Can a Shadow tank as early as Hammer Station?

[Mashugana]

Do we have the tanking tools & defense we need as early as lv 18-20 to tank? Or do Kinetic tanks mature later? I do not want to offer to tank and let a team down?

[Gustomucho]

You will have trouble with the last boss. He spawn many adds and will most likely kill everyone if your group is not slightly over level.

 

Honestly I think hammer station last boss is kinda stupid since none of the tank can do mass taunt.

 

You can do it, but your DPS needs to be on the ball.

[Kitru]

Do we have the tanking tools & defense we need as early as lv 18-20 to tank? Or do Kinetic tanks mature later? I do not want to offer to tank and let a team down?

 

None of the tanks really have all of the tools that make them effective tanks at that level so it's questionable for *all* tanks as to whether they can tank Hammer Station effectively. I did it fine on my Shadow when I was leveling her over a month ago even though none of my gear had any tank stats on it (since you don't get appreciable role based gear differentiation until about your late 20s-early 30s). More important than your gear, at that level, is knowing how to play your class efficiently and effectively (don't use TK Throw or Project at all since they're simply not worth it yet) and knowing the fights in question: for the mining droid boss, you have to pass the mining laser around your group and kill the adds; for the 3 enemies boss encounter, you have to kill the healer asap and then burn the robot down; for the final boss, you have to not stand in bad stuff, face the boss away from the group, move out of his damage cone, not have your back to the ledge, and have DPS that can kill the adds quickly and efficiently.

[Skllywg]

I'm sorry, i was tanking pretty darn well Pre-HS. just manage aggro and focus down the weakker targets first. If you can do good there, you will do great down the line.

[Mashugana]

Thanks all - I am a pretty experienced tank from other MMOs. Good at aggro juggling, mob positioning, etc. I just was not sure if the Shadow was there yet at level 18.

 

Also, I do not see a way to grab AoE aggro - do I need to rotate my taunt & project around the bad guys? Or is there an AoE aggro grab we get in later levels?

 

Thanks again.

[bruudoc]

Later on you get Slow Time for AoE grabbing (have to be careful of breaking CC though). I thought by 18 we already had Combat Tech and Force Breach, which should be enough initial theat for AoE grabbing on the pulls. I forget what level we got Force Breach, but I thought it was before 18.

[MAgson]

I haven't tanked Hammer, but I was tanking the Heroic 4's and that Sith boss in the temple on Coruscant well enough. Biggest thing is to mark targets in a kill order for the dps, then you actually go hit anything and everything that isn't CC'd so it focuses on you. Yes, that does mean dragging melee mobs with you as you run to the ranged mobs, but your dps just has to deal with it, becuz if you don't go grab that ranged aggro it *will* swap to your healer who then has to keep you and him/herself alive when s/he should be able to just focus on you.

 

For FP's... interrupt when you can, use Mind Maze before fights to help reduce incoming dps. Combat Stance + Force Breach is a decent AE opener, though you gotta be careful about CC breaks with it. At 26 you get a (low damage) melee AE and at 30 you can take Force Pull to bring ranged mobs to you, so it does get a little easier later, though that doesn't help you when doing Hammer.

[DarthOvertone]

My Shadow started Tanking with Esseles (sp?). So yes, you can tank Hammer Station. However, someone above mentioned something important. You will have trouble with multi-mob aggro. You will just have to give some of it up and hope your DPS party members can handle it. Just make sure you lock down the toughest mobs in the mix.

[Leverage]

i have tanked fps in my mid 30s as balance in combat spec.

[xaoshaen]

As long as your healer is paying attention, you should be fine. As a Shadow, I duoed Hammer Station at 17 with my usual partner, playing a 17 Sage.

 

As was mentioned earlier, none of the tanks have much in the way of tank abilities at that level, so as long as you're in the correct stance you should be fine. If you do have aggro issues, you may want to move guard from your healer to a DPS. If Guard isn't enough to keep a DPS alive, boot 'em for a companion! Since Qyzen is both terrible and has threat reduction in his DPS stance, it wasn't an issue for us, and I could keep Guard on my healer.

 

Ahhh companions, you can turn off their AE, you can make them attack the correct mob, you can keep them from breaking CC, and they don't roll on your loot! What's not to love?

[Darthshnooky]

My Shadow started Tanking with Esseles (sp?). So yes, you can tank Hammer Station. However, someone above mentioned something important. You will have trouble with multi-mob aggro. You will just have to give some of it up and hope your DPS party members can handle it. Just make sure you lock down the toughest mobs in the mix.

 

Esselles is designed for 2 players and does not require a tank or healer. Characters in Esselles typically do not have taunts or tanking stances and so there are no actual tanks at that point, just folks in high armor trying to build threat through DPS. Hammer Station is the first real Flashpoint where someone can actually tank, requiring 4 players and having enemies that hit hard enough for a tank and healer to be important.

[rocdogg]

My latest alt is a shadow and I tanked HS as Infiltration. I had Mind Control, so must have been 16. You'll be fine.