Based on my own experiences in the game, I find this hard to believe and would love if you can clarify a bit more. A while back there was one threat theory floating around that threat was based on each tick of damage done on a boss [e.g. each time you see a number over mob's head, no matter what that number is, it is equal to 1 threat (+/- modifiers)]. This theory helped explain why classes like Marauders and Sorcerers pulled a lot more than others despite not being top DPS. As an experiment, I decided to use ONLY RAPID SHOTS on some boss pulls to put the theory to the test because it had multiple damage "ticks" per GCD. I did this for an entire Hard Mode EV run and found that it worked surprisingly well, rarely needing to taunt or use any other abilities to hold aggro. My guild leader and I did more testing and ultimately disproved the theory that 1 tick of damage = 1 threat, but that is beside the point. If threat is directly related to the numerical value of damage done, why could I hold aggro with the base level 1 "auto-attack" ability? It certainly isnt my highest damage per GCD ability.

Interesting. As our guild's main tank I never had any issues on any of the fights. Gharj could get a little hairy during frenzies on NM but rarely needed a CD (maybe a relic). For Foreman Crusher I would use oil slick every time and my shield cooldown on the first frenzy then on the second one an adrenal + relic + (predation or sniper wall or healer cooldowns), then rinse and repeat. We never had any issues. You said you were fine in EV and KP last night. Was it 8 or 16? and was it nightmare mode? Have you tried out Explosive Conflict yet? I would greatly appreciate some feedback if/when you get into EC hard mode.

I am not terribly familiar with the various Jugg tank builds as I am not a Jugg and have not played one since beta. That said, I think he was some vengeance tank build that supposedly has better overall mitigation(?). We struggled a lot with our Jugg tank, he just didnt have near the survivability that our Assassin or Powertech tanks did pre 1.2. I have also played with the player behind the character in other games and he did wonderfully in any role he played. In other words, I dont think it was the drivers fault.

My guild went into 8man hard mode EC last night with a Powertech (myself) and our full Rakata Jugg tank. I will be honest, the Jugg tank got absolutely wrecked. We spent a couple hours trying to figure out what was going on before swapping him for an assassin tank. Once we brought in our (not full rakata) Assassin, we downed the boss in a handful of attempts. All three of us compared our stats and the Jugg was significantly worse off. He had lower HP, much lower shield and absorb % and not enough def % to make up the difference. I know that Juggs werent the best tanks pre 1.2 but now they seem completely broken. What are other guilds finding? Are your Jugg tanks working out for you?

If you go to the various PvP vendors they sell "kits" for 50k credits that when opened (like a lockbox) give you schematics to learn the orange version. FYI: The valor ranks still apply. (Battlemaster = valor 60, war hero = valor 70). You can make it, you just cant wear it if you dont have the valor rank. For example: -I purchase the Battlemaster Combat Tech kit for 50,000 credits from the BM vendor. -I receive an item in my inventory -Right click item, it opens a loot window with 5 orange schematics (Head, Chest, Gloves, Legs, Boots) -I learn the schematics -I start crit crafting my gear They did this for all of the Battlemaster and Warhero gear (as far as I can tell). So yes, THERE ARE ORANGE GLOVES AND BOOTS for armormechs. As for belts and bracers...I am just as lost as all of you.

I crafted maybe upwards of 70 or so items and ended up with 10 or 12 augemented pieces.

I got a patter for a low level orange jedi robe yesterday from an alt that only has ~level60 UT. So yea, it can happen.

+28 shield rating augment pre 1.2---->>>> +18 shield rating & + 12 POWER post 1.2 Who thought that was a good idea? Why not give a more useful stat for tank augments like...I dont know...endurance?

Nice collection of SMASH Crits. One trick pony ftw!

Was there ever a question of it not working as intended? The problem has always been that snares/roots are not a part of the system.

