Okay so lets try this one more time:

It has been decided we want our questions to resolve around PvE DPS (both trees) PvP tanking and then another few important issues with the class. Let us put together hard data to back up our questions now. Help me out! Lets not make new suggestions for questions at the point and keep it around these 3 areas which are the ones most important for QoL improvements! And for god's sake nothing about jet charge!

This question is plain and simple. Both specs for Powertech DPS are currently parsing on average 10-15% lower than the top classes in PvE and it is a general school of thought Sins and PTs are the worst PvE DPS. Many progression groups are not willing to take a powertech DPS because of their poor performance. What are the development team planning to do to address the lacklustre sustained damage in PvE?

There are currently 3 tank classes in the game. Two of these classes have a large amount of crowd control whereas PT tanks do not. Over a 3 minute period a PT tank has a maximum of 19.5 seconds of stun/cc available (3 x 4 [electrodart], and 2.5 x 3 [carbonize]). On the other hand assassin tanks have 48 seconds of stun/cc available (8 x 3 [whirlwind], + 3 x 4 [electrocute], +2 x 6 [spike]). Juggs have a maximum of 45 seconds (3 x 3 [force choke] + 3 x 4 [back hand], + 3 x 6 [intimidating roar], + 3 x 2 (force push). To summarise, the other two tanking classes have well over double the controlling effects that PT tanks do (the root on grapple is easily countered by almost every class!). In arenas and competitive warzones a lot depends on CC of certain members of the opposing team and while PT have some good tools at their disposable, please do not forget that the other tanking classes have amazing tools as well! Are there any plans to address the obvious disparity in ability to apply controlling effects between the three classes by either removing some of their CC or adding some to the PT tank tree?

In both the Pyro Tree and the Shield Tech Tree, there are a number of talents that are negatively affected by certain stats. In Pyro, this is the Prototype Particle Accelerator talent, which has a 6 second cooldown that is thrown off by the 2% alacrity gained in the Rapid Venting talent, which makes it proc less often than intended and throwing off DPS, while in the Shield Spec Tree the talents Shield Vents, Hydraulic Shields and Heat Screen have their procs reduced by the defense chance, as they can only activate if an attack is shielded and a successful defense prevents the shielding roll from even happening. As higher defense values are typically considered better for tanks, and a bonus 6% defense comes from talents and the set bonus. Are there any plans to address these situations where gaining stats hurts the performance of Powertechs when its supposed to improve it?

I believe these are the best 3 questions for the following reasons:

1) Jet charge shouldn't and will never happen.

2) Asking for a new tank cooldown for PT tanks is a waste of a questionI have realized (it will screw too much with PvE) :-(

3) They are not going to change the proc mechanic of pyro (hopefully they do change the alacrity which will help PvE pyro heat management though)

4) these questions contain hard data (especially #2 - increasing the likelihood of the devs paying attention)

5) These are fair questions - not stupid bs like the maras asking for a gore window that starts when they attack (OP as hell and negates any skill involved in PvP to shut it down)

If it is not too much trouble lets keep this on topic. These are the main areas that have been brought up and people want to address. I really liked the idea someone brought up about having less chance to proc CGC on BH then on Troopers but do we really want to waste a question on less important things such as a proc off basic attack?

3) They are not going to change the proc mechanic of pyro (hopefully they do change the alacrity which will help PvE pyro heat management though)

They changed operatives and juggs rng, why wouldn't they look at powertechs?

They changed operatives and juggs rng, why wouldn't they look at powertechs?

Probably because if PTs dont have rng on PPA, Mercs will start crying that they dont want rng on their PPA either (which will increase the avg of their dps to 4.3k at least)... and probably gonna end on nerfing Pyrotech on both.

They changed operatives and juggs rng, why wouldn't they look at powertechs?

Because it says 45/60%, but without alacrity it can be rigged to 100% proc on 6 seconds because the procs seem to build up until it can reset again. The problems with Pyro/Assault are all related to how resource hungry it is and how the alacrity talent screws up its procs to the extent ive been tempted to try a hybrid again on my vanguard that gets battering ram and as many supporting talents as possible for near 100% decent resource management.

The only problem with it is I really need 5 more points for it to work (otherwise I have to either give up the mainstat talent or buffs to gut, and I only get a single point in burnout.

However thats just Assault/Pyro RNG, I'd really like to see RNG on Battering Ram/Flame Barrage fixed for Ion Pulse/Flame Burst

They changed operatives and juggs rng, why wouldn't they look at powertechs?

