhancements from the SM Op gear tier but without the armoring bonus. But you can also get MK-1 and MK-2 as well) Now, the little pop-up also shows a modifier. That modifier would directly impact the actual box you get. Split into 3 tiers, that are based around how many are in the que at the time (maybe not calc'ed out that moment, might be done once every 30 minutes or 15 minutes depends on the back end they have). But based on the tier those rewards I mentioned above would actually be different, a different box version. So if your role is a Tier 1 priority, then you get the MK-1 box, Tier 2 a MK-2 box, and Tier 3 a MK-3 box. Which would do the following; Deco; chance at multiple decos, and a higher chance at rarer decos. Credit; More credits, simple. Comm box; More comms Gear box; higher chance at the new MK-3 models Now, I kinda based this idea off of the reasons my guildie and I were que'ing. At the start it was for gear and comms to get more gear, and now its for deco. And all the while, the credits we got were put to great use in repairs/mod ripping/deco buying/etc. And with the addition of the tier of boxes it will encourage more Tanks & Healers as I hate to say it but this would favor them. But at the same point, if the goal is to make the que pop more often for GF then this would defiantly be a step in the right direction. At the same time, I feel like it would encourage more of the "DPS que'ing as a Tank" and "DPS que'ing as a Healer" thing. So makes me wonder if they could add a flag so that you at least need to be IN tank spec in order to have the tank box checkable (mechanics already check for your Discipline, Styrak's Nightmare mechanic was coded to put a lesser priority on healers). At least then they'd be in the tank spec or healer spec, even if their gear isn't for that. As gear is way harder to check for, especially considering you can carry a set of gear for both roles. Alas. The chances of something like this are probably slim, but I defiantly think a reward system is a way to go. Reward the tanks & healers for taking on roles that are not easy and are not simple. You never know, that DPS that is running around might actually make a really good tank or a really good healer. They just need that kick to get them into that other role. In the end, its my 2cents and I can only hope that Bioware will do something to help DPS with que times. Been that DPS waiting for a que, so not a fan cause it sucks. ~Zen

I would imagine that the carbonite bit will get explained. I am calling it now that this plays out; Vitiate somehow plays a role in this. He's being billed as thinking of us as a toy (he muses on leaving us alive for his own entertainment at the end of Ziost), so it makes sense that he's actually wounds us so gravely that the only way we could be saved was to be frozen in carbonite as while in carbonite our condition won't get worse. We're placed in a medical divisions hands and before they can fully prepare to unfreeze us and begin healing the Eternal Throne attacks.

I'm... moderately confused by parsely right now... I have these two parses; http://swtor-parser.elasticbeanstalk.com/parser/view/34741/6 and http://swtor-parser.elasticbeanstalk.com/parser/view/34741/3 Both of them are in the same day along with my boss kills. My confusion hits majorly with the server list for Shadowlands. For some odd reason, Parsely choose the one ending in 3, versus the one ending in 6. The one ending in a 6 is far better of a parse (nearly 150 dps more) yet... It just throws the weaker of the two parses onto the leaderboards for my server. I attempted to upload that specific log solo onto the leaderboard and it was never visible on the board. Am I just doing something wrong? Or have I stumbled onto a bug of some sort...

So about the rewards themselves I have a question; Will all of the rewards for ranked that are bought be legacy as an item? I ask because I really only PvP on 1 toon but have many other toons to my legacy that I just simply don't like in PvP. Would I be able to PvP on that 1 toon, and use its rewards to get stuff for my other toons (EI; Mount, weapons, armor, titles, etc)?

What is it with Battle of Rishi AND Blood Hunt? HM versions specifically. I had Blood Hunt HM pop once, while I was doing Gree things so I was mid fight with a small pack just as the group accepted and Blood Hunt popped. By the time I killed the pack (like maybe 5 seconds later) BOTH dps had dropped group. Are people just scared of it? I'll admit, I've never done it but I'm also a quick learner. So I highly doubt I'd cause massive issues as the tank. And my que seems to just love Manaan (think I've seen it pop like... 20 times now? with 5 days in a row in there). As for BoR, it seems like you lose 1 person everytime that one pops up. I get that the last boss can be tough, but its also a measure of RNG on how tough. I've yet to clear it without 1 wipe on that guy, but at the same time that wipe is usually not due to players being bad but just do to sheer add numbers in a single spawn wave. *sighs* One day I shall understand things about the GF in this game... But I think that day shall be the day that I truly go insane.

