I was reading a post about VG/PT that recommended mostly dps modifiers for tanks. Is this true? Any difference between PVE & PVP?

Powertechs have great passive mitigation, but no skills that allow them to completely ignore attacks or take massive amounts of damage (Saber Reflect, Mad Dash, Force Shroud, Force Speed). There are some bosses in operations that deal such damage on a regular basis. Because PT's lack good DCD's, some choose to give up the mitigation that tank gear offers, and instead use DPS gear (Lethal B mods, IIRC, for example) because they offer more endurance. That large health pool (sometimes up to 150k) serves as a substitute for DCD's.

 

Almost everyone 'skanks' in PvP. This means that they run Tank armorings, DPS mods/enhancements/augs and crafted DPS relics. Shield/Absorb/Defense only affect a small amount of damage in PvP, because most of it is Force/Tech, and a great many hits are auto procc'ed criticals. Having a larger health pool and far higher DPS output by skank tanking is infinitely preferable, and the difference in survivability is negligible.

Edited September 4, 2017 by Sabachthanus

For Pve it is common to run lethal b mods for tanks of all classes. Warding b mods are the alternative. The full defense from the warding "optimized" mod isn't really necessary.

 

For PvP yes straight up skanking is the way to go. I personally run tank set bonus, lethal b mods, high endurance crit/alacrity enhancements, and high endurance low power mods. My health is in the 148k range. The extra dps is just more useful than the (lack of) mitigation from tank gear. Do note that the same is not, in general, true of Pve.

 

Basically my guardian had 3 sets of gear: tank, skank, and dps.

Thanks for the responses. I'm almost exclusively PVE because I'm so out-matched in PVP. Basically I enjoy the game, but am not very good at it. So I'm told that you need 110% accuracy to make up for a 10% penalty against some bosses, but that anything more is a waste. Is there any other magic number for tanking, skanking or dps? How much critical is too much, or wasted? Defense? Shield? Absorb? etc?

It all depends, simply based on your statements (please correct me if I am wrong), you are unlikely to do any difficult content that would require perfectly optimised gear. Based on that, I would advise 0 accuracy (as you get the 10% accuracy you need automatically from tank spec), all mods be Lethal B (high endurance with mastery and power) and a mix between Bastion and Bulwark enhancements, these sacrifice a bit of defense, which you have a very high amount of, for endurance.

 

Trying to keep your stats balanced is a good rule of thump however for Powertech and as a tank, you want to focus a bit more on getting Shield over Absorb, let's think about it like this. You have seven slots for enhancements in your gear, two implants and one earpiece, all in all that is 10 places where you can either have an item that gives Absorb or Shield, I would advise a 6 - 4 split, meaning you have for example 5 enhancements and one earpiece with Shield, and two implants and two enhancements with Absorb. (The links lead to the best craftable item modifications of the type I recommend, it can be expensive to buy/craft all of these in on go, but it should help you remember names and give you an overview of stats).

 

For DPS stats for your tanks it's not something you really need to consider unless you are planning to create a separate gear for PvP, but again, balance is always a good starting point and you could technically treat Crit and Alacrity just like you treat Shield and Absorb for your tanking gear, a bit more crit instead of alacrity. Power and Defense come naturally in all gear and you cannot really adapt to much (apart from mods of course), so don't worry about those stats. For general gearing questions which are not specific, you should consult this guide for numbers.

 

There is really no "magic number" for Tanking/DPS:ing/Skank in neither PvE or PvP, sure there are good starting points that are found through running data and simulations, but there are highly flawed and in reality mostly helps for PvE, not PvP. Player skill, using the right abilities at the right time, reaction speed and knowing both your own class and your opponents will help much more than any adjustments you make to your gear and the numbers.

Edited September 20, 2017 by RikuvonDrake