Per title. I don't have much experience tanking as a Shadow, but I'm trying to make it work for me. Also, this is looking at it for PvE purposes primarily; I'm aware that in PvP, it's better to just orient it more for DPS gear.

 

As I understand it, Reactive Warding isn't good because it overwrites the much more useful Absorb granted by Force Barrier. To that degree, would the other two passive Relics be best, or the click-buff ones? Or should I forego them both and just hold on to the same Relics I use when I DPS?

Just use the passive relics, no matter what. Those are the most usefull you could ask for right now.

The defense one allows you to put a little of your defense stat given by your mods to the side (you can change them for Lethal B mods, much more interesting).

The other one, you want the passive which gives an increase to your absorb rating, especially since you have an absurdly high shield rating as a shadow tank (53% at least, based on my semi-tank assassin, should be higher with a full tank well geared.)

Edited November 30, 2017 by supertimtaf

Focus Retribution: Gives you HP and some little more DPS.

Shrouded Cruser: Has very good synergy with Force Potency/Recklessness and is some sort of a mini-deff. 68% + 5 % Shield Chance is very nice in certain situations. (Last time Brontes: Shielded every Smash in Burn Phase P2).

 

If you don't want Shrouded Crusader, you can use a second DPS relic instead (Serenditipous Assault).

 

The reason, to use DPS-relics is not, that they are giving you that much survivability (they give you a little bit with their ~3500 HP each) but, that the other tank relics are useless. As Kinetic Combat, you have more then enough Defense Chance with your normal build (248 token-enhancements+Lethal B-Mods). Reactive Warding doesn't give you anything (4k damage absorb every 20 seconds... yay!) and so does the shield proc relic. Moreover, Shadow/Sintanks are overpowered in terms of their survivability, that I am currently considering to sacrifice some absorb rating for crit-rating (so, I would prefer the 248 high-endurance+crit-enhancements over the 248-token-enhancements).

Crafted 246 Shield Amplification, and 248 Shrouded Crusader.

I'd recommend DPS ones (Focused Retribution and Serendipitous Assault). They add a nice little extra to hp and you'll also deal a little (tiny) bit more damage. If you really want tanking ones, the best one imo is Shrouded Crusader which provides the best mitigation of any relic (except Reactive Warden which bugs out with shields) when used on cooldown and can also be used as a mini defensive cooldown, this works especially well with Recklessness. Then the second best tank relics is Shield Amplification, mostly because Fortunate Redoubt is just bad and well, with the high Shield chance you'll have naturally as a Sin, you can get decent Absorption out of it.

personally i run the dps relics and sub in the shrouded crusader for fights that hav lots of out going damage or if i need another dcd.

With regards to Reactive Warding if you want to take it along: it's going to be even less helpful than an empty slot if you have a sorc/sage healer bubbling you, as the two absorb shields negate each other, so do check with your healers before you jump in or else you might shoot yourself in the foot.

With regards to Reactive Warding if you want to take it along: it's going to be even less helpful than an empty slot if you have a sorc/sage healer bubbling you, as the two absorb shields negate each other, so do check with your healers before you jump in or else you might shoot yourself in the foot.

 

That was fixed in mid 2017. Nevertheless, Reactive Warding is still crap. Who needs 4894 damage absorbed every 40 seconds? Mathematically, it probably lowers the dtps. But ingame you will never face a situation, where you constantly receive big amounts of damage. In most of the NiM/MM-OP-fights, you encounter short periods, where you receive high amounts of damage and most of the time it's just mediocre damage. When you want to absorb something, use your shield generator or force speed.

Edited January 15, 2018 by Exocor

That was fixed in mid 2017. Nevertheless, Reactive Warding is still crap. Who needs 4894 damage absorbed every 40 seconds? Mathematically, it probably lowers the dtps. But ingame you will never face a situation, where you constantly receive big amounts of damage. In most of the NiM/MM-OP-fights, you encounter short periods, where you receive high amounts of damage and most of the time it's just mediocre damage. When you want to absorb something, use your shield generator or force speed.

 

Never heard of anything getting fixed before until now! Thanks for letting me know. I'm reminded of this tank I met in a flashpoint earlier this week who had this dubious RW relic. Guess when the scoundrel healer dropped and a sage healer replaced him, I was telling him to swap out that silly thing. (He probably didn't think my opinion was worth anything since I was in a dps spec.)