Hi, searched around, couldn't find answer. Never tanked in any mmo before:

(1) Can you tank in PvE as vengeance? I.E. use endurance / shield gear and click "tank" in group finder and not force-whipe your team?

(2) If not, can you make a hybrid that works?

(3) If not in 50/55 PvE, is it viable in sub-50?

Thanks for any insight.

1 ) No you can't tank as vengeance in any FPs or operations at 55 ( Hard Modes anyways ). If you are specced vengeance you should have dps gear on and queue as DPS

2 ) I play vengeance as my first alt , so I've run him through all ops in the game , and what i can tell you is that Hybrids for Juggernauts died at the end of patch 1.7 ( at least in my opinion ) , also those Hybrids were viable in pvp , not pve end game content . If you want to tank , then go full immortal and look up some guides for gearing and talents , the forums here have some nice info on the subject.

3) Don't know , haven't tanked sub 50 stuff with my jugger while lvling

Since the class is not my main , i may have missed something , so if anyone has something to add , please do

1 ) No you can't tank as vengeance in any FPs or operations at 55 ( Hard Modes anyways ). If you are specced vengeance you should have dps gear on and queue as DPS

 

2 ) I play vengeance as my first alt , so I've run him through all ops in the game , and what i can tell you is that Hybrids for Juggernauts died at the end of patch 1.7 ( at least in my opinion ) , also those Hybrids were viable in pvp , not pve end game content . If you want to tank , then go full immortal and look up some guides for gearing and talents , the forums here have some nice info on the subject.

 

3) Don't know , haven't tanked sub 50 stuff with my jugger while lvling

 

Since the class is not my main , i may have missed something , so if anyone has something to add , please do

Thanks! I'll guinea pig this and let you know!

I'll likely attempt a vengeance tank sub-50 and respec on whipe... Or just wait till ~50 and respec. I've already got a sorc that I'll probably go DPS with... But maybe I'll run 2 sets of armor on the jugg

You can tank alright sub 50 in Vengeance if you pop Soresu and are familiar with the flashpoint (i.e. understand all the pulls and how to hold aoe aggro without a ton of aoe tools).

That said, if you're a subscriber I'd highly suggest to just buy field respec and respec when you get in a flashpoint to Immortal, it takes 30 seconds and can save a ton of hassle. Advantages to being Immortal sub 50 include much better Rage management, better AOE tools (Crushing Blow at 45 is great), and more control (no channel Choke and Backhand are fun for handling trash).

You can tank alright sub 50 in Vengeance if you pop Soresu and are familiar with the flashpoint (i.e. understand all the pulls and how to hold aoe aggro without a ton of aoe tools).

 

You would want a shield instead of a focus also

I have played a jugg tank since launch, and my 2cents would be no...

In the old days, we could hybrid with immortal/vengeance and it was a very viable tanking spec.

Infact, thats how I tanked because you got better defense and more dps. It was also good to pvp with so I didnt have to respec all the time.

However, now.... no it just isnt doable on the lvl 55 stuff.

You will be missing way to many abilities that cause your mitigation to get higher as well as having very limited high threat abilities.

You could be OK....at tanking. Maybe a backup tank and get away with that, but it would be difficult for the group to keep you alive if you main tanked.

Go ahead and try it though. Worst case it doesnt work.... No harm no foul really. Just let the group know you would like to try it once so they are aware and dont just drop group cuz the tank sucks....

Myself.... I bring 2 gear sets. My main is tanking so all of my ultimate coms go to upgrading my tank set. As I get Elite coms, I use those to gear my dps set and I just respec vengeance when dps is needed. Its really the easiest way to get the best out of both tanking and dpsing. I should add... I spec vengeance for pve flashpoints or ops. I spec rage for dailies or pvp.

Hope this helps

I played Vengeance Jugg for a long while and since i often ended with "princesses " tanks that quit in the middle of FP for no (known) reason, because they think that someone is no worth not geared enough, someone tried tell tank to do "stuff", someone attack first trash mobs, or attack first by mistake the boss or other reasons.. that why I mixed my lvl 55gear with tank mods an enchantment and since i noticed when you select the right skills in Vengeance and immortal tree you have an 4% more passive damage reduction when only changing stances. 4% more then fully spec Immortal tree, and i was still wearing shield generator....

