I looked in Tanking: A primer, but it was a little too advanced for me. My main question is this:

What are the basic responsibilities of the tank in any given flashpoint, group, or operation?

I looked in Tanking: A primer, but it was a little too advanced for me. My main question is this:

 

What are the basic responsibilities of the tank in any given flashpoint, group, or operation?

1. Keep the hardest hitting unCCed mob hitting you.
   
2. Avoid breaking any CC.
   
3. Get any mobs that are hitting the healer to hit you
   
4. Maintain situational awareness to mitigate damage - move out of fire, interrupt dangerous abilities, react to 'special' boss abilities as appropriate.
   
5. Use your defensive/self-heal cooldowns to keep yourself alive if the healer's struggling.
   
6. Keep as many other mobs as practicable hitting you.
   
7. Use your defensive/self-heal cooldowns to reduce the amount of damage your healer has to heal.
   

And...

8. Set the pace appropriate to the group. If the group is weak, take it slower, CC more. If it is strong, blitz ahead, keep things moving.

Often times:

9. Communicate certain strategies. Usually the tank determines what gets CC'd, kill order for boss mobs, etc.

Sort of an offshoot of #8, that by being the first in, the tank becomes the de facto leader of the group. Obviously, that implies a certain level of experience with the instance. For example, there's a boss in BP that has 2 bots. Depending on your group makeup, you might kill the bots first, kill a bot first, or kill the boss first. Usually the tank say what the strategy is.

Now, if you don't know it, then someone else will make those sorts of calls. But once you do, normally the tank does.

Oh, and that's obviously for HMs and such. For Ops, the raid leader will do that.

And...

8. Set the pace appropriate to the group. ...

 

9. Communicate certain strategies. Usually the tank determines what gets CC'd, kill order for boss mobs, etc.

 

...leader of the group...

These are not "basic responsibilities", which is why I deliberately didn't include them in the list. They are derived and devolved responsibilities, and can be done by any party member, preferably the one who knows the instance and game best.

Might want to check out this threat: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=289868

There OP in that one I think went a little far by basically assuming the tank needed to be the party leader and assume those responsibilities, but its a good start and some good discussion.

Don't do it. When you do 8 and 16 man endgame, you'll be forced to play a melee dps because guilds already have a main tank and a standby main tank in case the first main tank leaves.

Yes every guild in the game has their tank roles filled thus the OP shouldn't play one /sarcasm.

Ignore this guy. There are always more people looking to raid and tanks are always needed. Its best to establish yourself with a group if you want to do endgame content.

Other than that, the above posts have covered what means to be a tank.

These are not "basic responsibilities", which is why I deliberately didn't include them in the list. They are derived and devolved responsibilities, and can be done by any party member, preferably the one who knows the instance and game best.

They are and they aren't. People expect the tank to lead, to set the pace, to know the fights. Obviously, when you first do stuff, you won't, you'll have to learn it, but, overall, the default expectation is the tank knows what to do.

A timid tank that never learns the fights will not be one that winds up on many friends lists. A tank that knows them and takes the team through them smoothly will.