If you look up a few posts, this build no longer works, and at one point did apparently.

The general consensus that I've seen/heard is that you want to try to get to about 30% critical rate (unbuffed) and 75% critical multiplier unbuffed, and get your accuracy up to 100%, then just add aim/power as you see fit. But these are the things that you need to worry about after you get to 50 for the most part.

Actually I do a fair amount of PvP, and I run with about a 45% shield chance in my PvP gear. Since switching in PvP I lose my riot strike interrupt, but the one thing I've noticed is that my character doesn't stop screaming. I run into a Warzone and when combat starts, almost all I hear is the screaming sound that lets you know your shield activates. If you actually look closer at a lot of the abilities of the different classes, many use Kinetic or Energy damage, unless you come up against someone who's damage is almost purely from DoT effects. The only real problem with running a high shield chance in PvP is that as Taugrim had pointed out our shields don't affect critical hits. Depending on what you come up against in PvP (in terms of equipment and classes) you can easily run into people who can get their critical rate near 70% or get an automatic critical hit. That being said, as far as durability goes, I haven't been able to determine much yet mostly because I haven't had a good testing environment (with warzones, or ilum pvp zone you never know exactly what people are wearing, and in PvP equipment sometimes makes a huge difference). Note about why I switched: I switched over to using Energy Blast because from an ammo cost comparison that Kitru mentioned, which effectively means that you get a free Ion Pulse (when compared to using a build with gut, you could technically say that you get more than that, but I don't use many of the channel abilities much in PvP) and 1 ammo, which if you compare that to Gut gives you overall more damage. In PvP the first hit from Gut can be mitigated, but the DoT can't. The nice thing with substituting Ion Pulse from the extra ammo is that both EB and IP cannot be reduced.

It is actually possible to get affection for saving Jaxo.

You know . . . on paper it does do more damage, when I load into swtor this is what I see: Energy Blast does 786-803 elemental damage with a 15 second cooldown, it's instant cast. Gut does 695-759 up front, and then 877 internal over 15 seconds, no cooldown, instant cast as well. The total damage from Gut over the 15 second period is over 1k. Though I finally understand what you're getting at, because EB is off the global cooldown you can use it inbetween or in conjunction with some other ability like hammer shot or something else. Where as Gut doesn't have that luxury and if you add in the extra damage from whatever secondary ability you use overall Energy Blast should be getting you more damage in practice especially when you factor in the +1 ammo it gives you. side note: Though I've come to the conclusion that EB comes at the cost of 6 second cd interrupt . . . I think that's why I didn't like it at first. I guess I'll have to give it a try. Thank you Kitru.

As for the powertech I will admit I've only 2 characters (vanguard and sage) so I don't know what it's like playing other characters. About gut, I'll be honest in that I like it, I've been reading about how it's horrible for vanguard tanks and Energy Blast is better. I personally haven't decided. On paper Gut should do more damage because of the dot, and the main reason I went with it originally was because it was there next to Frontline Defense, which I found extremely useful in flashpoints and PvP. I run without Energy blast and seem to do fine in HM EV/KP and I've also tanked most of HM TFB (group split up when we got to the tentacles because one of the healers was too pissed off with the other tank). Again I'm not saying I know everything, I did try Energy Blast at one point and found I didn't really like it much, but ammunition management was a lot better with Energy Blast than it is with Gut. I will admit maintaining the screens is a little easier with Energy Blast, but I feel like I get by okay.

The biggest problem with the Vanguard and defense is that when your defense chance happens it interrupts anything you're doing. From channels to even a simple attack like Hammer Shot or Gut. I've experienced some ridiculous things like Full Auto where I dodged for about 2.5 seconds, and only got off .5 seconds worth of damage from it. It doesn't stop the channel when you're channeling it simply stops you from doing your attack. The absolute worst thing that has happened to me was during a gut. The animation goes, pull out knife, then swipe. I pulled out my knife, dodged and I never got the swipe, so I lost 2 ammo and did nothing. On the other hand I've also experienced awesomeness with dodge, where I'd have taken a hit that would've done 7k on me, and I dodged it 2 times in a row (I'm low on hp for the tough end game content as a vanguard, I'm slightly above 21k, where I should be more like 25K). This is why Vanguards stack Shield, Absorb over Defense. The numbers most prescribed are no more than 15% defense, as for shield chance and absorb chance I've no idea I'm still not quite sure. I've heard people say at least 50% of each I've heard people say get closer to 60% for both.