@KBN; So having both the Force Speed duration buff and the 15% speed buff is a bad idea? My last attempt had both of them, and while my camera was not facing behind me as I was making my way back to the bridge. I had this odd feeling that she might be double leaping on those rare moments that I would get a 3rd stack on my way back, like right as I approached the bridge. I had a habit of just trying to run away when I had a decent length of time on the stacks, but if I landed and I saw the stacks floating around the 5 second mark I Force Sped back to just straight distance myself from her. Which would you suggest for the fresh pulling guy to try first? the 15% movement buff? Or Force Speed Duration?

Recently been getting back into tanking the Council on NiM on my Sin. Which brings about a question. Can someone explain to me the kite strat/method? Or have a really good example of it? I see to have almost 50/50 luck on it, but I'm sure its possible as a tank in my guild has done it this way. Sadly I have not had a chance to ask that tank, and they don't play as much anymore. I will be sending them a message but I was looking to get advice from tanks at large (especially Sins). My method of doing it has been so far; Sit on the edge of the bridge, and get knocked all the back across the Holocron in the middle, I run back towards the edge (not where I was knocked from) a few steps after she jumps to me, then I proceed to run/force speed back towards the bridge taking a little right or left curve to it. If all goes well, I lose the stacks as I'm approaching the second set of crystals as I'm walking down the bridge. I proceed to turn around and do it again. However I've had like... bad luck sometimes and just as I'm about to get to the bridge, BAM. Stack. Anyone able to offer advice?

I'm sure there are other threads on this, hell I just peaked into one on this but it seemed to be more about lvl'ing wise then purely at 60. So I've been putting together my PvP set slowly, think I'm closing in on 5 pieces out of the 6 I need for a full set. And I am not really sure what spec is good (Hatred vs Deception). My questions are as follows; 1. What do each specs bring to the table in a PvP setting? I'm mostly a tank and do PvE content, so I have only knowledge of the dps specs from that PoV. 2. Is there a spec that kind of, out does the other? Like for example, after the changes to Madness pre 3.0 it became the go to spec for Sin dps in Ops. Is there something similar in the current state of PvP? 3. When it comes to Regs vs ranked, do the above change? Thanks in advance for the help ~Zen

I use to do GF Ops but that was when it was an 8m GF. When it became 16m I personally lost complete interest in it. As organizing 7 other ppl to follow the same strat, mich easier then getting 15 others. Plus some bosses in these current Ops are just so... Unfun and wrong for 16m vs 8m (Torgue comes to mind). But again this is me, and my opinion on the matter.

So last night I ran the HM 55 que as a lvl 60. We sped through the FP for the most part and when we hit the cap to summon the Asteroid Beast, finished killing the pack by the console and activated it. Nothing spawned. I submitted a ticket ingame and figured I would post here as well. See if anyone else saw this occur, and no it was not just a delayed spawn. I sat where he spawns and wrote out the ingame ticket, then AoE taunted just to see if he was there but invisible on my screen (along with the other 3). ~Natsu

Secret option C; Old 4 piece Survivor + new 2 piece Survivor I forget the thread exactly but it is here somewhere I linked it to my guildies. But the short and skinny of it was that the old 180/186 4 piece completely outshines the 6 piece in a vast majority of fights, only exceptions are add heavy fights or fights with rapid quick hitting attacks. The reason this is, is the 4 piece is +2 to all DR we have, so in full 186s (set) you will have more flat DR then you will in full 192s (set) AND full 198s (set). I forget what the fellow exactly said but it was something like 210 rating gear needs to be added to give us the flat DR from armor alone to make the old 4 piece useless. This does not factor in the free 5% shield from the old 2 piece ether... Now, in regards to this idea presented here vs the two tank sets. Absorb is a percent chance of occurring, sure you can keep the 30% from reckless up more, but that relies so heavily on your shield rating and actually shielding an attack. The chance is slim, but it does exist, that for the entire time you have the reckless buff you do not shield. In which case you have effectively gained no extra mitigation, yes the chance is very slim but it's still that. A chance. Where as 2% flat DR that works on all damage types, is not chance. I personally, will stick with the flat mitigation over the percentage based one. Sin's are already suspect to a lot of RNG in fights with shield rating. I prefer minimizing the role RNG plays in my survivability by as much as humanly possible. Ps; Please excuse any misspellings or odd word placements, my phone and I disagree on sentences a lot.

