Guardian stealth nerf: talent completely removed on test; no mention in 1.2 pnotes

But damage is how we get threat...

I mean damage on a high level of damage sense. If threat modifiers equal more reliable threat than damage than doing a lot of damage is not a priority

In soresu, all our damage gets threat modifiers, so threat is completely based on damage done. The only exception being hilt strike. This is why the vig/def hybrid build was better for tanking.

I KNOW. Seriously, you act as if I do not know anything. I assure you that I am ENTIRELY aware that damage generates threat. However the importance is not doing large amounts of damage, its the generating threat part. So if you can generate more threat even without doing large amounts of damage then the more threat option is the go-to because that is your real priority. And the only exception is Hilt Strike AND Guardian Slash.

P.S. Fixed it for you

This would be a valid sentiment if it weren't for the fact that none of our abilities generate extra threat (except hilt strike and guardian slash).

Guardian slash getting 50% more threat won't offset it's crappiness or the trees overall crappiness. Def will be closer to vig/def's threat in 1.2, but vig/def will still have more threat AND it has better surv.

Bladestorm is one of our biggest damage attacks and thus highest threat moves. Force rush pretty much guaratees a bladestorm crit. Crits do 50% more damage. Thus BS does 50% more threat as vig vs. def. Furthermore, BS has 9sec cd in vig vs. 12 in def. Overhead slash does about 33% more dps than guardian slash. Though in 1.2 GS will do more threat than OH slash, it's only a 17% diff and not enough to offset BS.

Commanding awe got significantly buffed and is the reason why vig/def still provides better surv than full def.

Commanding Awe was NOT buffed. Unfortunately Focused Defense is not viable for a vigilance tanking spec. The hybrid already suffers from comparative focus starvation, and there is no way it can support the cost of such a technique. Couple that with the threat dump of the technique... and well it becomes tanking not viable. The hybrid spec is most certainly less survivable than the defense tank, and the defense tank has arguably similar if not better threat generation.

I agree with most of the things you say on the forum but I disagree about holding focus as hybrid and I've not had any trouble using it as as a hybrid build. And although I doubt I'd use it tanking you could probably couple it with a well timed taunt.

That said, defence works much better as our tanking build now, however much some of the more vocal whiners want to whine.

When I was a hybrid tank ( which was like, last week, lol) I didn't have much trouble with focus either. However I did not have 14 focus over 10 seconds to spend, especially while trying to keep attacking and holding aggro. The Def spec has much more focus to work with, but even then I don't see myself throwing out so much. Focused Def sounds much better in a Shien state, where I'm sure it is intended.

Not saying you can't make use of it, just that I personally don't consider it a very good use of resources. From a tanking perspective, it seems almost more lackluster than Blade Barrier as a Consistent form of mitigation. Emphasis on consistent

As a DPS Guardian, I'm going to point out that the only tanks I've pulled threat away from on accident are the tank Guardians. Guardian tank threat generation is extremely low, I have to worry constantly about accidentally attracting the attention of a boss while I'm using shien form (not sorseu) because I can generate more threat than a tank can.

If I have to emergency offtank cause a Shadow or Vanguard tank is in trouble I actually have to use taunt to get a critter's attention, because they easily can generate enough threat to keep the critter's attention.

I'm also not hybrid spec, Guardian is more reliant on gear for tanking than it is on the skill trees. Which is why a Vigilence/Def hybrid is currently a better tank than a pure Defense.

The protector nerf actually makes a bad situation for DPS guardians even worse. Unless they've incorporated protector somehow into how our endurance boosts hp, Guardians are even less survivable than before.

I'm going to be upfront and point out that Bioware has arguably wrecked the Vigilence tree in 1.2 or at very least made it so survivability is more of an issue than it currently is, in an attempt to do away with hybrids. Well fact of the matter is that bioware needs to understand the reason the hybrids were preferable to pure defense was the fact the Defense tree was such a disaster and our class is so heavily gear dependent that a hybrid with the right gear would actually out-tank a tank because they could generate the threat needed while and the Defense tree was a total joke.

It is generally agreed upon that the hybrid spec has an edge on the Defense spec in both threat generation and survivability (assuming you are actively rubber banding). However with patch 1.2, the hybrid spec seems to be largely nerfed in terms of survivability, as you said, while the threat generation to the Defense tree was buffed. So IMHO the Defense spec will come out on top this time.