Edit:

Tried again today and smashed him! [noparse][/noparse]

Here's what tricks helped / didn't help, in case anyone else is having trouble and finds this post:

http://www.swtor.com/community/showpost.php?p=6139348&postcount=15

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I am learning to tank on my Powertech, I am currently level 35 and have full level 34 mods in all my gear from running Boarding Party.

So far, I have not had any issues surviving any fight or trash pull I have tanked. I use all my cooldowns and control tools and most healers never dip below 85-90% resources during combat, even on Champions / Bosses.

I can also tank Revan and the Boarding Party bosses without any issues, including the bonus boss with the 2 droids and the final 3-boss pull. My health never goes below maybe 60%, even on the bigger nastier pulls.

When I get to HK-47, I am torn to shreds within a minute every single time. I don't understand what I'm doing wrong. I engage him, run away when he does Flame Thrower, we break the locks right away whenever his cylinder comes down, and I pick up the droid adds and keep them off the healer... every time.

But HK-47 just starts spamming Snipe, or Powerful Blast, and rips through my Health bar so fast I can't even react. I put down Oil Slick, I use Energy Shield, it doesn't matter — I'm torn apart.

Why can't I tank this fight? What am I doing wrong? Should I stop tanking?

Insult: Because HK-47 is too good for you, Meatbag.

Heh, sorry. Couldn't resist. Anyways, it sounds like your DPS just needs to take down those adds faster, which should make HK stop doing his snipes and powerful blasts. Or perhaps a it's a range issue: further away, more damage done.

wake up your healer...

HK can hit for alot from time to time, but I'd say it's healer issue

I've read again, you sound like you are doing all good. could be PT/Vanguard having harder time at lower levels, I dunno, not doing any lower level flashpoints.

Do you have enhancments for shield and absorb? endu/def stim? maybe self heal second HK starts spamming?

and again, wake up healer, that lazy....

maybe self heal second HK starts spamming?

Aside from medpacs that is no longer possible in 2.0, as Kolto Overload was redesigned. Only heals when under 30%. It can be used in advanced, though, as the buff itself is longer than the healing effect, so it can be already on, and then when you drop under 30%, it starts ticking. Tanks of course get a buff to it, but he isn't applicable to it yet (need to be at least lv 40 to get it). When specced into it, you get 2% health every second while over 30%.

Aside from medpacs that is no longer possible in 2.0, as Kolto Overload was redesigned. Only heals when under 30%. It can be used in advanced, though, as the buff itself is longer than the healing effect, so it can be already on, and then when you drop under 30%, it starts ticking. Tanks of course get a buff to it, but he isn't applicable to it yet (need to be at least lv 40 to get it). When specced into it, you get 2% health every second while over 30%.

my bad, didn't undust my PT tank yet

I've been running foundry on my assassin tank and it's been a rough experience as well. Firstly, you need to make sure that you're doing the button-pushing correcrtly. To do this, each member needs to press a button ~1 second after it spawns. Do not press immediately, wait a second or so. This should prevent HK from getting a power of the core buff.

As others have said, this is kind of the first heal-check in the game, so that's always a spot where things can get rough.

Cooldowns are big. What you want to do is find the most appropriate spot to pop your cooldown (where the damage is the highest). If you wait until you're almost dead, you've failed. That said, don't pop one at full health usually either. It's not out of the question to buy absorb adrenals either to give you a little extra armor once or twice in the fight. Your dps teammates should also have consumables.

Insult: Because HK-47 is too good for you, Meatbag.

 

Heh, sorry. Couldn't resist. Anyways, it sounds like your DPS just needs to take down those adds faster, which should make HK stop doing his snipes and powerful blasts. Or perhaps a it's a range issue: further away, more damage done.

I did this once or twice while leveling my jugg tank and that fight was the thoughest. I remember wiping there and it was because of the adds. If dps dont kill them fast, healer would be overwhelmed with group damage and people will die.