To be brutally honest its because a guaranteed proc is going to make railshot a definite thing every 6 seconds - something every 4 gcds that can hit for 8k (@ 40% crit chance) is a little over the top. There are not many things to pay attention to in pyro tree and this is probably okay. At least make people pay attention to the proc. For PvE people I understand it is frustrating but I think the question is better spent somewhere else than asking for a change to that to "FIX" your PvE problems. i.e., actually increasing damage or bringing back the pyro/ap hybrid without the ion gas potential.

Anyway I'd like to point out that using 2/3 of our questions on 1/3 of our specs isn't very nice. I'd like to propose an alternative for the third question that still asks the same thing, but makes it much more universal:

QUESTION 3: STATS HAVING NEGATIVE EFFECTS ON PROCS

In both the Pyro Tree and the Shield Tech Tree, there are a number of talents that are negatively affected by certain stats. In Pyro, this is the Particle Proc Accelerator Talent, which has a 6 second cooldown that is thrown off by the 2% alacrity gained in the Rapid Venting talent, which makes it proc less often than intended and throwing off DPS, while in the Shield Spec Tree the talents Shield Vents, Hydrolic Shields and Heat Screen have their procs reduced by the defense chance, as they can only activate if an attack is shielded and a successful defense prevents the shielding roll from even happening - yet it gets even worse, as higher defense values are typically considered better for tanks, and a bonus 6% defense comes from talents and the set bonus. Are there any plans to address these situations where gaining stats hurts the performance of Powertechs when its supposed to improve it?

ADDED BENEFIT OF USING THIS FOR QUESTION 3:

Assault, while not the best PvE spec, is in a position where a slight resource management fix (8 more resources every 6 seconds through who-knows-what) would put it in a great place. That or 100% proc rate on Flame Burst/Ion Pulse. Other than that though, we can really focus on Tactics, which is the second-lowest DPS spec in the game, beating only FOCUS SENTINELS LOLOLOL, and the PvE question really needs to be pointed at Tactics (Severity Gaming, who wants to be the best PvE guild in the game, still brings an assault vanguard with them. Granted said vanguard is C-Tor, but still...)

Oh and Pyro PTs are 10% behind the tops DPS (ironicly, Pyro Mercs), and AP PTs are a whopping 17.4% behind said mercs.

Anyway I'd like to point out that using 2/3 of our questions on 1/3 of our specs isn't very nice. I'd like to propose an alternative for the third question that still asks the same thing, but makes it much more universal:

 

QUESTION 3: STATS HAVING NEGATIVE EFFECTS ON PROCS

 

In both the Pyro Tree and the Shield Tech Tree, there are a number of talents that are negatively affected by certain stats. In Pyro, this is the Particle Proc Accelerator Talent, which has a 6 second cooldown that is thrown off by the 2% alacrity gained in the Rapid Venting talent, which makes it proc less often than intended and throwing off DPS, while in the Shield Spec Tree the talents Shield Vents, Hydrolic Shields and Heat Screen have their procs reduced by the defense chance, as they can only activate if an attack is shielded and a successful defense prevents the shielding roll from even happening - yet it gets even worse, as higher defense values are typically considered better for tanks, and a bonus 6% defense comes from talents and the set bonus. Are there any plans to address these situations where gaining stats hurts the performance of Powertechs when its supposed to improve it?

 

ADDED BENEFIT OF USING THIS FOR QUESTION 3:

Assault, while not the best PvE spec, is in a position where a slight resource management fix (8 more resources every 6 seconds through who-knows-what) would put it in a great place. That or 100% proc rate on Flame Burst/Ion Pulse. Other than that though, we can really focus on Tactics, which is the second-lowest DPS spec in the game, beating only FOCUS SENTINELS LOLOLOL, and the PvE question really needs to be pointed at Tactics (Severity Gaming, who wants to be the best PvE guild in the game, still brings an assault vanguard with them. Granted said vanguard is C-Tor, but still...)

 

Oh and Pyro PTs are 10% behind the tops DPS (ironicly, Pyro Mercs), and AP PTs are a whopping 17.4% behind said mercs.

This is an excellent suggestion. I will update my post. Thank you.

They changed operatives and juggs rng, why wouldn't they look at powertechs?

I am highly in favor of making it a 100% on 7.5 secs (5 GCDs) compared to where it is now, which leaves room to buff other sustained damage skills without having to worry too much about burst in PvP. But TBH, I would rather claim in the PvE question damage is behind and leave it open instead of making suggestions, which devs most likely will ignore (as usual).

