I want to try my hand at PVE tanking. FPs at first and Ops later. I plan to try a Guardian first.

Is tanking difficult? Can anyone give me any advice?

Ever plaec a melee dps?

If yes, then no, tanking isn't hard. It's basically the same, just that the boss is supposed to hit you

Generally speaking, there are 3 really important things about tanking.

1. Keeping aggro - Every tank class has an ideal opening rotation that will guarantee you won't lose aggro. Won't go into specifics, cause you can look it up on dulfy, but you should learn that. Also, if you do keep losing aggro to someone, put a guard on them, it lowers their threat by 25%.

2. Mitigation - Every tank has 3 forms of mitiigation (armor, rotational passive, and active). Armor is actually what it sounds like, the mitigation you get from just standing still and wearing tank armor. Vanguards/Powertechs have the best at this, Shadows/Assassins have the worst, and Guardians/Juggs are right in the middle. Rotational passive is the buffs you get from properly doing your rotation. Every class gets certain defensive buffs from doing their rotation correctly, Guardians are the weakest here as they don't get too many buffs from that, but it is still very important. And finally, active mitigation are defensive cooldowns (Saber reflect, Focused Defense, Saber Ward, etc.). Guardians are great at this, as they have like 6 if you include adrenals. These are useful to use when your healers are pretty stressed, and when you know that a lot of damage is coming soon.

3. Mechanics - This is arguably the most important role a tank has, as well as the toughest to learn (as you can't do it alone). As the tank you need to know the mechanics of the fight, such as boss positioning, what attacks can be avoided, whether the boss cleaves the raids, and many other crazy things. Obviously you won't know it for a while, but reading guides and asking questions about fights is a good idea

I want to try my hand at PVE tanking. FPs at first and Ops later. I plan to try a Guardian first.

Is tanking difficult? Can anyone give me any advice?

a lot of people shy away from tanking because everyone is looking and judging, but tanking is the easiest role in the game to learn and to do well. essentially it boils down to, stand in the correct place and make sure the enemies are attacking you. some bosses have mechanics which move the correct place to stand and others have aggro drops or a dps may occasionally pull off of you, so you do have to do stuff sometimes, but those two things alone will get you all the way through hm fp. to progress past that, you will need to pay attention to your defensive cooldowns, how they work and when to use them, and that will carry you all the way through hm ops. there is more to it if you want to be a good tank, but they are all things that you pick up with experience. just the basic things i presented here will make a decent tank. good luck!

The Dulfy tank guides...including the pre-4.0 ones...are very good primers.

Everyone has said the proper things, the only thing I would add is that if you are new to running ops then you will need to study the mechanics of each boss and become comfortable with them (and the terminology)....before you run whatever Op you have chosen.

Unfortunately, there is little (general) patience for a tank who doesn't know the mechanics. So...to make your experience less trolly...study up. It really helps. Even better, you have a wealth of material now to learn almost every fight, every mechanic, and all the cheese. If you are running a Jugg/Guardian, absolutely read this thread: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=831874

Good luck!

The most difficult part in tanking for me is when you have to take aggro off multiple ranged enemies that spread out of each other.

Los pull is your friend in that situation.

Los pull is your friend in that situation.

Or be a Guardian/Jugg and pop saber reflect. Proceed to go afk.

Obviously not really but it feels like I can do that some times.

Ever plaec a melee dps?

 

If yes, then no, tanking isn't hard. It's basically the same, just that the boss is supposed to hit you

Yeah it's funny, i tanked my first nim op (dp) recently (always been dps) and i hadnt tanked anything in over a year (and even then it was like sm/hm stuff) and the biggest adjustment for me was just being in melee range and having a very different view of the fight. I main sniper and my merc is my main alt dps and honestly, for most of the fights the mechanics aren't very complicated. If you know how to hold aggro, which cd's to use for which attacks/dmg types and generally know tactics, you should be fine.

a lot of people shy away from tanking because everyone is looking and judging, but tanking is the easiest role in the game to learn and to do well. essentially it boils down to, stand in the correct place and make sure the enemies are attacking you. some bosses have mechanics which move the correct place to stand and others have aggro drops or a dps may occasionally pull off of you, so you do have to do stuff sometimes, but those two things alone will get you all the way through hm fp. to progress past that, you will need to pay attention to your defensive cooldowns, how they work and when to use them, and that will carry you all the way through hm ops. there is more to it if you want to be a good tank, but they are all things that you pick up with experience. just the basic things i presented here will make a decent tank. good luck!

So does the "worst" mitigation of the three mean that the Shadow/Sin tanks are the worst of the three? I'm just returning to the game after over a year away and trying to decide which type of tank to play. I played a Vanguard for a very long time, and while I could go back to it I kinda want to try something different so my choices are Guardian or Shadow. I'd rather not wast my time on a tank that isn't going to cut it when I finally get to Ops later.

So does the "worst" mitigation of the three mean that the Shadow/Sin tanks are the worst of the three? I'm just returning to the game after over a year away and trying to decide which type of tank to play. I played a Vanguard for a very long time, and while I could go back to it I kinda want to try something different so my choices are Guardian or Shadow. I'd rather not wast my time on a tank that isn't going to cut it when I finally get to Ops later.

I have spent a decent time tanking in all 3 specs. If you were deciding between guardian or shadow, I would strongly recommend guardian (despite my main being a shadow). While the shadow is a tad more complex than the other two, I don't believe it offers anything advantageous short of a few niche fights. Vanguards have the best overall mobility and guardians have multiple options for mitigation, where the shadow phasewalks and stealths but is the most vulnerable to taking spike damage because of their lesser base mitigation.