Oh man, those nail biters where it comes down to the last couple ticks really are the best matches. As to OP, I had my first 600-0 this weekend: http://i42.tinypic.com/6nzin9.jpg Sith'ari premade on Pot5 server, represent!

I am glad to FINALLY see several threads where the community is recognizing the problems with CC in this game. It has taken far too long for this realization to occur. That said, the actual stuns in this game are, for the most part, fine. 4 second stuns are about right. The problem is that snares and roots are not on the resolve bar. They need to be, period. As other posters have said, knockback + long duration root should not belong to one class. ESPECIALLY when that class has a sprint to get away.

has anyone seen data on the % increased crit chance from companion crew skill bonuses? eg: Blizz has +1 amrstech critical. does that +1 = 10% chance (5%? 15%? 20%?) to crit on armstech crafts over a companion who does not have a crit bonus?

Thank you for the post Varicite. You make plenty of great points and I wont discount them. I would also like to applaud you for remaining civil in your argumentation without having to resort to hyperbole or being derogatory to someone that disagrees with you. To be honest, I had forgotten to include the CGC proc with the spammed Flame Burst in Pryo. That does add up to quite a lot of extra damage. Regarding the heals, 7% is lackluster unless it is combined. I never use just kolto overload or the vent heat heal, they are always combined and often with a medpac. Only in combination do they serve a useful purpose. I guess I should make one further comment about this whole discussion. I never said AP was better than Pryo, only that AP is undervalued. I still think it brings a lot to the table. Perhaps my perspective is skewed because I use Iron First as a baseline for PvP performance since I have spent the majority of my time PvPing with that spec (or something close to it). From my experiences, AP puts a lot of pressure (especially compared to Iron Fist) that never lets up on whoever you are attacking (be it a healer, tank, or damage dealer) due to all the internal and elemental damage and superior heat management. I also find Pyrotech to be less fun and rather faceroll-esque, although nothing compared to tracer missile spamming. To a certain degree, Pyro is too easy and gets boring. Some of the other specs provide more of a challenge to play well.