C-tor, if you can give us some parsing ammo in PvE that would help solidify our position greatly.

On another note for marauders the carnage question was a complete waste... it made me face palm so hard.

I have encountered another slight translation error in Special Forces Terminology -> Mandalorian

When I updated Question 3 so it was more universal instead of being purely tank focused, I called Prototype Particle Accelerator by the completely wrong name Particle Proc Accelerator

So go ahead and facepalm while fixing it up. Thank you.

I don't think there is any point of bringing up the pyro/AP hybrid since BW hate all the hybrid builds, can't see it ever coming back.

From a PvE point of view both of the full damage trees need a buff and the 2-piece PvE set bonus is currently useless because explosive fuel will always be synchronized and used with the shoulder cannon, reducing it's cooldown just means it sits there waiting for the shoulder cannon to come of CD and load. Also should mention the dot damage of retractable blade and incendiary since their damage was nerfed to discourage the use of the hybrid which doesnt exist anymore

So yeah basically, use the 2-piece set bonus to increase the damage and improve the dots, that shouldn't affect PvP too much and it would improve the PvE performance

About question 1: I don't think this will happen. Based on what I've seen them doing, they won't actively try to make a hybrid work.

I would prefer it, if we would simply point out the lack of damage we see and ask how they intend to improve the situation of AP and Pyro in PvE.

About question 2: I think, I've explained clearly in the other thread, why I don't think we are going to get another cc, but asking doesn't hurt. It's not like I have a better question to suggest.

About question 3: I like how question 3 addresses all our talents that conflict with stats (at least all talents, I'm aware of).

All in all, I'm happy with the topic of each question, but I think question 1 should be posed a bit differently.

Halfway off-topic: Wouldn't this be Jerc's job? Where is he? Thanks for doing something anyway, Kooziejr.

Edit: And could you improve the format of the questions a bit to make them easier on the eyes? I'm sure everyone would appreciate it.

Edit again (It's early in the morning.): We could make a feedback section like Shadows did in the last round. In this feedback section we could mention the different proc chance for PT/Merc/Vanguard/Commando.

I think this is the only thing that is really worth to bring up in this feedback section. Otherwise it becomes a mess.

I don't think there is any point of bringing up the pyro/AP hybrid since BW hate all the hybrid builds, can't see it ever coming back.

 

From a PvE point of view both of the full damage trees need a buff and the 2-piece PvE set bonus is currently useless because explosive fuel will always be synchronized and used with the shoulder cannon, reducing it's cooldown just means it sits there waiting for the shoulder cannon to come of CD and load. Also should mention the dot damage of retractable blade and incendiary since their damage was nerfed to discourage the use of the hybrid which doesnt exist anymore

 

So yeah basically, use the 2-piece set bonus to increase the damage and improve the dots, that shouldn't affect PvP too much and it would improve the PvE performance

While I would like to include the fact that the question asking for the hybrid to be returned wont get a positive result (Biowares stance on hybrids is quite plainly obvious, even though the changes to sorcs/sages dont go with it), saying the 2-piece is bad due to a desynch between explosive fuel + shoulder cannon is wrong (90 second cooldown +15 second load time on shoulder cannon, while explosive fuel is 120 second cooldown, or 105 with the set bonus, making it synch perfectly with shoulder cannon), and increasing the DoTs will make PvP PTs even stronger. Pyros problems are resource management (fixed with a slight boost in resource regeneration) and alacrity vs PPA, while AP's problems are too big for just a buff to RB - though making Flame Barrage build stacks to reduce the cost of rocket punch instead of RNG from flame burst for a 100% reduction and making power loaders also reduce the cooldown of shoulder cannon would fix AP without really affecting PvP (sure the burst comes more often, but even a 45 second cooldown on shoulder cannon would have minimal effects in short-term PvP fights and long-term PvP fights are when AP PTs start falling apart). However, Im not gonna go about making suggestions, as they typically get ignored..

saying the 2-piece is bad due to a desynch between explosive fuel + shoulder cannon is wrong (90 second cooldown +15 second load time on shoulder cannon, while explosive fuel is 120 second cooldown, or 105 with the set bonus, making it synch perfectly with shoulder cannon),

You fail to add in the time needed to use Shoulder Cannon. Explosive Fuel lasts 20 seconds and goes on cooldown once activated. Therefore you have 20 seconds to fire all 4 or 7 rockets before Shoulder Cannon goes on cooldown. There is no point in having Explosive Fuel off cd earlier if you are just going to wait for Shoulder Cannon to reload after coming off cd, if you are able to activate Shoulder Cannon the second in comes off cd.

