I wouldn't purchase armor sets untill you know what spec you want to play. The debate ranges then on which one to pick. Most people go Combat Tech/Eliminator, with Elim being pure pyro dps. Most importantly, replace the pieces you NEED to replace. If yu have any columi gear dont replace it with Centurian untill said piece is the next one you willg et the largest stat bonuses from.

The idea of tanking in PvP is wrong. The better mentality is being a meatshield. You are there to take damage from another person, it is all about guard. Thus, it is all about making sure you guard the proper targets. Don't try and throw guard on a sniper who is getting jumped by 4 people, he will take enough damage to make you useless. The reason that Jugg makes a better "tank" in PvP is because they can jump to an enemy AND a friendly. We have Jet Charge and Grapple, awesome abilities, but they limit us because we cannot jump up levels in huttball to aid teams. Assassins work well as "tanks" in pvp because they can stealth as well as sprint. They have the force grab or whatever it is, but they shine grabbing the ball and sprinting away for the score. So a PTs "tanking" roll is to protect a ball carrier or a healer. As Pyro, like people have said, you will wreck people. Don't listen to the people who post their SS of 750k damage. Stupid crap like that is what gets you nerfed. If you are going for the objectives, you should average around 300-400k damage in Huttball and Voidstar. Void can sometimes be higher, all depends on teams. My style for huttball is different than most. I like it, but I will probably get flamed for it. My goal is to harass all ranged, i troll the upper levels looking for healers/dps standing up raining death on my teammates. Mercs, Sorcs, Snipers and their counterparts can all do insane damage when they can stand and shoot. My goal is to not let that happen. You should win the 1 v 1s vs those ranged guys, which helps the rest of your team move the ball. Never judge a class by lower levels. Everything changes at 50, the classes are actually quite well balanced (again gonna get flamed, but balance does not mean that every class/spec can kill every other class, it means that each class has a role it fills, and fills it sufficiently. I leveled as ST with Mako and loved it. I PvPed quite frequently on the way up and enjoyed it as well. Medals wont mean anything after 1.1.5, so dont worry about those any more. It is beyond easy to get the 4 medals that will count. Enjoy your class, learn its roll, regardless of spec and I can promise you will have success in WZs.

Everyone is speculating when the debate rages on which is better or not, considering we cannot parse combat logs. There are various methods to test your "DPS" on other mobs or whatever but none of it can be considered fully accurate till we can parse logs. That being said, as a pyrotech who raids DPS it is very beneficial, My raid group is 5/5 HM Karagga (not going to do nightmare until loot is fixed, there is no reason) and 4/5 NM EV (Just dont like doing SOA, its an annoying buggy fight). There are a few reasons that Pyrotech is good for raiding, I have not tried AP, so I cant comment on that, but here are the reasons I like pyrotech: 1. You arent confined to melee, now, dont get me wrong our DPS can only be fully utilized inside of 4m, BUT we have the ability, for a melee class, to still do damage from range. This is huge considering the majority of raid bosses cater to ranged. You can back out and still use abilities, therefore we dont suffer the same dps problems as other melee 2. With our CGC and IM we have DoTs, sustained damage is huge in a 6 minute fight, they may be smaller DoTs than some classes, but it is nice to always be able to have 2 DoTs up on the target. 3. Elemental damage, which was stated before, not a lot of mitigation against us, also, tech abilites and accuracy, I dont remember seeing ANY of my attacks/abilites miss, granted that could be a Bioware bug who knows 4. The option to forgo our rotation in PvE to burn, what I mean by this is there are certain portions of boss fights that require a 10-15 second pause, run around, switch, jump move or such, you have the option to smash thru abilites while letting heat regen before heading back in. Heat is one reason why many people think the PT sucks, it can be difficult to manage if you are not careful. TD is a great ability for PvP, i hardly use it for PvE because of the high heat cost, it works as an amazing heat dump if you get stuck with things on CD (railshot is being mean and not free proccing). Also, as Bounty Hunters we are the only ones who cannot add to their max "mana pool" for lack of a better term. Inquisitors can talent for more force, same with Operatives, Rage is "built", so much different than BHs. I love the heat mechanisim, it is an awesome idea. PTs also have the option to have (in my opinion and experience) better burst DPS than anyone IF their Railshot continues to proc, there have been a few times in an encounter where I will pop relics/adrenals/explosive fuel and then hit flameburst/RS 5-6 times in sequence because its been free, if those are critting that is 2.2k-2,4k on flameburst and 4.5k-5.5k on RS over and over. not to mention IM and CGC are still procing their DoT. Needless to say Pyrotech (and most likely AP) is very solid for endgame, dont let anyone tell you one is better than the other because the bottom line is we dont know yet, wait for logs. Which at that point all the pyro or AP people will begin the "I told you so game" on which one is better. They both work... and raiding is an 8 person gig, focused on ranged, if you cant kill stuff its ranged fault not yours Also, for what its worth, we raid with no sorc healer, which, according to some circles is "Impossible", not saying this to brag or anything, just saying we may not even run at what is considered optimal for raiding 50 sorc dps 50 agent heals 50 merc heals 50 merc dps 50 mara dps 50 PT DPS 50 Jugg Tank 50 assass DPS EDIT: I am running in about 6 Rakata pieces, 4 columi or so, and whatever left is Champion, although three pieces are old from when i was a tank so theya re supercommando.