I generally loathe engaging anyone in forum discussions because it is almost always an exercise in futility, but I am sick of lolumadbro ******s being jerks for no reason. I was simply trying to make a case for people to try out Adv Proto because it isnt as bad as everyone makes it out to be. As both Taugrim and Oozo have commented in their respective blogs/sites, Adv Proto doesnt do terribly well as a solo build but brings a lot to the table for group play. All of my previous statements were strictly with regards to PvP. My apologies for not stating that in my original response. With the volume of stuns floating around in this game the damage reduction adds up quite a bit and makes your healers job easier. Hydraulic Overides is essential for this spec for various reasons. If you are going 31 points then you better have it. With grapple as your only gap closer (that you may want to save for a clutch pull on someone capping a point or running the ball in huttball) and very limited ranged attacks, HO gives you an extra boost when you need it. It can also be used very effectively as a defensive cooldown if you want to hold ground somewhere that a sorc/jugg/sniper/merc might try to knock you off. It can be helpful to reach that health boost or expertise power up, close ground to help out a healer, or simply stop someone from kiting you. Where is the elemental damage? Thermal Detonator = kinetic, Rail shot = weapon damage, rocket punch = kinetic. I am not going to count flame burst, flame sweep, etc because they are available to all builds. Incendiary missile (which you even said is "rarely used") and combustable gas dot are elemental, true. That gives you two abilities unique to the Pryo tree while your main attacks are all susceptible to armor. Adv Proto has an improved flame thrower, immolate, and ret blade (since I was talking about elemental and internal due to their ability to ignore armor). That gives AP three elemental/internal abilities that are used more and hit harder with synergy from HEGC. Before you attack flamethrower as horrible and "only used by baddies", try using it intelligently with the 50% buff on groups of people caught in AoE stuns. My flamethrower ticks for 1200-2500. WIth 5 stacks of the buff I can pump a lot of unmitigatable damage into an individual or a group. Think of it as another, and better, death from above that just also happens to be harder to use well. Yep, so laughable that the 22% healing plus a single hot from a healer or my medpac saved my behind more times than I can count in just a couple nights of PvPing. Or the times that those extra HoT ticks meant I could get to the warzone health boost and turn around to kill the guy chasing me. You arent going to burst people down in AP like you can in Pyro and you dont have as much survivability as Iron Fist so you need to play the longer game and outlast the other while pumping out the damage. Yes. I manage much better sustained damage with AP than Pyro. Healers turn and run away from the sustained damage output I have with AP. As Pyro they would get low and heal back up before I could finish them. Just my experiences here. Also, this was referring to PvP, not PvE. I tank in PvE and am not going to talk about PvE DPS. Yes. "LOL". What is your point other than to make yourself feel better? Personally, I would prefer to stick with my Combat Tech set bonuses as both of them synergize well with either a ST or an AP build of any sort. Sorry for not wanting to grind a second set of BM to play a spec I dont really care for that happens to also be designed for a different advanced class. Yes, I did. Part of putting that many hours into grinding battlemaster (the old school way) is being open to other ideas and trying things out, not just bending your knee to whatever people seem to have put up on the forums. One would go insane playing the same spec for that many hours without mixing it up. I do not believe I ever claimed that Iron Fist was an AP guild, or that Carolina Parakeet was an AP build, or anything even remotely close. Be realistic and dont resort to hyperbole and misinformation to try and make a point. I was simply adding context and perspective for my opinion on how Adv Proto plays. I guess they dont teach reading comprehension anymore. I dont even know what you are trying to say here. Are you trying to point out that an Iron Fist build doesnt have hydraulic overrides? That is pretty obvious to anyone who has looked at the skill tree. Right, one of the main elemental damage attacks for Pyro is "rarely used", thus contradciting your earlier statement about Pyro having more elemental damage. Even if it did have more elemental damage, which it doesnt, what does it matter if you arent even using it? ------ Agooz, I highly doubt that anything here is going to persuade you to reconsider your opinion. I dont plan on responding further to any inflammatory posts by you so feel free to have the last word if it makes you feel better. To any other readers, I strongly suggest being open minded and giving alternative specs the old college try. Play with them for a few days or a week. Play solo, play in a group, use them in warzones and open world pvp (if you can find it) before passing judgement. Just because the "forums" say something sucks doesnt mean it sucks. The Adv Proto build has some pretty amazing strengths and, if it fits your playstyle, can be a lot of fun to play.

Advanced Prototype is undervalued, period. The tree brings a lot of great elements to the table: --20% damage reduction while stunned --Hydraulic overrides --Fabulous elemental and internal damage that completely negates armor (aside from rocket punch and rail shot) --moderate self healing in clutch situations (kolto vents [7%] + kolto overload [15%]) --better sustained damage than Pyrotech because of superior heat management --AP synergizes with the Combat Tech pvp set better than Pyrotech does The lack of charge and no spammable snare means it can be hard to stay on people. But really, you just need to play smart and not get kited. Grinding to battlemaster and beyond, I spent 90% of my time using Taugrim's Iron First build with moderate Pyrotech usage sprinkled in. Iron first is awesome and I prefer it to Carolina Parakeet because I find retractable blade far superior to incendiary missile (mainly because of damage/heat). I dont care for Pyrotech because it has the worst mobility and least defensive capabilities of any of the builds, granted it compensates by having the highest burst. All in all, I love the Iron Fist build but am having a blast with deep Adv Proto. As a tank at heart, I love all the free rocket punches way more than rail shot procs and it is hard to argue against being able to ignore armor. Adv Proto eats up fotm merc healers.

