In reality I never use the 8-12 stack stage as DPS in my guild is good enough to make that not required to solo tank safely, the point of it was to show how it was done, sort of as a multi purpose guide, the one I uploaded was a rotation designed for people with low dps whether it be people wanting to try NiM, saving burst for droid phase or if the person goes wrong they have margin for error, in the video I wasn't able to complete the rotation but I normally take 8 with OC then save the blackout for every 4 stack I take after besides a possible final one if dps if preparing for droids (as ill be using Force Cloak, blackout will be off cooldown for the 0-4 after using FS). With this It's less damage overall, using force shroud to resist all dmg (as well as grabbing an orb with FP and taunt if you choose), using blackout to reduce the dmg coming from 1-4, using force clock to stop her using Arching Assault thus only picking up one tick of it. so yes, you do take more dmg than needed if you choose to do 8-12 but besides that everything is reduced dmg. Then if we take into account that the tank on Kephess will never feel tingly and take 40% increased dmg. As someone has already addressed the Tank on Brontes will never get an orb so that damage is irrelevant. Dread Bomb going on you on the exact moment of you having 8-12 stacks is irrelevant, it doesn't coincide with Kephess jumping at all anyway, infact he would have already jumped and possibly be dead (like in my video). So yeah, grats on making an impossible scenario.

Again with the added 10ish% that the adrenal will give to DR that is further reduced, from personal experience when I take dmg its no way near 27k per hit even with just blackout, again from personal experience it is extremely rare for deflection to fail, and even if it does, a one of dmg spike from it failing is still better than guaranteed hit every time from using an unnecessary CD such as OC which could be used if something goes horribly wrong and depending on how late in the 1st phase you use it could still be on CD in the following phase. If it really "did" create unnecessary work for healers, I wouldn't use it in the first place. Not shown in the video but you can combine FP along with FS when using it during the rotation to ease dmg aswell. Not a case of "L2Threat" tanked the Kephess side of the phase myself when Our other Sin tank was solo tanking, I know its not hard. As for steath rezing, seriously? if someone has died from hands, kephess or somehow from arching assault (even the interlude rofl) flat out shouldn't be happening. No one should be dead by this stage, everything up until this is a cake walk. At what cost? the tank who is on Kephess duty NEVER will have stacks thus taking less damage as a result along with no chance of the boss ever facing the raid from a late tank swap of some kind from human error. Sure, having 12 stacks is high but due to the use of OC it is still more than healable and healers are alert to it, its expected damage, controlled damage, no one else is taking serious damage anyway, its more of a quality of life tactic which still works perfectly fine. Ok, you're not taking into account from the constant use of Maul/Assassinate/Thrash to proc an auto crit shock. Maul and Assassinate may not have the high threat multiplier other moves have but are still 2 very hard hitting moves especially if they crit boosting your dps. Thrash is the weak link here but will also proc your maul if shock isn't proced already and then maul can be used as a result providing rng favours you an extra chance to proc shock (same goes for assassinate with maul/shock proc chance) of course this is all rng based but considering the amount of this going on in between wither/discharge/shock/FL etc. So in conjunction with all of this, yes i was metaphorically speaking with endless moves/spammed because it feels like it when done right, even if you are unlucky with procs there is still more than enough going on to keep you mashing.

No need to use OC there its a complete waste of a CD which could be used for Brontes or Clones due to not getting the full use out of it in between it being pushed, hand not being up for long etc., forgetting about deflection? perfect for the attuned. running hybrid you can also ram a Exotech adrenal in there along with a Blackout making the Attuned damage non existent. Ok as a Sin tank running this method since day one of 2.4 its pathetically easy to do on NiM, infact here's a video to prove it. Also with the dps/threat "Myth" thats your personal push on the class, there are bound to be people out there who can push considerably higher. Sins have endless moves which can practically be spammed due to such short CD along with a strong opener for fast threat building, it's been said for a reason because it's true. So like you said, as a Sin tank

yeah i soon realized that when i was doing NiM OPS, completely re-geared my character since then so my stats have changed alot, anyways im resting on 33,013hp at the moment and rising. as im near maxed out I've figured out what max hp is and it's around 33.3k hp so im not far off . here's a screen of my stats, bear in mind i have an extra 20% chance with dark ward: http://s18.postimage.org/61mlmqc2x/swtor_2013_02_16_18_27_14_89.png EDIT: maxed out my gear and the highest hp possible for an assassin tank is 33,275hp how ever this is not the max. as assassins have a 3% endurance boost in their skill trees other classes such as the sniper with 4%, can get higher endurance but as far as the assassin goes this is the maximum.

That's not strictly true, with the new Dread guard gear getting high hp and high shield, defense and absorb is easily obtainable.

31,541 HP without the Rakata Medpac. with it around 36,000+. my own assassin tank. Screenshot of character stats with dark ward on (bonus 20% on shield chance): http://s8.postimage.org/xk1si7sol/swtor_2012_12_27_17_51_27_24.png