I'm coming back from a 10 month hiatus, leaving from frustration but staying subbed the whole time. I like pvp in the games I play and played a Powertech Shieldtech pvper for a while. When I left, I could feel myself getting tanky in pvp from the Champion/Battlemaster gear I was acquiring.

Coming back, I've started pvping again, and have pretty much replaced all my Champion items with the new War Hero gear but I feel squishier than ever. My damage output has also gone way down. Before, in a good game I could do 100k damage in something like voidstar. Now, a good game for me is like 60-70k.

I'm not asking to do damage as a tank, but it really frustrates me that I don't seem to mitigate damage at all IN THE TANK PVP GEAR THEY GIVE ME. Being hit for 2000-4000 is a regular occurance. Once the combat death log recorded me as dying to a 5100 hit. That's more than 1/4 my health in a single hit.

With current pvp gear, everyone has 17000-20000 health, so I don't have health advantage. I'm still getting hit for huge numbers, so I am not mitigating damage. And my own damage barely scratches the people I go against. I'm completely impotent except for matyring myself with guard on a healer, and hoping they notice enough to keep me alive. I used to be able to 1v1 in pvp, but now it's more frustrating than ever.

Am I alone in this experience? What changed? What am I doing wrong?

I'm coming back from a 10 month hiatus, leaving from frustration but staying subbed the whole time. I like pvp in the games I play and played a Powertech Shieldtech pvper for a while. When I left, I could feel myself getting tanky in pvp from the Champion/Battlemaster gear I was acquiring.

 

Coming back, I've started pvping again, and have pretty much replaced all my Champion items with the new War Hero gear but I feel squishier than ever. My damage output has also gone way down. Before, in a good game I could do 100k damage in something like voidstar. Now, a good game for me is like 60-70k.

 

I'm not asking to do damage as a tank, but it really frustrates me that I don't seem to mitigate damage at all IN THE TANK PVP GEAR THEY GIVE ME. Being hit for 2000-4000 is a regular occurance. Once the combat death log recorded me as dying to a 5100 hit. That's more than 1/4 my health in a single hit.

 

With current pvp gear, everyone has 17000-20000 health, so I don't have health advantage. I'm still getting hit for huge numbers, so I am not mitigating damage. And my own damage barely scratches the people I go against. I'm completely impotent except for matyring myself with guard on a healer, and hoping they notice enough to keep me alive. I used to be able to 1v1 in pvp, but now it's more frustrating than ever.

 

Am I alone in this experience? What changed? What am I doing wrong?

I have a vanguard shield tank and I get blown up in seconds. It not even funny. I'm way softer than a healer and can't even defend myself as well as a sentinel can. I am ok with having little DPS but outside of guarding a healer, I'm literally useless. I also have over 1100 exp, so yeah...not fun.

It's absurd and bioware has done nothing to fix it.

Short story is your screwed. Tank gear under preforms in this game but they can't make it better without adjusting something else or healers would never die in rateds. PT tanks are the worst of the 3 tanks, maybe that will change in the expansion if they are allowed to pick up both charge and hydrolic override, but for now you don't have enough utility while alive to make being alive for a tiny bit longer than a dps worthwhile. The only utility you bring that another tank doesn't is a ranged aoe taunt which is only marginally better, an AOE stun (but you don't have an AOE mez or any mez for that matter) and a pull, but shadow tanks have that too, they also have an aoe knockback to assist with peels while gurdians have an awwsome slow. You also don't have force speed, a friendly leap, force push, or CC immunity.

If you want to tank you'll have to play shadow or guardian, though before gearing I would still do some research on whether tank or dps gear makes more sense for that class in tank spec. Otherwise respec your PT to pyro and blow stuff up, you can still do light peels for your healer via AOE stun, tauns, and grapple, you just will have significantly more damage in exchange for you slightly worse peels and lack of guard.

I'm coming back from a 10 month hiatus, leaving from frustration but staying subbed the whole time. I like pvp in the games I play and played a Powertech Shieldtech pvper for a while. When I left, I could feel myself getting tanky in pvp from the Champion/Battlemaster gear I was acquiring.

 

What changed? What am I doing wrong?

You can no longer successfully hybrid with points high up the tank tree.

The rocket punch/stockstrike surge multiplier skill in the tank tree is gone and the crit chance increase skill has dropped 14%. You cannot pickup Prototype particle accelerator and run any cylinder/cell other than Combustible Gas Cylinder/Plasma Cell.

For mitagating damage in pvp, active cooldowns work better than passive high shield chance, which is what a PT/VG tank is built around.

For mitagating damage in pvp, active cooldowns work better than passive high shield chance, which is what a PT/VG tank is built around.

^^^

Stack Defense/End. Move Shield talents elsewhere, but keep core SS/ST specs that are helpful(about 16 points in the tree).

Its sucks, but until they change shielding....

