I'm going to assume you're talking about endgame PvE. You might want to check out this thread at sithwarrior. In the stats section it'll show you roughly the softcaps for different stats. Bear in mind the softcaps in TOR are fluid - they're really the point at which other stats become more desirable, they don't actually become worthless. As a VG you want to start by stacking defense, as we're way behind the other 2 tanking trees on dodge. Once your gear is decent, the consensus seems to be absorb > def > shield. But bear in mind the most important stat for YOU is probably the one farthest from its softcap. Also remember if you find yourself ammo starved, shield is your friend. Defense actually degrades your shield chance, as dodge is on the first roll, shield on the second. Apparently at very high stat values (theoretical, not achievable) defense once again becomes the most desirable stat. Clear as mud?

? Armor value is on every piece of equipment you get. Better items have higher armor. Though there's a few choices in gear at end-game, they all have very similar armor values. It's not something you can 'stack' or itemise for. It's a flat damage reduction on kinetic and energy damage. Were you thinking of wearing light armor or something? edit - oh, and my VG is at 51% DR... still in half columi half mastercraft gear... not sure what full Rakata is, I'd guess somewhere around 55%?

DPS should always be killing normals first, while the tank grabs strong/elite mobs. Try to grab opening threat on everything (mortar volley, explosive surge, sticky grenade, aoe taunt) then just focus on the big guys. If the DPS can't get the normals down without getting themselves killed, they're not doing their job very well. Trying to hold aggro on 8 or so mobs is just not feasible. Also, from doing speed runs of HMs alot of times, I'll often be charging 5 or more mobs with every single AoE ability on cooldown. Experienced and geared DPS will have all the normals down in a matter of seconds even without any help/aggro from me.

True, but you never have to stop to rest. I get so sick of my companions taking damage, and having to rest in between pulls, I just can't use anyone except Elara anymore.

Considering you're wasting a useful skill and using a GCD (where you could be doing damage) it would need to have a pretty massive threat gain to be viable. Even if it is 2k threat or something, that's over 45 seconds. You also need to step out of stockstrike/ion pulse range to fire it... I really don't see the point, as I don't have any trouble holding aggro in single target situations.

Yeah just got some xenotech vendor trash drop from him... definitely the last time I bother killing him. GG Bioware, don't bother fixing the important bugs, just make even more content pointless to 90% of your players.

If your tank needs healing during missile barrage, he's not geared properly/doesn't know how to tank. During AoE damage you SHOULD be able to focus on the squishies, the tank needs to be using a couple of cooldowns and a medpack so you can top off the rest of the party and yourself. And as said above, fighting up the front still works, that'll mean even less healing. Also make sure everyone has their own medpacks... it's pure laziness running without them. I burn through 10 or 20 every full run of HMs, just to make the healer's life a little easier.

Sounds like Force Explosion to me. Don't bother interrupting anything else. After he's interrupted he won't cast it again for a while, so don't worry too much about rotation. From memory he really only ever really casts it after he's vanished and attacked someone. Try not to let people stand too far away, otherwise if he pops out of invis the melee DPS may not get there in time to stop the explosion. Anyways, the only wipes on him I've ever seen were when I didn't interrupt Force Explosion. Ignore dark blast, the one he spams. And yeah, on HM it's capable of killing everyone but the tank.

The 2 sabers I've vendored from HM Kaon have had normal blue crystals. Pretty sure the blue/black and light blue are only from tier gear

Eh? The issue is the VG takes about an extra second to start dealing damage. So people have plenty of time to sidestep and focus the crap out of you. Also annoying for PvE, as your DPS will often jump then fun when they see you start a MV. Damn squishy Sage DPS love getting themselves aggro.

Staying in or walking out doesn't matter, IMO. Same as the poster above, I've tried dragging him halfway across the map (we had a gunslinger and commando healer both getting duped) and had a steady stream of adds incoming. They didn't 'get stuck' and all come in a bunch. PS - we still wiped

Screwing up the UI was a higher priority.