I've heard the max expertise possible in the game is 1380, here is a formula list that will show you what your expertise does. At 1150 you get - 22.02% bonus damage, and 18.05% damage reduction. At 1340 you get - 24.59% bonus damage, and 19.74% damage reduction. So . . . compared to someone with 1150, you're at least at a 4% difference (because of the extra damage you do, and the damage increase in damage reduction). The real question is if you drop that expertise is what you're getting going to make up for that difference.

I think this is situational. Also depends on what you want to do. In Huttball for example Hold the Line is more for offense, and Storm can be used for either. That being said something I've been experimenting with, which I'm not sure if I like it yet is getting Battering Ram, along with Static Shield. Last night I was able to post the highest damage numbers i've ever seen as a tank but I believe that's because they were wearing recruit. I'm not too sure.

This isn't entirely true, Taugrim outlined this, crits bypass shields and all Non-kinetic/energy damage bypasses defense and shields, ie. Internal and Elemental damage will not be reduced by armour, or shields, or defense.

Why would you want harpoon root in a PvE situation? In PvE if you harpoon something to you the moment you smack it with Stock Strike, or hit Explosive Surge (or insert your attack) you should have enough threat on the target that it's not running away. In the case where that doesn't happen, it's normally because the damn thing cannot be harpooned to you. This is a waste of 2 points in PvE especially when stealth scan doesn't do anything for you in PvE. I sometimes have forgotten to switch to a PvE build when running flashpoints, and I'll tell you that Stealth Scan root is useless in PvE. If you're absolutely wanting some PvP utility you should change your build because Neural Overload is something you'll want in PvP. Also in PvP Frontline Defense can be super-important (in my limited experience I've found it an almost absolute must), with it you can make sure healers don't get their heals out. Your last build I would personally not use, dropping Steely Resolve means you drop damage, dropping damage = less threat. Which makes you a bad tank. Tanking is tough because you need to do 2 things, you need to hold threat and not die at the same time. So you have to balance between both damage and durability. If I had a choice between dropping Steely Resolve or something else I'd drop something else, like a point in Static Surge and a point in Shield Cycler. I know I'm going to get a lot of flak for saying Shield Cycler, but in all honesty 50% chance to generate an extra cell . . . if you're already getting Energy Blast your ammunition management is so easy especially when 1 point in counterattack gives you the same shield chance benefit. That being said this decision is also somewhat gear/style dependent as well. Is your gear good enough that dropping 1% in shield chance is not a big deal? Though personally I think that this build won't do well in PvP, in PvE I'm not sure because I run a very non-standard build and I really have no idea what your playstyle is like.

I think this will depend on whether or not you're a tank. I've personally found as a tank it's somewhere between black hole and rakata. It will give you some better protection than rakata but you drop hitpoints, and aim. So a vanguard tank in rakata will have more hp than you, but because of the higher defense you'll take less damage. Dropping that defense though is going to be important. Currently because I haven't replaced all my pvp gear I'm wearing a few Elite War Hero pieces, and a few black hole modded (armoring, mod, enhancement) pieces with the Black Hole Implants. I'm pretty set for shield, absorb and defense (I must admit I've augmented 2 or 3 pieces with shield augments). I will admit though getting the Elite War Hero main hand and off-hand, in my opinion is probably somewhat easier than getting the Black Hole/Campaign main hand/off hand. Side Note: I haven't had much experience with the crafters on my server. I do know that you will want to make sure they have products already made if you want to deal with them.

It's a pvp build is what it is. It's not necessarily wrong.

