A few silly tricks I've learned that help Sin tanking. Hopefully this helps: - Whenever possible (and viable), use force pull as a starter (but not at max range) even on boss fights where they don't move. It's free threat that you can't use often on the same mob. Also use it creatively on those tough elites.. Ex: knock one back and while they are in mid air backup slightly and very quickly pull them back. Again, free threat. Also as a "this coffee is hot don't spill it on your lap" disclaimer try to not pull something in then aoe it while it's buddies are out of range.. Not good times... - Save your single taunt for a little bit into the fight and using it quasi-often on things like raid bosses that don't dump aggro. Understanding that people get aggro on different % helps.. Like dps getting aggro at 125%, healers at 110% or whatever the actual numbers are in this game.. A taunt to my understanding brings you to the top but only "just so".. having a mob forced to attack you right off the bat is cool and all, but it'll do nothing for you once the dps starts to unload. Also on big boss fights you may be losing ground but you may not know it right away due to the massive hp %.. Bottom line, taunts occasionally = good. - No brainer stuff: Like other people mentioned here before, use your aoes on every cooldown, keep your def buff up (but not a priority before aggro), and if you are having energy issues with getting things off instantly use more free attacks in your rotations. - Throw your bubble on someone you can stay close to without killing. I usually guard top dps since it just helps.. But make sure regardless you're in range of them to take their aggro without putting them in danger of aoes or swipes. So if you have to guard a melee guy instead, go for it. Again, no brainer. - This one is more preference but i like to renew my ward and pop some kind of trinket/shield right before i mass taunt. It helps the healer not crap themselves and lets you unload aoes before dps starts to settle and you can better manage the aggro. Ex - HM BT, the first boss for instance.. That will give you the best idea of what i mean.. - Don't ever forget you have an interrupt and 2 stuns that work on the majority of mobs. USE THEM. Especially if you lose aggro and your taunt is on cooldown. Stopping damage from going to other players is your job... Making the healer fall asleep from boredom is also your job... Do those 2 things and you are golden in my book. Anyways, time to get off the soap box i guess. I hope the above helps.

Considering you're probably capped on your block rating I'd go with modding for more absorb IMHO... I think you'd get more bang for your buck but that's just me. I could see an almost 10% boost in steady damage reduction in conjunction with your other skills helping more during boss fights where they will do massive spike damage. (like in HM KP for instance) + If you wanted more def for some encounters you could always equip a +def use trinket for the aforementioned spikes thinking avoidance may help better. Granted, you'd probably take a 30 point or so hit to your endurance when you do so... But depending on your healers that's negligible in a pinch. Again, just IMHO.

Well, I did my sin grind to 50 as a full tank spec. due to me loving instancing and pvp.. I can honestly say that compared to my other 50s it was one of the easiest grinds that I've done at this point. Not to mention even as a tank I completely dominated pre-50 pvp from about lvl 40+ which helped my grinding. It's also worth mentioning that as a sin you'll also be a beastly tank end game.. In mostly "crap" gear i get roughly 49%-50% block rate most of the time, 50%+ish damage mitigation from armor, and every 20 seconds from my relic I've got 61%+ absorb rating from blocking things for 6 seconds.. That doesn't include the OP 700ish per tick lightning self heals, my 460ish self heal proc, and my rakata bio shtuff that boosts armor. ( I threw the relic in there because it's pretty easy to get doing all the dailies for 5 or so days.) ^Something to look forward to.

I agree with Eternal. Stealth is one of the most useful non combat skills end game imho. With it i can solo all my Belsavis dailies quickly and easily (including the 2 mans), CC the crap out of things if i want to harvest a node nearby a mob, just plan jump someone in pvp, etc. No offense OP but it sounds like you just don't know what you're doing.

That happened to me a lot before 1.2 . What usually helped me was to not only wait a few seconds before vanishing from combat but putting my companion in passive before i did so. If i did it right away it would essentially be a coin flip if they'd keep attacking me or my companion.

Sorry for the wall of text, but I'm going to throw my hat into the ring with this one.. I've been healing for a long long time and with just about every game or MMO i get my hands on.. With that being said, i have a Tier-2 geared lvl 50 Sorc healer as one of my mains. I run all sorts of guild HMs, Pugs, PvP, and Ops... I can honestly say that i am JUST ABOUT ALWAYS topping off my group in between pulls, regardless. It speeds things up and I RARELY EVER have to stop and I NEVER run out of force. I have also been doing this far before i hit 50, so it's not just my gear. IMHO it has been and always will be the JOB of a healer to pick up the slack in a group. It's also within the power of a good healer to pull and even carry a bad group though an instance. IMHO a good healer in this game should not only keep people alive (especially with this games quasi-hokey aggro system) but get people through the damn instance as fast as possible if the opportunity presents itself. I do see both sides of the coin having a 50 Powertech tank and DPS toons; And I do take the time in-between pulls to self heal as long as it doesn't slow down the group as a courtesy to the healer... Granted, if i see a DPS not self healing and he's at half health between pulls I'll smack them upside the head, but I'll also be thinking the healer is just being prissy. Bottom line for me; If as a healer you CAN keep the group at 100% and get done with the instance faster... ....why not just suck it up and do it? Where is the down side outside of pure laziness? Who cares if the group sucks... Just get it done with as fast as possible, be the "unsung" hero, and "blacklist" them if it means that much to you. Just my 2c

Well for one, i wouldn't hold my breath for a dungeon finder tool... You can thank all the whiners in beta/waiting for beta for that one. My only suggestion would be to find a nice guild and hope that does something positive for you until server transfers come into play. Knowing this game however, we won't get the option ourselves for quite a while; Although they may consolidate a few servers here and there.

Unload is very situational imho. I use it to do some steady dps on an add someone may be mashing on while I'm on a boss. ...Or even just keep dps on a boss during a 2 second window where my main skills are on cooldown so i don't overheat with a faster attack. It seems like i never lost aggro outside of bugged mobs doing this, and i keep a constant lvl of low heat. And to the guy who phased out MS.. Ever try using it on adds to knock down a lower lvl guy then step into him for a free shoulder slam? It's essentially a way to do an instant low heat 2500+ damage since shoulder slam has no cost. (and it looks damn cool)

I can't really talk here.. For kicks i made a Jedi named Luke. (haven't lvled him though)