Yes and no. I highly doubt that they changed it since Early Access. The rock was clicked on by my guildmate and he summoned the Sea Creature (he then died). The buffs from the datacron make it so the Sea Creature does not try and kill you, it instead summons friendly versions that unlock everything. To my understanding the Sea Creature drops nothing, as it was just a flavor thing they added to the game.

The only reason that comes to mind as to why this wouldn't work is that you guys did not clear off the barrels. Each one is "held" by a dread tentacle that needs to be removed (clicking and channeling works) before they are bombable with the boss. Otherwise I got nothing for ya. I only did this recently and I did it with two people total, no issues killing him.

I had a semi amusing run of TfB GF after the 16m GF change ; Was formed on fleet, I whisper the guy saying I can tank. Get in and the first question I see; "Hitl you gonna be okay for this?", my Jugg's name beginning with Hito of course and I responded with the "it's GF right? So I will get bolstered up with 160something". The run itself was... Mundane, had an Ops Leader that ether; A. Did not know the Ops at all. B. Ran it so long ago he legitimately forgot. So I explained the mechanics post Writhing. Turns out at least two ppl were completely new to the Op. The biggest kick I got though was in Kephess; My cotank is from a half way decent PvE guild on my server, and is in 180s Token for the most part. So I expect a certain lvl from him, and he clearly knows I am capable (rocking a Corruptor Blade on my Jugg). On Keph he like completely derps, hard. He aggro a Keph, I leap in and by the backhand in my opening I am tanking. He taunts back, eats lightning and gets the "ignored" debuff... Never. Cleansed. It... At all. He kept taunting the boss when I got it and I told him in chat to cleanse in a circle but he did not. So I basically solo tanked Keph the entire time, thank god for intercede lol. I think I used that on CD to get around the Keph room. On a side note; A not so frustrating Semi-PuG. We were doing NiM TfB for title at first but Op 9 gave us to much trouble combined with a few mistakes on Guards, so title was off the table. But Keph... We had an amusing moment; Two PT tanks running around outside for the burn phase, two Sin Dps alive still alongside a Merc healer. We lost the other Sin Dps to a circle, leaving the two tanks, myself as Sin Dps and the Merc healer. The raid leader was considering calling it a wipe as Keph has like 300k left on him but amusingly two of the Dps said "Natsu's got this". Sadly I did not have this and we wiped with Keph at 50k or so But it was good for a laugh for sure

Hmm... Color me surprised. Though that does explain the random resist from only the end of Strike and not the entire thing when using Shroud. *shrugs* Learn something everyday. If it was from strike then all of strike should be force, not the last one. Least the point Lev makes about not messing with her aggro once she starts Strike rings true. The call in my group was just for stacks because of the RNG chance of dodging (which has happened enough that we had to account for it so as to not buff Monsters). @Lev; Yeah, except from knowing you that defiantly sounds like you

Wait what? Since when is it scream applying the stacks and not Strike itself? Cause doesn't she scream more then two or three times a minute? Like four or five times? Yet we only have to deal with two strikes between shrouds. I am curious as to what makes you say this when most ppl I talk to say stacks are linked to Strike.

From my experience in her, both HM and NiM, I have seen the stacks break from one main method; When she first activates, if a tank does not immediately grab her. And she gets into melee range (might need to actually hit) another person before being taunted away, the stacks are out of sync. Every time I have seen the stacks out of sync with strike, this has happened in both HM and NiM. Edit note; I honestly think this is a bug. But for all I know it might be coded in for stacks to form on someone X amount of seconds after she activates whether or not Strike occurs. As for avoiding the stacks; Only a Sin has the 100% chance to. I think a Jugg might be able to via use of Blade Turning when they pop Saber Ward. Outside of that and Shroud, if the tank is lucky with RNG they can avoid it as well. Dread Strike's last tick applies them, so anything that would avoid that tick of damage avoids the stacks, including natural resist/parry chance. Tbh it is not needed to kill her at all. It's just a nice thing to have, more a luxury then anything else.

Gratz TIO! Go kill that council!

Did not catch the whole stream so care to explain; Emerson: same as Fadeout Only thing that comes to mind is Fadeout from the Deception tree and I am not 100% sure that its called Fadeout. But I presume its an AoE damage reduction?

Two words sum up Sorcs in 3.0 pretty well (granted I did NOT catch the entire stream only like the last ten minutes mixed up timezones); UNLIMITED POWER!!!!! Nuff said. In reality, I do not play a Sorc much but these changes that I learn encourage me cause it means more awesome for all classes, and since I play a Madness/Tank Sin a lot. I can draw some parrells between Madness and what is now called Hatred.