Tanked that fight for the first time on my PT at around 34 with worse gear than you OP (I didn't get a group for boarding party until after I had completed the Foundry two or three times. Just luck of the draw).

So long as you're poping CDs and facing HK away from the group so his flamethrower doesn't wreck them, any issues with you dying are the healer and DPS's fault.

If you die before adds pop, it's a bad healer.

If someone dies while adds are up, it's poor DPS.

So long as nobody that isn't you dies in the HK dps phases, you're doing your job.

those above points very important but I would like to add a few things people over look in that fight. One,HK is a ranged dps...meaning if you hide behind a pillar you shouldn't be hit. Two, burst is conal damage and simply running around him should do the trick. I think Powerful shot is interruptable. Three, the room is big and filled with barrels to use. Mostly for the adds. Four, the adds can and should be knocked over edge for instant death.

Finally, if you have a sniper in party....(im one) don't break my cc on adds..I have robot cc. I usually always am covered right by add entry point. Also, don't forget people have and should use cc on adds.

A glitch I've noticed is that HK and adds can be moved from the room entirely. Last kill, I died and med back and raced back to room to find tank far away in corridor near my respawn... we killed him there.

Sounds like you're doing nothing wrong mate. Its the rest of the party's fault. I found healing through HK 47 extremely tough on a well geared operative. It takes all the attention you can muster and i still needed a bit of help healing the dps from a sorcerer. Its a tough fight if the dps are crap and its not a fight the healer can sit and mash one button all the way through.

Also, i think you can interupt his snipe so get one in here and there and have the dps do the same of they can. They need to burn the adds down asap, which shouldnt take too long to manage.

I found the HK-47 fight to be the hardest flashpoint to heal sub 50. Its a hilarious joke at 50, but sub 50 you just dont have as many tools to fight with.

To be honest, it probably is not you, its likely the healer. As a healer I can say this because the HK fight is mainly about healing (unless you are making a major mistake like not clicking pannels, dps not killing ads). But presuming these things are being done, the problem is likely the healer, and it may not be their fault.

When I did it as a sorc healer, I just would running on fumes with my force. Its the first real fight where you have to start using your health to gain back power to keep healing. The problem is that HK snipes a random target, so if the healer goes to far and gets sniped, its a wipe. Also if you have a healer who isnt fully speccing heals, its not going to work.

So good luck

The funny thing is that I found it easier in low level to kill adds before I click the panels. HK doesn't seem to hit any harder on low level that way. It would trip people out when I told them to do it. But once you do you will understand how much easier it is. Really helps the healer out. Give it a try and then post back and confirm. Bet you will rake him first shot like that. Good luck

Next time I have some lowbies in guild together I am going to try this. If true I am going to kick myself repeatedly for not considering that the SM and HM mechanics may be different lol.

Thanks guys! I took everything you said into consideration and tried again today. I had a different healer, but one of the same DPS (just random luck with the queue) and another DPS who had never run a Flashpoint before (no joke). So it was PT (tank), Sorc (heals), Sniper/Sin (DPS).

We one-shot it without breaking a sweat, even though nothing changed about my gear or spec. I have since cleared HK without any issues every single run, by using the following tips and explaining them to my group. I'm going to discuss the things I tried and did differently, in case it helps anyone else having trouble tanking this.

Overall, I think the most important things are (TL,DR):

• Kill droids as fast as possible. The droids are the "real" fight, HK is just a nuisance.
  
• Let Heals deal with it during Snipe phases. There is nothing you (as tank) can do to help except killing droids faster.
  
• Never face HK toward the group during center-of-the-room phases. He does a lot of conal attacks.
  
• Always pick up threat on HK immediately as the cylinder comes back up — literally, immediately. As soon as you can see his feet, start attacking him again. He needs to be tanked hard right after the cylinder comes up.
  
