I have never understood how this works. I have also never played a tank, so I don't have any experience. I understand that in PvE, you have the aggro thing, and taunting, But on PvP, you don't have aggro, the enemy can attack any one they choose, sop couldn't they go after your healers, then dps, then you, making you ineffective? Once again, I have never played a tank, so I don't know. I do want to make a tank, that is why I asked.

Every tank has two abilities that work differently in PvP and PvE. The first is taunt which causes the target to deal 30% less damage if they are attacking anyone but you for 6 seconds. So taunt doesn't force them to attack you but it does punish them if they choose to ignore you. The second is guard which does a few things. It reduces the guarded persons damage taken by 5% and they generate 25% less threat - this part works in PvE as well. It also redirects 50% of the damage that the guarded person is taking as long as you are within 15 meters. The damage that you prevent shows up in the "protection" column at the end of a match.

 

Other than that, tanks are beefier and generally have more control tools (stuns, gap closers, pulls, etc.) than the average class. The trade-off is much less damage. It is popular to wear DPS gear because the vast majority of player attacks are tech or force which can't be defended or shielded.

 

In PvP, tanks are best paired with a guarded healer. This combination can be extremely difficult to take down. They also make good ball carriers in huttball.

A good tank can keep the other team from completing objectives long enough for reinforcements to show up as well. With cooldowns I can last a long time with 2-4 people whaling on me - usually long enough for a reasonably organized team to react to my warnings that an objective I am defending is under attack.

 

I don't get a ton of killing blows in PVP but I do feel useful most of the time.

The above posters hit it right on the head. I'd like to share a pvp experience to help add to the conversation.

 

I play a vanguard tank and pvp all the time. I still apply the same concept of "aggro'ing" in warzones. For example, if I want to be on offense, I go with a healer, or a high-powered dps to take a node (civil war or N.coast) to make it look like you're going to take it. This will cause the enemy player to summon help (I.e. threat generation/aggro). This will draw more people to you, thereby relieving pressure on your teammates on another location. Once, I went with a high-powered scoundrel healer to aggro snow on civil war. The enemy team did not recognize this tactic and called for help, and we drew 6 players on us. I had guard on my healer, and we held our own for a solid 2-3 minutes vs.6, leaving 2 enemy players to defend against the rest of our team, which took middle node. However, plz note that tanks should typically be on guard duty. As others have stated, tanks can take a lot more punishment and should be the ones protecting a door or node and calling for help when needed.

 

Tanks are also good for huttball as the above posted. If they aren't carrying the ball, they should be escorting the ball carrier with guard on. There's a lot more to talk (gear stats and skill tree) but ill let others address that since I don't know too much. Good luck!