Tank spec'd pvpers must read this.
 

I am a Shadow Tank and I love pvp.

Guess what?! Shielding and Defense only work on normal attacks. You cant Shield a critical.

AWESOME.

I have to rethink everything until a dev posts on the issue. Just thought you should know.

yea it kind of sucks but you should still be a beast. Its not like there's a whole lot to re-think and change though. Its either dmg gear or tank gear for 50 pvp tokens and i am going full tank gear with a hybrid dps spec.

Boston post your updated tree, hows solo questing? Do you just Qyzen in DPS mode or bring a healer?

I have been tanking instances as pure inf and haven't had a problem so far. I look like this:

Skill Calculator - Star Wars: The Old Republic (SWTOR) Database

I do fairly well in PVP, especially since rebinding basic attack to mousewheel and focusing on using more force skills than just shadowstrikes. I can't wait for 50.

sorry this is the thread i was referencing:
STAR WARS: The Old Republic - Mitigation, the REAL problem. Also, operatives need a 2x dmg multiplier.

This is my build minus the last 3 points in Balance since im only 47.

Skill Calculator - Star Wars: The Old Republic (SWTOR) Database

I use tharan almost exclusivly. but that thread makes me think im missing out on something.

Just so you guys know: In PvP, as a shadow, you go full DPS inf tree with Combat stance.

That is all.

Jiv and I survive 5 on 2s A LOT with me guarding her and killing people. You do not need tank spec to tank in PvP. The armor mitigation is what helps the most. And you can't mitigate elements that I know of currently. None of the tanking tree offers anything that buffs your stats in general. The only thing it offers is one additional utility pull that I would trade for the damage output.

I've been rocking Combat stance full-time for the past few levels, definitely seems to help in PVP and the lost PVE burst in Shadow Breach has been sucked up by my change in play.

Plus the 5% accuracy hit is nice (does it work in PVP? What about things like taunts etc?)

See, that pisses me off though. Whats the point in +defense and +shield/absorb if it only works on the weak attack? Then they go so far as to put alot of it on the Tank PVP armor.

I picked a shadow over a guardian because I thought the idea of a tank stealther was cool. Little did I know they have some strange idea of pvp tanking.

It doesnt help the fact that Ive been crafting towards some really nice +defense gear. I made the lvl 50 blue helm into a tier 2 purple. and i actually like it better than the pvp helm, but oh well.

Skill Calculator - Star Wars: The Old Republic (SWTOR) Database

Kinetic Field and Force Breach can be swapped with Force Synergy. I've yet to try that. Alternatively, I can drop a point in subduing techniques. I find I don't really have enough GCDs to run Force Slow. If I'm really in a one on one situation, it's because I want my medal. Otherwise, I rarely use Force Slow.

The Tier 2 PvP helm > PvE helm in PvP, period. Expertise is just so good, and apparently, the budget cost on it is very low. So I gain like 40 expertise and lose like 20 stats from PvE stuff. The PvE will probably be better once you really get some expertise DR. But I remember someone in our guild mentioning it was a flat 20% before DR. Someone else said 10. Don't have the gear to really look at it myself right now.

as a healer that gimps themselves in order to support teammates, I'm a huge fan of my abilities being nerfed 30% by default.

Hmmm I may have looked at the wrong helm. It seems there are different levels of pvp gear? Cause this helm that I made isnt really close.
I dont know what I looked at the first time, but I am missing the point of Synthweaving right now. I think Im going to hold back on crafting until someone else figures out why you would even take this skill.

Though I would prefer defense over absorb if the defense did anything in pvp.

crafted year is about on par with centurion gear - lowest pvp tier, champion gear's better and battlemaster's gear are the best.

so yea crafting sucks.

Biochem > > > Cybertech > > > Everything else.

Yep, the only useful prof right now is really Biochem. From what I hear, they aren't buffing the others either, they're nerfing Biochem instead. I really have no idea why I took Artifice. At this point, I picked up 3 gathering profs on my commando for companion gifts and darkside/lightside points. PvP'ing my way to 50 starting tomorrow now.

i was doing that on my Operative but it got boring really quick to just pvp your way to 50 lol

I felt the same way on my Shadows but that was because I was playing against 50s all the time, and that ****ing sucked. Raping 1-49 players will be fun on my lvl 10 though. Haha

ok well reading that post kind of sucked. not really sure what to do with a tank class in pvp now as the whole point was to play tank.

problem is if i give up the shield tree (vanguard) i lose storm which is my charge ability and is so effective in pvp when you have that + harpoon. shielding procs my shockstrike which atm is my strongest offensive ability. I went shields to storm(charge) and then tactics to harpoon in order to get as much dps as possible while keeping storm and being able to play in Ion Cell(only cell u can guard in). I actually ignored the shield talents for the most part (aside from getting the cooldown reset to shockstrike).

I might be able to keep the spec and just go full crit gear and still do decent dmg with the mobility but i'd want to know if they are fixing it so i'm not buying all this gear when tanking could be a factor later on.

I suppose i could go tactics with ion cell but its sort of an akward playstyle without charge. hold the line isn't as good.

kinda ****ty.

Anytime you feel ****ty about your class just remind yourself at least you are not a Marauder/Sentinel that literally has zero useful abilities in PvP, and you'll instantly feel better.

I am 26 now on my sentinel and it finally has a decent set of a abilities, there is a lot of potential to the class, I think too many people don't understand that you are a dps and support class in pvp, tossing out damage and debuffs. Most people playing Marauder/Sentinel see a group of six people that have all their abilities off cooldown, Force leap at them and then complain that they die too fast in pvp.

At 26 I have leg slash that slows the target by 50% for 12 seconds and does damage, I have crippling throw that reduces all healing received on the target by 20% for 15 seconds (12 second cooldown), Pacify which reduces the targets melee and ranged accuracy by 90% for 6 seconds (60 second cooldown), and Force Stasis which holds somebody helps in the air while your teammates destroy them.

Not many people play the class, I am having fun messing around with it right now, but I do understand why people don't like it, it takes too long to get all the abilities you need to handle different situations.

marauders have a leap/charge

huttball ownage