So: Shoulder Cannon = 20s firing + 90s cd + 15s load = 125 seconds

You fail to add in the time needed to use Shoulder Cannon. Explosive Fuel lasts 20 seconds and goes on cooldown once activated. Therefore you have 20 seconds to fire all 4 or 7 rockets before Shoulder Cannon goes on cooldown. There is no point in having Explosive Fuel off cd earlier if you are just going to wait for Shoulder Cannon to reload after coming off cd, if you are able to activate Shoulder Cannon the second in comes off cd.

 

So: Shoulder Cannon = 20s firing + 90s cd + 15s load = 125 seconds

How do you spend 20 seconds firing shoulder cannon? Its 4-7 seconds depending on spec. And dont say "So it can be spread out through explosive fuel". Damage done at the start of it is exactly the same as damage done at the end of it.

How do you spend 20 seconds firing shoulder cannon? Its 4-7 seconds depending on spec. And dont say "So it can be spread out through explosive fuel". Damage done at the start of it is exactly the same as damage done at the end of it.

You don't have to use all 20 seconds BUT you HAVE 20seconds to use all rockets before Explosive Fuel ends. There are reasons why you need to delay using your Shoulder Cannon:

• Target Died
  
• Tank Swap
  
• Prototype Flame Thrower
  
• Movement because of Mechanics
  
• Other
  

You don't have to use all 20 seconds BUT you HAVE 20seconds to use all rockets before Explosive Fuel ends. There are reasons why you need to delay using your Shoulder Cannon:

• Target Died
  
• Tank Swap
  
• Prototype Flame Thrower
  
• Movement because of Mechanics
  
• Other
  

PARSE EVIDENCE:

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=685275

Top Log for VG/PT: http://www.torparse.com/a/575571/time/1391381979/1391382253/0/Overview

Shoulder Cannon hits: 13 (so we can assume its loaded 4 times or shenanigans for 5 starting missiles, im willing to guess its the second one for your sake)

The last shoulder cannon is used at 11:03:25.700. The log then goes on for another 48.135 seconds. With the log length at 4:33.952 it means that shoulder cannon was done at 3:45.817, and assuming 3 activations (for your sake) this means that worst case scenario shoulder cannon has a cooldown of 112.9085 seconds, much less than your suspected 120 seconds that you are crying doomsday about. Though if you want we can drop the cooldown boost on the set bonus by only 7 so it perfectly synchs up with shoulder cannon...

As for what you said:

TARGET DIES - in most cases in an operation there will either be a target right next to the first, or the boss is dead, or you're doing it wrong.

Tank Swap - Tanks shouldn't be taking the 2-piece DPS set bonus

Prototype Flamethrower - While I admit this is a good one, PFT can be played around quite easily

Movement because of mechanics - 10 meter range, so there are only a couple of situations where this could stop shoulder cannon working properly. Or you're doing it wrong.

Other - Because you ran out of excuses.

PARSE EVIDENCE:

 

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=685275

 

Top Log for VG/PT: http://www.torparse.com/a/575571/time/1391381979/1391382253/0/Overview

 

Shoulder Cannon hits: 13 (so we can assume its loaded 4 times or shenanigans for 5 starting missiles, im willing to guess its the second one for your sake)

The last shoulder cannon is used at 11:03:25.700. The log then goes on for another 48.135 seconds. With the log length at 4:33.952 it means that shoulder cannon was done at 3:45.817, and assuming 3 activations (for your sake) this means that worst case scenario shoulder cannon has a cooldown of 112.9085 seconds, much less than your suspected 120 seconds that you are crying doomsday about. Though if you want we can drop the cooldown boost on the set bonus by only 7 so it perfectly synchs up with shoulder cannon...

 

As for what you said:

 

TARGET DIES - in most cases in an operation there will either be a target right next to the first, or the boss is dead, or you're doing it wrong.

Tank Swap - Tanks shouldn't be taking the 2-piece DPS set bonus

Prototype Flamethrower - While I admit this is a good one, PFT can be played around quite easily

Movement because of mechanics - 10 meter range, so there are only a couple of situations where this could stop shoulder cannon working properly. Or you're doing it wrong.

Other - Because you ran out of excuses.

