tl;dr version: which spec and gear you use as a shadow tank in pvp, how you mod your gear, what stats are you focusing on augments?

• My spec: 31/0/10 (I know its not ideal, will switch to 27/1/13 soon)
  
• Gear: full WH Survivor with resolve augments (will/end), started to grind for stalker. Trying in Stalker hands and wrist now ( financial reasons) to see if is any (minimal) difference in damage output. Will try in full DPS gear, or modding from DPS gear.
  
• Stats: obviously I lack of Will so need some mods there, then power, surge and crit as well
  

I added a screenshot with unbuffed stats.

Edit: spec changed to 23/1/17

--------------------------

Hey fellow shadows, I'm just simply curious of your pvp tanking experience in general and like to hear your opinion/experience on specs, gear, modding and augmenting. I know there's a lot of useful threads around these topics with comments of veteran shadows like Shinarika and Kitru (and ofc more), but I'd like to dedicate this discussion narrowing down only to shadow pvp tanking.

First of all i love my shadow, it wasn't love at first sight though for obvious reasons (sometimes pain levelling up, not being useful as a newbie at all etc.) After around lvl 40 now thats where the serious fun started. As a shadow tank I always play objectives (guarding nodes and healers, call incs, harassing enemies etc) even in Hypergates where guarding the node gets you nothing.

Yeah somtimes It gets boring but eventually the fight will come for you, and playing objectives (that somtimes no one wants) can actually help the team to win. My favourite side of the shadow tank is that you can be the pain in the arse for your enemies.

You got loads of skills to harass them, and if they get angry they'll make mistakes. I got this 'mazochistic' habit to harass smashers (no I don't wanna go there). Reason is if you keep going back to them they'll pursue you for good, and its beneficial for your teammates. Or pulling the ballhandler in huttball (one of my favs).

Thing is i could write a novel about why I like being a shadow. For me is all a about finding your playstyle, have fun even if you lose (at least you tried), get the best out of your class. And yes, somtimes being smashed, mezzed etc. to the ground is pain and annoying.

Truth to be told my shadow brings me back to play no matter what the FOTM is or how hard is to win.

Have fun guys,

Encut

lvl 50 Shadow Tank

TOFN

tl;dr version: which spec and gear you use as a shadow tank in pvp, how you mod your gear, what stats are you focusing on augments?

 

 

• My spec: 31/0/10 (I know its not ideal, will switch to 27/1/13 soon)
  
• Gear: full WH Survivor with resolve augments (will/end), started to grind for stalker. Trying in Stalker hands and wrist now ( financial reasons) to see if is any (minimal) difference in damage output. Will try in full DPS gear, or modding from DPS gear.
  
• Stats: obviously I lack of Will so need some mods there, then power, surge and crit as well
  

 

I added a screenshot with unbuffed stats.

 

--------------------------

 

Hey fellow shadows, I'm just simply curious of your pvp tanking experience in general and like to hear your opinion/experience on specs, gear, modding and augmenting. I know there's a lot of useful threads around these topics with comments of veteran shadows like Shinarika and Kitru (and ofc more), but I'd like to dedicate this discussion narrowing down only to shadow pvp tanking.

 

First of all i love my shadow, it wasn't love at first sight though for obvious reasons (sometimes pain levelling up, not being useful as a newbie at all etc.) After around lvl 40 now thats where the serious fun started. As a shadow tank I always play objectives (guarding nodes and healers, call incs, harassing enemies etc) even in Hypergates where guarding the node gets you nothing.

 

Yeah somtimes It gets boring but eventually the fight will come for you, and playing objectives (that somtimes no one wants) can actually help the team to win. My favourite side of the shadow tank is that you can be the pain in the arse for your enemies.

 

You got loads of skills to harass them, and if they get angry they'll make mistakes. I got this 'mazochistic' habit to harass smashers (no I don't wanna go there). Reason is if you keep going back to them they'll pursue you for good, and its beneficial for your teammates. Or pulling the ballhandler in huttball (one of my favs).

 

Thing is i could write a novel about why I like being a shadow. For me is all a about finding your playstyle, have fun even if you lose (at least you tried), get the best out of your class. And yes, somtimes being smashed, mezzed etc. to the ground is pain and annoying.

 

Truth to be told my shadow brings me back to play no matter what the FOTM is or how hard is to win.

