The correct answer is still neither. The implants you get from doing dailies are better than anything that can be crafted and the armor from Operations and HM FPs is better than anything that can be crafted. Hopefully this will change in the future as all of the dropped end game armor looks like baked dog ****, but for right now I'll keep Biochem. Even after the nerf its the only one worth having and will stay that way till they significantly buff the other crafting skills or let us remove armor mods from the end game drops.

From reading your post you're having issues holding threat on bosses, which is counter to my experience. You of course should work to maximize your DPS and non-taunt threat, but you should also being using your taunts as needed. If you're doing that and still having issues I have to ask who is pulling aggro from you, DSP (melee or ranged?) or healing? Do you have another tanking class that is DPS specced but still using the high threat stance/power?

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I'd argue that ranked arenas are the fastest way to get PvP balanced.

Not sure what MMOs you played, but ranked arenas in every game I've been in (that had them) EXCEPT WoW had the best PvP community.

^^ fixt

No way to show it, but you can use alt+t (by default) to select your target's target.

Interrupts on a 6 second CD > ranged "tanking" which doesn't exist.

Are you focused on PvE only? If so I'd skip Unleashed, you do get stunned but the return just isn't good enough for the point(s) IMO. You _can_ skip Heavy Handed, but Back Hand is your highest threat attack and threat _seems_ to be a multiplier based on damage if that is correct (no combat log) reducing the damage is a bad idea. Shield spec is much better than a 2% mitigation. The math is a little hard to follow, but there is a really good thread here: http://sithwarrior.com/forums/Thread-Immortal-Defense-Compendium-A-Tank-s-Guide-To-The-Galaxy Crash is worthless IMO because the stun is so short its only good as an interrupt which isn't spammable. Yes As far as Accuracy goes most people who raid shoot for 108% or 110% to deal with Boss defense. On Unstoppable, I've actually considered this (running a 31/10 build atm) but giving up Crushing Blow (and not having another heavy hitter to replace it) seems to be too much to deal with something that only happens at the beginning of a fight (usually). If you're going to PvP obviously this is a different story.

I couldn't disagree more and I've been PvPing since day 1. Player skill & teamwork should be the most important determining factor in PvP. Gear differences should be minimal. I'd personally prefer cooler looking sets for BM rather than "I win" stats. To the OP, if you've gone to rank 67 then you really ought to be a good PvP'er. If you're not then you deserve to get your *** kicked after spending all that time.

Its much faster in our experience to run x2 8 person Ops than it is to run a single 16 person. We've tried it both ways, but the 16 person Ops seem more buggy and the tuning is poor IMO.

this^^^ get it and use it every time its off cooldown.

I didn't say it didn't lower our DPS, taking out the only skill that isn't on GCD of course lowers DPS. What I said is that it doesn't lower it enough to matter. I should have added, enough to matter in regards to threat.

While I appreciate the assumption of my awesome skills I don't think that's what is actually happening. I certainly don't think I am better than the Assassin and Power Tech tanks in my guild. I DO think that that there is really only one viable tanking build for Juggs (high Immortal) for most people. I also see a lot of people trying to tank (this includes all the classes) with less than optimal gear.

The point is that taking Retaliation away doesn't lower our DPS and there by our threat by enough to matter. I happen to agree that we should be able to use it against all bosses, but not because of threat.

This is tanking in general in this game. ALL tanks in SWTOR have to use taunt on occasion and frankly its a better mechanic (because of how taunt works, ie it doesn't increase your threat) than in other games where once you get the mobs stuck to they aren't going anywhere else no matter what your DPS does.

OK, now I'm confused. Is your issue survival against SOA or holding aggro? Certainly anything that doesn't let us use Retaliation lowers our damage mitigation but it has nothing to do with threat...

Everything you list may be accurate, but we've run all of the content with all of the tanks on the Imp side and not seen any measurable differences in total performance. To get a true measure of all the classes you'd need to do a lot of runs with the same people, same tier of gear, and (this is the hardest one) equally effective builds. IF there are real differences we don't see them and on any of our runs (6 per week) the MT might be an Assassin, Power Tech, or Juggernaut just depending on the schedule.

I'm sorry, but I don't believe the situation you're describing is real, hence the flippant response. Losing boss aggro isn't a problem for any competently played tank class and who cares about losing aggro on trash? The trash that are actually a challenge aren't solvable via threat.

Exactly when does the scenario you're describing occur? AoE threat is meaningless for all of the level 50 content. The trash packs in the operations go down so fast that one AoE taunt and damage (Smash & Sweeping) is all that's required. If you have someone really pulling heat then use Intercede.

Mainly PvP DPS gear, but get 2 of the PvE pieces to get the 1st set bonus.

I'd say the converse is true. It starts being a problem when the tank (Jug or otherwise) is incompetent as well as the DPS.

Who on earth is trying that and why? If you're losing threat on a boss you're doing it wrong and no amount of additional DPS (which Vengeance doesn't actually provide) is going to make a difference. Intercede is important and use your taunts....I can't understand people losing boss aggro for more than a split second unless you're mezzed.

Which trash packs are giving you problems? The biggest issues I see in Karragas have nothing to do with AoE threat and everything to do with correct kill order. If you don't kill the technicians first and then take down the ones that spawn the murder droids you'll have problems. The other trash are really simple, i.e. kill the gunners first and kill the beast handlers or interrupt their fire bomb.

I don't remember that one off hand, but I never ran into any of the Heroics that were challenging enough to specifically remember. Having said that, kiting is a challenge, but that's why most (can't say your specific example) of the "you die" kinds of abilities are interrupt-able and Jugs (and most/all melee classes) get a 6 second CD interrupt skill. If you don't use your interrupts on a Jug you will have significant problems and you do have to pay attention to ground targeted attacks a little more, but then the PT/Vanguard does most his work at less than 10 meters so that's not really any different. I've kited through plenty of enrage timers. You just have to realize you're not going to do a lot of damage while you're kiting, but its not hard to kite and keep aggro between your two taunts and occasional high threat/damage attack. Jug/Guard does have poor AoE threat generation so do you have to pay attention to when you use your AoE taunt but in this game there aren't very many situations where AoE threat is needed. This is one of the biggest differences between tanking in SWTOR and in other games I've played. I have no problem holding aggro on any single target even when melee DPS really opens up and can keep it pretty well on a second (BH fight in Karragas for example). Having said that you must use your taunts and Intercede (especially with melee DPS since they have 1.3 threat multiplier unlike ranged with a 1.1) For example, handling the lava dog things in EV means 6-8 champion mobs at once. The group stacks on the MT and the AoE mayhem starts. Even though the PT has better AoE threat than a Jug we don't see a difference (we have several of each) in terms of damage on the healers and DPS in those fights. The tools are a little different, but the result is the same for us. One thing that I do see a lot with all of the Tank classes is poor item and/or build choices. If you're not geared and specced well in this game you will not be successful as a tank. I suspect those two items are responsible for a lot of the perceived differences as if you go into the various classes ALL of them complain about many of the same problems.