I run as Shieldtech, and have a blast. Level 30 here, the combo between having grapple, and Jet Charge is a lot of fun. Especially since Jet Charge is on a 15 second cooldown, between that and grapple people cannot run. Great video though, Look forward to watching more, make me want to try AP but like you said, got to keep those respec costs down! Also, Powertechs appear to gear faster in PvP than any other class because of how many medals we are able to get, i consistently get 6-8, which means more commendations and valor. I have also found that the PvP gear at 20 was excellent for leveling as well, still have a piece or 2 i havnt been able to replace at 30. So not only does the occasional pvp while leveling provide a great opportunity to learn your class, also helps with your gear!

Jet charge is for pvp and its awesome, but I level as shieldtrch and love it

Yeah 30+ the helmets start looking good, that is a Merc helmet for PvP, level 38

I am currently level 30 Shieldtech, now dont get me wrong, I have twenty levels to go, but I love PvPing as him. Let me give you a few reasons why: 1. Up to level 30 I gave it a A- ranked, you struggle to close gaps, but can take really good damage, at 30, or 21 points into shield tech you get Jet Charge. More on that. At 22 you get grapple, one of the most frustrating abilities the opposing team will face, you get to grab someone and pull em to you. WHether that means yanking the ballcarrier away from scoring, yanking someone into a hazard and stunning them, yanking a healer away from the group, someone trying to get away from you etc. Just awesome. 2. You can take some damage, obviously its a tank spec, guard a healer, guard a guy with low health, it is awesome ssaving a guy by dropping guard on him giving just enought ime for a healer to get there or for you to come and help kill the guy attacking him. Also, a lot of people dont realize guard is a very easy way to add a few medals to your score (i usually get 3 a game, blocking 2k damage, 5k without dying, 10k without dying) more medals = more commendations, more valor, more expereience and more cash. Thats a win in my book. 3. Jet Charge: It is AWESOME. You see marauders do it, you see juggs do it, but no one expects the BH to do it. Use it to switch levels with the ball in huttball (going from bottom level up by the goal cause some noob is spamming from up there.) It has an extremely short cooldown (15s) and it is an interrupt and a 3s immobilize on contact. 4. Versatility: some say that BH dont do much damage, in my last warzone, on Voidstar, I was third in damage, with 190k. Behind a level 50 sorc who pulled 350, and a Merc who was 38 who did 230k. I had 8 medals, protected for 37k, it was awesome. 5. Finally, im not specced like I need to be for good PvP. I have yet to put together a good build on what I want my PvP build to look like. probably 30 in the ST tree, (heat usually isnt much of an issue in PvP) which gives 11 to get up to retractable blade in the AP tree. But I would probably also put some points into the advanced grapple. So that I can get a stun after i hit someone with grapple. Those are my 2 cents, I am loving PvP with the powertech, throw a healer with you or some DPS and you wont die to much. And because you can do melee, some ranged, can charge and can pull you are ALWAYS having fun. Hope this helps and gives you some idea on it!

At 22 you get grapple. Makes life easier. If you don't wipe do.t gripe, that's my motto