It can be very frustrating in PvP to have a full resolve bar and still not have full control of your character. As many likely know, snares (slows, roots, etc) do not currently contribute to, and are not affected by, resolve. A common example: I am carrying the ball across a fire trap in Huttball when someone uses a stun and caps my resolve bar (makes it go white). I pop my CC breaker and am immediately rooted in the fire for the duration of both the fire and my supposed CC immunity as my resolve bar empties, and am killed by the environment. Are you happy with the way resolve is currently working in the game? Do you have any plans to alter the resolve system in the near/distant future?

Yep! Better to wait and see what this nerf will entail before claiming the sky is falling and screaming UNSUB!!!!! all over the forums.

Thermal Detonator already has a very high crit rate (tech crit bonuses) and does a crazy amount of damage. If it was elemental it would bypass all armor and do even more damage to the point of being overpowered. It is best left as is.

I was originally upset about this change because I one of those people that got battlemaster the hard way early on: without farming the crap in Ilum. However, these changes are for the best. Yes, people will achieve max level gear much faster but that will put people on a more level playing field. Better gear /= better player. If you dont do as well once everyone is at the baseline gear level of Battlemaster then I guess you just arent as good of a player as you thought. These changes are especially good for healers who have been feeling left out of the game for a while. My only problem is that I will get more valor for a loss come 1.1.5 than I ever did with 10+ medals in a win and multiple MVP votes.

It can be very frustrating in PvP to have a full resolve bar and still not have full control of your character. As many likely know, snares (slows, roots, etc) do not currently contribute to, and are not affected by, resolve. A common example: I am carrying the ball across a fire trap in Huttball when someone uses a stun and caps my resolve bar (makes it go white). I pop my CC breaker and am immediately rooted in the fire for the duration of both the fire and my supposed CC immunity as my resolve bar empties, and am killed by the environment. Are you happy with the way resolve is currently working in the game? Do you have any plans to alter the resolve system in the near/distant future?

It can be very frustrating in PvP to have a full resolve bar and still not have full control of your character. As many likely know, snares (slows, roots, etc) do not currently contribute to, and are not affected by, resolve. A common example: I am carrying the ball across a fire trap in Huttball when someone uses a stun and caps my resolve bar (makes it go white). I pop my CC breaker and am immediately rooted in the fire for the duration of both the fire and my supposed CC immunity as my resolve bar empties, and am killed by the environment. Are you happy with the way resolve is currently working in the game? Do you have any plans to alter the resolve system in the near/distant future?

On more point to add to the discussion, and I apologize if this was already said (I didnt read every post in here): Snares & Roots not contributing to resolve further increase the CC utility of a class that has an overabundance of CC and exacerbate the problem. Even a mediocre sorcerer should never be touched in any 1v1 situation when they can slow you, knock you back if you get in melee range (with a root attached) while they run away, then slow you more WHILE doing damage, then mez you if you manage to get back in melee range and break through the bubble.

It can be very frustrating in PvP to have a full resolve bar and still not have full control of your character. As many likely know, snares (slows, roots, etc) do not currently contribute to, and are not affected by, resolve. A common example: I am carrying the ball across a fire trap in Huttball when someone uses a stun and caps my resolve bar (makes it go white). I pop my CC breaker and am immediately rooted in the fire for the duration of both the fire and my supposed CC immunity as my resolve bar empties, and am killed by the environment. Are you happy with the way resolve is currently working in the game? Do you have any plans to alter the resolve system in the near/distant future?

It can be very frustrating in PvP to have a full resolve bar and still not have full control of your character. As many likely know, snares (slows, roots, etc) do not currently contribute to, and are not affected by, resolve. A common example: I am carrying the ball across a fire trap in Huttball when someone uses a stun and caps my resolve bar (makes it go white). I pop my CC breaker and am immediately rooted in the fire for the duration of both the fire and my supposed CC immunity as my resolve bar empties, and am killed by the environment. Are you happy with the way resolve is currently working in the game? Do you have any plans to alter the resolve system in the near/distant future?