Dummy Parse:

Usage time - Best 7sec, slowest 12sec.

Reset time - Best 101sec, slowest 114sec.

That's on the dummy not in an operation. where there is a lot more happening then just standing still & watching you ability bars.

As for the reason:

Target does not = Boss. Adds are a good target for Shoulder Cannon burst. eg. Dread Master Cal 1st future portal, Raptus Challanges, Beatia Larva/Monsters/Tentacle, Draxuus Corruptor's, Bronte's Fingers etc.

Tank Swap - meaning the tanks swap & pull the target out of range. eg. Bestia, Monsters & Larva. Dread Council Cal & Bestia.

Mechanics - Dread Council Tryans pull & Brontes teleport, Tyrans Simplifcation.

Other - others are mainly l2p issues. eg. phase change timing.

For the use of the 2pc set bonus i think it can be put to better use then as a chance to boost damage to Shoulder Cannon.

To reply to everyone without quoting: Yes this is Jerc's job but I havent seen him and because I want this done properly I am happy to work on it until he returns or the devs want the questions.

First of all, thanks for the extremely constructive replies. I agree, asking for the hybrid will not end well for us so I agree we should simply state the nerfs to the DoTs were to discourage it etc (I will amend this).

I would like to point out I have been Parsing and doing some PvE content to get a feel of where the PvE folks are coming from and I tend to agree the damage is a little lacklustre! I have also been tanking in ranked 4 v 4s and it has become more salient than ever the disparity between the tank classes and their crowd control abilities. I really think these questions must be asked!

What is the verdict on the PvE 2 set bonus? Beware I wear PvE 2 set bonus on some of my toons for PvP because it is possible to "trick" bolster (e.g., 1.5 off sorc innervate heal)....so unless they fix this (which they haven't at this point only the PvE weapons for PvP in 2.7).

These are very rough drafts. Do not worry, I will write the questions properly once we have agreed on everything! So formatting/grammar is irrelevant at this point :-)

I agree with most of what Koozie said, however iam concerned about the amount of CC already in the game, adding more for PT will be crazy, i think that better solution would be nerfing CCs of other tanks (Sin/Jugg).

I agree sins should not have whirlwind and Juggs should NOT have backhand for the game to be more even (in fact i have updated the question to reflect your input). If bioware implemented a CC it was almost definitely be a single target cast that could be interrupted. Further, it would only be in the tank tree. Either way man people just play sin and jugg tanks now because they have these tools....so regardless the same amount of CC will be there.... Putting the CC in the PT tree just allows people to play PT tank too instead of just juggs and sins with there insane CCs. A few sin tanks are running a low slash build giving them an additional 12 seconds of mez a minute. Taking their CC to a total over 1 minute 15 every 3 mins. Man if you get a good one playing this it can be infuriating as a healer - not to mention they have insane burst and i have seen 9.4 K mauls - http://www.twitch.tv/mosh47/c/3840368 (Im shushh the heals!) - obviously is becomes extremely difficult to play this spec against the top 1-5% of ranked players but against anyone else its OP as hell!

I share your concerns for this but its not like either PT DPS will be able to touch something like this and bads won't use it anyways and the ones that do will cast it in your face. I mean seriously...how often do you get CCd by a sin whirlwhind in regs? Even in ranked it is hard to get the cast off unless you have shroud running.....So why ask for it then??? Well I think it is one way to make the PT tank viable in high end ranked (the only place people will even try to use a skill like this properly). Remember, this isn't a hard stun we are asking for...it is just a crowd control single target that we have about 25% chance of getting - bioware has previously stated that they too believe PT tanks have less crowd control than others and even hinted that we should ask them about it!

FInally talking about defensive cooldowns for PT tank is a waste of space because it would screw with PvE too much. Moreover, after playing ranked arenas for 4 -5 hours on PT tank I believe the defensive cooldowns are fair. Sorcs/Sages destroy you but this game is scissors paper rock so everything should and does have a counter!

Please keep the constructive feedback coming! Lets make these questions worthwhile and hit the big issues with good evidence/support!

Reading the updated questions: I'm happy with question 1 and 3 now.

About question 2: A thought just crossed my mind concerning the last sentence you wrote in that question. If I think about DM Styrak and DM Brontes in Nightmare mode, cc can be quite crucial in PvE as well. (Adds in chain phase of Styrak have to be controlled in some way. Orbs in the Brontes fight seem to be susceptible to some ccs. They are in HM and the vids I saw from the PTS didn't indicate that this has been changed for NiM.) So adding a new cc to Powertech tanks actually might have an impact on their utility value in PvE.

