So i have not played my BH in a while, and i totally forgot about the changes in 1.3.

So i log back into a refunded talent tree.

Now i have to decide how to proceed. I started as tank, switched to Pyro and now with the refund im deciding what to jump back to.

So, Tanks or Pyros how have your experiences been in 1.3 so far?

Im only level 30, so changes to gear are no big deal to jump between at the moment.

Im leaning to tank, as i have enough DPS on other characters, and it would be nice to take advantage of the LFG tool.

On the other hand...Pyro was some enjoyable DPS...

Im not PVPing with him, so i dont need anything from that side.

What say you guys?

If your not goin to pvp then go ahead and go full tank with Mako to help you out on your solo adventures.

For me pvp is hard as a tank, dont get me wrong i loved that it took 4-5 people to burn me down but 1v1 i couldnt kill anything.

Yeah ive gone back to tank.

I certainly do appreciate the instant Q on the LFG tool, and it helps to shake a bit of the rust off. Tanking does seem to be a whole lot easier now. At least with my BH it seems that way.

Did guardians get the shaft this patch? Ive been seeing my sentinel stealing aggro a ton lately on repub side.

Meanwhile i dont think ive lost aggro on my BH yet to DPS.

I could be playing with bad tanks though on repub side as well.

Either way, Tank it is.

I know you have already made your choice and gone tank, but I figured I would drop some feedback here for ya.

I have been a powertech tank since release and very recently started over with my wife on a new server and started yet another one (I love this class) I am currently level 38 in pretty much the best gear you can get through crafting, flashpoints and commondations.

The advantage of being a tank with the new Group Finder tool is just amazing as well. My experience with the time it takes to get a group may slightly differ from yours as I always queue with a healer (my wife) and I have never waited more than 5 seconds for a group. This includes the rare 5am-before-work FP quickie. We have run about 20 FPs since the tool came out.

With the recent 1.3 changes YES your single target DPS went down, but threat and AoE went through the roof!! The change to Jet Charge giving you 2 free Flame Sweeps is just amazing. Add the talent that reduces all damage the mobs do by 5% for 15 seconds each time you flame sweep and it just becomes that much more awesome. I just can not express enough the pure awesomeness of having these 2 free Flame Sweeps in PvE. Often times doing Heroic 4s, or FPs I find myself frequently side-strafing away from mobs to get in a mid-combat Jet Charge so I can get the double Flame Sweep and the -5% damage debuff back on the mobs ... it's that good.

The change to Rail Shot is very nice too, though I wish the AoE range was just a bit larger it is still extremly nice to fire off a rail shot and see everything at melee range take the damage.

Any threat issues i previously had are completly gone. with a decent and quick rotation of skills, along with some quick thinking of mob positioning via Grapple and Jet Charge.

After level 30 I stopped using Mako and replaced her with a pimped out Torian (dropped 60 commondations on him on Taris and a full set of moddable gear from FPs) the killing speed is just amazing and it is WAY faster than using Mako, even considering having to use Recharge and Reload after most battles, the 1-3 seconds it takes to self-heal is more than made up for in killing speed. (you could use Gault too if you prefer .. I just like using a melee companion for AoE reasons)

Side Hint:

If you are using a programmable keyboard you can bind your companions skills to your own for added effect.

EXAMPLE: I bound Torians Flame Sweep and Flame Thrower to my Flame Sweep so when I gather up the mobs nicely and start to AoE he drops them at the same time ... Try this on Taris with all those melee Rakghouls and you will fall in love with all the beautiful yellow numbers poping up all over your screen.

If your not goin to pvp then go ahead and go full tank with Mako to help you out on your solo adventures.

 

For me pvp is hard as a tank, dont get me wrong i loved that it took 4-5 people to burn me down but 1v1 i couldnt kill anything.

^^ this,

imp side has so few healers ,

so being a tank in pvp is so frustrate.

a tank cant take 5 players attack u but u dont die,

without a healer, u just as squishy as pyrotech when 4 geared pubs focus on u,

it is lame.