 

Have fun guys,

 

Encut

lvl 50 Shadow Tank

TOFN

You are not alone, I play a survivor/duelist geared shadow in pvp. I love it, and I don't have qualms about being a despoiler or defender through most matches I agree with you using resolve augments but I also use absorb and defense augments. I don't got a screen shot , but I have stacked a few points in endurance and absorb to make it ok to tank in pve with it. Also the healers love me, for always pealing some one off them. I do get some gratification from being hard to kill. With harnesses shadows and battle ready for some self heals, its pretty amazing how long you can survive. The down side is we kill stuff slowly and follow the same problems as tanks in pvp, but atleast we do more dps than the other true tanks in pvp. Keep tanking:)

A brother shadowtank.

Love my shadow...

I have tried various specs with 27/1/13 being the most productive overall for wz's. I have fully augmented WH minus relics (full stalker) and find that it works well. I recently gave infiltration a shot again and felt less usefully in pvp. I'm in no way 'awesome' but I know how to help my team. I enjoyed inf but my results sucked. There are times where I get completely decimated but I get over it.

Over all I really enjoy playing a shadow

You are not alone, I play a survivor/duelist geared shadow in pvp. I love it, and I don't have qualms about being a despoiler or defender through most matches I agree with you using resolve augments but I also use absorb and defense augments. I don't got a screen shot , but I have stacked a few points in endurance and absorb to make it ok to tank in pve with it. Also the healers love me, for always pealing some one off them. I do get some gratification from being hard to kill. With harnesses shadows and battle ready for some self heals, its pretty amazing how long you can survive. The down side is we kill stuff slowly and follow the same problems as tanks in pvp, but atleast we do more dps than the other true tanks in pvp. Keep tanking:)

A brother shadowtank.

Hey, many thanks for your answer. Which spec do you use in WZs? In case of full KC build (any version), you prefer Mental Fortitude or Applied Force?

Cheers,

Encut

Love my shadow...

 

I have tried various specs with 27/1/13 being the most productive overall for wz's. I have fully augmented WH minus relics (full stalker) and find that it works well. I recently gave infiltration a shot again and felt less usefully in pvp. I'm in no way 'awesome' but I know how to help my team. I enjoyed inf but my results sucked. There are times where I get completely decimated but I get over it.

 

Over all I really enjoy playing a shadow

Another like-minded shadow! So you tanking in full DPS gear right? Which augments you use? Cant wait to get my WH stalker gear as well and start to experiment with different gear setups and mods . I completely agree with you about usefulnes, I just feel that need some extra DPS atm.

Thx,

Encut

Gear link in my sig.

I typically run a 27/1/13 or 23/1/17 build.

Edit: Changed my opinion. lol

Gear link in my sig.

 

I typically run a 27/1/13 or 23/1/17 build.

 

Edit: Changed my opinion. lol

Haha, nice!

You're way ahead in terms of gearing. For real. Started to browse through your armory, very interesting choices there. Need to check the details, but me liking the stats/numbers.

Thx,

Encut

Hey, many thanks for your answer. Which spec do you use in WZs? In case of full KC build (any version), you prefer Mental Fortitude or Applied Force?

 

Cheers,

 

Encut

Np, for pvp I spec a bit odd. I use 33/0/8 in KC. I use both mental foritude and applied force in pvp. More dps and hp are good things to have when your in pvp tanking gear. Since pvp gear is main stat and endurance anemic. For pvp I don't take elusivness and put the extra points in mental fortitude. Minus the two extra points in balance tree , because i don't miss psychokinesis. I think rescourse management is less of a issue in pvp. Its just a slight modified pve build. For gear wise I did swap out the expertise crystals in MH and OH for endurance crystals, with full WH you will still sit over the magic 1300 expertise.

Hope that helps.

A brother shadow tank.

Np, for pvp I spec a bit odd. I use 33/0/8 in KC. I use both mental foritude and applied force in pvp. More dps and hp are good things to have when your in pvp tanking gear. Since pvp gear is main stat and endurance anemic. For pvp I don't take elusivness and put the extra points in mental fortitude. Minus the two extra points in balance tree , because i don't miss psychokinesis. I think rescourse management is less of a issue in pvp. Its just a slight modified pve build. For gear wise I did swap out the expertise crystals in MH and OH for endurance crystals, with full WH you will still sit over the magic 1300 expertise.

Hope that helps.

A brother shadow tank.

