Are Jedi Guardians weak?

[Marevalak]

I am a new player and recently reached Level 32 on my Guardian yet I completely suck at Flashpoints and die extremely fast even though I am supposed to be the tank.

• I can't fight Level 15 boss enemies (gold star) and their mobs without the help of a companion (heal). I am Level 32 and can't solo Level 15's.
• I always focus my equipment on Endurance, Defense and Shield stuff but it doesn't matter... without healing I die very quickly.
• And even with healing from the droid (Influence Level 11) I barely survived fighting the Sith Boss in the Jedi Temple at the Red Datacron.

I literally received a single new active ability since Level 19 - Challenging Call (which is just some kind of taunt or whatever).

Heroic Moment can only be used with a companion. I can't even use it in a Flashpoint or with a group.

It also has a CD of 10 minutes, so it's completely useless.

Saber Ward has a 3 minute CD and lasts only 12 seconds. Ridiculous.

Other than those two, I have zero defense abilities. Only damage, nothing else. No heal, no shield, no damage reduction/mitigation, no block, no nothing.

My only heal are medpacks but all the different kinds of medkits share the same Cooldown. I can only use 1 medkit per fight and it only restores 1.1k aka 1/7th of my HP

Which is completely pathetic and pointless.

• Every single type of Loot that I can find in chests or on killed enemies is worse than what I already have.
• The only way to get better Loot for me, is by repeating Heroic Quests and opening these Bulwark/Pummeler Crates. Is that normal?
• The other way is queuing for Flashpoints that are all for Level 80 and being carried through by the 3 other players while I die every 2 minutes. Not very fun.

Here is a screenshot of my character, maybe you can tell me if there is something wrong with him:

https://imgur.com/a/Tldpfoy

Edited November 13, 2022 by Marevalak

[SteveTheCynic]

Level as a DPS discipline with DPS gear.

Really.

Specifically: most of the really useful tank abilities for the tank discipline arrive at relatively high level, for sure higher than 32.  Much the same applies for healer abilities, mind you.  If you play as DPS while leveling it's ... less awful.

[DarthSpekulatius]

Veteran mode FPs (are without Role que) are very miserable for Tanks without a Healer.

Tanks even at max level are just Damage Sponges so the Healer has an easier time knowing who to Heal, yes once you know exactly what you are doing you can often massively reduce incoming Damage, but if DPS know what they are doing they won't be that much worse.

if you just bring 4 DPS the Enemies should naturally spread themselves between the Group, everyone takes a little Damage, no one dies.
as a DPS worst case if you have your Defensives on CD, stick to pure Single target that way anything you attack should die before you.

Tanks on the other hand should grab all the aggro all the time, that's literally their Job and what they should train to do (exceptions always exist) and they have all the Tools to grab the aggro effortlessly. but Tanks don't have 4x the Live pool of DPS, Tanks (especially during Leveling) don't take only 1/4 of the Damage of a DPS.

 

if you want to Tank FPs, try finding a healer buddy to list with, if you don't have one play DPS like SteveTheCynic wrote.
SWTOR solved the Tank player shortage,... in the dumbest way possible (but I'm biased) by making support Roles not required during leveling Group content.

 

I hope you will enjoy Tanking once you hit Max Level

 

about some Points you mentioned:

On 11/13/2022 at 10:05 PM, Marevalak said:

I can't fight Level 15 boss enemies (gold star) and their mobs without the help of a companion (heal). I am Level 32 and can't solo Level 15's.

once you outlevel the Planet you are on by a certain Value you'll be reduced down to an appropriate Level, you'll keep your Abilities, I'm pretty sure you won't have lv 32 stats against any lv 15 Enemy, Levels won't help you.
You can double check if the Enemy doesn't have a cast you need to interrupt or if you are standing in an AOE (many AOEs are a little subtle if you don't know what they look like, try moving and see if the enemy rotates with you or if you can dodge out of a frontal cone for example). But Tanks are reliant on getting Heals that's just how SWTOR Tanks work.

 

On 11/13/2022 at 10:05 PM, Marevalak said:

I always focus my equipment on Endurance, Defense and Shield stuff but it doesn't matter... without healing I die very quickly.

this might be outdated advice, but you shouldn't bother with Tank stats below Max level.
defensively the only thing you care about is Armor Rating -> take the highest iRating Heavy- or adaptive-Armor you can find, prefer Crit over alacrity but those two are actually the Stats you want.
Shield & Absorb don't hurt you but you won't get enough of them to make any difference and killing stuff faster does mean it deals less damage to you. You don't need any Accuracy (Tanks get all the Accuracy they ever need at lv15), only use Accuracy Pieces if they give you way more Armor and Mainstat/Endurance by being much higher iLVL and try to replace them when possible).

if you are not wearing a shield (from the picture I think that's a Shield but I don't trust the icons) all Shield Rating and Absorb Rating and any effects that affect those are 100% meaningless, you should probably wear one unless your healer tells you they are bored even though it won't do much before max Level.

 

[ClavisN]

You are running the wrong spec!

According to your picture you have the Shien form passive. That means you run a Vigilance (DoT DPS) discipline.  That essentially means you try tanking with a DPS spec, which is not working well.

For a tank, you need the "Defense" discipline. That starts with giving you the Soresu Form Passive at 15, which does quite some stuff with your damage mitigation. You also get warding strike, which gives defensive buffs and will be be boosted by later abilities. At 23 you can decide if you want to buff warding strike towards defense or threat generation. You also get another passive that boosts Force Sweep with damage reduction buffs.  And so on.

Basically, switch your character to Defense, and read a Guardian tank guide. Yes, you can level with a tank spec. I did that way back when quest content was more challenging than today, and it seems to work nicely today as well. It is a bit slower sometimes, though.

I recommend forgoing the healing companion and setting Kira to dps, which should do the trick in most world pve situations.  And in Flashpoints, if you tank you need another player as healer (except for tourist mode, where GodBot seems to provide enough healing).

Another note is keep your gear current. That includes implants and relics. And don't forget maintaining your endurance - some people recommend forgoing certain tank gear (eg relics) in favor of normal dps gear just because the latter provides way more endurance.

 

 

Edited November 16, 2022 by ClavisN