So looking at the stacked defenses in this game they all seem to run on a simple equation that they add together.

Basically it goes like this... Take a trooper, guard him, give him sage buff, let him use his 25% reduction shield.

Now, hit him with an energy ability that does 1000 damage and he now takes only 15% of that damage. That is because the 50% guard, 25% shield and 10% buff are all adding together to reduce damage. That comes to about 150 damage on an ability that should hit for 1000.

This leads to what we have seen in many complaints about tanks not mitigating as much damage as other classes.

What should happen is the self defenses (buffs and armor/class defense) should come first (1000 - ~15% = 850). Then self buffs (850 - 25% = 637), then outside defenses (637 - 50% = 318). Obviously that is still an almost 70% reduction in damage which is good but isn't going over the top.

Giving additive defenses to a healing class that still heals for 100% (or more with expertise) but that can only take 15-40% damage is ridiculous. The best you can hope for is a marauder debuff for 20% healing, and with talents and expertise that maybe means they are brought down to 100% healing.

This is probably the same math that leads to insane damage numbers for some classes, by simply adding multipliers together.

Tanks typically don't get guarded, they guard. So when tanks are in pvp they are mitigating maybe 50% damage with their buffs up. Even a guarded target should not be taking less damage than a fully specced, fully geared tank class that gives up damage in order to do that.

Just my opinion of course.