• Don't stand in Flame Thrower, and run up to him right away if he starts a Powerful Blast.
  
• Don't break locks on the cylinder. Use that time to kill droids.
  

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WHAT DIDN'T REALLY HELP AT ALL:

• Trying to LOS his shots. This wastes too much time that could be spent killing the adds, and he just runs to find you anyway.
  
• Trying to drag adds to the barrels in the corners. Again, this wastes too much time and then leaves DPS no time to attack HK once adds are gone. Pointless.
  
• Trying to knock adds off the edges. Again, setting this up just wastes too much time when people are already stressed and flipping out. Great idea in theory, doesn't really work in a disorganized Group Finder mash-up.
  
• Playing games with the panels / locks on his cylinder. It seemed to go the same way no matter what gimmicks were tried with timing. Just ignore the cylinder.
  
• You cannot interrupt Powerful Blast. But, HK will interrupt himself if you get close to him. If you see him Powerful Blasting at someone other than you (tank), that person is about to 1-shot-die if they don't run up and hug HK.
  

STUFF THAT REALLY HELPED:

• Different healer. She PvPs — A LOT — so was already experienced with damage going all over. She also had never done Foundry before, and HK attacked before I could finish typing so she had NO idea what was going on. But we still one-shot it. Heals that can't multi-task or manage resources poorly or aren't in a real Heal spec will drown here.
  
• Ignoring Power of the Core. I think this is scary in HM, but here, we just ignored his cylinder and killed droids instead. When the cylinder popped up, I Jet Jumped to him, Taunted, and spun him around right away to stop Suppressing Fire from hitting the group. And droids were already dead, so DPS got full time on him.
  
• Prioritizing droids. Before, I would get them off heals then go back to HK. This time, any time droids spawned, I COMPLETELY ignored HK and immediately locked solid aggro on both droids and helped DPS them. I don't do a lot as a tank, but the extra DPS made a noticeable difference getting them down faster. There is NO benefit to trying to "tank" HK during Snipe phases. None. Kill droids.
  
• HK-47 uses Powerful Blast when you're too far away from him during a non-Snipe phase (center of the room, tankable). So, I think Powerful Blast has a minimum range, like Force Charge / Death From Above / etc. Since Powerful Blast hurts INCREDIBLY hard, it's important to always tank in melee range of HK when he's in non-Snipe mode.
  
• Always run away from Flame Thrower, though. It hits really hard (scary hard), and he won't Powerful Blast during a Flame Thrower channel, and you have time to run back up to him if he does follow Flame Thrower with Powerful Blast.
  

Anyway, all the feedback helped me understand this fight a lot better and realize I'm not a horrible tank who should stop queueing (lol). Really smooth run once I grasped what needed to be done, and got a Heals that could function under pressure. Thanks all.

Congrats!

Hopefully your guide will help others in the future. Because you are now going to find that most of the other flashpoints battles arent nearly as difficult as HK.

glad you took my advise on the clickers. not many will. congrats. pass the info on so others will have an easier time with it.

One other thing is, this is an advanced tactic since it requires coordination, awareness, and a healer who can handle not having that recovery period of "total dead time" while the cylinder drops.

But, if your group can manage it, and you have people in group that can CC the droids, it's really better to just CC them and beat on HK-47 as much as possible at every opportunity.

Then, when he teleports to center and starts the cylinder/core-drop thing, and you can't hit him anyway, turn and blow up the CC'd droids. This makes the fight really smooth (and your group feels like, well apparently I'm not allowed to type that word on the forums but BA's ), but it's better to not push your luck if you sense your PUG can't keep track of all that.

just a tip for groups, if your healer is not a sorc but there is one in the group they can help a lot by tossing a bubble on anyone taking damage, this mostly just gives the healer time to catch up.

it may kill energy for non healer sorc to cast bubble everywere, 45 each I think? x4 it's 180.

I didnt log my sage yet, so can't tell (did they removed CD on it?)