PvE gear actually has more endurance than PvP gear. I was comparing Columi to Champion gear, and the Columi consistently had more; even the Columi DPS gear has more endurance than the Champion tank gear.

I'm definitely seeing the same thing. 4x 323 ticks over 12 seconds with 2600ish total damage expected per the tooltip.

Crit becomes bad because of overheals and reliability. In an environment where you want to keep the tank topped off because they can take hits that nearly kill them, crit is unreliable for when you need it and useless for topping off the little hits. In an environment where the tank is constantly at mid health; not in danger of dying, but in constant need of heals to keep from falling into a danger zone, crit is solid because it improves throughput. So far, I think SWTOR healing falls into the former bucket, based on running some hard mode flashpoints with an ~18k health tank and a competent healer.

Umm... stop trying to run the ball to the end zone? Have someone else cross the fire and pass to them. If the BH uses his stuns on that guy, then you run across. He can't get both of you. Or CC him yourself while you run across. Or use a knockback ability to get him out of the way. Or use a charge ability to skip straight to him. So many counters to this.

I think you're mixing up [shield] Absorb Rating and Shield [Chance] Rating, but your overall assessment that Guardians are defense tanks and Vanguards are absorb tanks is spot on. Jedi Guardian: Damage Taken: -6% (Soresu Form) -4% internal/elemental only (Inner Peace talent) Defense: +6% (Guard Stance talent) +6% for 6 seconds after Riposte (Blade Barricade talent) Shield Chance: +5% base +15% Soresu Form +4% (Shield Specialization talent) Shield Absorb: (no bonuses) Other: Blade Barrier talent (absorb shield after Blade Storm) Dust Storm talent (5% reduced accuracy for targets) Saber Ward (+50% defense and +25% force/tech damage reduction for 12 seconds) 3 min cooldown Warding Call (40% reduced damage taken for 10 seconds) 3 min cooldown Enure (30% increased max health for 10/15 seconds) 3 min cooldown 10% heal when using anti-CC ability (120/90 second cooldown; need to be CC'd) Vanguard: Damage Taken: -5% (Ion Cell) -2% (Ion Shield talent) -2% (power armor talent in dps tree) Defense: (no bonuses) Shield Chance: 5% base 15% Ion Cell 10% Counterattack 2% Shield Cycler Shield Absorb: 20% base 6% Ceramic Plating Other: 16% Armor from talent 4% reduced damage dealt debuff from talent Adrenaline Rush (15% max health over 10 seconds) 180/90 second cooldown Reactive Shield (25% damage reduction for 12 seconds) 120 second cooldown Vanguards definitely get way better shield mechanics, slightly better overall damage reduction from armor and talents. We guardians get much better defense bonuses and much better cooldowns. It's hard to say how it will balance out in the end, but as a Guardian, I'd definitely pick anything that increases Defense or Shield chance before Absorb, because we want to keep deflecting/shielding/etc. to keep Riposte on cooldown and Blade Barricade up.

Normal mode was designed for PUGs (i.e. WoW's LFR difficulty). Established groups are expected to start on Hard mode (which has a separate lockout).

I thought full resolve bar was supposed to help you resist stuns?

Those four people fail hard at interrupts. You seem like a marauder/sentinel, use your Force Kick (interrupt) or Force Stasis (channeled stun) to counter heals.

Or get your medals while completing the WZ objectives...? Guard the ball carrier; kill the people guarding a turret; heal the people attacking a door... The only medal that really needs to go is the 'solo kill' medal, because it encourages people to fight off in the middle of nowhere.

Anything with objectives and team coordination to execute strategies. Random OW ganking or arena-style deathmatches don't interest me, but either OW areas or WZs with real objectives interest me. I haven't gotten to Ilum or Outlaw's Den yet, so we'll see about those. I'm having a blast in the WZs so far. I have seen exactly 1 Sith in the OW so far, but I hear the next set of zones (after Tatooine/Alderaan) start having us quest closer together.

If you go down the tank tree, you get 3 stuns from 30-32 (Hilt Strike-melee 4s stun, turn force stasis into instant instead of channeled, give force leap a 2s stun). Late 20s, you also get Force Push, which is awesome on the catwalks in Huttball. Also, force leap is a 2s root untalented and Freezing Force is a 50% aoe slow with no cooldown (you get those pretty early). Before that focus on being a defender--Guard the healer or squishy dps and taunt anyone who isn't attacking you to reduce their damage by 30% for 6 seconds. You actually get rewarded for 'protection' in WZs, so abuse it.

Yup, like other people said, 30% reduced damage for 6 seconds to anyone but you. The AoE version (45 second CD, talented to 30) does the same thing for everyone in 15m. There's even a stat on the scoreboard at the end of the match 'protection' which is how much damage you negated or redirected via taunts/guardian leap/guard. You can get medals for 2k protection in 1 life (Guard), 10k protection in 1 life (Paladin) and 5k overall protection (Shield). It makes tanking in WZs very rewarding. Throw in some of the awesome CCs you start getting at level 30 in the tank talent tree and it's fun to play in PvP.

There's a PvP Weapon Vendor shared for all classes but he's off by himself and not with the class vendors. He will sell weapons of a variety of levels (more tiers than the armor vendor). On the Republic Fleet, he's opposite the class PvP gear vendors along the railing in the middle of the walkway next to the daily mission terminal. It'd be a pretty bad oversight if there isn't one on the Imperial Fleet as well.