Here's what I've been using: Tanking: +Abs proc, +Healing proc DPS: Matrix Cube, +Dmg proc (pre-campaign version in need of upgrade) I finished grinding another 200 dailies and am wondering what to get. Are the PvP relics still best for dmg, and does it matter if you're Balance or Inf? I tank as my main setup but I'll switch to either DPS spec when I get bored.

http://mmo-mechanics.com/swtor/forums/Thread-Sith-Assassin-Jedi-Shadow-Tanking-Compendium#IIa Scroll down to the chart. Its very helpful. My question is at what point to we stop stacking Sh/Abs/Def and start stacking End on our Augments? I've settled for ~1200 in combined stats and added 5 +18 End augments to bring my hp up to 26k when raid buffed. Not sure if this is optimum or not, but it seems to work.

This is farking stupid. I've paid close attention to my dmg taken compared to guardians / vanguards who are similarly geared, and while I do take more dmg the self-healing mitigates most of it. We are very much on par with other tank classes and have significantly fewer defensive cooldowns. This will totally ruin PvE shadow tanks. If it ain't broke don't fix it!

Asking from honest ignorance here... Ive heard commandos ripped from quite a few people as being inferior healers. As I've never healed anything I have no way of comparing them. Our guild needs healers for endgame content, and I have no desire to level another smuggler since I already have a GS. Can commandos keep pace with scoundrels and sages when it comes to healing?

Use this chart here. Basically you want a lot of Defense early on, but once you get to around 400 start working in more Absorb and Shield. Get the 2 pc bonus ASAP, even if you have to wear Tionese. With gear modded with daily quest items you should be able to tank HMs just fine, except for maybe Lost Island. Start building a Columi set and go from there. If you want quick stats, get the Augmented versions of crafted earpieces, implants, and shield. They don't have the end/wil of the Rakata stuff from dailies, but you get a ton more defensive stats. I wore the implants / earpiece all the way until I bought the Black Hole ones. You can tank any FP HM, EV/KP HM, and EC Story with Columi. Getting a Columi set is pretty easy now that you can run multiple HMs in the same day. T5 should take you 20 min, and D7 / BoI / KuS 30. With a few hours of FP grinding and some decent cash for commission work on implants and the like you can build a respectable tanking set in fairly short order. Make sure you are working on Black Hole comms too. Get your Corellia weekly done and start running Lost Island for the weekly as soon as you have a decent enough group. No set piece bonus on BH gear, but you can rip the mods out or buy non-set pieces for some hefty upgrades.

Im curious how the armor penetration variant of Infiltration stacks up. http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#601McZhGMRkGMrtzZc.1 Is there any data on this, or would you mind parsing it for comparison?

Double check those numbers. 35% shield chance and 47% absorb is believable, but there's no way you have 35% defense chance. Do you maybe have 35% damage reduction? What is your raw +Defense rating?

Am I correct that Accuracy above 100% grants armor penetration? Are there any write-ups on its effectiveness? Most of the Black Hole gear I've gotten stacks Accuracy like crazy, and I'm already just over 100%.

You mean the 15% crit to Clair. Strike bonus? That's HUGE in terms of your DPS, easily one of the best set bonuses out there in terms of functionality. Saccing that is a mistake. If you don't like the robes then buy the Black Hole robe and keep the other 4 pieces. Or buy the PvP robe and swap in the mods to keep the same stats.

Regarding Earpieces/Implants/Bracers/Belts, which is going to be the most effective. For Infiltrators I'm guessing the huge amount of extra willpower will offset the loss of crit/surge. For Kinetic I'm thinking I'd rather have the defense and absorb over the extra sta. Thoughts?

To answer the OP, yes. I played WoW for years because of the PvP and TOR just doesn't cut it. I'm willing to give it time because the game is new, but if BW doesn't make some serious corrections very soon then I'll likely be dropping this game altogether. Generally speaking, warzones are ill-conceived, buggy, and objectives are not rewarded, or even shown in the summary. Combat is imbalanced, especially on Ilum, and even between factions with flawed mirroring. Ilum can only be described with language that would get this post deleted. The release version was far better than the population imbalanced lagfest it has become. The reward system is poorly thought out and implemented. There's no ranking system, and no ability to queue for specific warzones. And perhaps most frustrating of all, we cant form large groups for warzones... in a MMO! Again, I am willing to give this game some time, but at the moment pvp is far too frustrating for me to participate in. I'll level and alt and mess around with him for a while, but if improvements are not made by then I'm probably done.

Quite honestly it depends on your playstyle and patience level. Tank shadows shine when in the fray of things defending objectives. Partner with a healer using guard and you can do well, although your dps is going to be fairly low. Inf shadows can do very well, if you play them right. Look for ninja opportunities on nodes and 1v1 fights where you have the advantage. If you find yourself in a fray, look for low health or high value targets (healers) and bring the pain. Both types have good survivability, although kinetic is obviously much higher. Use your force speed for early caps, Huttball scores, and Voidstar runs. If you play it right, you can ninja a Voidstar door, sprint away from the fray to the next objective, rinse and repeat. With just a little bit of luck you can stay ahead of the entire enemy team and get to the core before they catch you. Its uncommon, but very doable.

What he said about doing the group dailies. You will get a Mod, Armoring, and Enh each day, and you can easily aquire 5 orange slots: head, chest, hands, legs, boots. Do that and in 5 days you have some rock solid gear. Check the AH regularly for belt, bracer, implants, earpieces, and generators. I went cybertech and went the distance to do a Mastercraft earpiece which has +40 shield, + 60 Defense, and an augment slot on top of it. You can get similar stats on implants if you can find the right crafter. Not sure on belt and bracer. Also, pvp for bags. Duh. Pvp shield generator is nice and cheap as well.

Qyzen for just about everything here. Have to manage his aoe, but downtime is minimal between groups of mobs and stuff dies fast when I have their back.

Yes, Qyzen, especially for elites. You need him to take advantage of Infiltration Tactics procs for Shadow Strike, otherwise you blow cooldowns and force energy for stuns. I only SS when that procs, but your crit and surge rating should be such that this is a decent part of your dmg. I haven't played with Tharan that much, mostly because when I did he couldn't keep up with the healing. If you do it right, Qyzen can go 2-3 groups of mobs before you need to pause and heal. Make sure Qyzen has gear with high endurance/defense and don't neglect his upgrades. For several planets I spent my commendations buying him gear instead of me, since it was only a marginal upgrade over stuff I got questing.