I would buy either Redoubt Ultramesh (T1) or Veracity Ultramesh (T2) heavy armor sets from GTN. If you can afford it, buy the (Advanced) or (Mastercraft) version - they have an augment slot so you can further boost a stat. A full mastercraft veracity set will actually give you higher mitigation than the Rakata ops gear. Less of everything else, but still, the dodge/shield you can reach with crafted gear is impressive. I started tanking HMs (didn't even bother with regulars, just get someone who knows the instance to lead) in a mix of blue and purple crafted stuff and never had any issues. edit - there are better crafted sets out there, like the lvl 50 elite vanguard set, but they're mega expensive for the redoubt/veracity version... even if someone on your server has the recipes

Haven't tried going back to a low level place to see how bad it really is. Might give it a shot. Right before going to D7 hardmode with 2 gunslingers and a sawbones.

BUMPAGE. The "Wanted Vanguard Changes" should at no point be ahead of this thread. It's like a piece of bad fanfic. Please sticky.

What about dps gear for a PvE VG tank? Just putting together a set to swap pieces out for untauntable/fast enrage fights (so I'll still be in full tank spec). Was thinking surge would be best considering the +crit skills for elemental attacks and stockstrike... and there's already loads of accuracy on the Columi tank gear.

You made it through HM Emperor and you don't know what stats a tank needs? /facepalm I knew they made HMs too easy... but I didn't think they were THAT easy.

Why fix things when they can mangle the UI and wildly swing the nerf bat at everything else? Oh wait they fixed.... oh wait, no they didn't. It was in the patch notes, but it's still broken.

I ran 5 or 6 HMs a day with the same Sage DPS for the last 4 days. He did not get a single drop. That's 20 something instances, at least 60 bosses with loot, and not ONE piece of consular loot. He was ready to /ragequit. Today, he got 4 Columi tokens in a row and a weapon from Behemoth. Get used to chance.

I would love to swap DFA for mortar volley, but that's about it. Oh and the PvE helmet... not a fan of the gimpy trooper one, though the body armor is pretty sweet.

Dark side option is faster, which helps when you're doing speed runs of all 7 hard mode FPs. *** would you want 1) watch the cutscenes again after the first time 2) run around hitting buttons just so you get boyscout points 3) really care about a few engineers when, if you're taking it seriously, the whole ship could be blown apart at any moment and your life is in danger If you sleep better at night knowing you own some light side pixels in a star wars game, that's great. I just like getting the FPs done without making them more difficult for myself. Now, if it was an irreversible decision in Mass Effect 3, I would have an entirely different philosophy, and would probably cry and chew on my hat trying to decide what to do.

All the missions from that deck where they're crammed together are short, light on story and only really good for doing maybe once. You'll get a quest called The Jedi Prisoner or something around level 30 - that'll encompass the next 2 proper flashpoints. All the level 50 FPs are proper story driven ones too. Basically theres Esseles, Taral V, Maelstrom, Siege of Kaon and Directive 7 on the fleet, then Battle for Ilum and False Emperor which start in Ilum. All the others are the short crappy ones.

Hot tip - RE some tier 2 purple recipes for level 25-45s... people with lots of money on their main like buying purples for their alts and they can afford it. I'm lucky to get 10k more for a mastercraft level 50 piece than a mastercraft level 35 piece, because the 50 market is saturated and HMs are too easy, so people are skipping straight to Columi. Aside from being able to make great gear for all my companions and my offspec, I'm still making money off armormech. If you think it's worthless you're doing it wrong.

This. Think of your aoe dps, explosive surge + grenade in the middle of a pack will reduce their accuracy and damage before they run off (if they do).

I would highly recommend abandoning that thought process for good. 3 skill points for around 700hp if you're dressed in purples... absolutely shocking way to spend points. If it was 3% per skill point it might be worth a look.