Hmm, never seen that spec before. I just started to mess around with 23/1/17. I use it for both PvP and PvE just to see how this spec performs. So far I really like it. My damage output is slightly better (once I managed to reach 170k in Civil War, obviously the other team wasn't PWN, but still) and largely depends on my role (guarding or attackin mid etc.). I still need to get used to Force in Balance, but so far it feels worth to change from Slow Time, insta sap can be very useful in certain situations as well. Still need to figure out the best rotation etc. so way to go for me. +1 : I don't feel much more squishy, neither PvP or PvE (depends on healer/FP ofc).

All in all: bb 31/0/10. Was kinda hard to change but now *me liking* the new spec. Big time.

Hey buddy another fellow dedicated shadow here

Had been rolling scoundrel however just finished gearing fully for all 3 specs in PvP and healz and damage in PvE. So felt like I needed something new.

Rolled shadow (love my stealth classes) and figured I might have some fun tanking and offtanking.

As of the moment I hit 50 a while ago and got myself gearing both for PvP and PvE. PvE I am currently in full rakata/black hole with half of it min maxed. PvP I am in 3/4 war hero. (for pure tanking spec, problem is I play different specs in different gear so haven't really finished anything off yet)

I run several specs, all focus on tanking (with the exception of when I decide to run full infiltration or my survivability hybird).

I am unsure as to what to think about gear many say tanking in dps gear is plenty good but I personally feel as though I am not doing my job. so I run a kinda hybrid gear for my tank. With focus on defense rating for the survivability. All I have then is augments with power focus and getting my crit to about 150 surge to 200 rest power focused (didn't expand on willpower am theory crafting that now).

However I have found pure tanking to be ok (with shield, high defence and absorb) abit like a utility meat shield but good for tanking. However I am still unsure given so many say shield and absorb are useless, I am in the same boat. Working out tanking gear is hard.

Keep going with the tanking and know you got many people out here willing to help. Together I am sure we can get very far with getting toward the perfect shadow tank.

Alyva.

Hey buddy another fellow dedicated shadow here

 

Had been rolling scoundrel however just finished gearing fully for all 3 specs in PvP and healz and damage in PvE. So felt like I needed something new.

 

Rolled shadow (love my stealth classes) and figured I might have some fun tanking and offtanking.

 

As of the moment I hit 50 a while ago and got myself gearing both for PvP and PvE. PvE I am currently in full rakata/black hole with half of it min maxed. PvP I am in 3/4 war hero. (for pure tanking spec, problem is I play different specs in different gear so haven't really finished anything off yet)

 

I run several specs, all focus on tanking (with the exception of when I decide to run full infiltration or my survivability hybird).

 

I am unsure as to what to think about gear many say tanking in dps gear is plenty good but I personally feel as though I am not doing my job. so I run a kinda hybrid gear for my tank. With focus on defense rating for the survivability. All I have then is augments with power focus and getting my crit to about 150 surge to 200 rest power focused (didn't expand on willpower am theory crafting that now).

 

However I have found pure tanking to be ok (with shield, high defence and absorb) abit like a utility meat shield but good for tanking. However I am still unsure given so many say shield and absorb are useless, I am in the same boat. Working out tanking gear is hard.

 

Keep going with the tanking and know you got many people out here willing to help. Together I am sure we can get very far with getting toward the perfect shadow tank.

 

Alyva.

Hey Carth, im really glad when another dedicated 'rogue" shows up. I always roll stealthy classes in every RPG for ages, started with PnP rogues and stick to this since. I just can't help myself. Yeah playing a shadow is pure fun for me too. I'm not a vetaran of this game so we'll see how it goes in the future. My guess is, if I didn't get bored playing thief/roguelike classes so far, It's not gonna happen very soon.

Sure we're in the same boat. I recently started to grind for PvP Stalker gear (got full WH Survivor) and messing around the items what to wear, stat changes, experimenting in the field and really enjoying it. Changed specs from 31/010 to 23/1/17, and I'm about to try 27/1/13. It's kinda exciting for me to see and follow up the changes in performance.

The shield/absorbtion PvPwise is really a tough nut to crack. Read lots of theorycrafting about it, but I'm a bit unsure atm. I use shield atm and when I'll get the DPS gear I can start to compare result.

