http://swtor.askmrrobot.com/character/72130a3c-cf9b-429c-81ca-9ff4994f7f80

The askmrrobot.com link is above. This is my PVE tank build. The stats on the right aren't correct, so I'll type the important ones here.

Unbuffed-

Strength: 1727

Endurance: 2115

Health: 23650

Defense Chance: 30.25%

Shield Chance: 50.29%

Shield Absorbtion: 47.56%

Things I plan to do as of now:

Get rid of the 27B mods and put regular 27's in.

Get shells and get my set bonuses back.

Fill in the implants, ear piece and last armoring with 63's.

My question and the main reason I'm making this post is the following. I added the WH relic today for the defense rating and took out the Dread Guard Relic that was in there. It added about 2% to my defense chance and so far has made a huge different as far as squishyness goes. The only downside is that I lost around 55 endurance, or 550 HP. I'm considering taking out the other Dread Guard Relic and putting another WH one with the +103 defense rating. It would add another 2% or so and with my stim would put my Defense Chance right around 33%. But then I would lose another 55 or so endurance.

If it's not obvious, I'm shooting for the 33%/50% /47-50% stat prioritization. I know not to stack endurance, and as you can see from my build I haven't, except on the 27B mods, which I plan to switch out. Do you guys think taking out the other dread relic in place of more defense rating would be worth it?

I'm apprehensive because typically tanks I see with gear similar to mine are around 27-29K HP. So with stims and buffs it would only put my HP at 25.5K or so. But I know to prioritize mitigation over endurance. I'm leaning toward making the switch, but wanted to hear what you all thought first.

Any other criticisms of the build are welcome as well. Especially if you think you can find an improvement I haven't already thought of.

Your build...it smells funny, and looks like a baboon.

Sorry. I couldn't resist.

The only thing I know to do is to get as much Endurance and Defense as possible, and I have no idea if that's even valid.

People forget that tanking stats only affect melee and ranged attacks, and bosses often have plenty of force and tech attacks.

You only need around 25k hp fully buffed to survive with a perfectly acceptable margin of error for all existing content in 8m, including NiM Kephess. The largest sources of consistent damage that isn't intended to be dealt with by a CD (or just not standing there) that you have to worry about are actually M/R based (Warlord Kephess sucks because he deals a crapton of M/R damage *really* quickly; his F/T sources are both predictable and intended to be dealt with by using your CDs). The larger outright damage in 16m content means you want to push that to the 26-27k range, but anything more than that is really mostly redundant. Since the OP mentioned that he was unbuffed (presumably unstimmed as well), he's probably got perfectly acceptable levels of hp. I am, however, curious what spec the OP is opting to use since his posted gear set up didn't include one.

You should stack more endurance. I would suggest getting enough to put you about 26,500 health. There is a lot of unavoidable yellow damage in fights such as Kephess Nightmare. You need a higher health pool to survive those fights. People forget that tanking stats only affect melee and ranged attacks, and bosses often have plenty of force and tech attacks.

I follow your reasoning on this, but I'd like to hear some counter-points on this from someone. I went ahead and tried the build with 2 WH defense relics and it went really well.

Buffed:

Strength: 1808

Endurance: Around 2350

Health Points: 25.5K.

If I were to do this, I would probably get rid of some of my might augments. I was hitting for around 1100 DPS the other night on TFB SM Kephiss. So that can probably come down some if I were to go through with this.

But I'd still like to hear what more people think.

You only need around 25k hp fully buffed to survive with a perfectly acceptable margin of error for all existing content in 8m, including NiM Kephess. The largest sources of consistent damage that isn't intended to be dealt with by a CD (or just not standing there) that you have to worry about are actually M/R based (Warlord Kephess sucks because he deals a crapton of M/R damage *really* quickly; his F/T sources are both predictable and intended to be dealt with by using your CDs). The larger outright damage in 16m content means you want to push that to the 26-27k range, but anything more than that is really mostly redundant. Since the OP mentioned that he was unbuffed (presumably unstimmed as well), he's probably got perfectly acceptable levels of hp. I am, however, curious what spec the OP is opting to use since his posted gear set up didn't include one.

Yeah, my HP was right on the money. 25.5K buffed and with stims. 33/50/47ish as far as mitigation goes.

I use a straight tank build, not a hybrid.

Edit: I updated the skill tree on the link to reflect my current setup.

I have about the same setup on my Guardian currently. I play the hybrid, my defense sits around 34.5%, shield at about 46.5%, and absorbption at 45.5%, and 25.3k hp, all buffed/stimmed. I've tanked nightmare EC with that build, it did fine, the healers said it was easier than our impside run with more Endurance heavy PT tanks.

One thing I would fix in your build, full Defense is about as viable as Hybrid, even if the mitigation is a smidge less, but you want 2 points in Swelling Winds instead of 2 in Master Focus, extra damage and reduced cd on Sweep will help you more than damage and reduced cd on Master Strike. Don't forget, Sweep is almost a high threat move in Soresu form thanks to Single Saber Mastery changes.

I have about the same setup on my Guardian currently. I play the hybrid, my defense sits around 34.5%, shield at about 46.5%, and absorbption at 45.5%, and 25.3k hp, all buffed/stimmed. I've tanked nightmare EC with that build, it did fine, the healers said it was easier than our impside run with more Endurance heavy PT tanks.

 

One thing I would fix in your build, full Defense is about as viable as Hybrid, even if the mitigation is a smidge less, but you want 2 points in Swelling Winds instead of 2 in Master Focus, extra damage and reduced cd on Sweep will help you more than damage and reduced cd on Master Strike. Don't forget, Sweep is almost a high threat move in Soresu form thanks to Single Saber Mastery changes.

Yeah I see what you're saying. I had both points in swelling winds for a while. I just recently changed it and put the extra point into the Master Strike one. I rationalize it like this.

My rotations and such are more based around blade storm than Force Sweep. I still use force sweep, just not that often. Mostly just when I'm fighting multiple enemies in close range. It's used shortly after my opener, but not much after that. Thus, the two points giving me a free blade storm at the bottom of the defense tree and only one point in dust storm. I honestly don't have much of a problem doing damage and creating threat because of where my strength is at when I'm buffed. I use the parser often and try to figure out what does the best threat/ damage.

If I were to put the extra point into BS, I would probably take all 3 points in dust storm. But I've just never done my rotations that way and they seem to work best this way. It would be a subtle difference if I put the point into swellings winds and 2 more into dust storm. But I've tried it that way and prefer it this way.