After spending some time reading this thread, I feel I must point out 3 things. 1. This graph is outdated, however the formulas that the graph were from have been updated and are here. Justcae does however make a point that there are diminishing returns. For example, from some number crunching I did, at around 360 absorption rating for every 1 more absorption you get you get +0.05% absorption (it drops even more as you go higher). 2. This needs some qualifiers. Justcae you are correct that 25% shield and 50% absorb produces the same results as 50% shield and 25% absorb. However 20% shield and 55% absorb does not produce the same results as 25% and 50% absorb. I don't know if that's what you meant by a 1 : 1 relationship, I may be interpreting that incorrectly. However it is true that for all values of shield and absorb that if you interpose them you get the same results. ie. 10% shield 50% absorb is the same as having 50% shield and 10% absorb. 3. The above statements are talking about 2 different properties. The first one by JustCae is refers to the number of incoming attacks. It means that 66% of incoming energy or kinetic attacks will result in you dodging or your shield activating. The second statement by MattFrontino refers to the amount of damage actually mitigated by your shield absorbing damage, or you dodging it. The other thing I feel is somewhat pertinent is that the math in both cases is correct. So having 15% dodge, 60% shield and 60% absorb will result in 66% of kinetic/energy attacks being dodged or absorbed and have 45.6% of the damage from kinetic/energy attacks being mitigated from either dodge or absorbtion. However that being said I'm not very familiar with what is/isn't possible so I don't know if 15% dodge, 60% shield, and 60% absorb is possible.

I always thought it was 2 pistols one laid ontop of the other one.

You are correct, the build is a variation of sorts on the Iron Fist build which I know is not viable anymore. At the time I posted this, I had found the Iron Fist build as an example of a vanguard tank build. I read some amount of material on tanking and I was trying to think of a way to maintain the higher damage mitigation. I was debating between 2 points in Shield Cycler or 2 points in Ceramic Plating, I didn't realize what i posted was 2 points in Shield Cycler. So the obvious thought process behind Shield Cycler is that it could be useful to recharge ammunition. However that's unreliable in PvP at best. Ceramic Plating is . . . not much better because of the absorption buff, but the immediate and constant benefit is Adrenaline Rush . . . which I have no idea how useful it is in PvP. The one thing I am confused about your response though is when you say: I don't think I know exactly what you're talking about. I believe you're referring to Heavy Stock. I'm just not sure if it's useful because when experimenting with builds I noticed without Static Shield I get a lot less use out of Shockstrike. I've found when experimenting with the build that TipsyDrow posted, earlier in the thread, that the lack of Storm is really annoying. I also find I have trouble with maintaining ammunition levels, which is one thing that I like about Static Surge, it gives me some time to recharge while I blast off some AoE. However I don't know if this is a playstyle problem or if it's because I'm simply not high enough in levels yet. I really don't know what to say about Static Shield. I love it in PvE (mostly because it works a lot), but in PvP I don't see my shield go off much. I mostly just get stunned to death. I also don't really know what is good equipment for PvP as a tank because stacking shield isn't particularly useful, probably better than stacking dodge since you don't get interrupted, but it's not the best option. Stacking defense in PvP, is similar to stacking shield. So other than Aim, Endurance, and Expertise I really don't know what I should be aiming for. I believe Alacrity may be very useful . . . but I already have trouble maintaining ammunition, if I get a lot of alacrity I don't see how that would help my problem. Though again I do have to admit, there may be a problem with my rotation. Again thank you for your time and input.

I'm kind of curious would it be worth it to get the damage reduction from both the shield tree and the tactics tree? For something like this. Granted there are still 4 other points i didn't allocate because I'm not sure what to do with, and I'm only level 33 so I don't know what would be a great build. Also I know the absorption rate bonus from Ceramic Plating isn't great, but I was thinking about getting the benefit of the 1 minute CD reduction. I don't know how beneficial Adrenaline Rush is. Again I'm just curious what you all think, as I'm still very inexperienced.