Cheers,

One other little tip, I have been experimenting lately with the 4 piece bonus of the force mystics set. (2 piece is no use) The bonus is 50 extra force. Is is amazing in my opinion and I experimented switching force stances in the midst of fights. I feel this might be another step up from shadow combat.

(Build linked, however this is not current gear for me just some of it with war hero filling rest in.

Build here (spec can be found included)

I know the gearing there seems a little weird (and I need to tone down surge alot, however just basics)

This may seem like an odd spec to some of you.. but here is a spec that I think would be interesting to try.

http://swtor.askmrrobot.com/skills/Shadow#73e762l2-c78cif-c

22/17/2

Basically I took most of the tank talents and avoided any of the damage ones. This spec specializes in tanking against an AoE damage team(such as smashers.) The pros and cons are listed below.

Pros

-Passive 30% AoE damage reduction.

-45 second blackout usable out of stealth. Activating blackout will give you shadow's respite, which decreases ALL damage by 25% for 6 seconds.

-Jedi Resistance passive damage reduction by 2%.

Example: Combine these 3 talents listed above... let's say someone who normally hits you for 6000 on a smash tries to smash you when you have Shadow's Respite up(plus these two passive AoE damage reductions.) His damage on you would be decreased by 57% at that moment. Therefore, a smash that would normally hit you for 6000 would only hit you for 2580 at that moment.

-Thanks to having masked assault, you can force cloak if you get low on health, and be able to still be healed by healers.

-Thanks to having Fade, your Force Cloak cooldown is reduced to 1 minute 30 seconds. This means you can force cloak more often. If you are in continuous combat without dying you can force cloak to renew your warzone medpac usage more often, and also escape danger more often.

-Because of Celerity, you will be able break CCs every 1 minute 30 seconds instead of every 2 minutes. Considering how CC oriented this game is nowadays, this may be the difference between life and death for you or the person you're guarding.(Also your force speed cooldown is reduced by 5 seconds, and your interrupt cooldown is reduced by 2 seconds.)

-You get improved stealth AND improved stealth detection, with this it would be hard for any enemy to get the jump on you.

-You get all the benefits listed above while still keeping most of the important parts of the kinetic tree(Kinetic Ward, 5 second resilence, force speed breaking roots, force pull, spinning kick out of stealth, 3% more endurance, faster resilence cooldown with elusiveness.)

Cons

-You don't get slow time, which is probably the biggest con of this spec. Slow time is a pretty powerful skill... slowing down the dps by 30% and decreasing their damage by 5% up to 5 people does a lot to keep yourself and your allies alive.

-You don't get Harnessed Shadows. However, considering how much damage enemies put out and the fact that the heal is now negligible, I don't really think this is that big of a deal.

-No bombardment or applied force in this spec, however, your goal as a tank shouldn't be to deal damage, but prevent it.

-You have to put a few points into some useless skills in order to do this spec(Like Shadow Technique and Circling Shadows.)

Conclusion

To be honest, I'm not completely sure if this spec is better than 31/0/10 for tanking or not. The main reason for this is having to measure the benefits of slow time against having Shadow's Respite combined with Fade and Jedi Resistance for up to 57% reduced AoE damage(32% of that damage reduction is passive.) If you hit up to 5 people with Slow Time, then as a whole, those 5 people are doing 25% less damage to your team. However, since you are taking so much less damage from AoEs in 22/17/2, that puts a lot less of a strain on the healer to keep YOU alive.

Also, I'm not completely sure whether Shadow's Respite blocks the damage you receive as a result of Guard or not(Example: Someone smashing the healer you have guarded, and hits them but not you... do you receive the full damage even with Shadow's Respite up because it transferred from your guarded target to you?)

As for gear, the link to how I've geared as a tank is in my armory. Basically for the most part I stacked endurance and defense rating(stop stacking defense when you hit 30% defense)(while still keeping around 1100 expertise.) My health in game is just over 29000.

Hey @NamikazeNaruto - pretty interesting build. I personally like that your build focuses on one strong purpose. Really want to see it in action. You got a Youtube channel or somtin? As I remember i saw you in one of Shinarika vids, or seen your vid somewhere...but might be mistaken, will check...

When i rolled my char I got kinda attached to the pure KC build, then I decided to try different paths as well, so atm im rolling with 23/1/17 and only scratched its surface. I might try your build soon.

Will examine your build closely but need to do some work now...