If I read your last sentence in question 2, I'm not sure if you are saying:

a) "cc doesn't influence PvE performance"

b) "We know that such a change must be made without tilting the PvE performance of the three tank classes out of balance."

I believe that b) is what we should be saying, given the examples above and we must make it clear, that this is what we mean.

My two cents for PVE tanking specifically.

PT's have extremely poor single target threat generation, and the reason for it is very simple.

We have 1 high threat ability, and its grapple.

Sins have; wither, discharge, forcepull, and can spec shock to increase its threat generation.

Juggs have; backhand, their top tier ability i only know the guardians guardian slash, and saber reflect generates an obscene amount of threat when specced into.

It would be nice if at the very least our top tier tank ability generated a high amount of threat (honestly why doesn't it)

and I would be 100% content if one of the higher passives in the skill tree that affects rocket puch gave it a boost to threat generation.

No need to make a question out of this but I would appreciate it if you made it a little sidenote at the bottom

actually we have no high threat abilites at all compared to the other tanks.

grapple does a whopping 2.7k threat , which is worse than almost every other attack we have at our disposal, and the abilities that generate more than 2x threat don't do much to begin with (ion cylinder dot, SC and flame sweep).

only SC helps with our threat generation during the opener (the only time where threat matters), and half it's contribution is not even buffed, becasue the healing threat it generates is not boosted by the talent.

This leaves us with our high dmg moves that generate enough threat for the moment, but we have a lot less burst threat than juggs and sins, particularly in the very first 2 seconds, which makes precasting snipers for example harder on us, than the others. not out of hand yet though, and you can have both tanks taunt at the start/let the nonPT tank open on most fights anyway.

actually we have no high threat abilites at all compared to the other tanks.

grapple does a whopping 2.7k threat , which is worse than almost every other attack we have at our disposal, and the abilities that generate more than 2x threat don't do much to begin with (ion cylinder dot, SC and flame sweep).

only SC helps with our threat generation during the opener (the only time where threat matters), and half it's contribution is not even buffed, becasue the healing threat it generates is not boosted by the talent.

This leaves us with our high dmg moves that generate enough threat for the moment, but we have a lot less burst threat than juggs and sins, particularly in the very first 2 seconds, which makes precasting snipers for example harder on us, than the others. not out of hand yet though, and you can have both tanks taunt at the start/let the nonPT tank open on most fights anyway.

I would like to point out though that when I solod a low level aoe-damage-dealing world boss and used my apm for the sole purpose of keeping ion cell up (10 apm) I had 1k tps just from Ion Cell + Passive self heals. And when your attacks are generating 3k tps, and your opener 6k tps (if its not then you are doing it wrong), then its a very rare situation when you need to actually taunt. There was a huge discussion about it over in the tank subforums,

Also im constantly pulling off other tanks with my opener as a tank...

My two cents for PVE tanking specifically.

 

PT's have extremely poor single target threat generation, and the reason for it is very simple.

We have 1 high threat ability, and its grapple.

Wrong, just because the tooltip doesn't say "produces a high amount of threat", instantly means the skill does low threat.

Sins have; wither, discharge, forcepull, and can spec shock to increase its threat generation.

Juggs have; backhand, their top tier ability i only know the guardians guardian slash, and saber reflect generates an obscene amount of threat when specced into.

We get threat generation from SC, FS, ED+JC, RP+Dot, RS+Dot, Rapids+Dot... PTs can get a lot of agro easily when using a good rotation, not to mention we can pop EF and get 25% crit on our open rotation.

It would be nice if at the very least our top tier tank ability generated a high amount of threat (honestly why doesn't it)

Because it doesn't respect the GCD, vents heat, gives 25% absorb for 6s and the CD gets reduced by 1s basicly by everything (Ion dots, shielding, etc), while Top Juggs get 3% Defense and 1 Retaliation, and Sins get 30% slow and 5% dmg reduction.

and I would be 100% content if one of the higher passives in the skill tree that affects rocket puch gave it a boost to threat generation.

There's actually a passive skill, its called Ion Overload, which makes our high threat dot (Ion gas), trigger if you RP the target.

Just because those other tanks have skills that say: "Produces high amount of threat", doesnt mean they are better at holding agro than PT. Sadly, I'm gonna be kinda mean and say... its a l2p issue.