So does the "worst" mitigation of the three mean that the Shadow/Sin tanks are the worst of the three? I'm just returning to the game after over a year away and trying to decide which type of tank to play. I played a Vanguard for a very long time, and while I could go back to it I kinda want to try something different so my choices are Guardian or Shadow. I'd rather not wast my time on a tank that isn't going to cut it when I finally get to Ops later.

The thing is this: Shadows need to be played on a pretty high level in comparison to the other two tank classes in order to achieve the same or better mitigation. Or to put it in different words: A vanguard that stands around doing nothing takes less damage than a guardian doing nothing wich takes lesser damage than a shadow doing nothing.

But if all three are played correctly, shadows are the best in terms of mitigation. And they will be more so in the next expansion, but we aren't allowed to talk about that yet.

So does the "worst" mitigation of the three mean that the Shadow/Sin tanks are the worst of the three? I'm just returning to the game after over a year away and trying to decide which type of tank to play. I played a Vanguard for a very long time, and while I could go back to it I kinda want to try something different so my choices are Guardian or Shadow. I'd rather not wast my time on a tank that isn't going to cut it when I finally get to Ops later.

I don't play an Assy or a tank, but I'm a progression raider and in addition raiding with my raid group I do alot of pugging on the side as well, and in my experience, and I can't speak to the reasons why, but most of the time tanks aren't Assy's. From what I hear they are certainly capable of doing the role, and I have played with a few, but from just pugging it seems Assy's are the least common tanks. Jugg's seem to be the most common, again, I can't speak to the reasons why, it could just be because of preconcieved notions that juggs wear heavy armor and Assy's wear paper machete' armor.

From everything I've read thus far regarding changes in 5.0 Assy Tanks appear to be shaping up to be perhaps the best tank class. But than again. come 5.0 , very shortly there after, there won't be anyone that needs Tanks for Operations.

The thing is this: Shadows need to be played on a pretty high level in comparison to the other two tank classes in order to achieve the same or better mitigation. Or to put it in different words: A vanguard that stands around doing nothing takes less damage than a guardian doing nothing wich takes lesser damage than a shadow doing nothing.

But if all three are played correctly, shadows are the best in terms of mitigation. And they will be more so in the next expansion, but we aren't allowed to talk about that yet.

I wouldn't say its just a matter of higher skill cap and better mitigation.

While yes, shadows are a bit more complex than the other two classes, the real stickler is that they're most prone to spike damage, having the weakest base mitigation in terms of resisting damage when hit. While no other class can hit the same levels of shield/absorb/defense as it stands, the weaker armor (among other things) means that when hits do get through they hit for a lot more. There are times where a shadow will take little to no damage, and then times where they chunk for a large amount. The other two classes are less likely to have periods of "invulnerabilty" but they also take less damage when hits manage to bypass defense/shield/absorb.

Vanguard is the mobility tank, Guardian is the tanky tank, and Shadow is the "Stealth" Tank. The problem with being the "stealth tank" is that its very niche since it basically just means you can cc and avoid a few extra fights. As much as I enjoy my stealth tank over my vanguard, stealth is pretty limited when serving in a tanking role.

I wouldn't say its just a matter of higher skill cap and better mitigation.

 

While yes, shadows are a bit more complex than the other two classes, the real stickler is that they're most prone to spike damage, having the weakest base mitigation in terms of resisting damage when hit. While no other class can hit the same levels of shield/absorb/defense as it stands, the weaker armor (among other things) means that when hits do get through they hit for a lot more. There are times where a shadow will take little to no damage, and then times where they chunk for a large amount. The other two classes are less likely to have periods of "invulnerabilty" but they also take less damage when hits manage to bypass defense/shield/absorb.

 

Vanguard is the mobility tank, Guardian is the tanky tank, and Shadow is the "Stealth" Tank. The problem with being the "stealth tank" is that its very niche since it basically just means you can cc and avoid a few extra fights. As much as I enjoy my stealth tank over my vanguard, stealth is pretty limited when serving in a tanking role.

Wait what? I've just come back and I'm trying to catch up on all the changes to this point. In 5.0 tanks won't be needed at all??

Wait what? I've just come back and I'm trying to catch up on all the changes to this point. In 5.0 tanks won't be needed at all??

no that is not correct. as to your original question, torvai said it best.

The thing is this: Shadows need to be played on a pretty high level in comparison to the other two tank classes in order to achieve the same or better mitigation. Or to put it in different words: A vanguard that stands around doing nothing takes less damage than a guardian doing nothing wich takes lesser damage than a shadow doing nothing.

But if all three are played correctly, shadows are the best in terms of mitigation. And they will be more so in the next expansion, but we aren't allowed to talk about that yet.

for a player that is new to tanking, pt is the easiest to pick up and start learning, followed by jugg. for a player that understands the tanking role AND knows the fights well enough to know when to use what cooldown, the assassin is by far the better choice. personally, i think the fear of spike damage is overblown. yes, if an assassin fails all his mitigation checks, they will take slightly more damage than a pt or jugg that fails, but that is a very rare, unlikely problem, that is more than offset by the unmatched utility assassin brings to the role.

as for 5.0, preliminary testing shows assassins to be double digits better at mitigation than either pt or jugg. if that comment gets me banned, well **** it, i am leaving anyway.