Okay, kind of stupid question since I mainly solo aside from the occasional tactical. I'm a Shadow Tank, running...mostly 192 comms gear with a couple of pieces of Ziost 190 stuff left. Everything's augmented, and I've got two Ruusan relics - reactive warding and fortunate redoubt. As far as I know, this is pretty good gearing for what it is.

That said, I'm still intimidated by Hardmodes. I'm a part of a RP guild, and we don't really do group content like that, so I'm confined to PUGs. As a tank, this is doubly intimidating, and I'd sort of prefer to be in a position where, if I am queuing, iI'll at least be in a position where my gearing will help me recover from stupid mistakes.

I guess the real questions are, is hard mode really that big of a deal, and am I being overly cautious? Thanks!

I've been where you are. I have mained a healer in this game since launch, and I got into tanking for a raid group. I was so almost scared to pug stuff as a tank. My solution was to run the tacticals until I felt more comfortable with the flow of tanking then move on to the hardmode flashpoints. Now I'm tanking hardmode operations successfully. With that said, the hardmode flashpoints are not hard. There are some hard hitting pulls, but they aren't that bad. It may be best to just dive into the deep end. When I was still real green behind the ears I would just plainly say hey I'm a new tank, if I screw something up please let me know in the group chat at the beginning. I never got kicked once for anything, and I got over that feeling of dread pretty quick. Gear will come, but overall gaining the experience is the most important part when you're starting out.

Good luck, and through it all just keep your head up. You'll find you get comfortable with hard modes pretty fast.

Quite simply, the HM's aren't really that hard. Now of course you can get unlucky with who's in your group. But if you know what you're doing (and the others do too) the 192 gear is more than good enough to do the HM's, especially since the blood hunt nerf.

The suggestion of doing tactical FP's isn't a bad one, but shouldn't really be required. I would suggest just jump in there, the HM's are made for 186 gear at best, so technically you are overgeared (especially if you augmented everything) and the only way to learn is to go for it. Sure you might get 1 or 2 bad runs, but you might also get some very nice players to join you.

I'd suggest being vocal enough that other players are motivated to talk, that way within a few runs you'll get some people that'll talk you through the place, not to mention it's a lot more fun that way.

Depending on the group, HMFP can be a snoozefest or night long frustration. The only hardmode I found truly hard was Blood Hunt pre-nerf; our progression team downed Gemas'rugam, but Maul after ten stacks from Jos always killed the tank. It's much easier now; the general rule of thumb for HMFP (and Operations):

1. Circle/square/whatever on ground = bad, do not stand on them. Avoid if they're avoidable, pop a DCD if they aren't.

2. Take time to learn your class and role.

3. Use CC, interrupt and stuns.

4. Do not try to brute force mechanic.

Number 1 and 4 are the leading cause of deaths in HMFP; when done correctly it should be a smooth run. Dulfy has excellent guide on all flashpoints, and there are videos on Youtube to learn from. But there's nothing like queuing and trying out for yourself.

I'd suggest starting with the lowest difficulty: Rakata, then Korriban, Manaan, Tython, and at last Rishi/Blood Hunt.

Good luck!

Okay, kind of stupid question since I mainly solo aside from the occasional tactical. I'm a Shadow Tank, running...mostly 192 comms gear with a couple of pieces of Ziost 190 stuff left. Everything's augmented, and I've got two Ruusan relics - reactive warding and fortunate redoubt. As far as I know, this is pretty good gearing for what it is.

 

That said, I'm still intimidated by Hardmodes. I'm a part of a RP guild, and we don't really do group content like that, so I'm confined to PUGs. As a tank, this is doubly intimidating, and I'd sort of prefer to be in a position where, if I am queuing, iI'll at least be in a position where my gearing will help me recover from stupid mistakes.

 

I guess the real questions are, is hard mode really that big of a deal, and am I being overly cautious? Thanks!

Don't be intimidated by HM. Your gear is more than enough. Just get into them and learn about the few mechanics. Most HM bosses are designed that they have one major mechanic that just appears a few times until the boss is dead and that's it.

Yet, what I find a problem with current HM flashpoints, is that the difficulty varies a lot dependning on which flashpoint you are doing. This my list of difficulty of them, the first being the easiest.