Thanks to that i managed to replace the missing tank in 3 lvl 55 HM Flashpoints 2 times Mandalorian Raiders, one we even managed to kill Bonus boss(the second time we couldn't the dps was in 58's mods), and a few times in lvl 50 HM. I have an field respec but i wanted to try and prove myself and others that you can tank when being an Vengeance with little Immortal hybrid. Of course that require from others to use more often the threat reducers.

And finally i can see and use Intercede more often ..... and the taunts when healer is attacked , ..

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#101RMoZcGMorosRrffzZM.3

Currently i respec to Rage because of i didn't "feel" that i was making "enough" damage . 7.5k instant AoE Damage is just too powerful... and with other buffs.... also the adding the 2 points skill to vengeance tree just to make ravage immobilize the target is ridiculous

I'm no pro at this, but as someone who has a number of sub-50 healer characters, I would be OK with someone tanking sub-50 FPs with a Vengeance spec so long as they are using a shield and endurance equipment, and are willing to use their guard on a DPS if needed. It's not ideal, but better than all the DPS geared tanks I usually end up with. It's never a good sign when my healer has more HP than the higher level tank...

Though ideally, I'd recommend investing in field respec if you want to DPS questing and tank FPs.

1 ) No you can't tank as vengeance in any FPs or operations at 55 ( Hard Modes anyways ). If you are specced vengeance you should have dps gear on and queue as DPS

Lulz I came back, got a Jugg to 55 around new year's and tanked a bunch of HM FP's in veng spec. Tanking gear obviously, I was just too lazy to respec. Anyhoo, probably not wise to do it if you don't know the class well (I had a few months' experience at top tier tanking/dps on guardian before I quit so I knew what I was doing, and built a strong set of 66/69 tanking off-spec gear pretty quickly after hitting 55) and I wouldn't really recommend it for Ops unless you strongly outgear them, but 'can't' is certainly the wrong word here.

I'm sure it would be viable in a lot of sub-50 content.

I was doing a 40s FP once when the tank disconnected towards the end and didn't come back. I summoned my DPS companion (I was highest level with best geared companion) switched to Soresu stance and on we went. Granted, I think I was L45 in vs enemies that were LV41 but that is the case as you progress or at least it was for me.

Lulz I came back, got a Jugg to 55 around new year's and tanked a bunch of HM FP's in veng spec. Tanking gear obviously, I was just too lazy to respec. Anyhoo, probably not wise to do it if you don't know the class well (I had a few months' experience at top tier tanking/dps on guardian before I quit so I knew what I was doing, and built a strong set of 66/69 tanking off-spec gear pretty quickly after hitting 55) and I wouldn't really recommend it for Ops unless you strongly outgear them, but 'can't' is certainly the wrong word here.

I think realistically if you have a good party and good enough gear you can tank 55's with a DPS class (can anyone say maurader?). there are even a few vids of one guy soloing HM 55's on his mara. doable? sure. but...

The moral of the story is....many things are doable. but if you are going into an HM at level cap, and you are not specced for the role you queue for, you are putting a big strain on the party. emergency situations are very different (tank quits, almost done, etc etc). I honestly would vote kick a tank in vengeance spec in an HM....especially if im on my juggs and guards, because i have a tank set, i can switch gear and spec in about 45s, and it makes the run allot easier on your team.

Now...among friends and guild members it's a whole different story. prior to 2.0, my regular raid members and I would challenge ourselves in HM's....I'd run as venge spec and venge gear, and the healer would run as a hybrid spec (I think...it wasn't full heal spec, but wasn't full DPS spex, he had some weird thing...). the Sorc and I would see who could keep aggro through damage alone fun stuff...but we vastly overgeared the stuff we were running at the time.

In Queues....It's extremely rude to others, as they have to work harder to make up for what you cannot do because you are unwilling to do exactly what they did...spec and gear for their role.

I think realistically if you have a good party and good enough gear you can tank 55's with a DPS class (can anyone say maurader?). there are even a few vids of one guy soloing HM 55's on his mara. doable? sure. but...

 

The moral of the story is....

/snip

I think the theme of your post about spec'ing for your role for the betterment of all is all well and good, but the point of mine is that can't is the wrong word. IE, I had already done it a bunch of times when I read this post (as a pretty fresh 55, at that), therefore I laughed.