Pure tanks, especially shield based ones, are not viable..

stop trying to PVP with PVE gear. 1100 exp isnt enough.

1100 is more this enough for pug WZs. Saying its not is exaggerating. Ad BTW, I checked real quick, I have over 1200 on my tank.

The problem is tanking isn't viable.

I'm coming back from a 10 month hiatus, *snip*

Since you left VG/PT tank was changed for the worse and we all respecced.

From one PvP Vanguard tank to another, I feel your pain. Gunnery Commando/Arsensal Mercs like to complain about how they are gimped in PvP (and I'm not saying they aren't), but by far and away the worst class/spec combo for PvP is Shield-spec Vanguard. People just don't notice because Assault Spec/Pyrotech is so incredibly strong.

The problem you are running into is that unlike PvE, the majority of attacks thrown at your are force and tech attacks and therefore cannot be dodged or blocked. This means that those nice defense, shield, and absorb rating scores you have likely worked hard to get do nothing against these attacks in PvP. Though I admit that these stats are nice against the few specs which DO use alot of melee or ranged attacks (such as Combat Sentinels/Carnage Marauders, Sharpshooter Gunslingers/Marksman Snipers, and Vigilance Guardians/Vengeance Juggernauts) and are therefore not totally useless, the large amount of damage you are giving up for a relatively minor improvement to overall survivability is not worth it.

I know there is going to be SOMEONE out there who is going to try to slam me for my previous statement, saying how I am not a true PvP tank and how they wear full tank gear get 200K damage and 800K protection every match or whatever, but my conclusion came from months of personal testing and PvP hardship and I stand by it.

Based on my experience, I recommend the following for PvP tanking:

1. Buy and wear DPS gear, but remod it for additional endurance. Having more health still helps in PvP, and you will need as much as possible when you are guarding someone and taking 50% of their damage.
   
2. Continue to run in your defensive stance. The flat 5% damage reduction and huge armor increase it provides is absolutely critical for PvP tanking.
   
3. Instead of choosing talents which only give you flat defense, shield, and absorb; choose ones that give flat damage reduction (additional armor and internal/elemental damage reduction counts for this), additional stuns/controlling effects (or reduced cooldowns on said effects), immunities to controling effects, and otherwise maximize your damage. Don't be afraid to go far into a non-tanking tree to accomplish this, but keep in mind that you will be running in defensive stance.
   

As a Vanguard, I run full Tactics in PvP (as the Shock Absorbers talent at the top of this tree is better than anything Shield-Tech has to offer) but stay in Ion stance, and I do quite well.

Whether or not you choose to take my advice, I wish you the best of luck in your future PvP endeavors.

Short story is your screwed. Tank gear under preforms in this game but they can't make it better without adjusting something else or healers would never die in rateds. PT tanks are the worst of the 3 tanks, maybe that will change in the expansion if they are allowed to pick up both charge and hydrolic override, but for now you don't have enough utility while alive to make being alive for a tiny bit longer than a dps worthwhile. The only utility you bring that another tank doesn't is a ranged aoe taunt which is only marginally better, an AOE stun (but you don't have an AOE mez or any mez for that matter) and a pull, but shadow tanks have that too, they also have an aoe knockback to assist with peels while gurdians have an awwsome slow. You also don't have force speed, a friendly leap, force push, or CC immunity.

 

If you want to tank you'll have to play shadow or guardian, though before gearing I would still do some research on whether tank or dps gear makes more sense for that class in tank spec. Otherwise respec your PT to pyro and blow stuff up, you can still do light peels for your healer via AOE stun, tauns, and grapple, you just will have significantly more damage in exchange for you slightly worse peels and lack of guard.

This sums it up.

If you want to protect somebody in PVP you gotta Smash/Sweep them away.

Have at it.

Tank gear all about min/max your defences. You cannot expect any good if you got 1200 expertise.

My juggernaut stats : 1396 expertise, 24500 hp, 30 % defence, 30% shield block and 25% absorb. Rest gear power/crit/surge. And expect getting such messages when u properly geared http://imageshack.us/f/685/screenshot2013011220412.jpg/

TYou cannot expect any good if you got 1200 expertise

LOL

1208 expertise more then enough all above is just useless

Tank gear all about min/max your defences. You cannot expect any good if you got 1200 expertise.

My juggernaut stats : 1396 expertise, 24500 hp, 30 % defence, 30% shield block and 25% absorb. Rest gear power/crit/surge. And expect getting such messages when u properly geared http://imageshack.us/f/685/screenshot2013011220412.jpg/

The juggernaut AC and its immortal spec are fundamentally different than the PT/VG shield spec, because of this your experience and the OP's will never fully overlap.