Many thanks for your comment,

Cheers

http://swtor.askmrrobot.com/skills/Shadow#9c79c76ele-2if-0

31/10/0

i like this one. great solid tank spec since you get the reduced cool down on force breach, lots of AOE damage going out, plus speed boost, pluss find weakness is practically always procced.

very survivable and very capable of doing massive amounts of damage. Highly recomended. ive found i do more damage with this than the typical shadow hybrid 23/1/17 spec (http://swtor.askmrrobot.com/skills/Shadow#79c76e9e-1-2e63cf) pluss it has much more survivability.

Hey @NamikazeNaruto - pretty interesting build. I personally like that your build focuses on one strong purpose. Really want to see it in action. You got a Youtube channel or somtin? As I remember i saw you in one of Shinarika vids, or seen your vid somewhere...but might be mistaken, will check...

 

When i rolled my char I got kinda attached to the pure KC build, then I decided to try different paths as well, so atm im rolling with 23/1/17 and only scratched its surface. I might try your build soon.

 

Will examine your build closely but need to do some work now...

 

Many thanks for your comment,

 

Cheers

Well, I don't have a Youtube channel, but me and Shin are in the same guild, so it's no surprise you'd see me in one of her videos . The main reason I don't have a Youtube is two main reasons really.

1. I'm lazy

2. My computer is ancient and running fraps on it will probably cause it to lag even worse than it already does(I'm 20-30 fps average in warzones :\)

P.S. On paper 22/17/2 seems like it'd be the best tanking spec imo, considering how popular smash and bubble stun is right now. Though I haven't tested it extensively yet myself.

http://swtor.askmrrobot.com/skills/Shadow#9c79c76ele-2if-0

31/10/0

 

i like this one. great solid tank spec since you get the reduced cool down on force breach, lots of AOE damage going out, plus speed boost, pluss find weakness is practically always procced.

 

very survivable and very capable of doing massive amounts of damage. Highly recomended. ive found i do more damage with this than the typical shadow hybrid 23/1/17 spec (http://swtor.askmrrobot.com/skills/Shadow#79c76e9e-1-2e63cf) pluss it has much more survivability.

Hey, another interesting build. Seems that we never run out of new builds, which I especially like in this class. I used 31/0/10, 27/1/13 and 23/1/17 so far. I roll 27/1/13 as of now, fully augmented Stalker/Survivor mix gear, threw out my shield generator just to see the difference. I've got no hard numbers, but so far i feel more useful in any situation (DMG numbers are up big time. I sit around 130-150k, and I usually don't participate in the biggestestest fights:p). Force in Balance became my fav (Slow Time was easier to use for me tho) simply because I'm capable of range interrupt capping etc.

I've been thinking about allocating more points to Infiltration Tactics coz of the proc, I just need some more testing.

All in all thank you for your reply,

Cheers

Well, I don't have a Youtube channel, but me and Shin are in the same guild, so it's no surprise you'd see me in one of her videos . The main reason I don't have a Youtube is two main reasons really.

 

1. I'm lazy

2. My computer is ancient and running fraps on it will probably cause it to lag even worse than it already does(I'm 20-30 fps average in warzones :\)

 

P.S. On paper 22/17/2 seems like it'd be the best tanking spec imo, considering how popular smash and bubble stun is right now. Though I haven't tested it extensively yet myself.

Yeah, I knew it. I'm with you man. I'm pretty lazy too. I definitely need to try your build against lolsmashers and stunbubblers. Someone need to stop them.

idk I run 23/1/17 but in dps gear with a generator not a sheild, dps is high and suvivability is very good. many utility talents. +1800 will, +700 power, + 75% surge, +31% crit {unbuffed}, +20K health, still min/maxing gear will be near 1000 power when done.

Hey man, same here except that I roll the 27/1/13 version (tbh I'm too lazy ro respec every time when I go for PvE ). Gear setting is about the same. I use Survivor pieces only for the chest and head slot. Will try the whole Stalker set soon.

How much is your average DMG?

Thanks for your comment

Cheers,

I never bothered with pvp builds myself; just strap on my pvp gear and launch the finder. Imp healers hate me because, most of the time, I'm only one even bothering to interrupt and annoy them.

Ye I was in the same boat when I started, but ater 50 I felt like hitting a stone wall. I just needed to look into builds, specs, gearing etc. to know how I'm able to be more useful for the team.

Have fun bud, and keep harassing them healers for good .

Cheers,