1) Rakata

2) Korriban

3) Manaan

4) Tython

5) Rishi

6) Blood Hunt

There is a huge difference of difficulty between Rakata and Blood Hunt, yet they are the same tier, which is probably rather confusing for new players. If there are difficulty categories, then the difficulty should be the same for all content marked as one category.

Anyway, if you start with Rakata and then work your way through the list, you should be fine. Don't worry about it too much.

Mechanically - not hard at all.

Tuning wise - they are a bit all over the place though in general a lot of heavy and / or potential spike damage, with a few tight dps checks.

As others have said, the typical problems are groups pulling more than they can handle, rushing, trying to brute force mechanics, and / or not using their support abilities such as interrupts, cleanses, defensive cool downs, stuns, CC, and such.

Don't stand in stupid, take your time, and use your support abilities and you should be fine.

Guild made me do HM Tython while I was changing spec to tank after leveling vanguard to 60 as dps. Gear was 90% DPS, not augmented and I didn't even have taunts on my bars. We wiped twice on first boss, until I got taunts on bars and figured out what to spam on cooldown. After that it was a cakewalk. Healer loved my tank. Took huge spike damage, but was healed to full with one heal. If you have 1/2 a clue on how to tank, I would think you would be fine, since I had no clue and no gear, yet still was able to laugh my way through it. Since then I have gotten some idea on how to tank and actually have tanking gear plus augments and now these are a joke. Now in seriousness, we got through first HM FP with me as a tank, not because of my tanking, but because of the healer.

You will do fine. Just tell people you are new to group content. If they give you crap or annoy kick, ignore and forget. DPS is a dime a dozen. Just be nice to healer.

Guild made me do HM Tython while I was changing spec to tank after leveling vanguard to 60 as dps. Gear was 90% DPS, not augmented and I didn't even have taunts on my bars. We wiped twice on first boss, until I got taunts on bars and figured out what to spam on cooldown. After that it was a cakewalk. Healer loved my tank. Took huge spike damage, but was healed to full with one heal. If you have 1/2 a clue on how to tank, I would think you would be fine, since I had no clue and no gear, yet still was able to laugh my way through it. Since then I have gotten some idea on how to tank and actually have tanking gear plus augments and now these are a joke. Now in seriousness, we got through first HM FP with me as a tank, not because of my tanking, but because of the healer.

 

You will do fine. Just tell people you are new to group content. If they give you crap or annoy kick, ignore and forget. DPS is a dime a dozen. Just be nice to healer.

The first boss in the Tython is the only reason why Tython made it behind Manaan in my list above. PUGs have some trouble there sometimes. The other bosses are easy.

One more thing to the OP: the trash pulls often do much more damage than the bosses, so take you time there to sort your strategy how you are gonna get aggro of as many of them as possible. When healing, I see a lot of tanks who tunnel vision the elite mob while the strongs are beating up the DPS and myself.

The first boss in the Tython is the only reason why Tython made it behind Manaan in my list above. PUGs have some trouble there sometimes. The other bosses are easy..

I've never failed at this boss and I once got knocked off platform as a healer. Luckily was on sawbones, so I hit escape and rocketboot back to group. Just as lucky the group knew how to use defensive cooldowns.

This whole tier of content was apparently released with the idea that hard mode = nightmare.

A lot of things have been nerfed already, though, especially the flashpoints, and you're overgearing them by a lot. So I wouldn't worry about it too much (do try to get rid of those high-endurance junk enhancements from comms gear, though). Just get used to the idea that you might actually need to use a defensive cooldown or 2 on some trash pulls (unthinkable previously). If you're not too confident on a difficult-looking pull, you can request a CC (at the very least all healers should have one), and add your own as a shadow.

The bosses are fairly easy for the most part.

Besides what's the worst that can happen ? You might fail 3 random people on the internet that you'll probably never see again, in a video game ?

Thanks so much for the input, everyone. I really appreciate how helpful you're all being. It's always nice to come on these forums and find that, despite the reputation, there are genuinely helpful people around.

Also a bit of relief to hear in the first reply that I'm not the only person who has felt a little intimidated running content

Still, I definately feel a little more secure in my abilities tanking, since you've all given me bits of advice that I realize I've already been using, more or less...minus maybe CCing which is pretty pointless in tacticals (unless we're talking about Rishi and CC/stealthing by trash mobs to get to the consoles that is!). Even on tacticals I make an effort to avoid circles of bad, despite not needing to since even they barely tickle me with my current gear, and I use taunts and pop defensive cooldowns a fair bit, usually in that instance to let the healer DPS instead of healing me or the DPSs, but it's good to know that that kind of stuff is more or less what I should be doing to get by in hardmodes.