Before 1.6 I was playing a full-tank spec, full tank-gear Vanguard. I was doing ok, but realised that my dps output wasn't enough to really make a difference, just a nuisance. Come 1.6, I respecced into "Iron Fist" (http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#801GRGbzRroMZMcdroZb.2 is the spec I use, but you can throw some skills around, whatever you like. The mainpoints are that you take Storm and the 2 points to get free Explosive Surges from the tank tree AND lowered cooldown on your interrupt and maybe Gut from Tactics.) and got myself in full DPS-gear, save for the Shield (and for now, my mainhand weapon as well, but I will be switching it to a DPS-one once I get the comms.)

I am now much more efficient in dealing damage (I can actually bring down healers on my own!), my survivability isn't that much lower, Gut is good to keep stealthers in check and the lowered CD on the interrupt... you'll love 6 seconds.

Some damage-comparisons: in full tank gear, I hit the 2,5k mark with High-Impact Bolt maybe 5 times. At the moment, my biggest hit is around 3,5k. In tank gear I got over 300k damage in Voidstar a couple of times, and these were against teams where I would just pound off a healer ad infinitum, not really contributing to anything. Just today I got my new dps-record, 440k in a full round of Voidstar, all the while being much more efficient. (So although the "max dps difference" isn't that big, I was saved from doing damage because I actually got to kill stuff.)

I'm coming back from a 10 month hiatus, leaving from frustration but staying subbed the whole time. I like pvp in the games I play and played a Powertech Shieldtech pvper for a while. When I left, I could feel myself getting tanky in pvp from the Champion/Battlemaster gear I was acquiring.

 

Coming back, I've started pvping again, and have pretty much replaced all my Champion items with the new War Hero gear but I feel squishier than ever. My damage output has also gone way down. Before, in a good game I could do 100k damage in something like voidstar. Now, a good game for me is like 60-70k.

 

I'm not asking to do damage as a tank, but it really frustrates me that I don't seem to mitigate damage at all IN THE TANK PVP GEAR THEY GIVE ME. Being hit for 2000-4000 is a regular occurance. Once the combat death log recorded me as dying to a 5100 hit. That's more than 1/4 my health in a single hit.

 

With current pvp gear, everyone has 17000-20000 health, so I don't have health advantage. I'm still getting hit for huge numbers, so I am not mitigating damage. And my own damage barely scratches the people I go against. I'm completely impotent except for matyring myself with guard on a healer, and hoping they notice enough to keep me alive. I used to be able to 1v1 in pvp, but now it's more frustrating than ever.

 

Am I alone in this experience? What changed? What am I doing wrong?

if you want to live longer then I would suggest you add mods to your gear and get that boost to your HP. Also its rare but if you find a good healer and guard them they will return the favor. I had one Vanguard that pretty much followed me around and taunted and stunned anyone attacking me. So in return I kept them alive since they were keeping me from getting harassed. Granted this players damage was still low, but in total we died like 2 times the whole match.

Now this is rare and doesn't often happen in pug wz's, but if the healer is good they will recognize you are guarding them. If they are only healing because they suck at DPS or they are low geared and think going heals is the best way to stay alive, then don't bother. But a good healer that knows what they are doing will pay attention and keep you up.

I'm coming back from a 10 month hiatus, leaving from frustration but staying subbed the whole time. I like pvp in the games I play and played a Powertech Shieldtech pvper for a while. When I left, I could feel myself getting tanky in pvp from the Champion/Battlemaster gear I was acquiring.

 

Coming back, I've started pvping again, and have pretty much replaced all my Champion items with the new War Hero gear but I feel squishier than ever. My damage output has also gone way down. Before, in a good game I could do 100k damage in something like voidstar. Now, a good game for me is like 60-70k.

 

I'm not asking to do damage as a tank, but it really frustrates me that I don't seem to mitigate damage at all IN THE TANK PVP GEAR THEY GIVE ME. Being hit for 2000-4000 is a regular occurance. Once the combat death log recorded me as dying to a 5100 hit. That's more than 1/4 my health in a single hit.

 

With current pvp gear, everyone has 17000-20000 health, so I don't have health advantage. I'm still getting hit for huge numbers, so I am not mitigating damage. And my own damage barely scratches the people I go against. I'm completely impotent except for matyring myself with guard on a healer, and hoping they notice enough to keep me alive. I used to be able to 1v1 in pvp, but now it's more frustrating than ever.

 

Am I alone in this experience? What changed? What am I doing wrong?

So you run tank gear, are outgeared, and you expect to do well.... I am not sure why you think you were going to be successful.

So you run tank gear, are outgeared, and you expect to do well.... I am not sure why you think you were going to be successful.

WH gear isn't out geared. You missed the point. Shield tanking is broken in PvP as it does nothing for the player.

WH gear isn't out geared. You missed the point. Shield tanking is broken in PvP as it does nothing for the player.

Can be useful in huttball. But tank is more spec than it is stats. I would rather have a shadow or a juggernaut, they are just much more useful than a vanguard.