I'm thinking about using a 23/18/0 build mainly so I lower the cooldown on riot strike, while grabbing Gut and possibly serrated blades or battering ram. If there is anything in pvp that makes me frustrated it's not being able to shutdown a healer that I've focused. Two less seconds on riot strikes cooldown should help a ton with that.

What exactly would you put in them? Just replace the enhancement mod like the previous poster said?

Wouldn't you lose expertise if you put a different enhancement in it?

Okay so I added up the stats from Supercommando and the others. Just the five pieces, chest, boots, gloves, helmet and legs. They all have the same aim, accuracy, expertise. The differences are pretty small with endurance. Granted I'm not looking at this with knowledge of how much each point of endurance gives at lvl 50 but here are the totals. Lowest End to highest: Combat Tech = 460 Eliminator = 475 Supercomm. = 505 That's only 30 more endurance then the Eliminator set with the same armor value. Of course adding the implants and other pieces will increase that, but it looks to be very little extra actual health. What are the tradeoffs in stats from one set to another? Combat Tech: Crit88/Surge96/Power101/End460 Eliminator: Crit - /Surge96/Power175/End475 Supercomm: Crit - /Surge - /Power - /End505/Absorb58/ShieldRate96/Defense58 Remember aim, accuracy and expertise are the same. So Supercommando gets extra absorb and shield rate, which is used in a minority of attacks. Some defense rating(58) which is frankly not enough to warrant buying the set. I would rather choose between Eliminator or Combat Tech, your not getting as much health as Supercommando, but thats all that Supercommando has going for it and I don't find it enough to be worth it. Now the choice for me is between wanting more crit(combat tech) or power(eliminator). p.s. if my math is off or I'm missing something or someone can go into more depth on this please do

If going 31 points in shield specialist doesn't really add much to mitigation what is the point of speccing shield in pvp then? If our mitigation stats only affect 3 of the 8 classes then I think I will be re-speccing at 50 as tactics/assault. I really hate to have to choose between effectiveness in pvp or pve. Since I work I won't be raiding so I'll have to go for the combat tech gear in pvp. This was not my plan though, I really wanted to be a tank in pvp. Hopefully BW will give us some insight into this.

I was planning on getting the Supercommando set once I hit 50 but after reading this: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=158112 Not so sure now. Only level 44 right now but I have one champion bag in my inventory and 1,000/1,000 of both commendations saved up to get five bags the moment I get to 50. I made a vanguard so I could be a tank that wasn't a jedi. Overall I really enjoy the class. The guard ability and taunting others in pvp for protection is sweet. But, is this all I can do as a tank? I've never felt "tanky" the entire time I pvped, and this was before the warzones were flooded with 50's. Seems after reactive shield is used up I'm just as squishy as anyone else. After reading that thread it brings to light how much my shield in pvp rarely if ever actually procs, with a 38% chance. Huge problem as shield spec. My desire is to tank in pve and pvp but I don't want to waste my reward from all those hours of pvping on gear that has wasted stats. What do you people think? Go tactics/assault and get the combat tech armor?

What do you suggest a Shield Spec Vanguard get first for pvp gear? The Combat Tech or Supercommando?

Liking your stream! Currently I'm only lvl 29 with my Vanguard but I love the playstyle in pvp. I seen your explosive surge hitting for around 1500 damage while in voidstar!