I didn't even know about the enhancements being sub-par, so I'll look into that as well, but it's good to know I'm solidly geared and everything for this stuff.

Definately feelign quite a bit more confident about this stuff now, thanks. I think for the msot part I was still stuck on the 3.0 notion of the difficulty levels of HMs where groups were really struggling. I didn't realize some of the harder content (blood hunt comes to mind) had even been nerfed!

HM is not meant to be face roll.

There are mechanics and require some sort of strategy. For a group that have all done it before, it is fairly easy and doesn't take any longer than doing sm.

For players doing them first time, you need to learn the mechanics and strat. Learning requires wipings. The problem with PUG is that the majority aren't prepared to spend 2 hrs on a flashpoint regardless of whether they have done the fp before.

(Over)gearing just provides a minor convenient.

My suggestion for your first run is grab some guildies and have a go. Jump on voice chat and laugh at how bad each other is. Wiping can be fun too.

One more thing to the OP: the trash pulls often do much more damage than the bosses, so take you time there to sort your strategy how you are gonna get aggro of as many of them as possible.

No kidding. Before Rishi and Blood Hunt came along, I always dreaded pre-nerf Manaan. Tython is cakewalk after first boss, pre-nerf Manaan was a challenge from start from finish. The trash pulls hit hard; I always apologized to healer before we started because there would always one sniper that escaped me and oneshot the unsuspecting healer. They don't hit as hard now, but always LoS trash if you can. It makes aggro management much easier.

For Sin/Shadow tank, CC is invaluable because it's one less trash exhausting your Dark Ward/Kinetic Ward stack. Speaking from experience, the first time I tanked HMFP I unknowingly chain pulled and gave healing guildmate a heart attack when I spiked because I ran out of stacks.

No kidding. Before Rishi and Blood Hunt came along, I always dreaded pre-nerf Manaan. Tython is cakewalk after first boss, pre-nerf Manaan was a challenge from start from finish. The trash pulls hit hard; I always apologized to healer before we started because there would always one sniper that escaped me and oneshot the unsuspecting healer. They don't hit as hard now, but always LoS trash if you can. It makes aggro management much easier.

 

For Sin/Shadow tank, CC is invaluable because it's one less trash exhausting your Dark Ward/Kinetic Ward stack. Speaking from experience, the first time I tanked HMFP I unknowingly chain pulled and gave healing guildmate a heart attack when I spiked because I ran out of stacks.

Haha, that's kind of brilliant, in a way. That said, I'm definately thankful about the nerf, from the sounds of thing. I remember in the early days of 3.0 that people were dreading running HMFPs, so I'm glad things have been adjusted a little. GREAT point about the CCing though, especially when you relate it back to Kinetic Ward usage, since we Shadows tend to rely on it a fair bit without realizing until it's all burned up. LoSing mobs is definately something I'll have to learn the hard way, but it's an invaluable tip.

I posted here mainly because I wanted to get some 'on the ground' feedback about tactics - I've seen a few guides for various FPs, and while they are handy, they're a little dry and don't give you handy tips like the ones you guys are giving, so once again, I really appreciate the input.

(A few months necro, yes i'm aware.)

I just wanted to say thanks for this thread and the encouraging replies. I'm also in the process of reforming from mostly solo-only play. Recently i've been facerolling the 60 tacticals, with the exception of a few unlucky and/or sub-par groups here and there. And i feel ready for more challenge but was afraid of the HMs. (Specifically i don't want to be one of "the weird people.") I've been reading guides and watching videos to prepare myself as much as possible.

Thanks especially for the subjective difficulty ranking - i plan on working my way up the list. Yesterday i queued for only Rakata, and my very first 60HM was a great time! Yup, it was a little tougher than tactical, especially the trash pulls, but it felt like we had a group of total professionals. The Shadow tank would sneak in and CC a gold, then pull the pack away so we could get to work. DPS didn't break CCs (pet peeve of mine), healer was right on top of her job. Even some fun chat during the cutscenes. Just a really good group, and it felt like a textbook illustration of a good FP run.

So thanks for the encouragement and the idea to "ease" into these. I hope i can look forward to some more runs like that!